NFL 2020: Week 4

Rat Boy wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

Yeah, that has got to be weird.

I know. I can't recall the last time I was ever in a clean bathroom at a sporting event.

Hoyer missed two easy, *for an NFL QB, first down throws so far. I really hope Cam is cleared to play next week.

Edit: Maybe lets see what Stidham can do. That was horrible.

Did Mahomes clear it w/his fiancee before offering his SB ring to Jared from State Farm?

Pretty sure it's no long his to offer...

Whoa that was a premature whistle. I hate when they do that.

Edit: WTF, that was an fumble interception.

Wasn't this game supposed to be Tuesday?

49ers signed Ezekiel Ansah as a replacement for their injured edge rushers.

Ansah made it through 34 total defensive snaps between last week and this week before suffering a year-ending bicep injury last night.

Over/under week 13 before John Lynch calls me to take some situational pass rusher snaps. I've got a good club-rip, you'll see.

This is painful. D keeps KC to 6pts on the half, even with the robbed turnover, and Hoyer is doing everything possible to make sure the offense doesn't put up points. Stidham time please....

*Legion* wrote:

Over/under week 13 before John Lynch calls me to take some situational pass rusher snaps. I've got a good club-rip, you'll see.

I don't think they let you take the club on the field of play *Legion*

Yikes, that was a quick half time. ESPN only aired one commercial break and half a clip before CBS came back.

Stidham!!!

Pats aren't going to win this game but I'm more surprised at their defense. They lost huge key players b/c of opt out & free agency so how the hell are they slowing KC down? I know they are covered in the corner area but every other position is suspect.

Lots of evidence on TV tonight that wearing a mask matters.

Falcons might already be really bad and these injuries are not going to help them.

This could get ugly.

Falcons doing just enough to keep the game from being completely safe to turn off. :/

IMAGE(http://www.thedrawplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-10-07-BrownsGood.png)

After two days with clear results the Titans had another positive test overnight which means plans to reopen their facilities today are shelved. No word yet on what that means for this weekend's game with Buffalo.

The Pats also reported that CB Stephon Gilmore tested positive.

Football Team is benching Dwayne Haskins in favor of Kyle-Not-Josh Allen.

The "b" word is already being referenced for ol' Dwayne.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2GtOq79.png)

Ouch.

Kind of surprised that it's Allen and not Alex Smith, but that probably says more about where Alex Smith is physically than anything else. He didn't return to full-team practice until the very end of camp, might still be getting into football shape. But the Team did announce that Smith is QB2 behind Allen, dropping Haskins down to QB3 (double ouch).

I graded Haskins a 2nd round pick during draft season, so I was not on board with him being taken as highly as he was. But I thought his mental game was his strength, and that his limited physical tools were his ceiling limiter. Turns out his processing at the NFL level is slow and his tools... are still limited.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

After two days with clear results the Titans had another positive test overnight which means plans to reopen their facilities today are shelved. No word yet on what that means for this weekend's game with Buffalo.

The Pats also reported that CB Stephon Gilmore tested positive.

There's this in a PFT story about this:

Gilmore may not have been terribly surprised to learn that he had tested positive. PFT has learned, via a league source, that Gilmore was in close contact with Newton in the days leading up to his positive test.

That led Gilmore to fly to Kansas City on a second plane along with about 20 other people from the Patriots organization who had close contact with Newton.

Gilmore also had a brief exchange with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes after the game and the news of another positive test will keep an eye on the results out of Kansas City as well as New England in the coming days.

So, yeah, these are the kinds of things that are going to happen when the NFL tries to balance a safety protocol vs. keeping games going. In this case, they knew of the exposure, but the games had to go on.

Can somebody find Jayhawker and give him a hug? A socially distanced hug? PATRICK MAY BE AT RISK.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Can somebody find Jayhawker and give him a hug? A socially distanced hug? PATRICK MAY BE AT RISK.

We've discussed this. He's an expectant father, he should not be taking all these risks. Add another year to that planned paternity leave and start it now.

Also, these COVID outbreaks should (but probably won't) put an end to dumb teams letting fans into the stadium.

The number of people who say "all the Chiefs tested negative after the game so it's fine" gives me a sharp stabbing pain in my eye.

I feel like it takes genuine effort to not understand incubation periods by this point.

Alright, guess the Rams do have a plan at RB and the Giants, terrible as they are, countered that plan by taking away outside runs by Henderson and forcing them to win inside. Sounds like we have a formula to slowing down the Rams.

It'll be interesting to see how they adjust as I get the feeling McVay has issues adjusting in-game compared to some of the other top tier coaches out there. Could be wrong about that.

*Legion* wrote:

Also, these COVID outbreaks should (but probably won't) put an end to dumb teams letting fans into the stadium.

Emphasis mine. That horse has broken out of the barn, broken his horse friends out of their barns and have burned down all of the barns.

Historians (assuming any survive) will look back at 2020 and wonder what we were (weren't) thinking.

@ Mr Bismark: Exactly. Five bucks says the Chiefs are the next team with an outbreak unless the Raiders beat them to it.

garion333 wrote:

Alright, guess the Rams do have a plan at RB and the Giants, terrible as they are, countered that plan by taking away outside runs by Henderson and forcing them to win inside. Sounds like we have a formula to slowing down the Rams.

It'll be interesting to see how they adjust as I get the feeling McVay has issues adjusting in-game compared to some of the other top tier coaches out there. Could be wrong about that.

Heh possibly! The Giants just don't have the personnel to execute it well.

Big hit to Washington if Haskins doesn't pay off. Then again, same can be said about Jones but he has looked better. Regardless, it's very damaging if high picks don't pan out. Trust me, I know well enough.

I take every opportunity I can to point and laugh at the Saints. But the hurricane coming their way is no joke. Not only has the National Hurricane Center run out of proper names -- this storm is Hurricane Delta because we're now four letters into the Greek alphabet -- the hurricane is forecast to grow to a Cat 3, maybe more. Worse for New Orleans, it sits on the dirty side of this particular storm.

As if the NFL has enough to worry about, the Saints are apparently thinking about heading inland and might play Monday night's game in Indianapolis.

garion333 wrote:

Alright, guess the Rams do have a plan at RB and the Giants, terrible as they are, countered that plan by taking away outside runs by Henderson and forcing them to win inside. Sounds like we have a formula to slowing down the Rams.

It'll be interesting to see how they adjust as I get the feeling McVay has issues adjusting in-game compared to some of the other top tier coaches out there. Could be wrong about that.

That's been the formula since the Patriots beat them in the Super Bowl, and McVay has yet to meaningfully adjust, hence last year's tumble.

Patriots had one major defensive goal in that game: stop outside zone by selling out with containment on both sides, bringing LBs to shade the outside edge of the edge-most offensive player (and would-be edge blocker on an outside zone run):

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/A65jSiN.jpg)

See here, #6 is lined up not only outside of where the TE would be on that side, but actually shaded outside the WR that's lined up a tight split off the line.

Other teams learned from this look, and the Rams saw it a lot last year.

Outside zone teams have to have a counter-punch to this kind of look. For the Niners, this is where the team motions Juszczyk back into the I formation and runs power right at this. The Rams have no fullback, and so far, McVay really has no answer for this. The deeper we get into the McVay era, the more static his offenses appear to be. They run 11 personnel basically all game, 80% of snaps last season, most in the NFL.

In-game adjustments? We're barely seeing adjustments across seasons.

Ah, so McVay still hasn't found a way to get around that? I didn't realize it was more of the same against him, I kinda assumed he threw in more wrinkles.

Is this where McVay's proteges will surpass him?

garion333 wrote:

Is this where McVay's proteges will surpass him?

I mean my opinion is that Sean McVay is himself a "protege" who lost his old Shanahan playbook and built an offense around the few pages he memorized, but I've been a Shanahan family sycophant since long before baby Shanny took over the Niners, so don't mind me.

Sam Darnold, despite saying he and his shoulder were "fine" after leaving (and later returning) to the game on Thursday night, will be inactive this week, and Joe Flacco will start.

We all know what the problem really is.

*Legion* wrote:

Also, these COVID outbreaks should (but probably won't) put an end to dumb teams letting fans into the stadium.

Has there been any figures floated about COVID cases among fans at games or is it a "If we don't test, the numbers don't go up" kind of deal?

*Legion* wrote:

Sam Darnold, despite saying he and his shoulder were "fine" after leaving (and later returning) to the game on Thursday night, will be inactive this week, and Joe Flacco will start.

We all know what the problem really is.

I love that the ESPN article says his health has been a question mark in his career and points to mono as one of those question marks.

Sure, okay, catching a virus shows you're likely to have chronic knee issues.

Report: Buttchin argued with JJ Watt and defensive coordinator prior to getting fired. The article notes that Buttchin had a history of arguments. And a history of losing.