Slouching Toward .500
- The next stage brings us to anger. I can do that.
- I have no heart to be angry at Brett Hundley, so I shall make Mike McCarthy the focus of my rage. McCarthy himself took the blame, saying, “Pin it on the head coach.” I’m on board with that. The fact of the matter is that the Green Bay Packers are going to need some sort of X factor to win without Aaron Rodgers. One of McCarthy’s biggest weaknesses has always been his lack of creativity. When is the last time a defense playing the Packers saw something they didn’t expect? Something they hadn’t seen before? Give Hundley some help and throw some wrinkles in.
- Personally, I’d be okay with turnovers if they came on some shots down the field. I’d rather take the risk and let Hundley loose a bit than give him a conservative vanilla game plan to work with. It may be that the Pack isn’t comfortable enough with Hundley to do so, but if that’s the case, what have you been doing with him the last three years?
- My ire toward McCarthy is mostly in his failure to adjust in the second half. The offensive line did a great job protecting Hundley in the first half of the game, but the New Orleans Saints adjusted and were getting a lot of pressure on poor Brett in the second half. McCarthy, I think, is way too slow to deviate from his plan long after it’s become clear that the plan isn’t working.
- I’m trying to give Hundley the benefit of the doubt here, but he’ll need to step up, too. 87 passing yards is not going to cut it, especially when your opponent is throwing for 331. The Green Bay defense took the ball away twice in the first quarter and the offense failed to score any points on those turnovers. They can’t miss on opportunities like that. Such a waste of this purty extend-stretch interception by Davon House.
- The Saints were 8-of-15 on third downs, but it felt like more. The defense gave up a lot of big-yardage plays, especially in the second half.
- Damarious Randall had another pick, which is great, but I’m still not super confident in him.
- Um, you guys, it's going to be really hard to win if all our defensive backs are afraid to make hits. HaHa Clinton-Dix's recurring unwillingness to make tackles have sparked rumors that he's been playing hurt all season. If so, you're not helping us out by playing like this, buddy.
- The offensive line injuries extend even to their coach, James Campen, who suffered a knee injury on the sidelines last week at Minnesota.
- Despite the horrible numbers -- 12/25, 87 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 1 interception -- I still like Hundley and still have faith in him. He had a fairly good pocket presence, made plays with his feet, and above all, I love his steady and confident demeanor.
- Brett did have a rushing touchdown (and his first real Lambeau Leap). Jordy helped out with a nice block.
- Does Hundley not wear a mouthguard? What is he thinking??
- Aaron Jones had another 100-yard rushing day. So there’s that. Kinda resent this long TD run on the first drive, though, as it got my hopes for the game up.
- I’m avoiding confronting my conflicted feelings of cheering for a Green Bay quarterback named Brett. Not yet ready to talk about that.
- ♫ One is the loneliest number... ♫
- Man, I feel like the Atlanta Falcons' psyche is broken. They look as if they have as little faith in themselves as I have in them.
- My favorite part (and the only interesting part) of the New England-Atlanta game was the ambiance set by the fog. I kept expected Sam Spade to walk out in a trench coat.
- All of the Chicago Bears touchdowns were scored by rookie cornerback Eddie Jackson. He returned a Carolina Panthers fumble 75 yards for a score and then returned an interception 76 yards for a score. So, to summarize, the Chicago offense had 153 yards and Eddie Jackson had 151 yards.
- Considering he turned the ball over three times, I guess Cam Newton had good reason to attend his post-game presser incognito.
- Carolina and Chicago were two of seven -- seven!! -- teams that failed to score an offensive touchdown this week. The Browns (obvs), Titans, Cardinals, Colts, and Broncos joined them in this stat of shame.
- You can understand how the Indianapolis Colts failed to score when you see that the Jacksonville Jaguars sacked quarterback Jacoby Brisset 10 times. Daaaaaang. It must be hard to score when you spend the entire game in the dirt.
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| Ow. |
- Please note: that is not the Jaguars’ first 10-sack game this season. They did the same thing against the Texans Week 1.
- It doesn’t appear relief is on the horizon for the 2-5 Colts. Quarterback Andrew Luck, who had shoulder surgery back in January, had only recently started throwing again when Indianapolis had to shut him down due to soreness in his shoulder.
- It wouldn’t be an NFL Sunday without Vontaze Burfict doing something dirty. Seriously, when will they just say “enough,” and kick him out of the league?? Here he is (#55, on the ground) kicking an opponent in the face.
- UGH things just are not going my way! It’s bad enough that I don’t get to watch Aaron Rodgers, but now Jay Cutler’s out with broken ribs, so he’ll be missing some time.
- The California/Whatever Chargers had 69-yard punt that was downed at the one-inch line.
- On the subject of punts, look at this beautifully executed fake punt by the Pittsburgh Steelers. From the poker-faced pre-snap to the perfect snap by the long snapper to the pitch and catch to Mike Tomlin’s self-satisfaction, it’s exemplary all the way through.
- Noooooooooo! There are very few things that every NFL can agree on, and one of them is Joe Thomas. The Cleveland Browns left tackle missed his first-ever plays in his 11-year career. That’s right, after 10,363 consecutive snaps, Thomas suffered torn tricep that ended his season. Hopefully he can bounce back quickly.
- The Dallas Cowboys’ kicker extraordinaire Dan Bailey suffered a pulled groin that sidelined him, forcing safety Jeff Heath to take over kicking duties. I love it when this happens (not injuries, but a random player having to take kicks) because I love the sportsmanship of “Yeah, I’ve never really done this before and it could go really wrong, but sure, I’ll try.” Here’s Heath’s impressive kickoff.
- Even better is Heath’s extra point attempt and his teammates’ excitement. (Listen with sound for both the kick hitting the upright and for the announcer's villainous laugh at the end.)
- Things are going great for the Browns. They started rookie DeShone Kizer at quarterback and went 0-5. Then they benched Kizer (‘cause it’s his fault his perennially bad team is still bad), played a man named Kevin Hogan for a game. Kevin wasn’t great, so now they’re back to Kizer. Sunday, Kizer kept throwing interceptions, so they benched him again, this time for the third-string quarterback, Cody Kessler.
- When Kansas City Chief Marcus Peters took a cheap shot on Oakland Raider QB Derek Carr (who has a fracture in his back, but is still playing) Oakland running back/professional Crazy Man Marshawn Lynch came sprinting off the sideline to jumped into the ensuing scrum. When an official tried to break up the melee, Lynch shoved the official and was obviously ejected from the game. A one-game suspension was handed down. BUT WAIT! The latest hot take is that Lynch shouldn’t be suspended because he was trying to break things up between his teammates and his bestie Peters!!! That’s great; he still shoved an official.
- There is no better ending to a game than winning on an untimed down, as the Raiders did on Thursday night, but that doesn’t capture how crazy it really was. With 23 seconds left in the game, Carr throws a 35-yard pass to Jared Cook that is called a touchdown. Replay shows that Cook was down just before the goal line though, so Oakland has the ball at the one-foot line with 0:07 left. Carr throws to Michael Crabtree for the touchdown!! …. but the touchdown is negated by Crabtree’s offensive pass interference. (I thought it was a good and obvious call.) So now we’re down to 0:03, 11 yards to go. Carr throws to Cook, goes off his hands, incomplete … but Kansas City is called for holding. The clock’s run out at this point, but the penalty means an untimed down from the 5-yard line. Carr hits Cordarrelle Patterson in the back of the endzone, but Patterson comes down out of bounds ... but another defensive hold! Another untimed down! This time Carr hits Crabtree in the front corner of the endzone for a touchdown, no penalties. Raiders win 31-30! Wow.
- I’m quite pleased with each and every Ezekiel Elliott suspension injunction because they’re just going to keep delaying it and delaying it and by the time the suspension inevitably goes into effect, it’ll be the playoffs. Fantastic!
- Mitchell Trubisky is the heir-apparent to the Manning Face. We won’t have Mannings in the league forever, so it’s reassuring to see a young guy in line to take on that mantle.
- Didn’t Jimmy Graham used to be the most fearsome pass-catcher in the NFL? No more.
- The Packers have a bye next week, so we can all hope that they get healthy and figure out some things before they host the Detroit Lions on Monday night.
- I’m not holding out hope the Aaron Rodgers can return this season -- I’d rather the Packers err on the far, far side of caution with him -- but at least he’s on the road to recovery.
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| Get well, Aaron! |
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