Football

It’s one of the first rules you learn when you get taken into the backyard and taught how to play football:You can only throw one forward pass each play.On Monday night, Tom Brady tried to get away with breaking that rule. And in a way, it worked.Early in the fourth quarter of Tampa Bay’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, Brady’s Buccaneers had a third-and-10 at their 34-yard line. Brady threw over the middle, but the ball was blocked at the line of scrimmage by linebacker Terrell Lewis.A lot of good things have happened to Tom Brady in his life, and here came another. The deflected ball, which could have gone in almost any direction, caromed directly back to him. Brady reacted with lightning speed, snatched the carom out of the air and … passed the ball again?Yes, perhaps because of a brain freeze, or maybe because he thought no one would notice, Brady tried his second pass of the play. That’s a violation of the rules of the N.F.L., the X.F.L., the Canadian Football League and just about every type of organized football down to your cousin’s youth league.Brady’s second pass was completed to Mike Evans, but the officials were less than impressed. Flags flew, and Brady was called for a penalty.But wait. Evans was brought down two yards short of a first down. So with the Buccaneers now facing fourth and 2, the Rams declined the penalty. The play, and the double completed pass, stood.N.F.L. drive charts rarely make for interesting reading, but this one will forever. Tucked near the start of the fourth quarter, it dryly notes exactly what happened:“T.Brady pass short middle to T.Brady to TB 25 for -9 yards. T.Brady pass short middle to M.Evans to TB 42 for 8 yards.”It goes on to note that “Statistically, no completion for first pass as a result of the declined penalty.” So Brady, at least, will be spared the negative yards on the catch, which would have only reduced his own passing total.It was not the first time since joining Tampa Bay this year that Brady, 43, seemed to struggle with a bedrock football rule. In October, he appeared to lose track of the one about being allowed four downs each series. After failing to convert a fourth down against the Bears, he remained on the field and held up four fingers as if he thought he had another play.The Buccaneers lost that game, and they lost Monday night as well, 27-24. But at 7-4, they are still in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth.If Tampa Bay makes the postseason, Brady will need to remember that the rules of football apply there, too. More

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Keenan Allen set a single-game Chargers franchise record with 16 receptions, Justin Herbert threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns and Los Angeles held on for a 34-28 victory over the Jets on Sunday to snap its three-game losing streak.Allen also tie Antonio Brown as the fastest to reach 600 receptions. Both reached the mark in their 96th games. It is also Allen’s sixth game with 13 or more receptions, the most by a player in N.F.L. history.Allen had 145 yards receiving, including 13-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter to extend the Chargers’ (3-7) lead to 31-13. The Jets would rally to get within 34-28 in the fourth quarter on Frank Gore’s 1-yard run and Joe Flacco’s 6-yard pass to Chris Herndon.The Jets (0-10) — off to the worst start in franchise history — drove to the Los Angeles 32 with less than a minute remaining before turning the ball over on downs.Herbert, who completed 37 of 49 passes, again had a day in which he established a bunch of rookie superlatives. He extended his streak of games with multiple touchdown passes to seven and had his fifth 300-yard passing game, becoming the fifth rookie in league history to reach that mark.Herbert’s 39-yard connection with Mike Williams early in the second quarter made him only the fifth quarterback in league history to reach 20 touchdown passes in nine or fewer games.Flacco, starting his fourth game in place of the injured Sam Darnold, was 15 of 30 for 205 yards with two touchdowns. He struggled in the first half, which included a pick-6 in the first quarter to Tevaughn Campbell that gave the Chargers a 7-6 lead.The Chargers’ Ty Long had a punt blocked for the third time in four weeks as special teams mistakes affected the Chargers early and led to the Jets’ first touchdown.Jets defensive lineman Henry Anderson blew by Joshua Kelley, giving Long no chance to get the kick off. Quentin Williams recovered the ball on the Chargers’ 29-yard line, and La’Mical Perine — who later left the game with an ankle injury — went 5 yards up the middle to make it 6-0.The Jets also had special teams problems. Sam Ficken missed two extra points in his return from a groin injury that sidelined him for three games. More

On Oct. 18, things were looking up for the Chicago Bears. They stood at 5-1, and a switch at quarterback from Mitch Trubisky to Nick Foles in Week 3 seemed to have paid off.But since then, it has all turned wrong. The team has lost four straight games, and in Monday night’s 19-13 loss to the divisional rival Minnesota Vikings, Foles hurt his hip with less than a minute to go in the game. “He was in a lot of pain,” Coach Matt Nagy said.Trubisky was inactive for the game after injuring his shoulder on a one-play cameo in a loss to the New Orleans Saints on Nov. 1, leaving the game in the hands of third-stringer Tyler Bray, who made no impact whatsoever.It is not yet clear whether either quarterback would be available for the Bears’ next game in two weeks, a vital Sunday night game against the division leading Green Bay Packers. Foles did not fracture his hip, the N.F.L. Network reported Tuesday, but more evaluations were coming.The Bears could find themselves scrambling for a free agent replacement, trading for someone’s backup, or turning to Bray, who went undrafted out of Tennessee in 2013 and has completed one pass since he entered the N.F.L. That pass came Monday night.The thing is, despite everything, the Bears are 5-5, and are still in the playoff chase: The New York Times’s Playoff Simulator gives them about a one-in-three chance of getting in.So, quarterback situation aside, which is the accurate assessment of this team? Are the Bears the seemingly sharp team of the first few weeks, or the reeling one they have sunk to more recently?The first concern for those fans with fond memories of the early season success is that the team’s fast start does not stand up to scrutiny.The Bears beat the Lions in Week 1 after Detroit dropped a game-winning pass in the end zone. They beat the Giants in Week 2 after Golden Tate was called for a pushing-off penalty late in the game. In Week 3, the Atlanta Falcons self-destructed and blew a 16-point lead with nine minutes left. The Bears beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a point after Tom Brady seemed to lose track of downs. And they needed a late defensive stop to beat the Carolina Panthers by a touchdown.The five teams Chicago beat were hardly murderer’s row, and though the Buccaneers (7-3) are quite strong, the other four are all losing teams who could charitably be described as mediocre.As for Foles, despite receiving hosannas after his comeback win over the Falcons, his numbers have been quite poor. He has eight interceptions against 10 touchdowns, and a 5.44 adjusted yards per pass figure, ahead only of three badly struggling throwers: the Eagles’ Carson Wentz, Broncos’ Drew Lock and Jets’ Sam Darnold.The Bears’ quarterback decisions have been somewhat eccentric this season. The team traded for Foles in the off-season, assuming quite a bit of guaranteed money in the deal, then decided to open the regular season with Trubisky under center. After picking up two wins, Trubisky was benched for Foles mid-game against Atlanta, and Foles has kept the job, despite the losing streak, and even though Trubisky’s own adjusted yards per pass figure, 6.34, though far from good, is better than his.Chicago lacks star power at the skill positions, a fact that, taken alongside its quarterback struggles, has resulted is an offense that ranks 31st in yards per play (ahead of only the winless Jets) and 30th in net yards per pass (in front of the Eagles and Jets).The anemic offense is wasting a good defense, which holds up against both the run and the pass. Football Outsiders ranks it fourth in the league in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, or D.V.O.A. The disparity is puzzling, because when Nagy was hired in January 2018 he took over the team with a reputation burnished as the well-regarded quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs.The Bears do have the advantage of a few easy games the rest of the way. They face the Packers twice, in games that could certainly end up as losses, but Chicago could very well beat the woeful Lions, Texans and Jaguars.That makes their key game Week 15 at the Vikings. Win that one, along with the cream puff games, and Chicago will probably make the playoffs. Lose it and they almost certainly won’t.But if they are to pull off a tough win in Minnesota, or even beat the like of the Jaguars, the Bears are going to have to figure out some things quickly. Starting with who will take their snaps in the weeks ahead. More

Before the N.F.L. season began, one of the big questions the league faced was whether a close-contact sport like football, with 22 players on the field and dozens more on the sidelines along with coaches and trainers, could avoid a coronavirus outbreak stemming from a game.That has largely been answered: yes.Yet as the season passes the halfway mark, and more than 200 people on or affiliated with teams have been infected, the N.F.L. has been grappling with controlling the virus not just on the field but off it, sometimes far from it. And players are far from the only problem.Between Aug. 1 and Nov. 7, 218 out the nearly 8,000 players, coaches and personnel have been infected, with players making up about one-third of the positive cases. Only one player is known to have been hospitalized, and most players have had mild symptoms and returned after their mandatory isolation.League officials have said there is no evidence of players transmitting the virus on the field despite the close contact between teams, and there has been little transmission inside team facilities, where social distancing guidelines are in place.Instead, the 78 players and the 140 staff members who support the teams, including coaches, trainers and employees, have picked it up outside the facilities, either when they congregated in restaurants or shared car rides, or came in contact with people outside the N.F.L., like nannies.In response, the N.F.L., which has had to postpone but so far not cancel games, has expanded testing, and adopted and strengthened rules for isolating infected people or those in close contact with them. Coaches and players have been fined tens of thousands of dollars for failing to wear protective equipment properly on the field and outside team facilities.But as the number of infections in the country skyrockets yet again, so too have the number of infections in the N.F.L. This will test the league’s efforts to keep the coronavirus at arm’s length in the second half of the season as teams exhaust their bye weeks, which were used earlier this season to reschedule games.“Tip of the hat for their success so far, but it’s something that requires consistent vigilance,” said Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “These mitigation strategies are tenuous. They are guesstimates in terms of what will work. If I were the N.F.L., I wouldn’t be too comfortable, because all it takes is one super spreader event to shut down a facility or two.”League executives say their measures are working because thus far few infections have been transmitted inside a team complex. The biggest scare came in Tennessee, where two dozen Titans players, coaches and staff were infected in October, though the league has not disclosed specifically what it learned about the origin of the outbreak.But in recent weeks, the number of positive cases on teams from Green Bay to Miami to Pittsburgh has jumped, forcing players, including star quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger and Matthew Stafford, to stay away from team facilities because they were in close contact with teammates or team personnel who tested positive. Five coaches on the Dolphins skipped the team’s trip to Arizona last weekend. Four offensive linemen on the Las Vegas Raiders had to quarantine for five days after coming in contact with right tackle Trent Brown, who tested positive for the virus.“All of us are aware there has been an uptick in cases that we’ve seen in the N.F.L. last week,” said Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer. “That’s very reflective of what’s going on in the country as a whole. It’s not a surprise, and it’s something we’ve been preparing for.”After practice every day, coaches, team personnel and players leave their team facilities and mix in their communities, including places where infections are surging. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, for instance, the average number of cases has grown fivefold since Sept. 6, the first Sunday of the season. The increase in infections has risen even faster in Colorado and Illinois, home to two other N.F.L. teams.Some players continue to put themselves, and their teammates, at risk. Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley of the Giants were recently photographed indoors with other teammates at a restaurant. Ten players on the Raiders were fined for attending a large gathering without masks, and the team was fined $500,000 and docked a sixth-round draft pick because of repeated violations of the league’s virus protocols. The Titans were fined $350,000 for their lax handling of the outbreak.“Everyone is right to be worried, because the number of cases is going up nationwide and unfortunately they will continue to go up,” said Dr. Patrick Godbey, the president of the College of American Pathologists. “I don’t think anyone has a good way of knowing what people are doing when they leave the team facility.”There have been a few cases of fans who attended N.F.L. games testing positive, though where they got the virus has not been established. But many teams have stopped increasing the size of their already limited seating capacity at stadiums, mindful of the risk to the broader community. The Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots have given up any hope of hosting fans this season. Fans are also watching less football at home. Viewership for N.F.L. games has slipped.Commissioner Roger Goodell continues to say that the league expects to complete a full slate of games and play the Super Bowl, as scheduled, on Feb. 7 in Tampa, Fla. But the league is considering allowing only about 20 percent of the seats to be filled, with fans socially distanced in small groups if they know each other. League sponsors, including Bridgestone, which typically invite hundreds of clients and employees to the Super Bowl city, have scaled back their entertainment plans.The league is also making contingencies for an incomplete regular season. On Tuesday, the 32 owners approved a plan that would add one more playoff team in each conference if some teams are unable to complete their 16-game schedule and end up playing an uneven number of games.The surge in coronavirus cases, coupled with the lack of flexibility in the league’s schedule, makes that more than a possibility. When an outbreak shut the Titans facility for about two weeks, the league postponed two Titans games by reordering bye weeks and shuffling the schedules of other teams.After this weekend, though, only six teams will still have a bye week. If outbreaks occur on the other 26 teams, the league will have to shuffle its schedule to fit their games in or delay the start of the playoffs by one week and add an 18th week to the regular season for makeup games to be played.It would be yet another wrinkle in an already rumpled 2020 season, another acknowledgment that despite the league’s success at containing outbreaks thus far, risky days and weeks lie ahead.“We’re seeing the benefits of the concepts we’ve implemented,” Dr. Sills said. But “it is hard because we’re all tired of this, everyone’s tired of the pandemic, we’re tired of the procedures we have to go through on a daily basis.”He added: “It continues to feel very unusual and abnormal because it’s not normal for us.” More