National Football League

[Nomad]

Nice opening weekend of games. I have a free NFL Red-Zone preview through my ESPN app - so I watched that for the first time (you have to be on your toes & read the screens fast as they change games so quickly). Nice not having to sit through several minutes of commercials breaks.

Indeed what an insane comeback by the Bills. Just when the Ravens had it in the bag, Henry commits a costly turnover. Great battle between two of best QBs in the league. Clutch Allen in the game winning FG drive. These look to be the two premier teams in the AFC.

Broncos struggled barely beating the Titans. Ward looked decent in his debut against one of the best defenses. Bronco offense struggled. Nix didn't play all that great throwing 2 picks & a fumble.

Daniels was on fire in the win over the Giants. Excellent passing & running - 300 yds of total O - no turnovers. The Giants no offense & Wilson looked unproductive scoring no TDs...countdown to Jaxson Dart?

Danny Dimes looked great in the Colts win over the Dolphins. He threw the ball well & had two rushing TDs. And this was the Colts first opening game win since 2013! The Dolphins looked pathetic - 2 picks thrown by Tua...countdown to McDaniel firing?

And what a game between the Falcons & the Bucs. Penix Jr threw the ball very well as did Baker (3 TDs/no picks). Surprisingly, he was the leading rusher for the Bucs - a dual-threat in the making? Hmmm....you never know.

I have to give credit to the impressive performance by Rodgers in the win over the Jets. He's still has the arm strength & elite passing skills: 22/30 244 4 TDs (no picks) 144 Rtg. The question is: Can he perform like that over a 17 game season? And a good performance by Fields with some much noted Impriovement in his passing. As usual, his running looked great. However, he needs to be better in end of game clutch time.

A good opening weekend.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Holy smokes! Game of the year! Okay, I'm getting ahead of things, but wow what a game. Was watching at a friend's house and almost gave up with the score 40-25 to go home. Glad I stuck around.

Ravens play at the Chiefs on 9/28

Bills host the Chiefs on 11/2

 

[Unchained]

Holy smokes! Game of the year! Okay, I'm getting ahead of things, but wow what a game. Was watching at a friend's house and almost gave up with the score 40-25 to go home. Glad I stuck around.

Ravens play at the Chiefs on 9/28

Bills host the Chiefs on 11/2

Similar situation, and camera went to a dejected Josh Allen after score got to 40. SF was good game, Aaron Rodgers came out swinging.
And season started right with Chargers win.

 

[Oldman]

Holy smokes! Game of the year! Okay, I'm getting ahead of things, but wow what a game. Was watching at a friend's house and almost gave up with the score 40-25 to go home. Glad I stuck around.

Ravens play at the Chiefs on 9/28

Bills host the Chiefs on 11/2

Watched the Derrick Henry fumble live, then a quick replay that was slightly slowed down. Derrick is wrestling Oliver and it looked like Henry's teammate actually knocked it loose trying to dislodge Oliver's grip. Haven't seen the same angle but it was a weird play in the scrum.
Everything dominoed out of whack after that! Shame that the Raven's would lose that way but kinda don't care for their coach. At least he's not the jerk his brother tends to be.
Backstory of Kicker Mark Prater not certain he'd be playing until game time showed some definite cool. First field goal for a team that ends a walk-off will not be forgotten.

 

[Nomad]

Jax looked efficient, but Bryce Young looked quite bad. Like, 2023 bad. And it wasn't like he was constantly pressured or his receivers covered.

Bad is an understatement - his passer rating was 49. Lol. And there's friction developing between Young & Canales with a sideline incident where they were arguing & Young slammed his helmet down (I would imagine Canales is pretty frustrated with Young since he showed improvement in the latter part of the season last year when he regained the starting job after being benched).

The Jags running game looked efficient but I wasn't impressed with Lawrence. Facing a below-average defense, he threw for less than 200 yds, had a pick & finished with a dismal 74 passer rating. Maybe you're right about Lawrence - I didn't see any great improvement in his passing game with all the work that Coen supposedly has done with him.

And an uneventful debut by Travis Hunter - 6 catches for only 33 yds & no scores. A 7th round pick could have accomplished that. Lol. With all the preseason hype on Hunter, I figured that he'd catch 10 plus throws, 100 plus yds, and at least 2 scores. After all you have "the new, improved" Lawrence throwing to him. Lol.

 

[Nomad]

NFL stats and records, Week 1: Bills QB Josh Allen has historic performance in win vs. Ravens

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Really nice comeback win by the Vikings. After JJ threw that pick-6 it looked like they were done. They weren't moving the ball, and the Bears were. But what a turn of events after that. Most credit to Kevin O'Connell for the way he kept his guys focused. JJ didn't have a great game, but he was clutch when it mattered, and it became easier to see why they believe in him and had no problem losing Sam Darnold (who was just average for Seattle in a loss to SF). JJ obviously a lot more mobile.

Bad is an understatement - his passer rating was 49.

I watched that entire condensed game. In fact, Bryce had only about 87 yards passing into 4Q when Jax went to a prevent D and gave up one TD drive to the Panthers. But their very last drive Jax stiffened up again and Bryce threw for about 7 yards, then another interception. Take away that one good drive late against a soft D and he had one of the worst games in recent memory. About 14/31 for 91 yards and 2 ints. Some quick math shows that's a passer rating of about 25. His QBR (harder to calculate) would be about 9.

Yes, it was that bad.

I'd be upset too if I were Canales.

 

[movingtarget]

Entertaining game.. Vikings came good in the second half. Both QB's had good moments. Vikings run game helped out.

 

[Nomad]

Really nice comeback win by the Vikings. After JJ threw that pick-6 it looked like they were done. They weren't moving the ball, and the Bears were. But what a turn of events after that. Most credit to Kevin O'Connell for the way he kept his guys focused. JJ didn't have a great game, but he was clutch when it mattered, and it became easier to see why they believe in him and had no problem losing Sam Darnold (who was just average for Seattle in a loss to SF). JJ obviously a lot more mobile.

I'd say the Bears lost that game because of one colossal failure - Caleb Williams. Did this guy implode or what in the 2nd half? His first half was impeccable - near perfect comp pct & zero off-target throws (he played like a #1 OA should be playing). Then came the 2nd half when the Vikings blitzed him 44% of the time & he completely implodes with a 29% off-target rate, below-average comp pct & sacks (you'd think Williams never saw a blitz before).

How could this have happened with Ben Johnson at the helm? And this is Williams' 2nd season starting - he started & played in all 17 games last year, so that was a full season break-in period. And you have the Vikings coming to your house with essentially a rookie QB starting for the first time.

I thought Johnson is supposed to be a mastermind with QBs? All I heard all preseason is Ben Johnson this...and Ben Johnson that. Johnson set a "70 pct" completion rate for Williams. His finishes the game at 60%. Lol. His passer rating was a dismal 86. The only bright spot I saw was his mobility & athleticism running for 58 yds on 6 carries & a score. (not bad - similar to Allen type rushing stats).

Overall...still the Bad News Bears

https://twitter.com/x/status/1965259426493063533

View: https://x.com/32JG32/status/1965259426493063533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1965259426493063533%7Ctwgr%5E17c84b249fe91b2672ba870e8274870c16b6e375%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.profootballnetwork.com%2Fcaleb-williams-bears-vikings-fan-backlash%2F

 

[SHAD0W93]

REPORT: Eagles' Jalen Carter Fined $57,000 For Spitting ON Dak Prescott, Won't Face Suspension

Jalen Carter was ejected before the very first play of the season for spitting on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott during the Eagles’ Week 1 win. Now, the NFL has announced further punishment for the third-year defensive tackle. The NFL announced that Jalen Carter will be fined $57,222...

dailysnark.com

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I think the NFL didn't want Carter out of commission for the Super Bowl rematch, which is why they didn't suspend him. The fans in KC will boo him mercilessly - Jon Gruden said when you come out of the crappy visiting team locker room and down the tunnel to the Chiefs fans chanting and noise it's like a penitentiary. . Should be a really good game this weekend. I'm sure KC both wants revenge, plus they are not going to want to fall to 0-2 and two games behind the Chargers - or Raiders, less likely to win. But they play each other. Denver plays at Indy.

As to Caleb, I can't say if he choked, or wasn't clutch, or it was on Johnson, or all of the above. Johnson is also taking a bit of a beating for not adapting or keeping his guys going, while Kevin O'Connell definitely did for his Vikings. Also, JJ did play clutch, surprisingly so, which made Caleb look even worse.

 

[Nomad]

Of course it's Willams, a 29% off-target rate against the blitz?!? That means he was panicking & wasn't getting the ball to the open receiver or taking off & running (actually he looked like a scared rabbit out there).

Remember, Williams a "generational talent, rocket arm, excellent speed & athleticism, Heisman winner, played under Lincoln Riley, #1 OA, etc, etc, etc." Furthermore, he played a full season last year & basically shows nothing for it. Compare him to Daniels, taken #2 OA, who is putting Williams into absolute shame. Heck, even 41 yr old Rodgers is playing better than him! Lol

 

[Oldman]

REPORT: Eagles' Jalen Carter Fined $57,000 For Spitting ON Dak Prescott, Won't Face Suspension

Jalen Carter was ejected before the very first play of the season for spitting on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott during the Eagles’ Week 1 win. Now, the NFL has announced further punishment for the third-year defensive tackle. The NFL announced that Jalen Carter will be fined $57,222...

dailysnark.com

Sad overcompensation considering the footage showed Dak Prescott spitting near Carter's feet. He just wasn't close enough to land it on him and then approaches him while still talking. Seems as provocative as the response, doesn't it?

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Caleb was also taken #1 overall in the year of big name QBs. The draft year everyone was waiting for: Daniels, Maye, Penix, Nix, and...JJ, who clearly outplayed him yesterday, in JJ's first game.

Williams is starting to remind me of penguin legs Kyler Murray. Able to run around, make some impressive plays here and there with his elusiveness. Much better on short throws than long ones. But big games? None that I recall. His entire career so far is very average. 37-45-1, and 0-1 in the playoffs, in his 7th year now.

 

[Potomac]

Thursday night my Burgundy and Gold take on the [wtf are those packers' colors?}

Will the Amazon coverage totally suck?

Will they pull a "you tube" and do a hosting job that aims to please the 12 year olds, the kind of 12 year olds that never actually go outside and throw a ball, or ride a bike?

That you tube game coverage was so bad. so so so so sad.... I still have nightmares thinking about who the intended audience must have been.

Anyway....
"Burgundy and Gold" vs "Dark Green and Gold"
Redskins and Packers....well using those names nowadays just isn't tolerated.

Green Bay football team is favored by 3.5 points over my Washington football team.

Washington defense make a lot stupid penalties against the Giants, but still kept them out of the end zone.
I know the Giants weren't a great test, but the new commanders defense just looked a lot better against the run.
They still can't make open field tackles to save the their lives, but I'm going to say the defense is much improved.

 

[Nomad]

Williams is starting to remind me of penguin legs Kyler Murray. Able to run around, make some impressive plays here and there with his elusiveness. Much better on short throws than long ones. But big games? None that I recall. His entire career so far is very average. 37-45-1, and 0-1 in the playoffs, in his 7th year now.

Very below-average & definitely underachieving. However, I think last year's performance bought him another year by playing in all 17 games & performing above-average coming off the ACL reconstruction.

3851 yds (21/11), 68.8 Pct, 572 yds rushing/7.3 avg/ 5 TDs (though low for a dual-threat of his status, coming off the ACL injury this is a good rushing total). His most impressive stat was his 66.5 Total QBR (#9) - higher than Hurts & just a point behind Mahomes.

But the 8-9 record & no postseason puts a dark cloud on his comeback. Ownership is expecting postseason & believe they have a playoff caliber team. No doubt Murray's got some weapons with a top WR in Harrison Jr, a top-5 TE in McBride & Connor running the ball. The team needs to see a lot more of this from Murray:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/mCigO5bGeec?si=1bmDEUO5fSv86pag

 

[movingtarget]

Wonder how much longer Mcdaniel and Daboll last if the losses keep stacking up.

As if the 49ers needed more injury issues. Kittle gone for at least 4 weeks with a hamstring, Jennings in doubt with a shoulder, and Purdy has a shoulder injury on his non throwing arm plus a toe injury. The good news is that the rookies held up pretty well on defense against an albeit hit and miss Seattle offense. Obvious that Seattle's defense is what should win them games and Darnold was pretty streaky on his first showing but then so was Purdy with two interceptions and should have been three if not for the circus catch by Tonges on the final throw by Purdy. Bad signs that once again Purdy is forcing the ball like last season instead of taking better options but Shanahan seems mostly okay with it as Purdy still makes throws for TD's that Jimmy G could only dream of.