Football

Subterms

    More stories

    • 88 Shares159 Views

      in Football

      Washington Beats Giants on Last-Second Field Goal

      by

      Washington won a thriller on a last-second field goal, sending Daniel Jones and the Giants to another 0-2 start.The Giants moved the ball sharply, at times impressively. Then they settled for a field goal.Repeat.On a solid night for Daniel Jones — 22 for 32 for 249 yards passing, and 95 yards rushing — the Giants couldn’t convert when it really mattered on Thursday night in Washington. Five times, their offense headed back to the sidelines and turned the game over to kicker Graham Gano. Five times, he made the field-goal attempt presented to him. But the points left on the board were costly in the Giants’ 30-29 loss to the Washington Football Team.Giants quarterback Daniel Jones rushed for one touchdown and passed for another.Rob Carr/Getty ImagesThe cruelest twist? Washington won the game on a 43-yard field goal of its own, a penalty-aided second attempt by Dustin Hopkins with no time left.Both the Giants and the Football Team were eager for a win after losing in Week 1. Last season it only took a 7-9 record for Washington to win the woeful N.F.C. East. That gave even the 6-10 Giants plenty of hope going into this season. A 0-2 start — for the fifth straight year — is not what they had in mind.Jones’s good passing performance was matched by Washington’s Taylor Heinicke, who took the reins after the Football Team Player Ryan Fitzpatrick was injured in Week 1. It was just Heinicke’s second career start at age 28, but he was 34 for 46 for 336 yards and crucially led his team to three touchdowns to the Giants’ two.The game seesawed back and forth. The Team took a 27-26 lead with 4 minutes 33 seconds left on an acrobatic, spinning touchdown catch by Ricky Seals-Jones.After Washington got the ball back, Heinicke made an ill-advised pass at his 22 that was intercepted by James Bradberry with 2:22 left. The Giants suddenly had a chance to steal the game.Once again, though, they settled for a Gano field goal and a 29-27 lead.Needing only a field goal to steal the win back, Washington executed a classic 11-play, 50-yard two-minute drill. Hopkins missed a 48-yarder at the end of it, but an offside penalty against Dexter Lawrence gave him a second shot from five yards closer, at the 43. With no time on the clock, he converted it and the Team (1-1) was the winner.The Giants also got bad news in the game after offensive lineman Nick Gates, a co-captain, went down with a gruesome leg injury in the first quarter. He was carted off the field, and the team later said he had fractured the leg, very likely ending his season.Much ado was made about receiver Kenny Golladay giving Jones an earful on the sidelines late in the game. Golladay did not meet the press, but Jones said: “I think he was frustrated at the situation. I don’t think it was to me or anyone in particular.”It was the kind of frustration felt by many Giants fans, still awaiting their team’s first playoff victory since a Super Bowl win in 2012. More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in Football

      NFL Week 2 Predictions: Our Picks Against the Spread

      by

      Daniel Jones and the Giants head to Washington; Josh Allen and the Bills try to bounce back in Miami; and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs aim to maintain a winning streak against Baltimore.Last-second field goals. Teams flooding the field for congratulatory hugs before the game officially ended. Nine underdogs upsetting their opponents.The first week of the N.F.L. season gave fans enough drama to make up for the seven months of off-season inactivity.It will be hard to re-create that theater, but Week 2 includes a clash between playoff-caliber teams on Sunday night, divisional rivals on Thursday night and other matchups that will carry postseason implications as the year progresses.Below are our picks against the spread.Last week’s record: 8-8All times are Eastern.Here’s what you need to know:Thursday’s GameSunday’s Best GamesSunday’s Other GamesMonday Night’s MatchupThursday’s GameGiants at Washington Footballers, 8:20 p.m., FoxLine: Washington -4 | Total: 41Someone has to win, right? Then again, this is the N.F.C. East, so anything can happen. Running back Saquon Barkley is listed as questionable as the Giants (0-1) continue to monitor his workload in light of the knee injury that kept him out most of last season. But Barkley’s return in Week 1 didn’t help the team protect the ball any more than it did in 2020, and quarterback Daniel Jones lost a key fumble in the team’s loss to the Broncos.Washington (0-1) will start Taylor Heinicke at quarterback with Ryan Fitzpatrick out, continuing the revolving door of passers the team has employed since 2018. (They trotted out three different starters in each of the past three seasons). Still, Washington can win if its defense rattles Jones. Its talented pair of edge rushers, Chase Young and Montez Sweat, should make that possible. Pick: Footballers -4Sunday’s Best GamesLamar Jackson and the Ravens will look for a different outcome against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, who have beaten Baltimore in their last three meetings.Gail Burton/Associated PressKansas City at Baltimore Ravens, 8:20 p.m., NBCLine: Kansas City -2.5 | Total: 55When the Ravens (0-1) are done looking at tape from their Week 1 overtime loss to the Raiders, they should send the footage to Maxx Crosby’s agent. The Raiders defensive end sacked Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson twice and hit him five other times while repeatedly beating offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva off the line of scrimmage.This week the same porous Baltimore offensive line that let Crosby have his way will collide with Kansas City’s elite pass rusher, Chris Jones, who sacked Baker Mayfield twice in Week 1 after shifting to defensive end from his natural spot on the interior line. The Ravens’ cast of replacement running backs was at least serviceable last weekend, but if that line cannot protect Jackson against Jones and his teammates, then good luck trying to keep scoring pace with Patrick Mahomes and company, who have beaten Baltimore in their last three meetings. Pick: Kansas City -2.5Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m., FoxLine: Bills -3.5 | Total: 47.5After watching Josh Allen absorb three sacks and eight other hits from the Steelers defense last week, Coach Sean McDermott will certainly adjust the protection to keep his franchise quarterback upright. Lurking in the Dolphins secondary will be cornerback Xavien Howard, who led the N.F.L. in interceptions (10) last season. It was Howard’s forced fumble and recovery in the fourth quarter against the Patriots that broke the game open for the Dolphins’ Week 1 win. Allen and the Bills (0-1) should be able to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive, but with these A.F.C. East rivals sniffing each other out, it will be close. Pick: Bills -3.5Tennessee Titans at Seattle Seahawks, 4:25 p.m., CBSLine: Seahawks -5.5 | Total: 54The Titans’ experiment of adding receiver Julio Jones to Derrick Henry’s offense failed miserably in Week 1, when the two combined for 106 total yards. After giving up five sacks to Cardinals linebacker Chandler Jones, Tennessee offensive lineman Taylor Lewan conceded on Twitter that Jones had exposed him.Those problems, as bad as they were, may be correctable. More concerning was the fact that Tennessee’s defense allowed Kyler Murray to throw for 289 yards and score five touchdowns (four passing, one rushing). It’s fair to assume that same defense will struggle against Seattle’s Russell Wilson, who threw four touchdown passes against a tough Colts defense last week. Pick: Seahawks -5.5Rams Coach Sean McVay will keep tinkering with schemes for Matthew Stafford against the Colts.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersLos Angeles Rams at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m., FoxLine: Rams -4 | Total: 47.5Russell Wilson made one of the league’s better defenses look like an impostor in Week 1, and now Indianapolis must prepare for the offensive calculus of Rams Coach Sean McVay, who now has a quarterback who can execute his schemes. As Matthew Stafford dissected the Bears’ secondary for 321 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-14 victory last week, he looked more comfortable than ever throwing downfield strikes.The Colts (0-1) signed the veteran safety Andrew Sendejo this week to help patch the secondary, but having to defend against two aggressive quarterbacks in back-to-back weeks seems too tough a task for Indianapolis. Pick: Rams -4Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:25 p.m., CBSLine: Chargers -2.5 | Total: 55What warm-up? Putting up 403 passing yards and three touchdowns in the Cowboys’ Week 1 loss, Dak Prescott showed that he wasn’t going to ease his way back from last season’s gruesome ankle injury while nursing a shoulder muscle he strained in training camp. In that game, Ezekiel Elliott served mostly as a blocker against Tampa Bay’s defense. He might reprise that role against the run defense of Chargers (1-0).The Dallas offensive line will get a boost now that guard Zack Martin, who missed the season opener on the Covid-19 list, is available. But it lost tackle La’el Collins to a five-game suspension for a violation of the N.F.L.’s substance-abuse policy. Couple Dallas’s offensive line reshuffling with the still-developing defense going against Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen, and it looks as though the Cowboys (0-1) may have to wait another week for their first win. Pick: Chargers -2.5New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m., FoxLine: Saints -3 | Total: 46Jameis Winston began his tenure as New Orleans’ full-time starting quarterback with a win in part because of a smothering effort from the Saints’ defense against a Packers team that seemed to forget that the preseason had ended.Continuity could be an issue for Winston this week as eight members of the Saints — mostly offensive coaches — tested positive for the coronavirus. The team is still practicing in North Texas while the city recovers from Hurricane Ida, and it could lose its top cornerback, Marshon Lattimore, who had surgery on his right thumb Tuesday. That’s a lot of responsibility to put on Winston, but the team’s experience and resolve could be enough to help it cover the spread against the Panthers (0-1). Pick: Saints -3Raiders tight end Darren Waller will get the bulk of the attention from the Steelers defense in Sunday’s game.Chris Unger/Getty ImagesLas Vegas Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m., CBSLine: Steelers -6.5 | Total: 48.5This will be a chess match between Raiders tight end Darren Waller, who had 105 receiving yards in Monday’s win, and the Steelers defense, which figures to rely heavily on the versatility of safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. If the Steelers can disrupt Waller’s routes at all, they will force Derek Carr — who targeted Waller 19 times Monday — to hold the ball longer while looking for the Raiders’ other receiving threats, Henry Ruggs III and Hunter Renfrow.The Raiders’ rookie right tackle, Alex Leatherwood, struggled with pass protection in the opener and now must face T.J. Watt, a Defensive Player of the Year Award candidate. If the Raiders continue the pass-first approach while running back Josh Jacobs nurses a toe injury, Pittsburgh will end up 2-0 to start the season. Pick: Steelers -6.5Sunday’s Other GamesAtlanta Falcons at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m., FoxLine: Buccaneers -13.5 | Total: 52Don’t expect Tom Brady to need a comeback from a 28-3 deficit this time. Four seasons have passed since his Super Bowl LI win, but if the Falcons (0-1) couldn’t stop the Eagles’ second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts from throwing for three touchdown passes last week, then they will surely struggle with the Bucs (1-0) and Brady, whose cast of receivers is arguably the best of his 22-year career. Oddsmakers expect this to be the largest mismatch of the weekend, and rightly so. Pick: Buccaneers -13.5Houston Texans at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m., CBSLine: Browns -12.5 | Total: 48The Browns (0-1) spent all off-season preparing for last week’s rematch against the Chiefs — and a run at an A.F.C. championship — only to fail to keep pace because of self-inflicted mistakes. Whatever frustrations Cleveland has from letting that game slip through its fingers should find an outlet in the Texans (1-0). Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will again be out as he recovers from off-season knee surgery. But the Browns don’t need him to beat a Houston team with a roster considered one of the least talented in the league. Pick: Browns -12.5Cincinnati Bengals at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m., FoxLine: Bears -3 | Total: 45In Week 1, the Bengals rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who had a shaky preseason, reminded everyone that he can indeed fulfill his job description and catch a football. He collected five passes for 101 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings. The Bears’ secondary is arguably their weakest unit, and it allowed Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to throw for 321 yards last week. If the Bears defense allows a similar performance, neither Andy Dalton nor Justin Fields at quarterback would be enough to compensate. Pick: Bengals +3New England Patriots at Jets, 1 p.m., CBSLine: Patriots -5.5 | Total: 43Patriots running back Damien Harris’s fourth-quarter fumble in the red zone ended a final drive by the rookie quarterback Mac Jones, and New England (0-1) fell to Miami, 17-16, last week. The score should not be so close against the Jets (0-1), who allowed six sacks of their rookie quarterback, Zach Wilson, last week. Blocking for Wilson becomes harder this week without left tackle Mekhi Becton, who is recovering from a dislocated kneecap. One first-year passer will start his career 0-2, and even if the Jets adjust their protection, it will probably be Wilson. Pick: Patriots -5.5San Francisco 49ers at Philadelphia Eagles, 1 p.m., FoxLine: 49ers -3.5 | Total: 50Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts diced up the Falcons’ meager defense, throwing for three touchdowns and 265 yards, while escaping with only one sack. News flash: The 49ers (1-0) are not the Falcons. In a Week 1 win over Detroit, the San Francisco defense again looked like the throttling unit of 2019, sacking Jared Goff three times and pressuring him into an interception that was returned for a touchdown. San Francisco’s starting running back, Raheem Mostert, had season-ending knee surgery, but his replacement, Elijah Mitchell, played well and should continue to do so. Hurts’s first true test of 2021 will be too tough to pass. Pick: 49ers -3.5Denver Broncos at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m., CBSLine: Broncos -6 | Total: 45Urban Meyer started his tenure as an N.F.L. coach poorly, with a Jaguars loss against the ransacked Texans roster. His second outing will only be tougher, as he tries to advise the rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence on facing a strong Broncos defense led by linebacker Von Miller, who posted two sacks in his return from the ankle injury that sidelined him in 2020. Denver (1-0) will be without receiver Jerry Jeudy, who is expected to miss at least four weeks because of an ankle sprain. But the Broncos’ defense should be able to contribute some scoring of its own against a young passer. Pick: Broncos -6Kyler Murray threw four touchdown passes, ran for a score and embarrassed several Titans defenders in Week 1.Christopher Hanewinckel/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMinnesota Vikings at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m., FoxLine: Cardinals -4 | Total: 51Kyler Murray’s video-game-like numbers last Sunday (he threw for 289 yards and delivered five total touchdowns, scoring one himself on a 2-yard rush) came against a developing Titans defense, and it’s doubtful that the Vikings (0-1) will allow a similar performance. Even a curtailed Cardinals offense should be enough to outgun the Vikings’ unbalanced attack. In Week 1, running back Dalvin Cook rushed for only 61 yards while Kirk Cousins threw 49 times and took three sacks. Against the Cardinals (1-0), who sacked Ryan Tannehill six times last week, the Vikings won’t be able to match Murray’s fireworks. Pick: Cardinals -4Monday Night’s MatchupDetroit Lions at Green Bay Packers, 8:15 p.m., ESPNLine: Packers -10.5 | Total: 48R-E-L-A-X.Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers famously spelled out that directive to fans in 2014 after the team started 1-2. Of course, Rodgers and company rebounded from that start to wind up … losing in the N.F.C. Championship Game. Same as they did to end the 2020 season. And the 2019 season. He essentially repeated the mantra after Sunday’s 38-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints when he told reporters, “It’s just one game.”It won’t be time for hyperventilating unless something goes awry for Green Bay (0-1) this week against the Lions (0-1). It won’t. Rodgers is still one of the league’s best quarterbacks, in one of the league’s best offenses, and he’ll relish the chance to remind everyone of that. Pick: Packers -10.5 More

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Football

      The N.F.L.’s New Play: Embrace Betting Ads, Watch the Money Pour In

      by

      The placement of gambling ads during football game broadcasts shows how much the N.F.L. has changed in its approach toward gambling.Betting has long been a part of the National Football League’s DNA. Two of its founding fathers, Art Rooney and Tim Mara, were gamblers.Rooney bankrolled the early years of the Pittsburgh Steelers with a small fortune he won at Saratoga Race Course. Mara, his close friend, was a bookmaker who bought the New York Giants for $500.For decades, however, N.F.L. officials went to great lengths to distance the league from the tens of billions of dollars wagered on its games — legally in Las Vegas but also with offshore sports betting shops, in office and bar pools and among illegal bookies. The N.F.L. backed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act of 2006 and fought New Jersey’s efforts to allow its casinos and horse tracks to take bets on football games.“We’re trying to do whatever we can to make sure our games are not betting vehicles,” Joe Browne, an N.F.L. spokesman, told The New York Times in 2008.“We have been accused of allowing gambling because it is good for the popularity of the game,” he added. “If that’s true, then we have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars opposing gambling on our games.”What the N.F.L. once sold as a principled stand, however, has more recently given way to a far more pragmatic one. As betting on football ballooned into a multibillion-dollar industry, and as state after state acted to legalize it, the N.F.L. was left with a stark choice: to continue to fight gambling on its games, or to embrace it in exchange for a significant cut of casino marketing dollars.The proliferation of legalized gambling, like that at a FanDuel sports book in Phoenix, has led the N.F.L. to loosen its restrictions.Matt York/Associated PressAnd that money the league once spent on lobbying against gambling? This season, the N.F.L. is getting it all back. And then some.On its opening weekend, celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Martin Lawrence and Jamie Foxx headlined commercials that aired during N.F.L. game broadcasts, pitching betting as just a click away with a WynnBET, DraftKings, FanDuel or BetMGM account. The NFL Network included betting lines on its ticker for the first time.Belated or not, the N.F.L.’s embrace of gambling is, well, lucrative. League and industry experts expect the revenue from gambling companies for the N.F.L. and its teams to be several hundred million dollars this season.“Over the next 10 years, this is going to be a more than $1 billion opportunity for the league and our clubs,” said Christopher Halpin, chief strategy and growth officer for the N.F.L.Little more than three years after the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that prohibited sports gambling in most states, sports betting companies are meeting an eager audience. GeoComply Solutions, a company that uses geolocation to help confirm that bettors gambling online are doing so from places where betting is legal, said it processed 58.2 million transactions in the United States during the N.F.L.’s opening weekend, more than double what it handled during the same weekend last season.“We expected high volumes, but what we have seen has surprised us nonetheless,” said Lindsay Slader, a managing director with GeoComply, which is based in Canada. “The level of demand across new markets, such as Arizona, indicates that consumers have long waited for the option to legally place a sports bet.”The company said the bets came from 18 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Soon, more states are likely to join.New York has approved online betting and is in the process of determining which operators will be allowed to take wagers. And sports betting measures are under consideration in heavily populated states such as California, Texas and Florida, where sports book operators are spending heavily to get a foothold.“You have to look at the size of the prize,” said Craig Billings, chief executive of Wynn Interactive. “I think this is going to be the same size of market as the commercial casino industry in the U.S., $40 billion annually or more.”That is why he hired Affleck to direct and star, alongside Shaquille O’Neal, in a commercial, and his company has plans to spend more than $100 million on advertising throughout the N.F.L. season.“Being part of the in-game broadcast is important — it’s our most popular sport with a core audience of early adopters that have been betting offshore,” Billings said. “It’s a rifle shot you have to take.”WynnBET is hardly alone.Through Sept. 9 this year, DraftKings’ spending on national television advertising is up 98 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, while FanDuel’s spending has more than doubled, according to estimates from the research firm iSpot.TV.Overall, gambling companies spent $7.4 million on advertisements during the first week of prime time games, 9 percent more than they did during last year’s opening games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights, according to estimates from EDO, a TV ad measurement platform.“The dollars are starting to add up,” said John Bogusz, the executive vice president of sports sales and marketing for CBS Sports.The network saw a surge in advertising interest for N.F.L. broadcasts this year. Bogusz attributed “a good portion” of the growth to sports betting ads.“Overall, the volume is up among all advertisers, but that added to it as well,” he said. “I think it will continue to grow.”Dan Lovinger, the executive vice president of advertising sales for NBC Sports Group, said on a conference call that the surge from sports betting operators was “reminiscent to when the fantasy category opened up.”In 2015, FanDuel and DraftKings spent millions blitzing the airwaves with commercials to gain a larger audience for daily fantasy games, where fans pay an entry fee to assemble rosters of real football players to play against the rosters of other fantasy players.The blitz worked. Sort of.The campaigns attracted customers but also the attention of regulators and prompted complaints from viewers who grew weary of the repetitive advertisements. Both companies spent fortunes on lawyers and lobbyists and endured intact to pivot to sports betting.The average amount of actual game action over the course of a three-hour broadcast of an N.F.L. game is about 11 minutes. Halpin said the league’s internal research showed that among its fans age 21 and older, roughly 20 percent were frequent sports bettors who were mostly young and male, and that another 20 percent — mostly women over 55 — were “active rejecters.”To navigate this stark divide, as well as persuade those in the middle, the N.F.L. decided to limit sports betting ads to one per quarter along with a pregame and halftime spot — six in all per broadcast.It also largely eschewed talk of odds and spreads directly during the biggest N.F.L. game broadcasts.“We have to avoid oversaturation of the game with sports betting talk or risk alienating fans,” Halpin said. “My mother loves her N.F.L., but she doesn’t want gambling talk.” More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Football

      NFL Bull Market Benefits T.J. Watt and Other Pass Rushers

      by

      N.F.L. teams are in an ever-escalating arms race to generate maximum pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The Steelers pass rusher T.J. Watt and other QB maulers benefit from the demand.If an N.F.L. team does not possess a quarterback of Tom Brady’s or Patrick Mahomes’s caliber, one of the best ways to remain competitive is to load up on pass rushers so its defense can sack opponents into submission. On the other hand, if a team is fortunate enough to employ an elite quarterback, its best chance to win the Super Bowl is to juice up its pass rush to neutralize his counterpart.Viewed from that perspective, the N.F.L. is not so much a quarterback-driven league as a quarterback disruption league, with teams caught in an ever-escalating arms race to generate as much pass pressure as possible.Last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers illustrated how valuable sack specialists have become by signing T.J. Watt to a four-year contract extension with a reported $80 million guaranteed. Only four players, all quarterbacks, currently earn more guaranteed money than Watt; his Steelers teammate Ben Roethlisberger, a future Hall of Famer, is not one of them.Watt rewarded the Steelers by sacking Josh Allen twice and forcing a fumble in Sunday’s 23-16 upset of the Buffalo Bills, a top Super Bowl contender. With Watt, Cameron Heyward and the newcomer Melvin Ingram spearheading Pittsburgh’s pass rush, the team was able to pressure Allen without blitzing, which prevented him from doing much scrambling or challenging the Steelers’ secondary with deep throws very often.Watt is the younger brother of J.J. Watt, the three-time defensive player of the year who signed with the Arizona Cardinals in March. The elder Watt had a quiet debut on Sunday, but his teammate, the two-time All-Pro Chandler Jones, sacked Ryan Tannehill five times and forced him to fumble twice, sparking a 38-13 upset of the Tennessee Titans. The Cardinals haven’t had a winning season since 2015, but the Watt-Jones tandem makes them credible playoff contenders.Pass rushers are best collected in bundles: A Jones or a Watt can be double-teamed if he is the defense’s only threat. But there are only so many double teams to go around. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers demonstrated this principle in Super Bowl LV when Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Ndamukong Suh, Vita Vea and Devin White overwhelmed the injury-ravaged Kansas City Chiefs offensive line, forcing three sacks, two interceptions and a long evening of desperate Mahomes scrambles in a 31-9 Buccaneers rout.The N.F.L. is often called a “copycat league,” but it is more of a “cut and paste the term paper from Wikipedia” league: Coaches and executives are not very subtle about their plagiarism. Once they saw the Buccaneers treat Mahomes like a tennis ball at a dog park, nearly every would-be contender sought to beef up its pass rush.The Bills drafted University of Miami defender Gregory Rousseau (15.5 sacks in his final college season) in the first round and Wake Forest defender Carlos “Boogie” Basham (20.5 collegiate sacks) in the second.The Titans lured the sack specialist Bud Dupree (eight sacks in an injury-shortened 2020 season) away from the Steelers, who kept pace by signing Ingram (49 career sacks for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers).The New England Patriots gave $32 million guaranteed to Matt Judon, a two-time Pro Bowl defender for the Baltimore Ravens, so the Ravens signed the veteran Justin Houston (97.5 career sacks).The Cleveland Browns added Jadeveon Clowney to a defensive line that already had Myles Garrett, a fellow No. 1-overall draft pick.As for the Buccaneers, they pushed the envelope of salary cap economics to keep their veteran pass rushers off the free agent market, then drafted the University of Washington standout Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (eight sacks in his final collegiate season) in the first round. The Buccaneers sometimes lined up with six dangerous pass rushers staring down five Dallas Cowboys offensive linemen in the season opener on Thursday.Dak Prescott was not sacked, but he had an average time to throw of only 2.39 seconds in the 31-29 Cowboys loss, according to Next Gen Stats. It’s hard to out-duel Brady when forced to treat the football like a hot potato.The pass-rusher arms race is driven by supply and demand. A Brady or a Mahomes comes along only about once per generation, while top pass-rushers like the Watt brothers or Joey and Nick Bosa (stars for, respectively, the Chargers and the San Francisco 49ers) sometimes arrive two to a household. Each year’s quarterback class has few members with even the potential to develop into upper-echelon starters, but the college ranks are teeming with agile, ornery 250-plus-pound defenders ready to join the marauding hordes.The natural response to all of these barbarians at the gate is to build stronger walls. Brady rules his realm from behind an experienced and well-compensated offensive line. The Chiefs spent all the cap dollars and draft picks they could muster to ensure that Mahomes would never live through another experience like Super Bowl LV; their rebuilt offensive line passed its first stress test in a 33-29 victory against the Browns.And then there is Jameis Winston, who inherited both Drew Brees’s seasoned offensive line and a stout defense led by the pass rushers Cameron Jordan and Marcus Davenport. Formerly an interception-prone disappointment, Winston miraculously blossomed into an efficient field general, while Aaron Rodgers was driven to frustration (only a short cab ride, in his case) in a 38-3 New Orleans Saints blowout of the Green Bay Packers.Old-school coaches like to claim that defense wins championships and that games are won and lost in the trenches. In reality, the days of Steel Curtains and Fearsome Foursomes are long behind us. Championships are generally won by elite quarterbacks, but pass pressure can make such quarterbacks mortal for a few hours.That’s what happened to Brady in the Super Bowls ending the 2007 and 2011 seasons, long before his Buccaneers did the same to Mahomes. If a team cannot win the quarterback lottery, building a vicious pass rush is an effective, affordable alternative.Although, based on Watt’s new contract, it may not be so affordable anymore. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Football

      The Raiders Thought They’d Won. But They Hadn’t. Until They Did.

      by

      A wild Monday night victory gives Las Vegas a victory, and leaves Baltimore wondering about one that got away.Anyone watching the Baltimore Ravens-Las Vegas Raiders game on Monday night got their money’s worth in the first 60 minutes.The underdog Raiders fell behind by 14-0, then rallied to go toe-to-toe with the Super Bowl-contending Ravens all night. Marcus Mariota turned upfield for a 30-yard gain on a keeper. Derek Carr led three game-tying drives in the fourth quarter alone. And Daniel Carlson kicked a 55-yard field goal with two seconds left.But it was the overtime that followed Carlson’s kick that made this game one to remember.The Raiders got the ball first, and Carr took the team down the field again on a drive that culminated in an apparent winning touchdown pass to Bryan Edwards. The crowd, attending a regular-season game for the first time since the team moved to Las Vegas, celebrated. Some Raiders players ran to the locker room. But replay officials judged that Edwards should have been ruled down before he crossed the line, and the team had to slink back onto the field.Carr to Edwards BIG TIME. Down to the goal line! 📺: #BALvsLV on ESPN/ABC📱: https://t.co/NS3IxESidh pic.twitter.com/oOeWRONaCi— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2021
      Still, the Raiders had first-and-goal at the 1. The game was surely almost over.Carr’s sneak on first down turned into a rugby scrum that went nowhere, and then the Raiders managed a false start. With the ball back at the 5, Carr tried a pass, but it bounced off the helmet of the Ravens’ DeShon Elliott, took a wild carom and was intercepted by Anthony Averett.Now the Ravens had their shot. But as Lamar Jackson dropped back to pass he was hit by Carl Nassib and fumbled. The Raiders were back in business.After a 1-yard run to the Ravens 26, it was still only second down. But Coach Jon Gruden sent out the field goal team to win it right there. Unfortunately, some of the team seemed far from ready. The result was a delay-of-game penalty.“Our kicker was warming up in the net; no one could find him,” was the startling postgame confession from Gruden.After the penalty, Gruden decided to bring the Raiders offense out again. And Carr immediately made everyone forget the field goal debacle with a lofted pass to a bizarrely wide-open Zay Jones for the touchdown. Final score: Raiders 33, Ravens 27.“I felt like I died and woke up,” Gruden said. “And died again. I was like a cat. I had multiple lives tonight. I don’t like playing like that.”For the Ravens, widely considered Super Bowl contenders this season, it was a near miss that stung.“That loss hurt, definitely,” Jackson said. “That game could have gone any way tonight.” The Ravens had not blown a 14-point lead since 2004.The result may not convince anyone that the Raiders, who were 8-8 last season, are for real. But after the game Gruden saw the bottom line with a quote from the longtime Raiders owner Al Davis.With a smile he said: “It’s like they say here. Just win baby.” More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Football

      Raiders Go the Extra Mile to Beat the Ravens

      by

      A wild Monday night victory gives Las Vegas a victory, and leaves Baltimore wondering about one that got away.Anyone watching the Baltimore Ravens-Las Vegas Raiders game on Monday night got their money’s worth in the first 60 minutes.The underdog Raiders fell behind by 14-0, then rallied to go toe-to-toe with the Super Bowl-contending Ravens all night. Marcus Mariota turned upfield for a 30-yard gain on a keeper. Derek Carr led three game-tying drives in the fourth quarter alone. And Daniel Carlson kicked a 55-yard field goal with two seconds left.But it was the overtime that followed Carlson’s kick that made this game one to remember.The Raiders got the ball first, and Carr took the team down the field again on a drive that culminated in an apparent winning touchdown pass to Bryan Edwards. The crowd, attending a regular-season game for the first time since the team moved to Las Vegas, celebrated. Some Raiders players ran to the locker room. But replay officials judged that Edwards should have been ruled down before he crossed the line, and the team had to slink back onto the field.Carr to Edwards BIG TIME. Down to the goal line! 📺: #BALvsLV on ESPN/ABC📱: https://t.co/NS3IxESidh pic.twitter.com/oOeWRONaCi— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2021
      Still, the Raiders had first-and-goal at the 1. The game was surely almost over.Carr’s sneak on first down turned into a rugby scrum that went nowhere, and then the Raiders managed a false start. With the ball back at the 5, Carr tried a pass, but it bounced off the helmet of the Ravens’ DeShon Elliott, took a wild carom and was intercepted by Anthony Averett.Now the Ravens had their shot. But as Lamar Jackson dropped back to pass he was hit by Carl Nassib and fumbled. The Raiders were back in business.After a 1-yard run to the Ravens 26, it was still only second down. But Coach Jon Gruden sent out the field goal team to win it right there. Unfortunately, some of the team seemed far from ready. The result was a delay-of-game penalty.“Our kicker was warming up in the net; no one could find him,” was the startling postgame confession from Gruden.After the penalty, Gruden decided to bring the Raiders offense out again. And Carr immediately made everyone forget the field goal debacle with a lofted pass to a bizarrely wide-open Zay Jones for the touchdown. Final score: Raiders 33, Ravens 27.“I felt like I died and woke up,” Gruden said. “And died again. I was like a cat. I had multiple lives tonight. I don’t like playing like that”For the Ravens, widely considered Super Bowl contenders this season, it was a near miss that stung.“That loss hurt, definitely,” Jackson said. “That game could have gone any way tonight.” The Ravens had not blown a 14-point lead since 2004.The result may not convince anyone that the Raiders, who were 8-8 last season, are for real. But after the game Gruden saw the bottom line with a quote from the longtime Raiders owner Al Davis.With a smile he said: “It’s like they say here. Just win baby.” More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Football

      Considering Itself Outside the Title Picture, U.S.C. Fires Clay Helton

      by

      After the Trojans lost to Stanford as 17-point favorites, they moved on from Helton, who had two years left on his contract.With the University of Southern California’s defense being gashed, its offense stagnant and its discipline lacking — the kicker was ejected on the opening kickoff — fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum showered the team with boos during a 42-28 thumping at the hands of Stanford, which entered Saturday’s game as a 17-point underdog.Afterward, Clay Helton, the seventh-year coach, pleaded for calm.“At the end of the season, see where we’re at,” he told reporters.Wherever the Trojans are at the end of the season, Helton won’t be around to see it. He was fired Monday amid increasing fury from the school’s alumni and former players for whom Saturday wasn’t just a bad game, but another confirmation that the football program would never become a contender for a national title under Helton.In fact, Athletic Director Mike Bohn, in announcing a national search for a new coach, said in a statement that the Trojans would be better off for the remainder of the season with Donte Williams, a 39-year-old cornerbacks coach who has never even served as a coordinator, as the interim head coach.Bohn, who replaced Lynn Swann as the athletic director two years ago, said that despite adding resources for the football program since he arrived, it was clear even after two games — a win over San Jose State and the loss to Stanford — that U.S.C. was nowhere near becoming a national championship contender. “It is already evident that, despite the enhancements, those expectations would not be met without a change in leadership,” he said.If Helton’s firing was a shock this early in the season, it is de rigueur for the Trojans, who have quite the history of bloodletting with football coaches.Lane Kiffin was fired at the airport after being summoned from the team bus upon returning to Los Angeles following a defeat at Arizona State. Steve Sarkisian checked into rehab after getting fired in the middle of the season after repeatedly showing up drunk. And years ago, John Robinson returned home from Christmas shopping to find a message on his answering machine that he had been axed.Stanford running back Nathaniel Peat, right, had more than 100 yards rushing on only six carries in the Cardinal’s 42-28 win.Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated PressThis decision, though, might have been made far earlier but for the whopping six-year contract extension Helton was awarded by Swann before the 2018 season — one that is expected to have paid him close to $5 million this season and runs for two more years.The Trojans, who were carried to the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl by quarterback Sam Darnold in Helton’s first two full seasons, have gone 19-14 since Helton signed the new contract. In last year’s pandemic-shortened season, the Trojans won their five conference games, but their hopes of sneaking into the College Football Playoff vanished when they were upset on their home field by Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game.Helton never gained a foothold with U.S.C. fans, who were befuddled that the former athletic director Pat Haden — who like his successor Swann had been a star football player at the school — promoted Helton to interim coach after firing Sarkisian, and then gave him the permanent job. Haden had previously passed on another interim coach, choosing to not retain Ed Orgeron, who two years ago coached Louisiana State to a national championship.Helton’s coaching staff was a revolving door, and each August he seemed to promise a more disciplined team. But even a rousing comeback victory over the conference rival U.C.L.A. last year was marred by Trojans taunting their rivals when the game ended — Helton falling to the turf trying to pull his players away.The scene was a picture of a coach who did not have control of his team.The cost of firing Helton will be considerable, presumably in the neighborhood of $15 million (the terms of his contract are not public because U.S.C. is a private school). But with a $315 million renovation of the Coliseum to be paid for in part through ticket sales, a considerable financial hit from the pandemic and declining attendance, there was also a cost to doing nothing.On Monday, U.S.C. decided it was too much to bear. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Football

      On a Rerouted Road Trip, Aaron Rodgers Looked Disoriented

      by

      The Packers quarterback was intercepted twice in a lackluster showing, while the Saints’ Jameis Winston threw five touchdown passes to take down the Packers.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Saints’ home game that was scheduled to be held Sunday amid climate-controlled pandemonium in New Orleans was instead staged in dryer-vent conditions in north Florida before hordes of fans wearing foam blocks of cheese on their heads — and yet somehow all that seemed downright normal compared to what was transpiring on the field.A quarterback at TIAA Bank Field threw the ball to the other team, made reckless decisions and wilted under pressure, but it was not the player whose career has abounded with face-palming blunders. The culprit bore a striking resemblance to one Aaron Charles Rodgers, the N.F.L.’s reigning most valuable player and the protagonist of what will be its most captivating season-long saga.Rodgers said many months ago that his future was a “beautiful mystery,” a term shrouded in inscrutability. Whether he would retire, refuse to play again for Green Bay or host “Jeopardy!” — it all seemed feasible, or at least not unfeasible, as the extent of his dissatisfaction with the Packers front office emerged. He addressed his grievances with the Packers in stunning candor, vowed to compartmentalize and resumed preparing for what very well could be his final season with the team.Late in the third quarter of the Saints’ 38-3 demolition, Rodgers sat slouched on Green Bay’s sun-drenched sideline. The Saints had just converted his second interception in as many drives into a touchdown, and it would soon get worse. On the next drive, the Packers turned the ball over on downs and, given another opportunity to outclass Rodgers, Jameis Winston tossed his fourth touchdown pass. A few minutes later, Winston threw his fifth.If the Packers demonstrated a certain clumsiness in hatching their succession plan at quarterback, believing after the 2019 season that Rodgers had approached an irreversible decline and then trading up to draft Jordan Love without communicating those intentions to Rodgers, the Saints pursued a more conventional route to replacing Drew Brees: They bought low on Winston. He had been a remarkable talent who, if he can only improve his risk management after five turbulent seasons in Tampa Bay, might be molded into a better version of himself — strong-armed but disciplined.That is how Winston looked on Sunday, bypassing riskier throws he might have relished earlier in his career in favor of safer, shorter passes that extended drives. He threw for only 148 yards, with 55 coming on a majestic deep ball to Deonte Harris that revealed the facade of Winston’s training-camp competition with Taysom Hill.But even if Winston didn’t fling the ball downfield much, Saints Coach Sean Payton still showed his trust in him by going for two fourth-down conversions during a second-quarter drive. Winston converted both with throws to Juwan Johnson, including a 1-yard score that extended the Saints’ lead to 17-0.The Packers kicked a field goal as time expired in the first half, then drove 66 yards to the Saints’ 9-yard line before Rodgers morphed into Winston, circa 2019. Chased out of the pocket, Rodgers darted forward and tried whipping a pass to Davante Adams, who was cutting toward the near sideline. The ball zipped behind him and into the arms of the rookie cornerback Paulson Adebo. Rodgers lamented his bad decision — he should have thrown it, he said, to Aaron Jones in the flat.“Obviously,” Rodgers said, “the play of the game.”Rodgers is beyond aware of how the Packers’ last two seasons unfolded and concluded, of their going 13-3 before losing in the N.F.C. championship game, in back-to-back attempts. Their defeat in January at home against the Buccaneers, and how it ended — with Coach Matt LaFleur attempting a close field goal instead of trusting his quarterback to surmount an 8-point deficit — contributed to the urgency facing this team.Whether the Packers believe it or not, they are under pressure to reach the Super Bowl this season. They have a dire salary-cap situation, Adams appears eager to test free agency, and Rodgers, through concessions Green Bay made with his contract, has the power to determine where he plays next season. Rodgers said last week that he was “in a good head space.”“The feel that I get with the energy in the locker room is not pressure — it’s focus,” Rodgers said last week. “I think it’s the right perspective and the right type of focus.”After Sunday’s game, Rodgers suggested he thought the Packers were a bit complacent, believing that they would throttle a team displaced by Hurricane Ida. The Saints bypassed Florida’s other N.F.L. destinations — Tampa Bay and Miami — for Jacksonville because, in part, of its relative inaccessibility and the heat and humidity, which sapped the Packers’ energy.“We felt like the hotter, the better,” Payton said.But, according to The New Orleans Times-Picayune, it also didn’t escape the Saints that Rodgers was 3-4 with a 78.1 passer rating — which would have ranked 32nd in the league last season — in games played in Florida. Rodgers, pulled for Love with about 11 minutes left as the Packers faced a large deficit, is now 3-5 in the Sunshine State.“It’s just one game,” said Rodgers, who completed 15 of 28 passes for 133 yards. “We played bad. I played bad.”The Packers might find comfort from precedent: In Week 9 last season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost by the same score to the Saints, then recovered to win the Super Bowl. There is danger in ascribing too much meaning to the first game, in presuming that Winston will continue playing with discipline and poise and that the Packers are plowing toward disappointment. What happens next with any and all of them is, as Rodgers might say, a beautiful mystery. More