$.01— It wasn’t the most compelling game of the week, but the Green Bay/Minnesota tilt wound up being the one with the most significance on the rest of the NFL season. That’s because Aaron Rodgers left the game with a broken right (throwing) collarbone early on in the Vikings 23-10 home win.
Rodgers is now out at least six weeks, and that’s an absolute best-case scenario. If he needs surgery to repair the broken shoulder, his season is over.
The Packers have done a remarkable job of overcoming injuries with the “next man up” philosophy, but there is no one next man who can fill Rodgers\' shoes. The perennial MVP candidate is perhaps the most irreplaceable talent in the league. Rodgers is the reason all those other “next men up” for the Packers over the years have thrived. Right tackles come and go –and will come again with Bryan Bulaga sidelined again with a concussion--, running backs rotate in and out like Kardashian boyfriends, receivers pop up like whack-a-mole targets, and it all works for Green Bay because of Rodgers. He’s arguably the best quarterback in the last 25 years, and he’d win that argument for me.
Now the Packers must turn to Brett Hundley at quarterback. If Sunday is any indication, they’re in deep trouble. Hundley barely completed half his passes and threw 3 INTs as Minnesota’s defense smothered the Green Bay offense, holding them to just 14 first downs and 227 total yards. Green Bay finally got all the key pieces back in the lineup, from RB Ty Montgomery to WR Jordy Nelson and OTs Bulaga and David Bakhtiari. They looked poised to run away and hide with the NFC North title with Rodgers getting the band back together. Now they’re Van Halen with Gary Cherone at singer. They’d better hope when Rodgers comes back it’s a lot better than David Lee Roth’s keyless and clueless return to Van Halen. There’s only so long Eddie can play before someone has to sing, and Brett Hundley ain’t talking ‘bout love right now with this offense.
This will be the second time in four seasons Rodgers misses ample time with a broken collarbone. This one is the throwing shoulder, and that’s a tougher rehabilitation. If there is no surgery, the shoulder is immobilized for 4-6 weeks. That means no throwing, no weightlifting. When I broke mine, I couldn’t even comb my hair with my right hand for a month. As awesome as Rodgers is, there will be some rust coming back as the shoulder gets back to full strength.
Minnesota will show no mercy, nor should they. The Vikings are on their third QB with both Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford out with knee injuries. Some have speculated that neither will play again, though that’s purely conjecture. On this day, Case Keenum (24/38, 239 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) was more than good enough to best Brett Hundley and lead the Vikings into a first-place tie with the Packers at 4-2. It’s hard to trust either of these teams with their QB injury woes, but Minnesota definitely has the better defense. With Detroit dropping like a lead weight (thrashed 52-38 by New Orleans thanks to 3 Saints defensive TDs), the Vikings look like the favorites to win the NFC North.
$.02— There are no more unbeaten teams thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers putting away the previously undefeated Chiefs 19-13 in Kansas City. The Steelers stymied Alex Smith and Kareem Hunt with a stifling defense, recording a safety on KC’s first drive and sticking to the smothering. The Chiefs managed just two first downs in the first three quarters. Hunt, who was darn near lapping the field in rushing yards, posted just 21 yards on 9 carries as the Steel Curtain dropped on the Chiefs’ explosive offense.
Pittsburgh’s offense finally showed some vitality…sort of. For the first time all season both Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown both had good days on the same afternoon. Bell ran for 179 yards and a TD, breaking tackles and ankles along the way. Brown caught 8 passes for 155 yards, none more impressive than a ricochet off a Chiefs’ facemask up the left sideline for Pittsburgh’s final touchdown.
When Smith’s final pass fell harmlessly to the Arrowhead turf, any dreams of an undefeated season fell too. I still think the Chiefs are the NFL’s most complete team, but they are vulnerable when a defense can make them one-dimensional on offense. Not many defenses can do that, but Pittsburgh’s D was as disciplined and effective as they can possibly be.
That’s where the beauty of the Steelers offense in this one comes in. Ben Roethlisberger handing to Bell and throwing to Brown is arguably the best troika of skill position talent in the league. Brown or Bell is great enough to carry the team on his own most weeks. When they’re hot together, Pittsburgh is as good as any team. An underrated offensive line, one better than Kansas City’s, is a nice asset too.
The Chiefs don’t get much time to lick their wounds. A Thursday night date in Oakland is a tough turnaround, even if the Raiders have lost four in a row and fallen far from the ranks of the AFC West race with Sunday’s humbling last-second loss to the Chargers. The flip side of the tough matchup is it represents a chance for the Chiefs to prove their legitimacy and simultaneously bury the rival Raiders.
$.03—The best game scheduled on the Week 6 slate was the Thursday Night Football affair between the Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers. The game in Charlotte did not disappoint, marking another fairly entertaining contest for the early-week game. Philadelphia prevailed 28-23 thanks to Carson Wentz producing just enough big plays to hold off Cam Newton, Kelvin Benjamin and the Panthers.
Wentz had an interesting game. The second-year QB wasn’t very good…except when he was great. Wentz missed some throws and blew some opportunities. He barely completed half (16/30) of his pass attempts. Yet when the Eagles needed something positive, Wentz delivered. It helped that wideout Nelson Agholor also shined, scoring the final Eagles TD at the start of the fourth quarter which pushed the lead to double digits for the first time. There is something to be said for a guy who can struggle with the ordinary but make the extraordinary happen, and that’s my general impression of Wentz over the last couple of weeks.
Cam Newton is another QB who has demonstrated that odd propensity. In this game, there weren’t enough of the extraordinary. To be fair to Newton, he got little help from his offensive line. The Eagles defensive front completely dominated the game, with Fletcher Cox making a prominent return from his injury hiatus. Newton struggled with the pressure and with accuracy down the field.
The Eagles surged out to 5-1 and this is handily the most impressive feather in their cap of wins. Carolina was playing well on both sides of the ball, but on this night the Eagles beat them down with superior play from both offense and defense. When Wentz can provide the big plays and protect the ball, and when Jim Schwartz’s defense is dialed in like it was Thursday, this is a very dangerous team in the suddenly wide open NFC.
$.04— Once again I’m reminded that the NFL is little more than Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “Make up your mind dude, is he gonna sh** or is he gonna kill us?”, Spicoli uttered to his stoner friend after wrecking the friend’s brother’s new sports car, given to him by a booster for his awesome football skills. The friend replies, “First he’s gonna sh**, then he’s gonna kill us.”
Roger Goodell and the NFL have effectively done both, defecating on Ezekiel Elliott and now attempting to maim him. Elliott was suspended for 6 games for domestic violence incidents with his former girlfriend, as well as some unrelated but similarly disturbing allegations for mistreatment of women. Elliott was never charged in court after police investigations. The NFL’s suspension was itself suspended with an injunction from a court, and Elliott played for the Cowboys through the first five games.
That injunction was removed by the U.S. Court of Appeals this week, and the NFL immediately reinstated the 6-game ban. Somewhat conveniently, the Cowboys are on a bye week, so there is more time for another appeal. Elliott has consistently proclaimed his innocence, and the police never found enough evidence or cooperation from the alleged victims to ever press charges. That sure seems to leave the merits of the suspension on shaky ground, which is what the appellate court found when it issued the injunction to suspend the suspension. Many other tentacles spring from this situation, too many to discuss here.
There is a lesson with Elliott’s situation for the NFL players, one which myself and many others have continually efforted to hammer home to them time and again: stop giving everything away in CBA negotiations for the sake of squeezing every last penny. The NFLPA created this mess by willingly agreeing to make Goodell both the judge and jury. Relying on the federal courts to remedy his questionable judgments is both risky for the players and a colossal waste of taxpayer resources for the rest of us. Stand up and fight, and don’t back down next time. Whatever quarter of a percent of the revenue pie you get from giving in is not worth it. Even Jeff Spicoli can comprehend that.
$.05— Deshaun Watson earned mention here two weeks ago when he donated his first-ever NFL game check to three Texans cafeteria workers who lost their homes in the Hurricane Harvey flooding in the greater Houston area. This week he did even more to warm the heart and dispel the notion that NFL players are ungrateful miscreants.
Watson partnered with Ashley Home Store and Habitat for Humanity to furnish 176 houses rebuilt after being destroyed by the flooding from Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. That’s a cool million dollars from Watson to help complete strangers in his new city. He did so without calling a press conference to proclaim his own grandeur or demanding branding rights to the sofas.
It helps his likeability and credibility that Watson also happens to be a very impressive player on the field, not just off it. The No. 12 overall pick was on point once again in beating up the team which could have drafted him in that slot, the Cleveland Browns. Watson threw for 3 more touchdowns, giving him 13 TD passes in his first six games. That’s an NFL record for a rookie. It wasn’t a perfect day, as he did throw a bad pick-six to Jason McCourty while being pressured by No. 1 overall pick Myles Garrett (outstanding once again). But Watson looks well beyond his years at finding the right target and putting the throw on target. Neither of those are easy or routine for his Cleveland counterparts. It helps that he has Will Fuller back in the lineup, as the Texans 2016 first-rounder has improved his route running and his hands as a catcher. His TD catch on a corner route was outstanding, showing off his blazing speed and his newfound confidence in his hands.
This was a big win for the Texans, who take a 3-3 record into their bye week. After losing J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus a week ago, other Houston defenders stepped up. Sure, it was the mistake-prone Browns and Kevin Hogan in his first NFL start, but guys like Johnathan Joseph (2 INTs including a pick-six) and D.J. Reader (5 tackles, 1 sack at nose tackle) picked up the slack nicely.
$.06— Adrian Peterson made his first game as an Arizona Cardinal count. Traded from New Orleans during the week for a few balls and some liniment, or a conditional sixth-round pick, Peterson topped his five-game total with the Saints quickly. After being a brutal and bitter disappointment both on and off the field in New Orleans, AD got off to a rousing start in Arizona.
Peterson ran for 134 yards and 2 TDs in leading the Cardinals to an offensive orgy of points for Arizona. Entering the game, they were averaging just 16 points per game. The Cardinals erupted for 38 in vanquishing the visiting Buccaneers 38-33. Peterson showed burst through the hole and more leg drive and balance than he’d played with in over two years.
I question whether Peterson can sustain the success, but nonetheless it’s a proud statement game from the most-feared RB of his generation. The Cardinals sorely needed him, though he did almost give the game away with a late fumble when Lavonte David punched (quite literally) the ball clean from his hand. The Cards fortunately fell on that grenade.
They dodged another when Jameis Winston left the game in the first half with a right shoulder injury.
https://twitter.com/John_Sabol/status/919674549897252864
The change from Winston to backup Ryan Fitzpatrick did not go well. Arizona raced out to a 24-0 lead before the Bucs stopped what Head Coach Dirk Koetter called “the worst half of football I’ve ever seen in my life”. Tampa rallied from 31-0 down to make it interesting, helped by a defensive touchdown and Fitzpatrick getting hot. Winston’s injury is not believed to be serious, which is good news for Tampa fans. Fitzpatrick is capable of both winning and losing the same game for his team, something he’s done for many years with many teams. These Bucs are close but not good enough to overcome his uncanny inconsistent play.
Back to Peterson. His old team, the Saints, didn’t miss him on Sunday. Peterson was in the way of getting dynamic rookie Alvin Kamara more touches and wasn’t happy being the third wheel in the RB rotation. Even if he nets the Cardinals just a couple of wins and an extra field goal a game, the deal will wind up working out for both teams.
$.07— The NCAA opted to not punish North Carolina for rampant academic fraud in their sports programs, notably the Tar Heels football and basketball teams. Scores of players admitted they were steered into joke classes which were specifically set up to boost athletes’ grades and often required no attendance. Teachers who administered the classes admitted they were nothing more than a ruse to keep players eligible and bolster GPAs to meet compliance issues.
As an example, this is the final exam—and only recorded grade—for a class:
https://twitter.com/BryanAGraham/status/918844751163592704
That received an “A”. I taught 7th grade social studies and that would have been no more than D-minus for my young students, and I gave them credit for at least turning assignments in on time. There are literally hundreds of examples of this gratuitous fraudulence from North Carolina. It’s a giant middle finger to the NCAA…and the NCAA smiled and moved on.
This is an organization which suspends student athletes for making enough from a YouTube channel to buy a burrito, which bans players and heavily sanctions programs for accepting free tattoos or selling private merchandise. They refuse to allow student-athletes to play immediately when they transfer, even for academic reasons, let alone the coach accepting a check with an extra zero flees town. The NCAA effectively prohibits student-athletes in revenue sports from holding jobs because it could be construed as them getting the opportunity by capitalizing on their athletic status. No athlete dare accept a fan buying them a Krispy Kreme or a beer, however.
Between this asinine conclusion and the ongoing shoe money fiasco plaguing college hoops, the NCAA has effectively proven itself completely irrelevant at the two things it is specifically designed to do: protect the integrity of the academic institution and promote the opportunities for student athletes. They take a hatchet to the forehead for insignificant minor infractions that are perfectly acceptable for student non-athletes (say, getting an extra bag of chips at Subway with the combo meal from a friend working as a sandwich artist) but allow deliberate, endemic academic fraud and over-the-table big money to their major programs in the revenue-generating sports, primarily football and men’s basketball. What. A. Joke. It’s time the federal government intervene and put a stop to the corrupt uselessness of a body managing federal and state funds.
$.08—NFL Quickies
--The Bears beat the Ravens in overtime in a game Chicagoans will point to as the true beginning of the Mitchell Trubisky era. Yes he played last week and showed promise, but this is the game where the No. 2 overall pick asserted himself as the leader of the team. After the hard-fought win, Kyle Long talked about Trubisky’s leadership and attitude being such a positive difference for the veterans like him.
--The San Francisco 49ers learned the hard way what several other teams could have told them: Brian Hoyer is not the answer at QB, not even in the short term. The winless Niners sacked Hoyer in the middle of the 26-24 loss to Washington. He was 4/11 for 34 yards and his typical jittery self. The switch to C.J. Beathard nearly paid off right away, and thusly it will be a permanent one. The third-round rookie and dead ringer for Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger played well in rallying the Niners. He’ll be the starter the rest of the way as San Francisco desperately seeks its first win.
--Sticking with San Francisco, the Niners have now lost their last 5 games by 3 points or less. That stings. They also dumped former All-Pro linebacker Navorro Bowman this week after failing to find a trade partner. Bowman was not the same after his second major knee injury. He’s still a great tackler but offers very little in the way of splash plays and had become a liability in the passing game. Bowman can still help a team in need of someone to play within 5 yards of the line between the tackles (Baltimore springs to mind) but his name value is a lot higher than his football value now.
--The Los Angeles Rams are 4-2 with largely the same basic team that was 4-12 last year. They beat Jacksonville thanks to great special teams (Pharoah Cooper housing the opening kickoff, Greg Zeurlein 56-yard FG, Johnny Hekker great punting) and Todd Gurley carving up one of the league’s better defenses. It becomes more obvious every week that Jeff Fisher was the biggest problem with the Rams, not the talent on hand. They’re still lacking in some areas, but the fresh coaching approach of Sean McVay has the Rams looking like the best team in the NFC West.
--I haven’t even seen a highlight other than Reshad Jones’ late INT, but Miami beating Atlanta is the Any Given Sunday outcome of the month. The Falcons were up 17-0 at halftime on a team that just got shut out by the Saints and barely squeaked past the dilapidated Titans. The Dolphins are amazingly 3-2 now, which means I need to stop referring to them as one of the three worst teams in the league on podcasts for a while…
--With that Miami win, the AFC East becomes the only team where all four teams have at least 3 wins.
$.09—College/Draft quickies
--Clemson fell from the ranks of the unbeaten by getting humbled at Syracuse on Friday night. Take nothing away from Dino Babers’ Orange and QB Eric Dungey, now in what seems to be his 7th year in Syracuse, but this was more about a flat performance from Clemson. The Tigers also lost QB Kelly Bryant to a concussion, which hindered the offense. The reigning national champs now face a serious uphill battle to get back to the College Football Playoff.
--With Clemson losing, the nation’s longest win streak now belongs to South Florida. The Bulls paraded past Cincinnati 33-3 with dual-threat QB Quentin Flowers leading the charge once again. USF has now won 11 in a row, which somewhat amazingly is the longest streak. They’ll need to remain unbeaten to make it to the playoff from the AAC, but if they can run the table and knock off rival UCF (also unbeaten) in the finale, they’ll be tough to keep out of the premium bowls.
--One team that won’t sniff a major bowl anymore is Washington State, which got thumped 37-3 by Cal. The Cougars entered the game unbeaten and ranked No. 8, with QB Luke Falk in the mix to make a trip to New York for the Heisman presentation. Falk threw 5 INTs and the Bears, who were just 3-3 and lost 36-7 to Washington last week, punched the Cougars in the mouth early and often. The stunning loss on a Friday night where more folks might actually be watching the PAC-12 After Dark ended any hope for a climb in national prominence and respect for Mike Leach’s Washington State program.
--Western Michigan and Akron got washed out on Saturday as the Kalamazoo area got over 7 inches of rain and Waldo Stadium flooded. The two teams played Sunday after draining over a million gallons of floodwater from the stadium, which sits near a creek which overflowed directly into the bowl. Akron won 14-13.
--On the scouting front, I got caught up with TCU this week, binging on their last four games before Saturday’s storm-delayed win over Kansas State. Brief first scouting impressions on their top seniors…
QB Kenny Hill—decent arm strength and can put extra mustard onto tight window throws; surveys field well from pocket, can make read progressions when given time; throws the ball well over the middle and can hit moving targets with anticipatory passes on designed routes; good athlete who can tuck and run and generally makes good choices; will stare down targets and baby some throws; ball placement on shorter throws is suboptimal, more of an aimer than a thrower when he can’t unleash the full fastball. Worse QBs than Hill will get drafted, but I don’t think he’s more than a journeyman backup at this point.
LB/S Travin Howard—loads of twitch and speed; at his size (listed 6-0/212) he’s a SS in NFL despite playing LB for the Frogs; great open-field speed and litheness; good body control when he approaches point of attack; coverage instincts are just average; tackles too high in space, though it works far more often than it doesn’t; good balance while being blocked but will get moved easily (why he’s a safety in NFL); always around the ball; has the profile of an optimal special teams coverage ace aside from playing D.
LT Joseph Noteboom—a big and lumbering load at left tackle, Noteboom will be a right tackle or perhaps a guard in the NFL. He’s very good against one-dimensional rushers and anchors incredibly well on the edge against power. He doesn’t have the feet or natural balance while moving to play the left side, but he’s better than advertised, not to mention last year, in space. He was great against Arkansas, not as dominant but still exhibited NFL traits against Oklahoma State. Noteboom has Shrine Game and 5th-6th round draft pick written all over him.
$.10—Normally the tenth cent is my off-topic board and often has nothing to do with football, or even sports. This week it gets devoted to football and history.
Y.A. Tittle died on Monday. The Pro Football Hall of Fame member was two weeks shy of his 91st birthday. He was a quarterback for the 49ers and Giants primarily, tasting his greatest success later in his career.
I never saw Tittle play. His career ended before Joe Namath’s began. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971, the year before I was born. Yet even as a little kid I knew who Yelberton Abraham Tittle was. How?
The photo.
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It’s one of the greatest photographs ever taken, sports of otherwise.
That is Tittle in the end zone in Pittsburgh following a tough loss near the end of his career with the New York Giants. Tittle had gone 31-5 as the Giants starting QB the prior three seasons, but his team lost in the NFL championship all three years. He was the reigning NFL MVP. The bottom was falling out quickly in this next year and Tittle knew it.
For me, this photo has always represented the embodiment of sports. It’s a picture of a man who gave everything he had and it just wasn’t enough. The agony of defeat.
Yet it’s more than that. This is an old athlete who realizes it’s over for him. Tittle would start a few more games, but the Giants went from being perennial title contenders to the worst team in the league almost overnight. It can go that fast for a team. It also can for a player.
That’s what I see in Tittle’s eyes, his hands, his neck. It is an exhausted, resigned fate. It is the expiration of greatness in one simple camera click.
I’m not someone who has a great appreciation for art, or photography as art. Music moves me and sports moves me, but visual arts have never been my thing. Except this picture. I remember seeing it for the first time in a library book as an elementary schooler. Even at that young age it drew me in. It still does all these years later.
RIP, Y.A. Tittle. Thanks for the iconic memory.