TAMPA, Fla. — Here’s a storyline no one saw coming: The New England Patriots’ defense led the way in an ugly 19-14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night. That’s right, the defense.
Much maligned, and with good reason, the unit answered its critics on a penalty-flag-filled night that was anything but a good advertisement for quality NFL play.
The Patriots’ D might consider sending thank-you notes to inaccurate Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston (how many wide-open receivers can you miss?) and erratic kicker Nick Folk (it wouldn’t be a surprise if the pink slip was waiting for him in his locker after the game).
While Duron Harmon and the Patriots secondary benefited from an inaccurate Jameis Winston on Thursday, New England didn’t give up the big plays that had plagued it through four games. Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire
Nonetheless, they’ll take the win because the defense was markedly better than the way the Patriots had played in the first four weeks of the season. It is a performance from which they can build as they look ahead to their next game, Oct. 15 at the New York Jets.
Asked what the defense did better, coach Bill Belichick didn’t hesitate when he said, “Pretty much everything. You got a chance to win giving up 14 points. We couldn’t score much, but it was one of those games you got to do what you do to win.”
The big plays, which have been New England’s biggest problem, were limited (Winston helped, of course). Cornerback Stephon Gilmore, coming off a disastrous game in Week 4, matched up mostly against receiver Mike Evans and held him in check (five catches for 49 yards).
After the game, Gilmore said, “I think that’s when you get the best out of me, when I’m following a guy and studying that guy. ? I was out to prove something.”
With Gilmore on Evans, that meant fellow cornerback Malcolm Butler checked DeSean Jackson. The overall coverage was tighter. The communication was better. And there was more energy.
“You can build off this as a defense,” said safety Devin McCourty, one of the team’s captains. “You can’t build when you’re cutting guys loose, so today was obviously a step in the right way.”
Of Gilmore and Butler matching up against Evans and Jackson, McCourty said, “Those aren’t two easy guys to cover. I think that really helped settle the game plan down, knowing we have Steph on Evans and Malc on Jackson, and we know those two guys love that. They love to go out and compete, and be out there on islands one-on-one against guys. That helps the defense when we know those two guys are good.”
It was the turnaround the defense needed after it struggled against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
“You take adversity and it helps you bond as a team,” McCourty said. “We had to come together, we had to stick together through a rough Sunday and on a short week when we couldn’t practice hard and run around. We had to talk to each other, communicate through walk-throughs and trust each other. I thought that’s what helped us — depending on each other.”
Still, it was far from perfect overall, as evidenced by two bone-headed penalties for roughing the passer at the end of the second quarter that inexcusably gave the Buccaneers a chance at a 56-yard field goal. But Folk missed that one, and then was wide left on attempts of 49 and 31 yards in the fourth quarter.
The final miss bailed out the defense, which was tiring into the fourth quarter.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff has done a nice job of spreading the ball around through the season’s first quarter. Sometimes it’s Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods who take over. Or Cooper Kupp. Or one tight end (Tyler Higbee), or the other (Gerald Everett). But there has been one constant: Todd Gurley.
“I try to remind myself every week to continue to look for him,” Goff said after Sunday’s 35-30 win over the Dallas Cowboys, “and to continue to try to get him the ball in any situation possible.”
Todd Gurley has powered the Rams’ offense, which is averaging an NFL-best 35.5 points per game. Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports
Is this type of workload sustainable over the course of a 16-game season.
“That’s a good question,” said Rams coach Sean McVay, who has pondered that himself. “I think a lot of it is going to be how Todd’s feeling. But you also want to make sure you have a long-term, big-picture perspective in mind with Todd because of how important he is to us. … You want him to be able to be fresh as the season progresses, as well. So whether we tailor that back or not is going to be predicated on how he feels. But right now he’s done a great job.”
Gurley has gained more than 100 yards on the ground in back-to-back weeks, after failing to reach triple-digit rushing yards in 20 straight games. He has hauled in 20 of his 22 targets, according to ESPN’s internal statistics. And he has scored seven touchdowns, one more than he scored in four times the amount of games last season.
2016
2017
Offensive snaps per game
44.4 (4th among RBs)
49.5 (4th among RBs)
Percentage of team’s snaps
74.1 (3rd among RBs)
82.2 (3rd among RBs)
Touches per game
20.1 (5th)
26.5 (1st)
Percentage of team’s touches
46.7 (2nd)
53.5 (1st)
Gurley is averaging 26.5 touches per game this season, after averaging 20.1 touches per game in 2016. Last year, he played in 74.1 percent of the Rams’ offensive snaps, more than eight percentage points lower than where it is this season. But the Rams’ internal data has shown that Gurley’s body holds up well with rigorous workloads, as does this: Gurley is averaging 2.4 yards per carry after first contact in the fourth quarter, compared to an average of 1.7 yards in the first three quarters.
“There’s a lot of different playmakers that we feel comfortable with,” McVay said, “and I think the best thing that Jared has done a good job of through the first quarter of the season is, ‘Hey, let the ball go where my progression based on the play dictates.’ That’s why I think you’re seeing guys get involved.”
CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears’ decision to bench quarterback Mike Glennon in favor of Mitchell Trubisky was the right call.
The Bears could no longer live with Glennon’s mistakes — he had eight turnovers in four games — and expect to win.
But don’t expect Trubisky to a savior in Year 1.
The Bears preferred Trubisky to sit behind Glennon for a reason. With only 13 career starts at North Carolina, Trubisky is still a raw prospect. To say Trubisky is 100 percent ready to take over is overstating it.
Mitchell Trubisky will make his NFL debut in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football. Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Chicago is incredibly weak at wide receiver. The Bears have dropped eight passes as a team this season, tied for third most in the NFL, and four of those drops have come in the red zone, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Bears’ leading receiver this season is Kendall Wright, who currently ranks 69th league-wide in receiving yards.
The wide receiver situation is unlikely to improve.
The Bears need to overcome that by allowing Trubisky to attack the edge against the Vikings. Trubisky showed during the summer that he’s capable of making plays outside the pocket; therefore, the Bears should roll out Trubisky whenever possible to cut the field in half.
The Bears have to push the ball downfield more often with Trubisky. The offense was very predictable in the first quarter of the year because there was no threat of Glennon beating the defense deep. In fact, the Bears barely even attempted to stretch the field vertically. That needs to change with Trubisky, and it probably will; at least an effort will be made to occasionally take the top off the defense.
Of course, the Bears must maintain the identity of a running football team to help Trubisky.
The good news is that the Bears are averaging 4.6 yards per rush this season, good for seventh best in the NFL, and Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen each rank in the top 25 in rushing this season.
The important thing to remember is that Trubisky’s NFL debut won’t be flawless. Without question, the second pick will make his share of mistakes against a very good Minnesota defense. Trubisky will be only the sixth quarterback taken in the first-round to make his first career start on Monday Night Football.
Talk about pressure.
But the franchise has to move forward. Glennon was living on borrowed time anyway.
Trubisky is the only one that can usher the Bears out of the NFL abyss.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Larry Johnson once was where Kareem Hunt is now, a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs who developed into a premier player seemingly overnight. Johnson rushed for more than 100 yards in his first three games after becoming Kansas City’s featured back in 2004.
Johnson’s coming-out party wasn’t as spectacular as that of Hunt, a rookie who, heading into this weekend’s games, leads the NFL in rushing yards with 401 and is tied for the lead in touchdowns with six.
But it was more than strong enough to get the attention of the Chiefs’ opponents the remainder of that season and beyond. That makes Johnson an excellent person to offer Hunt some friendly advice about what’s ahead.
“If I was him, I’d enjoy this now,” Johnson said. “Nobody around the league knows what he can do. He’s seeing what I saw when I first got started.
“I knew, especially in that 400-carry season (2006), every team was going to put eight men [at the line of scrimmage] against me. He’s not seeing that yet. Trust me, after another few games he’s going to start seeing corner blitzes, safety blitzes, linebacker blitzes. They’re going to really test him now just to keep him in the pocket so he’s not a receiving threat. They’re going to test his toughness by bringing more guys to the [line]. That’s how it was for me. You have to mentally prepare yourself for teams to game-plan for you.
“Let me tell you, that’s not easy. The longer you do it, the tougher it gets.”
Hunt has been the biggest star for the Chiefs, who are 3-0 heading into Monday night’s game against Washington (8:30 ET, ESPN) at Arrowhead Stadium. He has at least 100 yards from scrimmage in every game. The only rookies in NFL history to begin their seasons with more than three such games are Adrian Peterson (five) in 2007, LaDainian Tomlinson (four) in 2001 and Billy Sims (four) in 1980.
That’s great company for Hunt, a third-round pick. Keeping that pace or merely staying close will get more difficult, as Johnson and Chiefs coach Andy Reid suggest, because the bull’s-eye Hunt soon will be wearing during games tends to get heavy.
After bursting onto the scene with more than 100 yards in each of his first three games, Kareem Hunt won’t be sneaking up on opponents any more. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
“He’s young in this, not only in age and experience, but he’s young in the season here,” Reid said. “The challenges are going to be answering the bell every week, physically and mentally.”
Hunt did nicely with a big workload in college at Toledo. He got the ball more than 850 times in four seasons and was productive throughout, averaging 6.3 yards per carry.
“I played the whole college season and I felt like I got better as the season went on too,” Hunt said. “You’ve got to keep going through it and keep taking care of your body each and every day. Do the most that you can do. Live in the training room, do little things to take care of your body.
“It starts now, just taking care of your body every day and just doing little things. Even when you’re not that sore, you’ve just got to keep working to get your body all the way back together, so you’ve got to take it day by day and week by week.”
The NFL is different than college, with more games and bigger and faster players. There’s also a mental and physical aspect to succeeding over the long haul.
That’s something another former great Chiefs back, Priest Holmes, can speak to.
“Running back is a position I call the ‘Warrior Position’ because of the amount of hits you’re taking during a game,” Holmes said. “Just to wake up on Monday morning and feel the way you do and then to know what the week ahead is going to bring, that can be difficult for a lot of players. You have to have something special to handle that, to anticipate being successful.
“I’m sure [Hunt] can do that. He looks like a special player.”
One of the assistant coaches during much of Martin’s time in New York was Bob Sutton, now the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator. All these years later, Sutton marvels at how Martin could withstand the punishment and come back week after week for more.
“Curtis was one of the most unique people I’ve ever been around,” Sutton said. “He had unbelievable focus. I don’t know if I’ve seen anybody have the focus he has and the great ability to control his own mind. I saw him get ready to play against Buffalo with two high-ankle sprains. He played and he played well. That’s supposed to be an injury that keeps you out however many weeks.
“He had great skills, great talent. He was a great runner. He was powerful for not a really big man. But he was just an unbelievable individual when he was getting ready for a game. To me, that defined Curtis. That made him different than a lot of backs in our league. Nothing else mattered to him than getting ready to play. Not many people can do that on a consistent basis.”
Reid said Hunt will be helped by working daily with running backs coach Eric Bieniemy, a former NFL player.
“He’s got [Bieniemy] in his hip pocket, right?” Reid said. “He does a phenomenal job with him. He’s been there as a player. He understands the challenges of that position. To have somebody like Eric is an important part of this.”
Bieniemy might help, but to hear Holmes and Johnson talk, much of the ability to handle the burden of being an NFL running back has to come from within. Either Hunt has the ability or he doesn’t.
“What drove me to answer that bell every week was crossing that goal line,” said Holmes, who led the NFL in touchdowns in 2002 (24) and 2003 (27). “I could make 70,000 people love me or I could make 70,000 people hate me just by scoring a touchdown, depending on whether we were home or away.
“That’s unique and different for every player. It’s not the same thing that’s going to get everybody ready for the call. But you have to have a prize, a goal, something to have your sights on. For me, it was always crossing that goal line, whether it took one play to do it or 10 plays or 20 plays.”
Johnson had a different ritual.
“I would watch a lot of tape of my runs, but I didn’t watch tape of the 2- and 3-yard runs,” he said. “I would watch the runs that were 10 yards and over. That built my confidence. I would watch tape of my runs against teams with tough defensive fronts. That built my confidence knowing and seeing those defenses could be hurt, that it was just a matter of time, that I could be successful against those defenses.”
Things worked out well for Holmes, who was able to sustain great success from the time he joined the Chiefs in 2001 until an injury in 2004 pushed his career into a decline.
Johnson didn’t manage as well for a long period, but was spectacular in 2005 and 2006 with more than 1,700 yards in each season.
Hunt looks poised to join Holmes and Johnson as great backs in Chiefs history. He’s got 13 more regular-season games this season to show he can handle the pressure and defensive attention that is sure to come his way.
“He’s a pretty humble kid,” Reid said. “With his makeup, he’ll be fine doing it.”
