Will have some power rankings soon.
With regard to the ATL-GB game, what happened to the Packers defense, especially their run defense. That was not good.
Will have some power rankings soon.
With regard to the ATL-GB game, what happened to the Packers defense, especially their run defense. That was not good.
Seahawks@Commanders
I felt confident SEA would win this. The only way I thought WAS could win was through turnovers and/or big ST plays. Well, that’s what happened. The SEA looked off, like they were tired or didn’t take WAS seriously enough. Their starting safeties were both injured, but WAS had a ton of injuries as well. If WAS is not a good team, especially with those injuries, SEA made them look decent.
Rams@Broncos
The Rams had control of this gam for the first half. Nix and the Bronco offense looked horrid. Somehow in the second half, I feel like the Rams got into too many long yardage situations, and that messed them up.
As for the Broncos offense, I feel like coaching really helped them, and allowed them to win this game.
Ravens@Cowboys
DAL loses a heartbreaker, but I think they should be encouraged. The defense looked way better. Also, I thought the offense did a way better job of mixing pass and run. If the defense is going to play this way through the whole year, I think DAL could be a contender. (They seemed to get good pressure on Lamar. I was wondering if BAL’s OL had some injuries.)
On another note, I came away with a favorable view of BAL’s new OC (Declan Doyle?).
Raiders@Saints
I don’t know how good or real LX is, but this the best execution I’ve seen from them in a long, long time–especially in terms of all three phases of the game. If you take the best years of Jack Del Rio era, I think the way they’re playing now is better. I’m not saying this team is better overall, but just the execution, effort, lack of boneheaded plays.
Just based on what I’ve seen so far (and last year), Klint Kubiak is in the same ballpark as his father, in terms of coaching ability. (I don’t really see the same level of execution in the zone-blocking system, though, but he’s only been in an OC for one year in every place he’s coached.) If Mendoza develops into an elite QB–or at least better than Cousins–I think the Raiders could be contending in a few years.
Chargers@Bills
The Chargers are in big trouble. The Bills turned the ball over 3 times (or was it 4?), and the Chargers still couldn’t win. To me, they look like the same team as last year, except their defense is worse.
Here’s what I think they should do: become a run-first offense. Just lean on the run game. Maybe their iOL is not up to it, but what they’re doing now is not working. I almost get the sense that Harbaugh wants to be pass heavy because he’s so enamored with Herbert. The way Herbet has played doesn’t warrant this. Granted, the pass-catchers don’t seem very good, outside of McConkey, but that’s all the more reason to lean on the run game.
Cardinals@49ers
Even with Brissett, the Cardinals are not a bad team. With a better defense and run game, they could be a dangerous team. Even now, I don’t think they’re an easy out. They were in the game to almost the end.
(If I were a 49er fan, I’d be concerned about the defense. They better hope Mike Evans can stay healthy, too.)
Back to the game. I worried that the Saints would run a lot, especially from under center. They mostly played from the gun and passed, which I think benefited the Raiders defense. I’m psychologically preparing myself for a horror show against a good rushing offense.
Patriots@Jaguars
In spite of two turnovers, near the end of the 3rd quarter the score was 14-3 Jags. But then the Jags scored, and then early on the next possession, Maye essentially threw a pick 6. (The Jags defender returned the ball close to the end zone, and the Jags scored quickly.) The score was now 28-3.
But even before the game got out of hand, the story of the game was the Jags winning in the trenches, on both sides of the ball. (Still, the Patriots were in the game.)
The Patriots desperately need AJ Brown back.
The Jags OL/DL didn’t look this good in the previous games. If they are, they’re contenders (although I don’t have a lot of faith in Lawrence.)
Eagles@Bears
I had no idea Case Keenum was still playing. He looked great. He didn’t only make basis throws from the pocket, but he made some really good throws on the move or off balance, and he showed some athleticism by dodging a few defenders.
The Eagles really don’t impress me. I will say that they seemed to have success running the ball, especially to the left, but they didn’t seem to want to commit to it.
Re: Commanders, Hawks
The Commanders’ defense was horrible against Dallas. They seem to sell out to stop the run, and couldn’t do anything to stop the pass. That was the same in this game. Seattle struggled to run the ball all game long, but had little resistance passing. The Commanders’ offense is okay, and probably better than most people think. Still, this was a super surprising loss, and something I don’t recall seeing last year for Seattle.
Re: Cowboys, Ravens
I said before the season that I was surprised that the Ravens were being picked as one of the best teams in the AFC. I thought last season their offense was just average and they have no number one WR. This game didn’t change my mind. I’ll be surprised if they are one of the better teams in the AFC.
The Cowboys defensive front did out play the Ravens’ offensive front almost all game long. But something is not right with this defense. They have huge gaps in the zone defense. I would say they look like they should be playing man almost 80% of the time.
Re: Eagles, Bears
The Eagles offense struggles a lot in the last three seasons. This game is no different. On the hand, Keenum played better in this game than I ever seen Caleb play just in terms of distributing the ball and making the seemingly correct read. Caleb has good receivers and they are being underutilized because he isn’t able/willing to throw it to the correct player or make the easy pass. Keenum made it look easy at times.
Philly was running the ball on that one drive like crazy. I think the Bears defense might be worse than this game and the Vikings game showed. They might have to outscore guys to go very far.
Re: Liam Coen
This guy is for real? Tampa Bay and Mayfield looks completely different last year and now this year. On the other hand, Jacksonville and Lawrence look like a top five offense last year and this year. For what it’s worth, same can be said with Ben Johnson after he left the Lions and started with the Bears.
Seahawks@Commanders
If you watched the game, did you think the Hawks offense should have operated more from spread formation, shot-gun and pass the ball more? A part of me feels that way, although ultimately, if they didn’t turn the ball over, they probably would have won.
Cowboys@Ravens
To me, the Ravens really need Flowers to play. With him, the offense looks a lot better. The bigger concern I’d have is the OL, if last Sunday’s performance is the norm. (Also, Lamar looks like he’s slowed down a tad.)
Eagles@Bears
Two seasons ago, the Eagles could at least run the ball really well. Now, Barkley and the run game look kind of meh. There were exceptions in this game, but for whatever reason the Eagles didn’t really stick with the run.
With Keenum, not only did he make the more basic pocket passes, but he made more athletic type of passes as well. At one point, I actually wondered if the Bears would be better off with Keenum at QB.
Re: Liam Coen
Did you think Lawrence looked really good last year? He did better than the previous year, but I’m not convinced he’s the guy. Against the Pats, he had a good run game and good pass pro, and he did look like the real deal for the most part. With more pressure, I think he sort of crumbles. To be fair, there are a lot of good QBs like that now.
This game against the Pats, the Jaguars looked like a good team. But the previous two games, I didn’t feel like they were really good.
Seattle, Washington
I did see a lot of the game. Seattle stuck to their run game for good portions of the game, which aside from the turnovers, probably cost them. Although Dallas probably should have run more, with the game in hand, they were still throwing the ball.
Ravens
Flowers played against the Cowboys. I’m not sure what your comment about the Ravens needing Flowers to play meant. Flowers is not a number one receiver. I believe the Ravens had one o-linemen out and another got hurt during the game.
Keenum
Keenum is not even the second-string QB so I’m not sure if he will play next week even if Caleb is unable to return. Actually, I think they are saying Bagent is going to start next week. If that’s true and Bagent starts, I’m not sure what the coaches see that I’m not seeing.
Coen
What about the fall of Mayfield and the Bucs? That’s the most surprising part. Maybe the guy that took over for Coen sucks, but man the downfall has been steep.
Also, I think Lawrence is a borderline top ten QB right now. Other than the tier 1 guys, I think I put him up there with the borderline tier 2 guys.
So you thought they should passed more, I guess. I didn’t think they should have passed more so much as passed more out of shotgun spread formations. (They only ran the ball 18 times.)
On this point, my memory is too hazy to comment. I just thought they mixed things up a lot better on offense. Their defense looked much improved, too.
The Ravens have looked significantly better with Flowers playing than without. That’s basically what I was getting at.
Dang, I forgot that Bagent was actuallly ahead of him. Keenum looked like he did when he started for the Vikings. Is Bagent really that much better, or was this just a (now) rare performance by Keenum?
I feel like more factors are going into the Bucs performance than just a new OC, certainly that’s the case on the defensive side. Would Mayfield and the offense be significantly better if Coen were the OC? It’s possible, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wouldn’t be.
As for Lawrence, he looked really good in the last game. In the previous games, I thought he looked like how he did for most of last year, which is not terrible. At best I feel like he’s in the same category as someone like Goff.
Re Seattle:
So, you thought Seattle would have been more effective passing the ball from the spread? I thought they were pretty darn effective throwing the ball already again the Commanders. I never even thought about how to make their passing game more effective. As far as how much they ran the ball, I was talking mostly about the first half. Seattle scored ten points in the first half, but against the Commanders they probably should have put up more. They just stuck to the run a little too much. I think at the very least if the score was tied at the half, the turnover may not have affected the Hawks as much as it did.
Actually, I’m not sure–I just want to see them do this and then see what happens. I don’t think they’ve gone empty once. They have some good WRs/TEs that have been underwhelming, and I’m wondering if this could get them going.