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Raiders are Scary and Good
It’s Halloween, and Oakland delivered a freaky performance—23 penalties, more than 600 yards of offense, an OT win—to headline Week 8. Derek Carr reflects on how far the team’s come. Plus notes on Atlanta’s statement, Carolina’s season-saver and more from the NFL’s best weekend of the 2016 season
By Peter King
Photo: Brian Blanco/Getty Images
Two years ago, when Derek Carr and Khalil Mack were Raiders rookies, and Oakland stumbled to an 0-10 start and lost by 52 to the Rams and got swept by a combined 57 by Denver, Carr would say the same thing so many Sundays to Mack after another debacle. “Look at me,” Carr would say. “It’s gonna get better. I promise. We gotta stick together. It’s on us—me and you. Be loyal to your faith and our families and our team, and we’ll be okay. We’re gonna earn it. Okay?”
The Raiders won a totally bizarre football game Sunday at Tampa Bay. They set an NFL record with 23 accepted penalties for 200 yards. The best kicker ever from 50 yards away, Sebastian Janikowski, missed the game-winner from 50 as time expired, and missed from 52 on the first series of overtime. But on an 86-degree afternoon, the precocious Carr, playing the best game of his life, set the record for this 57-year-old franchise with 513 passing yards and threw the game-winning touchdown pass 13 minutes into overtime.
Oakland is 6-2, and 5-0 on the road. Next Sunday night: Denver (also 6-2) at Oakland for the AFC West lead. In November.
Totally spent, Carr still walked around his locker room after the game to check on his mates. “When I got to Khalil,” Carr said from the bus on the way to the Tampa airport afterward, “we just hugged, and we just laughed. You think of those times a couple years ago, but there was nothing to say. Khalil and I know where we were, and we know where we are now. We just laughed.”
“When I get off the phone with you,” Carr said, “I’m going right to sleep. I am just exhausted. Longest game of my life.”
But he did want to savor the moment, here on a fairly quiet bus. Quiet, because playing five quarters in a place that feels like the dead of summer tends to wear out a team.
“You play for the franchise that had Ken Stabler, Daryle Lamonica, Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon play quarterback,” I said. “You just threw for more yards [513] than anyone in Raider history ever did. What’s that like?”
“I am not even kidding you,” Carr said. “Someone mentioned that to me after the game, and I almost started crying. THAT IS CRAZY. I’m a Cali guy. My mom’s side of the family were Cowboy fans. My dad’s side were Raider fans. Now I’m a Raider. This little kid from Fresno and Bakersfield … you mean, I did that? I did that?! It is crazy.
“I remember my rookie year how hard it was throw for 130 yards. It was hard. It was hard to get a first down. And now, where we are—we still have a lot of work to do. A lot. Those penalties … ridiculous. But we’ll fix that. I know we will. But what we’ve done so far … God is good. God is good. I love the people on this team so much. I love how we’ve worked and played together.”
Carr was rambling, in sort of a tired and giddy way. But what he did in this game was put himself into a few conversations. The MVP conversation, for one. On pace to throw for 4,600 yards with 34 touchdowns and six picks, Carr will be in the discussion if Oakland keeps winning. And in the discussion with the best quarterbacks playing today.
He’s still got to string together some big wins and big games. But some of his throws Sunday in Tampa, a few dropped into a bucket from 25 or 30 yards away, and one in particular placed as well as a quarterback can place a huge throw, convince me that Carr, 25, is fit to be one of the next generation to take over for the Manning/Brady/Brees class.
With 1:40 to go in the fourth quarter, Oakland trailed 24-17. The Raiders had the ball at the Bucs’ seven-yard line. Oakland was going to flood the secondary with five receivers: two wideouts would do short outs, two receivers would do posts from opposite sides, and tight end Mychal Rivera would troll the middle with a short crossing route around the goal line.
“Goodness,” said Carr. “they covered it so well. Then, something we didn’t expect—they dropped an eighth man into coverage. So it was five receivers and eight guys covering.”
The imbalance had one advantage for Carr. He could wait an extra second or so, because he had five offensive linemen blocking three Tampa rushers. That gave him a chance to see who was being doubled and where a small crease might be. And he saw Rivera flashing across the middle, covered well by Tampa linebacker Kwon Alexander. But perhaps not well enough.
A quarterback—a good one, anyway—knows he’s going to have to fit some crucial throws into small areas. That’s the difference, quite often, between good and great passers. And here, Carr threw a pass low and outside for Rivera. The tight end probably wouldn’t catch it, but it was the best shot for Carr in such a mismatched 5-on-8 setting.
“When I look at my throws on plays like this,” he said, “I never look and say, ‘Look at that throw.’ I look at the catch, or the receiver trying to make the catch. I’m such a fan. So often I look and wonder how he caught that ball. I’m still a football fan, and the catches these guys make, it blows my mind sometimes. And this play, Mychal’s catch was the great moment.”
Well, the ball was placed perfectly, and Rivera went down and got it, close to the ground, with Alexander clinging to him. Great example of Rivera knowing exactly where he had to go to get the ball and getting it, and of Carr putting it where his man—only his—could nab it.
I asked Carr how good his team was, and whether it was ready to play at the league’s highest level. “I don’t look at that,” he said. “I know everyone else does, but we’re so young, and we have a long way to go.”
Good attitude to have, especially with the Super Bowl champs coming to town. Oakland hasn’t beaten a team that currently has a winning record, and its two losses—to Atlanta and Kansas City—were against winners. So the Raiders have things to prove. But the next four games included three at home and a neutral-site game with Houston in Mexico City on Nov. 21. Now it's up to Carr and Mack to build a good team at home to go with the one that’s had a road-field advantage this year.
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Photo: Michael Ainsworth/AP
On the verge of death Sunday morning, a 97-year-old league had a pretty good 14 hours. Though the league continues to set all-sport records for ticky-tack fouls called in a season, the NFL had a big day:
• The epidemic of ties. The NFL went 33 game weeks (462 games total) without a tie, then two games in a four-game span were draws: the 6-6 Seattle-Arizona slugfest eight nights ago, and the 27-27 missed-chance-fest between Washington and Cincinnati on Sunday morning in London. The Competition Committee never asks me, but I think there should be no fifth quarter. Ties should be played until they’re broken. What is it, an extra three or four series a year, maybe?
• Tom Brady is not human. In the first 225 regular-season games of his career, the New England quarterback never had four straight in any season in which he exceeded a passer rating of 120. He’s 39. He came off his four-game suspension Oct. 9 having not played a football game in nine months. Now he’s 4-0, and here are the passer ratings in those four games: 127.7, 140.0, 124.2, 137.0. That’s right. The man seven months older than the Miami Dolphins” head coach has never played better football.
• The MVP is seething. The Panthers (2-5) saved their season with a 30-20 home win over Arizona, but the story afterward was Cam Newton saying two late hits (one very low by Calais Campbell that should have been flagged but was not) continue to “take the fun out of the game” for him. “At times I don’t feel safe,” he said. “Enough is enough.” Newton’s been adamant that he’s not being protected by the officials the way other quarterbacks are. After seeing Campbell hit him below the knee in the pocket, you get where he’s coming from. Newton said he was going to contact Roger Goodell, and he should.
• The Saints have life. A 25-20 win over Seattle that came down to the last play means a couple of things: Because the NFC South is all muddled, and the Saints are showing some defensive gumption, and they’ll be 4-4 with a win at San Francisco next week, and their schedule isn’t killer, beating Seattle means they could be playing meaningful football in December with a quarterback who can beat anyone.
• The NFL needed a day like this. With the league in the crosshairs for so many things—lousy games, lousy ratings, domestic violence, a blizzard of penalties—you hear the sighs of relief from Park Avenue. The day: a competitive and exciting game in London, for once … A Goliath team without peer (New England) for everyone to take aim at … A duel to the end, one of the great games of recent vintage (Atlanta 33, Green Bay 32, a week after San Diego 33, Atlanta 30) with Matt Ryan making one more play than Aaron Rodgers … No idiotic excessive-celebration flags.
• And a night, too. From Tony Romo versus Sam Bradford in 2015 to Dak Prescott versus Carson Wentz in ’16, and I didn’t hear any complaints Sunday night. Dallas, down 23-13 with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, scored the game’s final 16 points. You know what I loved about Prescott down the stretch? He did next to nothing for three-and-a-half quarters and didn’t wilt. He finished a 90-yard drive late in the fourth quarter with a scoring pass to Dez Bryant, and capped the only drive of OT, a 75-yarder, with a touchdown pass to Jason Witten. Prescott’s got a six-game winning streak heading into Dallas’ game at 0-8 Cleveland next week. I kinda like the Cowboys.
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Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
• Big accomplishment for Ryan and Atlanta. Admit it: You thought this was a rerun of 2015, a hot start for Hotlanta and fading as November approached. But Atlanta plays better defense this year than in recent seasons, and the Falcons don’t get down if Julio Jones can’t take over a game. That’s the biggest thing I see in Matt Ryan and play-caller Kyle Shanahan as Atlanta reached the season’s midpoint with a 33-32 win over the Packers. Shanahan might be seeing the game better and making better play calls after moving from the field during games and calling the plays upstairs.
Also, Ryan’s not consumed with finding any specific receiver; just the open one. Case in point: In difficult victories over Denver, New Orleans and Green Bay, Jones caught six passes combined, for 74 yards. But the Falcons scored 101 points in those three games … and newcomer Mohamed Sanu had 15 catches, combined, in those games.
“First and foremost,” Ryan said after his 80-percent passing day, with three touchdowns and no picks, “Julio is one of the most unselfish players I’ve ever been around. On every snap today, he was doubled. He had a corner with a safety over the top every play. But the good thing is he understands that his impact helps the other guys, because he’s not open and someone else is.
This year has been different for me with the new additions, but it’s been a good year. These guys all love to practice.” The Falcons have a short-week Thursday trip to Tampa, then their final pre-bye game at Philadelphia, a homecoming for Ryan. The win over Green Bay, and how they won, is a sign the Falcons will be tough to keep out of the playoffs.
• A season-saver for Carolina. I get it that the Panthers have scored 79 points against Arizona in their last two meetings, but the reason for their 30-20 win on Sunday wasn’t an explosive offense. It was a defense that, in the previous three games, had allowed an average of 35 points and 470 yards per outing. Not good. But this was a favorable matchup for Carolina, an immobile quarterback with an oft-leaky line.
The Panthers sacked Carson Palmer eight times and sprinted to a 30-7 lead. It’s the kind game—at least for three quarters—that Carolina played all last season. Could it have been as simple as the desperate team realizing its plight? The 1-5 team knowing one more loss could doom any chance of January football? “No,” said defensive tackle Star Lotulelei, who had a career-high three sacks of Palmer. “It was the same message we get every week, the same approach. We know, like Cam [Newton] said during the week, nothing needs to be said.
We know what our situation is. And today we just played the kind of football where everybody helped everybody else. Our defensive ends squeezed the pocket so the tackles could make some plays. Our linebackers played aggressive, downhill. Our corners came up and tackled. It was a really good, really aggressive day.” The Panthers still have Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle and Atlanta on the schedule, so a long winning streak is unlikely. But if Carolina plays like it did Sunday, those foes will have to be just as worried about facing the Panthers.
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On the Brett Favre book
Photo: Allen Steele/Getty Images :: Houghton Mifflin
Jeff Pearlman has a new book out this week—“Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre.” It’s an exhaustive effort to chronicle the life and times of the most interesting person I’ve covered in my 32 years on the NFL beat (Pearlman writes that he spoke to 573 people for the book), with the scars and the wonder.
The scars include his tempestuous relationship with Aaron Rodgers, which has been well-documented in the run-up to the release of this book. And it also includes the claim, late in Favre’s career, by offensive lineman Artis Hicks of the Vikings that Minnesota had a bounty program at the same time as New Orleans was found guilty by the league of having one. (The NFL, given the heavy hammer it used on the Saints, has to look into this.)
There are a few examples of the wonder, but let me be up front in saying that I have only skimmed the book for two hours last week, because in the middle of a season I knew I couldn’t give the 383 pages a full reading.
Pearlman’s so good at recreating important moments in a subject’s life—brilliantly done in “Sweetness,” his book on Walter Payton. He did that in “Gunslinger” on what made NFL people fall in love with Favre in his senior year at Southern Miss. It’s well-known that on July 14, 1990, Favre was in a terrible car wreck (“I thought he could have been dead,” a good buddy on the trip that day told Pearlman), and had to have 30 inches of his intestine removed, and doctors told him he wouldn’t play football that fall.
But exactly eight weeks later, Favre, about 34 pounds lighter than his playing weight of 226, took the field for Southern Miss at Alabama, which returned 16 starters from its ninth-ranked team the previous year. He took a shot to the groin on the first play of the game, but that was the only time all game he was writhing in pain.
In the final minutes, he “threw a laser,” as Pearlman put it, to a back for 34 yards, setting up a Southern Miss field goal to beat ’Bama 27-24. The legend was born. The next week Favre lost by a point at Georgia. Two months later he threw a touchdown pass in the final minutes to stun Auburn, at Auburn, by a point. The chapter on the accident and this meteoric season is really good.
Also very good was the reporting on the trade from Atlanta to Green Bay in early 1992, after Favre’s rookie season with the Falcons. The deal began with Atlanta GM Ken Herock asking for two first-round picks for Favre from new Green Bay GM Ron Wolf. A ridiculous ask for a second-round pick who finished the year as Atlanta’s third-stringer, with much wrath incurred from coach Jerry Glanville. But then Herock knew Glanville would never like or play Favre, so he rekindled the deal with Wolf.
“[Herock] demanded a first-round selection or no deal,” writes Pearlman. “Herock told Wolf he'd have to check back with the Falcons. A day later he met with Glanville and June Jones, the offensive coordinator, and told them of the offer. ‘Oh my gosh,’ Glanville said. ‘You'd be a genius. A first for that guy? Herock was raised in Pittsburgh. He lived and died with the Steelers and could never grasp the organization releasing Johnny Unitas in 1955.
‘I used to think Pittsburgh was so freaking dumb. How do you dump Johnny Unitas?’ he said. Following the session with Glanville and Jones, Herock debated whether he was now the one about to commit a similar blunder. ‘But then I calmed down,’ he said. ‘I mean, there was no way he would be another Johnny Unitas.’ On February 11, 1992, Green Bay and Atlanta reached an agreement: Brett Favre became a member of the Packers, and the Falcons owned the 19th slot in the first round.”
The rest is the kind of unique chapter of NFL history you can learn more about in “Gunslinger.” You can purchase it here.
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OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Tom Brady, quarterback, New England. If there was ever a time that the Patriots may have been vulnerable, this seemed like the season, and this team seemed like the one to capitalize. Buffalo was playing at home, with recent success running the ball and playing solid defense. But in the first 14 minutes, Brady took the air out of the manic crowd, completing eight of 11 for 107 yards and two touchdowns as the Pats took a 14-3 lead.
The second touchdown pass was a classic. Rex Ryan sent the house at Brady from the New England 47, and just before the rush got home, Brady hit Chris “Not A Bad Homecoming” Hogan with a perfectly placed 53-yard touchdown throw that looked like it just dropped for the sky. So the streak remains intact: No AFC East foe in 16 seasons has swept Brady and the Patriots in the season series. That’s one amazing stat.
Ezekiel Elliott, running back, Dallas. He didn’t have his best game of the season, and he didn’t score a point. But for the fifth straight game he contributed at least 145 total yards to a Dallas offense that’s been reborn behind him and Dak Prescott. Elliot’s 96 rushing yards and 52 receiving yards against the best defensive front the Cowboys have faced were vital in Dallas’ sixth straight win.
Derek Carr, quarterback, Oakland. See earlier in this column. The greatest day by a quarterback in Raiders history—40 of 59, 513 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions—deserves to share top billing with Brady this weekend.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sean Lee, linebacker, Dallas. A dominant performance in the 29-23 win over the Eagles on Sunday night, with two of the prettiest tackles you’ll ever see. Among his 11 tackles were two behind the line, both on the elusive Darren Sproles. Before the season, everyone was concerned about who would rush the passer for Dallas, and rightfully so. But what we all forgot is how much the oft-injured and remarkably instinctive Lee would mean as a consistent force in the middle.
Star Lotulelei, defensive tackle, Carolina. With the first three-sack game of a starry career, Lotulelei keyed an eight-sack uprising for Carolina against Carson Palmer. The Panthers, more than any team in football, needed a win this weekend, and the Lotulelei-led D took the lead role.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Caleb Sturgis, kicker, Philadelphia. Most impressive thing in the kicking game I saw Sunday? Sturgis’ performance at the end of the first half in Texas on Sunday night. In 51 NFL games before this one, Sturgis’ longest field goal was from 54 yards. Here, he lined up with one second left in the second quarter of a 10-10 game for a 55-yarder. Snap, kick, wait … timeout, Dallas … and the kick was drilled inside the left upright. Would have been good from 63. So he has to kick again, and this time the kick was right down the middle, and would have been good from 65.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Bill Musgrave, offensive coordinator, Oakland. The well-traveled Musgrave—he’s coached for seven NFL teams—has formed the kind of bond with Derek Carr that produces greats results, such as Sunday’s 626-yard offensive explosion in Tampa Bay. Musgrave, with an aggressive brand of play-calling Sunday, fits just what Carr and this offense does best—take chances down the field with a talented group of receivers.
HERO OF THE WEEK
Keith Washington, side judge, New England-Buffalo game. At first, during the Pats-Bills game when Tom Brady threw a pass intended for Chris Hogan near the Buffalo goal line, it looked like a flag came from the end zone. That was no flag. The object bounced, and the more you looked at it, the more you said, It can’t be. Oh, it be. After the play, a couple of Bills looked at it, and I do believe if they weren’t wearing their helmets, we would have seen them laughing. Then Washington walked toward the rubber object, stared at it, seemed to say, Well, I’m certainly not picking that up, and kicked it toward the sideline, where it finally disappeared into the crowd.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
Roberto Aguayo, kicker, Tampa Bay. This is turning into a debacle. The man for whom the Bucs traded up in the draft to select in the second round missed a fourth-quarter extra point, hooking it wide left against the Raiders. The score was 17-16, Oakland, when he lined up for the PAT. The score remained 17-16.
Washington. A team award. Fifteen penalties. A shanked 34-yard field goal in overtime by Dustin Hopkins. Instead of using a timeout with 24 seconds left to try to convert a fourth down near midfield and try a last-gasp game-winning field goal, coach Jay Gruden let the clock run down to try a poorly executed Hail Mary. Bad day for old D.C.
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Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick notes of analysis from Week 8:
a. Rob Gronkowski scored his franchise-record 69th career touchdown Sunday in Buffalo—congrats to him—and at 27, what really stands in the way of him eclipsing 100? Tony Gonzalez owns the record for tight ends with 111, by the way.
b. But the milestone of the day has to be Larry Fitzgerald passing Cris Carter for 12th on the all-time receiving list with 13,920 career yards. Fitzgerald was a ball boy at Vikings camp when Carter was a very big star, and Fitzgerald always wanted to grow up to be a receiver like Carter.
c. There’s a gap between New England and every other team at the season’s midpoint, and it seems to be growing.
d. The looming 2017 free agent who has made the most money in the first half of this season: Houston cornerback A.J. Bouye, a former undrafted longshot who, at 6'0" and 198 pounds, has the length and physicality to match his confidence. He should make $8 million a year on the open market—unless the Texans pay him to stay off it.
e. If I’m Jets GM Mike Maccagnan, and I get offered a third-round pick for Brandon Marshall on Tuesday, I’d take it.
f. Biggest individual winner of the day: Nick Foles.
g. The more I watch Bobby Wagner, the more I think he’ll be a serious contender for Canton one day.
h. On Labor Day weekend, I’d never have guessed the Week 9 game of the week would be in the Black Hole (Denver at Oakland).
i. Just look at the Wisconsin undrafted free-agents playing big roles—Cincinnati kick returner Alex Erickson (65-yard return Sunday), Seattle receiver Tanner McEvoy (vital blocked punt at Arizona last week)—as well as five other undrafted ex-Badgers on NFL rosters, and you see why NFL scouts value their trips to Madison so much.
j. Speaking of undrafted free-agents, Washington running back Rob Kelley (Tulane, 2016), who has pistons that never stop moving for legs, is a great example of why teams can always find good running backs late in the draft or in post-draft free agency.
2. I think if you watched four games on Sunday, starting at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast, you had your best day of football-watching this year—and maybe in several years. Cincinnati-Washington overtime tie, followed by another great game in the Tom Brady masterpiece series, followed by a duel between Matt Ryan and the undermanned Packers with some guys you’ve never heard of, and then Chapter 1 of the Dak Prescott-Carson Wentz book, which we all hope will be about 28 chapters.
Now I’m not saying football’s problems are fixed because of one day; far from it. But Sunday showed what a great day of football is like—though, again, the league has to do something about the spate of endless minor infractions getting flagged.
3. I think the Houston Super Bowl Committee would sign right now for New England versus Dallas on Feb. 7, 2017.
4. I think I’d never say never on this, but I will be extremely surprised if the Browns trade All-Pro tackle Joe Thomas by Tuesday’s trade deadline. Who knows if some team offers two high picks for the 31-year-old Thomas, or some big bounty … but I get the sense inside the Browns that to deal Thomas or Joe Haden would be to denude an already barren-at-the-top franchise.
Cleveland’s got extra first-round and second-round picks next April, and an extra two in 2018. No team is in as good a drafting shape as Cleveland. I totally agree with the thinking that you don’t trade Thomas. I’d rather have a cornerstone, sure-thing player for the next four seasons than the 30th pick (or whatever it would turn out to be) in one of the next two drafts, seeing that I’m already so filthy rich in draft picks in the next couple of years.
5. I think for as much as we get on the officials in a very difficult game to officiate, we should praise them for something done right. On Sunday in London, DeSean Jackson caught a short pass to the right and was down on the ground, making no effort to get up. After maybe half a second on the ground, Cincinnati safety Shawn Williams came in and speared Jackson in the back.
All Williams had to do was touch Jackson, but he leapt and speared him, and Jackson struggled to get to the sideline, in obvious pain. Such over-the-top hits have been points of emphasis for the league, and a flag immediately was thrown. Fifteen yards, unnecessary roughness—as it should be.
6. I think I’m not sure which was worse Thursday night:
a. The uniforms of the Jacksonville Jaguars, caramel and putrid and nearly diarrhea-shaded.
b. The play of the Jacksonville Jaguars, uninspired and not at all befitting their skill.
c. The effort of the Jacksonville Jaguars, lackluster and inconsistent.
7. I think Gus Bradley, obviously, is going to pay for the 14-41 record and the current state of the team with his job. But it was stunning to see so many good players come up so small Thursday night in Nashville. I though it was the worst performance by any NFL team in a game this year. And that’s not something a very patient owner, Shad Khan, will take for long. He told the Florida Times Union after the game in which the Jags fell behind 27-0 at the half and lost 36-23 (deceiving; very deceiving): “Actions speak louder than words. Very little for me to say.”
By the way, if I were Khan and son Tony Khan, the team’s senior VP, I’d probably hire the best offensive mind and teacher out there—but one who would have a specific and dynamic defensive boss in mind. No way I’d hire a head coach on the offensive side of the ball unless he had the ability to bring in a strong defensive guy alongside him. When Doug Pederson convinced Jim Schwartz to be his defensive coordinator in Philadelphia, it was a huge part of his staff equation.
Points allowed were down from 27 last year to 15 entering Sunday night’s game, yards allowed down from 402 per game to 307. So whether the Jags take a liking to Josh McDaniels or Todd Haley or Kyle Shanahan or whomever, I’d want to know whether my defensive leader can settle down Jalen Ramsey and make sure Dante Fowler morphs into the player he was drafted to be—though in fairness to Fowler, he has had some shining moments a year after ACL surgery.
Last Jag point: The mantra around the organization last year, one of them anyway, was about improving a horrible third-down conversion rate on defense. Jacksonville’s defense allowed opponents to convert 46.3 percent of third-down attempts last year. It’s 46.7 percent this year.
8. I think I still cannot believe Ray Rice never got another chance.
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Raiders are Scary and Good
It’s Halloween, and Oakland delivered a freaky performance—23 penalties, more than 600 yards of offense, an OT win—to headline Week 8. Derek Carr reflects on how far the team’s come. Plus notes on Atlanta’s statement, Carolina’s season-saver and more from the NFL’s best weekend of the 2016 season
By Peter King
Photo: Brian Blanco/Getty Images
Two years ago, when Derek Carr and Khalil Mack were Raiders rookies, and Oakland stumbled to an 0-10 start and lost by 52 to the Rams and got swept by a combined 57 by Denver, Carr would say the same thing so many Sundays to Mack after another debacle. “Look at me,” Carr would say. “It’s gonna get better. I promise. We gotta stick together. It’s on us—me and you. Be loyal to your faith and our families and our team, and we’ll be okay. We’re gonna earn it. Okay?”
The Raiders won a totally bizarre football game Sunday at Tampa Bay. They set an NFL record with 23 accepted penalties for 200 yards. The best kicker ever from 50 yards away, Sebastian Janikowski, missed the game-winner from 50 as time expired, and missed from 52 on the first series of overtime. But on an 86-degree afternoon, the precocious Carr, playing the best game of his life, set the record for this 57-year-old franchise with 513 passing yards and threw the game-winning touchdown pass 13 minutes into overtime.
Oakland is 6-2, and 5-0 on the road. Next Sunday night: Denver (also 6-2) at Oakland for the AFC West lead. In November.
Totally spent, Carr still walked around his locker room after the game to check on his mates. “When I got to Khalil,” Carr said from the bus on the way to the Tampa airport afterward, “we just hugged, and we just laughed. You think of those times a couple years ago, but there was nothing to say. Khalil and I know where we were, and we know where we are now. We just laughed.”
“When I get off the phone with you,” Carr said, “I’m going right to sleep. I am just exhausted. Longest game of my life.”
But he did want to savor the moment, here on a fairly quiet bus. Quiet, because playing five quarters in a place that feels like the dead of summer tends to wear out a team.
“You play for the franchise that had Ken Stabler, Daryle Lamonica, Jim Plunkett and Rich Gannon play quarterback,” I said. “You just threw for more yards [513] than anyone in Raider history ever did. What’s that like?”
“I am not even kidding you,” Carr said. “Someone mentioned that to me after the game, and I almost started crying. THAT IS CRAZY. I’m a Cali guy. My mom’s side of the family were Cowboy fans. My dad’s side were Raider fans. Now I’m a Raider. This little kid from Fresno and Bakersfield … you mean, I did that? I did that?! It is crazy.
“I remember my rookie year how hard it was throw for 130 yards. It was hard. It was hard to get a first down. And now, where we are—we still have a lot of work to do. A lot. Those penalties … ridiculous. But we’ll fix that. I know we will. But what we’ve done so far … God is good. God is good. I love the people on this team so much. I love how we’ve worked and played together.”
Carr was rambling, in sort of a tired and giddy way. But what he did in this game was put himself into a few conversations. The MVP conversation, for one. On pace to throw for 4,600 yards with 34 touchdowns and six picks, Carr will be in the discussion if Oakland keeps winning. And in the discussion with the best quarterbacks playing today.
He’s still got to string together some big wins and big games. But some of his throws Sunday in Tampa, a few dropped into a bucket from 25 or 30 yards away, and one in particular placed as well as a quarterback can place a huge throw, convince me that Carr, 25, is fit to be one of the next generation to take over for the Manning/Brady/Brees class.
With 1:40 to go in the fourth quarter, Oakland trailed 24-17. The Raiders had the ball at the Bucs’ seven-yard line. Oakland was going to flood the secondary with five receivers: two wideouts would do short outs, two receivers would do posts from opposite sides, and tight end Mychal Rivera would troll the middle with a short crossing route around the goal line.
“Goodness,” said Carr. “they covered it so well. Then, something we didn’t expect—they dropped an eighth man into coverage. So it was five receivers and eight guys covering.”
The imbalance had one advantage for Carr. He could wait an extra second or so, because he had five offensive linemen blocking three Tampa rushers. That gave him a chance to see who was being doubled and where a small crease might be. And he saw Rivera flashing across the middle, covered well by Tampa linebacker Kwon Alexander. But perhaps not well enough.
A quarterback—a good one, anyway—knows he’s going to have to fit some crucial throws into small areas. That’s the difference, quite often, between good and great passers. And here, Carr threw a pass low and outside for Rivera. The tight end probably wouldn’t catch it, but it was the best shot for Carr in such a mismatched 5-on-8 setting.
“When I look at my throws on plays like this,” he said, “I never look and say, ‘Look at that throw.’ I look at the catch, or the receiver trying to make the catch. I’m such a fan. So often I look and wonder how he caught that ball. I’m still a football fan, and the catches these guys make, it blows my mind sometimes. And this play, Mychal’s catch was the great moment.”
Well, the ball was placed perfectly, and Rivera went down and got it, close to the ground, with Alexander clinging to him. Great example of Rivera knowing exactly where he had to go to get the ball and getting it, and of Carr putting it where his man—only his—could nab it.
I asked Carr how good his team was, and whether it was ready to play at the league’s highest level. “I don’t look at that,” he said. “I know everyone else does, but we’re so young, and we have a long way to go.”
Good attitude to have, especially with the Super Bowl champs coming to town. Oakland hasn’t beaten a team that currently has a winning record, and its two losses—to Atlanta and Kansas City—were against winners. So the Raiders have things to prove. But the next four games included three at home and a neutral-site game with Houston in Mexico City on Nov. 21. Now it's up to Carr and Mack to build a good team at home to go with the one that’s had a road-field advantage this year.
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Photo: Michael Ainsworth/AP
On the verge of death Sunday morning, a 97-year-old league had a pretty good 14 hours. Though the league continues to set all-sport records for ticky-tack fouls called in a season, the NFL had a big day:
• The epidemic of ties. The NFL went 33 game weeks (462 games total) without a tie, then two games in a four-game span were draws: the 6-6 Seattle-Arizona slugfest eight nights ago, and the 27-27 missed-chance-fest between Washington and Cincinnati on Sunday morning in London. The Competition Committee never asks me, but I think there should be no fifth quarter. Ties should be played until they’re broken. What is it, an extra three or four series a year, maybe?
• Tom Brady is not human. In the first 225 regular-season games of his career, the New England quarterback never had four straight in any season in which he exceeded a passer rating of 120. He’s 39. He came off his four-game suspension Oct. 9 having not played a football game in nine months. Now he’s 4-0, and here are the passer ratings in those four games: 127.7, 140.0, 124.2, 137.0. That’s right. The man seven months older than the Miami Dolphins” head coach has never played better football.
• The MVP is seething. The Panthers (2-5) saved their season with a 30-20 home win over Arizona, but the story afterward was Cam Newton saying two late hits (one very low by Calais Campbell that should have been flagged but was not) continue to “take the fun out of the game” for him. “At times I don’t feel safe,” he said. “Enough is enough.” Newton’s been adamant that he’s not being protected by the officials the way other quarterbacks are. After seeing Campbell hit him below the knee in the pocket, you get where he’s coming from. Newton said he was going to contact Roger Goodell, and he should.
• The Saints have life. A 25-20 win over Seattle that came down to the last play means a couple of things: Because the NFC South is all muddled, and the Saints are showing some defensive gumption, and they’ll be 4-4 with a win at San Francisco next week, and their schedule isn’t killer, beating Seattle means they could be playing meaningful football in December with a quarterback who can beat anyone.
• The NFL needed a day like this. With the league in the crosshairs for so many things—lousy games, lousy ratings, domestic violence, a blizzard of penalties—you hear the sighs of relief from Park Avenue. The day: a competitive and exciting game in London, for once … A Goliath team without peer (New England) for everyone to take aim at … A duel to the end, one of the great games of recent vintage (Atlanta 33, Green Bay 32, a week after San Diego 33, Atlanta 30) with Matt Ryan making one more play than Aaron Rodgers … No idiotic excessive-celebration flags.
• And a night, too. From Tony Romo versus Sam Bradford in 2015 to Dak Prescott versus Carson Wentz in ’16, and I didn’t hear any complaints Sunday night. Dallas, down 23-13 with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, scored the game’s final 16 points. You know what I loved about Prescott down the stretch? He did next to nothing for three-and-a-half quarters and didn’t wilt. He finished a 90-yard drive late in the fourth quarter with a scoring pass to Dez Bryant, and capped the only drive of OT, a 75-yarder, with a touchdown pass to Jason Witten. Prescott’s got a six-game winning streak heading into Dallas’ game at 0-8 Cleveland next week. I kinda like the Cowboys.
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Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
• Big accomplishment for Ryan and Atlanta. Admit it: You thought this was a rerun of 2015, a hot start for Hotlanta and fading as November approached. But Atlanta plays better defense this year than in recent seasons, and the Falcons don’t get down if Julio Jones can’t take over a game. That’s the biggest thing I see in Matt Ryan and play-caller Kyle Shanahan as Atlanta reached the season’s midpoint with a 33-32 win over the Packers. Shanahan might be seeing the game better and making better play calls after moving from the field during games and calling the plays upstairs.
Also, Ryan’s not consumed with finding any specific receiver; just the open one. Case in point: In difficult victories over Denver, New Orleans and Green Bay, Jones caught six passes combined, for 74 yards. But the Falcons scored 101 points in those three games … and newcomer Mohamed Sanu had 15 catches, combined, in those games.
“First and foremost,” Ryan said after his 80-percent passing day, with three touchdowns and no picks, “Julio is one of the most unselfish players I’ve ever been around. On every snap today, he was doubled. He had a corner with a safety over the top every play. But the good thing is he understands that his impact helps the other guys, because he’s not open and someone else is.
This year has been different for me with the new additions, but it’s been a good year. These guys all love to practice.” The Falcons have a short-week Thursday trip to Tampa, then their final pre-bye game at Philadelphia, a homecoming for Ryan. The win over Green Bay, and how they won, is a sign the Falcons will be tough to keep out of the playoffs.
• A season-saver for Carolina. I get it that the Panthers have scored 79 points against Arizona in their last two meetings, but the reason for their 30-20 win on Sunday wasn’t an explosive offense. It was a defense that, in the previous three games, had allowed an average of 35 points and 470 yards per outing. Not good. But this was a favorable matchup for Carolina, an immobile quarterback with an oft-leaky line.
The Panthers sacked Carson Palmer eight times and sprinted to a 30-7 lead. It’s the kind game—at least for three quarters—that Carolina played all last season. Could it have been as simple as the desperate team realizing its plight? The 1-5 team knowing one more loss could doom any chance of January football? “No,” said defensive tackle Star Lotulelei, who had a career-high three sacks of Palmer. “It was the same message we get every week, the same approach. We know, like Cam [Newton] said during the week, nothing needs to be said.
We know what our situation is. And today we just played the kind of football where everybody helped everybody else. Our defensive ends squeezed the pocket so the tackles could make some plays. Our linebackers played aggressive, downhill. Our corners came up and tackled. It was a really good, really aggressive day.” The Panthers still have Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle and Atlanta on the schedule, so a long winning streak is unlikely. But if Carolina plays like it did Sunday, those foes will have to be just as worried about facing the Panthers.
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On the Brett Favre book
Photo: Allen Steele/Getty Images :: Houghton Mifflin
Jeff Pearlman has a new book out this week—“Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre.” It’s an exhaustive effort to chronicle the life and times of the most interesting person I’ve covered in my 32 years on the NFL beat (Pearlman writes that he spoke to 573 people for the book), with the scars and the wonder.
The scars include his tempestuous relationship with Aaron Rodgers, which has been well-documented in the run-up to the release of this book. And it also includes the claim, late in Favre’s career, by offensive lineman Artis Hicks of the Vikings that Minnesota had a bounty program at the same time as New Orleans was found guilty by the league of having one. (The NFL, given the heavy hammer it used on the Saints, has to look into this.)
There are a few examples of the wonder, but let me be up front in saying that I have only skimmed the book for two hours last week, because in the middle of a season I knew I couldn’t give the 383 pages a full reading.
Pearlman’s so good at recreating important moments in a subject’s life—brilliantly done in “Sweetness,” his book on Walter Payton. He did that in “Gunslinger” on what made NFL people fall in love with Favre in his senior year at Southern Miss. It’s well-known that on July 14, 1990, Favre was in a terrible car wreck (“I thought he could have been dead,” a good buddy on the trip that day told Pearlman), and had to have 30 inches of his intestine removed, and doctors told him he wouldn’t play football that fall.
But exactly eight weeks later, Favre, about 34 pounds lighter than his playing weight of 226, took the field for Southern Miss at Alabama, which returned 16 starters from its ninth-ranked team the previous year. He took a shot to the groin on the first play of the game, but that was the only time all game he was writhing in pain.
In the final minutes, he “threw a laser,” as Pearlman put it, to a back for 34 yards, setting up a Southern Miss field goal to beat ’Bama 27-24. The legend was born. The next week Favre lost by a point at Georgia. Two months later he threw a touchdown pass in the final minutes to stun Auburn, at Auburn, by a point. The chapter on the accident and this meteoric season is really good.
Also very good was the reporting on the trade from Atlanta to Green Bay in early 1992, after Favre’s rookie season with the Falcons. The deal began with Atlanta GM Ken Herock asking for two first-round picks for Favre from new Green Bay GM Ron Wolf. A ridiculous ask for a second-round pick who finished the year as Atlanta’s third-stringer, with much wrath incurred from coach Jerry Glanville. But then Herock knew Glanville would never like or play Favre, so he rekindled the deal with Wolf.
“[Herock] demanded a first-round selection or no deal,” writes Pearlman. “Herock told Wolf he'd have to check back with the Falcons. A day later he met with Glanville and June Jones, the offensive coordinator, and told them of the offer. ‘Oh my gosh,’ Glanville said. ‘You'd be a genius. A first for that guy? Herock was raised in Pittsburgh. He lived and died with the Steelers and could never grasp the organization releasing Johnny Unitas in 1955.
‘I used to think Pittsburgh was so freaking dumb. How do you dump Johnny Unitas?’ he said. Following the session with Glanville and Jones, Herock debated whether he was now the one about to commit a similar blunder. ‘But then I calmed down,’ he said. ‘I mean, there was no way he would be another Johnny Unitas.’ On February 11, 1992, Green Bay and Atlanta reached an agreement: Brett Favre became a member of the Packers, and the Falcons owned the 19th slot in the first round.”
The rest is the kind of unique chapter of NFL history you can learn more about in “Gunslinger.” You can purchase it here.
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OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Tom Brady, quarterback, New England. If there was ever a time that the Patriots may have been vulnerable, this seemed like the season, and this team seemed like the one to capitalize. Buffalo was playing at home, with recent success running the ball and playing solid defense. But in the first 14 minutes, Brady took the air out of the manic crowd, completing eight of 11 for 107 yards and two touchdowns as the Pats took a 14-3 lead.
The second touchdown pass was a classic. Rex Ryan sent the house at Brady from the New England 47, and just before the rush got home, Brady hit Chris “Not A Bad Homecoming” Hogan with a perfectly placed 53-yard touchdown throw that looked like it just dropped for the sky. So the streak remains intact: No AFC East foe in 16 seasons has swept Brady and the Patriots in the season series. That’s one amazing stat.
Ezekiel Elliott, running back, Dallas. He didn’t have his best game of the season, and he didn’t score a point. But for the fifth straight game he contributed at least 145 total yards to a Dallas offense that’s been reborn behind him and Dak Prescott. Elliot’s 96 rushing yards and 52 receiving yards against the best defensive front the Cowboys have faced were vital in Dallas’ sixth straight win.
Derek Carr, quarterback, Oakland. See earlier in this column. The greatest day by a quarterback in Raiders history—40 of 59, 513 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions—deserves to share top billing with Brady this weekend.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sean Lee, linebacker, Dallas. A dominant performance in the 29-23 win over the Eagles on Sunday night, with two of the prettiest tackles you’ll ever see. Among his 11 tackles were two behind the line, both on the elusive Darren Sproles. Before the season, everyone was concerned about who would rush the passer for Dallas, and rightfully so. But what we all forgot is how much the oft-injured and remarkably instinctive Lee would mean as a consistent force in the middle.
Star Lotulelei, defensive tackle, Carolina. With the first three-sack game of a starry career, Lotulelei keyed an eight-sack uprising for Carolina against Carson Palmer. The Panthers, more than any team in football, needed a win this weekend, and the Lotulelei-led D took the lead role.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Caleb Sturgis, kicker, Philadelphia. Most impressive thing in the kicking game I saw Sunday? Sturgis’ performance at the end of the first half in Texas on Sunday night. In 51 NFL games before this one, Sturgis’ longest field goal was from 54 yards. Here, he lined up with one second left in the second quarter of a 10-10 game for a 55-yarder. Snap, kick, wait … timeout, Dallas … and the kick was drilled inside the left upright. Would have been good from 63. So he has to kick again, and this time the kick was right down the middle, and would have been good from 65.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Bill Musgrave, offensive coordinator, Oakland. The well-traveled Musgrave—he’s coached for seven NFL teams—has formed the kind of bond with Derek Carr that produces greats results, such as Sunday’s 626-yard offensive explosion in Tampa Bay. Musgrave, with an aggressive brand of play-calling Sunday, fits just what Carr and this offense does best—take chances down the field with a talented group of receivers.
HERO OF THE WEEK
Keith Washington, side judge, New England-Buffalo game. At first, during the Pats-Bills game when Tom Brady threw a pass intended for Chris Hogan near the Buffalo goal line, it looked like a flag came from the end zone. That was no flag. The object bounced, and the more you looked at it, the more you said, It can’t be. Oh, it be. After the play, a couple of Bills looked at it, and I do believe if they weren’t wearing their helmets, we would have seen them laughing. Then Washington walked toward the rubber object, stared at it, seemed to say, Well, I’m certainly not picking that up, and kicked it toward the sideline, where it finally disappeared into the crowd.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
Roberto Aguayo, kicker, Tampa Bay. This is turning into a debacle. The man for whom the Bucs traded up in the draft to select in the second round missed a fourth-quarter extra point, hooking it wide left against the Raiders. The score was 17-16, Oakland, when he lined up for the PAT. The score remained 17-16.
Washington. A team award. Fifteen penalties. A shanked 34-yard field goal in overtime by Dustin Hopkins. Instead of using a timeout with 24 seconds left to try to convert a fourth down near midfield and try a last-gasp game-winning field goal, coach Jay Gruden let the clock run down to try a poorly executed Hail Mary. Bad day for old D.C.
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Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick notes of analysis from Week 8:
a. Rob Gronkowski scored his franchise-record 69th career touchdown Sunday in Buffalo—congrats to him—and at 27, what really stands in the way of him eclipsing 100? Tony Gonzalez owns the record for tight ends with 111, by the way.
b. But the milestone of the day has to be Larry Fitzgerald passing Cris Carter for 12th on the all-time receiving list with 13,920 career yards. Fitzgerald was a ball boy at Vikings camp when Carter was a very big star, and Fitzgerald always wanted to grow up to be a receiver like Carter.
c. There’s a gap between New England and every other team at the season’s midpoint, and it seems to be growing.
d. The looming 2017 free agent who has made the most money in the first half of this season: Houston cornerback A.J. Bouye, a former undrafted longshot who, at 6'0" and 198 pounds, has the length and physicality to match his confidence. He should make $8 million a year on the open market—unless the Texans pay him to stay off it.
e. If I’m Jets GM Mike Maccagnan, and I get offered a third-round pick for Brandon Marshall on Tuesday, I’d take it.
f. Biggest individual winner of the day: Nick Foles.
g. The more I watch Bobby Wagner, the more I think he’ll be a serious contender for Canton one day.
h. On Labor Day weekend, I’d never have guessed the Week 9 game of the week would be in the Black Hole (Denver at Oakland).
i. Just look at the Wisconsin undrafted free-agents playing big roles—Cincinnati kick returner Alex Erickson (65-yard return Sunday), Seattle receiver Tanner McEvoy (vital blocked punt at Arizona last week)—as well as five other undrafted ex-Badgers on NFL rosters, and you see why NFL scouts value their trips to Madison so much.
j. Speaking of undrafted free-agents, Washington running back Rob Kelley (Tulane, 2016), who has pistons that never stop moving for legs, is a great example of why teams can always find good running backs late in the draft or in post-draft free agency.
2. I think if you watched four games on Sunday, starting at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast, you had your best day of football-watching this year—and maybe in several years. Cincinnati-Washington overtime tie, followed by another great game in the Tom Brady masterpiece series, followed by a duel between Matt Ryan and the undermanned Packers with some guys you’ve never heard of, and then Chapter 1 of the Dak Prescott-Carson Wentz book, which we all hope will be about 28 chapters.
Now I’m not saying football’s problems are fixed because of one day; far from it. But Sunday showed what a great day of football is like—though, again, the league has to do something about the spate of endless minor infractions getting flagged.
3. I think the Houston Super Bowl Committee would sign right now for New England versus Dallas on Feb. 7, 2017.
4. I think I’d never say never on this, but I will be extremely surprised if the Browns trade All-Pro tackle Joe Thomas by Tuesday’s trade deadline. Who knows if some team offers two high picks for the 31-year-old Thomas, or some big bounty … but I get the sense inside the Browns that to deal Thomas or Joe Haden would be to denude an already barren-at-the-top franchise.
Cleveland’s got extra first-round and second-round picks next April, and an extra two in 2018. No team is in as good a drafting shape as Cleveland. I totally agree with the thinking that you don’t trade Thomas. I’d rather have a cornerstone, sure-thing player for the next four seasons than the 30th pick (or whatever it would turn out to be) in one of the next two drafts, seeing that I’m already so filthy rich in draft picks in the next couple of years.
5. I think for as much as we get on the officials in a very difficult game to officiate, we should praise them for something done right. On Sunday in London, DeSean Jackson caught a short pass to the right and was down on the ground, making no effort to get up. After maybe half a second on the ground, Cincinnati safety Shawn Williams came in and speared Jackson in the back.
All Williams had to do was touch Jackson, but he leapt and speared him, and Jackson struggled to get to the sideline, in obvious pain. Such over-the-top hits have been points of emphasis for the league, and a flag immediately was thrown. Fifteen yards, unnecessary roughness—as it should be.
6. I think I’m not sure which was worse Thursday night:
a. The uniforms of the Jacksonville Jaguars, caramel and putrid and nearly diarrhea-shaded.
b. The play of the Jacksonville Jaguars, uninspired and not at all befitting their skill.
c. The effort of the Jacksonville Jaguars, lackluster and inconsistent.
7. I think Gus Bradley, obviously, is going to pay for the 14-41 record and the current state of the team with his job. But it was stunning to see so many good players come up so small Thursday night in Nashville. I though it was the worst performance by any NFL team in a game this year. And that’s not something a very patient owner, Shad Khan, will take for long. He told the Florida Times Union after the game in which the Jags fell behind 27-0 at the half and lost 36-23 (deceiving; very deceiving): “Actions speak louder than words. Very little for me to say.”
By the way, if I were Khan and son Tony Khan, the team’s senior VP, I’d probably hire the best offensive mind and teacher out there—but one who would have a specific and dynamic defensive boss in mind. No way I’d hire a head coach on the offensive side of the ball unless he had the ability to bring in a strong defensive guy alongside him. When Doug Pederson convinced Jim Schwartz to be his defensive coordinator in Philadelphia, it was a huge part of his staff equation.
Points allowed were down from 27 last year to 15 entering Sunday night’s game, yards allowed down from 402 per game to 307. So whether the Jags take a liking to Josh McDaniels or Todd Haley or Kyle Shanahan or whomever, I’d want to know whether my defensive leader can settle down Jalen Ramsey and make sure Dante Fowler morphs into the player he was drafted to be—though in fairness to Fowler, he has had some shining moments a year after ACL surgery.
Last Jag point: The mantra around the organization last year, one of them anyway, was about improving a horrible third-down conversion rate on defense. Jacksonville’s defense allowed opponents to convert 46.3 percent of third-down attempts last year. It’s 46.7 percent this year.
8. I think I still cannot believe Ray Rice never got another chance.
