With just one week left in the 2019 regular season, here are nine things we learned from Week 16’s Sunday.
In the end, firing Jason Garrett is best for all involved.
As far as pure roster talent is concerned, it’s tough to top the Cowboys — especially on offense. Dak Prescott is one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, and when that offense is humming, running back Ezekiel Elliott and receiver Amari Cooper can make the same claims. They do their work behind one of the league’s premier offensive lines, and on defense, there’s enough talent to be above-average.
So, when a team like that stands at 7-8 and loses a key divisional matchup as the Cowboys did to the Eagles on Sunday afternoon… well, maybe it’s time to isolate the coaching. In this 17-9 loss to the Eagles, many were wondering why Elliott and Cooper were on the bench at specific (and important) times in favor of guys like Tavon Austin and Tony Pollard. Per Jane Slater of the NFL Network, Dallas’ coaching staff didn’t bench Cooper per se — they wanted him off the field in specific instances because they felt the Eagles’ defensive backs were struggling more with smaller, quicker receivers. Cooper caught five passes for 106 yards the first time Dallas and Philadelphia met this season, but we digress. Austin finished the day with one catch for five yards, and while Randall Cobb did catch five passes for 73 yards, he was off the field on one crucial fourth-down situation. When the Cowboys went into hurry-up mode, they apparently had issues substituting the receivers they wanted back in.
As to why Dallas only ran the ball 16 times, well, we’ll just leave this here.
The Cowboys can still make the playoffs if they beat the Redskins and the Eagles lose to the Giants in Week 17, but if not, this will be the fourth time in Jason Garrett’s nine seasons that his team has lost what would be a division-winning game in Weeks 16 or 17. If Dallas doesn’t make the playoffs, it’s hard to imagine that Jerry Jones has a choice but to let Garrett go.
The NFL’s four worst teams went all out in two battles for draft position.
While some teams were hitting hard for playoff spots in Week 16, others were either trying to stay out of the NFL’s bargain bin, or stealthily tanking for better draft picks. Actually, in the cases of four of the five worst teams in the league — the Dolphins, Bengals, Giants, and Redskins — there were two games on Sunday that went into overtime, and all four of these teams were competitive, at least with each other. The Giants beat the Redskins 41-35 as Daniel Jones threw his fifth touchdown pass of the day, and the Dolphins beat the Bengals, 38-35, as Ryan Fitzpatrick became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw four touchdown passes for five different teams.
Of course, when you’re in the running for the first overall pick, and you’re still trying to win games, your fanbase will not generally be impressed.
Joe Burrow will be the Bengals’ next franchise quarterback.
As it turned out, the Bengals locked up the first overall pick with their loss to the Dolphins, and a 1-13 mark that will lap the NFL in futility no matter what Cincinnati does in Week 17 against the Browns. That puts them in line for LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, the reigning Heisman Trophy Winner and the best available player in the 2020 draft, if you’re not leaning on the side of Ohio State pass-rusher Chase Young. With Andy Dalton likely out the door and Ryan Finley proving that he isn’t the answer, it’s time to give head coach Zac Taylor at least half a chance with a quarterback who has some top-tier potential.
The Ravens keep making history, and they’re the AFC’s best.
The Ravens enjoyed a couple of firsts in their 31-15 win over the Browns on Sunday. For the first time in team history, they wrapped up the AFC’s one-seed, which is pretty remarkable for a franchise that has already won two Super Bowls. And quarterback Lamar Jackson became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 yards in the same season. Jackson got off to a bit of a slow start against Cleveland’s defense, but warmed up nicely with two touchdown passes to tight end Mark Andrews in a one-minute span near the end of the first half.
More and more, the 13-2 Ravens seem like the team nobody wants to face.
Jerome Boger’s crew should be suspended for missing this call.
The NFL will not shut up about player safety, especially when current and former players talk about the effects of head trauma and the NFL’s other inevitable violences. But as much as the NFL’s officials are allegedly instructed to err on the side of player safety, it doesn’t always work out. With 4:23 left in the Saints-Titans game on Sunday, Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw a pass to receiver Kalif Raymond, and Raymond was absolutely leveled by New Orleans defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
Raymond fumbled, as one tends to do when one has been rendered unconscious, and Gardner-Johnson recovered the ball. There was no penalty called, though there clearly should have been, and the Saints scored on their subsequent drive. So, instead of the Titans having advantageous field position based on a penalty that should have been called, the Titans were robbed of an important possession, and lost, 38-28.
“I did, but they didn’t see it that way,” head coach Mike Vrabel said when asked if Gardner-Johnson should have been flagged for a hit to a defenseless receiver. “That’s what happens. It’s fast, it happens quickly. Again, it’s about player safety and about when that player becomes unprotected. There’s a certain time completing the process of the catch, and it’s a fine line.”
Given the egregious nature of the miss, and the clear violation of player safety, head official Jerome Boger and his entire crew should at least be fined, and possibly suspended, for Week 17, and should be downgraded for any playoff assignments.
Given the lack of accountability under VP of Officiating Al Riveron, we’re not expecting that to happen. But it should.
It’s been an all-time year for the Hog Mollies.
Is there anything more fun in football than a Fat Guy Touchdown? Of course not. Modern offensive coordinators must agree, because through the first 15 weeks of the 2019 season, six different players weighing over 300 pounds have scored touchdowns. This included two in Week 15 — Buffalo offensive tackle Dion Dawkins against the Patriots on Saturday, and Miami defensive tackle Christian Wilkins against the Bengals on Sunday.
Wilkins, who played everything from defensive tackle to defensive end to fullback, halfback and receiver at Clemson, became the first rookie big guy to score a touchdown since William “The Refrigerator” Perry for the Bears in 1985. Perry also went to Clemson, so maybe it’s something in the water.
All we can ask? More of this in the playoffs.
The Browns are, once again, an inelegant mess.
We’re past the point where we’re talking about the Browns as an overhyped disappointment — even those who didn’t buy into the whole “This is their year” thing have to be a bit shocked by the extent to which this team has fallen off a cliff in 2019. They were 2-6 at the season’s halfway point, and though they managed to turn things around a bit to get to 6-9, Sunday’s 31-15 loss to the Ravens was yet another embarrassment for a team that lacks any manner of discipline and consistency. Once again, Freddie Kitchens fell victim to weird clock management, ineffective play-calling, and his own players berating him on the sideline.
As for quarterback Baker Mayfield? Safe to say, the bloom is off the rose.
The Giants’ quarterback/running back thing appears to be solved.
The best the 2019 Giants can do is to finish with a 5-11 record if they beat the Eagles next Sunday. And while that represents a huge disappointment for those in the building who believed this team was set for better things, it’s safe to say that, at least at the quarterback and running back positions, things are working out pretty well.
General manager Dave Gettleman got all kinds of wrongheaded heat for selecting Duke quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick. I was among those who thought the pick was a massive overdraft, and I’ll be just as willing to eat my words based on Jones’ overall performance in his rookie season. Jones threw five touchdown passes against the Redskins in a 41-35 overtime win, marking the third time this season he’s thrown at least four touchdown passes in a game. And outside of a three-interception stinker against the Packers, there hasn’t been a game where he looked outmatched. With Big Blue’s iffy offensive line and cadre of receivers, that’s fairly impressive.
Gettleman was also pilloried by those who believe running backs are fungible in the modern NFL when he took Penn State back Saquon Barkley with the second overall pick in the 2018 draft. Barkley led the league in yards from scrimmage in his rookie campaign, and while his effect has been muted by injuries this season, he absolutely torched Washington’s vulnerable defense on Sunday with 189 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, and four receptions for 90 yards and another touchdown.
Gettleman still has a lot of team-building to do, and his hit rate isn’t optimal at times, but he struck gold on these two controversial picks.
Larry Fitzgerald has done more with less than any receiver in NFL history.
On Sunday, Atlanta’s Julio Jones became the fastest receiver in NFL history to 12,000 career yards. Undoubtedly an amazing feat and a testament to Jones’ talent, but also easier to do when Matt Ryan has been your primary quarterback than, say, Chris Chandler. Jerry Rice is the GOAT at the receiver position, and there can be no doubt about it, but when most of your catches have come from Joe Montana and Steve Young — well, again, it’s a bit easier than if Jim Druckenmiller had been driving the bus all those years.
There are potentially great receivers lost to the vagaries of time because they rarely caught passes from above-average quarterbacks. And it’s the rare receiver who can transcend his quarterbacks over time to become one of the all-time greats.
That’s where Larry Fitzgerald, who went over 17,000 yards in his remarkable career on Sunday, comes in.
Outside of three good Kurt Warner years from 2007 through 2009, two good Carson Palmer years in 2015 and 2016, and the great potential of rookie Kyler Murray in 2019 and beyond, Fitzgerald has suffered from mostly sub-par quarterback play throughout an NFL career than began in 2004, when he was selected with the third overall pick by the Cardinals out of Pitt in the 2004 draft. In that first season, his quarterbacks were Josh McCown, Shaun King, and some guy named John Navarre. Still, he led the team with 58 receptions for 780 yards and eight touchdowns, and things just got better for the Cardinals — and worse for Fitzgerald at times — from there.
Fitzgerald has never complained about the quarterback situation; he’s just gone out and made plays, season after season. Now that Arizona’s offense is charged with high-impact rookie Kyler Murray, it’s a bit easier for Fitzgerald, as it was on this 21-yard touchdown against Seattle in a 27-13 upset victory.
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