#just so he can watch jalen injure himself all the time knowing he can just die anytime

[antivancorvo]

this is really getting to me man

[sports-balling-blog]

2021 NFL hot(ish) takes NFC edition

Second verse same as the first let’s get into it.

NFC West

4. San Francisco 49ers- it’s clear that Jimmy G isn’t anything more than a discount Alex Smith and trey lance will need some time getting used to the next level. In that time the others in your division has only gotten better and San Francisco is just going to get injured

3. Seattle Seahawks- it’s not that they’re a bad team not at all it’s just the other two are better and in spite of a 12-4 record last season Seattle is no longer a Super Bowl team but a playoff team. Could they finish 1st? Yeah do I expect them to? No.

2. Arizona Cardinals- the NFL’s retirement home welcomes two new members in JJ Watt and AJ Green the Cards just missed the playoffs last season and with these two joining the team Arizona should be looking to improve on their 8-8 year.

1. LA Rams- it pains me to say this it really does. Mathew Stafford has always put up good numbers while quietly suffering in Detroit and now it’s time to put up or shut up with a real team behind him. You better home it works McVay otherwise the Rams are going to be fucked.

NFC South

4. Atlanta Falcons- the NFC South has always and continues to be a shit show with how inconstant their teams are. That being said last years les than stellar season and not doing anything to improve on it leaves me to put you in last.

3. Carolina Panthers- well Teddy Bridgewater didn’t quite work out for y’all so welcome to the stage Sam Darnold. Let’s see what the prize QB can do with an actual team and coach. I’m guessing 6-11

2. New Orleans Saints- well for the first time in two decades Drew Brees is not your #1 QB now we get to see how well Jamis Winston will lead you. While he’s better than his infamous 30/30 season it’s certainly a step down. On the somewhat bright side you’re be the best team in Jacksonville!

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers- well back to back super bowl titles don’t happen much but when you bring back all 22 of your starters the year after winning the super bowl it’s kind hard to argue against them not at least winning the division. Age is the biggest threat to the team right now.

NFC North

4. Detroit Lions- the lions are not actively trying to win (are they ever?) and we can see this when they traded away one of the best QBs they’ve every had for Jerod Goff.

3. Chicago Bears- there’s quite a bit of excitement around Chicago with the addition of Justin Fields in the draft but now we have to question how far this team can go with Matt Nagy as head coach. It’s certainly not going to be far if this season doesn’t progress like expected.

2. Minnesota Vikings- we know the ceiling for Kirk Cousins and it’s definitely not super bowl. The way this team is built they’re not getting any further than the divisional round miracles or not.

1. Green Bay Packers- well somehow Aaron Rodgers is suiting up in the green and yellow of cheeseland once again. Enjoy it packland it very well might be the last time the MVP does it. Enjoy the ride. On the bright side you still can boast to be one of the better teams in the NFC. And if things fall apart you can fall in Love with your new QB

NFC East

4. New York Giants- it might have been a mistake to draft saquon Barkley to give Eli some extra life instead of a quarterback back in 2018. Give the fact that Wikipedia has the last four years as “further struggles” on the giants article tells me Joe Judge has his work cut out for him.

3.Philadelphia Eagles- so this is what selling your soul for a super bowl looks like? The cabinets have been cleared out (minus Roseman?) and now we get to see what the two headed giant of Gardner Memshew and Jalen Hurts goes. As you can tell probably not well I’m guessing.

2. Washington Football Team- you know the WFT monicker is starting to grow on me. That being said it’s going to be an uphill climb to repeat as Division champions but you’ve got a fair shot. Ron Riviera, Ryan Fitzpatrick on his 80th team and a very ok defense. Let’s see how the [redacted] react to playing some of the tougher teams this year.

1. Dallas Cowboys- can you hear it? The sounds of a million smug assholes feeling superior? It’s coming and the sad thing is with Dak back, Elliott, Cee Dee Lamb, and an underperforming Defense they have to be favorites for the East. Heaven help us all if the cowboys win a playoff game.

Playoff time!

1. Tampa Bay- as much as I’m not confident in them repeating they still are one of the best and don’t really have a challenger in the division like they did last year in New Orleans.

2. Green Bay- Can you keep the streak alive and loose in the NFC title game again or are you finally getting over the hill and give Aaron his second super bowl appearance. Nows your chance.

3.Dallas Cowboys- the Cowboys are going to be a very flashy team that gets a lot of wins against a sad NFC East but just like the tradition of thanksgiving football the Cowboys loosing in the playoffs is set in stone.

4. Los Angles Rams- it’s do or die for stafford. Can he lead this team to greatness or is he going to cement himself as discount Dan Marino.

5. New Orleans Saints- is this a Super bowl team? No probably not but they’re still very talented and the city of New Orleans needs a win after the Hurricane.

6. Arizona Cardinals- can Arizona Tech light the playoffs on fire once the Kingsburry-Murray gamble pays dividends? No probably not but they’re a good sleeper pick. And hey Josh Allen took the Bills to the AFC championship game in his third season so maybe?!?

7. Minnesota Vikings- eek into the playoffs and hope for a playoff miracle to finally go your way maybe? Stranger things have happened but it’s an uphill climb.

The NFC has a lot more parity than their counterparts in the AFC with a lot of rising teams and teams looking to cut a path into the Super Bowl and that should make this season a blast to watch. As much fun as it would be to shitpost and say the Buccaneers beat Green Bay to play in the Super Bowl again in going to go and say it’s the Packers finally

[auburnfamilynews]

Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

Pre-Georgia musings, if you will.

It’s really, really ingratiating when you can enjoy a weekend away from the usual heart-pounding action that is Auburn football. Watching everyone else put it on the line is a rare joy that needs to be appreciated every single time it’s experienced. When that kind of an open date coincides with what happened yesterday across the country, it’s extra nice. Let’s recap, with thoughts.

Big news out of Tuscaloosa — through a quality loss, Alabama has improved their standing for the College Football Playoff. You’ve got to have that close loss to a top team on your resume to show how battle-tested you are, and now the Tide have it. They’re in prime position to skate right on through, no need to see them test themselves against Georgia in Atlanta, and no need to penalize them for beating, you know, nobody.

It really is astonishing how quickly after the loss the rationalization began.

LSU won the game with a first down and this was CBS's immediate on-screen response, I believe every conspiracy theory y'all have ever said pic.twitter.com/wfOgzabOpU

— BUM CHILLUPS (@edsbs) November 10, 2019

CBS had this graphic ready made. DId they have one for LSU too? If you told me no, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. I’m a little mad at LSU, since they allowed Bama to come back and make it a close game. Hopefully everyone was actually watching and saw that Bama isn’t the team that they used to be and that they allowed 40+ points to the last two highly-ranked teams that they’ve played. In the end, Tua’s hurt ankle, the close nature of the game, and the eye test will be enough to get Bama into the Playoff, unless...

Good morning everyone. It’s the best time of the year. ITS BUTTS OUT AUBURN SZN. https://t.co/4C5CEVCmVt

— (try)STAN Harris (@stan_try) November 10, 2019

Here’s the situation: Gus Malzahn is once again at the ire of a large portion of the Auburn fanbase. This isn’t a black and white issue, it’s a freaking kaleidoscope.

On one hand, Auburn is absolutely undefeated with, like, 10% better offensive play this year. That’s Gus’ job. He bet on himself and made himself the play-caller, so all offensive miscues now fall directly on him. There’s no scapegoat.

On the other hand, we’ve got a true freshman quarterback that already got us one win over a now-sixth-ranked Oregon team away from home, and the two losses are on the road to the #1 and #11 teams.

On the third hand, we’re wasting the best defense in college football by not being better on offense. We lose the meat of that group for next year, and even if the offense is better, the defense will regress a bit. It has to without Derrick Brown, Marlon Davidson, and company.

On another hand, are some Auburn fans looking to get rid of Gus for stagnation reasons? Or are they looking because they think that Auburn can do better? Gus has never failed to make a bowl game, unlike every previous Auburn coach since WWII. Who’s out there that we could get to replace him? First of all, Auburn isn’t getting rid of him unless he leaves. There’s a $25 million price tag on a move like that.

HOWEVER, the one job that he’s always been linked to is now open.

If you tuned in for Arkansas football yesterday, you got there just in time for the death rattle. The Pigs lost to their former quarterback Ty Storey and the WKU Hilltoppers, and it’s surprising that they didn’t pull the plug on Chad Morris on the field a la Bret Bielema. Every time the Arkansas job comes open, the rumor mill begins. Gus to Fayetteville.

Why would that happen? Let’s pretend that Gus hasn’t already pledged millions of dollars of his own money to making Auburn athletics better and more competitive, and put on our conspiracy caps. Mama’s calling, all that jazz, god to high school coaches far and wide across the Ozarks — that’s Gus Malzahn to Arkansas fans. To the rest of the country it’s the roster that Bielema couldn’t mold to his liking, and he didn’t close the lid on the Play-doh, leaving the clay hardened and unusable for Morris. To be frank, Arkansas has nothing. No players. Gus Malzahn goes there and he struggles to win five games for a couple years. Maybe he gets a win over Ole Miss or Mississippi State. Maybe there’s bowl eligibility in year three. Then where are you? Just then do you even get your head above water.

What happens if he fails? What happens if the roster is too terrible? Arkansas just lost to Western Kentucky 45-19. This isn’t a program on the brink of success, it’s one on the brink of relegation. If you go to take over that job and fail, then you’re done. It’s back to coordinator or head coach at an even lower level gig. If the pressure’s too much at Auburn, and the mumbling is audible, then it could make sense, but Gus seems too invested to take an offer like that right now.

Plus, he’s got three games left this season, and two HUGE chances to win back most of that fanbase like he did two years ago.

Something to monitor going forward in the SEC....Georgia's top two centers injured tonight vs Missouri and they face Auburn's incredible front 7 next week at Jordan-Hare. Lawrence Cager, their star WR banged up as well.

— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) November 10, 2019

Georgia shut out Missouri last night, and looked really bored/sloppy in doing it. For all of the recruiting success (possibly an even more talented team than Alabama on paper??), the Bulldogs have looked really rough since losing to South Carolina. An offense with all of that talent shouldn’t be struggling as much as they are, but Kirby seems hell-bent on recreating 2009 Alabama, which would be about the third or fourth best team in the SEC this year.

There’s a difference between what happened two years ago and what’s happening now, though. As we enter Georgia week, Auburn is rested and coming off of a close win over Ole Miss. The Tigers aren’t great on offense, and Bo Nix needs to show us something before much of the fanbase is sold on him. He’s been way better at home than on the road, so it’s really nice that we get the last few weeks at Jordan-Hare.

Two years ago, the offense was on fire. In SEC play before the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, Auburn posted 51, 49, 44, 23, 52, and 42 points. Then they dropped a 40-burger on the Dawgs. It’s not quite the same this year, but we won’t need 40 to beat Georgia.

Elsewhere around the SEC/Top 25:

Fans Are Not Eligible Receiverspic.twitter.com/uo4uKopN0i

— Derrick & Marlon for Heisman (@sheabooskyy) November 10, 2019

If Gus does leave, we’re not hiring Will Muschamp.

And with that, No. 17 Minnesota takes down No. 4 Penn State (via @GopherFootball) pic.twitter.com/lrLHi693MN

— SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) November 9, 2019

But I’m sure there are some people that would like to hire P.J. Fleck. Even in his Rod Corrdry weirdness, he’s got Minnesota undefeated and in position to win the division in the Big Ten. Would he be able to recruit the south? Maybe. We’ve seen that weirdness is winning lately. Being goofy is good. Ed Orgeron and Dabo aren’t taking things too seriously, and they’re not losing.

Elsewhere Jalen Hurts and Oklahoma almost lost to Iowa State, escaping 42-41 last night. If there’s a 2-loss Big 12 champ, then Bama gets in, so we’re all massive Jalen Hurts fans right now. Also, Matt Rhule fans.

Right now there’s discord and enmity between Auburn fans for what’s been going on with the offense, but it’s all fixable this coming Saturday. Beat Georgia, and Gus’ seat temporarily cools once again. Beat Bama at the end of the month, keeping them out of the Playoff for sure, and Gus’ job temperature gets ice cold.

Big week, *$&# Georgia, y’all.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/11/10/20958552/blood-bye-week-thoughts

[racingtoaredlight]

Run to the RTARLsman 2017: Week 4

The world continues to conspire against any form of idealism, even in the awarding of football honors.

Just look at #1 on this list. Disgusting. I swore it would never happen. Will he end up on the Jets next year, reliving the pro career of another Penn State legend who got drafted ahead of a SEC superstar only to become a punchline to jokes about the NFL Draft? Most assuredly.

I’ve turned this into a top 10 list so slowly that I didn’t realize it was even moving in this direction. But the old anarchic days of the RTARLsman in-season posts is definitely a memory for now.

1. SAQUON BARKLEY, Penn State, RB

All Blair Thomas references aside, Barkley saved James Franklin from himself last week. I’m still not clear on why Penn State thinks they’re a passing team or why even at that you would think throwing the ball / lining up to throw the ball all game is a good gameplan against Iowa but Barkley is pretty clearly the September Heisman winner for 2017. Last year Lamar Jackson rode that momentum to actually winning the award but I wouldn’t count on a repeat of that trick this year. Barkley is a monster and he’ll be a top 10 pick next year but I have this feeling that Penn State is going to falter at some inopportune times and it will cost Saquon in a way that it didn’t for Lamar.

2. MARK WALTON, Miami (FL), RB

Walton went nuts in the first quarter last week, then he got injured in the second quarter, then Miami’s offense went quiet, then he cam back in the third quarter and went nuts again. 11 carries for 204 yards is pretty great no matter who it’s against and Walton mixed in an 82-yard (non touchdown) run where he looked tired after about 25 yards to give it a highlight game feel. The Canes game is starting in about an hour so if you’re home give it a peep and see if you can love Mark Walton with the depth of feeling that I have felt over the past couple of years.

3. BRYCE LOVE, Stanford, RB

Love is putting up absolutely bonkers numbers against not-the-worst-in-the-country level opposition and much like his predecessor at RB1 for Stanford, I’m buying into the hype all the way. Love is much less of a hybrid player than Christian McCaffrey was and he plays with some serious quickness behind the line of scrimmage. The Cardinal are a 2-loss team so far but I think they’ll get it back together and finish no worse than 9-3. Love should murder Arizona State this week but it’s a day game so he might be back to his normal 15-20 touches after getting more than 30 last week.

4. LAMAR JACKSON, Louisville, QB

He’s in some weird wasteland right now but he’s still the best single player for entertainment purposes when he gets it going. This week Louisville plays a high school team so it shouldn’t amount to much in terms of “meaning” but it seems like the Cardinals can use some practice to get their timing right as Lamar and his receivers have been out of sync the last couple of weeks. He played into the 4th quarter last week against Kent State and threw 2 INTs which is really weird. I still have him as the best QB prospect in the draft next year but that’s starting to be more about all of the big names having glaring weaknesses more than it is Lamar wowing me consistently.

5. ANTHONY WINBUSH, Ball State, EDGE

The nation’s leader in sacks (awesome) but he plays in the MAC (bad.) Winbush is going to be head up against a first round prospect this week in Western Michigan’s Chukwuma Okorafor so if we come back and he’s sitting on 10 sacks next week, we’ll have to keep him here. There’s no way I’m watching a MAC game on purpose so if one of you does please drop in tomorrow and give us all a better scouting report. Winbush is sized like a LB for NFL purposes, I don’t know how athletic he really is but I see some sites give him credit for a 4.67 time in the 40-yard dash. That could get him some day 2 looks as a tweener EDGE.

6. BRADLEY CHUBB, N.C. State, EDGE

Florida State’s offensive line was a known weakness coming into 2017 and it’s actually looked worse than expected through two games but Chubb has to get some credit for that in last week’s big upset. That was a total trap game for the Seminoles to try breaking in a new starter, by the way. Don’t count on them looking that stupid for the rest of the season. Chubb is more of a classic EDGE defender and it’s not crazy to think he ends up in the first round. Great chance to pile up even more TFLs and sacks this week against a Syracuse team that sucks but also throws the ball a shit ton.

7. JALEN HURTS, Alabama, QB

I’m just gonna leave him hanging out down here for now. He’s looked really good to me so far. Does he have any pro upside at all? I don’t think so but he’s a wildly effective college player who’s more integral to what Bama’s doing than people probably realize.

8. JOSEY JEWELL, Iowa, LB

I was so close to putting him as #1. Then Iowa gave up a last second TD to lose after he’d been as everywhere as he could be through the first 59:56 against Penn State. Was that last play on him, really? Sort of. If you’re a defensive “QB” you should probably recognize that with 4 seconds left the only thing you need to do is keep the opponent out of the end zone. That game fucked with my mind. I still wanted to puff him up a little because I won’t bring him up again this year and he’s a good player.

9. ED OLIVER, Houston, DT

This is a placeholder. Oliver got gameplanned out of the stadium for the most part last week.

10. CAM PHILLIPS, Virginia Tech, WR

Trying to get ahead of a potential hype train here. Phillips has put up some eye popping numbers so far and if he does it against Clemson (somewhat possible - he should win one on one against Clemson’s back but that doesn’t mean Josh Jackson will have any time to actually get him the ball) the whole country will know his name. Don’t get too ready but be sort of ready for that to happen.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

[footballvillenation]

Does Philip Rivers need a Super Bowl to finally get his due?

Rivers has spent his whole football life as an underrated, and oft-ignored, star. But he’s always gotten respect from those around him.

Philip Rivers covered his head with his parka when he watched the Denver Broncos convert a third down in the final minutes of a Divisional Round game in January 2014. A couple minutes later, he put on his helmet and watched the Broncos kneel the final seconds off the clock. Rivers jogged on to the field in Denver — helmet still on — to shake Peyton Manning’s hand.

It was the last time the San Diego Chargers appeared in the playoffs.

Rivers was excellent that day. He completed 18 of his 27 passes for 217 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions against the Broncos’ defense. But his 115.8 passer rating wasn’t enough in the 24-17 loss — even if it was better than Manning’s 93.5 rating.

Now 15 years into his NFL career, Rivers is eighth all-time in passing yards with 54,656, and sixth in touchdowns with 374. His streak 208 consecutive starts is the longest active run in the NFL and 11th-longest ever.

But every player above him on the passing leaderboards has played in a Super Bowl. Even Dan Marino — famous for a brilliant career, but no championship rings — made it to Super Bowl XIX. Rivers, though, has only made it as far as the AFC Championship.

That was back in January 2008, a 21-12 loss to the then-undefeated New England Patriots. The game is best remembered for Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson sitting on the bench due to a knee injury. He watched with his helmet on through a dark visor while Rivers struggled against the Patriots with no touchdowns and two interceptions.

Now, at age 37, Rivers is getting another crack at the one thing that has eluded him during his NFL career: postseason success. If he finally finds it, maybe he’ll get the long-deserved recognition that has also proved evasive.

Even before his NFL career, Rivers was outside the spotlight

Rivers began his career as the consolation prize for the Chargers after Eli Manning demanded a trade during the 2004 NFL Draft. The New York Giants sent first-, third-, and fifth-round picks to the Chargers along with Rivers to get Manning.

It was a fitting precursor of the career to come for Rivers. He’s been mostly outshined and overlooked due to peers like five-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, all-time passing touchdowns leader Peyton Manning, and all-time passing yards leader Drew Brees.

Eli Manning, who has 14 fewer touchdowns than Rivers but 61 more interceptions, is heralded for two Super Bowl victories over the Patriots. Ben Roethlisberger was selected 11th overall in 2004 — seven picks after Rivers — and also has two Super Bowl victories.

Even when Rivers had arguably the best season of his career in 2018, a young superstar in his division stole the spotlight with 50 touchdown passes. The Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes is likely the NFL’s MVP, but he and Rivers split their pair of regular meetings.

The most recent was a 29-28 win for the Chargers on the road in Kansas City. The Chiefs had a chance to clinch the AFC West with a win, but Rivers orchestrated back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter — capped by a two-point conversion with four seconds left to seal the deal.

“It shows you the type of quarterback he is,” former North Carolina State coach Chuck Amato told SB Nation of Rivers’ game against the Chiefs. “Who was the quarterback for the other team? That’s who everybody wants to be MVP, right? So he lost the game. How did Philip win the game? He had to score two touchdowns and a two-point play in the last less than four minutes of the game. Did he do it? Why couldn’t his competitor do it?”

Amato became the head coach at NC State in January 2000 — the same month that Rivers arrived on campus as a two-star recruit. Both Rivers’ agent Jimmy Sexton and Amato say the only SEC school that recruited the Alabama native was Auburn, but that then-head coach Tommy Tuberville wanted him to play tight end. Rivers’ father said it was the chance to play quickly that pushed his son to NC State.

No matter how Rivers wound up in Raleigh, it didn’t take him long to impress.

“There were two quarterbacks that returned — one had played and the other was a redshirt freshman — he was third-string behind these two guys,” Amato said. “The second day he was second-string. The third day he was first-string. In spring. Both these guys transferred because they saw they weren’t going to be able to beat him out.

“By the time spring was over, the offense knew he was the leader, and by the time the offseason was over, the whole team knew that he was going to lead the team. When he was a freshman. Philip is something special, he really is.”

He started in all 51 games over four seasons with the Wolfpack and finished his collegiate career as the ACC’s all-time passing leader with 13,484 yards. No player has even reached 12,000 since.

When Tramain Hall arrived in 2001, Rivers had already established himself as NC State’s star player. And when Hall first saw the field at running back and wide receiver as a redshirt sophomore in 2003, Rivers was a senior with the NFL on the horizon.

“He communicated with all of us really well, on and off the field,” Hall told SB Nation. “At times, as a quarterback, there are times when you can be like ‘it’s my way’ or whatever, and Philip was never like that.

“I ended up catching close to 70 balls and 800 yards from the guy. I don’t think I would’ve done that if I didn’t have a guy who relates to other guys on the team. That being kind of a father/leader really helped me as a young guy develop and understand the college football game. To the point where he’d say ‘Tramain, that’s not the right way to do it, I don’t want you to run the route that way.’ Those moments were a huge thing for me.”

But despite Rivers’ prolific career, NC State never finished in the top three in the ACC standings. The Wolfpack’s best season was an 11-3 year in 2002 that ended with a Gator Bowl victory and the No. 12 spot in the final AP Poll.

Rivers finished seventh in Heisman Trophy voting as a senior and couldn’t convince the Chargers he was worth taking with the No. 1 pick — even if he eventually landed there.

Rivers isn’t hunting for recognition

No team landed more players in the Pro Bowl than the Chargers when the rosters were announced in December. That’s a little surprising considering they may be the least popular team in the NFL.

The Chargers play in front of only 27,000 fans in their tiny temporary home in Carson, California, and even that stadium is often packed with visiting fans. The team has played at the diminutive StubHub Center, now rechristened as Dignity Health Sports Park, since 2017 after relocating from San Diego to Los Angeles. They’ll eventually share a nearly $5 billion stadium with the Rams.

But so far the move has only cast the Chargers as the little brother team in their new market, far behind the Rams who spent nearly five decades in Southern California before moving to St. Louis.

Rivers is one of the Chargers’ seven Pro Bowlers, along with running back Melvin Gordon, who admitted that he too was a little surprised that the Chargers did so well in Pro Bowl voting. He said even playing in San Diego, it was easy for players — namely, Rivers — to be forgotten.

“I think it���s probably the market,” Gordon told SB Nation. “He spent his whole career in the San Diego market, and I think people are just now starting to realize how much he’s been overlooked. Is that because now we’re in the Los Angeles market? I don’t know.

“But I remember not too long ago I was talking to him like ‘Man, I can’t even complain about not getting recognition because it’s been like that for you forever.’ He really doesn’t care, though. He’s just like ‘I’m so blessed, I get to stay out of the spotlight and be with my family,’ so it doesn’t really bother him. He just does what he does.”

But even if Rivers hasn’t received the love from the national media throughout his career, he hasn’t been disregarded by his peers.

“It’s just the outside world that doesn’t really pay enough attention,” Gordon said. “Obviously, here, everybody has huge respect for him, because we see him every day. But I think I really started to realize how respected he is when I went to the Pro Bowl for the first time. Just being around other players and talking to them showed me how much the players around the league respect him.”

Ask NFL players to name the most overlooked players in the league and it usually doesn’t take long for Rivers to be mentioned. In December, New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan was quick to bring up Rivers as a player who may deserve more prestige than Roethlisberger.

Rivers was Devin McCourty’s choice for the NFL’s most underrated when the Patriots safety was asked by MassLive a couple weeks ago:

“Since I’ve been in the league, he’s had multiple years where two of his starting receivers go on injured reserve like Week 3 or 4, and they pick up guys on Tuesday, and they go out there and play Sunday. And he gets ‘em right and they win games.

”Obviously everyone knows he’s a good player, but I don’t think he gets recognized for how good he is at what he does. I’ve always been a fan of his.”

Even notorious trash talker Jalen Ramsey of the Jacksonville Jaguars called Rivers “pretty good,” which is about as effusive as he’ll get about a player who doesn’t play for his own defense.

Rivers may be playing for a chance to finally leave a lasting legacy and earn the media superlatives that have escaped him for a decade and a half in the NFL. But according to other players, he’s already earned those.

Rivers would like to play in the Chargers’ new stadium in Los Angeles — expected to open in 2020. But into his 40s? Don’t count on it.

“I laugh when I hear Drew [Brees], [Tom] Brady’s already 41, when I hear them say mid-40s, I go, ‘Y’all can have that. I have no desire to get there,’” Rivers told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer in August.

A ninth child is on the way for Rivers, who got married shortly after his freshman year of college. Family time is a top priority for Rivers.

“He always wants to be with us,” his 10-year-old son Gunner told Chargers.com last month. “Whenever he’s home, he plays with us and he’s with us all the time. Wherever we go out — we go all kinds of places — random people just come up and ask for his autograph and for pictures. It’s cool. But he’s always there for us. But when he’s home, we like to throw the football in the yard. We like to putt on the putting green, watch football, and do things like that.”

Rivers said he’s looking forward to coaching high school football one day, but it’s anyone’s guess how far off on the horizon that is. Either way, it’s no secret that Rivers won’t be around to lead the Chargers for much longer. So is the pressure on the team to get him that Super Bowl ring now?

“I wouldn’t say pressure,” Gordon said. “We want to get it for him, but we also want to get it for us. We want to be the first Chargers team to win [a Super Bowl]. So I think it’s just excitement. Pressure’s not the right word, it’s more excitement.”

And the team has a reason to be excited. The 12-4 season was the Chargers’ first with double-digit wins since Tomlinson’s last year with the team in 2009. Los Angeles is No. 6 in points scored and No. 8 in points allowed. The Chicago Bears and New England Patriots are the only other teams that finished the regular season top-10 in both categories.

The Chargers are a team with notoriously bad luck, but they’re finally get some breaks to go their way. That could mean the Chargers are primed to find some January success, especially because they’re good at just about everything:

The scary thing for the Chargers is that they’ll likely need three road victories to get to the Super Bowl. Los Angeles’ 12-4 record was tied for the best mark in the AFC, but because they’re in the same division as the other 12-4 team — the Chiefs — the Chargers were relegated to the No. 5 seed.

The first game on the docket is a rematch with the Baltimore Ravens, who traveled to Los Angeles in Week 16 and beat the Chargers, 22-10. Now the Chargers will have to avenge that loss after a cross-country flight to Baltimore.

And if they don’t, the Chargers are still well set up for the future with young stars like Gordon, Joey Bosa, Keenan Allen, and Derwin James. But windows close fast in the NFL, and a division that now has Mahomes leading the Chiefs leaves little margin for error for the Chargers. So a loss to the Ravens leaves a real possibility that the Super Bowl door slams shut for good on Rivers.

“He’s a great either way,” Gordon said. “It’ll be something they have conversations about when it comes to the Hall of Fame — for the first ballot or whatever — but he’s getting in either way.”

And he is. Rivers is a surefire Hall of Famer. But his career may forever remain in the “most underrated” category instead of the “greatest” if it isn’t punctuated with a Lombardi Trophy.

via Darrell Streeter https://footballvillenation.com/does-philip-rivers-need-a-super-bowl-to-finally-get-his-due/

[nevin-manimala-blog]

NFL 2018 Week 1: Eagles-Falcons preview, statistics to know as Philly begins Super Bowl defense

The miraculous Super Bowl run of the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles nearly ended before it ever really began. The Eagles' jaunt through the NFC playoffs began with a 15-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons at home. But things could have gone differently had a leaping interception attempt by Atlanta safety Keanu Neal not gone so disastrously.  Late in the second quarter, with the Eagles trailing 10-6, Doug Pederson's team got the ball back to begin a drive at their own 28-yard line. Rather than kneel on the ball and head into halftime trailing by four despite starting a backup quarterback, Pederson elected to let Nick Foles sling it and see if he could get some points. On the second play of the drive, Foles attempted to hit tight end Zach Ertz on a crossing route over the middle of the field. Foles was hit as he threw and completely overshot his target. The ball seriously went about 10 feet over Ertz's head, and it should have been the easiest pick of Neal's career.  Instead ...  Two plays later, Foles found Alshon Jeffery for a 15-yard gain, pushing the Eagles into field goal range with one second left on the clock. Jake Elliott knocked a 53-yard field goal through the uprights to cut the Falcons' lead to 10-9. The Eagles' defense held serve in the second half, keeping the Falcons off the scoreboard altogether, while Elliott connected on two more field goal attempts. A few weeks later, they were champions.  On Thursday night, the Falcons have a chance for revenge, while the Eagles have the opportunity to begin their title defense.  Foles is still under center for Philadelphia, which is holding Carson Wentz out for a while longer as he continues his recovery from a torn ACL suffered last December. Jeffery is out for the game as well, still dealing with the effects of a shoulder injury. Stalwarts like Vinny Curry and Beau Allen are gone, replaced by Haloti Ngata and Michael Bennett.  The Falcons, meanwhile, have added talent on both sides of the ball, hoping to rebound from last season's disappointment. The Matt Ryan — Julio Jones — Devonta Freeman — Tevin Coleman core of their offense is still in place, but they added former Alabama wideout Calvin Ridley. The defense brought in Terrell McClain to help out against the run, plus rookies Isaiah Oliver in the defensive backfield and Deadrin Senat on the line.  Can the Eagles begin their quest for a repeat with a win, or will the Falcons deal the champs an opening-week blow? We'll find out Thursday night. But before the game begins, we'll walk through some of the key things to look out for, from a statistical perspective.  When the Eagles have the ball Let's begin with Foles. It makes sense to start there, given that he is replacing an MVP candidate at quarterback, and he is coming off an MVP performance of his own. Foles went 23-for-30 for 246 yards without either a touchdown or a pick in that divisional round game against the Falcons last year. In the following two games, he completed an incredible 54 of 76 passes for 725 yards, six touchdowns and just one interception, while also catching a score on the Philly Special. Everybody remembers those two games when discussing what to expect from Foles when filling in for Wentz.  Less talked about are the two-plus regular season games he played after Wentz was initially hurt. Whiling finishing out the game against the Rams and starting against the Giants, Raiders, and Cowboys, Foles completed 54.6 percent of his passes and averaged just 4.96 yards per attempt. During his most recent season as a starter, back in 2015, he was not much better: 56.4 percent completions at 6.1 yards per attempt. With the exception of his utterly spectacular 2013 season (during which he threw 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions) and the NFC title game and Super Bowl last year, Foles has been a perfectly average quarterback. He does, of course, have one of the NFL's great offensive coaches scheming him into position for success, but it's important to remember the bigger picture when debating what to expect from Foles on a game-to-game basis.  So who should you back in Week 1 of the NFL season? Visit SportsLine now to see which teams are winning more than 50 percent of simulations, all from the model that has outperformed 98 percent of experts tracked by NFLPickWatch.com the past two seasons.  Consider also who Foles will be throwing to in Week 1. The Eagles will be without Alshon Jeffery due to injury, but they also lost Trey Burton and Torrey Smith in free agency, plus Brent Celek to retirement. Of the Eagles' 555 targets last season, Jeffery, Burton, Smith, and Celek accounted for 242 of them, or 43.6 percent. Of the 207 targeted passes Foles threw during the regular season and postseason combined, that foursome was the on the receiving end of the throw on 79 of them, or 38.2 percent. That's a whole lot of missing-in-action pass-catchers. And that's not even accounting for Mack Hollins, who played a small role last year but will have to be more of a contributor this season, and is also out for Thursday's game. Foles still has plenty of returning targets such as Ertz, Nelson Agholor, and running backs Jay Ajayi and Corey Clement, plus new arrival Mike Wallace; but things are going to be a bit different for the Philadelphia passing game than they were a year ago, to say the least.  The Falcons, meanwhile, are returning almost their entire defense from last season, plus a few new playmakers. Adrian Clayborn is gone, but he's replaced by 2017 first-rounder Takkarist McKinley, who will line up across from Vic Beasley to form one of the most athletic edge-rusher combinations in the league. Beasley ranked in the 99th percentile of athleticism among NFL edge rushers when he came into the league back in 2015, while McKinley's quick first step around the edge helped him produce 1.67 sacks plus tackles per loss per game across his final two college seasons -- a considerably above-average figure. Atlanta also returns one of the league's top secondaries, with Keanu Neal joined by fellow safeties Ricardo Allen and preseason star Damontae Kazee, plus corners Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford, slot man Brian Poole. Atlanta's entire defense, as we discussed prior to last season, is absolutely stocked with top-flight athletes.  Player SPARQ 40 SHUTTLE 3 CONE VERT BROAD Takkarist McKinley 116.4 4.59 4.62 7.48 33.00 10.17 Duke Riley 129.7 4.58 4.21 6.90 37.00 10.17 Keanu Neal 126.7 4.62 4.20 7.09 38.00 11.00 Deion Jones 129.3 4.39 4.26 7.13 35.50 10.00 De'Vondre Campbell 113.3 4.58 4.50 7.07 34.00 9.67 Brian Poole 99.7 4.50 4.43 7.13 29.00 9.33 Vic Beasley 151.5 4.53 4.15 6.91 41.00 10.83 Jalen Collins 118.8 4.48 4.27 6.77 36.00 10.33 Grady Jarrett 126.6 5.06 4.56 7.37 31.00 9.42 Ricardo Allen 112.8 4.51 4.25 7.01 37.00 10.17 Desmond Trufant 115.5 4.38 3.85 N/A 37.50 10.42 Robert Alford N/A 4.39 4.23 6.89 40 11.00 In the running game, it will be interesting to see what kind of plan the Eagles have in store for Ajayi. They acquired him at least year's trade deadline but he was lightly-used over the second half of the regular season, carrying just 70 times over seven games. His usage shot up during the playoffs as he carried 42 times for 184 yards, but only nine of those totes came during their Super Bowl victory over the Patriots. Reports have indicated that the team plans to use him as more of a feature back this season, but Pederson and company will surely want to mix in Clement (who is a better pass-catcher) and possibly Darren Sproles as well. For what it's worth, Ajayi himself tore through the Falcons for 130 yards on 26 carries last season when he was still with the Dolphins. He also now has Pro Football Focus' top run-blocking offensive line clearing the way for him.  An under-discussed aspect of Philadelphia's run last season was the performance of rookie kicker Jake Elliott. (At least it's been under-discussed outside Philadelphia.) Elliott nailed 39 of 42 field goal attempts during the regular season and all seven of his tries during the playoffs. That's an absurd 93.8 percent conversion rate -- far better than the league averaged of 83.0 percent. Take away four of his makes to get him down to league average, and you might take the Eagles from 13-3 to 11-5. Knock him down even further to his collegiate conversion rate of 77.9 percent, and their record might fall a bit more. Elliott's follow-up to his spectacular rookie exploits bears watching.  When the Falcons have the ball Just as they did on offense, the defending champions lost several contributors from their Super Bowl-winning defense. Philadelphia's defensive line last year was one of the best and deepest in the NFL, consisting of Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry, Timmy Jernigan, Derek Barnett, Chris Long and Beau Allen. Curry was cut. Allen signed with the Buccaneers. Jernigan is injured. That's 40.5 percent of the snaps from last year's group. Luckily, they signed Haloti Ngata to pick up Allen's slack in the running game, and traded for Michael Bennett to play a versatile role all over the line as a pass-rusher and run-stuffing monster.  The entire group will have its hands full on Thursday night, as the Falcons sport one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. The Falcons were torn apart on the interior during their two playoff games last season as Andy Levitre sat out due to injury, but he's back at full strength and should be playing alongside Alex Mack at center, Wes Schweitzer at the opposite guard, and Jake Matthews and Ryan Schrader at the tackles. That group's zone-blocking chemistry clears the way for the dynamic duo of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman, one of the league's most well-balanced and versatile running back tandems.  Freeman takes the lead role and operates more often between the tackles, but Coleman can just as quickly scoot through a seam and is versatile enough to line up in the slot or out wide and school a linebacker or safety off the line of scrimmage. Freeman has essentially been completely shut down in three career games against the Eagles, however: he has 32 carries for 74 yards and 11 catches for 87 yards in those three contests. That's an average of just 3.74 yards per touch, compared to his career average of 5.18 per touch against all other opponents.  Opp Rush Yards Rec Yds Yds/Tch PHI 32 74 11 87 3.74 OTHER 820 3483 209 1779 5.17 Coleman has taken on a larger role in the team's offense with each passing season of his career (89 touches as a rookie, then 149, then 183) but his efficiency has waxed and waned. He averaged 4.6 yards per touch as a rookie, 6.3 as a sophomore, and 5.1 a year ago. The team made a bit more of a concerted effort to get him involved in the running game last season but he did not break as many big plays as he did the year before, and he also saw his catch rate drop off from the sky-high 77.5 percent he posted in 2016.  That duo will have to find its way against a defense that allowed a first down on only 17.8 percent of opponents' rushing attempts last season, the eighth-best mark in the NFL, while yielding touchdowns on just 2.08 percent of rush attempts, the fifth-best figure in the league. Complicating things for Philly will be the absence of linebacker Nigel Bradham, as well as the need to work in the replacements for some of their stalwarts on the defensive line.  In the passing game, Atlanta's Matt Ryan saw his performance fall off sharply after a career season in 2016. In particular, he struggled to find much of a rhythm with his No. 1 target, Julio Jones. Jones posted the second-lowest catch rate of his career at 59.5 percent, and scored only three touchdowns on the season. Even though he's never been much of a touchdown-producer, that rate of scoring was considerably lower than his career norms. During his five healthy seasons prior to 2017, Jones scored 38 touchdowns on 456 catches and 718 targets. That means 8.3 percent of his catches and 5.3 percent of his targets turned into scores. Last year, however, with just three end zone trips on 88 catches and 148 targets, those rates plummeted to just 3.4 percent (catches) and 2.0 percent (targets).  Philadelphia lost an important contributor from last year's secondary in Patrick Robinson, but returns starter Jalen Mills, trade acquisition Ronald Darby (who missed much of last season after dislocating his ankle in the team's first game), and 2017 second-rounder Sidney Jones, who is expected to play a much bigger role this season. We don't yet know if the Eagles will use shadow coverage or play sides, but that trio will have to deal with not just Jones, but also Mohamed Sanu and the shifty rookie, Ridley. That should be a fun matchup all night.  Read the full article

[doubledrivel-blog]

07. NBA Opening Night - Cleveland Cavaliers vs Boston Celtics - Gordon Hayward’s Gruesome Ankle Injury

Greg: Hello and welcome to a special opening night episode of Double Drivel. We are normally a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA, but tonight we are here for an opening night special. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on Twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. JT

it is opening night. what is up my friend?

JT: I am so excited my friend. I cannot believe it is finally opening night and the big game has actually already finished. The Celtics verse the Cavs. I can't wait to talk about it with you.

Greg: Do you believe that they actually played basketball on a court today with people watching, teams, and a score? They played actual basketball! We're not talking about trades. We're not talking about beefs. We're not talking about all the trash that you can't stand. We have actual games to talk about. Well, game. The other one is in progress right now. They have that disgusting ring ceremony going on, but we'll get to that later.

JT: Boots on the ground Greg. It's over. The Cavs have defeated the Celtics by a score of 102 to 99. This game was chock full of hot action, and I would love to tell you about something that happened during this game. may I?

Greg: There was a ton of news, huge news, but please go on

JT: One player in particular had a performance that I don't think any owners prepared for tonight Greg. Do you know who I'm talking about?

Greg: Was it Jalen Brown?

JT: Pretty good. He looked pretty solid tonight, but no.

Greg: Was it Derrick Rose?

JT: Derrick Rose took the second most shots on the Cavs. Did you see that guy took 14 shots tonight? Who the hell is Derrick Rose to think he can take 14 shots? Derrick Rose showed up a little bit more than I think anyone was ready for tonight Gregg. Derrick Rose looked phenomenal. Did you see him? He did not show any signs of injury. He was shucking and jiving.

Greg: He looked pretty good, but every time he did leave the ground I was worried what would happen. It still worries me every time I see the guy play.

JT: You know the player I'm talking about Gregg, is LeBron James.

Greg: Whoa, LeBron James playing better than you expected?

JT: Better than I expected. in fact, he looked like Peake LeBron. Like play off LeBron. My man looks so good. Not missing the beat, looking strong, looking just incredible.

Greg: That's how he tends to look though. That's just his thing. That guy comes to play every single day. It's unbelievable, just amazing. LeBron James, definitely the big news story out of that Cavs Celtics game. There is really nothing else to talk about, nothing else major happened.

We're burying the lead here, let's get to the real action. It was pretty gruesome. I don't think there's a better word, you got a better word than gruesome?

JT: Gordon Hayward had one of the worst ankle injuries I've ever seen in real life. It's not in real life, but like on TV right in front of me. That's real life to me.

Greg: That counts. That is probably one of the most gruesome ankle injuries I've ever seen. It wasn't pointing in the correct direction. It didn't look like an ankle looks. There were so many things that were wrong. I'm not good at looking at injuries or anything. I can't stand it. It makes me sick to my stomach. I feel it on me. Whatever it is I feel it, and it makes me feel bad. What about you? I know he was on the Utah Jazz for a long time. I know there was some sour grapes with him leaving, but yeah nobody wishes for that to happen to anybody.

JT: Let it let it be known Greg, I hate this motherfucker. I hate Gordon Hayward. I hate how he chose to play his exit from Utah. It was not the way you want to do it, but not how you want to see anyone go down. This looks like a nasty injury. They're calling it a fracture, but if this is a fracture man, I don't know what a break is. This shit was bent so far backwards-

Greg: I thought a fracture was a break? What's a fracture? A contusion is a break a fracture?

JT: It is my understanding from what I've read on Twitter that a fracture-

Greg: Oh my god, Twitter! Holy shit, my Twitter medical degree tells me that he's got a break. Just cut it clean off and hope the next one that grows back is better.

JT: If you're a sports fan I think you want it to be a fracture more so than a break.

Greg: If you're a sports fan you don't want that happening to your guy. I don't think you'd give a shit what it is. My god it was disgusting. It was a botched alley-oop. It was just not good. You're going to Gordon

Hayward five minutes into the first the first game fucking. He does an alley-oop from like the three-point range, are you fucking kidding me? Did they do this in practice? Is that why? I just I don't understand why your high-flying Gordon Hayward into the fucking paint up against LeBron and Tristan Thompson are you fucking kidding me? I can't believe that happened, but that's the risk all along. You make these teams, you assemble all these people, and in a flash somebody's injured. They're gone, and then you don't have them all season. The best laid plans of mice and men and yada yada you know?

JT: We got some hot info off of the Google machine from our friend Mitch in the back. A fracture and a broken bone are the same thing Dr. Greg. That's one point for doctor .

Greg: What is a contusion? Can I connect to mitch again? Can I throw a contusion to Mitch?

JT: Mitch can you check out what the Google machine says about the contusion? What is contusion? Meanwhile Greg, not good for Boston and their high hopes of fucking run in the mill on the

east this season. This is your boy, you paid a 138 million dollars for this guy. That's a problem. When I looked at the roster tonight, and the people that were playing, those guys are playing hard. They like playing for that coach. This is not a shitty team. Do you think that they can get by without him?

Greg: They don’t know shit. They don't know exactly. They don't have anything. They're not used to having him so they can just go on without him. I don't think that he's that special of a player that they can't adapt or find somebody to fill his role. What does he do best? You watched him for how many years? What is his skill? What are they gonna miss the most with Gordon Hayward twisted up like a pretzel in the ankle?

JT: Nothing at the moment. In Utah the offense was built around him and that's not the case in Boston. They have Kyrie, who can create a double for himself at any point, and Hayward was like a best case

second option. Brilliant game plan by Brad Stevens, but I don't  know at this point when you have this 35 million dollar-a-year players sitting on the bench with a broken ankle for god knows how long –

Greg: Oh my god I wish we could overlay a huge picture of that disgusting ankle any time we're talking about it. You got to be able to see it. It's just awful. None of them could look at it. The guys on the court, the guys off the court, they all  walked immediately. They must have turned and looked real quick, because that shit wasn't pointing in the right direction. He's sitting there screaming in pain, and they look down for a second, saw that that's why, and they all walked away.

JT: Greg, Mitch says contusion is a bruise. That's when there  is bleeding under the skin that may or may not be due to trauma. It's like a black and blue okay? That's what a contusion is. Way less severe than a

fracture or break. A fracture is a break and that's a problem.

Greg: You don't want that when you're playing basketball. You need nickels and neat knees and legs and fibbies and tibias and all that fun stuff. you don't want to break those.

JT: These guys are always thinking big picture, and you don't want to ruin your shit in the attempt to get back in the game sooner. You have more worth if you play longer.

Greg: Did you see that a Skip Bayless was a getting a little loud about all this? He was running his mouth. He had some comments that people are just not happy with. He took the opportunity as soon as the injury happened to jump on Twitter and talk about how this opened up a chance for LeBron to lose a sixth title much easier this time. Everybody always goes to their own selfish nature when things happen, but that just seemed dirty. It was minutes after the injury happened, and the only thing that he could think of was that this was gonna make it easier for LeBron to lose another championship.

JT: As the kids say, he is throwing a lot of shade. What's up with Skip? LeBron often takes the high road, and to take the opportunity for an injury? You can say a lot of things about these NBA players, but when someone gets injured you rarely if ever see anyone talking shit about someone who has had the ill fortune of taking a bad hit. Fuck you Skip Bayless, that's like the lowest hanging fruit. Kudos to LeBron for you taking a moment to embrace a word while he was down. He seemed to say a word or two to him give him a couple pats in the back. All these NBA players who have taken a moment to say something on Twitter take the high road. It's not even the high road, It's just the fucking road of being human. You all are just playing basketball. I hate the shit out of Gordon Hayward, but not in this aspect.

Greg: Paul George put out a message out on-

JT: If anybody knows how to go down with a horrific injury in your leg, it's Paul George.

Greg: He immediately put a message out on Twitter. Brian Winthorse said that LeBron went to the Cavs locker room where they had Gordon Hayward, He checked them out at halftime just to see how everything was. Classy guy. Plays basketball like a bastard. You could say a lot of stuff about LeBron, but you cannot tell me he's not a good guy.

JT: The average recovery time for that particular injury is six to eight weeks. That's about two months. We're in October now Greg. Hayward could be returning sometime in the new year.

Greg: The obvious question would be, is that six to eight weeks for a world-class athlete, or is that six to eight weeks for some guy that goes and sits at a desk all day and doesn't actually use his ankle?

JT: Greg unfortunately we didn't pay the retainer on our on our office position, so information is limited to whatever Mitch can get for us.

Greg: I understand.

JT: He's is not a Karl Malone type. Reckless abandonment, throw caution to the wind. What we remember of Gordon Hayward-

Greg: No, I can't imagine that being his MO. I'm always amazed how many players have gone through Utah I was saw the thing about Richard Jefferson the other day and I forgot that he was on Utah for a while.

JT: He's a Jazz man Greg.  There's so many people who cycle through that team. It's actually incredible when you look back but people don't stay everybody cycles through. I think that's a problem.

Greg: We've gone off on a tangent here. Anything else you noticed in the game? I had one thing that made me laugh. At the end of the Celtics game Kyrie went to his spot behind the three-point line that he likes to go. The spot where he hit his famous shot over Steph Curry. He had LeBron guarding him and he took that shot. The shot was short. They lost immediately. He embraced LeBron, and LeBron embraced him, and then all the other Cavs lined up to do the same thing, but they all still had their custom handshakes that they did with him when he was there. It made me think of all the wasted custom handshakes they had. They all had these different elaborate things that they did with him, and now they won't do them anymore. It's amazing all the little things they have. They don't seem to harbor any ill will about him leaving. It kind of cuts down on the drama just a bit from the NBA

JT: The handshakes were looking pretty good to me. Are you are you saying they were all the same ones from last season?

Greg: I don't know if they're the same from last season. I don't know how often they change it. I know that the Kevin Love Kyrie Irving handshake is different than the Kevin Love LaVon shake. 

 JT: It was a fun game. The Hayward shit was weird as fuck. It started off with that, and then the the Cavs totally took over for two quarters. Celtics came back at halftime, and it was competitive for sure. 

Greg: Brad Stevens is a good coach.

JT: They had some good still shots of him after the Heyward injury. He looked panicked. He looks scared. 

Greg: He planned so much. All they ever say is he's like a lunatic with how much he plans. It's like sitting on a chair and somebody rips a leg off.

JT: Contingency plans are something I think a lot of people don't plan for. Especially with these young coaches, it's interesting to see how they respond when shit hits the fan. I wouldn't say he immediately responded, but these are some of the subplots that make the NBA the greatest fucking thing in the world.

Greg: They were playing hard. I didn't expect them to be playing right to the buzzer like that. That was a good game. They was some quality basketball. It's great to start off like that.

I'd like to talk about the ring ceremony. What's your feeling on the ring ceremonies? Do you think they should even have it?

JT: I feel like this is a loaded question Greg. You know how I'm gonna feel about this.

Greg: If the Jazz won, and the next season on the first game they had the ring ceremony, would you say to yourself this sucks, or would you be like yeah, this is so good?

JT: It never makes any sense to do any type of ceremony outside of two weeks of the event. For them to be attempting to do anything related to last season, that's too far. That's disconnected. No one gives a shit yeah.

Greg: I don't think looking backwards is good in this instance.

JT: No one knows what you're talking about. It's so dumb. They should do it two weeks after like they do an awards parade. 

Greg: It's not even about the Rings, the people can’t see the rings. They're gonna do a big opening thing anyway for the team that won the championship. Having the actual physical ring ceremony is a bit unnecessary. You're right. That's a good point. You have an event within two weeks of something happening. After that you-

JT: Say it again, say it again. 

Greg That you're right? 

JT: Yeah 

Greg: Yeah yeah, you never hear that....

JT: I'm watching the Hayward break. Oh my god Greg. Oh fuck me.

Greg: It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible.

JT: As the night goes on you get better and better clips. This one's pretty goddamn good. 

Greg: There's one awful still where he's just laying there. He's looking down at his feet. 

JT: Who tossed that pass? Let's see who tossed that pass.

Greg: That's what I'm saying. Look how far away it was. It was like from three-point range. What are you doing? It's Gordon fucking Hayward.

JT: Its Kyrie Greg:

Greg: Reckless motherfucker. Selfish, reckless motherfucker, that's what I call him. That  flat earth bastard fucking throwing passes because he doesn’t understand gravity and the fucking rotation of the earth its gonna bring the ball down. He’s trying to get his man killed. Look who's defending. Is it Tristan Thompson and LeBron? 

JT: This is a play the Jazz ran all last season. You know who would love this? You know who is running the point in lieu of Kyrie Irving? 

Greg: George Hill?

JT: No, you’re fucking man Joe Ingles. If you google “Joe Ingles lob Gordon Hayward” you will see this play done at least six to ten times last season. Hayward starts a little further out during the Jazz plays. I think this is just a case of getting to know the spacing a little bit better and understanding how your new teammates respond to certain situations. The Jazz ran this play so many times last season, and Hayward finishes I'm gonna say 80 to 90% of the time. All of his big-time dunks that were highlighted, it's all an Ingles lob, just like this play. 

Greg: Did he do it into LeBron and Tristan Thompson though? Was that a Joe Ingles lob? Was he trying to get Hayward killed?

JT: I don't think Ingles would lead him into these fucking killers like that, but I can't be sure. D

Greg: Does that paint look open to alley-oops? Is that a lob lane to you? What the hell is going on? 

JT: This seems to me like something they talked about, and this is complete speculation, but they look at tape like “yo I hit this place so many times last season. Check the tapes. Look at it,” but in the times last season Hayward had a lot more open floor. This is way too crowded.

Greg: You're going into a couple pillars in there, and you ain't winning that battle, as we saw.

JT: So soon Greg. As basketball plays go that's fairly high risk. Why do that so soon the season? 

Greg: Doesn't make any sense to me.

JT: The hot clips are coming. We have so much evidence to back this up.

Greg: He's just throwing the lob in there without any regard. He practiced against those guys. He knows LeBron and Tristan Thompson. If they're in the lane and some guys coming in for an alley-oop do you think they're letting that happen? Do you think that's the kind of thing even in practice they were letting happen? No. It’s just reckless.

He's looking for a clip. He's looking for that SportsCenter highlight. This is a bad play. 

Greg: Do you have anything else you would like to go over in our special opening night edition?

JT: We'll see how the Warriors game plays out. If we need to we'll be here tomorrow night.

Greg: We certainly will. Great episode. We'll be back next week. In the mean time you can  follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at doubledrivelpodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, podbean, or Google Play. Until next week see you on the Internet.

[flauntpage]

Case Keenum: Floaty Balls

This is a post on a Vikings message board from December 1:

Ok, I know Case Keenum doesn’t have a big arm like a Stafford or a Rodgers but we saw him whip a couple of bullet passes in to the receiver last week when the situation demanded it. He can rear back and throw it a bit but we haven’t often seen him throw the high-velocity passes that too often deflect off the reciever’s fingertips and become up for grabs. He throws a nice catchable ball. Often referred to as a pass with “touch”, such a pass is often a key element in a receiver’s ability to run after the catch. We’ve seen that quite a bit this year with well-thrown balls that the receiver can handle in stride and turn upfield for additional yardage. So far, it seems to be working out real well for us.

Eagles outright.

If that doesn’t remind you of what we were saying about Nick Foles circa 2013-2014, I don’t know what will. Vikings fans are deliriously talking themselves into Case Keenum being a good quarterback on the strength of his shit arm. That should be worth a three-point dip in the line itself.

Keenum has had a terrific, Pro Bowl caliber season replacing the injured Sam Bradford – heretofore know as Sam Bradford – and leading the Vikings to the brink of… well, Minnesota. He should be lauded and applauded, commended and recommended, PRAISED AND RAISED for his performance, Mr. A. Smith. But now, on the cusp of a Super Bowl berth, it is time to shit all over him.

We’ve done a good job of classing up the joint over the past several months. Kevin has turned in PROFESSIONAL work on the Eagles and Sixers. Sean Cottrell has dutifully broken down game film. Tim Reilly has written eloquently about Philly’s ability to lure Amazon to the region. Phil has broken down the societal and legal ramifications of national sports storylines. And Coggin Toboggan has penned a  guide to murdering sports talk radio hosts by suffocating them in the fumes of cured Italian meats. Sure we’ve kept our sense of humor, but we’ve grown up a bit.

I’d like to undo all of that by assigning Case Keenum the nickname: floaty balls.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said of Keenum’s luck earlier this season, “he has a horseshoe right now.” That’s code for he fucking sucks but variance has worked in his favor as he’s slung impossible balls to Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen who have been saving his bacon all year fuck I can’t believe an injured Teddy Bridgewater, dopey Sam Bradford and Case Keenum are the fucking quarterbacks I have to work with alongside this great defense.

At least I think that’s what he was saying. Either way, the only thing having a horeshoe will do for you in Philly on Saturday is provide a last-resort defense against a drunken asshole who decides to punch your equine friend in the snout.

Keenum throws a bad ball. His “soft touch” is actually a bigtime liability. His struggles in the face of pressure, as Kevin pointed out yesterday, will be a huge problem against the league’s most ferocious front. And that horseshoe… yeah, the Eagles are gonna turn the sumbitch sideways and shove it up… what The Rock said.

Specifically, Case Keenum throws a football like a midget picking up a boulder. Or like he’s doing shot put not particularly well.

His balls, for lack of a better term, float.

They hang in the air just a split second too long.

It’s not that he’s not accurate, or not a gamer, or doesn’t seem to have the ability to pull a rabbit out of his hat– it’s just that he leaves every throw up in the air just a beat too long… except for the ones he throws right into the ground.

His passes hang in the air like eggs fly through space in Super Mario Bros. 2:

There’s a reason why the Vikings’ offense relies on its mediocre ground game – they are 22nd in rush yards per attempt – and it’s because a conservative, clock-chewing approach is the only way to prevent Keenum from exposing himself as a downfield passer. He was average or worse on passes over 20 yards this season:

While he had a QB rating of 5.1 under pressure against the Saints, he was pressured on 39% of his dropbacks this year and was sacked on only 10% of them:

A quarterback’s sack rate is not always an indicator of his offensive line, and no one exemplified that like Case Keenum this season. He faced the seventh-most pressure in the league (39.3 percent of his dropbacks), but he was sacked only 22 times on the year, less than 22 other quarterbacks. The key stat is his sack rate under pressure, which came in at 10.7 percent, second-best in the league. Keenum’s pocket presence has been one of his biggest strengths and even when defenders close in, he’s had a knack for getting rid of the ball and avoiding negative plays. That will be one of the biggest keys to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles, who pressure the quarterback at a higher rate than any team in the league. It won’t help Keenum’s cause that he is still playing behind a sub-par, makeshift offensive line.

So he does a good job of not taking the loss, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he excels in the face of pressure. Indeed he seems to prefer to get rid of the ball and rely on Diggs and Thielen, who combined for the highest contested catch rate in the NFL this season.

If you don’t believe me, watch some of these throws from Sunday against a Saints front that doesn’t exactly intimidate anybody and tell me I’m wrong. Try to look past the outcome of some of these plays – beneficial flags or miraculous catches – and watch the trajectory of his eggs:

I’ve seen shuttlecocks that have more respect for gravitational forces.

Now, I’m well aware that Nick Foles suffers some of these same problems and, all things being equal, is worse than Case Keenum. But as I’ve been saying, all of the little things are working in the Eagles’ favor and this is a good matchup. The Vikings want to pound the ball on the ground with Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray, whom Kevin called “solid” but I’ll call serviceable. The Eagles, however, all season have been forcing opponents to throw, or if you’ll recall, making them one-dimensional.

The Vikings will have a choice to make: try to run their useless running backs against the Eagles’ dominant run defense, or have Case Keenum try to open it up against a slightly inconsistent Eagles secondary.

I think they’re going to do the latter, and that will leave Keenum exposed. His balls get… floatier… when he’s under heavy pressure. For as little he gets on even routine throws, he gets even less on ones where his feet aren’t set. That sets up highlight reel catches like you saw from Thielen in the video, but it also leads to balls that are ripe for the picking. So I expect we’ll see a play where Brandon Graham gets in his face and forces him to toss one up to his preferred right side where Jalen Mills or Malcolm Jenkins intercepts it and returns it for a pick six. It’s the difference in the game. The Eagles win 10-9.

Case Keenum has had a good season, but his balls float and it’s time they dropped into whatever paw-talon hybrid the Eagles will be flying around with on Sunday.

Case Keenum: Floaty Balls published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

Nobody Wins: Ten Takeaways from Eagles 19, Raiders 10

This post is brought to you with limited advertising and no surveys by TalentFleX Solutions. TalentFleX Solutions is a full service business consulting firm offering contingent, contract and project based professionals in the Information Technology, Data Analytics, Finance & Accounting and Human Resources fields. Our model provides for flexibility in hiring needs from project, to contract to permanent placement.  Our consultants have extensive experience in attracting, screening, and placing the very best in technical talent for our clients.  For more information, please visit http://ift.tt/2oPPjkL or email info@talentflexsolutions.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates. 

  I kind of feel like the guy at the end of Billy Madison who is moderating the debate between Adam Sandler and Bradley Whitford, but instead of academia, just tweak the famous quote to make it about football:

That football game is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever seen. At no point in the rambling, incoherent four quarters were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational play. Everyone in this stadium is now dumber for having watched it.

It was, unfortunately, one of the worst football games I’ve seen in recent memory, with the Eagles missing a field goal, dropping an interception, going 1-14 on third down, and putting up 216 yards of offense.

The Raiders were even worse, blowing a pick-six, also shanking a field goal, and turning the ball over five times.

At the end of the day, the Birds got it done on the strength of an inspired second half defensive performance, doing enough to get Jake Elliott in position for a game-winning field goal. It was a meaningful bounce-back performance after three weeks of defensive struggles, marred by ineptitude on the other side of the ball.

And that’s the thing here. Last week, the offense was great and the defense was awful. This week, the defense was great and the offense was awful.

The optimist would say that the Birds can win in the playoffs if both units play the way we know they’re capable of. The pessimist would say, well, that they’re cooked. And maybe they are cooked, but we’ve got a home playoff game on the horizon, so you have to decide whether to be bright and cheery or sardonic and mopey.

  1) Nick Foles

19/38, 163 yards, 1 touchdown (screen pass), 1 interception, 59.4 rating.

We can go a million different ways with this, but the biggest problem was that he just looked slow – slow in making his reads, slow in getting rid of the ball, and slow in moving out of the pocket. He rarely steps through the pocket and always seems to move sideways and backwards, where he’s not nearly elusive enough to make Carson Wentz-type plays.

In Foles’ own words:

On his overall performance:

“I didn’t play good enough. I have to play cleaner and, obviously, play better. Third down is a big thing with a quarterback; pin-point accuracy, making good decisions. I’ll look at the film, I’ll improve. These wins are tough; wins in the NFL are tough. This was a crazy, sloppy game. I thought our defense played wonderful – giving us an opportunity – I believe it was five turnovers. That’s huge, that was big.”

On only targeting WR Alshon Jeffery twice:

“There were times when they were trying to double him and rolling the coverage. The rest of them I have to look at, too, with different ways to get him the ball because he can make so many plays.”

I really want to see the All-22 film when it comes out, because that will tell us whether the receivers were getting open or not. Nelson Agholor had a key drop. Ertz had a few that came at him high. Jeffery had one thrown behind him that he might have been able to snag.

I think the play that sums up Foles’ overall performance was the 3rd and 4 here, where he ended up throwing this away for whatever reason:

Nick Foles could’ve ran himself or thrown to 1 of several options for a 1st down. Instead, he THREW THE BALL AWAY HERE. http://pic.twitter.com/4f90Ne3EHP

— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) December 26, 2017

  2) The defense

It looked like we might be in for a long day when Jalen Mills got torched on a double move to allow a 63-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter:

Jalen Mills just got embarrassed in coverage. Yikes. http://pic.twitter.com/By7fnfrlx7

— Patrick (@PatrickMCausey) December 26, 2017

Not a great game for Mills, who was dealing with an ankle injury coming in. He dropped an interception in the second half.

The secondary was cooked again in the second quarter but bailed out by holding call:

Graham in as a DT on 3rd down, slices through and draws a hold to prevent this 45-yard completion to Cooper http://pic.twitter.com/5E6a0PGRNI

— The Bitter Birds (@AdrianFedkiw) December 26, 2017

It looked like another brutal day of sluggo routes and ineffective front play, but that Amari Cooper touchdown was the only Raiders score of the game. Jim Schwartz’s unit came up with numerous, humongous takeaways and put the offense on the field time and time again. Derek Carr went 15/29 for 140 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Oakland fumbled three times.

I know it’s just the Raiders, but we said that if the Eagles were going to win in the post-Wentz time frame that it would have to be on the strength of the defense, and that’s what happened last night.

  3) “There should be an investigation”

Jason Kelce looked like a Pro Bowl snub on the first Eagle drive, pulling and pancaking and rumbling downfield with ease.

He was clinical on the Eagles’ screen pass touchdown, getting out in front and laying a big block:

LISTEN TO THE ANNOUNCER!!! Jason Kelce, BEST Center in Football, Should be an investigation into ProBowl? "Never seen a more athletic Center in Football" [Ballsy! kudos Announcer-man, I couldn't agree more!] Robbed, just like Alex Smith. But alas, I love this sport! Just venting! http://pic.twitter.com/DA9E8oOaoY

— Cristie Young (@Mytwograces) December 26, 2017

Kudos to the announcer-man.

The one thing I don’t understand with Kelce is the seemingly high number of shotgun snaps that are low and hard to handle. Foles struggled several times to get a handle on those snaps and it really disrupted his rhythm. I think that’s another area that Wentz was able to paper over.

Here’s Kelce on what went wrong last night:

“It’s difficult to say. [We’ll] probably have to watch the film a little bit. From the running – I can’t really speak that much on the passing game – I have to do a better job with some of the snaps, I think I had some low snaps. It’s not fair to [QB] Nick [Foles]. I think sometimes you’re trying to block the guy in front of you and you lose track, then he’s got two steps instead of just catching the ball and going down field, he’s bobbling it, but he’s got to find it. It takes time for him. The run game – we started off pretty good I thought, especially the second drive, and then they were doing some different things to try and throw us off a little bit. It just felt like we didn’t really get in a great rhythm after that.”

  4) Forced fumbles

Chance Warmack played a second straight game for the injured Stefen Wisniewski. He had a great block on the Eagles’ screen pass touchdown.

He also forced his first career fumble with a nice hit on Jay Ajayi:

Fumble d'Ajayi ! #RaiderNation http://pic.twitter.com/r6MEJi25Gd

— NFL France (@FirstDownFR) December 26, 2017

  5) Dannell Ellerbe

Joe Walker was a surprise inactive, so Ellerbe started and played in the middle. It started with some subbing confusion with a timeout burned on the first Raider drive.

He had a monstrous tackle for loss in the third quarter, when he was clean through the line for a big hit.

Otherwise, he didn’t seem to be near the ball in the first half, did he?

Ellerbe ended up playing 27 snaps, or 39% of total defensive plays:

Playing time distribution, Eagles-Raiders: http://pic.twitter.com/mvCDdojVzf

— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) December 26, 2017

Last week’s MLB starter, Najee Goode, only played 8 snaps total, way down from what Ellerbe saw last night. The Eagles played much more base defense against the Raiders, compared to the nickel and dime looks we saw against the Giants. That’s not what you’re looking for, especially since Jordan Hicks is done for the year. They’ve been able to account for that injury by staying out of their base more often than not.

  6) Twist and shout

A little wrinkle here, pointed out by Chicago guard Kyle Long:

All offensive lines hate that twist the eagles and Seahawks do where they line up a defensive end next to a defensive end – challenge you vertically and create opportunity for the defense to set you up for games. Eagles run it very well

— Kyle (@Ky1eLong) December 26, 2017

He’s talking about the clip I showed above, where the Raiders were called for holding on the heave that Amari Cooper snagged over three Eagle defenders.

The Birds actually line up Brandon Graham inside of Chris Long and “challenge vertically” as the other Long points out:

That’s the hold right there.

Right to left, the line on that 3rd and 10 play was Vinny Curry, Fletcher Cox, Graham, and Long. In an obvious passing situation, they group Cox with three guys who can rush the quarterback and wind up drawing a penalty flag.

Good job by everyone involved.

  7) Running away from a live ball

Speaking of Long, he didn’t cover himself in glory when he began to celebrate what he thought was a sack by running off the field early.

Here’s the play:

Chris Long has been drinking all day like the rest of us http://pic.twitter.com/mTji28IUbT

— The Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) December 26, 2017

And the inevitable apology from a stand-up guy, who had, indeed, been drinking all day:

Evidently I had too much Mountain Dew

— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) December 26, 2017

  8) Doug’s worst call

I didn’t agree with the decision to take the penalty on the illegal crack back block to set up a 2nd and 13 instead of a 1st and 25. They got the interception on that series but it was a risky move.

Also didn’t really enjoy the bootleg left where Foles threw high for Zach Ertz on the interception. That’s a low-upside, bullshit play, though I think Doug was just trying to get his quarterback going with a bit of movement and a pass that should have been an easy completion.

Overall, I think they could have run the ball more, but by the time the Raiders knew that Foles couldn’t throw it last night, they were selling out to stuff Ajayi and LeGarrette Blount and Corey Clement.

  9) Doug’s best call

Going for it on 4th and 1? I feel like I can just copy and paste that into every takeaway article, since it happens once per game.

I did think the 4th and 3 play call for Ertz made a lot of sense. Short yardage, little three-yard out pattern, fair enough, and makes a lot more sense than the left-sided roll on the INT.

If we’re judging Pederson on this game, I think he’s just got to figure out a way to get his offense in a rhythm somehow. They looked out of sync all game long and got progressively worse on each drive. That’s the key here. It didn’t get better, it kept getting worse.

  10) Downtown Philly

There was an exchange with Jon Gruden in the first half where he apparently said that the sports complex is in “downtown Philadelphia.” Now, I didn’t get the entire context clearly, because I was at the in-laws on Christmas night surrounded by six other people and trying to keep it going after a marathon day of festivities. But I think he was talking about how other stadiums in the division are away from city centers, right?

Anyway, I got a big laugh when Gruden was heaping praise on the defensive line and said, “Long… Cox…. Vinny Curry… Graham…” with way too much enthusiasm at the end of the game. What a guy.

And the play of the game was probably Howard Eskin getting knocked over during the first series:

Howard Eskin *almost* got out of the way…. http://pic.twitter.com/91Uu5918oH

— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) December 26, 2017

Merry Christmas, the Eagles are 13-2 and wrapped up the #1 seed in the National Football Conference.

  Nobody Wins: Ten Takeaways from Eagles 19, Raiders 10 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[junker-town]

The Top Whatever: Please never forget the Miami team that prefers to win every game by scores like 23-19 just beat Notre Dame by 33

The Top Whatever is your weekly ranking of only the college football teams that really need to be ranked at this exact moment in time. If you’re looking for the polls for some reason, they’re here.

1. Miami.

Got Notre Dame the hell out of here for the year by humiliating the Irish 41-8 in Miami.

Notre Dame did hand the Canes four turnovers, turnovers Miami tidily turned into a blowout with timely offense. Take out those four turnovers, and we’re all looking at a much closer game between two teams that are really not that far apart in overall talent.

That is a charitable reading, one that’s almost as giving to Notre Dame as the Notre Dame offense was to the Miami defense.

On the other hand: Miami spent most of the second half in complete shutdown mode and ran clock like it had to get to Club LIV by 11 for a recruiting meetup. This might actually be accurate. The Canes rented out the LIV at the stadium as a reception area for incoming recruits.

This sentence appears in Miami's media guidelines for today, and it is hilarious: "CLUB LIV: No media member is permitted to enter Club Liv for any reason, before, during or after the game. This area is strictly for recruits only"

— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) November 11, 2017

Your school could never, mostly because they don’t have a nightclub inside their stadium. (Yet.)

Calling a program BACK is so dangerous, but facts only here:

Miami looked a full standard deviation faster than Notre Dame at almost every position.

The Hurricanes are undefeated a week shy of Thanksgiving, won the ACC Atlantic Division for the first time ever, and only need to beat Pitt and UVA to finish the regular season without a loss.

There was a pretty solid brawl by the concession stand between UM and ND fans, as is tradition.

Never mind who got the better of that.

We beating ND on the field but some UM fans got painted http://pic.twitter.com/Dg20GLWGlA

— ® (@RIFAYAYO) November 12, 2017

Never mind, I said. SCOREBOARD. SCOREBOARD, OKAY? SCORE. BOARD.

It’s fine to say it, even if the Miami that rolled Notre Dame didn’t look much different than the team that squeaked out a 25-24 win over Georgia Tech at home. They play blazing defense. They aren’t spectacular on offense, but they take efficient advantage of field position and turnovers. The Canes are counter-punchers and know it — after all, what other team chose their sideline trophy based on the understanding that they were going to make you make a mistake?

Miami remains a team of managed margins on most nights. Those can add up to something huge when Miami forces the other team into mistakes.

Still, go ahead and say it: Miami is back. Please remind everyone of this when they regress to the mean and need a late field goal to beat UVA next week. The 2017 Miami Hurricanes, America’s Team Most Comfortable In Close Games™.

2. Northwestern, postgame only.

23-13 win over Purdue, but that’s not what we’re celebrating here because WHY IS NORTHWESTERN DANCING TO BOOSIE AND WHY IS IT WORKING???

http://pic.twitter.com/v6r3jhlL13

— Lefty Catchers Pa (@LeftyCatchersPa) November 12, 2017

No. 71 is moving like he feels this song in his bones and is about to spell out “Boosie Badazz” at the top of his lungs. Also, good form in immediately fading out the song before the rest, because it gets problematic in a mixed crowd quickly.

Northwestern’s Twitter handle is “NorthWWWWWWestern Football” right now, begging the question: How are the Wildcats America’s realest candidate for the title of swaggiest three-loss team? We have no answers, only evidence and Pat Fitzgerald probably signaling in a blitz next week with the “shoulders, chest, pants, shoes” dance.

3. Auburn.

There’s the kind of blowout Miami had over Notre Dame: over early in a flurry of turnovers and touchdowns, then as they say in soccer, “a firmly parked bus.” The point being proved, the blowout-er is happy to throttle down and grant the blowout-ee a dignified end.

That was not this 40-17 blowout. This was a one-sided ejection from the premises, and Georgia was the drunk who thought he could take three bouncers at once. This was full-bore cage match only one party knew about in advance. This was the kind of blowout the insurance company won’t cover. Check the policy: “acts of God” are covered, and “the devil whalin’ on your ass for three hours with a two by four” isn’t.

Georgia’s lowest rushing on the year had come on the road against Notre Dame, when Sony Michel and Nick Chubb only totaled 185. Against Auburn, the entire team gained 46 yards, nine fewer yards than Auburn’s Eli Stove got all by himself on Saturday. Stove is a wide receiver.

This is one of a thousand signs that something went VERY, VERY, VERY WRONG, GEORGIA, but there’s more. Auburn’s defensive line not only eliminated Georgia’s elite running attack, but became the first team to really pressure freshman QB Jake Fromm, sacking him four times and forcing him into impossible situations early and often.

As for Auburn’s offense:

Darius Slayton, this is a ridiculous catch. http://pic.twitter.com/rxbEK1ltk9

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 11, 2017

Darius Slayton’s catch here is a sublime example of body control and position relative to the defender, with a breathtaking set of hands to bring in a touchdown other receivers might have dropped.

This entire game could represent something for Auburn as a whole. This kind of game didn’t come out of nowhere. People were bullish on them in the preseason, and with reason. They had talent on both sides of the ball, a new and touted transfer quarterback with plenty to prove, and a manageable schedule, despite challenge. When Auburn catches Georgia like this, it validates what a lot of people thought Auburn could be. They can’t undo a blown 20-point lead to LSU and sputtering in an early matchup with Clemson. They can, however, ambush Georgia in one of the more shocking blowout upsets of the year.*

* No one is beating Iowa for this title. No one. Not even Cal, and Cal beat Wazzu 37-3.

Auburn has a game against ULM to get through before the Iron Bowl. A win would usually be a forgone conclusion for Alabama under normal Saban-era circumstances. However, an injured Alabama light on linebackers just gave up three rushing TDs to Mississippi State in a thriller on the road, marking the first time anyone has scored three times on the ground against Alabama in a single game since 2006.

Auburn might have noticed that. The World’s Most Dangerous Team Of the Week is halfway to upending the SEC’s chances at the No. 1 seed and two-thirds of the way to making their case for stealing the Playoff bid for themselves. To do that, Auburn would have to beat Alabama, then defeat Georgia again in the SEC Championship Game. The first step involves matter of luck, but the second step — after watching what Auburn did to Georgia this weekend — feels like a given.

P.S. With a minute and 25 seconds left, up by 23 points and with the backups in, Auburn threw a pop pass downfield for one last first down. Auburn might love you as a brother on Sundays, Georgia, but on Saturdays, they still haaaaaaaaaaate you.

4. Wisconsin.

Beat Iowa 38-14. The good news is that no one can ever take away putting 55 on Ohio State, Hawkeyes. The bad news? There was a fight in the parking lot of the Woodman’s, and you lost real bad. Wisconsin’s defense limited Iowa to 66 yards and five first downs, which is bad even by the standards of Florida Gator offensive football. That’s not a place you ever want to end up in, Iowa.

Wisconsin is still undefeated. Using some transitive math, if Wisconsin were to play Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship, the Badgers would beat Ohio State by a conservatively projected score of 93-38. That is a joke, something we have to say, because there are 15 Ohio State fans with a sense of humor. The remainder spends its time scanning the internet, looking for any opportunity to point out how you should be discussing Ohio State at this moment and how disrespectful it is that you’re not.

That is a bad place to be, especially when you’re just looking for creative storage solutions on Pinterest, and suddenly someone in the comments says something like, “These are clever, but you know what else is clever? Kevin Wilson’s halftime adjustments and grooming of J.T. Barrett as a legitimate NFL-caliber quarterback.” (You’ll spot that same Buckeye in the Weather.com comments a week later, calling for Barrett to be benched.)

That’s almost as bad as getting your ass handed to you In the parking lot of a Woodman’s a cold night in November. (Almost, Iowa. Almost.)

5. Ed Orgeron, the rent man.

Ed Orgeron was, basically, fired at Miami for off-field behavior, fired at Ole Miss for a 10-25 record & passed over at USC after a 6-2 interim mark. This same man’s #LSU team could win its last 3 regular season games, partially resulting in the firing of 3 SEC head coaches.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 12, 2017

Life’s a circle. Fortunately, Ed Orgeron is wearing roller skates.

6. Alabama.

Survived Mississippi State 31-24. Most Alabama fans probably feel like a one-score win on the road where the defense lets a team rush for three touchdowns on the Crimson Tide is a loss.

This is incorrect. Losing to a suddenly dangerous-looking Auburn would be a loss, and a devastating one. However, the great luxuries of Alabama mean a.) the fall-back option in an emergency is QB Jalen Hurts winging the ball to WR Calvin Ridley for easy TDs, and b.) we’re only acting like Alabama isn’t going to win out in order to keep from getting bored.

Because they will win out, and the only ranking that matters is the last one. In the meantime, we can put them down here like they’re not death itself. An inevitability we’re avoiding at all costs. Both, whatever, same really. I don’t have to write about it until it happens, and no one can make me.

7. UCF.

Handled UConn 49-24. The Knights did not receive the Civil ConFLiCT trophy because everyone has forgotten it ever existed, including Bob Diaco, the man who invented it.

Unrelated but also important: UCF’s beefy-ass Viking of a punter squats 585 pounds.

Shout out to #DaytonasElite trainee and @ucf.football #punter @macmilk15 for squatting more than you. #PuntersArePowerfulToo http://pic.twitter.com/RKtcHolXcn

— Dan Lundy™ (@danjlundy) March 8, 2017

Hard to have one big leg if you don’t have two, y’all.

8. Oklahoma.

A 38-20 win over TCU that ended at the half, when the Sooners were up 38-14 and figured it was time to stop putting the playbook out there. The Sooners play Kansas next week. After Baker Mayfield gets to 400 yards of total offense in the middle of the second quarter, Oklahoma fans should sedate him and place him in bubble wrap until the West Virginia game.

9. Clemson.

A low key, 31-14 win over Florida State. The lack of buzz about beating the Seminoles would have looked very odd preseason, but an awful 2017 for FSU will do that to what should otherwise be a trophy win. Clemson can work a Playoff slot out for itself pretty simply: beat The Citadel and South Carolina, then Miami in the ACC Championship Game, and they’re in. The first two are doable. The third is a mystery, because you’re not the only one adjusting to a world where Miami football is a dependable quantity.

10. Ohio State.

Proud dealer of the week’s biggest asskicking, handed to Michigan State 48-3 in a game that could have been much worse. The Buckeyes are a brilliant team with one explicable loss (to Oklahoma early in the season) and one no one will ever be able to explain (to Iowa on the road).

We have no idea what their Playoff chances are, but this is certain: If Ohio State does not make it, they are going to incinerate someone in a consolation bowl with the fire of a thousand suns, then claim they were the best team in the nation at the end of the year. That is a title no one will be able to take from you, Buckeyes, mostly because it is imaginary and self-awarded.

11. Army.

Being 8-2 and within reach of 10 wins for the first time since 1996 is enough for honorary placement. But where Army really shines is being the team whose style is most consistent with their school’s entire reason for existing: the ground attack. The Black Knights have thrown the ball 57 times for the entire year, just once in their last two games against Air Force and Duke.

Those were both wins, but we all already knew that, because nothing is more humiliating than beating a team without even throwing the ball once. Georgia Southern is an amazing football program.

LOST THEIR SECOND GAMES OF THE SEASON, ENDING ALL PLAYOFF HOPES, AT LEAST UNTIL EVERYONE ELSE LOSES AND EVERYONE REMEMBERS THAT THEY’RE REALLY GOOD AND MAYBE DESERVE A SLOT WE DUNNO

Washington. Lost 30-22 to Stanford despite the advantage of facing Cardinal RB Bryce Love on one bad ankle. Too bad for you, Washington: Bryce Love’s one good ankle is INCREDIBLE.

TCU. Lost huge to Oklahoma, but still holds an inside track on a slot in the Big 12 Championship, where they would face ... Oklahoma. The Horned Frogs’ consolation gift after a hammer to the toes is an offer of more free toe-hammering. Life sucks like that sometimes, TCU.

Notre Dame. A gigantic loss to Miami is bad, but recovering with a win in their conference title game wait—

UM WHAT ABOUT USC

Beat Colorado 38-24 in Boulder. Doesn’t remember a lot of what happened, but that’s typical for Boulder. Probably going to win the Pac-12, no big thing. Just livin’, bro. Just livin’.

[junker-town]

6 reasons Week 1 of the NFL season didn't make sense, and 4 reasons it did

The Jaguars and Rams won in commanding fashion. Huh?

The NFL season is finally upon us, and there were plenty of interesting things that happened in Week 1. Some of them were expected, but others weren’t.

Marshawn Lynch is finally back after a year in retirement. He gave us everything we’ve missed about seeing him on the field, and it was refreshing. The Rams also beat the snot out of the Colts, while the Jaguars did the same to the Texans.

If we would have told you the Patriots and Seahawks would be in last place, while the Jaguars, Rams, and Bills would be in first place after Sunday, you would have thought we were out of our minds. Not even Tony Romo could have predicted it. But all of that is true.

In Week 1, there were also major injuries, coaches on the hot seat, and Catch of the Year candidates. Here’s everything you need to know from an action-filled Sunday, the first of many to come in 2017.

How did THAT happen?

Here are six things that happened Sunday that left us in disbelief — but not in the same way as that Cole Beasley catch against the Giants.

1. Nobody took advantage of the relaxed celebration rules!

We’ve spent all offseason looking forward to how players would celebrate big plays in Week 1 knowing that the league has relaxed its rules about it. We were left disappointed. There were no notable celebrations on Sunday.

Worse, the networks didn’t do much to share the few celebrations that did happen.

We saw plenty of thrilling plays, but players just got up and got back to work. No dancing, no grandstanding, no celebrations of any sort. This is a departure even from the preseason. That gave us a Marvin Jones double-dutch celebration as well as the celebration that sits atop our current rankings, Taco Charlton making imaginary tacos for his teammates.

We still have two games on Monday night, so here’s hoping that players from the Saints, Vikings, Chargers, and Broncos have some fun celebrations in the works. That just wasn’t the case on Sunday.

2. The Jaguars, Rams and Bills are 1st place teams

It’s Week 1, so every team that wins a game gets to say they’re undefeated and in first place, and every team that loses is tied for last place.

But only three teams ended Sunday all alone at the top of their respective divisions and they’re far from the usual candidates. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams were the only winners from the AFC South and NFC West, respectively.

The Buffalo Bills were the only winner from the AFC East, although the Miami Dolphins haven’t yet had a chance to get a win after the team’s opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was postponed until Week 11 due to Hurricane Irma.

Staying on top can be tough, so it might be a short reign for the teams out to an early lead, but enjoy it while you can Jaguars, Rams and Bills fans.

3. The Jaguars convincingly beat the Texans

The Jaguars dominated the game, which was surprising considering all of the bad things we heard about Blake Bortles all week.

The defense was giving the Texans’ offense hell. Not only did Calais Campbell play up to his new contract, but A.J. Bouye and Jalen Ramsey locked down DeAndre Hopkins. The box score might not reflect that, with Hopkins having seven receptions and a touchdown, but it was a long afternoon for Nuk and the Texans — who eventually benched Tom Savage for Deshaun Watson.

In relief, Watson completed 12 of 23 passes for 102 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Watson led the Texans to a touchdown on his first drive, but wasn’t able to make enough magic to complete a comeback effort in the 29-7 loss.

Bill O’Brien has been known to have a quick trigger when it comes to switching it up at quarterback. He did it in 2015 with the Texans and Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer. He also did it in 2016, when he pulled Brock Osweiler for Savage. In 2017, he did it half a game into the season.

The Week 2 starter has yet to be decided.

“I’ll think about it a long time tonight and try to continue to work on Cincinnati and see what the best approach is versus them,” O’Brien said Sunday.

4. The Browns look ... well, maybe not good, but closer to good?

The Browns’ season started just about as poorly as it could — a three-and-out that lost 9 yards, then a blocked punt the Steelers fell on in the end zone for a touchdown. From that point forward, Cleveland actually outscored its division rival 18-14, getting major contributions from its young stars in the process.

DeShone Kizer scored a pair of touchdowns (in between getting sacked seven times) and a still-building defense held Le’Veon Bell and James Conner to just 43 rushing yards on Sunday. Second-year wideout Corey Coleman, who missed a big chunk of his rookie season thanks to a broken hand, looked especially valuable, catching five of his six targets and notching a clutch fourth-quarter touchdown in the loss.

5. Andy Dalton might be trying to get Marvin Lewis fired

Marvin Lewis, winner of zero playoff games in his 14+ seasons with the Bengals, has been on the NFL’s coaching hot seat so long his ass must be made of asbestos. 2017 may be his swan song after Sunday’s 20-0 beating at the hands of the Ravens. Andy Dalton suffered through one of his worst games as a pro to start the season. He threw four interceptions, fumbled once, and barely completed more than 50 percent of his passes. Most inexplicably, he threw the ball away on a fourth-and-5 situation, dooming his team to awfulness instead of just mediocrity.

6. The Colts have been kidnapped and replaced by robots who don’t know how to play football

Nobody had high hopes for the Colts without Andrew Luck. That fact didn’t lessen the impact of watching them hit rock bottom in a 46-9 loss to the Rams.

Scott Tolzien started for the Colts, but might as well have been the Rams’ best player. He threw a pair of pick-sixes, and nearly threw a third had it not been for a facemask by Donte Moncrief. It would have given Tolzien a tie for most pick-sixes in a game.

Tolzien was so bad that he was pulled for Jacoby Brissett, a quarterback the Colts traded for eight days before, in the fourth quarter. Brissett helped put together the only scoring drive for the Colts, after going 2-of-3 for 51 yards. The drive was capped off by a Marlon Mack touchdown.

Things didn’t get better for the Colts after the game, when Chuck Pagano said that they got their asses kicked by the 49ers!

That’s quite the ass-whoopin’, the one where you forgot who you even took it from.

Not at all surprising

On the other hand, we’re not going to pretend to be shocked that any of the following happened:

1. Marshawn Lynch was perfect in his return

Aside from stuffing the box score a little more, you couldn’t really ask more of Marshawn Lynch in his first game back from retirement. Lynch finished the game with 18 carries for 76 yards, and one reception for 16 yards. But it was the other things that made it feel like a complete game from Lynch.

Whether it was punishing runs, somersaulting in the air, flipping the bird, or trying to make sure he wasn’t going to get fined for a lack of media time — we got the entire Beast Mode experience.

As Lynch said at his opening presser with his hometown Raiders, “This is actually born and raised and bred pissing in them hallways and running down them alleyways. I really did that, right here and now I get an opportunity to play here.”

He’s going to make the most of it.

2. Tony Romo is a good announcer

As much of a Twitter punching bag Tony Romo was over the course of his NFL career, the general consensus on his broadcasting debut was great.

Romo talked about safety blitzes before the snap, circling it for viewers to see with ease. He explained why certain plays were run, and showed proper enthusiasm when the moment was right.

He was even calling plays before they happened.

CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus was happy with the results. “I was pleasantly surprised, because social media by and large is very negative, for everybody, for all announcers and all networks,” he said. “The fact that it was positive is satisfying for me, but I also take it with a grain of salt.”

Romo’s career obviously didn’t end the way he would have liked, but this is a nice fit for him, and a way to stay near football.

3. A Duane Brown-less Texans O-line was somehow worse than advertised

On Saturday night, No. 3 Clemson held off No. 13 Auburn by sacking quarterback Jarrett Stidham 11 times. The Texans weren’t quite that bad on Sunday, but their performance was a passable impression of that Tigers offensive line.

Tom Savage lasted just one half as the team’s starting quarterback and was sacked six times — or nearly half of his 13 dropbacks. He was replaced by Deshaun Watson after halftime, and the exponentially more mobile rookie wound up getting sacked four more, including one that ended in a possession-ending fumble.

With three-time Pro Bowl left tackle Duane Brown holding out, the Texans offensive line had no structural stability whatsoever. If Houston is going to keep Watson upright, it’s time to give Brown the contract he’s angling for.

4. Tarik Cohen introduced himself to the world

The Bears drafted Cohen in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL draft out of North Carolina A&T. You may not have heard of him prior to Sunday, but Cohen was the MEAC’s all-time leading rusher with over 5,000 yards.

It was this run in the first half that had people glued to their TVs and devices beaming over the rookie.

Cohen finished the game with five carries for 66 yards on the ground, and eight receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown.

After the game, he compared the duo of himself and Jordan Howard to LeBron James and Isaiah Thomas. That’s some high confidence from the rookie.

Significant injuries from Sunday

David Johnson injures his wrist vs. Cardinals, and could miss significant time

Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t play Sunday night with an ankle injury, and the Giants REALLY missed him

Reuben Foster was carted off with an ankle injury, but he should be back “soon”

Kevin White broke his collarbone, and may be out for the season

Allen Robinson will miss the season after tearing his ACL