The second week of the NFL season again brought some
expected results, some surprises, a couple late wins and a slew of aborted
comebacks, together with a few more big injuries. Things started on Thursday
with a 31-24 victory by the Broncos over the Chiefs, when a second Jamaal
Charles’ fumble led to the game-winning recovery with a mere 27 seconds left on
the clock. On Sunday, the Chargers mounted a late drive against Cincinnati only
to fall short 24-19 after Philip Rivers threw an interception (in the same game
he broke Dan Fouts’ record for career Chargers touchdowns), the Giants fell
short again failing on four straight pass plays at midfield to lose 24-20 to
the Falcon and the Bills impressive fourth quarter comeback (19 points to 3) fell
short 40-32 after an interception on their last drive. Um, weren’t the Bills
supposed to have a great defense? Not against the Patriots, it appears, as New
England makes an early statement in their attempt to make it two straight Super
Bowls.
In the other early games on Sunday, the Redskins quieted
their critics for at least one week with a 24-10 home victory over the Rams,
the Vikings beat the Lions 26-16 (with Peterson gaining 192 all-purpose yards),
the Steelers reminded the Niners that one week does not a season make (43-18)
and the Buccaneers piled the misery on the reeling Saints by beating them 26-19
at the Superdome. Elsewhere, Manziel recorded his first victory as a starter for
Cleveland with two long touchdown passes in a 28-14 victory over the Titans
(though he only finished 8 of 15 for 172 yards in a clearly “controlled” performance).
The Panthers moved to 2-0 with a 24-17 victory over the 0-2 Texans, who are
somehow among the top 10 richest teams in world sports, and the Cardinal did
the same after beating the lowly Bears 48-23 on four touchdown passes from
Carson Palmer. Jay Cutler went out injured with a hamstring pull and Tony Romo
would follow a couple of hours later.
Romo was in what appeared to be the cream of the afternoon lineup
as DeMarcus Murray tried to exact some revenge on his former team and help the
Eagles bounce back from a disappointing loss. Both finished the game
disappointed. The Eagles offense was non-existent in the first half (21 total
yards) as concerns about Sam Bradford seemed to come to full fruition and the
Cowboys continued to shoot themselves in the foot (pun intended) with 10 penalties
and several missed catches ending promising drives – along with a strong
defensively stand by the Eagles from first and goal at the 1 saving the home
team four points. The half ended with what seemed like the longest drive in the
history of the NFL, in the real time it took, with one penalty after another
(about equally split) before the Cowboys wasted time from the five yard line,
added one more penalty, got a penalty against the Eagles and ultimately had to
settle for three points and a 6-0 halftime lead. The second half started with
another poor Eagles drive, with Murray caught in the backfield twice, before a
blocked punt gave the Cowboys a 13-0 lead. Then things got really interesting,
in a bad way, with Romo fumbling the ball and breaking his left clavicle as
they were driving for what probably would have been a game killing TD. Many more penalties and turnover followed on
the way to a 20-10 Cowboys win, as Bradford threw an interception from the
two-yard line and another as the Eagles finally started to drive effectively,
sub QB Wheaton fumbled a play before Bradford gave it right back and the
Cowboys committed one penalty after another (a record 18 by the end of the game
for 142 yards). That was coupled with five turnovers, though Brandon Weeden was
7 for 7 with a TD after coming on and the Eagles got a late consolation TD. The
Cowboys are now 2-0, but will need to play with more discipline with a backup QB,
who has more career interceptions than touchdowns, if they are to stay in the
hunt for a playoff birth while, as I predicted, the Eagles are struggling.
Relying on two quarterbacks with among the worst career QB ratings ever, one
looking eerily like a young Ben Affleck and the other like a male model, is just
not a strong approach to winning games. On top of this, the Cowboys might have
pulled off the equivalent of a Joe Barry Carroll for Parrish and McHale trade
by letting Murray go to the Eagles, as he had a second poor rushing game in a
row.
In the other afternoon games, the Dolphins and Jaguars found
themselves tied at 20 early in the second half, the same score in the Ravens
Raiders game at the same moment. Only three more points were scored in the
first game, with the Jags winning on a late chip shot 23-20, while the Raiders
got their first win of the season 37-33 over the struggling Ravens, with a go
ahead touchdown in the final 30 seconds. Sunday night brought us the matchup of
the weekend, as Green Bay tried to exact some revenge for two losses in a row
to Seattle, including the late collapse in the NFC Championship Game last
season that cost them a Super Bowl birth. Green Bay largely dominated the first
half, but failed to get it in the end zone from the one-yard line right before
halftime, settling for a 13-3 lead. Seattle scored the next 14 points before a
Green Bay field goal brought them within one. In the fourth quarter another
impressive Aaron Rodgers drive capped by a touchdown and two-point conversion gave
Green Bay a seven point lead. Wilson threw an interception on the next
possession with about seven minutes left followed by a series of rugby like
scrums, with Seattle’s E.J. Wright ejected, before a time consuming short drive
resulted in a field goal to make it 27-17 with less than two minutes left. A
final fumble by Seattle wrapped things up, to leave the Seahawks 0-2 and Green
Bay getting that revenge and, maybe, a home game against Seattle if they meet
in the playoffs.
Monday night football pitted the New York Jets against an
Indianapolis Colts team trying to get back to winning ways after the opening
game loss to the Bills. For the first three quarters, the Jets defense was
imperious, with Darrelle Revis having three turnovers himself (an interception
and two fumble recoveries; one right at the goal line). But the Jets offense
was almost as inept and they were only up 10-0 going into the fourth. Then Luck
came alive and led the Colts on a 90-yard drive that brought them within 3,
before the Jets finally gave Fitzpatrick some freedom on the offensive end and
returned the favor leading the Jets all the way down the field to answer and
make it 17-7. There was still time for the comeback kid, but he threw yet
another interception for the 10th turnover by the Jets in two games
to essentially wrap things up with about five minutes left (leaving Luck 18 of
34 for 227 yards with 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions!). The Jets went on a
nice time-eating drive, including a key third down completion for Fitzpatrick,
to ultimately kick a field goal and seal the deal, with about a minute on the
clock. The loss was bad news for the Colts, who would have to become the first
team in NFL history to get to the playoffs two years in a row after going 0-2.
The Jets, on the other hand, can now claim the best defense in the league, a
quality running game and a quarterback who appears, at least for the moment, to
be less prone to mistakes than the last three disasters they have had at that
position. Could the Geno Smith freak injury be a blessing in disguise? Could it
finally be their year? As I Jets fan for many years, I doubt it.
Some thoughts on Week
2:
It Ain’t Over til the
Giants Blow the Game
Two weeks, two blown games. The Giants were again suspect in
their time management, again dropped catchable throws (including one on fourth
down that would have kept the drive alive) and again lost a game they should
have won. The final score was 24-20, after they lost the fourth quarter battle
14-0, leaving the surprising Falcons at 2-0 and looking like a force to be reckoned
with given their improved defense. The Giants led 13-10 at halftime and 20-10
going into the fourth quarter before the Atlanta offense, behind Ryan and Julio
Jones, struck the suspect New York passing defense for two touchdowns. Truly
terrible from Manning, Coughlin and a team that has been pretty terrible over
the past eight years but for two surprise Super Bowl wins over the
Patriots. Coughlin took over in 2004, in
Eli Manning’s first year, and after a 6-10 season, led the Giants to the
playoffs three years in a row, culminating in the upset win over the undefeated
Patriots 17-14 in 2007. Since then, they have only made the playoffs two times
in the past seven years, losing to the Eagles in 2008 and again surprising the
Patriots 21-17 in the 2011 Super Bowl. Now at 0-2, their record in 11 years is
96-82, though 8-3 in the playoffs with two rings. As a Jets and Cowboys fan, I
would take even one of those rings over everything that has happened in the
past 20 years, but the Giants have largely been a regular season disappointment
under Coughlin and Manning, with the error prone brother of one of the best
quarterbacks in history to blame for most of those successes, and failures. As
a result, a team that could easily be 2-0 continues to be an enigma. The only
good news for the Giants is the Eagles look abject on offense and the Cowboys
will be playing without their two best players for the foreseeable future.
The Unpredictability
of Predictability
Last week the Niners defense looked incredible in shutting
the Vikings down completely until late in the game. This week they were lit up
by the Steelers to the tune of 43 points and 453 total yards, even as they held
Pittsburgh to 84 rushing yards and crushed them in time of possession with
almost 40 minutes. The difference was Roethlisberger’s 369 passing yards and
the Steelers being five for five in the Red Zone. The same can be said of the
Buffalo defense, which was supposed to be among the best in the league before
giving up 40 points and over 500 yards to the Patriots. The Eagles, after last
week’s second half display, seemed likely to score some points against an oft-suspect
Cowboys’ defense. Instead they were completely inept and shutdown, with Murray
following the statistical trend of most running backs to have a fall off in
productivity after a workhorse year (21 carries for 11 yards in two games). The
Eagles problems run deep, as Chip Kelly’s constant tinkering has cost him some
of his best offensive weapons, a reasonably capable quarterback and the offensive
line he needs to run his fast paced offense. They were strong defensively, but
it wasn’t enough to beat a battered and mistake-prone Cowboys team, led by 14
tackles from returning LB Sean “the General” Lee.
Meanwhile, Cam Newton, the most underrated quarterback in
all of football, threw for two touchdowns and scored a third on the ground to
get the Panthers to 2-0 and make them rivals for the impressive Falcons,
another early season surprise. Johnny Manziel also had two throwing touchdowns,
Dalton had three and Winston ran for a touchdown and threw a second as all four
of these maligned quarterbacks led their teams to victory. On the flip side,
Peyton Manning is 2-0 but 20 points below his career QBR, completing less than
60 percent of his passes for an average of 5.07 per attempt with three
touchdowns and two interceptions so far this season. Drew Brees is 0-2 with
only 1 touchdown pass, to go with one interception, in two games of action. And
Marcus Mariotta was brought back to earth in a 28-14 loss, with two fumbles and
seven sacks surrounding a decent 21-37 for 252 yards and two touchdowns (though
two additional fumbles and an interception were luckily called back for
defensive penalties). Ultimately, it appears that the only thing one can predict
from one week to the next is that Belichick will get the best of Ryan whenever
they meet (since the reverse situation early in their matchup) and that
predicting things is kind of hard.
Early Troubles for
Some “Pretenders?”
Getting back to those Giants, several teams that some
thought would make a run at division titles or the playoffs find themselves
0-2, including the New Orleans Saints, the Detroit Lions, the Ravens, the
Eagles and those same ole Giants. There was some suspicion the hype around the
Giants might be overwrought, along with the Saints, who lost some offensive
potency while their defense got worse. But the Lions appeared like a team that
could make some noise this year, with more consistent play from their
quarterback and better defending. Instead they have started 0-2 and need to get
going quickly to salvage the season, with suspicions among many that Matthew
Stafford will never quite live up to the hype. This is even truer with the
Eagles, who were abject against the Cowboys offensively (particularly Bradford
and Murray) and not good enough on defense or in special teams as they now sit
0-2 and searching for answers. Buffalo were brought back to earth, as were the
Niners and Tennessee. And the Ravens without Suggs look like a much more suspect
defensive unit – sitting at 0-2 for the first time in the Harbaugh reign. It’s
still too early to make any definitive assessments of teams, but the Patriots, Cardinals
and Green Bay appear to be the early in form team in the league with questions
surrounding all of the other 2-0 teams. The Bengals are better than last year
but one still worries about relying on Dalton long term, the Broncos might be
flattering to deceive with a Manning clearly below his best and two somewhat
lucky wins, the Falcons and Panthers are yet to show if they can sustain their
play on both ends of the ball and the Cowboys suddenly find themselves without
their two biggest stars.
Best Penalty in
Football
I’m certainly not the first person to note that professional
football has a suspiciously close proximity to homoerotic literature of a
certain ilk. Plays generally start with a man in tights and shoulder pads
grabbing a ball from between the legs of another man. We then have “tight” ends
and “wide” receivers trying to catch a “pass” from their on-field leader or
running backs carrying balls for gains or losses all while ends and inside and
outside linesman fight each other to see who can “score”. If a pass play goes
wrong, the quarterback is “sacked” or a defensive back might be called for
interfering with one of those passes. When a team can’t get past third down,
they have to take a punt on that “drive” or try to kick a ball between two
“posts.” The infamous coach turned announcer John Madden only added to this
tendency making getting “down and dirty” the key statistically- difficult-to-assess
attribute of players. And slow motion, close-up replays of the key “action”
from a game is one of the main reason a sport that only has about 21 weeks of
action is still the highest earner among the big four. On top of all this (pun
intended), “penetration” on the offensive and defensive end is really the keys
to every game, along with “turnovers.” This is all made more ironic by the fact
that the NFL is arguably the key battleground alongside Hollywood in the
struggle to rescue American masculinity. In what must be an attempt to address
these many oversights, the best penalty in the league is without question
“illegal touching.” Enough said, I think.
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