Tag: 2023 NFL Week 2

Shannon Sharpe savagely roasted Zach Wilson: ‘The dude couldn’t play dead in a horror movie’

Shannon Sharpe’s brutal assessment of Zach Wilson is completely true.

There was a slight hope Zach Wilson had improved after taking offseason mentorship from Aaron Rodgers. Those hopes have wholly subsided after the New York Jets quarterback’s first awful start in Rodgers’ absence.

New York visited the Dallas Cowboys Sunday and received an absolute drubbing. Wilson himself was predictably awful, throwing three interceptions while completing less than 50 percent of his passes at the hands of a ruthless Dallas defense. It seems readily apparent that if the Jets want to be competitive in 2023, they need to make a move for a quarterback because Wilson still won’t get it done.

This was a pertinent topic of conversation for ESPN’s First Take crew on Monday. When it came to analyzing Wilson’s performance against Dallas, Shannon Sharpe pulled no punches. He called Wilson a horror movie character who couldn’t even “play dead.”

I mean, phew …

We’ll probably never know if this insult is true because Wilson won’t be cast in a horror movie. But what a perfect analogy for a disappointing former top-two pick. Wilson, indeed, can’t even do the most basic job responsibilities of a starting quarterback. That’s why he wilts when he plays.

And that is why Wilson has no long-term future in New York.

Lavonte David says Buccaneers knew exactly what Justin Fields was throwing before game-clinching pick-six

The Bears are so predictable and it came back to bite them.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a surprising 0-2 to start the 2023 season. And while Baker Mayfield deserves a ton of credit in his latest redemption story, it’s undoubtedly Tampa Bay’s defense leading the way for a resurgence in Florida. We saw it on Sunday as the Buccaneers rattled Justin Fields with consistent pressure. They even snagged an embarrassing game-clinching pick-six off the third-year quarterback in the final moments.

In the post-game, veteran linebacker Lavonte David said something eye-opening. He explained that the Buccaneers’ defense saw Chicago’s slip-screen play coming because offensive coordinator Luke Getsy used the “same formation” from a previous play and, really, for most of the game.

When Barrett successfully predicted the play, the rest was history. Professional football defenders are simply too good to give them a leg up schematically:

Sunday was a tale of two organizations. The Buccaneers still have plenty of talent over from their Super Bowl 55 championship team, especially on defense. And they look like an easy early-season success story because of it. The Bears, meanwhile, have a struggling young quarterback and a squad that somehow looks worse than the one that earned the No. 1 overall pick in 2023.

No wonder the Buccaneers took advantage of Chicago’s miscues.

Justin Herbert’s machine gun audible was somehow the most confusing part of the Chargers’ dreadful loss

What could Justin Herbert have possibly been referring to?

The Los Angeles Chargers have barely started their 2023 campaign, and they’re already sitting at a disappointing 0-2. It’s becoming abundantly clear that Brandon Staley shouldn’t have returned, and he seems to understand his seat is getting hotter.

But despite all of this chaos, a weird Justin Herbert audible might have been the most puzzling aspect of the Chargers’ deflating defeat to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

Let’s flash forward to the final minutes of the fourth quarter. The Chargers were trying to mount a game-clinching drive and faced a key third-and-long. The CBS cameras captured Herbert using a “machine gun” while screaming out an apparent change in the Chargers’ play call.

I can’t possibly fathom what this is supposed to mean:

I won’t doubt the process of Herbert, a bona fide superstar quarterback who processes the game like a high-tech cyborg. But I really want to hear from whoever put this in the Chargers’ playbook. I don’t think I’ve seen a signal like this before at any level of football.

Brandon Staley lost it after a reporter brought up the ‘Jacksonville loss’ following Chargers’ awful start

Brandon Staley’s on the hot seat and he showed it in this angry rant.

The Los Angeles Chargers entered the 2023 season with Super Bowl aspirations, and it might be time to adjust their purview. Sunday’s 27-24 defeat to the Tennessee Titans dropped the Chargers to 0-2, showing they probably still shouldn’t be taken seriously as a contender.

In the post-game, head coach Brandon Staley was trying to process the defeat with a gaggle of reporters. When someone asked a question about the “Jacksonville game” — a reference to Staley’s Chargers blowing a historic lead to the Jaguars in last year’s playoffs — L.A.’s leader positively lost it. This is what happens when purportedly “good” teams start to feel the pressure amid disappointment.

Frustrations are clearly starting to boil over for Staley and Co.:

Honestly, I can understand Staley’s gripe. If anyone’s still running with some kind of narrative about the Chargers after a playoff game last January, it’s probably not fair. That said, that kind of game lives up to the Chargers’ infamous franchise precedent of choking at the worst possible time. And in a pivotal year for Staley especially, it’ll be hard to dodge the aftermath of that devastating night for Los Angeles. No one’s going to “move past it” when the team still hasn’t won a game since.

Two weeks into a new season, the Chargers are already in disaster mode. What else is new?

5 stats that prove the Chargers made a mistake bringing back Brandon Staley

The Chargers made a grave mistake letting Brandon Staley return as coach.

It was supposed to be different with new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. People would finally take Brandon Staley’s Los Angeles Chargers seriously, Justin Herbert would push the ball downfield more, and a talented roster would finally come together to play like a legit Super Bowl contender.

Clearly, anyone who bought into this hype has never heard of the Chargers’ evergreen approach to professional football.

We are two weeks into the 2023 NFL season, the Chargers have scored 50 points, Herbert looks like he’s still one of the league’s best quarterbacks, and they’re 0-2 after losing 27-24 to the Tennessee Titans. Womp womp. After last year’s playoff collapse to the Jacksonville Jaguars, if Staley’s seat wasn’t already burning, it’s white-hot now.

Let’s dive into a few alarming stats about the Chargers’ early-season disappointment to show they probably made a mistake bringing Staley back.

NFL announcer Adam Amin brutally jinxed Cardinals kicker Matt Prater before a 55-yard kick

The dreaded announcer curse strikes again!

Nobody has made more 50-plus-yard field goals than Matt Prater in NFL history. And during the opening minutes of the Arizona Cardinals’ matchup with the New York Giants, he was set to add to that mark on a 55-yard attempt.

There was just one problem — Prater had to overcome an announcer “curse.” Ruh-oh.

Before Prater’s attempt, Amin — who was just doing his job by providing context for the viewing audience, to be clear — mentioned the kicker’s exemplary history from high-distance kicks. Predictably, Prater missed his long kick wide just left because no one can ever overcome an announcer “curse.”

It might as well be a bylaw in the football rulebook:

If it’s any consolation for Prater, at least this miss happened early in the first quarter and not in a tight situation for the Cardinals.

The Seahawks’ Jerrick Reed trolled Lions’ C.J. Gardner-Johnson by mocking his overzealous blue ski mask stunt

Reed was absolutely savage to make fun of Gardner-Johnson like this.

Before their 2023 home opener, Detroit Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson tried to start a new tradition for the fans. He took a “villain” description from head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes and ran with it by wearing a blue ski mask.

Gardner-Johnson’s stunt turned into a full-blown blue ski mask day for the Lions at Ford Field. Heck, even Detroit native actors Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson got in on the fun. Unfortunately, the Lions’ overall team performance didn’t back Gardner-Johnson up, as the Seattle Seahawks stunned Detroit with an epic 37-31 overtime win.

And as Seattle celebrated in the postgame locker room, safety Jerrick Reed filmed himself wearing a blue ski mask while dancing with other Seahawks players. Gardner-Johnson’s stunt, in effect, blew up in his face right away.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxTlXNXO7do/

The Lions are probably still the NFC North’s best team, and Gardner-Johnson’s head was in the right place as a leader. But, for at least one week, the vintage Lions showed up at home after trying to start a new custom. Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched, folks.

The Bears’ comeback atttempt ended with an embarrassing Justin Fields pick-six to a defensive lineman

Justin Fields imploded at the worst possible time.

The Chicago Bears have officially validated concerns they were in complete crisis mode.

On Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago had an opportunity to rebound from a deflating opening defeat to the Green Bay Packers. But an uneven team performance forced the Bears to press for a comeback from their own end zone in the final moments of the fourth quarter. And they never got a chance to really make Tampa Bay sweat.

While backed up, Justin Fields tried to loft a soft pass over his offensive line. Instead, it went straight to defensive end Shaquil Barrett, who made an athletic one-hand catch before burrowing his way into the end zone for a game-clinching 27-17 score. It’s just a brutal ending for the Bears, who already had their backs up against the wall this early in the year:

A rough and lackluster day for Fields ended with two picks on his last two drives. He now has 427 yards passing and three interceptions in two games of what was supposed to be a promising Year 3 leap. And this pick-six was perfectly symbolic of a Chicago offense that never really gained any steam en route to a disappointing 0-2 start.

Ian Eagle worked those Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce dating rumors into a perfect touchdown call

Ian Eagle knew EXACTLY what he was doing with this reference.

The Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift rumors are slowly burning, and Ian Eagle just helped fan the flames.

With Kelce returning to the Kansas City Chiefs lineup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he made an immediate impact on their offense. Early in the third quarter, the Chiefs found themselves trying to pull away from Jacksonville in the red zone. They went to Kelce, who the Jaguars curiously left uncovered for one of the easiest touchdowns he’ll ever score.

And as Kelce celebrated hitting pay dirt, Eagle dropped a perfect line about the superstar tight end finding a “blank space” in the end zone. Ha, get it?

Oh, you get it.

The exact nature of Kelce and Swift’s dynamic is still unclear. But this was quite a deft way by Eagle to work a reference in.

Rams RB Cam Akers revealed his benching also ‘confused’ him but maintained an upbeat spirit

The Rams might be done with Cam Akers.

The Los Angeles Rams have seemingly seen enough when it comes to veteran tailback Cam Akers. Before L.A’s matchup against the rival San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Fox NFL Sunday’s Jay Glazer reported that the Rams had deactivated Akers outright for the game.

This, of course, is entirely unsurprising to anyone who watched the Rams’ backfield in Week 1. Akers produced a minuscule 29 yards on 22 carries as the L.A. offense won in spite of him. Meanwhile, second-year runner Kyren Williams was a reliable spark plug (52 yards) and did enough of the little things well to justify the Rams rolling with him.

Yet, somehow, Akers appeared to still be caught off guard by the news of his deactivation. He took to Twitter to clarify that the decision also “confused” him:

Player drama behind a benching will always have two sides to the story. Akers might feel he isn’t being utilized as best as possible by the Rams, while L.A. could simply believe it has better options with more juice.

Whatever the case, Sunday was an odd day for Akers and the other Rams’ running backs.