Football is often a wonderful, amazing, thrilling game that shows the capability of the human spirit, and inspires us in countless ways.
But football is also a stupid, maddening, infuriating sport that can take us to new heights of frustration, and possibly perform Keith Moon-style acts to our own home furniture.
It is in this spirit that we balance the greatness of the game with the utter futility it shows at times. It’s time for the NFL’s Worst of the Week for Week 5!
Nothing in the NFL this week (or this season) matched, say, the idiocy of Miami head coach Mario Cristobal’s decision on Saturday, but we’ve got some really weird stuff, as always.
Folks, here’s the NFL’s Worst of the Week.
DJ Moore's should-have-been touchdown.
Not that Chicago Bears receiver DJ Moore needed any help from the refs in his team’s 37-20 Thursday night win over the Washington Commanders, but Moore would have had an even better night than he already did were it not for the out of bounds call given by referee Scott Novak’s crew with 1:06 left in the third quarter. As Mr. Sharp noted below, you show US where Moore stepped out. This was a 32-yard catch in Moore’s eight-catch, 230-yard, three-touchdown evening, but Moore could have had… well, more.
hey NFL, show us where DJ Moore stepped out pic.twitter.com/jU8hRxX7gL
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 6, 2023
The All-22 was no more favorable to the officials.
It’s probably pertinent that Amazon didn’t show the replay, and rules analyst Terry McAulay was mysteriously silent. That generally indicates a moment the NFL would like you to forget.
#Bears WR DJ Moore on the refs blowing the whistle and ruling him out of bounds on this play instead of a 69-yard TD:
“That really pissed me off because I was about to score. I could’ve had four touchdowns." pic.twitter.com/IIJBDnscBw
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 6, 2023
Jack Del Rio and the Washington Commanders' defense.
Give Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio credit. He may be a January 6 truther, but at least he calls some really weird coverages to his own team’s detriment. That happened once again in Washington’s aforementioned loss to the Chicago Bears, in which Del Rio called too much man coverage when it did his team no good, had cornerbacks in over their heads aggressively jumping routes when they really shouldn’t have, and seemingly forgot to hammer home the fundamentals in all kinds of ways.
As always, the tape does not lie.
Head coach Ron Rivera has said that Del Rio is not in danger of losing his job, and the defensive players did the right thing in taking responsibility for all the little disasters. But when issues are as systemic as this, you tend to look at the guy in charge of the bad system more than you look at anybody else.
The New England Patriots' urpy offense.
Bill Belichick is really going through it this season.
The future first-ballot Hall of Fame head coach suffered his worst loss as the Patriots’ main man last Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, as Dallas handed New England a 38-3 thrashing. That 35-point deficit set a new low for Belichick’s time in New England.
In some ways, this Sunday’s 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints may have been even worse. The point differential was one less, but this was Belichick’s worst home loss ever, and for the second straight week, quarterback Mac Jones threw a pick-six to pad the result for the Patriots’ opponent. This time, it was a 27-yarder by safety Tyrann Mathieu.
TYRANN PICK-6!!!@Mathieu_Era takes it to the house! #Saints | 📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/NcLqKhCBlD
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) October 8, 2023
Last week, it was cornerback DaRon Bland.
Mac Jones pick-six 😅
Cowboys defense at it AGAIN
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/5Atd9v0Kiy
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) October 1, 2023
Jones was pulled in favor of backup Bailey Zappe for the second straight week when the game was out of hand, and given reports that Zappe has been getting more reps in practice, you wonder if it’s time for a change. Jones finished his day against the Saints with 12 completions in 22 attempts for 110 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 30,5.
The Patriots are now 1-4 on the season, and as much as Belichick has done for this franchise, this is a thunderous series of issues in the wrong direction.
The Ravens' receivers dropping just about everything.
If you’ve studied the Baltimore Ravens since the franchise’s inception in 1996, you might start to wonder if the receiver position is somewhat cursed for them. No Ravens receiver (non-tight end) has had a 1,000-yard season since 2021, and that was Marquise Brown. Before that, you’d have to go back to Mike Wallace in 2016, and Steve Smith Sr. in 2014.
That receiver curse reared its ugly head in a major way on Sunday, as Lamar Jackson — who has been playing out of his mind in Todd Monken’s offense this season — was waylaid by receiver drops over and over and over in Baltimore’s 17-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. The Ravens put up a 10-0 lead on Pittsburgh, and then, Baltimore’s receivers couldn’t catch a cold in a blizzard from there.
This pass went directly through the hands of Ravens WR Nelson Agholor. pic.twitter.com/mhmZo7OhfQ
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulli) October 8, 2023
The #Ravens WRs are letting Lamar down in the redzone.
Rashod Bateman drops a TD pass vs the #Steelers – Mark Andrews dropped one the previous play but at least that one was well covered, this was open.pic.twitter.com/dRc2oNU3lEhttps://t.co/r0jsWaXUhV
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 8, 2023
Todd Monken’s reaction to his team’s SEVENTH dropped pass today. #Ravens pic.twitter.com/yojSic83Dc
— Bobby Trosset (@bobbybaltimoree) October 8, 2023
Lamar Jackson: “We don’t expect our guys to drop passes.” pic.twitter.com/iF6lsLXmhx
— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) October 8, 2023
Jackson finished his day with 22 completions in 38 attempts for 236 yards, no touchdowns, an interception, and a passer rating of 65.2. But this is a case where statistics don’t tell a fraction of the story. Jackson’s receivers let him down to a horrific degree.
Cardinals cornerback Marco Wilson getting cooked by Ja'Marr Chase...and leaving the building.
It stands to reason that when an offense comes back from the brink to be as explosive as it can be, there will be a defense that stands barbecued by that very offense. That was the case for the Arizona Cardinals’ defense, which got on the wrong side of Joe Burrow’s and the Cincinnati Bengals’ switch to the good foot (literally, in Burrow’s case) in a 34-20 win for the Bengals. Receiver Ja’Marr Chase had 15 catches on 19 targets for 192 yards and three touchdowns, and cornerback Marco Wilson was the nearest guy on two of those scores.
That's a @Real10jayy__ TUDDY #CINatAZ | 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/ewnrYsGO3F
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 8, 2023
HAVE A DEY JA'MARR 👏#CINatAZ | 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/erentXSl7P
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 8, 2023
Wilson is far from the first guy to get torched by Chase, but his reaction to that flambe seminar was not optimal.
As Jess Root of Cards Wire noted, head coach Jonathan Gannon and Safety K’Von Wallace were among those who spoke postgame about the disasters in coverage, but Wilson would not.
After the game, multiple Cardinals took responsibility for Chase’s performance.
However, the one player who probably should have did not. Wilson did not speak to reporters after the game. With reporters standing behind him waiting for him to change, he got dressed, put on his jewelry and walked out without turning around, saying a word or even looking at them.
Not a great look in the game, or after.
Sean Payton losing the Nathaniel Hackett Bowl.
Before Sunday’s game between the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos even got started, it was abundantly clear that the Jets wanted this one for offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, the former embattled Broncos head coach who caught some strays from current Broncos head coach Sean Payton back in July.
In an interview with USA Today’s Jarrett Bell, Payton said that Hackett’s coaching job with the Broncos “might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”
Payton later apologized for the statement, but the tone was set. And though neither Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson nor Jets quarterback Zach Wilson performed well in this game, the Jets did just enough to pull out a 31-21 win, and the Broncos’ offense — supposedly re-engineered by Payton — looked horrible more often than not. Russell Wilson completed 20 of 31 passes for 196 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 103.7… but he also did stuff like this…
Former #UVa cornerback Bryce Hall returns a Russell Wilson fumble for a TD to clinch a road win for the New York Jets in Denver. pic.twitter.com/YXEOVhMZ4q
— John Shifflett (@John_Shifflett) October 8, 2023
…with this result.
#Broncos HC Sean Payton let Russell Wilson have it after that fumble on the last drive 😳
pic.twitter.com/xbqDuctod4— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) October 8, 2023
“They played better than us,” Payton said after the game. “I credit [Jets head coach] Robert [Saleh] and that staff. They won the game, and that’s how I look at it.”
That’s how we look at it, too.
