$.01—The Seattle Seahawks hosted the San Francisco 49ers in the much-hyped (guilty as charged) Sunday night affair. The game was a defensive struggle, as the fast, physical defenses largely contained the dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks all night long. The Seahawks flew to a 29-3 win thanks to a bone crunching defense and five San Francisco turnovers.
The game never really had any flow. Some of that was due to a prolonged weather delay that extended the game well past midnight for those of us in the Eastern Time Zone. Seattle led 2-0 thanks to a holding penalty in the end zone, and then it was 5-0 Seahawks at halftime. The two vaunted young QBs, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick, were both under 50 percent passing and had each thrown an interception entering the fourth quarter. Wilson started 1-for-9 before finally completing a few passes, escaping the murky air and leading a couple of scoring drives.
Kaepernick had a truly awful night, which will perhaps pump the brakes on his anointment as The Next Great QB. His line was horrific, and yet it doesn’t capture just how poorly he played against the physical, intense Seattle defense. Kaepernick finished 13-for-28 for 127 yards and three interceptions, plus a lost fumble. As Al Michaels repeated several times during the never-ending broadcast, Kaepernick was the San Francisco running game with his 87 yards, or 71 more than Frank Gore on the same nine carries.
Then there were the penalties. Oh, the penalties! There were 22 total, 12 on the Niners and 10 on Seattle, and those were just the ones that got enforced. Anytime a game has more than 200 combined penalty yards, it’s an ugly exhibition. Many were personal fouls, including a taunting penalty on Seattle for spinning the ball next to an injured Eric Reid and a facemask penalty on Ahmad Brooks when Russell Wilson had already sacked himself.
These two teams meet again late in the year, and hopefully we get a more compelling and entertaining contest. Seattle dominated defensively at home, and I suspect the Niners will hold serve come December.
$.02--The Manning Bowl also turned out to be pretty anticlimactic. Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos dominated Eli Manning’s New York Giants 41-23 as Denver picked off Eli four times and Peyton did a lot of handing off.
It’s pretty easy to draw conclusions about the Broncos. They are far and away the best team in the AFC at this early point. Last week Peyton threw for seven touchdowns. This week Knowshon Moreno ran for two touchdowns, Trindon Holiday expertly took a punt back to the house, and the defense forced the four turnovers to prove they can win in any number of ways. About the only thing they didn’t do well was penalties, where they committed 13 for a Lions-like 132 yards. Denver is cruising even without the suspended Von Miller, the team’s best defender.
New York is a tougher nut to crack. The Giants are 0-2 and have turned the ball over 10 times in the two losses. Denver held them to 23 yards rushing, and they went 1-for-11 on 3rd down. Although Eli was only sacked once, the offensive line ceded an awful lot of pressure…or at least that’s what Eli perceived. He’s struggling badly right now. We’ve seen this before with Eli; he’s prone to bouts of inaccuracy and poor decision making. The question is how long he remains in his self-induced quagmire.
In years past, the Giants defense and running game has been able to prop Eli up during these bouts. This Giants supporting cast simply isn’t playing well enough to help Eli. New York hasn’t run for 75 yards combined in the two games this year. Some of that is a function of falling way behind early, but the running game is vacant. So is the pass rush, which didn’t get a whiff of Peyton this week. I didn’t catch much of this game but the Denver possessions I watched were a dominating display of line play against what’s supposed to be a Giants team strength.
The bright side for New York is that the rest of the NFC East all lost today too. They sit just one game back of Philadelphia and Dallas, both flawed teams just like New York. Of all the “surprise” 0-2 teams, I feel the best about the Giants’ ability to recover.
$.03--As several folks expressed on message boards and Twitter on Sunday, it’s hard to figure out which is the bigger problem for the Washington Ethnic Slurs, the punchless offense or the glass-jawed defense. The Green Bay Packers thoroughly dominated visiting Washington 38-20, but the game wasn’t really as close as that lopsided score would indicate. It was 38-0 Green Bay late in the third quarter, the second week in a row Washington fell hopelessly behind before rallying late against apathetic prevent coverage.
Some are going to point the finger at Robert Griffin III. RG3 once again came out looking rusty and the Washington offense sputtered badly, producing four punts and an interception in their five first half drives. Just as with the Eagles last week, the Packers defense didn’t respect his running threat and RG3 isn’t physically capable yet of making them pay for that. Without the threat of the scramble, or the read option run, the Skins offense is predictable and lacks playmakers. That should get better as Griffin gets healthier, although it might not happen in time for this season to be salvaged.
Others are going to point fingers at the defense. Jim Haslett’s group became the first in NFL history to allow a 450-yard passer and a 125-yard rusher in the same game. The 480 yards given up to Aaron Rodgers is not a huge surprise, as Rodgers is a MVP-caliber talent with a deep cast of receivers. It’s the 132 yards rushing they gave up to the Packers’ James Starks that is deeply troubling. Green Bay hadn’t had a 100-yard rusher in their last 44 games, a dubious string that dates back to a 2010 date with these same Ethnic Slurs. Starks was left for dead on the roster this offseason, as the Packers used two draft picks on running backs as they tired of Starks’ inability to get into open space. He erupted for 6.6 yards per carry almost double his 2012 average of 3.6, and the blocking didn’t appear all that great. The tackling by Washington was putrid.
Now the Skins are 0-2 with a lot of fingers pointing in a lot of directions. This is a far cry from the feel-good team that unexpectedly cruised to a NFC East title last year. The arrow appeared up, but right now it can’t get much more down for Washington. For the first three quarters in each of their first two games, they’ve been the worst team in the entire NFC.
$.04--Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman provided an abject lesson in how to lose friends and alienate people this week. Relations between Freeman Greg Schiano appear to have reached a head, with Schiano publicly confirming that Freeman missed the team photo because he overslept. This comes on the heels of Schiano’s also forceful denial that he rigged the team captain vote; the Bucs players did not vote Freeman as a captain, which is something of a surprise as Freeman has been a captain since 2010.
Freeman’s unreliability on and off the field is a real problem for Tampa Bay. Don’t forget, Tampa Tribune reporter Ira Kaufman reported earlier this summer that Freeman showed up late to his own football camp for local kids. At times, Freeman looks like a very good starter, but far more often he is a reactive thrower that doesn’t process information quickly. Since a breakout run from his late rookie season into the middle of his second year, Freeman has spent more time in the bottom 10 of NFL quarterbacks than in the upper half.
Now it is being reported by CBS’s Jason LaCanfora that Freeman will request a trade. Because Freeman is a free agent at the end of the year, any trade would be a short-term audition that is unlikely to bring anything of consequence back to Tampa Bay. All the concerns about his irresponsibility certainly don’t augment his value. His play on Sunday didn’t help either; Freeman went 9-for-22 for 125 yards, one TD, one INT, and one lost fumble when he didn’t feel pressure and got slammed from behind. Those are numbers that Freeman’s draft classmate Mark Sanchez laughs at. The Bucs lost despite a strong performance from the defense, which held Drew Brees and the Saints to 16 points. Something is going to give quickly in the power struggle between Schiano and Freeman, who has a benefactor in GM Mark Dominik, the man who spent a first round pick on him. The losses will continue to pile up until something gets resolved.
$.05--Thursday night saw the New England Patriots host the New York Jets. I watched this game with an old friend of mine named Mark, a rather obnoxious Patriots fan with a chowdah accent that does Good Will Hunting proud. There are three things that Mark hates in life: indoor smoking bans, pronouncing the letter “R”, and Rex Ryan. It was with great amusement I watched Mark react to his Pats struggling in the rain. It was to the whole bar’s amusement, really.
Sorry Mark, but this is going to be that kind of year. These are not the same Patriots who have steamrolled to AFC East titles and playoff byes. Tom Brady knows this, and that’s why he was so animated along the sidelines. His receiving corps couldn’t get to where Brady expected them to be on the field after the early TD to rookie Josh Boyce. My friend Mark was more distraught than Brady. This led us to a conversation about just what happened to the New England offense.
Injuries are a major factor. Rob Gronkowski was out once again as he recovers from his latest arm surgery, his fourth if you’re counting at home. Gronk missed a year of college with a back injury, a malady that still gets listed on the official injury report. He’s an amazing talent but durability is not one of his strong suits. Running back Shane Vereen, who rushed for over 100 yards in the opener but also caught seven passes in the win over Buffalo, was placed on short-term injured reserve with a wrist injury. They were without ostensible top wideout Danny Amendola, whose lengthy injury history makes Gronk seem like Cal Ripken (that’s Mark’s line, by the way).
The Aaron Hernandez situation is obviously unforeseeable, but letting Wes Welker walk and replacing him with Amendola is a calculated decision that appears to have completely backfired. This is not a new development for the Patriots, who have a truly miserable track record with evaluating and developing wideouts. Here’s a list of wide receivers the Patriots drafted from 2003-2011, when they were drafted and how many catches they secured in a New England uniform:
Bethel Johnson, 2nd round 2003: 30 catches
PK Sam, 7th round 2004: 0 catches
Chad Jackson, 2nd round 2006: 13 catches
Matt Slater, 5th round 2008: 1 catch
Brandon Tate, 3rd round 2009: 24 catches
Taylor Price, 3rd round 2010: 3 catches
There are two things to note here. First, they don’t take wideouts very often; no other team took less than nine wide receivers in those eight drafts. Secondly, the ones they take cannot play. That inability to recognize potential talent or develop it into something useful is why there is a vacant depth chart. It’s okay to import guys like Welker and Randy Moss to fill the top roles, and the Pats have done that very successfully. But as Mark says, “depth mattahs” and now the top shelf imports are gone too. It will get better when Gronk returns, perhaps next week, and as rookies Josh Boyce and Kenbrell Thompkins learn the NFL ropes. But expect to see a lot of the exasperated, disgruntled Brady this year.
$.06—The Tennessee Titans went into Reliant Stadium to face the Houston Texans and nearly pulled off the big upset win. The Texans ultimately won in overtime 30-24, but this game serves notice the Titans are legitimately better. It comes from their defense.
You might have heard of their new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Yes, that Gregg Williams, the one responsible for Bounty Gate in New Orleans. Just as he has done in prior stops, Williams deploys an incredibly aggressive defense that likes to bring relentless pressure. The Titans have the athletes up front to pull it off. Ends Derrick Morgan and Ropati Pitoitua consistently won battles and pressured Matt Schaub, while the linebackers flew all over the field. The aggression forced mistakes from Matt Schaub, who threw a pick six to Alterraun Verner that put the Titans up 24-16 late. Neither offense was very impressive, other than a sporadic run here from Ben Tate and a deep throw there from Jake Locker.
The Texans should have won this game much earlier, but their kicking game abandoned them. Randy Bullock missed three field goals in regulation, including one at the end of the 4th after making it initially but having it wiped out by a timeout. I did appreciate the redemption story for Texans wideout Nuke Hopkins, who caught the game winner in overtime. Hopkins had an awful game heading into overtime. He completely whiffed on a block that blew up a screen play that was poised to gain big yards. Hopkins was also at fault on a Schaub INT, as he misread the coverage and ran the wrong route while Schaub threw it where he expected his rookie to be. That all gets (mostly) forgiven thanks to his first career 100 yard game and touchdown.
I tweeted it during the game, so I feel compelled to mention it here too: The Texans owe this game to their punter, Shane Lechler. The greatest punter in NFL history had seven punts on the day. Five of them went inside the 20, 3 of those inside the 10. One of those set up a safety. Without Lechler’s performance, the Titans would have won this game.
$.07—The Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins are all 2-0. I’ll admit it, I didn’t see that with any of those teams. I thought the Dolphins and Chiefs would be improved, but it’s still striking that they sit undefeated. Chicago has required late-game comebacks to get both wins, but they too sit at 2-0 and alone atop the NFC North standings.
So which team has the best chance of sustaining the early success? My guess is Kansas City, which has allowed just 18 points in two weeks. The defense has strong talent at all three levels and is playing with renewed energy this year. The run defense is barely giving up three yards per carry. Alex Smith has fit in well to Andy Reid’s offense, proving he’s the AC/DC drummer of NFL quarterbacks: ask him to keep a simple beat over and over and over and over and over again, and he’s fine, but mix up the tempo or ask for a snazzy fill and you’ll be left with a discordant mess. Seriously, the AC/DC drum parts are identical in 90 percent of their Brian Johnson-era songs, and the ones where they change things up are their worst efforts. That’s the story with Smith too. Keep him in a comfort zone and you can win some ballgames. Thus far the Chiefs have done just that.
That’s not to say Miami and Chicago aren’t legit. The Dolphins have a fearsome, athletic defensive front and a young quarterback in Ryan Tannehill who was better than Andrew Luck in this week’s win over Indianapolis. I like the unearthing of Charles Clay as a utility weapon for the offense as a balance to the speedy Mike Wallace. The Bears made an outstanding coaching hire in Marc Trestman and his prudent creativity has invigorated Jay Cutler and the passing offense. I still have a lot of concerns about the Bears defense, which relies way too much on turnovers to get stops, but Chicago isn’t going to be an easy win for anyone either.
$.08--Five NFL Quickies
1. Washington safety Brandon Meriweather knocked out Packers RB Eddie Lacy with a helmet to helmet shot on a tackle. Later on in the first half, Meriweather once again lead with his head. This time he knocked himself out on James Starks’ helmet. Meriweather is a shining example of why the NFL must make what seem to be extraordinary and unpopular rules to protect the players from themselves.
2. I didn’t see one second of the game as it wasn’t on the DirecTV game mix channel, but Mario Williams getting four sacks of Cam Newton is precisely the sort of fool’s gold that frustrated Texans’ fans so much during Super Mario’s Houston tenure. Williams flashes that kind of dominating presence two or three times a season, but the fans see him do it so easily and wonder why he’s a below-average pass rusher the other 13-14 games. Man, when he’s on though…
3. I saw this happen in two separate games on Sunday: a punting team saves the ball from going into the end zone and the fielding team then touches the ball but never controls it long enough for possession. Technically the Titans never touched it, but incompetent boob of a ref Jeff Triplette ruled they did. Anyways, I’ll explain the ruling the way it was explained in the Vikings/Bears game. When the punting team touches the ball first and the fielding team never takes full possession, the ball is dead where the receiving team touches the ball even if they bobble it back through the end zone, as the Bears’ Eric Weems did. Note for punt return units: just don’t touch the ball when the kicking team has already touched it first.
4. If there was any doubt, the Oakland Raiders vanquished it on Sunday: the Jacksonville Jaguars are the worst team in the NFL. Jacksonville did manage to score a touchdown this week after recording just a safety last week, although the TD came in garbage time of a 19-9 loss in Oakland. Perhaps it’s the new helmets, which look better on paper than on actual humans.
5. Only three of the first 14 games played this weekend were decided by more than one possession. Some of those close finals are misleading, but the fact that so many games come down to such a close margin has to make the NFL owners happy. Most every fan base has a reason to stay engaged to the final whistle. That drives ratings, which drives up television contracts, which drives up revenues.
$.09--College/Draft Quickies
1. I was at Michigan (more on that later) and spent a lot of time focusing on LT Taylor Lewan and QB Devin Gardner. Lewan was his usual feisty self, always physical but not always technically sound. He lost the edge a handful of times because his inside leg on his kick step is slow and doesn’t get proper depth, and he lunged out well over his base in the run game a few times. He briefly left the game with what sure looked like an awful leg injury, but he hobbled his way back in for the game-winning drive. I still see a late-first round talent, at best.
Gardner was nothing short of awful as a passer. Continually slow to read the defense and find the open man, he was off target and late all afternoon. Just like the Notre Dame game last week, he committed an awful, inexcusable turnover. Two actually, considering his fumble in the shadow of his own goalpost. I held great optimism for Gardner entering the season, but he just hasn’t progressed as anticipated. There is still a lot of ability to work with, but Gardner remains a long-term project as a NFL prospect.
2. Alabama held off Texas A&M in a game with a couple of major tidal shifts. The Aggies stormed out to an early 14-0 lead, but the Crimson Tide surged back and led 35-14 when Tino Sunseri picked off Johnny Manziel and took it to a stunned Kyle Field house. Manziel and the Aggies didn’t quit, however, and they closed the score to 49-42 late before Alabama recovered a last-gasp onside kick. I’ve been openly critical of Manziel for being an immature, arrogant party boy and for not being a viable NFL quarterback prospect. But when he’s scrambling around and making play after play like few others in college football have in a long time, I have to admit he’s one hell of a ride. I still don’t think he’s got the requisite vision, pocket presence, or size to be a NFL quarterback, but that doesn’t mean we all shouldn’t enjoy his amazing ability to pull rabbits out of hats at the college level. Anyone who can scare some human reaction out of Nick Saban and torment the Bama coach gets a big thumbs up.
3. I’ve been a big backer of UCLA QB Brett Hundley as a NFL draft prospect, and he had quite a day against Nebraska. He’s a redshirt sophomore, which means he is draft eligible at the end of the year if he chooses. I suspect many NFL teams (Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Tennessee, Cleveland) are hoping he does declare and makes the QB pool deeper. He’s a more consistent version of EJ Manuel with a more natural sense as a runner. I’m not crazy about his long delivery, but Hundley sure looks like a top 12 pick.
4. If you’re looking for a BCS crasher this year, you’re probably out of luck. The best non-AQ team appears to be Central Florida, which won at Penn State and ranks near the top in scoring defense. Yet their bubble almost certainly gets burst this week when South Carolina visits Orlando. They also have a looming date with Teddy Bridgewater and Louisville later on even if they knock off the Gamecocks. Northern Illinois, which crashed the BCS last year only to get blown out by Florida State, does have a win over Iowa and a likely top 8 Heisman finisher in QB Jordan Lynch, but the only undefeated team left in the MAC struggled to beat an Idaho team that ranks in the bottom 10 in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
5. Minnesota coach Jerry Kill had another epileptic seizure during a game. This is at least the third confirmed seizure Kill has had either during or immediately after a game, and there are a couple of other incidents that can be lumped in as well. The Minnesota athletic department said they are not concerned about Kill continuing to coach the team. They should be. In a culture of player protection and upholding the safety of the game, is it really prudent to have someone with Kill’s apparently uncontrollable malady along the sideline? He’s a good coach and the scouts I talk to that know him all love Kill, but enough is enough here.
$.10--I spent my Saturday with my eight-year-old son, Layne, taking him to his first game at the Big House. Longtime readers know I’m from an Ohio State family and my wife is from a Michigan family. We’re pretty good about not imposing too much influence one way or the other, and I was happy to take him to the game against Akron.
It was quite an experience for both of us. The game wound up being thisclose to a monumental upset. That brought out very conflicting emotions in me as I sat with my son in a sea of maize and blue. I’m a MAC grad and I do feel pride for my conference, even though Akron is in every way inferior to Ohio University, my alma mater. When Akron started out strongly, I was happy that they put up a nice early fight with the mindset that Michigan was going to wake up and eventually blow their doors off. When Michigan continued to struggle well into the second half, I thought I might be witnessing something amazing.
Yet excited as I was at the prospect of the colossal shocker, the eight-year-old to my right kept the emotions firmly in check. “How can Michigan be playing so bad?” he plaintively cried when Devin Gardner threw the ball for an interception that was returned for a touchdown. The genuine sadness in his eyes and bewilderment of his body language brought out full parent mode. That was augmented by the nonstop cursing from the bozo three rows above us who couldn’t yell a noun without a certain effing adjective. There was so much negative energy in Michigan Stadium, almost entirely directed from the Wolverine faithful at their own team. When Akron WR L.T. Smith was wide open behind the defense for the fourth or fifth time and the Zips held the lead with under five minutes to go, the timbre was foulmouthed and angry.
The game wound up being a nail-biter, with the final Michigan defensive stand happening right in front of us. The sheer joy in Layne’s eyes when Michigan scored the go-ahead touchdown, and then again when they stopped the Zips on the final play, those are moments I will never forget. Getting to share his first real taste of mass celebration, well, that’s worth me swallowing my tongue for a sunny afternoon. These are the kinds of experiences that make football so special. I remember my own dad taking me to The Horseshoe when I was Layne’s age, watching my first football hero Art Schlichter of all people. The two hour car rides home after those games are some of the happiest times we’ve spent together. I got to share experience the other side of that equation this weekend, and it was fantastic.