5 takeaways from Seattle’s 37-30 prime-time victory over Minnesota

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Minnesota Vikings on “Monday Night Football” to move to 10-2. Here are a few takeaways from the game.

The Seattle Seahawks (10-2) had a resounding 37-30 victory against the Minnesota Vikings (8-4) on Monday night that saw them take both the lead in the NFC West and the No. 2 seed in the NFC. The Seahawks extend their record in Action Green to 5-0 and now control their own destiny as they await another primetime matchup with the Los Angeles Rams on “Sunday Night Football” in Week 14. Here are a few takeaways from the game.

Chris Carson rebounds again and Rashaad Penny continues production

Seattle set a season-high in rushing yards Monday night with 218 as the backfield duo of Carson and Penny got rolling. Carson rebounded after a disastrous performance last week against Philadelphia with 102 rushing yards and a touchdown along with one catch for seven yards. Rashaad Penny chipped in 74 rushing yards for a rushing TD along with four receptions for 33 yards and a receiving score. The Seahawks had 16 first-down runs, the second most accumulated in a single game by a team this season. Penny has stepped up significantly over the past two games and Carson bounced back extremely well. Fans will hope that they continue to produce throughout the rest of the season, which will be essential to Seattle’s success.

DK Metcalf’s lost fumble gave momentum back to Minnesota

This was a great play by Xavier Rhodes, but the fact of the matter is that Metcalf’s fumble in Minnesota territory gave the Vikings new life and allowed them to score consecutive touchdowns. This came after an improbable play on a fake punt in which Travis Homer picked up 29 yards. The defense should not be excused for collapsing on the drives before and after the fumble, but Metcalf has to be better at protecting the football and reducing his mistakes because he has made a noticeable amount of them in the past three games.

Offense and defense aid each other with 24 unanswered points

Facing a 17-10 deficit, the Seahawks drove for Penny’s rushing touchdown. This was followed by a strip-sack on Kirk Cousins by Rasheem Green and recovery by Bradley McDougald, which set up a field goal to take a 20-17 lead. The defense proceeded to force the Vikings into a three-and-out and the offense took advantage with a 60-yard touchdown pass to David Moore. This was followed by an incredible interception by Tre Flowers, which set up Penny’s 13-yard receiving touchdown for a 34-17 lead. They proceeded to give up 13 unanswered points, but this productive stretch was enough to allow Seattle to hold on and clinch victory.

Self-inflicted wounds nearly cost Seahawks the victory

In addition to the aforementioned Metcalf fumble, Russell Wilson threw, or rather, batted an interception directly to Vikings safety Anthony Harris for a pick-six, giving Minnesota a 14-7 lead after the defense had just forced them into a three-and-out. On the Vikings’ drive before Metcalf’s fumble, wide receiver Laquon Treadwell was left incredibly wide open on a blown coverage for a 58-yard touchdown. Tre Flowers also committed a costly pass interference penalty on Stefon Diggs on third down, which set up Minnesota’s touchdown to make the score 34-30 after a missed extra point by Dan Bailey. The Seahawks could have run away with the victory but committed multiple mistakes that kept the Vikings in the game, along with their opponent’s own stellar play in the second half.

The 2019 Seahawks are still an incredibly resilient bunch

This team keeps finding ways to win. They are undefeated on the road and take every game of the week seriously. They have had some trouble keeping their foot on the gas, but they have managed to hold strong when things get too dire. They are now 10-2 with the NFC West lead and the No. 2 seed in the NFC, with the Saints holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over them. Seattle must keep racking up wins through the final four weeks of the season to secure a playoff spot, first and foremost. The Seahawks have the potential to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC this season and they must keep that in mind as they push to finish out the year.

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CB Gareon Conley ‘trending in right direction’ for the Texans

The Houston Texans did not see their starting cornerback Gareon Conley play in Week 13’s win over the Patriots. He could be back against the Broncos.

The Houston Texans secondary was nearly complete for their win over the New England Patriots. While cornerback Bradley Roby returned, fellow cornerback Gareon Conley was inactive for the first time in his Texans tenure.

The former 2017 Oakland Raiders first-round pick was a limited participant in all three practices leading up to the 28-22 win over the Patriots with a hip injury.

However, Conley could be back on board to play in Week 14’s bout with the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

“I think Conley is trending in the right direction,” said coach Bill O’Brien on Monday. “We felt like it was in his best interest for him to be inactive last night and to try to continue to get better health-wise.”

The Texans won’t unveil an official injury report for Conley until Wednesday’s practices are over with. His status for the game will be more definite on Friday.

Houston traded for Conley before the trade deadline, sending a third-round selection to the Oakland Raiders. In four games (all starts) with the Texans, the 2017 first-round pick has allowed a 104.4 passer rating in coverage, per Pro Football Reference.

Mitchell Trubisky has regressed, but Bears defense has remained strong

Thanksgiving gatherings bring families and friends together with vibes of gratitude, but unfortunately, Thursday’s performance by the Cowboys didn’t leave many feelings of thankfulness. Although there was some early promise in the game, the Win-Probability Chart posted after the game showed that Buffalo steadily pulled away after the first quarter. With this loss, Dallas fell to .500 on the season, but Cowboys fans still found some cause for celebration as the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Miami Dolphins. Despite a 6-6 record, Dallas still holds sole possession of first place in the NFC East, and remain the most likely candidate to win the division.

Although Thanksgiving may have been unkind to Dallas, their next opponent, the Chicago Bears, had a much more joyous result. Down three points with less than seven minutes to go, Mitchell Trubisky and the offense manufactured a 90-yard drive on nine plays to score the go ahead touchdown with about two minutes remaining. For Bears fans, the offense rallying in a clutch situation was surely a welcome sight, as it’s no secret that Trubisky has struggled as a whole this year.

Comparing his 2018 and 2019 Next-Gen passing charts, we can see a stark contrast.

In 2018, a large factor in Trubisky’s success was his ability to stretch the seams of the defense. Unfortunately, he hasn’t reached that same level of success in 2019. He’s still been decent attacking the left seam, but overall, he’s had difficulty with passes over 10 yards downfield.

In addition to these differences, we also see a noticeable change in Trubisky’s utilization of his running ability.

A little over 3% of Trubisky’s 2019 dropbacks have resulted in him scrambling; that’s about half his 2018 rate. It’s hard to say whether Trubisky has simply elected to do this less, or there have been less opportunities to scramble overall. If it’s the former, it would seem prudent for him to utilize his athleticism to place a different kind of pressure on the defense.

The latter is a much more difficult fix.

Aside from Trubisky, it’s impossible to talk about the Chicago Bears and not discuss their stellar defense.

This defense has given up 31 pass plays that gained 20 yards or more, the seventh-lowest total overall. The Next-Gen chart would seem to indicate that the Bears allow a relatively-high completion percentage on passes down the middle and the right-seam, but those types of passes are hard to come by. Chicago has allowed 109 passes of 10 yards or more, sixth-fewest in the NFL. Undoubtedly, this is related to their pass-rush.

Chicago’s defense ranks in the top-6 in terms of pressure rate, despite having a blitz rate in the bottom-third of the league. A defense that can generate pressure without becoming overly reliant on extra rushers will certainly present an interesting challenge.

In any game of chance, outcomes are determined by a mixture of possibilities and probabilities, and football is no different. Dallas has certainly shown a high-ceiling at certain points, but consistency has been harder to find. Fortunately, they still control their own destiny, and it starts with a cold matchup in Chicago.

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Texas has fired defensive coordinator Todd Orlando

Texas has officially fired defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. After three seasons in Austin, the defense has regressed in all three years.

According to Pete Thamel, Texas has officially fired defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. There were rumors of this happening before the Texas Tech game, but it seems like it will be official.

The Longhorn defense has struggled this year, allowing 29 points per game. Allowing 21+ points in every single Big 12 and against LSU, the defense allowed 30 or more points in six different games.

Ranking second to last in the Big 12, Texas allowed 306 passing yards a game. The rush defense ranked well in the Big 12, only allowing 140 yards per game, but Big 12 offenses exploded in the air against the Longhorns.

Source: Texas has fired defensive coordinator Todd Orlando.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 1, 2019

Orlando had been the defensive coordinator for Texas since Tom Herman’s first season in charge. They have regressed every single year, allowing more and more points.

Even though Texas only returned three starters on defense, a lot more was expected from the unit. An injury-riddled season also contributed to the poor season, but it was not enough to save Orlando’s job.

Craig Naivar is expected to take over for the bowl game. Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods.com is reporting that former Rutgers head coach Chris Ash is the top candidate to take over the position in the future.

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Could J.J. Watt return if the Texans make the playoffs?

The Houston Texans could get a monumental boost to their defense if defensive end J.J. Watt is able to return for a playoff run.

If the Houston Texans make the playoffs, could they get a boost from their face of the franchise?

According to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, the Texans are saving their last injured reserve/designated to return spot for defensive end J.J. Watt, who tore his pectoral muscle in Week 8’s win over the Oakland Raiders. As soon as that Sunday evening, Watt declared he was done for the year.

If the Texans are able to get back Watt for the playoffs, it would be a big boost for the club emotionally. Houston will need all the help they can get. With a 7-4 record, the Texans are currently slated as the third seed in the AFC. Houston would be a home wild-card team that would have to battle their way as the road team in the divisional round to reach their first AFC championship game and the city’s first since 1979.

Before Watt went down with his presumed season-ending injury, the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year collected 24 tackles, 4.0 sacks, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and three pass breakups in eight starts.

Struggling Packers defense desperate for consistency, better communication

It’s been 12 weeks, but the Packers are still looking for consistency and better communication on defense.

Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has seen the flashes. He knows his group can get it done. There’s evidence of high-level play from the Packers defense throughout the first 11 games.

A frustrating lack of consistency has been the problem. For every third-down sack, there’s a 50-yard completion. For every three-and-out, there’s a 12-play scoring drive. The quality of play ebbs and flows.

Unevenness has been the defining feature of the Packers defense in 2019.

“It’s been frustrating,” Pettine said Friday. “Every game we play well for stretches and we can be dominant for stretches. You look at the first 20 plays against San Francisco. I think a lot of it is a consistency thing. It’s something we’ve battled in the room. We have to be able to focus on our jobs.”

The Packers talk all the time about all 11 players on the field doing their respective job. All it takes is one failure out of 11 for an otherwise good play for the defense to turn into a big play for the offense. Often times, communication has been to blame.

“Unfortunately for us, we’ve had too many (self-inflicted mistakes) and we’ve had them at some inopportune times. It’s a thing we talk about each week. Our guys know, for us to get where we want to go, we’ve got to become way more consistent,” Pettine said.

Despite a strong three-game start to open the season, when Pettine’s group looked like a potential top-10 defense, the Packers have faded back to the middle of the pack in the NFL over the last two months. Green Bay ranks 14th in points allowed, 28th in total yards allowed, 30th in yards allowed per play, 27th in passing yards per attempt and 27th in rushing yards per attempt.

By DVOA, the Packers are 22nd overall, 19th against the pass and 28th against the run.

Down-to-down struggles defending the run, covering the middle of the field and preventing explosive plays have plagued the defense all season.

“We’re all frustrated together. These are competitive guys. They’re professionals, they want to win, they want to get it done,” Pettine said. “We have to break through that, get over that hump of having those handful of plays that are lapses and we end up giving up explosives.”

Pettine said the Packers have to better at focusing on every single play and avoiding the communication problems that continue to come up during games.

The next three games should provide a chance for Pettine’s group to get back on even ground, correct the obvious mistakes and get hot for a playoff run. The Packers will face rookie quarterback Daniel Jones on Sunday in New York, rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins next Sunday at home and struggling Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky in Week 15.

Now is the time to get right, because the Packers have a pivotal game in Minnesota against the highly efficient Vikings offense on Dec. 23, and no team can win in the postseason without a high level of consistency on defense.

Pressuring Andy Dalton among keys to Jets defense vs. Bengals

The Jets’ pass rush needs to continue playing well to keep the Bengals at bay.

Gregg Williams’ defense continues to impress and now they’ll have another chance to show off against the 0-11 Bengals and one of the worst scoring offenses in the league. Cincinnati ranks 31st in points with 14.3 and the Jets should feast on a team that also ranks top-five in giveaways (22) and sacks allowed (40).

However, the Jets can’t overlook the lowly Bengals. Remember the last time the Jets faced a winless football team? They gave up 26 points and lost an embarrassing game against the Dolphins. The Bengals are objectively worse offensively than the Dolphins, but they’re starting a well-rested veteran quarterback in Andy Dalton and feature a dual-threat running back in Joe Mixon.

Here are four keys to the Jets defense against the Bengals.

Pressure Andy Dalton

The Bengals offense might see a slight rejuvenation with Andy Dalton back under center, so the Jets should pressure him early in order to take away the passing threat. Despite the Bengals’ winless record, Dalton actually ranks seventh in the NFL with 281.5 passing yards per game and the Bengals have scored 17 or more points in six of his eight starts this season. The Bengals’ line is still a sieve, and the Jets should have no trouble getting to Dalton – especially with the pass rush playing as well as it has the past few weeks.

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The Clippers’ flex on the Mavericks showed us exactly what they could be

This defense is straight up unfair.

We’ve been telling you all season long about how the Clippers aren’t even close to being a finished product and that’s still mostly true.

But the havoc they wreaked against the Mavericks in Tuesday’s 114-99 win gave the rest of the league a glimpse at how scary they can be when they lock in.

Going into the game the Mavericks were scoring 117.4 points per 100 possessions. The Clippers held them to just 93.4 points per 100 — a full 24 points under their regular mark.

They took the most efficient offense in NBA history and tore it to shreds like it was child’s play. Luka Doncic might be the NBA’s best offensive player to this point and they made him look like a rookie again. And the scariest part of all is that they actually made it look easy.

Here’s how they did it

The key to neutralizing the Mavericks’ offensive attack is taking out their fulcrum in Doncic. He leads the league in touches with 98.6 per game. Whatever the Mavericks do runs through him.

The Clippers took that away by pressing him hard in the full court when he brought the ball up the floor. Even once he crossed half court, they kept the pressure on.

Just look at how far back Beverley is playing him. He’s not worried about what’s on the back end — just staying in front of the ball.

That’s not a normal coverage. It takes a lot to pressure the ball like this throughout a game. We don’t normally see teams employ this game after game because it wears guards down defensively, but the Clippers have the defensive depth to pull this out whenever they want.

What they really wanted to do was force the ball out of Doncic’s hands. When the Mavs tried to initiate screen and rolls, their bigs didn’t switch or drop back in coverage. Instead, the Clippers showed two and had the big men step up to force Doncic to get rid of it. Someone else had to make a play.

Even when Doncic didn’t have the ball, the Clippers still kept the pressure up and just threw everything out of wack.

The Mavs have good offensive players surrounding Doncic, but they’re not used to making plays themselves. The Clippers exploited that and forced them into 20 turnovers — Doncic had seven of them himself.

The Clippers’ ability to press is unfair

Watching them defend is like watching a game of NBA 2k. Someone is just perpetually mashing the steal button and not paying for their gambles. They’re always on the ball yet always somehow in the right passing lane.

This is a luxury most teams can’t afford. Playing an ultra aggressive style is hard. Not only because a defense can get burned for gambling, but it also takes a ton of energy to do it right.

The Clippers have the bodies to get it done. Beverley, George and Harkless all guarded Doncic when he had the ball for at least two minutes, per NBA.com’s stats tool.

“It’s good, you know, me pressuring the ball, Rodney [McGruder] pressuring the ball, of course, Kawhi guarding somebody so they turn their back,” Patrick Beverley said after the game. “PG is able to play that corner back type of defense and we get a lot of steals that lead to early offense.”

Beverley is absolutely right and it’s maddening. They shouldn’t be able to move like this.

The Clippers aren’t going to play this way for 82 games. It takes entirely too much energy and it’s impossible for bodies to fly around like this without risking injury.

But the fact that they have this type of defense in their bag is the scariest thing ever for NBA offenses. The rest of the league best beware.

How is OLB Jacob Martin working out for the Texans’ defense?

Houston Texans outside linebacker Jacob Martin is receiving good reviews, particularly from fellow outside linebacker Brennan Scarlett.

Jacob Martin is still new to the Houston Texans. A piece in the Jadeveon Clowney trade of Aug. 31, the second-year linebacker is slowly growing into his role as a Texan; as a situational pass-rusher off the edge.

Fellow rotational linebacker Brennan Scarlett sees that. Martin, a Temple product, is considered a part of their linebacking group, known as the “Rockboyz.”

“A fellow rockboy, Jacob gives incredible effort,” said Scarlett on Monday. “He’s aggressive, he is very intense and he just brings a great energy to, not only to the locker room, but also to the field.”

In Week 12, in a 20-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts, Martin tallied his first sack as a member of the Texans. Since the season-ending torn pectoral injury to J.J. Watt in Week 8, he has seen an uptick in snaps week-by-week, playing 36% in the divisional win.

Like Scarlett, Martin was an unheralded piece when the Texans brought him in. However, slowly but surely, he is making his mark in Houston.

Texans’ Brennan Scarlett admits Tom Brady brings a mystique to the field

Houston Texans outside linebacker Brennan Scarlett says New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady brings a mystique to the game.

For the 321st time, Tom Brady will step onto an NFL gridiron on Sunday. The New England Patriots quarterback will face the Houston Texans for the 12th time — an opponent he historically does well against (10-1).

There is no denying, on the Texans’ end, that playing against Brady is special. The 42-year-old is widely considered to be the greatest of all time, and continues to play at a high level.

Texans outside linebacker Brennan Scarlett knows the mystique Brady brings to the field, and that the Houston defense will have to work against it.

“I think everybody in the league respects Tom Brady as a great quarterback,” Scarlett said. “As one of the greatest players to play this game. So, you know, it just puts that much more pressure on us to prepare this week and go out there and execute.”

On the season, Brady has passed for 2,942 yards, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions on a 62.2% completion rate, good for an 88.5 passer rating. His Patriots stand at an AFC-best 10-1.

What makes Brady so good, despite his age?

“In order to be that great of a quarterback, you have to be cerebral and you got to know what’s going on the field pre-snap and post-snap,” said Scarlett. “And, I think he’s probably one of the best doing it or that has done it.”

The Texans are no stranger to Brady’s abilities. Two years ago, he led a last-minute comeback to give Deshaun Watson his first defeat as a starter. The next season, his Patriots cruised to a win in the regular season opener.

Brady has Houston’s number.

If the Texans want to extract revenge, Scarlett and the rest of the pass-rush will need to step-up. With Brady playing behind a subpar offensive line, he is susceptible to pressure. Romeo Crennel’s defense must dial-up the pressure.