We saw several weeks ago that there were whispers that the Texans might keep Romeo Crennel and Jack Easterby around because a virtual interview process, mandated by Covid, would prevent them from really getting to know the GM and coaching candidates.

Now the NFL has issued rules on how the hiring process must be conducted.  Tom Pelissaro of NFL.com:

The NFL informed teams Monday that interviews with candidates for head coach, general manager and other football positions must be conducted virtually until the candidate’s team and the hiring team are out of the playoffs, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported.

This marks the latest COVID-19-related change to operations within the NFL.

*The memo, obtained by Pelissero, outlines further procedures for in-person interviews:

*People must wear masks at all times and maintain at least 6 feet apart during the interview.

Interview length should be kept as short as possible, with the league suggesting multiple 30-minute sessions as opposed to a “two- or three-hour continuous block.”

*Any in-person meeting should be held in the largest possible room.

*Team personnel who attend an in-person interview outside of their team’s city are subject to required COVID-19 testing upon return to their club’s facility.

The NFL also recommends that these guidelines are followed for interviews with other football and non-football related positions.

If you were a candidate – would you rather be interviewed on Zoom without a mask or in a huge room where the interviewees would need binoculars to see your masked face?

– – –

Peter King:

It’s been a good year for the seat-holders (interim coaches). Dan Quinn, Bill O’Brien and Matt Patricia, combined, were 4-16. Raheem Morris, Romeo Crennel and Darrell Bevell are 9-7.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

When you’ve lost Peter King 1:

The Bears last won seven weeks ago. With that defense! Two years after winning Coach of the Year, Matt Nagy could be a victim of the Save Mitchell Trubisky Campaign gone awry.

GREEN BAY

Peter King on the MVP race:

I think there finally is some clarity about the 2020 MVP race. Russell Wilson and Derrick Henry fell by the side of the road Sunday in disappointing performances in losses. Aaron Rodgers was his typical great self, and Patrick Mahomes survived. I would also have Ben Roethlisberger in the race—for the Steelers being unbeaten, and for the Steelers showing how much of a difference there is with and without Big Ben, 2019 versus 2020—but probably third entering the last month.

When you look at value, it’s very hard to choose between Rodgers and Mahomes. Rodgers has a slight edge in accuracy (.689 to .683), TD-to-pick differential (plus-32 versus plus-29), and a lead in rating (118.5 to 113.8). Mahomes has a healthy lead in passing yards, 3,815 to 3,395. Mahomes is piloting the better team (11-1 to Rodgers’ 9-3), though some would say Rodgers should get more credit because he has lesser weapons. Four weeks to go, and I think it’s Mahomes-Rodgers-Roethlisberger, with Mahomes-Rodgers very much still a race.

And he has this from Rodgers:

I think Rodgers had the best reaction when asked after the Packers’ win over Philly what’s next for him after becoming the quarterback to get to 400 touchdown passes the fastest in NFL history. (He has 400 career TD passes and 88 interceptions.) “I’m going to see if I can get to 500 before I throw 100 picks,” he said. Beautiful. I mean, who’d be shocked if he actually did that?

Here are the QBs with the most TD passes and under 100 INTs.  As you can see, there are quite a few with similar INT totals to Rodgers, but fewer than half as many TD passes:

                                                TDs    Ints

Aaron Rodgers                        400      88

Russell Wilson             259      79

Kirk Cousins                           181       83

Andrew Luck                          171       83

Ryan Tannehill                       171       86

NFC EAST

NEW YORK GIANTS

Peter King with insight into the rise of the Giants under Coach Joe Judge:

Eight weeks ago, the Giants lost 37-34 in Dallas to fall to 0-5. Looked very much like a lost season, even in the wasteland that was the NFC East. But that’s not how the head coach, Joe Judge, saw it. In his post-game press conference, he said with no resignation: “All that really matters, to be honest with you, is the progress that we’re making right now. The record will come in time. Obviously, we’re not happy about losses—that’s not what we do here—but I’ve seen a lot of progress on all fronts and all units.”

The next day, he was similarly even, businesslike and not seeming concerned about 0-5. “I’m not a rainbows-and-sunshine type of guy,” Judge said. “I’m also not a browbeat-you-and-rub-your-nose in it guy, either. It’s, ‘This is what it is. Understand what we’re doing good that we can build on.” But this, from Oct. 12, is the most important thing Judge said, and really what his team has heard since he got hired last winter: “You hear a lot about that expression, ‘Learn to win.’ To me, you can make a lot about the 60th minute of the game, when really it starts in the first 59 minutes of the game. You learn to win by doing your assignment on a consistent basis.”

And really, the process is what Judge learned in his years coaching under Nick Saban at Alabama and Bill Belichick in New England. No one wants to hear endlessly about the process because it’s boring and it doesn’t come with magic, quick results. It’s like what Drew Brees once told me when I asked him about his advice to young quarterbacks. He thought for a minute, then answered earnestly in a way the best coaches would truly appreciate. What Brees said: “So much of our league is about results, right? We’re in a results-driven business. But truly, it is about the process. If you focus on the process, the result will take care of itself. Develop your process. Focus on that process. Too many times, we get frustrated because the result didn’t match up with the process. But if you just focus on the process, eventually you get to the point where good process will consistently equal good result.”

That’s what we’re seeing with the Giants now. Since that 0-5 start, the Giants are 5-2, with the two losses agonizing ones traced to turnovers. In those seven games, in the midst of one of the biggest offensive seasons in NFL history, New York is giving up 18.9 points per game, led by defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. On Sunday, against 11-point-favorite Seattle, the Giants defensed Russell Wilson into one of the most frustrating days of his nine-year career. He had no peace all day, hounded by a Giants front seven with overlooked and doubted vets (Leonard Williams, Jabaal Sheard) and rookies (seventh-round rookie linebackers Carter Coughlin and Tae Crowder). Interesting, really, that public enemy number one for Giants’ fans, GM Dave Gettleman, has worked well with Judge and gotten him the caliber of player Judge wants. You could criticize Gettleman’s previous Giants’ player acquisition, and certainly picking Barkley second overall, but being critical this year is disingenuous. Gettleman’s drafts, particularly on defense, have been very good.

On Sunday, the oft-magical Wilson wasn’t much of a factor, and his favorite receiver, DK Metcalf, wasn’t either. On play after play, when Wilson pirouetted left, a linebacker was there. Williams, in particular, wouldn’t let Wilson have enough time to find Metcalf or Tyler Lockett with the kind of zinged passes that had taken Seattle to an 8-3 record.

“Creating that spiderweb around Russell Wilson,” Leonard Williams said from Seattle post-game, “was huge. Just not letting him out of the pocket, not letting him run around freely, doing whatever he wants. Get some hits on him. Make him uncomfortable. Don’t let him scramble too much. Obviously, he’s a good player. But that’s where that grit and togetherness and being locked in comes in handy.

“I think a lot of it has to do with scheme obviously. I think Pat Graham is a great coordinator. But I think majority of it has to do with I think how much people are just bought in on this team. The overall team energy of how we come to work every day, how we come to practice, how we take losses and how we take wins is like we don’t listen to any outside noise. We come to work. We’re not reading any pats on the back out there. We’re not reading any doubters out there. We know who we have in the building and we come to work every day and I think just over time, it just creates such a good culture of hard work and just grit.”

Two things about Judge:

• He believes in regular sleep. Most NFL teams, on West-to-East or East-to-West trips, get out of town as fast as they can and get home often times at odd hours. Had the Giants left Seattle on Sunday night, they’d have gotten in their New Jersey beds by maybe 4:30 a.m. ET after the flight home. The Giants stayed in Seattle overnight Sunday. They would have a normal night’s sleep Sunday, then wake up and probably do a short team meeting, virtually, at their hotel. They’d fly home, and players would be back home by about 7:30 p.m. ET. Then the off day Tuesday, and another normal sleep night, then back at work Wednesday preparing for the next game. Instead of two iffy nights of sleep and then a recovery one Tuesday night, the Giants, theoretically, wouldn’t have a bad night of sleep leading into the next game week.

• He believes in listening to his players. Most NFL teams have turned to virtual team and position meetings through the week, a nod to doing everything possible to limit the internal spread of the coronavirus. Judge did it both ways—virtual meetings for the most part, and then in-person meetings two days a week. The Giants converted half of their cavernous field house in East Rutherford, N.J., into a huge meeting room for the in-person meetings. Recently, he asked his captains what they thought. You might have expected them to say, Let us keep meeting virtually from our homes. But they said they wanted the in-person meetings twice a week. So that’s how the Giants do business each Wednesday and Friday, masked and spread apart in the huge fieldhouse.

“When we first got Judge, honestly, we realized how hard he was on us,” said Williams. “And then some guys were like ‘Ugh, this is so hard.’ But then we realized how much he cares about winning and he cares about us being successful. He just does such a good job of getting guys to buy in. It’s hard to be a leader and get that many people bought in, in a short amount of time as well. And I think he did a great job of doing that even when we were losing and could’ve fallen apart.”

The new-look Giants have a tough fourth quarter of the season—Arizona, Cleveland, at Baltimore, Dallas—but the defense will keep them in every game. Amazing, really, that New York has two more wins than both Philadelphia and Dallas entering the last four weeks. In the NFL, nothing is forever. Even bad Giants football.

More praise for Patrick Graham from King:

Patrick Graham, defensive coordinator, New York Giants. What a game plan Graham cooked up against the master Seattle chef, Russell Wilson. I watched almost every snap of this game, and Wilson was never comfortable. Not for a single play. Graham’s front seven built a trap around Wilson and never let him breathe, sacking him five times for 47 yards (some very big losses among those sacks), holding Seattle to 4-of-15 on third and fourth downs, and holding Wilson to one drive of longer than 60 yards. Think of how crazy this is: The Giants traveled to a team vying for the top seed in the NFC, and played without Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley . . . and won. Much of that was due to a defense that lines up new players every week and finds a way to suffocate foes.

NFC SOUTH

CAROLINA

The Panthers went on their late bye last week and developed a Covid outbreak per Ian Rapoport and NFL.com:

The Carolina Panthers are returning from a bye week to COVID-19 issues.

Receivers D.J. Moore and Curtis Samuel among eight players added to the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list, the team announced Monday.

The Panthers previously announced that their facility would be closed Monday and Tuesday.

In addition to Moore and Samuel, defensive tackles Derrick Brown and Zach Kerr, linebacker Shaq Thompson, offensive tackle Greg Little and punter Michael Palardy (who is currently on IR) were also placed on the team’s COVID-19 list. Wide receiver Ishmael Hyman was placed on the team’s practice squad/COVID-19 list.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reports that Moore tested positive for the novel coronavirus, while Samuel is considered a close contact.

If Moore and Samuel are unable to play this coming weekend, it would wipe out key weapons for Teddy Bridgewater and the Panthers’ spunky offense as they take on the Denver Broncos stellar defense.

Moore also left Week 12’s loss to Minnesota after suffering an ankle injury late. Coach Matt Rhule noted X-rays were negative on the ankle, giving the wideout a chance to return after the bye week. Now Moore is dealing with a different issue that could keep him out.

NFC WEST

ARIZONA

Peter King thinks it is easy to kick a 48-yard FG:

No idea how many chances Zane Gonzalez gets in Arizona, but it’s already been too many. If you can’t make a 48-yard field goal in weather-free conditions, after a slew of misses in big spots, it’s time to search for a new kicker.

There have been 31 FGs of exactly 48 yards attempted this year.  NFL kickers have made 64.5% of them

If you widen the range to 47 to 49 – 69.6% good.

SAN FRANCISCO

Peter King with some good insight on the plight of the 49ers including the cruel betrayal of negotiations by Santa Clara County Executive Director Jeff Smith MD/JD, the report that the 49ers won’t return this year no matter if Dr. Smith in his leniency were to allow them back for Christmas and the fact that Dr. Smith’s orders have cost Governor Gavin Newsom quite a bit of cold hard cash.

The county had been in discussions with the Niners that week to create a soft bubble—an agreement that every person in the organization would go from home to the stadium and football facility and back, only. No visits to restaurants or stores or anywhere. The players weren’t thrilled, but understood the alternative was a shutdown. Then the shutdown “came as a complete surprise,” Lynch said. There were early considerations of playing in Oakland and San Diego, but not knowing if a state shutdown loomed made either impractical. The fact that the Cardinals were willing to welcome their division rivals and had a solid setup was the deciding factor. The Cards hold training camp between the Renaissance and the stadium. Everything’s within walking distance. There was no conflict with the remaining home games for the Cardinals and the 49ers. And the team brought four of its BioReference Labs COVID-testers with them, so the daily testing has been done on-site since the team arrived in Glendale on Wednesday.

Inside the hotel is 15,000 square feet of meeting space, which the Niners converted in equal areas to a weight room, a locker room and a trainers’ room. The Niners were given the practice field outside the stadium to use, and their hosts, led by Arizona owner Michael Bidwill, laid out the (Cardinal) red carpet.

“My respect for Michael Bidwill was already immense,” Lynch said. “We’re division rivals in the thick of this playoff thing. But what he’s done? Incredible. The first day we were here, I wanted to go walk the practice field and see how it was. It’s like 7:15 a.m., and their groundskeeper [Cards sports turf manager Andy Levy] is on his knees there with two other people putting in our goalposts. And they had practice that day [at the Cards’ practice facility in Tempe]. I said, ‘You gotta take care of your own team! We’ll figure this out.’ Andy said, ‘Mr. Bidwill said treat you guys like you’re our team.’ Kind of heartwarming.”

Here’s the craziest thing of this Arizona experience: Santa Clara County has said it will reconsider lifting the lockdown as early as Dec. 21. If it were lifted and the Niners could return home, that would mean the team would be home for four days and then have to get back on a plane Christmas afternoon for the scheduled Dec. 26 road game—at Arizona.

Check that.

“One of the things that came from our players,” said Lynch, “is they’d been talking as a group. We had kind of told them, we’ll see after the 21st about this county order. We told them, wherever it is, Arizona or back home, you’ll be with your families at Christmas. We committed to them. Our players said, basically, Can you just call that now? Rather than wait around for our county, can we just make the call now to stay here so that we can make plans? I said, ‘Of course, absolutely.’ I was proud of them for figuring that out.”

Wait—there might be one thing that’s crazier. “There is one silver lining to this whole thing,” a Niners player told me over the weekend.

State tax.

The state income tax in California is 13 percent. In Arizona, it’s 4.5 percent. Let’s say the Niners play their final three home games in Glendale. Players are taxed where they train and play. So that would mean that 3/17ths of each players’ per-week salary would be taxed at Arizona rates instead of California. For example, left tackle Trent Williams has a base salary of $12.5 million. That’s 17 weekly pay installments of $735,294. Each week of a home game, that would mean Williams would have $95,588 deducted for California taxes. But that number would shrink to $33,088 weekly in Arizona. So the three-game savings for Williams—admittedly one of the highest-paid players on the team—would be $187,500. Not a bad consolation prize for the inconvenienced players.

“The whole thing has been a monumental undertaking, and our organization has handled the logistics so well,” Lynch said. “But you can’t really revel in that. We’ve got an excellent team coming here in the Bills. I think our minds are in the right place, though.”

SEATTLE

In the aftermath of Seattle’s stunning loss to the resurgent (or since they never surged the first time is it “surgent”) Giants, the Seahawks and QB RUSSELL WILSON are left ruing a pair of failed fourth down conversion attempts.  This at TheHeavy.com:

The Seattle Seahawks had two failed fourth-down conversions in the team’s loss to the New York Giants. During his postgame press conference, Russell Wilson admitted the team should have run the ball instead of trying to pass on fourth-and-one.

Wilson noted the Seahawks “should probably go downhill” giving the ball to Chris Carson in these short-yardage situations. The Seahawks quarterback was asked if he gave any thought to changing the play call at the line of scrimmage.

“I think there’s always that opportunity [to change the play call],” Wilson noted. “I think the formation, without getting too much into the weeds and details of it all, the formation that we had we didn’t have necessarily the call that we were looking for. We had a pass call on. So, I think that going back at it, I think that we should probably go downhill and let Chris try to run over somebody like he always does, it seems like. He’s such a special player in that way. And so, they covered it really well, like I said, it’s almost like they knew it was coming. They did a good job of covering it.”

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll explained that the team liked the play call as it allowed Wilson to have “three big options there.” Wilson rolled out on the play but was unable to convert prompting a turnover on downs.

“They did a nice job of stopping the fourth down call,” Carroll said, per Seahawks.com. “We put Russ out on the edge. He had three big options there, as well as run, and they did a nice job of defending it.”

Carroll defended the team’s decision not to give the ball to Carson. The Seahawks coach added that “we want the ball in Russ’ hands” to give him multiple options in those situations.

“That’s easy to say now,” Carroll added. “Stuff works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t. This is what you get to say when you don’t make it on Fourth Down, and you get to ask the questions. I wish we would have made it, too. There are different ways to do it, and we want the ball in Russ’s hands to give him a chance, there. He had all kinds of options, and that didn’t work on one.”

AFC WEST

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

Anthony Lynn used to be under fire for failing to win close games.  This week, he would be under fire for getting massacred.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Anthony Lynn will remain the Los Angeles Chargers’ coach, at least for now.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday that no head coaching change is imminent, per sources informed of the situation.

The organization has a tremendous amount of respect for Lynn and would prefer to evaluate everything at the end of the season, Rapoport added.

The 51-year-old coach said after Sunday’s 45-0 loss to New England that he expected to be the Bolts coach Monday. He’ll get his wish.

Lynn is two years removed from guiding the Chargers on a 12-4 campaign in 2018, tied for the best record in the AFC. The past two seasons, L.A. has cratered, culminated by his 3-9 club being eliminated from playoff contention Sunday.

In 60 games as the Chargers coach, Lynn has compiled a 29-31 record. His team is 1-1 in the postseason.

The Chargers have lost a serious amount of talent the past two seasons due to injury, which has attributed to some of the struggles. Derwin James has played in five games since 2018. Among the list of other notable Chargers injuries in 2020 have been Austin Ekeler, Mike Pouncey, Trai Turner, Bryan Bulaga, Chris Harris, Melvin Ingram, Tyrod Taylor and others.

A cavalcade of collapses and close losses has attributed to Lynn’s two-year struggle. The coach has mismanaged several two-minute and end-of-game situations. His timeout usage has been poor. And game management and fourth-down decisions have been abysmal.

Throughout the season, the Chargers special teams have been downright putrid. In Sunday’s embarrassing loss to New England, the L.A. special teams gave up a 70-yard punt return TD and a blocked punt for a TD, missed a field goal, had only 10 men on the field for multiple returns, committed a too-many-men penalty that resulted in a Patriots first down, muffed a kick, were called for a hold and a false start and allowed 145 total punt return yards.

Lynn recently re-assigned the former special teams coordinator. If anything, the unit has gotten worse since.

The Chargers boast Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate Justin Herbert, who before Sunday’s egg-laying was having a phenomenal season. It was the type of year that usually saves a coach’s job.

Instead, Lynn remains on the hot seat.

The Chargers have too much talent to be a three-win team eliminated from the playoffs in the first week of December.

L.A. won’t make any rash decisions coming off Sunday’s humiliation and will instead evaluate the situation further after the season. If more games like Week 13 pile up, it will be a quick appraisal by team brass.

When you’ve lost Peter King 2:

I mean, Lynn’s got three wins: over the two-win Bengals, the one-win Jags and the zero-win Jets. And that’s with an explosive quarterback who came out of the box playing like a young Dan Fouts.

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

The Ravens will have a fuller complement of players on Tuesday than they would have had on Sunday, including their starting QB.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Lamar Jackson is officially back on the Ravens active roster.

Jackson was activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Monday. The move clears the way for Jackson to start Tuesday’s game against the Cowboys.

Jackson missed last Wednesday’s loss to the Steelers. Robert Griffin III started in his place, but had to leave the game after hurting his hamstring. Trace McSorley replaced him and will back up Jackson now that Griffin is on injured reserve.

The Ravens also activated fullback Patrick Ricard, long snapper Morgan Cox, and defensive tackle Justin Madubuike on Monday. Six players remain on the COVID-19 reserve list as a result of the outbreak that led to the postponement of the Steelers game and Tuesday’s matchup with the Cowboys.

Tight end Mark Andrews, cornerback Terrell Bonds, linebacker Matthew Judon, wide receiver Willie Snead, safety Geno Stone, and practice squad offensive lineman Will Holden make up that group.

CLEVELAND

Peter King on the 9-3 Browns, firmly the 5^th seed and at the moment the team with on of the top five records in the entire NFL:

What I like about the Browns this morning:

Baker Mayfield was legit in a big game. I’ve been negative on Mayfield, particularly his inaccuracy downfield. He was marvelous on those deep balls Sunday in building a huge lead. His TD throws to Donovan Peoples-Jones (45 yards in the air) and Rashard Higgins (33) were both perfect. Forget the numbers, which were very good. This was about Mayfield hitting open receivers in stride, which is vital for the Browns down the stretch. Cleveland now is the fifth seed in the AFC at 9-3. Seeing that they might have to beat explosive teams like Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Kansas City—perhaps in that order—should they make the playoffs having a big-strike offense is almost essential to January success.

The mindset of a team not feeling too good about itself. Coach Kevin Stefanski has been maniacal about the “just go 1-0 this week” ethos, and the players are buying. Really, what else matters? “No one’s playing for stats,” defensive end Myles Garrett told me post-game. “We’re just looking to be 1-0 and to win the day. That’s not just Sundays, that’s every day in practice competing, making sure that we’re there with that one mission in mind. We just go out there and play. Not much thinking, just being out there playing.”

I don’t like the defense barely finishing the job, but credit to the D for holding Derrick Henry to 60 rushing yards. Cleveland got outscored 28-3 in the second half, but not letting Henry take over the game paid off. The assignment, Garrett said, was no arm-tackling but to “show up violently against him, and grab a body part. You gotta ride him and knock him to the ground. For the most part, we did a good job.”

Garrett (10 games, 10.5 sacks) made an effective return from two weeks gone with COVID-19.He had a sack and three tackles, though he didn’t feel a strong as he usually is. “Having COVID,” he said, “is a helpless feeling, and not only being helpless to help my team but being so weak, so tired. Just so sore, that I just don’t wanna move. My body’s just hurting for no reason. Just random body parts, headache, eyes hurt, and you’re just trying to fight for however long this thing’s gonna be up on you.” I asked how he was feeling. “Pretty dang tired,” Garrett said. “But get back home, recover a little bit, get on the Peloton, start getting my wind back.”

He’d better hurry. Baltimore comes to Cleveland on Monday night, and the Ravens will have some desperation, needing three or four wins down the stretch to make the playoffs. “We are Cleveland,” Garrett said, “and we’re gonna try to make them proud.”

PITTSBURGH

Last week, we called out Steelers TE ERIC EBRON for his the sky is falling “3 games in 12 days” hysteria.  Peter King fleshed it out today:

Pittsburgh tight end Eric Ebron was angry last week that the Steelers’ game was postponed multiple times so Pittsburgh would have to play consecutively on Wednesday-Monday-Sunday. On the Uninterrupted 17 Weeks podcast, he said of this year’s NFL schedule: “Nobody thought you would play three games in 12 days. Think about that. That’s us . . . Oh my God. They’re trying to see us fail, bro.” He implied he would rather lose a game check than play three times in 12 days.

Ebron needs to be refreshed. This is the sixth time in a seven-year NFL career that he’s played three games in 12 days:

In 2014, 2015 and 2017 with Detroit, all around the Lions’ annual Thanksgiving Day game.

In 2018 and 2019 with the Colts.

The majority of players in the NFL play three games in 12 days in most seasons, because more than half the players in the NFL play one Thursday game per year. So: Sunday to Sunday to Thursday, the usual way this falls unless your bye is in the middle of it, is 12 days. That means players would get six days rest between games one and two, three days rest between games two and three. Thursday games have been collectively bargained between owners and players; Ebron’s union, then, has signed off on the concept of three games in 12 days.

The Steelers, in this case, will have a Wednesday to Monday to Sunday slate—four days’ rest between games one and two, five days rest between games two and three.

One other point: Steelers, in 12 days, play home-home-at Buffalo (49-minute flight).

Green Bay this year, in 12 days, was at Houston-home-at San Francisco. That’s a 3:18 flight to Houston, 4:33 flight to San Francisco (on a short week).

Denver this year, in 12 days, was at Pittsburgh-home-at New York Jets. That’s a 2:50 flight to Pittsburgh, 3:32 flight to Newark (on a short week).

Noteworthy about the third games in the 12-days span for the Packers and Broncos: Green Bay, after the long haul west, beat the Niners by 17. Denver, after the long haul east, beat the Jets by nine.

In 2018, the Jets played three games in 11 days. The Titans did too. Both had Monday-Sunday-Thursday slates.

I don’t recall any players from those teams playing three games in 12 days or three in 11 saying, “They’re trying to see us fail.”

AFC EAST

NEW ENGLAND

New England’s 45-0 win wasn’t everything you would expect.  Peter King notes this:

Someday we’ll find out how, in a game the Patriots won by 45 points, their starting quarterback threw for 69 yards and the New Englander with the most receptions (James White, 3) had one yard receiving. Man, football’s weird.

NEW YORK JETS

The Jets inexplicable blitz on the last play of the loss to the Raiders has led to the departure of DC Gregg Williams.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

The Jets have fired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams after Sunday’s 31-28 loss to the Raiders and there’s word of who will be taking over his job for the final four weeks of the season.

Connor Hughes of TheAthletic.com report that Frank Bush has been named the team’s interim coordinator.

Bush has been the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach for the last two years. He was also Jets head coach Adam Gase’s assistant head coach and linebackers coach in Miami in 2017 and 2018.

Bush has spent most of his career as a position coach, but he was the defensive coordinator for the Texans in 2009 and 2010. He was dismissed after the Texans finished 29th in points allowed during the 2010 season.

Peter King on what got Williams fired:

Gregg Williams has been a defensive coordinator for the Browns and Jets since 2017. (He was DC in 2018 for Cleveland for eight games and interim head coach for eight games.) The record of each team with Williams as defensive coordinator since opening day 2017:

Browns: 2-21-1, including 0-16 in 2017.

Jets: 7-21, including 0-12 in 2020.

Wins: 9, in 52 games.

What seemed incredible Sunday, but very Williams-like, was the winning touchdown by the Raiders. The Jets led 28-24 with 13 seconds left, and the Raiders had third-and-10 at the New York 46. The Raiders had most likely two plays left, max, with no timeouts. So Williams called an eight-man rush, zero safeties deep. Dangerous. More dangerous: Henry Ruggs, the fastest man in the draft this year, was split left against an undrafted free agent corner from Nebraska, Lamar Jackson. This was not a fair fight, Ruggs on the undrafted rookie. One double-move later, Ruggs had two steps on Jackson, Derek Carr dropped a perfect throw into Ruggs, and the Jets had one of the most bitter defeats in recent franchise history.

That’s saying something.

– – –

The possible return of Bill Cowher pops up, courtesy of Boomer Esisason.  Mike Florio ofProFootballTalk.com:

Twelve years ago, former Steelers coach Bill Cowher flirted with coaching the Jets. The flirtation eventually could happen again.

On his weekday WFAN radio show, Boomer Esiason seemed to suggest that: (1) Cowher may be interested in coaching again; and (2) if interested in coaching again, Cowher definitely is interested in coaching the Jets.

Esiason’s views have built-in credence; he works with Cowher every Sunday on The NFL Today on CBS.

“All I know is that yesterday, [Cowher] was showing me and Nate [Burleson] film of him coaching on the sideline where he was mic’ed up, and we looked at each other like, ‘Hmm, what does that mean?’” Esiason said. “Is he sending a message? I’ve worked with him for 14 years and I’ve never seen that.”

And if Cowher, who made a memorable exit from the Steelers after 15 seasons in a sweater that was out of the rotation for a reason, is ready to come back 14 years later, it could be with the Jets.

“He was saying to me yesterday, he’s the one that told me the Jets job is going to be really attractive, and they could hire whomever they want, and he told me he loves [G.M.] Joe Douglas,” Esiason said of Cowher.

The attitude toward Douglas becomes critical to the broader analysis. In late 2008, Cowher and the Jets didn’t consummate the deal due to the organization’s commitment to G.M. Mike Tannenbaum. If Cowher has no qualms about Douglas, then the sitting G.M. wouldn’t be an impediment this time around.

Esiason at one point expressed concern that his “opinion will get twisted around into clickbait,” that’s exactly what the digital companion to WFAN did.

Clickbait or not, it’s worth keeping an eye on Cowher. Esiason wouldn’t have recklessly thrown his on-air partner’s name in the mix. It could be that Cowher, after nearly as many years out as he was in, is thinking about a Vermeil-style return to the game.

Cowher is 63.  He last coached in 2006.

THIS AND THAT

BROADCAST NEWS

The DB is able to watch Washington-Pittsburgh here in Florida, so we are going to send out the Briefing now.  Here’s why some of you can’t:

For the third time this season, the NFL is giving us a Monday doubleheader, but there’s going to be one minor difference this time around: Only one of the games is going to be nationally televised and that’s because Fox won’t be showing Washington-Pittsburgh to the entire country.

Due to NFL broadcast restrictions, Fox will only be allowed to show the game to about 40% of the country. JP Kirby of 506 Sports regularly maps out the viewing area for each NFL game and he created a map for this game that shows which areas of the country will be able to see the Steelers game on their local Fox affiliates.

In total, Fox will be airing the game on 71 of its affiliates, which sounds like a lot, but as you can see, that means that most of the country, including the entire western portion of the United States, is going to be left out in the dark for the game.

According to Kirby, the problem for the NFL is that the league is contractually obligated to provide a certain amount of games each week to DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket. The game between Washington and Pittsburgh was originally supposed to be played Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, which means it would have been a Sunday Ticket game, and because of that, the NFL is making sure the game is available to Sunday Ticket customers like it would have been if it hadn’t been moved.

The game was postponed one day after the Steelers were forced to play on Wednesday in Week 12.

MEASUREMENTS

Peter King:

I could not agree more about the use of inexact first-down measurements. From Jeff Rutherford: “I know it’s been covered before, but perhaps another story is warranted about why in 2020, we’re relying on this relic of a measurement system when we’re a country awash in digital technology and engineering expertise. There’s zero reason two guys with sticks should be doing this in 2020. We have the technology to know exactly where the ball traveled and stopped. Ugh.”

I don’t mind the visual of the chain gang. It’s cute, and mindful of the old days of football. But the game is too advanced, with too much riding on the vagaries of the close calls on first-down measurements, to be using the chains as the final arbiter of whether a team has made a big first down late in a game.

We agree to a point.  Sure, the means of measuring the ten yards from first down spot to measurement spot could be more exact.

But that implies that the actual spotting of the ball is an exactitude.  Really, it is an approximation, both from the determination of where the play ended to th from the sidelines to the hashmark