Tag: Week 7

‘There’s a possibility’ Broncos WR Jerry Jeudy could play Thursday

‘There’s a possibility’ Broncos WR Jerry Jeudy (ankle) might be available for Thursday’s game against the Browns.

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The Denver Broncos designated wide receiver Jerry Jeudy (ankle) to return from injured reserve on Saturday. Jeudy is still on IR, but the team has now started a 21-day window for him to return to the active roster.

At any point within the next three weeks, the Broncos can promote Jeudy from IR to the 53-man roster. Jeudy suffered a high ankle sprain against the New York Giants in Week 1 and he was given a recovery timeline of 4-6 weeks.

That was five weeks ago, so it’s reasonable to assume Jeudy might be able to return as early as Thursday for a nationally televised showdown with the Cleveland Browns. Denver coach Vic Fangio was coy when asked Sunday if Jeudy will be able to play on Thursday.

“There’s a possibility, but I don’t know that it will happen,” Fangio said.

If Jeudy does not play this week, he will have 10 more days to recover before the Broncos host the Washington Football Team in Week 8. So if the receiver does not return this week, he would seemingly have good odds to be back on the field next week.

Jeudy caught six passes for 72 yards before injuring his ankle in Week 1.He totaled 52 receptions for 856 yards and three scores as a rookie last year.

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Everything Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said prior to facing No. 12 Oklahoma State

Steve Sarkisian dropped some nuggets today.

It’s a huge week in Austin, as the No. 12 Oklahoma State Cowboys are coming to town. Continue reading “Everything Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said prior to facing No. 12 Oklahoma State”

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Jordyn Brooks frustrated after missing 2 games due to ankle sprain

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Jordyn Brooks told reporters that he was frustrated to miss two games due to a knee sprain he had in Week 3.

Linebacker Jordyn Brooks missed two games with a knee sprain he suffered in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys but received significant playing time in the Seahawks’ 37-34 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7. Despite getting his chance, Brooks stated that missing a mere two games so far in his rookie year was frustrating because he craved every opportunity to show his team what he can bring to the table.

“It was definitely frustrating,” Brooks told reporters. “Somebody that’s competitive as me, just wanting to get in there, wanting to get in there and prove yourself. But I’m all about timing, God’s timing. So I was patient with it, God saw me through it and, the time is now, so let’s get the ball rolling.”

Brooks played his first full game in Week 7 and made a few plays, including seven tackles (three solo and one for loss). The linebacker stated that he enjoyed being on the field for a complete game for the first time since his days at Texas Tech.

“I was just telling somebody in the locker room, that was my first game playing a full game since college, so it was fun just getting back out there on the field and make some plays,” Brooks said.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Seahawks defense has struggled immensely this season and dealing with injuries to key players certainly doesn’t help matters. However, Brooks expressed optimism for the defense down the stretch.

“I’m going to do everything I can to do my 1/11th on this defense to help us get to where I know we can be,” he said. “It’s just one step at a time, it’s still early in the season. That’s what keeps my hopes high about this defense getting to where we know we can be.”

Brooks will get another chance to prove himself when the Seahawks play the 49ers at CenturyLink Field on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 1:25 p.m. PT.

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Seahawks fall from No. 1 to No. 6 in USA TODAY’s NFL power rankings

The Seattle Seahawks have fallen from No. 1 to No. 6 in USA TODAY’s NFL power rankings after their Week-7 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

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The Seattle Seahawks held the top spot in the USA TODAY’s NFL power rankings for exactly one week before losing to a division rival in primetime Week 7 and free-falling out of the top five.

After the loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle has tumbled all the way down from No. 1 to No. 6.

“They lost at Arizona, but WR DK Metcalf served a fresh reminder that Seattle never quits – stamping himself onto all-time hustle team,” writes Nate Davis, who fails to elaborate further, although no explanation is really necessary.

Let’s be honest, the Seahawks can’t afford to lose any divisional matchups at this point. The NFC West – the best division in football – is for real. All four teams have a winning record, with Seattle, Arizona and Los Angeles each claiming five wins on the year so far. Even San Francisco is making a push and remains competitive.

The Seahawks did address one of their glaring issues on Wednesday when they traded with the Bengals for some pass-rush help in defensive end Carlos Dunlap.

Dunlap, however, won’t be available to help yet by Week 8 due to COVID-19 protocols but is hefty insurance for the second half of the season.

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Must watch: T.J. Hockenson mic’d up for Week 7 victory over the Falcons

The Detroit Lions released their sights and sounds video recapping their Week 7 victory over the Falcons and T.J. Hockenson was mic’d up.

The Detroit Lions released their sights and sounds video recapping their Week 7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons and tight end T.J. Hockenson was mic’d up for the game.

Did you know last Sunday was tight ends day? Well if you didn’t, Hockenson is here to remind you. The camera mainly follows him around during warmups, but you get a look at a few other leaders making their pre-game speeches, including Matthew Stafford and Trey Flowers.

Once the game action starts, you are walked through the action by “Voice of the Lions” Dan Miller, who’s a perfect pairing of knowledge and excitement.

The Lions media team does a nice job cutting the video to explain the unusual situation at the end where the Lions are allowing Todd Gurley to score, setting up another dramatic comeback victory by Stafford.

And the icing on the cake — the touchdown that set up Matt Prater’s game-winning extra point, is thrown to none other than Hockenson.

You can watch the entire 10-plus-minute video in the clip below:

Spoiler

There are a lot of great moments in this video, but this is by far my favorite:

NFC West Roundup: How the rest of the division fared in Week 7

The NFC West had a great Week 7 with the exception of the Seattle Seahawks, who were the only team to lose while everyone else caught up.

Week 7 was a great one for every team in the NFC West except the Seattle Seahawks, who were the only team in the division to lose. As has been well-documented, the Seahawks suffered a soul-crushing overtime loss to the up-and-coming Arizona Cardinals and are now only a half-game up on their rival in the desert as well as the Los Angeles Rams. The San Francisco 49ers have also been catching up as of late, so Seattle’s margin for error is thinner than ever despite still holding first place in the division. Here is how the rest of the NFC West fared in Week 7.

San Francisco 49ers 33, New England Patriots 6

The 49ers rattled off their second straight victory to move to 4-3, this time against the Patriots, who are considerably weaker than in years past. Despite a high ankle sprain that will keep him out for several weeks, running back Jeff Wilson had himself a fantastic day production-wise, rushing for 112 yards and three touchdowns. The 49ers defense gave a showing reminiscent of 2019 despite lacking several key players due to injuries and the offense as a whole had 467 yards and possessed the ball for over 38 minutes. San Francisco dominated this game and reminded the rest of the division that the 49ers are not to be taken lightly despite remaining in last place.

Seattle Seahawks 34, Arizona Cardinals 37 (OT)

It seemed inevitable that the Seahawks would lose a game this year, but blowing a 34-24 fourth-quarter lead to a rising division rival is excruciating even with a defense as awful as Seattle’s. Kyler Murray excelled against Seattle’s paper-thin secondary despite throwing an interception to Quandre Diggs, passing for 360 yards and three touchdowns. Seattle’s pass defense only registered one pass defensed in 48 attempts. Murray’s offensive line kept him clean from the Seahawks’ nonexistent pass rush, not surrendering a single sack or quarterback hit, although that was also due to the young quarterback’s mobility. Russell Wilson had his most disappointing game in recent memory, throwing three incomprehensible interceptions to go with his three TDs to Tyler Lockett. Despite Seattle’s various mistakes that contributed significantly to the Seahawks’ downfall, it’s clear that the Cardinals have improved quite a bit and are now a contender for the division like the rest.

Chicago Bears 10, Los Angeles Rams 24

The Rams joined the Seahawks and Cardinals at five victories on the season with a comfortable one over the Bears on Monday night. They turned in another strong defensive performance in a string of them this year, notching two key interceptions of Nick Foles and limiting the Bears’ rushing attack to 49 yards. They were also effective offensively, particularly with the running game, totaling 165 yards on the ground. The Rams are still strong under Sean McVay and have proven to be a match for the Seahawks in recent years. Seattle has some stiff competition this year, to say the least.

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Watch: Falcons rookie CB A.J. Terrell was mic’d up in Week 7

Before we completely turn our focus to Week 8, though, let’s check out this video of rookie A.J. Terrell being mic’d up in Week 7

The Atlanta Falcons nearly won their second game in a row on Sunday, but instead lost to the Detroit Lions on the final play. Now at 1-6, the Falcons have a quick turnaround before Thursday’s NFC South matchup against the Carolina Panthers.

Before we completely turn our focus to Week 8, though, let’s check out this video of rookie A.J. Terrell being mic’d up in Week 7, as shared by the team’s Twitter account below.

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Khalil Mack leads Bears as Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded defender vs. Rams

Another week, another good Pro Football Focus grade for Chicago Bears outside linebacker, Khalil Mack. Mack registered a 78.4, which ranked tops among all Bears defenders who logged at least 19 snaps. His pass-rush grade was elite at 89.9 despite …

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Another week, another good Pro Football Focus grade for Chicago Bears outside linebacker, Khalil Mack.

Mack registered a 78.4, which ranked tops among all Bears defenders who logged at least 19 snaps. His pass-rush grade was elite at 89.9 despite registering only one pressure — a sack — of Rams QB Jared Goff.

Safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. had a strong performance against the Rams, too. His 73.2 PFF grade ranked second among the team’s starters and was due in large part to his 70.2 coverage grade.

On the opposite end of the grading scale was linebacker Danny Trevathan, who continues to look like his best ball is several seasons behind him.

Trevathan was the Bears’ second-worst defender, scoring a 38.5 and marking the fifth time this season he’s scored a 54.2 or lower. Not good.

Surprisingly, Akiem Hicks was Chicago’s lowest-graded player on defense with a 26.9.

PFF knocks players for costly penalties and Hicks had a couple on Monday night. But his 26.1 grade against the run is downright brutal.

In real-time, Hicks looked active and effective. The analytics tell a different story, however.

David Montgomery was Bears’ highest-graded player on offense in Week 7 vs. Rams

On a Monday night when the Chicago Bears couldn’t establish anything that looked remotely close to an NFL running attack, David Montgomery emerged from the team’s 24-10 loss as the club’s highest-graded player on offense, via Pro Football Focus. In …

On a Monday night when the Chicago Bears couldn’t establish anything that looked remotely close to an NFL running attack, David Montgomery emerged from the team’s 24-10 loss as the club’s highest-graded player on offense, via Pro Football Focus.

In fact, Montgomery’s 78.3 grade was his best score of the 2020 season despite finishing the game with 14 carries for 48 yards (3.4 yards per carry).

A closer look at PFF’s numbers helps explain why Montgomery graded so well. All of his production was self-made; the Bears’ offensive line — especially the interior line — was downright terrible. Cody Whitehair, Germain Ifedi, and Rashaad Coward were the team’s three lowest-graded players on offense.

Sam Mustipher, who played 26 snaps in relief of an injured Whitehair, was the team’s fourth-lowest graded player on offense.

So, yeah, Montgomery didn’t have anywhere to run and still managed to churn 48 hard-earned yards.

The problem with Montgomery, if it’s even fair to launch any criticism his way, is his lacking big-play ability. He needs an effective offensive line to produce, and that’s a problem with the current state of affairs in Chicago.

It’ll be a shame if Montgomery ends up leaving town at some point only to enjoy a higher level of success with his next team. And it feels like that could become a reality if the Bears don’t get their offensive line straightened out.

Matt Nagy repeats same frustrating talking points after Bears’ 24-10 loss to Rams

It’s a weekly routine that Chicago Bears fans are tired of hearing: Matt Nagy talking in a confused state about the offense’s struggles and promising to work toward finding answers to what appears like an unsolvable problem. He was at it again …

It’s a weekly routine that Chicago Bears fans are tired of hearing: Matt Nagy talking in a confused state about the offense’s struggles and promising to work toward finding answers to what appears like an unsolvable problem.

He was at it again Monday night after the Bears’ 24-10 loss to the Rams, one in which Chicago’s defense was responsible for the team’s only touchdown.

Nick Foles, who Nagy and GM Ryan Pace hand-picked this offseason as the quarterback who can right a ship led astray by Mitch Trubisky, played like the guy who’s been on five teams in nine years. Running back David Montgomery would’ve created clouds of dust if his two-yard runs in L.A. were on grass. The offensive line looked like it was afraid of Aaron Donald, which, yeah, it’s hard to blame them for that.

This all circles back to Nagy, who was as confused as ever when he met with the media after the game.

“It’s not clicking right now,” he said. “It’s not. As any competitor, and I’m as competitive a person as there is, that’s the part where I have to challenge myself to stay patient and challenge myself to not get frustrated as well and continue to keep coaching to the best I can and look at everything.

“So I have to be able to rely on our other coaches on the staff that I have a lot of belief in — and I’m talking across the board, all three phases, but in particular offensively. What do we do? And how (did) we get to this point? I hate to feel repetitive, but that’s the only thing we can do. We’re 5-2. … We built this little cushion, and now it’s our job to be able to use it and not lose it.”

What do we do? How did we get to this point? You hate to feel repetitive?

Come on, coach. You can do better than that. Just like you can do better than tossing the ball to Cordarrelle Patterson on a critical 4th-and-1 late in the game.

There’s no easy fix to the Bears’ offensive woes. They’re three Nagy-years in the making. Chicago doesn’t have a franchise quarterback to lean on, they don’t have an offensive line filled with Pro Bowlers, and they don’t have a do-it-all running back who can cover for the offense’s other shortcomings.

Instead, what they need is a play-caller who can outsmart opposing defenses and play to his team’s strengths.

As long as Nagy remains in charge of those duties, the Bears don’t have that either.