AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
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Pittsburgh sits atop the Conference and the Patriots are two games below the playoff line, If The Season Ended Today in the AFC:
AFC W-L Conf
Pittsburgh North 6-0 4-0
Kansas City West 6-1 6-1
Tennessee South 5-1 4-1
Buffalo East 5-2 4-2
Baltimore WC1 5-1 3-1
Cleveland WC2 5-2 3-2
Indianapolis WC3 4-2 2-2
Miami 3-3 2-2
Las Vegas 3-3 1-2
LA Chargers 2-4 2-1
Denver 2-4 2-3
New England 2-4 2-2
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There are a lot of other factors, of course, but TOM BRADY is 5-2 and averaging 31.7 PPG, 3rd-best in the NFL.
Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels and CAM NEWTON are 2-4 and averaging 19.2 PPG, 29thin the NFL.
In the middle, TEDDY BRIDGEWATE and the Panthers are 3-4 and averaging 23.1 PPG, 25th in the NFL.
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Peter King has some Week 7 oddities:
These are strange days in the NFL, and not just because of COVID-19.
New England, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas (playoff regulars): 6-21.
Tampa Bay, Arizona, Buffalo, Pittsburgh (playoff irregulars): 21-6.
The starting Dallas quarterback this morning is named Ben DiNucci. Cam Newton, benched. Baker Mayfield, five TD passes in 34 minutes. Michael Thomas, hurt and doghoused. No one in a key NFC South win for the Saints over Carolina caught more passes for more yards than an undrafted Thomas understudy, Marquez Calloway. Three backs exceeded 100 yards Sunday: two undrafted free-agents (Jeff Wilson Jr., of North Texas and the Niners; James Robinson of Illinois State and the Jags) and one draftee, Antonio Gibson of Washington. For the last 30 minutes of Bills-Jets, the only person who scored was Tyler Bass (admit it: you don’t know who he is), and New York gained all of four yards.
One unbeaten team, the 6-0 Steelers. One winless team, the 0-7 Jets.
Browns 37, Bengals 34, with 738 passing yards. Cards 37, Seahawks 34, with 748 passing yards.
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This from Andrew Siciliano:
NFC West is a combined 18-8 before the Rams-Bears game tonight.
There have been 3 of the 12 division games, meaning the 4 NFC West teams are 15-5 when playing outside the division.
On the other hand, the NFC East is 7-20-1 – but there have been 5 division games. So 2-15-1 when playing outside the division.
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Thoughts from the trade market from Albert Breer of SI.com:
I’ve got five trade deadline thoughts for you. And I’m passing them along while also directing you to the Oct. 22 GamePlan, where you’ll find more.
1) Going into the weekend, I was told the Texans’ path could be charted, in part, based on Sunday’s result. So getting dusted by the Packers means Houston’s acting GM, Jack Easterby, might be a little more willing to take calls on his receivers, and even some defensive players. I don’t think they’ll deal J.J. Watt in the next eight days, though.
2) At two different junctures this year—before the draft and toward the start of camp—the Patriots had discussions with other teams about a potential Stephon Gilmore trade. Would New England revisit that now? It seems increasingly likely that he could be elsewhere in 2021, so exploring the idea again, with the team at 2–4, wouldn’t be unheard of.
3) A fact I picked up doing research for my Sunday shows on NBC Sports Boston about a Gilmore trade: Ten players have been dealt for a first-round pick or a first-rounder-plus since April 2018. All 10 of those players were 27 or younger at the time of the deal.
4) Part of Atlanta’s reluctance to deal big names (I think they’d be willing to part with guys like Takk McKinley) is wanting to give Raheem Morris a real shot. Team president Rich McKay is pretty familiar with Morris—the two share Tampa roots—and the interim head coach is very popular in that building. So I think it’d take godfather offers to get the big names off that roster.
5) Offensive line is a pretty big need league-wide, which is why a player like Giants G Kevin Zeitler could bring home something of value for a seller. If you want to see why, go back and watch the early parts of Pittsburgh–Tennessee, and you’ll see how much the Titans missed their Pro Bowl left tackle, Taylor Lewan.
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NFC NORTH
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DETROIT
Peter King makes QB MATTHEW STAFFORD one of his Players of the Week as the Lions are back in the playoff hunt:
Matthew Stafford, quarterback, Detroit. Stafford’s put up his share of sick numbers over the years, but the 23-22 win at Atlanta was about being great when he absolutely had to be. Stafford, taking advantage of a dumb strategic error by Todd Gurley, took the Falcons 75 yards in eight plays to win, capping it as time expired with an 11-yard TD pass to last year’s first-round pick, tight end T.J. Hockenson. The Lions are 3-3, and with a survivable five-game stretch coming up (Indy, at Minnesota, Washington, at Carolina, Houston), dreams of the seventh seed dance in their heads.
Stafford, sometimes criticized for a lack of game awareness, was very aware on Sunday, including a quick snap that created a 12th man on the field situation that he told his coaches to issue a successful challenge.
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NFC EAST
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DALLAS
A suggestion from Peter King:
I think the Cowboys shouldn’t make a panic move today, or maybe even this week. Too many vital players injured. But veteran Dallas scribe Rick Gosselin had a prescient suggestion last week, which seems even smarter this morning with the real possibility that someone named Ben DiNucci of Wexford, Pa., could be the starting quarterback when Dallas (2-5) travels to NFC East-leading Philadelphia (2-4-1) next Sunday. Gosselin’s idea: sign Colin Kaepernick. Desperate times require desperate measures. I like it. Jerry Jones might not, but I do.
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Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys can make gambling history this week. John Breech of CBSSports.com:
The Cowboys might also make some gambling history. At 0-7 against the spread (ATS) on the season, the Cowboys are on the verge of setting the record for most games to start a season without covering the spread. Since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970, only two teams have started 0-8 ATS (1991 Bengals, 2003 Raiders). The Cowboys can match those two teams this week and could potentially break the record in Week 9 (The Bengals finished 3-13 straight up in 1991 while the Raiders finished 4-12).
The Cowboys are opening as 3.5-point underdogs against the Eagles.
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Patrik Walker of CBSSports on how the WTF took out Dallas QB ANDY DALTON without a whimper:
Winning fixes everything, and that’s precisely by the Dallas Cowboys are so broken right now. Currently sitting with their heads in their hands at 2-5 on the year, following a 25-3 manhandling at the hands of the Washington Football Team, every expectation the Cowboys had of being a contender in 2020 is seemingly out the door. That said, there’s still value in playing for self and each other going forward, but now there are questions on if the latter is still a thing for Dallas.
In the aforementioned loss to Washington, Andy Dalton gave himself up on a slide that ended with Jon Bostic delivering a brutally illegal blow to the head in the third quarter that knocked off Dalton’s helmet and put him out of the game for good. Bostic was ejected from the contest and reportedly won’t face suspension, but all of that is only part of the story. As Dalton was helped up, woozy and having no recollection of what had just occurred, there wasn’t a single Cowboys player overcome with anger enough to let Bostic know about it.
Instead, with Dalton removed and rookie backup Ben DiNucci inserted, everyone simply went on as if nothing happened. That doesn’t sit well with head coach Mike McCarthy, who was admittedly surprised at the lack of reaction, and didn’t mince words when he spoke to media about the incident following the game.
“We speak all the time about playing for one another, protecting one another,” McCarthy told media. “It definitely was not the response you would expect.”
For his part, Ezekiel Elliott understands the side eyes from those who would’ve preferred the offense didn’t turn the other cheek after seeing Dalton get brutalized, but he noted players wouldn’t help the team by getting ejected for retaliating.
“[The criticism for lack of retaliation] is fair,” he said, via Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. “But with doing that, you’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to find a way to not cross that line, but we’ve still got to protect our guys.”
With recent news of a rift in the locker room that presumably began with a defensive disconnect — which has since festered to the point where anonymous players are placing blame for the downtrodden season on the coaches — the lack of reaction to the hit on Dalton combines with McCarthy’s very public condemnation of it to make for a picture that’s growing darker by the week. And with the team having to continue without Dak Prescott, who perennial All-Pro guard Zack Martin labeled as the “heart and soul” of the organization, it is truly fair to question the level of solidarity in the Cowboys locker room, or lack thereof.
Time and again since he entered the league in 2016, when Prescott was the victim of a questionable hit, there was zero hesitation by offensive players to rush to his defense. But when Dalton got his helmet knocked off and momentarily blacked out and fell limp, there wasn’t a peep or a stir, so interpret that as you will.
Now, to be fair, Elliott has a point in that being ejected helps no one. That said, sending the message to the opposition that they can get away with headhunting your quarterback — without so much as a stern look — doesn’t exactly help the team either.
If anything, it hurts, both literally and figuratively speaking.
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NEW YORK GIANTS
Did Dave Gettleman, who is thought to know big players, blow it with the 4th overall pick? Peter King:
It’s certainly possible that the fourth pick in the 2020 draft, left tackle Andrew Thomas, will recover from the rocky start in the first seven games to have a good career. But he is floundering in the deep end of the pool right now. Is it possible that he is both not strong and has poor lateral quickness? He was awful Thursday night against Philadelphia, not adjusting to blitzing wide rushers that were his responsibility, and getting pushed around too much by the kind of physical front NFC East teams produce. Pro Football Focus numbers make it sound even worse. Entering Sunday, there were 101 tackles in the league who have played at least 10 snaps in 2020. Of those 101, one player has allowed more than 25 pressures—which is PFF’s combination of sacks, hits and hurries. Andrew Thomas is that player, and he has allowed an astounding 37: six sacks, four hits, 27 hurries. (To be fair, that encompasses seven games, and most other tackles had no more than six.) But however you look at it—totals or average per game, Thomas has been the leakiest tackle in football as we approach midseason, and it’s not close for second place.
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NFC SOUTH
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ATLANTA
A source tells Peter King, no trading of WR JULIO JONES:
Julio Jones very likely won’t be moved. Source close to the situation told me, “Forget it.” Though his next 3.5 years have manageable salaries ($6.58 million to finish this year, then $15.3 million, $11.5 million, $11.5 million), dealing Jones would sink the 2021 cap. According to Over The Cap, dealing Jones would cause $23.3 million in dead money to hit the 2021 cap—offset slightly by the $6.6 million they’d save in 2020 salary by dealing him. All a moot point.
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RB TODD GURLEY apologizes for scoring. Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com:
Todd Gurley was “mad as hell.” He knew he should have gotten down. He should have stopped. He wanted to. He planned to. But he just couldn’t stop short of the goal line on a 10-yard run against the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
If he didn’t score, the Atlanta Falcons could have run out the clock and kicked a short field goal to beat the Detroit Lions. Instead, he barely fell into the end zone. It gave Detroit a chance, and the Lions ended up beating the Falcons 23-22 on the final play of the game.
Afterward, Gurley said he was doing everything he could to not get in.
“I was trying not to. My momentum took me in,” Gurley said. “It’s kind of crazy, the last time I played Detroit, I went down. This time I end up scoring. It’s like what goes around, comes around.
“It’s one of them unfortunate situations. I’ve been, I mean, plenty of those situations my rookie year, six or seven, and I’ve always got down. It was an unfortunate one right there.”
Gurley said he takes responsibility for what happened and should have fallen down to keep the ball out of Matthew Stafford’s hands. Gurley said it came up in the huddle a couple of plays before his 10-yard touchdown and he also knew from his own prior experience. He said they never discussed taking a knee and that he tried to go down but didn’t.
“It was talked about right at that moment,” Falcons interim head coach Raheem Morris said. “We knew that was kind of going to be their ideal choice for us to get in the end zone so they could have a chance to go down there and score.
“So we wanted to take the knee on the 1, and he obviously tried and he fell into the end zone at the last second there, getting tripped up a little bit.”
It appeared close, and Detroit linebacker Jamie Collins signaled touchdown to make clear Gurley got in while linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin pointed toward the end zone. Lions coach Matt Patricia said his team had “great situational defensive awareness right there.” The Lions largely let Gurley break through the line to score, although safety Will Harris did try to wrap him up at the 3-yard line.
Gurley broke that tackle, tried to fall short and almost did, although the ball broke the plane, giving Atlanta the touchdown to take the lead it would eventually relinquish.
“I should have went down,” Gurley said. “… I shouldn’t have scored. God dammit.”
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TAMPA BAY
The Buccaneers are 5-2 and scoring points in bunches. Still they added WR ANTONIO BROWN. Peter King looks to get to the bottom of it.
The Bucs are 5-2. They played close to a perfect game in dismantling Green Bay last week, then went to Las Vegas on Sunday and put up 45 on the men of Gruden. The last two weeks the Bucs of 2020 look like the in-stride Patriots of 2007, the team that clobbered good teams every week on the way to 16-0. And now, well, now the Bucs are inviting the fox into the henhouse.
“What,” I asked Bucs coach Bruce Arians, “was the thought process on bringing in Antonio Brown?”
“Injuries,” Arians said. “I mean, we got two Pro Bowl receivers [Mike Evans, Chris Godwin]. We went to Chicago with none of them, really. They were hurt. And here’s a guy that’s a Pro Bowl type player . . . We’re on the hook for nothing in this deal. He screws up one time, he’s gone. I don’t think he will because he wants to play.”
All three of the Bucs’ key wideouts—Evans, Godwin and smurfy tough sprinter Scotty Miller—are playing hurt. Arians asked all of them before Sunday’s game, “What percent are you physically—what do you think, 90, 95 percent?” Arians said Evans (ankle) said 80, Godwin (hamstring) said 80, and Miller (hip) said 85.
“They’re hurting,” Arians said, “they’re playing, but they’re nowhere near full speed. I think we can get better and better.”
I’ve seen this movie too often to think Antonio Brown is a smart signing by anyone—but in talking to Arians, he insisted on three things: It wasn’t Tom Brady’s call, his players are on board with it, and he will not allow Brown to derail the good things the Bucs have going.
Signing Brown could be a seminal moment for this franchise. It’s a classic deal with the devil. Women will be furious (many already are) because of the abuse allegations Brown is currently fighting. The Bucs have this harmonious thing going on—you haven’t heard one skill player complain about not getting the ball enough, and Brown is a player who historically has demanded the football. (Rightfully so, really. He’s a great player.) And Brady fell for the guy in limited exposure to him last year in New England. So there are a lot of competing egos at work here, and all these high draft picks with great football résumés had better be okay with throwing their stats out the window, Brown included, if this thing is going to work.
“Mike never bitches,” Arians said. “I love Mike. Today he didn’t touch the ball till the fourth quarter, but he just wants to win. Chris Godwin, same way. Gronk, same way. If AB’s not that way, then we’re going to have a problem.”
Now a riff from Arians:
“I know everybody wants to say Tom Brady lobbied us to get this done. Tom Brady lobbied me back in, gosh, June, July, August. I said no. It didn’t fit then. Now, we’re in the hunt. I owe it to the rest of my players—if there’s a guy that fits our salary cap cheap, who’s a Pro Bowl-type player, let’s bring him on our squad. Who says he has to start? I mean, we just got another Pro Bowl player to put in if one of those guys go down. AB brings another dynamic to our team that we don’t have. I owe it to the rest of our players to put the best team out there possible. I don’t foresee any problems. I don’t anticipate any situation where he and I are gonna have a problem. He knows that if there is, it’s a very short-lived contract.
“Offensively we’ve been struggling all year with injuries. I wanna be able to make that playoff push with whoever’s available. Kinda the same thing we did with [veteran center] A.Q. Shipley. We brought him in just in case. So, we got a dominant center sitting on the bench. This team’s too good not to make that run and give our guys, our locker room, every chance. This move wasn’t made without me talking to every single one of our veteran players. Do you want this guy? Do you want this guy in our locker room? Every man said yes.”
Let’s spitball a minute. The Bucs are at the 1-6 Giants next Monday. A win there, and Tampa is 6-2 at the midpoint with a huge scheduling dichotomy in the second half: A killer quadrant of games (New Orleans, at Carolina, Rams, Kansas City), then the bye, then a soft last quadrant (Minnesota, at Atlanta, at Detroit, Atlanta). Brown is slated to be eligible to practice before the Saints game. So a cynical fan would say, If he implodes, at least he might be able to contribute in the brutal part of their schedule.
But if this blows up and hurts the team, the Bucs have to own it. No matter how tempting the shiny object is, Arians and the franchise are tempting fate. Arians and Brown need to have a crystal-clear understanding, with no blurred lines. If Brown so much as jaywalks, the experiment is over. There’s no other way to do this.
After a long take on Brown’s many past failings, King adds this:
What could go wrong?
Now, maybe Brown, who (intelligently) has been off Twitter for a month, is a changed man—or at least changed enough that he can fit into a team environment without blowing up for the next 10 to 15 weeks, depending on the length of the Tampa season. Maybe he’s gotten good counseling, and he can pull out the old Costanzaism “Serenity now!” Maybe he’ll realize he’s got two strikes on him and one more strike ends his career. Maybe Tom Brady can be Brown’s sensei. Maybe. Former GM Mike Tannenbaum sounds bullish on Brown’s chances. “This one’s easy,” Tannenbaum, now of ESPN, told me. “This decision is being owned, controlled and managed by Tom Brady, and he [Brady] is going to do everything he can to make the next three months go smoothly. Antonio Brown knows he’s out of chances. In this case, I think fear will do the work of reason.”
Mike Tomlin and Jon Gruden and Derek Carr did everything they could do to make football with Brown run smoothly too. I’ve just seen this movie too many times over the past two years. It never ends well, and those who do not learn from history are usually doomed to repeat it.
The DB would differ, we think the idea that Brown can and will behave until the first week of February is worth the risk. Especially since the only real risk is what he might do to the clubhouse – no picks or substantial cash at stake.
What everyone seems to forget, is that there was a time that Brown was viewed as a great teammate and practice presence. He has not always been a knucklehead.
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NFC WEST
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ARIZONA
Not a single second ticked off the clock Sunday night where the Cardinals held the lead – but they still won the game. PR guy Mark Dalton explains:
The Seahawks led for 56:59 tonight (all but the first 3:01 of regulation).
The game was tied for 9 min, 45 sec, all in OT.
Arizona led for exactly 0:00 of game action but won on Zane Gonzalez’s 48-yard walk-off FG in overtime
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And this KYLER MURRAY record watch from Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray scored his seventh rushing touchdown on Sunday night in the Cardinals’ seventh game, keeping him on a pace unequaled by any quarterback in NFL history.
If Murray keeps it up, he’ll finish the season with 16 rushing touchdowns in 16 games, which would be a new NFL record for a quarterback.
The current record is 14 rushing touchdowns, which was set by Cam Newton in 2011. Murray needs eight rushing touchdowns in nine remaining games to break that record.
There’s little reason to think teams are going to be able to stop Murray from getting into the end zone. He’s scored in every game this year but one (Week Four against the Panthers), and in Week Two he scored twice.
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This from Albert Breer of SI.com:
It’s easy to forget now, but pulling the plug on Josh Rosen and going to Kyler Murray wasn’t exactly a popular decision in April 2019. Nor was the months-earlier call to fire Steve Wilks after a single season and turn to a just-fired college coach. And at the time GM Steve Keim led these controversial moves, plenty thought the roster he’d assembled, a few years removed from being among the NFL’s best, was the worst in pro football.
But there is one guy who won’t ever forget all that, and that’s Kingsbury himself.
“Yeah, I mean, it wakes me up in the morning every day,” he said. “I’m forever indebted to Steve Keim, because he saved my career, really. He saw things in me that I may not have even seen in myself at the time.”
In return, Keim and the Cardinals have gotten what most people are looking for in head coaches these days—a guy who’s developing a quarterback; building an inventive, fun offense; getting buy-in from across his roster; and leading a program that’s on a pretty clear upward trajectory. And, don’t mix it up, the direction the Cardinals are heading in was right there for everyone to see on NBC.
Arizona fell behind 10–0, then 20–7, then 27–14 in the first half, before a frantic two-minute drive set up a 49-yard field goal from Gonzalez to cut Seattle’s lead to 27–17 just before the break. After a Cardinals touchdown in the third quarter, the Seahawks’ lead went back to 10 on a circus toe-drag catch from Tyler Lockett with 6:50 left in the fourth—a catch initially called out of bounds, then reversed on review.
Arizona needed multiple breaks, and the first one came on the next possession, with Benson Mayowa flagged for hurdling the line on Gonzalez’s 52-yard field goal attempt with 3:02 left. A 15-yard personal foul penalty moved the ball from the 34 to the 19, and the Cardinals scored two plays later. And then, minutes later, a Tanner Vallejo stop on third-and-two forced Seattle to punt the ball away, giving Arizona possession at its own 20 with 52 seconds left.
Somehow, the Cardinals covered 54 yards in 49 seconds with no timeouts left—which seems borderline impossible, but happened because the whole offense was following Murray’s lead in keeping its wits, and twice Fitzgerald picked up the ball and ran it back to the official to get it spotted faster, which saved Arizona the time it needed.
“He’s phenomenal,” said Kingsbury. “He’s as good as anybody that’s ever played the game, in my opinion. At any position. And we haven’t done a great job of getting him the ball as much as we should have. And tonight, he made huge plays. Just his wherewithal, his awareness, he’s always giving me great information on the sideline or thoughts. He’s played so many years and been in so many offenses and different situations, there’s nobody I listen to more than Larry Fitzgerald. Just the leadership—can’t say enough good things about him.
“So it’s awesome to see him have that role again, and I expect his role to continue to expand. Because he can still play at a really high level.”
But the truth was, on this night, getting the ball spotted was as big a role as there was, because it worked to set up Gonzalez’s 44-yarder to tie the game at 34 and send it into overtime.
Once there, the Cardinals had to win the game twice. On the first go-round, Edmonds’s runs of 32 and nine yards helped Arizona cover 54 yards in four plays, which led to Gonzalez lining up—after Murray lost five yards on a keeper—for a 41-yard field goal on second down to win the game. Gonzalez nailed his first try, but that was negated when Kingsbury called a timeout with the play clock running out. Gonzalez’s second try sailed wide left.
“That was just a complete debacle, honestly,” Kingsbury said. “Should’ve just kept running the ball until we got fourth down or scored. I got conservative. We thought the clock was going to run out, so I call timeout. We make it. We come back and we miss it. And then when we tried to center the ball, the quarterback’s blown out. It was, like I said, a terrible job coaching by me. But our guys found a way to bail me out.”
The first player to do so, it turned out, was Simmons, the eighth pick in April’s draft who didn’t play a defensive snap in the first half. Arizona had Seattle in third-and-14 near midfield with 1:04 left in OT, and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph called for his guys to crowd the line and feign as if he was sending the house.
That was enough to create an opportunity for Simmons to show off his freakish hybrid safety-linebacker skill set, in a way he hasn’t yet as an NFL rookie.
“He’s a guy we’re continuing to work in, trying to put him in positive situations,” Kingsbury said. “Without an offseason and preseason, we want to make sure we’re bringing him along the right way. He’s continuing to earn more and more playing time. The play, we were going to show blitz, we were playing cover-zero a bunch. Trying to get it out of Russ’s hands because when he has it, he’s just a magician. … He tried to throw hot.
“Isaiah did a great job getting underneath it and making that play. Huge, huge play that really won the game for us.”
The full-extension pick—in part resulting from what looked like a miscommunication—didn’t end the game, but it sure did make it a lot easier for the offense to give Gonzalez a shot to atone for his earlier miss. And Murray saw to it that the group was level going out there.
“He had his moments, but you can definitely see this year, the game has slowed down for him,” Kingsbury said. “The thought process has slowed down for him. Even in the motions, he’s kind of settled. And he’s pretty much got a ‘Hey, just give me the next play, I’ll make it work,’ mentality the entire night.”
And you know what happened next.
Murray got the next play, and he made it work, and less than a minute of game clock later, that was that.
The Cardinals, as a result, are 5–2—unbelievable as that might sound—and, if Sunday night is any indication, they’re just getting started.
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SAN FRANCISCO
Peter King on QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO’s return to New England:
Routing the Patriots 33-6, seeing the quarterback who would have been him (Cam Newton) benched, watching the great Bill Belichick—who did Garoppllo a solid by dealing him to Kyle Shanahan’s team instead of a lousy franchise with unsteady coaches—flounder all day . . . just very weird for a sentimental guy like Garoppolo. Things have changed massively since he was back in his first pro stadium.
Garoppolo hugged Patriots owner Robert Kraft before the game and had a fairly mortal game full of short passes: 20 of 25, for 277 yards, no TDs and two interceptions. He completed one downfield throw, to rookie Brandon Aiyuk. It’s still hard to judge Garoppolo, and whether he’ll be the Niners’ quarterback for a decade or a few years. But for this day, he rode the emotions and a 197-yard running game to the sweet win.
Now that it’s over, he sounded relieved he could concentrate on football only. Which is good, considering the Niners embark on a killer 15 days this weekend: at Seattle, Green Bay, at New Orleans. “I can’t lie to you,” he said. “I do want that. Today had a different feel obviously without Tom being here, without the fans being here. Kind of built it up in my head a little more. It was just . . . I mean, talk about just an emotional roller coaster. Then the game happens—it just seemed like it flew by. Honestly, it happened in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, we were in the fourth quarter running the clock out. It was everything I could’ve asked for to come back here, really just get back to where it all started. But you’re right—it’ll be good to be all football now.”
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AFC WEST
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KANSAS CITY
This from John Breech of CBSSports.com:
In the early odds for Week 8, the Chiefs have opened as a 21-point favorite over the Jets, which is mostly notable because it’s the most that Kansas City has ever been favored by in franchise history. It also marks just the 14th time since the AFL-NFL merger that a team has been favored by 20 or more points.
In the previous 13 games where a team was favored by 20, the underdog has actually been the safer bet. Although the favored team is 13-0 straight up, it’s just 3-10 against the spread (ATS).
The 21-point spread is the eighth-largest in NFL history. For the Chiefs, it breaks their previous point spread record of 16.5 points, which last happened in 2018. On the Jets’ end, this is the third time they’ve been an underdog of 20 or more points and in the two previous games — both against the Patriots (2007, 2019) — they covered both times.
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AFC NORTH
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CLEVELAND
A thrilling win for the Browns against the Bengals, but they did lose WR ODELL BECKHAM Jr. for the season with a torn ACL.
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PITTSBURGH
Thoughts from Peter King on the 6-0 Steelers:
The Steelers are 6-0 for the first time since the third Super Bowl team (the 14-2 Steelers of 1978) started so strong. This Pittsburgh team is so interesting because of the playmakers everywhere. Remember when JuJu Smith-Schuster was the next huge thing for the Steelers? Well, now Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool and James Conner (13 touchdowns combined in six games) all can be the next big thing. Any week. They can because Ben Roethlisberger is the distributor.
Speaking of that, Roethlisberger was fuming with himself after the game for his three picks, and I’m assuming he saves some special steam for the last one. With a 27-24 lead at the Tennessee 19-yard line with 2:40 left in the game, Roethlisberger had Smith-Schuster on a post route. If it’s complete, the game’s over. But linebacker Jayon Brown reached into Smith-Schuster’s grasp and deflected the throw into the air. Backup safety Amani Hooker was in the right place at the right time, nine yards deep in the end zone. Roethlisberger probably got greedy, thinking he could drop the ball into Smith-Schuster at the back of the end zone. I get that—but the line of sight just wasn’t clear enough to take that risk. Even so, not a horrible decision. You think it’s Smith-Schuster’s ball or no one’s at the back of the end zone, and a fluky tip into the air resulted in an interception.
So Gostkowski pushed a 45-yard try that would have sent the game to OT. The breaks of the game, on both sides.
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AFC SOUTH
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TENNESSEE
EDGE JADEVEON CLOWNEY, a coveted signee, has not had a sack in his last nine games, dating back to Week 10 of 2019 when he was with the Seahawks.
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AFC EAST
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BUFFALO
A note from Andrew Siciliano:
@AndrewSiciliano
Bills are the first @NFL team to win a game without scoring a touchdown AND without punting in 79 years.
Washington beat Brooklyn 3-0 in Week 5, 1941.
@NFLResearch
The Bills had 10 possessions Sunday. They lost 1 fumble. They attempted 8 field goals with PK TYLER BASS making 6. And then they had a kneeldown session at the end of the game.
The Jets did not punt in the 1st half. Then they punted 4 times in the 2nd half before QB SAM DARNOLD’s game-losing INT with 1:09 left.
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MIAMI
Thoughts from Peter King on the TUA Takeover in Miami:
I think I’m like everyone else: I was taken aback by the timing of the Ryan Fitzpatrick benching for Tua Tagovailoa, after the Dolphins won two straight by 26 and 24. The thing is, Brian Flores is there and we’re not. I would guess Flores feels like Fitzpatrick has a reasonable ceiling; if everything goes right, Fitzgerald could pilot the team to the playoffs, very likely as a wild-card team. But he must think: Are we really a match to win a January road game with Kansas City, or with the Ravens or Steelers or Titans with Fitzpatrick? He must see Tagovailoa as that offensive X factor with his legs and arm who can do more right now than Fitzpatrick.
With a bye week, then a full week of prep to face the Rams, Cards and Chargers in a 15-day span, Flores has to feel that this was the best time to make the inevitable switch. I doubt Flores thinks of the two other factors I thought of: Tagovailoa will be more elusive against Aaron Donald next week . . . and look at how seamless the transitions for the Bengals and Chargers were with Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert. I haven’t seen a snap with either player where I said, Game’s too big for him. Doubt I’ll say that with Tagovailoa either.
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NEW ENGLAND
A Peter King factoid:
The Patriots are 2-4. The last time the Patriots were multiple games under .500 happened on Oct. 7, 2001, when they were 1-3.
That day 19 years ago was Tom Brady’s second NFL start. Brady and the Patriots lost by 20 to Jay Fiedler and the Dolphins in south Florida.
And another injury:
Linebacker Brandon Copeland, per a source with knowledge of the situation, is telling teammates that he suffered a torn pectoral muscle on Sunday against the 49ers.
Copeland has started four games this season, his first with the Patriots. Undrafted in 2013, he has played for the Lions and Jets, after offseason/preseason stints with the Ravens and Titans.
So Dan Wetzel of YahooSports.com says the Patriots should blow it up:
For years now, New England Patriot fans joked that the season didn’t start until the AFC championship game. It was a taunt built out of hubris but also truth — they appeared in 13 of them during the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era, including eight consecutive at one point.
Division titles were expected and hardly celebrated. The team culture famously called for a hat to be handed out. Playoff appearances, and at least one home victory, was a birthright.
So what do you do if suddenly you’re 2-4 and have lost three consecutive games and looked increasingly terrible in each one? What do you do if you have massive questions at quarterback and nearly every other offensive position, and you can’t lean on a defense that lost five important cogs to COVID opt-outs?
You look at the trade deadline in a way you haven’t in a very long time.
There are 10 weeks to right the ship, and for most NFL franchises you might not pull the plug. Maybe Cam Newton will get back to his early-season form. Maybe the wide receivers will improve and the offensive line will gel. Maybe you can still catch 5-2 Buffalo and win another AFC East.
Maybe. And those are big maybes. Very big.
Even then, what is that worth in New England, which has a completely different standard of success than everyone else in the league?
The Patriots are light years away from the class of the NFL — notably Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the AFC. Even if they could somehow scratch their way into the playoffs, it would likely be a second consecutive one-and-done.
This roster isn’t built to contend. Tom Brady said as much when he bolted to Tampa Bay, where he now runs a Super Bowl challenger.
The trade deadline is Nov. 3, Election Day, and Bill Belichick will have to elect what he wants to do with this team. Gutting it, winding up in the top 10 of the draft, trading parts for more picks, and hoping you can come back in 2021 with something new looks increasingly like the proper move.
Belichick has always been a master at walking away from veteran players, even beloved Patriots, a year early rather than a year late.
Is it time to walk away from this current construct now, rather than season’s end?
“Just doing what’s best for the team,” he often says.
So what about putting an “open for business” sign up on the talent that he has?
Cornerback Stephon Gilmore is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, he’s worth at least a first-round draft pick and maybe significantly more.
Offensive lineman Joe Thuney is a versatile, quality player who New England probably wasn’t going to re-sign anyway. He can fetch something decent.
Wide receiver Julian Edelman doesn’t have much left in the tank, but a clutch, proven slot receiver sure could be attractive to a contender.
Rex Burkhead would be a bruising addition to a running game, perhaps in exchange for a late-round pick.
The quarterbacks aren’t good, but either Newton or backup Brian Hoyer might be intriguing for a team that is lacking depth or pop. Including even Dallas, which is 2-5 but rarely exhibits patience and is in the still winnable NFC East.
For years New England bought at the trade deadline, Belichick looking for ways to improve the team on the fly.
Some have been huge pick-ups — Aqib Talib in 2012, Kyle Van Noy in 2016. Others haven’t — just a year ago the Patriots dealt a second-rounder to Atlanta for wide receiver Mohamed Sanu. He caught just one touchdown pass.
All those deals though sapped the depth of the New England draft. Belichick has masterfully lived off mid-round steals, but this roster needs high-end talent. Loading up on the best picks imaginable, or hoarding selections to help them move up next spring, could be the right move.
Mostly, New England needs a quarterback for the future.
Newton hasn’t looked good the past few weeks. Second-year man Jarrett Stidham is still young, but hasn’t shown anything that suggests he’s going to be great. If Belichick truly believed he was the future, would Newton be returning as the starter this week?
Patriots fans are spoiled, so being some middling team, possibly contending for a title, isn’t going to satisfy them. They are also realists. They’ll take their lumps for an emboldened future.
Belichick has always been great at exploiting market inefficiencies and the weaknesses of other franchises. It’s time for a clear eye on his roster and what’s best not just over the next 10 weeks, but the next five years.
New England isn’t going to reach the AFC title game this postseason. It isn’t going to get close.
So why bother?
Give the Patriots multiple first-round picks in a quarterback-rich draft and they may be back sooner than expected.
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NEW YORK JETS
Cris Collinsworth gives Peter King some advice for the Jets:
FMIA: You’re running a team, and your owner says, “Pick the coach who’s going to turn us around.” Who is it?
Collinsworth: [Kansas City offensive coordinator] Eric Bieniemy. I would’ve done it last year. All these owners and GMs, they call you. Because we meet everybody. Bieniemy’s a dynamic personality, obviously he’s been in the room with Andy Reid, with the most creative of offenses. Is he the play caller? No, but it’s about play design. It’s about play creation. It’s about knowing the type of athlete you need to put together those kinds of creative offenses. And he’s a great guy.
FMIA: What’s the hang up been with Bieniemy? Why doesn’t he have a job yet?
Collinsworth: I’m gonna give the league the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure there are other people that say that the Rooney Rule is not effective enough and that’s the reason he didn’t get a job. [Bieniemy is Black.] I can’t explain it because in my mind, I know him. I’ve had a ton of conversations with him. I know his character. He’s like [Tennessee coach] Mike Vrabel. He’s one of those in-your-face kind of guys. I was stunned. I told Al [Michaels] before our opening broadcast in Kansas City, ‘I’m gonna go after [teams that didn’t hire him] because that is wrong that the guy didn’t get a job.’
But anyway, then, to me, I’m taking [Clemson QB] Trevor Lawrence with the first pick. I watched that kid play the other day. Talking about it with Richard Sherman, and he was saying, ‘You know, you got Sam Darnold, he’s been a top 5 pick. You could trade away the number one pick and you could set up your franchise for the rest of your life.’ I’m like, no way. In New York City? If they pass up the number one pick? If they don’t draft Trevor Lawrence, for the next six months, there is only one headline on the back pages of every one of those newspapers that you blew it, and that was the chance of a lifetime and you didn’t take it.
FMIA: So you’re Joe Douglas, GM of the Jets, and it sounds like you pick Bieniemy, no question?
Collinsworth: Yes sir, and I’m re-creating Kansas City everything. Trevor Lawrence is the same kind of player that Patrick Mahomes is. He can move. He’s creative. He’s been good for a long, consistent period of time. And then I’m going out and I’m finding all the Kelces and Edwards-Helaires I can find. I’m just re-doing Kansas City.
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THIS AND THAT
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15 FOR DPI
We agree with Peter King on this:
I think I exit Week 7 with one plea for the Competition Committee: Please study the defensive pass-interference penalty, and see how often it needlessly tilts the field with equal-fighting between corner and receiver that is called on the defensive guy and gives the offense 25-40 free yards. Pass interference is always going to be a subjective call by the officials; it’s damn hard, and I do not blame them (in most cases) for missing bang-bang close plays. But narrow, could-go-either-way calls should not be rewarded as spot fouls. My solution:
• All defensive pass-interference pass interference calls should be 15-yard penalties, with one exception: If the defender either tackles the intended receiver or commits an obviously flagrant act on the receiver, it should be a spot foul.
I know what many of you say: Making it a 15-yard flag is going to increase the instances of corners/safeties getting beat abusing receivers to throw them off their routes as they fly past. Not true. There’s the insurance of the flagrant PI call. A couple of years ago, Stanford coach David Shaw said he rarely saw defenders abusing this rule in the college game, and he much preferred the college rule.
Finally, you should know that teams practice taking advantage of this rule. Teams, on third-and-long, call for downfield rainbows in hopes of getting gift spot fouls 25 yards downfield with two guys hand-fighting and the back judge making a choice that’s often very close to a 50-50 call. It’s time the NFL closes this loophole.
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