Tag: fumbles

Vic Fangio still has ‘great confidence’ in Broncos RB Melvin Gordon

Broncos coach Vic Fangio still has confidence in Melvin Gordon despite the RB’s recent fumbles.

The Denver Broncos have split carries between veteran Melvin Gordon and rookie Javonte Williams this season, which has helped keep both backs fresh.

The results have been mostly positive, with the biggest complaint from fans being that both backs should be getting more carries each week. After Gordon’s recent fumbles, though, fans are starting to call for only Williams to have a larger role.

During his Zoom press conference Monday, Broncos coach Vic Fangio was asked about his confidence level in Gordon following his recent fumbles.

“I have great confidence in Melvin,” Fangio said. “Melvin’s one of the top backs in this league. He has fumbled it twice in the last three weeks as you mentioned. That’s something he has to put extra emphasis on to protect the ball moving forward, and that’s something that him and [running backs coach] Curtis [Modkins] will do.”

That’s a diplomatic answer from Fangio, who of course wasn’t going to throw his player under the bus and hurt the RB’s confidence. If Gordon doesn’t clean up his ball security, though, the calls for Williams to be more involved will only become louder as the season goes on.

Williams is the team’s RB of the future, and fans want him to be the No. 1 back of the present as well. Fangio doesn’t seem ready to make that decision just yet, but it’s a situation worth watching in the coming weeks.

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Broncos should make Javonte Williams their featured running back

Javonte Williams is fumbling half as often as Melvin Gordon (including college carries). It’s time for the Broncos to make Williams their new primary running back.

Late in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater opted not to tackle defensive back Darius Slay, who returned a fumble 82 yards for a touchdown to give Philly a 14-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

Bridgewater’s apparent lack of effort has become a hot topic in Denver, but that situation never would have happened if veteran running back Melvin Gordon had not fumbled on his 4th-and-1 rushing attempt.

Gordon should have protected the ball better, and the Broncos’ coaching staff perhaps shouldn’t have had him on the field in the first place.

Gordon has rushed 118 times for 522 yards this season with a respectable average of 4.4 yards per carry. Javonte Williams, meanwhile, has 103 carries for 514 yards this season with an even more impressive 5.0 yards per carry.

Despite his aggressive, productive running style, Williams has seemingly been underused this season. The rookie has received fewer than 10 carries in five times this year (including Sunday) and he’s received more than 15 carries in just one game (and he rushed for 111 yards in that contest).

Williams has proven he can be a reliable lead running back, and Gordon hasn’t been able to shake a fumble problem that has hindered his entire career.

Granted, Williams did fumble in Week 3 and he had a near-fumble in Week 8 but officials ruled that his knee was down before the ball came out. So Williams’ ball security hasn’t been perfect, but it has been better than Gordon’s, who has two fumbles this year and six dating back to last year.

Gordon has put the ball on the ground 20 times in his career, with 10 fumbles over the last three years (37 games). Williams obviously has a much smaller sample size in the NFL, but dating back to his time at North Carolina, Williams has half the number of fumbles (five) as Gordon in his last 37 games (college and pro).

Denver’s staff has split reps between Gordon and Williams pretty evenly, but it’s clear that Gordon is the team’s go-to back in important situations. Given Gordon’s fumbling problem and Williams’ productiveness this season, their roles should be switched going forward.

Gordon is scheduled to become a 29-year-old free agent in the spring and it’s hard to imagine the Broncos re-signing him. Williams is the team’s future, and he deserves to finish the season as the current No. 1 running back.

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Did Sean Payton break Jameis Winston by fixing Jameis Winston?

Did Sean Payton break Jameis Winston by fixing Jameis Winston?

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If I’d gone back before the season started and predicted Jameis Winston would exit Week 3 with seven touchdown passes against two interceptions and a 2-1 record, I probably would’ve drawn a lot of skepticism. But here we are.

Sean Payton has coached Winston into correcting some of the mistakes that plagued his NFL career so far. He hasn’t fumbled once in three games after doing so 50 times in his first 72 games. He’s thrown two interceptions on 63 pass attempts, a rate of 3.2% — his lowest interception rate since 2017, and the third-best of his pro career. He’s still put the ball in danger more often than you’d like, but he’s making tangible progress.

But at what cost? Winston has already taken 7 sacks, putting him on track for the second-most sacks of his career. He’s shown a willingness to take a sack and shield the ball with both hands on his way to the turf when nothing is open downfield, which is smart. Trying to force something and risk a turnover is what got him bounced out of Tampa Bay.

Here’s the bad news. This strategy has worked, for the most part, except in high-leverage situations when under pressure. His miraculous touchdown pass to Marquez Callaway could have just as easily been an interception had a defensive back been in better position. When things break down around him and he’s out of options, Winston is still throwing recklessly.

Those bad habits are never fully going away. It’s been a part of his DNA dating back to Florida State’s run in the College Football Playoff way back when. He’s always going to have bad snaps where he just heaves the ball as high and far as he can, praying that Mike Evans or Deonte Harris or Kelvin Benjamin is somewhere down there to bail him out.

What’s concerning is that Payton’s no-nonsense coaching is starting to bleed into Winston’s more routine plays. As observed by Pro Football Focus’ Seth Galina, Winston wasn’t just taking a sack when he had to. He was passing up opportunities to make a play with receivers running open downfield:

This is similar to what we saw from Teddy Bridgewater during his extended stint as a starter in 2019, and again from Taysom Hill in 2020 — drawing the ire of fans for not pulling the trigger when the look was there. It’s a byproduct of the unreal standards Drew Brees set over so many years in New Orleans, setting impossible expectations for his successors. Like the fans, Payton has grown used to turnover-free football. But when Brees was able to protect the ball while also slicing up defenses to find the open man, the quarterbacks following after him are falling short. They’re hesitating to take the shot for worry of something going bad.

That’s a far cry from the Winston we’ve seen before, who was fearless to a fault. Credit to him for being receptive to coaching, but it might have gone too far. He’s got to hang in there and make a play when it’s available. You can always take a sack and live to try another down, but you can only do that three times before you’ve got to punt.

Things should look different in just a few weeks once receivers Tre’Quan Smith and Michael Thomas return from their injuries to liven up the offense. That gives Winston some more proven options to work with and opens up Payton’s playbook. As Brees himself pointed out Sunday night, Winston is new to this offense. So are most of his supporting cast. Once more experienced players get in the mix we should see the whole unit’s confidence take a boost and its efficiency rise with it.

Hopefully we’ll get to see more of the big arm and vertical passing element that was hyped up all summer. If Winston continues to leave big-play opportunities untouched, we’ve got something to worry about.

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Taysom Hill closing in on Aaron Brooks’ single-season fumbles record

New Orleans Saints QB Taysom Hill is closing in on Aaron Brooks’ single-season fumbles record, a mark he probably isn’t excited about.

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There have been some highlights from Taysom Hill’s four-game starting stint with the New Orleans Saints. But nearly every one of those bright moments has been punctuated with a momentum-killing fumble.

And the pace he’s on has to be concerning. Hill has fumbled 10 times in 13 games, and, again: he’s only seen four starts as the full-time quarterback. He hasn’t played often enough to warrant that sort of giveaway rate.

For perspective: Hill is in danger of breaking the team record Aaron Brooks set back in 2003, when he coughed up 14 fumbles in 16 games as the starting quarterback. Brooks fumbled 11 or more times each year from 2001 to 2004.

That isn’t exactly the sort of company Hill would like to join, and he doesn’t have Brooks’ success as a passer to outweigh the fumbles. Both of them pail in comparison to Drew Brees, who has only fumbled 10 times in a single season once, in 2009.

It’s clearly something Hill must clean up. Saints coach Sean Payton can talk him up as his next quarterback for life after Brees, but this is one flaw they can’t afford to live with.

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Cowboys defense answers bell, turnover Bengals en route to 30-7 win

The Dallas Cowboys defense has been much maligned. Their effort in the Week 13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens was questioned by coaches, media and fans, including famous alum of the organization. Their response in Week 14 though was what one would …

The Dallas Cowboys defense has been much maligned. Their effort in the Week 13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens was questioned by coaches, media and fans, including famous alum of the organization. Their response in Week 14 though was what one would hope. They got lined up across a struggling offense and took advantage of every opportunity. The Cowboys forced fumbles on the Cincinnati Bengals first three possessions, racing out to a 17-point lead en route to a 30-7 victory.

The win moved Dallas to 4-9 on the season, dropping the Bengals to 2-10-1 on the year. The victory likely ended any chance the Cowboys had of catching Cincinnati in draft order, but for the coaching staff and the players, it was a much needed respite from the difficulties of a lost season.

The Cowboys’ offense wasn’t spectacular, in fact they failed to capitalize on the first short field and at the beginning of the second half when Tony Pollard had a 50-plus yard kickoff return, only scoring field goals on both possessions. The defense though took matters into their own hands. Aldon Smith recovered the second of the Bengals three first-quarter fumbles for a touchdown, and when the Bengals were driving to answer the score, Darian Thompson stopped their drive inside the red zone with his second forced turnover in two weeks.

The Cowboys scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a late Andy Dalton pass to Tony Pollard on fourth-and-1, giving the former Bengals QB a touchdown in front of his former home crowd.

The Bengals showed Dalton respect, introducing him prior to the game, and the defense came through for him.

Dalton finished the game 16 for 23, passing for 185 yards and two scores, connecting with Amari Cooper in the first quarter to extend Dallas’ lead to 17-0 at the time.

Cooper hauled in four of five targets for 51 yards. Ezekiel Elliott rushed 12 times for 48 yards and caught two passes for 11 more.

On defense, Dallas was paced by Jaylon Smith’s 11 tackles, while Tyron Crawford notched his first two sacks of the season in the fourth quarter. DeMarcus Lawrence contributed with a forced fumble that was recovered by CB Jourdan Lewis on the opening drive.

Dallas squares off against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 15.

With the New York Giants losing, the Cowboys find themselves still with a chance to win the NFC East.

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Ezekiel Elliott looks ahead to leading Cowboys while looking back to fix fumbles

The star RB has taken it upon himself to lead his team without Dak Prescott around, but he’s leading his own troubleshooting efforts, too.

A defense. An offensive line. Their starting quarterback. Confidence in their coaching staff. An identity. The 2020 Dallas Cowboys are lacking a lot of things at the moment, but after the thorough whooping they took on national television Monday night in their own house, perhaps none of the team’s deficiencies is more immediately troubling right now than that of an obvious leader.

With Dak Prescott lost for the season, who is the Cowboys’ on-the-field leader? The mantle may well fall to Ezekiel Elliott, despite the fact that the star running back is dealing with his own personal issues. With four lost fumbles already on the season, Elliott is having a hard time holding on to the football. But he may now be the one responsible for holding together the entire football team as they navigate some rough waters.

The five-year veteran was asked Wednesday if he feels the need to take on more of a pronounced leadership role with No. 4 on the rehab trail.

“I think I do. I think I do need to, just because Dak, he carried so much of that role. And that has to be filled. So I think I do.”

And it starts, Elliott says, by being more vocal when the team is struggling.

“I think you have to,” Elliot said, per the Cowboys website. “I think you have to lock in a little bit more because, obviously, what you’ve been doing hasn’t been getting it done. You need to exhaust all resources trying to get this thing back on track. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re exhausting all of our resources and we’re doing everything we can to get this thing back on track.”

The voice of veteran leadership is seemingly in short supply in Dallas, given the absurd number of injuries that have taken the team’s most experienced players off the field. Gerald McCoy never made it past the first week of practice. Tyron Smith and La’el Collins are gone. Zack Martin is in concussion protocol. On the defensive side, Sean Lee has yet to suit up in 2020. Leighton Vander Esch broke a collarbone. It’s difficult to lead the troops from the trainer’s table.

If Prescott’s injury had happened in 2019, one could argue Jason Witten or Travis Frederick would have become the Cowboys’ de facto leader. Heck, Michael Bennett felt the need last Thanksgiving to try to get the locker room right after being in town for only a month.

Amari Cooper is surgically smart, but awfully soft-spoken. Aldon Smith is still getting re-acclimated to life in the league. Andy Dalton has been there, done that… but is also too new to start lighting guys up around the Cowboys facility. Linebacker Jaylon Smith says all the right things in interviews, but his answers to reporters’ questions often come across as empty, eye-rolling soundbites. Getting spotlighted by analysts for poor play- jogging after the ball carrier in critical moments and taking atrocious pursuit angles- doesn’t exactly help earn leadership points.

Therein lies the dilemma for Elliott. He’d be the natural choice to automatically assume the primary leadership role in the current climate… except for those glaring fumbles that are contributing mightily to the deep holes the Cowboys are finding themselves in most weeks. Elliott got benched during Monday Night Football; now he’s supposed to stand up and set the example?

Well, yes.

He started by accepting full blame for the 38-10 drubbing. Then the two-time rushing champ set out to personally fix his fumbling problem.

“Honestly,” Elliott shared, “what I did is, [over the] past couple days, I went and got cutups of all my fumbles ever, and looked at them and looked at what I did wrong and what I could’ve done better. That’s what I’ve been doing this week, just kind of studying my fumbles and seeing where things went wrong and what I can do to keep that ball tighter and have better ball security.”

Exactly what Elliott found in those tapes- reportedly dating all the way back to high school- he says is for him to know and learn from… and for opposing defenses to hopefully not find out.

“If you want, you should just turn it on and go find out. I don’t want to give away all my weaknesses right here,” Elliott joked before continuing. “I just need to not put myself in vulnerable situations. I’ve just got to lock in and focus. I don’t think there’s a specific answer. All I can do is watch as much film as I can, gather as much information as I can, and try to use that to help me. But I don’t think there’s an exact answer on how to fix these fumbling problems I’ve had this year.”

Cowboys Nation may be suddenly panicking about Elliott’s recent case of fumblitis, but his head coach says that to judge the All-Pro based on a handful of negative plays paints an incomplete picture.

“I think we all recognize, Zeke’s played a tremendous amount of football,” McCarthy told the media on Wednesday. “He’s been carrying the football, probably, his whole life. So his instinct and awareness, I would definitely classify him as very high in that category of all the running backs I’ve been around in my career. But I think what’s most important- of this tough moment we’re going through with our turnover ratio- is to recognize the importance he places on himself. I get to see Zeke every day. I get to see Zeke in the front row of the team meeting, I see Zeke in the front row of the quarterback-center meeting this morning, his conversation to the team after the game.”

After the Arizona loss, Elliott sucked it up and vowed to his teammates that he will break his turnover habit.

“I just wanted to let them know how terrible I felt, just from my performance,” Elliott explained. “And that I’m supposed to be a guy that this team and this offense can rely on and lean on when things get rough, and I just wasn’t that last Monday night. [I told them] That I was sorry, and I promise I’m going to turn things around for this team.”

Elliott was the focal point of the Week 6 offensive attack before his back-to-back fumbles altered the plan. If Elliott can, in fact, make ball security a non-question moving forward, it will allow Kellen Moore the option of using the whole playbook instead of having to rely on the playing-from-way-behind chapters.

The Cowboys will try once again to put that theory to the test Sunday in Washington.

“We’re going to get this thing right. We are trying to figure out what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to come together. We are going to surround each other. We are going to support each other. We’ve got a big game this week, a division game on the road. We’ve got to go figure out how to get a win.”

Spoken like a true leader. Whether the Cowboys follow, though, remains to be seen.

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Elliott blames fumbles for disastrous Cowboys loss: ‘I need to figure it out’

The two-time rushing champ turned the ball over on consecutive carries Monday night as ball security continues to be an issue in Dallas.

Ezekiel Elliott was clearly the centerpiece of the Cowboys’ offensive game plan going in to Monday night’s game against Arizona. Of the team’s first fifteen offensive plays, Elliott’s number was called ten times.

But when he fumbled the ball away on touches No. 9 and 10, turnovers that directly resulted in two Cardinals touchdowns, the game plan had to change.

After the humiliating 38-10 home loss, the running back placed the blame squarely on his own shoulders.

“I’m supposed to be a guy this team can rely on,” Elliott told reporters on a postgame conference call. “I’m supposed to be a guy that this team can lean on when times get rough. I just wasn’t that today. I got off to a terrible start; defense was playing well. But I killed our momentum. Two fumbles? I can’t do that. I can’t.”

After his second fumble, Elliott found himself on the bench. For several plays on the team’s next offensive series, he watched Tony Pollard take his spot in the backfield as Dallas tried in vain to pull themselves out of yet another deep hole. The three-time Pro Bowler says the coaching staff was fully justified in pulling him.

“I’m giving the ball away. I can’t. I wasn’t helping the team,” Elliott explained. “They did the right thing and gave some of those reps to TP. I can’t do that. I have to be a guy this team can lean on, especially in the times right now with so many of our starters hurt and not playing. It’s not acceptable, and I need to figure it out.”

Elliott ended the game with 49 rushing yards on just 12 carries as offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was forced to shift to a pass-heavy approach as the Cowboys attempted to play catch-up.

Quarterback Andy Dalton was making his first start in place of Dak Prescott, but for the veteran backup, it was same song, different verse.

“We’re hurting ourselves with the turnovers,” Dalton told the press after the game. “We’ve got to get this fixed. It’s been the trend this year, especially early in games. That’s affected how we’ve been able to play. We haven’t been able to run our full offense, run it how it should be run just because we’re getting down in these games because we are turning the ball over.

“The ball’s the most important thing. We can’t be handing it to the other team.”

Dalton was responsible for two turnovers as well, tossing two interceptions Monday night in a comeback effort.

As for Elliott’s latest ball security issues- he has lost four fumbles already in 2020, more than he had during all of last season- the two-time rushing champ can’t put his finger on what’s wrong with his grip lately.

“Um… honestly, I can’t… I can’t really… even… I don’t know why. I’ve just got to focus up. I’ve got to be better with it.”

Also at a total loss regarding turnovers is head coach Mike McCarthy. The Cowboys have given the ball away over a league-worst 15 times through six games.

“It’s something that we work diligently on. It’s not carrying over to the game. That’s something we have to continue to stay after,” McCarthy offered in his postgame remarks. “Maybe we’re trying too hard, or maybe we’re overcoaching it. It clearly has put us in a position [where] we’ve been playing uphill every single game. We haven’t got into a groove or a rhythm and got out in front yet this year. It’s self-inflicted wounds that continue to plague us. We’ve got work to do, and we’ve got to do it fast because we’ve got Washington coming on us quickly.”

Elliott is also looking ahead, eager to get back to work with a short week of practice that will no doubt focus on ball security.

“I’ve just got to have a short memory. I’ve got to get that behind me and get play some good ball, get on a roll.”

But he expects that Washington’s defense will smell blood in the water and be looking to strip Elliott at every opportunity.

“When you’re fumbling every game, obviously teams are going to lock in on it and they’re going to go for it more. That’s just more reason for me; I need to figure it out.”

If Elliott does not figure it out and puts the ball on the ground again in Week 7, he could easily find himself on the sidelines once again. McCarthy made it clear that Elliott’s status as the default leader of the team with Prescott gone doesn’t afford him any extra leeway when it comes to fumbles.

“Every player that plays in this league- no different on our football team- if you don’t take care of the football, it obviously does affect your opportunities,” McCarthy said. “At the end of the day, Zeke is our bell cow, and we need to get it right. He’s part of the plan. He’s going to be part of our success. We have to get it right; we have to take care of the football. That’s for everybody that touches the football on our team.”

Dalton has faith that Elliott will rectify his fumbling problem.

“You never want to turn over the ball. For him, he understands that. He knows that. Zeke’s going to get this thing fixed.”

Elliott says he’s ready to getting back into the lab to do just that.

“I want to say I’m sorry. This one’s on me. And I need to be better for this  team.”

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Sky is Falling: Elliott’s two fumbles put Cowboys in double-digit deficit again

The Dallas Cowboys are shooting themselves in the foot. A quality defensive effort early in the game combined with an inaccurate Kyler Murray was giving the club some life. Near turnovers almost gave it away, and then real turnovers did the deed. …

The Dallas Cowboys are shooting themselves in the foot. A quality defensive effort early in the game combined with an inaccurate Kyler Murray was giving the club some life. Near turnovers almost gave it away, and then real turnovers did the deed. Once again, for the fifth consecutive week, Dallas finds itself training by at least 14 points.

The culprit this week? Lost fumbles on back-to-back runs by Ezekiel Elliott. Giving Arizona a short field on three consecutive drives and allowing the Cardinals to convert 5-of-9 third and fourth down opportunities has the team in disarray yet again. Arizona leads 14-0 midway through the second quarter.

This is the first time in Elliott’s career he’s lost two fumbles in a game, though he did fumble twice earlier in the season, recovering one. He’s already tied his 2019 lost fumble total on the season with three.

Murray took advantage, finding Christian Kirk on a shovel pass on the first turnover and then running down to the goal line before a short Kenyan Drake score on the next.

The club has now allowed 74 points off of turnovers on the season; through just six games.

[vertical-gallery id=656490][lawrence-newsletter]Tony Pollard was in at halfback on the subsequent drive.

Chris Carson and Seahawks have not had contract extension talks yet

Seattle Seahawks running back Chris Carson stated that the team has not reached out to him about a potential contract extension yet.

Seattle Seahawks running back Chris Carson is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is hoping for a contract extension. Carson admitted that he has been anticipating it after seeing several of his fellow tailbacks attain financial security from their respective teams.

“Of course it’s something that’s on my mind,” Carson told reporters during his press conference on Tuesday. “You see a lot of guys, they’re starting to get paid, but I try not to distract me from this season. I just try to push it away, but like I said, it is something that’s on my mind but I try not to let it affect me.”

Carson stated that Seattle has not reached out to him to offer an extension or discuss his future in any way. When asked if he wants to remain in the Emerald City, Carson confessed that he has no clear idea of where he will end up next.

“I mean, if everything plays out the right ways,” he said. “I guess we’re just going to have to see.”

Considering he was a seventh-round pick in 2017, it is safe to say Carson has far exceeded expectations. He was a double-edged sword for the Seahawks in 2019, rushing for 1,230 yards and seven touchdowns and adding 266 receiving yards and two more TDs, but also fumbling seven times, losing four of them. However, Carson remains confident in his abilities and stated he has worked on his fumbling issues in preparation for the 2020 season.

“Just being a seventh-round draft pick, you’re always going to have that chip on your shoulder but at this point in the game I don’t really have nothing to prove,” Carson said. “I feel like my game has spoken for itself for the last three years or whatever. As far as the fumbling, that was something that played a big part last year, it’s something I worked on in the offseason. But like I said, you’ve got to have a quick mindset, let that go and just move on from it. Learn from it and like I said, move on from it.”

Carson could still receive an extension before the season starts, but his future is up in the air at this point.

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Maurice Jones-Drew ranks Chris Carson as only 15th-best starting back

NFL.com’s Maurice Jones-Drew ranks Seattle Seahawk Chris Carson as only 15th-best starting running back in the NFL due to his fumbles.

The Seattle Seahawks are hoping for big things this season from running back Chris Carson. Sidelined at the end of last year with a hip injury, Carson is expected to be able to return to form in 2020.

But Carson’s health issues aren’t what is keeping him in the middle of the pack of NFL.com’s Maurice Jones-Drew’s top running backs heading into the season . . . it’s concerns whether or not he can protect the football.

“Carson, who finished in the top five in rushing yards last season, has been highly productive the last two seasons, but I have one major problem with his game,” Jones-Drew writes. “He simply coughs up the ball too much. Carson had seven fumbles last year alone. That is a killer for any offense.”

Carson’s ball-security skills were certainly called into question last season, but hopefully entering his fourth year in the league he is able to prove he’s well worth the risk.

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