AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
| It is time for our AFC version of If The Season Ended Today – where the Bengals and Raiders – yes, the Bengals and Raiders – have moved to the top of the conference. The Patriots, Steelers and Chiefs all remain outside the playoffs:
W-L Div Seed Conf W-L
Cincinnati North 5-2 1 3-0
Las Vegas West 5-2 1 4-1
Tennessee South 5-2 1 4-1
Buffalo East 4-2 1 3-2
Baltimore WC1 5-2 2 4-2
LA Chargers WC2 4-2 2 3-1
Cleveland WC3 4-3 3 2-2
Pittsburgh 3-3 4 2-2
New England 3-4 2 3-1
Indianapolis 3-4 2 2-2
Kansas City 3-4 3 1-4
Denver 3-4 4 2-4
Every team in the AFC has at least 2 losses, while there are 5 teams in the NFC with 0 or 1 loss. All but one team in the NFC has at least 2 wins, there are 4 teams in the AFC with only 1 win.
– – –
Only one-game has been added this week to the NFL’s count of games decided in the final minute or OT – Atlanta’s 30-28 win at Miami on PK YOUNGHOE KOO’s walk-off 36-yard FG. The count is now 24 such games this year in the first 7 weeks – and the Dolphins have lost three of them.
Meanwhile, the rest of Sunday saw every game decided by more than 8 points.
And this:
@JoshDubowAP
There have been 6 games so far today decided by 22+ points, matching the most in a week in NFL history. Also happened:
Week 7 2009
Week 4 2006
Week 1 1986
Week 3 1975
Thursday’s game in Cleveland was a 3-point Browns win over Denver, but without deciding late points.
– – –
Yep, there never had been a 31-5 game in NFL history until the Cardinals beat the Texans, that is the 1,068th unique score in NFL history.
We also had a first score in Week 6 when the Rams beat the Giants, 38-11. That was #1,067.
What about Raiders 33, Eagles 22 in Week 7?
@NFL_Scorigami
PHI 22 – 33 LV
Final
No Scorigami. That score has happened 4 times before, most recently on October 10, 2021.
You will know all you might want to about this subject if you follow @NFL_Scorigami on Twitter. |
| NFC NORTH |
|
CHICAGO
With the Cardinals winning without Coach Kliff Kingsbury, the Bears will try a similar feat after falling in horrible fashion at Tampa Bay.
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy announced Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
Special teams coordinator Chris Tabor is expected to run full team meetings in his absence. The Bears are scheduled to host the 49ers on Sunday. |
|
DETROIT
Albert Breer details the lengths Coach Dan Campbell went to even the playing field on Sunday:
I don’t know what Dan Campbell’s approach is going to add up to long-term, but it’s fun to watch now, and you can see in the energy of the team that Lions players like it too. In case you missed it, here’s the rundown …
• After drawing first blood on a 63-yard screen that D’Andre Swift housed, Campbell called for an onside kick and the Lions recovered it.
• Five plays into the ensuing drive, Campbell called for a fake punt on fourth-and-7 from the 50. It worked, and Detroit wound up kicking a field goal to go up 10–0.
• In the third quarter, Campbell called for another fake punt, this one on fourth-and-8 from the Lions’ 35. It worked and extended the drive, but Swift got stacked up later in the drive on a fourth-and-1 from the Rams’ 18 to end that threat, leaving the Lions down 17–16.
The Lions then converted four third downs on a nine-minute fourth-quarter possession that represented the last real chance before ex-Ram Jared Goff threw a back-breaker of a pick with five minutes left. Still, we saw the Lions fight their tails off again, and it was thanks in part to a coach who played the swashbuckler against a team that had his outgunned from the start. “Yeah, it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating,” Campbell said. “We felt like we could gain an advantage there and see if we could get some possessions back. And they helped. But it wasn’t enough. That’s too good of a football team. You’re not allowed to make one or two errors against a football team like that. So that’s what’s tough. You get in those type of games against them, comes down to us trying to make a play in the pass game there towards the end to get in the end zone. And Aaron Donald, man, we did a pretty good job for most of the day and then he gets us on one and there you go.” So the Lions went home with a loss, and the hope that they’ll eventually get guys like that (losing actually might help that cause too, if we’re being honest). Until then? Well, I think Campbell’s got his players’ respect, in that they can see how he’s willing to do what it takes to beat better teams. And when you watch a guy like Swift run, it’s pretty clear that Campbell’s getting through to them.
– – –
Dan Wetzel of YahooSports.com on QB JARED GOFF almost beating his old team, almost:
Jared Goff had a chance. He’s always had a chance though.
He had a chance when he was drafted No. 1 overall and later teamed up with a creative offensive coach, Sean McVay, for a fresh start franchise, the Los Angeles Rams. He had a chance when Brandin Cooks was wide open in the end zone of Super Bowl LIII. He had a chance when he got a four-year, $134 million extension.
None of those chances ever really worked out, the same way this one wouldn’t either.
Goff, now a Detroit Lion, had a fleeting chance to show up his old team and old coach. His Lions were driving late in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead and win the game.
Except on second-and-10 from the Rams’ 12-yard line, with the Lions controlling momentum and the Rams’ defense tiring, Goff telegraphed a pass and in the face of pressure released off his back foot. It was an easy pick for his old teammate, Jalen Ramsey. One series later, he threw another pick.
Los Angeles 28, Detroit 19.
It was, well, it was some quintessential Jared Goff.
Pretty good at times. Even brilliant on occasion. In the end though, the big plays went awry and his team fell short. The defense played well. The running game came on in the second half. The coach was aggressive – an onside kick and two faked punts. Everyone wanted to defeat Matthew Stafford, the star the Lions sent to L.A. for three draft picks (and Goff).
Mainly they wanted to defeat anyone.
“Yeah, if we win this one maybe there is a little more special meaning but we need a win, we still need a win,” said Goff, who went 22-of-36 for 268 yards and a touchdown. “Unfortunately, we are 0-7.”
On the flip side, it all turned up for Stafford. Trailing the Lions 19-17 late in the third quarter, he led two scoring drives – a 10-play, 90-yarder for a touchdown and a nine-play, 43-yarder for a field goal – to pull out the win. He did that a lot in Detroit, too.
The pressure on Stafford was almost all self-inflicted. He didn’t want the humiliation of losing to his old teammates, let alone a winless team. Even if he did, he’d move on. The Rams are 6-1. He’s thrown 19 TDs. He has weapons all over the place. No one in L.A. would regret that trade. He’s the one who gives the Rams a Super Bowl shot.
The Lions were the Lions, nothing but a memory. He was here, in Southern California, unlikely to be spending time dreaming about who they used to be.
It’s still early for Stafford, of course. To prove himself, he still needs to win games that need to be won, games in January or even February. He and the Rams look plenty capable of that, but until it’s done, it isn’t done.
He never won a playoff game in Detroit. Never won a division crown. At least some of that was on him. Still, while losing to the Lions would have been embarrassing – in part because no one (literally) loses to the Lions – it was mostly just a game against some familiar laundry.
This was a bizarro matchup of two franchise quarterbacks playing for each other’s franchise’s, like a Disney mixup movie. Each was a No. 1 overall draft pick. Yet one is good and one isn’t. One has a future and one, who knows.
As smooth and sunny as things have been for Stafford, Goff looks like a journeyman who somehow stumbled into being a No. 1 draft selection and a nine-figure extension. He has thrown eight touchdowns and six interceptions this season. Was he ever any good?
“I don’t care what you guys say of the roster, we have guys that fight,” Goff said, sticking up for his teammates.
That’s fine, but even team owner Sheila Ford Hamp, who barely admits to anything, admitted to the Detroit Free Press: “This year, it’s a rebuild. It’s painful.”
During his time in L.A., some in the Goff camp would bristle at the weekly pendulum swings of credit given. When the Rams won, it was because McVay drew up a brilliant game plan. When the Rams lost, it was because of Goff’s shortcomings.
At the time, it felt like reality was certainly somewhere in the middle. Maybe less so now. There isn’t much of an argument left for Goff.
He isn’t the worst quarterback in the NFL, but Lions fans have begun calling into sports talk radio about giving backup David Blough a chance, or maybe signing Cam Newton.
Not that Detroit is regretting its decision to deal Stafford to the Rams.
The Lions probably wouldn’t be winless right now with No. 9 behind center, but they weren’t going anywhere big either way. The Bob Quinn-Matt Patricia era squandered a good roster and three seasons of Stafford’s prime, and left a smoking crater of a lineup that no one could win with. It’s back to square one.
Detroit got a 2021 third-rounder and first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 for Stafford. Goff was a throw-in. If anything, the Lions should have made a second trade and dumped Goff off to a quarterback-desperate team and gotten something – maybe a third-round pick? – in return.
Let someone else find out if he could play.
It doesn’t look like he can, at least not at a high level. Everyone says he is a nice guy, a positive guy, a coachable guy. He’s a great teammate. Everyone likes him, you could see that in the hugs he got from both teams afterward – sympathy from some, support from others.
“We did some pretty special things here in my five years here,” Goff said. “It’s something I’m really proud of.”
He should be. L.A. was a dream. It’s just a dream Stafford is living now. Jared Goff had to board a flight back to Detroit, where 0-7 is reality.
And it hasn’t even snowed. Yet. |
|
GREEN BAY
Was Joe Barry hanging out with Mike Nagy of the Bears? Nick Shook of NFL.com:
Green Bay will have to tackle its greatest defensive challenge of the season without its coordinator.
Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry has tested positive for COVID-19, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo and NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. Barry will likely miss Thursday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, but will be able to help the team prepare virtually while in isolation.
The news of Barry’s positive test would seem to increase the difficulty of the task ahead for the Packers, owners of the league’s seventh-ranked defense which is also tied for seventh in scoring, allowing 20.9 points per contest.
After getting shredded in a strange Week 1 loss to New Orleans, Barry’s defense has largely come together in his first season in charge of the group. Green Bay has weathered a few key injuries to limit opponents to just 24 combined points in the Packers’ last two games.
– – –
Nikki Jhabvala of the Washington Post lets us know about Packers OC Nathanial Hackett – with some ringing endorsements from QB AARON RODGERS:
Nathaniel Hackett’s eyes light up as his PowerPoint flips to a slow-motion clip of Aaron Rodgers in play-action, faking a handoff to his running back before stepping up and launching a dart to a receiver on a crossing route.
“Look at that. Look at that,” Hackett says to a classroom of roughly a dozen high school quarterbacks. “Happy cocoon of love. That’s what that is,” he says as he pauses the video and outlines the pocket around Rodgers.
“Happy cocoon of love.”
It’s a Saturday afternoon in late May and Hackett, the Green Bay Packers’ offensive coordinator, is holed up in a conference room inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for a QB Collective training clinic. Hackett has the difficult task of explaining to these teens the basic tenets and cardinal sins of quarterbacking — while also keeping his audience awake and engaged.
In between bullet points on ball security and commanding the huddle are highlights of Brett Favre and Rodgers. There are detailed practice clips to show the nuances of a play-action fake and there are clips of plays gone awry and the ensuing rage from fans — “This is what they do! They freak out! Don’t throw across your body!” Hackett screams — all delivered with Hackett’s signature comedic touch.
“His presentations are legendary, they really are. He finds ways every single week to come up with new cool ideas,” Rodgers said. “He’s got infectious energy. He’s hilarious.”
For about an hour, the young quarterbacks learned what Rodgers and many others in both college and the pros have learned: Hackett, the son of former NFL assistant Paul Hackett, has a lifetime of football knowledge, the presence of a performer and the relatability of a best friend. He’s a former linebacker and long snapper at the University of California Davis, who also majored in neurobiology, nearly became a doctor, taught hip-hop dance classes, is a wine connoisseur and has a gravitational pull to the greatest, biggest challenges he can find for himself.
Hackett is, in short, a Renaissance man with a childish fervor who has a love for teaching, a love for football and a mental library few can match. Who else has sung Justin Timberlake over his headset when giving play-calls to a quarterback in the huddle?
“It doesn’t take more than five minutes of talking to him to realize this guy’s really not like the rest of them,” said quarterback Blake Bortles, a former first-round pick who played four years for Hackett in Jacksonville.
Yet after more than 12 years as an NFL coach, including the past three as one of the masterminds behind Green Bay’s blended offense, he’s oddly remained a hidden gem; Hackett, 41, has interviewed only once for a top NFL job, with the Atlanta Falcons this year.
But that could soon change. After helping the Packers to another 5-1 start before they host the Washington Football Team on Sunday, Hackett’s short list of suitors seems bound to grow.
Finding the challenge
Since Hackett joined Green Bay in 2019, he, Coach Matt LaFleur and Rodgers have led the Packers to a league-best 31-7 record, while marrying the old with the new — some West Coast principles to which Rodgers is accustomed to a heavy dose of play-action and run-pass options. The glue is Hackett who, after seven years of calling plays and trying to turn projects into contenders, was enticed by the chance to create something new — with a loaded roster.
Hackett grew up in the West Coast system, after watching his father learn from its architect, Bill Walsh, and take it with him to various stops in his coaching career. Hackett also learned early on that the success of any team, and thereby any coach, is dependent on a deep understanding of the quarterback position, so he gladly jumped from defense and special teams in college to focusing on quarterbacks and the offense as a whole as a coach.
After four years as a college assistant, he’s gone from quality control coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Buffalo Bills, to a do-it-all coordinator at Syracuse, to an NFL play-caller in Buffalo and then Jacksonville, where he helped the Jaguars snap a 10-year playoff drought.
“Really, the things I wanted to learn was the outside zone and the play pass,” Hackett said. “Those were the things I did in the past, but they weren’t as cool and as explosive as the ones that you see with Kyle Shanahan, the L.A. Rams, the Atlanta Falcons when they went to the Super Bowl. Things were like, ‘Holy cow.’
“This was an opportunity to take my experience on how to teach people and how to coach, and also take this amazing system and merge it with the stuff that I had done in the past.”
Hackett’s greatest competitor has always been himself. When he was the quarterbacks coach, tight ends coach and offensive coordinator at Syracuse from 2011-12, he’d have his quarterbacks over at his house for what he called “Q-School,” a week of comprehensive film study in the summer during which every one of their plays during the season was reviewed. Afterward, he’d challenge them to a gantlet of field-day activities, seeking competition even in games of tag and corn hole. Practices with his players were no different.
“He would compete with us in our quarterback drills on some days and try to win,” said Charley Loeb, a former Syracuse quarterback who is now a private quarterbacks coach. “He would always say, ‘I’m going to find a way to win. I don’t care, I’ll throw underhand.’”
Forget the Washington Football Team’s record. Worry about it’s regression.
When Hackett was young, his father told him that there are three aspects to a young man’s life, and he can only be great at two of them: sports, social activities and academics.
So Hackett, naturally, set out to prove him wrong: He would succeed at them all.
He was captain of his football team. He was student-body president. He taught dance classes, was a straight-A student, planned to become a doctor, then decided to embark on a career in coaching, working in nearly every department of an NFL team’s football operations before arriving in Green Bay in 2019.
“Whatever the challenge is, that always kind of pushed me,” Hackett said. “And now that I’ve decided to be a football coach, every year it’s finding what that challenge is.”
Throughout his teens, Hackett spent his summers in dorms as a ballboy and unofficial equipment manager, folding towels with Marcus Allen, carrying the pads of Derrick Thomas and watching his father interact with players who became more like family.
“I would get yelled at by Marty Schottenheimer if I spotted the ball wrong,” Hackett said with a laugh. “It was a big part of my life. A lot of who I became is because I grew up in a locker room. My dad always joked, ‘Yeah, I apologize every day that he had to grow up in a locker room because he’s a little wild.’”
Hackett’s immersion in football was built on relationships. While Paul Hackett was offensive coordinator of the Chiefs, from 1993 to 1997, Nathaniel learned to long snap because the snappers sought any extra time they could get to sleep in. So they talked him into snapping for the punters to start practices.
Hackett parlayed that into four years as a snapper and linebacker at UC Davis — in addition to studying neurobiology and teaching hip-hop dance classes.
“There was a time that I wanted to be a backup dancer for Janet Jackson or Justin Timberlake or something like that,” he said. “I wanted to do that so bad.”
Neurobiology had Hackett on track to become a doctor. But his final class, a 10-hour lab, prompted a change of heart. The class was tasked with an exploratory surgery on chickens (they all lived), but Hackett wanted to infuse a little humor by creating a brief waterworks of chicken blood. The joke fell flat.
When he hit the football field soon after, he found the missing piece to his need for challenge: fun.
“Here I am on the grass with these football players and hitting and saying rude jokes and messing with each other, but there was still the mental challenge in football,” he said. “There was still that chess match.”
Yoda on three
After spurning a career in medicine, Hackett dove into a life of coaching, embracing the grind of being a college assistant, first at his alma mater and then Stanford, where he was thrown into helping the offense after a career on defense. In 2006, he joined his father on the staff of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a quality control coach. That was where he really found his voice as a coach.
“When I get up in front of the guys, I always want them to never have any clue what’s potentially going to pop up in front of them. I want that excitement of, ‘Oh boy, what’s going to happen?’ “ Hackett said.
“So I created a library of all stuff from 1984 black-and-white clips, from Joe Montana throwing to Dwight Clark and Freddie Solomon.”
Hackett’s library is loaded with old footage from his father’s days with eight NFL teams. The clips have become a staple of Hackett’s coaching.
But they’re also a part of his essence.
“He was among that early group of coaches that were very computer-savvy,” Paul Hackett said. “His father was not. But he made the transition of taking my stuff and transferring it into digital.”
When NFL facilities were shut down and meetings became almost exclusively interactive because of the coronavirus pandemic, Hackett turned to his friend, a high school teacher, to help him build an interactive learning system. It’s essentially a digital playbook, Hackett says, but for “the YouTube generation,” complete with teaching and testing tools to help those brand new to the team or returning from injury quickly get up to speed.
“Same deal as doing a presentation in front of a group. You want that ‘wow’ factor,” Hackett said. “So making the tutorials and still making it so that they feel like you’re with them, and creating these videos and making these fun tests that aren’t, ‘Oh crap, I got to do this.’ It’s something that can work on their iPad, they can do it anywhere they want, and it’s like I’m right there with them.”
Hackett’s father preached to him that “change is the norm,” and you have to evolve.
Talk to Hackett’s former players — and coaches — and that evolution will also include certain mainstays. Like those old Walsh and Montana tapes. And Justin Timberlake, his favorite musical artist. And probably Han Solo too.
While Hackett was the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator, his weekly PowerPoints regularly included Star Wars characters because Hackett is a fan.
“If we ever had mics that caught some of the plays that were different, it was usually a name that he threw out there,” Bortles said. “Sometimes it would get vetoed because me or [backup Chad Henne] were like, ‘I really don’t want to have to say that at the line of scrimmage in an NFL game.’ But a lot of the times we kind of went with it.”
Some of those? Checks and audibles named “Yoda” and Skywalker.” And there was that one play called “Dirty Pop,” named for the song by N’Sync.
“I don’t even really know what that is or from, but I know it has something to do with Justin Timberlake,” Bortles said. “That was a play that we probably ran five to seven times a game when we were together, and every time he’d say it, he’d say it in his Justin Timberlake voice and kind of sing it.”
When he was coordinator (and QBs and tight ends coach) at Syracuse, his tipsheets for the offense, with notable points about its game plan and opponent, would regularly include correlating pictures or cartoons. And ahead of the team’s 2010 Pinstripe Bowl against Kansas State, Hackett infamously broke out into a dance to a song by comedy trio The Lonely Island.
“I mean, it was like a movie, just breaking into a song and dance routine between talk about coverages,” Loeb said. “But if there’s anybody in the building that would’ve been able to get away with that, it’s Nate Hackett. And there’s probably 50 to 100 stories of stuff like that happened over the years.”
Just as frequent: the times he adapted to fit his players, and the times he turned complex concepts into seemingly simple ones. Like when he abruptly scrapped the playbook at Syracuse and boiled it down to a short menu of plays.
“My junior year, right before the season started, we switched to an up-tempo, no-huddle offense to better help the whole team, and we were able to break all sorts of records with it,” Loeb said. “[The West Coast] had been what he were used to, what he had grown up with and what he did so well. But he was just able to quickly transition into something based off it, but totally new — and still be able to have good counters to what we’re doing.”
At the pro level, the feedback was the same. Even from future Hall of Famers.
“It’s understanding that every player has different motivators and everybody can respond differently to coaching, and figuring out what those buttons are on certain people to push to get the most out of them,” Rodgers said. “That’s what he does really well. He disarms guys and makes them feel really comfortable, and then he’s really good at teaching the game.
“I would hate to lose him, but I do feel like he would be a fantastic head coach.” |
| NFC EAST |
|
WASHINGTON
If you’re a player (or a coach), the NFL will provide copious documentation of your sins (or leak them, maybe), But Andrea Kramer points out that the WFT got a secret investigation:
“There was a 243-page report on Tom Brady deflating footballs, a 144-page report on Richie Incognito‘s harassing his teammate, then teammate Jonathan Martin, and a 96-page report on Ray Rice’s domestic violence case. Those are all against players.”
—Andrea Kremer, on HBO Real Sports, pointing out the reality of the NFL coming down harder and more thoroughly on players than it did on WFT owner Snyder.
We also note that the Patriots Spygate investigation got the secret privilege with the actual mechanisms of the cheating obfuscated and the evidence destroyed. |
| NFC SOUTH |
|
TAMPA BAY
WR MIKE EVANS didn’t know the TD pass he caught was the 600th of QB GOAT TOM BRADY’s career – and handed it off to a random fan. The Buccaneers retrieved it from the guy (not a child), and the debate began – did he give it back too cheap?
This from Greg Auman of The Athletic on the terms:
@gregauman
In addition to the replacement game ball, the Bucs gave fan Byron Kennedy a $1,000 gift card to their team store for returning the ball from Tom Brady’s 600th career touchdown pass …
The DB thinks that he needs to get something signed by Brady – either the replacement game ball or a jersey. What say you?
Auman did a poll:
You’re lucky enough to get a football in the stands, and the QB of your favorite team asks for it back as a historic memento. What do you do?
Give it back, no problem 29.8%
Ask for a signed jersey 34%
Ransom for a fortune 29.4%
Keep it, post it on eBay 6.8%
These results from over 1,000 repsonses. |
| NFC WEST |
|
ARIZONA
This:
“Kyler Murray reminds me of Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson put together. He’s got speed, elusiveness, but he doesn’t take crazy hits. He’s smart like Russell.”
—Julian Edelman, on “Inside the NFL
– – –
Albert Breer on how the Cardinals have negotiated Coach Kliff Kingsbury’s absence:
I think the Cardinals’ staff deserves a lot of credit for its handling of the last week. And when I touched base with Kliff Kingsbury on Sunday night, he was very quick to heap praise specifically on his defensive coordinator Vance Joseph (“Such a stud,” Kingsbury texted) for the job Joseph did in leading the staff, along with special teams coach Jeff Rodgers, over the eight previous days, and then to the team’s breezy 31–5 win over the Texans. So how did the last 24 hours work? Well, the truth is, some on staff didn’t even know Kingsbury was coming back from his COVID-19 absence until Sunday morning—the Cardinals wanted to maintain the status quo for the players and coaches, until Kingsbury could officially come back. That happened Sunday morning, with the proverbial hay in the barn. The coaches handled the week, and then on Saturday night, Joseph addressed the players during their quick night-before meeting, telling the guys he wanted them to play fast and, to play off a theme for the season in Arizona, be “one week better” against the Texans. And while they didn’t start fast, the Cardinals did wind up playing fast—racing past lowly Houston with a 17-point second quarter, during which the hosts rolled to a 193 to 26 edge in total yards and put the visitors in the rearview. And because they’ve been working through this situation for a while, it was easy to manage working Kingsbury back into the mix as the team’s leader and play-caller. In that way, seeing as how the Cardinals are 7–0, it’s pretty logical that they’d stick to their script. It’s working. Thursday night’s showdown against the Packers should give us a good idea of just how well it’s working.
Left unsaid and presumed is that Kingsbury, like almost everyone else, is perfectly fine after his confrontation with COVID.
– – –
The longest catch of TE ZACH ERTZ’s career came on National Tight Ends Day in his 1st game with the Cardinals. Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
The Arizona Cardinals unleashed their latest weapon Sunday, tight end Zach Ertz, acquired in a trade with Philadelphia, who helped the undefeated Cards overcome a slow start to blast the Houston Texans, 31-5.
“It was good,” Ertz said, per the team’s official website. “It was fun to win a football game and be a part of this culture and team environment.”
Ertz provided the cherry on top of the blowout win, catching a pass over the middle and jaunting to the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown that essentially iced the game midway through the third quarter.
It marked the longest TD reception of Ertz’s career, topping a 35-yarder he had in 2014 with the Eagles, per NFL Research. The score also made Ertz the first player in NFL history to have a touchdown catch for two different teams in back-to-back games in a season. Ertz scored a TD in his final game with Philly before being traded to Arizona.
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The Cardinals imported Ertz after tight end Maxx Williams went down with an injury. The only undefeated club believed the tight end could thrive over the middle, with DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk and A.J. Green drawing most of the defensive attention outside. So far, so good.
“We have a lot of talent,” Ertz said. “I’ve never seen so much green grass in the middle of the field and that’s gonna happen with guys like DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green on the outside.”
It wasn’t all rainbows and roses in Ertz’s first game in Arizona. Kyler Murray and Ertz missed connecting on a TD earlier in the game, and the QB threw an interception targeting the tight end. Ertz blamed himself for the interception, part of the chemistry-building process.
Ertz finished his first game with his new club catching three of five targets for 66 yards and the score.
“He brings a down-the-field presence to the team,” Hopkins said. “Maxx and those guys are good, but Zach is a Pro Bowl tight end. So, to be able to have that presence in the field helps out a lot. |
| AFC WEST |
|
DENVER
Peter King with an update on the Denver ownership situation:
Very back-burner right now, but at some point soon, there’s going to be a resolution to who will own the Denver Broncos. If the seven children of Pat Bowlen cannot agree on a succession plan, the franchise trustees are likely to sell the team. Now I’ve heard that at least four individuals of means have been actively digging around to discover if said purchase will be smart. When I say “of means,” I mean those in private business who have billions to spend. As for all of those (Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones, among others) who’d love to see Jeff Bezos get involved in ownership of an NFL franchise, I hear he’s not interested. At least now he’s not. |
|
KANSAS CITY
Jim Trotter of NFL.com looks at the flailing Chiefs:
(The Titans) didn’t just beat the Chiefs; they beat them down, leading 14-0 after one quarter and 27-0 at the half. They showed balance on offense, with Ryan Tannehill completing 21 of 27 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown, Derrick Henry rushing for 86 yards and throwing for a score, and Brown snagging eight passes for 133 yards and a TD. Tennessee displayed dominance on defense, too, registering four sacks and three takeaways.
The whipping was so thorough Chiefs coach Andy Reid figuratively waved a white flag with just over eight minutes to play, pulling Mahomes after the star quarterback was hit in the head by Jeffery Simmons’ leg while trying to escape the grasp of another defender. Mahomes cleared concussion protocol but did not return to the game, with Reid wisely choosing not to subject the face of the franchise to more punishment.
“You get hit pretty hard, sometimes you just want to lay there,” said Mahomes, who stayed down on the turf for several seconds after the hit. “Plus, it was fourth down. … It was a disappointing day and disappointing way it ended.”
Mahomes appeared wobbly after being helped to his feet, and now it’s fair to wonder if the Chiefs are staggering. The beating was unlike anything we have seen from them since Mahomes took over in 2018. During their height, the Chiefs appeared to toy with defenses, breaking their coverages and their will. But not this season.
While still able to put up points, much of the year has been a grind, with uncharacteristic turnovers being a major factor. Sunday marked the second time this season Mahomes, who finished 20 of 35 for 206 yards, had both an interception and lost a fumble in the same game. His fumble was the Chiefs’ 16th giveaway this year, matching their total for all of last season.
Defenses are taking away the deep ball and testing the Chiefs’ ability to be patient, which normally might not be a problem for them except their own defense is struggling to make stops. Hence, Kansas City keeps finding itself playing catch-up, which elevates the pressure on Mahomes and Co.
On Sunday, Tennessee went 75 yards in eight plays on its opening possession, with Henry taking the snap in the Wildcat formation and floating a pass to the back of the end zone for the 5-yard score to MyCole Pruitt. It went 97 yards in nine plays on its next possession, with Brown catching a 24-yard touchdown pass from Tannehill. Its third series ended in a field goal for a 17-0 lead.
At that point it was clear a sense of urgency, if not panic, was falling over the Chiefs because Mahomes uncharacteristically forced a pass to Josh Gordon, who was blanketed in coverage. The ball was tipped and intercepted by Rashaan Evans, and Tannehill scored on a 2-yard run eight plays later.
Immediately after, Mahomes again pressed to make a play before the half, taking off on a run to right side. But Byard closed and punched the ball free, setting up a 51-yard field goal for a 27-0 halftime lead.
The Chiefs are now 3-4, which matches their season-high for losses since Mahomes stepped into the starting lineup. The 24-point margin was the largest loss of the Mahomes era, including the playoffs, and the three points were the fewest scored since he took over as QB1. The Chiefs’ 17 giveaways are the most in the league as of this writing, and they’re allowing 29 points per game, which would be a franchise high for a season. |
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LAS VEGAS
Chase Goodbread on the greatness of QB DEREK CARR:
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr continued a torrid pace that’s developing into what could be his career-best season. Carr completed 16 consecutive passes at one point in the first half, roasting the Eagles secondary with his customary widespread distribution. The Raiders entered as the only NFL club with four receivers at 300-plus yards receiving for the season (Henry Ruggs III, Hunter Renfrow, Darren Waller, Bryan Edwards). True to form, Carr’s leading receiver in this one was none of the above (TE Foster Moreau, 60 yards). Carr finished 31-of-34 for 323 yards, and remains paced to break Peyton Manning’s NFL record for passing yards in a season (5,477). |
| AFC NORTH |
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CINCINNATI
Peter King, who shares a special bond with QB JOE BURROW, as both have lived in Athens, Ohio, is enthralled with Cincinnati’s rise to the top of the AFC:
I know what I’d be thinking if I were either Mike Tomlin or John Harbaugh today. (DB note – why leave out Kevin Stefanski, Peter).
Uh-oh.
The Bengals were competitive with Andy Dalton, but did the power teams of the AFC North ever really fear the Bengals of the past decade? No. How do you fear a team that never got out of the wild-card round of the playoffs? But 17 games into the Joe Burrow Era, you’d better have a healthy respect for the Bengals. They’re coming. They’re crashing a party a year or two before anyone thought they’d be joining it.
It’s because of one draft pick, one man. In the last month, Joe Burrow has walked into Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and walked out with a 24-10 win, and he has gone into M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and emerged with a 41-17 pantsing of the Ravens.
There’s something about Burrow, something more than his ability to be this accurate at the highest level of the game this early in his career. I actually think it’s two things beyond his football IQ and ability that set him apart today, and will in the future—assuming he doesn’t get hit so much that it’ll impact his ability to be great for a long time. To explain, I want you to read two things Burrow said to me after the game in Baltimore.
I asked him if the very loud crowd early in Baltimore affected him, and whether playing in the deafeaning stadia of the SEC got him ready for this.
Burrow: “We knew that they were gonna be jacked up for us to come in, and expecting to beat our ass. But we were ready for it. Playing in the SEC definitely, definitely helped. Gets way louder in the SEC than in any of these NFL stadiums.”
Translation: You’re nuts if you think the noise bugged me even a bit today. You’re nuts if you think it bothers me any day.
I asked him if the Ravens surprised him much on defense. This, after Justin Herbert said he’d never seen much of the stuff the Ravens D did to him after Baltimore whacked the Chargers last week.
Burrow: “No. I knew exactly what to expect from the game. You gotta play physical against them, you gotta play intense against them. Otherwise they’re gonna drown you.”
Translation: I respect ‘em, but nobody’s ever gonna shock me on defense. I might get Apollo Creeded out there for four or five series, but I’ll always find a way.
As someone who knows Burrow better than I told me Sunday night, he’s a gym-rat savant. Nobody intimidates him, no defense surprises him. In the competitive world of the NFL, those are good traits to have. And those traits in the quarterback translate to a 5-2 record and first place in the AFC North. At 24, Burrow is going to be around for awhile, and as long as he’s around, the Steelers and the Ravens (and the Browns, now) can’t treat the Bengals like a Homecoming game anymore.
The Lead: Bengals
On the topic of the weirdness of the first seven weeks of this season, I called my old friend Brent Musburger, now the host and managing editor of Vegas Sports and Information Network. He’s got his finger on the pulse of the lines.
“If both teams were healthy, and the game was played on a neutral field, who’d be favored—Cincinnati or Kansas City?” I asked.
Pause. “If both teams were completely healthy, Cincinnati would be favored.”
That’s a wow, considering where we were on Labor Day, with KC favored to win the AFC and Cincinnati favored to be the AFC North’s bottom-feeder. “I’m not sure what surprises me more,” Musburger said. “The rise of the Bengals or the fall of the Chiefs.”
I’d vote for the fall of Kansas City, because I didn’t see KC’s offensive zits and defensive generosity. Plus, I knew the Bengals would have some great moments this year. If half of their free-agents on defense were even good (and the haul has turned out great so far), and if Burrow could stay healthy, I thought they’d be okay. Still fourth in the North, but I thought Burrow would be the modern-day Dan Fouts, and a fearless and explosive quarterback is always going to win some big games. Now, after seven weeks, it’s clear I underestimated them. The Bengals might not beat Tampa or Arizona right now, but they’d be competitive with them.
Sunday was the perfect game to show how far the Bengals have come since they drafted Burrow. They were okay last year before Burrow tore his ACL in the 10th game of the season. This year, with Burrow healthy and off to a strong start, explosive rookie wideout Ja’Marr Chase taking the league by storm and six free-agents starting on defense, the trip to Baltimore was the acid test. Were the Bengals ready for prime time? (Not that it mattered; Cincinnati wasn’t scheduled for a prime-time game in the last 14 weeks of the season.)
In the first four series, Cincinnati went punt-FG-punt-punt, and Burrow was getting whomped. He likes to take his chances with empty backfields, figuring he can find a receiver before he gets hit. “What Baltimore does on defense,” he said from the Cincinnati locker room, “is they put you in one-on-one situations. They say their guys are better than our guys. At the beginning, they were winning those matchups and playing really well. We just kept putting our guys in positions we knew they could win, and we started making those plays. When we started making a few those plays, they got out of that zero blitz, blitzing every snap. Eventually, we got back into the normal flow of our offense.”
There was a play just before halftime that said so much. The Bengals were driving in the final seconds, and Chase was one-on-one on Marlon Humphrey. That’s a battle the Ravens need Humphrey to win—their best against the Bengals’ best. But Chase, running a medium in-cut from the left, left Humphrey in the dust, his cut sharp and perfect. The pass was spot-on, and Chase gained 26. Just as important was Humphrey’s body language. He stopped and stared at the sky, as if to say, How can I stop these guys? A field goal gave the Bengals a 13-10 lead at the half. That play was an omen—a bad one for Baltimore.
Midway through the third quarter Cincinnati led 20-17. The Bengals were backed up at their 18, third-and-two. On the right of the formation, Chase was singled, again, with Humphrey. “I mean, he’s the best corner in the league,” Burrow said. “They can play zero blitz with him and be comfortable because he’s so good one-on-one.”
On this play, the decisive one in the game, the precocious greatness of Burrow and Chase shone through. Burrow told NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala post-game that his chemistry with his former LSU teammate wasn’t complicated. “It takes reps and reps and reps,” Burrow said. As Chase left the line, he ran right away into a joust with Humphrey, at the 20-yard line. But even as he quick-twitched to try to get off Humphrey’s jam, Burrow cocked his arm and prepared to throw.
Burrow just knew, on a vital third-and-two in crunch time, that Chase would win.
Burrow, in his 17th NFL game. Chase, in his seventh. Humphrey, in his 68th.
Chase got inside the jam of Humphrey, put his right foot in the ground and burst toward his left, right where he knew Burrow would throw it. From the 10, Burrow zipped one a foot behind Chase, who now had a step on Humphrey, at the 24. Problem: Four Ravens were in a box around Chase. He had the first down, which was great. But could he get more? Safety DeShon Elliott lunged at chased, had an arm around this legs but couldn’t finish the job at the 28; two yards later, Humphrey turned Chase around and it looked like he’d fall, but somehow he stayed upright and headed downfield, and safety Chuck Clark and linebacker Justin Houston were in hot pursuit and . . .
“AND THERE HE GOES!” Kevin Harlan yelled on CBS. “HE HAD ‘EM IN A BLENDER AND HE’S OFF TO THE RACES! THIS WILL BE SIX!!”
Think of the hours and the routes Burrow threw with Chase to make that 82-yard touchdown happen. I’m reminded of the slick comeback routes to Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell that Tom Brady threw in the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history—the routes where the receiver would sprint 18 yards downfield, suddenly put his foot in the ground and turn back three yards. Brady would throw to the 15-yard spot, even though he’d release the ball long before the receiver got there. There was a trust between Brady and the receivers. “That’s because of 111 practices we had,” Brady said. “Practices, films, meetings. Like clockwork.” Same thing here, just not quite as dramatic. Burrow threw to the spot he trusted Chase would be. It’s just part of the whole for Burrow—feeling out the opponent early, making sure you don’t make the big error early so you’ll still be in the game late, and then, when it matters, finding your most trusted receiver in the big moment.
“I knew exactly what was gonna happen coming in, where I was gonna take hits and I was gonna have to keep coming back. That’s exactly what we did. That’s exactly what I did, just stay patient and hang in. And that’s why we won the game,” Burrow told me.
Burrow and Chase live three houses apart in Cincinnati, and they’ve stayed close since being teammates at LSU in 2019. Burrow said he never felt a need to talk to Chase about his spate of drops this summer. When I asked about it, Burrow gave a derisive chuckle. “No, I never said anything to him,” Burrow said. “I knew exactly what would happen come Sunday. He’d show up and do exactly what he does. And he’s done that.” Has he ever. Chase has more yards after seven games, 754, than any receiver in NFL history.
In his own sort of aloof way, Burrow was excited an hour after the biggest win of his young career. But nothing is forever in football. He knew the wins over Pittsburgh and Baltimore, on the road, were huge building blocks. But that’s what they are. They’re points of progress on the road to being great. These Bengals have miles to go before they sleep. But at least they know they’ve got the guy to get them there.
“We know exactly what the future holds,” Burrow said. “We’re gonna have to come back and beat both these guys again, play them on our home turf. They’ll be excited to come in and try to end our season early. We’re gonna have to keep getting better each week. I know it sounds cliché but we really just gotta keep getting better.
“The one thing I know about the NFL is how good these teams are. Baltimore’s a really, really good team. They’ll come back with vengeance the next time we play them. Today was very exciting for us. It’s exciting that the preparation that we put in all offseason and this week showed up on the field. Five and two’s good, but it’s 5-2.”
Better than 2-5. Too often in Bengaldom—Boomer Esiason’s word for the wacky world of this franchise’s history—things go wrong when the pressure gets heavy. It got heavy in the first half in Baltimore, and Burrow will wake up sore because of those first four mostly fruitless and punishing drives this morning. But great players walk into loud stadiums and have hardships against very good teams, and great players find a way to beat those odds and survive and win. Burrow’s steely mentality and his right arm are putting him on the path to greatness. I wouldn’t bet against him.
As for the Bengals and Primetime – we look at Week 13 where the L.A. Chargers are due to come to Cincinnati in a game curiously booked for FOX at 1 p.m. opposite other alternatives. And we not that San Francisco at Seattle (both 2-4) is the Sunday night game. We smell a FLEX. |
| AFC SOUTH |
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HOUSTON
Peter King pushes back on the insider rumors/leaks that the Dolphins are hot and heavy to pay an enormous price to take QB DESHAUN WATSON off the hands of the Texans:
Lots of buzz about Deshaun Watson to the Dolphins, and the lukewarm “Tua is our quarterback” from Brian Flores wasn’t enough to put a lid on the speculation. (Then again, Flores neither justifies nor debunks reports or rumors involving his players, so his lukewarm response to renewed Watson trade reports was par for the course.) But a collection of bad games by needy QB teams could crowd the field—making it very good for the Texans to get more than one team bidding for Watson. I do hear that Miami owner Stephen Ross is not pushing his football people to deal for Watson right now.Which is smart. It makes zero sense for a team to deal huge assets for a player when the team doesn’t know when the player will be able to play.
And this:
“I am trying to understand something,” said one executive of a team that you would think will have at least marginal interest in a quarterback of the future. “We’re not even sure if Watson would be able to play on opening day next year because of all these cases against him right now, and Houston thinks it’ll get someone to pay three ones and two twos for him by the trading deadline this year? It’s crazy to think anyone would do that. It’s crazy for Houston to not wait till the offseason.” He’s right: Once it’s resolved whether Aaron Rodgers stays in Green Bay or goes (by next February, presumably), and once there is clarity on when Watson can play, the losers in the Rodgers derby could make the bidding for Watson intense.
The NFL, I hear, won’t tell any franchise what it intends to do if a team trades for Watson and tries to activate him. That falls in line with the Goodellian mantra of Don’t make decisions till you have to. Ian Rapoport reported Sunday it’s expected that Watson, if traded, would be allowed to play while his case is adjudicated. All that adds up to clouds—plus the fact that the fan base for a team that acquires Watson might protest the acquisition of a player with such legal and moral issues hanging over his head.
This from Albert Breer of SI.com:
I don’t think Texans GM Nick Caserio is going to panic trade Deshaun Watson. At this point, Houston’s carried Watson on its roster for three months with Watson coming into the building for work without really being a member of the team. So it’s not like the awkwardness is going to suddenly shake anyone there. And Caserio also has to know that there’d be football reasons for waiting until January or February. One would be that any further clarity from the legal system or the league could boost Watson’s trade value (though there’s risk it could go the other way too). Another would be that the Texans would know where the 2022 picks they get in return are going to be in the draft order. Third, there’d almost certainly be more suitors then than there are now, since some teams that don’t necessarily need a quarterback right now might decide to look for an upgrade (Giants? Browns? Saints? Steelers?), like the Niners and Rams did last winter. So I’d expect that Caserio will hold interested teams to his price (three first-rounders, plus additional picks and/or players), mostly because Caserio knows this will likely become the defining move of his time in Houston. A few other things to keep in mind …
• Ownership will play a role on the buyer side. For some teams, the allegations of sexual misconduct make a Watson trade a non-starter. But other teams have owners who are consumed with finding a franchise quarterback (I’d put the Panthers in that category), to the point where the owner could drive a trade for Watson.
• Ownership could play a role on the seller side too. My understanding is that both sides view the relationship between Texans owner Cal McNair and Watson as irreparable. It’s certainly possible now that McNair would nudge Caserio to turn over every rock on a potential pre-deadline trade, because he just wants it to be over with.
• As we wrote in Friday’s GamePlan, the league has been vague with teams (and specifically owners) on whether it would move to put Watson on the exempt list if he’s traded. That, of course, doesn’t mean it will happen. It’s just been a factor in the pace of talks.
• I’ve had people in the Texans’ building tell me Watson has handled the situation very professionally the last three months—I even had David Culley say that to me a few weeks ago. That’s obviously made the situation more palatable for people working there, and might make another team feel more comfortable trading for him.
So we’ll see what happens. We’ve got eight days until the trade deadline, and there’s a league meeting in New York this week (we’ll get into that more in a bit), which will put some of the key players in this together in one place. And one last thing, and I’ve said this a bunch: I don’t want to minimize the seriousness of the allegations here, nor do I think it’s fair to convict Watson here, either. I think it’s important that we all let the legal piece of this play out. And as for whether Watson gets back on the field while that’s still ongoing? We should know more within about a week.
Mike Sando of The Athletic weighs in:
The Miami Dolphins’ sixth consecutive defeat fueled speculation their owner, Stephen Ross, would push for the team to acquire quarterback Deshaun Watson. Here’s one agent’s prediction.
An agent with decades of experience predicted the situation might unfold this way: Ross orders his team’s leadership to push for Watson; Carolina remains a wild-card pursuer amid uncertainty over whether the Panthers’ owner will push as hard; Miami makes the trade but cannot put Watson on the field until his legal cases are resolved; meanwhile, Tua Tagovailoa remains behind center for the Dolphins after the team fails to find sufficient trade value in the short term.
How awkward would that be? How unbelievable would that be? How NFL would that be?
“It all depends on if your owner is the one saying, ‘I want you to do this,’ ” a longtime exec said. “Owners tend to be not realistic about things. It still is really a crapshoot.” |
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TENNESSEE
Peter King doesn’t mention it, but RB DERRICK HENRY is putting up monster rushing numbers in the age of unbridled passing, kind of like Babe Ruth’s HRs in another decade’s late teens and early 20s:
Henry is the offensive Aaron Donald, on his way to the Hall of Fame even though he’s still very much in mid-career. At 27, he is on his way to being the fifth player to lead the NFL in rushing three straight years. That has two asterisks: Jim Brown actually did it twice, and Brown actually did it five straight years at one point. Will Henry make it three straight this year? Obviously health is the biggest factor, but consider that Henry has a 290-yard lead for the title over the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor, 869 yards to 579. Plenty of season left, but you’ve got to think Henry’s got a pretty chance at his third straight rushing title.
The amazing thing about Henry’s run is how he’s been in his average yards per game during the streak. Comparing Henry’s three-year run to those who have led the NFL in rushing for at least three straight years:
Player Year GP Yards YPG
Steve Van Buren, Phil. 1947-49 35 3,099 88.5
Jim Brown, Clevel. 1957-61 62 6,453 104.2
Jim Brown, Clevel. 1963-65 42 4,853 115.5
Earl Campbell, Hous. 1978-80 46 5,081 110.5
Emmitt Smith, Dallas 1991-93 46 4,762 103.5
*Derrick Henry, Tenn. 2019-21 38 4,436 116.7
DB Aside – Yes, King and his copy editors did “abbreviate” Cleveland with Clevel. That fine Ohio city has numerous abbreviations – CLE, CLV, Cleve. – but we have never before seen Clevel.
“As a running back,” he said, “I just gotta go out and do my job and hit the holes my teammates make for me. They’ve been fantastic. I give all my credit to them.”
Henry seemed honored to hear about the yards-per-game number, particular because of the Jim Brown connection. “I’ve seen clips of him growing up,” Henry said. “I think Jim Brown’s the heights. For my name to be mentioned with his, it’s an honor. A dream come true. Jim Brown was kind of like a superhero. So this is special, something you dream of as a kid.”
It’s within reach that Henry could be the most dominant rusher over a three-year span that there ever was—and what makes that all the more notable is the fact that we’re in an age of reduced rushing. Vastly reduced rushing. Good for the Titans that they recognize the value of traditional football and put it in the offensive game plan of a 5-2, division-leading team. |
| AFC EAST |
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NEW YORK JETS
Mike Sando of The Athletic:
The Jets’ offensive stats through six games resemble the 2020 Jets’ offensive stats to the same point last season. Hmmm.
The Jets needed change from last season and got it in many ways, except for the one place they wanted to change the most: offensive production.
While the Jets’ former quarterback was getting benched by Carolina, their current QB was suffering through a 54-13 defeat at New England. Suffering is the appropriate word, as Wilson incurred a knee injury that prevented him from finishing the game. Wilson is not healthy, and neither is a Jets’ offense that some presumed could not get any worse.
But the traditional passing stats are roughly the same and even worse in some respects. Explosive-play totals are nearly identical. The EPA stats were nearly identical through five games, with the 2021 team holding the edge through six games only because the Jets were even worse on offense in their sixth game last season (24-0 loss to the Dolphins).
“They pivoted to a defensive coach with a big personality, they picked from the McVay/Shanahan tree to completely change the offensive scheme, and yet here they are,” an exec said. “How is that looking?”
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network is hearing that QB ZACH WILSON will miss about two weeks with his PCL sprain. |
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THIS AND THAT |
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NATIONAL TIGHT ENDS DAY
Sunday, the world stopped its collective business to honor the unsung with National Tight Ends Day. Albert Breer:
National Tight End Day is a pretty funny idea—and in a weird way it actually all worked out. The idea for this “holiday” was an offshoot of Tight End U, a project launched by Niners star George Kittle and ex-Panther All-Pro Greg Olsen a couple of years ago to help guys at the position help each other, by gathering everyone for an annual event in Nashville. And you have to give them credit, they’ve been pretty relentless about drumming up interest—and the result has been a series of collaborations with NFL Network, NFL Films and the league’s social media arm, and the league itself actually distributed information to all the broadcast teams ahead of this weekend to include in the game coverage. So if you thought you were being hit over the head with it on Sunday, well, just know that a lot of broadcasters were handed that hammer. And while we’re here, then, a few highlights from NTED …
• Falcons rookie Kyle Pitts had seven catches for 163 yards, the fourth-highest single-game yardage total by a rookie tight end ever. He’s just 605 yards short of Mike Ditka’s 60-year-old single-season yardage record for a rookie tight end. With another 164 yards, he’ll be in the top 10 all-time for a rookie tight end.
• The Bengals’ late-blooming, seventh-year TE C.J. Uzomah had three catches for 91 yards, including touchdowns of 32 and 55 yards in Cincinnati’s stunning rout of the Ravens—and Sunday was another part of his continued emergence as one of Burrow’s most trusted targets.
• The Dolphins’ Mike Gesicki had seven catches for 85 yards and a touchdown to help Miami storm back from 13 down in the fourth quarter. They lost the game, but Gesicki has absolutely emerged as a big-time target for Tua Tagovailoa.
• Foster Moreau, Hunter Henry and Mo Alie-Cox had pivotal touchdowns for their teams.
All kidding aside, I’ve always wondered why these guys aren’t more appreciated—a good one is the ultimate queen on a coordinator’s chessboard, and it’s a lot harder to find that guy than it is a really good receiver. Which, I guess, would be a big reason why these guys made this effort in the first place. |
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