Week Nine Take Away.
"Parity" In The NFL, it’s All The Rage, But Only Exists in Small Pockets Around The League. Like The AFC East, The Only Division With Three Teams With A Positive Point Diiffernetial And Four Clubs With Winning Records. The NFC South Has Parity But Only Where No Team Has A winning Record Or A Positive Point Differential.
In The Rest of The League, So Many Team Are So Far AHead In The Standing That Fighting The Urge To Think About The NFL Playoffs Doesn’t Feel Right.
So Mathematical No Team Stand On The Line Of Eliminated From The Playoffs. We’re Crossing Jordan Into Week Nine. With The Limitless effect Of Parity, “Anyone” Not Named The Texans Can Win Out And March Into Winter On Scorching Hot Momentum Into Wild Card Weekend.
On thought Provoking levels, We Know Some Teams Like The Raiders Or The Presumptive AFC South Champs Colts Would Land On The Skillet This Deep In The Season. They’re Both Cooked At This Point. Done. The Jaguars Are Amongst That Group Mired In Mediocrity, And Whiles Someone Has To Lose, These Are Teams That Entered The Season Expected To Compete In The Case Of The Raiders And Colts, And The Jaguars Showed Early Returns On All Of Their Young Promise. Instead, They’re Fizzling. Take Them Off The Grill They’re Cooked. Of The Three, The Raiders Are In The Worst Possible Position They Went “All In,” Contending And All In On Davante Adams. He Remains One Of The Leagues Best Receivers, But He Hasn’t Achieved The Offensive Catalyst Level. That is All Spark The Raiders Hoped For When They Mortgaged The Future And Went Big Bank On Reuniting Him With Derek Carr. Even That Clause “One Of The Best Receivers In The Game” Sound “Off.” Adams Used To Occupy The Position As The Best Receiver In Football. These Days “Tae” Usually Hangs Around The Hundred Yard Mark On Good Days.
If I’m A Raiders Fan, I’m Wondering Now If All The Reports, Allegory and panegyrics about this Transformative Force Of Davante Adams Coming To Vegas We're Just Falsified Or “Misstated.” Part Of The Raiders Struggles On Offense Are Allocation. Mind You, The Raiders Are Bad On Offense (12th In Scoring:23.3). They Are, However, Coming Off Of A Zero Score Game Against New Orleans And Needing A Massive Comeback To Outlast The Texans. The At Times Looks Like Josh McDaniels Forged The Design In Desert Out West.
Derek Carr Hasn’t Touch 2000 Yards Yet For Season and Stands Two Game Out From The Mark. Somehow, with Even Matt Ryan, Nad Tua Tagovailoa, And Jimmy Garrapolo Out In Front Of Him. That Revelation Has More Impact When You Realize That Carr Has Thrown More Than Fifty Passes Than Tua And 27 More Than Jimmy. These Offenses Aren’t All The Same, But The Numbers Speak To the Broader Disappointment Of The Raiders. In A Surprise Twist Of Narrative, Josh Jacobs Has to Emerge As The One Bright Spot On The Offense. He’s The Singular Force Behind The Raiders Top Ten Rank Rushing Attack. He And A better Run Blocking Unit. On The Passing Side, Davante Adams Hasn’t Matched That Energy Like We Expected, And The Laser Pointer is All Trained On McDaniels. The Blame Doesn’t Fall On The Adams Targets Dropping Near Career Low Threatening Ranges.
In Green Bay, The Entire Offense Ran Mostly Through Davante Adams. How LaFleur Deployed Him. How Much Aaron Rodgers Trusted Him(“I trust (Adams) so much,” Rodgers said. ) How Defenses Adjusted To Combat All Of The Ways Adams Can Inflict Control Over The Game.
That Rotation is Changing Gravity.
What’s Changed In Vegas—Besides Everything— McDaniels Playcalling and Design. The Former New England Offensive Architect Integrated Davante Adams Into The Offense Rather Tan Have The offense Bend To The Talents Of The Games Best Receiver. Most Managers and Coaches Believe In The Inverse, Which Means To Work With You Best Player Out. Star Players When Championships.
What Happens In Vegas Though, The Raiders Already Had An Established Offensive Dynamic. Hunter Renfrow, Darren Waller, and Derek Carr Have Worked Magic Together In Silver And Black. Adams And McDaniel Have To Work In The Edifice Already In Place, which is no easy Matter To Manage. The Assimilation Of The Dream Of One Offense Will Take Time.
Derek Carr’s Lesser Processing Ability Doesn’t Help The Matter. Take, For Instance, The Touchdown Connection With Davante Adams In The 2nd Quater. The Jags Secondary Blow The Coverage assignment On Adams Coming Over The Middle On A Post Route. Adams Springs Open Immediately, But The Break Downs Carr About Three Seconds To Read The Connection. By That Time, Adams had Already Broke Downfield For A Touchdown. Next Gen Calculated The Air Yards Added 35 Yards, But The YAC Should’ve Made A Greater Difference Because Adams Had “8.5 yards of target separation” From The Jump.
I Believe At Times Derek Carr PreDetermines His Routes. You Find Him Throwing Into Double Coverage On Multiple On Occasions. Almost As if He’s Trusting The Concept And The Route Combination To Break Open According To Josh McDaniel’s Design Rather Than Reading The Defense’s alignment. Carr's ball Placement And Timing Can Overwrite His Faults In Acuity And Even Create Saw Special Play Like That Corner Route Pitch And Catch To Hunter Renfrow. That Style Or Approach To The Game Can Render Doesn’t Hurt The Raider’s offense Play To Play Bst Result: Well, Shaky and The Raider Have A 2-6 Record As Proof.(Carr Also Found A Open Foster Moreau Late On A Play Earlier In The Game)
The Raiders are Getting Adams Involved. I Know Some People Express Their Disenchantment With Raiders After A Loss Like This. The Jaguars Are Coming Off Of Five Straight Losses and Look Destined To Land Their Third Number One Pick In A Row. Credit Trevor Lawrence For A Bell Against Critics. This Week Numerous Football Outlets Revisited The Second Year Quarterback Because Four Of The Five( Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields, Jones) Have Made The Headline For One Reason Or Another. Lawrence Hasn’t Made The Leap Into StardoM He Seemed Destined To Cross After College. Despite Him Living In A New Continuity—New Coach, New System, New Weapons—Lawrence Hasn't Delivered On his Promise Like A Failed Messiah. Against The Raiders, He Reminded Everyone That Progress And Time Are Not Always In Alignment. Instead, They Dance About Wildly At Times.
After A Underwhelming Showing Against Denver, Lawrence Came Alive And Brought The Jags Back In This Game With Him With Some Impressive Throws. He Looked Every Bit The Second Coming Of Andrews Going 25/31, A Completion Percentage Over 80%, And An Adjusted Completion Percentage Over 92.9. Jags Receiver Somehow Drop Eight Passes(Somehow), And They Have One Of The Highest Drop rates In The league In General. The Jaguars Defensive Line Got Pressure On Carr To Tune Two Sacks That Knock The Raiders Out Of Rhythm In the Second Half. Josh McDaniels Need To Take A Q Or Two From The Other McDaniels, Mike, On An Offensive Scheme That Highlights And Allocate Premier Talents. Whenever The Raiders Feature Davante Adams Too Much, The Offense Tends To Suffer. Adams Finished 10/17 145 Yards, And None Of The Raiders Other Came Anywhere Relative To His production. Neither Team Seems Headed For An Upward Trajectory, Except The Raiders, Who Moved Up To Ninth On Projected Draft Boards.
Lawrence Still Has A lot Of Accident Prone-Ness To His Game, But He’s A Highlight When All Of The Fine Tuning And Correction Are In Work. The Jags Are Still Behind The Colts In The Standings. Despite the Colt Having A Minus (-51) Point Differential and The Jags Having The Only Positive Point Differential In The Division(+11).
Titans Vs. Chiefs
Coming Into Week Nine, A Deluge Of Team Had Multi Game Winning Streaks In The Line. I Know the Sentence Has A Oxymoronic-Syntax Tint And Feel To It( Streaks of Any Kind Need “Multi” Of Any Kind To Qualify As A Stria), But I’m Talking About Extended “Streaks.”
Multiple Four-Five Game Streaks are On The Line. Some Of The Team Face Each Other, All Coming From Different Venues. The Vikings And Bills Are Making Good On Early Season Promise. The Titans, Dolphins Are Recovering From Short Stumbles. With Massive Losing Streaks Piling On Top of The Other Teams In The AFC South(Colts(2), Jags(5), Houston(3)), After Spending The Preseason Overlooked and Counted Because Matt Ryan Entered the Division, The Titans Are In The Playoff Mode Again Pretty Much Here On Out. The Titans Return Atop The AFC South Mountain Aligns With Derrick Henry’s Return To Peak, Dependable Efficiency.
Henry’s Back To Racking Up 100-Yard Games; He Didn’t Let Up Against The Chiefs. With Ryan Tannehill Sideline By An Ankle The ForeKnowledge, The Forecast Heavy Shoulder Drops And Stiff Arms That The Chiefs Defense Could Defense Against The Torrent. Some Defenses, Like The Chiefs, Aren’t Built For To Take Derrick Henry Type Forces. He Had Two Big Runs. You Hear Critic Swallow The Sheets Of Obituary Notes For Henry’s Career.
The Titans Kept Control Of The Game Offensive Game Plan To Shade Malik Willis With A Limited In The Passing And Limited Run Packages. Willis Had A Decent Night On Designed 8 Carries For 40; that’s Five Yards, Per Carry. He Nudges The Meter A Little In The Passing For A Titans Passing Attack Already Anemic Before He Entered The starting Position. The Rookie Sixteen Attempts save five From Landing On Teaching Board. The Lack Of Aerial Attack(And Quarterback Escapability) Cost The Titans The Game. After Justin Feild's Hyperbolic Finish Against The Dolphins, Watching Willis Struggle Some Evade Tackles Only Amplifies The Rarity Of Justin Fields. Some Scouts Believe Malik Willis Could Make The Draft As A Full-Time Rusher; while That’s Still True, He Certainly Lacks The Evasiveness Of A Rushing Quarterback. Fields Created Rushing Windows Where There Weren’t Any. If There’s No Entry, He Just Blasted Through And Made One.
Patrick Mahomes, Far From The Most Graceful Runner In The League, Out Maneuvered Tacklers With Greater Ease Than Willis. Of Course, Mahomes Can Hold His Adversary
I Can’t Name Five Titans Defensive Players But Withstanding 91 Plays And 78 Dropbacks From Patrick Mahomes And Forcing Overtime, That’s Herculean. They Held The Titans Lead In Place and Patrick To 9 Points. Mahomes Lit Up One Of the Complete Secondaries In The League For 439, But While His Famous Arm Blazed The Trail, His Legs Made The Plays That Became More Than The Titans Could Bare.
Vikings Vs. Commanders
The Commanders Are Always At The Intersection Of A Revenge Games This Season. After The Free Agent Diaspora, This Off-Season, Many Players Are Visit(Or Receiving Visits) From Past Homages. Homages? Homesteads. Teams A Given Player Used To Run With For Better Or worse. For Washington, The Revenants Are Mostly The Carson Wentz's Fault. His Trade Brought All Of This Tarantino Movie Plot Madness Into The Cauldron, But This Time, An Old Quarterback Comes Home( Or Away). Kirk Cousins Who Play For The Commanders Between 2012-2017. Drafted By Mike Shanahan In The 4th as a backup and took over the team as the DEBRI From The RGIII era Called Hurdling into Earth's atmosphere. The Commanders Organization Hasn't Had Any Peace At Quarterback Since The Contract and Relationship Since. Eleven Different Quarters Have Dawn Commander Burgundy Since Cousins exited. Combine Those Eleven Quarterbacks Have Produced a Record of 28-45, with Alex Smith And Taylor Heinicke Having Moderate Success. Only The Colts Can To A more Distressing Time At Quarterback After The Departure Of One Guy. Perhaps Cousins's Revenge Reside In The Team Miring Ineptitude. Perhaps The Commanders Are the Victims. Reportedly Kirk Cousins Spurned The Then The "Acrimoniously" Named Redskins Offers For Contract Extension. The Commanders Have A Bit Of Revenge To Enact. According To Kirk, The Washington Media Inspired The Entire "You Like That!" (With An Exclamation Mark) Expression, After A Group Of Local Affiliates, Call For His Job, The Job Most Never Wanted Him To Inherit.
The Commanders Had Their Chances In The Battle Of Who Gets The Last: "You Like That." Fringe MVP Candidate Kirk Cousins Came Out Launching.
NFL players like to engage the idea between Themselves and their Former Teams. The Game Boils Down To Just Business.
Today Felt Different. With the Shoulder Rotation Of Kirk's Release, You Could Tell He Added Extra Polish On That Finish. "Take That.", "Take That" and Another One Of These. The First Of The Game, He Completed Five Passes And Drove The Vikings Down The Field With Strike after Strike. But The Viking's offense Fell Into A Lullaby.
The Commanders Took Over With Heinicke On The Ones And Twos Giving His Best Kirk Cousins Impression. He Finished With Average stats of 15/28, 149 Yards (Like What), But One Pass He Thundered Down To the End-zone To Curtis Samuel Alone Felt Like 100 Plus Yards—Into Triple Coverage, No Less. Yeah, The Ref Create Interference But The Willingness To Push A Pass That Deep Against Two Of The Vikings' Best Pass Defenders In Harrison Smith And Patrick Peterson. Heinicke Also Pulled An Impressive, Nifty Spin Move Out On a Scramble Where they Just Baited A Defender Out Of Their Shoes. He Has Electricity In Pouches Like Pikachu. He Plays The Game With them. Certain Controlled Recklessness, Nevermind The Commanders Blew 17-10 Lead.
At The end Though Too Much, Justin Jefferson. He's Like Plutonium; You Need Special Container To Bridle His Explosive.
No, Touchdowns Since Week One? but That One is On The Board. With The Vikings Offense Struggling To Sustain Traction. Punts and Three And Outs Piling Up? Put The Ball In The Hands Of The Star, Even On The ground. The Viking Pulled Out The Win And Credit Them For Pulling Out Another Needlessly Resilient Victory.
The Vikings Are A difficult Team To Trust(If They're Worth Trusting At All). The Talent Levels On Offense Rivals Any Top Team. Still, They Play Down To The Competition Level Of Their Opponent And Less To What Appear As Their Level Capable Of Teams This Extraordinary Talent. They Shouldn't Squeeze Out Twenty Points On 11 Drives. The More They Get TJ Hockenson Involved, The Better. He Came Up Clutch Late On The Game Sealing Drive.
Vikings Can rival And Ultimately Beat Anybody In Football, But They Can Also Lose To Anybody At The Same Time. Yes, Every Football Team Can Lose, Some Are Less Vulnerable, and Vikings Aren't One Of Them.
Bears Vs. Dolphins
As I Round The Curves On My Bears Blurb From Week Eight, I Wanted To Calcify My Argument About Their Desperate Need For Improved Outside Playmaking. Still, I Didn’t Want To Swerve Into Overkill Mode, with Justin Feilds Officially Entering The Void Of Positive Reception Amongst With His Recent Performances Against The Patriots and Cowboys Receiving Rave, Even Universal Acclaim. The Move Bears Made An underrated Play At The Deadline For Suddenly Luxated Steeler Wide Receiver Chase Claypool. As A Rookie, Claypool Looked Like The Next Leader Of The Next Generation Of Steelers Star Receivers He Caught Nine Touchdowns And Just “Big Boyed” Defenders Downfield. He’s a Tank.
That’s The Season The Steelers Went 11-0 Before Collapsing At The End Of the Season. Whether Through The Fallout Surrounding Ben Rothlisberger's Quarterbacking Demise Or Other Extenuating Issues With The Culture In the Steelers Locker Room, Claypool Fell Into Disuse. With The Rise Of Diontae Johnson And The Emergence Of George Pickens, A Change In Offensive Philosophy And Play Calling, The Steeler Claypool Became An Offensive Redundancy. For Play Caller Who Loves To Call Go Routes. Pickens Pushed Claypool From Out Wide Into Mostly Slot Snaps.
Most Of The Time, Matt Canada Used Chase Claypool To Keep Pittsburgh’s Equally Befuddling, Rudderless Run Game Tenable As A “Run Game” In Court In The Sweep And End Around Game. Why I Like With The Bears Has Everything To do With Style.
Too Many Times Against The Cowboys, I Witnessed Justin Fields Make Sauce Out Of Trimming, Only For His Receivers to Let Passes Simmer In The Air. Pettit, Mooney, Kmet They All Have A Tendency To Drift Off As Fields Targets Them. They’re All At The Bottom Of The League In Contested Catch Rate Despite Fields Tendency To Put The Ball In The Air(Ayer). Claypool Made A Lot of Splash In Those Situations. In Three Years, He’s Come Away With 79 Contested Catch Opportunities, Coming Down With 32. The Dolphins Secondary Aren’t Too Shy About Giving Up Big Game In Passing Game. Their Rank 29th By Football Outsiders.
Tua And The Scoot And Shoot Offense bailed Miami Out Of The Trails Of Danger On Too Many Occasions.
Every Time Miami Looked Like They Would—Up Double Digits In The First Half(20-10), Up Double-Digits In Second Half(35-25)—The Dolphins Couldn’t Hold The Bears Down.
Justin Field Kept Scrambling Out, But That Receiving Unit Couldn’t Make The Plays. Another Win Slips Through The Hands.
The Bear’s Usually Eye Watering-ly Came Up With Some Timely Plays. I’ve Said It, And I Think Everyone Knows It; Defensive Back Can Play The Ball Better. They Push A Stick In The Spokes Of Tua, And The Dolphins Offense Big Play Offense. “If He Airs It Out.” the Commentator Mutters As Jaylen Johnson Stretches Out To Breaks Up A Under Thrown Ball. Ultimately Preventing What Most Likely Would Have Been A Touchdown Given Tua Target Touchdown Specialist Jaylin Waddle; The Bears Didn’t Give Up 40 Points In Back To Back Weekend And Giving The Bears One More Go At Winning. The Bears Again Tore Up The Ground In The Run Game. Fields Finish With A Record 178 Yards On The Ground. Montgomery And Herbert 36 And 23, Respectively, To Give The Bears For Straight Games Over 200 Yards With 252 On The Ground. The Bears Ground Attack Appear To Neutralize The Dolphins Air Attack(A Bit). Tua Had His Best Game Back, 21/30 For 302 Yards With a Passer Rating of 135.7, But The Game Just Felt Over Shadow By Justin Fields' “Weapon X” Like Performance. The Dolphins Dwarf The Bears In Passing Yardage. That’s Where Most Of The Answers For This Loss Reside.
One Team Had Superior Along Talent The Other Team Had The Superior Talent. Like Tua Said addressing The Media On How The Offense Utilizes Media, The Miami Receiving Group. “If One Gets Double, We Look To The Other. Suppose That One Gets [Jaylen Waddle, Assuming] Doubled. In that case, We Find Another.” the Dolphins Have A Deeper Reach Of Talent At Receiver That No Big News. Juxtapose Against And Their Dearth At The Position Look Like an Open REVINE. But Fields Continues To Rise Out Of Depth. The Lack Of Star Seems To Only Illuminate Field Talents, Not Just In The Passing Game But As All Around Football Players. Of Course, Everyone On The Bears staff Would Love To Have More Production out Of The Passing Game. If Wide Receiver St. Brown had Had A Pair Of Hands, The Bears Might Have Come Away With The Win. I Agree With Head Coach Mike McDaniels, Maybe For A Different Reason But Justin Chill On The Scrambling. “Stop It.”
Jets Vs. Bills
The Jets Are In One of The Early Trimesters Of Birthing Their Quarterback Zach Wilson. I Have No Idea How Pregnancies Work; I Know It’s an Intensive Process.
He’s Going Through All The Early Phenomena. Herky Play, Over Critical Media Cults Spawning, jokes about His Love Life. Insidiously High Levels Poor Play Against The Patriots. He’s A Jets Quarterbacks In Every Way. Mark Sanchez Had Those Experiences. So Did Geno Smith To Lesser Degree.
Four Weeks Wilson Came Back From Injury. Replace A Surprisedly Inspired Joe Flacco And Wilson Won, 4-0. Lifting The Jets To An Enviable 5-2. Then The Ignominy: turned to The New England Game, and Wilson Matches Those Four Wins With Four Interceptions In A Lost To New England. The House Caved In On His Play Under Pressure. Everything Detrimental About Wilson Happens Under Pressure.
Sunday, Big Game In The Most Competitive Division In The Sport. All Week The Media Cooked Up The Pressure On The Jets, But Wilson Didn’t Feel Any Pressure Once The Game Against The Bills Got Rolling.
The Jets Defense Erased What Looked Like A Big Boy Game For Josh Allen. Allen Shook Off The Early Dismay Of an Interception And, With Heavy Foot, Fall Drove Bill’s offense To An Early Lead With Two Rushing touchdowns. The Bills Looked To Stay My Ahead Of The Jets On The Board and In The Standings. But New York’s Top Ten Ranked Defense Just Wouldn’t Let The Game Go. A Second Interception By None Of Than Top Ten Pick Sauce Gardner. Zach Wilson, Who Needed To Bounce Back In Every Way From That Patriots Game, Found Success Picking Apart The Bills Top Flight Defense. After the Patriot Game, He Wanted To Focus On Decisions; Wilson said, “I’ve got to do a better job executing, decision making, just being smart with the ball. Get The Ball In The Hands Of His PlayMakers. Garrett Wilson is Coming Off A Strong Outing Against The Patriots With 115 Yards; back That Up With 92 Yards Against The Bills. The Jets Leading Receiver Hit A Wall When Wilson Returned. His Yards Per Reception Dropped To Single Digits With 0 Touchdowns. The Bills Victory Game Didn’t Cure The Passing Touchdown Struggles, but 8 For 9 On Targets And a Long 24 Looks Just as Good. Wilson Finished With The Same Amount Of Completions As Josh Allen(18) On Nine fewer Targets And Two Fewer Turnovers. The Jets Negated Allen’s Attempts To Press Them In Passing Game and Held Him To His Lowest Passer Rating Since Week 17 Of Last Season against The Falcons. His Now Famous 9 Point Game Against The Jags Didn’t Finish with Results This Bad.
The Jets Are Still A Tough Judge. They Have The Details Of A Passing Offense But No Results (Other Than The Days Of Flacco). Can They Win On Days When Josh Allen Doesn’t Have Josh Allen-Ish Type Of Day? Sure, The Jags Won Last Year On One Of Those Days. Do I Trust Them To Win Too Many Of These Going Forward? Under 200 Through the Air. They can Take Any Team In The NFL On That Teams Worst Day, But The Jets Have To Make That Day The Worse Day.
