The sixth Sunday of the NFL season is in the books so here are the different thoughts and opinions I have on various things I witnessed this past weekend. Just remember I am a Dallas Cowboys fan and I'm extremely biased. Feel free to agree or disagree about anything mentioned here. All comments are welcome.
WOW! Where did that come from
Cowboys 40 Jaguars 7. Who saw that coming? I know: NOBODY! What a glorious game from start to finish.
I thought Dallas had a decent shot of winning. Two top defenses against two sub-par offenses, a 9-6 final score felt about right. Bortles is more turnover prone than Prescott so I figured that could work in the Cowboys advantage.
Well the Dallas defense held up their end of the bargain, but the Jags defense suffered from an epic fail.
Everyone is well aware of the Cowboys wide receiver woes, but one of the biggest problems for the offense this season has been protection. It's hard to expect Dak to make plays when he is constantly running for his life. The Jags got a few sacks, but for the most part Prescott had time to find receivers or take off running for positive yardage. And Dak's rushing was the key, 11 carries for 82 yards and a TD. Combine that with another 100 yard game from Zeke and the rushing game was alive & well against one of the NFL's top rushing defenses.
Hopefully the Cowboys takeaway from this game was using Dak as a running threat will help open up the passing game. Now they just have to figure out how to put things together on the road. 3-0 Home, 0-3 Away. Heading to Washington this week, losing to the Skins is never acceptable.
Da Dolphins
Like most NFL fans I expected the Bears to got to Miami and whoop up on the Dolphins. Sure the Dolphins started out 3-0, but they got their asses handed to them when they had to face real competition in New England and Cincinnati. The Bears have been revitalized by the maturing of Mitch Trubisky at QB and the acquisition of defensive monster Khalil Mack. No contest right?
Things looked even more dire for the Dolphins when it was announced Ryan Tannehill was a late scratch. Or so it seemed. What few people knew was Miami had an ace up their sleeve, Brock Osweiler. Who knew that bum was even still in the league? Turns out Osweiler has a very specific set of skills, he beats the Bears when he makes his first start for a team.
Osweiler made his first career start for the Broncos against the Bears in 2015 and walked away with a 17-15 win. The next season he made the debut for his disastrous run with the Texans in a 23-14 win over the Bears. On Sunday he made his debut as a starter for the Dolphins and lead the team to a thrilling 31-28 win in overtime. Not even a Kenyan Drake fumble on the half yard line in OT could stop him.
Good thing Osweiler wasn't around in 1985 to make his debut, the Chicago fans would have nothing to brag about. I'm sure they'll have better luck against that stiff from New England next week. Then again they have never beaten him either. (Brady 4-0 against the Bears)
At least they weren't shut out
I sure hope the Raiders got to eat a nice dinner of fish & chips while they were in London, because that certainly would have been the highlight of their trip. Traveling 5,600 miles to get your ass handed to you 27-3 sure seems like a waste of time. Of course I think all London games are a waste of time. Sorry UK fans, asking teams to take on that travel schedule is unfair.
This team was soundly defeated in all phases of the game. Even their punter stunk, 30.7 yard average on 3 kicks.
With all the hoopla over the hiring of Jon Gruden, this season couldn't be anymore of a train wreck. They needed lucky breaks to beat Cleveland! It's not like there isn't any talent on this roster because there is. However Derek Carr seems to be regressing by the week.
Rumors are floating that just about everybody on the roster is on the trading block. Why not, this team needs a total rebuild. I hear they want a first round pick for Amari Cooper. HAHA, good luck with that.
Beer and a bird
What a game between the Chiefs and Patriots. Sometimes they do live up to the hype.
Patrick Mahomes showed once again he isn't going to be intimidated by any situation. And Tom Brady showed once again he isn't ready to hand over the title of best QB in the NFL. Although it would have been nice to see at least a little defense. Oh well. According to Al Michaels it was the first time in history a NFL game ended with a 43-40 score. I didn't verify that, I'm assuming somebody did that for Al.
Tyreek Hill shined in this game with 142 receiving yards and 3 TDs. The Patriot fans showed their appreciation by showering him in beer and holding up #1 fingers. Who said sportsmanship dead?
OK, they didn't exactly do it out of love. NBC kind of blew by the incident and didn't show any replays, which I found kind of odd. I have the feeling if this happened in New York or Philadelphia they would have been all over it.
Hill's agent Drew Rosenhaus is screaming for the fan who tossed the beer to be prosecuted and it is being reported he is. Good, players shouldn't have to put up with that crap. But Rosenhaus is really trying to blow this out of proportion. Geez he tossed some beer. The Patriots have banned him from the stadium and he'll probably get a disorderly conduct fine. They used to be about $125 back in the day (I mean, I heard that or something.) Probably more like $300 now. Maybe some community service. That's enough. What more does he want? Jailtime? Rosenhaus has always been a blowhard, I'd gladly give him the finger if I ran into him. The real question is why would any fan waste a $12 beer?
Picking a winner in Cincy
The Steelers and Bengals played another barnburner in Cincinnati. These games are always slugfests and I enjoy watching them, even though the Steelers almost always win.
The Steelers scored a big win when Ben Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown with a quick slant pass for a 31 yard game winning TD. It should have been called back.
The offensive play was a pick play where one wide receiver tries to "innocently" get in the way of a defender to free up another receiver. Except Pittsburgh WR Justin Hunter didn't set a pick, he simply fired off the line and blocked Cincy DB Tony McRae out of the way. He didn't even pretend to run a route.
The NFL is claiming it wasn't a penalty because McRae initiated the contact. Yea, right. If you watch the play Hunter ran right into McRae and blocked him while the pass was in the air. That's a textbook case of offensive pass interference. But the refs swallowed the whistles on this play. A penalty would have knocked the Steelers out of field range and forced them to make another big play in the waning seconds to try to score.
The NFL league office's love of offense is making it impossible for teams to play quality defense anymore. DB's that look at a receiver the wrong way get flagged, receivers should be held to the same standard.
Random Stuff
The Ravens sacked Marcus Mariota 11 times on Sunday on their way to 21-0 shutout victory over the Titans. Tennesssee couldn't even muster 200 yards of offense. Ravens looked like a contender again so they'll probably shit the bed next week against the Saints. This team can't figure out if they are good or not.
The Kansas City defense is on pace to give up the most yards ever in one season. Actually if they keep it up they will shatter the record by more than 400 yards. Unless there is drastic improvement the KC defense will bring this team down. Mahomes can't throw 4 TDs every week. I think.
The Rams knocked off the Broncos 23-20 in Denver and are the NFL's only undefeated team at 6-0. That game was closer than it should have been, kind of like the Rams last three games. I don't know, I feel like the Rams are just coasting through the season like the Peyton Manning Colts used to do. Then the Colts would fail to turn it up when the playoffs started and get knocked out in the first game.
Vikings WR Adam Thielen has hit 100 receiving yards in all six games this year, the first time that's happened in 57 years. He also leads the league with 58 receptions, a NFL record for the first six games. When did this guy become the #1 receiver in the league? Obviously Kirk Cousins has found his favorite target.
A few weeks ago I thought the Bills were the worst team in the league. Yet if Josh Allen wouldn't have got hurt I think they would have beat Houston to even up their record. Usually it's easy to pick the worst team, you just look towards Cleveland. But the Browns have screwed that up this year.
A popular narrative on the sport talk shows today is the Jaguars need to trade for Eli Manning to solve their offensive woes. Man, they sure fill the airwaves with garbage these days. Eli has weapons like Barkley and Beckham in New York and can't get anything going. What's he going to do in Jacksonville? For all his flaws, the Jags are better off with Bortles.
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