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These are excerpts only from this article. To read the whole thing click the link below.
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http://mmqb.si.com/2015/11/16/monday-morning-quarterback-nfl-week-10-tom-brady-patriots-giants
The Late Show
Sunday was quiet early, but the real drama ramped up as soon as the early games ended. Here’s a look at how the Patriots kicked their way to 9-0, the Cards crushed Seattle’s soul and why Peyton’s end could be nigh
by Peter King
The fun (or agony, if you live in greater New York, Wisconsin, Oakland, or the Pacific Northwest) started after the late-window games kicked off on Sunday afternoon. In brief chronological order:
1. The Lions’ Calvin Johnson missed a vital onside kick that was right in his hands at Lambeau Field, putting Detroit’s first win in Wisconsin in a quarter-century in jeopardy.
2. Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby went shankapotamus on the field goal that would have prevented Detroit’s first win in Wisconsin in a quarter-century. Knuckleballed kick ended a six-hour fourth quarter. Final: Lions 18, Packers 16.
3. Peyton Manning passed Brett Favre for most career passing yards on a nondescript four-yard out route to Ronnie Hillman. The game was stopped. Manning gave the most uncomfortable waves to the crowd in NFL history. He knew what was coming, and it wasn’t good.
4. Eli Manning to Odell Beckham Jr. against the Patriots at MetLife Stadium, up the right seam for 87 yards. Touchdown. Longest touchdown pass against a Belichick-coached defense ever.
5. Peyton Manning’s nine drives on the worst day of his NFL career: Interception, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception, three-and-out, interception, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception. Yanked. Yes, Peyton Manning removed from a game; coach’s decision. Final: Chiefs 29, Broncos 13.
6. Adrian Peterson capped a 203-yard rushing day with an 80-yard gallop in Oakland. Final: Vikings 30, Raiders 14.
7. Fifth lead change of the day in New Jersey (because the Giants and Patriots have to play bizarro-world finishes worthy of Grisham climaxes: With a second to play, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 54-yard field goal three inches inside the left upright. Final: Patriots 27, Giants 26.
8. In two fourth-quarter minutes, Seattle went from down eight to up four, thanks to two strip-sacks of Carson Palmer that turned into touchdowns. When Arizona got the ball back, it was so loud in CenturyLink Field that Palmer had to press his hands tightly over his ear holes so he might be able to hear coach Bruce Arians’ play calls.
9. Arizona did what great teams do. Palmer drove the Cards 83 and 80 yards for touchdowns that finished this one off. Final: Cardinals 39, Seahawks 32.
10. Bruce Arians, from the Cards’ team bus, about 1:15 a.m. on the East Coast: “To come up here to a place like this, and to play as well as we did early, to go up 19-0, and then to see it go down the sh----- so fast … I’ve never been so proud of a group of guys, to weather the kind of storm they weathered.”
That was seven compelling hours of football right there.
What does it mean? For one thing, the drama is dead in five of eight divisions. Five teams have a division lead of three games or more with seven weeks left. The Vikes (7-2) have passed the somnambulant Packers (6-3) atop the NFC North, while two divisions... well, someone’s got to win ’em. The NFC East is a combined 15-22, the AFC South a combined 12-23.
All the flags bust up the flow of games, and the what-is-a-catch debate continues to vex every professional official and the amateur ones too (you, that is). But this morning, there are other things to worry about, and to celebrate.
* * *
There’s something about Carson
I find it stunning that, as Carson Palmer lined up to play the Seahawks on Sunday night in Seattle, he was playing to get to .500 for his career. I know he was on some mediocre Cincinnati teams, and the Raiders were troubled during his two years there, and I know a quarterback’s won-loss record isn’t the measuring stick for greatness. But Palmer, 76-77 in regular- and postseason games entering Sunday? He has played better than a game under .500.
On Sunday night Palmer was a lot better than that. And now he’s even, 77-77, after a 39-32 win that tried fans’ souls—but gave the Cards a commanding three-game lead in the NFC West.
“Carson Palmer just has a unique grounding system,” coach Bruce Arians told me afterward. “He just does not get shaken up. He gets the guys rallied up. Even when it was going bad in the fourth quarter, he’s up and down that bench, telling guys in his way what we had to do to win.”
Something I found unique about the Cardinals when I spent time with them came into play Sunday night. Arians doesn’t run a dictatorship. He’s a benevolent king. Palmer has great input into the pass plays the Cardinals run, which you’ll see in my stories. And Arians values the input of others who know his offense and his thought process very well—such as backup quarterback Drew Stanton.
Arizona was in crisis two minutes into the fourth quarter Sunday night. The Cards had blown all of a 19-0 lead, as two strip-sacks of Palmer led to 14 points in less than two minutes for Seattle. The Seahawks took their first lead of the night, 29-25, with 13 minutes left in the game. “We were just getting our butts kicked,” Arians said. And so Stanton, who’d been with Arians at their previous stop in Indianapolis and was signed by the Cardinals when Arians was hired, came up with an idea. “Drew helped me,” Arians said. “He comes over to me and thinks we should put a couple of plays in, and I hear him out. They were plays he knew Carson would be comfortable with.”
The first was the opening play of the next series, with CenturyLink in full throat. Stanton suggested hitting Larry Fitzgerald out of a bunch formation to the left. Gain of 15. Two plays later, Stanton suggested a hitch route to cat-quick John Brown, and Arians called it. But Palmer chose a more-open Fitzgerald again. Gain of six. And so on the 83-yard drive that regained the lead for Arizona, two completions and 21 yards (a quarter of the yards needed for the touchdown) came from the head of the backup quarterback. Once the Cards scored to retake the lead, the crowd never got as loud again.
“Those were a couple of really good calls,” said Arians. “They really helped us tonight.”
Arizona (7-2), took a three-game lead over Seattle and St. Louis, at 4-5, with Cincinnati coming to Glendale for a magnetic Sunday night matchup next week. Could be 9-0 at 7-2 (if Cincinnati beats Houston at home tonight), Palmer versus Andy Dalton. “Andy’s playing really well, and they’ve got a hell of a defensive front four,” said Arians. “Should be a great game.”
And a note on Mike Iupati, who was motionless after a big first-half collision with Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor: Arians said his guard seemed to be doing fine, back from the hospital and taking the charter back to Phoenix after the game, and had already been cleared to play against the Bengals.
* * *
About those numbers written on the game balls
A hearty tip of the hat to reader Bob Mullen, who saw a photo of Aaron Rodgers earlier this season and asked an astute question: What's with those number markings on the football?
The photo above shows Aaron Rodgers in a Week 8 game against the Broncos. Rodgers must like the feel of this football. The numbers reveal that that was the fifth game this season that the Packers had used this exact football as one of the 12 game balls for their offense.
Each of the numbers near the point of the football was written in silver sharpie by the referee working the game, when the balls were inspected and pressure-gauged pre-game. Referee John Parry, who wears number 132 on his back, worked this particular game. The other four numbers, top to bottom, are those of referees John Hussey (number 35, from the August preseason game at Pittsburgh), Brad Allen (122, New England preseason game), Carl Cheffers (51, Philadelphia preseason game) and Jeff Triplette (42, New Orleans preseason game). The Packers likely used this ball in practice both in the summer and then in the week of the Denver game, to break it in further so Rodgers would be comfortable with it.
Notice, also, the number “8” near the spot where the needle is inserted into the bladder to inflate the ball (and to test its pressure before the game; balls have to measure between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch). Twelve footballs are put in play on offense for each team, and they are numbered 1 through 12 before the game. In this case, if a ball has been used in more than one game, it can remain “8” in a series of 12 footballs. And this is probably not that unusual: Quarterbacks love the feel of broken-in footballs, because the leather is not slippery and feels softer—kind of like the feel of a well-worn baseball glove to a shortstop.
One other point: There is no limit to how many times a football can be used as a game ball, as long as it is not scarred or pockmarked or does not have a tear in the cowhide. Yes, cowhide. The hide of the football comes from a cow, despite how people still love to call it a pigskin.
* * *
There may not have been a bigger Week 10 play
I don’t want to overstate the third-down conversion pass by the Bills’ Tyrod Taylor to Sammy Watkins with 2:47 left, and the Bills protecting a 22-17 lead, against the Jets on Thursday night. But it was the biggest play of the game. And if it wasn’t quite a changing-of-the-guard play in the AFC East, it said a few huge things, at least to me:
• The Bills, on the victory-ensuring play of the game, attacked 30-year-old Darrelle Revis, who, at the start of this season, was the consensus best corner in football and second to J.J. Watt as the brightest of all defensive stars in football.
• Sammy Watkins, 22, absolutely abused Revis on the play. I didn’t know such abuse of a great player was possible.
• Revis was so badly beaten that it left the Bills’ coaches stunned. “I watched in amazement,” Bills wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal told The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas. “I still don’t know how he did it.”
“He spun [Revis] around like a top,” said Rex Ryan. “Like, that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen against good corners, let along someone like [Revis].”
I went back and watched the play on NFL Game Pass several times over the weekend. It was third-and-two at the Bills’ 15. Watkins was split wide left at the line of scrimmage. Revis was snug on him. At the snap of the ball, it was clear Revis was going to hand-fight Watkins, and there are few times when Revis engages a receiver at the line that he doesn’t throw him off his route.
Taylor took the shotgun snap, and Revis immediately had both hands high on Watkins, trying to keep him in place—and trying to prevent him, especially, from working to the sideline by using outside-leverage force on the coverage. If Watkins was going to make a play, it’d have to be on a slant or incut, because Revis wasn’t giving him the sideline.
“Revis had the perfect leverage,” said Lal.
Watkins tried to bull left. No dice; Revis had him fully engaged with both outstretched arms. Then Watkins took a jab step to his right, to disengage from Revis. Watkins got loose, but safety Rontez Miles lurked over the middle, and there was no way Taylor could risk throwing the ball there. But Watkins never had any intention of staying in the middle. He put his foot in the ground and pirouetted back to his left, knowing he had to get to at least the 18 for the first down.
Meanwhile, Revis, fearing that inner jab step and that Watkins might sprint upfield, took two long strides downfield before he realized Watkins was headed for the left sideline. By the time he moved back to try to recover and catch back up to Watkins, Revis was at the 24. Watkins was at the 18.
A slaughter.
The other amazing part of this was watching Tyrod Taylor. He was never going anywhere else except to Watkins. He never looked middle, never looked right. It was Watkins or bust. And Watkins won the matchup in a rout. Buffalo hung on and won.
“You can’t coach that,” said Lal. “It’s innate football instincts, everything personified in a three-yard play. It was Sammy knowing what he had to do, and he just felt his way through it and was decisive and was able to come open. We work on a lot of things, but that was 100 percent Sammy.
“All the credit to Revis, for recognizing it, lining up outside of him, and more credit to Sammy for finding a way to win.”
The Bills used two first-round picks (trading their 2015 first-rounder to move up five spots) to draft Watkins in the first round in 2014. The Jets made Revis the highest-paid defensive back in history this off-season, despite his advancing age.
Did Buffalo do the right thing with this huge investment of resources in one player, who hasn’t been a singular performer at all yet? Did the Jets do the right thing in paying Revis so much when the early part of this season would suggest he’s still very good but not the standalone player he was for three or four years?
It’s early, and I don’t want to make a mountain of one play. But I’ll be watching Revis closely, and you can bet the next few quarterbacks who will play the Jets—Brian Hoyer, Ryan Tannehill and Eli Manning—will have their eyes opened by that play.
* * *
COACH OF THE WEEK
Adam Gase, offensive coordinator, Chicago. The Bears are 4-5, and they’re playing for .500 next week (against the suddenly vulnerable Broncos at Soldier Field), and this is possible because of the rebirth of the offense under the more efficient Jay Cutler. At St. Louis on Sunday, the Bears rolled up 397 yards, and Cutler rolled up a passer rating of 151.0 (19 of 24, 258 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions.) When John Fox imported Gase to try to do minor surgery on Cutler in the off-season, he couldn’t have known it would have worked this well. The Bears have won four of the past six, Cutler has thrown but three picks in those six games, and the Bears are running the ball well even without injured Matt Forte. Very good hire by Fox.
* * *
Nick Wagoner
✔@nwagoner
Nick Foles was 0-12 on passes thrown 10+ yards downfield Sunday. Most attempts on such passes without a completion in the last 10 seasons.
* * *
I think this is what I liked about Week 10:
Todd Gurley bulling for an early touchdown against the Bears.
What speed by Zach Miller, the Chicago tight end, on his 87-yard touchdown catch and run.
I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 10:
Too many of Nick Foles’ throws look like the intended receiver should be 15 feet tall.
************************************************************************
http://mmqb.si.com/2015/11/16/monday-morning-quarterback-nfl-week-10-tom-brady-patriots-giants
The Late Show
Sunday was quiet early, but the real drama ramped up as soon as the early games ended. Here’s a look at how the Patriots kicked their way to 9-0, the Cards crushed Seattle’s soul and why Peyton’s end could be nigh
by Peter King
The fun (or agony, if you live in greater New York, Wisconsin, Oakland, or the Pacific Northwest) started after the late-window games kicked off on Sunday afternoon. In brief chronological order:
1. The Lions’ Calvin Johnson missed a vital onside kick that was right in his hands at Lambeau Field, putting Detroit’s first win in Wisconsin in a quarter-century in jeopardy.
2. Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby went shankapotamus on the field goal that would have prevented Detroit’s first win in Wisconsin in a quarter-century. Knuckleballed kick ended a six-hour fourth quarter. Final: Lions 18, Packers 16.
3. Peyton Manning passed Brett Favre for most career passing yards on a nondescript four-yard out route to Ronnie Hillman. The game was stopped. Manning gave the most uncomfortable waves to the crowd in NFL history. He knew what was coming, and it wasn’t good.
4. Eli Manning to Odell Beckham Jr. against the Patriots at MetLife Stadium, up the right seam for 87 yards. Touchdown. Longest touchdown pass against a Belichick-coached defense ever.
5. Peyton Manning’s nine drives on the worst day of his NFL career: Interception, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception, three-and-out, interception, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception. Yanked. Yes, Peyton Manning removed from a game; coach’s decision. Final: Chiefs 29, Broncos 13.
6. Adrian Peterson capped a 203-yard rushing day with an 80-yard gallop in Oakland. Final: Vikings 30, Raiders 14.
7. Fifth lead change of the day in New Jersey (because the Giants and Patriots have to play bizarro-world finishes worthy of Grisham climaxes: With a second to play, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 54-yard field goal three inches inside the left upright. Final: Patriots 27, Giants 26.
8. In two fourth-quarter minutes, Seattle went from down eight to up four, thanks to two strip-sacks of Carson Palmer that turned into touchdowns. When Arizona got the ball back, it was so loud in CenturyLink Field that Palmer had to press his hands tightly over his ear holes so he might be able to hear coach Bruce Arians’ play calls.
9. Arizona did what great teams do. Palmer drove the Cards 83 and 80 yards for touchdowns that finished this one off. Final: Cardinals 39, Seahawks 32.
10. Bruce Arians, from the Cards’ team bus, about 1:15 a.m. on the East Coast: “To come up here to a place like this, and to play as well as we did early, to go up 19-0, and then to see it go down the sh----- so fast … I’ve never been so proud of a group of guys, to weather the kind of storm they weathered.”
That was seven compelling hours of football right there.
What does it mean? For one thing, the drama is dead in five of eight divisions. Five teams have a division lead of three games or more with seven weeks left. The Vikes (7-2) have passed the somnambulant Packers (6-3) atop the NFC North, while two divisions... well, someone’s got to win ’em. The NFC East is a combined 15-22, the AFC South a combined 12-23.
All the flags bust up the flow of games, and the what-is-a-catch debate continues to vex every professional official and the amateur ones too (you, that is). But this morning, there are other things to worry about, and to celebrate.
* * *
There’s something about Carson
I find it stunning that, as Carson Palmer lined up to play the Seahawks on Sunday night in Seattle, he was playing to get to .500 for his career. I know he was on some mediocre Cincinnati teams, and the Raiders were troubled during his two years there, and I know a quarterback’s won-loss record isn’t the measuring stick for greatness. But Palmer, 76-77 in regular- and postseason games entering Sunday? He has played better than a game under .500.
On Sunday night Palmer was a lot better than that. And now he’s even, 77-77, after a 39-32 win that tried fans’ souls—but gave the Cards a commanding three-game lead in the NFC West.
“Carson Palmer just has a unique grounding system,” coach Bruce Arians told me afterward. “He just does not get shaken up. He gets the guys rallied up. Even when it was going bad in the fourth quarter, he’s up and down that bench, telling guys in his way what we had to do to win.”
Something I found unique about the Cardinals when I spent time with them came into play Sunday night. Arians doesn’t run a dictatorship. He’s a benevolent king. Palmer has great input into the pass plays the Cardinals run, which you’ll see in my stories. And Arians values the input of others who know his offense and his thought process very well—such as backup quarterback Drew Stanton.
Arizona was in crisis two minutes into the fourth quarter Sunday night. The Cards had blown all of a 19-0 lead, as two strip-sacks of Palmer led to 14 points in less than two minutes for Seattle. The Seahawks took their first lead of the night, 29-25, with 13 minutes left in the game. “We were just getting our butts kicked,” Arians said. And so Stanton, who’d been with Arians at their previous stop in Indianapolis and was signed by the Cardinals when Arians was hired, came up with an idea. “Drew helped me,” Arians said. “He comes over to me and thinks we should put a couple of plays in, and I hear him out. They were plays he knew Carson would be comfortable with.”
The first was the opening play of the next series, with CenturyLink in full throat. Stanton suggested hitting Larry Fitzgerald out of a bunch formation to the left. Gain of 15. Two plays later, Stanton suggested a hitch route to cat-quick John Brown, and Arians called it. But Palmer chose a more-open Fitzgerald again. Gain of six. And so on the 83-yard drive that regained the lead for Arizona, two completions and 21 yards (a quarter of the yards needed for the touchdown) came from the head of the backup quarterback. Once the Cards scored to retake the lead, the crowd never got as loud again.
“Those were a couple of really good calls,” said Arians. “They really helped us tonight.”
Arizona (7-2), took a three-game lead over Seattle and St. Louis, at 4-5, with Cincinnati coming to Glendale for a magnetic Sunday night matchup next week. Could be 9-0 at 7-2 (if Cincinnati beats Houston at home tonight), Palmer versus Andy Dalton. “Andy’s playing really well, and they’ve got a hell of a defensive front four,” said Arians. “Should be a great game.”
And a note on Mike Iupati, who was motionless after a big first-half collision with Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor: Arians said his guard seemed to be doing fine, back from the hospital and taking the charter back to Phoenix after the game, and had already been cleared to play against the Bengals.
* * *
About those numbers written on the game balls
A hearty tip of the hat to reader Bob Mullen, who saw a photo of Aaron Rodgers earlier this season and asked an astute question: What's with those number markings on the football?
The photo above shows Aaron Rodgers in a Week 8 game against the Broncos. Rodgers must like the feel of this football. The numbers reveal that that was the fifth game this season that the Packers had used this exact football as one of the 12 game balls for their offense.
Each of the numbers near the point of the football was written in silver sharpie by the referee working the game, when the balls were inspected and pressure-gauged pre-game. Referee John Parry, who wears number 132 on his back, worked this particular game. The other four numbers, top to bottom, are those of referees John Hussey (number 35, from the August preseason game at Pittsburgh), Brad Allen (122, New England preseason game), Carl Cheffers (51, Philadelphia preseason game) and Jeff Triplette (42, New Orleans preseason game). The Packers likely used this ball in practice both in the summer and then in the week of the Denver game, to break it in further so Rodgers would be comfortable with it.
Notice, also, the number “8” near the spot where the needle is inserted into the bladder to inflate the ball (and to test its pressure before the game; balls have to measure between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch). Twelve footballs are put in play on offense for each team, and they are numbered 1 through 12 before the game. In this case, if a ball has been used in more than one game, it can remain “8” in a series of 12 footballs. And this is probably not that unusual: Quarterbacks love the feel of broken-in footballs, because the leather is not slippery and feels softer—kind of like the feel of a well-worn baseball glove to a shortstop.
One other point: There is no limit to how many times a football can be used as a game ball, as long as it is not scarred or pockmarked or does not have a tear in the cowhide. Yes, cowhide. The hide of the football comes from a cow, despite how people still love to call it a pigskin.
* * *
There may not have been a bigger Week 10 play
I don’t want to overstate the third-down conversion pass by the Bills’ Tyrod Taylor to Sammy Watkins with 2:47 left, and the Bills protecting a 22-17 lead, against the Jets on Thursday night. But it was the biggest play of the game. And if it wasn’t quite a changing-of-the-guard play in the AFC East, it said a few huge things, at least to me:
• The Bills, on the victory-ensuring play of the game, attacked 30-year-old Darrelle Revis, who, at the start of this season, was the consensus best corner in football and second to J.J. Watt as the brightest of all defensive stars in football.
• Sammy Watkins, 22, absolutely abused Revis on the play. I didn’t know such abuse of a great player was possible.
• Revis was so badly beaten that it left the Bills’ coaches stunned. “I watched in amazement,” Bills wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal told The MMQB’s Jenny Vrentas. “I still don’t know how he did it.”
“He spun [Revis] around like a top,” said Rex Ryan. “Like, that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen against good corners, let along someone like [Revis].”
I went back and watched the play on NFL Game Pass several times over the weekend. It was third-and-two at the Bills’ 15. Watkins was split wide left at the line of scrimmage. Revis was snug on him. At the snap of the ball, it was clear Revis was going to hand-fight Watkins, and there are few times when Revis engages a receiver at the line that he doesn’t throw him off his route.
Taylor took the shotgun snap, and Revis immediately had both hands high on Watkins, trying to keep him in place—and trying to prevent him, especially, from working to the sideline by using outside-leverage force on the coverage. If Watkins was going to make a play, it’d have to be on a slant or incut, because Revis wasn’t giving him the sideline.
“Revis had the perfect leverage,” said Lal.
Watkins tried to bull left. No dice; Revis had him fully engaged with both outstretched arms. Then Watkins took a jab step to his right, to disengage from Revis. Watkins got loose, but safety Rontez Miles lurked over the middle, and there was no way Taylor could risk throwing the ball there. But Watkins never had any intention of staying in the middle. He put his foot in the ground and pirouetted back to his left, knowing he had to get to at least the 18 for the first down.
Meanwhile, Revis, fearing that inner jab step and that Watkins might sprint upfield, took two long strides downfield before he realized Watkins was headed for the left sideline. By the time he moved back to try to recover and catch back up to Watkins, Revis was at the 24. Watkins was at the 18.
A slaughter.
The other amazing part of this was watching Tyrod Taylor. He was never going anywhere else except to Watkins. He never looked middle, never looked right. It was Watkins or bust. And Watkins won the matchup in a rout. Buffalo hung on and won.
“You can’t coach that,” said Lal. “It’s innate football instincts, everything personified in a three-yard play. It was Sammy knowing what he had to do, and he just felt his way through it and was decisive and was able to come open. We work on a lot of things, but that was 100 percent Sammy.
“All the credit to Revis, for recognizing it, lining up outside of him, and more credit to Sammy for finding a way to win.”
The Bills used two first-round picks (trading their 2015 first-rounder to move up five spots) to draft Watkins in the first round in 2014. The Jets made Revis the highest-paid defensive back in history this off-season, despite his advancing age.
Did Buffalo do the right thing with this huge investment of resources in one player, who hasn’t been a singular performer at all yet? Did the Jets do the right thing in paying Revis so much when the early part of this season would suggest he’s still very good but not the standalone player he was for three or four years?
It’s early, and I don’t want to make a mountain of one play. But I’ll be watching Revis closely, and you can bet the next few quarterbacks who will play the Jets—Brian Hoyer, Ryan Tannehill and Eli Manning—will have their eyes opened by that play.
* * *
COACH OF THE WEEK
Adam Gase, offensive coordinator, Chicago. The Bears are 4-5, and they’re playing for .500 next week (against the suddenly vulnerable Broncos at Soldier Field), and this is possible because of the rebirth of the offense under the more efficient Jay Cutler. At St. Louis on Sunday, the Bears rolled up 397 yards, and Cutler rolled up a passer rating of 151.0 (19 of 24, 258 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions.) When John Fox imported Gase to try to do minor surgery on Cutler in the off-season, he couldn’t have known it would have worked this well. The Bears have won four of the past six, Cutler has thrown but three picks in those six games, and the Bears are running the ball well even without injured Matt Forte. Very good hire by Fox.
* * *
Nick Wagoner
✔@nwagoner
Nick Foles was 0-12 on passes thrown 10+ yards downfield Sunday. Most attempts on such passes without a completion in the last 10 seasons.
* * *
I think this is what I liked about Week 10:
Todd Gurley bulling for an early touchdown against the Bears.
What speed by Zach Miller, the Chicago tight end, on his 87-yard touchdown catch and run.
I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 10:
Too many of Nick Foles’ throws look like the intended receiver should be 15 feet tall.