“A Little Too Much Time”: Part Deux

• When the Green Bay Packers got the ball back with 1:13 left after the Dallas Cowboys had gone ahead 31-28, all I could hear in my head was Aaron Rodgers post-game quote from the last time he stomped on the hearts of the Cowboys faithful. Back in January, he was asked what he was thinking when Green Bay got the ball back with 0:35 in the Divisional Playoff game, and Rodgers responded:

• My only regret regarding this game is that it fell on the day before a holiday, so I didn’t get to gloat in front of all my coworkers while the wound was still fresh. 

• The game got off to a bit of a bumpy start, with the refs gifting the Cowboys four points on a dismal unnecessary roughness call in the endzone that gave Dallas a new set of downs on the two-yard line on their opening touchdown.

• Plus the Packers missed not one, but two extra points! Listen, I don’t want to call out long snapper Taybor Pepper because he’s young, hasn’t played much, and his name is Taybor Pepper, so his life is probably hard enough as it is… but COME ON, DUDE. You literally have one job. All’s well that ends well (for now), as there were no more missed kicks after the first two.

• The wide receiver besties busted out yet another coordinated celebration, which feels strange to see with the Green Bay Packers. On Sunday, they were an Olympic bobsled team.

• Um five times weirder than the actual sight of the celebration is this tidbit:

• Rookie Aaron Jones had a very, very nice game, gaining 125 yards on 19 carries, with a touchdown. It’s so exciting and refreshing to see a running threat in the Green and Gold! (Also, he seems totally sweet and adorable.)

• Martellus Bennett has been something of a disappointment thus far, but he had a couple of big-time catches, including a 33-yarder and a huge first down on the game-winning drive.

• I want to take a moment to say a big thank-you to Jason Garrett, Dak Prescott, and the Dallas Cowboys for not running the ball -- and the clock -- on second down prior to the Packers’ game-winning drive. Thanks to you, Green Bay didn’t not have to use their final timeout on defense, and they got the ball back plus-35 seconds or so. I raise my glass to you. 

• Sure, I was jumping up and down and screaming and pacing the floor and what-not during that final drive, but 1:13 with Aaron Rodgers and a timeout? Come on. We all knew what was going to happen.

• There were a lot of ups and downs during the game: Dallas jumping out to a 21-6 lead in the first half; Damarious Randall’s pick-six at just the right moment (and his stupid unsportsmanlike penalty); Green Bay’s successfully challenging of Dallas’ third-down “conversion” and forcing a 4th-and-one, then appearing to stop Ezekiel Elliott on 4th-and-one, only to have replay show that he got the first down -- so many emotions!

• What is it with teams not covering Jordy? He leads the league in touchdowns (despite missing a game) -- he’s an #EndzoneNinja and defenses keep on seeming to forget about him!

• Speaking of, winning the game was great and all, but WHERE WAS JORDY ON THE FINAL DRIVE??? Attempting a game-winning drive without your go-to receiver is nerve-wracking. And after the game, even in the midst of my excitement, I was so worried! Here’s everything I could find on the sitch:

This is remarkably unhelpful. What was it? A concussion? What happened?
When did it happen? How did it happen? Who's "we"?

• I’m a little worried about HaHa Clinton-Dix. He seems really … bad thus far this season. (Also, why does he always wear long sleeves, even when it’s really hot out?) (I’m not suggesting the two are related, by the way. Just two discrete observations.)

• I hope Dallas running back Ryan Switzer remembered to get his mom to sign his permission slip so he could play in the game Sunday.

Aren't there child labor laws?

• Jeff Janis returned one kick on Sunday for  for 17 yards, bringing Green Bay’s season total for returns -- for both kicks and punts -- to a grand total of … 17 yards.

• The Pack got one of their offensive tackles back Sunday, but were still down their starting left tackle, as well as their (now former) starting running back. They also lost cornerback Kevin King to a concussion and Morgan Burnett to a hamstring injury. Hopefully they’ll all heal up soon! For right now, all that matter is we beat the Cowboys!

LET'S GO! #GBvsDAL #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/8mBJJJ1PKM

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) October 8, 2017

• I feel like I can’t really complain about Packers injuries when the 0-5 New York Giants lost four receivers on Sunday, two for long-term, including star wideout Odell Beckham Jr, who broke his ankle.

• On top of that, my beloved JJ Watt suffered a bone break in his knee (here’s a pic of where the tibial plateau is), which sounds just horrible. It’s even sadder when it comes after a 2016 season in which Watt played just three games, and an injury-filled 2015, as well. The Texans also lost linebacker (and current holder of the Best Name for a Defender title) Whitney Mercilus for the year to a torn pectoral muscle. Here’s hoping both come back stronger next year!

• It was a real barn-burner up in Chicago on Monday night. Here's how the first half between the Bears and the Minnesota Vikings went: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, safety, punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, field goal, punt. Yep, totally worth  jeopardizing Sam Bradford’s safety.

• I think the stat tracker in the Carolina Panthers’ win over the Detroit Lions wasn’t paying attention or something. He noted 11 penalties against the Panthers, but it felt like double that. And it somehow showed Stafford only being sacked 6 times, but it felt like 16. 

And here you can see his hand injury gushing.

• I’m glad the Lions lost, but I was really impressed with Stafford leading a near-comeback all while barely being able to walk. 

• What’s the etiquette when you’re an offensive lineman and your man beats you and sacks your quarterback and then you have to help him up? I’ve always wondered. Do you mumble an apology? Do you just keep your mouth shut because he’s probably pretty mad? Do you curse to show how angry you are at yourself?

• Here’s a clip from Eli Manning’s Visa commercial to prove that the Manning Face never takes a play off, not even when playing a pick-up game with the local kids for Visa. 

• It’s never good to throw a red-zone interception, but it’s particularly bad to throw a red-zone interception in overtime when you’re eight yards from victory, as Jacoby Brissett did for Indianapolis. Luckily for the Colts, they were playing the San Francisco 49ers, who did absolutely nothing with the turnover, and the Colts were able to win on a field goal on their next possession.  

• Not a good day for Ben Roethlisberger against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Pittsburgh Steeler threw zero touchdowns and FIVE interceptions, including two pick-sixes in the span of three minutes. Ouch.

Umm, yeah. Not exactly throwing himself on a sword...

• The Jaguars are super trendy right now. Part of the reason they look so good is that last year, their turnover ratio last year was -16; this year, they’re +10 so far.

• This is so much better than any trash talking. This is Jacksonville running back Leonard Fournette beckoning, mid-run, the defender to come at him.

• Argh! The New England Patriots should be 1-4! Thanks to chokes by the Houston Texans and now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Patriots are 3-2. On Thursday night, the Bucs missed not one, not two, but THREE field goals. And lost by five points. 

• Poor Kansas City Chiefs. There is nothing they can do to make me take them seriously. They're the last undefeated team and, through 5 games, Alex Smith has 11 TDs and 0 interceptions, but I'm still like:

• The New York Jets are 3-2 and oddsmakers give them the same chance to win the Super Bowl as the 0-5 New York Giants. That’s offensive. But also totally understandable.

• At first, when Jay Cutler threw an interception in Sunday’s game, I thought the Miami Dolphins fans were calling for backup quarterback Matt Moore when they started chanting, “We want Moore! We want Moore.” But on second thought, perhaps they were saying, “We want more,” with “Jay Cutler” being the implied completion of the chant. Hard to say.

• Up next: the Vikings!

Even Without Cutler … the Bears Still Suck

• The Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game started just as well as one could imagine. The Packers started with the ball on offense and scored a touchdown on their first drive. Then, on the Chicago Bears’ very first snap of the game, Clay Matthews came charging through the line, forced the hapless Mike Glennon to fumble, and Green Bay recovered on the four-yard line. They scored three plays later. (Major props to Jake Ryan on recovering the ball. Great awareness. But does he fall while celebrating or is that part of his celebration??)

• That’s the series lead for Green Bay! They now lead 95-94-6 all-time versus Chicago. Hah! 

• It was especially fun that Matthews became the Packers’ all-time sack leader on that strip-sack, and against the rival Bears, too. Loooooove it! 

"I smell Bear blood!"

• The Packers did not play any offensive tackles playing on Thursday because they simply didn’t have any available. Bryan Bulaga and David Bakhtiari were out with injuries, and Kyle Murphy, Jason Spriggs, and Don Barclay are all on the IR. Guard Lane Taylor played left tackle for the first time in his life against the Bears and did a fantastic job!

• I totally agree with this fan. But I do have to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I still enjoy watching the Bears get destroyed, even without Jay Cutler. I didn’t expect how gleeful I would be when the Pack went up 14-0 in the first six minutes. 

• The Davante Adams hit was scary. I hate it when they bring out the backboard. Danny Trevathan has rightly been suspended two games for the dirty hit that sent Adams to the hospital. That kind of hit could easily end someone’s career. Adams was able to give the crowd a thumbs-up as he was wheeled off the field (I teared up, as I do every single time this happens in a football game) and tweeted Friday that he was back home.

• After the hit, the teams started to tussle. While everyone was getting in each other’s face, Randall Cobb didn’t even care about the scrape, but was kneeling by Davante Both Cobb and Jordy both went to the hospital after the game to visit their friend.

Awwwwww!

• After a snap bounced off Glennon’s knees and resulted in one of Chicago’s four turnovers of the night, the Twitter account for Butterfinger candy bar decided to rib the Bears a bit. The Bears Twitter tried to sass back, not knowing that Butterfinger is way sassier than anyone ever expected.

• There was some drama on the sidelines. Cornerback Damarious Randall got benched after giving up a touchdown and then was sent to the locker room, reportedly for arguing with a coach. Hmmm, you’re a little old for being sent to your (locker) room, D.

• Jordy Nelson scored four touchdowns in five days! *I* think that’s impressive, but apparently Chicago didn’t think he merited any coverage.

• Someone needs to tell CBS that branded their announcers suit jackets make them look really cheap. Like when you start a new job and you’re handed the used uniform of the person who quit the day before.

• The injuries somehow just keep on going. In addition to losing Adams, the Packers lost starting running back Ty Montgomery (ribs) and backup running back, rookie Jamaal Williams (knee). Last running back standing, rookie Aaron Jones stepped up and did pretty well running for 49 yards on 13 carries.

• Considering the weather delay, the injury delays, and the massive score gap, the announcers had to find some things to talk about. Luckily, the downtime led to them playing a video of Chicago rookie running back Tarik Cohen catching two footballs while doing a backflip. Wow.

• Thursday Night Football reminds me of the generic brands in the cereal aisle, like “Fruity Circles,” “Wheatums,” and “Apple Smacks,” because it’s trying so hard to be Monday Night Football, but it’ll always be a half-hearted off-brand imitation. They have the hot girl singing an intro … but she’s not famous enough to be recognizable. They used to have a painful feature called, “Stop it, playa,” or something that wasn’t even trying not to be a ripoff of  MNF’s super annoying “C’mon, man.” Just accept TNF for what it is -- a money grab by the NFL for their network that no one particularly likes, but they’ll watch if their team is playing. 

• What a great week! Both the Cowboys and the Patriots lost. Let’s start with New England first. I saw the Carolina Panthers up 30-16 at the start of the fourth quarter, but I didn’t bother getting excited because I made that mistake last week with the Texans, and they blew it. Sure enough, New England came back to tie the game 30-30 with just over three minutes left in the game. The Panthers got the ball back and steadily gain yards up the field and running the clock until they faced a 48-yard field with 0:04 left. Graham Gano FOR THE WIN!! That makes the Patriots 2-2, Tom.

• Then, even better was the Dallas Cowboys-Los Angeles Rams game. Dallas led for the majority of the game until the third quarter, but by the early fourth quarter, the Rams were holding on to a 32-24 lead. Dallas came back and scored a touchdown, and had to go for two. Tie game! Oh, wait, there was a holding call that nullified the conversion and on the second attempt, Terrance Williams dropped the ball in the endzone. (This was a very, very important play in the game, and yet this is the only highlight I could find. Doesn’t really show how bad Williams’ drop was.)

• But Terrance wasn’t done quite yet. The Rams scored a field after Dallas’ failed two-point attempt, so the score was 35-30, and it was touchdown or bust for the Cowboys. Williams again chose bust, dropping what would have been a first-down pass. They did eventually get a first down, but were stopped a few plays later on fourth down, ending the game as cheers errupted across America.

Final drive of the game. Terrance Williams drop on 2nd down. Sigh. pic.twitter.com/SNu22n9gEO

— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) October 2, 2017

• If this NFL thing doesn’t work out for Jeff Heath (#38, the white dude making the first “attempt” at tackling Todd Gurley on this play, around the 30-yard line), he can always start a career as an infomercial actor. He seems like a natural.

• Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson gave his first-ever NFL paycheck to three cafeteria workers at the Texans’ complex who had lost their homes in Hurricane Harvey. That is very cool.

• Last week, we mocked Joe Flacco for only having 28 passing yards, but it turns out it was even worse than that. My brother pointed out that 30 of Joe Flacco’s passing yards were after the catch. 28 passing yards … 30 after the catch. His average pass was caught behind the line of scrimmage, and his longest completion was three yards. I’m … I’m stunned. I don’t know what to say.

If Joe had come out and just done this on every play, it
actually would have been more beneficial to the team.

• WHERE IS THAT MERCY RULE?? The Texans hung 57 points on the poor little Tennessee Titans. And the Texans aren’t even that good! 

• I wonder if Cris Collinsworth’s feelings are hurt by being thrown over for Tony Romo as most beloved color commenter. 

• Cole Beasley looks like a hobbit, and I have an intense, instinctive reaction against him every time I see him.

Grrr! Doesn't that face just make you angry??

• The New York Giants are 0-4.

• Another 0-4 team is the Los Angeles Chargers. Unlike the glee I feel at the Giant’s record, I actually feel bad for the Chargers. They’re perpetual disappointments, and they were forced to move to LA, even though they didn’t want LA and LA didn’t -- and doesn’t -- want them. They can’t fill the smallest stadium in the league, and the fans that do come are for the opponents. I can understand why Philip Rivers is so mad.

Rivers mad 😬 #Chargers pic.twitter.com/ihoOEVxORj

— Jim Russell (@JimRussellSD) October 1, 2017

• The Buffalo Bills beat the Atlanta Falcons to take the AFC North division lead! The upset is less surprising when you consider that the Falcons lost their top receivers Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu during the game. Man, if the Packers had gotten to play the Falcons sans Jones and Sanu, Atlanta probably would have only put up 300 yards on them.

• Carl Lawson of the Bengals (you remember, the guy who spent Week 3 in the Green Bay backfield?) doesn’t wear a mouthguard. Why, I can’t even begin to guess, but it caught up to him Sunday when he lost two teeth during a tackle.

• I was hoping the Seattle Seahawks-Indianapolis Colts game could end after the first quarter so we could see a 3-2 final score. Didn’t quite work out that way as Seattle went on to score 43 more points for a 46-18 win. The crazy thing is that Indianapolis was leading 15-10 at halftime! Poor Colts were probably really excited in the locker room, thinking that they were finally not going to embarrass themselves on national television, in prime time, too.

• It was this kind of day for Matty Ice. Even when he wasn’t at quarterback, he struggled. The more I watch this, the funnier it gets. Matt Ryan’s earnest effort; his tripping on nothing for no reason; the Wildcat quarterback’s “what the hell?” hand gesture; Ryan giving him that thumbs-ups -- I can’t stop watching this!

• Let’s compare. Above was Matt Ryan on a Wildcat play. Below is Jay Cutler, at the bottom of the screen, on a Wildcat play. On the one hand, I find this absolutely freaking hilarious. On the other hand, if I were his coach, I would fine Cutler for this! That attitude and lack of effort from any player, much less the quarterback, is unacceptable!

• Seattle left tackle Rees Odhiambo reported having trouble breathing during the Sunday night game. He was taken the the hospital and diagnosed with a “bruised heart.” That sounds so painful … and profound. 

• Speaking of painful injuries, Oakland QB Derek Carr suffered a “minor” fracture after taking a knee to the back, and is out “2-4 weeks.” I don’t know, but that seems like it should take more than a couple of weeks to heal. But hey, Tony Romo did that a bunch of times and it worked out for him, right?

• I know we’re all supposed to love Travis Kelce -- he’s crazy! He’s hilarious! No filter! Having so much fun out there! -- but really he is a sophomoric dude-bro jerk whose constant unsportsmanlike penalties hurt his team. Grow up! (And stay off my lawn!)

• Next up for the Packers: the Dallas Cowboys. In the words of Bart Scott:

Overtime Overdrive

• Whew! That was a little close. Luckily when you have Aaron Rodgers as your quarterback, being down 14 points at halftime is NBD.

• It was a rocky start. The Cincinnati Bengals were the subject of much talk, having been unable to score a single touchdown in their first two games. Playing the Green Packers defense (when they’re down Mike Daniels, Nick Perry, et al.)  is often a cure for whatever ails your offense, however, and the Bengals scored on their opening drive.

• And then there was a total statistical unicorn when Aaron Rodgers threw a pick-six, which he’s only ever done one other time in his entire career.

• But after halftime, Green Bay buckled down. The first play of the third quarter was a 51-yard pass to Lance Kendricks on a drive that ended in a Jordy Nelson touchdown.

• Then there were a bunch of punts and field goals and missed field goals. And THEN, the Packers defense managed to hold on a third-and-one and forced Cincy to kick a field goal that extended the Bengals' lead to 24-17 with three-and-a-half minutes left in regulation. Green Bay marched up the field and wound up with a first-and-goal at the three, and then this gorgeous touchdown to Nelson tied it up! That pass is incredible. One inch off or one-tenth of a second late, and the DB is able to knock it down.

• He’s a blurry still from the above video that shows how teeny tiny the window was for Rodgers to get the ball to Jordy before the defender could get there.

I wish I were like those quirky tech nerds on crime shows who can take any raw footage,
no matter the source, and "enhance" it to perfect clarity with a few loud keystrokes

• OVERTIME! Green Bay’s defense did not play particularly well, but they came out with a vengeance in overtime and made a statement, forcing a quick three-and-out to put the ball back where it belongs: in Aaron Rodgers’ hands. 

• After two incomplete passes, things were a little worrisome, and Green Bay faced third-and-10 from their own 21. And then the Bengals’ Michael Johnson jumped offsides, and we all knew the game was over right there.

• A Geronimo Allison’s 72-yard catch and a Mason Crosby field goal later and the game was over. Crosby celebrated by catching a reverse Lambeau Leap from his son. 

#reverselambeauleap special moment with my son! #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/mjEuclDCYI

— Mason Crosby (@crosbykicks2) September 25, 2017

• Nice game for Packers rookie safety Josh Jones -- two sacks and 12 tackles -- but he needs to work a little more on situational awareness. For example, wait until your team is not trailing by 14 points to go stomping around and flexing your muscles after making a tackle. Just a thought.

• You know what would be nice? If Martellus Bennett stopped dropping passes. Also, gaining more than 64 yards rushing as a team.

• Praising Tony Romo’s skills as a commenter is as “in” as criticizing his fourth-quarter play was a couple of years ago. He is good, but he needs to talk lower and slower. Romo has so much knowledge to share that he tries to fit everything he sees into his commentary on every play, which means he has to talk fast and say, “Look!” a lot. His speedy commentary makes stresses me out. (But you’re doing great at a very tough job, Tony!)

• I am biased against Romo, though. Not because he played for Cowboys or anything like that, but because he bumped Phil Simms out of the booth. And with no Phil Simms, there’s no @philsimmsquotes. And for that, I cannot forgive Romo.

• When Bengals LB Carl Lawson is inducted into the Hall of Fame, he should have Kyle Murphy give his introduction. The linebacker effortlessly blew by Murphy to land 2.5 sacks and three quarterback hits on Rodgers. 

Murphy is not their starter and that's not his natural position and
he was trying and it's a tough job and I should be nicer to him. 
But still.

• Andy Dalton tried to get the cool kid haircut, but he’s still a spritely-looking redhead with impish freckles, so it doesn’t really work. No matter his haircut, he’ll always look like a five-year-old hero of a kids’ book.

He probably has a trouble-making yet adorable dog named Skip or something,
too. And they get into all sorts of scrapes and misadventures together.

• Ha Ha Clinton-Dix signed this kid’s jersey, “Be respectful 2 teachers & family.” 

@haha_cd6 you made this kids WEEKEND! Every time you saw him you acknowledged him. Thank you for being a #classact and role model. pic.twitter.com/gy76d4ErVw

— Matt (@MatthewQB) September 25, 2017

• Oh boy! I can’t wait for Thursday night when we get to watch two teams who played overtime games in record heat try to compete on 3.5 days of rest! Especially great for the Packers, who barely have enough healthy bodies to field a team. And a big shout-out to the NFL for shortening overtime from 15 minutes to 10 minutes out of concern for “player safety.” I mean, sure, it didn’t help either the Packers or the Bears in overtime, but it lets us fans know that the league really cares about its players. *UPDATE: Kyle Murphy was injured in Sunday’s game, apparently. So that’s the Packers top five offensive tackles who are injured. Wonderful. Should be a great game.

• I keep on forgetting to cheer against the Miami Dolphins! Good news: Jay Cutler lost to the New York Jets 20-6, threw as many touchdowns as interceptions (one), and was sacked three times.

• I fear losing Jay to retirement after this season, so I don't want to waste any opportunities. Here’s another.

• Ugh the Houston Texans had the New England Patriots beat before screwing it up! With under a minute left, New England faced a 3rd-and-18 from midfield. Then Houston gave up back-to-back receptions of 27 and 25 yards that allowed New England to score and take a three-point lead. With 0:23 left on the clock, Houston tried to mount a last-minute drive. On the first play, they gained 21 yards. Great job! And then … then … they took 10 seconds to call a timeout before stopping the clock with three seconds left, meaning they only had enough time for a Hail Mary, instead of being able to gain some yardage and maybe try for a field goal to force overtime. WHY did coach Bill O’Brien not call a timeout??? In a situation like that, the timeout should come from the sideline, not from the field, and not from your rookie quarterback who’s trying to communicate the plan to his teammates. O’Brien gallantly fell on the sword, saying, “Anything that happened negative in that game is on me. I’m the coach.” Well, yeah, that and the fact that it was your actual fault. Man, do you know how amazing it would be for the Patriots to be 1-2 right now? YOU RUINED EVERYTHING, BILL!

• HAHAHA even when the Bears do something right, they screw it up.  After blocking a field goal, Chicago recovered the ball and returned it the other way. The genius Bears player thought it was a good idea to stop running at the 10-yard line and walk into the endzone. Except he didn't quite make it. A Steeler caught up and stripped the ball at the one-inch line. HA! Chicago actually still got points out of it because the Steelers knocked the ball out of the endzone. The half can’t end on a defensive penalty, so Chicago was given an untimed down at the one-yard line, which they also screwed up by false-starting (lol). They ended up kicking a field goal. 

• Former Green Bay running back Eddie Lacy opened up about the abuse he takes on social media for his weight. Eddie is sweet and I like him and people should stop being mean!

• The trendy Oakland Raiders could not surpass 100 yards either rushing or passing against the Washington Redskins, who outgained Oakland 472-128 in total yards. Eww.

• I gotta feel a little bad for Von Miller. The Denver defensive linebacker spent much of Sunday's game engaged in jovial trash talking with Bills’ quarterback Tyrod Taylor. In the fourth quarter, the Broncos stopped the Bills on third down. Miller scored a hit on Taylor and then held out his hand to help him off the ground, but at the last second pulled his hand away. Unfortunately for him, the ref flagged him for taunting, and the Bills got a new set of downs. (Actually kind of a big deal since the Bills went on to milk the clock and score a field goal to extend their lead to 10, the final margin of victory.) Taylor clearly didn’t take Miller’s “taunt” personally. When asked if he was laughing because of Miller’s joke or because Miller got flagged for it, Taylor said, “Both. Both, for sure.”

Von Miller got penalized for this. pic.twitter.com/IRXW5HrPhI

— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) September 24, 2017

• Colts running back Frank Gore passed the 3,000 carries mark on Sunday. You gotta be pretty darn tough to survive 3,000 rushes and still be playing. 

• The Minnesota Vikings beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, even without starting quarterback Sam Bradford. Backup Case Keenum was more than adequate, completing 25 of 33 passes for 369 yards and three touchdowns. After the game, Vikes receiver Stefon Diggs said of Keenum, “I’ve got  100% faith in Case, or anybody they put  back there … No matter who's back there, we've got faith in them and we're going to make it work. We have no choice.” Yeah, that very specifically not a declaration of support for the guy who got you two touchdowns.

• Case Keenum had more passing yards on Sunday than Joe Flacco has had this season. Flacco somehow, somehow managed to throw only 28 yards in this week's game. Granted, he was pulled in the fourth quarter of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 44-7 beatdown of the Ravens in London, but 28 yards in three quarters is still putrid.

• Also, Baltimore did not cross midfield until the third quarter.

• The Philadelphia Eagles won in dramatic last-second fashion, with their rookie kicker booting a 61-yarder (!) as time expired to keep the New York Giants winless.

Aww and they carried him off on their shoulders like at the ending of a movie. 

• Rough start to the season for Eli Manning. Maybe his coach will find another way to blame him for the entirety of the team stinking.

• Indy won a game! Indy won a game! (It was against Cleveland.) But they still won a game!

• To put Indianapolis’ victory in perspective, here’s a quote from Browns’ left tackle Joe Thomas.

• I’m not in the habit of feeling sympathy for Golden Tate nor any Detroit Lion, but I can understand why the Lions might have been a little upset over the ending of their game against the Atlanta Falcons. Down four points with under 20 seconds to go, Tate caught a short pass just on the goal line with about eight seconds left. The refs signaled for a touchdown. Scoring plays, of course, are automatically reviewed, which stopped the clock. After review, the refs came out and were like, ‘Oops, we made the wrong call. Overturned. Also, because we miscalled the play, there’s no time left, and the game is over. Good night and drive safe.’ Turns out Tate did not score a touchdown, but was actually shy by a few inches. And because the clock should not have been stopped, that meant a 10-second runoff. The Lions were miffed because 10 seconds is enough time to spike the ball, and it wasn’t their fault the clock stopped. But it was already third down, so the Lions couldn’t have spiked the ball without ending the game, even if they had the opportunity to do so. Soooo the refs were actually right, but they would have done the same thing if it had been first down, so the rules deserve to be protested, even if the application in this instance resulted in the correct outcome. #sorrynotsorry Detroit.

• Even Matt Ryan of the now 3-0 Atlanta Falcons was couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.

• Why don’t they open Sunday Night Football with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth together in the booth? Why do they always have just Michaels before Collinsworth comes careering in from the side? It always makes me think of when I was a kid and my siblings and I would rocket each other around the room in a wheelie office chair. 

• Richard Sherman got called for three penalties on the same play!!!! The loudmouth cornerback committed pass interference which led to an interception, held an opponent during his teammate's return of the interception, and was unsportsmanlike when he screamed at the ref and chased him down after he was flagged. He later leveled a blatant late hit on Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota -- because he is a dirty, dirty player -- and should have been ejected (two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties = ejection). But Richard Sherman, of course, doesn’t think he should have been called for any of the penalties.

• The San Francisco 49ers did not score any touchdowns in the first two weeks, but managed to score five on Thursday night. Great job, guys! Unfortunately, their kicker missed an extra point and they lost to the Los Angeles Rams.

• Don’t actually feel too bad for the Niners, though. They allowed the Rams to score in the first 15 seconds of the game … and the Rams didn’t even start the game with the ball.

• Even though the Arizona Cardinals failed to beat the hated Dallas Cowboys, there were some nice highlights for the Birds. Carson Palmer, who has had a shaky start to the season, had some absolute gorgeous throws. Also, Larry Fitzgerald. My favorite Fitz play was when he went up, grabbed what was going to be an interception from the defender, somehow hung on, pleaded his case to a ref who had already called it a catch, then helped the defender up.

• Looking forward to rooting on my depleted, exhausted Packers in the middle of the work week!