The Panthers had six players sit out the first practice of the week as they prepare to face the Seahawks on Sunday.
The Panthers had six players sit out the first practice of the week as they prepare to face the Seahawks on Sunday.
Here’s your first look at this week’s injury report.
Player
Injury
Wed
Thu
Fri
Status
TE Greg Olsen
Concussion
Limited
OT Greg Little
Ankle
DNP
DT Gerald McCoy
Knee
DNP
RB Christian McCaffrey
Rest
DNP
S Eric Reid
Shoulder
Full
OLB Marquis Haynes
Knee
DNP
G Trai Turner
Rest
DNP
OLB Mario Addison
Chest
DNP
LB Shaq Thompson
Ankle
Full
Ian Thomas did a fine job in Olsen’s place last week against the Falcons. If Olsen has to sit out again, Carolina should be alright at tight end. There’s certainly no reason to rush him back at this stage of the season and his career.
It’s not clear exactly what happened with Haynes’ knee. He left Atlanta on crutches, though. If he can’t play, hopefully the rookie Christian Miller will be able to get some valuable experience.
The 2019-2020 Big Ten bowl season has some very attractive games… and some clunkers. It’s good to know which games you need to set aside time for, and which games you can occasionally look in on while you do household chores, errands, or spend quality time with family during the holiday season. We wouldn’t want you to think you need to set aside three and a half hours for Illinois in the Redbox Bowl. That time is better spent with family.
The big games, though, merit your attention. If you love college football (or hate Minnesota, or both), you want to watch the Outback Bowl this bowl season. It’s a very interesting game between two fascinating, hard-to-read head coaches. What’s good? What’s worth ignoring? Those are meaningful questions. We at Badgers Wire are here to help you put the Big Ten bowl games in their proper place, so that you can spend time wisely during the holidays.
We start with the worst bowl game and work our way up to the best:
9 – Redbox Bowl
Illinois vs. California — Monday, Dec. 30 — 4 p.m. Eastern, FOX
We shouldn’t laugh at Illinois, given that it beat Wisconsin. Yet, Illinois got dump-trucked by Northwestern, at home, in its regular-season finale. Illinois made some forward strides this season, but it’s still Illinois until it can beat Northwestern. Remember the “Cheez-INT Bowl” last year with California and TCU? This game could be as bad. Hopefully, it will be bad in a hilarious way, not in a boring way. That might be this game’s redeeming quality: comedic potential.
8 – Pinstripe Bowl
Michigan St. vs. Wake Forest — Friday, Dec. 27 — 3:20 p.m. Eastern, ESPN
Friday afternoon. Holiday season. Are you REALLY gonna tell a spouse or parents or kids that you simply HAVE to watch Michigan State, an eroding program under Mark Dantonio, go against Wake Forest in a baseball stadium? I thought so. Michigan State is a program in decline. A win here doesn’t really change that equation.
Tennessee beat one team with a winning record in its eight-game SEC schedule: 7-5 Kentucky. Indiana didn’t beat a single Big Ten team with a winning record. These teams are bowl teams because they beat bad teams. If you want to go out of your way to watch this game, know that you’re probably desperate for any college football on the day after New Year’s Day… which is a reasonable instinct, but not something you have to feel especially proud about.
It’s Nick Saban versus Jim Harbaugh. This is a game to watch very eagerly and intently in the first quarter. Will this be a game worth watching late in the second quarter, though? We will see. Will this game be worth watching midway through the third quarter? Skepticism about Michigan’s ability to hang with Alabama puts this game lower on the list.
5 – Cotton Bowl
Penn State vs. Memphis — Saturday, Dec. 28 — Noon Eastern, ESPN
Michigan-Alabama has more sex appeal, but this is more likely to produce a close game. The noon start on playoff semifinal day buries this game. If you had made me commissioner of college football, I would have had Penn State play Georgia in the Sugar and either Florida or Baylor play Memphis. (Note: Wisconsin basketball plays Tennessee during this game, so that’s why it’s hard to put this game any higher than No. 5.)
4 – Holiday Bowl
Iowa vs. USC — Friday, Dec. 27 — 8 p.m. Eastern, Fox Sports 1
This is a poor man’s Rose Bowl: A 3-loss Big Ten team against a Pac-12 team with a lot of firepower on the West Coast. Iowa’s defense versus USC’s offense will be worth the watch. Iowa contained Minnesota (and gave Wisconsin a path to both the Big Ten Championship Game and the Rose Bowl). Now the Hawkeyes go against USC quarterback Kedon Slovis, who is legitimately good, and the elite USC receivers, who are almost as good as Alabama’s receivers. (ALMOST, not quite.)
Minnesota beat Penn State. Auburn beat Oregon and Alabama. These teams got smacked in November – Minnesota by Wisconsin, Auburn by Georgia – but have solid resumes. They both have aggressive, unconventional coaches, P.J. Fleck and Gus Malzahn. This isn’t a familiar bowl matchup (unlike, say, Iowa versus Florida or Michigan vs. USC). It is fresh and new. The quality of the teams is very good. This is better than Michigan-Bama UNLESS the Wolverines offer the Tide a surprisingly close contest.
2 – College Football Playoff Semifinal — Fiesta Bowl
Ohio State vs. Clemson — Saturday, Dec. 28 — 8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN
We can all look at this matchup and acknowledge it COULD be a tremendous game, an all-time college football classic. There is so much to love about this game: Justin Fields vs. Trevor Lawrence, J.K. Dobbins vs. Travis Etienne, Ohio State’s offensive staff vs. Brent Venables, Chase Young vs. Clemson’s front four. This is a walking NFL Scouting Combine in Glendale, Arizona. It could be sensational. I don’t have this game No. 1 because I am skeptical that a Clemson playoff semifinal will be very close. Not one Clemson semifinal (not even the one Clemson lost in the 2018 Sugar Bowl to Alabama) has been close.
1 – Rose Bowl
Wisconsin vs. Oregon — Wednesday, Jan. 1 — 5:05 p.m. Eastern, ESPN
My skepticism about Clemson playoff semifinals being close games is why Badgers-Ducks is No. 1. This is a game which has some of the qualities of the Holiday (Iowa-USC) and Outback (Minnesota-Auburn) Bowls, but on the grandest stage in college sports: The Arroyo Seco, in the shadows of the San Gabriel Mountains. It has the best chance of being close. It is going to look the best on television. Just take a look at this photo from the last Wisconsin-Oregon Rose Bowl. This is eye candy for college football fans:
Jan 2, 2012; Pasadena, CA, USA; General view of the 2012 Rose Bowl between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Oregon Ducks and the San Gabriel Valley mountains. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports
The Houston Texans will have a tough task on Sunday in limited the play-action-happy Tennessee Titans QB Ryan Tannehill.
The Tennessee Titans aren’t what they once were.
No longer do they have an anemic offense run by former No. 2 pick Marcus Mariota. Instead, Lubbock native Ryan Tannehill is steering the ship of an offense that has scored 30-plus in each of the last four games. His 8-5 Titans will face the 8-5 Houston Texans on Sunday in Nashville.
For the Texans, limiting the Texas A&M product is far from an easy task. Though once considered a backup and stopgap starter in Tennessee, Tannehill is playing the best football of his career in 2019, and some of the best in the league.
In seven starts, Tannehill is 6-1. He has thrown for 1,993 yards, 15 touchdowns, five interceptions and a league-high 118.5 passer rating on a 73.4% completion rate.
“I think that he’s just playing very well,” said Texans coach Bill O’Brien on Wednesday. “He’s a very accurate passer, very calm, good poise and he’s very athletic. He can run, he’s got really good speed, he can escape, he’s doing a lot of things well.”
As O’Brien alludes to, Tannehill is more dual-threat than pocket passer. A former wide receiver in College Station, the 31-year-old has 147 yards and three touchdowns on 34 attempts.
In a sense, Tannehill is a triple-option quarterback. He is thriving in Nashville as a play-action passer.
With running back Derrick Henry running to the tune of 1,243 yards and 13 touchdowns, defenses are stacking the box against Tennessee — 12th highest in the NFL runs against a stacked box rate (23.2%), per PlayerProfiler — which Tannehill has benefited from.
810 of Tannehill’s passing yards come on play-action, per Pro Football Reference. According to PlayerProfiler, he leads the NFL in play-action completion rate (75.8%). That should be alarming for Houston.
The Texans struggle to defend the play-action. That showed in Week 14’s loss to the Denver Broncos. Per Pro Football Focus, via Aaron Reiss of The Athletic, Broncos rookie quarterback Drew Lock went 7 of 8 for 130 yards on play-action against Houston.
Houston cannot afford for their play-action defense to struggle against the Titans. Tannehill and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith will exploit that.
O’Brien won’t understate the importance of practicing for a play-action happy offense, which ranks first in the NFL in that category. First, they need to stop the run, then they need to figure out ball fakes and, finally, put both together.
“I think it’s just working in practice and continuing to kind of make sure we are teaching it the right way, how we want to react, whether it’s zone or man, and then making sure our players do it in practice,” said O’Brien. “Our players doing it in practice is a big deal.”
If the Texans want to win the AFC South, they will have to face Tannehill and the Titans twice in the next three weeks. In doing so, they must solve their play-action demons against a team that finds a strength, offensively, in the same category.
The New England Patriots are clearly having trouble getting rookie receiver and first-round pick N’Keal Harry on the field.
At first, he was dealing with injuries, and an ankle issue landed him on injured reserve to start the season. Since his return from IR in 2019, he has shown a different set of limitations: a limited knowledge of the playbook and a lack of readiness for NFL speed and physicality.
The latter was clear when Tom Brady targeted Harry on an simple in-route during Week 13. A Texans cornerback undercut the throw, and intercepted Brady — even with 225-pound Harry in the vicinity to make an effort to catch or deflect the target. But Harry has also flashed his potential, with an almost-touchdown in Week 14 when the officials called him out of bounds on the 3-yard line (even if he was clearly in-bounds for the touchdown).
“Certainly, he made a great individual effort, broke a tackle and then had good balance there to finish the play and give us an opportunity to score,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said on Wednesday. “He’s a big guy. He’s not easy to get to the ground.”
Brady dumped off the ball to Harry at the line of scrimmage. The receiver turned upfield, broke a handful of tackles on the play and fought through a would-be tackler to extend for the goal line. The receiver flashed his playmaking potential, which was evident when he was in college at ASU. And while McDaniels admitted the Patriots could probably do more of that, he didn’t seem certain they could do much more.
“Certainly, when you have players like that, it comes back to how can you get him the football in those situations understanding that there’s a level of diminishing returns if you try to keep doing the same things over and over again, meaning there’s only so many times you can hand a player that’s not a running back the ball. There’s only so many times you can throw the ball behind the line of scrimmage.” McDaniels said.
If Harry can’t run many routes beyond the line of scrimmage, the Patriots will essentially treat him like a gadget player. They’ll occasionally design plays to get the ball in his hands, but most of their brainpower will go toward players like receiver Julian Edelman and running James White, who are already engrained in the offense. Still, McDaniels took some blame for Harry’s small touch total in his rookie season. Harry has 111 snaps with five receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown.
“I need to do a better job of finding ways to get him in space, get him the ball and letting him have an opportunity to do those things,” McDaniels said.
The knockout pool stakes are way up as the NFL season heads into Week 15.
If you remain alive and kicking/ticking, you have to be perspiring as your choices dwindle. Then, there are the lucky few who have won their knockout pools already and are swimming in green or have been fortunate enough to be among the few left and agreed to take a knee and split the pot.
Don’t think about it
Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Houston at Tennessee. Which Texans team shows up, the scintillating one or the one that stinks it up against the Broncos? If you have to wonder, there is no way to choose. The Bears visit the Packers in an NFC North slugfest. Chicago is playing better and weather conditions won’t bother either squad. Watch it with interest and don’t sweat it. The Eagles come off a short week after barely beating the Giants. Washington is playing better and remember this team raced to a huge lead over Philly before folding in the first meeting. The Jaguars are at the Raiders. Talk about a game that creates no interest. The Cowboys have been awful. The Rams are surging. However, the game is in Texas and both teams have flickering playoff dreams. Watch it and don’t risk your season. The Bills are at the Steelers in a game between teams with their eye toward the postseason. Way too balanced and risky a game to try and pick the winner. Could there be a game with less predictability than the Bucs at the Lions? The only thing for sure is Jameis Winston will throw for 300 yards and multiple picks.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has been named a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year.
Ohio State has another award to track for its memorable 2019 college football season. Head coach Ryan Day has been named a finalist for the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.
Day joins Eliah Drinkwitz of Appalachian State, Sonny Dykes of SMU, P.J. Fleck of Minnesota, Bryan Harsin of Boise State, Mike Norvell of Memphis, Ed Orgeron of LSU, Matt Rhule of Baylor, and Dabo Swinney of Clemson.
I know what you were thinking — where is Jim Harbaugh? Sorry to disappoint.
It has been truly remarkable what Day has pulled off in his first year as head coach, and one in which he replaced a legend in Urban Meyer. In fact, there’s no way he could have done a better job. Ohio State is undefeated at 13-0 and has beaten every single team on the schedule by double digits this year.
The recognition keeps piling up for Ohio State players and coaches, but the ultimate prize they’re dying to take home is the national championship, so there’s still more work to do.
The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year will be announced on Friday, Dec. 20, and will be presented on Jan. 11, 2020 during a reception hosted by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
Guard Michael Frazier, who has a Two-Way deal with the Rockets, made his 2019-20 debut Tuesday after missing over two months with an injury.
Rockets guard Michael Frazier, who is with Houston on one of the team’s two Two-Way contracts, made his 2019-20 season debut Tuesday night with the NBA G League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
The 6-foot-3 guard had 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting (53.8%), including 4-of-9 (44.4%) on three-pointers, along with seven rebounds and three assists in his 26 minutes. The Vipers, who are Houston’s official G League affiliate, won the game over the Iowa Wolves, 142-128 (box score).
Before the 2019-20 season began, the 25-year-old Frazier was given one of Houston’s two Two-Way contracts, along with 5-foot-9 rookie guard Chris Clemons. A player on a Two-Way contract is primarily a G League player, but he can spend up to 45 days with his affiliate NBA team.
Before Tuesday, however, Frazier had yet to play for the Rockets or Vipers in any preseason or regular-season game this fall. The team listed him as out with a right ankle injury, and Frazier recently elaborated on the nature of it to The Athletic‘s Kelly Iko.
Frazier revealed to me that he had injured a tendon in his right foot on the first day of training camp. The injury happened due to a collision with a teammate, but the ankle had been in a great deal of pain then.
Frazier explained that they had proceeded with caution, not wanting to put any pressure on it as he rehabbed, but now he’s good to go.
That first day of training camp was back in late September, which means Frazier missed more than two months in total due to the injury. But he’s back now, and once he is fully back in basketball shape, he might get a look at the NBA level sooner rather than later.
Chris Clemons also in RGV for tonight's game. By my count, he's up to 33 NBA days of the 45 allotted on his two-way contract. https://t.co/CP7ndOSyzh
Of Houston’s 14 players under standard contracts, three (Eric Gordon, Nene, Gerald Green) are not with the team at the moment due to long-term injuries. An additional two (Austin Rivers, Tyson Chandler) are out for the time being due to illnesses, and Clemons has already used more than two-thirds of his allotment of NBA service days.
At Tuesday’s practice, the Rockets had only eight total players.
Would assume Hartenstein and Clemons will join the Rockets in Cleveland tomorrow. Not many bodies at practice today, though. With injuries, illnesses, Rockets had just eight for practice today.
Thus, assuming his play at the G League level warrants it, Frazier might soon have an opportunity with the Rockets — since unlike Clemons, the service clock on his Two-Way deal is still at 0 days.
Frazier, who played college basketball at the University of Florida from 2012 through 2015, originally signed with the Rockets in April 2019. He was named as the G League’s 2018-19 Most Improved Player after averaging 16.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game last season with the Vipers.
During the Vipers’ championship run in the 2019 G League playoffs, Frazier averaged 21.0 points and 4.8 three-pointers made per game on 49.0% shooting from the field. In February, he was a member of the USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team and averaged team-highs of 17.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in the two games.
with the 