Peter King: MMQB - 10/9/17

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These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below.
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https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/10/09/n...avante-adams-odell-beckham-jj-watt-peter-king

NFL Week 5 Had It All, and Then Some
By Peter King

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GETTY IMAGES

Where to begin? You’re going to need to close the door to your office, or hole up in your cubicle, or say your dog ate your car keys … I don’t know. But you’re going to need more time than usual to process what happened this weekend in the NFL.

Let’s see. Start with David Letterman roasting Peyton Manning, and his hometown. Then there was Indianapolis booing Roger Goodell, loudly, at the Manning lovefest. Then Carolina’s Cam Newton, with just a little pressure on him, playing one of the best games of his career, highlighted by one of the oddest, coolest plays he’s made.

Then Philly’s Carson Wentz absolutely steamrolling the Cardinals in what may have been the best game of his shiny young career. Then Ben Roethlisberger saying, “Maybe I don’t have it anymore,” after the first five-interception game of his 210-game NFL career.

More? Then Odell Beckham Jr. fracturing his ankle and possibly being lost for the season. Then Beckham in tears. Then the Giants falling to 0-5. Then the Jets winning their third straight; their record (3-2) says they’re better than Oakland and Dallas.

Then Green Bay playing a classic for the time capsule, capped by not-quite-a-Jared-Cook catch by Davante Adams—stunningly back from the Danny Trevathan car crash 10 days earlier to win with 11 seconds left in The House That Jerry Built.

You want more? Then three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt breaking a leg bone and likely being lost for the season—again—and even the biggest Watt fans wondering: Will we ever see his greatness again? Then Watt on the verge of tears.

Then the Chiefs moving to 5-0, with blinding speed everywhere, and beginning to distance themselves from everybody who’s pretty good. Then Deshaun Watson, in his fourth NFL start, throwing for five touchdowns against the best team in football.

Then the realization that Alex Smith is the most valuable player in the game after five weeks. Then a shadowy, weird, unconfirmed video emerging just before midnight depicting a man, supposedly Dolphins assistant coach Chris Foerster, snorting some white powder while talking luridly to an absent female friend—before going into a meeting.

There have been some crazy weekends in my time covering the NFL. But this one was a combo platter of “North Dallas Forty” and “The Situation Room” and whatever show has grisly injuries you do not want to see but cannot look away.

So we’re going to be here for a while, starting with the happiest man, and most relieved man, on the Green Bay Packers’ charter on the tarmac at DFW Airport just after 9 Sunday night.

* * *

This is what Davante Adams remembers about the hit heard ’round the NFL, the savage, Bednarikian helmet-to-helmet hit from Chicago linebacker Danny Trevathan in the Week 4 Thursday night game:

“Nothing, really,” he said from his seat on the Packers’ plane after Green Bay’s 35-31 win in Texas. “I couldn’t recall anything. My first memory is when I got to the hospital. Then things started coming back. I vaguely remember scoring a touchdown the play before the hit. It got called back, and then the hit happened on the next play. I remember a little bit then, but then I started to remember more as time went by and I got a little less foggy.”

“Did you see the play?” I asked.

“Yeah, I saw it,” he said. “My fiancée showed it to me. She showed it to me on her cell phone—it was already on YouTube. When I saw it, it kind of made me sick to my stomach. I got a little heated watching it. As time went by, I started to remember everything.”

“Shocked you weren’t hurt worse?”

“Absolutely. Absolutely. God was really looking out for me there that night. An angel was there, to bring me back to life. My neck hurt a little bit from the whiplash of the hit, but that was about it. To come out of it fine, and then to play the next week, it’s amazing. A blessing.”

“Did Travathan reach out?”

“He did. He hollered at me, and I talked to him. It made me feel better, knowing there was no intention on his part. He’s not a dirty guy. It was just kind of a dirty hit. That’s how the game goes sometimes. No bad blood. I moved past it.”

Adams felt lucky to be playing on Sunday in Arlington. The Green Bay-Dallas rivalry has been ridiculously good in the Aaron Rodgers era. The teams have played three times in Texas in the past five years, and each game tops the previous one for exhilaration:

2013: Green Bay 37, Dallas 36.
2016: Green Bay 34, Dallas 31.
2017: Green Bay 35, Dallas 31.

I guess there’s not much to say when the Cowboys and Packers play deep in the heart, except this: Take the over. And this: Bet on Rodgers.

The Cowboys made one big mistake down the stretch as they took a 31-28 lead with 73 seconds left in Sunday’s game: That’s way too much time for Rodgers. Green Bay had one timeout remaining with 1:24 to play when Dallas, inexplicably, threw an incomplete pass, stopping the clock at 1:18.

The Cowboys scored a touchdown on the next play, but instead of the Packers getting the ball with maybe 40 seconds and one timeout at, say, their 25-yard line, they took it down three with 1:13 left. Rodgers, with time, methodically and calmly moved the Packers to the Dallas 12 with 16 seconds remaining.

On the previous play, Adams, an angular and athletic 6'1" receiver earning Rodgers’ trust more and more, lined up wide left on rookie Dallas cornerback Jourdan Lewis. Lewis was stride-for-stride with Adams, and Rodgers overthrew his man. Back in the huddle, before Rodgers called the play, Adams had a message for him.

“Let’s go back to it,” Adams said to Rodgers—and Adams isn’t known as a beggar in the huddle. “Do it again. Throw it back up to me.”

Adams’ assignment was the same—line up wide left, take Lewis to the left side of the end zone … and wait. On the previous play, Rodgers threw a fade out of the side of the end zone, and Lewis’ coverage was good, and it wasn’t close to being completed.

The second pass was designed as a back-shoulder throw. “Aaron threw it a little higher, and behind me,” Adams said. “He threw it in a great spot. The first one I saw a little later. The second one was in a perfect spot.” Rodgers threw it three-quarter delivery, calmly, to a spot Lewis couldn’t reach—high and just slightly behind him. Lewis turned back awkwardly and flailed at the ball, and Adams plucked from just over Lewis’s head. Touchdown.

“Aaron threw a perfect ball, which he does a lot,” Adams said. “It feels good to make this catch, my first game-winner, and on the biggest stage in football.”

Pretty amazing day. Pretty amazing 10 days. Adams said he wasn’t sore and had no headaches, even after being targeted 11 times and getting beaten up some during the game. And he didn’t seem all that impressed with himself or what he’d done. Playing in this game was surprising enough. Having the biggest catch of his career added to the stunning moment.

“A miracle, absolutely,” he said. “But miracles happen all the time.”

With Rodgers throwing the ball the way he does in Dallas—and practically everywhere—miracles for Green Bay seem a tad more commonplace.

* * *

Cam Newton Has Best Game of Season After Tumultuous Week

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SCOTT W. GRAU/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Recapping the rest of Sunday:

• Newton is pretty good at shutting out the outside world, apparently. Newton had an MVP-vintage game in the 27-24 win at Detroit: 26 of 33, 355 yards, three touchdowns and no picks. And the Carolina offense, for the first time this year, showed every aspect of what GM Dave Gettleman tried to build before getting fired in July. Isolate on one play, the six-yard shovel-pass touchdown from Newton to rookie Christian McCaffrey.

Newton’s physical presence, and his speed, and the speed elsewhere on offense, made the play happen. At the snap of the ball, rookie wideout Curtis Samuel came in motion from the left. Newton took the snap and faked the jet-sweep handoff to Samuel. Then Newton ran to the left, with Jonathan Stewart to his outside shoulder, as though the Panthers were running the read-option.

Two defenders committed to Newton and Stewart, and suddenly Newton stopped short and shoveled the ball to McCaffrey out front, between two defenders. Easy touchdown. What made the play work? Newton’s physicality and his speed threatened the defense. Stewart must be respected as a back running wide. Samuel distracted the D with his motion. And McCaffrey just snuck in for a fairly easy touchdown. At least it looked easy.

That’s the kind of play that foretells trouble for future defenses, with the injection of speed and Newton’s post-shoulder-injury health. “Atlanta’s run it sometimes,” said offensive coordinator Mike Shula. “Pitt ran it in college. We’ve seen it. But there’s a lot of good options to it for our offense.”

Shula said he didn’t talk much to Newton about the controversy of the week (more about that later in the column), his belittling of a female reporter. “Luke Kuechly and some of the guys picked his spirits up, I think,” Shula said. “Me and [backup] Derek Anderson and [QB coach] Ken Dorsey were like, ‘You okay?’ And he said he was. We moved on. He’s just so happy today. He loves winning. I don’t think he lets things bother him the way we might think.”

• Thursday night in Charlotte: Eagles (4-1) at Panthers (4-1). We’re seeing Carson Wentz mature before our eyes. And though Arizona looks like it was overrated entering the year, Wentz’s performance was still impressive, waxing the Cardinals on three straight drives to open the game 21-0 after one quarter, on the way to a 34-7 win.

“What we do well,” Wentz said afterward, “is mix it up well—play-action, empty backfield, find where the mismatches are. We came out firing and never let up.” Last year, Wentz showed some carelessness down the stretch, rushing his passes and trying to force too many throws. Now you watch him and see the quick but not careless working through progressions.

Some young quarterbacks have nervous feet. Not Wentz. His touchdown to Nelson Agholor down the left sideline was the correct decision, the pass placed perfectly. Thursday is going to be a fun game to watch, two young quarterbacks duking it out. “I’ve got a ton of respect for Cam,” said Wentz. “I’ve watched him a lot. A lot to like.”

• Random thought of the week. The Cleveland Browns, in the past two drafts, bypassed Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz and Jared Goff. Those three are seventh, ninth and 12th, respectively, in the NFL in passer rating this morning … with a combined touchdown-to-interception differential of 29 to 10. The Brown had better love one of the quarterbacks coming out in the draft next April.

• Speaking of Watson … You might have expected the postgame locker room in Houston—after the devastation of losing defensive stalwarts J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus for the year, after losing for the third time in five games—to be relatively hopeless. That’s not the way one observer saw this locker room on Sunday night, with Houston at 2-3 and without local hero Watt and rising star Mercilus.

That’s because for the first time in years, the Texans think they’ve found the most difficult franchise centerpiece to find, in quarterback Deshaun Watson. On Sunday night, with the crowd in mourning after the loss of Watt with a broken leg that will require surgery as soon as Monday, Watson didn’t succumb to emotions. He led the Texans to 27 points in the second half, throwing four touchdown passes and keeping Houston in a shootout with the best team in football. Watson is leaving his mark after just four starts:

• The Texans have scored 91 points in the last two games, a two-game franchise record.

• Watson has thrown nine touchdown passes in the past two games.

• His attitude and presence is something coach Bill O’Brien points to a lot. He even used the next-man-up thing after Sunday’s game, after the big defensive injuries. “Praying for those guys,” Watson said. “But at the same time, it’s the National Football League and you have to have a next-man-up mentality.”

It’s weird to simply move on after injuries like that. Weird and cold. But that’s the business of the NFL.

• Todd Bowles is not feeling vengeful. The Jets coach would be within his rights to tell the geniuses on my side of the business (including me) how we had his team all wrong. I gave him that chance after the Miracle Jets, with a 17-14 win over Cleveland, moved into a three-way tie for the AFC East lead (Buffalo 3-2, New England 3-2, Jets 3-2.) Vengeance? “I don’t have time for that,” he told me from Cleveland. “It’s a long season. And everyone else’s goals are not our goals.”

Lots of upset specials in the NFL this season, but the Jets being above .500 in October is one of the biggest surprises. Bowles was bullish Sunday on quarterback Josh McCown, the 38-year-old veteran of 10 pro teams. Sunday marked the first time in McCown’s career that he’d won three NFL starts in a row. “We love him,” said Bowles. “He is perfect for our team. He has meant everything to us. He’s a leader for guys all over the team.” McCown’s 71-percent accuracy has been huge, as has his ability to instill some instant chemistry into a bunch of new receivers (Jermaine Kearse: team-high 22 catches).

This should be fun if not necessarily a work of art: Jets-Patriots in New Jersey on Sunday for the AFC East lead. Never thought in 2017 I’d be writing that sentence.

* * *

There is no safe haven for Roger Goodell

The NFL can, and certainly will, slough off the reception for the commissioner here, but I found it notable, to say the least. When Goodell took the podium to speak, he was greeted by boos from—this is a very rough estimate—about half the crowd of maybe 10,000 to 12,000 fans.

It seemed stunning, on such a celebratory day, with such good and warm feelings, that such a folksy town like Indianapolis would rain down boos on a commissioner who went out of his way to fly to Indiana to pay tribute to Manning.

When Roger Goodell is booed in these environs, in front of a crowd ready to shower nothing but love on the dais … well, I am dubious, for as long as he is on office, whether he’ll ever rehab his public reputation.

* * *

The Award Section: Alex Smith Playing at MVP Level for Unbeaten Chiefs

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OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Alex Smith, quarterback, Kansas City. The MVP of the first five weeks is having far and away the best season of his life. His 76.6 percent accuracy is absurd; the current record for accuracy in a season is 71.6. Smith continues to throw the ball well downfield, and his three touchdowns and 324 yards led the last unbeaten team in football to a 42-34 win over the plucky but beat-up Texans.

Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. The former MVP is starting to play like one again. His Week 5 league-high 355 passing yards, with three touchdowns, led 4-1 Carolina past Detroit 27-24 win in a week full of self-made distraction for Newton.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Vontaze Burfict, linebacker, Cincinnati. Marvin Lewis will tell anyone who’ll listen how valuable Burfict is, and how much he was missed during his September suspension for the brutal hit on Kansas City running back Anthony Sherman. Burfict’s 13 tackles and one sack were vital to the Bengals’ 20-16 win over Buffalo in the Cincinnati rain Sunday.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Adam Vinatieri, kicker, Indianapolis. Vinatieri bookended the game perfectly for the Colts. His 52-yard field goal in the first quarter accounted for the first points of the game; his 51-yard field goal in overtime gave the Colts a 26-23 win. And an extraordinary career gets more extraordinary. Vinatieri turns 45 in December.

Since turning 41, he has made 16 of 19 field goals from 50 yards and beyond. Here’s the interesting thing to me: In his first six seasons, Vinatieri hit on 80.4 percent of all field goals. Since turning 41, he’s made 84.2 percent of his 50-yard-plus kicks. Now that’s impressive.

COACH OF THE WEEK

Todd Bowles, head coach, New York Jets. Coaching in the NFL cauldron is a difficult thing anyway. Doing it with a bad team in New York is exponentially more distracting. I’ve got tremendous respect for Bowles, for getting his team to 3-2 with a quarterback put on the street by the Cleveland Browns, a tattered offensive line, and a defense that gave up 45 points in Week 2 in Oakland. Bowles has proven against the odds that coaching, and a smart plan, matter.

GOATS OF THE WEEK

Nick Folk, kicker, Tampa Bay. The difference in New England’s 19-14 win over Tampa on Thursday night? Simple: Stephen Gostkowski, 4-for-4 on field goals. Nick Folk, 0-for-3 on field goals. Folk missed kicks from 56, 49 and 31 yards.

The gory details … New England up 13-7, late second quarter: Folk missed a 56-yard prayer, wide right. New England up 16-7, early fourth quarter: Folk missed a 49-yarder, wide left. New England up 16-7, midway through the fourth quarter: Folk missed a 31-yard field goal, wide left.

Kicking efficiency since the start of the 2016 season, as measured by percentage of successful field-goal and extra-point attempts combined:

Team (Kicker)/ PAT Made-Att./ FG Made-Att./ All Kicks Made-Att./ All Kicks Pct.
1. Baltimore (Tucker)/ 36-36/ 45-48/ 81-84/ .964
2. Los Angeles Rams (Zuerlein)/ 38-38/ 34-38/ 72-76/ .947
32. Tampa Bay (Aguayo, Folk)/ 39-43/ 28-42/ 67-85/ .788

Ian Rapoport reported over the weekend that the Bucs will have kicker tryouts for Nick Folk’s job today. Folk’s still employed, but who knows for how long.

Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback, Pittsburgh. For his five interceptions, and for a 21-point loss to the Jaguars at home. Both stunners.

* * *

A word about NFL TV ratings. Several words, actually. The NFL is concerned about them. Some people in the league are hugely concerned about them. They should be. A year ago, when the ratings were tanking, most media cognoscenti said it was because the rancorous presidential campaign was sucking all the TV air out of the room, and the marginal football fan was watching Fox News or MSNBC or CNN instead of football. So we’ll skip 2016 ratings for the purpose of this exercise, and compare 2017 to 2015.

In Week 4, ESPN’s Monday night rating for the Kansas City-Washington game was 19 percent lower than the Detroit-Seattle Week 4 game in 2015. NBC’s Sunday night Indianapolis-Seattle rating was down 32 percent compared to the Dallas-New Orleans game in 2015. Now, you can say a lot about that second comparison, namely that any game with Dallas will get a good rating. But no matter what the matchup, to be down by a third, week over week, from two years ago is notable.

Now, I doubt in NBC’s case that a third fewer people watched this year’s game in Week 4 than watched in 2015. People who follow the ratings game closely tell me that some fans are cord-cutters who have found ways to watch that aren’t measured by traditional rating services. Still, the numbers are concerning.

* * *

Stolen from Pro Football Focus: Dallas center Travis Frederick has not allowed a sack in his last 1,658 pass blocks, since midseason 2014. That’s almost three full seasons of protecting Dallas quarterbacks on pass drops.

* * *


View: https://twitter.com/FloridaGators/status/916793476343324673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fnfl%2F2017%2F10%2F09%2Fnfl-week-5-dolphins-cocaine-davante-adams-odell-beckham-jj-watt-peter-king

* * *

POD PEOPLE

This week’s conversations: Peyton Manning, on the verge of a statue of him being unveiled outside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell.

• Manning on staying at Tennessee for his senior season in 1997, and not choosing to be drafted by the Jets number one overall that year: “I talked to Tim Duncan. I saw him at a college basketball game that year, and he had stayed for his senior year, which was kind of against the norm, and he just said, 'Hey I wanted to be a senior, I wanted one more year to get ready.’

So that kind of let me know it was okay if I wanted to stay. I threw the injury bug out the window and I just really wanted to be a senior in college. It's by far the best decision I've ever made. I've created some long-lasting memories and friendships my senior year, and of course I was able to stay healthy. When 1998 came around I felt more prepared.”

• Bell on running backs at all levels of football using him as a model for his patient rushing style: “When you see guys like Christian McCaffrey, who was a first-round pick, a guy who was highly touted coming out of the draft, everybody watched him … and the fact that he said that he wanted to reach out to me about the way my running style was, it kind of hit home to me that guys were really looking up to me, the way I run.

That's when I realized I'm different. You got guys like [Rams back Todd] Gurley—I hear a lot of comparisons about him to me. When you hear things like that, and I know that running backs are looking up to me, it means everything in the world to me. I got my imprint on the game, and it's a blessing. Now that I am on a big stage, people get to watch me and they see that I'm different, and my style works.”

* * *

Things I Think I Think

1. I think these are my quick-hitting thoughts from Week 5:

a. Jameis Winston was inaccurate enough for three quarters Thursday night that, even though Nick Folk will rightly bear a good portion of the blame for the loss to New England, Winston’s misses on several third downs that could have elongated drives were collectively just as big a factor. Third downs converted in the first 43 minutes by the Bucs: zero. There were drops, but Winston has to be better—as does his team.

b. Seems crazy that Tom Brady, in his 18th season and after 275 previous regular-season and postseason games, would have played his first game ever in Tampa against the Bucs on Thursday night.

c. Patriots’ last 10 regular-season games on the road: 10-0. Patriots’ last 10 regular-season games at home: 6-4.

d. Sal Paolantonio with the ride along to work with Eagles coach Doug Pederson Sunday morning. Cool.

e. Great story, too, by ESPN on the guy who stole Vince Lombardi’s hat on the field after the Ice Bowl … and finding the guy, a grandfather in Wisconsin, and getting him to divulge why in the world he would try to steal the hat off Vince Lombardi’s head.

f. Myles Garrett knows how to make a debut. On the first snap of his first NFL game, the first pick in the draft sacked the quarterback—Josh McCown, in this case.

g. Brilliant play design by the Panthers in Detroit, and great orchestration by Cam Newton, to fake the read-option and shovel-pass the ball inside to Christian McCaffrey, his first touchdown of his NFL career.

h. DeShone Kizer leaves the pocket too soon. He’s got to calm down, hang in and give his receivers a slightly longer chance to get free. “He does tend to be a one-read quarterback sometimes,” Ronde Barber correctly analyzed on Fox.

i. Jags back Leonard Fournette, a vet of five NFL games, has scored one touchdown in each.

j. Looks like I was a year too early on the Titans. Or I was dead wrong in singing their praises so loudly.

k. This may be faint praise, but cornerback Jason McCourty has been the best player on the Cleveland defense this year. His first-quarter interception of Josh McCown was the kind of perfectly anticipated play that a smart cornerback makes.

2. I think Cam Newton’s words of apology Thursday night were promising. But none of us except Newton knows the deep-down sincerity of his apology for what he said to a female reporter on Wednesday. (When Charlotte Observerreporter Jourdan Rodrigue asked Newton about pass routes, Newton responded that it was funny to hear a “female” talking about “routes.”) Newton has been widely derided for his smirky 1981-era putdown. That’s all justified. I liked his apology, and it seemed sincere. But I’d make two points here.

One: Why’d it take him 30 hours to apologize—and, to a lesser degree, why didn’t he include the reporter in his apology? The fact that he took 30 hours to say he was sorry is concerning. Did it take him longer than a day to realize he was wrong? Or did he know he was wrong and simply took time to do something well thought-out? Two: It makes no sense right now to say, “Great apology. We’re all good.” This is now a wait-and-see thing. Newton said all the right things, and they appeared heart-felt. But it’s his actions now that will speak for him.

3. I think when the Falcons built this beautiful new $1.5 billion downtown stadium, team officials were quick to say they wanted an open-air stadium. Finally, many said; it’s madness that a city in the south, a temperate, lovely American city with a great climate, would have a domed stadium. So the Falcons built a retractable-roof stadium.

The roof was open for one game, the opener against Green Bay. And the team announced Thursday it would remain closed for the rest of the football season—it also will be open one soccer game, for the Atlanta MLS franchise to presumably break the single-game MLS attendance record Oct. 22—and then closed for the rest of the season. The reason is because of problems with the mechanization of the roof panels.

Getting that roof open has to be priority one for Arthur Blank. Domes stink. Roofs should never be closed, save for relentless precipitation or extreme heat/cold. The Colts abuse it, keeping the roof closed on beautiful Indiana days. Blank has to make sure the problem with the roof is fixed ASAP.

4. I think, barring some miracle of doctored footage, the Dolphins are going to fire offensive line coach Chris Foerster. In a video that surfaced late Sunday, a man believed to be Foerster is shown talking into a camera while he snorts a white powdery substance through a rolled-up $20 bill and talks suggestively to a woman who he apparently believes will see the video. That’s going to be pretty hard to defend. (Update: Foerster resigned on Monday morning.)

5. I think this is one of the great high school football highlights of all time (no spoilers here):

6. I think I have never seen the Browns look worse, and that’s saying something.

7. I think the best team in football is Kansas City, and there’s a pretty good gap for number two. My candidates: Philadelphia, Carolina, Washington, Denver.

8. I think the Giants have a few questions to answer, and soon. Such as, Will Victor Cruz get re-signed and start Sunday night at Denver? To have four receivers go down in one game, at least two of them for the season, is hard enough. To do it while going 0-5 when the football world thought they’d make the playoffs is harrowing.

It’s going to be interesting if the Giants finish with a very high draft pick (and what stands in their way now?) whether they’d consider taking a quarterback that high, with Eli Manning finishing his 14th season and no one knowing yet whether Davis Webb is a logical successor.
 

dieterbrock

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2017: Green Bay 35, Dallas 31, last week was Rams 35, Dallas 30.
Good news Cowboys fans, you're getting closer!!!

"The Cleveland Browns, in the past two drafts, bypassed Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz and Jared Goff."
Wait, how did Cleveland bypass Jared Goff?
 

Farr Be It

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Then Green Bay playing a classic for the time capsule, capped by not-quite-a-Jared-Cook catch by Davante Adams

(n) Wow. It's amazing how the phrase "not-quite-a-Jared Cook catch" means something Sooooo much different to ROD Ram fans.

7. I think the best team in football is Kansas City, and there’s a pretty good gap for number two. My candidates: Philadelphia, Carolina, Washington, Denver.
:rolleyes: Oh please. Pick me. Pick me! Just the flavor of the month teams. I definitely think Philly earned it. Maybe Washington, (although remember how "mediocre" Washington was after they beat the Rams?) but Denver? And Carolina. Two weeks ago they were a dumpster fire.

Will Victor Cruz
Is Victor Cruz still a thing? Or is he teaching Salsa lessons at some New Jersey Junior College?

. I think I have never seen the Browns look worse, and that’s saying something.
Oh please. They've looked worse. I mean, Brandon Weedon.


I think, barring some miracle of doctored footage, the Dolphins are going to fire offensive line coach Chris Foerster. In a video that surfaced late Sunday, a man believed to be Foerster is shown talking into a camera while he snorts a white powdery substance through a rolled-up $20 bill and talks suggestively to a woman who he apparently believes will see the video. That’s going to be pretty hard to defend. (Update: Foerster resigned on Monday morning.)
Wow. Not to preach. We are all scum bags in this life, but this is just another reminder:

There are people in our life that look to us for leadership. We have an obligation to do better than our most base self. You don't have to be a hero to your family. Sometimes being a hero just means not being a sleazebag.

Jags back Leonard Fournette, a vet of five NFL games, has scored one touchdown in each.
...He'll be one to watch this week. :notsure:
 

Merlin

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That’s because for the first time in years, the Texans think they’ve found the most difficult franchise centerpiece to find, in quarterback Deshaun Watson. On Sunday night, with the crowd in mourning after the loss of Watt with a broken leg that will require surgery as soon as Monday, Watson didn’t succumb to emotions. He led the Texans to 27 points in the second half, throwing four touchdown passes and keeping Houston in a shootout with the best team in football.

This is why you don't pay DTs like QBs.
 

OldSchool

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This is why you don't pay DTs like QBs.
Sorry but bad logic, injuries happen to everybody. Now if you said you'd be nervous paying a guy with a long injury history like Watt or Gronk QB money then yeah I'd say you had a case.
 

Merlin

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Sorry but bad logic, injuries happen to everybody. Now if you said you'd be nervous paying a guy with a long injury history like Watt or Gronk QB money then yeah I'd say you had a case.

Nah wasn't going down the injury route, since that would make no sense as injuries as you say happen to everybody.

Pointing out that even after losing two key DL from that defense, to include a guy being paid like some QBs, that team still had a shot to win the game. DL simply don't affect the outcome of the game nearly as much as a QB does.

Looking at Donald right now that's pretty clear. As great as he is, he is limited by his position.
 
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DaveFan'51

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lol....naw...means the odds are so much better on the Rams to win straight up!
So, My Brother, go to the Rams Sportsbook, Pick-up your Winnings, as this weeks 19-Handicap winner, and get ready to make some ROD$$$$!!(y);):D
 

LACHAMP46

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Pick-up your Winnings, as this weeks 19-Handicap winner, and get ready to make some ROD$$$$!!(y);):D
@flv is holding my money....he know's I got a problem....hell, I wanna bet on the Eagles tommorrow....cause I know they'll be the underdog.
 

DaveFan'51

Old-Timer
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Apr 18, 2014
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18,666
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Dave
@flv is holding my money....he know's I got a problem....hell, I wanna bet on the Eagles tommorrow....cause I know they'll be the underdog.
I plan on taking the Eagles too, I just don't know how much I want to take a chance with!(y);)