The Daily Briefing Monday, September 20, 2021

CHICAGO

Injury put QB JUSTIN FIELDS in the huddle on Sunday and Coach Matt Nagy won’t confirm that QB ANDY DALTON will return if healthy.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Bears head coach Matt Nagy confirmed at a Monday morning press conference that quarterback Andy Dalton did not tear his ACL during Sunday’s win over the Bengals, but there was no word on his outlook for the team’s Week Three game against the Browns.

Nagy said that the team will know more later on Monday about Dalton’s status and there will also be a wait for word on whether Dalton will be the starter if he is cleared to play. Justin Fields got extended playing time on Sunday and Nagy was asked if Dalton remains the team’s starting quarterback as long as he is healthy enough to be on the field.

 “That’s something that I’m not going to get into with scheme,” Nagy said.

A followup took issue with Nagy saying that the answer has to do with scheme, but Nagy stood firm that it was “100 percent scheme” to keep the quarterback decision under wraps. The answer likely has to do with Dalton and Fields having different styles and a desire to have the Browns prepare for both possibilities. That may not be an issue if Dalton winds up being ruled out this week, but, for now, Nagy isn’t conceding anything about the team’s quarterback plans.

MINNESOTA

The Vikings are 0-2, but they are an OT fumble and a missed late FG from being 2-0.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Much like Minnesota Vikings radio announcers, Mike Zimmer thought Greg Joseph’s 37-yard game-winning field-goal attempt was a formality for a big road win over the Arizona Cardinals.

“I felt good about that kick,” Zimmer said, via the Minnesota Star Tribune. “I know he missed the extra point earlier, but it’s kind of like that. He’s been kicking good, we’re indoors, it’s a perfect surface. I’m thinking, ‘This should be an easy one here.’ “

That easy kick sailed wide right, and the Vikings suffered their second last-second loss of the 2021 campaign, losing 34-33 in Arizona.

“We’re probably two plays away from being 2-0,” Zimmer said. “We’ll just keep grinding, keep fighting, and we’ll just keep going from there.”

After making all three extra points and his only field-goal attempt in Week 1, Joseph botched the field goal and one PAT in Sunday’s loss.

The loss is a bitter pill to swallow after the Vikings battled back on the road to set up the game-winning chance. Facing an MVP candidate in Kyler Murray playing out of his mind and a defense with a dominant D-line, Minnesota played well. Dalvin Cook (131 yards) grinded out yards, Kirk Cousins found open targets (244 yards, 3 TDs) and didn’t make any crucial errors. The defense earned a pick-six, and the pass rush came to life late to smother Murray and give Minnesota a chance.

“I think today was encouraging, honestly, about the heart that we played with today, and the fight that we played with today,” Zimmer said, per Sports Illustrated. “If we play like that, we’ll win a lot of games. They may all come down to like this, like the last two have. As long as we do that, we keep fighting and keep trying to get better, and keep working together, sticking together as a football team, then I think we’ve got a chance.”

Close is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades. After two close losses, the Vikings need to turn the page quickly and get a W — starting with next Sunday’s home opener against Seattle — before the season spirals too deep to recover.

DALLAS

Coach Mike McCarthy has no shortage of reasons for explaining why the Cowboys “settled” for a 56-yard game-winning FG.

In a perfect world, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy would not have settled for a game-winning field goal attempt from 56 yards by Greg Zuerlein in the final seconds against the Los Angeles Chargers.

But several problems arose.

First, a player went off the field after Tony Pollard’s 3-yard run to the Los Angeles 38 on second down with 33 seconds to play.

“One of our players came off that shouldn’t have come off,” McCarthy said. “Just a communication error.”

Then the clock McCarthy was eyeing on the digital board overhanging the SoFi Stadium field went out.

“I never had a clock go off the board like that,” McCarthy said.

Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was not in a better position, either.

“He got blocked by a camera guy,” McCarthy said of Moore’s ability to see one of the field-level clocks.

Instead of using the timeout early and potentially leaving the Cowboys in a bad situation if they ran a third-down play, McCarthy opted to let the clock run down with the aid of his assistant coaches from the coaches’ booth and called a timeout with four seconds to play.

“Once we didn’t have the personnel set for the third-down call we were in between once you get below 17 seconds,” McCarthy said. “It’s a threshold, so we let it run down and take the kick.”

Zuerlein made it work by connecting on the longest game-winning field goal with no time left in regulation in franchise history, delivering the Cowboys a 20-17 victory 10 days after he missed a field goal try and a PAT attempt that cost them in the 31-29 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the opener.

Dak Prescott was unaware of any clock issues the coaches had until after Zuerlein’s kick.

“I wasn’t sure. I’m looking at the end zone clock. I saw the time,” the quarterback said. “I just thought we were comfortable and we’re good in field goal range and that’s what they wanted to do.”

The comeback win was the 11th Prescott has delivered in his career when the Cowboys have been tied or trailing in the fourth quarter. While the performance was not particularly aesthetic, like when he needed to throw for 182 yards in the fourth quarter of a 40-39 win against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2 last year, Prescott was efficient and deliberate.

Taking over with 3:49 to play after the Chargers tied the game, Prescott completed all five of his passes for 35 yards, including a key, 12-yard throw to Amari Cooper on a slant.

“I think you see the best of Dak Prescott in those situations,” McCarthy said. “We put a lot of time into them. I just really love his demeanor and his poise in the two-minute drills. It’s good to get one on a Sunday. I think this is clearly a product of Dak and the offensive players and coaches, just the amount of time that goes into two-minute drills. It means a lot when you’re able to get that done in a live-game situation.”

For the contest, Prescott completed 23 of 27 passes for 237 yards. He did not throw a touchdown pass for the first time in the past seven games he has started and finished. He also had a pass picked off, marking the fifth straight game he has had at least one interception, the longest streak of his career.

But he left with his first win since suffering the compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle last year. He underwent two surgeries and countless hours of rehab, and there also were questions about his health in training camp after suffering a latissimus strain in his right shoulder.

What he missed most in his time away were moments like those on Sunday.

“That’s what you do it for, for the ball in your hands, for a chance to go win it,” Prescott said. “That’s what I was talking to the offense, telling them we got the game in a position that we wanted. It’s on us to go capitalize and finishing this game off, and we were able to get into field goal range and let special teams go out there and do their job.”

CAROLINA

After dismantling the Saints, the Panthers stand on the verge of 3-0.  Peter King:

“Our defense the truth”

Thus tweeted Carolina wide receiver Robbie Anderson after the Panthers skunked the Saints 26-7 Sunday in Charlotte. It’s cool to credit the reborn Sam Darnold for the Panthers’ 2-0 start, or maybe Christian McCaffrey’s 324 scrimmage yards. Those are big things. (In fact, for Darnold to be throwing 18 times with a second-half lead tells me coach Matt Rhule and offensive coordinator Joe Brady trust him to be careful with the ball.) Darnold and McCaffrey are factors, but neither is the biggest one.

The unit led by Snow, the 65-year-old defensive coordinator, is the biggest reason Carolina shares the NFC South lead with Tampa Bay this morning. Carolina, in two games, has allowed 22 first downs and 21 points to the Jets and Saints. Composite first-half score: Panthers 33, Jets/Saints 0. The beatdown of New Orleans was notable because the Saints put a 38-3 beating on the Packers last week, and Jameis Winston played peerless football. On Sunday, Winston was harried consistently by a changed pass-rush, and Alvin Kamara managed five rushing yards on eight carries. What gives?

Snow, who came to Carolina from Baylor with Rhule 20 months ago, played a 4-3 “over” front last year, with the defensive front shading toward the tight end side and the edge players most often in a three-point stance. This year, wanting to get athletic edge players Haason Reddick and Brian Burns away from the line, Snow had them stand up and allowed free-agent defensive tackle DaQuan Jones and young Derrick Brown to occupy in-line blockers. Last year, the Panthers were 31st in the league in third-down defense. This year, foes have converted only 25 percent (six of 24) on third down. Snow adjusted, wisely, and his pass-rush (10 sacks in two weeks) and run defense (46.5 yards per game) says he’s made the right adjustments.

Now the Panthers have a short turnaround to a Thursday night game at Houston, with Snow’s men likely to face rookie Davis Mills in his first NFL start. No one could imagine a 3-0 start for Carolina, but it’s on the horizon.

We would note that the Panthers will play 14 games before they meet the Brady Bucs.  The NFL does not have the first meeting between the two teams until Week 16 in Charlotte.

NEW ORLEANS

John Breech of CBSSports.com finds it hard to believe that Sean Payton coached the Saints offense on Sunday:

The Saints must have left their offense in Jacksonville because it was a no-show on Sunday. One week after putting up 38 points, the Saints got embarrassed. The offense only managed 128 total yards, which was the team’s lowest total ever under Sean Payton and their lowest total overall since 2001.

Maybe all those “offensive assistants” who caught COVID have value?

TAMPA BAY

Peter King crunches some numbers for QB TOM BRADY and the Buccaneers:

Tom Brady

This can’t be real

Let’s go back to the greatest full season of Brady’s career, 2007. That’s the year Brady and the great Randy Moss lifted New England to a 16-0 record in the regular season. In the first two games that year, Brady, 30, threw for 576 yards and six TDs. Fourteen years later, Brady, 44, has thrown for 655 yards and nine TDs in the first two games of this year.

“We were a little loose with the ball,” Brady self-diagnosed Sunday, after throwing five TDs with no picks in the 48-25 win over Atlanta. “I certainly wish I had made a few better throws.”

The man is 44, with a 113.3 passer rating. Since opening day 2020, in regular-season games, Brady’s got 49 touchdown passes, more than anyone in the sport. I certainly wish I had made a few better throws.

When, exactly?

Tampa Bay, dating back to Dec. 1, 2020, has won 10 in a row including playoffs and scored 35.0 per game. What drama in the next two weeks awaits? Bucs-Rams at SoFi in Week 3, Bucs-Patriots in Foxboro in Week 4, in the biggest regular-season game in recent NFL history. Brady has looked so at ease, so unhurried, in his first two games as a 44-year-old man. The Rams and Patriots are capable of generating pressure with the front seven, and they’ll need to if they’re going to have a chance to beat this marvel.

Dan Graziano of ESPN.com wonders if it is a reaction to think 2021 will be QB TOM BRADY’s best season ever:

Tom Brady is about to have his best season ever

A week after throwing four touchdown passes in the Bucs’ season-opening victory over Dallas, Brady threw five in a victory over Atlanta. That, for all you non-math majors out there, makes nine total and puts Brady on pace to throw 77 touchdown passes this season, which would be a record. I looked it up. He has 17 TD passes over his past four games (including the playoffs), tied for his most in a four-game span.

Yes, Brady is 44, and no one has ever done this stuff at that age. But no one had ever done what he did last year at 43 until he did, so it’s not as if you should just knee-jerk bet against him. His wide receiver corps is stacked, his best buddy, Rob Gronkowski, is rejuvenated and catching touchdowns, and Brady appears set up to do just about whatever he wants to do.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. Brady’s career high in passing yards is 5,235, set in 2011. His career high in touchdown passes is 50, set in 2007. He finished both of those seasons by losing the Super Bowl to the Giants, so he’s not going to tell you either of those was his best season ever. When I covered the Yankees, we’d ask Derek Jeter what kind of season he thought he’d had and he’d always respond by saying, “Did we win the World Series?” The implication was that, if the answer was no, he hadn’t had the year he wanted.

Brady seems similar in that regard, so he’s not likely to consider his age-44 season his best unless the Bucs repeat as champs. But they certainly appear good enough to do that, first of all, and in terms of his individual performance, he’s way ahead of where he was this time last season, when he was new in town and there hadn’t been a real offseason.

The question we can’t answer about Brady is whether he can hold up over an entire 17-game season. So there is much uncharted territory involved. But if you’ve been watching Brady for the past two decades, you probably think he’s capable of anything. A huge year even by his standards is not at all out of the question.

– – –

As if Tampa Bay’s locker doesn’t have enough big personalities, this from Jenna Laine of ESPN.com:

One week after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers placed starting cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting on injured reserve, coach Bruce Arians said that general manager Jason Licht has reached out to veteran cornerback Richard Sherman to gauge his interest.

“Jason’s reached out. We got to see,” Arians said Monday, one day after his team defeated the Atlanta Falcons 48-25 to improve to 2-0. “He’s got other things going on too. Just a matter of, ‘I coach the ones that we got and let him handle the rest of that.’ We’ll kick the tires on some other guys too. But it’s just a matter of, ‘No, we’ll talk and see and if it’s the right fit, it’s the right fit and we’ll move on it.”

The Bucs will be without Murphy-Bunting, who also serves as their nickelback, for an indefinite period of time after he suffered a dislocated right elbow in Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys. He’s required to miss at least three games on IR, but Arians did not have a timetable on his return — only that it’s looking like he won’t need surgery.

Their other starter, Carlton Davis, suffered a mild hamstring strain last Friday but played against Atlanta without issue (he did leave the game briefly due to having the wind knocked out of him), and their third cornerback Jamel Dean, who lines up on the outside in nickel situations, has struggled.

Sherman, 33, would provide valuable experience to one of the league’s youngest defensive backfields, and he’s a sure tackler, which has been an issue for the Bucs’ defense through two games this year. Schematically, he’s an outside corner though, so the team would continue to use Ross Cockrell in nickelback situations, as well as safety Mike Edwards, who played 19 snaps at nickel Sunday, one of which led to a pick-six.

Sherman has legal issues he’s still sorting through, however. He was arrested in July for an incident at the home of his wife’s parents in Redmond, Washington, which came with five misdemeanor charges, including two counts of domestic violence — criminal trespass in the second degree and malicious mischief in the third degree — as well as resisting arrest, driving while under the influence and reckless endangerment of roadway workers.

Sherman pleaded not guilty to all five charges, and said in a statement on Twitter said he was “deeply remorseful” for his actions and “behaved in a manner I’m not proud of.”

In February, King County prosecutors and the sheriff also obtained an “extreme risk protection order” for Sherman, barring him from having guns after a judge determined he posed a danger to himself and others. Details of the case were sealed.

The Bucs have not shied away from signing players who have had legal and character concerns. They signed wide receiver Antonio Brown last year on the tail end of his eight-game suspension and re-signed him to another one-year contract this offseason.

SAN FRANCISCO

After last season, we thought the 49ers were due for a run of good health in 2021.  But it doesn’t always work that way.  Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com:

The San Francisco 49ers didn’t intend to use newly acquired running back Trenton Cannon in any role other than special teams on Sunday. As it turned out, they had no choice but to plug him into the offense.

By the end of San Francisco’s 17-11 victory against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Niners had lost their top three running backs to injuries in a span of about five minutes. That came after starter Raheem Mostert was lost to a season-ending left knee injury last week against the Detroit Lions.

First, it was starter Elijah Mitchell’s right shoulder, then it was an ankle injury for JaMycal Hasty, and finally it was a concussion for rookie Trey Sermon. Mitchell departed after a 1-yard touchdown run was overturned with 11 minutes, 4 seconds to go, and Hasty and Sermon were out by the 5:45 mark.

Hasty and Sermon did not return to the game, while Mitchell reentered with 5:26 to play. After the game, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said that the hope was Mitchell’s injury was just a stinger and wouldn’t be anything that lingers long term.

Mitchell is slated to have further tests done when the team returns to the Bay Area.

“He said he was good enough to come back in, so that’s when you think it’s a stinger, but until you have time to go and get an MRI and stuff like that, you never know,” Shanahan said. “But we’re hoping it was just a stinger. You usually feel good about it the way he was talking and the way he was able to come back in the game.”

The Niners finished with 117 yards on 38 carries, an average of just 3.1 yards per attempt on a day in which every yard was difficult to come by.

After rushing for 104 yards in his NFL debut last week, Mitchell started in Mostert’s place but struggled to get much going on the ground, as the Niners’ offense didn’t get on track until late in the first half. Mitchell finished with 17 carries for 42 yards and had two catches for 11 yards.

Hasty had the most success of the Niners’ runners, carrying five times for 38 yards to go with four catches for 21 yards. Sermon gained 8 yards on his lone carry but suffered a concussion when he took shoulder and helmet shots to the head on the attempt.

Sermon will immediately go into the concussion protocol and must clear it before he can return to the field. Shanahan was unsure of the severity of Hasty’s ankle injury after the game, and he, too, is set for further tests back in the Bay Area.

In between Hasty’s and Sermon’s exits and Mitchell’s return, Cannon carried once and lost 1 yard to put a cap on a whirlwind week in which the 49ers claimed him off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens on Wednesday.

“He’s only been here since Wednesday and we dressed him to help us out on special teams today,” Shanahan said. “And from what I saw he did a hell of a job and we weren’t expecting him to go in at running back, but I think he did go in and I’m just glad he knew what to do.”

Depending on the status of Mitchell, Hasty and Sermon come Wednesday’s practice, the 49ers could need to add another back to the mix. Veteran back Kerryon Johnson could be one option if needed after he was signed to the practice squad last week.

DENVER

The 2-0 Broncos may have lost LB JOSEY JEWELL.  Myles Simmons ofProFootballTalk.com:

The Broncos may have a major injury to one of their key defensive players.

According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, Denver fears linebacker Josey Jewell suffered a significant pectoral injury during Sunday’s win over Jacksonville. Rapoport adds Jewell is undergoing an MRI to determine the specifics of the injury.

Jewell had to exit Sunday’s contest and was ruled out with an announced shoulder injury. Jewell played 21 snaps on Sunday, recording four total tackles with two for loss.

Jewell was on the field for each of Denver’s defensive snaps in the team’s Week One victory over the Giants.

The linebacker started all 16 games for the Broncos last year, recording 113 total tackles, 2.0 sacks, and four passes defensed. He’s appeared in 49 games with 30 starts since the Broncos selected him in the fourth round of the 2018 draft.

LAS VEGAS

Peter King signals his belief in the Raiders:

They can win . . . now

When I saw GM Mike Mayock in training camp seven weeks ago, he told me: “We need to be a playoff team—and beyond. It’s time to win.” The last seven days tells me they can be. The easy way to look at the Raiders is to see Derek Carr throwing for 817 yards in his first two games, playing clutch down the stretch, and finally activating the Cliff Branch of modern Raiderdom. Al Davis would have loved seeing Carr throw a zeppelin-ball 57 yards in the air, to a spot where sprinter/wideout Henry Ruggs was zooming toward, and connecting with Ruggs on a 61-yard touchdown that clinched the 26-17 upset of the Steelers in Pittsburgh’s home opener. Oh, and Al would have loved that the pass came at the confluence of the Three Rivers, against the team he despised from the Immaculate Reception a half-century ago.

Let’s give Carr his due, and let’s give Jon Gruden his due too—for being in perfect sync with Carr now, for calling the kind of plays in the kind of order that’s becoming hard to stop. The offensive line is leaky, and the franchise back, Josh Jacobs, might not be a durable player; we’ll see. But this is a big-league quarterback, with a big-league receiving corps. Maybe Ruggs will never be an every-down receiver, but to ruin games he doesn’t have to be. Leave that to Darren Waller, Bryan Edwards and Hunter Renfrow.

The defense has been so much better than I thought. In the first two game, per Pro Football Focus, Vegas has brought significant pressure on 38 percent of the dropbacks of Lamar Jackson and Ben Roethlisberger. It’s not T.J. Watt-type pressure, but it’s enough to not leave the secondary out to dry as was so often the case last year. Also: Criticize Mayock for a slew of his high picks, which is fair. But give him credit for the one-year, $2.5-million contract he agreed to with cornerback Casey Hayward, who’s been very good in the first two weeks. The Ravens and Steelers are 0-for-5 targeting him, and he’s been in coverage against both physical and fleet receivers so far. And Solomon Thomas, cut loose by the 49ers last winter, gave the Raiders two sacks of Roethlisberger on Sunday.

The West is where the power is, in both conferences. Who’d have thought it’d be the Raiders and Broncos at 2-0, with KC and the Chargers 1-1. This could be a fascinating year out west.

And this on Mark Davis:

I think Andrea Kremer’s piece on Raiders owner Mark Davis, airing Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on “HBO Real Sports,” produced by Maggie Burbank, fills in quite a few gaps on the quixotic Davis. (Plus, I never knew Davis was exiled from the family for a year for his close relationship with Cliff Branch, which didn’t sit well with his dad, Al Davis. And I never knew they shared two pet pigs.) Three good nuggets from Kremer’s story:

• “People ask where I grew up,” Davis tells Kremer. “I haven’t. Never wanted to . . . I was retired the first 50 years of my life. Now I have a job.”

• Davis is approachable and pleasant, at least in my interactions with him. His dad, who died in 2011, often had a force field around him, and alienated three commissioners and scores of owners. Says Mark Davis: “I felt maybe it’s a little easier to get things done with sugar rather than salt. I wanted to start on a clean slate with the National Football League, with the other owners.”

• Kremer did a good job with some pointed questions, including how the Mark Davis Raiders differ from his dad’s Raiders. “They won,” Mark Davis says. “We haven’t yet. That’s where I have to get it right.”

I’ll do the math. Al Davis, as majority owner from 1972 till his death in 2011, had a 327-279 regular-season record, with three Super Bowl titles. The record since his death: 64-95, obviously with no titles, and no playoff wins. Mark Davis understands. The franchise is on an 18-year streak of zero playoff wins.

BALTIMORE

A Ravens rookie changed his name and changed his luck on Sunday night.  Peter King:

After enduring a horrible loss last Monday in Las Vegas, and landing in Baltimore at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and adjusting to more devastating injuries, and having a short week of prep for the toughest team on the schedule, and taking a 36-35 lead late in the Sunday night game against mighty Kansas City, the Ravens began spitting out pieces of their broken luck with two minutes left in Baltimore. They could conquer a lot of things as one of football’s mentally toughest teams. Two things that’d be hard to conquer on this late evening:

1. The clock, with only one timeout left, and Kansas City with second-and-three at the Baltimore 32 with 92 seconds left. Plenty of time to get in golden position for the game-winning field goal and, with one more first down, to keep the Ravens from touching the ball again.

2. The inevitability of Patrick Mahomes. He’d beaten the Ravens in 2018, ’19 and ’20, and he was on the march to do it a fourth straight year.

In football, you almost always get what you deserve. But that doesn’t just mean in a game; it has to do with team construction too. Last spring, when Baltimore was scouting for the draft, GM Eric DeCosta liked a promising but unproductive player from Penn State, Jayson Oweh, more than many of his peers. No big plays, some scouts said. Zero sacks in his last year. He’s not a first-round pick. DeCosta thought he was; he liked how long (6-5 ½) and how limber the former basketball player was. DeCosta felt Oweh could be the next great player in the long line of great Ravens defensive players.

Oh, the irony of this draft. DeCosta picked receiver Rashod Bateman with the Ravens’ first-round pick. But when Baltimore traded tackle Orlando Brown to Kansas City, the package that came back included KC’s first-round pick, 31st overall. So DeCosta used that pick, Kansas City’s, to choose Oweh. On draft night, Oweh announced he would go by his given first name, Odafe (which means “Wealthy Man” in his native Nigeria) in the future.

With 1:32 left Sunday night, Odafe Oweh (pronounced “Uh-DAH-fay OH-way”) lined up the inside right of a five-man front for Baltimore, across from KC’s Pro Bowl guard, Joe Thuney. Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire got the handoff from Mahomes and headed behind right guard. Oweh’s job was to read Thuney and find a way to slither into the backfield to hit Edwards-Helaire. Oweh leaked into a crease to Thuney’s right, and as Thuney lunged to try to get Oweh off-track, Oweh reached his black-gloved right hand out and violently pawed at the ball in Edwards-Helaire’s grasp.

The ball came out.

“When I saw it on the ground,” Oweh told me as the clock neared midnight, “I wasn’t so much surprised as, I don’t know, I just knew I had to get it.” Oweh leaped on the ball, coralled it with his right hand and pulled it in, as Travis Kelce got on top of him and tried to wrangle it free.

Baltimore ball. Oweh got up, sprinted to the end zone, posed with his new family and felt incredible when one of his teammates yelled at him, “YOU SAVED THE GAME!”

“So exhilarating!” Oweh told me.

More drama followed—I’ll get to that later—but you know the good part. And there’s this, from a man who just started playing football five years ago but knew exactly what this moment meant, a man who came to Baltimore from a draft choice Kansas City owned a week before the draft.

Odafe Oweh said from the Ravens’ locker room: “This moment will be burned into my brain for the rest of my life.”

– – –

Then Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com on the decision made by John Harbaugh to go for it and win it:

John Harbaugh already knew the answer to his question when the Baltimore Ravens had an opportunity to put away the Kansas City Chiefs. Fourth-and-1 at their own 43, up 36-35 with 1:05 left and the Chiefs out of timeouts, with Lamar Jackson at quarterback.

No brainer right?

“I bet they’re going for it, too, with Patrick Mahomes. How about that?” Harbaugh said with a laugh after the Ravens’ thrilling win over the Chiefs. ” There wasn’t (any doubt). But I think I wanted to be sure myself, you know? I knew he was going to say yes, but we were going for it at that point.”

If the Ravens failed to convert the fourth-and-1, the Chiefs would have had plenty of time to kick the game-winning field goal with patrick Mahomes at quarterback. Kansas City only needed a completion to get in Harrison Butker’s range and could have ran the clock down to a few seconds left for the kicker to hit the game-winner.

Harbaugh and Jackson weren’t leaving that to chance. Neither wanted Patrick Mahomes to get the ball back.

“In my mind, I was like, ‘Damn, we should go for it, because we’re close,'” Jackson said. “But then when I was going to the sideline, Coach [Harbaugh] was like, ‘Do you want to go for it?’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah! No doubt.’ And we did [go for it, and] we came out with success.”

The fourth down conversion capped an excellent performance for Jackson, who finished 18 of 26 for 239 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, while rushing 16 times for 107 yards and two scores. Jackson recorded his ninth 100-yard rushing game, one behind Michael Vick for the most by a quarterback in NFL history. The Ravens improved to 9-0 when Jackson rushes for 100 yards.

Jackson had his second career game rushing for 100 yards and two touchdowns, joining Billy Kilmer (1961) as the only quarterbacks  to have multiple such games (since 1950). The Ravens quarterback also checked off another box, beating the Chiefs.

“I’ll tell you; I’m just happy. I’m happy for him,” Harbaugh said. “We love each other. All of us have each other’s backs. We want to win every single game. So, whatever it means, it means. It means something different to all of us. It means something.

“I can tell you what it means to me. It means a lot to me. But you know what? We have the Lions coming up in seven days, and we’re going to be thinking about that really soon.”

The DB is a big believer that if you have a chance to make one yard and win the game, you should almost always go for it.  Has to be over 80% if you have a good play, maybe more.  Glad to see it worked out for the Ravens.

CINCINNATI

QB JOE BURROW didn’t close things out for the Bengals.  John Breech of CBSSports.com:

The Bengals offense was a total disaster in Chicago and most of that was because Joe Burrow had  a total meltdown midway through the fourth quarter. The Bengals QB threw an interception on three CONSECUTIVE passes in the quarter, including a pick six that basically iced the win for the Bears. The Bengals offensive line definitely didn’t do Burrow any favors. The unit got steamrolled by a Bears defense that racked up four sacks. The one bright spot for the Bengals in this game was a defense that surrendered just 206 yards, marking the first time since 2013 that Cincy has lost when giving up under 210 yards. Although the Bengals made this game close with two touchdowns in the final 4:40, they weren’t able to overcome all of the errors made earlier in the game. 

HOUSTON

QB DAVIS MILLS is ar rookie who would get a start, ahead of QB DESHAUN WATSON, if QB TYROD TAYLOR’s injury sidelines him Thursday night.  Josh Alper ofProFootballTalk.com:

When Texans head coach David Culley was asked Sunday about the possibility of Deshaun Watson being activated for Thursday’s game against the Panthers, he said “we’ll have to see.”

Culley and the Texans came to a decision before he met with the media on Monday morning. Culley said that Watson will be inactive once again this week. Watson has been scratched from the first two games for what the Texans are calling personal reasons.

The question of Watson’s role came up because Tyrod Taylor hurt his hamstring and missed the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Browns. Culley said Taylor’s status is day-to-day and that the Texans have the “utmost confidence” in third-round pick Davis Mills as a starter if Taylor can’t play. Mills was 8-of-18 for 102 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in his first NFL regular season action.

With Watson set to be inactive, the Texans would likely call Jeff Driskel up from the practice squad if Mills is starting against Carolina.

A curious decision by the Texans braintrust is noted by Peter King:

I think there is no logical reason to choose to punt instead of accepting a penalty. That surfaced in Houston-Cleveland. The situation: Houston ball at its 38, third-and-15. Tyrod Taylor passes to Brandin Cooks for 13 years, leaving fourth-and-two. But there’s a flag for offside. Houston can accept it and advance to the 43, leading to third-and-10. Coach David Culley declined the penalty and chose to punt, saying later it was because he wanted to try to pin the Browns deep in their own territory. That is just not plausible. On third-and-10, Houston could have run a play and possible earned a first down. Even if the Texans came up short, the punt would be from near midfield. Anyway, it’s just the wrong logic by Culley.

INDIANAPOLIS

Not one, but two injured ankles for QB CARSON WENTZ.  Nick Shook of NFL.com:

Carson Wentz’s latest encounter with the injury bug has left him with two ailing ankles.

Wentz is undergoing tests on his ankles to determine the severity of the sprains he suffered in Indianapolis’ Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday.

Wentz departed the Colts’ game in the middle of the fourth quarter, getting the Colts into scoring position and watching kicker Rodrigo Blankenship cash in with a 35-yard field goal to tie the game at 24-24 before exiting for good. Wentz’s injury forced backup Jacob Eason into the game to attempt Indianapolis’ final five passes of what ended up being a three-point loss. Eason’s second attempt of the game was intercepted, and he finished with a passing line of 2 for 5 for 25 yards.

Wentz’s health has been a topic for, well, a good portion of his career, especially this year. Wentz suffered a foot injury that kept him out of most of Indianapolis’ training camp, but was able to land on the shorter end of the wide 5-12-week timeframe for his return. He played in Week 1, completing 25 of 38 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-16 loss to Seattle in Week 1. Prior to his exit, Wentz had completed 20 of 31 passes for 247 yards, one touchdown (to Zach Pascal, his third receiving score of the season) and one interception.

MIAMI

Although he was carted off, QB TUA TAGOVAILOA does not appear seriously injured per Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com:

There’s some relatively good news for Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who left Sunday’s loss to the Bills with a rib injury.

According to NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, further tests on Monday morning did not reveal any major issues for the quarterback. As was the case on Sunday, Tagovailoa’s X-rays were negative, so he’s suffering from bruised ribs. His availability for Miami’s Week Three matchup with Las Vegas will be determined by Tagovailoa’s pain tolerance and functionality.

Tagovailoa exited on Sunday after he was hit hard by Bills edge rusher A.J. Epenesa on the Dolphins’ second possession. Tagovailoa was 1-of-4 passing for 13 yards and was sacked twice in just nine snaps.

Jacoby Brissett came on in relief and finished 24-of-40 passing for 169 yards with an interception. He was also sacked four times in the 35-0 loss.

Peter King pronounces the Dolphins to be inferior to the Bills, which seems pretty obvious at the moment:

The Answer is still The Question

Two of Miami’s last three games have been against Buffalo. Tagovailoa got yanked for ineffective play against the Bills in Week 17 last year. He had to leave because of injury after two series Sunday in south Florida. Combined score of the two games: Buffalo 91, Miami 26. Even in the great Jim Kelly/Thurman Thomas days, the Bills never laid it on the Dolphins like this in a two-game span; Kelly’s high score in back-to-back games was 79 points. The Dolphins are not in Buffalo’s league, no matter who is quarterbacking—and backup Jacoby Brissett was as ineffective as the man drafted to be the franchise quarterback 17 months ago.

You don’t want to make too much of this if you’re a Miami fan, but reality bites for your team at quarterback right now. You turn on the TV and watch Justin Herbert, drafted one spot after Tagovailoa in 2020, develop into a top-10 NFL quarterback. You might have hope for Tagovailoa, but truly you can’t know if your long-term quarterback is even on the roster right now. And now Tua’s got a rib injury that could keep him out for the short-term—with the Raiders, Colts and Bucs coming on the next three Sundays. There’s also the matter of an impatient owner, Stephen Ross, who desperately wants his Marino. Sunday’s developments make it seem like Miami’s quarterback answer is still very cloudy.

THIS AND THAT

BAMA QBs

Peter King points out that Nick Saban used to win without NFL-caliber QBs, but that has changed recently:

In the first 20 NFL drafts of this century, Alabama had three quarterbacks drafted: Brodie Croyle (85th overall, 2006), Greg McElroy (208th, 2011) and A.J. McCarron (164th, 2014).

In the last two NFL drafts, Alabama had three quarterbacks drafted, if you count the three seasons Jalen Hurts spent in Tuscaloosa: Tua Tagovailoa (fifth, 2020), Hurts (53rd, 2020) and Mac Jones (15th, 2021). Say you credit Alabama for Hurts’ three seasons and Oklahoma—where he transferred for one season after losing the job in 2019 to Tagovailoa—for one. Then Alabama has 2.75 starting quarterbacks in the league right now.

Croyle, McElroy and McCarron were a combined 2-13 as NFL starters. None was ever handed the reins of a franchise. The NFL can be a transient place for quarterbacks, but Jones is clearly New England’s long-term choice. In Miami, Tagovailoa has the future of the franchise in his hands—if he’s good to very good this year, he’ll win the job into the future. In Philadelphia, Hurts isn’t as secure, but a very good year could win him that job as well. Could, I say.

It’s notable, given the Tide’s plodding place in offensive football history, that no NCAA institution has as many NFL starting quarterbacks in September 2021 as Alabama. In talking to NFL evaluators in the past few days, they credit Nick Saban for being more progressive on offense in recent years for the change. After Saban took over the Tide program in 2007, program-watchers thought the recruitment of Julio Jones would start a sea-change for the offense. Jones was great, but he didn’t change the program. That happened when Saban began to import progressive minds like Lane Kiffin (2014), Steve Sarkisian (2016) and Jake Peetz (2018) with NFL pedigrees. (This year, ex-NFLer Bill O’Brien is the offensive consultant.) And in 2018, with the run-pass option in vogue, Alabama installed it and used mobile quarterbacks like Hurts and Tagovailoa to open a progressive chapter in college offenses. Also, the more open nature of offense in Tuscaloosa allowed Alabama to spread the field and recruit great wide receivers like DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle.

As Saban told the New York Times recently, “This new age of offense, with the spread and the RPOs and lots of screens, throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage, blocking downfield, taking advantage of the rules, made it much more difficult defensively . . . If you didn’t have an offensive system that was going to take advantage of the rules of college football, as well as the explosive, and have a chance to score points, you were probably going to struggle.”

Saban’s first seven teams, pre-Kiffin/Sarkisian/Peetz, were 79-15. His next seven teams, pre-2021: 91-8. The new offense, and the offensive talent wanting to play in this system, has helped a great team be greater. The NFL is the beneficiary, because these young quarterbacks are in a pre-NFL training ground that better prepares them for the Sunday game. Now, for the first time since the drafts of 1965 (Joe Namath, 12th overall pick) and 1968 (Ken Stabler, 52nd overall), NFL evaluators are looking to Alabama for quarterback talent. Saban’s open mind is a big factor.

GAMBLING

Peter King and a correspondent wonder about the NFL’s sudden shift to embrace gambling:

I’ve been wondering the same thing. From John Paisan, of Irving, Texas: “On the new ‘glorification’ of gambling in the NFL, I always thought the pro leagues shied away from the gambling side because of the illegality and the corruption possibility of influencing the games. Now that the illegality seems to be dissipating, I am concerned about the possible corruption. I wonder if/when gambling will be influencing front office decisions like who’s the coach, or whether a certain player at a position is worthwhile. So, with all the new talk about favorites (not just for the win but against the spread) ratcheting up, how will owners who seem to have a business interest in the gambling operations think about whether it’s better to just win or win by 77 points a game?”

Too early to tell (we’re two weeks into the full-on gamification of the NFL), but those are valid concerns. I don’t want to seem like I’m 64 years old or anything, but a couple of other things are worrisome. One of the reasons gambling is attractive to the NFL is because—like fantasy football—it gets people who might not care about the Houston-Cincinnati game to care because they might have some action on the game. Action on the game might lead to better ratings for meaningless games, etc. But at what cost? The addictive aspects of sports gambling come into play too. We act like this brave new world of NFL games being so available to bet on is a wonderful thing. Maybe it is. But maybe (probably) it’s going to bankrupt some families and lead to the ruination of some families as well. We’d all be naïve to think the upside of legal sports betting by a burgeoning portion of fans is not going to have some social consequences.