Another week goes by and we are now entering the half
way point of the season. It’s flying by us so hang on tight, everyone. Contenders
for the playoffs and for top five draft picks are being established. Which one
applies to your team? Anyways, let’s just get right into this week’s Quick Hits.
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After
a disappointing rookie year, Blake Bortles turned in a very impressive
sophomore year, tossing 4,428 yards and 37 total touchdowns. This season,
however, has been anything but impressive. Bortles, through six games, has
tossed 1,567 yards with nine touchdowns to nine interceptions. In fact, Bortles
has 44 interceptions through 36 games for his career. Last I checked that’s not
good. If the Jaguars end up with a losing record, and it looks like they will,
expect coaching changes to be made. Hopefully, the next head coach can be
offensive minded and help to take Bortles to the next level. At just 24 years
old, Bortles has a high ceiling. But to reach that potential, he needs to cut
down on the turnovers big time.
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On
the flip side, Tom Brady is back to his dominant self. Through just three
games, Brady has 1,004 passing yards and eight touchdowns. More impressively,
he has yet to throw an interception and is completing an unbelievable 75.2% of
his passes. With Brady playing this good and the defense remaining opportunistic,
the Patriots are thinking Super Bowl. If I had to bet on a team to win it all,
you better believe I am taking New England.
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While
many people absolutely hated this past week’s Sunday Night Football featuring
the Seahawks at the Cardinals, I enjoyed every second of it. I am of the group
that enjoys watching dominant defenses compared to high-scoring offenses. That is
completely different from watching bad offenses result in a low scoring game,
FYI. The Cardinals and the Seahawks have two of the best defenses in the NFL
and it was completely in display Sunday night. Defenses win championships,
people!
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Staying
on the topic of last Sunday Night Football, I HATE ties. If you are going to
say a team tied, you might as well just give both teams the loss. I understand
the argument that players are exhausted after four plus quarters and I realize
that I am biased as a fan to not want a tie, but team owners, coaches and
players don’t like ties, either. If it were up to me, you either go to the
rules in the playoffs, where the game doesn’t end until you have a definitive
winner, or you make it so that it is easier to score, such as placing the ball
inside the opponent’s territory to start every drive. No more ties. It makes
everything that much more complicated and no one likes them.
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One
last point from Sunday Night Football: kickers. Kickers are the scapegoats of
the NFL, but when the perform as badly as Arizona’s Chandler Catanzaro and
Seattle’s Steven Hauschka, it is a title easily earned. Both kickers missed
what would have been game winning field goals in over time that were both
within 30 yards. I mean that is shorter than a PAT! Come on, man! Those are
chip-shot field goals. You are in the NF-freaking-L. You are getting paid
upwards of millions of dollars to kick a damn football. You cannot miss field
goals like that, especially with as much playoff implications as those kicks
had. I understand it is not easy, but that is why they are doing it: because
they are capable of doing it. It makes guys like Justin Tucker, Dan Bailey and
Stephen Gostkowski that much more valuable because of how automatic they are (38/43
combined on the year), especially when it matters.
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Can
the Cleveland Browns complete the NFL’s second ever 0-16 season? Sitting at
0-7, it sure does seem possible. The Browns have had six (two-hands!) starting
quarterbacks this year and have no consistency neither offensively nor
defensively. The little bit of talent they do have simply isn’t enough to make
a vital enough difference. This team is simply the worst team that I have ever
witnessed. Going 0-16 seems like a real possibility but there is one big thing
the organization needs to remember: This team is a work in progress and blowing
it all up after one atrocious season is not going to fix things any faster. The
Browns needs to retain their entire staff for a minimum of two seasons to start
moving forward no matter how bad this season ends up being.
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Quick!
Who is leading the NFL in sacks? Von Miller? Chandler Jones? Khalil Mack? Well,
all those answers are wrong. Lorezno Alexander is leading the NFL in sacks with
nine. Alexander is an EDGE rusher for the Buffalo Bills who going into this
season had nine career sacks. Known primarily as a special teams ace throughout
his career, Alexander has found a nice niche with the Bills and is enjoying a
career year at 33-years old.
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What
division is the NFL’s best? For my money’s worth, it is the AFC West. With the
Raiders and Broncos tied at the top with a 5-2 record, the Chiefs and Chargers
aren’t far behind at 4-3 and 3-4 respectively. What do they all have in common?
Good-to-manageable quarterback play and defenses that can force turnovers. With
the way things are headed, it wouldn’t shock me at all to see all four of these
teams end with, at worst, seven wins. With how weak the AFC is currently, the
AFC West could easily send three teams to the playoffs. We still have another
half of football to play, but things are looking up for the AFC West right now.
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Finally,
through seven games Julio Jones leads the NFL with 830 receiving yards through
just seven games. That puts Jones on pace for 1,897 receiving yards(!) this
season.
Richard Bradshaw is available to
follow on Twitter @RichieBradz36. Thank you for the read.
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