The Raiders are so much happier without Josh McDaniels.
The more time passes, the more it becomes clear the Las Vegas Raiders rid themselves of Josh McDaniels like a ship sheds a rusty anchor. This is a guy who couldn’t resist defending his old team in what might have been one of the most critical moments of his Raiders coaching career.
With Davante Adams seeming so carefree after the Raiders fired McDaniels, it looked like the veteran coach was indeed throwing Las Vegas’s vibes off. We can’t deny that assertion after watching the Raiders — led by interim head coach Antonio Pierce — systematically dismantle the New York Giants in a 30-6 win on Sunday. From the jump, the Raiders played a complete game in all three phases, completely outclassing an overmatched Giants squad.
So, I now ask: How bad of a coach was McDaniels? Look at this elated locker room smoking victory cigars for a regular-season win, folks. I mean, my goodness!
NFL fans also noticed the massive disparity in Raiders players’ despair and happiness between Pierce and McDaniels as their coach. They couldn’t help but laugh at McDaniels’ expense when they saw Las Vegas break out cigars for an early November win.
They’re usually way ahead of the curve, processing and dropping dimes all over the field like veteran superstars. Pro football lore does not feature many youthful signal-callers who are advanced at the position from the jump. We can safely add C.J. Stroud to the shortlist of the greatest rookie quarterbacks ever. Heck, if I’m being candid, he has a strong case as the NFL’s best rookie passer of all time.
Most NFL teams who draft quarterbacks near the top of the first round hope their prospect starts showing meaningful flashes by Year 2 or Year 3. They’re more than willing to be patient to see a picture-perfect effort from the ideal face of their franchise. It’s a reasonable thought process because quarterback is obviously hard to play, and there’s so much to learn — on the fly and in the film room.
The Texans are lucky because they didn’t have to wait on the No. 2 overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft.
From the jump, Stroud has shown glimpses that he’s not only a serviceable starter but also a player with the potential to be one of the faces of the league. The young man isn’t even halfway through his rookie campaign and already has 14 touchdown passes and over 2,200 yards passing. He’s a gunner, a leader who elevates his teammates with his presence. These Texans have no business being 4-4, but Stroud won’t let them fade. As evidenced by his 40-second game-winning touchdown drive, he’s someone who is never shy of a clutch moment, too.
There will likely be more to come, but Stroud’s 470-yard, five-touchdown game against Tampa Bay in a 39-37 win will be remembered as one of the finest quarterback outings all year. Stroud was so marvelous against a Todd Bowles defense laden with multiple Super Bowl 55-winning veterans that it was hard to distinguish whether he was a seasoned 10-year professional or a guy making his eighth start in the NFL.
That’s just how locked-in he looked.
Take a gander at this passing chart from Next Gen Stats. It’s unbelievable every time I look at it because it reminds me so much of all the other AFC heavyweights like Mahomes, Burrow, and Josh Allen:
Credit: Next Gen Stats
In the coming weeks, we’ll thoughtfully decide on the NFL’s most outstanding rookie quarterback ever. (That’s because Stroud has likely already locked up 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.)
While there will be some who cape for Cam Newton and people who vouch for Justin Herbert, among others, I’m here to tell you that that conversation starts and ends with Stroud. With all due respect, he’s simply better. Beyond the raw numbers, we have never seen a first-year NFL passer look this beyond his years. Stroud is an impeccably mature talent, someone who is taking a mediocre Texans squad and thrusting it into relevance almost singlehandedly.
I’ve never seen anything like it, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for what looks like an incandescent future.
In For The Win‘s Week 9 NFL Awards, we’ve got a journeyman quarterback endearing himself to pro football lovers everywhere. Meanwhile, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys fans were probably the only ones who didn’t enjoy an NFC East instant classic.
Josh Dobbs might be the NFL’s most likable player right now.
After Kirk Cousins’ unfortunate Achilles injury, the Minnesota Vikings were forced to look elsewhere at quarterback. At the NFL trade deadline, they went out and added Josh Dobbs, giving them potential insurance down the stretch run of a competitive season.
They just probably didn’t know they’d be using him so quickly.
On Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, Dobbs was pressed into action after less than a week with the team. It was rough to start, as he had a safety and fumble within his first four Minnesota plays. But with the Vikings needing a hero in the closing stages, Dobbs turned it up. He threw a touchdown pass on two of the last three Minnesota possessions, leading the Vikings to an improbable comeback 31-28 win.
As Dobbs walked off after the game, he looked right into a camera and jokingly introduced himself to any Vikings fans who weren’t quite yet familiar with him:
What a delightful, self-effacing sense of humor. How can you not root for a guy like this? I have a feeling that Vikings fans will have no trouble acquainting themselves to Dobbs if he keeps adding to the Minnesota win column.
C.J. Stroud will be an NFL superstar for a VERY long time.
The first half of the 2023 NFL season already showed us that the Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud is not your average rookie quarterback. His sublime performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday shows that he might be the greatest rookie signal-caller in NFL history. Period.
All afternoon, it was abundantly clear that Tampa Bay had no answer for Stroud’s precision and poise. If the Buccaneers had even come close to rattling Stroud, he didn’t show a solitary sign of wilting to the moment. The young quarterback threw for 470 yards — an NFL single-game record for a rookie — and an astonishing five touchdowns against Todd Bowles’ defense. (Never mind that Stroud primarily achieved all of this without a kicker.)
It’s that last score to Tank Dell in the final seconds, capping a 75-yard game-winning drive in 46 seconds, that acted as the perfect cherry on top. It’s also emblematic of a young man who already resembles a franchise quarterback who can elevate Houston like the best of them:
That is some special stuff, folks. Those are not throws you usually see rookie quarterbacks make. And sparkling games like Sunday come more often from 10-year veterans, not guys who just completed their first November NFL start ever.
Stroud can potentially be a face of the league type of player for years to come. And we all witness to his remarkable ascent.
Most NFL teams don’t roster two kickers. With depth needed at positions that see more time on the field, it just doesn’t make sense to carry two full-time kickers. So, if someone gets injured, the task of kicking often falls to a position player who has shown they have some leg.
This is precisely what happened to the Houston Texans and backup running back Dare Ogunbowale on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After starting kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn suffered a game-ending quad injury, Houston had to turn to Ogunbowale for a kickoff in an emergency.
With all things considered, as someone who doesn’t usually kick the ball for a living, Ogunbowale did pretty great!
Dare Ogunbowale might be the NFL's next great kicker
How the Texans plan to approach field goals, which require more accuracy, remains to be seen. But if they need to lean on Ogunbowale now and in the near future for occasional emergency kicks, they seem to be in good hands.
UPDATE: The Texans had Ogunbowale kick the go-ahead field goal halfway through the fourth quarter. Wow.
Texans running back Dare Ogunbowale KICKS THE GO-AHEAD FIELD GOAL!
To commemorate the momentous occasion, fans at the Frankfurt Stadium took time to start singing John Denver’s famous melody, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” together in a beautiful display of community with sports. When we talk about the appeal of attending live sporting events, it’s these sorts of wonderful moments where everyone is having fun together at the same time.
There’s no need to sugarcoat a dire reality. After Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles, the Minnesota Vikings season will, in all likelihood, end with disappointment and a faint whimper. But his Vikings teammates are professionals, and they’re not just going to give up on 2023. With over half of the year’s slate remaining, that would be silly.
If anything, it appears the Vikings are going to use Cousins’ absence as motivation.
Before Minnesota’s matchup with the Atlanta Falcons, a bunch of Vikings players wore some noticeably curious attire — custom shirts featuring Cousins in various throwing motions. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was their way of showing love to the veteran signal-caller after his unfortunate injury:
It would’ve been easy for the Vikings to forget what Cousins brings to the table and center on maximizing their campaign without him. Instead, they wanted to show they were still thinking about him. That is special and might show an older Cousins — who is an unrestricted free agent this winter — isn’t quite done in Minnesota just yet.
The Dolphins weirdly aren’t good enough against great teams.
There’s no denying the Miami Dolphins are a talented team with some of pro football’s most explosive talents. Having Tua Tagovailoa throw darts to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle every week is the likely envy of most of the NFL. This is a no-doubt playoff squad that should finish with at least 10 wins, and it has one of the best offenses ever on paper.
Before Miami could seemingly blink, it was down 21-0 to the reigning Super Bowl champions. It took the Dolphins until the end of the third quarter before they finally got on the scoreboard and even more Chiefs brain farts to even make this an interesting matchup at the end. With a chance to make Kansas City sweat on the game’s final meaningful possession, Tagovailoa fumbled a wild snap on a do-or-die fourth down.
Because of course he did. Game, set, match, and a 21-14 Chiefs win. That’s par for the course for these Dolphins:
A wild snap on 4th down and the @Chiefs seal the game in Germany ‼️
With the defeat to the Chiefs, Mike McDaniel’s Dolphins have now lost seven straight games to teams with a winning record. The last instance in which they beat a team above .500 was the Buffalo Bills … in Week 3 of 2022. That is not a good sign of a squad ready for any Super Bowl aspirations:
The Dolphins have now lost SEVEN straight games against teams over .500…
L L L L L L L
Their last win against a team over .500 came in Week 3 of last season vs the Bills pic.twitter.com/X3u4XD4nQr
The Dolphins will probably be OK, but only when they don’t face other heavyweights. A late-season stretch featuring dates with the Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, and Buffalo Bills now looks impossibly daunting and like it might define Miami’s success (or lack thereof) in 2023.
As it stands, these Dolphins are good but not great. Game-ending, wild-snap fumbles on fourth down are a perfect demonstration of what they don’t bring to the table when it’s time to rise to the occasion.
Will Levis impressing everyone vs. the Steelers headlines the winners and losers of TNF.
We entered Thursday night’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans expecting a vintage snoozefest. Instead, we got a low-key quality game between two solid AFC playoff contenders, ending in a 20-16 win for the Steelers. Sometimes, the NFL can pleasantly surprise us, dearest readers.
With the second half of the NFL season now officially underway, there’s a lot to unpack from this heated battle in Pittsburgh. Unsurprisingly, it might have a lot of ramifications — particularly of the tiebreaker and No. 7 seed variety — on the AFC postseason race.
Let’s examine the biggest winners and losers from Steelers-Titans on Thursday evening.
The Steelers won’t be happy about this leak on live TV.
Most NFL broadcasts nowadays have so many extra features and microphones on coaches and players that it’s hard to keep track. But sometimes, such equipment might reveal too much at a team’s expense. That’s precisely what might have happened as the Pittsburgh Steelers squared off with the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night.
Late in the first half, while it’s faint, you can hear what appears to be Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Matt Canada — curiously positioned on the sideline — reciting a full Steelers play. Suffice it to say, the microphone probably shouldn’t have picked that up and revealed part of the Steelers’ strategy. (If that’s what happened.)
For what it’s worth, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett threw an incomplete pass to Allen Robinson on the subsequent play. So, at least this didn’t have much of an effect on live play (not that it necessarily would have). Though, I’m sure if the Steelers hear about this apparent snafu, they won’t be happy.
