Week 5 Thoughts & Observations

[Tom Kessenich]

Here are some random thoughts and observations about Week 5 as I wonder if Todd Bowles understands that in football the objective of the game is to score more points than the opposition and not kneel down in submission like a little bi ...

On Sunday against Pittsburgh twice in the fourth quarter trailing by two scores, Bowles thought that punting on fourth-and-inches was the superior coaching decision. I like Bowles quite a bit but honestly those are fireable offenses. If I was the Jets’ GM I would have walked into the locker room and fired him on the spot. If you’re gonna be that gutless you don’t deserve to be an NFL head coach.

Play to win.

Don’t punt to lose.

End of story.

Sorry Todd that’s how I roll and if you can’t handle the heat you’re gonna get tossed into the fire. You just took a giant dump on the entire team, fan base and Jets’ organization with those two coaching decisions. That’s how bad they were. Those were embarrassing coaching decisions. You simply cannot give away a winnable game like that. It was absolutely shocking to see a coach wilt as badly as Bowles did with the pressure on. It was if he simply had no will to win. I can’t imagine his team wanting to play for a coach like that any longer. It was that bad and that demoralizing.

Not gonna lie, I was extremely impressed by the Bengals’ decision to remove A.J. Green from the game plan for most of the game against Dallas on Sunday. I’m sure they won going away right because that was absolutely brilliant and I can’t imagine any other outcome than a victory going away.

What? They lost? Convincingly?

Really?

You’re kidding right?

Seriously?

How could that have happened? You mean not involving one of the game’s superstars in the offensive game plan from start to finish wasn’t a wise coaching move?

I’m shocked. Shocked. I tell you. I can’t believe that plan was doomed to fail. How is that even possible?

Wow. I’ve never coached in this league and there’s absolutely no way I could’ve predicted that.

Nope.

Never in a million years.

Sitting on my couch at home. Couldn’t have done it at all. No way.

Speaking of the Bengals, I’ve preached patience with Jeremy Hill but I think it’s time to cut bait. He’s had one good game this season and that came in a matchup against Denver so his owners probably didn’t even start him that week. He looked really good in the preseason but it’s just not happening for him and it may be time to move on. The fact Gio Bernard was the featured back against the Cowboys suggest the Cincinnati coaching staff may have already done that so perhaps it’s time for fantasy owners to follow suit.

The Packers got a win last night but they continue to have issues offensively. Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams recreated “Freaky Friday” at Lambeau Field with Adams morphing into Nelson and Jordy bumbling and stumbling his way around the turf like Adams usually does. Eddie Lacy should have had a monster game before suffering an ankle injury but, of course, Mike McCarthy’s bone-headed refusal to utilize him intelligently prevented it. And Aaron Rodgers continued to struggle with accuracy issues.

Fortunately, Eli Manning played even worse and Giants’ head coach Ben McAdoo oddly thought it would make sense not to attack Green Bay’s horrific secondary right from the outset and that proved to be his team’s undoing. Yes, Green Bay is 3-1 but this team is light years behind Minnesota in terms of quality play.

On the bright side, Randy Cobb had his first Randy Cobb game in ages and assuming he isn’t dead today after taking a scary hit to the head late in the game that’s a huge plus for an offense that really looks completely out of sync five weeks into the season.

One week ago, Matty Stafford soiled the bed all over an A+ matchup. This week he faced a much sterner test and lit up the Eagles to the tune of three touchdown passes. Just like everyone expected.

Isn’t this game fun to try and predict?

We’ve all been waiting for a rookie quarterback to look like a rookie quarterback. Thank you Paxton Lynch for reminding us that rookies actually will look like rookies. Our world is normal once again.

But wait, the Falcons have a defense?

OK what the heck is up with that? So much for things being normal.

Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman are both Top 10 fantasy running backs. BOTH of them. How crazy is that?

NON FOOTBALL THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK

I saw a sneak preview clip of the season premiere of The Walking Dead. I have but two words …

HOLY F

Rick.

Negan.

HOLY F

And because I have no life I binged the entire season of Marvel’s Luke Cage. Wasn’t as impressed with it as I thought it was going to be. It was decent but not as great as the other Marvel Netflix shows. Still fired up about the upcoming Iron Fist series and really looking forward to The Defenders.

Now back to football …

I sometimes wonder just how good Jarvis Landry would be with a decent quarterback. I wonder if he does too.

I said all last week that in this year of wretched tight end play you could start both Hunter Henry and Antonio Gates because there would be enough targets for both of them in a pass-heavy offense like San Diego’s, especially this week against Oakland. For one week at least I looked pretty smart as both were productive and scored against the Raiders. I still feel good about their chances when healthy. The Chargers need to keep both involved since Henry has shown playmaking ability and Gates remains an elite option near the End Zone.

Speaking of the Chargers, I gotta give them props. Not sure there’s a team in the league that finds more inventive ways to lose football games. Well done San Diego.

Welcome back to the end zone Amari Cooper. You’ve been missed.

I actually had someone ask me on Twitter on Sunday if he should start Tom Brady this week. Folks, sometimes this game isn’t that hard. Don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be OK?

I would’ve started Brady this week against the Vikings, Broncos or the ’85 Bears. No defense was going to stop him this week. This was a game he wanted BAD. No defense was going to deny him. And he came out and slam-dunked the Browns just like everyone knew he would. This was the easiest call of the week and only a fool would’ve bet against him.

The Patriots traded a fourth-round pick to the Bears for Martellus Bennett AND got a sixth back too. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they won that trade.

On a sour note in New England, Steve Gostkowski has now missed as many field goals this season as Blair Walsh, who everybody rips a new one on a weekly basis. Nobody’s talking about Gostkowski’s issues this season but this is something to keep an eye on. If Walsh’s misses are an issue for a contending team in Minnesota surely the same thing is a problem with a contender in New England.

Oh by the way Ted Thompson, do you see the value of trading picks for proven veterans? You just go right on hoarding all those draft picks and let Bill Belichick keep playing for championships every year.

Frank Gore’s pushing 50 and still looks good on the field. Love that guy.

Among the many things I like about Le’Veon Bell and David Johnson are the way they both seem to glide as they are running with the ball. It seems to allow them to minimize taking really big hits. It also seems to make them look like they’re moving effortlessly at times. So enjoyable to watch as running backs.

I’ve long been a Sam Bradford fan and I feel he’s been unfairly maligned throughout his career so I’m genuinely happy for the success he’s enjoying in Minnesota. He played great football down the stretch last season in Philadelphia so I’m not surprised to see him playing well with the Vikings this season. The success Bradford’s enjoying is long overdue.

And finally if you started Julio Jones, A.J. Green and Jarvis Landry this week you clearly have no idea how to set a lineup properly because all three of those wide receivers stink so you should ask the guy who started Sammie Coates, Cameron Meredith and Adam Thielen. That guy’s awesome. He knows everything and those guys rule.

[Frozen Tundra]

Thanks Tom. To say that Rodgers is struggling with accuracy issues is putting it mildly. With a completion pct 56% he is #31 among QBs, after finishing 25th last year. This is the guy who was battling Drew Brees for the all-time comp % crown before Jordy went down. People were surprised when he threw an incompletion, now we pray for someone to catch the ball. While Jordy is nowhere 100%, Cobb is often trapped in MM's fantasyland as a running back and Devante is Devante, Rodgers himself is overthinking. Having subpar coaching that offers no help means that you have to do a lot by yourself, but I have to believe the thing he hates more than an incompletion is throwing an INT. You can see that most of these throws are "either my guy catches it or nobody does" types and unfortunately most of them are sailing wide, be it because he is just erring too much on the side of caution or his guys just can't make the plays they used to. It's troubling since I don't believe we stand a chance agains good teams with Rodgers completing at this rate, defensive improvements notwithstanding.
Leveon Bell reminds me of a lot of Ladanian with that effortless, elusive glide. Also Adam Vinatieri should be a first ballot when he becomes eligible - which could be in 20 years at the rate he is going.