Tag: NFL Week 8

Noah Brown provides the Texans depth at receiver

Since returning from a groin injury, Noah Brown has given the Houston Texans depth in their receiving corps.

The Houston Texans signed Noah Brown in free agency to bolster a position group that features a variety of targets from big-bodied Nico Collins to shifty Tank Dell.

Although injuries affected the Texans’ receiving corps the past two games with Dell dealing with a concussion in Week 7 and Robert Woods a foot injury in Week 8, Brown has been a model of consistency throughout the hits to the position.

According to Lauren Gray from Pro Football Focus, Brown was the Texans’ highest-graded receiver in their 15-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 8.

Noah Brown recorded three catches for 57 yards in Houston’s loss to Carolina. He had two explosive gains for 54 yards and finished with a 116.7 passer rating when targeted. Brown suffered a groin injury against the Ravens in Week 1 and has played in three games this season, leading to only 114 receiving yards on the year, but his yardage has gradually increased in each outing.

On the season, Brown has eight catches for 114 yards. Brown should figure to be a part of the Texans’ passing game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 9 as Woods will miss another game due to injury.

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Jahmyr Gibbs’ touchdown vs. Raiders made the (almost) impossible happen

Jahmyr Gibbs had less than a half-percent chance of scoring on his TD run against the Raiders according to Next Gen Stats

As Han Solo once said, “Never tell me the odds.”

Nobody told Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs that he had less than a one percent chance to score when he took a handoff from the Raiders’ 27-yard line in Detroit’s Week 8 win. Less than half of one percent, according to Next Gen Stats, based on play call, formation and the defensive alignment at the snap.

Next Gen Stats determined that the play had just a 0.4 percent chance of resulting in a touchdown when Gibbs got the ball. One sweet bounce cut to the right and instant acceleration away from several would-be tacklers proved that the odds mean nothing to the talented Lions rookie.

Zebra Technologies, the folks behind Next Gen Stats, added this context on the Gibbs touchdown run,

Jahmyr Gibbs had just a 0.4% probability of reaching the endzone on his 27-yard score. He gained +23 RYOE on the play. The width of the Lions offensive formation was 15.6 yards. The Raiders defense matched with a width of 19.6 yards.

The offensive line and receivers deserve credit for blocking the play well, and Gibbs cashed in the extremely unlikely lottery ticket of a touchdown.

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Best and worst PFF Grades from Lions Week 8 win against Raiders

Another week, another dominant performance for Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions. In primetime in front of a national crowd, too.

Another week, another dominant performance for Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions. In primetime in front of a national crowd, the Lions started out slow but caught fire at the end of the first half and used that to take full control in the second half.

With a dominant win comes some significant PFF scores.

The offense had plenty to be happy about, especially between the skill players. On defense, the front seven shined with someone even securing their highest grade of the season against the Raiders.

Voting open for FedEx Air and Ground NFL Players of Week 8

NFL fans can vote for the nominees for FedEx NFL Air and Ground Players of Week 8.

The NFL announced Tuesday its three nominees weekly air and ground awards.

The Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, and the Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa are nominees for the FedEx Air NFL Player of the Week.

Prescott went 25-of-31 for 304 yards, four touchdowns, and a 133.7 passer rating. The Dallas quarterback also had an 80.6 completion percentage in the 43-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Hurts completed 29 of 38 attempts for 319 yards and four touchdowns with a 135.7 rating as the Eagles outlasted Washington 38-31.

Tagovailoa went 30-of-45 for 324 yards, three touchdowns, and a 100.6 rating as Miami beat New England 31-17.

The FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week nominees are the New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley, the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Henry, and the Baltimore Ravens’ Gus Bradley.

Barkley rushed 36 times for 128 yards in the Giants’ 13-10 loss to the Jets.

Henry produced 22 carries for 101 yards in the Titans’ 28-23 win over the Falcons.

Edwards had 19 carries for 80 yards and three touchdowns as Baltimore beat the Arizona Cardinals 31-24.

FedEx Air & Ground NFL Player of the Week award winners will have a $2,000 donation in their name made to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), which will go towards needs-based scholarships to deserving HBCU students.

Voting is open until Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time at NFL.com/FedEx each week of the season. Fans can also vote on the NFL Mobile App and on Twitter via the @NFL published polls.

Quick takeaways from the Lions’ Monday Night Football win over the Raiders

Post-game takeaways from the Lions win over the Raiders, including thoughts on Aaron Glenn’s defense, offensive mistakes, 3 stars of the game and more

Monday night’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders was a weird one for the Detroit Lions. It might have been the most dominant performance by the Lions all season in improving to 6-2, yet some critical mistakes prevented it from being a blowout on the scoreboard.

The Lions beat the visiting Raiders 26-14 on Monday Night Football, breaking out the new blue helmets. Detroit dominated everything but the scoreboard in the first home MNF game since 2018.

Here’s what I took away from watching the Lions rough up the Raiders in real-time.

Lions defense had the best pass rush game of any NFL team in the last five years

The Detroit Lions defense recorded the highest QB pressure rate by any team in a game since 2018 in win over the Raiders

Aaron Glenn dialed up a fantastic game plan to attack Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo and the Las Vegas Raiders offense. The Detroit Lions defensive coordinator was in his bag all night long in Monday night’s 26-14 win.

Glenn’s unit, coming off a lousy game in the Week 7 loss in Baltimore, had one of the most dominating performances by any NFL defense in years. The pass rush was the best by any team since 2018 in terms of generating pressure.

From Next Gen Stats,

“The Lions defense generated pressure on 71.4% of Jimmy Garoppolo’s dropbacks, the highest pressure rate by a defense in a game since 2018. Five different Lions defenders generated 3+ pressures. Garoppolo was sacked 6 times on the night.”

Defensive tackle Alim McNeill had six of those pressures and two sacks. Linebacker Alex Anzalone added two sacks and five pressures of his own, the same number as DE Aidan Hutchinson.

Garoppolo threw for 126 yards in completing just 10 of his 21 pass attempts. That lousy rate also reflected very well on the Lions’ defense, this time the coverage.

“The Lions defense also allowed the lowest completion percentage over expected (-20.1%) in a game this season. Garoppolo finished 10 of 21 for 126 yards & INT.

🔹 Jimmy G Comp Pct: 47.6%
🔹 Avg Completion Probability: 67.7%
🔹 Comp Pct Over Expected: -20.1%”

After the game, head coach Dan Campbell gave Glenn the game ball. He earned it with one of the best single games by any Detroit defense in the Super Bowl era.

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Social media reacts to Lions thumping Raiders 26-14 on Monday Night Football

The Detroit Lions had no trouble with the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football. Here are some of the best Twitter takes from Week 8.

The score was closer than it seemed as the Detroit Lions dominated the Las Vegas Raiders 26-14 at Ford Field on Monday Night Football.

Try 486 yards total offense to 157. How about 29 first downs to 12? The Lions were 6-14 on third down compared to Las Vegas’ 1-9. Detroit held the ball for 39:33 compared to the Raiders’ 20:27.

Running back Jamhyr Gibbs was the star of the night. The Lions rookie generated 152 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. Indeed Dan Campbell was correct when he surmised Gibbs would breakout against the Raiders.

Social media was naturally full of commentary about the contest. Here are among some of the favorites.

Every NFL fan made the same joke about Justin Fields wearing sunglasses at night

Justin Fields wears sunglasses at night so he can keep track of the visions in his eyes.

In today’s NFL, Justin Fields is undoubtedly one of the league’s more polarizing figures. He’s clearly got the talent to thrive at this level but just hasn’t pieced it together as he enters the halfway point of his third season. But for the time being, conversations about Fields’ NFL success or lack thereof are tabled.

Fields is currently nursing a thumb injury and has missed the last two Chicago starts, with backup Tyson Bagent (somewhat) admirably filling in. On Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, an animated Fields had an interesting get-up on the Chicago Bears sideline. He, of course, had all the classic Bears gear adorned but with one notable addition — deep and dark sunglasses under the Los Angeles night sky. (Also, the Chargers’ stadium has a roof.)

It was frankly a little bizarre to see Fields with this sunglasses fit, inadvertently paying homage to Corey Hart’s musical tribute to looking silly indoors:

Naturally, with Fields shading his eyes so he can watch us weave and then breathe our storylines, NFL fans all made the same joke roasting the Bears quarterback.

We only hope he could see the light that’s right before his eyes.

QB C.J. Stroud takes blame as Panthers deployed copycat defense to thwart Texans

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud shouldered the blame for the 15-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 8.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NFL is a copycat league, and it was proven once again on Sunday when the Houston Texans (3-4) lost to the Carolina Panthers (1-6) 15-13 on a game-winning field goal. The Panthers used the exact blueprint that their NFC South division opponent, Atlanta Falcons, set three weeks prior when they defeated the Texans 21-19 with a field goal as time expired off the clock.

Carolina limited rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud from beating them with down-the-field passes, as only five of his 16 completions went for ten or more yards. It was the same defensive scheme that the Falcons used by forcing Stroud to throw check-down passes, and even then, four of those passes were batted down.

“You can point the finger everywhere, but me personally, I point the thumb,” said Stroud about his performance on Sunday, finishing with a season-low 140 yards passing. “A lot of teams are being smart and playing back. Even when I do take the check-down, this team was knocking it down. I thought we could have gotten some firsts from that…I feel like the talent we have, we’ve got to use it, and we’ve got to be explosive like we want to be.”

“On top of that, we’ve got to take some shots. We’ve got to be more explosive and do some things down the field. We can’t just let people dictate what we do just because we’re not throwing the ball short. I mean, that’s me getting more trust from the coaches and the guys getting their depth in the routes.”

Sunday’s game once again highlighted the inability of first-year offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik to make the necessary adjustments to the defensive game plans. Carolina consistently dropped a plethora of defenders into coverage, which generally would allow for open running lanes, but that is another inefficiency that the Texans struggle with, averaging a combined 91.9 yards per game.

With the running game inept and the downfield passes being taken away, Houston’s offense seemed lethargic and had no proper rhythm to it, and that was with them scoring two touchdowns on the day, which would have been enough with the way the defense was putting pressure on rookie quarterback Bryce Young.

“I feel like that’s why we haven’t been consistent., too many taking the ball short and not having enough explosives [plays],” Stroud said.

The Texans can expect much of the same type of defensive schemes from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, another NFC South team, on Sunday at NRG Stadium, but it will be up to Stroud and Slowik to make the necessary adjustments.

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NFL fans questioned Cris Collinsworth’s repeated praise of the struggling Tyson Bagent

Cris Collinsworth’s bizarre praise of Tyson Bagent went overboard.

We knew what we were getting ourselves into with the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers squaring off on Sunday Night Football. In a matchup between two teams with a combined four wins coming in, there probably wouldn’t be much good football. Factor in an inexperienced former Division II player like Tyson Bagent starting at quarterback for Chicago, and a chance at exciting fireworks was implausible.

Well, unless you’re NBC announcer Cris Collinsworth, apparently.

Throughout the evening, NFL fans started to notice how Collinsworth kept praising Bagent despite him not achieving much of anything of note. On a night when the Bears were down 30-7 at the start of the fourth quarter (and would lose 30-13), Collinsworth repeatedly made it a point to discuss just how impressive Bagent’s “leadership” was.

Never mind that Bagent threw two picks and was mostly ineffective:

What was particularly striking to many was how Collinsworth said that Chicago incumbent starter Justin Fields could “study” from Bagent’s style of play. Again, Bagent was pretty nondescript, even awful sometimes, and Collinsworth said this with the Bears down over three scores:

Finally, while the conversation never really stopped, we ended with Collinsworth giving Bagent his flowers for throwing the ball away randomly in the middle of the field … who would then throw an interception on the very next play:

None of this is to detract from Bagent’s great story. In two starts for Chicago, it’s obvious he has the composed skill set of a guy who could be a quality long-term backup. Coming out of Division II and achieving this (gestures broadly) should be considered a massive win for Bagent.

But it’s also obvious Bagent doesn’t possess the ability to be a viable full-time starter. And Collinsworth going out of his way to specifically pump Bagent up while he struggled all evening was pretty ridiculous. That isn’t to say Justin Fields is the Bears’ long-term answer either — he probably isn’t — but he’s definitely better than Bagent. It’s not even a question, and it’s not a stretch to say Collinsworth went overboard.