Week 3 Monday Morning After - CHI/CLE, TB/LAR, GB/SF - Talk MIA/LV and a little CIN/PIT

 

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

I feel vindicated for my game power rankings, this week. We got a truly great slate. For myself, I decided to superstitiously forgo the Dolphins/Raiders contest on the radio at the 4 o'clock hour. And Bears/Browns, Bengals/Steelers, and Rams/Bucs were on the TV – because I'm in Ohio and the football gods giveth as much as they taketh away. Your takeaway: no radio game this week. Nothing felt as interesting to me as what I was going to get to enjoy with my eyes.

And I was right, I think. The Bears/Browns ended up consuming my day. Bengals/Steelers only get a few minutes of my attention, as every time I flipped over to it, Roethlisberger was standing on his tiptoes in a collapsing pocket, looking like he had no ability or idea how to get to safety – and funneling everything through Najee Harris. It made me feel some things, I'll get back to them - probably in a later post.

So let's do it – the Monday Afternoon Hair of the Dog. This week's contests: the Bears/Browns, Rams/Bucs, and Sunday Night's Packers/49ers.

Before you ask, I decided to just DoorDash nachos this weekend. So, no, I didn't burn my salsa – but also no, I didn't make a salsa. The nachos were fine. Nothing to write home about.

I woke up anxious yesterday. 

That kind of anxious I feel when Miami is playing a game they should win, but I just know they're going to lose. So, I got up and watched the FOX pregame show while I told myself I'd setup my laptop with Dolphins radio eventually. Well, by midway through the first quarter of the Bears/Browns game, I'm asking my girlfriend if I'm really feeling so superstitious that I can't listen to the game.

As it turns out, over the course of the last 13 years of listening to the games on the radio, I've developed a sense of when I probably shouldn't listen to the game if I want a win. And she asked the good question: should I even be a fan if I think I have to not listen to or watch their games for them to win? Seems kind of like I'm really a Browns fan.

I'll be processing that the rest of the season, I think.

The last several years of Dolphins football have been the sorts of years where, if we were married, one of us has been trying not to say out loud what we've actually been doing – taking some space, seeing other people. We've been separated since the Gase firing. I've been flirting with coming back. They've been working on their shoulders and chest, and Flores has been keeping the booty tight – and really I'm not even sure it's the team that's the problem. But I'm getting so way ahead of myself.

Because Brown/Bears was an excellent game. I predicted it would be the #4 game of the slate, and I'm not sure I'll be wrong. If it were a TV movie, it was good enough for me to sit through the commercials so I'd get every bit of it. Which I mostly did. We missed the opening kickoff of the second half because we were watching the other halftime recap.

The broadcast team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen was only fine. Burkhardt must like Jim Nantz - he sounds just like him (to me) on field goal calls.

Baker looked good. Odell Beckham Junior looked how you'd want him to look. Drew a couple flags early, also got every bit of the Bears' rookie corner's best shot every play. He didn't have a bad day; actually, he stood his own after the first quarter.

OBJ, in my offense, is a distraction. I dial up a few throws a half designed with the sole purpose of drawing a flag. But his hands are so strong, you can see Mayfield wanting to lean on him the way he can Jarvis Landry. The two of them on the field together should be special. I have the feeling it won't be, but it should be, you dig? But it wasn't a wide-out that beat the Bears defense.

You know I like to write these fresh of other commentator's opinions, and the talk post-game yesterday was all about how Justin Fields was running for his life the whole game, but Kareem Hunt had one of the best days of football I've seen in a long time. They say that if you are alone in Indianapolis and you listen real careful, you can still hear Jonas Grey running over that defense.

Seriously, though. Talk about a personal effort that completely changed the game. Chubb played well, even looked good. That #25, too. But Hunt just could not be stopped. There was nothing the defense could do. He had one of those days where he was just the best dude on the field. Where he could not be stopped. He did in week 1, too. So it's not like he isn't having a great start to his season. It felt like, by the fourth quarter, he was averaging about 3 broken tackles and 15 yards a touch. I almost wonder how out of control this game would have gotten if they'd fed him the ball every play.

The Bears defense is good, too. Was good today. Roquan Smith heard his name called a lot. Kevin Stefanski or Baker Mayfield or both ran the offense right at him. He missed some plays, he made some plays. He's young; he's very good; and his offense gave him no help at all.

So let's talk about Justin Fields. Because I think that's what we really want to talk about – and if you didn't watch the game, what you really want to know about.

You can't evaluate Justin Fields from this game. There's nothing in the tape that's going to teach you anything. Sure, you see Matt Bowen talking about how there are open windows there; and he does need Brian Baldinger in his ear with a Bam! at the top of his drop to just sling the ball in the open window; and, yeah, Fields clutched it way to many times and then had to bail from his spot; and way too often there was nothing to be found after the play broke down in the pocket.

But how is Fields having exactly the time it took Myles Garret and Jadeveon Clowney to sprint from their stances to him Fields's fault? The Bears' tackles were no more an impediment to those men than the blocks are to a sprinter. It was embarrassing. The Browns were only bringing a three-many pressure on most of their sacks. Three-man! That's a double-team for each rusher, if you leave in a tight end to help. But they weren't. Unless my eyes were deceiving me, the Bears were in Spread and Empty formations most of the game.

Things started out the way I think Nagy expected them to. The Bears forwent points on their first two drives in favor of going for it on 4^th and 1. They failed both times. The Bears kicked a field goal after the first (a 5-and-out). Then they went 3 and out on their next two drives and 5-and-out on their last before and end-of-half kneel-down.

Outside of the opening-play, 16-yard rocket by David Montgomery, the Bears had no success. And Nagy didn't set them up for any. Calling first down runs that either gained or lost ground the rest of the half.

I want to step aside from this game a moment. I'm thinking about the playcall on the Safety in Miami. Yeah. I saw it.

It's like playcallers think that young or backup quarterbacks aren't still quarterbacks. I don't know how Nagy would have called that game if Dalton were in the lineup. And I'm looking at you, too, Shanahan/Garoppolo. Maybe what's going on is they're getting too cute.

But while the Browns and (presumably) the Raiders and the Packers are running traditional drop-back passing games utilizing the entire depth and breadth of the field, these Miami and Chicago offenses are using the passing game exclusively as an extension of the running game. Like they've forgotten the forward passing element entirely – or like they have exactly zero trust in their quarterback's ability to read the field five yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage – so they don't ask them to.

A successful draw play on second down, or a designed bootleg rollout with a receiver streaking deep across the field would have at least slowed the pass rush down. But Clowney et al didn't have to worry about the run. They didn't have to worry about giving their Safeties enough time to get into position to defend the deep pass. All they had to think about for at least three quarters of football was chasing the quarterback – with no three-second grace period, either.

I say throw this game out, if you're a Bears or a Fields fan and you want to know whether this marriage is going to be a good one. Nagy is married to Dalton. You can see it in the playcalling. He doesn't believe in the kid. It's going to poison him.

While I'm talking about the playcalling, I may as well talk about it. This offense feels three to six years old. It feels like those Alex Smith and mid-period Ben Roethlisberger offenses that would stall for forty five full minutes of a sixty minute contest because they were going three and five and out every drive, throwing WR screens that weren't working. Does anyone else remember that? When we were saying Andy Reid was getting boring? When Big Ben was fighting with and ignoring his OC? When WRs were running routes downfield and away from Pittsburgh to find irrelevance in Miami and elsewhere?

I do.

But back to Fields.

His body language was better this week, I thought. He didn't hang his head so much, didn't show nearly so much petulance. Petulance is a problem for OSU's players. I'll be keeping an eye on that. He seemed to have a couple frustrated conversations with Nagy that made me think of Eli Manning.

We'll see whom they play next week when I'm organizing the rankings. But this team isn't good enough to sit on their defense and let David Montgomery beat people. The offensive line isn't good enough, and frankly the defense isn't good enough. Cleveland hung 23 points on them in the second half, and it could have been so, so much worse. The Browns should have had at least 6 more points in the first half, and really Chicago's lucky that Stefanski called two running plays in a row (and left Khalil Mack unblocked both times) on 4^th and short. Otherwise this game could have been 14 – 0 after two drives.

I think the one thing you, if you're a Bears or a Justin Fields fan, can hang your hat on is that this Browns team is really fucking good. They almost beat the Chiefs, week 1. Should have beaten them except for an offensive meltdown under the pressure of Kansas City in Kansas City on the final two drives of the game. A more-vulnerable-than-ever Chiefs team, yes. Still. I've said it, but the Bears had no answer for Hunt; but he was only a portion of their offense. By the time Austin Hooper caught his touchdown, I'd already written down that it felt like time he and Baker connected. Mayfield missed him early – and Matty Ice is missing him often.

The point is the Browns have so many weapons, so many different dudes who can win one-on-one, on both sides of the ball. And now they're starting to feel one another and they aren't so much waiting for one of them to break out and make a play. Watch out, AFC! I think these Browns are for real.

Maybe I'll write about just why I think that later in the week.

Bucs Rams Became A Snoozer

Who'd'a thunk that, huh? I was all amped up for this game. But after some DoorDash nachos and a couple margaritas, I was ready for a nap. And Tom Brady taking an ass beating was just the lullaby I needed.

I don't even feel bad for it.

This game is going to be all anyone talks about starting Tuesday. This and the Patriots' loss, but I haven't watched even a second of that game. And, really, by the 4^th quarter, I hadn't seen anything that anyone else wasn't seeing – that you won't see and hear and already know by the time you read this. This game played out exactly the way we all thought it would.

If the Rams are the team we think they are, their defense will stifle Brady. They are best at his exact kryptonite: pressure up the middle. I don't know if that's what won the game – really, I wasn't even paying attention to Tampa Bay's drives. Too many times I've watched Brady break my heart. I was enjoying snuggling up to the warm embrace of a cat and a Matthew Stafford driven beat dahn, as Pat McAffee might say. (I don't know, I was trying to emphasize the down without italics. The game wasn't interesting, that doesn't mean I can't try to make my prose less than boring.)

And, yeah. Turns out the Rams are the team we thought they are and maybe the Bucs are the team we thought they probably were.

The Gronk injury is problematic. The hit was clean. The throw was late over the middle and behind him. Cameron Brate came out and had a big catch the next play; but he obviously lacks Gronk's size and presence on the field.

At halftime of the Dolphins/Raiders game, Cameron Wolfe tweeted out that everything had gone wrong for Miami since the Safety. And that's when I closed my eyes and asked myself how they were going to fuck this up... and woke up to the Bucs/Rams postgame coverage telling me the answer: a buzzer-beater field goal in overtime. Are you fucking kidding me?

I gave the Bengals the kibosh – almost for the season – for putting me through a buzzer-beater win. And here I am teetering with the decision to break up with the team of my childhood and my young adulthood to find love in the arms of another. Really, I'm thinking about and feeling like maybe I want to feel like Jamaal Williams.

Just not by the Lions.

...

Oh, come on. I just watched the recap. And now I'm emotionally overreacting.

I knew I would be by this time today, yesterday, when I saw that the Chiefs had lost. My girlfriend frowns at me, and she's like, you are way too happy – you like the Chiefs. Yeah. I do. But if they are starting 1 – 2, then the sky hasn't fallen for Miami yet, either. And they were still 1 – 1. And maybe this Raiders team is actually good this year.

I said last season that Miami was the Raiders' gut-check game. Were they really a Playoff team? The answer, after that game, was no. After today, I think the answer to the question can Derek Carr continue to win games against good defenses is a resounding yes. He went on two consecutive overtime scoring drives against Miami. That's no mean feat. This game could have been a tie, and that would have been a nearly-Herculean effort for the Dolphins.

Good for Las Vegas. You're going to need those games you're currently ahead of Kansas City. Covet them.

I root against the Raiders harder than any team in the AFC. But this year, maybe not so much. Maybe not at all?

The touchdown run by Brissett looked like the guy he was in Indianapolis.

This game gives me the worst kind of sinking feeling that the offensive coordinators experiment is shaping up to be a resounding failure. But things take time.

I really am dreading another rudder/QB-less season.

Get it right, Grier. Please?

Before I go on to Sunday Night, how about that BUF/WFT game? Holy shit, I thought the WFT defense was going to do what Miami's couldn't. And I was as wrong as I was thinking Miami could hang in that game. Buffalo need to keep doing this for anyone to say it, but they might be for real. They've got a game on Kansas City. And if Josh Allen isn't regressing, that means he's getting better.

Oh, I am so envious of Buffalo fans.

Thou shalt not covet another team's quarterback.

Sigh.

Sunday Night Football was exactly what we want from Sunday Night Football. That's what I think, anyway. Unless your team was the 49ers. But, even then, you had the lead with :37 seconds. Your defense has to make a play in that situation.

I think Chris Colinsworth summed that whole game up perfectly when he described the last completions of the game. The linebackers had to get deeper on those plays to stop those throws. They didn't get deep enough.

Sometimes you're a great team and you're playing another great team; and sometimes your team has Jimmy Garoppolo and their team has Aaron Rodgers.

I'm sorry, San Fran fam. If it's any consolation, you got to see how Lance's speed could affect the game. You also got to see how an inexperienced or rattled quarterback can change a game. Jimmy G has either got to settle into the pressure on his shoulders, or they've got to bench him. It's one or the other. His yips in the first half are going to sink this team. And how much longer can we watch Shanahan get sub-par play from his players before we begin wondering about him and his staff as educators and motivators?

We didn't question Billy B during his decade of only a few Super Bowl wins.

That shouldn't be the takeaway from this game. The takeaway should be that this was a contest between two Playoff teams, and I can't wait to see the rematch. Hopefully the 49ers are able to manufacture a running game by then.

Was Green Bay's defense especially good last night? It really felt like it. And it didn't feel like it was just that San Francisco is depleted in the backfield. They drafted Trey Sermon high for a reason. I think the gameplan was to lean on Deebo Samuel and George Kittle through the air, and Kyle Juszczyk (dear god, I feel for that man's wife) on the ground. And it seems pretty clear that Green Bay's defense were keying in on making sure that Samuel and Kittle didn't beat them.

Colinsworth told you exactly how on the call of the goalline pass interference late in the game: they were trying to kill George Kittle.

Samuel had two unreal catches. Otherwise, he wasn't as much a factor as Juszczyk was. (Not gonna lie, I copy-pasted that.)  But you lean on Hall of Famers, and frankly we're watching one every time he suits up. They aren't in this game if he doesn't take it on his shoulders. But same could be said of Kittle's two catches late in the fourth.

The Niners are fine. At 2-1 there shouldn't even be real concerns about whether Garoppolo is the better option at quarterback right now. We saw what Lance's floor could be with Justin Fields, today. And it's not winning football against a Super Bowl contender. At least Jimmy G has played against Super Bowl contending defenses.

I do wonder how many more ugly games the offense can have before a change is necessary, though.

And I think that's where I want to end it, today. I know I didn't talk much about the Packers. But I talked a lot about the Packers leading up to the game, and through the week, and I'm looking forward to talking more about the Packers as Aaron Rodgers continues to be an interesting human being. The 49ers were what I was watching. And they're the team I have the most concerns about moving forward.

The 49ers have a bizarro-Tua situation.

See, where Flores was afforded the ability to put Tua in the fire last year, but pull him for steadfast Fitzmagick to save the day, Shanahan doesn't have that. If Trey Lance is down 4 points and the 49ers need a touchdown, are they going to put Garoppolo in there to sling it downfield?

Hell no.

Everybody in the football world holds their breath when Garoppolo fires it more than ten yards downfield.

Actually, come to think of it, that is a problem.

The 49ers have a quarterback problem on their hands. The inverse of Miami's. And I envy them for it. Nagy envies Shanahan his job security.

And, oh, man, but it almost looked like the Jaguars were going to stun the Cardinals. And then it really didn't anymore.

Alright, well, there's our Monday Morning After. You know how it goes. Gonna spend the rest of the day soaking in yesterday's games and tonight's, then I'll have Tuesday's Afternoon Hair of the Dog. And the days just keep on coming. Thanks for stopping by. Hope your Sunday was as enjoyable as mine.