Another week down in the NFL season and here are five takeaways.
1. Somebody knew
Credit to CBS Sports NFL writer Pete Prisco:
Thats illegal touching in the end zone
— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) October 6, 2015
Prisco was all over what happened after the Calvin Johnson fumble on “Monday Night Football” the moment it happened. I don’t have much to add here. Rules are rules and people who know about these things way more than I do said the play was illegal. The Seattle Seahawks caught a break and it’s unfortunate for the Detroit Lions.
Seattle did what it needed to do bouncing back from an 0-2 start beating the Lions and Chicago Bears to get to 2-2. Their play in each game wasn’t overly encouraging, but there’s still 12 games left for them to get clicking. The next two games are more interesting heading to Cincinnati to play the undefeated Bengals in Week 5 and then hosting the 4-0 Carolina Panthers in Week 6.
2. Missed Opportunities
Three moribund NFL teams in the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars had a chance to end the first quarter of the season on a positive note, but couldn’t close the deal. Oakland was on the verge of being 3-1 before the 0-3 Chicago Bears drove 48 yards and Robbie Gould connected for a game-winning 49-yard field goal in the closing moments. Now, the 2-2 Raiders host the Denver Broncos, have a bye, are at the San Diego Chargers and host the New York Jets in the next four weeks.
The Browns were facing a beat up and battered Chargers team, but couldn’t seal the deal either. Quarterback Josh McCown has thrown for 697 yards the last two weeks and they have zero wins to show for it. If Cleveland pulled it out they’d be sitting at 2-2 and tied for second place with Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North. Only four teams in the AFC are currently 3-1 or better.
Jacksonville was a missed 53-yard field goal or a missed 48-yard FG from sitting atop the AFC South all by themselves after four games. Instead they lost 16-13 to an Indianapolis Colts team with Andrew Luck and a 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck playing quarterback. Jacksonville outgained Indy 431 yards to 321, won the turnover battle by 2-0, and still lost the game. Yikes.
3. Going, going, gone
The Miami Dolphins became the first team of 2015 to fire their head coach letting Joe Philbin go. I see the arguments to both sides of the move — on one hand it doesn’t make much sense to hand the team over to the inexperienced Dan Campbell, but if Philbin had lost the team to such an extreme level it didn’t make sense to keep him around. Out of all the sports, because of the complexity of football, it’s the hardest to see a change like this being effective. The Dolphins are a mess and their future is tricky with the cap hits of quarterback Ryan Tannehill and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh expanding by large amounts once this season concludes. This was the year Miami had the best opportunity to make a surprise run and they’ve fallen flat on their face. It’s hard to see much positive ahead.
4. Everything isn’t big in Texas
The Houston Texans started the season with two one touchdown losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Panthers, followed by a 10-point win against the Buccaneers. Everything unraveled for them in Week 4 versus the Atlanta Falcons. In a game when Julio Jones was held to four catches and 38 yards, the Texans still allowed the Falcons to pile up 42 offensive points. Head coach Bill O’Brien has decided to stick with Ryan Mallett as his starting QB despite the fact he’s shown zero evidence he’s capable of the job. Hard Knocks made O’Brien a favorite to many including myself, but it’s hard to think a move like this can go over well in a locker room. I thin it’s fair to assume the hook from Mallett to Brian Hoyer would come Thursday against the Colts while the game is still in question rather than over.
5. Reinforcements on the way
Three teams get huge additions without making a trade now that four weeks are in the books. Antonio Gates returns to the Chargers, Martavis Bryant is back with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Sheldon Richardson re-joins the New York Jets. All three are impact players and can positively impact the path of their respective units. All three faced four-game suspensions for varying reasons. It’s not often teams get a boost like this midseason with players of this level. I’m looking forward to seeing the approach each team takes to incorporating them into the gameplans.
