The ninth Sunday of the 2020 NFL season is in the books so here are the different thoughts and opinions I have on various things I witnessed this past weekend. It was a great Sunday for me. Chase Elliott won the race at Phoenix to claim the 2020 NASCAR championship and I won two poker tournaments at Lucksacks.com. Oh and the Cowboys didn't embarrass themselves too bad. What a great day!
Do you play poker? Do you like winning Hive tokens? You should join us at Lucksacks.com It doesn't cost you anything to play. That's right it's free you cheap bastards! And it's a helluva of a lot of fun. Check it out. My two wins on Sunday netted me 16 tokens. And I suck at poker! I do get lucky once in a while.
Just remember I am a Dallas Cowboys fan and I'm extremely biased. Feel free to agree or disagree about anything mentioned here. All comments are welcome.
I'll take a moral victory
Haha, Pittsburgh damn near lost to this guy
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Hmm, Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers. All-time great NFL rivalry. Except this year the Cowboys stink and they are starting a 4th string QB they picked of off the Browns practice squad a few weeks ago. And halfway through the season the Steelers are the NFL’s last undefeated team. The game is in Dallas, but Las Vegas has Pittsburgh as 14-point favorites. Not much to see here right? Wrong!
The Cowboys had no business being in this game, but they held a lead late in the 4th quarter before finally succumbing to the Steelers 24-19. Remember I told you they sucked. Never mind it was a moral victory for Dallas and in a season that has gone horribly wrong I’ll take it.
The Steelers got the win and in the end that is all that counts. But they should be embarrassed of themselves. With all the injuries Dallas started QB Garrett Gilbert. Who the hell is this guy? Be damned if I know. Let’s see.
Drafted by Rams in 6th round in 2014. Placed on the practice squad. Cut by the Rams two months later. Picked up by New England and placed on the practice squad. Cut the following summer. Picked up by the Lions in summer of 2015, cut before the season started. Raiders sign him a week later and placed him on the practice squad. Cut him after the season was over. Gilbert misses the entire 2016 season. Panthers sign him for 2017, place him on practice squad. In 2018 he actually makes the Panthers main roster. For one game. He plays one series, completing 2/3 passes for 40 yards. The Panther cut him after the season finished.
The Browns sign Gilbert in the spring of 2019. Spends most of the season on the practice squad, but does get activated to the main roster for 5 games. All told he attempts three passes for the Browns, all incomplete. Cleveland keeps him on the practice squad this year until the desperate Dallas Cowboys sign him on October 13th.
So this is who the Cowboys tagged to start at QB against the Steelers. A guy who was drafted six years ago, spent most of that time on practice squads, spent 6 games total on active rosters, has career stats of 2/6 for 40 yards and only has a few weeks to try to learn the Cowboys playbook.
Yet QB Garrett Gilbert (21/38, 243 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) plays a pretty damn good game for a guy who has no business even being in the NFL and nearly pulls off the upset. Your hubris will be your downfall Pittsburgh, you can’t take any team too lightly!
Maybe Gilbert could have finished the job, but once again RB Zeke Elliott (18 carries, 51 yards) sucked. He is supposed to be nursing a bad hammy, but he didn’t look any different than he has all season. Which is bad. His backup RB Tony Pollard (9 carries, 57 yards) outplayed him again so he can’t use the injury-ravaged offensive line as an excuse either.
The terrible Dallas defense looked not that bad for the second week in a row, this time against a good team. Maybe they are finally turning a corner. They held the Steelers to 9 points through 3 quarters before they fell apart a bit in the 4th. Not great, but still an improvement.
I call this a moral victory because for the first time since Dak Prescott went down this team actually hustled and played with fire. It was refreshing after weeks of shit shows. If they keep it up, who knows, maybe they can actually win another game this year. The Cowboys dropped to 2-7 and have a bye next week. It’s about time, I need a break.
The Steelers woke up in the 4th quarter and came back for the victory, but man it was ugly for Pittsburgh. Dallas only scored 12 points in their previous 2 games, but put up 19 with the 4th string QB Gilbert. QBs have been routinely torching the Cowboys (unless their last name is Wentz), but Ben Roethlisberger (29/42, 306 yards, 3 TDs) didn’t light them up, he simply threw a ton of passes. Yet he was money in the red-zone to save the day. The Cowboys run defense is garbage too, but RB James Conner (9 carries, 22 yards) was even worse than Zeke. Ouch.
The Steelers remain the league’s last unbeaten team at 8-0. They better pull their heads out of their asses real quick because if they play this poorly against Cincinnati next week the Bengals are going to beat them.
Buffalo wings are better than coffee
Josh Allen shows Seattle what you are supposed to do with a football
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It was very fitting that the Seattle Seahawks traveled to Buffalo this week because they were Buffalo'd by the Bills 44-34.
Seattle has been playing with fire all season long by leaning on QB Russell Wilson to bail out their terrible defense. It has worked so far because Wilson has been playing at a MVP level. On Sunday Wilson and the Seattle offense got off to a bad start and the Bills took advantage by racing out to a 17-0 first quarter lead. The Seahawks were pressed into comeback mode early and the need to carry the squad got to Wilson. Knowing Seattle had to pass the Bills ramped up the pressure, sacking Wilson five times and forcing him to turn the ball over four times. The Seahawks fought until the end, which is why the final score isn’t that lopsided, but they generally got their butts kicked.
The Bills coaching staff looked at that awful Seahawks secondary and decided they didn’t need to run the ball. QB Josh Allen agreed and he joined the long list of QBs to torch Seattle this season: 31/38, 415 yards, 3 TDs. He ran for a score as well. His top targets were WR Stefon Diggs (9 receptions, 118 yards) and WR John Brown (8 receptions, 99 yards).
The Buffalo defense gave up a couple of garbage time TDs in the fourth quarter, but when the game was on the line they stifled the Seahawks. This was a big win for Buffalo coming off of a so-so performance last week against New England. The Bills improved to 7-2 and comfortably lead the AFC East.
The poor Seattle defense has forced the team to play in shootouts each week and a few hiccups by Russell Wilson let this game get away from them early. Wilson (28/41, 390 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 2 fumbles, 1 rushing TD) put up big stats again, but his four turnovers doomed any comeback hopes. A big deficit early on forced Seattle to give up on the ground attack, however it wasn’t very effective anyway: 19 carries, 57 yards.
As long as Russell Wilson is healthy the Seahawks will be dangerous. But playing in shootouts week after week is a recipe for disaster. The defense is so bad it only takes a couple of mistakes on offense for things to go south quickly. Seattle fell to 6-2, still in first place in the NFC West.
The Saints came marching in
Standing behind the gatorade was one of Brady's best plays
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With the signing of QB Tom Brady, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signaled to the league that they are ready to be the top dogs in the NFC South. However for the second time this season the New Orleans Saints reminded everyone who the real big boys are in the division. The Saints traveled to Tampa and destroyed the Buccaneers 38-3.
This game was the featured Sunday night matchup and I was looking forward to a great contest. Boy was I disappointed. The Saints dominated the Bucs in every way possible to take a 31-0 halftime lead. Then they just hung around in the second half until the clock finally hit zero and they could go home.
The Bucs defense was so bad they couldn’t cover anybody. Literally. Saints QB Drew Brees (26/32, 222 yards, 3 TDs) completed passes to 11 different receivers. 11! It was like a Pop Warner game where everyone had to participate. His backup QB Taysom Hill completed both his pass attempts for 48 yards. Then to add a little insult to injury the Saints inserted former Bucs QB Jameis Winston into the game in the final minutes so he could complete a pass to a 12th different receiver. 12! I swear New Orleans was grabbing guys off the street to enter the game and make a catch.
The Saints didn’t ignore the ground game either. Five different players combined for 143 yards and a TD on 32 carries. This shellacking was a total team effort. The Saints improved to 6-2 and first place in the NFC South. Also by sweeping the season series New Orleans holds the tie-breaker over Tampa Bay.
Tampa head coach Bruce Arians is supposed to be an offensive guru, but he lost his mind Sunday night. The Saints defense clamped down on the passing game and Bucs QB Tom Brady (22/38, 209 yards, 3 INTs) looked befuddled all night. You’d think when the passing game is going that bad at some point it might have occurred to Arians to try running the ball. Nope. The Buccaneers rushed the ball 5 times in the entire game. That’s right, five. And one of those rushes was when backup QB Blake Gabbert came in to take a knee on the game’s final snap.
All told the Bucs five rushing attempts resulted in 8 net yards and a new NFL record. In the 100 year history of the NFL no team ever ran the ball less in a game. What the hell was Arians thinking? The Bucs offense were a quick three and out most of the game. The poor defense could never stay off the field to rest and regroup. The Saints held the ball for more than 40 minutes. Good grief.
Top to bottom this game was an utter failure for Tampa Bay, on and off the field. Coming of off a poor performance last week against the Giants, the Bucs are trending in the wrong direction. Bruce Arians threw a few subtle jabs towards Tom Brady on Monday talking about plays he misread or misplayed. Maybe Brady should tell him not to develop a historically bad game plan. Tampa fell to 6-3.
Down to the wire in KC
The Panthers were feisty, but the Chiefs held them off
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This week the Kansas City Chiefs forgot how to play defense and couldn’t run the rock. Yet that doesn’t always matter when you have QB Patrick Mahomes on your side. Mahomes bailed out his teammates with a stellar performance and led the Chiefs to a 33-31 victory over the Carolina Panthers.
Bolstered by the return of All-Pro RB Christian McCaffrey, the Panther weren’t intimidated by a trip to Arrowhead stadium and raced out of the gate to take a 14-3 lead over KC in the 1st quarter. The Chiefs battled back slowly and took over the lead 26-17 by the end of the 3rd quarter.
The Panthers still had some fight left and battled back to cut the Chiefs lead to 33-31 with less than 2 minutes left. Carolina then forced a three and out but had to burn all of their timeouts in the process. With 2 seconds on the clock and down by two points, Carolina sent out K Joey Slye to attempt a potential record-breaking 67-yard FG for the win. Yet the kick went wide and KC held on for the hard fought victory.
This win was all about Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs found no room to run (12 carries, 30 yards) so Mahomes stepped up: 30/45, 372 yards, 4 TDs. He utilized his top receiving weapons TE Travis Kelce (10 receptions, 159 yards) and WR Tyreek Hill (9 receptions, 113 yards, 2 TDs) to obliterate the Panthers secondary. It wasn’t easy by any means, but this is the kind of game Super Bowl contenders find a way to come out on top. The Chiefs improved to 8-1 and get a bye next week to figure out what went wrong with their defense.
The Panthers had the right game plan to beat the Chiefs. They ran the ball to control the clock in order to keep Mahomes off the field and didn’t turn the ball over. They had a time of possession of 38 minutes. The only problem was when Mahomes did get on the field the Panthers had no answers on how stop him. Don’t feel bad Carolina, you aren’t alone.
QB Teddy Bridgewater (36/49, 310 yards, 2 TDs) was steady in leading the Panthers down the field. He was aided by the return of Christian McCaffrey, who was average on the ground (18 carries, 69 yards, 1 TD) but better in the air (10 receptions, 82 yards, 1 TD). WR Curtis Samuel (9 receptions, 105 yards, 1 TD) also had a big day. The Panthers took some big swings and staggered the defending champs, but didn’t have enough in the tank to score a knockout. The Panthers fell to 3-6.
Young Guns
What a difference a week can make, Tua grew up in a hurry
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In a game that was essentially a battle between two young QBs, Kyler Murray made the big mistake and it cost the Arizona Cardinals as they were defeated by the Miami Dolphins 34-31.
During the Cardinals first possession, Murray was strip-sacked and Miami LB Shaq Lawson returned the turnover for a 36-yard TD to open the game’s scoring. The defensive TD helped Miami take a 24-17 lead at the half. Kyler Murray put his mistake behind him and led the Cardinals on 2 TD drives in the 3rd quarter to take 31-24 advantage going into the fourth. Yet Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa showed poise in his second career start to lead the Dolphins to 10 points in the final quarter while the defense shut out the Cardinals for the win.
The Miami defense scored a TD and made some big fourth down stops in the final quarter. On the offensive side it was all about rookie QB Tua (20/28, 248 yards, 2 TDs), who was solid in the air and on the ground: 7 carries, 35 yards. He didn’t get much help on the ground, but RB Salvon Ahmed (7 rushes, 38 yards) made couple of nice runs. Tua showed great improvement over his debut last week and didn’t turn the ball over. Like last week, it took a total team effort but the Dolphins answered the call. Miami improved to 5-3 and look light years ahead of last season’s tank squad. Head coach Brian Flores deserves a lot of credit for quickly shaping this team up. The Dolphins have a bunch of winnable games left on the schedule and might surprise us all by making the playoffs.
Arizona QB Kyler Murray’s turnover turned out to be huge, but without RB Kenyon Drake he had to become a one-man show on offense and he delivered. He had a huge game in the air (21/26, 283 yards, 3 TDs) and on the ground (11 carries, 106 yards, 1 TD). WR Christian Kirk (5 receptions, 123 yards, 1 TD) was Kyler’s main beneficiary in the air. Tough loss for the Cardinals who had a chance to tie the game in the final minutes, but K Zane Gonzalez missed a 49-yard FG attempt. The Cardinals fell to 5-3.
Around the League
Philip Rivers felt the wrath of the Ravens defense
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In a battle between two of the top defenses in the league, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Indianapolis Colts 24-10.
The Ravens offense was lethargic once again, they just can’t seem to find the groove they had last season. Luckily for Baltimore the defense shut down the Colts and contributed to the scoring with a forced fumble returned for a TD. QB Lamar Jackson (19/23, 170 yards) was accurate with his passes, but a lot of them were short throws. Jackson also led the team in rushing: 13 carries, 58 yards, 1 TD. It was a good enough effort to beat a mid-level team, but it won’t cut the mustard against the big boys. The Ravens improved to 6-2.
The Colts defense worked hard to keep the game from getting out of hand, but the offense simply stunk. QB Philip Rivers (25/43, 227 yards, 1 INT) threw a lot of passes, but most of them went nowhere. The running game was decent (21 carries, 112 yards, 1 TD), but couldn’t break any big plays. The Colts fell to 5-3 and as poorly as the offense is playing they will only go so far as the defense can take them.
The Tennessee Titans snapped their two game losing streak by beating the Chicago Bears 24-17. The game wasn’t nearly as close as the final scores indicates. The Bears defense was stout, but the Titans offense chipped away at them to take a 24-3 lead early in the 4th quarter with the help of a defensive score. Chicago tagged on a few garbage time TDs, but all they did was make the final score look better.
Titans QB Ryan Tannehill (10/21, 158 yards, 2 TDs) didn’t complete a lot of passes, but the ones he was able to connect on with WR A.J. Brown (4 receptions, 101 yards, 1 TD) were big. That was important as the Bears were able to contain RB Derrick Henry: 21 carries, 68 yards. The Titans grinded out the win with a steady performance and zero turnovers. Tennessee improved to 6-2.
The Bears have a championship quality defense, but the offense is oh so bad. It starts with an awful offensive line that struggles to open any running lanes and protect the QB. QB Nick Foles (36/52, 335 yards, 2 TDs) put up numbers, but a lot of that came in the 4th quarter when the Bears scored 17 points in garbage time. It was too late as the game was already lost. The Bears running game could only muster 56 yards on 20 carries. The Bears fell to 5-4 and their once promising outlook is slipping away fast.
The Minnesota Vikings needed a win badly to keep any playoff hopes afloat. Luckily for them the Detroit Lions were coming to town. For the second week in a row the Vikings rode on the back of RB Dalvin Cook and he led them to a 34-20 victory over the Lions.
The Vikings are at their best when they can rush the rock and the return of Dalvin Cook is making that possible. Cook (22 carries, 206 yards, 2 TDs, 2 receptions, 46 yards) had another monster game. That kind of performance