Close But Not Quite

• The first three-quarters of the Green Bay Packers’ game against the Carolina Panthers was an absolute disaster. The last quarter had some decent stretches in it, but it wasn’t enough. The Panthers outscored the Packers 24-0 in the second quarter on their way to 27-7 halftime lead. After a touchdown after the half, Green Bay punted four straight times before waking up and scoring touchdowns on back-to-back drives to cut the lead to eight. On the next play, Demarious Randall intercepted Cam Newton!!

• It was all for naught, however, as the Packers couldn't finish the final drive. At fourth-and-goal at the four-yard line, the offensive line was unable to keep the pressure off (surprise!), forcing Aaron Rodgers into a desperate throw that was intercepted while poor Randall Cobb was standing wide open in the endzone. After the game, Rodgers said he got “scared” and rushed the throw. He wasn't too happy when he watched the replay and saw how open Cobb was:

• The late surge redeemed some truly horrible stats the Packers had going on yards and third-and-longs. The first half saw Green Bay drives of -7, -1, -1, 0, and -7, and ended with a disappointing 71-yard drive that anticlimactically fizzled on the 9-yard line when the clock ran out.

• Rodgers was sacked five times and took 14 QB hits from the Panthers. The Packers defense, on the other hand, had zero sacks and managed just two quarterback hits. Their frustration showed on the sidelines as HaHa Clinton-Dix, Julius Peppers, and BJ Raji got into it. Not a good look.

• All the players involved downplayed it as “heat of the moment” stuff, of course, and Clinton-Dix apologized after the game.

• All the defensive players should be angry -- they’ve given up 1,500 yards in the last three games!! It doesn’t help that they lost cornerback Casey Hayward (concussion) in the first half. They were already without cornerbacks Sam Shields and Quinten Rollins -- we don’t have any more defensive backs to spare!!

Not only was I constantly missing Jordy every time the offense was on the field, but it also made onside kicks a lot less possible. Green Bay’s onside kicks are usually drawn up for Nelson to recover because he’s so amazing. =(

In every way.

• Our tight ends are very bad.

• What’s going on with Eddie Lacy? Even aside from an ankle injury that has bothered him in earlier weeks, he’s seems to fallen out of favor with the coaches. James Starks has become the primary back in the past couple of weeks, and Lacy didn’t do himself any favors when he coughed up the ball in the first half. (Stupid Charles Tillman forced the fumble. Shouldn’t he be in a retirement home by now? It was the 44th forced fumble of his career!) On top of it all, Lacy suffered a groin injury in Sunday’s game.

Where have you been, Eddie??

• One thing that’s been written about during the Packers’ struggles the last few weeks is how their scheme isn’t doing much to help the receivers, who have had trouble getting open. Some have suggested Green Bay should run more picks and crossing routes to beat man-coverage. I wonder if there’s any chance that head coach Mike McCarthy resumes play-calling duties after relinquishing them in the offseason, though I don’t know that that would improve anything.

• I also think another thing that needs to happen is that Aaron Rodgers needs to throw more interceptions. His receivers are just not going to be as open as they were with Jordy on the field, and Rodgers is going to have to take more risks than is his preference if the Packers want to keep defenses honest on the back end. That likely means more interceptions, but so be it. When Green Bay’s back was up against the wall on Sunday, Rodgers had to take some chances and make some throws that he probably would not have attempted if the game hadn’t been on the line. The result was 158 passing yards and two touchdowns over a five-minute stretch that was in marked contrast to the offense’s inability to gain important yards the other 55 minutes of the game. Just let it go and throw some interceptions, Aaron.

I know the idea is distasteful to you, but you gotta take some for the team!

• The good news is that the toughest two-week stretch of the Packers’ schedule is likely over and the  1-7 Detroit Lions are coming to Lambeau next week. The bad news is that Green Bay’s still got huge problems on both sides of the ball and I don’t necessarily see any solutions on the horizon.

Unless we can clone him.

• I understand the “not in our house” mentality, but Panthers quarterback Cam Newton tearing down some Packers fans’ banner was not very nice! The fans were none too happy about the move, and even reported the “theft” to the stadium police after the game.

• Argh the St. Louis Rams really let me down, losing 21-18 in overtime to the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are now tied with the Packers for the NFC North lead, with a matchup coming in two weeks.

• Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater left the game with a concussion following a hit that his coach and teammates called cheap. The hit is terrifying since it appears to knock Bridgewater out cold, but am I the only one who doesn’t think it was dirty? It looks bad when you slow it down, but it happened very, very fast in real time. (I do hope Teddy’s okay!)

• There were some entertaining games on Sunday -- only three of 11 games were decided by more than one score. Aside from the Packers’ near-comeback, the Rams-Vikings, Titans-Saints, and Cowboys-Eagles games went into overtime, the Jets-Jaguars game was decided by five points, the Raiders-Steelers and Colts-Broncos by three points, and the Falcons-49ers by one point.

• Antonio Brown is so darn good. He had 284 receiving yards in the Pittsburgh Steelers win over the Oakland Raiders. Human highlight reel.

• I actually predicted that the Indianapolis Colts would beat the Denver Broncos, but no one was around to hear me except my cats.

They probably weren't even listening.

• The Colts were up 27-24 with the ball on the Broncos’ 15-yard line with 2:35 left in the game. If Denver could limit Indianapolis to a field goal, they would only be down six with a chance for Peyton Manning to lead a game-winning drive. Tough, but possible. Unfortunately for Denver fans, however, the Broncos had a huge meltdown in the form of unnecessary fouls. Cornerback Aqib Talib got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for poking Colts tight end Dwayne Allen in the eye after a play, which gave the Colts a new set of downs. (Talib was suspended one game for the poke.) The Broncos were able to hold Indy to a field goal ….buuuuut Denver had another penalty on the kick -- holding -- giving the Colts yet another first down and allowing them to kneel out the remainder of the game. Oh, but before the game ended, Talib got another unsportsmanlike conduct from the sideline for “berating an official.”

• I enjoyed watching the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Philadelphia Eagles in overtime on Sunday night. My favorite part of the night was this ludicrous Matt Cassel touchdown. He pretty much ran backward for 20 yards, panicked, and chucked the ball to a big crowd in the endzone. Luckily for Cassel and the ‘Boys, Dez Bryant is back and can do things like this:

• But that decision-making by Cassel is positively stupendous. He makes that throw after throwing a pick-six on the previous drive! I almost have to admire the what-are-you-going-to-do-go-back-to-Brandon-Weeden? guts of that throw. What on earth were you thinking, Matt??

I gaze into your crazy eyes for a hint, but find nothing.

• I hate it when they show team owners and executives in their boxes. They’re always seated next to some very, very young female, and I always find myself praying out loud, “Please be his granddaughter, please be his granddaughter, please be -- ah! no!” as he leans his wrinkled old-man lips in for a drooly kiss. It’s pretty much a staple of Sunday Night Football.

• You may have noticed that I’m slightly obsessed with Charles Woodson. How could I not be? I love every single quote in this article, from his saying, “I don’t know how to be hurt” to shouldering the blame and calling the Oakland Raiders’ secondary “the weak link.” He’s just so cool and awesome and amazing and I wish he were still a Packer.

• I’m sputtering trying to imagine what Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn was thinking. His team was at the one-yard line with under three minutes to go, trailing the San Francisco 49ers by four points, and he decided to kick a field goal. Just to clarify, field goals are worth three points. What happened next is exactly what you would have expected: San Fran managed a couple of first downs, then kneeled out the clock for the win. After the game, Quinn actually defended the call!

• The whole decision was predicated on the Falcons defense stopping the Blaine Gabbert-led Niners offense. If Quinn thought his defense could force a three-and-out following the field goal, why didn’t he think they could have done the same if the Falcons had missed the one-yard touchdown and turned the ball over on downs? They would have had had much better field position to boot. But congratulations to Atlanta, who became just the fourth member of the exclusive club of teams that have lost to Blaine Gabbert.

Four NFL teams -- ever.

• Ryan Fitzpatrick of New York Jets has now beat the Jacksonville Jaguars while playing quarterback for five different teams.

• The Tennessee Titans beat the New Orleans Saints in overtime, but the highlight of the game was an incredibly lucky (or unfair, depending on which team you were rooting for) Tennessee touchdown that came from the ball bouncing off two defenders’ hands right to Titans’ tight end Delanie Walker, who took it in for the score.

• As you can imagine, that play drew a lot of attention, and one reporter was asking Saints safety Jairus Byrd about it when corner Brandon Browner overheard and completely flipped out, screaming obscenities at the reporter and having to be restrained by teammates. Apparently he just really did not want to hear about the play.

• Jason Pierre-Paul played in his first game back since seriously injuring his hand in a fireworks accident. JPP looked in shape and had some good quarterback pressures, even if he didn’t blow up the box score. I happy that he’s back and hope he continues to do well!

• Arrrgh. Jay Cutler had a fumble in the redzone AND a pick-six, and the Chicago Bears still beat the San Diego Chargers?? Jay even set a franchise record for most touchdown passes.

• It was a roller coaster of emotion for Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers. When Jay was turning the ball over, Phil was all:

• But then, late in the fourth, this happened:

• And then Phil was sad:

• Rivers and the Chargers all have plenty of reasons to be sad. Not only are they 2-7, but they also without, oh, about half their roster due to injuries. They lost their #1 receiver last week when Keenan Allen was placed on the IR with a lacerated kidney (ow), and receiver Malcolm Floyd suffered a hip injury on Monday. Two cornerbacks and a defensive end left the game as well. They joined a tight end, two offensive tackles, and two linebackers who already weren't playing due to injury.

• Last week, the Niners played the St. Louis Rams. On one play, San Francisco running back Reggie Bush ran out of bounds. As he was trying to slow down, he crossed from the turf to the uncovered concrete area, slipped, fell, and injured his knee. The injury required surgery, ending Bush’s season and, given his age, possibly his career.

• Now Bush is planning to sue the city of St. Louis (which owns and operates the stadium). Normally I would roll my eyes at such a lawsuit, but I have to say I kind of might be maybe sort of with Reggie on this one. 1) The concrete is way, way too close to a field where very fast people are running at full speed. It’s not unlikely or uncommon for a player to end up that far from the sideline. 2) The same thing happened the week before! Cleveland quarterback Josh McCown had an odd, slow crash into the wall when he was trying to slow down on the slippery concrete. McCown appeared to suffer a minor hand injury, but shook it off and returned to the field. The St. Louis stadium is already a disaster for the city, and now it might cost the city even more.

• Sigh. The silver lining to the season thus far is that maybe Sideline Ninja will get the proper respect for all that he does next season.

Uh, We Might Have a Problem

• Okay, we have to face the facts: that was pretty bad. The defense was bad, the offense was terrible, and everything I feared would happen when Jordy Nelson first went down in preseason happened.

• The Denver Broncos defense held Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers to 77 yards passing, and just 140 overall. Denver (500 yards) had more than triple Green Bay’s total yardage.

• The Broncos had 24 first downs to Green Bay’s 14 (it felt like four), and 7.9 yards per play compared to 3.0 yards. To be clear, it sucked.

• The only way the Packers managed to move the ball was off of Denver penalties. The Broncos racked up 93 yards on 11 penalties, meaning that they had more penalty yardage than Aaron Rodgers had passing yards.

• Rodgers was facing a ton of pressure all night, which, combined with the receivers’ inability to get open, made for a very long night for the reigning league MVP. I seriously kept on counting how many players Denver had on the field because it felt like they were playing with an extra defender. They were bringing pressure on every single snap and still somehow also perfectly covering Green Bay’s receivers.

C'mon, Green Eyes! We need you to step up!

• Sunday night’s game was a faith-shaking wake-up call for Green Bay fans, and it was probably needed. As Cris Collinsworth mentioned during the broadcast, the Packers came into the game ranked 22nd in passing yards, total and per game, so the offensive issues are not out of the blue. The Packers do have a lot they need to figure out, but there are a few reasons that fans shouldn’t overreact to Sunday’s loss:
• Denver’s defense is the best in the league. They are really, really good, both up front and in the secondary. They lead the league in total yards allowed, yards per game, yards per attempt, touchdowns allowed, sacks, and sack yards. They are second in the league in opposing quarterback passing rating and in takeaways. As I said, very good.
• Peyton Manning was having a “shut the #$&% up” game after weeks of speculation from the media about his career being over, whether he should be benched, should he retire, &c. The normally affable Manning was curt and defensive in his media session the last week, clearly sick of answering the same questions about his declining play over and over. His game against the Packers (340 yards, 72% completion, 12 yards per attempt) was one of his best in a shaky season (he has 11 interceptions to seven touchdowns). It was a statement game on the national stage. Hopefully the Packers won’t be playing against any other aging icons who are trying to defend their legacy and prove an entire country wrong. 

• Combine Peyton’s game with the fact that the Packers lost their best cornerback, Sam Shields, to a shoulder injury early on in the game, and then his backup, Quinten Rollins, to the same injury. (Not a good night to be a Packers’ defensive back’s shoulder.) The injuries also forced some of Green Bay’s remaining defensive backs to play positions that were not their natural position. Casey Hayward, for example, typically covers the slot, but was forced to move to the outside after Shields went down.
• Side note: speaking of poor Casey, why the heck didn’t the Packers try to help him (and later Demarious Randall) cover Demaryius Thomas?? Single coverage was obviously not doing it against Thomas, and rolling over a little safety help wouldn’t have been amiss much earlier in the game. I felt bad watching them get beat over and over again.

• I am not a Richard Rodgers fan. I’ve tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but his blocking is too often atrocious and he might as well be playing with concrete gloves. Furthermore, he was 100% responsible for the safety. It was his man who blew by him to strip Aaron Rodgers, then he couldn’t pick up the ball before it went into the endzone, then when he recovered it in the endzone, he tripped and fell. Geez. 

• Also, his face bothers me. I think it’s because after every time he drops a pass, he smiles serenely, and jogs slowly back to the huddle without a care in the world.

You can see he's even smiling while dropping passes.

• No rest for the weary/injured -- the Packers have will have another tough road game against the 7-0 Carolina Panthers.

• Ugh, the now 7-0 Broncos just acquired tight end Vernon Davis from the San Francisco 49ers. Like they need the help.

• Normally an interception isn’t a highlight for an offense, but check out Atlanta Falcons receiver Julio Jones insane speed in somehow catching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender who grabbed an interception in the endzone. He looks CGI'd!

Julio Jones isn't human. pic.twitter.com/wGAPc066DY

— Blake Hartung (@Hartung_B) November 1, 2015

• Let’s all take a moment to remember that the 1-7 Detroit Lions, the Detroit Lions who lost in London on Sunday 45-10 to the 3-5 Kansas City Chiefs, were in the playoffs last year, and one controversial call away from the divisional round. From the press conferences, it's hard to tell who's checked out more, head coach Jim Caldwell or quarterback Matthew Stafford.

• JJ Watt had 2.5 sacks on Sunday to go with nine quarterback hits in the Houston Texans’ win over the Tennessee Titans. The Titans had an, er, interesting approach to blocking the best defender in the league, putting a lineman one-on-one far more than most teams do (which is never). When asked how many times he had a one-on-one matchups in the game, Watt replied, “Well, how many hits did I have?”

Oh, snap.

• Does anyone inspire less confidence during a game winning drive than Matt Cassel? No, really, I’m trying to think of a current quarterback who would make a fan feel worse in that situation. The Seattle Seahawks kicked a field goal with 1:06 remaining to take a 13-12 lead over the Dallas Cowboys. There was absolutely no thrill or suspense when the Cowboys took over because no one had any faith in them. The Dallas offense went incomplete, incomplete, sack, false start, incomplete to end the game. Your fake confidence is fooling no one, Matt.

• Okay, I take it back. I can think of one other quarterback who inspires less confidence. The San Francisco 49ers have decided to start Blaine Gabbert at quarterback next week. Sooo they're playing for a draft pick, I guess.

• At the age of 39, Charles Woodson was named the defensive player of the month and leads the league in interceptions (he got the 65th of his career on Sunday), which is pretty amazing, but Charles doesn’t understand why everyone’s so surprised:

• There were so many injuries this week!! The Monday Morning Quarterback listed just some of the injuries:

• That list includes a player who was knocked unconscious on the field (Ricardo Lockette), my favorite Dolphins player (Cameron Wake), and a 15-year veteran receiver (Steve Smith). All three of those are season-ending, which brings up an interesting situation for Smith. Smith, who was already playing with broken ribs, has said he would retire after this season, but coach John Harbaugh seemed confident that Smith would be back. Just in case he’s not, he should take a bow:

• The Bears had to call the police after they cut nose tackle Jeremiah Ratliff when Ratliff returned to the facility, saying that he was the devil, wanted to kill everybody in the building, and wanted staffers’ kids to die. Ratliff apparently has a history of violent outbursts. The most incredible story about Ratliff that has come out in the past few days is how last season, he flipped out at practice, started screaming at teammates, destroyed a game clock on the sidelines, and shoved a coach to the ground -- and then-head coach Marc Trestman made Ratliff a team captain the next day. I’m totally speechless.

Trestman has written a book on leadership, by the way.

• New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul returned to the team for the first time since severely injuring his hands in a Fourth of July fireworks accident. Pierre-Paul lost the index finger and part of the middle finger on his right hand, and seriously damaged the thumb as well. (Careful, the pictures are gruesome.) It’s a crazy story, but I do hope that he’s able to come back and play well.

• I was originally going to complain about the alternate uniforms that the Cleveland Browns wore in their 34-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. I mean, if your team name is the Browns, shouldn’t you have more than just two tiny stripes of brown on your jerseys? But then I saw the team name on the pants, and now these are kinda my favorite uniforms ever.

Every team should do that. It looks so cool!

• Holy wow, how about that New Orleans Saints-New York Giants game? The losing quarterback completed 73% of his passes, had 350 yards, and threw six touchdowns! Drew Brees had a 78% completion rate, 505 yards, and seven touchdowns!! And the game was decided by a punter and a kicker. New Orleans scored a touchdown to tie the game 49-49 with 36 seconds left. New York went three-and-out and had to punt with 20 seconds left, and the game looks like it’s going to overtime. The punt, however, was returned 24 yards, just across midfield. The returner FUMBLED, but New Orleans recovered the ball. There’s only five seconds left, which would pretty much mean the end of regulation, except that the Giants’ punter committed a facemask penalty!! That 15-yard-penalty put the Saints on the Giant’s 32-yard line. Kai Forbath, the New Orleans kicker who was signed two weeks ago and had yet to attempt a field goal for the Saints, knocked down a 50-yard field goal for the 52-49 win.

• Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has reportedly been playing with broken ribs since Week 3, which makes his poor play of late make a little more sense. The Colts, however, never disclosed a rib injury, and Luck hasn’t appeared on the injury report the past two weeks, which is a serious violation of the rules. It'll be interesting to see how the league decides to punish the Colts, assuming the report is true.

• With eight minutes left in the game, the Colts were down 23-6 to the undefeated Carolina Panthers. Then Indy scored a touchdown, forced a three-and-out, scored a touchdown, and forced another three-and-out! Then they had a nail-biting, grind-it-out, 16-play drive that ended in a field goal, sending the game to overtime! Then the Colts got the ball in overtime, scored a field goal, then Carolina scored a field goal. But then Andrew Luck threw another interception!! Gah! The Panthers kicked a field goal to win the game.  

• I really thought the stars were aligning for a incredible, season-saving Colts comeback. I mean, a series of crazy things had to happen:
• Carolina missed an extra point early in the fourth which meant the Colts only needed a field goal to send it to overtime rather than a touchdown.
• During the Colts game-tying drive at the end of the fourth, there was a catch that looked like it may not have been a catch, but there wasn't enough evidence to overturn.
• During that same drive, the Panthers tackled a Colts receiver in bounds, but the refs incorrectly called him out of bounds, stopping the clock with 19 seconds left and Indy out of timeouts.
• The Colts were doing all this against a defense like this:

• Linebacker extraordinaire Luke Kuechly dropped an interception in the endzone with two seconds left in regulation that would have ended the game right there.
• Ted Ginn Jr. dropped a touchdown in overtime that would have been the game winner.

• How could the football gods set us up for disappointment like that? A bedraggled and downtrodden team suddenly puts together an amazing fourth quarter against an undefeated opponent, gets several crazy turns of luck, only to lose on a field goal? That's not how Disney would have written it. Also, now Carolina is a game ahead of Green Bay in the NFC. Next week is huge.

• The loss dropped the Colts to 3-5. But no worries! They're in the AFC South, so they're still tied for the division lead! Haha, the joke's on the rest of the league and the winning teams that will lose a playoff spot to the AFC South!

• The AFC is pretty much wrapped up. The New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, and Denver Broncos are all atop their respective divisions at 7-0. Only two other teams in the entire AFC have a winning record.

• One of those other teams is the Oakland Raiders! Perhaps it’s because their head coach, Jack del Rio, is a cartoon superhero come to life.

• And here’s what he looks like before he finds a phone booth:

• The Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Diego Chargers on a field goal, and kicker Justin Tucker thought that deserved a celebratory dance.

• I’m not even going to make fun of him because he kinda seems like the coolest, weirdest person ever. He’s a practicing Catholic opera singer who has his realtor license and writes scouting reports on his teammates' cornhole skills.

• The Minnesota Vikings scored a touchdown against the Chicago Bears to tie the game 20-20 with 1:49 left in the game. The Bears ideally would get into field goal range, burn the clock, then kick an easy field goal with time expiring. If you can’t do that and aren’t able to score, you want to at least run the clock down and take it to overtime. If you can’t score and can’t run the clock out, you at least want to take as much time off the clock as possible. What you really don’t want to do is lay a three-and-out that takes all of 49 seconds, punt the ball, allow gains of four, 35, and nine yards, and then watch as the opposing team kicks a field goal with time expiring. Chicago took the latter route.

• The Vikings are only one game behind the Packers in the NFC North. Just something to keep in mind.

• When the San Francisco 49ers lined up just outside their own endzone, the St. Louis Rams didn’t even bother to cover TWO San Fran receivers on either side of the field. And Colin Kaepernick still decided to stick with the run. The Rams scored a safety on the next play.

• Last season, Green Bay was 8th in passing yards. After Sunday’s game, they’re 27th. That’s what Jordy does.