NFL 2020: Week 4

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A buncha pro football stuff from my fingers to your eyeballs:

1. Breaking NFL news: Titan/Steelers game has been postponed. Makeup date is either Monday or Tuesday or later in the season. Good job, Titans!

2. Here's how to beat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens: Get a decent lead, blitz like hell, take away throws to the middle and hope that the Ravens give up on their run game. Jackson is a ton of fun to watch and my god is he fast, but he has yet to master Advanced Quarterbacking. He will in time, but he's not there yet all the time. Legion does a good analysis here.

3. Here's how to beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs: Hahaha it's not possible to stop Mahomes when he's throwing TD passes to everyone on the offense, including his fullback and his left tackle.

4. We had a Week 3 Scorigami! (h/t Rat Boy). SF 36, NYG 9 is the 1,056th unique final score in NFL history. There's a whole Scorigami website, too, and it's the nerdiest thing I've ever seen. I love it.

5. To answer last week's question: It's definitely FAILcons. Twitter tells me that ATL had a 99+ percent of beating both the Cowboys and the Bears but gagged in both games. And by choking yet again, the FAILcons become the first team to blow fourth-quarter leads of 15+ points in back-to-back games in 20 years.

6. A tie in the Eagles-Bengals game was the perfect outcome. Both teams are bad, but not Giants/Jets (or even FAILcons) bad.

7. On Sunday I learned the name of San Diego's third-string QB: Easton Stick, who apparently is a real person and a proud alumnus of North Dakota State University. Stick almost got to play Sunday, but the Chargers called a timeout and Justin Herbert rallied from his death bed. He must have gotten some sort of shot, huh.

8. Congrats to the Lions (11 games) and Panthers (10 games) for breaking their double-digit losing streaks. Best I can tell, the Giants (four straight Ls) now have the league's longest losing streak.

9. Congrats to the Bills' Josh Allen, who became the first QB in four years to be called for a facemask penalty.

10. And congrats to the Saints, who decided to let QB/WR/DB/gunner/forward/prop/center back/maitre D/water boy Tallulah Hallelujah run a read option. Not only did Drewbrees 0.2 blow the read, he let the ball get punched out of his hands because he was holding it in a non-football-approved HERE YOU TAKE IT method. The Packers recovered and ended won the game. Cam Newton, any reaction?

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/L3oTUQIDkDJzRu6mzF/giphy.gif)

As The Big Lead put it: The Saints think they have Kordell Stewart, but really they've got Tim Tebow willing to play fullback. Yep, that's about right.

11. Stat of the week: The 2-1 Browns are now over .500 for the first time in 84 games. In other words, the Browns have had a losing or non-winning record since December 2014. Now that the Browns have broken the streak, the 0-3 Giants are now the new standard-bearer with 50-some .500-or-below games. (I pulled both numbers from the Fox broadcast; I caught the Browns futility number but not the Giants'.)

12. BS stat of the week: Fox said that the Cleveland/Washington game was the first in 58 years to feature two teams without logos on their helmets. Interesting, right? Cleveland's helmets, as we all know, are plain brown. The WFT, meanwhile, retired its, um, logo, and opted to go with the players' numbers a la Alabama. I wanted to see if the Fox stat was correct, and that led me down a matrix of helmet logo history that's (a) fascinating and (b) shows that Fox's research staff is the Taysom Hill of researchers.

* Logos on football helmets weren't a thing until the late 1950s and early 1960s. The reason: Pro football was on TV a lot, and viewers needed help to see who was who on their black and white 4KB TVs. In 1959, only four teams had helmet logos: Philly, Baltimore (now Indy), LA Rams and Washington. (The first three logos are very close to the ones in use today; Washington had a feather that ran along the top of the helmet.) By the start of the 1962 season, only two of the NFL's 14 teams were logo-less: the Browns (durr) and the Steelers. (Apparently the AFL didn't count in Fox's eyes: The New York Titans and Oakland Raiders didn't have helmet logos until 1963.) If you want a little more history, this graphic shows the evolution of NFL helmets from 1952 to 1962.

* Fox said the last logo-free helmet game was played Nov. 25, 1962 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. (The game was played at Memorial Stadium (RIP) in Cleveland; the Browns won 35-14 behind 166 total yards and 3 TDs by real and fantasy Hall of Famer Jim Brown.) Problem is, these pictures clearly show a logo on the right side of the Steelers' (gold!) helmets.

* This fascinating website suggests where Fox might have screwed up. It's true that the Steelers started the '62 season with no helmet logo. But Pittsburgh introduced a helmet logo in Week 10 — the week before the game against the Browns.

* Assuming the bullet above is correct, the last logo-free helmet game was actually the Week 13 game in 1961 (Dec. 10, 1961, to be exact) between the Browns and the Bears. Chicago didn't add the C to their helmets until 1962.

Whew. What a ride, huh? Anyway, here's a look at Week 4:

Thursday: Broncos at Jets. SKIP IT.

1 p.m. Sunday: All the games here are OK at best. Steelers-Titans was my pick, but, hey, Covid.

4 p.m. Sunday: Patriots-Chiefs. MUST WATCH

8:20 p.m. Sunday: Eagles-Niners. Eh, let's hope Patriots-Chiefs goes into 4 OTs.

Monday: Falcons-Packers. I love watching Aaron Rodgers play QB. And I love watching the FaLOLcons screw up. MUST WATCH

Here are your coverage maps for the Sunday games. Looks like most folks will get Chargers vs Bucs early and Pats vs Patrick-Not-Pat late.

A bonus note about the new MNF crew: I'm old enough to remember the Gifford/Cosell/Dandy Don booth crew as well as Al Michaels/late-stage John Madden, Dan Fouts trying not to strangle Dennis Miller, and all the rest. For years MNF was entertaining in a good way. Then it was entertaining in a bad way. And then there was Gruden (who's a recent high point by comparison). And then it was farce (Tess, Booger, Jason Witten). The new crew is full of professionals — an old ESPN hand who has called a million games in a dozen sports (Steve Levy), another ESPN veteran and former pro QB who was a decent but unmemorable college FB announcer (Brian Griese) and the former pro player/front office guy turned broadcaster (Louis Riddick).

The MNF crew is ... fine. Steady. Drama-free. Professional. It's kinda boring, honestly. That might say something about the current sports-viewing public but I'm too tired after typing all of this to figure out what it might be.

I missed the reason why Al Michaels wasn't on SNF this past week.

Enix wrote:

3. Here's how to beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs:

MAKE THE REFS END THE GAME HALFWAY THROUGH THE 4TH QUARTER

The 49ers have a new long snapper.

For anyone that didn't watch the Niners/Giants, long snapper Kyle Nelson (one of the longest tenured 49ers) had an absolute meltdown of a game, to the point where he was pulled and another offensive lineman long-snapped the team's final PAT.

According to Shanahan, Sunday's meltdown wasn't the first indication of trouble, but that it "was kind of trending a little bit that way" already.

Nelson had twice been suspended for PEDs, once dating back to his 2011 rookie season and again in 2018 which cost him 6 games last year, so the ice for him was already thin.

Rat Boy wrote:

I missed the reason why Al Michaels wasn't on SNF this past week.

I think I saw somewhere that Al is getting several bye weeks this season. Dude is 75 and still sounds great, but I suspect he's thinking pretty hard about retiring.

Take over the football thread, and start writing incredibly long posts full of snark and pointless statistical research. Starting to wonder if this transmitted by an airborne virus of some sort.

I do love scorigami. Been following the Twitter account for 3 seasons now.

Im not old enough to remember the Cosell/Meredith MNFs, but I do remember having a 25 Years of MNF VHS tape and being blown away how old that was.

I think my favorite MNF crew was the ones with Frank Gifford where he'd do the intro each night. Those were always so dramatic and his delivery really got you fired up for the game.

Props on doing that research

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

pointless

Not inaccurate!

Edit: CamSlidingDownontheBench.gif

Enix wrote:

10. And congrats to the Saints, who decided to let QB/WR/DB/gunner/forward/prop/center back/maitre D/water boy Tallulah Hallelujah run a read option. Not only did Drewbrees 0.2 blow the read, he let the ball get punched out of his hands because he was holding it in a non-football-approved HERE YOU TAKE IT method.

There should be a Taysom Hill Watch every week, like the old Greg Robinson Watch.

Although some weeks might be difficult. At least Greg Robinson played every week.

Enix wrote:

7. On Sunday I learned the name of San Diego's third-string QB: Easton Stick, who apparently is a real person and a proud alumnus of North Dakota State University

Oh I used to have one of those.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/rX7rHQ3.jpg)

Enix wrote:

8:20 p.m. Sunday: Eagles-Niners. Eh, let's hope Patriots-Chiefs goes into 4 OTs.

Are they going to remove the rule that regular season games end after one 10 min overtime period?

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Some of that might be on Lamar as he's had it pretty easy so far kicking ass left and right. Being the fastest person on the field does that
Tough games and losses will do his head some good. Learning pains and all.

I feel like the narrative on Lamar swung from one extreme to the other. He was dismissed by way too many people as a running back or wide receiver during draft season, and now that he's had the extreme success of a 2nd year MVP season, the discussion has gone so far the other way that people forget he's still a young, developing QB with plenty of areas to his game that still need work.

Right now there's a defensive formula that is working against him - as Lamar himself admitted, what KC did is the same basic thing the Titans did in the playoffs to beat him. The corners press the receivers, the safeties play top-down to take away deep shot plays, and the defensive front funnels his scrambles and runs to the outside and uses the sideline as a defender, rather than aggressively trying to make (and end up missing) tackles for losses. It disrupts the timing passing game, and neutralizes the big broken-play runs downfield.

It challenges Lamar to stay disciplined in the pocket and wait for guys to get open on the intermediate routes between the press coverage and the safeties that are maintaining their depth. Ironically, it's the bend-don't-break defenses, rather than the attacking defenses that are more en vogue, that puts the most pressure on Lamar.

I don't think it's some fundamental secret formula for beating Lamar, it's just a defensive look he hasn't figured out how to punish yet. Though I do think taking away the instinctual big-play scramble runs will probably always be a smart approach for playing against Lamar Jackson. Maintaining lane discipline is likely always going to be worth the trade-off of having to be less aggressive in the pass rush.

No doubt, Lamar is going to be getting better as a passer for a couple more seasons.

Problem is his receiving corps isn't exactly the crown jewel of the league. There's talent and speed, but outside of Miles Boykin, no one has the size to get off press. When Mark Andrews has a bad day, the team has a bad day. And he had an awful day against the Chiefs.

And it, of course, makes it hard to win games when Mahomes is absolutely on fire. That dude is amazing.

*Legion* wrote:

The 49ers have a new long snapper.

For anyone that didn't watch the Niners/Giants, long snapper Kyle Nelson (one of the longest tenured 49ers) had an absolute meltdown of a game, to the point where he was pulled and another offensive lineman long-snapped the team's final PAT.

According to Shanahan, Sunday's meltdown wasn't the first indication of trouble, but that it "was kind of trending a little bit that way" already.

Nelson had twice been suspended for PEDs, once dating back to his 2011 rookie season and again in 2018 which cost him 6 games last year, so the ice for him was already thin.

I can't believe you put any thought or effort into this post.

And yet you can't find the time anymore to do weekly threads of commish fantasy football.

But TMZ-style posts about long snappers? Golden.

garion333 wrote:

Problem is his receiving corps isn't exactly the crown jewel of the league.

Well whose fault is that, letting Breshad Perriman walk and all...

garion333 wrote:

I can't believe you put any thought or effort into this post.

And yet you can't find the time anymore to do weekly threads of commish fantasy football.

But TMZ-style posts about long snappers? Golden.

You keep it up smart mouth and I'll do a profile on every long snapper in the league just out of spite.

Titans-Steelers postponed indefinitely. One more player and one more staff came back positive.

Also, Ravens extend Marlon Humphrey, which was a no brainer.

Curious if the Steelers will try to move for a FORFEIT! Or will they play nice considering it could be a couple weeks from now when they are the team with covid.

Don't really know how the NFL is going to find time for make up games unless they just throw things out the window and we start getting games on Tue/Wed/Fri/Sat.

*Legion* wrote:

You keep it up smart mouth and I'll do a profile on every long snapper in the league just out of spite.

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! Do J.J. Jansen next. The Panthers long-snapper managed to down the ball at the 1 in the waning minutes of the Chargers game.

But then the Panthers took him out of the game, and the Chargers came about 15 yards and one blown hook-and-lateral play from scoring the winning TD.

Coincidence? I THINK NOT

PS: We used Easton bats in middle school and HS baseball. Didn't know that Easton made hockey sticks, too. Or third-string QBs.

BREAKING: No Steelers-Titans this week. Makeup date TBA. PFT says Week 7 might work.

Titans now up to 11 positive cases. Team facility will be closed indefinitely.

The NFL schedule is an interested house of cards.. I was wondering when it might start falling apart.. I initially said week 3.

The Biggest Busts of the NFL's First Month of 2020 Season

Brandin Cooks probably shouldn't make the list, only because in 14 starts last year he only managed 42 catches and 582 receiving yards, so he's basically on the same pace he was a year ago. He's only a bust because Bill O'Brien I guess didn't believe Cooks' 2019 tape, and over-invested with a 2nd round pick trade instead of using that draft capital to target a late 1st or early 2nd round WR.

Any team that needed WRs that sat out the amazing 1st and 2nd rounds of the past two drafts is just derelict in duty. These have been probably the best WR drafts I can remember in a long time.

Not sure how much of AJ Green is on him and how much is on Joe Burrow currently being a dink-and-dunk passer (currently at 9.0 yards per completion, which would be the worst since 2017 Joe Flacco's 8.9). That's not to roast Burrow because rookie QBs that start immediately are almost always going to be inefficient, and he's only 3 games in. But Burrow's not throwing very far downfield to anyone, so AJ's production drop might be out of his hands.

Wentz and Cousins, yeah, though I don't believe either guy stays at this bad a level on the whole season.

Daniel Jones, yeah, he was bad, but Sam Darnold should be right next to him on the list. The best QB play MetLife Stadium has seen this year was by Nick Mullens.

Gronk, I mean anyone that expected this to be anything more than a farewell tour was out of their minds. Especially being a TE in an Arians offense. It's like people thought that was made up.

Austin Hooper, well, Baker is 27th in pass attempts, no pass catcher in Cleveland is getting a whole lot of volume. Cleveland is just playing ground-pound football right now, it's like Mike Zimmer himself came with Stefanski from Minnesota.

I'm curious if Baker hates TEs or what.

THE JOE FLACCO ERA IN NEW YORK HAS BEGUN

The Jets finally get an elite Quarterback.

Turf Monster: "LIGAMENTS! OMNOMNOMNOMNOM!"

Personal Foul has a lot of yards for the Broncos tonight. Looking good out there.

Mark Rypien's nephew trying to save Gase's job.

I don't think Darnold is very good.

A shout-out to Jim Druckenmiller on TNF!

I've had an eBay saved search for Druckenmiller jerseys for so long. Occasionally see some Va Tech ones pop up but no Niners ones. One day...

The last 30 seconds of that game were like an early M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Adam Gase prolonging his career by calling timeouts down nine, then Denver joined in and called one too. Then a free play on an offsides and then yet another Personal Foul and a free First Down, all wrapped up with Fangio running on the field to drag his players away from handshakes shouting "Get in the f*cking locker room!"

What a really great terrible game.

*Legion* wrote:

A shout-out to Jim Druckenmiller on TNF!

I've had an eBay saved search for Druckenmiller jerseys for so long. Occasionally see some Va Tech ones pop up but no Niners ones. One day...

Do you also have Elvis Grbac bookmarked?

Speaking of quarterbacks the rest of you didn't know the 49ers had way back when, here's a story of former 49ers QB Steve DeBerg and the contraption he wore on his back for three games in 1980. Bonus fact you probably didn't know about Joe Montana, kidnap thwarter, also included.

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