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These are excerpts from this article. To read the whole thing click the link below. More than the usual ass-kissing of Brady and the Patriots by Peter King, most of which isn't included here for obvious reasons.
A few comments about the Rams in the Things I Think section near the bottom. I guess PK has yet to get the news that Jeff Fisher has signed an extension.
*****************************************************************************
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/12/05/nfl-playoff-picture-week-13-raiders-chiefs-peter-king
The Playoffs Are Coming
With four weeks left, the race for the postseason is heating up—and it all starts with a mammoth matchup Thursday. Here’s a breakdown of what is at stake over the final month
By Peter King
Once the Monday night game is played tonight in New Jersey—Colts at Jets—the league will be at ground zero. Twelve games played for every team. Then 64 games left. A sprint to the finish, starting with what I’d argue is the most important game of the 64 as we sit here this morning: Oakland at Kansas City, Thursday night.
It stinks that the Raiders have to travel 1,500 miles on a short-week turnaround to play the biggest game of their year, and if Al Davis were around, he’d have let loose with a few choice quotes at the league office about how Park Avenue has it in for the Raiders. But it is what is, a wise man once said.
Absent the Thursday part of it: How great is this? This 57-year rivalry (last 18 meetings: K.C. 9, Oakland 9) drips with history. Al Davis-Lamar Hunt. John Madden-Hank Stram. The Ken Stabler Raiders won seven straight in the series in the ’70s. The Marty Schottenheimer Chiefs won seven straight in the ’90s. On Christmas Eve 1994 the Chiefs won the last game in the history of the Los Angeles Raiders—with Joe Montana at quarterback for Kansas City and Marcus Allen behind him in the backfield.
And now, two California coaches (Andy Reid, Jack Del Rio) and two California quarterbacks (Alex Smith, Derek Carr) face off Thursday night in western Missouri, with more on the line than just the fate of these two teams.
“We are fired up,” Raider Khalil Mack said Sunday night from Oakland. “Huge game. Forget the short week.”
“Can’t do nothing about the schedule,” Chief Eric Berry said from Atlanta. “We’ll be ready.”
Photo: D. Ross Cameron/AP
The game impacts:
• The AFC West. Oakland is 10-2, Kansas City 9-3, Denver 8-4 in the best division, unquestionably, in football. This game’s almost more important for Oakland than for Kansas City, because the Chiefs control so many of the tiebreaker edges and because the Chiefs have the most advantageous schedule of the West contenders down the stretch.
With a win, Kansas City sweeps the series from Oakland this year and takes a commanding lead in division tiebreakers at 4-0 in division games; Oakland would be 2-2 and Denver 1-3. It’s certainly not a must-win if Oakland wants to win the division, but the Raiders would need help if they lose Thursday night—and the Raiders have a Week 17 game at Denver in the balance.
• The Patriots. Oakland crept ahead of New England (10-2) in the race for the top seed with a win over Buffalo on Sunday. Because the Raiders and Patriots haven’t played each other, the first tiebreaker is conference record; they’re both 7-1 in AFC games. Then it goes to common games. Oakland 2-0, New England 2-1, with the Pats’ Week 4 loss to Buffalo the stumble.
The top seed is very much in play, because New England’s stretch run is tough: resurgent Baltimore at home, then Denver on the road, Jets at home, and Miami on the road in a game the Dolphins might need to make the playoffs. And Miami’s beaten the Pats three straight at home.
• The Broncos. A Kansas City win Thursday and a Denver win Sunday would make the West very tight: K.C. and Oakland 10-3, Denver 9-4. So the Broncos aren’t out of it. They just have to do something very difficult to have a chance to win the division: beat Tom Brady in Week 15, win in Kansas City on Christmas night, then beat Oakland on New Year’s Day at home. That’s a heck of a closing trifecta. If Trevor Siemian goes 3-0 in those games, the Tony Romo rumors go away for good.
I’m giving playoff spots to Oakland and Kansas City, leaving one wild-card spot open. That’s likely to go to one of three teams: Denver (8-4), Miami (7-5), or the Pittsburgh (7-5)-Baltimore (7-5) loser.
If the ratings are ever going to gain ground, this is the week it should happen, by the way. After Raiders-Chiefs, it’s Cowboys-Giants on Sunday night, and Ravens-Patriots on Monday night.
It’s too early to align playoff games yet, but let’s look at the lay of the land, division by division, with four weeks to go.
NFC EAST
It’s over. It’s premature to say the Giants are who we thought they were, but Sunday was a bad day for two streaking teams—New York and Miami. The Giants (8-4), three back of 11-1 Dallas with four to play, have to hope for the five seed now, with Dallas and Detroit at home, then ending at Philly and Washington. Tough sledding.
Washington, at 6-5-1, is very much alive, with an easier schedule: at Philly, Carolina, at Chicago, Giants. The Eagles (5-7) continued to go out meekly with a 32-14 loss Sunday in Cincinnati.
NFC NORTH
Stop the presses: Detroit, for the first time all year, didn’t trail in the fourth quarter. In fact, the Lions were never behind in beating New Orleans. Detroit is 8-4; Vikes and Packers 6-6. No team has a clear schedule edge down the stretch, but the Lions have the toughest single game—at Dallas in Week 16. Minnesota has lost six of seven, so logically Green Bay (last two games: Pack 48, Foes 26) looks like Detroit’s toughest challenger. Pack at Lions in Week 17, by the way.
http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/2016/12/05/mmqb-gold-Taint.jpg
Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
NFC SOUTH
Atlanta and Tampa Bay (both 7-5) will battle for the division, and the Falcons can’t afford to look back at one-, two- and three-point losses, one more agonizing than the other. The latest: Eric Berry stealing a Matt Ryan two-point conversion pass and running it back for a two-point defensive conversion; Chiefs 29, Falcons 28. But it’s a weird road for Tampa to finish: Saints, at Cowboys, at Saints, Panthers.
The Falcons have the Rams and Niners in the next two weeks. It’s still hard to fathom Atlanta losing this division, but man, the Falcons make too many mistakes and shaky calls to play deep into January. Speaking of teams that won’t play deep into January, I never thought a missing necktie would lead to the worst Carolina loss in more than two years. That team’s going out ugly.
NFC WEST
It’s over. Seattle (8-3-1) is going to be the second seed and will need the bye week to get some beat-up players back to health. Bruce Arians goes to bed at night and dreams of kickers and snappers who just do their jobs.
AFC EAST
Nothing to see here. Bills and Dolphins went on the road in games they had to have and lost by a combined 46. New England wins the division. Assuming that’s so, since 2003, here’s how often each AFC East team has won the division title: New England 13, Miami 1, Buffalo 0, New York 0.
AFC NORTH
Now here’s some drama. The Steelers and Ravens are 7-5, meet Christmas in Pittsburgh, and are on mini-streaks. Pittsburgh’s got the schedule edge: at Buffalo, at Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland … Baltimore finishes with three of four on the road: at New England, vs. Philadelphia, at Pittsburgh, at Cincinnati. Want an sleeper special to run the table to Super Bowl 51? Pick the winner of this division—whichever team it is.
AFC SOUTH
A Colts win tonight ensures the Trifecta of Mediocrity down the stretch: Houston, Indy and Tennessee would all be 6-6. The Titans look like the best team, but a 1-3 division record and games with the Broncos and Chiefs could doom them.
* * *
With four weeks to play, here are my projected seeds:
NFC: 1. Dallas, 2. Seattle, 3. Detroit, 4. Atlanta, 5. Giants, 6. Washington
AFC: 1. New England, 2. Oakland, 3. Pittsburgh, 4. Houston, 5. Kansas City, 6. Denver.
Should be a fun month. I’ll tell you the game that would be off the charts: Derek Carr at Tom Brady. Carr was 10 years old when the Tuck Game happened, when Adam Vinatieri kicked the Snow Globe field goal and Charles Woodson and Al Davis got on the plane home from New England, bitterly, and when the legend of Tom Brady really took flight. Who knows if it happens, but the bombs-away Raiders in Foxboro in January would be awesome to see.
* * *
View: https://twitter.com/JOEL9ONE/status/803727830932594688
Cleats for a Cause
I thought I’d explain one cause, of 500, to show how a typical player got involved. I chose New England defensive lineman Chris Long, who is active in raising money to build solar-power wells in the drought-ravaged areas of East Africa (Tanzania mostly). The wells cost $45,000 each, and his goal is to build 32 of them—one representing each NFL franchise. The initiative is called “Waterboys,” and Long has recruited several players from other teams as frontmen for the cause.
“I agree that it’s long overdue,” Long said Sunday of the league’s one-week amnesty, after the Patriots’ win over the Rams. “Anytime we can get in front of a new audience, it’s helpful, because you never know how many people will say—or maybe even one wealthy person—‘I really want to help. That’s a great idea.’ We install solar-powered, energy-efficient wells. We’ve gotten 14 wells put in now, at $35,000 to $45,000 apiece.
Each one can provide clean water for up to 5,000 to 7,000 people in an area. Oftentimes in these communities, you’ll find young girls—instead of going to school, they spend hours every day walking to get water. So if we can install wells, they can go to school and begin to the live the kind of lives we take for granted. I was over there, and that scale of poverty, we’ve just never seen it before. Our dollars go a super-long way.”
That’s just one cause. Head here for more information.
* * *
“Nick, if I hire this kid and it doesn’t work out, I’m going to kill you.”
—New England coach Bill Belichick, to former Patriots director of operations Nick Carparelli, when he was trying to determine whether to hire Matt Patricia as a coaching assistant in 2004, as told by Tim Rohan of The MMQB in a profile on Patricia last week. Carparelli was very high on Patricia, an aeronautical engineering grad with a paltry football résumé, and according to Rohan, said, “Coach, trust me.”
Belichick got good intel. Patricia, Belichick’s defensive coordinator, is one of the rising-star assistants in the league.
* * *
Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick notes of analysis from Week 13:
a. Lather, Rinse, Repeat Dept.: The snow hasn’t fallen yet, there’s four weeks left in the season, the Patriots have a three-game AFC East lead, the rest of the division contains pretenders, and they won’t play a truly meaningful game until divisional weekend, six weeks from now.
b. Just think if you’re a Patriots fan and you’re 23 or younger: This never-ending success is all you’ve ever known. I don’t want to break the news to you, but when Belichick and Brady are gone, say 12 years from now, you’ve got a chance to be 7-9.
c. Eric Dickerson’s being a little thin-skinned, but so is Jeff Fisher, in the Dickerson versus Rams dispute. It reminds me a lot of another big star openly criticizing the team he made famous—Joe Namath versus the Jets.
d. If Dickerson wants to be in the media, he needs to get used to a team being ticked off when he’s critical. And if the Rams want to court their famous and popular alums, the head coach has to let criticism by one of them roll off his back.
e. Regarding the contract extension for Fisher that was widely reported Sunday: If the rest of this season is a debacle, don’t think owner Stan Kroenke is going to bring back his coach after a 4-12 re-debut in L.A. that ends with a seven-game losing streak.
f. Jay Glazer’s right: Chip Kelly’s not going anywhere, except back to work trying to create an offense the Niners can win with.
g. That job got harder Sunday, with the benching of Colin Kaepernick during a ridiculously feeble offensive performance in bad weather at Chicago—though the weather didn’t look so bad for career backup (and southern Californian) Matt Barkley.
h. The Chiefs are a really smart team.
i. I have never seen a player use a penalty flag as a prop—resulting in a penalty—before punter Marquette King did it in the Oakland-Buffalo game, and boy was it weird.
j. Man, I love that two-point defensive conversion play. How exciting it is.
2. I think there's no reason to go particularly wild over Cam Newton missing the opening of a football game, except ... well, it’s hard to imagine a player messing up a team rule that’s common and has been in place for years: Wear a tie on team trips. Yes, the Panthers were on the road on the West Coast all week after playing in Oakland, but that seems like a soft excuse.
There's something strange with this story, and it might be this: Ron Rivera has had Cam Newton’s back ever since they came to the Panthers together in 2011, Rivera as head coach and Newton as the franchise quarterback. For Rivera to not pull Newton aside is just strange. As I said, I don't want to make it a mega-event.
But the Panthers had zero room for error entering their final five games; they had to run the table. And the centerpiece to everything they do was on the bench for the first series—in which backup Derek Anderson’s pass was intercepted, leading to a Seattle field goal—of Sunday night's game. It’s unsettling. Something, even something small, is wrong in Carolina.
3. I think football can be a cruel business, and it was Sunday night on the play after Earl Thomas was lost to a leg injury in the second quarter against Carolina. On third-and-17, with Thomas on the sideline trying to put some weight on a wounded leg, Cam Newton went hard after Thomas’s backup Steven Terrell.
On Terrell’s first play in relief of Thomas, Newton threw a rainbow bomb over the head of Terrell to Ted Ginn Jr. for a touchdown. In a frustrating season for Newton, this was a highlight—a smart use of a bomb when you have no idea how long a star’s going to be out; but when he is, you want to take advantage. And Carolina did, for seven points.
4. I think it doesn’t take a legal crusader to know the killer of Joe McKnight should be in custody in Louisiana this morning. To think he isn’t feeds into the skepticism of equal justice for all.
5. I think nobody knows anything. I left Lincoln Financial Field in Week 3, after the Eagles’ 34-3 win over Pittsburgh, and was convinced I’d just seen an NFC Championship Game team, with the rookie quarterback who’d be the story of the year. Since that afternoon, Philly’s 2-7, and the 32-14 rout at Cincinnati left the Eagles 0-6 on the road since I saw them.
The loss at Cincinnati ended the Eagles’ faint playoff chances, but it shouldn’t make Eagles fans skeptical about the future. For Carson Wentz to go from FCS in the state of North Dakota to beating the best two levels up was totally unrealistic. He’s got the demeanor and the tools to win, and to win big. I would be very bullish on his long-term chances.
6. I think with the spate of PAT misses—Cincinnati’s Mike Nugent missed his fifth in the last five games (how long can he keep his job?)—I went to the man who is state of the art right now, Baltimore Justin Tucker. He hit a 55-yard field goal in the 38-6 rout of Miami Sunday, and was perfect on five PATs. For the year, he’s the only perfect kicker in the league: 20 of 20 on extra points, 28 of 28 on field goals. A mini-interview on being perfect:
MMQB: What’s been the key to perfection this year?
Tucker: Practice, lots of practice. And quality repetition. I also think having a really good long snapper and really good holder are really important. When you’re got a guy as diligent as [long-snapper] Morgan Cox consistently throwing the ball back at 12 o’clock [the optimal position where the snapper’s hands are], who knows exactly how many rotations the ball’s going to spin on every throw, so it’ll be perfect when it gets to the holder, and when you’ve got the kind of holder Sam Koch is … he knows exactly where to put the ball every time; I swear he can put the ball within a quarter-inch every time of where it’s supposed, those are huge factors in the success of a kicker.
MMQB: You haven’t had this problem, but why are so many kickers struggling at the PAT this year? It’s basically a 33-yard field goal, yet so many are being missed.
Tucker: I honestly couldn’t tell you. I try not to think about it. We just think about every kick like it’s a field goal, so when we think about the extra point, I’m thinking field goal—just worth fewer points.
MMQB: But it’s crazy. It’s like a short field goal, and every week, six or eight or 10 get botched. Makes no sense.
Tucker: I know, but I’m not out to dive too deeply into the psychology of what we do. It’s hard to say, but I don’t really want to think about it. That can’t help me.
7. I think if offensive players are not allowed to aid runners in the field of play to help them get more yardage, why do officials not call it when they clearly do it? Look at the first Denver touchdown of the day, when Devontae Booker wasdragged by a lineman the final three yards for the score.
8. I think, with the news that the NFL is going to add an eighth official, I want to stress I’m not against getting more plays right. But my first reaction is this: Just what we need—more flags.
9. I think the Cowboys have been happy all along that they failed to acquire Paxton Lynch on the first day of the NFL draft last April. I was reminded of that again on Thursday night, watching third-round rookie Maliek Collins have his most impactful game to date—one sack and two significant pressures of Sam Bradford.
If the Cowboys had made the trade to get Paxton Lynch, it would have taken their second- and third-round picks, meaning no Collins. (And no Jaylon Smith, which may or may not be a huge factor.) Then, of course, the Cowboys fell into Dak Prescott late in the fourth round. Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make.
A few comments about the Rams in the Things I Think section near the bottom. I guess PK has yet to get the news that Jeff Fisher has signed an extension.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/12/05/nfl-playoff-picture-week-13-raiders-chiefs-peter-king
The Playoffs Are Coming
With four weeks left, the race for the postseason is heating up—and it all starts with a mammoth matchup Thursday. Here’s a breakdown of what is at stake over the final month
By Peter King
Once the Monday night game is played tonight in New Jersey—Colts at Jets—the league will be at ground zero. Twelve games played for every team. Then 64 games left. A sprint to the finish, starting with what I’d argue is the most important game of the 64 as we sit here this morning: Oakland at Kansas City, Thursday night.
It stinks that the Raiders have to travel 1,500 miles on a short-week turnaround to play the biggest game of their year, and if Al Davis were around, he’d have let loose with a few choice quotes at the league office about how Park Avenue has it in for the Raiders. But it is what is, a wise man once said.
Absent the Thursday part of it: How great is this? This 57-year rivalry (last 18 meetings: K.C. 9, Oakland 9) drips with history. Al Davis-Lamar Hunt. John Madden-Hank Stram. The Ken Stabler Raiders won seven straight in the series in the ’70s. The Marty Schottenheimer Chiefs won seven straight in the ’90s. On Christmas Eve 1994 the Chiefs won the last game in the history of the Los Angeles Raiders—with Joe Montana at quarterback for Kansas City and Marcus Allen behind him in the backfield.
And now, two California coaches (Andy Reid, Jack Del Rio) and two California quarterbacks (Alex Smith, Derek Carr) face off Thursday night in western Missouri, with more on the line than just the fate of these two teams.
“We are fired up,” Raider Khalil Mack said Sunday night from Oakland. “Huge game. Forget the short week.”
“Can’t do nothing about the schedule,” Chief Eric Berry said from Atlanta. “We’ll be ready.”
Photo: D. Ross Cameron/AP
The game impacts:
• The AFC West. Oakland is 10-2, Kansas City 9-3, Denver 8-4 in the best division, unquestionably, in football. This game’s almost more important for Oakland than for Kansas City, because the Chiefs control so many of the tiebreaker edges and because the Chiefs have the most advantageous schedule of the West contenders down the stretch.
With a win, Kansas City sweeps the series from Oakland this year and takes a commanding lead in division tiebreakers at 4-0 in division games; Oakland would be 2-2 and Denver 1-3. It’s certainly not a must-win if Oakland wants to win the division, but the Raiders would need help if they lose Thursday night—and the Raiders have a Week 17 game at Denver in the balance.
• The Patriots. Oakland crept ahead of New England (10-2) in the race for the top seed with a win over Buffalo on Sunday. Because the Raiders and Patriots haven’t played each other, the first tiebreaker is conference record; they’re both 7-1 in AFC games. Then it goes to common games. Oakland 2-0, New England 2-1, with the Pats’ Week 4 loss to Buffalo the stumble.
The top seed is very much in play, because New England’s stretch run is tough: resurgent Baltimore at home, then Denver on the road, Jets at home, and Miami on the road in a game the Dolphins might need to make the playoffs. And Miami’s beaten the Pats three straight at home.
• The Broncos. A Kansas City win Thursday and a Denver win Sunday would make the West very tight: K.C. and Oakland 10-3, Denver 9-4. So the Broncos aren’t out of it. They just have to do something very difficult to have a chance to win the division: beat Tom Brady in Week 15, win in Kansas City on Christmas night, then beat Oakland on New Year’s Day at home. That’s a heck of a closing trifecta. If Trevor Siemian goes 3-0 in those games, the Tony Romo rumors go away for good.
I’m giving playoff spots to Oakland and Kansas City, leaving one wild-card spot open. That’s likely to go to one of three teams: Denver (8-4), Miami (7-5), or the Pittsburgh (7-5)-Baltimore (7-5) loser.
If the ratings are ever going to gain ground, this is the week it should happen, by the way. After Raiders-Chiefs, it’s Cowboys-Giants on Sunday night, and Ravens-Patriots on Monday night.
It’s too early to align playoff games yet, but let’s look at the lay of the land, division by division, with four weeks to go.
NFC EAST
It’s over. It’s premature to say the Giants are who we thought they were, but Sunday was a bad day for two streaking teams—New York and Miami. The Giants (8-4), three back of 11-1 Dallas with four to play, have to hope for the five seed now, with Dallas and Detroit at home, then ending at Philly and Washington. Tough sledding.
Washington, at 6-5-1, is very much alive, with an easier schedule: at Philly, Carolina, at Chicago, Giants. The Eagles (5-7) continued to go out meekly with a 32-14 loss Sunday in Cincinnati.
NFC NORTH
Stop the presses: Detroit, for the first time all year, didn’t trail in the fourth quarter. In fact, the Lions were never behind in beating New Orleans. Detroit is 8-4; Vikes and Packers 6-6. No team has a clear schedule edge down the stretch, but the Lions have the toughest single game—at Dallas in Week 16. Minnesota has lost six of seven, so logically Green Bay (last two games: Pack 48, Foes 26) looks like Detroit’s toughest challenger. Pack at Lions in Week 17, by the way.
http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/2016/12/05/mmqb-gold-Taint.jpg
Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
NFC SOUTH
Atlanta and Tampa Bay (both 7-5) will battle for the division, and the Falcons can’t afford to look back at one-, two- and three-point losses, one more agonizing than the other. The latest: Eric Berry stealing a Matt Ryan two-point conversion pass and running it back for a two-point defensive conversion; Chiefs 29, Falcons 28. But it’s a weird road for Tampa to finish: Saints, at Cowboys, at Saints, Panthers.
The Falcons have the Rams and Niners in the next two weeks. It’s still hard to fathom Atlanta losing this division, but man, the Falcons make too many mistakes and shaky calls to play deep into January. Speaking of teams that won’t play deep into January, I never thought a missing necktie would lead to the worst Carolina loss in more than two years. That team’s going out ugly.
NFC WEST
It’s over. Seattle (8-3-1) is going to be the second seed and will need the bye week to get some beat-up players back to health. Bruce Arians goes to bed at night and dreams of kickers and snappers who just do their jobs.
AFC EAST
Nothing to see here. Bills and Dolphins went on the road in games they had to have and lost by a combined 46. New England wins the division. Assuming that’s so, since 2003, here’s how often each AFC East team has won the division title: New England 13, Miami 1, Buffalo 0, New York 0.
AFC NORTH
Now here’s some drama. The Steelers and Ravens are 7-5, meet Christmas in Pittsburgh, and are on mini-streaks. Pittsburgh’s got the schedule edge: at Buffalo, at Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland … Baltimore finishes with three of four on the road: at New England, vs. Philadelphia, at Pittsburgh, at Cincinnati. Want an sleeper special to run the table to Super Bowl 51? Pick the winner of this division—whichever team it is.
AFC SOUTH
A Colts win tonight ensures the Trifecta of Mediocrity down the stretch: Houston, Indy and Tennessee would all be 6-6. The Titans look like the best team, but a 1-3 division record and games with the Broncos and Chiefs could doom them.
* * *
With four weeks to play, here are my projected seeds:
NFC: 1. Dallas, 2. Seattle, 3. Detroit, 4. Atlanta, 5. Giants, 6. Washington
AFC: 1. New England, 2. Oakland, 3. Pittsburgh, 4. Houston, 5. Kansas City, 6. Denver.
Should be a fun month. I’ll tell you the game that would be off the charts: Derek Carr at Tom Brady. Carr was 10 years old when the Tuck Game happened, when Adam Vinatieri kicked the Snow Globe field goal and Charles Woodson and Al Davis got on the plane home from New England, bitterly, and when the legend of Tom Brady really took flight. Who knows if it happens, but the bombs-away Raiders in Foxboro in January would be awesome to see.
* * *
View: https://twitter.com/JOEL9ONE/status/803727830932594688
Cleats for a Cause
I thought I’d explain one cause, of 500, to show how a typical player got involved. I chose New England defensive lineman Chris Long, who is active in raising money to build solar-power wells in the drought-ravaged areas of East Africa (Tanzania mostly). The wells cost $45,000 each, and his goal is to build 32 of them—one representing each NFL franchise. The initiative is called “Waterboys,” and Long has recruited several players from other teams as frontmen for the cause.
“I agree that it’s long overdue,” Long said Sunday of the league’s one-week amnesty, after the Patriots’ win over the Rams. “Anytime we can get in front of a new audience, it’s helpful, because you never know how many people will say—or maybe even one wealthy person—‘I really want to help. That’s a great idea.’ We install solar-powered, energy-efficient wells. We’ve gotten 14 wells put in now, at $35,000 to $45,000 apiece.
Each one can provide clean water for up to 5,000 to 7,000 people in an area. Oftentimes in these communities, you’ll find young girls—instead of going to school, they spend hours every day walking to get water. So if we can install wells, they can go to school and begin to the live the kind of lives we take for granted. I was over there, and that scale of poverty, we’ve just never seen it before. Our dollars go a super-long way.”
That’s just one cause. Head here for more information.
* * *
“Nick, if I hire this kid and it doesn’t work out, I’m going to kill you.”
—New England coach Bill Belichick, to former Patriots director of operations Nick Carparelli, when he was trying to determine whether to hire Matt Patricia as a coaching assistant in 2004, as told by Tim Rohan of The MMQB in a profile on Patricia last week. Carparelli was very high on Patricia, an aeronautical engineering grad with a paltry football résumé, and according to Rohan, said, “Coach, trust me.”
Belichick got good intel. Patricia, Belichick’s defensive coordinator, is one of the rising-star assistants in the league.
* * *
Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick notes of analysis from Week 13:
a. Lather, Rinse, Repeat Dept.: The snow hasn’t fallen yet, there’s four weeks left in the season, the Patriots have a three-game AFC East lead, the rest of the division contains pretenders, and they won’t play a truly meaningful game until divisional weekend, six weeks from now.
b. Just think if you’re a Patriots fan and you’re 23 or younger: This never-ending success is all you’ve ever known. I don’t want to break the news to you, but when Belichick and Brady are gone, say 12 years from now, you’ve got a chance to be 7-9.
c. Eric Dickerson’s being a little thin-skinned, but so is Jeff Fisher, in the Dickerson versus Rams dispute. It reminds me a lot of another big star openly criticizing the team he made famous—Joe Namath versus the Jets.
d. If Dickerson wants to be in the media, he needs to get used to a team being ticked off when he’s critical. And if the Rams want to court their famous and popular alums, the head coach has to let criticism by one of them roll off his back.
e. Regarding the contract extension for Fisher that was widely reported Sunday: If the rest of this season is a debacle, don’t think owner Stan Kroenke is going to bring back his coach after a 4-12 re-debut in L.A. that ends with a seven-game losing streak.
f. Jay Glazer’s right: Chip Kelly’s not going anywhere, except back to work trying to create an offense the Niners can win with.
g. That job got harder Sunday, with the benching of Colin Kaepernick during a ridiculously feeble offensive performance in bad weather at Chicago—though the weather didn’t look so bad for career backup (and southern Californian) Matt Barkley.
h. The Chiefs are a really smart team.
i. I have never seen a player use a penalty flag as a prop—resulting in a penalty—before punter Marquette King did it in the Oakland-Buffalo game, and boy was it weird.
j. Man, I love that two-point defensive conversion play. How exciting it is.
2. I think there's no reason to go particularly wild over Cam Newton missing the opening of a football game, except ... well, it’s hard to imagine a player messing up a team rule that’s common and has been in place for years: Wear a tie on team trips. Yes, the Panthers were on the road on the West Coast all week after playing in Oakland, but that seems like a soft excuse.
There's something strange with this story, and it might be this: Ron Rivera has had Cam Newton’s back ever since they came to the Panthers together in 2011, Rivera as head coach and Newton as the franchise quarterback. For Rivera to not pull Newton aside is just strange. As I said, I don't want to make it a mega-event.
But the Panthers had zero room for error entering their final five games; they had to run the table. And the centerpiece to everything they do was on the bench for the first series—in which backup Derek Anderson’s pass was intercepted, leading to a Seattle field goal—of Sunday night's game. It’s unsettling. Something, even something small, is wrong in Carolina.
3. I think football can be a cruel business, and it was Sunday night on the play after Earl Thomas was lost to a leg injury in the second quarter against Carolina. On third-and-17, with Thomas on the sideline trying to put some weight on a wounded leg, Cam Newton went hard after Thomas’s backup Steven Terrell.
On Terrell’s first play in relief of Thomas, Newton threw a rainbow bomb over the head of Terrell to Ted Ginn Jr. for a touchdown. In a frustrating season for Newton, this was a highlight—a smart use of a bomb when you have no idea how long a star’s going to be out; but when he is, you want to take advantage. And Carolina did, for seven points.
4. I think it doesn’t take a legal crusader to know the killer of Joe McKnight should be in custody in Louisiana this morning. To think he isn’t feeds into the skepticism of equal justice for all.
5. I think nobody knows anything. I left Lincoln Financial Field in Week 3, after the Eagles’ 34-3 win over Pittsburgh, and was convinced I’d just seen an NFC Championship Game team, with the rookie quarterback who’d be the story of the year. Since that afternoon, Philly’s 2-7, and the 32-14 rout at Cincinnati left the Eagles 0-6 on the road since I saw them.
The loss at Cincinnati ended the Eagles’ faint playoff chances, but it shouldn’t make Eagles fans skeptical about the future. For Carson Wentz to go from FCS in the state of North Dakota to beating the best two levels up was totally unrealistic. He’s got the demeanor and the tools to win, and to win big. I would be very bullish on his long-term chances.
6. I think with the spate of PAT misses—Cincinnati’s Mike Nugent missed his fifth in the last five games (how long can he keep his job?)—I went to the man who is state of the art right now, Baltimore Justin Tucker. He hit a 55-yard field goal in the 38-6 rout of Miami Sunday, and was perfect on five PATs. For the year, he’s the only perfect kicker in the league: 20 of 20 on extra points, 28 of 28 on field goals. A mini-interview on being perfect:
MMQB: What’s been the key to perfection this year?
Tucker: Practice, lots of practice. And quality repetition. I also think having a really good long snapper and really good holder are really important. When you’re got a guy as diligent as [long-snapper] Morgan Cox consistently throwing the ball back at 12 o’clock [the optimal position where the snapper’s hands are], who knows exactly how many rotations the ball’s going to spin on every throw, so it’ll be perfect when it gets to the holder, and when you’ve got the kind of holder Sam Koch is … he knows exactly where to put the ball every time; I swear he can put the ball within a quarter-inch every time of where it’s supposed, those are huge factors in the success of a kicker.
MMQB: You haven’t had this problem, but why are so many kickers struggling at the PAT this year? It’s basically a 33-yard field goal, yet so many are being missed.
Tucker: I honestly couldn’t tell you. I try not to think about it. We just think about every kick like it’s a field goal, so when we think about the extra point, I’m thinking field goal—just worth fewer points.
MMQB: But it’s crazy. It’s like a short field goal, and every week, six or eight or 10 get botched. Makes no sense.
Tucker: I know, but I’m not out to dive too deeply into the psychology of what we do. It’s hard to say, but I don’t really want to think about it. That can’t help me.
7. I think if offensive players are not allowed to aid runners in the field of play to help them get more yardage, why do officials not call it when they clearly do it? Look at the first Denver touchdown of the day, when Devontae Booker wasdragged by a lineman the final three yards for the score.
8. I think, with the news that the NFL is going to add an eighth official, I want to stress I’m not against getting more plays right. But my first reaction is this: Just what we need—more flags.
9. I think the Cowboys have been happy all along that they failed to acquire Paxton Lynch on the first day of the NFL draft last April. I was reminded of that again on Thursday night, watching third-round rookie Maliek Collins have his most impactful game to date—one sack and two significant pressures of Sam Bradford.
If the Cowboys had made the trade to get Paxton Lynch, it would have taken their second- and third-round picks, meaning no Collins. (And no Jaylon Smith, which may or may not be a huge factor.) Then, of course, the Cowboys fell into Dak Prescott late in the fourth round. Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make.
