More from Albert Breer: There’s Hope for the Jets, and Zach Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers | T.J. Watt Credits Young Teammates Who Stepped Up in Rivalry Win Over Ravens
It was an eventful fifth Sunday of NFL action, and we’ve got you covered in this week’s takeaways …
Sunday wasn’t the day the Patriots’ dynasty died, but it created an opportunity for anyone watching to conduct a pretty thorough autopsy. Here’s how bad it is: New England will go to Las Vegas next week having yielded 69 unanswered points, having been outscored in each of nine consecutive quarters and having been held out of the end zone in 10 consecutive quarters.
This, folks, is a bad football team.
Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports
The natural question to follow would be how, exactly, this happened to perhaps the greatest dynasty in NFL history. The answer is twofold. First, and most obviously, Tom Brady no longer plays for a Patriots franchise that’s gone 26–30 since he left, and got routed in its only playoff game over that span. The second reason, really, is just as straightforward.
“Quite simply, they have no talent,” says one AFC executive. “And it doesn’t help that that’s at the quarterback spot as well.”
It sounds harsh, of course, but it’s hard to argue—particularly when evaluator after evaluator whom I reached out to Sunday, as the Saints were completing their 34–0 beatdown of the Patriots in Foxborough, echoed the sentiment.
“The offensive line is bad, they can’t protect Mac [Jones], and Mac can’t move,” says an NFC executive. “They have no speed on offense at the skill positions. They used to have guys that could win one-on-one matchups; they don’t have any of those guys anymore. And defensively, they’re banged up. Losing [Matthew] Judon hurts. Losing the rookie corner [Christian Gonzalez] hurts, too, along with Marcus Jones.”
“They look extremely low on talent, to be honest,” says an NFC coach. “They have a pretty vanilla plan from what I can tell. An average-at-best QB only exacerbates those issues. They aren’t exactly world-beaters on defense now either—and losing Judon really hurt, and the two feed off each other. Defense gets a stop, offense goes three-and-out, defense back out there, basically no rest. … None of their skill players scare me. Hunter Henry is solid, not close to elite. OL looks sh--ty. Backs are slow. Receivers are overpaid free agents.”
Another executive raised other issues, such as the loss of coaches and staff, the loss of player leadership from the glory years, and how other teams have studied them for so long that most of the edges Bill Belichick seized upon for years are now gone. But in the end, he came back to where everyone else was. “Brady enabled the coaching style,” that exec says, “and covered up the personnel shortcomings.”
The result is those shortcomings are on display for everyone to see.
Now, this isn’t the first time a Belichick-led Patriots team has had an embarrassing day at the office. New England lost its 2003 opener in Buffalo 31–0 days after Belichick cut Lawyer Milloy. The ’14 Patriots got beat so badly on a Monday night in Kansas City, the final was 41–14, that Brady was actually benched with 10 minutes to go.
The difference with one is, well, it was supposed to be the bounceback game—like a 31–10 win over the Eagles was in ’03, and a 43–17 blowout over the Bengals was in ’14—not the one to bounce back from. Because these Patriots were actually coming off another one of these, that being the 38–3 shiner they took last week in Dallas. Maybe most discouraging isn’t that they took the second haymaker, it’s that they looked powerless to stop it.
The roster simply isn’t good enough, after years of draft misses,and half-measures via trade and free agency. Brady isn’t around to make up the difference anymore. And if you want to fully understand how deep the wound is, try to find a player on the Patriots that you’d be sure will remain in Foxborough four years from now. There’s probably one, and that’s Gonzalez, who’s hurt.
Which is just another reason why Sunday’s game was every bit as bad as it looked and, right now, the Patriots are every bit as bad as they look.
Brad Rempel/USA TODAY Sports
The NFL needs to be honest with its artificial turf issue. Last year, the league conceded, even in defending teams’ decisions to play on synthetic surfaces, that a certain type of artificial turf called “slit film” turf was leading to an uptick in serious injuries. At the time, six home stadiums had such fields, and three of the six—the Superdome in New Orleans, Ford Field in Detroit and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey—changed those out in the offseason.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London gave the league a seventh stadium with slit film turf in 2022, and a fourth that changed that surface out ahead of the 2023 season. Minnesota, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis are the three left with slit film.
All of this is why what happened Sunday should invite close scrutiny, and did elicit rightful criticism from one of the two teams the league put out there in Tottenham to goose the owners’ pursuits of the international dollar. The Bills, who lost Matt Milano (potentially for the year) in their game against the Jaguars, got vocal with Tim Graham of The Athletic over the playing conditions, with nickelback Taron Johnson calling the new surface at Tottenham “terrible.”
“Take the turf out, especially that one,” Johnson said. “I’d rather play on grass. I’m sure 90 to 100% of players in the NFL would rather play on grass. I don’t know why we’re playing on stuff like that. There were injuries on the field today, some really, really bad. I just feel like the turf has something to do with it.”
Of course, Johnson knows, just like everyone else does. It is cheaper and far less labor intensive to put down turf than it is to maintain grass—particularly when owners are trying to monetize their increasingly costly sports palaces with concerts, and soccer matches, and monster truck rallies, and swim meets (yes, there have been those), and boxing matches and whatever other event at which they can charge $15 for a Bud Light.
And while Tottenham had issues with its new surface, Minnesota had problems with its old one (which it has pledged to replace after the season), with Chiefs TE Travis Kelce spraining his ankle as his foot awkwardly stuck in the turf, and Vikings WR Justin Jefferson pulled from the game after screwing up his hamstring.
To be clear, it’s hard to draw a straight line on causation from each of these injuries to the slit-film turf. But the same way Von Miller and Rashan Gary felt like the Ford Field surface led to their torn ACLs last year, and Sterling Shepard more or less knew the same about the MetLife turf, these guys clearly believe there’s a problem that’s endangering their ability to stay healthy and, thus, earn their living.
Meanwhile, the league and owners insist that the data shows grass isn’t markedly safer and swear that some players prefer turf because it plays faster (I can’t say I’ve come across a lot of those players). The problem with that, of course, is that the league-office folks and their bosses (the owners) aren’t playing on these surfaces every week, so they can’t relate with how turf makes players feel (another problem) after they play on it, or really reckon with the risk guys feel like they’re under getting sent out on it.
The other thing they’ll say privately is that the pricey stadiums that owners justify with all these events help to juice the salary cap, which is definitely true, which means that the owners’ ability to monetize such a venue does bring plenty of benefit to the players.
But it increasingly feels like the benefit isn’t worth the human cost. As Sunday showed. Again. Which only makes me wish owners would be honest and forthright, and have a real conversation with their players on the feasibility of putting grass in everywhere, or at least everywhere without a roof.
(And we’ll have plenty more on this coming in the weeks ahead.)
On the other end of the rout in Foxborough, the Saints looked pretty frisky. We knew about the defense, for sure. Dennis Allen’s tough, veteran unit came into Gillette Stadium in the top 12 in most major defensive categories, with a galaxy of well-established stars in its orbit. It also outpaced, on this afternoon, what even the drunkest prognosticator would’ve guessed, by pitching a shutout against New England.
But in the aftermath of the 34–0 whitewashing, Demario Davis shied away from talking much about the defense specifically, other than what he said about the achievement of blanking New England—and even with that, it wound up being about the whole team, and not just his unit.
“That’s the standard for us,” Davis told me after the game. “That’s what we’re looking for every time. We know it’s not common in this league, but we’re not looking to be common. And praise God that we were able to complete the mission today, to do what we did.”
Here’s what completing the mission looked like: The Patriots’ collective passer rating was 33.3, they averaged 2.5 yards per carry, they turned the ball over three times, they finished with 156 total yards and eight first downs, converted just one of 14 third downs and crossed midfield on just two of their 14 possessions.
The Patriots weren’t (aren’t?) good, of course. The Saints defense made them look even worse.
But, again, Davis’s focus was on how the whole picture came together, with a struggling offense starting to find its stride, with Derek Carr a little healthier, Alvin Kamara gaining steam, and Chris Olave and Michael Thomas out there to help, too. Because, as an 11-year vet, he knows what it’ll take for the team to go where he believes it can.
“We know for us to be successful, we have to have a collective team effort, and that’s what we had today,” he says. “I mean, we played good defense in other games and we didn’t have the collective team effort. Our team struggled. So, we are a complementary part of the team.
“We know that we can play great defense for an entire game but we need the other phases to do what they did today. And when we do that, we play dominant football.”
Here’s more of what that looked like.
It was a three-and-out to create a short field for the offense in the second quarter. It was a forced fumble and recovery to start the third quarter that gave the offense the ball in field goal range, which pushed the lead to 24–0. It was an interception on the other end of the third quarter to set up a quick 31-yard scoring drive. It was, conversely, drives of eight, eight, nine and 11 plays in the first three quarters to give the defense a breather.
It was, in short, everything that went into a complete beatdown, that brought to life how the proud veteran core the Saints have had in place for a while—with Cam Jordan, Marshon Lattimore and Davis, opposite their decorated offensive teammates—could see this year going.
“We just played [like] ourselves.” Davis says. “We just played like who we’re capable of playing like. I don’t think we did anything special. We were doing the little things right. If we do those, we know we can be a dominant team. We weren’t shocked by the performance today. We know that’s who we are.”
And who they are, a couple years after Drew Brees and Sean Payton bailed, is still pretty good.
Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports
Of course, the Falcons are there with the Saints, at 3–2 in the NFC South, and this week it’s because of, not in spite of, their quarterback. Desmond Ridder, for his part, was at least aware of what people were saying last week. And it’s something that a young quarterback who was drafted earlier than he was probably would never have to deal with.
Fact is, if 17 months ago Ridder had gone, say, seventh, rather than 74th, it’s a fair bet that people on the outside would be pushing more patience than they have been. Instead, bigger questions are being thrown around about the 24-year-old’s capability to hold the job.
“I don’t hear very much of it,” Ridder said, over the phone, from the locker room postgame. “I try to kind of keep my head out of it, just keep my head down and keep grinding. We’re all about a growth mindset here and getting better every single day, not really worrying about what’s going on in the outside world.”
What happened in his world Sunday was his best day in two years as a pro.
Ridder finished 28-of-37 for 329 yards, a touchdown and a 111.2 passer rating, but where this one got real for the 2022 third-rounder was after Houston’s C.J. Stroud (who’s rolling as a rookie) dropped a dime on Dalton Schultz down the seam for an 18-yard go-ahead touchdown with 1:49 left.
That made the score 19–18, and set the Falcons up to start their comeback bid at their own 25. Ridder went right to work, hitting Bijan Robinson for six yards underneath, Drake London for five yards, running for five more on his own, then getting to London another six yards and Kyle Pitts for four to cross midfield as the clock crept to the one-minute mark.
“There were a couple plays there where, especially that first one to Bijan there on that two-minute drive, they all dropped out and I just gave it to Bijan and let him make a play,” Ridder says. “And a couple of them, they gave me the outsides, kind of free access. And I even told Bijan in the middle of the drive, Hey, just make sure you get out for me, because I knew they weren’t pressuring.
“They would drop back and play coverage which at that point it’s pretty easy.”
Then, Ridder got his shot. With the clock dropping below a minute, and the Falcons in second-and-6 from the Texans’ 49, he looked out at the Houston defense, saw a single-high look with man coverage underneath, and quickly found the matchup he wanted. It was to London on a back-shoulder (as Ridder calls it) “trust throw.”
“That’s just a play we’ve repped a lot of times. It’s a play we are comfortable with,” Ridder says. “Obviously the connection between myself and Drake is pretty comfortable. They were banged up at corner throughout the week and obviously in the game. So, you had to be able to just take advantage of that and go make a play and that’s what he did.”
London made the play, picking up 23 yards, which put the Falcons comfortably within Younghoe Koo’s range (“Koo would tell us to get to the 50 and we’ll be good,” Ridder jokes), and set up Koo for the 37-yard game-winner.
So now the Falcons are 3–2, and go to Tampa, with the Buccaneers coming off a bye, with first place in the division on the line. And they’ll do it, as Ridder sees it, with not just a quarterback who’s getting better week to week, but a team that is ascending right there with him.
“We know every single week that the Atlanta Falcons are never out of the fight,” says Ridder. “There’s never going to be any quit. I think everyone on this team knew that. But you know for us, it was just about everyone on the team playing together and I think this week was one of our first true weeks where we played team football. And we still haven’t even played our best team football, that was just a snippet of what it can be.
“There’s still a lot of great things ahead.”
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
The Jaguars got a nice snapshot of their young quarterback’s growth in London, too. And it actually came on a single play in Jacksonville’s 25–20 upset of the powerhouse Bills at Tottenham.
The play in question happened with the Jags up 18–13 and 3:15 to go.
Jacksonville was facing a third-and-4 from its own 31, and the Bills had called a timeout. Not picking up the first down would have meant giving Josh Allen the ball with a chance to get the Bills to their first lead. So Jacksonville OC Press Taylor sent in a call that was designed just to get those four yards.
“We were in empty,” Taylor told me, from the tarmac as the Jags prepared to return to the States. “We ran a call to throw it, really to Christian Kirk. [He] is our most reliable receiver with Trevor. We’re gonna give him an option route; he’s gonna catch it for the first down. And then they came out in a zero-blitz look, which they hadn’t shown us really all game.
“And Trevor just checked. They pressed Calvin [Ridley], and Trevor checked to an inside fade, threw a great ball, took a hit. I mean, they were bringing more than we could block, so he took a big hit in his back and threw a great ball and Calvin just made a heck of a play, too, for us. So it was really just our best players made a big play in a big moment for us.”
More than just that, it was done by a couple guys who haven’t spent more than a few months together, and still barely have a month of games backlogged for a time like this. Despite all that, Lawrence was good putting it up for Ridley to go find, and Ridley knew where he had to be. That moved the ball 32 yards to the Bills’ 37. Two players later, Travis Etienne cashed in the moment for six points, giving the Jags the cushion they needed to grind out a 25–20 win with a 35-yard touchdown run.
In the short term, the Jaguars’ win means keeping pace with the Colts in the AFC South. Longer term, it was another sign, to Taylor, Doug Pederson, and all the coaches, that the quarterback and his skill group are growing up, and growing up together.
“Exactly,” Taylor says. “And I think part of it is [that] they’re fearless and they believe in each other. So they all think, If I get the chance, I’m gonna make the play. And they’re ready to go toe-to-toe with anybody in the league. I mean, they’re not worried about anything. They fully expect to win a game. They fully expect to make plays. So it’s really cool to see.
“We just want to make sure as coaches that we’re giving our best players opportunities. We believe in them, and we trust them and they come through.”
They all did against the Bills, that’s for sure. And now, they have something to build on as they head back home for next week’s showdown with the Colts (and a Thursday night game four days later in New Orleans).
The 49ers are still football’s best team. And they clearly know it, and that much was pretty clear when I checked out San Francisco’s podium session after its 42–10 SNF smackdown of the Cowboys at home to cap Sunday.
Here’s what all-world passer rush Nick Bosa had to say: “I’m definitely incredibly confident in our offense. And for our D-linemen to get pulled with, I think, five minutes left in the third quarter against a team like that shows that we’re on a different level this year.”
Bosa wasn’t done.
“I think just the way we’ve built this team, we’ve had aspects since we’ve been here where we haven’t been as strong,” Bosa continued. “And the way John [Lynch] and Kyle [Shanahan] have built the team, offensively, they can attack in any way. You have [Brandon] Aiyuk, who can go deep. You got Deebo [Samuel], you got Christian [McCaffrey], you got George [Kittle], there’s really no weakness.
“And then Brock [Purdy] is playing as one of the best quarterbacks in the league.”
Which might be where this thing really gets supercharged.
With Purdy at the helm, the four aforementioned skill guys, plus fullback Kyle Juszczyk, had multiple catches, and that’s despite the fact that the Niners ran the ball 41 times. The quarterback’s evening was coldly efficient—he hit on 17-of-24 throws for 252 yards, four touchdowns, and a 144.4 rating. And the defense sacked Dak Prescott three times, picked him off three times, and held Dallas to 57 yards rushing.
Remember, these are the same Cowboys that kicked the Patriots’ teeth in.
Somehow, just a week later, they had no chance. Which, like Bosa said, is a tribute to what’s happening in San Francisco.
Jamie Sabau/USA TODAY Sports
The Hackett Bowl ended with two teams going in very different directions. And we can start with the Broncos, who are scratching their way through the first year of the Sean Payton era, now at 1–4. Denver plays the Chiefs at Arrowhead on Thursday, against Green Bay in two weeks, then gets Kansas City at home on Halloween weekend and a trip to Buffalo coming out of its bye on Nov. 13.
Suffice it to say, a lot is on the line over the next month for the Broncos, and it could well affect how the teams handles guys who could be trade candidates closer to the deadline.
As for the Jets, well, they’re back alive at 2–3. Zach Wilson’s playing better. Breece Hall’s healthy. The line’s been O.K., and the defense is starting to play to its talent. But as much as anything, I think Robert Saleh can take a bow for holding his group—one built to play with Aaron Rodgers—together after Rodgers went down.
I can’t imagine it was easy, even if Saleh himself said it was, to maintain the level of belief the Jets had before Rodgers went down.
“It’s easy for me,” Saleh told me after the win. “I do think we have a great defense. I do think we can run the ball. I do think that we can improve and get better. I do think we’re pretty good at the skill positions. And so did it hurt losing Aaron? Of course. I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame player. It’s not often that teams can lose a Hall of Fame player and be confident like we are. It’s just a matter of making the adjustments that we’ve needed to make and there’s still more adjustments that need to be made.
“There’s still things that we got to get better at. But, if I could say one thing, it’s that we absolutely love the guys we have in our locker room. They're made of the right stuff. They’ve got the right mindset and we’ve just got to continue to obviously play clean ball and try to, like I said, just stack up great days and hopefully those great days will stack up into great wins.”
We’ll have a lot more on the Jets, and Nathaniel Hackett’s homecoming Monday morning on the site.
I’m excited about where the Colts are going, but Anthony Richardson’s durability is worrisome. The No. 4 pick is electric, and he’s cool out there, and he’s tough, and there are tons of reasons to be excited. He’s also gotten nicked in every game he’s played, he’s been unable to finish three of them and now he’s got an injury to his throwing shoulder.
We’ll see what the severity of this one is.
Either way, it’s something the Colts are clearly paying attention to.
“I think when you have a dynamic player like him, obviously, one of his skill sets is a runner [and] that makes him really good,” coach Shane Steichen told reporters. “The designed run that he got hurt on [was] something similar to last week where he popped it for a big one.
“So that’s stuff that you’ve got to look at, be smart with.”
For what it’s worth, Richardson has 25 carries in the four games he’s played, and that’s not a wild number. Add it to the fact that hamstring injuries dogged him as a collegian through a two-year period, and it’s fair to worry at least a little bit about this one.
The good news is the Colts have played great otherwise, they have a very capable backup in Gardner Minshew, and a running game that’s already rolling is now working Jonathan Taylor back in. So I would say they have the flexibility, given all that, to be cautious with their prized rookie.
Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
The Bengals are, to steal a phrase from Deion Sanders, coming. And that’s because Joe Burrow’s turning a corner to lead the charge. The 26-year-old quarterback had his best day of an injury-plagued season. He threw for 317 yards, three touchdowns, and a 108.1 passer rating in a 34–20 win on the road over a tough, if undermanned, Cardinals team.
Most important for the long-term, Cincinnati saw elements of Burrow’s game coming back, elements we told you were missing a couple weeks back. Burrow had struggled to extend plays, or pick up first downs with his feet, and the fact that he got back to some of those things in Arizona is a pretty good sign. And it was taken as such by those around him.
“The great quarterbacks, you can’t just keep them in the pocket and put them in a little box,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor told reporters. “They’re going to extend plays sometimes when you’re thinking you shouldn’t. They’re going to hang on to the ball for a second longer than people feel comfortable with, and usually great things happen when that happens.
“That’s the special magic that he’s got that you don’t ever want to take away from him.”
The Bengals can get to .500 next week against the Seahawks at home, then they have their bye to reset And get Burrow one more break before it’s time to throttle up.
We’ve got quick-hitters for you, and we’re about to fire through them. And we’ll do that right now …
• It’s hard not to be happy for Nathaniel Hackett. And you could see how happy his staffmates and the players were for him in the aftermath of the Jets’ upset over the Broncos. That’s another thing we’ll have more on in the MMQB Lead on Monday morning.
• We’ll also be hitting the Lions, who are now 12–3 since last Halloween. Most impressive to me? Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes have built exactly what they said they would. And a big reason why, according to the players, is the authenticity that Campbell’s brought to the table. “I think the one thing that Dan had always done a great job of was establishing a genuine culture,” eighth-year Lion Taylor Decker told me. “Everyone really bought into it and believed it.”
• The Steelers-Ravens rivalry still means a lot, even if it doesn’t have America’s attention the way it did 10 or 15 years ago. It’s important to those who are in it. As T.J. Watt told me after Pittsburgh came from behind Sunday, coming off the loss to Houston, “We knew it was a big week, not only because it was the next game, but because it was Baltimore.” And that’s another thing we’ll have a lot more on Monday.
• George Pickens is as talented as any young receiver in football. Now, he just has to keep his head screwed on straight.
• I know the Texans lost to the Falcons. But the arrow keeps pointing up on Stroud. And what a throw that was to Schultz to give Houston the lead in the waning moments. Lots to be excited about there.
• While we’re there, what a ridiculous pick from another No. 2 pick, Aidan Hutchinson, against the Panthers. The Lions’ edge rusher is developing into a star.
• De’Von Achane is up to 460 yards rushing on the season, and had 151 (on just 11 carries) against the Giants. A month into his career, dealing with him next to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle is already a nightmare for defenses. Just how fast are the Dolphins now? Look at this.
• The Chiefs are grinding out wins now, and seeing how they’re bringing along Rashee Rice, Skyy Moore and Justyn Ross, among others, it seems there’s a really good chance they’ll be a lot better in a couple of months than they are right now. Which is how it’s gone with them the last couple of years.
• For all the bumps with the changing personnel around him, Patrick Mahomes posted another 100-plus passer rating. So maybe it looks a little different. But he’s still a lot better than fine.
• Don’t worry, Eagles fans, we’ll have some fun stuff for you on your 5–0 football team in my Tuesday notes this week.
• I’m interested to see how much fight we see from the Raiders Monday night. It’s already been a long year out there.
