I'm still bummed from the Panthers' nationally televised loss to [NAME REDACTED], and this week is kicking my ass harder than Jake Moody can kick a football. So this week's post will be short (yes) and sweet (eh, maybe not).
GIF OF THE WEEK
Hang it in Le Louvre Dot Fr, as they say.
Runner-up: Here's video evidence of Tiny Bryce Young lining up behind the wrong O-lineman. WHOOPS.
WEEK 3 SCHEDULE
A lot of meh -- and a lot of potentially lopsided wins. (49ers, Cowboys and Chiefs are 10-point favorites, and the Ravens, Jags and Dolphins are 7-pt or better favorites). But it's the NFL, so who knows?
Thursday
Giants at Niners (Prime)
Sunday early
Colts at Ravens (aka BATTLE OF BALTIMORE)
Titans at Browns
Falcons at Lions
Saints at Packers
Texans at Jaguars
Broncos at Dolphins
Chargers at Vikings
Patriots at Jets
Bills at Commanders
Sunday late
Panthers at Seahawks
Cowboys at Cardinals
Bears at Chiefs (national GOTW tho it's gonna suuuuuck)
Sunday night
Steelers at Raiders (NBC)
Monday
Eagles at Bucs, 715p (ABC and ESPN+)
Rams at Bengals, 815p (ESPN)
No ManningCast; will return in Week 4
Coverage maps will be here Wednesday.
Thurs Niners? Ugh
As for the Hall of Fame discussion started in the Week 2 thread, here's the list of 173 modern-era players who have been nominated for consideration. They'll be whittled down to 25 semifinalists in November.
The only name I'm watching is Julius Peppers because he would be the first true Carolina Panther to make the HoF.
Carolina has three former players in the HoF (Kevin Greene, Reggie White and Sam Mills) and one exec (Bill Polian, the team's first GM). But most folks associate Greene (Rams, Steelers) and White (Eagles, Packers) with other teams. Mills, as beloved as he is, spent most of his playing career with the [NAME REDACTED]. And Polian had much longer tenures in Buffalo and Indy than he did in Charlotte.
Peppers will be a first-minute nominee. If he's not, I'm burning down the entire state of Ohio.
Bucs look great so far, really looking forward to keeping it going this w--
Eagles at Bucs, 715p (ABC and ESPN+)
Oh dear.
Something that I've noticed this year (although, I don't think it's a new behavior, I just started noticing it now), in addition to the TV people always insisting on referring to the medical tent as the BLUE medical tent, they alway make sure to call it the RED coaches challenge flag as if there was another kind. That's led me to wonder, is the NFL actually children's programming and they're trying to teach us what colors are? Is this why games are on Nickelodeon now?
Nah, the Nickelodeon games are for cartoon characters to roast grown adults.
Sorry double post
Mills, as beloved as he is, spent most of his playing career with the [NAME REDACTED].
Sam Mills, to me, will always be a Philadelphia Star.
Edit: This image came from Panthers.com.
Thurs Niners? Ugh
At least it's against the Giants. A Saquon-less Giants at that, despite Daboll's attempts at throwing that into doubt. Sure Brian, Saquon's a "quick healer". Unless you replaced him with Wolverine, I don't think he's healing that quick.
I'm still bummed from the Panthers' nationally televised loss to [NAME REDACTED]
*scratches off black redacting tape* D-E-R-E-K C-A-R-R F-R-E-S-N-O S-T-A-T-E
The only name I'm watching is Julius Peppers because he would be the first true Carolina Panther to make the HoF.
Then Viska will be next.
Week 2 Thoughts:
- You probably thought it was silly to project a full season of Jake Moody scoring by assuming he would repeat his week 1 performance of 3 field goals and 3 extra points every single game. Well, week 2 came, and he kicked 3 field goals and 3 extra points. DOUBT ME NOW
- Roberto Aguayo didn’t attempt his 6th field goal until game 5, and he was 3-of-6 at that point, with his longest success from 43 yards (misses: 45, 41, 33). He also missed an extra point in that span. He definitely didn't nail a 57 yarder, having attempted (and missed) only one 50+ kick in his entire season/career. Just for reference.
- Jets wasted a week not making any moves at quarterback. All we learned from the week of delay is 2023 Zach looks just like 2022 Zach, and that defenses will squat on the Jets run game until they can threaten them through the air.
- Rams aren’t completely dead while they still have a healthy Stafford. But the full rebuild can’t really begin until they get Stafford’s deal off the books.
- The Chargers are still Chargering, and Brandon Staley has to be on the hot seat at this point. The team continues to be less than the sum of their parts. The defense is supposed to be Staley's specialty, his scheme is being run elsewhere in the league, and he's got some talented pieces on that side of the ball. But they've given up the most points in the AFC through 2 games, and 3rd most in the entire league. A defense with Derwin James, Asante Samuel Jr., Khalil Mack, and a Bosa brother should not be so hapless.
- The Giants have played 3 of the 4 worst halves of football in the league year so far in their 2 games. Their opponent on Sunday played the 4th. Somehow 3x + y = a .500 record for the G-Men.
- Where did Detroit's defense go? 1 sack, 0 takeaways. 7 of the 10 Seahawks drives ended either with scores or missed field goals.
- Raiders fans already want to bench Jimmy G. The fans might be buying into Aidan O'Connell's preseason performance a bit too much, though.
- Brock Purdy did remind the Niners fanbases of Jimmy G in a positive way this week though, with two big QB sneak conversions, one for a TD in the final play of the 1st half. The QB sneak was Garoppolo's best play, converting on all but one of his 32 attempts as a 49er.
- Maybe it's New England that should be banging down Tampa's door for Mike Evans. Sunday Night provided a sharp contrast in terms of the weapons the Dolphins have surrounded Tua with vs. the "weapons" New England has brought in for Tua's Alabama successor. The Patriots defense may have been able to slow down Hill and Waddle, but it came at the expense of their run fits, and Mostert gashed them for 121 and 2 TDs on only 18 carries as a result.
- At least the Jags defense was able to hold KC to only 17 points. But the Jags offensive line - especially on the interior - has again revealed itself to be the weakness that may put a hard ceiling on how far the team can go.
Week 2 Thoughts:
- Maybe it's New England that should be banging down Tampa's door for Mike Evans. Sunday Night provided a sharp contrast in terms of the weapons the Dolphins have surrounded Tua with vs. the "weapons" New England has brought in for Tua's Alabama successor.
The Patriots need a competent OL way more than they need "weapons." Calvin Anderson is worse than a turnstile. The second play in that thread is just mindboggling.
*Legion* wrote:Week 2 Thoughts:
- Maybe it's New England that should be banging down Tampa's door for Mike Evans. Sunday Night provided a sharp contrast in terms of the weapons the Dolphins have surrounded Tua with vs. the "weapons" New England has brought in for Tua's Alabama successor.
The Patriots need a competent OL way more than they need "weapons." Calvin Anderson is worse than a turnstile. The second play in that thread is just mindboggling.
Good luck. Half the league's in the same boat. There's not (32 x 5) quality offensive linemen to go around, and the ones that are quality aren't having to fight for contract extensions just because they turned 30 like Mike Evans is.
Johnson’s first Pro Bowl was his age 23 season (David Carr at QB), and his last Pro Bowl was his age 32 season (Matt Schaub at QB). He played 14 seasons, and he’s 11th in career receiving yards.
It’s just that Houston was so irrelevant across that time that nobody outside the AFC South had any reason to pay attention to them.
I think you could have given me five guesses at his rookie year and I would not have come close to 2003. I probably would have said 2008 which was just the best year of his career. I also didn't realize he played until 2016.
Like I said, shitty memory.
I am going to be at the battle for Baltimore. Got tickets on the upper deck in what looks to be a rainy game.
I sort of wish Richardson was healthy enough to play. The ravens tear up on rookies and Minshew is a save or suck wild card. I like our chances either way but Richardson would have gotten destroyed.
Bears are having a day.
Justin Fields giving the media all the sound bites they need.
Allan Williams the DC also resigned (he missed the last game for personal reasons). We haven't even played the 3rd week yet.
Maybe the most confusing over under win total this year was the Bears at 7.5
We have some real candidates for teams that will tank this year but the Bears are probably going to be right there also.
There is way too much happening in there for me to process it all at once.
The FBI raid thing has already been refuted by the Bears, who say Halas Hall was not, in fact raided, and, realistically speaking, do we think the FBI would let Agent Tillman call up the Bears to let them know because he worked there?
"Allan Williams busted for child porn" appears to be something started on Twitter/X, which means the default state should absolutely be distrust that it's true; it's a cesspool of misinformation and hate these days, and, yes, you should all delete your account to hasten its demise.
The Bears have also released The Peter Man, probably because he was a snitch.
Alan Williams apparently put out a statement in a really original way which is typing on a computer, printing it out, and taking a picture of the piece of paper The page had a drop of what I can only imagine was a tear in the middle.
it's a cesspool of misinformation and hate these days, and, yes, you should all delete your account to hasten its demise.
That's true, but everyone needs to settle on a replacement, because we need to know where to go for posts like this.
I have no idea what's going on anymore.
I have no idea what's going on anymore.
I edited my original post right away to include personal reasons because personal stuff happens.
That said I also have no idea what's going on anymore.
Rams finally find a buyer for Cam Akers - he's off to Minnesota.
Probably shouldn't be a surprise, given how poorly the Alexander Mattison experiment has gone so far (at 3.3 yards per carry, he's a half-yard below the already paltry 3.8 yards per carry he was averaging as a rotational back the past couple years).
Still, Sean McVay all but called Akers a bad locker room guy and a poor worker, so I'm not sure Minnesota is buying a solution as much as they're getting another problem at RB. But maybe things will be different after a change of scenery.
Justin Fields giving the media all the sound bites they need.
All the other Bears drama aside, Fields is right when he called out the Bears coaching. Luke Getsy is in completely over his head, and is trying to force square pegs into round holes. And then, he doesn't have enough creativity in the offense he's trying to force into existence to fool anyone - like Lavonte David said, "everybody knew what was coming".
The Bears offense finally got something rolling at the end of last season by leaning into Justin Fields' run ability, and Getsy apparently spent this offseason removing all those pages from the playbook.
It reminds me a lot of when Harbaugh and Roman tried to turn Kaepernick into more of a pocket passer. Kaepernick's success came when the team leaned into his run ability, and then used that to set up deep downfield shot plays that took advantage of his big arm. Well who else does that sound like?
Last year, Fields was 1st in accuracy on passes 31-40 yards, and 4th in passes 40+ yards. His deep throwing was one of the best parts of his college tape. So far after 2 games, Fields' average air yards per pass attempt is a pathetic 5.0, only beating out rookie Anthony Richardson's 4.9 to be second lowest in the league. The announcer of the Bears/Bucs game even called it a "rare downfield throw for Fields" when he hit DJ Moore on a 20+ yard deep in during the 4th quarter.
Fields is also the architect of plenty of his own problems, but damn Chicago is making it harder than it has to be.
Seriously, can't they just pull out tape of the Seattle and SF offenses in 2012-2013 and just do that?
I watch JT O'Sullivan's hour and a half long video on Fields and the Bears offense and holy hell does he bring the heat. All sorts of details about how utterly incompetent everybody is. Very illustrating.
I watch JT O'Sullivan's hour and a half long video on Fields and the Bears offense and holy hell does he bring the heat. All sorts of details about how utterly incompetent everybody is. Very illustrating.
I haven’t watched his videos since the season started. I think I need to watch that one tonight.
Week 5 Dallas at SF gonna be spicy.
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