And here I had given up on my Ravens.
Apparently that was what made them win again.
Myles Garrett has 18 sacks with 6 games left in the season, and he’s playing on a team that’s never in the lead so the other team is never forced to pass.
And the Giants have been officially eliminated.
Yeah, the Patriots win ugly on the road again, but despite their record, the cracks are starting to show pretty clearly. Without Milton Williams, their run defense has gone from league-leading to “meh.” And now their entire left side of the o-line, including first round pick T Will Campbell, is hurt - with Campbell’s injury possibly season-ending. The Pats are going to have to plug in a moldy sack of potatoes - excuse me, I mean Vederian Lowe - at LT, which means Maye is likely to face a ton of blind side pressure moving forward. I suspect with all of these injuries, we’ll soon be seeing the Patriots look like what everyone expected them to look like this year, at least against the better teams.
Read today: “It’s hard for any team to function when their quarterback has a sundial for his internal clock.”
Two coordinators for struggling teams have been invited to explore other career opportunities: Raiders OC Chip Kelly, and Giants DC Shane Bowen.
Kelly was in his first year with the Raiders, under new head coach Pete Carroll; this is the second straight year that the Raiders fired their OC mid-season. The team is at or near the bottom of the league in most offense measures, and has scored 10 or fewer points in four games.
Bowen had been hired last year by Brian Daboll (who was, himself, fired two weeks ago); his defense had surrendered five different 10+ point leads this season.
I have to say, after seeing Seattle play against the Titans, Cam Ward is the real deal. What a talented QB. If he wasn’t on a crappy team that can’t win games, he’d be the biggest story in the NFL this year.
Maybe Tennessee can build around him. Otherwise he’ll be a story about what could have been, like Andrew Luck was.
Maybe Tennessee can manage it. But it’s the same ownership that fired Mike Vrabel, who I hear might be doing alright elsewhere.
Seems like a common story - how can anybody build a consistent winner despite bad ownership?
I’m guessing Kelly will be interviewed for some of the high profile college coach positions. Great way to get a multi-million $$ guarantee as you ride into the sunset.
Has this situation ever happened before where a coordinator got fired AFTER the head coach got fired? I’ve seen coordinators get fired first or at the same time, but it seems odd to fire him now, especially since the Giants got knocked out of playoff contention.
In an “interesting” twist to the JJ McCarthy saga, he is now in concussion protocol after “exhibiting symptoms” on the flight home from Sunday’s game. Hope he gets well soon.
Part of me is sympathetic for a young man who struggles while under a massive amount of pressure that comes from being an NFL QB. Hopefully he can get healthy/find a better headspace/get some time to figure stuff out.
A notable punt play in the Eagles-Cowboys game (skip to 1:02 for the actual play).
Summary:
Cowboys’ punter kicks 58 yards to the 1-yd line; Eagles’ receiver, strangely, decides to return it. Cowboys’ #38 (Alijah Clark) gets hammered on his way downfield, but, undeterred, gets to the returner and causes a fumble at the 12-yd line, which is recovered by #44 (Trent Sieg), the Cowboys’ long snapper.
Finally, finally the world might see the majesty of Max Brosmer!
This is the day that everything changed.
Despite the fact that he plays for the Vikings, I’ve been pulling for McCarthy. He grew up a mile or two away from where I live, and went to high school with the son of my hair stylist.
You’re practically brothers! 
That sounds like code for receiving a beat down in the back of the plane.
He did get sacked five times, and hit at least another five times, against the Packers. OTOH, it may also be that the Vikings just want to shut him down for a bit, and (a) give him a chance to get healthier in general, as well as (b) see if they have anything in Max Brosmer.
Maybe I’m naive, but I’d be surprised if teams use a fake concussion diagnosis as an excuse to sit a player. The league really puts a lot of focus on concussions*, and there are so many other nebulous “injuries” that wouldn’t get as much attention.
* by “focus on concussions,” I mean lots of lip service, not actually doing anything to prevent them.