CONFERENCE
CHAMPIONSHIP TALE OF THE TAPE
Welcome to Chalk City, USA! Population: the Chiefs,
Patriots, Rams and Saints.
All the home favorites won this weekend and advanced to
their respective conference championships. But just because the teams that were
expected to win ended up winning doesn't mean that nothing interesting happened
this weekend.
This edition of Monday Morning Digest is packed with all of
this weekend's action and plenty of insights and analysis of next week's
championship games, including:
• The unstoppable Saints weapon who could single-handedly
defeat the Rams
• The little-known Rams defender who holds the key to
stopping the Saints
• Defensive secrets that could lift the Patriots over the
Chiefs
• Hidden advantages that could give the Chiefs the edge in
their rematch with the Patriots
• Fast facts about the NFL's new coaching hires (there's a
six-Sean McVay-joke minimum)
• Even faster facts about new coordinator hires (most of
whom were head coaches three weeks ago)
...and much, much more!
HOW THE CONFERENCE
TITLE ROUND BREAKS DOWN
No more Foles magic. No more feeding Ezekiel Elliott. No
more talking about the Chargers as "sleepers" or the Colts
"playing with house money." No more "momentum," which in
the playoffs means limping into New Orleans, Kansas City or Foxborough after an
exhausting stretch of games with nagging injuries and wobbly legs.
The Chiefs, Patriots, Rams and Saints all advanced to the
championship round of the playoffs, just as most of us would have predicted as
of Week 13 or so. They're the NFL's four best teams, and they proved it with
four convincing wins. (Or three convincing wins and a narrow triumph over Nick Foles the
20th-level Archmage, anyway.)
There will be plenty of analysis of next Sunday's
Patriots-Chiefs and Rams-Saints matchups in the segments to come. But let's
start with a quick tale-of-the-tape breakdown of the field:
BEST QUARTERBACK:
PATRICK MAHOMES, CHIEFS
Tom Brady and Drew Brees have
combined to play in 52 playoff games. Mahomes will just be making his 19th
career start. Experience is invaluable, but we'll take the guy who all year
long has been playing like he unlocked every cheat code in the
game.
BEST RUNNING BACK:
TODD GURLEY, RAMS
The Rams and Patriots (Sony Michel) rely heavily on running
backs they drafted recently in the first round, and the Saints also get mileage
out of 2011 first-round pick Mark Ingram.
The Rams are also the team that now "does everything
right" (Rams equipment managers will soon get head coaching offers), and
the Patriots are of course the one that has done everything right for 20 years.
So maybe the never draft a running back early rule
of modern roster architecture is more of a nuanced guideline than a firm
Moneyball commandment. Just something to keep in mind when the draft rolls
around.
BEST RECEIVING
CORPS: CHIEFS
Sammy Watkins returned to join Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce
against the Colts, making the Chiefs so deep and talented that they didn't
bother activating Kelvin Benjamin. OK, bad example. But good luck covering all
these guys.
BEST OFFENSIVE
LINE: FOUR-WAY TIE
The Rams, Saints and Patriots finished first, second and
third in run blocking and sixth, third and first, respectively, in pass
protection this season, according to Football
Outsiders. The Chiefs finished 16th and fifth, but good luck
defending a screen pass when their blockers get out on the perimeter.
Hmm, maybe your JV coach was right and football games really
are won and lost in the trenches.
BEST DEFENSIVE
PLAYER: AARON DONALD
Duh.
BEST DEFENSIVE
PLAYER NO ONE TALKS AS MUCH ABOUT: TREY FLOWERS, PATRIOTS
Flowers recorded just 7.5 sacks but was a constant source of
pressure throughout the season and is one of the best run-defenders off the
edge in the league.
BEST DEFENSE: SAINTS
The Rams have big names but are vulnerable to the run and
the deep pass to whichever side of the field Marcus Peters lines up on. The
Patriots are disciplined and creative but lack depth and blue-chip talent. The
Chiefs' best defense is to score 45 points. The Saints commit too many
penalties but are stout against the run and can shut down the short passing
game.
BIGGEST WEAKNESS:
CHIEFS RUN DEFENSE
They allowed 5.0 yards per rush and 19 rushing touchdowns in
the regular season before allowing 6.2 yards per rush to the Colts on Saturday.
Luckily for the Chiefs, opponents are usually forced to abandon the run after
Mahomes' second across-his-body touchdown pass.
SECOND-BIGGEST
WEAKNESS: SAINTS' SECONDARY RECEIVERS
Michael Thomas may be the most indispensable non-quarterback
left in the playoffs. All of the other Saints receivers and tight ends would
have trouble cracking the Jaguars roster.
FEWEST WEAKNESSES:
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Their running game and defense are far better than they were
last year. And while their downfield passing attack isn't what it used to be,
Brady can poke little holes in a defense until the whole thing collapses.
MOST SIGNIFICANT
NEWCOMER: C.J. ANDERSON
Cut by the Panthers and (after one week) the Raiders in the
second half of the season, Anderson has rushed for 167, 132 and 123 yards in
three games, giving the Rams a hefty counterpunch to Todd Gurley, not to
mention a veteran in the locker room with a Super Bowl ring.
BEST RETURN GAME:
CHIEFS
Tyreek Hill, folks.
BEST PUNTER: JOHNNY HEKKER, RAMS
Hekker has the biggest leg, but it is worth noting
the Chiefs allow just 5.7 yards per punt return, one of their little edges
that add up when teams are trying to come back against them.
MOST RELIABLE KICKER: WILL LUTZ, SAINTS
Lutz was 28-of-30 on field goals this season.
MOST SIGNIFICANT NUMBER TO REMEMBER FOR NEXT WEEK: 17
That's the expected high temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit)
in Kansas City next Sunday, per The Weather
Channel; the low by the local early-evening kickoff may be closer to
11 degrees. The Chiefs offense had a hard time gaining traction in icy
conditions Saturday, while the Patriots have a long history of winning playoff
games in a winter wonderland.
That's right, folks: If the Patriots can't get home-field
advantage in the playoffs, Mother Nature finds a way of letting them bring it
with them on the road.
FINAL FOUR
SPOTLIGHT
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
HOW THEY GOT HERE
The Saints appeared ready to succumb to Nick Foles' eldritch
powers when Drew Brees threw an interception on the game's first snap and the
Eagles jumped out to a 14-0 lead.
But the Eagles began fading after a second-quarter Foles
interception, and Brees embarked on several long scoring drives—including an
18-play, 112-yard (thanks to penalties), 11-plus-minute marathon that Peter
Jackson plans to turn into a movie trilogy—to give the Saints a 20-14 lead.
Foles ran out of miracles in the fourth quarter when Marshon
Lattimore recorded his second interception of the game on a deflected pass on
the Eagles' final drive.
WHAT THE SAINTS DO
ON OFFENSE
It's all about Brees, Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara.
Brees completes nearly three-quarters of his passes: a
record 74.4 percent this season to be exact. Thomas and Kamara combine
for 49 percent of the Saints' pass targets, 54 percent of the
completions and 48.3 percent of the scrimmage yards.
The rest of the offensive touches are spread among Mark
Ingram (mostly handoffs on first downs), Ted Ginn Jr. (deep shots that usually
fail), tight ends Josh Hill and Benjamin Watson (typical tight end stuff), lots
of interchangeable young receivers, and Taysom Hill (Wildcat wrinkles that
started losing their novelty value around midseason).
Thomas caught 12 passes for 211 yards against the Rams in
Week 9, making Marcus Peters look like an undrafted practice squander at times,
and he caught 12 passes for 171 yards against the Eagles' undrafted practice squanders
on Sunday.
The Rams will have to grind through tape of the Cowboys
against Thomas in Week 13 to see if they can duplicate the success they had
(five catches allowed for just 40 yards) against the hardest receiver to cover
in the NFL. Limit Thomas and they can shut down the Saints offense.
WHAT THE SAINTS DO
ON DEFENSE
The Saints defense this season was a lot like the Saints
defense on Sunday: awful early, dominant in the middle and just good enough to
get the job done at the end.
The Saints stop the run well (3.6 yards per rush allowed)
and generate plenty of sacks (49 in the regular season) but are vulnerable
downfield. Football Outsiders ranks them dead last in the NFL at
stopping deep passes, 31st against passes to the right side of the field, 30th
against opponents' No. 1 receivers and 31st against No. 2 receivers.
Eli Apple is generally considered the weak link in the
Saints secondary, but Lattimore has been up and down too, and both safeties
(Vonn Bell and Marcus Williams) will give up big plays if isolated in deep
coverage.
HIDDEN KEYS
PASS PROTECTION UP THE MIDDLE: THE SAINTS OFFENSIVE
LINE IS USUALLY RELIABLE, BUT IT STRUGGLED TO CONTAIN THE EAGLES PASS RUSH
EARLY IN THE game Sunday. An injury slowed Fletcher Cox in the second quarter,
helping the Saints turn the tide. Interior linemen Larry Warford, Max
Unger and Andrus Peat were pushed around by Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh in
Week 9. They must do everything possible to prevent that in the rematch.
THE INTERFERENCE FACTOR: The Saints were flagged for pass
interference 20 times in the regular season, the highest total
in the league. Apple committed 10 total pass interference and holding
penalties, nickel defender P.J. Williams seven. Obviously, the Saints cannot
afford to gift the Rams free yardage and first downs in the rematch.
HOW THE SAINTS CAN
BEAT THE RAMS
The Rams won't leave Peters isolated against Thomas this
time; they'll roll coverage, add heat to the pass rush or do anything else they
can to force someone else on the Saints offense to beat them.
Brees and Sean Payton must get Ginn, Ingram or someone else
involved in ways that the Rams aren't anticipating. If they do that, they can
compensate for their own weaknesses in the secondary and return to the Super
Bowl after a nine-year absence.
NEW ENGLAND
PATRIOTS
HOW THEY GOT HERE
The Patriots won their 28th playoff game of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era Sunday,
jolly-stomping the Chargers 41-28 in a vintage demonstration of efficiency,
game-planning, execution and a healthy dose of home-field advantage
maximization that wasn't half as close as the final score.
WHAT THEY DO ON
OFFENSE
The Patriots like to mix Sony Michel runs with intricately
designed screens and short passes to James White and others on early
possessions, setting up calculated downfield shots by Brady after defenders
have been suctioned toward the line of scrimmage and taffy-pulled horizontally.
Those tactics worked to devastating effect against the weary
Chargers defense Sunday, with Brady leading four straight long touchdown drives
to start the game while barely involving any ball-handlers besides White,
Michel and Julian Edelman.
A similar strategy helped the Patriots take a 24-9 halftime
lead over the Chiefs in what became a 43-40 Patriots win in Week 6. The
Patriots ran 17 times while Brady threw just 15 passes (taking one sack) in the
first half of that game; with no passing play longer than 17 yards.
The Patriots finished fifth in the NFL in yards after catch
with 2,223, per STATS, Inc. Opponents like the Lions and Titans took away
the screen-and-run yardage and had success forcing Brady to throw downfield in
unfavorable down-and-distance situations. But offensive coordinator Josh
McDaniels is a master at mixing up defenses, and Brady still has no peer when
it comes to finding open receivers and picking his spots.
WHAT THEY DO ON
DEFENSE
The Patriots defense lacks big names and can still look a
step slow in pass coverage against top receivers, but Bill Belichick knows how
to take away what an opponent does best and always makes the most of
"minor" advantages.
The Patriots recorded just 30 regular-season sacks but
ranked fifth in the NFL this season at generating pressure, per Football Outsiders. Trey Flowers (who had a huge game Sunday)
is the closest thing the Patriots have to a premier pass-rusher, but Belichick
mixes and matches defensive fronts and deploys role players like Kyle Van Noy
to great effect, harrying quarterbacks like Philip Rivers into frustrating
afternoons.
The Patriots are also among the league's surest tacklers.
Opponents broke a tackle on just 8.2 percent of plays against them, the
third-lowest rate in the NFL, per Football Outsiders). Opponents rarely get to take advantage of
fundamental mistakes against the Patriots, on either side of the ball.
HIDDEN KEYS
MARCUS CANNON: The reliable right tackle missed
part of the last meeting with the Chiefs, and backup LaAdrian Waddle got pushed
around in his absence. Brady enjoyed outstanding protection from both Cannon
and Trent Brown against the Chargers' big-name pass-rushers Sunday. He'll need
a repeat performance next week against Justin Houston and Dee Ford.
JASON MCCOURTY: The Patriots cornerback,
overshadowed by All-Pro bookend cornerback Stephon Gilmore and by his own twin
brother—longtime Patriots safety Devin McCourty—had a quietly effective season
and contained Tyreek Hill for much of the last Chiefs-Patriots game. (Gilmore is
more likely to shadow Sammy Watkins.) No one defender can completely stop Hill,
who whizzed through zone coverage for a 75-yard touchdown against the Patriots
in the last meeting, but the Patriots have more than one McCourty.
THE ROAD FACTOR: The Patriots are 1-4 in road
playoff games, not counting Super Bowls, dating back to the 2005 season. They
were 3-5 in road games this regular season. As much of a vivisection as
Sunday's game was, there's no doubt home-field advantage played a part in the
lopsided win (watch the Chargers' muffed punts and delay-of-game penalties
if you need more evidence than the fact the entire team looked like it just
hobbled off a flight from Australia). The noisy Arrowhead crowd can do just as
much to disrupt a high-precision offense as the Foxborough faithful can.
HOW THEY CAN BEAT
THE CHIEFS
Their Week 6 victory over the Chiefs should provide the
blueprint for next week: Force some Patrick Mahomes mistakes, stay balanced on
offense and rely on experience to provide a situational advantage in red-zone,
third-down and two-minute situations.
They won that game in a shootout because they did everything
they could to avoid one. They want to make next Sunday's game like the Chargers
game: more about discipline and execution than some epic quarterback showdown.
LOS ANGELES RAMS
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Todd Gurley, C.J. Anderson and the Rams offensive line
steamrolled the Cowboys for 273 total rushing yards and three touchdowns while
the depleted Cowboys offense managed just 308 net yards in a 30-22 Rams
victory, the franchise's first playoff victory since the 2004 season.
WHAT THE RAMS DO
ON OFFENSE
The drive train of Sean McVay's offense is just the Mike
Shanahan running-and-play-action one the Broncos used to win two Super Bowls in
the '90s.
McVay and his Millennial Genius Dream Academy have added
plenty of modern-looking flourishes, of course: lots of pre-snap motion to
identify coverage assignments, a persistent end-around threat to confound
defenders' run keys, updated ways of communicating plays from the sideline and
using tempo to throw defenses off. But the Rams get most of their mileage out
of a handful of base personnel groups, formations and play designs. Everything
looks the same pre-snap, making it hard for defenses to guess what's coming
based on who is on the field and where.
Anderson has rushed for 422 yards and four touchdowns in
three games since his arrival. He and Gurley are more "Thunder and More
Thunder" than "Thunder and Lightning," but they allow the Rams
to hammer opponents at will up the middle. Let them take a lead on you, and the
Rams will control the line of scrimmage and the clock.
Per Next Gen Stats, Jared Goff averages 2.94 seconds in the pocket
per throw, the sixth-longest figure in the NFL. Most of the quarterbacks above
him are scramblers who buy time by running around, but Goff gets all of that
extra time to scan the field thanks to all of that play-action and the stout
Rams offensive line.
WHAT THE RAMS DO
ON DEFENSE
Aaron Donald is the best defender in the NFL, with 20.5
sacks, 41 quarterback hits and four forced fumbles this season.
Marcus Peters may be the worst big-name defender in the
NFL: Football Outsiders charged him with allowing 9.7
yards per pass to his defenders (85th in the league), and his freelance
approach to coverage often leaves other defenders taking blame for his
mistakes. As noted in the Saints segment, Peters vs. Mike Thomas is not so much
a mismatch as a means of crashing the servers trying to calculate Thomas'
fantasy points.
Beating the Rams means stopping Donald and attacking Peters
and the secondary, just as beating the Rams offense means stopping the run and
eliminating easy play-action opportunities. The Saints destroyed Peters and did
just enough to contain Donald in the first meeting. They need a command
performance, at least.
HIDDEN KEYS
CORY LITTLETON: The best player no one talks
about, Littleton excels in pass coverage—he led the Rams with 13 passes
defensed—and blocked a pair of kicks in the regular season. He will be assigned
the task of covering Alvin Kamara for much of the game.
AQIB TALIB: He wasn't available in the last
meeting with the Saints but is back (and fired up after beating the Cowboys),
giving the Rams more flexibility against Thomas in the secondary.
ROBERT WOODS: Woods may be the NFL's best
blocking receiver, sealing the edge when the Rams line up in bunch formations
and often blocking downfield to extend Gurley and Anderson's long runs.
His ability to act like an extra tight end in the running game allows the
Rams to keep the same personnel on the field without tipping their
tendencies.
HOW THE RAMS CAN
BEAT THE SAINTS
The Rams are the better team on paper, are much deeper on
offense and coming off a more convincing victory this weekend. They lost the
last game by getting too cute with fake field goals and letting the Saints
exploit an obvious mismatch. McVay and his staff just have to be smarter this
time. Considering their billing these days, that should be a snap.
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
HOW THEY GOT HERE
The Chiefs took an early 17-0 lead on the worn-down,
out-of-sync Colts and then survived several blunders (and a scary moment when
Patrick Mahomes limped to the sideline after an awkward fall) for a 31-13
victory. It was just their second playoff win since the 1993 season.
WHAT THEY DO ON
OFFENSE
Mahomes (who scrambled and dove for a touchdown just minutes
after taking that spill) does five or six things per game that make you think
you are watching the young Brett Favre:
no-look passes, across-the-body throws into coverage that somehow reach their
target, sidearm tosses that appear to curve around defenders.
There's a downside to looking like the young Favre, though:
Mahomes takes unnecessary sacks, forces throws and tries too often to do the impossible.
The Patriots saw both sides of Mahomes in their 43-40
victory in Week 6. Mahomes threw two first-half interceptions to help the
Patriots mount a big lead and then rebounded to throw four second-half
touchdowns in an almost-comeback.
The Chiefs offense looks like an up tempo NBA offense at
times. Mahomes is the needle-threading, driving-and-dishing point
guard. Tyreek Hill is the provider of alley-oop dunks and ankle-breaking
drives to the basket. Travis Kelce is the low-post scorer. And the Chiefs
offensive line, the best in the league at blocking on the perimeter and down
the field, is like a bunch of role players setting deadly picks to create space
for the playmakers.
WHAT THEY DO ON
DEFENSE
To extend the basketball metaphor, the Chiefs run a full-court
pressing-and-trapping defense, which allows lots of easy layups but forces
opponents into mistakes and turnovers when they try to keep pace with their
offense.
The Chiefs want opponents to fall behind so they can forget
about the running game and unleash pass-rushers Justin Houston, Dee Ford
and Chris Jones (37.5 combined sacks, 14 forced fumbles). The Patriots ran up
the score quickly against the Chiefs in Week 6, but most other opponents have
not been up to the task. The Chiefs held the lead for an average of 39 minutes,
nine seconds per game this season, per Football
Outsiders, the widest margin in the league by over three minutes.
The Colts fell behind five minutes into Saturday's game and
might as well have just warmed up the team bus. The Patriots need another start
like in Week 6 (when they turned a Mahomes pick into an early touchdown) or
Sunday (multiple time-consuming touchdown marches) to avoid playing into the Chiefs'
hands.
HIDDEN KEYS
WARE AND BERRY: Running back Spencer Ware and
former Pro Bowl safety Eric Berry practiced last week but were deactivated for
the Colts game. Ware's return would provide a counterpunch for Damien
Williams, who rushed for 129 yards against the Colts but sometimes eschews easy
yardage in search of a big gain. Berry only played sparingly this year in
late-season losses to the Chargers and Seahawks, but the Chiefs secondary needs
all the help it can get against Tom Brady.
SPECIAL TEAMS: The Chiefs surrendered a blocked
punt for a touchdown Saturday, Hill fumbled a punt deep in his own territory
(the Chiefs recovered) and a holding penalty negated a long Hill
return. The Chiefs special teams are typically among the league's best, so
look for coordinator Dave Toub to clean things up. But keep an eye on veteran
long snapper James Winchester, whose placement was off on several snaps
Saturday.
FOURTH DOWNS: The Chiefs were 12-of-15
converting fourth downs during the season and 3-of-4 on Saturday. The Patriots
must be ready to stop 4th-and-short conversions in their territory. That may
mean being more aggressive on 3rd-and-long, so the Chiefs can't gain easy yards
in front of the sticks to set up a conversion opportunity.
HOW THEY CAN BEAT
THE PATRIOTS
The Chiefs beat the Patriots 41-14 in their last trip to
Arrowhead in September 2014. The Chiefs also beat the Patriots 42-27 in the
2017 season opener; both victories occurred BME (Before the Mahomes Era).
The Chiefs are one of the few NFL teams that don't have a
history of getting awestruck against the Patriots. Victory may be as simple as
playing their brand of football and realizing they are facing the 2018
Patriots, not the 2001-2017 Patriots.
ELIMINATED TEAMS
DIGEST
What the offseason
has in store for the four teams that were eliminated from the playoffs this
weekend.
LOS ANGELES
CHARGERS
The core of the team is signed through next year, with
enough cap space (about $25 million) to take care of in-house free agents and
pursue a modest upgrade or two.
With Philip Rivers aging weekly (he fast-forwarded about six
years in Sunday's second quarter alone), the Chargers need to take an all-in
approach before Rivers turns to dust and Joey Bosa hits the 2020 extension
market.
What "all in" means is hard to define for a team
with no extra cap assets, few weaknesses and a division foe in the Chiefs that
is likely to be looking down at them from above again next season. Whether they
pursue a bold trade or twist their budget into a pretzel for an over-the-top
player (Antonio Brown?
LET'S START A RUMOR), the Chargers must do something to prevent themselves from
traveling back and forth across the country for playoff games next year.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
With a young roster, an extra second-round pick in 2019 and
$115 million in cap space, the Colts are prime candidates to take the leap from
pesky playoff spoiler to true Super Bowl contender.
Some of that cap dough will go to in-house free agents as
the Colts sift through surprise contributors like Margus Hunt and Pierre Desir
and quality role players like Dontrelle Inman and Chester Rogers in search of
long-term keepers.
The Colts could use another impact player in the pass rush,
in the secondary and in the receiving corps. They have the resources—and the
draft-day acumen—to pick up one of each.
DALLAS COWBOYS
The Cowboys' late-season surge means a contract extension
for Jason Garrett and essentially guarantees a massive franchise-quarterback
deal for Dak Prescott in the not-too-distant future.
Both of these developments are very mixed blessings. But
Garrett looks like he should be able to retain top defensive assistant Kris
Richard for another year, and Prescott made real strides as a passer once Amari
Cooper arrived to give him someone to throw to. So the 2019 Cowboys have a
chance to be more like the team we saw in the second half of this season than
the one we saw for most of late 2017 and early 2018.
The Cowboys have $55 million in cap space next year, but a
new deal for Tank Lawrence and a Prescott extension (Jerry Jones won't want to
wait until Prescott gets close to the 2020 market) will eat up huge chunks of
it.
PHILADELPHIA
EAGLES
The Eagles will probably void the $20 million option on Nick
Foles' contract (or allow Foles to exercise his opt-out clause), letting Foles
work his magic in free agency while the team uses that $20 million to crawl
back under the salary cap ceiling and keep as much of its veteran core intact
for another playoff run under Carson Wentz.
If you think that's not what the Eagles will
or should do, please remember that no one would have been thinking
about Foles magic Sunday if Kirk Cousins could win a game that mattered or Cody
Parkey could make a field goal that mattered.
Free agency won't be a realistic option for them, but the
Eagles will get several young defensive veterans back from injury in the
offseason and look to upgrade their running game and reinforce an aging
offensive line through the draft.
Oh, and Wentz was an MVP candidate two years ago and played
well most of this year, so getting him back will be a huge plus. People tend to
forget that.
AWARDS DIGEST
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Marshon Lattimore's second-quarter
interception of Nick Foles was the first thing the Saints defense
did right Sunday. It set up a touchdown drive to cut the Saints' deficit to
14-7. His second interception, on a pass deflected by Alshon
Jeffery, iced the game for the Saints and proved once and for all that Foles is
mortal.
OFFENSIVE LINE OF THE WEEK: Andrew Whitworth,
Rodger Saffold, John Sullivan, Austin Blythe and Rob Havenstein utterly
dominated a very good Cowboys front seven, helping the Rams rush for 273 yards
and 5.7 yards per carry.
SPECIAL TEAMER OF THE WEEK: Najee Goode appeared
to swing momentum in the Colts' favor when he blocked a
Dustin Colquitt punt that Zach Pascal recovered for a
touchdown. Unfortunately, the Colts were so dedicated to getting in their own
way Saturday that even momentum couldn't help them.
SPECIAL TEAMS GOAT OF THE WEEK: It's hard to
pinpoint the exact moment when the Chargers abandoned all semblance of hope,
but it may have been when they finally forced a punt while trailing 28-7, only
to watch Desmond King muff it and Albert McClellan recover it for the Patriots.
SPECIAL TEAMS ERA-ENDER OF THE WEEK: Adam
Vinatieri missed an extra point and bounced a 23-yard field goal off the left upright for the
Colts. Vinatieri, now 46, had never missed an extra point in 31 previous
postseason games spanning two decades.
MYSTERY TOUCH OF THE WEEK: Taysom Hill's
four-yard fake-punt run, moments after Lattimore's first interception, helped
the Saints work their way back into a game the Eagles controlled for the entire
first quarter. Hill also nearly caught a touchdown bomb Sunday, and he
threw a 46-yard touchdown strike to Alvin Kamara that was negated by a holding
penalty during the Saints' epic 18-play Lawrence of Arabia drive.
It was an eventful day for everyone's favorite gadget specialist, even if it
didn't look that way on the stat sheet.
GRASP AT STRAWS OF THE WEEK: Dak Prescott was
ruled "in the grasp" for a sack Saturday night when referees saw
someone's arms wrapped around the Cowboys quarterback. That "someone"
turned out to be Prescott's teammate La'el Collins, steadying Prescott after a
collision in the pocket. But there's not much an official can do after blowing
a premature whistle except defend the call like a sweaty lawyer on 60
Minutes, which is exactly what official John Parry did when interviewed by pool reporter Sam Farmer after the game. Hey, at least
Parry didn't flag Collins for holding as well.
GRIND OF THE WEEK: Colts defensive end Denico
Autry got a sack of Patrick Mahomes by...giving a private dance to a referee?
Yep, that's the best description of what he did, and instead of getting a
rolled-up 20 thrown at him, he drew a 15-yard penalty. As mentioned earlier,
even momentum could not stop the Colts from getting in their own way.
COACHING CAROUSEL
DIGEST
You know all the
big stories surrounding this year's coaching hires. So this segment of Digest
takes you inside some of the smaller stories you may have overlooked.
BUCCANEERS HIRE BRUCE
ARIANS.
The Buccaneers hired a search firm called Korn-Ferry to assist with the search,
which led to one of the most famous coaches on the market, which is a lot like
hiring a travel agent to identify top family vacation destinations and then
going to Disney World.
Next time, the Buccaneers should just save some money and
research Sean McVay on Ancestry.com instead.
BRONCOS HIRE VIC
FANGIO.
It appeared that John Elway would assign his majordomo Gary
Kubiak to Fangio as offensive coordinator, but then Elway and Kubiak had some
sort of sudden falling out, so Elway tried to go the Next McVay route with
49ers quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello (from the Kyle Shanahan
country-cousin branch of the McVay tree). The 49ers refused to let Elway interview Scangarello, though,
causing ominous thunder to roll across the Rockies.
Near the Fall of Rome in the late fourth and early fifth
centuries, loyal, grizzled generals were often given the title of emperor and
tasked with beating back the Visigoths while the aristocrats and archbishops
squabbled over their ever-dwindling power and influence.
What does this have to do with the Broncos, you ask? All
hail Emperor Fangio Victorious!
DOLPHINS EXPECTED TO HIRE BRIAN
FLORES.
Flores is proof that inexperienced black coaches can earn
the "Next Big Thing" coaching label, too. Approximately 12.5 percent
of the time. After all of the white candidates have been sifted through.
Maybe the Dolphins will allow 3.5 points per game next
season and every owner who fires a coach in 2020 will be seeking a young
assistant of color who rose through the ranks by coaching special teams and
defensive backs...nah, they'll just use Flores as justification for hiring more
Baby Belichicks.
JETS HIRE ADAM
GASE.
Per ESPN's Jeff Darlington, Jets owner Christopher Johnson was ultimately
swayed by a Gase endorsement phone call from Peyton Manning.
Johnson is apparently unaware that Manning has stumped for
Gase for so long that he now just robo calls a prerecorded message to NFL
headquarters asking them to hire Gase and to call a toll-free number about
their expired auto warranties.
At least Johnson didn't hire a headhunter to put him in
touch with Manning to get the endorsement.
Gase will continue to face the Patriots twice per year. You
have to admire Manning's commitment to losing to Tom Brady, even after
retirement.
CARDINALS HIRE KLIFF
KINGSBURY.
Kingsbury had to pay USC a $150,000 buyout to get out of the contract he
signed to become the Trojans offensive coordinator a few weeks ago. We're one
step away from the NCAA demanding cash scholarship refunds from players who
leave school for the NFL early.
The Cardinals are expected to pay Kingsbury's buyout. They'll
just borrow the money back from Sam Bradford. With
interest.
BROWNS HIRE FREDDIE
KITCHENS.
Per Mark Inabinett of Al.com, Kitchens is just the sixth former University of Alabama
player to become an NFL head coach. The others: Harry Gilmer (mediocre Lions
coach in the 1960s), Bart Starr (Hall of Fame quarterback turned mediocre
Packers coach of the 1970s-'80s), Ray Perkins (mediocre Giants and Buccaneers
coach of the 1980s), Richard Williamson (Perkins' assistant who took over the
Bucs from him, with subpar results) and Mike Riley (less than mediocre Chargers
coach from 1999-2001).
So Kitchens could go 9-7 next season and become the most
successful Browns coach in over a decade and the best Alabama-alum head coach
ever.
PACKERS HIRE MATT
LAFLEUR.
Team CEO Mark Murphy called LaFleur "the most prepared candidate. It was obviously he really did
his research, knew everything about our roster and everything else."
It's hard to tell what's more disturbing: top NFL execs who
are impressed that coaching candidates know as much about their teams as the
average fan who is in a lot of fantasy leagues knows or that some coaching
candidates must show up for interviews without such knowledge for execs like
Murphy to say things like that.
BENGALS EXPECTED TO HIRE ZAC
TAYLOR.
Taylor is the Rams quarterbacks coach, and his brother Press
Taylor is the Eagles' well-regarded quarterbacks coach. With McVay
family-family ties, connections to the Doug Pederson wing of the Andy Reid
family tree and share of
the Nick Foles-Carson Wentz credit, Press Taylor will be named Supreme
Benevolent High father of Earth in 2022.
Zac Taylor is also the son-in-law of former Packers head
coach Mike Sherman, which only goes to show you that the NFL doesn't just need
to expand its coaching pool but also its coaches' dating pool.
ASSISTANT-COACHING-CAROUSEL,
POINT-COUNTERPOINT MASHUP!
THE
CARDINALS HIRE VANCE
JOSEPH AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR, THE BUCCANEERS HIRE TODD
BOWLES AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR AND THE BROWNS ARE WORKING TO HIRE STEVE WILKS AS
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
POINT: We'd wonder why teams aren't seeking
innovative young defensive masterminds to keep pace with all of the innovative
young offensive masterminds if we weren't afraid it would just lead to the
hiring of a half-dozen more inexperienced white dudes.
COUNTERPOINT: So, what, a black coach can be a
no-nonsense, tough-talking sidekick but not the suave, sophisticated hero? It's
almost like NFL decision-makers all come from the demographic that watches
nothing on television but old movies and police procedurals.
RAVENS PROMOTE GREG
ROMAN TO OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
POINT: "Great hire! Roman designed offenses
for Tyrod Taylor and Colin Kaepernick. He will do something similar for Lamar
Jackson." — Stat heads and tape grinders
COUNTERPOINT: "Stupid hire! Roman designed
offenses for Tyrod Taylor and Colin Kaepernick. He will do something similar
for Lamar Jackson." — Angry uncles on Facebook and Bills fans
BEARS HIRE CHUCK
PAGANO AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
POINT: They figured a really unpopular move
would take some of the heat off Cody Parkey.
COUNTERPOINT: Pagano is actually a darn good
defensive coordinator, and he will prove it now that he is not saddled with a
general manager, Ryan Grigson, who would find some way of undoing the Khalil
Mack trade if he were in charge of the Bears.
VIKINGS RETAIN KEVIN
STEFANSKI AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
POINT: It's better to obey your head coach's
orders, run up the middle on early downs and lose a must-win game than try
something that has a chance to work and get blamed when it fails.
COUNTERPOINT: But it's best to be Brian Schottenheimer,
run up the middle on early downs whether the coach wants you to or not, lose
must-win games but have a famous dad.
JETS EXPECTED TO HIRE GREGG
WILLIAMS AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
POINT: Williams was forced to take the job after
his handwritten head coaching resume arrived at Bengals, Dolphins and Packers
headquarters five days late because Pony Express service has been impacted by
the government shutdown.
COUNTERPOINT: Goofy press conferences. A defense
that talks a good game but fails at the worst moment. Just what Jets fans were
clamoring for: a weak-tea reboot of the Rex Ryan era.
FALCONS BRING BACK DIRK
KOETTER AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR.
POINT: Look, you can make me lampoon racial
disparities in the NFL, make fun of powerful people, even do some edgy
political stuff. But you don't pay me nearly half enough to make sense of or
pay attention to the Falcons.
COUNTERPOINT: Same here. I'm out.
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