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Peter King - MMQB - 10/16/17
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 7 Replies
These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below.
As usual, plenty of butt-kissing of the Patriots along with his usual Social Justice Warrior crap, with little mention of the Rams. Not to mention that Peter King seems to think a paragraph isn't a paragraph unless it consists of 50 or more sentences crammed together, which is why I have to edit everything to make it readable.
Honestly it's getting harder and harder to read PK's column every Monday.
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https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/16/nfl-week-6-chiefs-steelers-rankings-peter-king-mmqb
NFL 2017: A Mishmash of Mediocrity, Where No Team is Great, Some Are Good (and One is Perfectly Bad)
By Peter King
The Steelers sacked Alex Smith three times Sunday and limited the previously unbeaten Chiefs to just 251 total yards.
JOHN SLEEZER/KANSAS CITY STAR/TNS VIA GETTY IMAGES
Usually, six weeks into the season, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s what in the NFL. After six weeks: New England was the best team in the AFC last year and went on to win the Super Bowl; Denver and Carolina were unbeaten in 2015 and went on to meet in the Super Bowl; Seattle and Denver were a combined 11-1 in 2013, and they met in the big one.
This year? If Week 6 records mean the most, it looks like Alex Smith and Carson Wentz meeting in the Super Bowl in Minnesota in 16 weeks.
This season is just plain weird. Three of the top 10 stars in the game are lost for the season (most likely) in a span of eight days; Aaron Rodgers, the third, got taken down Sunday with the same run-of-the-mill ferocity he’d been hit with a thousand times in his life, only this time it broke his right collarbone.
The defending rushing champ is likely to start a six-game suspension on Sunday, and it barely registers on the psyche of Football America. Nothing weirder than this: The Saints defense and special teams outscored every player in fantasy football Sunday. The Saints. The winless, lambs-led-to-the-slaughter Giants, their head coach in a bubbling cauldron, dominated in Denver on Sunday night.
Of the 32 NFL teams:
• None is unbeaten.
• Two have one loss.
• 27 have two, three or four wins.
• Few are legit hopeless. Three have zero or one win.
NFL 2017: A gigantic mishmash of mediocrity!
Thank God for the Browns. They’re the only dependable team. They’re 0-6 for the second straight year, and they’re stuck down the same rabbit hole they simply cannot escape. Even the other 0-6 team, San Francisco, is ridiculously competitive. Margin of the 49ers’ last five losses: 3, 2, 3, 3 and 2 points, respectively.
I don’t love any team. But before getting to the newsreel of the weekend (and the coming week), here’s how I see the top five:
1. Kansas City (5-1). The last vision you have of a team is usually the one you remember best, so you might find this strange. But the Chiefs are 15-2 versus teams not named Pittsburgh since Oct. 1, 2016, and they’ve got a 12-game winning streak in a tough division. They’ve just got to protect Alex Smith better and keep Tyreek Hill upright.
2. Philadelphia (5-1). The big story is Carson Wentz, who is growing into a big star before our eyes. But LaGarrette Blount went from the doghouse to being a vital cog in the Eagles’ current four-game winning streak. Now Philly doesn’t go on the road until the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Looks like the Eagles’ most famous season-ticket holder, Mike Trout, will have some frozen January football to cheer.
3. New England (4-2). I’ve got the same questions as everyone else about the defense holding up, and Tom Brady taking a jillion hits, and the end of the dynasty being around the corner. But if it’s close late, and it usually is with the Patriots, you’re going to have to knock them out. Most times, teams can’t.
4. Pittsburgh (4-2). The Steelers are only slightly psycho. Ben Roethlisberger had his nightmare five-pick game eight days ago in a 21-point loss to Jacksonville, but Pittsburgh sandwiched that with strong games on the road against rivals Baltimore and Kansas City. Notice something about those road wins? Mike Tomlin let Le’Veon Bell own them. Combined in Baltimore and K.C., Bell rushed 67 times for 323 yards. That’s the Steelers’ best chance to make the Super Bowl: feature Bell and get ready to pay him handsomely.
5. Houston (3-3). Scott Hanson on NFL RedZone said just what I was thinking as the Texans wiped out Cleveland 33-17 on Sunday. “The Texans’ offense looks as impressive as any in football now,” he said. Last four games: 33, 57, 34 and 33 points, and Deshaun Watson is making everyone in southeast Texas forget the pain of losing J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus.
* * *
Deshaun Watson’s Unique Rookie Season Continues; Jets-Patriots Goal-Line Call Will Live in Infamy
Deshaun Watson has a 101.1 quarterback rating through the first six games of his NFL career.
JOHN RIVERA/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Three fat grafs about Sunday’s semi-important things...
• Deshaun Watson is as unique a rookie as I remember in the NFL. Think of Watson since he’s been drafted. He worker-beed his way through training camp, giving deference to nominal starter Tom Savage. He donated his first game check to three lunch ladies with the Texans who suffered losses in the big Houston flood. He struggled to beat the Bengals in his first start, dueled Tom Brady to a close loss in his second start, then threw 12 touchdown passes in his past three games.
As you read this, Watson, who might have spent the year on the bench if Savage had torn up foes in September, leads the NFL in TD throws, with 15. And on Sunday, before the game against Cleveland, he wore a Warren Moon jersey in honor of the best quarterback in franchise history. “So much he did for this organization—I just wanted to show my appreciation for everything he’s done, and for paving the way for future quarterbacks,”
Watson told me after the game. That’s what I mean: He says the right things, does the right things, and plays the right way. He said he isn’t surprised at his early success, and he doesn’t know why his adjustment has been so seamless. I’ll give you one clue: There’s one person on this planet who’s twice thrown for 400 yards against a Nick Saban-coached defense—Watson, at Clemson.
Football’s football. “The reason I’m not surprised is because of the preparation and the mindset I have,” Watson said. Watching him now, he still might lock onto his first read too regularly, but he’s so confident and plays so fast that you figure his progressions will come in time. In his last three games, he’s playing to a 118.3 rating, ridiculous for a rookie.
But postgame Sunday, what he was thinking about was the pick-six he threw to Cleveland cornerback Jason McCourty, even after his fourth straight strong performance. “I’m really upset about that pick-six,” he said. “I was pissed off. I hate turning the ball over. That’s going to stick with me.” Music to his coaches’ ears.
• A call that will live in infamy for Jets fans. New England led the Jets 24-14 with 8:31 left in the game when Josh McCown threw to Austin Seferian-Jenkins near the left pylon at the goal line. Seferian-Jenkins caught the pass, and as he was going to the ground near the pylon he juggled the ball in his hands. But Seferian-Jenkins hit the pylon, and then the ground, with the ball looking to be his grasp. The official ruled it was a touchdown.
On the review, ref Tony Corrente, in consultation with the officiating command center, ruled there was enough evidence to show Seferian-Jenkins had not re-established possession of the ball through the time he fell to the ground. So Corrente ruled a fumble, a touchback, and no touchdown. The Jets lost by seven. Huge call, obviously, one that separated the Jets and Patriots from the tie in the division entering the weekend to a one-game lead for New England at the end of the day.
I reached NFL officiating vice president Al Riveron, who insisted they’d seen enough evidence. “As the runner is going to the ground,” Riveron said, “he loses control of the football. In order for him to re-establish control, he has to have the ball when he touches the ground, and he has to survive the ground—when he hits the ground he must retain control of the ball …
He must complete the process of control of the football as he’s going down, and he never regains full control of the ball while he is inbounds.” When I finished with Riveron, I went back and watched the play with all the replay reviews about 10 times. I saw what appeared to be a loose ball Seferian-Jenkins was trying to control, and then seemingly controlling it as he fell. I never saw the clear loss of the football, as both Corrente and Riveron said they saw.
On Fox, the last VP of Officiating, Dean Blandino, said: “It has to be clear and obvious. It just didn’t seem to me that this was.” My bone to pick is the same as always: I think to reverse a call, you’ve got to be absolutely certain that the visual evidence is there. It seemed Seferian-Jenkins bobbled it going to the ground, but could I swear to it?
No. It could be that Riveron saw a different view than I did, though usually in time the replays will be available in full. Riveron never had to deal with the angst and the anger from fans and coaches and teams as the deputy under Blandino. Now he will.
• Yup, that’s the same Adrian Peterson we used to know. Pretty basic question I had for Adrian Peterson: What’s the difference for you between New Orleans and Arizona? “Remember that first game with the Saints, opening night in Minnesota?” he said. “First snap of the game, I gain nine, and then a play later, I’m out of the game. Here, I got nine on my first carry [eight, actually], and I stayed in, and the opportunities came.”
Peterson ran left for eight yards on the third play, around the left end for 11 more on the fourth play, and through a left guard-tackle crease on the sixth play for 27 yards and a fairly easy touchdown. Peterson was as motivated for this game as he’d been for any in a while—even the opener as a Saint back in Minnesota. The results: 26 carries, 134 yards, two touchdowns. “Pretty much fun,” he said. “I go from playing maybe eight snaps a game to most of the game. I knew, I KNEW I would show up and show out.”
It’s a pretty instant fit too: Peterson’s good friends with Larry Fitzgerald, and he’ll be staying in the guest house behind Fitzgerald’s house for as long as he wants. How long? Well, Peterson made it clear to me this won’t be his last season, and he made it clear this won’t be his last dominant game of the season. The Cards, and a quarterback who’d been getting hit a lot, Carson Palmer, need him to salvage their season.
“What the moral of your story?” I asked. “Control your own destiny,” he said. “Don’t let anyone else control it. It was a little bit mind-boggling to me to listen to guys who played the game, Hall of Famers, who basically thought it was over for me. That stung a little. Disheartening. But that was just more motivation for me.”
* * *
The Award Section
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Le’Veon Bell, running back, Pittsburgh. By halftime of the game of the day, Bell was totally confounding Kansas City defensive coordinator Bob Sutton and his troops. Bell had 17 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown at the break, and the Steelers were well on the way to handing the last undefeated team in the NFL its first loss. The Steelers survived to win, thanks to Bell and a great defensive effort.
Jordan Howard, running back, Chicago. Talk about a John Fox kind of game—the Bears ran it 54 times for 231 yards Sunday in Baltimore. Howard was the brute-force key to this win, with 36 rushes for 167 yards.
Tom Brady, quarterback, New England. He’s had better games in his 18-year NFL career (20 for 28, 257 yards, two touchdowns, one picks), (but I can't help myself from kissing his butt each week) but the 24-17 win over the pesky Jets was his 187th career regular-season victory, which is a record for quarterbacks. Add his 25 playoff wins, and Brady’s win total is 212. And counting. The 212 wins are 12 more than any other quarterback ever.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Vince Williams, inside linebacker, Pittsburgh. In 74 career games over five seasons before Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, Williams had 4.5 sacks. In the dominating defensive effort over the Chiefs, Williams had two first-half sacks, silencing the crowd and setting the stage for the Steelers’ second defensive conquest of the Chiefs in nine months.
Janoris Jenkins, cornerback, New York Giants. Jenkins had a 43-yard pick-six near the end of the first half to put the Broncos in a 17-3 halftime hole. Then, at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Broncos driving to try to cut into a 17-point deficit, Jenkins stripped Demaryius Thomas as he converted a fourth down. The disheartening strip finished off Denver and was a key to the Giants’ major upset.
Adrian Amos, safety, Chicago. One of the most gorgeous interception returns for touchdown I’ve ever seen—and, interestingly, Amos is quite inexperienced at this business. In his 37th NFL game, Amos plucked a tipped Joe Flacco pass out of the air at his 10-yard line, and weaved and bobbed and sprinted down the left side of the field for a vital 90-yard score.
Nigel Bradham, linebacker; Fletcher Cox, defensive tackle; Brandon Graham, defensive end, Philadelphia. Bradham twice made key stops on third-down conversion tries by the Panthers and knocked down two passes. Cox and Graham terrorized Cam Newton all night, combining for 13 hurries, one hit and one sack of Newton, per Pro Football Focus. The three combined for 15 tackles and Bradham, in particular, played one of the best sideline-to-sideline game of an undistinguished career.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Pharoh Cooper, kick-returner/wide receiver, Los Angeles Rams. The first touchdown return of an opening kickoff this year was a doozy. Cooper ran 103 yards up the right side to start the game in Jacksonville, and stunningly pirouetted 360 degrees out of a tackle early in the runback. A superb return.
Justin Tucker, kicker, Baltimore. You’ve got to see the 50-yard field goal Tucker kicked in the fourth quarter against the Bears. I swear it would have been good from 68 yards. It hit two-thirds of the way up the net—on a line! With 3:01 left in the game. Which led this game to …
Michael Campanaro, punt-returner/wide receiver, Baltimore. His weaving 73-yard punt return after the Bears’ ensuing series, plus a two-point conversion pass by Joe Flacco, tied the game against the Bears and sent it to overtime.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Doug Pederson, coach, Philadelphia. I’m a longtime go-for-two kind of guy anyway, but Pederson’s move on Thursday night was one of his many solid decisions in the game against Carolina that got the Eagles to 5-1. A minute into the third quarter, Carson Wentz threw a touchdown pass for Philadelphia, and Jake Elliott kicked the PAT to put the Eagles up 17-10.
But on the PAT, the Panthers were whistled for an illegal formation for lining up directly over the center, which is illegal. Ref Peter Morelli announced the penalty in the stadium, saying the Eagles would take the five-yard walkoff on the ensuing kickoff. The game went to commercial. When the break was over, here was Morelli saying, “Philadelphia has elected to go for two points. The ball will be placed on the one-yard line.”
Now for a here’s-how-the-sausage-is-made moment: Refs and head coaches have an agreement that if there’s any doubt whether the team wants to accept or decline a penalty, the ref will look at the sideline and the coach will make some sort of signal about his intentions. And so CBS had a camera replaying Pederson yelling at Morelli (if my lip-reading is correct): “Look at me! I wanna go for two!” And so the Eagles did, and LaGarrette Blount barreled in from the one, and it was 18-10 instead of 17-10.
Good call by Pederson, obviously; the coach in that circumstance can either take the one point and assess the five yards on the kickoff, or he can go half the distance from the 2-yard line to try for the two-point conversion. I think more coaches should go for two from the 2, but moving it to the 1 makes the call a must-do, even if it means risking taking one point off the board. Smart by Pederson.
* * *
POD PEOPLE
New York Jets quarterback Josh McCown, a veteran of 10 pro football teams.
• McCown on his season with the Oakland Raiders and owner Al Davis: “We were hanging out after a game, loading the car up, and this black Lincoln Town Car comes up, the window goes down, boom. He goes [in a distinctly Al Davis Brooklyn accent], ‘Hey McCown, come here.’ It's like a scene out of Goodfellas. My heart is beating fast, and he says, "The second quarter, you threw the ball in the flat. You had [wide receiver John] Madsen on the corner. Why didn't you throw the corner?’
I'm stumbling through the answer, I'm following my reads and doing what I'm supposed to do, I didn't want to sell out the coaches. I kind of fumbled through the answer, and I get done talking, and he nods his head and goes, ‘It's the Raidahs, throw the ball dahnfield.’ And brrrrrrp the window goes up and he pulls off. It was a great experience.
“He was so sharp, even at that age. We walk in and we're hanging out waiting for a team meeting to start, and here he comes in with his walker, and he sees one of our rookie D-ends, and he says, ‘Hey, last year, you played with your right hand down. Now you're playing with your left hand down. Why? Put your right hand down, you had your best games …’ He rattled off the three games in college that he did that—his sack numbers and everything … Commitment to Excellence wasn't just something he had copy written. It was, legit, his life.”
• McCown, with a wife and four children, on the strain of often being an absentee father while he played in one city and his family lived elsewhere, often in Charlotte: “When your employment begins and ends at training camp, it is hard when you've got family to go, ‘Okay, let's move before the school year,’ so we stayed ... We've just learned to manage it. It's not been ideal by any stretch. Thank god for FaceTime.
But I also understand that I am not the only guy that works, and works away from his family. We have people serving and protecting this country that spend six to eight months, or years, at a time without being able to see their family. The time away is hard. There were so many nights I hung up FaceTime and hung up times with my kids that I would just sit there and cry and go, ‘Man I don't want to, I can't do it! I can't do it anymore.
And then the home game would come and they would come see me, and the joy that they had, and then at the end of the season we would sit down and my kids, especially my two boys, they'd say, ‘Dad, you have to keep playing, we love it.’ They are so supportive and so it's like, I'm sitting there going, ‘Do you really want me to play, or are you just glad Dad is not home to cut off the Xbox?’”
In the podcast, you’ll also hear about this: Opening day, 2004. Arizona at St. Louis. First game of Larry Fitzgerald’s pro life. First snap of Larry Fitzgerald’s pro life. McCown takes the first snap of the season. He hands to running back Emmitt Smith. Smith runs toward the line, stops, pivots, and tosses back to McCown. McCown throws as far as he can downfield. Fitzgerald, covered by Aeneas Williams, jumps over Williams to make the 37-yard catch.
* * *
Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick notes of Week 6:
a. Stunning penalty-yardage disparity Thursday night: Eagles 126, Panthers 1. I would love to be in the officials’ room on Park Avenue to hear the discussion over the fact that the Panthers were not whistled for one hold in a game that has become a clutch-and-grab-fest.
b. I have never heard what CBS analyst Nate Burleson said about rookie running back Kareem Hunt of the Chiefs: “He’s the carpet that brings the room together.” How did I miss that?
c. WHOOOOOOOSH! Marvin Hall just showed up Saturday on the active Atlanta roster for the first time, then got five yards behind the Miami secondary and caught a too-easy long TD.
d. Case Keenum is playing the best football of his life—and looks so confident doing it. His inside shovel pass to Kyle Rudolph for seven yards near the Green Bay goal line was a thing of beauty.
e. The Lions are in the NFC North race because of the Aaron Rodgers injury, not because of good football.
f. The book on C.J. Beathard is he’s one tough guy. Which he showed in the 26-24 loss at Washington. But he showed much more, enough that he’s got at least one more start next Sunday against Dallas.
g. Can someone please teach Jordan Howard that when your team is trying to bleed the clock, you don’t intentionally run out of bounds? Sheesh.
h. Oakland punter Marquette King had a day: four punts, 56.5-yard average, 55.0 net, all four inside the 20.
i. What a pass by Tarik Cohen, the bowling ball of a back for Chicago. He rolled right with a handoff and let one fly, 37 yards in the air, and it nestled perfectly into the arms of Zach Miller in the right corner of the end zone. First Bears rookie running back to throw a TD pass since Gale Sayers did it in 1965.
j. Good for the Chargers winning in Oakland. Anthony Lynn is keeping that team together against so many odds.
k. Jack Del Rio has a big problem, and it’s not only that the Raiders are 2-4. They’re an uninspired, toothless 2-4. They’ve got a must-win game Thursday night against the Chiefs—and they’ve only lost five in a row to Kansas City.
l. Where to start with that New Orleans-Detroit game. Well, I’ll leave you with one note on it: The Cam Jordan tipped-to-himself interception for a touchdown was the biggest play in a game with 90 points scored, and one of the most athletic plays of the season. Jordan’s a heck of a player. The Saints need about five more of him on defense.
m. When he’s healthy, Janoris Jenkins is a top-five NFL cornerback. Showed it again Sunday night with the pick-six in Denver.
n. Could be that I jinxed him, but if you want to see my "Football Night in America" ride-along with Trevor Siemian, here it is.
o. Cam Newton will not put the Thursday-nighter in his time capsule.
p. There is no good reason—nor a crappy reason—to fine a celebrating football player for throwing a football into the stands after a great play. I mean, the player is happy, the player is celebrating, the player gives the souvenir touchdown football to a fan. I do understand the NFL’s reasoning. The league doesn’t want anyone to get hurt in a scrum for a prize football.
And if there is an instance of a fan getting hurt beyond a couple of scratches on a ball thrown into the stands, maybe I’d change my tune. But Davante Adams got fined $6,076 for throwing his winning touchdown catch into the stands in Texas last week, and there’s the cutest picture of the recipient, a little girl, cradling it this week. It’s wrong.
q. Thomas Davis still has it, even after three ACL surgeries.
2. I think, Luke Kuechly, it’s time for that deep conversation with yourself and with your family and maybe with your good friends on the Panthers. You’re 26, and when you’re on the field you’re as dominant and instinctive as you were in 2013, when you were named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. But with a likely third concussion in three years Thursday night, the danger with playing such a physical position and risking further head trauma is something Kuechly and those closest to him are going to have to consider when trying to decide about his future in football.
Kuechly came steaming around right end to get an Eagles’ ball-carrier, and he was met directly by guard Brandon Brooks. Brooks didn’t Kuechly him helmet-to-helmet; rather, he simply stopped Kuechly and leveled him with a strong block into his shoulder/neck area. Players get up from that almost every time … but when players have a history of concussions, even seemingly ordinary contact can be dangerous. Whatever Kuechly does—and he told me last year he planned to play as long he physically is able—the emotion has to be taken out of it. He’s got to make the best call for 50-year-old Luke Kuechly.
3. I think I get the release of NaVorro Bowman—a veteran on an 0-5 team who wouldn’t be there after this season. He’s been one of the best professionals and competitors I’ve covered. I also get the Niners releasing him instead of taking a low-round pick for him. I’ll tell you where I’d go if I were him: Carolina. Great insurance for Kuechly, and a great one-year landing place. Backup plan: Oakland.
4. I think when I saw the Panthers in training camp, coach Ron Rivera was adamant that Carolina was going to be a power-running team. If that was the case, Carolina would be at least one win better than its 4-2 record right now. But in the last two games, Carolina’s running backs have 35 carries for 37 yards. The Panthers should be using the speed and horizontal misdirection of Curtis Samuel and Christian McCaffrey to create uncertainty on the defensive side of the ball.
5. I think it’s only mid-October, and it’s starting to be hard to fathom how a guy who seemed bulletproof on Labor Day, Giants coach Ben McAdoo, will still be in that job in 2018.
6. I think it’s only mid-October, and it’s starting to be hard to fathom how the Eagles won’t win the NFC East, with this schedule over the next four weeks: Washington, San Francisco and Denver, all at home, followed by the bye. The Eagles don’t play a road game until the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
7. I think I enjoyed the NFL Films Presents “Touchdown in Israel” show I screened over the weekend. The show debuts Friday at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network. Patriots owner Robert Kraft took 18 Pro Football Hall of Famers to Israel, to promote football (the players actually coached a game between two teams of young players from Israel) and so Kraft could show off Israel, which he loves. Most touching parts: At the end of the show, Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Eric Dickerson and others—most emotionally Marshall Faulk—discuss their experiences on the last night in Israel.
Faulk, not an emotional sort, struggles to get through his thoughts speaking to the group, because the trip was so powerful to him. “Coming from the Ninth Ward in Louisiana, to be in Israel … UN-believable … And not just to be here, but [struggling to speak] … to be here with some guys who I look up to. I grew up poor. I sold POPCORN in the Superdome just to watch y’all play! [fighting off tears] …
Cuz that’s the only way I could get in! … So to be here, and to be friends with y’all, and to hear your stories, and to have y’all listening to my stories, um, is unbelievable. I came here as just a member of the Hall. Man, I’m leaving with some special relationships.”
As usual, plenty of butt-kissing of the Patriots along with his usual Social Justice Warrior crap, with little mention of the Rams. Not to mention that Peter King seems to think a paragraph isn't a paragraph unless it consists of 50 or more sentences crammed together, which is why I have to edit everything to make it readable.
Honestly it's getting harder and harder to read PK's column every Monday.
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https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/16/nfl-week-6-chiefs-steelers-rankings-peter-king-mmqb
NFL 2017: A Mishmash of Mediocrity, Where No Team is Great, Some Are Good (and One is Perfectly Bad)
By Peter King
The Steelers sacked Alex Smith three times Sunday and limited the previously unbeaten Chiefs to just 251 total yards.
JOHN SLEEZER/KANSAS CITY STAR/TNS VIA GETTY IMAGES
Usually, six weeks into the season, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s what in the NFL. After six weeks: New England was the best team in the AFC last year and went on to win the Super Bowl; Denver and Carolina were unbeaten in 2015 and went on to meet in the Super Bowl; Seattle and Denver were a combined 11-1 in 2013, and they met in the big one.
This year? If Week 6 records mean the most, it looks like Alex Smith and Carson Wentz meeting in the Super Bowl in Minnesota in 16 weeks.
This season is just plain weird. Three of the top 10 stars in the game are lost for the season (most likely) in a span of eight days; Aaron Rodgers, the third, got taken down Sunday with the same run-of-the-mill ferocity he’d been hit with a thousand times in his life, only this time it broke his right collarbone.
The defending rushing champ is likely to start a six-game suspension on Sunday, and it barely registers on the psyche of Football America. Nothing weirder than this: The Saints defense and special teams outscored every player in fantasy football Sunday. The Saints. The winless, lambs-led-to-the-slaughter Giants, their head coach in a bubbling cauldron, dominated in Denver on Sunday night.
Of the 32 NFL teams:
• None is unbeaten.
• Two have one loss.
• 27 have two, three or four wins.
• Few are legit hopeless. Three have zero or one win.
NFL 2017: A gigantic mishmash of mediocrity!
Thank God for the Browns. They’re the only dependable team. They’re 0-6 for the second straight year, and they’re stuck down the same rabbit hole they simply cannot escape. Even the other 0-6 team, San Francisco, is ridiculously competitive. Margin of the 49ers’ last five losses: 3, 2, 3, 3 and 2 points, respectively.
I don’t love any team. But before getting to the newsreel of the weekend (and the coming week), here’s how I see the top five:
1. Kansas City (5-1). The last vision you have of a team is usually the one you remember best, so you might find this strange. But the Chiefs are 15-2 versus teams not named Pittsburgh since Oct. 1, 2016, and they’ve got a 12-game winning streak in a tough division. They’ve just got to protect Alex Smith better and keep Tyreek Hill upright.
2. Philadelphia (5-1). The big story is Carson Wentz, who is growing into a big star before our eyes. But LaGarrette Blount went from the doghouse to being a vital cog in the Eagles’ current four-game winning streak. Now Philly doesn’t go on the road until the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Looks like the Eagles’ most famous season-ticket holder, Mike Trout, will have some frozen January football to cheer.
3. New England (4-2). I’ve got the same questions as everyone else about the defense holding up, and Tom Brady taking a jillion hits, and the end of the dynasty being around the corner. But if it’s close late, and it usually is with the Patriots, you’re going to have to knock them out. Most times, teams can’t.
4. Pittsburgh (4-2). The Steelers are only slightly psycho. Ben Roethlisberger had his nightmare five-pick game eight days ago in a 21-point loss to Jacksonville, but Pittsburgh sandwiched that with strong games on the road against rivals Baltimore and Kansas City. Notice something about those road wins? Mike Tomlin let Le’Veon Bell own them. Combined in Baltimore and K.C., Bell rushed 67 times for 323 yards. That’s the Steelers’ best chance to make the Super Bowl: feature Bell and get ready to pay him handsomely.
5. Houston (3-3). Scott Hanson on NFL RedZone said just what I was thinking as the Texans wiped out Cleveland 33-17 on Sunday. “The Texans’ offense looks as impressive as any in football now,” he said. Last four games: 33, 57, 34 and 33 points, and Deshaun Watson is making everyone in southeast Texas forget the pain of losing J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus.
* * *
Deshaun Watson’s Unique Rookie Season Continues; Jets-Patriots Goal-Line Call Will Live in Infamy
Deshaun Watson has a 101.1 quarterback rating through the first six games of his NFL career.
JOHN RIVERA/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Three fat grafs about Sunday’s semi-important things...
• Deshaun Watson is as unique a rookie as I remember in the NFL. Think of Watson since he’s been drafted. He worker-beed his way through training camp, giving deference to nominal starter Tom Savage. He donated his first game check to three lunch ladies with the Texans who suffered losses in the big Houston flood. He struggled to beat the Bengals in his first start, dueled Tom Brady to a close loss in his second start, then threw 12 touchdown passes in his past three games.
As you read this, Watson, who might have spent the year on the bench if Savage had torn up foes in September, leads the NFL in TD throws, with 15. And on Sunday, before the game against Cleveland, he wore a Warren Moon jersey in honor of the best quarterback in franchise history. “So much he did for this organization—I just wanted to show my appreciation for everything he’s done, and for paving the way for future quarterbacks,”
Watson told me after the game. That’s what I mean: He says the right things, does the right things, and plays the right way. He said he isn’t surprised at his early success, and he doesn’t know why his adjustment has been so seamless. I’ll give you one clue: There’s one person on this planet who’s twice thrown for 400 yards against a Nick Saban-coached defense—Watson, at Clemson.
Football’s football. “The reason I’m not surprised is because of the preparation and the mindset I have,” Watson said. Watching him now, he still might lock onto his first read too regularly, but he’s so confident and plays so fast that you figure his progressions will come in time. In his last three games, he’s playing to a 118.3 rating, ridiculous for a rookie.
But postgame Sunday, what he was thinking about was the pick-six he threw to Cleveland cornerback Jason McCourty, even after his fourth straight strong performance. “I’m really upset about that pick-six,” he said. “I was pissed off. I hate turning the ball over. That’s going to stick with me.” Music to his coaches’ ears.
• A call that will live in infamy for Jets fans. New England led the Jets 24-14 with 8:31 left in the game when Josh McCown threw to Austin Seferian-Jenkins near the left pylon at the goal line. Seferian-Jenkins caught the pass, and as he was going to the ground near the pylon he juggled the ball in his hands. But Seferian-Jenkins hit the pylon, and then the ground, with the ball looking to be his grasp. The official ruled it was a touchdown.
On the review, ref Tony Corrente, in consultation with the officiating command center, ruled there was enough evidence to show Seferian-Jenkins had not re-established possession of the ball through the time he fell to the ground. So Corrente ruled a fumble, a touchback, and no touchdown. The Jets lost by seven. Huge call, obviously, one that separated the Jets and Patriots from the tie in the division entering the weekend to a one-game lead for New England at the end of the day.
I reached NFL officiating vice president Al Riveron, who insisted they’d seen enough evidence. “As the runner is going to the ground,” Riveron said, “he loses control of the football. In order for him to re-establish control, he has to have the ball when he touches the ground, and he has to survive the ground—when he hits the ground he must retain control of the ball …
He must complete the process of control of the football as he’s going down, and he never regains full control of the ball while he is inbounds.” When I finished with Riveron, I went back and watched the play with all the replay reviews about 10 times. I saw what appeared to be a loose ball Seferian-Jenkins was trying to control, and then seemingly controlling it as he fell. I never saw the clear loss of the football, as both Corrente and Riveron said they saw.
On Fox, the last VP of Officiating, Dean Blandino, said: “It has to be clear and obvious. It just didn’t seem to me that this was.” My bone to pick is the same as always: I think to reverse a call, you’ve got to be absolutely certain that the visual evidence is there. It seemed Seferian-Jenkins bobbled it going to the ground, but could I swear to it?
No. It could be that Riveron saw a different view than I did, though usually in time the replays will be available in full. Riveron never had to deal with the angst and the anger from fans and coaches and teams as the deputy under Blandino. Now he will.
• Yup, that’s the same Adrian Peterson we used to know. Pretty basic question I had for Adrian Peterson: What’s the difference for you between New Orleans and Arizona? “Remember that first game with the Saints, opening night in Minnesota?” he said. “First snap of the game, I gain nine, and then a play later, I’m out of the game. Here, I got nine on my first carry [eight, actually], and I stayed in, and the opportunities came.”
Peterson ran left for eight yards on the third play, around the left end for 11 more on the fourth play, and through a left guard-tackle crease on the sixth play for 27 yards and a fairly easy touchdown. Peterson was as motivated for this game as he’d been for any in a while—even the opener as a Saint back in Minnesota. The results: 26 carries, 134 yards, two touchdowns. “Pretty much fun,” he said. “I go from playing maybe eight snaps a game to most of the game. I knew, I KNEW I would show up and show out.”
It’s a pretty instant fit too: Peterson’s good friends with Larry Fitzgerald, and he’ll be staying in the guest house behind Fitzgerald’s house for as long as he wants. How long? Well, Peterson made it clear to me this won’t be his last season, and he made it clear this won’t be his last dominant game of the season. The Cards, and a quarterback who’d been getting hit a lot, Carson Palmer, need him to salvage their season.
“What the moral of your story?” I asked. “Control your own destiny,” he said. “Don’t let anyone else control it. It was a little bit mind-boggling to me to listen to guys who played the game, Hall of Famers, who basically thought it was over for me. That stung a little. Disheartening. But that was just more motivation for me.”
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The Award Section
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Le’Veon Bell, running back, Pittsburgh. By halftime of the game of the day, Bell was totally confounding Kansas City defensive coordinator Bob Sutton and his troops. Bell had 17 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown at the break, and the Steelers were well on the way to handing the last undefeated team in the NFL its first loss. The Steelers survived to win, thanks to Bell and a great defensive effort.
Jordan Howard, running back, Chicago. Talk about a John Fox kind of game—the Bears ran it 54 times for 231 yards Sunday in Baltimore. Howard was the brute-force key to this win, with 36 rushes for 167 yards.
Tom Brady, quarterback, New England. He’s had better games in his 18-year NFL career (20 for 28, 257 yards, two touchdowns, one picks), (but I can't help myself from kissing his butt each week) but the 24-17 win over the pesky Jets was his 187th career regular-season victory, which is a record for quarterbacks. Add his 25 playoff wins, and Brady’s win total is 212. And counting. The 212 wins are 12 more than any other quarterback ever.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Vince Williams, inside linebacker, Pittsburgh. In 74 career games over five seasons before Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, Williams had 4.5 sacks. In the dominating defensive effort over the Chiefs, Williams had two first-half sacks, silencing the crowd and setting the stage for the Steelers’ second defensive conquest of the Chiefs in nine months.
Janoris Jenkins, cornerback, New York Giants. Jenkins had a 43-yard pick-six near the end of the first half to put the Broncos in a 17-3 halftime hole. Then, at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Broncos driving to try to cut into a 17-point deficit, Jenkins stripped Demaryius Thomas as he converted a fourth down. The disheartening strip finished off Denver and was a key to the Giants’ major upset.
Adrian Amos, safety, Chicago. One of the most gorgeous interception returns for touchdown I’ve ever seen—and, interestingly, Amos is quite inexperienced at this business. In his 37th NFL game, Amos plucked a tipped Joe Flacco pass out of the air at his 10-yard line, and weaved and bobbed and sprinted down the left side of the field for a vital 90-yard score.
Nigel Bradham, linebacker; Fletcher Cox, defensive tackle; Brandon Graham, defensive end, Philadelphia. Bradham twice made key stops on third-down conversion tries by the Panthers and knocked down two passes. Cox and Graham terrorized Cam Newton all night, combining for 13 hurries, one hit and one sack of Newton, per Pro Football Focus. The three combined for 15 tackles and Bradham, in particular, played one of the best sideline-to-sideline game of an undistinguished career.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Pharoh Cooper, kick-returner/wide receiver, Los Angeles Rams. The first touchdown return of an opening kickoff this year was a doozy. Cooper ran 103 yards up the right side to start the game in Jacksonville, and stunningly pirouetted 360 degrees out of a tackle early in the runback. A superb return.
Justin Tucker, kicker, Baltimore. You’ve got to see the 50-yard field goal Tucker kicked in the fourth quarter against the Bears. I swear it would have been good from 68 yards. It hit two-thirds of the way up the net—on a line! With 3:01 left in the game. Which led this game to …
Michael Campanaro, punt-returner/wide receiver, Baltimore. His weaving 73-yard punt return after the Bears’ ensuing series, plus a two-point conversion pass by Joe Flacco, tied the game against the Bears and sent it to overtime.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Doug Pederson, coach, Philadelphia. I’m a longtime go-for-two kind of guy anyway, but Pederson’s move on Thursday night was one of his many solid decisions in the game against Carolina that got the Eagles to 5-1. A minute into the third quarter, Carson Wentz threw a touchdown pass for Philadelphia, and Jake Elliott kicked the PAT to put the Eagles up 17-10.
But on the PAT, the Panthers were whistled for an illegal formation for lining up directly over the center, which is illegal. Ref Peter Morelli announced the penalty in the stadium, saying the Eagles would take the five-yard walkoff on the ensuing kickoff. The game went to commercial. When the break was over, here was Morelli saying, “Philadelphia has elected to go for two points. The ball will be placed on the one-yard line.”
Now for a here’s-how-the-sausage-is-made moment: Refs and head coaches have an agreement that if there’s any doubt whether the team wants to accept or decline a penalty, the ref will look at the sideline and the coach will make some sort of signal about his intentions. And so CBS had a camera replaying Pederson yelling at Morelli (if my lip-reading is correct): “Look at me! I wanna go for two!” And so the Eagles did, and LaGarrette Blount barreled in from the one, and it was 18-10 instead of 17-10.
Good call by Pederson, obviously; the coach in that circumstance can either take the one point and assess the five yards on the kickoff, or he can go half the distance from the 2-yard line to try for the two-point conversion. I think more coaches should go for two from the 2, but moving it to the 1 makes the call a must-do, even if it means risking taking one point off the board. Smart by Pederson.
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POD PEOPLE
New York Jets quarterback Josh McCown, a veteran of 10 pro football teams.
• McCown on his season with the Oakland Raiders and owner Al Davis: “We were hanging out after a game, loading the car up, and this black Lincoln Town Car comes up, the window goes down, boom. He goes [in a distinctly Al Davis Brooklyn accent], ‘Hey McCown, come here.’ It's like a scene out of Goodfellas. My heart is beating fast, and he says, "The second quarter, you threw the ball in the flat. You had [wide receiver John] Madsen on the corner. Why didn't you throw the corner?’
I'm stumbling through the answer, I'm following my reads and doing what I'm supposed to do, I didn't want to sell out the coaches. I kind of fumbled through the answer, and I get done talking, and he nods his head and goes, ‘It's the Raidahs, throw the ball dahnfield.’ And brrrrrrp the window goes up and he pulls off. It was a great experience.
“He was so sharp, even at that age. We walk in and we're hanging out waiting for a team meeting to start, and here he comes in with his walker, and he sees one of our rookie D-ends, and he says, ‘Hey, last year, you played with your right hand down. Now you're playing with your left hand down. Why? Put your right hand down, you had your best games …’ He rattled off the three games in college that he did that—his sack numbers and everything … Commitment to Excellence wasn't just something he had copy written. It was, legit, his life.”
• McCown, with a wife and four children, on the strain of often being an absentee father while he played in one city and his family lived elsewhere, often in Charlotte: “When your employment begins and ends at training camp, it is hard when you've got family to go, ‘Okay, let's move before the school year,’ so we stayed ... We've just learned to manage it. It's not been ideal by any stretch. Thank god for FaceTime.
But I also understand that I am not the only guy that works, and works away from his family. We have people serving and protecting this country that spend six to eight months, or years, at a time without being able to see their family. The time away is hard. There were so many nights I hung up FaceTime and hung up times with my kids that I would just sit there and cry and go, ‘Man I don't want to, I can't do it! I can't do it anymore.
And then the home game would come and they would come see me, and the joy that they had, and then at the end of the season we would sit down and my kids, especially my two boys, they'd say, ‘Dad, you have to keep playing, we love it.’ They are so supportive and so it's like, I'm sitting there going, ‘Do you really want me to play, or are you just glad Dad is not home to cut off the Xbox?’”
In the podcast, you’ll also hear about this: Opening day, 2004. Arizona at St. Louis. First game of Larry Fitzgerald’s pro life. First snap of Larry Fitzgerald’s pro life. McCown takes the first snap of the season. He hands to running back Emmitt Smith. Smith runs toward the line, stops, pivots, and tosses back to McCown. McCown throws as far as he can downfield. Fitzgerald, covered by Aeneas Williams, jumps over Williams to make the 37-yard catch.
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Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick notes of Week 6:
a. Stunning penalty-yardage disparity Thursday night: Eagles 126, Panthers 1. I would love to be in the officials’ room on Park Avenue to hear the discussion over the fact that the Panthers were not whistled for one hold in a game that has become a clutch-and-grab-fest.
b. I have never heard what CBS analyst Nate Burleson said about rookie running back Kareem Hunt of the Chiefs: “He’s the carpet that brings the room together.” How did I miss that?
c. WHOOOOOOOSH! Marvin Hall just showed up Saturday on the active Atlanta roster for the first time, then got five yards behind the Miami secondary and caught a too-easy long TD.
d. Case Keenum is playing the best football of his life—and looks so confident doing it. His inside shovel pass to Kyle Rudolph for seven yards near the Green Bay goal line was a thing of beauty.
e. The Lions are in the NFC North race because of the Aaron Rodgers injury, not because of good football.
f. The book on C.J. Beathard is he’s one tough guy. Which he showed in the 26-24 loss at Washington. But he showed much more, enough that he’s got at least one more start next Sunday against Dallas.
g. Can someone please teach Jordan Howard that when your team is trying to bleed the clock, you don’t intentionally run out of bounds? Sheesh.
h. Oakland punter Marquette King had a day: four punts, 56.5-yard average, 55.0 net, all four inside the 20.
i. What a pass by Tarik Cohen, the bowling ball of a back for Chicago. He rolled right with a handoff and let one fly, 37 yards in the air, and it nestled perfectly into the arms of Zach Miller in the right corner of the end zone. First Bears rookie running back to throw a TD pass since Gale Sayers did it in 1965.
j. Good for the Chargers winning in Oakland. Anthony Lynn is keeping that team together against so many odds.
k. Jack Del Rio has a big problem, and it’s not only that the Raiders are 2-4. They’re an uninspired, toothless 2-4. They’ve got a must-win game Thursday night against the Chiefs—and they’ve only lost five in a row to Kansas City.
l. Where to start with that New Orleans-Detroit game. Well, I’ll leave you with one note on it: The Cam Jordan tipped-to-himself interception for a touchdown was the biggest play in a game with 90 points scored, and one of the most athletic plays of the season. Jordan’s a heck of a player. The Saints need about five more of him on defense.
m. When he’s healthy, Janoris Jenkins is a top-five NFL cornerback. Showed it again Sunday night with the pick-six in Denver.
n. Could be that I jinxed him, but if you want to see my "Football Night in America" ride-along with Trevor Siemian, here it is.
o. Cam Newton will not put the Thursday-nighter in his time capsule.
p. There is no good reason—nor a crappy reason—to fine a celebrating football player for throwing a football into the stands after a great play. I mean, the player is happy, the player is celebrating, the player gives the souvenir touchdown football to a fan. I do understand the NFL’s reasoning. The league doesn’t want anyone to get hurt in a scrum for a prize football.
And if there is an instance of a fan getting hurt beyond a couple of scratches on a ball thrown into the stands, maybe I’d change my tune. But Davante Adams got fined $6,076 for throwing his winning touchdown catch into the stands in Texas last week, and there’s the cutest picture of the recipient, a little girl, cradling it this week. It’s wrong.
q. Thomas Davis still has it, even after three ACL surgeries.
2. I think, Luke Kuechly, it’s time for that deep conversation with yourself and with your family and maybe with your good friends on the Panthers. You’re 26, and when you’re on the field you’re as dominant and instinctive as you were in 2013, when you were named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. But with a likely third concussion in three years Thursday night, the danger with playing such a physical position and risking further head trauma is something Kuechly and those closest to him are going to have to consider when trying to decide about his future in football.
Kuechly came steaming around right end to get an Eagles’ ball-carrier, and he was met directly by guard Brandon Brooks. Brooks didn’t Kuechly him helmet-to-helmet; rather, he simply stopped Kuechly and leveled him with a strong block into his shoulder/neck area. Players get up from that almost every time … but when players have a history of concussions, even seemingly ordinary contact can be dangerous. Whatever Kuechly does—and he told me last year he planned to play as long he physically is able—the emotion has to be taken out of it. He’s got to make the best call for 50-year-old Luke Kuechly.
3. I think I get the release of NaVorro Bowman—a veteran on an 0-5 team who wouldn’t be there after this season. He’s been one of the best professionals and competitors I’ve covered. I also get the Niners releasing him instead of taking a low-round pick for him. I’ll tell you where I’d go if I were him: Carolina. Great insurance for Kuechly, and a great one-year landing place. Backup plan: Oakland.
4. I think when I saw the Panthers in training camp, coach Ron Rivera was adamant that Carolina was going to be a power-running team. If that was the case, Carolina would be at least one win better than its 4-2 record right now. But in the last two games, Carolina’s running backs have 35 carries for 37 yards. The Panthers should be using the speed and horizontal misdirection of Curtis Samuel and Christian McCaffrey to create uncertainty on the defensive side of the ball.
5. I think it’s only mid-October, and it’s starting to be hard to fathom how a guy who seemed bulletproof on Labor Day, Giants coach Ben McAdoo, will still be in that job in 2018.
6. I think it’s only mid-October, and it’s starting to be hard to fathom how the Eagles won’t win the NFC East, with this schedule over the next four weeks: Washington, San Francisco and Denver, all at home, followed by the bye. The Eagles don’t play a road game until the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
7. I think I enjoyed the NFL Films Presents “Touchdown in Israel” show I screened over the weekend. The show debuts Friday at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network. Patriots owner Robert Kraft took 18 Pro Football Hall of Famers to Israel, to promote football (the players actually coached a game between two teams of young players from Israel) and so Kraft could show off Israel, which he loves. Most touching parts: At the end of the show, Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Eric Dickerson and others—most emotionally Marshall Faulk—discuss their experiences on the last night in Israel.
Faulk, not an emotional sort, struggles to get through his thoughts speaking to the group, because the trip was so powerful to him. “Coming from the Ninth Ward in Louisiana, to be in Israel … UN-believable … And not just to be here, but [struggling to speak] … to be here with some guys who I look up to. I grew up poor. I sold POPCORN in the Superdome just to watch y’all play! [fighting off tears] …
Cuz that’s the only way I could get in! … So to be here, and to be friends with y’all, and to hear your stories, and to have y’all listening to my stories, um, is unbelievable. I came here as just a member of the Hall. Man, I’m leaving with some special relationships.”
NFL week 6 panic meter
- By Mojo Ram
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 15 Replies
From ESPN team writers. Note: The New York Giants and Denver Broncos will be added after their Sunday night matchup. The Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans play on Monday Night Football.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/32for32x171015/2017-nfl-panic-meter-how-every-team-feels-right-now
Here's the scale:
5. Outright panic: Where is the hope? (There isn't much)
4. On the brink: A couple more losses and it's time to think about the draft
3. Don't get comfortable: Season could go either way, depending on the next few games
2. Good, but uneasy: Pretty good with a major question
1. Everything is fine: Better than expected so far
Rating 5: Outright panic
The Browns have followed a 1-15 season with an 0-6 start, and have looked more inept this season than they did in 2016. The complicating factor: There is no easy answer to turn this around from the roster as it's built. Instead, the Browns are staring at a winless season
When you lose arguably the best player in the game to a broken collarbone that could keep him out for the rest of the season, it's full-on freak-out mode -- and rightfully so. Aaron Rodgers was playing some of the best football of his career over the first month of the season and was carrying a team already ravaged by injuries. The Packers might not have enough left to surround backup quarterback Brett Hundley to allow him to be successful. Their streak of consecutive playoff appearances could end at eight
Except, the Niners really don't seem to be panicking. Are they frustrated by their 0-6 start? No doubt, especially since they've lost five in a row by three points or fewer and are the only team of the Super Bowl era to hold that distinction. But the reality is that the 49ers knew this was going to take time and the fact that they are playing teams close while still not losing ground in next year's draft order isn't the worst thing in the world. Even if they won't admit it publicly.
Rating 4: On the brink of panic
The Bears (2-4) survived Sunday's matchup in Baltimore -- their first road victory since 2015 -- but the overall outlook isn't so rosy. Chicago has lost 27 of 38 games under John Fox, who's likely to remain on the hot seat for the rest of the regular season. On the bright side, Mitchell Trubisky has shown flashes of being the real deal, but the Bears have too many holes on the roster (partly because of injuries) for all their problems to vanish after one win away from home
A couple more losses and it's time to think about the draft. Or, a loss to Kansas City at home on Thursday, and we will update this to OUTRIGHT PANIC! These are strange times for a team that was 2-0 and has now lost four straight for the first time since it dropped 16 in a row over the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Then again, the Raiders ended that streak against the Chiefs. At home. On a Thursday night. In the rain. To quote Kevin Bacon in "Animal House": "All is well, remain calm." Then again...
Rating 3.5: Uneasy, but still not on the edge
There's reason to panic after Baltimore lost Sunday to the 2-4 Bears, who were coming off a short week and going with a rookie quarterback making his first NFL road start. But, technically, the Ravens trail the Steelers by one game in the AFC North. So, it's difficult to entirely write them off. It's just hard to have confidence in a team whose wins have come against these quarterbacks: Andy Dalton, DeShone Kizer and EJ Manuel.
The Cowboys are definitely at risk of rising to a No. 4 on the panic meter, especially if Ezekiel Elliott's suspension indeed starts immediately. Elliott will need some help from the courts to remain on the field because technically he is suspended through Thanksgiving after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction that kept him on the field. The 2-3 Cowboys face a daunting road without Elliott, but it's not an impossible one. Before the 2016 season started, most people thought their year would be bumpy without Tony Romo, then Dak Prescott excelled. Who will step into the void left by Elliott? Maybe Prescott? The offensive line? Darren McFadden? Alfred Morris? With or without Elliott, the Cowboys are at a crossroads as they come off the bye.
The Bucs surrendered 38 points to the Cardinals, are now 2-3 and sit in fourth place in the NFC South. Even worse? Quarterback Jameis Winston now has a shoulder injury and the first-place Panthers come to town in two weeks. They can't count on having the same five-game win streak they had at the end of last season either -- not when four out of their final six games are against divisional opponents.
Rating 3: Don't get comfortable
This was a 4 before Sunday's game, but then Adrian Peterson ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns, and the Cardinals' offense was revitalized. However, as good as Arizona's offense -- and defense, for that matter -- looked in the first half, they both looked as bad in the second half, getting outscored 33-7 in the final 27:06. If the Cardinals can fix their issues that allowed Tampa Bay to get back in a game it had no business making close, then there won't be a reason to panic. But if the Cardinals struggle through their next three games, all division matchups, then the panic meter could top out.
The Falcons (3-2) have lost two in a row -- both at home -- and have a Super Bowl rematch on the road against the Patriots next week. After that, it's Jets and Panthers on the road, and the Falcons are not playing their best ball in any phase of the game. Coach Dan Quinn always talks about resetting. You figured the Week 5 bye would give the Falcons a chance to regroup, but they're still having issues and need to win two of the next three to re-establish some sort of momentum in the NFC playoff race, though there's still a ways to go.
The Bengals have started to turn things around after an 0-2 start, and they're not far out of contention in the AFC North. But next week's game at Pittsburgh is a must-win situation if they want to keep their pace in the division. The latter half of the schedule looks fairly challenging, so the Bengals must get back to .500 to be in comfortable standing.
Detroit's bye is coming at the right time with injuries to Golden Tate and Glover Quin on Sunday. But of bigger concern: The Lions have lost two straight games in somewhat convincing fashion, dropping them to 3-3. They don't hold tiebreakers against Atlanta, Carolina or New Orleans so a wild-card berth could be tricky. With games against Pittsburgh and Green Bay following the bye, the Lions could be in a tough spot by the time mid-November comes around.
The Texans are trending upward thanks to the play of Deshaun Watson, but heading into the bye, Houston is still just 3-3. The Texans are still definitely contenders in the AFC South, but a lot will hinge on how the defense can play without J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus. They'll have to do that on the road in Seattle when they return from their Week 7 bye, after just playing three straight at home.
The Jaguars are 3-3 and have alternated wins and losses, but they're still tied for first place in the AFC South. That's why there should be no panic. Every team in the division is flawed and it's not unreasonable to think that a .500 record could win it. The Jaguars have the easiest remaining schedule, so if they can find a way to string a couple of victories together they can make a bit of a run. But the offense has to start making some plays in the pass game for that to happen, because the defense has carried the team thus far.
The Chargers are riding a two-game winning streak for the first time in a year and, at 2-4, aren't looking forward to next year's draft just yet. The next two weeks are critical for the Bolts if they want to remain in the playoff hunt, with a "home" game against the Broncos at the StubHub Center and a road contest the following week against the Patriots before heading into the Week 9 bye. Winning both would be preferable, but getting one out of two keeps the Chargers' faint postseason hopes alive.
The Dolphins picked up an important, come-from-behind win over the Falcons on Sunday to improve to 3-2. But none of that will mean much if Miami gets swept next week by the Jets. The Dolphins have been up and down all year and could use a hot streak to separate themselves from the pack. Two of their next three games are at home.
Some might say it's a harsh rating for a 4-2 team in first place in the AFC East, but the Patriots are showing troubling signs -- e.g. giving up too many big plays on defense -- yet also admirable characteristics to overcome adversity that is often self-inflicted. In five of their six games, the outcome could've gone either way depending on a play or two.
Obviously a team that started 0-2 by allowing more than 1,000 yards in two double-digit losses can't ever afford to get comfortable. But the Saints (3-2) have to feel great about the resilience they've shown since then. Their improving young defense was the difference in a 52-38 roller-coaster win over Detroit on Sunday thanks to a franchise-record three defensive touchdowns. A playoff run is now very realistic, especially if they can go into Green Bay next week and beat a Packers team without Aaron Rodgers.
At 3-3, the Jets have overachieved, raising expectations slightly. They're still not a playoff contender, but they're also not the pushover that so many expected them to be. They can hang around for a few more weeks, but they need more out of the offense. The Jets have yet to score more than 23 points in a game, hardly a winning recipe in today's NFL.
The Redskins (3-2) have played well at times, but they're entering a stretch in which they play at Philadelphia, versus Dallas, at Seattle, versus Minnesota and at New Orleans. It'll be their toughest stretch of the season in part because they're also playing at difficult places. If they can emerge with two or three wins, they'll get in good shape down the stretch. But their run game has been inconsistent and they're dealing with some injury issues on defense (most notably to corner Josh Norman). In Washington, no one can ever rest easy.
Rating 2: Good, but uneasy
The Bills are either here or under No. 1, depending on the perspective. In terms of the big picture for first-year coach Sean McDermott, his team is exceeding its preseason expectation of six wins. McDermott's rebuild seems ahead of schedule, especially on defense. The Bills are 3-2 but have major question marks on offense as they return from their bye week. Their offense ranks 31st in yards per game and might get worse with Charles Clay (torn meniscus) out of the lineup for the next several weeks.
Good because at 4-2, the Panthers are atop the NFC South and 3-0 on the road. Uneasy because they're 0-1 in the conference, 2-2 in the NFC and 1-2 at home, where you have to win in this league. Also uneasy because the running game is struggling outside of quarterback Cam Newton.
Despite losing to the Steelers on Sunday, the Chiefs are still 5-1, which is still the best record in the AFC and tied for the best record in the NFL with a team they have beaten this season: the Eagles. Still, the manner in which the Steelers handled the Chiefs raises some issues: Will future opponents capably eliminate Kareem Hunt, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill as impact players as the Steelers did? And why haven't the Chiefs developed a dependable defensive identity almost halfway through the season?
The Rams won their fourth game of the season in Jacksonville, already matching last year's total through the first six weeks. Their offense has proved to be significantly improved under coach Sean McVay, and their defense -- led by legendary defensive coordinator Wade Phillips -- has seemingly rounded into form over these past three weeks. But the Rams know they still have some cleaning up to do on that side of the ball. And they still have some maturing to do on offense, especially with regard to quarterback Jared Goff, who's playing a lot better but is still developing.
With Aaron Rodgers out for the foreseeable future, the Vikings are in a favorable position to capture the NFC North. The division looks pretty dicey after Week 6 with the Lions allowing 52 points on Sunday, the Bears putting their faith in a rookie quarterback and the Packers having to navigate through this crisis caused by Rodgers' absence. The division is wide open for the taking and could be Minnesota's if it doesn't derail its chances by complicating things when Teddy Bridgewater returns to practice. If he's able to play this season, the Vikings will need to deem whether it's the right choice to ride Case Keenum's success or allow Bridgewater to have his job back.
The Steelers shouldn't be too comfortable, but the uneasiness subsided a bit after a gritty 19-13 win in Kansas City that re-emphasized their pound-the-run identity on offense. The good and bad news is the Steelers haven't played convincing football for much of the year yet sit at 4-2. Fulfilling their potential could vault them into playoff contention, but if this is who they are, the occasional lapses will get the best of them.
The good part of this equation is that the Seahawks went into their bye at 3-2 after a big road win over the Rams last week, their first since 2013, and they're entering a favorable stretch of their schedule with the Giants (away) and Texans (home) up next. But injuries up front on both sides of the ball are cause for some concern. Seattle is banged up at defensive end, with Cliff Avril out indefinitely and Michael Bennett's status for this week uncertain. And the likely absence of left guard Luke Joeckel for at least one game (and maybe longer) will make life harder on what's already a challenged offensive line.
Rating 1: Everything is fine
The Eagles kicked back and relaxed as most of the league toiled over the weekend. A Thursday night win at Carolina has them sitting pretty at 5-1. They're exceeding expectations and having fun doing it. With three straight home games prior to their bye week, the Eagles are feeling very good about their lot in life at the moment.
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http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/32for32x171015/2017-nfl-panic-meter-how-every-team-feels-right-now
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/32for32x171015/2017-nfl-panic-meter-how-every-team-feels-right-now
Here's the scale:
5. Outright panic: Where is the hope? (There isn't much)
4. On the brink: A couple more losses and it's time to think about the draft
3. Don't get comfortable: Season could go either way, depending on the next few games
2. Good, but uneasy: Pretty good with a major question
1. Everything is fine: Better than expected so far
Rating 5: Outright panic
The Browns have followed a 1-15 season with an 0-6 start, and have looked more inept this season than they did in 2016. The complicating factor: There is no easy answer to turn this around from the roster as it's built. Instead, the Browns are staring at a winless season
When you lose arguably the best player in the game to a broken collarbone that could keep him out for the rest of the season, it's full-on freak-out mode -- and rightfully so. Aaron Rodgers was playing some of the best football of his career over the first month of the season and was carrying a team already ravaged by injuries. The Packers might not have enough left to surround backup quarterback Brett Hundley to allow him to be successful. Their streak of consecutive playoff appearances could end at eight
Except, the Niners really don't seem to be panicking. Are they frustrated by their 0-6 start? No doubt, especially since they've lost five in a row by three points or fewer and are the only team of the Super Bowl era to hold that distinction. But the reality is that the 49ers knew this was going to take time and the fact that they are playing teams close while still not losing ground in next year's draft order isn't the worst thing in the world. Even if they won't admit it publicly.
Rating 4: On the brink of panic
The Bears (2-4) survived Sunday's matchup in Baltimore -- their first road victory since 2015 -- but the overall outlook isn't so rosy. Chicago has lost 27 of 38 games under John Fox, who's likely to remain on the hot seat for the rest of the regular season. On the bright side, Mitchell Trubisky has shown flashes of being the real deal, but the Bears have too many holes on the roster (partly because of injuries) for all their problems to vanish after one win away from home
A couple more losses and it's time to think about the draft. Or, a loss to Kansas City at home on Thursday, and we will update this to OUTRIGHT PANIC! These are strange times for a team that was 2-0 and has now lost four straight for the first time since it dropped 16 in a row over the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Then again, the Raiders ended that streak against the Chiefs. At home. On a Thursday night. In the rain. To quote Kevin Bacon in "Animal House": "All is well, remain calm." Then again...
Rating 3.5: Uneasy, but still not on the edge
There's reason to panic after Baltimore lost Sunday to the 2-4 Bears, who were coming off a short week and going with a rookie quarterback making his first NFL road start. But, technically, the Ravens trail the Steelers by one game in the AFC North. So, it's difficult to entirely write them off. It's just hard to have confidence in a team whose wins have come against these quarterbacks: Andy Dalton, DeShone Kizer and EJ Manuel.
The Cowboys are definitely at risk of rising to a No. 4 on the panic meter, especially if Ezekiel Elliott's suspension indeed starts immediately. Elliott will need some help from the courts to remain on the field because technically he is suspended through Thanksgiving after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction that kept him on the field. The 2-3 Cowboys face a daunting road without Elliott, but it's not an impossible one. Before the 2016 season started, most people thought their year would be bumpy without Tony Romo, then Dak Prescott excelled. Who will step into the void left by Elliott? Maybe Prescott? The offensive line? Darren McFadden? Alfred Morris? With or without Elliott, the Cowboys are at a crossroads as they come off the bye.
The Bucs surrendered 38 points to the Cardinals, are now 2-3 and sit in fourth place in the NFC South. Even worse? Quarterback Jameis Winston now has a shoulder injury and the first-place Panthers come to town in two weeks. They can't count on having the same five-game win streak they had at the end of last season either -- not when four out of their final six games are against divisional opponents.
Rating 3: Don't get comfortable
This was a 4 before Sunday's game, but then Adrian Peterson ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns, and the Cardinals' offense was revitalized. However, as good as Arizona's offense -- and defense, for that matter -- looked in the first half, they both looked as bad in the second half, getting outscored 33-7 in the final 27:06. If the Cardinals can fix their issues that allowed Tampa Bay to get back in a game it had no business making close, then there won't be a reason to panic. But if the Cardinals struggle through their next three games, all division matchups, then the panic meter could top out.
The Falcons (3-2) have lost two in a row -- both at home -- and have a Super Bowl rematch on the road against the Patriots next week. After that, it's Jets and Panthers on the road, and the Falcons are not playing their best ball in any phase of the game. Coach Dan Quinn always talks about resetting. You figured the Week 5 bye would give the Falcons a chance to regroup, but they're still having issues and need to win two of the next three to re-establish some sort of momentum in the NFC playoff race, though there's still a ways to go.
The Bengals have started to turn things around after an 0-2 start, and they're not far out of contention in the AFC North. But next week's game at Pittsburgh is a must-win situation if they want to keep their pace in the division. The latter half of the schedule looks fairly challenging, so the Bengals must get back to .500 to be in comfortable standing.
Detroit's bye is coming at the right time with injuries to Golden Tate and Glover Quin on Sunday. But of bigger concern: The Lions have lost two straight games in somewhat convincing fashion, dropping them to 3-3. They don't hold tiebreakers against Atlanta, Carolina or New Orleans so a wild-card berth could be tricky. With games against Pittsburgh and Green Bay following the bye, the Lions could be in a tough spot by the time mid-November comes around.
The Texans are trending upward thanks to the play of Deshaun Watson, but heading into the bye, Houston is still just 3-3. The Texans are still definitely contenders in the AFC South, but a lot will hinge on how the defense can play without J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus. They'll have to do that on the road in Seattle when they return from their Week 7 bye, after just playing three straight at home.
The Jaguars are 3-3 and have alternated wins and losses, but they're still tied for first place in the AFC South. That's why there should be no panic. Every team in the division is flawed and it's not unreasonable to think that a .500 record could win it. The Jaguars have the easiest remaining schedule, so if they can find a way to string a couple of victories together they can make a bit of a run. But the offense has to start making some plays in the pass game for that to happen, because the defense has carried the team thus far.
The Chargers are riding a two-game winning streak for the first time in a year and, at 2-4, aren't looking forward to next year's draft just yet. The next two weeks are critical for the Bolts if they want to remain in the playoff hunt, with a "home" game against the Broncos at the StubHub Center and a road contest the following week against the Patriots before heading into the Week 9 bye. Winning both would be preferable, but getting one out of two keeps the Chargers' faint postseason hopes alive.
The Dolphins picked up an important, come-from-behind win over the Falcons on Sunday to improve to 3-2. But none of that will mean much if Miami gets swept next week by the Jets. The Dolphins have been up and down all year and could use a hot streak to separate themselves from the pack. Two of their next three games are at home.
Some might say it's a harsh rating for a 4-2 team in first place in the AFC East, but the Patriots are showing troubling signs -- e.g. giving up too many big plays on defense -- yet also admirable characteristics to overcome adversity that is often self-inflicted. In five of their six games, the outcome could've gone either way depending on a play or two.
Obviously a team that started 0-2 by allowing more than 1,000 yards in two double-digit losses can't ever afford to get comfortable. But the Saints (3-2) have to feel great about the resilience they've shown since then. Their improving young defense was the difference in a 52-38 roller-coaster win over Detroit on Sunday thanks to a franchise-record three defensive touchdowns. A playoff run is now very realistic, especially if they can go into Green Bay next week and beat a Packers team without Aaron Rodgers.
At 3-3, the Jets have overachieved, raising expectations slightly. They're still not a playoff contender, but they're also not the pushover that so many expected them to be. They can hang around for a few more weeks, but they need more out of the offense. The Jets have yet to score more than 23 points in a game, hardly a winning recipe in today's NFL.
The Redskins (3-2) have played well at times, but they're entering a stretch in which they play at Philadelphia, versus Dallas, at Seattle, versus Minnesota and at New Orleans. It'll be their toughest stretch of the season in part because they're also playing at difficult places. If they can emerge with two or three wins, they'll get in good shape down the stretch. But their run game has been inconsistent and they're dealing with some injury issues on defense (most notably to corner Josh Norman). In Washington, no one can ever rest easy.
Rating 2: Good, but uneasy
The Bills are either here or under No. 1, depending on the perspective. In terms of the big picture for first-year coach Sean McDermott, his team is exceeding its preseason expectation of six wins. McDermott's rebuild seems ahead of schedule, especially on defense. The Bills are 3-2 but have major question marks on offense as they return from their bye week. Their offense ranks 31st in yards per game and might get worse with Charles Clay (torn meniscus) out of the lineup for the next several weeks.
Good because at 4-2, the Panthers are atop the NFC South and 3-0 on the road. Uneasy because they're 0-1 in the conference, 2-2 in the NFC and 1-2 at home, where you have to win in this league. Also uneasy because the running game is struggling outside of quarterback Cam Newton.
Despite losing to the Steelers on Sunday, the Chiefs are still 5-1, which is still the best record in the AFC and tied for the best record in the NFL with a team they have beaten this season: the Eagles. Still, the manner in which the Steelers handled the Chiefs raises some issues: Will future opponents capably eliminate Kareem Hunt, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill as impact players as the Steelers did? And why haven't the Chiefs developed a dependable defensive identity almost halfway through the season?
The Rams won their fourth game of the season in Jacksonville, already matching last year's total through the first six weeks. Their offense has proved to be significantly improved under coach Sean McVay, and their defense -- led by legendary defensive coordinator Wade Phillips -- has seemingly rounded into form over these past three weeks. But the Rams know they still have some cleaning up to do on that side of the ball. And they still have some maturing to do on offense, especially with regard to quarterback Jared Goff, who's playing a lot better but is still developing.
With Aaron Rodgers out for the foreseeable future, the Vikings are in a favorable position to capture the NFC North. The division looks pretty dicey after Week 6 with the Lions allowing 52 points on Sunday, the Bears putting their faith in a rookie quarterback and the Packers having to navigate through this crisis caused by Rodgers' absence. The division is wide open for the taking and could be Minnesota's if it doesn't derail its chances by complicating things when Teddy Bridgewater returns to practice. If he's able to play this season, the Vikings will need to deem whether it's the right choice to ride Case Keenum's success or allow Bridgewater to have his job back.
The Steelers shouldn't be too comfortable, but the uneasiness subsided a bit after a gritty 19-13 win in Kansas City that re-emphasized their pound-the-run identity on offense. The good and bad news is the Steelers haven't played convincing football for much of the year yet sit at 4-2. Fulfilling their potential could vault them into playoff contention, but if this is who they are, the occasional lapses will get the best of them.
The good part of this equation is that the Seahawks went into their bye at 3-2 after a big road win over the Rams last week, their first since 2013, and they're entering a favorable stretch of their schedule with the Giants (away) and Texans (home) up next. But injuries up front on both sides of the ball are cause for some concern. Seattle is banged up at defensive end, with Cliff Avril out indefinitely and Michael Bennett's status for this week uncertain. And the likely absence of left guard Luke Joeckel for at least one game (and maybe longer) will make life harder on what's already a challenged offensive line.
Rating 1: Everything is fine
The Eagles kicked back and relaxed as most of the league toiled over the weekend. A Thursday night win at Carolina has them sitting pretty at 5-1. They're exceeding expectations and having fun doing it. With three straight home games prior to their bye week, the Eagles are feeling very good about their lot in life at the moment.
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http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/32for32x171015/2017-nfl-panic-meter-how-every-team-feels-right-now
Met Lamarcus Joyner's father
- By RAMNATION
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 6 Replies
He says that Lamarcus is fine and wanted to play, but was held out by the Rams. The Father, Mother and little brother were at the game, really kool people.
Lions bench Greg Robinson
- By tomas
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 49 Replies
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Fill-in left tackle Greg Robinson, after nearly getting his quarterback killed (again)
Per the Detroit Free Press's Dave Birkett, Robinson has been benched, and street free agent Brian Mihalik has replaced him:
Fill-in left tackle Greg Robinson, after nearly getting his quarterback killed (again)
Per the Detroit Free Press's Dave Birkett, Robinson has been benched, and street free agent Brian Mihalik has replaced him: