NFL Week 3 Takeaways.
Saints Vs. Panthers
After the Saints-Panthers Wrote A First Half "Denouncement" Of Steady Offense, powered by A Couple Of Incredible Chris Olave Catches In The, Second The Saints held off A Late Panthers Push To Move Into a 2-0 Lock at The Top Of The Division. The Saints Era Under Derek Carr Got Off To A Rough Start. The Contest Against The Titans just Looked Ugly On The whole. Even Carr Admitted He Needed To Come Out In The Second And Put Up Better Results. Thanks To Chris Olave Hauling Two Of The Best Catches In One Night, the Saints Managed Two Touchdowns In Second Half To Redeem The Affair. After Two Contest This Season, Olave's Up To Something. He's Caught 14 Catches For 198 Yards. Last Season, He Put The League On Notice With a Couple Of Big Performances, But He Missed A Few. He Found Himself Overshadowed Some by Garrett Wilson By The End Of Season. This Year With Derek Carr, Who Can't Help But Throw The Ball Downfield, Wilson Could Put Himself in Top 15 Conversation. Bryce Young And The Panthers Offense struggle Again. After The Draft, I Always Wondered What He Would Like When He's Not The Best, Quickest, Fastest Diagnostic Player On The Field And Truthfully He Looked Average.
Bryce Young Managed 22/33 For 154 Passing At 4.6 per Attempt( A Slight Improvement Over The 3.8 Of Last week)And Touchdowns And 34 Yards Added On The Ground.
He missed some Throws, Took Four Sacks, Couldn't Escape Pressure, And Couldn't Keep Drives Alive. Of Course, Young Jump is In The Film Room, And He's Still An Upside Player, But He's Entered The Real Football.
As We Cross Over week 2, We All Can Acknowledge That NFC South Will Prove More competitive Than Anyone Thought. Outside of Carolina, any Of The Other Three Teams Can Win This Division. Derek Carr continues To Play So Poorly And Lead The Saints To Win This Division. He Finished This Contest Against Carolina with A 65.5 Quarterback Rating, Going 21/36 238 One Interception. Carolina's Defense Looks Strong Out of The Gate. What will Carr Do When He Faces Tampa Bay's Suffocating Unit. Otherwise, Can The Saints Produce Enough Points To Run With Atlanta. Bijan Robinson Looks Like The Truth And A Fulcrum From The Falcons Offense. Regardless, The Biggest question In This Division is, Which Quarterback Do You trust More Than Carr. Mayfield Or Ridder? This Division May Come Down To Who Passes The Ball Most Effectively, And Thus, The Bucs Look The BEst, and No One Expected That result.
Browns Vs. Steelers
The Nick Chubb Injury Left Me Sickened Not Only By The Impact Of Images, But He's My Favorite Player, And He's Overcome Major Injury In The Past To Become The Best Back In The League. Chubb's Knee Dislocation Stood as A Top Pile Of Injuries The Browns Suffered In The Loss To The Steelers. Despite the Loss Of Available Bodies on The Field, No Injury Must Have Hurt More Than The Turnovers That Cost The Browns The Game In This Hard-hitting Divisional Game. The Browns Leaned In On Watson and The Passing Game, and They Couldn't Deliver Late. The Browns Needed To Run The Ball Late, and Jerome's Ford performed Strong In Chubb's Place with 16 Carries For 106 Yards On The Ground, Most Of which Came On A Big 69 Yard Run To The Goal That Set Up a Touchdown and a Browns Lead 22-19. Ford Finished with 6.6 A Carry.
A sack Fumble From Pittsburgh's Alex Highsmith, Scooped Up By TJ Watt, Put The Steelers Up 26-22, And The Steelers Never Looked Back. "As Far As My Part, Not Good Enough," Watson Said After The Game, "I Gotta Protect The Ball." Watson suffered Two Turnovers. A Tipped Interception On Watson's First Pass Of The Game Put The Steelers On The Board 7-0. Watson Finished 22/40, 235 Yards, 5.9 With a Passer Rating Of 70.3, Generate Almost All The Points Of The Game On Both Sides. The Browns Suffered Four Turnovers, 3 Fumbles Lost, And A Pick.
Both Teams Traded Interceptions and Fumbles Early In The Game. But The Steelers Defense Kept Attacking The Ball Forcing Three Fumbles And Nine Tackles For Loss.
"We Knew It Would Be Battle," Watson Continued. The Battle The Steelers came Prepared To Win.
Pittsburgh Special Team, Which I Never mention Consistently, Made A Big Difference In This Matter. The Browns Offense Started So Many Their Drives Pressed Against Their Own Endzone.
The Steeler Offense Struggle, Outside Of George Pickens Going Nuclear. The Run Game Showed No Life In The First Half, and The Browns put Ample Pressure On Kenny Pickett. The Browns Delivered Six Sacks
to Pickett's Pocket And Forced Five Tackles For Loss In The Run Game. Pickett Only Completed 50% Percent Of His Passes. Both Defenses Control The Game. The Steelers Got On The Board After Pickett Delivered A Strike To George Pickens On A Slant And Run To The End zone For 70 Yards, The Offensive Touchdown For Pittsburgh On The Day. Najee Harris Managed A Couple Of Exciting Runs In The Third Quarter. Harris Picked Up 43 Yards On 10 Carries. George Pickens Finished With Four Catches For 127 Yards And a Touchdown, But He Dropped a Crucial Ball and Only Caught 4/10 Targets.
Amari Cooper Pulled In 7 Catches for The Browns's Offense for 90 Yards. David Njoku Finished With 4 Catches With 48 Yards. He's Still Just A Greta Athlete Playing Football And Less Than A Complete Product.
Vikings Vs Eagles
The Vikings lose another Score Game and Cough Up A Ton Of Possessions, But what's Wrong With The Eagles. Jalen Hurts, And the Crew Dominated In Every Aspect Of The Game Except The "Vibes".
Something About This Eagles Team Feels off, Like I'm Looking At A Clone Of A Loved. Week One's Offensive Struggle To Find Consistency Against New England Didn't Strike Me As Strange. New England's Tough Bout For Any Team But The Eagles Faced The Vikings. An Offense Not Hitting The Ground Early in The Season That's Football. Still, These Eagles Hold Super Bowl Aspirations In Their Clutches.
Outside Of One Big Play Downfield, a well-played ball By Devonta Smith For 54 Yards set Up The Eagles In The Red Zone, But The Eagles Only Managed A Field Goal In return. Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts Acknowledged That Right The Team Hasn't Lived Up To The Expectations Of Last Season.
"We've Set The Precedent For How Things Are Supposed To Look…You See all These Beautiful Balls Down The Field."
The Eagles Offense Can't Turn on That Big Play Switch Down Field Consistently. Rushing The Ball Gave The Eagles the Winning Formula Tonight And So Far This Season The Eagles Look To Have Reverted To Their 2021 Pre-AJ Brown Form.
From an Outside Look, Determining If The Change Of Offensive Coordinator From Shane Steichen To Ben Johnson Created a lot of Friction With The Design, The Execution, The Read, Or The Call, But I expected The Eagles Offense to Trot Over This Vikings Defense And I Guess They Did. The Eagles Punch One Into The End zone, Turning The offense's Focus Over To The Run Game, Accumulating 133 yards On The Ground, Dominating Time Of Possession, and Almost Doubling The Vikings In Plays ran. Total Yardage, Forcing Three Turnovers But Escaping The Half With a Two Field Goal Lead. The Eagles Ran The Ball 26 Times Compared To Just 10 Dropbacks And A Continued Shallowing Depth Of Target as Hurts Struggle To Locate Receiver Downfield. Even As the Eagles Took To A 27-7 Lead Through The Third Quarter, This Game Felt Like A Win On The Miracle Of Minnesota Mishaps. Even As Devonta Smith Gave The Eagles Secondary Fits—He Caught 4 Catches For 131 Yards—Some Of The Vikings' Corners Look Liked They'd Seen A Fly Route—Four Vikings Turnovers Lead To Three Eagles Scores Including One Defensive Touchdown On Sack Fumble Recovered For A Score Made The Largest Difference On The Score Board. Of Course, The Battle In The Trenches Would Prove Crucial For Both Teams. Philly Fearsome D-Line Needs No an introduction. The Lost Of Javon Hargrave Only made Room For More Behemoth Up The Middle, And The Vikings Offensive Line Came Into The Game Missing Start Center Garrett Bradberry And Left Tackle Christian Darrisaw, Whose Replacement They Lost Replacement In The Fourth Quarter. Kirk Cousins Stood In The Pocket, Like That Captain In The Final Scene Of The Titanic Even As The Floods Burst Through The Walls He Stood In Place and Delivered The Ball. For All The Criticism, Kirk Responds. He's Put Together Quite The First Two Weeks Of Putting Up Numbers 31/44 364 Yards, 4 Touchdowns 125.6. I can't Imagine Kirk Maintaining This pace, But If He Does, Could He Strike Another Big Pay Day Entering The Twilight Of His Career.
The Vikings Turnover struggles Got So "Real" The Usually Sure Handed Justin Jefferson Fumbled into The Back, Reaching Out Trying To Score Off Of A Deep Connection From Kurt Cousins. Kirk FumbledA Number Of Vikings Wide Receiver Struggled With Drops, The Run Continues To Struggled To Gain Footing Against The Eagles Front Line—But What More Can You Expect. Outside Of Justin Jefferson, One Big Touchdown Play From Jordan Addison, Vikings Receivers Didn't Play Complementary Football until Minnesota's Final Touchdown Drive When TJ Hockenson Caught 3 Passes For 29 Yards And A Touchdown, One Drive Accounting For Almost Half Of Hockenson's Production. Hockenson Finished With 7 Catches For 66 Yards and Two Touchdowns. The Vikings Record Breaking Tight End Had a Quiet Night.
Cousins Force Feed Justin Jefferson Most Of The Night On Jefferson's Way To Another Record Of 5000 In The Fewest Games At just 24 years Old. Kirk played Close To Most Aggressive I've Seen Of Him. After Justin Kept Beating The Coverage Over The Top, The eagles Started Shading Another Body In His Direction, But Kirk Just timed the Bracket. Jefferson really Ransacked An Eagles Secondary Considered Amongst The Best In The League, with 11 Catches For 159 Yards 14.5 Per Reception. After The Game, Jefferson Still Didn't Feel Satisfied With the Result. "I Didn't Feel They Took Me Out Of The Game, The Ball Just Didn't Come My Way." Jefferson Said After The Game. Jordan Addison Continues His Strong Start To His Career, Three Catches 72 Yards And One Touchdown.
You Could Tell From The Quality of the Of Ball The Eagles That The Vikings, Even Down 20 Points, Could Fight Their way Back Into This Match And At Least Make The Matchup More Certifying.
Justin Jefferson Shared His Big Night With Eagles Running Back D'andre Swift. I Don't Know Who Said DeAndre Swift Doesn't Have Vision; I saw All The Holes His Cut And The Eagles Offensive Line Created In Front Of Him. In His First Big Game In Philly, Swift Racked Up 28 Carries, 175 Yards 1 Touchdown. The Eagles employed A Really Rudimentary Offense In The Win, Almost "Whispering" To The World, "We're Not Good Right Now." No Matter The Case, Something's Not Right. After Hurts Threw An Interception, The Eagles Appear Nauseated By The Idea Of Passing The Ball. Devonta Smith Made Up 67% Of Jalen Hurts's Passing Yards. Some Of The Disillusionment With Philly's Offense Spark Frustration Amongst Players and Lead to Sideline "Interaction" Between Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown, "Everybody wants to make the play," Hurts said via the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff McLane. "A.J. is no different."
Looking Over At A Vikings secondary Blowing Coverage At All Angles, The Eagles ran The Ball 48 Times For 259 Yards. Neither Of These Teams Have An Easy Path Forward. The Eagles Will Face The Buccaneers in Week Three, and That's A Challenge for any Team. The Vikings Face The Chargers. Brandon Staley's Defense Might Find Itself In The Cross Hairs Of Another Passing Exhibition.
Bears Vs. buccaneers
For A Brief Moment During The Colts Texans And Bears Bucs Game, NFL Redzone Juxtaposed Both Rushing Touchdowns From Justin Fields and Anthony Richardson. He is two Of The Best Rushing Quarterbacks In Their Element, But Only Two Games Into His Career Compared To Three Years For Fields; Richardson Already Looks Like The Better Product. Last Season, Fields Inspired Praise From Critics For His Ability To Control And Generate Offense Through Two Games. He's Inspired Excoriation. He Holds The Ball Too Long, Which Often Results In Sacks. He Never Looks Aware of the Actions Downfield.
Misses Check Downs. Even His Scrambles start To Lack A Degree Of Excitement Because Of What He leaves On The Field.
Fields Took Quote the Beating. Guys Get Open, But Fields Gets Lock In On His First Read, and He Stays On. No One's Asking Or Expecting The Bears To Win But Make Things Competitive.
On The Other Hand, This Bucs Defense Looks Like A Top Ten Unit. The field Had To Thread The Needle To Pick Up His Only Passing touchdowns Of The Day; Otherwise, This Athletic Defense Contain Fields On The Ground, Just Three Yards For The Spry, Fleet Off Of Foot Quarterback. Fields Finished The Game with 16 of 29 passes for 211 yards And A Touchdown.
The Bears Defense Made Baker Mayfield Look Like A Star Again. After A Steady Game In Week One Where Mayfield Just "Managed" The Bucs In A Win Over The Vikings, Mayfield Threw For 317 yards and a touchdown in Touchdown His First 300 Yard Game Since 2021 When He Started For The Browns. Mayfield Completed 26/34, 9.3 Per, And a Passer Rating Of 114.5, With Bear Just Blowing Coverage Down Mike Evans Just Gobbled Up Yards. The Bucs Franchise Leader In Nearly Any Relevant Statistical Category Caught Six Pass For 171. Evans Has not Had Burners Ever In His Career, But His Recorded 13.9 YAC Per Reception; most Of them Came On A 70 Catch And Ran, Which Set The Bucs Up In The Red Zone and Ended With Rachaad White Touchdown. The Bucs Generated Over 200 Yrads Of Offense More Than The Bears.
The Bear Vaunted Run Game From A Season Ago Just 67 Yards On The Ground. In the Passing Game, Justin Fields Started To Connect With Number One Option DJ Moore. After Recording Just Two Catches For 25, Moore Posted Up For Six Grabs For 104. Otherwise, The Bears Suffered Their Usual Uneventful Afternoon. Unless Justin Fields wants To Play Himself Out Of Chicago, He Has To Improve His Awareness. At Times, He Acts As If Aliens Had dropped him In The Pocket after he Vanished Years ago, and Fields has no Memory Of What Or How He Got Here. That's How Field Sounded When Recollecting His Late Interception To Reporters After The Game. "I Didn't See Every Detail Of The Play. I Just Saw Kahlil Open…and The Linebacker Picked It Off."
The Bears have Potentially Two Top Ten Picks Awaiting Them Next Draft Not To Mention Fourth And Fifth Year Options On Fields. I don't Think Anybody Expected To Have To Suggest Such a Resolution, But A Break Seems Inevitable. Baker Mayfield Delivered Multiple Big Strikes Downfield, 7.5 Intended Air Yards Per Strike. Still, I Fear Eventually, As The Season Wears On, His Confidence Will Turn Into Brash Cockiness And Ultimately His Undoing On Another Step On The Journey To Backup-Dom.
Jets Vs Cowboys
With Zach Wilson Now piloting the Situation In New York, My Concerns About The Team Don't Land With How Much The Jets Play Will Fall Off Between The Change Of Hands Of The Two Quarterbacks. We Never Got a Visage Of The Akers With Rodgers, Given How Fast The FOOTBALL Collapses On Him. A lot Of The Psyches Of The Jets Sunk With Rodgers As He Hit The Ground. I'm Not Concerned With Who The Jets Peg To Replace Rodgers On The Q.B. Depth Charts Or Which Hip Pocket Zach Wilson Grabs His Towel From. Sorry, Hard knocks. I'm Worried About How Robert Salah Plans To Instill Needed Confidence In Zach Wilson And Rally The Team Behind Wilson As the Object Of The Team's Ambitions To At least Make A Playoff Run. After Rodgers Went Down, A Handful Of The Team Expressed Grief Over His loss as He Died, As Their Hopes died, And For Now, The Hopes of Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner Perished. Salah Back Wilson In Public, "Under no circumstances is this a competition. This is Zach's team."
Nevertheless, Zach's Team In A Manner That Reflects Salah's Sentiment. The loss of Rodgers Still rests fresh In The Mind Of The Team. Understandably, No One Expressed Support For Wilson; At Least, I Didn't Hear Of Them In The Background. Last Jets Players Bemoaned Almost Publicly, The Offense Starting Zach Wilson Because His Play Cost Them the Game. Now, Everyone Must Pivot(Somehow) And Consciously Choose To Back Zach Wilson At Quarterback. Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett Has To Call A New Game Plan For Wilson's Skillset As Yet. Unfortunately, The Jets face A Dallas Defense Fresh Off Of Dismantling The Last New York Quarterback They Took On Opening Night. Daniel Jones Suffers From Similarly As Zach Wilson With Questions Along The Offensive Line And Jones Got Wreck As A Result.
You saw Zach Wilson, Cutting Through Dallas Middle, Connecting With Garrett Wilson For Touchdown, making Plays, And Making Mistakes Under The Duress Of The Dallas Defensive Line. Every So Often, He Makes A Play That Reminds Everyone Why The Jets Drafted Him Second Overall And Why They Haven't Given Up on Him And continue to Give Him Chances. The Jets Have Bigger Issues Than Wilson Alone, What The Jets Wanted In Rodger A QuarterbackWho Can Overcome Those Issues, which Wilson Can't. Instead, The Jets force Wilson To Reach Beyond His Capabilities At Times. He Throws On The Run Far Too much, But What Else Can A Quarterback When The Pocket Breaks down? Wilson Throws The Ball To The Wind. He's Usually Caught Doing Too Much, And What He Gets In Return, In The Form Of Interceptions, Breaks Everyone's Spirit. Wilson Has A Coveted Skillset But The Right Coordinator Will Have To Reap The Bounded Potential Out Of Him.
The Cowboys Won, But I Honestly didn't Expect Them To Carve Apart The Jets' Defense With such Cohesion, And In The Passing Game, No Less. Dallas Cruised To Take Their Second Victory Of The Season With Little Resistance. Ceedee Had A Big game. Watching The Jets Surrender 143 Yards To One Player Felt Strange, Considering How Well They Play The Pass. Nevertheless, a Passing Game can explode whenever Teams Decide To Target Opposite Sauce Gardner. The Cowboys Plotted Open Lamb Away From Sauce Gardner Most Of The Night, Deciding To Focus Their Attention On DJ Reed. Reed Has A Long Season Ahead Of Him.
Patriots Vs. Dolphins
Week One Of The NFL Has The Qualities Of A "Free Trial" Or A Demo On A Product. You Can't Draw Massive Assumptions On Sample Size Of Invariables That Change Drastically Into The Following Week. As Mike McDaniels So Inarticulately Elucidated, "How Often Does Everything Never Change During A Season." Mike McDaniels Said, "The Biggest Thing Is You Want To Live In A Constant Mode Of Progression."
Tua Reiterated The Same Sentiment, In Week On Everyone "Overreacts." Football Junkies Have Thirsted For The Game for So Long; of Course, The Next Big Move Changes The Game. For The Game For Long, The Dolphins Looked Like At Least The Best Passing Offense In the NFL For least another Two Weeks, Even If They Fall Short Of Having Another Big Passing Game. Some Dolphins Will Shave To Face The Challenge Of Their Own Milestones, How They Improve On Their Own Work, Running The Shadows Of Praises And Sucess That Will Covers Their Mind. "You To Be Challenged Week In Week Out," McDaniels said. The Dolphins Will Get Challenged This Week Against The Patriots. If The Dolphins Have Any Legitimate Shot Of Skating Every Defense, And We Know They Have A Shot, The Patriot's Defense Will Offer That Test Of Genuineness. Bill Belichick Has a Deep Cabinet Of Versatile Cover Corners, Some Like Marcus Jones, Who theoretically Matchup With Tyreek Hill. Jonathan Jones Usually Plays Tyreek, And Both Have Familiarity With each Other Going Back To Tyreek Days In Kansas City. Belichick Also Employs a Bracket Over Tyreek, Surrendering An Entire Chess Piece(A Safety) To Follow Tyreek Over The Top. All Of Bill's Positioning, In Theory, Challenge The Opposing Offense. Number One Option, In Theory, Because Tyreek Can Threaten Any Notion Of Slowing Down To Shame. If Any Coach Will Set The Precedent Straight For Defending Tyreek Hill Or At Least Negate Him For Reaching Over The 200+ Yard Ladder, Bill Belichick Has That Claim.
Good Teams Keep Success In Perspective, As Mike McDaniels Coach Tua Through The Ebbs And Flows Of Sunday The Quarterback Remarked Of Concerns Over His Technique, Tua Does Demonstrate Poor Technique At Time Mike Said THIS In Response. "Improve On Things, Thats A Process Thats Not Easy It's Really Hard… Not Worry About All Of Stuff You Can't Control But If You're Do That, You Turn The Page and Find Yourself At What You Care About." the Patriots Have The Opportunity To Explore The Reaches Of Their Coverage Prowess Because The Dolphins' Run Shane Doesn't Figure To Feature Prominently In This Matchup. If Tua Wants To Spread The Ball Around, Work In That "Symphony" As He Spoke Of The Dolphin's Deep Attack The Patriots Can Shoot Bodies Into Those Avenues And Close Lanes Off. A lot Of The Conversation on Dolphins This week Concentrated On The Dolphins' Offense. Still, The Defense Didn't Look Great Until The Last Drive. Coming In On A Poor Defensive Performance Against These Patriots May Dampened The Dolphins Chances Of Going 2-0 Because. This Patriots Offense Changes Work If Only As Optimally as The Quarterback Works. The Patriots And Dolphins Could Find Themselves In A Shoot Out Like The Gold Old Days.
The Patriots' Defense Tool, Tyreek Hill, is off of The pace to have the best season a wide receiver has ever had. Still, The Patriot's Offense Continues To Baffle. With Every Failed Attempt To Sustain A Drive, Mac Jones Continues To Build Evidence For Why He's Failed As A Starting Quarterback. Jones Finished With A "Glib" Stat-line, 31/42 For 231, 5.5 An Attempt With A Passer Rating Of 84.5. For Starter How Do You Atleast Not Throw For 250-275 At That High Of Pass Attempts. The Design And Intent Of Patriots Offense Tell You Everything About What They Believe Of Mac Jones. Nearly Every Play Call Moves Side To Side Or Horizontally. Very Rarely Does Jones Throw The Ball Horizontal, Over The Middle, OR Along The Boundary. Bill O'Brien Called a Safe Easy Game And The Offense Stunk Because Of The Pre-Packaged Play Calling. The Announcers Calling The Game Recognized How The Pats Could Pick Up Multiple Intermediate Gains With Really Threatening The Defense. The Lack Of Vertical Passing Also Hurt The Run Game Because Safeties and Corners Could All Play Close To The Box. As A Coach, You Have To Optimize Talent As A Number One Duty. The Patriots Have Good Deep Threats On The Roster in Devante Parker, Who Lead The In Receiving Yards With 57 On 6 Catches. Tight End Mike Gesicki is a Full 6'6, But Instead, let's Continue To Use a Bubble Screen Attack. I'm Not Saying New England Didn't Have Any Deep Passes—Jones's One Interception Came On A Deep Ball. His Receiver Didn't Win The Route—Simply Not Enough Successful Targets Downfield. The Patriots Knew The Dolphins Wanted To Play Two Deep Coverage Shells, So They Took What The Defense Gave Them, Hit Some Easy Button, And had a lousy Offense. The Problem With Taking What The Defense Gives You, those plays usually Don't Lead To Success. After Giving Eagles's Defense A Quick Scare, The Pats Have Regressed From A Week One Curiosity To A Week Two Disappointment. Mac Gets Sacked During The Final Two Minutes, and He Gets Up "Dazed" In A Way. The Quarterback usually hustles The Guys To The Line. He's always In His head, Waiting On The Next Play.
The Pats Stand As The Lone AFC East team Without A Win, But A Down Year In A Class Rich in quarterbacks won't Hurt.
The Patriots Pass Defense Despite Coming Into The Game Short One Jonathan Jones and Then Losing Marcus Jones In The First Half. Rookie Christian Gonzales Shaded Tyreek Hill Most Of The Night. The Rook secured The First Pick Of the Patriots' Career On A Leaping Grab Over Tyreek Hill On Deep Go Route. The Dolphins Played A Mostly Horizontal Game. The Patriots Held Tyreek Hill To 40 Yards. Jaylen Waddle Picked Up The Loose Coverage. He Finished With Four Catches For 86 Yards, 21.5 Per Reception. The Patriots' Pass Rush Felt Nulled, And The Dolphins' offensive Line Doesn't Have A Strong Reputation. Even With Tua Getting The Ball Out Fast, One Sack Feels Ineffective.
Tua Played Almost Tamed, Like He Couldn't Let The Big Play Loose. He Completed Most Of His Passes In The Five Yard Range, 21/30 for 249 passing yards, one passing touchdown, And A Pick. Some Of Tua's Passes Had Some Whistle As He Connected Through The Air. Tua's PreSnap Processing Appeared Cybernetic.
The Dolphins Run Game, an Afterthought, Usually Came Out an and Proved And Proved Relevant. Raheem Mostert Had 18 Carries For 121, 6.7 A Carry, Two Touchdowns, and A Long, Nearly Untouched 43 Yard Rumble To Win The Game For The Dolphins. I Found The Dolphins' Run Efficiency Surprising, Considering Everyone Expected The Patriots To Posses The Better Run Game, and The Dolphins Run Defense Gave Up A Big Game To Austin Ekeler. Rhamondre Stevenson Only Managed 50 Yards On 15 Carries.
Chargers Vs. Titans
I Need A Chester's Dad Bag Hat if I'm Brandon Staley. The Chargers Hired Staley Because Of His Background IN Defense. Staley's Work Under Sean McVay In Los Angeles Made Him a Touted Name In The Evolution Of Pass Defense. "Did Not Do Good Enough Jon In The Passing Defense Too Many Big Plays?" Said you Shouldn't Have To Google What Happened On Sunday To Find Out What Happened To Staley's Defense. The Dolphin's "Credit Miami, Last Season The Outcome Was Different." The Chargers Losing Should Have Dried The Ink On The Nullification Of Bradon Staley's Contract As The Chargers Head Coach. A week ago, The Titans Resemble A Team That Looked Like They'd Forgotten How To Play Football At A High Level. Suddenly, With The Chargers On Schedule, Ryan Tannehill Found A New Lease On Life. In A Game When Justin Herbert finished with 305 Yards, Though Truthfully I Expect Herbert To Always Throw For 300 Plus And Worse, He Needed 41 Dropbacks To Get Over 300.
Herbert Made Some Spectacular Throws Falling Down, Hoisting The Ball Anywhere Near The Endzone For The game's First Touchdown To Keenan Allen. He Connected Allen Again Later On A Deep Bomb For 42 Yards. Allen Finished 8 Receptions For 111 And Two Touchdowns.
The Offense, Despite Playing Well, Still Can't maximize The Talent On The Roster. I still Don't think They Get Wide Receiver Quentin Johnston Involved Enough. Johnston Finished With two Targets And One Reception For Seven Yards. But You Have To Wonder As a Fan How Much More Impact He Can Have Stack Next To Mike Williams With a Similar Body Type. Herbert Nearly Forced Mike Williams Too Much, He Threw A Deep Ball Into Double Coverage In Over time That Had No Chance Of Connecting, One Of Three Straight Incompletions To Start The Overtime Period. One Play Later, The Chargers Punted.
After Leading For Most Of The Game, With No Run Game To Spear The Titans A Few Possessions, The Chargers Needed A Late Game Tying Drive To Force Time.
The Titans Forced The Chargers To Punt Three Out Of Four Drives To Start The Second Half. Ryan Tannehill Didn't Have The Bigger Game Or The Wow Game, But He Had A Far More Effective Game. A lot Of quarterbacks needed A Bounce From Week One, None More Than Tannehill, Who Finished With A passer Rating Below 30. Still, The Chargers Defense Proved Just What The Doctor Ordered. Tannenhill Had The Better Outing, 20/24 For 246, And One Touchdown For A Rating Of 123.3, And Tannenhill Took A Couple Of Sacks Early That Stifled Titan's Drives With The Chargers Pass Rush Finally Showing Life. "InThouhht We Rush The Passer Well Today." Said Coach Brandon Staley. The Chargers Rush Looked Much Improve Over the Ineffective Rush They Produced Last Week.
The Titans started The Game With -16 Passing Yards Before Ryan Tannehill Let The Ball Loose Downfield. Tannenhill's 70 70-yard connection With Second Year Receiver Treylon Burks Set The Titans up in Business Near The Endzone, With Derrick Henry Waiting To Leap over and Pull The Titans Within Four 11-7; Eventually, Both Team Would field Goal before The Half. At Some Point, I Expected The Chargers To Pull Away From The Titans, But With The Game Moving slowly. The Titans Actually Mustering Some Offense, This Felt Like A Game In Favor Of The Titans With How Slow Things Moved. The run Game Made The Difference For The Chargers. Between Tyjae Spears, Derrick Henry, And Tannehill, The Chargers Finished With 141 yards On The Ground and two Touchdowns. A Late Connection With DeAndre Hopkins Set Up the Winning Field Goal For Tennessee. The Loss Pushes The Chargers To 0-2 Alongside The Broncos In The AFC West. Late Game Executions Proving Costly Once More. "We Just Have To Capitalize on Third Down." Justin Herbert Said After The Game. "We've Got 15 Games Ahead Of Us," Coach Staley Continued.
I'll Tell You Close Losses Still Count As Losses In The Record Column, Moral Victories Belong To Minor League Coaches. Staley Still Has His Job As Of This Writing, But These Losses Bile Up, And The Chargers Could Find Themselves Far Away From The Division Title. "The Men In that Locker Room Are Finishers And They Have What It Takes," Staley said. The Chargers Have To Prove This. The Win, On The Other Hand, Must Have Felt Good For the Titans. The Offense Moved The Ball and put some Touchdowns On the Board, but The Road To The Top South Looks Tough This Year.
Lions Vs. Seahawks
I Don't think anyone Has Made This Statement Of Detroit Since The Days Henry For Long Walks across His Car Company's Floors, "Detroit Has All Eyes Trained In On Them This Year, "Last Season's Seattle Vs. Detroit Matchup Results Proved Crucial At The End Of The Year. The "An old-fashioned shootout," Smith said Of His 23/30 320 Passing yards That Bumped Seattle To A Record Of 2-2, A Step Ahead Of Detroit 1-3.
No One Expected What Happened Next. Detroit Would Recover From These Losses And Mount A Laye Season Playoff Run On The Tails Of One Of The Best Offenses In The League. "Geno played spectacular football," Carroll said. "I don't know how you could play much better than that." Smith Actually PLAYED A lot Better As The Season Progressed.
Geno Smith Wouldn't Write Back. He'd Put Big Numbers On The Boards, Cash In On A Big Year, And Put Seattle Back In The NFC Contention Pool. Jared Goff Lit Up The 26/39 Attempts and 378 Passing yards, proving his Best Performance Since His Days With The Rams. The Seahawks Defense Surrender Another Big Game To Current Rams Quarterback Matthew Stafford And Play Caller Sean McVay. The Lions Use A Lot Of McVay's Calls Throughout Their Offense, Although The Two Quarterbacks From Each Team Have Two Staggering Different Appeals.
The Detroit Defense, Especially The Pass Rush, proved Menacing Against The Chiefs. The Secondary stood Up To Patrick Mahomes And Didn't Completely Crumble In Presence; Instead, They Braced A Sealed The Opening Night Win Against The League's Pass Happiest Team In The League. Seattle Likes To Pass The Ball A Lot As Well. Neither Team Put Up 40, But This Sequel Showdown Between The Seattle and The Detroit Lions Didn't Disappoint. Jared Goff Threw His First Interception In 384 Snaps On Play That Flip The Scoreboard And The Momentum Decidedly In Seattle's Favor. Every Drive of the Fourth Quarter Felt Like Watching "The Dark Knight"" or "Training Day" Or A Film Plot Where I Root For Both Sides of The Equation. You Have To Find Inspiration In The Entire Motif Of Detroit: Gutsy, Rugged but Creative And Stocked With Fireworks. On The Opposite End, Geno Smith, The Hero Of Last Season's Tale Of Triumph Leading Seattle To Prevail. The Seahawks Offense Almost Looked Like The Downfield Level Attack We Expected In Off Season. Smith Finished 32/41 And Connected With Tyler Lockett Twice, One For The Lead In The Fourth Quarter and The Other To Seal The Game On The First Drive Of Overtime. Both Teams Struggled To Find Any Offensive Groove After Their Initial First Drive, Which Locks The Game 7-7 For Nearly The Entire Half Before The Lions Broke The Gridlock In The 2nd Quarter. For Anyone Hoping For Another Shootout, They'd Have To Wait Until The Second Act, The Second Half, For The Real Showdown To Start. Coming Off A Rough Loss To Ram, In Which Seattle Only scored 13 Points And Generated just 12 total yards Of Total Offense In The Second half, Seattle Delivered A Strong Second Half. Against The Lions, Seattle Produced Three Touchdowns In The Second Half and Overtime; 179 Yards Of Offense Came By The Arm Of Smith. When Seattle Faced Crucial Third, Smith Hung In The Pocket and Delivered Strike after Strike. Dialed In Geno Connected With Nine Different Receivers, Four Different Receivers Caught Passes On The Seahawks Game Winning Drive. Just As In Their Previous Matchup, Turnovers Proved The Difference.
An Interception At Any Point Hurts A-Team. Still, Jared Goff's fourth-quarter interception Returned For A Touchdown With The Balance Of The Game Tolting, Guy Wrenching. Otherwise, Goff plays a Super Bowl Quarterback Caliber Game. He's Shedding That Game Manager Monologue With Every Big Throw Crossing All His Past Narratives. Goff Finished 28/35 Three Touchdowns, One Pick, A Sizzling 9.2, and An Attempt For A Passer Rating Of 121.8. Pressure In The Pocket Played A Crucial Role As The Game Wore On For The Lions. Pro Bowl tackle Taylor Decker Didn't Make The Lineup Due To Injury Pressure Off Goff's Right Side Where Penei Sewell Moved To the Left Side, Plays Forced An Errant Throw. A Late Blitz Pickup On A Fourth Down Conversion Attempt Also Forced Goff To Attempt A Throw Off Platform, Which missed The Target. The Lions Attempted Three(3) Fourth Conversions, And Coach Campbell Finished 1/3. Seattle's Offensive Tackle, Who Looked Spotty Against The Rams, Held Up Great Against Aidan Hutchinson And the Lions. The Lions Had To Reach Deep Into The Fourth Quarter For Their First Sack Of Smith, Who Scrambled Almost Incredulously For Everyone Watching Before Alex Anzalone Took Him Down. The Lions Finished With One Sack In 44 Drop Backs For Geno Smith.
The Lions Offense Converted That Stop Into Three Points and Tied The Game, Forced Overtime In A Game They Controlled Up Until The Concluding Drives Of The Game. Offensively, The Lions Suffered Three Turnovers, Two of Which Immediately Became scores A Fumble at The Start of The Third and The Pick Six. Runningback David Montgomery Fumbled Before Leaving The Game With an Injury, And The Detroit Run Game Sunk After Montgomery Left. Wide Receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown Fumbled At The End Of The First Half, The Only Blemish On Near Spectacular Game. You're Just Not Going To win Too Many Games In The NFL, Turning The Ball Over, Not Closing Out Drives With Points And Generating Pressure.
St. brown Will Find Himself In The Best Receiver CONVERSATION by The End Of The Season. He Started The Game 6/6 at 102 But Didn't Pick Up Much Action In The fourth quarter, Only Picking One More Target Before Finishing At 102 With A toe Injury Limiting Much Of His Late Game/Second Half Impact. Goff Also Tried Spreading The Ball Around. The Lion's Sharp Shooter Hit Eight Guys. Rookie Sam La Porta continues His emergence As a Trusted Target. The Iowa Product La Porta Caught Five(5) 63 Yards. Josh Reynolds Caught 5 For 66 Yards.
The Lions Had No Answers In Coverage For DK Metcalf. He Went 6 For 6 75 Yards, A Couple Big Conversions, and A Touchdown set. Detroit's Defense Doesn't Have A "Prove Yourself Against Us Sign" Wrapped Around Their Collar, But Seattle Didn't Outscore One Of The Best Offenses. Pete Carroll's Group Didnt Shoot Themselves in the Foot Like Dan Campbell's Did.
Ravens Vs. Bengals
Both Lamar Jackson And Joe Burrow Took To This Divisional Game With The Intent to Bounce Back From Poor Performances In Week One.
Separately, Their Teams Enter Week Two From Different Perspectives. A Handsomely Paid Lamar Jackson Played an Ugly Game against The Texans. Jackson finished 17/22 For 169 Yards Passing, took 4 Sacks, and Registered A Rating Of 79.5 In A Performance That Could've Looked Worse If Not For Rookie Wide Receiver Zay Flowers Turning Short Passes Into magic. Jackson Had The Off-season To Synchronize With Todd Monken. Still, Without Tight End Mark Andrews And A Much Improved Texans, Lamar Looked Stressed As A Passer And Reverted Back Into His Scrambling Identity. PFF Tagged Lamar With An 8.8 Turnover Worth Play Rate, A Stat That Judges The Quality Of Passes. Whether The Passes Rests In A Turnover Or Otherwise, He Finished Right Behind Ryan Tannehill (Yikes).
What's Worse, The Ravens already Started The Season On The Losing End Of Their Endless War Against Injuries. Several Ravens, All Across The Roster Defense and Offense, Stepped Off The Field In Week One With Injuries. Bengals Quarterback Has The Trials Of An Even Worse Game Behind Him. I Believe The NFL Statisticians Gave Burrow a 52 Passer Rating Out Of Good Faith. If you're A Ravens Fan, You Have To Find Concerned about Watching Lamar Jackson Scramble So Much To Generate Any Pulse On The Ravens Offense. Lamar Creates Magic With His Legs, Defense Fear Him More On The Move Than Through The Air. For The Ravens Offense, This Mean Receivers Struggle To Get Open Down Field. Lamar Hits The Abort Button And Has To Get "Jiggy." Trust Me, Even With Ground Gained, Watching Your 200 Plus Million Dollar Investment Of Flesh And Bone Get Slumped Around Couldn't Have Felt Fun. Lamar Still delivers An Impressive Game In Total Passing, Especially During The Second Half. Some Of The Miserable Passing Experience Of Last Week Ended, And Lamar Kept The Offense Clicking. Nothing Better Than A 52 Yard Bomb To Zay Flowers That Set A Mark Andrews Touchdown Lamar's First Of The Year. Zay Caught All But One Pass On That Drove That Put Baltimore Up any Two Scores. The Offenses On Both Sides look uglier Than The Final Score Relays, Especially For Cincy, Who Bounced Back, And Burrow Understood That The Ravens Had No Intentions Of Let The Bengals Bounce Back Against Baltimore. "They're Going To Run The Ball Well. Keep It Away From You…"
The Bengals Mustered Just Three Drives That Spanned 18 Plays, Resulting in A Couple Of Three Outs And One Long Touchdown Drive, All Before Starting The Second Half With An Interception As The Climax To A Promising Drive. According To Kevin Cole, Of The Unexpected Point, The Bengals Registered Six Points On The Adjusted Score, Put A Porous Offensive Showing.
On The Other hand, the Ravens Controlled The Rock, multiple Big Drives Of 10,13 12 Plays. The Ravens Generated 415 Yards Of Offense and Almost Quadrupled The Bengals In Rushing Yards 175 To 66 Yards On The Ground. The Ravens Rushed The Ball 37 Times.
The Bengals Generated More Life From Tee Higgins This Sunday After The Pro Bowl Reciever Left Week One Contest Empty Handed With Zero Receptions and Zero Yards. Tee Responded In This Performance With 8 Catches,89 Yards, And Two Touchdowns, Proving To Everyone Watching Why He's One Of The League's Ultimate Red Zone Weapons. The Bengals Offense Still Stuffed Up The Second Half Landing. For The First Time Ever, The Ravens Held Lamar Held Jamar Chase In Check, Only Surrendering Five Catches And 31 Yard For Chase, Who Usually Domionates The Ravens. Tyler Boyd Chipped Inn Sox Catches For 52 And, As Always, Caught Some Tough Beans Over The Middle. The Bengals Had To Default On Leveraging Offensive Responsibilities On The Run Game After The Second Half. The Bengals Only Rushed The Ball 15 times.
Jackson drops several Dimes On His way To Bounce Back To MVP Form As A Thrower. The Raven's Quarterback Finished 24/33 for 237 yards, two touchdowns, a 72.7 Completion Percentage, And A 112.8 One Beauty Throw To The Corner Of the Endzone To Nelson Agholor, The Other A Touch Connection To Mark Andrews For A Short Catch And Run Score. The Ravens went 3/4 In The End Zone. The Ravens Receiving Core Worked As A Unit More Than Any Individual Standing Out. The Group Commitment Acknowledged, Zay Flowers Continues To Generate Big Plays And Ultimately Make Me Look Bad For Writing Him Off Pre draft. Flowers Continues To Run Underneath Defender Down field This Week He Hauled In A 52 The Biggest Play For The Ravens On The Day.
Cardinals Vs. Giants
For A Moment, I Thought The Cardinals Had Put The Tank Away And Play The Game With Intent To win. Silly Me. but Honestly, The Played Aggressive, If Only To Show The League Effort.
I've watched and Studied Football For A Long Time; I've Never Seen a Man More Physically Unfit— from a Visual standpoint— to Play Than Josh Doubs Yet The Cardinals Looked Dominant. Josh Doubs Put The Cardinals Up Two Scores by Scoring Early With A Big, Tough Run Into The Endzone That Looked Like He'd Break Apart. While the Giant's Offense Looked Stuck In The Stone Age, The Cardinals Took Off Into another Stratosphere. In The First Half, The Cardinals Go On A Run Of Four Straight Drives Resulting In Points, While the Giants Looked Frustrated Over Punts And Turnovers. I questioned if The Cards Could Make This Collection Of Small Receivers Work In An Offense But Smaller, Quick Work So Well On Those Underlying Routes.
The Offensive Line Had Questions Going Stemming From Last Season, They Drafted A Rookie Paris Johnson Jr. Kept Josh Doubs Clean And Ran The Ball Against An Impressive Giants Front Seven. Doubs Worked The Giant's Secondary for Most Of The First Half. Three Cardinals Receivers Recorded More Than 50 Yards and Josh Doubs Played The Giant's's Secondary Like A Flute. Doubs Doesn't Possess an Ability Excitable Arm, So Those Short Intermediate Touch Show Case His Ability To Diagnose Defenses. Doubs Connected With Eight Different Receivers. Featuring A Strong Game From Rookie Micheal Wilson, One Of The Few Big Receivers On The Roster, Along With Zach Ertz and Trey McBride, Both Did Damage To The Giant's Soft Zone Coverages. With All The Rushing A Passes On The Move, Josh Doubs Looked Like Lamar Jackson. After The Cardinals Kicked A Field Goal To Go Up 20-0 The Giants Had Given Up 60 Straight Unanswered Points To Start The Year and Losing To The Cardinals Couldn't Look Worse For A Team Everyone Expected to Regress This Year. The Giants Came Out Of The Half Looking To Get Right Back Into The Game With A Big Splash Play To Jaylin Hyatt For 58. Two plays Later, Daniel Jones Found The End Zone with a 14 14-yard rushing Score. Hyatt Caught Another Pass For 31 Yards On The Drive That Set The Giants Up To Tie The Game.
The Cardinals Would Tack On Another Score To Push The Matter 28-7. In football, No Lead, No Matter How Big, Can Stand Unbreakable No Matter How Poorly The Giants Played. The Cardinals Wouldn't Score Again From The Third Quarter On. Suddenly, The Giants, Who Couldn't Stop James Connor, remembered how To Plug Run Gaps. The Cardinals Remembered They Had a Competition For The Top Pick In Next Year Draft, And The Giants Play Some Inspired Football. The Cardinals Generates Just Seventeen Yards Of Offense And Not One First Down After The Start
of The Fourth. The Cards Produced 370 370-plus yards Offense Before Their Final Three Drives.
The Offense Remembered What Made The Magic Work Last Season. Heavy Down Field Strikes Off Of Play Action Coupled With Some Daniel Jones Scrambling As His Purse Got Stolen. (No One's Stealing Jones's Purse). The Giants Put Together Three Straight Drives Of 80 Yards Or Better To Put Themselves Back Into Winning Range. The Giants Get In The Winning Column But The Work Remains Ahead. The Other Teams In The Division remain Undefeated thus Far After Washington escaped A Loss On Sunday. Worse Of All, The Rest of The NFC's Challengers, Like Tampa And Atlanta, Remained Strong. The Competition For One Of Those Final Wild Card Spots In The NFC Started Last Week. The Giants Have To Catch Up.
