For this week’s NFL recap, I have once again decided to merge two things that I love very much; football and “The Office”. I believe that weaving in the incredible quotability of the NBC phenomenon with the highs and lows of NFL football will make for spectacular content. I take great joy in creating a world where Pam Beesly and Russell Wilson share a commonality, where Michael Scott has something to do with Patrick Mahomes. Oh, what a beautiful world that is.
The NFL is full of exceptional signal-callers. From Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen to even Trevor Lawrence and Jalen Hurts: two guys that have made massive leaps from last season; there are a myriad of quarterbacks who continuously wow with rocket arms, electric mobility and/or off-the-charts football intelligence.
Then, there are the quarterbacks who are…less than exceptional, and Sunday saw those quarterbacks go to work, and by go to work, I mean make their fanbases incredibly angry with their performances.
Let’s start at Heinz, wait, Acrisure Stadium (ew), where Zach Wilson, Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett played, uh, poorly. I’m actually going to give Wilson and Pickett mulligans for a few reasons. One, this was Wilson’s first game action since he suffered a knee injury in the preseason, and he led a game-winning drive where he went 5/5 for 57 yards. How about the Jets showing some resilience for the second time already this season!
With Pickett, throwing three interceptions in a single game is obviously not good, and two of them were poor throws by the hometown kid. However, one of them was a Hail Mary, and on ten other pass attempts, Pickett completed all ten of them for 120 yards and looked far better than the man he replaced, Mitch Trubisky.
Heading into Sunday, Trubisky had already been struggling mightily in his first three games in Pittsburgh. He threw for less than 200 yards twice, sported a completion percentage that ranked near the bottom of the league and did not throw the ball deep, as Trubisky registered the lowest yards per attempt of any starter entering Week 4
Sunday’s contest against the Jets wasn’t much different. Trubisky’s pocket awareness looked Wentz-ian. He missed receivers multiple times and didn’t test the Jets secondary deep down the field. In an offense with receivers as talented as Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and George Pickens, it’s frustrating to have a quarterback that doesn’t allow that talent to shine.
Usually, when a team sits a likely incumbent rookie quarterback in their first season or two, it’s because the starter is really good, and that the rookie can learn by watching the starter play well. The Packers did this with Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre, and the Chiefs did this with Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith; it’s safe to say that both situations turned out positively.
The problem with Trubisky is that he isn’t good. He hasn’t been good for enough games to where it was odd that Pickett wasn’t being given the keys to start the game, especially considering how much better Pickett looked once he got in the game.
In Washington, even a roller coaster does not fully depict the epic highs and lows of Carson Wentz. Against the Cowboys, he dropped a beautiful touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson early on, but then threw two interceptions on throws where his receivers were blanketed like mini hot dogs. To be fair, Washington’s offensive line was doing Wentz no favors, as he was hit a ludicrous 11 times as the Cowboys defensive line dominated the trenches all afternoon. But overall, this is exactly what Washington signed up for, and now, their offense is legitimately bad. They have the skill guys to be a solid offense, but the offensive line and quarterback play have dragged the Commanders down to a 1-3 record. Considering the investment Washington made into acquiring Wentz, looking to Taylor Henicke is unlikely, but if these performances keep up, December will only matter for NFL Draft positioning.
Heading south to Carolina, the Panthers still can’t seem to escape the search for a solid starting quarterback. Baker Mayfield…yikes. Mayfield’s 7.4 QBR was lower than the PPR fantasy point totals of Tom Kennedy (8.4), Caleb Huntley (11.6) and Chig Okonkwo (12.3). Last week, there was an earthquake in Mexico that registered at a higher magnitude on the Richter scale (7.6) than Mayfield had QBR points on Sunday. Considering that earthquakes can only be measured up to 10 and that the maximum NFL QBR is 158.3, an NFL quarterback having a lower QBR than the magnitude of an earthquake should not happen, and yet, here we are.
Mayfield’s tape from this game was ugly. He continually missed receivers, looked nervous in clean pockets and received boo birds from his own crowd after another pass was batted down. Mayfield turned the ball over three times, his tenth time doing so in a game since he entered the league in 2018, the most of any quarterback in that time span.
The Panthers are in a predicament. Mayfield is not playing well, but their backup, Sam Darnold, was also a train wreck last season and lost the starting job to Mayfield over the summer. Although Darnold’s 2021 season still leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Panthers fans, it’d be wise to at least consider a quarterback change if Mayfield’s poor play continues.
Carolina is in a similar situation to Washington. The Panthers have the skill guys and the defense to contend for a Wild Card spot, but the quarterback play has hamstrung them mightily.
When a quarterback escapes the pocket, it ignites a wonderful adventure into the unknown, a voyage into seas that could be conquered or do the conquering. While a throwaway is common, the time between the initial escape and the eventual throw is so excitedly suspenseful. A quarterback can do so many things outside of the pocket: they could throw on the run, run the ball themselves, reverse the other way and continue scrambling, throw a horrendous interception…the options are plentiful.
With Mahomes, that excited suspense is there, only multiplied by a thousand. Oftentimes, it’ll look like Mahomes doesn’t really know where he wants to go with the ball, but he’ll figure something out more times than not and leave us wondering how in the world he did it.
Sunday night against the Buccaneers saw Mahomes dazzle outside of the pocket once again. One play saw Mahomes complete a pass to Juju Smith-Schuster as he was literally being tackled by Carlton Davis III. Mahomes unleashed a frozen rope to Travis Kelce on a rollout to the left where his arm resembled something closer to how someone throws a frisbee rather than a football.
But the highlight of the night came early in the second quarter. With the ball inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line, Mahomes first eluded a bull rush from Patrick O’Connor, rolled to his right, left Lavonte David in the dust with a nasty spin move, stopped at the line of scrimmage like he was pulling up for a jump shot and flicked the ball to an open Clyde-Edwards Helaire for a touchdown as Mahomes got table topped by Keanu Neal.
Mahomes isn’t perfect. Even on a night where he was dissecting an excellent Buccaneers defense like a scientist, he threw a bad interception that was way off-target of his intended receiver. I also do not want to endorse escaping the pocket often, as that makes it way harder for an offense to remain structured. But when Patrick Mahomes eludes the pocket, magic and sometimes sorcery awaits, and boy, is it beautiful to watch.
If it wasn’t panic time in Indy already, the alarm bells are sure ringing now.
The Colts offense put up yet another stinker against the Titans on Sunday, as their 17 points scored leaves them as the only team in the NFL that has yet to cross the 21-point mark; even the Bears have scored more than 21 points in a game! Matt Ryan fumbled multiple times for the third time in four weeks, bringing his total to ten on the season, which feels like a record, even if it isn’t. Oh, and he also threw his fifth interception of the season as well.
The running game was also putrid once again. Jonathan Taylor kept running into walls en route to 42 rushing yards on 20 carries. This marks only the second time Taylor has been held under 3.5 yards per carry on at least 15 rushes in back-to-back games since his freshman year at Wisconsin. To make this situation even more dire, Taylor rolled his ankle and is feared to have a high ankle sprain, which can take around six to eight weeks to heal.
Looking at the Colts offense sans Taylor, the question has to be asked: what are they good at? What is their identity? What do the Colts do well on offense? I know that was three questions, but this offense is facing a bleak future without their best player. Matt Ryan keeps losing the ball. Their only other running backs on the roster are Nyheim Hines (a receiving back) and Deon Jackson (two career carries). Their offensive line has undergone a catastrophic meltdown. Indy’s receivers have actually been playing really well lately, but when you have a porous offensive line and a non-existent running game, defending you is a lot easier.
It’s only Week 4, but the Colts need to turn things around quickly if they want to remain in the AFC South race. They’re already 0-2-1 against their division opponents and face the Jaguars and Titans in weeks six and seven. The hill that stares down Indy just became a lot tougher to climb.
I remember when Geno Smith lit the world on fire at West Virginia. I remember when DK Metcalf would catch multiple Russell Wilson moon balls a game and wonder how a human being could be built like that. I remember when Tyler Lockett would randomly explode for 200 yards and three touchdowns in a game. I remember when Rashaad Penny added his name to the litany of legendary San Diego State running backs and looked like fellow Aztec alum Marshall Faulk during the home stretch of last season. I remember watching tape of Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas before this past year’s draft and thinking “these guys are pretty good.” I remember Shane Waldron taking the OC job in Seattle and thinking to myself “I think this could work out.”
Did I think all of those stars would align in 2022? Absolutely not, yet here we are after the Seahawks hung 48 on the Lions in a Motor City shootout. The Seahawks didn’t punt the entire game for the first time in franchise history. They scored touchdowns on six of eight drives and faced little resistance from a defense that looked closer to the Lions from the 1989-90 Loyola Marymount men’s college basketball team than the ones from Detroit in 2022.
Seattle played a complete game offensively. Smith was completing passes all over the field and hurting the Lions with his legs. Penny broke loose multiple times for long scores with the help of Seattle’s offensive line. Despite pulling a Paul Pierce mid-game, Metcalf still looked like his old self, and so did Lockett.
Was this a fluke? The Seahawks had put up 47 points combined in their first three games, and their offense looked nothing like it did on Sunday. While I don’t think they’re the second coming of the ‘07 Patriots, we should probably look at the ceiling of this offense as much higher than we may have thought at the beginning of the season. Smith looks like a legit starter. Penny has picked up right where he left off from the end of last season. Metcalf and Lockett look like the legitimate 1-2 punch at wideout that they were when Russell Wilson was still there. Most surprisingly, the offensive line, led by Cross and Lucas, has looked really good! I declare this somewhere between a fluke and not a fluke; this likely won’t happen again, but it’s likely a sign of big things to come.
It’s one thing to lose. It’s another thing to lose multiple times. It’s another thing to lose multiple times when you had the game firmly in the grasp of your hand, only for it to slip out.
How did the Ravens let this one get away against the Bills? Baltimore’s offense began the game in a rhythm, and their defense forced multiple turnovers and got Buffalo’s offense out of sync. In the second half, those characteristics flipped, and the Ravens were suddenly the ones trying to find answers on offense while the Bills found a rhythm on both sides of the ball.
The most talked about play of the game is likely the decision by John Harbaugh to go for the touchdown inside the Buffalo five-yard line in a tie game with just over four minutes remaining, which failed. In that situation, you take the points and make the Bills string together a long drive, and even if they settle for a field goal, you’re going to overtime instead of going home. Sure, they likely would’ve scored anyways based on how the second half was going, but you at least give yourself a chance to extend the game and even win.
This was by no means a perfect game from the Eagles. Jalen Hurts threw a pick-six on Philly’s first drive of the game and didn’t have a great day overall. The Jaguars went up 14-0 in the blink of an eye, and I could hear the Jacksonville bandwagon steamrolling from all the way in central Missouri.
But you know what the great thing about the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles? They are literally not bad at anything. There isn’t a single glaring weak spot on this roster that can be easily exposed. Every position group is at least solid. Why does this matter? If one position group is having a bad game, another can pick them up, which is something not many teams can do.
Sunday was a perfect example of this. Hurts struggling didn’t really matter, because Miles Sanders lit up the Jaguars for 134 rushing yards and two scores with help from an offensive line that created numerous holes for Sanders to run through. The Eagles defense forced (2010 LeBron James voice) not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Jacksonville fumbles, four of which were on Trevor Lawrence that were all recovered by Philly. They made a Jaguars offense that had been on a roll look completely disheveled after the first quarter.
Looking at the Eagles’ schedule the rest of the way, no exaggeration, 17-0 is a real possibility. The three hardest remaining games are probably the Packers game and the two Cowboys games, but even so, the Eagles have looked better than every other team on that schedule thus far. They may not go 17-0, but the path to the NFC’s one-seed looks a lot more achievable.
All gifs credited to Yarn. Final image credited to Buzzfeed