NFL 2019: Week 3

The more I look at that Miles Sanders facemask non-call the more I hate the NFL's officiating right now. The offensive holding crap is being called on the flimsiest of reasons, but if someone gets their helmet turned around and ripped off you apparently can't talk the refs into throwing the flag. Were they even watching the tackle or were they too worried about holding by the return team? Serious question.

Yes, there's a lot of new officiating faces and I expect growing pains, but these holding calls have a feeling of forcing the game into pass-only.

Rat Boy wrote:
@Matt_Harmon_BYB on Twitter wrote:

Can't believe this kid grew up to be Kyle Allen. Wow.

I LOL'd when I saw that last night.

Meanwhile, Ron Rivera came out this morning and says that Cam will be the Panthers' starter once he's healthy, then promptly named Kyle Allen the starter for Week 4 vs. the Texans. Gotta nip that QB controversy in the bud because it's already about to erupt.

Allen looked incredibly sharp running Norv's playbook. He made good decisions for the most part and my god some of those throws were right-on-the-hands beautiful. (He missed a couple of gimmes, but nothing major.) The Panthers seem to run all their usual stuff, but with a little more more play-action and no RPO. The rollouts were a nice little wrinkle because Allen can throw off the run to his right.

For now I guess I'm going to ride or die w Kyle Allen, of all people.

The guy getting ragdolled by the Niners' Tight End was Minkah Fitzpatrick, so I enjoyed that.

Keep working on our draft pick please, Pittsburgh.

Saquon expected to miss "several weeks"

Yeah, seeing Saquon be sidelined for an injury really sucks. He's the reason I've been following the Giants the this season and the last one. Still, it sounds like they did the tests and he'll be out for just a few weeks. Gonna be missed in formation, but at the same time they really haven't been effectively using him. They're squandering the guy in his prime.

On another note, I'm really liking the look of the Colts. Even their one loss was an iffy one where I feel they lost due to bad officiating as opposed to bad play. I think you give them another year and they're going to tear the NFL up.

Random stat I noticed last night.

The Chiefs rank third in total points scored so far. The teams at #1, #2, and #4 all played Miami.

High ankle sprains suck, because they linger after returning to the field.

Nick Bosa has been dealing with one suffered in camp, and even though he's been back for weeks, he has not been 100% and the team has taken it easy on him in terms of practice and snap counts. Hasn't stopped him from being a monster this year so far (4th highest edge rusher pressure rate per PFF), but everyone is super happy for the team's early bye week so he can further rest it.

When Saquon does come back, I would expect him to have a lighter workload than he otherwise would carry.

Jayhawker wrote:

Random stat I noticed last night.

The Chiefs rank third in total points scored so far. The teams at #1, #2, and #4 all played Miami.

Hopefully the Chiefs break football so thoroughly that the rest of the league starts demanding rules that allow defenses to play again.

Cancel PolianBall! Repeal the Mel Blount rule!

*Legion* wrote:

High ankle sprains suck, because they linger after returning to the field.

Nick Bosa has been dealing with one suffered in camp, and even though he's been back for weeks, he has not been 100% and the team has taken it easy on him in terms of practice and snap counts. Hasn't stopped him from being a monster this year so far (4th highest edge rusher pressure rate per PFF), but everyone is super happy for the team's early bye week so he can further rest it.

When Saquon does come back, I would expect him to have a lighter workload than he otherwise would carry.

That makes sense but he plays for the Giants, right? Sense is not something I would expect from them.

garion333 wrote:

The more I look at that Miles Sanders facemask non-call the more I hate the NFL's officiating right now. The offensive holding crap is being called on the flimsiest of reasons, but if someone gets their helmet turned around and ripped off you apparently can't talk the refs into throwing the flag. Were they even watching the tackle or were they too worried about holding by the return team? Serious question.

Yes, there's a lot of new officiating faces and I expect growing pains, but these holding calls have a feeling of forcing the game into pass-only.

My Dad is under the impression that New York Offices are supposed to be able to throw flags as well in case there's a missed but clear penalty. I tried to Google any info on that but because I'm awful at such things I just got this Daily News story about how the NFL has toned down its Holding calls again after the games have been nonstop yellows left and right.

This technically was a mid-week adjustment, as the first game of Week 3 was an unwatchable Jags-Titans Thursday nighter with ten holding penalties. Tom Brady called that game “ridiculous” and unwatchable, and as usual, the rules fixed themselves to suit Brady after that.

I think what's been frustrating me is I've seen "legal" tackles that look like there's a good chance of injury while there are plenty of "penalty" tackles that look like little more than love taps. Everything is so focused on 1) did a ref see it happen? and 2) does it fit into these arbitrary qualifiers to count as a penalty? When I watch a guy leaping for a football, get struck in his rib-cage by a helmet, and go toppling onto the ground in a manner that makes me wonder if his bones are still whole, I have to wonder if the rules are really in place to keep players safe.

EDIT: And of course Draw Play Dave has other notes regarding just this topic.

The rules are in place to keep QBs safe and points accumulating on the board. Because that's what people want to see: scoring.

https://twitter.com/bksportstalk/sta...

The #Chiefs have 1,175 passing yds through 3 games. The Patriots are 2nd in the NFL w/ 934.

The difference between the Chiefs & Pats is the same as the difference between the Patriots & Broncos.

Denver is 22nd in the NFL in passing yards.

That's impossible.

Gawd, the Broncos have no sacks through three games.

THE BILLS ARE 3-0

What a start to the year!

@richeisen on Twitter wrote:

No matter how bad it gets for Keenum, if Gruden abandons his plan of patience and throws Haskins to these Bears mid-game, then there should be another talk of impeachment in DC.

I'd link but the comments are going as one would expect.

Edit: blink-182 is the halftime show?

Gets a free play by hard counting the defense offside.

Holds the ball and takes a sack.

Case Keenum, ladies and gents.

We're just going to let blink-182 perform without acknowledging a former member of the band got the US military to admit UFOs exist?

garion333 wrote:

Gawd, the Broncos have no sacks through three games.

Not only that, but their edge rushers aren't even generating much pressure.

Von Miller is 63rd among qualifying edge rushers in PFF's Pass Rush Productivity stat. Chubb is worse, 93rd.

The guy they let get away, Shaq Barrett, is 10th (and 1st in sacks).

That 49ers-Steelers game was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen, lol.

TheGameguru wrote:

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/sta...

This is why Eagles fans are legendary.

Agholor wins with his reply.

*Legion* wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/sta...

This is why Eagles fans are legendary.

Agholor wins with his reply.

The first response was "Shout out to Agholor inviting this man to watch his dropped passes in person".

Keep takin' the high road, Nelson.

When's the last time a division had all its teams go .500?

Maybe it's not as uncommon as I think it would be.

Early days but the NFC North if trending that way. Good timing for the Packers to have a Thursday night game at home vs the Eagles.

jowner wrote:

Early days but the NFC North if trending that way. Good timing for the Packers to have a Thursday night game at home vs the Eagles.

Just rub the salt deeper into the wound, why don't ya.

ccesarano wrote:
jowner wrote:

Early days but the NFC North if trending that way. Good timing for the Packers to have a Thursday night game at home vs the Eagles.

Just rub the salt deeper into the wound, why don't ya.

Haven't won yet. Applying a Jinx if anything.

Essentially the Packers have no injuries compared to Philly so the short week isn't helping the Eagles what so ever.

If I had to guess the score Thursday night will be Packers 55, Eagles 10... That might be the halftime score.

Cam update: Apparently he suffered a Lisfranc injury -- the kind of thing that can shelve a player for a year. No one seems to know whether he got it in the pre-season when he got hurt initially, or whether it was a relatively minor injury that exploded when he got tackled in Tampa, or whether the two incidents aren't related.

Three possible scenarios here:

Cam sits for the whole season, heals up nice, comes back as Cam 2.0: More Scarves, More Hats, More Rushing Yards, More TD passes.

Cam sits for the whole season, heals up nice, Kyle Allen makes the Pro Bowl and the Panthers cut Cam because his dead cap money is just $2M in 2020.

The most gruesome (and likely) possibility is that Cam rests until after, say, the bye week and the Panthers throw him out there and his foot indeed explodes. Cam will want to play, Rivera will rub some dirt on his cleats and Norv will call eight straight RPOs. Sigh.

Gawd, it's nuts to me they don't know when he got that.

I think he's done for the year, but they'll give Kyle Allen another game before putting Cam on IR.

I did some expert analysis of the Eagles last 10 drafts after Sunday's debacle.. I made my case that the Eagles should really trade draft picks for established players because they suck at it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Hrdina wrote:
*Legion* wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/sta...

This is why Eagles fans are legendary.

Agholor wins with his reply.

The first response was "Shout out to Agholor inviting this man to watch his dropped passes in person".

Keep takin' the high road, Nelson.

The responses from Jimmy's Famous (a Baltimore staple) about Crabtree are also good.

TheGameguru wrote:

I did some expert analysis of the Eagles last 10 drafts after Sunday's debacle.. I made my case that the Eagles should really trade draft picks for established players because they suck at it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Heh, 'not Dak'.

garion333 wrote:

Gawd, it's nuts to me they don't know when he got that.

I think he's done for the year, but they'll give Kyle Allen another game before putting Cam on IR.

I suspect Cam knows but for whatever reason the Panthers aren't going to say squat.

And I agree with your second sentence.