We salute the NFL on this achievement:

Seems almost too good to be true. The NFL tested approximately 120 players, staff and essential team personnel on 30 teams Saturday morning (all but the Thursday night teams), plus about 90 stadium workers (officiating crew, chain gang, locker room attendants, stadium security) for the 15 stadiums in play Sunday and Monday. That’s about 5,000 people. And, per the NFL, all tested negative for COVID-19.

IF COVID-19 is so diminished that not one of 5,000 people, none officially bubbled, test positive – then can’t we listen to Tyrann Mathieu?:

@Mathieu_Era

Fans such a big part of game…. Cities & Teams have to figure out a way to get them involved, safely of course..

With Jacksonville’s upset wins, teams with fans in the stands were 2-0 in Week 1 home games.

So far, teams hosting empty stadiums went 6-6 with Minnesota and San Francisco among the teams that disappointed at home.

– – –

And despite the fact that the NFL sideline is proven (almost) by the tests quoted above to be a COVID-free zone, the NFL is threatening discipline for coaches like Sean McVay who are not wearing their “important” masks:

The NFL sent a memo Monday morning to reinforce its requirement that coaches wear face coverings at all times on the sidelines during games, threatening discipline for those who don’t comply.

The sharply worded message, written by executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, came in response to wide variance in compliance during the first Sunday of the 2020 season. It was directed particularly at head coaches, on whom TV broadcasts frequently focus.

The discrepancy was particularly noticeable Sunday night in Los Angeles, where Rams coach Sean McVay often had his mask pulled down below his chin. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy wore his mask throughout the game.

Vincent wrote that Week 1 was “tremendous” but noted that “we must remain vigilant and disciplined in following the processes and protocols put in place by not only the league, union and clubs, but also by state and local governments.”

Another decision guided by strict adherence to “protocols” without further thought involved FOX announcer Kenny Albert. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post:

Kenny Albert will not call Sunday’s Bears-Lions game on Fox because of COVID protocols, even though the broadcaster has been in a safer environment than most play-by-players, The Post has learned.

The NFL has made a rule that anyone coming from a foreign country has to quarantine for two weeks. Albert, 52, for the past month has worked NHL playoff games for NBC in Edmonton.

Canada has a superior COVID record compared to the United States and Albert had been tested multiple times per week there. Still, the NFL is staying with its protocols. It will put Albert’s spot in limbo for next week, as well.

Albert was supposed to debut with Fox rookie analyst Jon Vilma but is now expected to be replaced by 77-year-old Dick Stockton. Stockton will travel to Detroit from his home in Arizona.

Technically, according to NFL protocols, Albert does not have to take part in a quarantine, where he is isolated. However, it is in question if he is allowed to call a game at the Meadowlands in a week.

So the only “danger” Albert could be in, as an occupant of a hermetically-sealed bubble for a month, would be during air travel through a country that did not have a single COVID death on Sunday.

His replacement, Stockton, also flew by air travel and was not in a bubble.

– – –

Sam Farmer of the LA Times tweets a Week 1 achievement:

@LATimesfarmer

So far, six teams have come back to win after trailing in the fourth quarter: Arizona, Chicago, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Washington, and the Chargers.

– – –

The Washington Football Team sits alone on top of the NFL East today (the Giants can join them).

Jacksonville is alone atop the AFC South (the Titans can join them).

Arizona defeated the defending NFC champs on their home turf.  Does it mean anything or just an aberration, quickly to be corrected.  Consider this:

@pfref

Last season, the 12 teams that eventually reached the playoffs went 11-1 in Week 1

Not that this happens every year, but if it did Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, Minnesota, San Francisco and Tampa Bay would be among those fighting for one spot.

– – –

That said, the lowly Bengals are winners, and QB JOE BURROW is a first-game hero, if the officials don’t call offensive pass interference against WR A.J. GREEN on a final-second TD (and they are in overtime if a chip shot FG sailed true).

That said, the Lions are winners if a coveted rookie can hang on to a perfect TD pass.

– – –

Great note from Andrew Siciliano:

@AndrewSiciliano

5 QB led their teams in rushing Sunday. Those teams went 5-0.

Lamar Jackson

Russell Wilson

Josh Allen

Cam Newton

Kyler Murray

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

A note from Pro Football Reference:

@pfref

#Bears QBs with a game with 3+ TDs, 0 INTs, and a 4th Quarter Comeback, since 1950:

George Blanda, Week 9 1952

Erik Kramer, Week 6 1995

Jay Cutler, Week 2 2014

Mitchell Trubisky, Week 1 2020

Peter King chats with QB MITCHELL TRUBISKY:

The Bears traded for Foles and agreed to pay him $24-million over three years; when coach Matt Nagy put Foles and Trubisky in competition for the starting job, it looked like he was setting the stage for Foles to win the job. Then a funny thing happened. After five weeks in competition, Trubisky won the job. But he didn’t win the job forever. And when he was firing high and wide again in the first half Sunday in Detroit, Bears fans agonized anew. Same old Trubisky.

Detroit 23, Chicago 6, 18 minutes left.

“How do you avoid falling into thinking, Here we go again?” I wondered Sunday night. Trubisky, back in Chicago, was driving home now.

“You can’t go back to that dark place,” Trubisky said. “You can’t go back to, My stats aren’t any good. It’s happening again. At times like that, I find myself focusing on my teammates, the guys you grind with. Our relationships run deep. We lean on each other. And I think you’ve just got to believe in yourself, believe you can do it, there’s still time.”

Allen Robinson made an acrobatic catch for 22 yards to key the ensuing drive, and Trubisky threw a two-yard box-out TD to Jimmy Graham to start the rally. On TV, Dick Stockton said the Bears getting their offense going was “like pulling teeth in the dentist chair.” And that’s what the day’d been like. The next drive was like that, Trubisky taking an 18-yard sack to make it fourth-and-41. Then he engineered a 55-yard scoring drive, finishing it with a one-yard TD to Javon Wims. Now it was getting interesting. And when Matthew Stafford threw a tipped pick just before the two-minute warning, the Bears had a shot from 37 yards away to win it.

With first-and-10 at the Detroit 27 at the two-minute warning, Trubisky and Nagy talked on the sideline. The call was a corner route to Miller, the third-year wideout from Memphis.

“Dude,” Nagy told Trubisky, “you’re gonna throw a friggin’ touchdown here!”

“I’ll tell you what was crazy,” Trubisky said Sunday night. “I was watching the game on the plane home from Detroit, and that play came up, and the receivers coach, Mike Furrey, said to me, ‘You see what 12 did?’ “

Twelve for the Bears is wideout Allen Robinson. Said Trubisky: “Allen Robinson’s got his back turned to the ball, can’t see it, but has his arms raised in the air before the ball even gets to Anthony Miller. He knew.”

Think of the significance of that. Trubisky would have to throw this corner route to Miller about 35 yards in the air. It’s likely Miller would have a cornerback in close coverage. If you saw Trubisky on Sunday, or most of last year, it’s not entirely logical to have confidence in Trubisky to throw an accurate pass 35 yards through the air. But Robinson did have confidence, evidently.

The throw was a strike. Chicago was the beneficiary of rookie Lions back D’Andre Swift dropping the potential winning touchdown pass in the final seconds, but no one was raining on Trubisky’s parade Sunday night. A rally like this one, and a strike like the winning throw to Miller, was, for one building-block week, something the Bears needed desperately. Nagy needed it too. He’s joined at the hip with Trubisky, and was when he made the starting call 10 days ago.

“Coach called me in on a Friday, and he kind of was building up to telling me for a long time,” Trubisky said. “I kind of didn’t believe it at first. I was very detailed in my work. My back was against the wall, obviously, in camp, and all you can do is fight and move forward and show my teammates I can still be the guy.

DETROIT

Peter King:

As for Detroit: Lions led by 15 with 14 minutes left in last year’s opener and tied. Lions led by 17 with 14 minutes left in this year’s opener and lost. Jim Caldwell won nine games in 2017 and got fired. Matt Patricia has nine wins in the 33 games since, and, well, he better win some more. Soon.

We would note, that Patricia is a head coach because of his purported defensive expertise.

MINNESOTA

QB AARON RODGERS was really good on Sunday, but the Vikings defense also contributed to Green Bay’s big day.  Darin Gantt of ProFootballTalk.com:

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer stood on his record during training camp, expressing confidence despite their renovations that “I’ve never had a bad defense.”

The early results weren’t promising, after Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers strafed his rebuilt secondary, and the Vikings allowed 43 points in a dispiriting loss.

“Luckily we had one goal-line stand,” Zimmer joked, via Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Otherwise it would have been really ugly. . . .

“There’s a lot of football left to be played, but we got to get better quick.”

Zimmer knows better than anyone how unattractive it actually was, but still had to be caught off guard by the degree.

The Vikings had a brand new group of cornerbacks, and Rodgers went to work on them early. Coupled with the absence of star pass-rusher Danielle Hunter and no impact from recent trade acquisition Yannick Ngakoue, and the Vikings looked nothing like those great defenses they’ve had in the past.

“That’s not what we’re used to here,” safety Harrison Smith said. “It’s not what we’re about here. We’ve got to do everything we can to move on from this and improve drastically from 43.”

The collapse was dramatic and complete, as Rodgers even coaxed the Vikings into jumping offsides three times (in their home stadium). Those kind of drive-extenders explained the ridiculous time of possession advantage (41:16 to 18:44)) for the Packers, who rolled up 522 yards on 76 plays.

“We just kept allowing them to drain us,” Smith said. “That’s what happens when you’re on the field for [41 minutes]. You’re not going to win a lot of games that way.”

They didn’t, and they might not, unless they start playing defense they way they’re accustomed to.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Did Dallas get a raw deal at the end of Sunday night’s game?  Referee Tony Corrente thought it was obvious they did not, despite the acting of CB JALEN RAMSEY:

Dak Prescott’s throw to a tightly covered Michael Gallup had found its target down the sideline and put the Dallas Cowboys in position inside the 20 to kick a tying field goal with 21 seconds left Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams in the debut of SoFi Stadium.

But there was a flag on the play.

Gallup had made illegal contact with Rams star cornerback Jalen Ramsey, according to the official, and offensive pass interference voided the 47-yard reception. Replays appeared to show fairly standard contact before Ramsey pulled his head and upper body back.

“I can tell you it was clear and obvious on the field, of a hand into the opposing player,” referee Tony Corrente said in defending the call. “A full arm extension that created separation. In all situations that would be called. We’re not going to allow that at any time of the game.”

Mike McCarthy, making his debut as Cowboys coach, said he was surprised at the timing of the call and that Gallup and Ramsey were both hand fighting up the left sideline.

“I was surprised there was a call either way,” McCarthy said. “Obviously I’m very disappointed in the call, especially that late. You don’t see that at a critical part of the game.”

Other Cowboys vehemently disagreed with it.

Ramsey felt equally strongly that it was the correct call.

“If they hadn’t have called that, I would have been really upset,” Ramsey said. “That was clear as day, in my opinion.”

Injuries added to defeat.  Todd Archer of ESPN.com:

Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch suffered a fractured collarbone during Sunday’s season-opening 20-17 loss to the Rams in Los Angeles, the team confirmed. It was one of three significant injuries that the medical staff will assess further on Monday.

Tight end Blake Jarwin suffered what is feared to be a torn ACL in his right knee, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Ed Werder. The Dallas Morning News first reported the nature of Jarwin’s injury during the game, and there is an MRI planned this week.

Offensive tackle Cameron Erving left the loss with a left knee injury and will miss time.

Jarwin’s injury was described as “possibly a longer-term” injury, a source told ESPN, and quarterback Dak Prescott addressed that potential in his postgame availability.

Mike McCarthy’s honeymoon is over after he passes up a tying field goal.  Archer:

Welcome, to the Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy.

Now, about that fourth-down call in the fourth quarter with your team down three points.

McCarthy lost in his coaching debut with the Cowboys 20-17 to the Los Angeles Rams, and his decision to eschew a potential tying field goal from the opponents’ 11 with 11:46 to play was the biggest head-scratcher. The Cowboys failed to get the first down when CeeDee Lamb caught a Dak Prescott short of the sticks.

The largest complaint about McCarthy’s predecessor, Jason Garrett, was his game management. Garrett was blamed for icing his kicker, too many long field goal tries and stubbornly sticking with a faulty game plan.

McCarthy spent a year away from the sideline, studying the game and trends after his long run with the Green Bay Packers. Maybe he saw how his defense was scuffling, especially in getting third-down stops. Maybe he was just wanting to be aggressive and show faith in his new team.

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the win percentage had the Cowboys made the field goal attempt would have been 47.4%. Had they converted, the win percentage was 47.2%. So basically a wash. But also according to ESPN Stats & Info., McCarthy never went for it on fourth down when down by three in the fourth quarter and inside the opponents’ 30. He kicked a field goal attempt six times, making five.

Whatever it was Sunday, it didn’t work even if it didn’t eliminate the Cowboys’ chances because of an Aldon Smith sack.

In the most anticipated return to the NFL after a long absence until Colin Kaepernick returns, EDGE ALDON SMITH earned Peter King’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week Award:

Aldon Smith, pass-rusher, Dallas. Interesting—on the official NFL play-by-play from Sunday night’s 20-17 Rams win over the Cowboys, Smith is listed in the starting lineup as DPR. “Designated Pass-Rusher.” He was more than that in his first NFL game in four years and 10 months. Smith, lost to football and adrift as a person back in 2015 because of substance-abuse issues, re-dedicated himself to sobriety and football, and it showed Sunday night. He led the Cowboys with 11 tackles, one sack, two quarterback pressures and a tackle for loss. “I’m tough on myself, but I did some things well,” Smith said. An auspicious reappearance by a once-great player who may be back on the road to greatness.

WASHINGTON

The early winner for Best Game Story Lead/Lede of the 2020 NFL Season goes to Rob Maaidi of the AP:

The Washington Football Team played like a group of players determined to make a name for themselves.

Peyton Barber ran for two touchdowns and Dwayne Haskins rallied host Washington from a 17-point deficit to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-17 Sunday in chead oach Ron Rivera’s debut.

Haskins jumped in to give his teammates a halftime speech because Rivera was getting a pre-planned IV in his first game since learning he has a form of skin cancer.

Nice, tight summation of the game in paragraphs two and three to boot.

Is it possible that Washington Football Team be the name going on from here?

The name ‘Washington Football Team’ may be here to stay.

In an email sent to the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Washington majority owner Dan Snyder said there is a chance ‘Washington Football Team’ remains the team’s permanent name going forward.

“Sure, it’s possible,” Snyder said. “If the Washington Football Team name catches on and our fans embrace it then we would be happy to have it as our permanent name. I think we have developed a very classy retro look and feel.”

Washington retired it’s old moniker and logo in July after Snyder was publicly pressured by several major sponsors and corporations to change the name.

A few weeks later, the team announced it would play the 2020 season as the ‘Washington Football team’ while the organization works to find a new name that will represent the franchise proudly for the “next 100 years.”

Snyder, who was on record in 2013 saying he will “never” change the name, also told the Wall Street Journal that his family had considered changing the name “multiple times” over recent years.

The owner cited the “long sense of pride” the old name had, saying the decision to move on from it wasn’t “an easy one.”

“However, over the past few years the name had increasingly become a distraction from our primary focus of football,” Snyder told Wall Street Journal. “So, in the spirit of inclusivity, we made the decision to move forward. We want our future name and brand to stand for something that unifies people of all backgrounds and to continue to be a source of pride for the next 100 years or more.”

Of course, since the founder of the United States owned slaves, the first part of the name is problematical to some.  Capital City Football Team could be in our future.

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

Saints WR MICHAEL THOMAS will bear watching.  NFL.com:

Michael Thomas had an unusually quiet Week 1. His health might have been the primary culprit.

The Saints wide receiver suffered a high-ankle injury in Sunday’s win against the Buccaneers, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. The issue won’t necessarily prevent him from playing in Week 2. With an extra day to prepare for next Monday’s showdown against the Las Vegas Raiders, Thomas’ ailment is something he believes he can play through, Pelissero added.

TAMPA BAY

Will Tampa Mayor Jane Castor do something to rectify this comment from Saints DE CAM JORDAN by the November 8^th re-match?

@Kat_Terrell

Cam Jordan on the weirdness of no fans in the Superdome: “It felt like we were at a Tampa Bay game.”

– – –

Bill Barnwell says QB TOM BRADY’s performance in the Most Anticipated Game in Buccaneers History wasn’t a total disaster:

Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Let’s start with the biggest game on the slate and make an unexpected comparison between Schaub, the longtime Texans starter, and Brady, who has joined Schaub in a piece of ignominious trivia. After throwing a pick-six to Janoris Jenkins during Sunday’s loss to the Saints, Brady has now thrown pick-sixes in three consecutive games, with former teammates Eric Rowe and Logan Ryan getting the best of Brady in Week 17 and the wild-card game, respectively, last season.

The last player to do that is Schaub, who threw pick-sixes in three consecutive games between 2014 and 2015. If Brady throws a pick-six next Sunday against the Panthers, he’ll tie the NFL record for the most consecutive games with one, matching … Schaub, who threw four in a row in 2013. Yes, those are two separate streaks, and if you want a reminder of how many chances NFL teams give certain quarterbacks, Schaub has earned more than $13 million since the last streak ended.

Brady threw two interceptions Sunday, and according to Bucs coach Bruce Arians, they were both his fault. The first came on a miscommunication with Mike Evans, with the star receiver cutting off his route and Brady expecting otherwise, leading to a gift for Marcus Williams. After the game, Arians blamed his quarterback, noting that Evans made the correct sight adjustment against the coverage. It looked like Brady thought he was facing Cover 2 and wanted to hit the hole beyond the linebacker and in between the two deep safeties. Even if that had been the case and Evans had continued his route, the throw didn’t really seem to be open.

The second throw was more egregious. The Bucs were setting up a screen to the left and had a speed out to the right to try to attract attention away from the screen. Brady likely has (or expects to have) the latitude to throw the out if he thinks it’s open or preferable to the screen, but it’s a dangerous pass for a 43-year-old quarterback making a throw from the left hashmark all the way to the opposite sideline.

As it turned out, the pass was too dangerous: Jenkins read the out and jumped the attempt to Scotty Miller for a pick-six. It’s the sort of throw Jameis Winston would attempt or the pass a 25-year-old or even 35-year-old Brady would make to prove to the opposing defense that they had to defend every inch of turf. Brady’s game was never about overwhelming arm strength, but as we saw last season, his arm is not quite what it was five or 10 years ago.

Outside of the interceptions, I thought Brady played better than I would have expected in his Bucs debut. I thought he had solid zip on his throws and was able to get the ball downfield when necessary, most notably on the three-play touchdown drive after the pick-six.

His numbers weren’t especially impressive, as he finished 23-of-36 for 239 yards with two touchdowns and those two picks, but his line doesn’t include a massive amount of pass interference yardage. The Saints committed DPI four times for 101 yards, which is in line with what some quarterbacks would get in terms of pass interference yardage over an entire season. Add those to his totals and Brady throws for 340 yards on 40 attempts, or an average of 8.5 yards per pass. Doing that against a great pass defense in his debut with a new team is solid work.

If anything, I would be more concerned about Brady’s receivers. Evans, who battled through a hamstring injury, had one catch for 2 yards on four targets, although he did draw two of the pass interference calls for 69 yards. More concerning was that Rob Gronkowski didn’t do much in his return to the league, as the legendary tight end ran 20 routes and managed to muster up only two catches for 11 yards on a pair of designed screens. It’s only one week, of course, but Brady looked more like his old self than his fellow Tampa newcomer.

NFC WEST

Rich Eisen is among those noting the rise of the NFC West:

@richeisen

The @Seahawks travel thousands of miles in a pandemic to win a football game, the

@RamsNFL take down the @dallascowboys and @AZCardinals beat the defending NFC champion @49ers in a tight one.

The NFC West is the best division in football.

We’re not sure that pandemic travel, other than wearing masks, is all that more draining than normal team travel, but otherwise we agree.

ARIZONA

A note from Pro Football Reference:

@pfref

Today is DeAndre Hopkins’s 8th game with 150+ receiving yards, passing Larry Fitzgerald’s career total

Peter King:

DeAndre Hopkins has a new BFF. Kyler Murray targeted him 16 times, completed 14, and man, does that trade look great for Arizona and awful for Houston. Cards 24, Niners 20.

And this:

“From the moment I walked into this building, man, I felt something special about this team. I know we got what it takes to get what we want. But it’s one day at a time. Let’s keep working.”

—Arizona wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins

SAN FRANCISCO

QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO takes some friendly fire from Kyle Shanahan.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had a chance to play the hero Sunday. With the 49ers trailing by four points, Garoppolo had an opportunity to lead a game-winning drive late.

As the 49ers got close to the goal line, Garoppolo had two passes broken up by Arizona Cardinals defenders. If Garoppolo made better throws, the 49ers may have won.

Garoppolo’s head coach, Kyle Shanahan, didn’t say as much after the game, but admitted Garoppolo needs to play better if the 49ers want to repeat last season’s Super Bowl run, according to CBS Sports.

“Yeah, he had some good plays in there, but just like the entire offense, just missed a number of opportunities that it was going to take to win that game. We had a couple there, but he’s got to play better,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. “We’ve all got to play better on offense, especially, and it starts with me.”

Shanahan, 40, quickly added the entire offense needs to play better, not just Garoppolo. Shanahan also blamed himself, saying the team’s failures starts with him.

Garoppolo didn’t shy away from his struggles after the game. He admitted he missed a late throw to Kendrick Bourne that would have given the 49ers the lead.

“There was a couple of different options, but yeah, K.B. just, I left that one just a hair short.,” Garoppolo said. “That’s one I wish I had back, but when you get opportunities like that, you’ve got to take advantage of them.”

Garoppolo credited Cardinals safety Budda Baker for breaking up the other missed pass. Garoppolo added he felt the 49ers struggled to get into a rhythm during the 24-20 loss.

SEATTLE

S JAMAL ADAMS is having fun with the winning Seahawks.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Gregg Williams’ offseason quip that Jamal Adams might get bored in Seattle’s defense couldn’t have been further from the truth in Week 1.

The star safety was all over the field as the Seahawks went into Atlanta and blasted the Falcons in a 38-25 road win.

“I wasn’t bored,” a smirking Adams said in reference to Williams’ remarks, via ESPN. “I was blitzing. I was having fun.”

Adams was a ball-hawking blur in the Seattle defense, filling up the stat sheet like it was a game on The Price Is Right. He compiled 12 tackles, one sack, two QB hits and two tackles for loss.

Under Pete Carroll, the Seahawks D had never been a big blitzing unit. But like all good coaches, Carroll played to Adams’ strength and unleashed the safety. Utilizing Adams’ impeccable timing on the blitz helped bolster a questionable Seattle pass rush entering the season.

Adams believes he was used about the same as in his early days in New York with blitz-happy Todd Bowles at the helm. Far from bored.

“It’s about the same, to be honest,” he said. “It might have been a little bit more. It reminded me a little bit of [former coach] Todd Bowles when Todd Bowles used me my first two years. But just out there making plays whenever my name is called or my number is called. I’m trying to do whatever I can to help the team win and get put in the best position to get the ball back to [Russell Wilson], because obviously you get the ball back to 3, he’s going to make special plays.”

AFC NORTH

CLEVELAND

The Buccaneers aren’t the only team that can’t draft kickers.  The Browns have dumped their recent draftee.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

After one game and zero made kicks, the Browns are making a change at kicker.

The Browns are signing Cody Parkey from the practice squad to the active roster and he will be their kicker on Thursday night against the Bengals, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.

The decision to make a change is no surprise after Browns kicker Austin Seibert missed both of his attempts in Sunday’s loss to the Ravens. Seibert missed both an extra point and a 41-yard field goal attempt. Neither of his two kickoffs reached the end zone and both were returned beyond the 25-yard line.

The Browns chose Seibert in the fifth round of last year’s NFL draft. Drafting a kicker is always a gamble, and this one didn’t pay off.

AFC SOUTH

INDIANAPOLIS

A tweet from ProFootballReference.com:

@pfref

The #Colts are the 13th team since 1940 to have 445+ yards and 0 punts in a game and lose it

– – –

RB MARLON MACK is done for the season, and perhaps as a Colt:

An MRI on Colts running back Marlon Mack confirmed that he suffered a season-ending torn Achilles in Sunday’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, according to a source.

Mack suffered the injury after catching an underneath pass in the second quarter. He immediately grabbed his ankle, got up and took off his helmet before waving for assistance from the Colts’ sideline.

Mack’s injury comes in the final year of his contract. The Colts did not offer him a contract extension during the offseason.

Mack, who rushed for a career-high 1,091 yards in 2019, missed at least two games in each of his first three seasons with the Colts.

JACKSONVILLE

Peter King:

Gardner Minshew is real, and he’s spectacular. He completed 19 of 20. The Jags stunned the Colts. Trevor Lawrence had to be watching on TV saying, “I guess Jacksonville’s out.”

Bill Barnwell:

(Minshew) went 19-of-20 passing for 173 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday’s victory. This game essentially came down to red zone efficiency, and Minshew punched in touchdowns on each of his trips. He benefited from a badly blown coverage on the game-winning touchdown pass to Keelan Cole, and rookie Laviska Shenault did most of the work in beating Kenny Moore across the field for his first pro touchdown, but Minshew worked in rhythm and didn’t make many mistakes.

Everyone expects the Jaguars to end up with Trevor Lawrence or a new quarterback in 2021, but Minshew has a clear path over the rest of the year to convince Jacksonville otherwise. Its new offense under Jay Gruden on Sunday was fun, mixing in some run-pass options to create easy decisions for the quarterback while getting the ball to guys such as Shenault and James Robinson with the opportunity to run after the catch. I don’t think Minshew is going to go 19-for-20 every week, but the Jags don’t look like anybody told them they were supposed to be tanking.

AFC EAST

NEW ENGLAND

Dan Graziano of ESPN.com explores whether or not it is an over-reaction to say “CAM NEWTON is back.”

Newton ran the ball 15 times in Sunday’s game. Sure, you’re sitting there saying, “So? He’s a running quarterback. Everybody knows that.” But did you know that there has been only one game in Newton’s career in which he had more than 15 carries? He had 17 for the Panthers in a 37-37 tie against the Bengals in 2014. His 15 carries Sunday were the most he has had in an NFL game without playing overtime. He rushed for two touchdowns, and he threw the ball just fine — 15-for-19 for 155 yards and no interceptions. It was an exceedingly under control game plan, and it worked. The Patriots, who obviously want to be a run-dependent team, called design runs on 65% of their plays — their highest such percentage since Week 17 of the 2008 season.

Newton said after the game that the extent to which he and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels are jelling is the result of “them understanding who they have and what I have,” and if you have a healthy Cam Newton and you want to be a running team, you’re crazy not to make him a big part of that. Asked about the number of carries, Newton said, “I just wanted to win” and talked about the ways he and McDaniels discussed trying to pick apart the Dolphins’ defense.

The Patriots under Belichick are known, as much as any team, for varying their game plans week to week depending on the opponent. As such, it might be that 15 is the most carries Newton has in any game this season, and that might be the smart way to go if the Pats want to get him through the season. But it was obvious that he was having fun out there, and with the secondary collecting three interceptions of Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, he wasn’t alone. The game was ugly at times, but it was a good team win for New England to get the season started 1-0.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. I understand that the Bills looked great in a 27-17 win over the Jets. I leave it to you to figure out who had the more challenging opponent on this particular day. Now, the Bills might prove to be the better team over 16 games, but in no way is it an overreaction to predict that a run-first, Newton-led Patriots team will come out on top in the AFC East.

Newton made the playoffs four times in his seven healthy seasons in Carolina. His receiving corps when he won MVP in 2015 wasn’t loaded with superstars any more than his current one is. He has done some winning in his time, and just because he isn’t Tom Brady doesn’t mean the Patriots can’t keep alive the streak Brady and Belichick built together. There’s a long way to go here, but I’m still not betting against Belichick and McDaniels figuring this out — especially if they can keep up the good vibes.

NEW YORK JETS

Peter King:

New York was down 21-0 in Buffalo, Sam Darnold faded left, threw across his body into a pack of three Bills and one Jet, and guess who caught it? Not the Jet. The final (27-17) was respectable, but the Jets’ play was not.

THIS AND THAT

STATE OF PROTEST

With two cops shot as BLM cheered in Compton, California, the NFL may have realized that it wasn’t a good time to hype the Kickoff Weekend ceremonies.

Teams were a mixed bag of standing, kneeling and remaining in the Locker Room.  While the names of some of the “countless” victims of “police violence” were displayed on NFL helmets, the DB didn’t notice or hear of extensive TV coverage of the proceedings.

Still, even with the Cowboys, Sunday Night Football ratings were off for NBC’s Sunday night game.  Variety:

With all that on-field action, and coming off disappointing ratings of the NFL season kickoff on September 10, the league and the Comcast-owned network were looking for a win themselves this football packed weekend.

Even with the usual ratings gold of Jerry Jones’ team on the field, the NFL and NBC didn’t get that win – at least not in the early numbers. Despite two teams with big national followings, SNF snared a 4.7 in early ratings among adults 18-49 and 14.81 million viewers last night.

In numbers certain to change, that’s a fall of 28% in the demo and a hard decline of 23% in sets of eyeballs from the early numbers of the the September 8, 2019 SNF season debut. While the early Nielsen data lacks West Coast numbers — kind of important when you have a team from the Los Angeles market in the mix — his result is going to be hard pill for the NFL and NBC to swallow.

The DB expected Peter King to be front and center on the activities – but this is all that he had on the subject in his Week One wrap-up:

I think my Twitter feed is filled with people saying they’re finished with the NFL because of the hum of social-justice issues before and during games. Three comments:

a. There’s a good chance many of them are lying. Though the Thursday night Houston-Kansas City opener was down in viewership from last year’s Packers-Bears (22.3 million for two national teams in 2019, 20.3 million for two less attractive teams nationally, though with marquee QBs, this year), this year’s opener drew 1.3 million more than Falcons-Eagles two years ago. And this game was not at all dramatic, pretty much over at 24-7 five minutes into the second half.

b. I don’t doubt some people who say they won’t watch football will actually follow through. But let’s see the evidence first. A cratering of ratings, 25 to 30 percent, would be bad news for the league at a time when the NFL is negotiating long-term TV and streaming extensions with networks and media companies. But it’s hard for me to think, as the season goes on, that a couple of minutes spent on society’s ills in a three-hour, 15-minute telecast, and some end-zone words (END RACISM, for instance), would cause millions of people to stop watching football.

c. Would a Cowboys fan, angry at some players on his favorite team kneeling for the anthem, not tune in to see the early-December Thursday nighter between the Cowboys and Ravens if Dallas was a Super Bowl contender? When TV ratings for football go down appreciably in Texas, that’s when we’ll know the league has a problem.

Much of the NFL’s momentum towards all-out support for the causes that fall under the buzzwords “social justice” stems from the martyrdom of Colin Kaepernick.  But, in a rare public comment, he is not impressed:

Colin Kaepernick spoke out against the NFL on Sunday in the middle of the league’s slate of opening games to start the 2020 season.

Kaepernick appeared to be angered by the NFL pushing its social justice initiatives while his former teammate Eric Reid remained a free agent to start the season.

“While the NFL runs propaganda about how they care about Black Life, they are still actively blackballing Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) for fighting for the Black community. Eric set 2 franchise records last year, and is one of the best defensive players in the league,” Kaepernick wrote.

Reid is one of the best free agents available. He played and started all 16 games for the Carolina Panthers last season. He recorded 130 tackles and four sacks. He joined the Panthers a few weeks into the 2018 season. He recorded 71 tackles and an interception in that season.

Reid and Kaepernick were teammates with the San Francisco 49ers. When Kaepernick started his protest against police brutality and racism, Reid was the first player to kneel with him.

Reid made 130 tackles last year for Caroline (presumably a franchise record for a DB which Kaepernick alludes to) with nary a single interception.

He played for Ron Rivera, a resolute supporter of the activist players and a minority himself, on a Washington Team with a Black president.

Could there not be a football reason related to pass coverage that has kept Reid unsigned so far?

We found this from Logan Lamorandier of SI.com as he looked at whether Reid would be a good fit for the Lions:

According to Pro Football Focus, Reid’s 2019 season was the worst of his career.

He graded out at 46.6 — the third-worst graded safety in the NFL of those who played at least 20 percent of snaps.

Even more concerning, he had the lowest coverage grade of any NFL safety. That’s not what the Lions need at this point.

2021 DRAFT

If the Big Ten does come back to play next month, Ohio State won’t have one of the leaders of their player protest.  Barrett Sallee of CBSSports.com:

The Big Ten is slated to play in the spring — at least for now. Of course, that could change at any second. Whenever the conference decides to kick off, it’ll do so without one of its biggest stars. Ohio State defensive back Shaun Wade announced Monday that he will opt out of the season and prepare for the NFL Draft.

“Given the circumstances and the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season, I know in my heart that the best decision for my future is to begin preparing for the next chapter in my life,” he wrote on Twitter. “This decision does not come lightly, and I want to thank all who have helped me get to where I am today.”

Wade, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound junior from Jacksonville, Florida, had 25 tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks, one interception and eight pass breakups last season for the Buckeyes. He passed up on the NFL Draft last spring in order to try to up his stock and bring Ohio State a national championship this season.

“To Buckeye nation — thank you for the support, the love, the cheers and the opportunity to play the sport I love in front of the best fans in the nation,” he wrote. “The memories I’ve made during my time as a Buckeye will last a lifetime because of all of you.”

Wade is the 13th-ranked overall prospect and No. 2-ranked cornerback in the latest CBS Sports 2021 NFL Draft prospect rankings.

Wade’s father, Randy, was one of the parents who organized the protest at the Big Ten headquarters outside of Chicago urging the conference to reconsider its decision to postpone the season.