| NFC NORTH |
| CHICAGOWith six seconds left, Chicago Coach Matt Eberflus dropped back into a prevent defense. Mike Florio pounces: Every football fan in America is talking about the final play of the Commanders’ win over the Bears on Sunday, when Jayden Daniels launched a 52-yard Hail Mary for the game-winning touchdown. But the second-to-last play of the game also deserves some discussion. On the second-to-last play, the Commanders had the ball at their own 35-yard line with six seconds left. They were out of timeouts. They were too far for Daniels to launch the ball into the end zone for a Hail Mary, and they wanted to get closer and quickly get out of bounds. If the Bears could tackle the Commanders in bounds, it would be game over. So what did the Bears do? They went into a prevent defense, giving up a huge section of the field to Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin, who caught a pass from Daniels and stepped out of bounds for a 13-yard gain. The play took only four seconds. Everyone should have known it was coming; Tony Romo drew the exact route that McLaurin was going to run on the telestrator just before the snap. Once McLaurin got out of bounds, Romo explained what it did for the Commanders. “That gives them a chance now because they couldn’t have reached the end zone on a throw before,” Romo said. The Commanders took that chance and threw the game-winning Hail Mary. So why did the Bears give them that chance? Bears coach Matt Eberflus explained. “Because you’re defending touchdown, right? You’re defending touchdown there. And them throwing the ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever that is, doesn’t really matter. It’s always going to come down to that last play,” Eberflus said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. But it did matter. The whole reason the Commanders wanted to pick up the 13 yards before the Hail Mary is because those 13 yards mattered, getting close enough to the end zone for a Hail Mary to be feasible. And if the Bears had played their regular defense, they might have been able to tackle McLaurin inbounds and end the game before the Hail Mary. The reality is that Eberflus’s defense had a massive letdown. And not just on the Hail Mary, but on the play that set up the Hail Mary. After that play, came the disastrous Hail Mary which Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com breaks down in depth: You saw what happened next. After a couple of completions, the Commanders got in range for a Hail Mary. Daniels scrambled for what felt like minutes, fired a pass downfield and got a perfect tip off the crowd into the waiting arms of a totally uncovered Noah Brown, who brought the pass in for a game-winning touchdown. You’ll never see an easier catch on a Hail Mary in your life. What went wrong for the Bears? Let’s start with the front. If you go back and watch Aaron Rodgers’ Hail Mary completion to Allen Lazard against the Bills earlier this season, you’ll see that Buffalo sent a two-man rush at Rodgers and used a third defender as a spy to try to close on him as he escaped the pocket and began to drive into his throw. That gave the Jets receivers plenty of time to get downfield and didn’t prevent the veteran quarterback from delivering a perfect pass. That play took place with eight seconds left, and so the Bills were in a situation when Rodgers might have tried to complete a quick pass to the sideline, forcing Buffalo coach Sean McDermott to essentially waste two defenders who didn’t end up being involved in the play. The Hail Mary worked because Taylor Rapp failed to tip away the ball, with Lazard instead outjumping his catch attempt for a score. The Bears didn’t have to worry about another completion to the sidelines in this game with two seconds to go, so they had two more defenders with whom to work. Despite this and Rodgers’ success hitting the long completion against virtually no pass pressure, though, Chicago coach Matt Eberflus decided to play things conservatively. He rushed three linemen and had a fourth defender as a spy for when Daniels inevitably escaped the pocket. Again, none of these defenders got close to the quarterback. Blitzing the Hail Mary isn’t a guarantee a defense will stop it, as Rodgers and Bruce Arians can tell you, but getting some semblance of pressure is the best way to blow it up. Behind the throw, the Bears blew their coverage. Some teams prefer to get physical at the line of scrimmage with wide receivers to throw off timing on these plays while keeping their safeties at the goal line, but Chicago decided to drop all seven coverage defenders back into the end zone for the final snap. Either solution is fine, but no team’s playbook calls for a cornerback to be jawing with fans with his back turned to the play as receivers are running downfield, which appears to be what cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was doing in a video shot from the stands. While I’d hesitate to assign responsibilities to each defender and how the Bears structure their Hail Mary coverage on this play, it’s true Stevenson was the cornerback on the left side of the defense for this snap, and the wide receiver furthest to that side of the field was Brown. Stevenson didn’t specifically follow Brown to the middle of the field before the Hail Mary at first in the way that he would have if this were something like a man-match coverage, but by the end, he was in the throng of seven players trying to tip or catch the ball. The one person who wasn’t was Brown. Knowing there will be a huge mass of players fighting for the ball where it’s set to come down, offenses almost always have a player whose job it is to stand behind the pile and try to bring in a pass that is tipped out of or off of that pile of humanity. If you look at Russell Wilson’s Hail Mary touchdown against the Commanders from last season, you’ll see Jerry Jeudy standing about 8 yards behind the pile, with a defender around him. Again, while I’d hesitate to assign that responsibility to a particular person on the Bears’ defense, we know for sure it’s somebody whose job it is to cover the receiver standing behind the pile. ESPN analyst Matt Bowen shared a coverage that refers to this defender as the “savior,” whose goal is to take away the potential of catching a tipped pass. That can be by knocking the ball away, but given that there’s no pass interference once a ball is tipped, this defender has significant leeway to physically remove the receiver from the play. Brown was subtle. He didn’t deliberately stand yards away from the throng, which might have attracted attention. When everyone else was going to jump for the ball, he simply stayed put. The Bears got hands on the ball, but instead of knocking it down, all they could do was tip it back into the air. And with no savior covering Brown, all he had to do was bring in the tipped ball for a game-winning score in an 18-15 game. |
| DETROITBill Barnwell explores Detroit’s 52 points on 225 total yards against the Titans: I don’t believe anybody was shocked to see the Lions drop 52 points on the Titans on Sunday, but the way they got to 52 has to be considered pretty surprising. Quarterback Jared Goff went 12-of-15 for 85 yards, and while he threw three touchdown passes, the Lions managed only 225 yards of offense. If we go through the past decade and look at teams that gained between 220 and 230 yards in a single game, you’ll find that no team has topped 40 points and just five have even managed to make it past 30. The Lions scored 52, of course, because their offense didn’t have to go very far to score. They had four different first-half possessions start at or inside the Titans’ 25-yard line, the first time that has happened since 2002, when the Saints got four short fields in a row against a Steve Spurrier-coached Washington team. Detroit converted five different drives that started no more than 26 yards away from the end zone for touchdowns and added a return score. While turnovers played a part, one of the key reasons the Lions were able to get into those short fields was an absolutely horrendous performance by Tennessee’s special teams. The Titans allowed a 64-yard punt return to Kalif Raymond in the first half before he took a second punt 90 yards to the house for a score after the break. Khalil Dorsey fielded a kickoff and returned that 72 yards to set up the Lions with another short field. The Titans were even flagged for an illegal formation penalty on a kickoff return. Is that the worst special teams performance of the year? Yes. By expected points added (EPA), the Titans cost themselves 14.1 points on special teams Sunday, marking just the third time all season a team has cost itself more than nine points of EPA on special teams in a single game. Most teams hurt their special teams EPA on bad days by missing field goals, but the Titans attempted (and hit) only two extra points. If we focus on how a team did on kicks and punts, they had the worst special teams performance in those elements of the game by any team in any game since 2019. And while anyone can have a bad day, the Titans didn’t exactly come into Sunday with glowing reviews on special teams. They ranked last in the league in special teams DVOA heading into the game, a figure that comes despite the fact that Nick Folk hasn’t missed a field goal or extra point. Earlier this season, they gave up punt blocks in consecutive games, including a four-man rush by the Jets that somehow produced a free runner and a blocked punt in Week 2. Would the Titans be good if they had competent special teams play? Probably not. At 1-6, though, they can’t afford to give away field position and touchdowns on mental mistakes and sloppy play. There are a lot of things coach Brian Callahan has to fix if he wants to right the ship, but this team isn’t good enough to survive one disastrous special teams play per game, let alone three. |
| GREEN BAYThe Packers pulled out the win in Jacksonville with QB MALIK WILLIS: For the second straight week, Packers kicker Brandon McManus won the game with a walk-off field goal. This one came at the end of a drive engineered by quarterback Malik Willis, who replaced Jordan Love in the second half. Love has a groin injury. An MRI is coming on Monday. There’s hope that it’s a week-to-week injury from which he can recover by next weekend. A Monday update on Love from NFL.com: The Green Bay Packers got some good news following Jordan Love’s MRI on Monday. Tests revealed Love suffered a strained groin which puts him in a day-to-day consideration, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported, per sources. Pelissero added that Love has a shot to play in Sunday’s crucial Week 9 matchup against the visiting Detroit Lions. |
| NFC EAST |
| NEW YORK GIANTSThis from Jay Cuda: @JayCudapoints scored since October 13th Lions 130Giants 10 In fairness, that could change slightly tonight in the Giants favor.- – -If the Giants do score points tonight against the Steelers, they are putting the word out that it will be with QB DANIEL JONES. Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com: New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones took all the first-team reps at practice this week and is not expected to be on a short leash Monday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers despite getting pulled in the fourth quarter last week, multiple sources told ESPN. Jones went to the bench in a 28-6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and was replaced by backup Drew Lock. Coach Brian Daboll said he was looking for a “spark.” It didn’t happen. Lock went 3-of-8 passing for 6 yards. A handful of Giants players told ESPN this week they weren’t pushing for a permanent change at quarterback entering the Monday night matchup. Jones is their starter. Several players did note that it might be different if Tyrod Taylor were still on the roster. He’s not. It’s still Jones’ team. Taylor was the backup each of the past two seasons. He signed with the New York Jets this offseason. It has been a struggle for Jones and the 2-5 Giants, especially at home. They’ve scored just one offensive touchdown in four home games. Jones has six touchdown passes and four interceptions in seven starts this season. New York has the 31st-ranked scoring offense averaging 14.1 points per game entering Monday night. Jones was not happy with the situation after the Oct. 20 loss and throughout this week. He’s trying not to think what happen if he struggles on Monday night or moving forward. “I’m just going to focus on playing well. I think playing well, winning the game, that puts us all in the best position,” Jones said during the week. [Daboll] can make his decision, he’s the head coach, so my job is to play and play well and that’s what I’m focused on.” Jones wouldn’t say if he has been given reassurances beyond that he’s starting Monday night. Daboll told the team in the locker room after last week’s loss that Jones was the starter going forward. He did not specify anything more than that. Daboll also wouldn’t specify if he’s given his quarterback any reassurance he wouldn’t be pulled midgame again. Only that their focus was on playing well. “That’s where our focus is,” Daboll said this week. Jones has been the Giants’ clear-cut starter since early in his rookie year. He was drafted sixth overall by New York in 2019. This is his sixth season as the starter. Despite ups and downs, Jones was given a four-year, $160 million contract after a strong 2022 season. This is the second year of that deal. But the Giants have struggled ever since, compiling an 8-16 mark. Jones had a neck injury that cost him time and tore the ACL in his right knee midway through last season. He has come back strong physically. The knee hasn’t been a noticeable problem. Still, the Giants made their thoughts on his long-term future obvious by their actions this offseason. The team looked closely at quarterbacks in the draft. They even tried to trade up for one. All this was documented on an offseason “Hard Knocks.” Jones has taken it all in stride. He admittedly “wasn’t fired up” to hear and see about the Giants’ interest in quarterbacks. The same can be said about being benched against the Eagles. |
| WASHINGTONMike Sando on the improbable nature of Washington’s win: The Commanders were the 48th team since 2000 to take over possession in a similar situation: down three, at least 75 yards from the opponent’s goal line, between 15-25 seconds remaining on the game clock when the ball was kicked off to them. Five of the previous 47 made tying field goals. Two others missed. None of the previous 47 had scored a touchdown. With Washington 52 yards away, its quarterback playing through sore ribs, the Bears felt confident enough for one of their cornerbacks, Tyrique Stevenson, to taunt the Washington fans even after Commanders center Tyler Biadasz snapped the ball on the final play. (Stevenson apologized on social media after the game.) The rest is part of the Commanders’ new history, which no longer feels linked to the 23 seasons Snyder owned the team. Jayden Daniels holding the ball for nearly 13 seconds before launching it short of the goal line. The Bears’ Stevenson, realizing the play was underway, running from near the sideline back toward the action, arriving in time to deflect the pass. Receiver Noah Brown, lurking in the end zone uncovered, behind the mass of bodies, catching the ball on the rebound for the walk-off score, soon to be greeted by receiver Terry McLaurin and a wave of teammates. CBS’ Jim Nantz screaming, “It’s a miracle!” Coach Dan Quinn exulting with linebacker Frankie Luvu before throwing his headset to the ground in what had to be disbelief. A month ago, we wondered how the Commanders could top the statement of a touchdown pass Daniels delivered to McLaurin to help win a shootout at Cincinnati. Now we know. |
| NFC SOUTH |
| TAMPA BAYWe would have to think that head coach and defensive playcaller Todd Bowles has begun sitting on a seat that is hot. @gregaumanDuring this 1-3 stretch over last four weeks, Bucs are the highest-scoring team in the NFL — 138 points, 34.5 per game — but still not enough to overcome the defensive problems. No other teams in the top 19 in average scoring Weeks 5-8 have a losing record in that span. Atlanta QB KIRK COUSINS has astronomical numbers against Bowles’ defense in two games that have effectively put the 5-3 Falcons two games up in the NFC South. They are 65-87 (74.7%), 785 yards (392.5 per game), 8 TDs, 1 INT, 127.8 passer rating. We don’t know whether or not this makes a change more or less likely, but the Glazers disposed of their coach at Manchester United over the weekend after four losses in nine games. The Athletic: Manchester United finally ran out of patience and fired manager Erik ten Hag on Monday after a troubled start to the season which has left the 20-time English champions languishing in the Premier League amid a period of major upheaval at the club. The Dutch coach won two domestic cups in his 2 1/2 years in charge but has paid the price for leading United to its worst start to a season, with the team in 14th place and having lost four of its opening nine league games. |
| NFC WEST |
| ARIZONABack-to-back wins for the Cardinals are rare. Mike Sando of The Athletic: The Cardinals stacked back-to-back victories for the first time since they started 7-0 in 2021. This was big for Arizona to keep pace in an underwhelming NFC West. It was big for general manager Monti Ossenfort and coach Jonathan Gannon as they try to show progress on the field in their second season together. It was also big for Kyler Murray and rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. to connect consistently (six receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown on seven targets). |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERBill Barnwell is among those critical of Broncos coach Sean Payton for doing unusual stuff late in Denver’s win over the Panthers: Speaking of teams and what they roll out late in blowouts, the final quarter of Denver’s 28-14 win over Carolina was bizarre. The first three quarters were mostly nondescript, as rookie quarterback Bo Nix had an efficient day against a dismal Panthers defense, leading three consecutive touchdown drives in the second quarter. By the time we saw the Broncos take over with 14:11 to go in the fourth quarter, they led by 21 points and had the game all but won. Payton seemed to think this was the time to stick it to his former divisional rivals. After the Broncos drove into Carolina territory, their drive stalled and they set up for a 55-yard field goal, only for offensive tackle Garett Bolles to false start. In the thin air of Colorado, a 60-yarder might be in Wil Lutz’s range, but Payton instead called for a fake field goal, which didn’t work. It’s a little weird to burn a fake field goal, putting it on film for future opponents to see, up 21 points in the fourth quarter. But fourth-and-8 on the 42-yard line is sort of an awkward spot, and maybe the Broncos saw something in the Panthers’ field goal defense that lent itself to a fake. With 10:10 to go, 21 points is a big lead, but it’s not a guarantee. If that had been the only weird play in the fourth quarter, it wouldn’t mean much of anything..Five minutes later, the Broncos got the ball back after a Bryce Young interception and drove down the field. Facing a fourth-and-2 on the Carolina 43-yard line with 4:29 to go, pretty much any option would have been reasonable. They could have tried a long field goal. They could have punted. They could have tried to run the ball, boot Nix, work quick game or use just about anything in the playbook. Instead, Payton chose this as the right time for a double pass? Nix threw it backward to Courtland Sutton, who then tossed it across the field to fullback Mike Burton for a 28-yard gain as Denver coaches literally jumped for joy along the sideline. The Broncos moved the ball into the red zone, although they ended up failing to score when Sutton fumbled at the 1-yard line and the Panthers recovered. I’m not here to be any sort of moral compass or criticize a coach for running up the score. If Payton wants to throw the ball up three touchdowns with five minutes to go, he can do whatever he wants. If he wants to go for it on fourth down, I’m always excited. But a double pass in that situation feels bizarrely pointed. No coach is going to have that in his playbook and want to use that up three scores with four minutes to go. Is there somebody in the Panthers organization or somebody on the opposing sideline who upset Payton? Did he really want to get Sutton going as a passer? ESPN’s play-by-play data goes back through 2007. There has been only one other time over that span when a full-time wide receiver has thrown a pass in the fourth quarter with his team up by 20 or more points. Guess whose team it was? It was Sean Payton’s Saints, with Willie Snead taking a backward pass from Drew Brees and finding Tim Hightower for a long touchdown. Even that was a third-down play with just over 10 minutes to go. The decision to pull out a fourth-down double pass on Sunday was even more surprising. I guess defenses playing a Payton-coached team now have to prepare for trick plays when they’re down three scores in the fourth quarter. |
| KANSAS CITYThe undefeated Chiefs have bolstered their pass rush with a trade with the Patriots. Adam Teicher of ESPN.com: The Kansas City Chiefs acquired pass rusher Joshua Uche in a trade with the New England Patriots, coach Andy Reid confirmed Monday. The Patriots received a 2026 sixth-round pick in the trade, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Uche was a healthy scratch for the Patriots’ 25-22 victory over the New York Jets amid trade interest for the fifth-year outside linebacker. Uche, 26, has two sacks in six games this season and 20.5 sacks in his career. Uche re-signed with the Patriots as a free agent before the season on a one-year, $3 million contract. He will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. It’s the second impact trade made by the Chiefs (7-0), who acquired wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in a deal with the Tennessee Titans last week. On Sunday, the Chiefs defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 27-20, and they had five sacks from five different players. Uche joins a strong defense that is ranked second in the NFL. “That will be a nice addition too, going forward,” Reid said.– – -Mike Sando of The Athletic updates us on the now 13-game win streak: The Kansas City Chiefs’ winning machine powered through another opponent Sunday with the inevitable efficiency we’ve come to expect. Consecutive victory No. 13 — which matched the franchise record — was hard-fought, like so many Chiefs victories these days: 27-20 over Gardner Minshew and the Las Vegas Raiders. In some ways, Kansas City’s second 13-game winning streak of the Patrick Mahomes era is even more impressive than the 2019-20 version, simply for the stylistic transformation the Chiefs have made. They are scoring much fewer points per game during this streak (30.8 then to 23.5 now), and they have been favored by much less (-6.6 average spread then to -1.7 now). Sustained winning is tough. “The great coaches evolve to whatever the moment is, and that’s what Andy Reid has done,” an exec from a rival team said. |
| LOS ANGELES CHARGERSGames allowing 21+ points this season: CHARGERS 0Steelers 1Chiefs 1Bears 1Lions 2Broncos 2 Three of those teams are in the AFC West. There is a slight chance the Steelers could have a 2nd such game tonight. |
| AFC NORTH |
| BALTIMORESpotted on Twitter: Kip Smithers@Chughes612Derrick Henry only having 11 carry’s in a loss tells me the Ravens coaching staff haven’t learned a damn thing since the AFC championship game and they’ll do it again come January We haven’t checked to see if Kip always spells “carries” that way. |
| CINCINNATIThe Bengals are now 0-4 at home. |
| CLEVELANDSpotted on Twitter: karan@905KarDeshaun Watson has never thrown for over 300 yards in any of his 19 games as a Brown Jameis Winston and Joe Flacco have hit that mark 6 times in 7 combined starts for Cleveland |
| AFC SOUTH |
| HOUSTONA blot on Houston’s 6th win from ProFootballTalk.com: Texans receiver Stefon Diggs left after suffering a no-contact knee injury. Coach DeMeco Ryans didn’t have an update after the game. However, it didn’t look good. |
| INDIANAPOLISQB ANTHONY RICHARDSON had a reason for taking off one play Sunday. Stephen Holder of ESPN.com: Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson wasn’t on the field for a late-third-quarter play in a game in which his team trailed by two scores and later lost. Curiously, Richardson was on the sideline not because he was hurt but, rather, because he was exhausted. The second-year quarterback exited the game after scrambling around furiously on the previous two plays against the Houston Texans’ defense. On a second-and-goal play from the Houston 23-yard line, Richardson shook off a would-be sack from defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi before turning up the field and looking for a target. Richardson ended up keeping the ball and was ultimately tackled by linebacker Jake Hansen for no gain. Richardson got up slowly and headed to the nearby Colts sideline, tapping his helmet while in route. On the sideline, he immediately took a knee. “I was tired,” he said. “I ain’t gonna lie. That was a lot of running right there. I didn’t think I was going to be able to go that next play, so I just told [Colts coach] Shane [Steichen] I just needed a break right there.” Richardson’s departure from the game initially raised questions about whether he had sustained an injury. Earlier in the game, he took a hit that impacted his left hand and was seen flexing it on the sideline. But athletic trainers who checked on him did not appear to be treating an injury and seemed satisfied that he was fine. “He needed a breather,” Steichen said. “He ran three times in a row and it was third and long, so we were going to hand the ball off.” Backup quarterback Joe Flacco entered the game and did, in fact, hand off to running back Jonathan Taylor on a third-and-goal from the 23. Taylor gained 5 yards, and the Colts settled for a 37-yard field goal, trimming Houston’s lead to 20-13. The Texans ultimately won 23-20. The strange string of events is only going to intensify the discourse around Richardson, whose season-long struggles have been a weekly challenge for the Colts to navigate. The fourth pick in the 2023 draft, Richardson has completed 44.4% of his pass attempts on the season after Sunday’s 10-for-32, 175-yard effort. Sunday’s pivotal AFC South matchup — a win would have given the Colts a share of the division lead with Houston — instead became another referendum on Richardson’s future with Indianapolis. Richardson’s skill players let him down repeatedly in the game, with running back Tyler Goodson dropping a perfect touchdown pass and a Michael Pittman Jr. penalty negating another would-be Richardson touchdown throw. Richardson was pressured on 17 of his 32 dropbacks in the game, which suggests some protection issues. But the conversation is likely to center on the performance of Richardson, despite his career-long 69-yard touchdown pass to receiver Josh Downs. After showing flashes of his significant talent in the four games he played in 2023 before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, Richardson has arguably experienced regression in 2024. For his part, Richardson rejected that narrative. “I feel like I’m a great passer,” he said. “I’ve been playing quarterback pretty much my whole life. I’m just a different quarterback from everybody else, so people are going to try to point out that I’m not as efficient as everybody else. But it’s cool to me. I run the ball way better than every other quarterback. Probably not Lamar [Jackson], but [better] than most quarterbacks. So, I take advantage of my opportunities.” Richardson did have 45 rushing yards on six carries Sunday, but only two of his rushes were designed runs. That paled in comparison to the seven he had in a win over the Miami Dolphins last week. So, what’s next for Richardson? The Colts have resisted the idea of starting Flacco since Richardson returned from a two-game absence because of an oblique injury. But questions about Richardson are not likely to subside. “We keep working through the process,” Steichen said. “It’s a process. We keep grinding through it. We do it together. It’s a team game. We grind through those things and we get it figured out.” Mike Sando of The Athletic: The Colts knew there would be a learning curve when they used the fourth pick of the 2023 draft on Anthony Richardson, a quarterback with 13 college starts. Could they have anticipated the learning curve would be this … adventuresome? Every play feels like a roll of the dice. His performance in a 23-20 defeat at Houston included: • Completing 2 of 15 passes in the first half• Scoring a 69-yard touchdown on one of those completions• Throwing an interception (-4.8 EPA) deep in Colts territory less than 30 seconds before halftime, setting up a Texans touchdown• Taking himself out of the game for a play because he was tired• Fumbling a handoff exchange on third down, taking the team out of field goal range• Failing to get out of bounds to stop the clock with less than a minute remaining and Indy out of timeouts When was the last time a quarterback tapped out because he was tired? Richardson completed 10 of 32 passes for 174 yards. He had a second potential touchdown pass dropped. That the Colts almost won the game is remarkable. At 4-4, they appear committed to riding out the turbulence instead of turning to backup Joe Flacco for the stretch run. That is understandable when considering how many Flacco types they’ve cycled through in recent years. As the Richardson incompletions piled up Sunday, I dove into the archives to see how the 2-for-15 passing half compared with Colts quarterbacks from the team’s recent past. The bigger revelation: Richardson is the seventh Indy quarterback to start a Week 8 game in the past seven seasons (see table above). This is a franchise desperate for stability at the position. “We gotta just keep working through it,” coach Shane Steichen said. “He has a good work ethic. He grinds through these things. It’s a process. We do it together. It’s not about one guy.” |
| JACKSONVILLEThe reeling Jaguars have problems at WR. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: The Jaguars are crossing their fingers and hoping for the best on rookie wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. after he injured his ribs when he fell on the ball on Sunday. Thomas will have an MRI today to determine whether he can play Sunday against the Eagles, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The 22-year-old Thomas is having an excellent season in an otherwise ugly Jaguars passing game. He leads the team with 33 catches, 573 yards and five touchdowns. The Jaguars took him with the 23rd overall pick in this year’s draft and he has more than lived up to expectations. The Jaguars’ No. 2 receiver, Christian Kirk, has been lost for the season with a fractured collarbone. If Thomas misses any time, the Jaguars will be scrambling to find anyone to catch Trevor Lawrence’s passes. |
| AFC EAST |
| NEW YORK JETSRich Cimini on a Jets achievement Sunday: @RichCiminiThis is crazy: #Jets had 0 turnovers, held the Patriots to 247 yards — and still lost. They’re the first team to lose a game in which they did not turn the ball over and held their opponent under 250 yards since Week 3 of 2012. In 2012, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers lost, 14-12, to the Seahawks in the “Fail Mary” game. Since that game, teams to do that had been 220-0 until today. (ESPN Research). More from Jori Epstein of YahooSports.com: Jeff Ulbrich knew his audience. The New York Jets interim head coach knew that darkness is more than just a metaphor for the quarterback on whose shoulders the franchise rests. So on the heels of the Jets’ fifth straight loss, Ulbrich leaned into the imagery. His message to a team that blew an eminently winnable division game vs. the New England Patriots? “This is a moment of darkness,” Ulbrich told his locker room after the rebuilding Patriots beat them, 25-22. “And we understand the outside world is going to get really loud right now. But the only thing I know in life is that when it gets dark and it gets hard, you work. And you point the finger at yourself and you look inward and you figure out what can I do better.” Rodgers is intimately familiar with darkness in a way that perhaps nobody else across the league is. The four-time MVP famously spent four nights in total darkness in 2023 as he contemplated retirement. Instead of hanging it up, Rodgers instead emerged from his meditative retreat to help facilitate his trade from the Green Bay Packers to the Jets. Rodgers’ last emergence from literal darkness gave the Jets a powerful injection of hope. But after the Jets fell Sunday to the last place in AFC East, can he find that strength again? But as New York’s offense struggles to even line up without penalty and delay of game, and the Jets’ defense struggling to stop the run while special teams misses kicks each week, can Rodgers find the strength to light the Jets again? With the shadow of his hat fittingly cloaking his eyes in darkness during his postgame news conference, Rodgers believed so. “I’ve been in the darkness,” he said. “You got to go in there. Make peace with it.” What would peace in the darkness look like for Rodgers? The quarterback seized on Ulbrich’s imperative to point the finger at himself more than others. “Offensively, our goal has to be: Just go score 30,” Rodgers said after a 17-of-28, 233-yard day including two touchdowns. “Doesn’t matter what the other sides are doing. We have trust in our defense and [special] teams but if we’re not scoring 30, we’re underachieving. “This offense can do that every single week.” Rodgers’ words echoed the assertion of team owner Woody Johnson when he fired head coach Robert Saleh on Oct. 8, insisting that this was the best Jets roster he had assembled and thus it should be better than 2-3. Since then, the Jets have further bolstered both sides of the ball, trading for receiver Davante Adams and reaching a contract agreement with holdout edge rusher Hassan Reddick. No matter — they have now lost five straight, including three after Saleh’s firing, two with Adams and one with Reddick. And the Jets have not reached Rodgers’ 30-point threshold once in eight tries. Their 22 points Sunday was their most since they put up 24 against the Patriots five weeks earlier, a mark that still undercuts the Patriots’ 25 points allowed per game. And while a missed 44-yard field goal and missed extra-point attempt hurt the Jets in this loss, so did continued operational disorder. The Jets used up their first-half timeouts before the second quarter began, also committing five of their eight penalties in the first half. “One of them we were late getting out of the huddle, one of them I was trying to get the protection right, one I felt like we could have gotten off, but it was fine to take [a timeout] there,” Rodgers said. “Our operation was a little slow at times.” Operational lethargy would bite the Jets again in the fourth quarter, when they took another delay of game on a 2-point conversion attempt after scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 2:57 to play. The 5-yard penalty more than tripled what would have been 2 yards needed on the play. The failed play meant the Patriots needed a touchdown, but not an extra-point attempt, to win. The Patriots ended up getting both, as the Jets’ defense followed its offense’s lead in faltering. |
