Seriously, I want to work for him.
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Man, what a great start to the season.
The schedule though, whoa...
Rams only have 2 true home games over the next 10 weeks, (9 games)
4 of 5 road stretch coming up.
I know we were a great road team last year but wow.

The Viqueens got blasted by the bills who blasted them by forcing turnovers and turning Kirk Cousins into a pumpkin. The Rams took care of business and took down the bolts. But this game is a bit scary because I believe the viqueens overlooked the bills and paid for it. They are now 1-1-1 and desperate. The Rams can almost hurt the viqueens chance to make the playoffs by beating them in a strong NFC. The desperation kind of scares me. Seems like desperate teams play better.

That said, I had read online that no NFL team has ever crossed two time zones (the Viqueens fit this category) coming from east to west for Thursday Night football and won (0-10). I hope that this trend doesn't end in LA this week.

Sadly, Tommy McDonald, who played for the Rams for two seasons in the mid-sixties died today. He also played for the Eagles, Dallas, Falcons and Browns. He was drafted by the Eagles and was instrumental in their NFL championship season in 1960 and caught a TD pass from former Ram QB Norm Van Brocklin. He played his college ball for Bud Wilkinson's Oklahoma Sooners.

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2018 3. Rams vs Chargers FULL.mp4 3.01 GB
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Explains his weird up in the air status.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/viking...ved-incident-minneapolis-hotel-020309812.html

Minnesota Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen was reportedly involved in an incident at a downtown Minneapolis hotel last weekend where he threatened to shoot someone, according to KSTP-TV.

Per the report, Griffen was verbally threatening to shoot someone in the middle of the day on Saturday at Hotel Ivy, though there was no indication he had a gun. He allegedly told the staff that if “someone wouldn’t let him into his room that he was going to shoot someone.”

At one point, per the report, staff members moved to the back of the office while Griffen was pacing around the lobby, and he then laid down on the lobby floor.

The 30-year-old was not arrested, and the police are no longer investigating the incident.

Griffen was ruled out of the Vikings’ game last week with a knee injury, and he did not attend their 27-6 loss to the Bills at U.S. Bank Stadium. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer only said that he was “having a personal matter” after the game when asked why Griffen was not there.

Griffen did not attend practice on Monday, either, and was listed on the Vikings’ injury report as “knee/not injury related.”

“We are aware of the situation involving Everson Griffen and certainly concerned by what we have heard,” Vikings general manager Rick Spielman said in a statement. “We are certainly focused on Everson’s well-being and providing the appropriate support for him and his family.”

Griffen was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft, and has spent his entire career with the Vikings. He recorded 21 tackles and had 13 sacks last season.

Looks like the Fitzmagic is gone and the Steelers are up 30-10 at halftime.

Rams 3-0
Chefs 3-0
Dolphins 3-0


Of the three, I am most confident that the Rams are the most complete team. Mahomes and the Chiefs Offense are legit, but their defense is giving up so many points, wait until the right team (s) slow down the offense and the opposing offense is just decent? They will lose in that case.

Dolphins? I don't know them You guys tell me, are they pretenders?

There was some crazy stat that said teams that start 3-0 are like 70+% likely to make the playoffs.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...statistics-to-know-for-monday-night-football/

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers:
by Jared Dubin

Through the first two weeks of the NFL season, there is no doubt that the most surprising team in the league is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bucs are 2-0 with wins over two inner-circle NFC contenders -- the New Orleans Saints and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles -- despite the fact that starting quarterback Jameis Winston is suspended and has been replaced by Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Fitz has tapped back into the FitzMagic and made the Bucs one of the highest-flying offenses in football, as Tampa dented the scoreboard with 47 points against the Saints and 27 against the Eagles.

Meanwhile, one of the most disappointing teams in the league through two weeks is Tampa's opponent on this week's edition of 'Monday Night Football' -- the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers played to a draw with the Brownsin Week 1 and then simply could not keep up with Patrick Mahomes and the explosive Chiefs offense in Week 2. Pittsburgh is lagging behind in the AFC North as the only team in the division without a win.

Can Tampa continue its hot start? Can Pittsburgh bounce back and get into the race? We'll find out Monday night (8:15 p.m., ESPN). Let's break things down.

When the Bucs have the ball
OK, so let's talk about Fitzpatrick. The dude has been amazing. He's 48 of 61 for 819 yards, eight touchdowns and an interception. He's thrown not one, not two, not three, but FOUR touchdown passes of 50 yards or more already. He's the only player in NFL history to throw for at least 400 yards and four touchdowns in each of his team's first two games of the season.

Fitzpatrick has been the best at downfield passes in the NFL so far this season -- even better than Patrick Mahomes. On throws that traveled at least 15 yards in the air, Fitzpatrick completed 13 of 18 attempts for 443 yards and four scores.

He's had particular success finding DeSean Jackson deep down the field, connecting with him on all six such attempts for a league-high 249 yards -- 90 more than any other player had on 15-plus yard passes through the first two weeks of the year. Jackson turned three of those six passes into scores, and those three long touchdowns are also more than any other player in the league.

But those catches account for almost all of Jackson's production through the air, and Fitzpatrick has been just as good if not better when throwing to Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and O.J. Howard. Evans, unsurprisingly, has been his most-targeted receiver. He's caught 17 of 19 passes in his direction, racking up 230 yards and two scores through the air. He's been successful on short, intermediate, and deep patterns.

Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has had the benefit of being pressured only very rarely. According to Sports Info Solutions, Fitzpatrick has been under pressure on only 13 of his 61 pass attempts. On his 48 unpressured attempts, he's completed 41 passes for 638 yards and six scores.

That's completely ridiculous. It seems likely he'll be relatively unhurried in the pocket on Monday night as well. The Steelers have eight sacks in two games but they've gotten pressure on the opposing quarterback on only 16 of 101 pass attempts.

Pittsburgh may not even be able to comfort itself with the knowledge that it can stop the run, because, well, the Bucs have had precisely zero success running the ball so far this season and it just has not mattered at all. Peyton Barber's 35 carries have gone for a laughable 91 yards, while Jacquizz Rodgers has gained 14 yards on his seven totes.

Fitzpatrick has legitimately been their most successful runner, accumulating 35 rushing yards on 13 attempts. And again, it hasn't mattered at all because Jackson, Evans, Howard, and company just keep getting open and Fitzpatrick just keeps finding them.

Pittsburgh's pass defenders have been -- to be kind -- not good. Artie Burns has yielded a perfect 158.3 passer rating on throws in his direction. Cameron Sutton has given up a 109.7 rating. Safety Terrell Edmunds has given up a 97.9 rating.

Slot corner Mike Hilton is at 89.6. Only Joe Haden has really put up any resistance against passes. He seems likely to lock horns with Evans on the outside for much of the night, meaning Jackson, Howard, and slot man Adam Humphries could have a field day over the middle of the field.

When the Steelers have the ball
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Bucs' 2-0 start is that the offense has had to overcome a pair of pretty bad defensive performances. The Saints hung 40 points on them in Week 1 and the Nick Foles-led Eagles scored 21 in Week 2. Much of the damage, in each game, was done through the air.

Drew Brees completed 37 of 45 passes for 439 yards and three touchdowns. Foles went 35 of 48 for 334 yards and a score. Combined, that's a passer rating of 115.6, damn near worst in the NFL. The Bucs are also, as of this writing, one of just three teams in the league that have yet to record an interception. (The others are the Cowboys and 49ers.)

Obviously, all of this damage gives the Steelers offense an opportunity to rack up both yards and points. And perhaps no Steelers player has a better opportunity than JuJu Smith-Schuster. Smith-Schuster lines up in the slot more often than not, and the Bucs (M.J. Stewart has been the biggest culprit) have been absolutely dreadful against players lined up inside.

In two games, Tampa has yielded an incredible 43 completions for 511 yards and three touchdowns to players lined up in the slot, according to data from Sports Info Solutions. That's 11 more completions than any other team through the first two weeks of the year, and 143 more yards. Smith-Schuster, meanwhile, has 12 catches for 207 yards and a touchdown out of the slot thus far. Only Brandin Cooks and Adam Thielen had more slot yards through the first two weeks of the season.

Though slot men have inflicted the most dangerous wounds, it's not as though Tampa has done a good job against receivers at any other position, so players like Antonio Brown, tight end Jesse James, and even running back James Conner should be able to find opportunities to make the Buccaneers pay through the air.

To wit: Tampa has yielded 20 catches for 200 yards to tight ends thus far this season. James has eight catches for 198 yards and a score, and was excellent against a poor-against-tight-ends Chiefs defense just last week. The Bucs have also given up 16 catches for 173 yards and a touchdown to running backs, with Alvin Kamara in particular leading the way. Conner has five catches in each of Pittsburgh's games this season, totaling 105 yards through the air.

Perimeter cornerback Carlton Davis has been hit up for 98 receiving yards and a touchdown already. The 144.8 passer rating he's allowed on throws in his direction is 13th worst among 158 defensive players who have been targeted on at least five passes. It'll be interesting to see whether cornerback Brent Grimes can get on the field, as he is clearly Tampa's best defensive back -- and also their best chance of shutting down any chance of connection between Brown and Ben Roethlisberger.

That duo has connected on just 18 of 33 pass attempts so far this season, for 180 yards. Considering Brown over the past five years has caught 67.8 percent of the throws in his direction and averaged 101.9 receiving yards per game, he's off to what one might call a slow start.

Roethlisberger was considerably better against Kansas City at home than he was against the Browns on the road. It's possible that Cleveland's pass defense is just good, as they held down both the Saints and the Jets through the air as well.

But Ben's struggles against the Browns were a continuation of a long-term trend of down performance in road games over the past several seasons. (Among 31 quarterbacks who have thrown at least 500 passes on the road since 2014, Roethlisberger ranks 24th in passer rating.)

The Steelers are on the road tonight as well, and whether or not he can shake that road rust off will likely go a long way toward determining whether the Steelers can rack up the points. Considering how long these struggles have plagued Roethlisberger, whether or not he'll be able to do so has to be considered an open question -- even against a Tampa defense that is just about as friendly as possible.

Pick: Buccaneers 30, Steelers 27

It’s a helluva D, to be sure. And loaded with elite types throughout.

But a couple of things are not meeting expectations, at least not yet.

1) OLB play is not even at NFL average levels, tbh. They blow contain all too often and rarely get there when rushing. I expected more. I didn’t expect Pro Bowl level, but when one considers the DL and the secondary they play with, I do think that the OLB’s should benefit greatly. Sooooo...

2) Suh and AD have not been the Uber dominators that at least I expected. Some may call it heresy to question those two premier DL stars, but I’m just passing along the impressions rendered with my own 2 eyes through the first 3 games. Now, that may yet come. Probably will come as the D gels. But so far? Neither player is justifying their respective salaries, IMO.

Whitworth has
Gurley has
Cooks has
Woods has
Hav has
Sully has
Talib has
Peters has
Brockers has

Nobody’s complaining about the bang for the buck from the above players. But AD and Suh? Still waiting, dammit!

By Joe Curley, Ventura County Star
https://www.vcstar.com/story/sports...aventure-grad-hill-spotlight-rams/1410937002/

Sean McVay’s postgame news conference was cut short by a fire alarm that filled the Los Angeles Rams locker room at the Coliseum with a piercing siren. But it was hardly the first potential emergency the Los Angeles Rams coach had been faced with Sunday afternoon. By the time the Rams were closing out their 35-23 “Fight for LA” win over the neighboring Los Angeles Chargers, they were doing so with a secondary that screamed, “In case of emergency, break glass.”

The Rams, who were elevated by some oddsmakers during the week as the NFL’s Super Bowl favorite, lost both of their All-Pro cornerbacks, Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, in the middle of the game."That was crazy," said cornerback Troy Hill, the St. Bonaventure High graduate.

Peters was helped off after injuring his right calf midway through the second quarter. Talib suffered an ankle injury making a tackle in the third quarter. Both are question marks this week as the Rams prepare to host Minnesota on Thursday night. “If those guys aren’t able to go,” McVay said, “there’s going to be some big voids that we’ve got to be ready to fill.”

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The Rams closed out the game in the fourth quarter with the cornerback duo of Hill and Sam Shields with slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman mixed in.“Fortunately, (cornerback) coach (Aubrey) Pleasant does a good job getting all those guys getting ready to go,” McVay said. “Sam got a chance to play a lot today. We know how much Robey’s played in a lot of our sub packages.“And Troy Hill, when you go back to last year, he’s played good football for us.”

It was a situation with which Hill had prior experience. A part-time starter a year ago, Hill was thrust into the lineup when starter Kayvon Webster was lost for the balance of the season with an Achilles’ injury last December.He also was thrust into action due to injury the last time the Rams were featured on “Thursday Night Football,” making the key pass breakup on a decisive two-point conversion in the Rams’ 41-39 win at San Francisco last September.

“You don’t expect it to be like that,” Hill said. “But I’ve learned from the past years. … I might as well stay ready.”The former Oregon cornerback opened eyes with his performances down the stretch against Seattle and Tennessee and was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded cornerback of the NFL’s wild-card playoff round, despite the Rams’ loss to Atlanta.

Hill played so well that Rams general manager Les Snead suggested in the offseason he would have returned as the starter, had the team not had the opportunity to pull off marquee trades for Peters and Talib.“We went and beat Seattle and Tennessee with him,” Snead said in March. After the Rams made headlines by adding the two All-Pros at his position, Hill responded with “an unbelievable offseason program,” said Pleasant in June.

“He solidified himself as having the ability to be a legitimate starter in this league,” Pleasant said. “I think one thing that you can do as a player is to start focusing on things that you can’t control. The game, at defensive back, is so fickle and there’s such a small room for error, if you’re worried about everything else, you’re never going to be your best self.”Relegated to a reserve role by stars, Hill has done his best to learn from them.

“You can tell they’re smart,” Hill said. “They understand the concepts and things like that. That’s one thing that I’ve been trying to pride myself on, trying to learn the little things, the ins and outs about the game. You can tell, especially with Talib, he knows a lot about the game.“That’s all I’ve been trying to do. They’ve got a lot of confidence in themselves of what’s going on. That’s coming from a lot of film study.”

Hill wasn’t troubled by Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers, who seemed more focused on challenging Shields, on Sunday.Rivers, who was held to 226 yards passing, was only able to throw for 33 yards in the fourth quarter against the Rams’ backup cornerbacks.But Hill knows Minnesota could construct a game plan to target him.

“It’s a long season,” Hill said. “But I’ve got to keep preparing myself. You never know what’s going to happen. I’ve been here. I’ve got a lot of experience under me.”With just four days to prepare for visit by another NFC Super Bowl favorite, the Rams may need both Shields and Hill to start Thursday. “If those guys are called to step up in a short week, then we’ll have confidence that they’ll be ready to go,” McVay said.

so a few of us are tossing around the idea of an investment sub-forum. We have 3 people right now and are wondering if there would be more interested parties.

This is not professional advise, just a few guys trying to make some extra money to retire early LOL

https://www.therams.com/news/snap-count-analysis-with-injuries-rams-adjust-on-defense


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Warning: These are REALLY outside the box. Lol.

Release Ficken. Let Hekker handle kickoff and PAT duties, or just go for 2 points every time. I’m serious. And I bet the anaytics, for THIS offense, would back me up. Once GZ returns, go back to status quo.

Just down kickoffs and put the ball into play. Yeah, have a player back there to handle short kicks, but otherwise just down the ball in the end zone. If Cooper returns, or some other stud falls into their laps, then return to status quo.

Strongly consider going for it on 4th and 3, or less, from the 50 yard line on. Yeah, Hekker is amazing, but so is this O. They are just getting better and better and now are at the point of looking almost unstoppable. If worst comes to worst and they fail to convert, we have a stout D that is difficult to score upon. And the extra gained possessions would doubtless yield more Ram points. Weighing the pros and cons might just show a net positive to this controversial strategy. And tinkering with the yard line and/or 4th down distance might make the analytics more decisive. I know that this last suggestion is the most controversial, and that to some Johnny Hekker is a sacred cow. I love him, myself. I ask only that you think about these before having a knee-jerk reaction. Lol.

One thing Sean really needs to start working on is his "ref game." IMO he is too good a dude with them, i.e. too easy, and it would benefit him to work them a bit more on the sidelines.

Case in point is Aaron Donald. Dude gets held on every play. Making them continuously aware of that would probably result in some non-calls becoming calls, and yesterday there were some noteworthy ones that did not get called.

Anyway, I of course like the rest of you have only the highest regard for our young HC. But this is an area in which he can improve I think.

https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2018/...-rams-stats-notes-recap-vs-chargers-in-week-3

The Los Angeles Rams moved to 3-0 on the season with a 35-23 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday afternoon. Here are seven stats from that game:

1. Jared Goff now has seven career 300+ yard passing games, which is tied for the 4th most in franchise history (with Sam Bradford). The Rams are 7-0 when Goff throws for over 300 yards.
2. Goff is now the third player in league history to pass for at least 350 yards while completing at least 75 percent of his passes in consecutive games; joining Trent Green (2004) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (Weeks 1-2 of this year).
3. The Rams’ offense finished the game with 521 yards of total offense. That’s the first time the Rams have topped 500 yards in a game since 2006, and the most in four quarters of football since 2000. Additionally, L.A. had 33 first downs, the most by any NFL team since the Saints midway through the 2015 season.
4. The Rams’ offense has only gone 3-and-out on 6.9% of their drives, a league best. The Buccaneers are 2nd (20.8%), followed by the Bengals, Raiders, and Chiefs (25%).
5. The Rams rank 3rd in points scored through Week 3 (with 102). The Chiefs (118) lead the league, followed by the Saints (104). Those teams have also allowed 92 and 103 points, respectively. The Rams have only allowed 36 — the lowest number in the NFL. That’s a 66 point differential, which is also a league best. Ravens are second (46).
6. Cory Littleton blocked a punt in the endzone and CB Blake Countess recovered it for a touchdown. The Rams are the second team this season to score in all three phases (offense, defense, special teams). The New York Jets were the first to do so in 2018.
7. As it stands, Jared Goff ranks 3rd in the NFL in passing yards (941), Todd Gurley ranks 4th in rushing yards (255), and Brandin Cooks ranks 3rd in receiving yards (336).

GMFB was asking who are the best teams in football and they come up with the Rams and the Chiefs. So who’s the top team? Consensus was the Chiefs, they were all concerned about Talib and Peters and impressed with the Chiefs offense.
Of course there was no mention of the fact that they scored only 3 pts in the 2nd half while giving up 21, and if it wasn’t for a questionable offensive pi it would’ve been a 1 score game late in the 2nd half. I think this is picking the shiny new object that catches your eye, the Chiefs are near last in yards and points allowed, and aren’t we forgetting when the Chiefs were the best team in football last year? Then they stunk 2nd half of the season. This is how the Chiefs are going to play unlike the Rams who might have another defensive gem when they get everyone back.

I know this might seem premature as the Cheatriots have had slow starts before but this time it seems different. Brady is fighting father time, who is undefeated. Their offense looked bad against the Lions and their defense looks really slow, at least in the LB corps. Kerryon Johnson made the Cheatriots look like they had their feet in mud as he ran past them to the outside. I know they've often recovered and ended up making the playoffs but they're playing 3-0 Miami who could put some nails in the coffin if they don't choke this coming weekend.

I think the Rams would destroy this version of the Cheatriots but unfortunately, we don't play them until 2020.

:mrburnsevil:

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Could it be that they were looking ahead to the Vikes, an NFC game that could mean playoff positioning?

We know that they were treating and massaging players in the locker room immediately after the game to get a head start on prep for Minny.

I didn't get a sense that the Chargers and "Battle for LA" was motivational to the Rams.

It will be interesting to see how they come out on Thursday night.

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Umm....

These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below. Unless I missed one, these are the Rams mentions.

What a throw by Philip Rivers, the 42-yard touchdown strike in tight coverage, perfectly placed, to tie the Rams in the battle for LA. (Doubt there really is a battle for Los Angeles, by the way.)

I hope you enjoyed that electric ballgame in Los Angeles, with 58 points, 877 yards and big momentum turns by the Rams and Chargers. Thanks to the schedule process that I hate—regional rivalries in different conferences meeting once every four years—you won’t see the next Chargers-Rams game till 2022, unless the teams meet in a Super Bowl before then.

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Offensive Players of the Week

Jared Goff, quarterback, Los Angeles Rams. Time to start recognizing that Goff is playing really good football under Sean McVay, not just caretaking football. His 29-of-36 day, for 354 yards, with three touchdowns and one pick, keyed a five-touchdown, 521-total-yard day against a good Chargers defense.
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https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/09/24/nfl-week-3-surprises-normal-fmia-peter-king/

A Sunday of Surprises? Nah, A Vet Says, ‘This Is The Normal’
By Peter King

Getty Images

This is the kind of weekend it was in the NFL: You enter thinking you’ve got a decent handle on the league after a couple of weeks. Lost Lions, rising Vikes, dead-and-buried Bills, class-of-the-AFC Jags, hapless Cards, unstoppable Chiefs and Rams, feeble Giants and ‘Hawks, re-throned Wentz … Browns still stink but there’s a dash of hope, Pats getting well, who knows what to make of the Dolphins, etc.

By midnight Sunday, you’re spitting out pieces of your broken luck. By midnight Sunday, you’re actually wondering, What team do I have more faith in to play a complete game right now—Cleveland or New England? In Week 4, I mean. Not in January.

“This is all I know,” 33-year-old Adrian Peterson said Sunday evening from Washington after another rebirth in his 12-year career. “This is the normal. You don’t show up on Sunday and play, you get smoked. For a while, the only team you thought you can just show up against [and win] was the Cleveland Browns. No more.”

This is the normal.

A bit of a different column today, a stream-of-consciousness, three-dot column, to dive into everything that needs some interpretation. The Buffalo story is without peer this morning. The apparent loss of Jimmy Garoppolo till next season is close. The never-ending greatness of Drew Brees is a pretty good story too, as is the revival of left-for-dead Adrian Peterson.

And the Titans, who are 5-1 in the last six meetings with Jacksonville; there’s a story. The Patriots’ semi-annual September swoon is upon us. Seattle has a win, and it also has a very big Earl Thomas problem. The Vikings got exposed badly. Their reward? The worst road trip of the year.

And roughing-the-passer still stinks, by the way.

We start with the Win of the Week.

Normal, Ch. 1: Nothing Fluky About The Bills
I watched a lot of the Bills-Vikings game, and nothing about Buffalo’s 27-6 win was fluky. The Bills were 16.5-point ‘dogs, and this was the biggest NFL upset since 1995, and it happened because the Vikings thought they could overcome a terrible offensive line by putting the ball in Kirk Cousins’ hands 55 times. And the Bills used defensive marauders you barely know like Matt Milano and Trumaine Edmunds and Trent Murphy to terrorize Cousins into hurried throws, three fumbles and a pick.

The weirdness of the week in Buffalo began with an important defender, cornerback Vontae Davis, quitting at halftime of the game against the Chargers last week. Logic would tell you that’s an dagger to a team’s season. Maybe it should have been. “Honestly,” defensive tackle Kyle Williams told me from Minneapolis, “that had no impact on us at all.

We flushed it just like it was a loss. We’ve got some guys who’ve been around the league for a few years, guys who can be north stars for the young guys. If you’re around this league long enough, you’ll see things that shock you. But we just focused on the job all week. If we didn’t let them run the ball, we knew we had some matchups we liked [rushing the passer].”

Milano, a smallish (6-0, 223) fifth-round linebacker from GM Brandon Beane’s first draft class last year, fits in coach Sean McDermott’s do-your-job ethos. He swarmed around Cousins all through the first half and had a sack, an interception, a team-high eight tackles and a fumble recovery. “Play fearless and play fast,” coach Sean McDermott told his team during the week, and Milano led the way. He’s a really good, really instinctive player.

Impressive, too, was Josh Allen. The thing no one knew about Allen—other than whether he’d be accurate enough in the NFL—was how he’d adjust to the jump in level of play. At Wyoming, he didn’t respond well in games against major-college teams.

In this game, playing without his biggest offensive weapon, LeSean McCoy (bruised ribs), Allen showed a great touch for knowing when to take chances and when to hold onto the ball. “No turnovers,” he said, proudly, from the bus on the way to the airport post-game. His best moment, easily: the Saquon-like hurdling of Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr on the Bills’ third touchdown drive.

“It was third-and-long,” Allen said. “They brought their pressure. I escaped. I probably should have kept my eyes downfield longer. When I saw [Barr] coming, I knew I’d be short if I didn’t do something like I did.” The high hurdle, he meant.

“I saw it,” Williams said. “I thought, ‘Hey, wow, he can jump. Don’t do it again.’ We need him.”

Buffalo’s reward: The Bills get to get back on a plane west again next Saturday to Green Bay. An angry Green Bay, after a tie and a loss. Josh Allen, meet Aaron Rodgers.

Normal, Ch. 2: Peterson Says, ‘I Control The Story’
What I like about 12 years of dealing with Adrian Peterson: He does not like the formulaic answers. Ask him a football question, get a pretty legit answer.

Me: How tough was it in the offseason, wanting to play, and no one bringing you into camp?

Peterson: “Rough. I think I was able to put things in perspective. In my last year in Minnesota, I didn’t play a lot. In New Orleans, I had a short visit. In Arizona, I got a leg injury. This is a league of what have you done for me lately. You know that. When someone else has the platform to write the story, that sucks. When I have the platform, which I have now, I can control the story.”

Adrian Peterson. (Getty Images)

At 33, Peterson doesn’t like to be told he’s on his last legs. He might be, but that’s something he wants to control. In the second quarter of Washington’s 31-17 win over Green Bay, Peterson was having an OK day: eight rushes, 39 yards. He’d just hesitated on a run from his 2-yard line, and the hesitation caused a four-yard gain—not 98. “Nothing but green grass in front of me,” he said. “I blew it. That run opened my eyes.” Washington used its first timeout, and Peterson put it to good use.

“I told my linemen, ‘That one’s on me, Keep doing what you’re doing. We’ll break one.’“ Three plays later, Peterson sprinted and juked around right end for 41 yards, keeping his word. For the day, he rushed 19 times for 120 yards. “Should have been 160, 170 yards,” he said. “I left too many yards out on the field.” The 6.3-yard rushing average was his highest since 2015.

“Put it in my hands and I’ll make something happen,” Peterson said.

Still.

Normal, Ch. 3: Brees Is Breaking Records, And He’s Not Done
Drew Brees, the ridiculous metronome. It just never stops. Tom Brady talks about playing till he’s 45, and he well could. But Brees, who turns 40 in January, broke the NFL’s all-time record for completions Sunday, passing Brett Favre. And if he has two normal weeks (against the Giants and Washington, coming up), he’ll break another record—for passing yards.

He’s 418 yards away from Peyton Manning’s yardage record. And 46 touchdowns from Manning’s passing-TD record. And if you watched the 43-37 Saints’ win at Atlanta on Sunday, all you could think was: This guy’s missed two games due to injury in 13 seasons in New Orleans, and he might put the records so far out that it’ll be tough for Brady or anyone to pass them.

The game has changed so drastically that you don’t know what to make of these numbers. Should they rule who’s the best quarterback ever? No. This era’s different from all the others. “I don’t know if I told you this story,” Brees, back in New Orleans Sunday night, told me.

“But after I got drafted by San Diego [in 2001], we played in Miami that preseason. Pregame, walking in the stadium, I remember seeing Dan Marino up in the Ring of Honor. All the records written next to him … I remember thinking, ‘Good gracious, how do you ever play that long to accomplish those numbers?’ That day, had you ever told me I’d have some of those numbers, I’d have told you you’re crazy, obviously.”

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The game he set the completions record was made memorable because Brees won it with his legs. Down 37-30 late in the fourth quarter, from the Falcons’ 7-yard line, he jitterbugged toward the line and faced two Falcons’ defensive backs. Uncharacteristically, he juked corner Brian Poole, evading him and diving in for the tying touchdown. He drove the Saints 80 yards for the winning touchdown on the first drive of overtime, diving in from the 1 on a quarterback sneak. That’s Brees.

“I love to compete,” he said. “I love to work, I love to set a goal, embark on the journey and accomplish the task. So many incredible people in my life have put me in position to succeed. So many who have helped make me a confident person when maybe I was lacking in it in some parts of my life. So an accomplishment like this is for them too.

“A lot of receivers caught those passes. I hope they’re proud. This is for them, too. I’ve had the same head coach, Asshole Face, the same offensive coordinator, Pete Carmichael, for all my years here, and the same quarterback coach, Joe Lombardi, for 11 of the 13 years. This is for them, too.

“I’m having a lot of fun playing still. I hope there are lots more years.”

Normal, Ch. 4: Niners Lose Garoppolo
One of the reasons the NFL is so hell-bent on protecting quarterbacks is because sometimes passers get lost on fluky, freaky, extremely normal plays, and so the NFL simply doesn’t want to exacerbate the normal by getting quarterbacks bashed around in the pocket unless it’s totally unavoidable. In Kansas City on Sunday afternoon, one of the NextGen’s top passing prospects, Jimmy Garoppolo, took off around left end and was striding for the sidelines. He took an awkward step with his left foot. The knee caved.

Preliminarily, the Niners think Garoppolo tore his ACL. There will be an MRI this morning in California, but coach Kyle Shanahan is preparing to play the rest of the year with backup C.J. Beathard, beginning Sunday at the Chargers. GM John Lynch’s glum voice over the phone when he returned home illustrated the harsh likely reality.

“All indications are that it’s torn,” Lynch said. “Our [medical] guys say they’ve been wrong before and so they need to do the MRI, obviously.”

Garoppolo, Lynch said, “is heartbroken. His family’s heartbroken. You can see it in his eyes, in their eyes. It’s tough. Jimmy needs to play, and he wants to play. But Kyle feels strongly about C.J. We all do.”

George Kittle, left, and Jimmy Garoppolo. (Getty Images)

Tough night for the next-man-up mantra. But that’s the normal in a brutal league. When Lynch says Garoppolo needs to play, he’s not being harsh; he’s being real. Carson Wentz was injured 29 games into his career, and the Eagles already knew he was their long-term quarterback—he’d experienced enough highs and lows to have a proven track record, even as a young player. Garoppolo started his 10th game Sunday;

the Niners have already signed him to a rich contract, and their confidence in him won’t be shaken by a knee injury. But any quarterback, no matter how promising, needs to play at this high level before feeling truly confident, and convincing his mates, that he can be a great quarterback in the NFL. Garoppolo has already had his financial coronation. Now, most likely, the Niners will have to wait for Garoppolo’s football coronation.

Normal, Ch. 5: The Madness Continues
• Titans 9, red-hot Jaguars 6. Tennessee’s got Jacksonville’s number, winning five of the last six in the series. In the last three games, while the Jags were rising offensively, Tennessee held Jacksonville and quarterback Blake Bortles to 32 points and just two touchdowns. “The game plan was to keep Bortles in the pocket,” said Titans linebacker Wesley Woodyard. “Don’t let him extend drives. In a series like this, you’ve got to play sound, and that’s the way we play defense.”

• Ryan Tannehill is 9-1 in his last 10 starts. The win over Oakland was his 80th start. He’s 40-40. But he’s more efficient than a .500 quarterback should be, at least lately. The faith Miami showed in Tannehill after he missed the team’s previous 19 games heading into this year is paying off.

• It’s madness in Houston for the 0-3 Texans—one of only three 0-3 teams in the game—after losing to the Giants and their porous offensive line. The Texans have struggled more than I thought they would in the secondary, but the real problem is a poor offensive line. Right tackle Julien Davenport was called for two false starts and two holding penalties against the Giants.

• So what will Seattle GM John Schneider do with problem child (and FMIA Defensive Player of the Week) Earl Thomas? Seattle got its first win, over Dallas, on Sunday, but it’s a Band-Aid on a bigger wound. Thomas is going to be disruptive unless he gets his contract re-done, so the Seahawks should deal him for what they can get this week.

This Is The Normal: Epilog
The media parrying with Bill Belichick after the Patriots lost to Detroit 26-10 Sunday night:

Q: “Was Josh Gordon inactive tonight because of an injury?”

Belichick: “I don’t know. He wasn’t active today.”

Q: “How would you describe your conversation with Matt Patricia after the game?”

Belichick: “No.”

Q: “Your reaction to being 1-2?”

Belichick: “I don’t think anyone can clinch a playoff spot today. I don’t think anyone is eliminated today.”
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So What Exactly Is Roughing The Passer?
The roughing-the-passer controversy continued Sunday, as did the social media outrage over it. Former NFL tight end Martellus Bennett, for instance, had this gem: “Breaking news. NFL just passed a Mississippi rule all pass rushers must count 3 Mississippis before rushing the passer.” This came after the Clay Matthews roughing call that sent Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy into orbit.

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I hate the rule as much as anyone. But by the letter of the silly law, Matthews did commit a roughing the passer foul Sunday in Washington. In the NFL rules digest, Section 2, Personal Fouls, in Article 9, Roughing the Passer, here is the rule:.

“A defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw [the quarterback] down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to wrap up the passer with the defensive players’ arms and not land on the passer.”

NFL officiating consultant Ed Hochuli, who was in the NFL’s officiating command center Sunday, believes the Matthews roughing call “was an absolutely textbook full-body-weight roughing call, the best example of it that I’ve ever seen.”

If so, the question is whether the NFL wants players playing this way. Matthews last week (I’ll get to that in a moment) certainly did not commit a foul in the eyes of any reasonable football fans and most in the league; I think at least half believe the flag he drew in Washington on Sunday was unjust. How is a man supposed to play if he can’t do it the way Matthews played both of these?

Some history from last week. The NFL sends out an officiating video each week to the media and the public, to try to educate and inform about significant plays from the previous week. This week, NFL VP of officiating Al Riveron highlighted six plays from Week 2 in a 5-minute, 15-second video. He explained why two players were ejected in the first two reviews; a fluky two-passes-in-one-play situation; a close call using the new what-is-a-catch rule; a defensive hold off the line of scrimmage; and then explaining the dropkick rule after a drop-kicked kickoff in Chicago.

There was nothing, however, about the most discussed, most controversial plays of the weekend—the roughing-the-passer calls on Minnesota’s Eric Kendricks and Green Bay’s Clay Matthews in the Vikes-Packers game. (Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio first reported what was on the tape.)

What a lost opportunity. There’s an elephant in the room, with a penalty that was hugely controversial and significantly influenced the outcome of a game (the Matthews roughing call that gave Minnesota life, down eight with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter) that could decide the winner of the NFC North. And Riveron spends the last 62 seconds on a frivolity: Michael Dickson of the Seahawks drop-kicking a kickoff.

The NFL preferred to talk about one of the flags only—the Matthews penalty—in ref Tony Corrente’s pool report minutes after the game. And Riveron discussed roughing the passer privately with some teams in the wake of the calls, a league source told me. But not in the one way the league communicates each week with the media and the public.

That’s at best a tremendous lost opportunity, at worst trying to bury an embarrassing call that was a major factor in the outcome of a game. The league is sticking with what Corrente said post-game: that Matthews “picked the quarterback up and drove him into the ground.”

Here is actually what happened: Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins had released the ball a split-second before Matthews wrapped his right arm around his waist; his left arm first went to the back of Cousins’ legs, then to the ground, to brace for the fall.

Cousins’ right leg was off the ground when Matthews made contact with his head to the left of Cousins’ midsection, and the QB’s left leg appeared to come an inch or two off the ground for a distance of maybe two feet as Matthews tackled the quarterback backward. As they fell, Matthews stuck his left arm out to cushion the fall, in effect preventing his full body weight from landing on Cousins.

“I don’t see where [Matthews] lifted him and drove him down,” respected former ref Terry McAulay said on “The Peter King Podcast” this week.

There is nothing else Matthews could have done. The left arm being braced to the ground was almost a gentlemanly act by Matthews, who knows how closely any hits on the quarterback are being watched. Corrente threw the flag. “I’m sure it was probably a generous call, and two or three years ago, it probably doesn’t get flagged,” Cousins said afterward.

I asked McAulay, now an NBC rules analyst, what he thought when he saw the flag on the Matthews call.

“I thought the NFL just had another self-inflicted crisis that was completely avoidable,” McAulay said. “I felt for Tony Corrente. A lot of emotions. If that had been me, I may very have made that call, given the guidance I’ve heard and would have been sick about it—that I had to make it … This is indeed what Tony in his mind, and his superiors, want him to call.”

McAulay said: “I don’t know what happens next.”

I’ve got an idea. In my opinion, what should have happened is this: Riveron could have supported the call publicly, and then, in reviewing the call, could have said, It was very close, and we’d have been fine with a no-call here as well. It’s a judgment call by the referee, and Tony Corrente erred on the side of protecting the quarterback. Then, in the weekly training tape to officials, Riveron could have cautioned the league’s 17 crews to be vigilant about roughing but not overdo it.

I’ll be shocked if the league’s 17 referees, including four rookie refs (whose heads must be spinning with this mayhem), continue to make this call. It’s not roughing the passer. Continuing to call clean plays like this, and like the Kendricks hit of Rodgers, will totally bastardize the ability of defenders to pressure the quarterback.

Everyone knows the league is being hyper-vigilant about losing $33-million and $28-million-a-year quarterbacks (Rodgers and Cousins) in Week 2 of a long season; the Packers were an unattractive prime-time team three times after Rodgers was lost last year in Week 6 with a broken clavicle. I appreciate that. But football’s football. Protect the quarterbacks. Don’t put velcroed flags on them.

“In my opinion,” McAulay said, “there are two fundamental principles of rules-making. Number one is player safety. Number two is maintaining a balance between offense and defense. I think college football has lost that number two. And if the NFL’s not careful, they’re gonna lose it.”
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The Award Section

Offensive Players of the Week

Hate to do this, and I’ll keep them brief, but five men deserve a hand.

Jared Goff, quarterback, Los Angeles Rams. Time to start recognizing that Goff is playing really good football under Sean McVay, not just caretaking football. His 29-of-36 day, for 354 yards, with three touchdowns and one pick, keyed a five-touchdown, 521-total-yard day against a good Chargers defense.

Drew Brees, quarterback, New Orleans. On the day he played one of the most scintillating games of his storied Saints career and set the NFL record for career completions (Brees 6,326, Brett Favre 6,300), it was a pair of his touchdown runs that saved the day for the Saints. His seven-yard TD scramble with 1:15 to play sent the game to overtime. Then he drove New Orleans 15 plays for 80 yards in overtime, finishing it with a one-foot sneak for a 43-37 win. Brees has had a lot of great days in New Orleans, but on balance, with everything he did in a huge division game, this has to be one of his proudest moments. He’s turns 40 in January, by the way.

Josh Allen, quarterback, Buffalo. Leapt over tall linebackers (Anthony Barr, in this case) in a single bound on a third-and-10 to breathe life into the Bills’ last touchdown drive in a 27-6 shocker at Minnesota. Allen’s numbers can’t match most of his peers’ on this day (15-26, 196 yards, one touchdown, no picks), but he and the Bills didn’t turn it over in the raucous environment of the Vikings’ stadium. In a big and challenging week for a team in semi-crisis, Allen was the steady quarterback force he was drafted to be.

Eli Manning, quarterback, New York Giants. “Eli will be fine,” Tom Coughlin told me the other night at his charity function in New York, and I bet he might have even believed it. Coughlin was in the minority after the Giants’ 0-2 start. In Houston, even under significant pressure, Manning, who turns 37 in January, was as good as he’s been in a long time: 25 of 29 (.862), for 297 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. The Giants were desperate for competence across their offense entering this game, and Manning conjured memories of the old days, when he twice beat the Patriots in Super Bowls.

Baker Mayfield, quarterback, Cleveland. In 32 minutes of football Thursday, Mayfield erased a lot of pain for a region, and for a nation of frustrated Browns fans. In his first five series as an NFL quarterback, he led the Browns to a field goal, punt, field goal, touchdown and touchdown. It was more the way Mayfield played—fast, confident, so self-assured—than the numbers he put up. Cleveland’s front office had to be thrilled after taking so much heat for drafting him one overall at how well he played to break the long Cleveland schneid.

Defensive Players of the Week

Earl Thomas, safety, Seattle. With so much fodder swirling around Thomas—he is unhappy the Seahawks won’t re-do his contract, he mysteriously didn’t practice Friday, Chris Mortensen reported the club is considering fining him for undisclosed reasons—was huge in the Seahawks’ 24-13 win over Dallas. He had two interceptions—one in a scoreless game stopping the Cowboys near midfield, and the second to snuff out Dallas’ final hopes with less than four minutes to play and the Cowboys driving. Thomas made a rookie mistake then, bowing dramatically toward the Dallas sideline, sticking it to the Cowboys for not trading for him when he wanted to go there this offseason.

Xavien Howard, cornerback, Miami. The Dolphins are 3-0, and it’s the defense that won Sunday’s game against the Raiders. Howard had two picks, both of which prevented points. In the first quarter, he intercepted a Derek Carr pass at his own 4-yard line and returned it 39 yards. In the fourth quarter, with the Raiders driving to try to take the lead in a 21-17 game, Carr threw for the end zone, and Howard picked it off nine yards deep to ice the win.

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J.J. Watt, defensive lineman, Houston. After his performance Sunday in the loss to the Giants, it’s not a case of “He’s back.” Watt looked more like HE’S BACK. For the first time in two years and five days, he sacked the quarterback … and then did it again, and again. Three sacks of Eli Manning for 25 yards of losses, plus eight tackles and one forced fumble. Watt has to be sick over the Texans being 0-3, but he has to be personally thrilled to be the kind of impact player—at least for now—that he hasn’t been in three years. Watch him whirl around Giants right tackle Chad Wheeler and strip-sack Manning on a play that is virtually unstoppable.

Special Teams Player of the Week

Justin Tucker, kicker, Baltimore. In the rain in Baltimore, Tucker, the NFL’s state-of-the-art kicker, booted 52-yard field goals in the first and second quarters in the Ravens’ 27-14 win over previously unbeaten Denver. You want the amazing stat about Tucker? Since opening day 2016, he’s made 18 of 20 field goals from 50 yards or more.

Coach of the Week

Brian Daboll, offensive coordinator, Buffalo. It was a very anti-2018 offensive game plan for the Bills on Sunday. They called 38 runs and 25 passes, a risky game plan without veteran LeSean McCoy (bruised ribs) and a rookie quarterback making his second start. Funny thing, it worked like a charm, with the Bills winning easily behind 36 minutes in time of possession. Credit to Daboll, who came from Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama and inherited a dysfunctional quarterback situation. Didn’t faze him or the Bills a bit, at least this Sunday. Smart way to play this game behind the 8-ball.
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Intelligent Football

Something’s happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.

But I’ve got a couple of theories.

My question to the brains at Pro Football Focus this week is about the awful offensive-line play we’ve seen this year, and about whether it’s a trend. Now that you mention it, PFF folks say, yes it is.

PFF has an odd statistic it tracks about offensive-line play. I’ll loosely title it: “Percentage of offensive-line pass-blocking snaps that an offensive lineman does his job.” So this means that on every pass attempt, PFF grades the five offensive linemen on whether they did their jobs well, or whether they allowed leakage/pressure/a sack.

So if a team has, say, 40 pass attempts in a game, that would be 200 possible grades given. (Forty passes times five linemen.) And over the last few years, consistently, the quality of pass protection is declining. Let’s see the decline, and we’ll call the percentage of times each line gets it right “OL Proficiency.”

Year: 2009; OL Proficiency: 95.00%
2010: 94.55%
2011: 94.67%
2012: 94.76%
2013: 93.90%
2014: 93.46%
2015: 92.65%
2016: 93.00%
2017: 92.40%
2018: 92.79% (through Week 2)

Interpreting: Last year, each team averaged 34.15 pass attempts per game. We’ll round that down to 34. So, multiplying 34 pass-attempt opportunities per game times the five offensive lineman, you get 170 total pass-attempt opportunities for the average offensive line in 2017.

In 2009, with a 95.0 percent pass-blocking proficiency, that means teams averaged 8.50 poor pass-blocking results per game—either in getting the quarterback sacked or significantly pressured. In 2017, with a 92.40 percent pass-blocking efficiency, teams averaged 12.92 poor pass-blocking results per game.

Interpreting further: Teams were allowing 4.42 more negative offensive-line plays last year than in 2009. That seems a significant fall in quality in just eight seasons—basically one bad play per offensive lineman per game more in 2017 than in 2009.

Offensive line is a technician’s position. Since the advent of the 2011 CBA, there is less practice time, and that hurts the offensive line as much as any position or more. Plus, so many coaches today shy away from full-contact practice, which is another black mark against offensive linemen learning their craft. “Offensive line is a repetition position,” says former NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz.

“You rep a play multiple times, you do it at full speed, and you do it when you’re tired and sore. But if you don’t do that—and most teams don’t now—offensive linemen don’t get to build up that muscle memory. When you see it in a game, you haven’t worked on it the way you used to.”

One more factor: College offensive linemen who work exclusively in the spread often come to the NFL having not played much in a three-point stance, the way all NFL offensive lines play. In college, offensive linemen are often fending off rushers defensively, not attacking them offensively.

Joe Thomas, the perennial Browns Pro Bowl tackle, agrees with those factors, but says defensive sophistication is big too. Overloading single tackles or guards with mismatches—Rex Ryan was big on this as Ravens defensive coordinator a decade ago, and others followed—was one thing, and new coaching techniques another.

Thomas pointed to several teams (10 at last count, currently the Patriots) hiring martial-arts expert Joe Kim to institute new pass-rush techniques. “The advances in pass-rushing and pass-rush technique have been significant,” Thomas said. “Some of the MMA and karate training, I’ve been surprised, are really making a difference in how some guys get to the quarterback.”

The biggest factor, it seems, is the lack of real-time work young offensive linemen get. I don’t see that changing soon.
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MVP Watch

My second edition looks a bit like my first.

1. Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City. (Last week: 1.) Thirteen touchdown passes in the first three weeks of the season is an NFL record. The Chiefs will have to run it a little better down the road, but they can sustain the wins if Mahomes keeps up this pace.

2. Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB, Tampa Bay. (Last week: 2.) He can solidify his standing tonight against the Steelers—and he can ensure Dirk Koetter won’t be tempted to go back to Jameis Winston anytime soon when Winston returns to the Bucs’ facility from his suspension Tuesday.

3. Khalil Mack, DE, Chicago. (Last week: unranked.) Bears are 2-1 and an Aaron Rodgers miracle from 3-0. And Mack has four sacks, three forced fumbles and an interception. Think what he’ll be like when he actually knows the defense.

4. Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans. (Last week: unranked.) Might sound hyperbolic, but I don’t know if Brees has played better than his current run: 81-percent passing, eight touchdowns, no turnovers … and the offense is averaging 44.7 points a game.

5. Ryan Tannehill, QB, Miami. (Last week: unranked.) Completed 73 percent with a 121.8 rating, after sitting for 19 straight games with injuries entering the season. It helps that the Dolphins are 3-0.
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Things I Think I Think

1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 3:

a. The Bills, in Minnesota, without LeSean McCoy, building a 24-0 lead in the first 18 minutes. Insane. Good chance that will go down as the stunner of the year—even at the end of the year.

b. Very good challenge, Matt Patricia, on the Lions’ fumble-turned-touchdown, making it Detroit 10, New England 0 early in the second quarter.

c. Watching Sunday night, I got the strong feeling that the debacle loss to the Jets was a mulligan for the Lions. Great example of how you can’t bury a team after one awful loss in Week 1.

d. Falcons have the makings of a second premier receiver from Alabama. On draft night, I sensed the Falcons were in the minority among teams that thought Calvin Ridley could be a dominant NFL wideout. Atlanta was proven correct on this day, at least. He had seven catches for 146 yards and three touchdowns (18, 75 and nine yards), with a fourth touchdown made impossible when he had two Falcons maul him near the goal line and get called for pass interference. Sure-handed and elusive—that was Ridley on Sunday.

e. Maybe the Seattle offensive line isn’t hopeless.

f. Maybe the Giants’ offensive line isn’t hopeless.

g. For the record: When Carson Wentz had knee surgery last December, doctors said his rehab period would be nine to 12 months. When he returned Sunday for his first start since the surgery, it was nine months and 10 days since the procedure.

h. Watching Drew Brees dice up the defense of division-foe Atlanta on the lightning-fast, 75-yard opening drive was art. More where that came from, as it turned out.

i. Ben Watson, 37 and still beating linebackers (and, later, cornerback Isaiah Oliver) down the seam. Great decision by the Saints to ignore his birth certificate and give him a role on important snaps.

j. I thought Boomer Esiason was fantastic at the deception of play-action. Andy Dalton‘s every bit as good. Just ask the CBS director at Bengals-Panthers, who bought Dalton’s fake so much that we barely got to see a second-quarter touchdown pass to tight end C.J. Uzomah.

k. Not something San Francisco fans want to hear the TV analyst, Chris Spielman, say about the team’s defensive line after it has used first-round picks on defensive linemen in 2015, 2016 and 2017: “The 49ers are getting manhandled up front.”

l. Dolphins rookie Minkah Fitzpatrick has to learn to not fall for every quarterback head fake he sees. Two such quarterback-freezes cost Fitzpatrick dearly versus Derek Carr in Miami.

m. How did any official on the field rule a touchdown on the Adrian Peterson touchdown scrum in Washington? Sure looked shielded on all sides to me—and I’m quite dubious Peterson legitimately had the ball over the line.

n. Having said that, New York made the right call in not overturning the touchdown. There was no indisputable evidence to show Peterson was stopped.

o. Quibble with Kyle Shanahan: Down 35-7 with nine seconds left in the half at the Kansas City 21-yard line, down 35-7 to one of the most explosive offenses we’ve ever seen. You need four touchdowns, minimum, and almost certainly more than that against the freak who is Patrick Mahomes. And you kick the field goal? Shanahan’s really good, but I’d certainly have used the last two plays in the half to try to score a touchdown there, even though the Chiefs were packing the deep secondary.

p. Almost every game you go for the field goal in desperate times before halftime. Not against the 2018 Chiefs.

q. Colts-Eagles. Super Bowl champs on the road. Colts driving to take the lead in the third quarter. Andrew Luck throws a little high for wideout Chester Rogers, but he gets both hands on it … and it slips right through his hands. That’s a mistake you cannot make.

r. What a throw by Philip Rivers, the 42-yard touchdown strike in tight coverage, perfectly placed, to tie the Rams in the battle for LA. (Doubt there really is a battle for Los Angeles, by the way.)

s. It’s Pat Mahomes’ World and We’re All Living In It Dept.: He had three touchdown passes in a nine-minute span of the second quarter (his only three of the day on a 24-of-38, 314-yard day) as the Chiefs built up a 35-10 halftime lead. Thirty-five points in one half. Nothing’s too much for this young passer and this offense.

t. Sam Bradford, 30, looks 40 out there.

u. Nice gesture, Mike Vrabel giving Marcus Mariota the game ball after Tennessee’s upset of Jacksonville. Tennessee didn’t want to play Mariota Sunday but had to when Blaine Gabbert went down with a concussion. Mariota had a meh day, but he kept his team in it.

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v. Adam Vinatieri tied Morten Andersen the the NFL record for field goals (585) with three Sunday, and he’s only 34 points away from breaking Andersen’s all-time scoring record. Vinatieri turns 46 in December.

2. I think I hope you enjoyed that electric ballgame in Los Angeles, with 58 points, 877 yards and big momentum turns by the Rams and Chargers. Thanks to the schedule process that I hate—regional rivalries in different conferences meeting once every four years—you won’t see the next Chargers-Rams game till 2022. The Raiders and Niners meet Nov. 1, and then not again till 2022. Patriots-Packers in November, and then Brady and Rodgers will never play each other again. (All of these, of course, are true unless the teams meet in a Super Bowl before then.)

3. I think for those who want to wring hands (or rejoice) about the Patriots this morning, remember some prior early-season debacles. Remember Buffalo 31, New England 0 on opening day 2003 … and Kansas City 41, New England 14 in Week 4 2014 … and Buffalo 16, New England 0 in Week 4 2016. And remember New England won the Super Bowl in each of those three seasons.

The one difference this year, it seems to me, is the absolutely total lack of a downfield threat, or a threat of any sort in the passing game other than Rob Gronkowski. Even when Julian Edelman returns, unless Josh Gordon suddenly gets his head screwed on straight, this is not an offense with any weapon to scare a defensive coordinator.

4. I think if Le’Veon Bell is truly on the training block, as Adam Schefter reported Sunday, the two teams that should be interested are Indianapolis and San Francisco. Each has more than $40 million in cap room this year.

5. I think Alvin Kamara is going to be the best fantasy-football player in the game for the next three years. And maybe even after Drew Brees is gone. Kamara the receiver is so good, so scary.

6. I think my advice to Eric Dickerson and the other Hall of Famers would be to come up with a reasonable plan for health benefits for retired players—not just for Hall of Famers, and not for $300,000 a year. They didn’t get much empathy from players who made a fraction of what they made in their careers and weren’t included in the letter the former star players sent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

7. I think the clock is ticking for Todd Bowles. He’s got to make sure the Jets clean up their messes, and do that against a pretty tough stretch of games coming up in the next six weeks: at Jacksonville, Denver, Indianapolis, Minnesota, at Chicago, at Miami.

8. I think I would love to know what possesses a man—Isaiah Crowell of the New York Jets—to fauxrub the football on the crack of his posterior in celebration after scoring a touchdown in Cleveland the other night. Does he, perhaps, lay awake in his hotel the night before the game and think, I know what I’ll do if I score in this game. I’ll take the football and rub myself with it like it’s toilet paper! It’s okay—I know we’re not that good and the 15-yard unsportsmanlike flag could hurt us, but how great will it be to do that on national TV! It must be fun to be a head coach in the NFL. You have to think to advise your players to not wipe themselves with the football if they score a touchdown.

NFL needs to get a handle on the roughing the passer rule. Now, I hate Clay Mathews and obviously am fine with them not penalizing Suh yesterday but I fail to see the difference between the two. Amazingly, the penalty while tackling with your helmet hasn't been a big deal so far this season like everyone thought it was. But the wrapping of QBs in bubble wrap is causing quite the variety in how refs call what is or isn't a penalty.

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