1. Odell Beckham Jr. will be constantly physically punished
In the first quarter against the Cowboys, Beckham attempted to make a catch at the Dallas 21-yard line and was smashed in the earhole by the Cowboys' J.J. Wilcox. It was a brutal hit in a game that featured a delirious melee of slow-cooked brutality.
Wilcox hit Beckham so hard that Wilcox broke his nose.
Beckham got up, wobbled a bit, then went to the sideline and initially—it appeared to me, and this was also reported by NBC's Michele Tafoya—was not put through the league's concussion protocol. He was back in the game two plays later. The Giants told reporters Monday that Beckham was checked out by the medical staff after the hit, that the proper concussion procedures were followed. But that is another story for another day.
What's important was the hit.
What's important, very important, is that this is just the beginning for Beckham. He saw some of this last year in the Giants' game against the Rams. Then we saw it again in the second preseason game this year against the Jaguars. Those defensive backs tried to decapitate Beckham. That is continuing this season. Every week, on every catch, someone will try to smash Beckham.
This isn't a new phenomenon, of course. It happened to every great receiver in history. You get good, you get attacked. Physical intimidation is part of the game, and that still happens despite the newer rules.
But in speaking to players around the league this summer, as well as several Cowboys players, there is a different element with Beckham. Three points:
• Players I've interviewed think Beckham talks too much trash. This incentivizes them to want to smash a little harder.
• Beckham is around 6' and 200 pounds. He is strong and explosive, but that smaller size (by NFL standards) allows secondaries to think they can physically punish him.
• No player I've spoken to could remember a wide receiver who had such a meteoric rise so fast. Remember, Beckham missed a quarter of last season, and he still put up incredible numbers. When someone is so good so soon, the target on his back grows quickly.
Beckham has spoken about some of this himself. He was asked on the Michael Kay Show this summer if he agreed that the the Jaguars had targeted him. His answer applies to now and very possibly every game this season and beyond:
In a way, yeah, I did. ... It's just, it's like the ball's in the air—it's a 50-50 ball, and you have a chance at the ball, and you know you're just throwing your body in--you almost hit the ball with your back, and you're throwing the body in at me. Then, you know, it kind of takes away from the game of football. It's not making great plays—now you're just out there, you're going after a person. I understand that could be what it's gonna be like this year. Deserved or not deserved, that's just what the case is gonna be, so protect yourself. And I know that by the time the season comes, those plays—I'm just gonna have to sit there and take the hits because I wanna catch the ball, and I want Eli to keep throwing those balls and him giving me opportunities. You've just gotta come down with those plays.
Beckham told ESPN's Dan Graziano: "I can rub a lot of people the wrong way if they don't know me. I'm sure a lot of it is caused by me dancing and having fun. I know I wouldn't want somebody breaking up a pass and dancing in my face."
Against Dallas, on several occasions, Beckham was talking smack to defenders. He hasn't changed.
Good for him. Be you, Odell. Being Odell is what makes him so special.
And a target. A big, fat target.
2. Kudos to Eli Manning, Tom Coughlin
This will be a short note, but it's an important one. The total screwup the Giants had with play-calling and clock management in the final minutes of their loss to Dallas is well-documented. No need to go back over that. But it is good to see the New York Post remain nice and calm about what happened.
What really impressed me was how this week, both Coughlin and Manning went into extensive detail about why things went wrong. Then, both men took the blame.
I cannot emphasize how rare both of those things together are. The explanation and the mea culpa. Both made rationally and calmly. Coughlin has always been a tough guy but a class act. Eli is also class. Both men showed it this week.
3. This is why Bill Belichick is brilliant
You may or may not have heard about a certain story involving deflated footballs. It was a big one, you know. Then came more stories about alleged Patriots cheating. And then another.
But I want to tell you a quick story about coaching tenacity and taking advantage of rule ambiguity. Go back to the Thursday night game. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger became furious with game officials after tackle Kelvin Beachum was flagged for a false start on 3rd-and-goal at the Patriots 1.
Roethlisberger believed the Patriots line shifted during his snap count. After the game, while listening to his press conference, I thought Roethlisberger had a point.
"I thought that there was a rule against that," Roethlisberger said. "Maybe there's not. Maybe it's just an unwritten rule. ... We saw it on film, that the Patriots do that. They shift and slide and do stuff on the goal line, knowing that it's an itchy trigger finger-type down there."
But actually, Roethlisberger is wrong. Sort of. And this is where the Patriots are really, really smart.
The rules on this are vague, basically saying a team cannot disrupt the snap using words or signals. You also cannot make sudden non-football moves at the time of the snap. Like flinching.
But the Patriots know, in goal-line situations, that there's, as Roethlisberger said, an "itchy trigger finger." They also know the rule is nebulous and, basically, left up to the game officials.
(The Giants on Sunday night also used a variation of this. On the Cowboys' opening drive, inside the red zone, Giants defensive end Cullen Jenkins shifted suddenly, causing tight end Jason Witten to false start.)
This is really, really smart coaching. Hate the Patriots all you want. Call them cheaters if you like. What that shift does goes beyond X's and O's and into another area where the Patriots excel, and that's predicting human nature.
The Steelers, as Roethlisberger said, prepared for the maneuver. I can add a little more to that. The Steelers really prepped for it. They reminded players multiple times the Patriots would use it. That is also a good sign of coaching.
It doesn't matter, though, because it's almost impossible to legislate against instinct. Belichick knows this. It's why he's so good.
4. Last thing on Deflategate. Maybe ever. Thank God.
A key passage from Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated's media column:
Multiple sources at ESPN have told Sports Illustrated that a number of ESPN's NFL and OTL staffers have received threatening phone calls, emails and tweets—well beyond the usual sports media criticism or angry social media blasts—over the network's reporting of the Patriots and allegations of cheating. Some tweets have included threats of physical violence. (One ESPNer described the Twitter attacks as "vile.") Another source said ESPN security has been involved. Emails have alluded to meeting up with ESPN staffers when they are working in Boston. Family members of ESPN staffers have also dealt directly with threats. When asked about the severity of the threats and whether ESPN security is involved, an ESPN spokesperson said, "We are going to decline comment."
This is an absolute disgrace. I mean, a total, horrible disgrace.
Anyone who threatens a reporter, or their family, for anything, let alone over a sports story, has a special place in hell waiting for them.
5. Missed extra points
When the NFL moved the extra point back to the 15-yard line, it was believed by many in the league the effect would be minimal. I thought the same. Boy, were we all wrong.
There were four extra points missed in Week 1. Last year, there were eight total.
What the NFL wanted to do was make the extra point less automatic. It's certainly succeeded. You now watch the extra point with a little more angst.
6. Perfect Marcus Mariota...however
I wrote last week that while Mariota and Jameis Winston would both eventually be good, Mariota would, in the short term, be better. Even I didn't think he'd be that much better.
Mariota finished with a perfect 158.3 passer rating against the Buccaneers. That's the good news. Excellent news, really. Mariota looked comfortable, smart and like he's been playing the position in the NFL for years.
This is the bad news, and I'll just leave it right here for all of you to do what you want with it. Mariota joined Drew Bledsoe and Robert Griffin III as the only rookie quarterbacks to start and earn a perfect passer rating.
RG3 is on his way out of Washington, and Bledsoe is the Wally Pipp of the NFL. I'm thinking Mariota will fare better. I'm hoping he will.
7. Aaron Rodgers just gets better and better
On Monday night, I wrote about a great player, receiver Julio Jones, getting even better.
Another thing we're seeing this season is a historic player, Rodgers, getting even better.
Against Chicago on Sunday, Rodgers had this beautiful, ankle-breaking fakeout:
But even more than his athleticism, we are seeing Rodgers continue to improve his throwing accuracy, which was already among the best in history.
He completed 78.3 percent of his passes against Chicago for a 140.5 passer rating. According to the NFL:
It marked Rodgers' third consecutive game against Chicago with at least three touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 140-plus passer rating. He is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw at least three touchdowns with no interceptions and post a 140-plus passer rating in three consecutive games against a single opponent. In fact, Rodgers has now accomplished the feat twice, having done so against Minnesota in 2010-11.
He's only going to get better. Much better.
8. History in Baltimore
One of the more interesting pieces of information from this week's upcoming games:
9. Concerns on Sam Bradford
One thing I did in covering the Eagles-Falcons game Monday night was watch every snap Bradford took. He was getting hit. A lot.
My concern for Bradford is he won't last the season. He wasn't getting hit solely because of poor offensive-line play. That was a part of it. But in the second half, when the offensive line played extremely well, he was still getting hit. And not just little shots. Big ones.
There are still some schematic weaknesses in Chip Kelly's designs that allow for the QB to get hit far too often. After the first game of the season, already:
Yes, it's negative, but still that's not great news for a player with a serious injury history. Bradford missed six games of the 2011 season with a high ankle sprain, the last nine games of 2013 with a torn ACL and all of 2014 with a torn ACL.
10. Champ Bailey blasts Dan Snyder
Everyone rips Snyder. He's earned it. But I was slightly taken aback when I heard that Bailey recently did. Bailey is one of the classiest people I have ever covered. If he's taking a shot at someone, then, well, it has to be pretty bad.
This is Bailey, now a Fox analyst, talking about the misery in Washington (via Deitsch):
It's all about leadership, and it starts at the top. You look at Dan Snyder. Back in 1999, I was a young rookie. The summer before my first season, he had just bought the team. He walks into the team meeting, looks at everybody in the room and says words that I probably can't repeat right now. But he made it known that he was going to make it hard for you to work for him. Now how do you want to win for a guy that sets that kind of [precedent]? You have a coach that fears you, [and] players don't respect your coach because he fears you. How do you get the players to play?
Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.
via http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2566148-mike-freemans-10-point-stance-expect-defenses-to-target-obj-this-season
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