It’s Tuesday afternoon and that’s always the best time to reflect on the weekend’s NFL action. You and I, we’re students of the game. So here’s what we learned from NFL Week Two.
It was a good week for bad coaches
The Holy Trinity of Horrible Coaching scored the trifecta this week as the Tennessee Titans’ Mike Mularkey, the Los Angeles Rams’ Jeff Fisher and the San Diego Chargers’ Mike McCoy all scored victories.
Fisher’s win was especially ridiculous as he scored a 9-3 win over the Seattle Seahawks, a team with one of the best coaches in the league, Pete Carroll, running the show. The Rams’ win, predictably, didn’t spark any “Hey these Rams are for real talk,” but instead opened a national dialogue asking, “What’s wrong with the Seahawks offense?” As it should have.
https://twitter.com/WazzusJobu/status/777648524808691712
Mularkey and McCoy both were fortunate to play teams coached by fellow horrible coaches. The Titans got a one-point, 16-15 over Jim Caldwell’s Detroit Lions on the road. The Chargers ran the Gud Bradley-led Jacksonville Jaguars our of Southern California with a 38-14 beat down.
Chip Kelly’s San Francisco 49ers put up 27 points on the Carolina Panthers in a loss, but, frankly, if Kelly’s team can consistently score points on offense, we might have to take him off the list. I’d be as shocked as anybody. Rex Ryan, on the other hand, delivered not only another solid loss, but fired offensive coordinator Greg Williams in full panic mode. Good for him.
As it is, Mularkey and Fisher are still chasing history. In 59 games as a head coach, Sunday’s win over the Lions was just Mularkey’s 19th. Fisher still has 14 games to pick up the nine losses needed to become the NFL’s All-Time losingest head coach. I still believe in him.
My Patriots bold prediction is toast
I have little doubt that New England will lose its next two games as the Jacoby Brissett era begins. Pretty much everyone will be picking against them. The disappoint, for me, comes from how well Jimmy Garoppolo played before getting knocked out of the Pats’ win over the Miami Dolphins Sunday.
#Patriots QB Jimmy Garoppolo (sprained AC joint) won’t start Thursday vs. #Texans. But there is hope he’s back by Week 4. Huge break for NE
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 19, 2016
It just goes to show you that sometime preseason makes it hard to judge anybody. I thought Garappolo looked mediocre at best in his four preseason appearances for New England, but he’s been really good in the regular season. I expected as much against the Arizona Cardinals in Week One and predicted that too. I was way more surprised to see the same in Week Two against a Dolphins team I picked to win. Any Patriots fan or coach would have taken a 2-2 record in this four-game stint without Brady and that looks like what you’ll get. There’s a chance, though, with Jimmy G, that could have been 3-1 or even 4-0. It’s a shame for the kid.
Hey, is that Sam Bradford?
I’m not going to bother looking up the stats or the history. I’m just going to throw it out there. Sunday night’s 17-14 win over the Green Bay Packers was the best Sam Bradford has ever played quarterback in his NFL career. By a wide margin.
WOW WOW WOW Sam Bradford & @stefon_diggs! 🙌#GBvsMIN #SKOL https://t.co/Wex0YfXSPc
— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2016
He was clutch, he attacked downfield, he was accurate and deadly efficient against a superior defense. Bradford’s final numbers were 22-for-31 for 286 yards, two touchdowns, no picks and a 121.2 quarterback rating.
It’s important to not that Bradford has been with the Minnesota Vikings for all of two weeks. When head coach Mike Zimmer announced that Bradford would get the call over Shaun Hill against the Pack, like most of you, I didn’t expect much. If Bradford flashed at all and didn’t make any big mistakes in a loss, I think Minnesota would have gotten all they could have expected.
Instead, what they got was one of the best QB jobs of the week from anyone. So what’s different for Bradford? I can tell you in two words; Real Coaches.
This is who Bradford has worked with in his career at head coach before this season: Steve Spagnuolo, Jeff Fisher and Chip Kelly.
Here are Bradford’s past offensive coordinators before this season: Pat Shurmer, Josh McDaniels, Kurt Schottenheimer, and Pat Shurmer again.
Of that list, only McDaniels stands out because of his success since his one-year stint with the Rams. It should be noted that McDaniels had all of jack shit to work with at receiver, Bradford was hurt most of that year, and McD was fresh off getting canned by the Broncos. The rest of these guys are bums.
With Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and offensive coordinator Norv Turner, Bradford is actually, for the first time, working with NFL-level coaching talent. The results are already there. As long as Bradford performs like this, the Vikings’ job is his for good.
