Ravens show why they are a title contender
Despite the two defeats at the start, no one was particularly worried about the Baltimore Ravens. The squad is too good. In the win in week three against the Dallas Cowboys, things almost went wrong despite a clear lead, but now against the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore showed with a 35:10 win why the Ravens were still considered one of the biggest title contenders despite their 0-2 start.
The game went exactly the way the Ravens wanted. The first play was an 87-yard touchdown by Derrick Henry and the running game was consistently dominant. The passing game was a perfect complement and extremely efficient. The defense managed to keep Buffalo’s offense under control around the best quarterback of the season so far, Josh Allen, and the top stars like Kyle Hamilton reached their best. In the prime time game on Sunday night, the Ravens showed how dangerous this team can be.
Mahomes hurts teammates – and thus himself
Rashee Rice has become one of the most important passing stations for quarterback Patrick Mahomes with the Kansas City Chiefs. But now he’s injured, probably seriously – and Mahomes is the reason for it. The superstar threw an interception and caught Rice on the knee while trying to bring the Los Angeles Chargers opponent to the ground. The fear is a torn cruciate ligament and the end of the season for the wide receiver.
Jets offense plays strange game against Denver
“When the defense holds the opponent to 10 points, you have to win these games 100 percent of the time,” New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said after the 10-9 loss to the Denver Broncos. “That’s on the offense, that’s on me.” He’s certainly right – it was a strange performance by the Jets offense in the New Jersey rain.
Rodgers had a really good game. There were some bad passes, probably due to the weather, but a lot more good ones. He repeatedly dodged pressure or threw the ball with opponents in his face, even when running backwards, always perfectly to his teammate. The problem sometimes, however, was that the pass receivers weren’t always where Rodgers expected them. Passes were often seen going nowhere because the quarterback and receiver were obviously not on the same wavelength.
“Is Aaron Rodgers too good for the Jets?” The Athletic portal asked itself. In relation to the aforementioned passes into nowhere, but also to the many penalties before the snap. There were five false starts alone.
Head coach Robert Saleh said they might need to rethink the “cadence.” These are the words that the quarterback says before the snap, before giving the decisive command. Using different words or tones is intended to prevent the defense from knowing exactly when the snap will occur. At best, she might even be provoked into a foul because she storms off too early. Rodgers is a master at it, but his teammates may not be able to cope with it, he may have to limit himself a little. That’s Saleh’s tenor. Rodger’s answer to that? “This is one way of dealing with it. The other is to hold them (the teammates, editor’s note) responsible.” These problems don’t exist in training.
In any case, in this one game, Rodgers tried to carry the offense. As mentioned, he delivered outstanding passes and good numbers despite being under pressure on over half of the plays and recording five sacks. And he was also the player who had the longest rush by a Jets player with a 14-yard run. During a scramble, after once again avoiding pressure, he was visibly annoyed. It’s by no means his job, but the running game wasn’t a factor otherwise. Ten days after the Jets completely dominated the New England Patriots and looked like title contenders, this performance against the Broncos leaves you perplexed.
St. Brown makes history
Amon-Ra St. Brown is the first German NFL player to throw a touchdown pass. In his Detroit Lions’ 42:29 victory, the wide receiver threw the ball to quarterback Jared Goff in the end zone in a trick play. “I can throw a little bit,” St. Brown said. “We announced this a few times last season but always canceled it. This time the thumbs up came and I was sure I was going to throw it.”
Falcons win without an offensive touchdown
The Atlanta Falcons won 26:24 against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. An important win in the race for the NFC South crown. But how it came about was special, because none of the Falcons’ touchdowns were scored by the offense. On the first, the Saints returner dropped a punt into the end zone and the Falcons recovered the ball for the touchdown. The second came via an interception by the defense. Otherwise, Younghoe Koo scored four field goals – including the decisive one for the win from 58 yards with seconds left.
But the game should have been decided before then. The Falcons stopped the Saints just outside their own end zone with four minutes left and had the ball in their backs with a 23:17 lead. However, the running game was not good enough to take time off the clock and was quickly stopped. Then quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a pass incomplete and the clock stopped. And then Tyler Allgeier ran the ball out of bounds before the first down marker – so the clock stopped again and Atlanta had to give the ball away without having used up much time. The Saints then took the lead in the first place.
Things got a little bizarre in the last drive. Not much went together for Atlanta, with under 30 seconds the Falcons were in their own half without a timeout. Then Cousins threw a deep pass and Paulson Adebo of the Saints committed a very clear pass interference that put Atlanta within range for the game-winning field goal (it didn’t get any closer than 58 yards because Cousins threw three more incomplete passes). The fact that Adebo apparently thought for a moment that he was getting away with his clear foul and was already celebrating somehow fit the picture of a strange game.
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