Author: AG

The start of the NFL season brought us a couple of close games, a few blowouts, and a few spectacular plays. We’re going to start a segment where we highlight the top 3 plays of the week with video clips of the plays. Since it’s only 3, a few great plays were left off the list.

3) Amari Cooper Gets By With a Little Help from His Friends

 

2) Chris Thompson Makes the Eagles Forget How to Tackle

1) Cole Beasley Catches the Ball Behind His Shoulder

 

Quote of the Week

http://twitter.com/MrJoshua/status/906989375103401984

 

The Patriots and Chiefs opened up the 2017 NFL season last night at Gillette Stadium. After a mediocre trophy ceremony hosted by Mark Wahlberg and an equally terrible rendition of the National Anthem, the Patriots were ready to defend their crown. The crowd was “louder than they’ve ever been” before the game, according to Tony Dungy. The Patriots came out hot firing on all cylinders after a missed connection between Dwayne Allen and Tom Brady. The drive finished with Mike Gillislee punching in his first TD in a Patriots uniform.

Everything was looking perfect for the Patriots, who came out exactly as we expected them. Though question marks were surrounding the defense and the newfound secondary, the first play from the line of scrimmage was a fumble from the Chiefs rookie RB Kareem Hunt, who never lost a fumble in his four years at Toledo.

 

The Pats managed to drive down the field yet again but this time were stopped short on fourth down & inches. This sparked life into the Chiefs who were able to finish up their next drive with a touchdown. The rest of the half was back and forth with really the only highlight being James White with an early candidate for stiff arm of the year.

 

The Patriots managed to take a 17-14 lead into halftime, so there wasn’t too much panic in the air in Foxborough. After all, the Chiefs were a 12–4 team last year — so nothing to be ashamed off. Brady looked a little off at times but as the rest of the NFL knows, nobody is better than the Patriots at halftime adjustments.

The Patriots and Chiefs traded empty possessions before this absolute bomb to a wide-open Tyreek Hill — which was the best indication of what was to come from a porous defense.

 

Gillislee punched in his third TD of the night and a Gostkowski FG wrapped up the third quarter scoring, and the Patriots scoring for the night. It took no time in the fourth quarter for the Chiefs to punch the Patriots right back in the mouth when Kareem Hunt got free for a 78 yard pass from Alex Smith.

 

From there, the Patriots never really got anything going. Tom Brady looked like Alex Smith — and Alex Smith looked like Tom Brady.

The Chiefs were able to drive down the field to put the Patriots down by 8. To which the Patriots responded … by not responding. The Chiefs then stomped on the Patriots with an embarrassing 2 play drive for 79 yards and a touchdown.

 

FINAL SCORE: Chiefs 42, Patriots 27

Quick Hits

• Devin McCourty was the only one able to make any significant plays for a defense that let up 537 yards and the most points ever in the Bill Belichick era (second-most was also the Chiefs, funny enough).
• McDaniels play-calling has some work to do. Too many end-arounds and running plays that went nowhere.
• Brady finished the night 16-36 with 267 yards. He looked bad at times but was able to connect with Brandin Cooks on a deep ball late in the game. The hope is still there.
• An injury to Amendola leaves the WR corp looking a bit bland — we will most likely be seeing a lot more of Philip Dorsett once he has a full week of practice under his belt.
• The front 7 looked awful — nobody doing anything of note. A front seven that looked menacing during the off-season, with McClellan, Nink, Rivers, and all of the other scat LBs they got to replace the production of Jamie Collins was laughable. This group isn’t going to put any fear into anyone and Chris Long wannabe Cassius Marsh is going to need to step his game up.
• Gilmore, although completely burned by Tyreek Hill on the long TD pass, played decent on an island most of the game. Still need more production from him and Butler if this Patriots defense is going to be competitive.
• Sad to see Eric Berry with an Achilles injury — he made Gronk a non-factor in this game and is a class act. Hopefully it’s nothing to serious.

 

In the long run, this loss may be a humbling lesson for the defending Super Bowl champions. The Patriots are no doubt going to make some adjustments and have a tough week of practice because they have a top 5 QB coming into town with Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints on the schedule. The Saints will smell blood in the water and the Patriots will need to respond as they always do. We’re on to the Saints.

 

 

 

 

 

Hurricane Irma, recently classified as a Level 5 category storm, is fast approaching the state of Florida — leaving it predicted to hit Miami right as the Dolphins and Bucs game was scheduled to kick off. This put the NFL in quite a predicament as the game would not be safe to play during that time as most of South Florida is already being evacuated. Rather than moving the game to Tuesday or another day this week — similar to the Eagles-Vikings game in 2010 that was moved due to a blizzard, the lovely NFL decided the smartest outcome was to move this game to both teams’ Week 11 bye week.

For a league that preaches player safety, this is a ridiculous outcome. Rather than pushing the game back two days, the NFL is more concerned that they will not generate the same audience on a Tuesday night than a regular Sunday. The ripple effect for both of these teams is huge, as they go from having a coveted late-season bye week to an unheard of Week 1 bye. No doubt the players will struggle from having to compete 16 weeks in a row, with an added risk to even more players being prone to injury.

Players are starting to speak out as well with the NFL under scrutiny from their decision:

https://twitter.com/JOEL9ONE/status/905174766453174272

 

Not surprisingly, the NFL has dropped the ball once again. Fans of the Bucs and Dolphins who were looking forward to watching their team play this week will have to wait another week and will be forced to watch their teams gassed out by the end of the year.

The final part of our division picks bring us to the NFC South, home of last year’s NFC champion Atlanta Falcons. The NFC South is often regarded as one of the most even divisions but was recently dominated by the Panthers (3 of the last 4 crowns) until the Falcons took the torch last year. This division has managed to provide 2 of the last Super Bowl runner-ups so it will be interesting to see where it falls this year. Let’s take a look at the picks:

NFC South

 

Quick Hits

• Hard Knocks pays off:  All writers have the Bucs in a playoff spots, with 3 of 4 predicting they’ll take the division crown.
• Panthers Parity: Allen has the Panthers in a prime spot for a bounce-back with 12-4, with the other predictions have the Panthers not doing as well, falling as low as 6-10.
• 28-3 Hangover: The Falcons look to bounce back well after losing their offensive coordinator. 75% of the staff believes they will have double-digit wins.
• Not So Big Easy: Despite the shuffling of positions on the first three teams, all writers don’t see this year going that well for Drew Brees and the Saints — all finishing below .500.

 

That wraps up the division breakdowns — we’ll move onto awards and playoffs next.

The seventh installment of this series brings us to the division which will most likely contain two of the bottom five NFL teams in the league, the NFC West. Although the NFC West has provided us a few Super Bowl participants in the last five years, it is starting to look a bit dismal from the outside. The Seahawks look to capture their fourth division title in the last five years without too much opposition. The Cardinals will mount a challenge with their stud running back David Johnson, but don’t seem deep enough to snatch the division crown from Seattle. Let’s take a look at the picks:

NFC West

Quick Hits:

• No surprise here — Seattle is running away with the division. All writers agree that the ‘Hawks won’t have too much trouble with repeating as champions.
• All staff members also agree that the Cardinals will comfortably be second place, but look to miss the playoffs. Tyler is the only one that has them with a reasonable shot at the Wild Card.
• The Rams and Niners are not looking too good this year — all four writers agree there will not be happy times in California.