$.01--The most significant NFL action this week, at least in the broader picture, came with the league forcefully clamping down on its own teams for using social media to engage fans.

 

For those who aren’t active on social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) during games, quickly produced highlights are a staple feature. Teams use them to reach out to fans and give them something shareable to help promote the team and the action.

Many fans love it for being able to catch clips of games they aren’t able to watch locally. Say you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan living in Baton Rouge and the local affiliate is showing the Saints game. Unless you have a premium subscription that the vast majority of Americans cannot afford and a fair percentage cannot even get for a variety of reasons, the only real way to keep up with your Cowboys is from online clips on social media.

Not anymore.

I understand the NFL’s angle. They’re protecting the massive television network investment in the product. Those billions are the league’s life blood. And with ratings sagging, trying to keep that life blood as rich and flowing as possible makes absolute sense. Some teams were indeed too keen on quickly posting GIFs and highlights, often beating the network break-ins on other games. Fox, CBS and NBC rightly called foul as it takes attention away from their most significant expenditure as networks.

The problem here is the NFL and the networks are not adapting to the changing marketplace. They’re still mired in how folks consumed media even three years ago. The landscape has fundamentally changed. More people are watching on mobile devices, and also not devoting 3-plus hours of couch time to throw away the remote and stay locked on one game. Perhaps more importantly, the most coveted demographics are rapidly moving in that direction.

Take my 11-year-old son and his friends. They don’t sit and watch full games but rather dart in and out. They love highlight clips, and many times seeing a clip from a game will get them to change the channel to that game, or dig deeper into the action. When the game goes to commercial, this is what they do. Heck it’s what I do often too.

The NFL is painted into a corner here, and the life blood TV money is paint that isn’t going to dry. There are two choices for the league: either continue the status quo and antiquated business model by staying painted in the corner, or break through a wall and create new options.

Roger Goodell and the NFL didn’t even try to leverage the networks out of this jam. Instead they kowtowed to the money. That’s understandable, perhaps even necessary to some extent. But failing to even try to create new revenue streams or take an eye to the future in the face of change is incredibly myopic for both the NFL and the broadcast networks. They’re emulating Blockbuster in an era where Redbox is already passé product distribution. 

$.02-- Don’t look now but the Dallas Cowboys are 4-1 and looking down at most of the rest of the NFC. Thumping the Cincinnati Bengals 28-14 will do that for a team.

Any hope the Bengals had of rebounding from a miserable first half washed away quickly. Mike Nugent missed a field goal a play after Cowboys CB Mo Claiborne--one of the league’s most improved players in 2016--broke up an end zone shot to A.J. Green. On the very next snap, Zeke Elliott ran 60 yards almost untouched right thru the Bengals defense to extend the lead to 28-0.

The Bengals clearly have fallen a few pegs from their perennial playoff selves. Andy Dalton misses Tyler Eifert, Marvin Jones and Mohammed Sanu, and the Cincy offensive line isn’t what it used to be either. Even so, the dominance with which the Cowboys dismantled the visiting Bengals sure caught my attention.

Elliott was a controversial pick at No. 4 overall. Many Dallas fans openly bemoaned the pick, wanting Jalen Ramsey or Deforest Buckner or a trade back to acquire more defensive help. I loved it then, and love it even more now. He’s running away with Offensive Rookie of the Year.

His closest competitor might be his quarterback. Dak Prescott continues to impress, taking care of the ball and masterfully managing the offense. He made several throws in this one which showed refinement as a passer, even without Dez Bryant here. His mobility brings a dimension the fragile Tony Romo cannot. Jason Garrett faces an interesting decision when Romo is healthy; does he dare mess with the Prescott success and reinstall Romo at the controls? The more I watch of Prescott and how the team around him responds, the more I’m inclined to keep him as the starter. 

$.03--The Minnesota Vikings improved to 5-0 with an easy 31-13 home win over the Houston Texans. This game produced a chicken vs. egg argument over the Vikings outstanding defense and the Texans egregious offense.

In watching about half this game in fits and spurts, I side with the egg. Houston’s offense laid a giant one in Minnesota, and the primary culprit was Brock Osweiler.

Sometimes the stat lines can be a little deceiving…

19-for-42, 184 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 4 sacks, QB Rating of 56.1

Osweiler wasn’t nearly as impressive as that line would have you believe. Between ignoring star wideout DeAndre Hopkins for much of the game, misfiring on several throws and looking like the Vikings D was a little too fast for him, it’s difficult to find much to like.

The reason there’s any argument on the chicken or the egg is because the Minnesota defense is indeed that good. One of the reasons Hopkins didn’t crack the stat sheet until the second half was great pass coverage by Minnesota. They have corners who can stick in coverage, but they also have waves of pass rushers who don’t give the QB much time or vision to find any cracks on the back end.

This leaves Minnesota as the last undefeated team at 5-0. The way they reached this state is sustainable, too. I’m still not convinced Sam Bradford can win them a game if they need him to, but with their defense he simply must not lose them. Mission accomplished thus far for the team that remains dead last in the NFL in rushing.

$.04-- Tom Brady returned from his four-game league suspension with the vengeance of an exiled dictator returning and burning alive those who dared try and usurp his mighty rule.

Cleveland unwittingly played the human sacrifice victim to Brady’s triumphant restoration. Their bloodied corpses littered First Energy Stadium, having no chance to withstand the overwhelming onslaught. When their generals Cody Kessler and Charlie Whitehurst both went down against New England’s defenses, the slaughter was complete.

Brady looked good, hardly showing any signs of rust. Rob Gronkowski noted as much in his post-slaughter press conference. Gronk played second fiddle to fellow TE Martellus Bennett, who caught all three of Brady’s TD passes, and the big lug seemed perfectly content in doing so. Getting Brady back will bring those smiles, even on a day where New England couldn’t run the ball.

The 0-5 Browns won’t be the only victims on Brady’s angry redemption tour. He’s clearly focused on making the league look petty and ridiculous. Bill Belichick will have no problem in keeping that sword sharpened. There will be more blood. 

$.05-- Thursday night football gets a nod in this column every week, in part because it allows me to get some of this monster done before Sunday. But if we keep getting stinkers like the Arizona/San Francisco matchup, it’s going to be hard to justify coverage.

The Blaine Gabbert vs. Drew Stanton QB battle was about as compelling as watching a piece of cheese grow mold. Stanton led Arizona to the 33-21 road win despite the following numbers:

11-for-28, 124 yards, 6 passing first downs.

To his credit, Stanton did throw two touchdowns and that was enough to best Gabbert and the 49ers. San Francisco's offense had no ability to sustain an attack, and it was 31-14 garbage time before Gabbert threw his touchdown pass.

Stanton is also a backup, which helps explain his miserable performance. His counterpart might soon be joining him in that status. Numerous reports indicate the 49ers and Coach Chip Kelly have seen enough of Gabbert’s extremely limited game. Now. 1-4, it’s about time.

On Friday the team restructured Colin Kaepernick’s contract to get rid of injury guarantees, which frees the team to play him without nearly as much salary cap recourse if the enigmatic lightning rod gets hurt. Even though he’s wildly unpopular with much of the nation, on the field it’s near impossible to imagine Kaepernick being any worse than Gabbert.

Then again, given how Kelly handled his quarterbacks at Philadelphia, it’s probably Christian Ponder time in the Bay. Now there’s one guy who could actually be worse than fellow 2011 draft bust Gabbert…

$.06--Philadelphia at Detroit provided this week’s Any Given Sunday outcome. The Lions, losers of three in a row in increasingly ugly fashion, handed Carson Wentz and the Eagles their first loss, 24-23.

Detroit played without Ziggy Ansah and DeAndre Levy, the two best players in the defensive front. They played without Eric Ebron, the top red zone target. Philadelphia came in off a bye week rested and poised to pounce on the banged-up Lions, who have struggled to slow down more inferior offenses than what Wentz & Co. brought to Ford Field.

The Lions came out firing, looking prepared and motivated. Caldwell benched a couple of starters for inadequate play early on, and it kept his team sharp. He even managed the clock and the officials well. Those are characteristics not usually associated with Jim Caldwell’s 2016 Lions. But on this day, Caldwell definitively won the coaching battle. Matthew Stafford and Theo Riddick (2 receiving TDs) both playing well certainly helped.

The key here was cornerback Darius Slay down the stretch. “Big Play” Slay forced a fumble on Ryan Mathews which snuffed out one drive, then picked off Wentz on the first play of Philly’s final gasp. Detroit had just one takeaway in 19 quarters prior to Slay’s heroics.

Eagles fans saw chinks in the armor of their young quarterback, but Wentz definitely impressed. A flurry of penalties--some of which were awful calls--went against Philadelphia, though none came on critical plays or took actual points off the board. The Lions have been the hydrant for the bad officiating dog more than perhaps any other team in recent times, so Philadelphia will get no sympathy from the win-starved Detroit crowd.

$.07--For two teams with top shelf quarterbacks and two of the best wideouts in the game, the Packers and Giants sure looked like two very bad offenses in the Sunday Night affair. Aaron Rodgers and Eli Manning both struggled in a sloppy 23-16 Packers home win.

The lower-than-expected score was not the result of any great defense on either side. Rodgers was masterful on Green Bay’s opening drive, a 16-play, 75-yard carefully choreographed dance down the field. After that the perennial MVP candidate was a 50% passer with more INTs than TDs. He missed several open short-range targets. He threw off his back foot or unnecessarily dropped to a sidearm delivery a few times. There were some drops too, including a Richard Rodgers clank job that would have been a touchdown.

Manning wasn’t any better. The telling throw for Eli came in the second quarter with the Packers up 14-6. Tight end Will Tye streaked uncovered down the right seam and Manning had time and a clear throwing lane. The ball was about 2 yards too high and slipped out of Tye’s outstretched fingers. On the very next play Manning was strip-sacked, and the packers converted the recovered fumble into a field goal.

We expect Manning to have his struggles, as he’s battled them throughout his long and distinguished career. He’s also playing behind a line with two tackles in Ereck Flowers and Bobby Hart who belong on practice squads.

The overall decline from Rodgers continues to leave many heads overly scratched. The disjointed, predictable play calling doesn’t help him. Nor does the inability of anyone except Nelson to reliably get open on planned routes. Yet we’ve seen Rodgers thrive in the past with similar issues around him. At this point, we might need to accept this Rodgers is the new reality. He’s still very good but the difference keeps Green Bay from being a favorite in the NFC to one of the crowded playoff hopefuls. 

$.08--NFL Quickies

--I’m guilty as charged here…

 

Good for Rex and the Bills.

--Not many players had a worse day than San Diego punter Drew Kaser. After kicking a ball almost straight up on his first punt attempt (late in the 3rd quarter) for a 16-yarder, the rookie punter botched the hold on a potential game-tying FG with the Chargers down 34-31 late against Oakland. It’s rare a punter factors so prominently in a loss. San Diego is now 3-13 in one-score games over the last two seasons.

--The Steelers dominated all three phases in whipping the Jets 31-13. We all knew Ben Roethlisberger and the offense was lethal, and they did their part with 4 TD passes. After a little early success, New York’s offense was but a speed bump. Even the Pittsburgh special teams outclassed the Jets…

 

--I’m sorry to give it short shrift, but I didn’t even see one highlight of Atlanta’s win in Denver. That should answer any questions about if Atlanta is legitimately improved, although facing rookie QB Paxton Lynch helped the Falcons’ leaky defense.

$.09--College/Draft quickies

--I’m not a huge College Gameday fan; I prefer ESPN radio’s old Saturday AM show after the fantastic Dari & Mel. But this week ESPN had the best moment of the football weekend amidst the chaos of Gameday Live at Texas A&M.

They presented a montage of Lee Corso moments, where the venerable old coach dons the headgear. Corso was genuinely moved by the well-crafted piece, enough that he teared up and couldn’t speak. I felt the same way watching it. To turn a goofy, 20-year-old gimmick of a segment into something that profoundly emotional, that’s special. Thank you, ESPN.

--Notre Dame and North Carolina State played in Raleigh in Hurricane Matthew. There were puddles of standing water on the field on the first drive, and the game was as sloppy as you’d expect for being played in steady 50 MPH winds and rain exceeding an inch every 45 minutes. It was delayed for lightning at halftime. They should have just called it with the Wolfpack up 3-0.

You might recall Notre Dame playing at Clemson in the remnants of Hurricane Joaquin last year. Pretty random for a team in South Bend, Indiana to play in a literal hurricane two years in a row.

--I complain a lot about the officiating in the NFL. But I’m not sure I’ve seen a game as poorly officiated as the Texas/Oklahoma game. Among the myriad bad/missed calls was this not being flagged for anything. Lesser incidents than this have drawn targeting flags, and it’s quite obviously pass interference.

 

--Rutgers is not very good at football. That is an understatement in looking at the last two weeks. Ohio State pounded the Scarlet Knights 58-0 last week. Jim Harbaugh couldn’t let the Buckeyes rout stand, so his Michigan Wolverines one-upped the rivals. They beat Rutgers 78-0 and didn’t allow a first down until late in the second half.

--Even on a Saturday where Navy shocked Houston, the most surprising outcome for me was Virginia Tech dominating North Carolina. Even though this game was played in Hurricane Matthew as well, the Hokies acclimated well. The Tar Heels have an offense loaded with future NFL talent but Virginia Tech’s defense smothered them to the tune of 34-3. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky struggled, but the line in front of him did as well. The biggest shock was watching standout wide receiver Ryan Switzer drop a couple of easy passes. 

$.10--Unlike most of America, I did not watch the Presidential debate on Sunday night. I didn’t follow along on social media, either.

It’s not that I don’t care. Far from it. I just have no interest in the senseless, mindless arguing and finger pointing. My friends on both sides of the aisle have become increasingly bellicose and incorrigible. People I know to be intelligent, compassionate folks have become so blinded by partisan rhetoric and ignore the obvious and proven flaws in both major candidates. The willing suspension of disbelief to believe the most radical and obviously false points that litter not just social media but casual conversation among friends these days is just so tiring.

I can’t wait for this to be over. Do your part and make the insanity stop. Please. Tone down the rhetoric. You’re only talking to your houseplants at this point.