- Joined
- Feb 9, 2014
- Messages
- 20,922
- Name
- Peter
These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below.
******************************************************************
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...ers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king/
On Seven-Hour Games, Undefeated Browns and the Greatest Game Aaron Rodgers Ever Played
By Peter King
Getty Images
At halftime in Wisconsin on Sunday night, after an entire state finished hyperventilating and began to come to grips with the notion that, My God, Aaron Rodgers might be gone again, Randall Cobbwalked into the Packers’ locker room at Lambeau Field. The veteran receiver was looking for Rodgers. He wanted to tell him to hang in there. He wanted to tell him he loved him.
But no Rodgers.
“Where is he?” Cobb asked.
“Working out, testing the knee,” one of the trainers told him.
Early this morning, in his car on the way home from the game, Cobb told me: “I was confused. He was what?”
Rodgers, in the second quarter of the first game of the Packers’ 100th season, collapsed in a pile of players and immediately grabbed his left knee. He tried to get up but couldn’t walk, and fell back to the field. A few minutes later, a cart came to take him off the field and you just felt with that cart there was something more than Rodgers riding away.
It was the Packers’ season. Right? MCL, ACL, whatever. Not good. Could this be the second straight season that ended way prematurely, with The Franchise out for some or more of the season, and the Packers’ hopes down the tubes again? Sure looked like it.
So Cobb said a couple of positive things to the shaky backup, DeShone Kizer, before the Packers went back on the field to try somehow to get back into it. Chicago led 17-0, and new Bear Khalil Mack was absolutely wrecking the game.
“We went out for the second half,” Cobb said, “and Aaron’s walking out too. He’s in uniform. Looks ready to go. I asked him if he was okay. He said, ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ So he got to the sidelines and starting talking ball, like normal. And I’m like, Well, I guess he’s playing.”
At one point early in the half, Rodgers said in the huddle: “Do your jobs, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Wishful thinking. When it was over, someone asked Rodgers what he was thinking when he looked up and saw the score in the third quarter: 20-0.
“Seven times three,” Rodgers said.
Maybe he’d get the ball four more times on one leg, and he knew he needed three touchdowns at least, and maybe one more score. These are the things great players think, even when they’re not sure how they’re going to make it through the next 23 minutes of gametime because they really can’t protect themselves.
I wonder sometimes, after covering sports for almost 40 years, what happens when a player who shouldn’t be on the field or the court or the ice begins to play. Do his teammates really elevate their games? Or at least try their damndest to do so because they know they have to or The Franchise could really be lost for the year.
That’s how it looked Sunday night. The line that allowed Rodgers to be hit consistently in the first half got better. Even with Rodgers basically stapled to the pocket because his usually fluidity was gone, he seemed to have a second more per dropback. And he knew he couldn’t afford to waste a series. It felt like a waste when he settled for a field goal with just over 18 minutes left in the game. Chicago 20, Green Bay 3 meant he still needed three scores.
“The protection was really good, and obviously, being more of a statue back there, I had to deal the ball on time and make sure we had guys getting open,” Rodgers said later.
They had maybe three series left. On the first came a throw that will have to go on the Hall of Fame reel. A minute into the fourth quarter, unable to plant with his right leg and fire forward with his left leg (the damaged one), Rodgers somehow wrist-flicked an arcing ball 52 yards in the air, to the right side of the end zone, to a covered Geronimo Allison. Allison made the contested catch and tumbled out of bounds. Chicago 20, Green Bay 10.
View: https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1038980187013013504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1038980187013013504&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F09%2F10%2Faaron-rodgers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king%2F
Three-and-out for the Trubiskies. Rodgers, again with good time, took three minutes to go 75 yards, Davante Adams finishing it with an effort TD at the left pylon. Chicago 20, Green Bay 17.
Great clock management by the Bears then. They held the ball for almost seven minutes, Trubisky consistently snapping the ball with less than five seconds on the play clock. With 2:39 left, a Cody Parkey field goal made it Chicago 23, Green Bay 17.
Now Rodgers had enough time. He didn’t have to hurry. Maybe it was the Lambeau Karma God interceding, but Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller—the cornerback Green Bay almost stole in free agency last March—dropped the easiest interception of his life on the first snap. Life, precious life.
Third-and-10. Green Bay 25.
The protection was really good, Rodgers had said. And now, on the next play, the line, so leaky early, had its best play of the night. Rodgers took the snap, and I timed how much time he had before the ball left his hand. 4.35 seconds. Luxurious for your average passer. For Rodgers, an eternity.
“I was running my route,” Cobb told me, “and I didn’t get the ball in rhythm and timing like I usually do. So in that case, we go to scramble mode. You look for an opening. So I looked for one, then looked back to Aaron and the ball was already in the air. I’m like, SHOOT! Ball’s coming! Here it comes.”
Safety Eddie Jackson, playing Cobb, dove for the ball, trying to flick it away. He couldn’t get to it. Cobb grabbed it and turned to run upfield.
“Nothing but green grass,” Cobb said. “Just run. I felt like I was back in my track days.”
“When you watch the replay, you’ll be amazed,” I said. “Khalil Mack ran practically the length of the field. He almost caught you at the 1-yard line.”
“Well, I was weaving,” Cobb said, and laughed.
View: https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1038989073812094976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1038989073812094976&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F09%2F10%2Faaron-rodgers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king%2F
Green Bay 24, Chicago 23.
“I had a little moment with Aaron,” said Cobb. “Told him I love him. He’s such a warrior. It was amazing having him out there, after we thought he was done. He figured exactly how to play too: short, quick throws, rhythm and timing. That just reinforced what I already knew about him. I’ve seen it for years. But this was special.”
“Where does this game rank for you in your career?” I asked.
“I would say it’s probably the greatest,” said Cobb, in his eighth year with the Packers. “My wife and I just had a son. This is the Packers’ 100th season. It’s the Bears. This was a big night.”
Brett Favre had his moment in Oakland, the night after his dad died, when he played an impossible game with some great throws. This is Rodgers’ 14th season, and this might be his moment, the moment we’ll all remember when he’s on stage in Canton one day and the question is asked: What was Aaron Rodgers’ best game?
He’ll have gaudier games, and he’ll have a Super Bowl MVP game (at least one). But will he have a game when he had to play mostly on one leg and come back from a 20-point deficit? Will he, while hobbled, do something no Packers quarterback in 111 tries had ever done—win a game when trailing by at least 17 points starting the fourth quarter? Will it be against the team he loves to beat the most, the rival Bears, on a similarly historic night at Lambeau Field?
No. Aaron Rodgers is 34. He’s one of the best quarterbacks ever to play. And we just saw the best game of his professional life.
--------------------------------------
The Best of Week 1
It’s Overreaction Monday, the same as it is after the first Sunday of every NFL season. It’s the time when we can confidently say—this year—that Matt Ryan’s done, the Ravens are winning the Super Bowl, the Bills are going 0-16, the Browns will win nine, Watson and Garoppolo are frauds, Tyreek Hillis some combination of Barry Sanders and Bob Hayes, and somehow, some way we all fell for the Chargers again and the Chargers can only break our hearts; it’s an NFL rule.
Aside from the Rodgers fairy tale, my three stories of the day:
Fitzmagic
Ryan Fitzpatrick face-timed with his family after the craziest game of the weekend, the 88-pointer (Bucs 48, Saints 40) in New Orleans. His wife got the six kids around the phone, and there was yelling and happiness and a family moment Fitzpatrick will remember for a long time. “We really didn’t have to say much, and I couldn’t say much,” he said. “I was overcome with emotion.”
There was also a fantasy football lesson.
“So my 9-year-old son, Taint, convinced my 11-year-old son, Brady, to put me on his fantasy team today,” Fitzpatrick told me from New Orleans. “I didn’t even know Brady played fantasy football. I guess it was a good decision.”
Getty Images
You tend to win in fantasy football when your quarterback gives you 417 yards and four touchdowns and no picks and a rating of 156.2. Here’s what was so cool about Fitzpatrick after this game: He was totally, absolutely not surprised. He had no interest in going down the can-you-keep-Jameis-on-the-bench-when-he-returns path, because he knows the Bucs play Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the next two weeks, and it’s fruitless to speculate about starting jobs that are three weeks away. His fatalism, his realism … those impressed me.
Watch Fitzpatrick’s deep throws on the highlights today if you can—things of beauty. His bomb to Mike Evans for a touchdown couldn’t have been thrown better by Marino or Elway. “I have so much confidence in my ability that a day like today is not a surprise to me—at all,” he said.
“I go out there when I start, and I think I’m gonna have this game every week, especially with this team. All offseason, I’ve seen how deep our skill-position group is. We’ve got five or six guys who, if they’re in one-on-one matchups, you know you can win with any of them. As a quarterback, it’s a dream to be in the huddle with these guys.”
But he wouldn’t say this was the best game he’d played in the NFL on his long and winding road through St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Tennessee, Houston, the Jets and Tampa. “When I was with the Jets, we beat New England [in 2017]; in Buffalo, we beat New England [in 2011]. Those rank right up there. I remember I got benched for Ryan Mallett [in 2014], and when I got back in the lineup, I threw six touchdown passes to beat Tennessee. That was the most satisfying game of my life.
“I’m realistic about how hard this game is. I’ve thrown six touchdowns in a game. I’ve thrown six interceptions in a game. How do you come back from those? This game is a week-to-week proposition, and you better understand that. I’ll go home tonight and we’ll feel good about this one because it’s a big accomplishment beating the Saints here. But then I’ll get ready for the next one—the next one will be all that matters.”
The weird upshot of this game is the Saints might not be what we thought they were, particularly on defense. This is going to be a tense week around the Saints, and I wouldn’t be thrilled to be the Browns this week. They’re the next team up in New Orleans next Sunday.
Browns Gonna Brown
No, they’re not, actually. Half the Twittersphere chortled uproariously when, with 13 seconds left in overtime, kicker Zane Gonzalez had a 43-yard field-goal try blocked by T.J. Watt of the Steelers. That’s so Browns. But the players didn’t chortle. The played were ticked off. Wideout Jarvis Landry, the unofficial we’re-not-gonna-take-it-anymore, hold-your-feet-to-the-fire guy in this locker room, left the field cursing, angry and said he refused to get used to this. And they didn’t lose!
Here’s why I think there’s more Landrys in the room than there used to be: The Browns rallied late, for once. With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh had the ball and led 21-7. Cleveland forced a turnover and got a quick score, and Cleveland recovered a James Conner fumble to set up Josh Gordon’s first touchdown since the Nixon Administration, and it was tied.
The Browns, historically, haven’t been fourth-quarter fighters. Now, with Landry and Tyrod Taylor and collegiate winners like Ohio State’s former star cornerback, Denzel Ward, the Browns are building a culture that doesn’t accept Brown-ness.
That’s all well and good, of course, but it’s going to come down to Taylor needing to be better than he was Sunday (15 of 40 passing), or letting Baker Mayfield play earlier than coach Hue Jackson wants. I like what I saw Sunday afternoon. Myles Garrett is the genuine item. Taylor might be better suited to back up Mayfield, but we’ll see about that. And a tie pissed them off. That’s a start.
-------------------------------------------------------
The Award Section
Offensive Players of the Week
Ryan Fitzpatrick, quarterback, Tampa Bay. The man who defines “journeyman” in the NFL—seven teams, 15 years, 120 starts, 105 games on the bench—had the game of his life Sunday in New Orleans. He had a career high in passing yards (417) and rating (156.2, the second-highest in the 43-year history of the Bucs) in a totally bizarre 48-40 upset of the Saints.
Joe Flacco, quarterback, Baltimore. Have you heard? The Ravens drafted a quarterback in the first round this year. Lamar Jackson. And Flacco, barring a major turnaround from his recent mediocrity, would be playing for his job in 2018. He got off to a job-preserving start Sunday in a 47-3 win over the University of Buffalo. I mean, the Bills. Flacco’s performance (25 of 34, 236 yards, three touchdowns, no picks, 121.7 rating) marked the first time in four years he had a day with a rating over 120 and a TD-to-pick ratio of at least plus-3.
Defensive Players of the Week
Denzel Ward, cornerback, Cleveland. Near the end of the first quarter and near the end of the second quarter, Ward, in his first NFL game, intercepted Ben Roethlisberger with the Steelers already in field-goal range. Once at the Browns’ 10, and then at the Browns’ 29, Ward prevented the Steelers from scoring what could have been fairly crucial points in a 21-21 tie. I watched a chunk of this game, and Ward played fearlessly in coverage against Antonio Brown. He added six tackles.
Harrison Smith, safety, Minnesota. Smith led the Vikings with eight tackles in the 24-16 win over San Francisco, but that’s not why he’s winning this. He wrecked the Niners’ last two drives in a one-score game when Jimmy Garoppolo had given the Niners life. On third-and-five at midfield with 6:32 left, Smith came on a well-disguised safety blitz and nailed Garoppolo for a 10-yard sack. Punt. On second-and-10 with 1:45 left, Garoppolo threw deep downfield, over the middle, and Smith picked it off, ending the game. Just two more reasons why Smith is the best all-around safety in football.
We interrupt these defensive awards for a quick word about Khalil Mack from SVP:
View: https://twitter.com/notthefakeSVP/status/1038969019582308353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1038969019582308353&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F09%2F10%2Faaron-rodgers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king%2F
T.J. Watt, outside linebacker, Pittsburgh. Sacking Tyrod Taylor four times and producing 11 tackles wasn’t quite enough for the rusher with the great bloodlines. So Watt, with the ultimate embarrassment—Cleveland, on the Steelers’ watch, winning a football game for the first time since Christmas Eve 2016—staring the Steelers in the face, plowed through a crease in the Browns’ front on the potential winning field-goal try in overtime, blocking it.
Surely the Steelers boarded their buses for the two-hour ride home after the game angry that they turned it over so much and couldn’t beat the Browns, but imagine how they’d have felt without the play of Watt.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Tyreek Hill, wide receiver/punt returner, Kansas City. It took all of 1:57 for Tyreek Hill—who wreaked havoc on the Patriots in Week 1 last year—to do the same to the Chargers in California on Sunday. He took a punt—the first Chiefs’ touch of the 2018 season—at his own 9, and ran left, and kept running, and he left every Charger in his wake. The 91-yard punt return was the 12th touchdown of 50 yards or longer in his young career. He’s 24 years old.
Oh. And he made it 13 of those long TDs just seven minutes later. He caught the first touchdown of Pat Mahomes’ career, a 58-yarder, midway through the first quarter.
Ryan Allen, punter, New England. Fifty-one seconds left. Patriots nursing a seven-point lead. They’ve got to punt from near midfield, and the Texans will have one more chance. Allen boots it … high ball. Long. Will it get to the end zone? No … Defensive back Jonathan Jones downs it at the 1. A 54-yard punt, downed at the 1, and Deshaun Watson would have 43 seconds, on the road, to go 99 yards for the tie. Not happening. What a clutch kick by Allen, who had six punts for a 46.8-yard average in the Pats’ 27-20 win.
Coach of the Week
Dirk Koetter, coach, Tampa Bay. The Bucs, with a backup quarterback and still wondering whatever will happen to their suspended starter, walked into New Orleans and put up 48 on the Saints. Koetter was in job jeopardy after the Bucs’ 5-11 season last year. He’s significantly more secure this morning.
Goats of the Week
Nathan Peterman, quarterback, Buffalo. Enough. Forty-to-nothing is not all his fault. But 40-0 in 35 minutes? That’s two incredibly unprofessional appearances in two starts for Peterman. We’ve seen enough of Peterman, Sean McDermott.
Mike Gillislee, running back, New Orleans. The former Bill and Patriot was a pickup of necessity by the Saints with the four-game suspension to Mark Ingram to start the season. Gillislee may not be in Louisiana long. With the Saints driving to cut into a stunning Bucs lead late in the first half at the Superdome, Gillislee took a handoff from Drew Brees, and on a routine run around left end, he got hit by cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and the ball spun out of his grasp. Tampa Bay recovered, and safety Justin Evans returned it 34 yards for a touchdown. Amazingly, the Bucs led 31-17.
Kyle Fuller, cornerback, Chicago. As the Packers stared down a 23-17 deficit with 2:39 left Sunday night, Aaron Rodgers had first-and-10 from his 25. He had Davante Adams on a short incut, but Adams stumbled … and the pass went right into the chest of Fuller. This was not a particularly difficult ball to catch—not a bullet, but a touch pass. And Fuller, who dropped six picks last season (per Cris Collinsworth), dropped this one. Fuller will never have an easier pick in his life. Had he caught it, the Bears could have—minimum—tried a game-clinching field goal somewhere near the two-minute warning. What a drop.
---------------------------------------
What I Learned
Rams coach Sean McVay, who begins his second season tonight at Oakland, on what he learned in his rookie year, as the youngest coach in modern NFL history:
“I would say the most important thing I learned is this: It’s okay to think you don’t have the answer to everything. There’s actually strength in being able to say, ‘I don’t know, but let’s figure it out together.’ Or, ‘Let’s lean on the people who have a lot more experience than I do,’ to be able to learn from them. What you also learn is that this is an extremely humbling game. You know when I learned that?
When I got hired to be a head coach, and I got a chance to hire some of these guys to come on to our staff—guys who I am thinking to myself, ‘I get to coach with this guy?’ Wade Phillips on defense, Joe Barry as an assistant head coach. John Fassel on special teams—I know nothing about special teams, and here’s this guy who’s as good as anyone in the league, on our team. All our coaches, working together. If you get a staff like we had, we all make each other better.
“I learned this from Mike Tomlin—who’s been a big help to me: Everybody’s got all the answers and no accountability. I was that guy. Before I called plays or even got into this role, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’d do it this way.’ Well it’s a little bit different when you actually have to do it.
“I learned how important it is to bring in the right people to influence your team. Andrew Whitworth, Robert Woods. Smart guys, team guys who can help influence and affect the locker room in the right way. There’s real power in that.
“Something really important I learned: If I was trying to be involved in every facet of the job, I think I would’ve been really overwhelmed—and I would have done the team a disservice. Defense and special teams … I knew enough so that I could at least communicate to our players.
But to try and stick my nose in and be involved in those areas when I had smarter people to do it, that would not have been smart. If there’s a major decision to make, or a [replay] challenge on a defensive play or special-teams play, we’ll talk about it. Mostly, though, I’m not gonna override Wade Phillips’ call. Why would I?
“And it’s okay to devote myself to the offense especially when you’ve got a young quarterback who needs me like Jared [Goff]. People might say, ‘Well, why aren’t you standing on the sidelines to watch the defense?’ I think people have the misinterpretation that I don’t care about the defense.
Of course I care about defense and special teams. But I just think it’s too hard to call plays in this league and think that I’m not gonna look at what just happened in the previous series when the offense comes off the field. It’s okay to do what’s best for the team that way, even if it doesn’t look like what a head coach should do.”
-------------------------------------------
Intelligent Football
This week, I asked Pro Football Focusfor some telling tidbits you could use in your pre-game study for Jets-Lions, who play the 15th game of the season in the early ESPN tilt. Here goes:
• The Robby Anderson factor. The fleet and unknown Jets deep threat will be just that for rookie starter Sam Darnold tonight. On passes of 20 yards or longer downfield last year, Anderson led all receivers in the league, with seven. With Jermaine Kearse doubtful tonight, look for Darnold-to-Anderson down the field three or four times.
• Beware Glover Quin, Jets. When targeted last season, the Detroit safety allowed a puny passer rating of 55.4. I remember in Lions camp this year Matthew Stafford raving about Quin. Darnold has to know where he is on every snap. And Quin’s not the only stingy guy back there: Darrius Slay allowed a 55.6 rating when targeted.
• Dropbacks under pressure. Only Russell Wilson was pressured more than Stafford’s 230 drops under pressure in 2017. If you’ve got Leonard Williams in your fantasy sack league (kidding), put him in your lineup tonight. But then there this …
• This is why Frank Ragnow was such a hot commodity by draft day, and why Stafford’s glad to have him. The rookie starting guard for the Lions played 42 games at Arkansas. Sacks allowed in his college career: zero.
• Targeting Darron Lee, perhaps? Could be a bullseye on Lee, the Jets’ inside linebacker, in coverage tonight. He allowed 50 completion in 69 coverage snaps last season, and an opposing passer rating of 111.4. Among 52 ILBs ranked by PFF, Lee was dead last in cumulative ILB ratings.
------------------------------------
Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 1:
a. 8:13 p.m. Central Time. Quietest I’ve heard Lambeau in a big game in a long time. When Aaron Rodgers is down on the field and his knee might have been injured, there’s a hush all over the state, not just the stadium.
b. Tarik Cohen: Darren Sproles II.
c. Pats have now beaten Houston four times in Foxboro since September 2016—by 27, 18, three and seven points.
d. We might have been early, we national media doofuses, in promoting the Chargers to kings of the AFC West and thinking the Chiefs would have a new-quarterback-adjustment season.
e. Pat Mahomes does not look like he needs much of an adjustment. To anything.
f. The speed of the Chiefs is downright toxic.
g. It’s going to be a loooong year for Ereck Flowers, the new right tackle for the Giants, and he handled his awful game against the Jags’ front with not much class; he was the only one of five offensive linemen to not be available to the press post-game.
h. Nice debut for Niners linebacker Fred Warner, the third-round rookie from BYU, playing for Reuben Foster. Looks very much like he belongs.
i. Congrats, Adrian Peterson—not only for passing Jim Brown on the all-time rushing list with a 96-yard rushing day … but also for running harder and with more elusiveness than the 2017 Adrian Peterson. Impressive performance at Arizona.
j. What is that coverage plan, Jags, that releases Odell Beckham Jr., to freedom across the middle, with no one covering him?
k. A.J. Green with two fumbles at Indy, giving him eight in his last 46 games. Too many.
l. All those who had the Bucs scoring two touchdowns in the first 13 minutes at trendy Super Bowl pick New Orleans, raise your hand. (Stop. Just stop. You did not think the Bucs would score two touchdowns all day, never mind in the first quarter.) And to think that was only the beginning.
m. Ravens receivers looked good, particularly on the toe-tap, back-of-end-zone TD by Michael Crabtree.
n. Anybody running against the Jags this year? I don’t see how.
o. Yannick Ngakoue is going to be a very good and very impactful player in the NFL for a long time.
p. Good to see Todd Haley in midseason form, taunting Steelers corner Artie Burns midway through Cleveland-Pittsburgh.
q. Take a bow, Howie Roseman, for realizing how important the offensive and defensive lines are. The Eagles GM built great depth especially on the defensive front (Michael Bennett, Haloti Ngata, Chris Long) at the expense of offensive skill players.
r. That’s a winning formula, because going seven deep on the defensive line will be significantly more important than receiver depth when two or three on the DL are nicked come January.
s. I know Julio Jones is great, and he probably got jobbed on what would have been a 50-yard bomb that he juggled and likely caught Thursday night, but he drops too many balls (33 since opening day 2014).
t. Yikes: “Here’s a guy who doesn’t give a damn,” Steelers guard Ramon Foster told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, speaking of Le’Veon Bell, and the reception for Bell will be downright chilly if he ever reports to the Steelers this year.
u. Very good nugget from Ian Rapoport on NFL Network, with news that the Patriots signed offensive coordinator (and perhaps head-coach-in-waiting) Josh McDaniels to a five-year deal to keep him in New England, and that McDaniels is “being paid like a first-time head coach … At one point his contract eclipses $4 million per year.”
v. Cool pooch punt by the Chargers, erasing Tyreek Hill for a moment with kicker Caleb Sturgisdumping a weird punt inside the 15-yard line.
w. It’s like Andrew Luck never left.
x. Another year, another disaster of an offensive line for Seattle. It’s John Schneider’s Achilles.
y. Glad to see Akiem Hicks getting the Al-and-Cris props last night in Bears-Packers. He’s one of the small handful of truly underrated players in the NFL right now.
2. I think the charming, compelling story of Week 2 will be the Le’Veon Bell story. Or, rather, the Le’Veon Bell/James Conner story. Or maybe the James Conner/Le’Veon Bell story. So many possibilities in the wake of the great first game of the year by Conner—a league-high 31 carries for a league-high 135 rushing yards in the 21-21 tie in Cleveland. Add in his 57 receiving yards, and that’s 192 scrimmage yards.
Bell hasn’t had more in a game since December 2016. So what do you do if you’re Mike Tomlin and Bell comes in this week or next? I think I’d do what Bell and his agent apparently want the Steelers to do: don’t overuse Bell. That way, he’d theoretically be fresh as the season gets into its biggest days. He’d be fresh, relatively speaking, for free agency next spring.
Conner’s performance was a revelation. If I’m Tomlin, I’m secretly thrilled despite the tie, because now he can say they’re going to be fine without Bell and mean it, and he can think if Bell comes in they’ve got the best rushing attack they could possible have.
3. I think, after watching Khalil Mack’s performance in 42 of 60 defensive snaps Sunday night, anyone who thinks Mack is overpaid, or thinks the Bears overpaid for him … well, you’re probably not a person who is steeped in logic.
4. I think it’s time for your quickie Green Bay Packers history quiz, commemorating the start of their 100th season. Ready? (Answers in number 9, below.)
a. The Packers went 10-1 in 1919. What was the name of the team that beat them in the final game of that season?
b. The greatest two coaches in Packer history, who have statues at Lambeau Field, both finished their careers as the head coach of which NFL franchise?
c. Who caught the last pass Brett Favre ever threw in Lambeau Field as a Packer?
d. On the morning of the Ice Bowl, Dec. 31, 1967, a Dallas Cowboy took some coffee back to his room at a Green Bay hotel to try to warm up. When he picked it up off his widow sill a few minutes after getting to his room, it was filled with coffee ice chunks. Who was the player?
e. Bart Starr retains a physical memory of that Ice Bowl game today when it get chilly where he lives, in Birmingham, Ala. What is that physical memory?
5. I think John Mara will never have to walk around New York in a Cowboys sweatshirt.
6. I think you’ll like the answers to the Packer quiz.
a. The Packers lost to the Beloit Fairies, 6-0, on the last day of the 1919 season. (In fact, the Packers lost once in 1919 and once in 1920, both to Beloit.)
b. Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi finished their NFL coaching careers in Washington.
c. Corey Webster of the New York Giants. His interception in overtime of the 2007 NFC Championship Game led to a Giant upset of the Packers.
d. Defensive tackle Bob Lilly had that iced coffee in 1967.
e. The tips of some of Starr’s fingers were frostbitten that day, so when it gets cold in Alabama, he feels a tingle in the fingertips.
******************************************************************
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...ers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king/
On Seven-Hour Games, Undefeated Browns and the Greatest Game Aaron Rodgers Ever Played
By Peter King
Getty Images
At halftime in Wisconsin on Sunday night, after an entire state finished hyperventilating and began to come to grips with the notion that, My God, Aaron Rodgers might be gone again, Randall Cobbwalked into the Packers’ locker room at Lambeau Field. The veteran receiver was looking for Rodgers. He wanted to tell him to hang in there. He wanted to tell him he loved him.
But no Rodgers.
“Where is he?” Cobb asked.
“Working out, testing the knee,” one of the trainers told him.
Early this morning, in his car on the way home from the game, Cobb told me: “I was confused. He was what?”
Rodgers, in the second quarter of the first game of the Packers’ 100th season, collapsed in a pile of players and immediately grabbed his left knee. He tried to get up but couldn’t walk, and fell back to the field. A few minutes later, a cart came to take him off the field and you just felt with that cart there was something more than Rodgers riding away.
It was the Packers’ season. Right? MCL, ACL, whatever. Not good. Could this be the second straight season that ended way prematurely, with The Franchise out for some or more of the season, and the Packers’ hopes down the tubes again? Sure looked like it.
So Cobb said a couple of positive things to the shaky backup, DeShone Kizer, before the Packers went back on the field to try somehow to get back into it. Chicago led 17-0, and new Bear Khalil Mack was absolutely wrecking the game.
“We went out for the second half,” Cobb said, “and Aaron’s walking out too. He’s in uniform. Looks ready to go. I asked him if he was okay. He said, ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ So he got to the sidelines and starting talking ball, like normal. And I’m like, Well, I guess he’s playing.”
At one point early in the half, Rodgers said in the huddle: “Do your jobs, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Wishful thinking. When it was over, someone asked Rodgers what he was thinking when he looked up and saw the score in the third quarter: 20-0.
“Seven times three,” Rodgers said.
Maybe he’d get the ball four more times on one leg, and he knew he needed three touchdowns at least, and maybe one more score. These are the things great players think, even when they’re not sure how they’re going to make it through the next 23 minutes of gametime because they really can’t protect themselves.
I wonder sometimes, after covering sports for almost 40 years, what happens when a player who shouldn’t be on the field or the court or the ice begins to play. Do his teammates really elevate their games? Or at least try their damndest to do so because they know they have to or The Franchise could really be lost for the year.
That’s how it looked Sunday night. The line that allowed Rodgers to be hit consistently in the first half got better. Even with Rodgers basically stapled to the pocket because his usually fluidity was gone, he seemed to have a second more per dropback. And he knew he couldn’t afford to waste a series. It felt like a waste when he settled for a field goal with just over 18 minutes left in the game. Chicago 20, Green Bay 3 meant he still needed three scores.
“The protection was really good, and obviously, being more of a statue back there, I had to deal the ball on time and make sure we had guys getting open,” Rodgers said later.
They had maybe three series left. On the first came a throw that will have to go on the Hall of Fame reel. A minute into the fourth quarter, unable to plant with his right leg and fire forward with his left leg (the damaged one), Rodgers somehow wrist-flicked an arcing ball 52 yards in the air, to the right side of the end zone, to a covered Geronimo Allison. Allison made the contested catch and tumbled out of bounds. Chicago 20, Green Bay 10.
View: https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1038980187013013504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1038980187013013504&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F09%2F10%2Faaron-rodgers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king%2F
Three-and-out for the Trubiskies. Rodgers, again with good time, took three minutes to go 75 yards, Davante Adams finishing it with an effort TD at the left pylon. Chicago 20, Green Bay 17.
Great clock management by the Bears then. They held the ball for almost seven minutes, Trubisky consistently snapping the ball with less than five seconds on the play clock. With 2:39 left, a Cody Parkey field goal made it Chicago 23, Green Bay 17.
Now Rodgers had enough time. He didn’t have to hurry. Maybe it was the Lambeau Karma God interceding, but Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller—the cornerback Green Bay almost stole in free agency last March—dropped the easiest interception of his life on the first snap. Life, precious life.
Third-and-10. Green Bay 25.
The protection was really good, Rodgers had said. And now, on the next play, the line, so leaky early, had its best play of the night. Rodgers took the snap, and I timed how much time he had before the ball left his hand. 4.35 seconds. Luxurious for your average passer. For Rodgers, an eternity.
“I was running my route,” Cobb told me, “and I didn’t get the ball in rhythm and timing like I usually do. So in that case, we go to scramble mode. You look for an opening. So I looked for one, then looked back to Aaron and the ball was already in the air. I’m like, SHOOT! Ball’s coming! Here it comes.”
Safety Eddie Jackson, playing Cobb, dove for the ball, trying to flick it away. He couldn’t get to it. Cobb grabbed it and turned to run upfield.
“Nothing but green grass,” Cobb said. “Just run. I felt like I was back in my track days.”
“When you watch the replay, you’ll be amazed,” I said. “Khalil Mack ran practically the length of the field. He almost caught you at the 1-yard line.”
“Well, I was weaving,” Cobb said, and laughed.
View: https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1038989073812094976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1038989073812094976&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F09%2F10%2Faaron-rodgers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king%2F
Green Bay 24, Chicago 23.
“I had a little moment with Aaron,” said Cobb. “Told him I love him. He’s such a warrior. It was amazing having him out there, after we thought he was done. He figured exactly how to play too: short, quick throws, rhythm and timing. That just reinforced what I already knew about him. I’ve seen it for years. But this was special.”
“Where does this game rank for you in your career?” I asked.
“I would say it’s probably the greatest,” said Cobb, in his eighth year with the Packers. “My wife and I just had a son. This is the Packers’ 100th season. It’s the Bears. This was a big night.”
Brett Favre had his moment in Oakland, the night after his dad died, when he played an impossible game with some great throws. This is Rodgers’ 14th season, and this might be his moment, the moment we’ll all remember when he’s on stage in Canton one day and the question is asked: What was Aaron Rodgers’ best game?
He’ll have gaudier games, and he’ll have a Super Bowl MVP game (at least one). But will he have a game when he had to play mostly on one leg and come back from a 20-point deficit? Will he, while hobbled, do something no Packers quarterback in 111 tries had ever done—win a game when trailing by at least 17 points starting the fourth quarter? Will it be against the team he loves to beat the most, the rival Bears, on a similarly historic night at Lambeau Field?
No. Aaron Rodgers is 34. He’s one of the best quarterbacks ever to play. And we just saw the best game of his professional life.
--------------------------------------
The Best of Week 1
It’s Overreaction Monday, the same as it is after the first Sunday of every NFL season. It’s the time when we can confidently say—this year—that Matt Ryan’s done, the Ravens are winning the Super Bowl, the Bills are going 0-16, the Browns will win nine, Watson and Garoppolo are frauds, Tyreek Hillis some combination of Barry Sanders and Bob Hayes, and somehow, some way we all fell for the Chargers again and the Chargers can only break our hearts; it’s an NFL rule.
Aside from the Rodgers fairy tale, my three stories of the day:
Fitzmagic
Ryan Fitzpatrick face-timed with his family after the craziest game of the weekend, the 88-pointer (Bucs 48, Saints 40) in New Orleans. His wife got the six kids around the phone, and there was yelling and happiness and a family moment Fitzpatrick will remember for a long time. “We really didn’t have to say much, and I couldn’t say much,” he said. “I was overcome with emotion.”
There was also a fantasy football lesson.
“So my 9-year-old son, Taint, convinced my 11-year-old son, Brady, to put me on his fantasy team today,” Fitzpatrick told me from New Orleans. “I didn’t even know Brady played fantasy football. I guess it was a good decision.”
Getty Images
You tend to win in fantasy football when your quarterback gives you 417 yards and four touchdowns and no picks and a rating of 156.2. Here’s what was so cool about Fitzpatrick after this game: He was totally, absolutely not surprised. He had no interest in going down the can-you-keep-Jameis-on-the-bench-when-he-returns path, because he knows the Bucs play Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the next two weeks, and it’s fruitless to speculate about starting jobs that are three weeks away. His fatalism, his realism … those impressed me.
Watch Fitzpatrick’s deep throws on the highlights today if you can—things of beauty. His bomb to Mike Evans for a touchdown couldn’t have been thrown better by Marino or Elway. “I have so much confidence in my ability that a day like today is not a surprise to me—at all,” he said.
“I go out there when I start, and I think I’m gonna have this game every week, especially with this team. All offseason, I’ve seen how deep our skill-position group is. We’ve got five or six guys who, if they’re in one-on-one matchups, you know you can win with any of them. As a quarterback, it’s a dream to be in the huddle with these guys.”
But he wouldn’t say this was the best game he’d played in the NFL on his long and winding road through St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Tennessee, Houston, the Jets and Tampa. “When I was with the Jets, we beat New England [in 2017]; in Buffalo, we beat New England [in 2011]. Those rank right up there. I remember I got benched for Ryan Mallett [in 2014], and when I got back in the lineup, I threw six touchdown passes to beat Tennessee. That was the most satisfying game of my life.
“I’m realistic about how hard this game is. I’ve thrown six touchdowns in a game. I’ve thrown six interceptions in a game. How do you come back from those? This game is a week-to-week proposition, and you better understand that. I’ll go home tonight and we’ll feel good about this one because it’s a big accomplishment beating the Saints here. But then I’ll get ready for the next one—the next one will be all that matters.”
The weird upshot of this game is the Saints might not be what we thought they were, particularly on defense. This is going to be a tense week around the Saints, and I wouldn’t be thrilled to be the Browns this week. They’re the next team up in New Orleans next Sunday.
Browns Gonna Brown
No, they’re not, actually. Half the Twittersphere chortled uproariously when, with 13 seconds left in overtime, kicker Zane Gonzalez had a 43-yard field-goal try blocked by T.J. Watt of the Steelers. That’s so Browns. But the players didn’t chortle. The played were ticked off. Wideout Jarvis Landry, the unofficial we’re-not-gonna-take-it-anymore, hold-your-feet-to-the-fire guy in this locker room, left the field cursing, angry and said he refused to get used to this. And they didn’t lose!
Here’s why I think there’s more Landrys in the room than there used to be: The Browns rallied late, for once. With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh had the ball and led 21-7. Cleveland forced a turnover and got a quick score, and Cleveland recovered a James Conner fumble to set up Josh Gordon’s first touchdown since the Nixon Administration, and it was tied.
The Browns, historically, haven’t been fourth-quarter fighters. Now, with Landry and Tyrod Taylor and collegiate winners like Ohio State’s former star cornerback, Denzel Ward, the Browns are building a culture that doesn’t accept Brown-ness.
That’s all well and good, of course, but it’s going to come down to Taylor needing to be better than he was Sunday (15 of 40 passing), or letting Baker Mayfield play earlier than coach Hue Jackson wants. I like what I saw Sunday afternoon. Myles Garrett is the genuine item. Taylor might be better suited to back up Mayfield, but we’ll see about that. And a tie pissed them off. That’s a start.
-------------------------------------------------------
The Award Section
Offensive Players of the Week
Ryan Fitzpatrick, quarterback, Tampa Bay. The man who defines “journeyman” in the NFL—seven teams, 15 years, 120 starts, 105 games on the bench—had the game of his life Sunday in New Orleans. He had a career high in passing yards (417) and rating (156.2, the second-highest in the 43-year history of the Bucs) in a totally bizarre 48-40 upset of the Saints.
Joe Flacco, quarterback, Baltimore. Have you heard? The Ravens drafted a quarterback in the first round this year. Lamar Jackson. And Flacco, barring a major turnaround from his recent mediocrity, would be playing for his job in 2018. He got off to a job-preserving start Sunday in a 47-3 win over the University of Buffalo. I mean, the Bills. Flacco’s performance (25 of 34, 236 yards, three touchdowns, no picks, 121.7 rating) marked the first time in four years he had a day with a rating over 120 and a TD-to-pick ratio of at least plus-3.
Defensive Players of the Week
Denzel Ward, cornerback, Cleveland. Near the end of the first quarter and near the end of the second quarter, Ward, in his first NFL game, intercepted Ben Roethlisberger with the Steelers already in field-goal range. Once at the Browns’ 10, and then at the Browns’ 29, Ward prevented the Steelers from scoring what could have been fairly crucial points in a 21-21 tie. I watched a chunk of this game, and Ward played fearlessly in coverage against Antonio Brown. He added six tackles.
Harrison Smith, safety, Minnesota. Smith led the Vikings with eight tackles in the 24-16 win over San Francisco, but that’s not why he’s winning this. He wrecked the Niners’ last two drives in a one-score game when Jimmy Garoppolo had given the Niners life. On third-and-five at midfield with 6:32 left, Smith came on a well-disguised safety blitz and nailed Garoppolo for a 10-yard sack. Punt. On second-and-10 with 1:45 left, Garoppolo threw deep downfield, over the middle, and Smith picked it off, ending the game. Just two more reasons why Smith is the best all-around safety in football.
We interrupt these defensive awards for a quick word about Khalil Mack from SVP:
View: https://twitter.com/notthefakeSVP/status/1038969019582308353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1038969019582308353&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F09%2F10%2Faaron-rodgers-packers-bears-fmia-nfl-week-1-peter-king%2F
T.J. Watt, outside linebacker, Pittsburgh. Sacking Tyrod Taylor four times and producing 11 tackles wasn’t quite enough for the rusher with the great bloodlines. So Watt, with the ultimate embarrassment—Cleveland, on the Steelers’ watch, winning a football game for the first time since Christmas Eve 2016—staring the Steelers in the face, plowed through a crease in the Browns’ front on the potential winning field-goal try in overtime, blocking it.
Surely the Steelers boarded their buses for the two-hour ride home after the game angry that they turned it over so much and couldn’t beat the Browns, but imagine how they’d have felt without the play of Watt.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Tyreek Hill, wide receiver/punt returner, Kansas City. It took all of 1:57 for Tyreek Hill—who wreaked havoc on the Patriots in Week 1 last year—to do the same to the Chargers in California on Sunday. He took a punt—the first Chiefs’ touch of the 2018 season—at his own 9, and ran left, and kept running, and he left every Charger in his wake. The 91-yard punt return was the 12th touchdown of 50 yards or longer in his young career. He’s 24 years old.
Oh. And he made it 13 of those long TDs just seven minutes later. He caught the first touchdown of Pat Mahomes’ career, a 58-yarder, midway through the first quarter.
Ryan Allen, punter, New England. Fifty-one seconds left. Patriots nursing a seven-point lead. They’ve got to punt from near midfield, and the Texans will have one more chance. Allen boots it … high ball. Long. Will it get to the end zone? No … Defensive back Jonathan Jones downs it at the 1. A 54-yard punt, downed at the 1, and Deshaun Watson would have 43 seconds, on the road, to go 99 yards for the tie. Not happening. What a clutch kick by Allen, who had six punts for a 46.8-yard average in the Pats’ 27-20 win.
Coach of the Week
Dirk Koetter, coach, Tampa Bay. The Bucs, with a backup quarterback and still wondering whatever will happen to their suspended starter, walked into New Orleans and put up 48 on the Saints. Koetter was in job jeopardy after the Bucs’ 5-11 season last year. He’s significantly more secure this morning.
Goats of the Week
Nathan Peterman, quarterback, Buffalo. Enough. Forty-to-nothing is not all his fault. But 40-0 in 35 minutes? That’s two incredibly unprofessional appearances in two starts for Peterman. We’ve seen enough of Peterman, Sean McDermott.
Mike Gillislee, running back, New Orleans. The former Bill and Patriot was a pickup of necessity by the Saints with the four-game suspension to Mark Ingram to start the season. Gillislee may not be in Louisiana long. With the Saints driving to cut into a stunning Bucs lead late in the first half at the Superdome, Gillislee took a handoff from Drew Brees, and on a routine run around left end, he got hit by cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and the ball spun out of his grasp. Tampa Bay recovered, and safety Justin Evans returned it 34 yards for a touchdown. Amazingly, the Bucs led 31-17.
Kyle Fuller, cornerback, Chicago. As the Packers stared down a 23-17 deficit with 2:39 left Sunday night, Aaron Rodgers had first-and-10 from his 25. He had Davante Adams on a short incut, but Adams stumbled … and the pass went right into the chest of Fuller. This was not a particularly difficult ball to catch—not a bullet, but a touch pass. And Fuller, who dropped six picks last season (per Cris Collinsworth), dropped this one. Fuller will never have an easier pick in his life. Had he caught it, the Bears could have—minimum—tried a game-clinching field goal somewhere near the two-minute warning. What a drop.
---------------------------------------
What I Learned
Rams coach Sean McVay, who begins his second season tonight at Oakland, on what he learned in his rookie year, as the youngest coach in modern NFL history:
“I would say the most important thing I learned is this: It’s okay to think you don’t have the answer to everything. There’s actually strength in being able to say, ‘I don’t know, but let’s figure it out together.’ Or, ‘Let’s lean on the people who have a lot more experience than I do,’ to be able to learn from them. What you also learn is that this is an extremely humbling game. You know when I learned that?
When I got hired to be a head coach, and I got a chance to hire some of these guys to come on to our staff—guys who I am thinking to myself, ‘I get to coach with this guy?’ Wade Phillips on defense, Joe Barry as an assistant head coach. John Fassel on special teams—I know nothing about special teams, and here’s this guy who’s as good as anyone in the league, on our team. All our coaches, working together. If you get a staff like we had, we all make each other better.
“I learned this from Mike Tomlin—who’s been a big help to me: Everybody’s got all the answers and no accountability. I was that guy. Before I called plays or even got into this role, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’d do it this way.’ Well it’s a little bit different when you actually have to do it.
“I learned how important it is to bring in the right people to influence your team. Andrew Whitworth, Robert Woods. Smart guys, team guys who can help influence and affect the locker room in the right way. There’s real power in that.
“Something really important I learned: If I was trying to be involved in every facet of the job, I think I would’ve been really overwhelmed—and I would have done the team a disservice. Defense and special teams … I knew enough so that I could at least communicate to our players.
But to try and stick my nose in and be involved in those areas when I had smarter people to do it, that would not have been smart. If there’s a major decision to make, or a [replay] challenge on a defensive play or special-teams play, we’ll talk about it. Mostly, though, I’m not gonna override Wade Phillips’ call. Why would I?
“And it’s okay to devote myself to the offense especially when you’ve got a young quarterback who needs me like Jared [Goff]. People might say, ‘Well, why aren’t you standing on the sidelines to watch the defense?’ I think people have the misinterpretation that I don’t care about the defense.
Of course I care about defense and special teams. But I just think it’s too hard to call plays in this league and think that I’m not gonna look at what just happened in the previous series when the offense comes off the field. It’s okay to do what’s best for the team that way, even if it doesn’t look like what a head coach should do.”
-------------------------------------------
Intelligent Football
This week, I asked Pro Football Focusfor some telling tidbits you could use in your pre-game study for Jets-Lions, who play the 15th game of the season in the early ESPN tilt. Here goes:
• The Robby Anderson factor. The fleet and unknown Jets deep threat will be just that for rookie starter Sam Darnold tonight. On passes of 20 yards or longer downfield last year, Anderson led all receivers in the league, with seven. With Jermaine Kearse doubtful tonight, look for Darnold-to-Anderson down the field three or four times.
• Beware Glover Quin, Jets. When targeted last season, the Detroit safety allowed a puny passer rating of 55.4. I remember in Lions camp this year Matthew Stafford raving about Quin. Darnold has to know where he is on every snap. And Quin’s not the only stingy guy back there: Darrius Slay allowed a 55.6 rating when targeted.
• Dropbacks under pressure. Only Russell Wilson was pressured more than Stafford’s 230 drops under pressure in 2017. If you’ve got Leonard Williams in your fantasy sack league (kidding), put him in your lineup tonight. But then there this …
• This is why Frank Ragnow was such a hot commodity by draft day, and why Stafford’s glad to have him. The rookie starting guard for the Lions played 42 games at Arkansas. Sacks allowed in his college career: zero.
• Targeting Darron Lee, perhaps? Could be a bullseye on Lee, the Jets’ inside linebacker, in coverage tonight. He allowed 50 completion in 69 coverage snaps last season, and an opposing passer rating of 111.4. Among 52 ILBs ranked by PFF, Lee was dead last in cumulative ILB ratings.
------------------------------------
Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 1:
a. 8:13 p.m. Central Time. Quietest I’ve heard Lambeau in a big game in a long time. When Aaron Rodgers is down on the field and his knee might have been injured, there’s a hush all over the state, not just the stadium.
b. Tarik Cohen: Darren Sproles II.
c. Pats have now beaten Houston four times in Foxboro since September 2016—by 27, 18, three and seven points.
d. We might have been early, we national media doofuses, in promoting the Chargers to kings of the AFC West and thinking the Chiefs would have a new-quarterback-adjustment season.
e. Pat Mahomes does not look like he needs much of an adjustment. To anything.
f. The speed of the Chiefs is downright toxic.
g. It’s going to be a loooong year for Ereck Flowers, the new right tackle for the Giants, and he handled his awful game against the Jags’ front with not much class; he was the only one of five offensive linemen to not be available to the press post-game.
h. Nice debut for Niners linebacker Fred Warner, the third-round rookie from BYU, playing for Reuben Foster. Looks very much like he belongs.
i. Congrats, Adrian Peterson—not only for passing Jim Brown on the all-time rushing list with a 96-yard rushing day … but also for running harder and with more elusiveness than the 2017 Adrian Peterson. Impressive performance at Arizona.
j. What is that coverage plan, Jags, that releases Odell Beckham Jr., to freedom across the middle, with no one covering him?
k. A.J. Green with two fumbles at Indy, giving him eight in his last 46 games. Too many.
l. All those who had the Bucs scoring two touchdowns in the first 13 minutes at trendy Super Bowl pick New Orleans, raise your hand. (Stop. Just stop. You did not think the Bucs would score two touchdowns all day, never mind in the first quarter.) And to think that was only the beginning.
m. Ravens receivers looked good, particularly on the toe-tap, back-of-end-zone TD by Michael Crabtree.
n. Anybody running against the Jags this year? I don’t see how.
o. Yannick Ngakoue is going to be a very good and very impactful player in the NFL for a long time.
p. Good to see Todd Haley in midseason form, taunting Steelers corner Artie Burns midway through Cleveland-Pittsburgh.
q. Take a bow, Howie Roseman, for realizing how important the offensive and defensive lines are. The Eagles GM built great depth especially on the defensive front (Michael Bennett, Haloti Ngata, Chris Long) at the expense of offensive skill players.
r. That’s a winning formula, because going seven deep on the defensive line will be significantly more important than receiver depth when two or three on the DL are nicked come January.
s. I know Julio Jones is great, and he probably got jobbed on what would have been a 50-yard bomb that he juggled and likely caught Thursday night, but he drops too many balls (33 since opening day 2014).
t. Yikes: “Here’s a guy who doesn’t give a damn,” Steelers guard Ramon Foster told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, speaking of Le’Veon Bell, and the reception for Bell will be downright chilly if he ever reports to the Steelers this year.
u. Very good nugget from Ian Rapoport on NFL Network, with news that the Patriots signed offensive coordinator (and perhaps head-coach-in-waiting) Josh McDaniels to a five-year deal to keep him in New England, and that McDaniels is “being paid like a first-time head coach … At one point his contract eclipses $4 million per year.”
v. Cool pooch punt by the Chargers, erasing Tyreek Hill for a moment with kicker Caleb Sturgisdumping a weird punt inside the 15-yard line.
w. It’s like Andrew Luck never left.
x. Another year, another disaster of an offensive line for Seattle. It’s John Schneider’s Achilles.
y. Glad to see Akiem Hicks getting the Al-and-Cris props last night in Bears-Packers. He’s one of the small handful of truly underrated players in the NFL right now.
2. I think the charming, compelling story of Week 2 will be the Le’Veon Bell story. Or, rather, the Le’Veon Bell/James Conner story. Or maybe the James Conner/Le’Veon Bell story. So many possibilities in the wake of the great first game of the year by Conner—a league-high 31 carries for a league-high 135 rushing yards in the 21-21 tie in Cleveland. Add in his 57 receiving yards, and that’s 192 scrimmage yards.
Bell hasn’t had more in a game since December 2016. So what do you do if you’re Mike Tomlin and Bell comes in this week or next? I think I’d do what Bell and his agent apparently want the Steelers to do: don’t overuse Bell. That way, he’d theoretically be fresh as the season gets into its biggest days. He’d be fresh, relatively speaking, for free agency next spring.
Conner’s performance was a revelation. If I’m Tomlin, I’m secretly thrilled despite the tie, because now he can say they’re going to be fine without Bell and mean it, and he can think if Bell comes in they’ve got the best rushing attack they could possible have.
3. I think, after watching Khalil Mack’s performance in 42 of 60 defensive snaps Sunday night, anyone who thinks Mack is overpaid, or thinks the Bears overpaid for him … well, you’re probably not a person who is steeped in logic.
4. I think it’s time for your quickie Green Bay Packers history quiz, commemorating the start of their 100th season. Ready? (Answers in number 9, below.)
a. The Packers went 10-1 in 1919. What was the name of the team that beat them in the final game of that season?
b. The greatest two coaches in Packer history, who have statues at Lambeau Field, both finished their careers as the head coach of which NFL franchise?
c. Who caught the last pass Brett Favre ever threw in Lambeau Field as a Packer?
d. On the morning of the Ice Bowl, Dec. 31, 1967, a Dallas Cowboy took some coffee back to his room at a Green Bay hotel to try to warm up. When he picked it up off his widow sill a few minutes after getting to his room, it was filled with coffee ice chunks. Who was the player?
e. Bart Starr retains a physical memory of that Ice Bowl game today when it get chilly where he lives, in Birmingham, Ala. What is that physical memory?
5. I think John Mara will never have to walk around New York in a Cowboys sweatshirt.
6. I think you’ll like the answers to the Packer quiz.
a. The Packers lost to the Beloit Fairies, 6-0, on the last day of the 1919 season. (In fact, the Packers lost once in 1919 and once in 1920, both to Beloit.)
b. Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi finished their NFL coaching careers in Washington.
c. Corey Webster of the New York Giants. His interception in overtime of the 2007 NFC Championship Game led to a Giant upset of the Packers.
d. Defensive tackle Bob Lilly had that iced coffee in 1967.
e. The tips of some of Starr’s fingers were frostbitten that day, so when it gets cold in Alabama, he feels a tingle in the fingertips.
