$.01--Last season Carolina hosted Arizona in the NFC Championship game. Don’t expect a repeat, as both teams are 1-3 after losing Sunday.

Carolina got eviscerated by Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and the Atlanta Falcons 48-33. Ryan threw for 503 yards and four TDs with a remarkable 13.7 yards per attempt, blistering Carolina’s secondary that struggles to both cover and tackle. Jones caught 12 passes for exactly 300 yards and one of the TDs, a simple slant route where he ran past several Panthers on his 75-yard trip to the end zone.

Ryan is on fire in Brian Schottenheimer’s Atlanta offense, looking comfortable and confident in his upgraded weapons aside from Jones and a solid offensive line. He’s not just a candidate for Most Improved Player, Ryan is a viable MVP front-runner.

 

Cam Newton left this game with a potential concussion on a 2-pt. conversion, but it didn’t matter much for the Panthers. This game wasn’t as close as the score indicates, as the Panthers rallied late behind backup QB Derek Anderson after trailing 34-10 early in the fourth quarter.

Carolina is losing on both sides of the line on passing plays; they cannot reliably impact the opposing passer and they are really struggling to generate pressure on their own. They also miss Josh Norman, the corner they let depart to Washington in a salary dispute, though he wouldn’t solve all the coverage and communication issues in the secondary either. The one saving grace for Carolina is that their three losses are to Minnesota, Denver and now Atlanta. Those three belong in any top 5 power ranking in the season’s first quarter.

For Arizona, the situation is more dire. The Cardinals are also struggling mightily, but what ails them is tougher to remedy. Foremost is the regression of Carson Palmer at quarterback. Now 36, Palmer often looks 56. His deep throws--what has made him special in Arizona--aren’t connecting and the pressure is forcing more poor throws. Arizona’s offensive line has not played well in front of him either.

The veteran QB left this game in the concussion protocol, replaced by turnover-prone Drew Stanton. And while David Johnson’s stat line looks pretty solid (17 carries for 83 yards) the dynamic Cardinals RB was often breaking tackles or sidestepping defenders from blown blocks on nearly every carry. Much like the Panthers, their secondary is proving prone to coverage and communication lapses, often at the most inopportune times. In this game a special teams issue set up Los Angeles’ go-ahead TD, a dandy Tavon Austin punt return coupled with a facemask, putting Case Keenum and the Rams in position for the touchdown.

Arizona is 1-3, but there poor start hurts them more than Carolina’s matching record. The Cardinals drew three of their first four at home and the road game was against a reeling Bills team that just fired its offensive coordinator. They managed a blowout win over the struggling Buccaneers and three fairly ugly losses. This one really hurts, as it puts them (incredibly) two games plus a tiebreaker behind the (incredibly) first-place Los Angeles Rams.

Now the Cardinals travel to San Francisco for a quick Thursday night game with Palmer’s status questionable and the Niners playing solid defense. Carolina catches a bit of a break with Newton’s hazy head by not playing until next Monday night, hosting the 1-3, mistake-laden Buccaneers. 

$.02--I initially designated this spot for the Sunday Night football game with Kansas City visiting Pittsburgh in my outline. It was one of the top games on the slate, an important AFC tilt featuring two fervent fanbases.

The game itself was an absolute dog, especially if you’re a Chiefs fan. The home team raced out to a 22-0 lead before the first quarter ended, and pushed it to 36-0 before the Chiefs finally eked out a couple of late TDs closed the gap to 43-14.

Yet here it remains as the second penny in my thoughts. That’s the power of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Coming off an absolutely awful loss, a 34-3 butt-whipping from Philadelphia, many questioned the Steelers. Those folks should never doubt the resiliency of the Steelers or the masterful control over his team of Head Coach Mike Tomlin.

This is what Pittsburgh does. They have a clunker every so often, get it out of their system and get back to looking very much like a team that can win the Super Bowl. The potent offense added LeVeon Bell back at running back, fresh off his marijuana-induced suspension. Big Ben Roethlisberger was fantastic, firing deep strikes to open receivers but also showing he’s still got the ability to prolong plays and masterfully operate Todd Haley’s offense.

This had to feel sweet for Haley, a former Chiefs head coach who did not go quietly into the night when Kansas City (rightfully) fired him. He gutted Andy Reid’s Chiefs like a hungry vulture on fresh roadkill. This was a statement from the yellow and black attack that one bad week doesn’t matter.

A lot of teams and coaches like to believe that’s true, but nobody does it better than Tomlin and his Steelers. He is the master of compartmentalizing bad play and seems to understand what buttons to push after his team lays an egg. Tomlin certainly did that on Sunday night, selling his team to believe in “Redemption Sunday”. Mission accomplished.

$.03--Sunday kicked off in London with an AFC matchup between the Jaguars and Colts. Jacksonville dominated early and then held on for dear life as Andrew Luck rallied in garbage time to make it very interesting, falling just short at 30-27 when Luck’s late fourth down pass fell to the ground.

The game itself was what you’d expect from two poorly coached, bottom-feeding teams. But there was an incident in the second quarter that struck me funny. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed just how convoluted the NFL rules have become.

 

The play in question came when Jaguars wideout Allen Robinson caught a pass over the middle. Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson launched himself head first into Robinson’s shoulder and head area, and he was rightfully penalized for the personal foul. In the college game Jackson would have been ejected for targeting, without question.

Jacksonville couldn’t capitalize however, because Robinson happened to spin the football on the Wembley turf as he got up. The ball spun dangerously close to Jackson’s foot, and Robinson did look at Jackson after he spun it. The officials apparently found it a dangerous ordinance and hit Robinson with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Robinson spins the ball after just about every reception, and he’s among the league leaders in that category over the last couple of seasons. Steve Smith has spun the ball close to 1,000 times over the course of his career, often with ensuing trash talk and posturing. I’ve seen this action penalized maybe 0.05% of the time over the years.

Normally I’m a curmudgeon on taunting and want to see it called more frequently; I cannot stand self-aggrandizing behavior in the face of an opponent. But spinning a football without much histrionics is about as innocuous of a celebration as you see in today’s NFL. That the league sees this act perfectly comparable with a defender purposely hitting another player in the head speaks volumes about the increasingly sad state of Roger Goodell’s National Football League.

$.04--Three AFC teams entered Week 4 undefeated, but only one escaped without a notch in the loss column.

Baltimore’s luck ran out at home against the feisty Raiders, who are now also 3-1 and need to be taken seriously. Derek Carr and the Raiders made the most of their opportunities, posting four TD passes. Baltimore moved the ball up and down the field but continually sputtered when they got close, be it penalties or settling for Justin Tucker field goals. This was the second week in a row that Oakland’s defense has shown more teeth, and that makes them a dangerous foe when Carr and Michael Crabtree (3 TDs) are as in sync as Justin Timberlake and Joey Fatone.

Brady-free New England finally crapped out with a humbling 16-0 loss to Rex Ryan and the Bills. Jacoby Brissett looked very much like a third-string rookie QB forced into action. The Patriots managed just 1-of-12 on third down conversions and barely encroached Buffalo territory, unable to sustain any drives or strike big plays other than an early 58-yard reception by Martellus Bennett. That promising foray ended with a holding penalty and a Brissett fumble. Given how Rex Ryan would seemingly rather go 2-14 with the two wins over Belichick and New England than 11-5 and winning a playoff game, the dilapidated Patriots were in the wrong place at the wrong time. With Brady coming back and the bad play out of their system, they might not lose again.

The one remaining undefeated in the AFC is the team that won the conference last year, the Denver Broncos. They’re doing it with defensive tenacity and chemistry. They did this one, a 27-7 win in soggy Tampa, despite losing QB Trevor Siemian. Rookie first-round pick Paxton Lynch stepped in and looked impressive, throwing his first TD and showing the game wasn’t too big for him. Then again, Tampa Bay is often its own worst enemy. The Bucs cannot protect Jameis Winston and the second-year QB continues to make ill-advised decisions under pressure. The Bucs have 11 giveaways in four weeks, while the Broncos pushed their takeaway total to 8 with three here. Denver’s recipe works against any foe in any climate, and that’s why they are the last undefeated man standing in the AFC.

$.05--Miami is a mess. I suspected as much even before watching the Dolphins ugly 22-7 loss on Thursday night in Cincinnati, and the primetime debacle confirmed it.

The score was only that close because the Bengals red zone offense is terrible. Cincinnati kicker Mike Nugent nailed five field goals, all from inside 48 yards after the Bengals kept stalling in Miami territory. A.J. Green was phenomenal, catching passes for more yards during the first three quarters (166) than the entire Miami offense produced (152).

The Dolphins scored on their second play on a great deep pass from Ryan Tannehill to Kenny Stills. The 74-yard touchdown represented more than a third of the total Miami offensive output and all their points. Tannehill struggled mightily behind a patchwork line, getting little help from a run game that tried just 13 attempts. But Tannehill did himself few favors either, and the fan sentiment is definitely turning on the 2012 first-rounder. With good reason. Among those reasons:

  • Continual lack of feel for the rush in the pocket
  • Misfires to wide open targets, more a lack of timing than ball placement
  • Poor decisions with the ball

The bottom line for Tannehill is he has reached a plateau in his development, and that perch is somewhere in the lower-middle third of the league’s QBs. New Head Coach Adam Gase was hired specifically, almost exclusively, to foster Tannehill’s development. With so many other fish to fry on an oddly constructed roster with major salary cap issues, Gase has made minimal impact on his quarterback. And given the Dolphins need their quarterback to be outstanding to have a chance to win most weeks, Miami is in for a lot more losses than wins in 2016.

$.06--Clemson outgunned Louisville 42-36 Saturday night in a high-flying matchup of top five teams. The game also featured two of the most prominent Heisman Trophy candidates in Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson. Watson threw 5 TDs and also made several key plays with his legs in helping Clemson seize control of the ACC Atlantic division.

This was the game where Louisville was supposed to be exposed as the biggest fraud since Bernie Madoff. The Cardinals romped to the No. 3 ranking behind Jackson’s prodigious productivity, but much of the college football world didn’t believe they could do it under the bright lights and increased expectations. While they lost, Jackson and his mates proved they were no fluke. The lanky sophomore from Miami settled in after a shaky start and even seized the lead in the fourth quarter.

Watson answered with two scoring drives of his own, mixing runs and passes to various targets and looking very poised and controlled. He showed the traits scouts want to see down the stretch, brushing off some bad earlier throws that included three INTs and a few underthrown passes to open targets despite not being under a lot of pressure. This resiliency is why he’s the early favorite to be the first QB selected in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Jackson had one final chance to answer, to keep his name atop the Heisman hype list. He did his part, but wideout James Quick didn’t have the field awareness to pick up a first down inside the Clemson 5 on a fourth down swing pass. It was that close, a worthy primetime shootout.

Clemson is now ranked 3rd, while Louisville fell to just No. 7. That’s deserved respect for Louisville and keeps them in the playoff hunt if they can upend No. 6 Houston late in the year and get a little help. The Tigers will make it back to the playoff if they win out, and that sure seems likely. In what is almost inarguably the best football conference in 2016, Clemson has just one ranked team remaining, the rotting carcass of Florida State. North Carolina or Miami or even Virginia Tech in the ACC Title game won’t be a picnic, but the Tigers would be favored by at least a touchdown over any foe.

$.07--One of the reasons I chose to write more cents about college football this week instead of making the sixth and seventh cents about the NFL is because the college game was flat-out superior to the NFL this weekend. Many would argue this is a weekly truth, but it really stood out to me as I reflected back upon the weekend in football.

There were several thrilling games on Saturday. Tennessee rallied from behind and defeated Georgia 34-31 on a Hail Mary to remain the most improbably undefeated team in the nation, one week after a similar near-miracle comeback to vanquish Florida. North Carolina nailed a 54-yard field goal as time expired to upset Florida State in a game that was back-and-forth all afternoon. Oklahoma State, which lost on a controversial final play to Central Michigan earlier, pulled the upset over a ranked Texas team that caused some in power to question Longhorns coach Charlie Strong and his job security. Indiana shocked Michigan State in overtime after the Hoosiers defense, perennially one of the weakest in the FBS, rose up and stopped the Spartans. Baylor never led lowly Iowa State until after the clock hit 0:00. Oklahoma held on for dear life to squeak past TCU 52-46.

Even the games that didn’t have a lot of offensive sizzle still compelled. Michigan and Wisconsin slugged it out at the Big House, with the Wolverines coming up 14-7 winners in a battle of Top 10 teams. California upset Utah, while South Alabama scored a major shocker in knocking off a ranked San Diego State squad. The MAC featured several rivalry games, notably Western Michigan bombarding Central Michigan to launch the Broncos into the national rankings but also my Ohio Bobcats thumping the hated Miami RedHawks.

Flash to Sunday and the NFL slate. Just about every contest featured several noteworthy players sidelined with injuries. Poor play reigned supreme in several games. I had to watch Chicago suck less than Detroit to break into the win column, a game where you could cobble a top-10 defense out of the players who missed the contest with injuries. Cam Newton and Trevor Siemian both left their games with injuries, dealing serious blows to the defending Super Bowl combatants.

New England started third-stringer Jacoby Brissett and couldn’t score at home against Buffalo. Jeff Fisher made one of the worst coaching challenges in NFL history a few minutes after deliberately challenging Patrick Peterson on a deep throw on 4th and 3…and his Rams still somehow wound up winning. Tampa Bay hosted yet another weather delay. One of the alleged young stars, Marcus Mariota in Tennessee, struggled badly against a J.J. Watt-less Houston defense,

 

If not for a couple of great contests saving the day, the NFL was almost unwatchable. Oakland knocked Baltimore from the unbeaten ranks in a very entertaining 28-27 game. Dallas improved to 3-1 in a lively win in San Francisco, though that game ultimately came down to Blaine Gabbert throwing an out pattern about 3 yards shy of the marker on 4th down with the Niners driving late. The Saints/Chargers game was straight out of the Big 12, too.

More and more folks tell me they like the college game more and the NFL less. This weekend was a stark example for me of why that trends is growing.

$.08-- College/Draft Quickies

--Washington 44, Stanford 6. Frequent readers, especially those who follow me on Twitter over the last few years, know how much disdain I have for the unending praise heaped upon Stanford and their coach, David Shaw. They’re a strong program and he’s a decent coach, but there is no doubt Stanford football is the most overrated entity in college sports. Washington exposed this with a primetime Friday night butt kicking where the Huskies dominated the lines of scrimmage and had the better athletes on the perimeter.

--Nebraska punter Sam Foltz was killed in a car accident over the summer, along with former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler. Illinois honored Foltz in the Cornhuskers’ visit to Champaign:

 

That’s what it’s all about folks. That is why we want our sons to play sports and respect the game. Well done, Illini!

--In a game that was 23-13 with less than 6 minutes of elapsed game time, Notre Dame put some salve on a festering early season with a 50-33 romp over Syracuse. But the story for the scouts in attendance was Orange wideout Amba Etta-Tawo. The speedy 6’2” Maryland transfer is forcing everyone to take notice with his blend of physicality, footwork and length. He hauled in 7 catches for 134 yards against the Irish and now stands with 47 receptions for 840 yards and 6 TDs on the season. Despite doing next to nothing the last two seasons for the Terrapins, Etta-Tawo sure looks legit in Syracuse.

--The U is making a comeback. Miami is now 5-0 and ranked 10th in the latest coaches poll in Mark Richt’s first season at the Hurricanes helm. The road gets significantly tougher as they enter the meat of the ACC play, as the conference has 6 ranked teams right now, but they’re already playing much more as a team and looking like football is fun in South Florida once again. Their stingy defense makes them a tough out. Nice work, Coach Richt! 

$.09 NFL Quickies

--The NFL announced the halftime entertainment this week. Lady Gaga is the headline performer. She’s not a bad choice with her unique stage presence and apparently vast catalog of hits. Gaga also proved she can really sing with her resounding rendition of the national anthem at last year’s Super Bowl.

--Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three more INTs, making it 9 in the last two weeks. The Jets lost 27-17 to the Seahawks, who finally found some offensive rhythm in New York. They desperately need Fitzpatrick to show some of last year’s Fitz-magic, but the only thing he’s pulling out of his hat are turnovers. The Jets QB has thrown more INTs than the entire NFC North after four weeks.

--San Diego blew its third 4th quarter lead in four weeks in losing at home to New Orleans. Two of those games saw the Chargers lose despite double-digit leads with less than 10 minutes to play. Oof.

--The Detroit Lions have played three of the worst teams in the league so far in Indianapolis, Tennessee and Chicago. Jim Caldwell’s Lions managed to lose two of those, and his inability to either prepare or motivate his team is the primary issue. He’s a dead man walking, as rookie GM Bob Quinn has no reason to keep Caldwell other than not having anyone else to take his place in the short term.

$.10: I thought long and hard about phrasing the intro to this topic. In the end, I opted to keep the initial lede…

The State of Michigan is willingly promoting the inferiority of females to males.

In an era where female equality in both opportunity and compensation is a hot button issue, Michigan embraces and endorses the antiquated notion that men are indeed superior to women.

Ironically, we discovered this by having our 11-year-old son openly discriminated against simply because of his genitalia, Title IX be damned.

We tried to sign him up for our local rec department’s volleyball for 5th and 6th graders. The department politely but firmly denied him to participate because he is a boy and it is specified as a girl’s league.

This is not a local decision but rather state law. The Michigan High School Athletic Association prohibits boys from participating in any sport designated “girls”, even if no male equivalent sport is offered. Yet any girl is free to join any boy’s sport even if the same program is offered only for girls as well.

That’s a blatant double standard and it is wrong. What is the justification? The only possible conclusion is that this is an admission that girls are athletically inferior to boys, even as young as elementary school. Girls must be protected from boys and are not capable of competing with them, or so the State of Michigan believes.

My son just wants to play volleyball. My wife and I are both avid volleyball players who have competed at high USVA levels and semi-pro beach tournaments. It’s our family sport. He has participated in several co-ed camps, and at this age level there is no advantage to his gender.

If my 8-year-old daughter wants to wrestle with boys, or play strong safety on the tackle football team, she cannot be denied. If anyone tried, they’d be not only ridiculed but prosecuted. My son wants to play a non-contact sport, but because of his gender he is automatically disqualified.

Isn’t that the antithesis of the movement for equality that women have fought so hard, so bitterly for years to try and achieve? Equality isn’t always equal, apparently.