National Football League

[movingtarget]

LB Reuben Foster released by the 49ers after more domestic violence allegations, this time at the team's hotel in Tampa. Drafted under a cloud re shoulder injuries and bad behavior. Sideshow over. Time to move on.......

 

[jmdirt]

Entertaining game and good win for SEA!
Pretty entertaining SNF game.

I didn't see the games but the rookies Baker and Lamar looked good in the highlights. As noted above Luck is looking good. A Rog doesn't look that great, Big Ben doesn't look that great (he can move the ball OK, but he seems to have lost some vision...trying to do too much).

The PIT vs DEN game is an example of how yards gained isn't (always) the defining stat (PIT had about 200 more yards but lost). Actually CAR out gained SEA too I think.

 

[movingtarget]

Rivers breaking records by making 25 consecutive passes against the Cardinals, and also took the least amount of time to do so.

Good to see the Browns grab another win but the Bengals who had a good start to the season have well and truly hit the wall. Denver's win was a bit surprising. The 49ers were comical against the Bucs. The Foster news was the icing on the cake.........and Jimmy Ward broke his arm again !

 

[Koronin]

The Bengals seem to have completely fallen apart.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Bengals, Packers, and Big Ben tanked while the dolphins imploded.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

The Bengals seem to have completely fallen apart.

Coaching change will have to happen I think. Maybe with the Packers as well.

 

[Nomad]

Re:

Bengals, Packers, and Big Ben tanked while the dolphins imploded.

No kidding - what else could go wrong with the Bengals: Dalton is put on IR with torn ligaments in his thumb and Tom Savage is signed to save the day (I wonder what Kap must be thinking?). Other devastating injuries (bad day for TEs):

Jeff Heuerman done for the year with broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Jack Doyle hospitalized with kidney trauma and done.

Unbelievable with the magnitude of these injuries this year.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25386159/bengals-qb-andy-dalton-put-ir-thumb-injury

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

The Bengals seem to have completely fallen apart.

Coaching change will have to happen I think. Maybe with the Packers as well.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a coaching change in Cincy yet. I agree it seems with the Packers as well.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I feel like the Packers issues can be spread across the coach, front office, and quarterback. Bengals the last years have been a lesser version of the Chiefs.

 

[leftover pie]

Re: Re:

The Bengals seem to have completely fallen apart.

Coaching change will have to happen I think. Maybe with the Packers as well.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a coaching change in Cincy yet.

There has been a coaching change in Cincy, they've bought in Hue Jackson.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

The Bengals seem to have completely fallen apart.

Coaching change will have to happen I think. Maybe with the Packers as well.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a coaching change in Cincy yet.

There has been a coaching change in Cincy, they've bought in Hue Jackson.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[movingtarget]

Concussions in NFL and Rugby

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/28/how-rugby-and-the-nfl-found-common-ground-on-concussion

 

[jmdirt]

WOW! DAL! I didn't expect that, but I did wonder if DAL's D could slow NOLA down.

I'm glad that the three guys in the booth said it because I was thinking it: the officials were asleep tonight (very poor performance for them)!

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

WOW! DAL! I didn't expect that, but I did wonder if DAL's D could slow NOLA down.

I'm glad that the three guys in the booth said it because I was thinking it: the officials were asleep tonight (very poor performance for them)!

Some really bad defense as well by the Saints. Just too easy for Prescott. Brees also looked a bit rattled at times and made some poor decisions.

 

[Merckx index]

Re: Re:

Some really bad defense as well by the Saints.

Dallas gained a bit more than 300 yards and scored just 13 points, despite having a huge advantage in possession from a team that went three and out most of the first half. If that is bad defense, the Saints I’m sure would be happy to have more of it. Their season averages have been far higher, not just this year, but for every past year in memory.

Over the past three years, there have been only three team seasons (out of 3 x 32 = 96) in which a defense has given up an average of less than 300 yards per game—Denver twice, and Seattle once. I don’t know when the last time was that a team held its opponents to an average of 13 points a game—it hasn’t happened in the past ten years.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Agree on the officiating from last night's game. In just one drive Dallas had a highly questionable holding call go the Saints way, then the officials completely missed an obvious personal foul (leading with the head) against them. It's hard to say who benefitted, but the officiating seemed to change the flow of the game for sure. I'd also argue that at times the play seemed sloppy. I'd normally chalk this up to being a Thursday game, but both teams had a full week off, playing on Thanksgiving last week.

Still a nice win for the Cowboys. I felt neither team really needed to win though, maybe that crept into their heads.

Pretty interesting stat there by Merckx. Some of the stats were alarming. The Saints had just 179 yards, while Brees had just 3.7 yards per pass. Again though, it seemed like his receivers dropped balls killing several drives, or just key plays they could have used. The Cowboys had a whopping 21 first downs, and yet only scored 13 points.

The most interesting game on Sunday may be Cleveland at Houston. The Chargers at Pittsburgh at night should be good as well, with Bosa now at full strength.

 

[Koronin]

The game last night definitely had bad officiating. It was bad calls that went against both teams.

 

[Unchained]

Talk about bad calls..the Chargers got rid of Drew Brees..

 

[Merckx index]

Re:

Talk about bad calls..the Chargers got rid of Drew Brees..

Philip Rivers is a pretty good consolation prize:

Player % Y/A TD/G TD/Int QBR
Brees 67.3 7.6 1.98 2.44 97.8
Rivers 64.5 7.8 1.78 2.14 95.9

We’re not talking Aaron Rodgers vs. Alex Smith here. By the numbers, Rivers has been almost as good a QB as Brees. Rivers gets knocked for never getting to a SB, but Brees has only made it to one. Brees has played in 13 postseason games in 16 years, Rivers in 9 PS games in 12 years. When you keep in mind that Brees has played the entire portion of his career with the Saints under one of the best offensive minds in the NFL, while Rivers has had to put up with a series of incompetent coaches, you could make the case that in similar environments, Rivers would have performed better. Brees's numbers definitely improved after he moved to the Saints, though at least some of that could be due just to maturing, to more experience, and some also to the increasingly favorable environment for offense in the NFL..

Wow, KC just released Hunt (the player, not the owner), following release of a video showing him assaulting a woman. This is a lot like the Ray Rice case, where descriptions of what happened left people unmoved, but when they could finally see what happened, they had to act. It was easier for the Ravens to release Rice, though, because he was near the end of his career, anyway. This really hurts the Chiefs in a season when they had genuine SB aspirations. I'm tempted to say it took guts for the Chiefs to do this, except they should have known the seriousness of the act before they saw the video. I think they just saw the writing on the wall: that the public outcry over the video would have forced them to dump Hunt. AFAIK, there has been no suspension of him by the NFL, though, which means in theory another team could sign him. Would any team actually dare do this? Stay tuned.

Another week of NFL news of the kind that has long soured me on it. A couple of days ago, after signing Reuben Foster, Doug Williams of Washington said that what Foster did (another assault case) was "small potatoes". No big deal. It tells you how exciting fans find NFL games that they would support a league run by people like this.

 

[SHAD0W93]

The releasing of Hunt was a suprise to me as all of today I have read people say he already told the Chiefs and the lady attacked him first. We will definitely see how that hampers their playoff hopes and it should only make things easier for the other teams. What they can't do is allow this to effect their play and cause them to lose seeds.

I wouldn't put it past the Patriots to sign Hunt if he can play again this year.

 

[Unchained]

Re:

The releasing of Hunt was a suprise to me as all of today I have read people say he already told the Chiefs and the lady attacked him first. We will definitely see how that hampers their playoff hopes and it should only make things easier for the other teams. What they can't do is allow this to effect their play and cause them to lose seeds.

I wouldn't put it past the Patriots to sign Hunt if he can play again this year.

I think that a man who gets paid to run..run away from people trying to attack him for a living.. could have called upon his very advanced skill set to evade a woman..even an aggressive one in heels..
even a standard football running back straight arm..anything other than what he did..if he is to be believed the woman involved will make Ray Lewis or Lawrence Taylor look tame..
This is right up there with deadly force over loud music or a parking spot..had Hunt pulled out a bone saw nobody would be shocked at this point..
If you are good at running...run..the guy is a specimen..a complete freak of nature..he is so good at avoiding things he has one of only a few thousand jobs in the world playing in the NFL..running and avoiding people trying to grab him..
No matter what happened it's his fault..or KC found out this gal was going to be in the Raiders defensive huddle and wanted to avoid more humiliation..

 

[Nomad]

Re:

The releasing of Hunt was a suprise to me as all of today I have read people say he already told the Chiefs and the lady attacked him first. We will definitely see how that hampers their playoff hopes and it should only make things easier for the other teams. What they can't do is allow this to effect their play and cause them to lose seeds.

I wouldn't put it past the Patriots to sign Hunt if he can play again this year.

I think it's disastrous losing Hunt - this is a big blow to KC. Last year as a rookie he was a pro-bowler. This year through 11 games, Hunt has 824 yds rushing (5th in NFL) on 4.6 yds per carry & 7 TDs. He's also dangerous catching the ball with 26 receptions for 378 yds (14.5 yds per catch) and 7 TDs. That's 14 total TDs right there!

How many times have we've seen Hunt break open a big gainer on 1st or 2nd down and have Mahomes follow-up on the next play with a big passing completion. Plus Hunt is a big threat catching the ball out of the backfield usually for big gainers.

And the next man up? Spencer Ware - unproven and missed all of last year after sustaining a major knee injury in the preseason. This is not good for KC. Defenses can now adjust differently without the threat of Hunt and pressure Mahomes more. I think it changes the dynamics of KC's offense considerably. Reid is going to have his work cut out.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

The releasing of Hunt was a suprise to me as all of today I have read people say he already told the Chiefs and the lady attacked him first. We will definitely see how that hampers their playoff hopes and it should only make things easier for the other teams. What they can't do is allow this to effect their play and cause them to lose seeds.

I wouldn't put it past the Patriots to sign Hunt if he can play again this year.

I think it's disastrous losing Hunt - this is a big blow to KC. Last year as a rookie he was a pro-bowler. This year through 11 games, Hunt has 824 yds rushing (5th in NFL) on 4.6 yds per carry & 7 TDs. He's also dangerous catching the ball with 26 receptions for 378 yds (14.5 yds per catch) and 7 TDs. That's 14 total TDs right there!

How many times have we've seen Hunt break open a big gainer on 1st or 2nd down and have Mahomes follow-up on the next play with a big passing completion. Plus Hunt is a big threat catching the ball out of the backfield usually for big gainers.

And the next man up? Spencer Ware - unproven and missed all of last year after sustaining a major knee injury in the preseason. This is not good for KC. Defenses can now adjust differently without the threat of Hunt and pressure Mahomes more. I think it changes the dynamics of KC's offense considerably. Reid is going to have his work cut out.

Yeah huge blow for Kansas.

 

[jmdirt]

Hunt is clearly a chicken sh*t and there is no excuse for his behavior. I wouldn't want him on my team. That being said, would you lose your job for this incident? I don't think that most employers would fire an employee for domestic events away from work. Would other companies avoid one of the best engineers because he was seen on camera assaulting someone?

This will be tough for KC to overcome.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

From what I've read, the Chiefs were most upset that Hunt lied to them. Now, they aren't saying the details, but my gut tells me when they heard there was an altercation, they liked asked him "did you hit her?" and he said "no", thinking no footage of it would ever come out, nothing could prove he did (shove and kick her). That must have really upset them. My other guess is that they assumed the NFL would suspend him, likely for some time, that they just decided to cut bait, now, instead of just suspending him indefinitely, and hope something reflective somehow came, or spun out of it.

My understanding of the altercation is the girl was one of two hangers on, and after some talk, Hunt didn't want anything to do with them and told them "get out" (of his room). They were upset about it, maybe nasty, and after an altercation between them and others in the hallway, he got involved. She apparently called him something akin to a "f***ing n****r", and after she hit him, he shoved and kicked her. I think most people, which include the Chiefs organization and the league will view this as beyond unacceptable or unnecessary behavior, two wrongs not making a right, and inexcusable and cowardly. As others have said, as nasty as she was, as wrong as she was, he could have easily just stayed away, or even after she hit him, told her what to do with herself and walked (ran) away.

As to the Chiefs, as much as I say running backs can be plug and play, this has to hurt them because Hunt's style really fit their offensive scheme. There's not much indication Ware can fill that void.