Plus 49ers slip past the Bears and the Seahawks dominate the hapless Jaguars
The Los Angeles Rams destroyed the Houston Texans earlier this afternoon in a 38-22 performance. Other NFC West action from this weekend included the Cardinals dropping a close matchup against the shorthanded Packers, the 49ers slipping past Justin Fields and the Bears and the Seahawks cruising past the Jaguars.
TGIF* Turf Show Family!
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*Thank Goodness It’s Football
CARDINALS ARE LOSERS FOR ONCE! (PRAISE THE LORD!!)
It took eight weeks to happen but the Arizona Cardinals have finally lost a game this season. Too bad it didn’t occur against the Rams because then they’d hold the tiebreaker but a loss is a loss. The way short-handed Green Bay Packers were able to hold on to a 24-21 win complements of cornerback Rasul Douglas:
I should’ve alerted any Seahawks fans reading this based on its similarities to their Super Bowl-losing goal-line interception. If I triggered any PTSD for any of you, shift your blame to Pete Carroll for his stupid decision to pass it in the first place.
Anyways, Kyler Murray had easily his worst game of his MVP-caliber season. Murray was 22-of-33 for 274 yards with no touchdowns, two picks and a 67.0 passer rating. The Packers limited his rushing abilities as well by holding him to 22 yards off four carries.
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DeAndre Hopkins led the Cardinals in receiving yards with 66 yards on two catches before being becoming a benchwarmer due to lingering hamstring issues. Hopkins got into hot water with Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury after going against his coach’s wishes by checking himself back into the game. The decision by Hopkins didn’t sit well with Kingsbury:
“We wanted him to stay off the field but he’d just run on,” Kingsbury said via ESPN. “He wants to play, super competitive and made some plays there, and we just want him to be smart, but he was definitely hurting.”
In Hopkins’ limited snaps (13 in total), he gave the Redbirds a huge boost as the team averaged 10.9 yards per play when he played versus 4.6 yards per play when he didn’t. Either way, it was a tough loss but Arizona is still a great team regardless. They should still be an NFC favorite as they’re still a quality unit. The Packers just had the perfect game plan to defeat them.
Next Week: The Cardinals will travel to San Francisco to play the 49ers in a game they hope will be another step towards their goal of fighting for the Lombardi Trophy. The Packers game was a bad loss for them, but I don’t see it becoming a sign of concerning things to come as long as the injuries don’t mount much more on them.
49ers slip past the Bad News Bears in the Windy City
The San Francisco 49ers were able to light up the scoreboard to run the Chicago Bears off the Fields in a 33-22 victory. Despite all the heat on quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for the majority of this season, he put together quite an effective performance. Garoppolo went 17-of-28 for 322 yards and a 100.6 passer rating.
Even though Jimmy G didn’t throw any touchdowns, he had two rushing scores and was still operating Shanahan’s offense to perfection, something I hadn’t written for a while now. The Niners leading pass catcher was Deebo Samuel who had another monster game with six receptions for 171 yards and this 83-yard scamper:
Rookie running back Elijah Mitchell continues to make his mark as the top back on the roster after rushing 18 times for 137 yards, his third 100-yard game in five career games. His touchdown made him look like the Bay Area equivalent of prime Marshawn Lynch:
EVERYONE pushed Elijah Mitchell in to the go-ahead TD
Next Week: The 49ers will host the Arizona Cardinals who will surely be looking for revenge after their first loss.
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Seahawks grind out a strong win over Urban Meyer and Jags
The Jacksonville Jaguars apparently need to play in London from now on to have a chance at another win considering they were far from one against Seattle. Jacksonville was dominated 31-7 against the Hawks which would make anyone wonder how much worse the result would be with Russell Wilson under center.
One week after appearing so offensively challenged against the Saints, Seattle put together their most efficient outing since Wilson went down. Geno Smith went 20-of-24 for 195 yards and two touchdowns. Both his touchdown passes went to receiver DK Metcalf who channeled Randy Moss on his first snag:
Metcalf finished with six receptions for 43 yards including the two scores. The Seahawks leading pass catcher was Tyler Lockett who had 12 catches for 142 yards. His big day marked his 13th career 100-yard receiving day. Lockett’s catch off a trick play in the third quarter set up Metcalf’s second score of the day:
Flipping to the defensive side of the ball, safety Quandre Diggs recorded his third interception of the season early in the second quarter off rookie Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence:
Next Week: The Seahawks have their bye week before traveling to Green Bay to take on the Packers. Russell might wait a week before coming back considering Lambeau Field is his house of horrors.
ST. LOUIS — Opening day or not, that was a lot. Nineteen runs on 34 hits. A combined 14 pitchers. A steady stream of late-game leverage. A three-hour 38-minute time of game despite the pitch clock and not including Adam Wainwright’s surprise two-plus minute take on the Star-Spangled Banner before the festivities started.
And at the end, star power versus star power. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. first stemmed a St. Louis Cardinals rally in the seventh inning with a brilliant stab of a Tommy Edman chopper before making an off-balance throw home to save a run, then fought off 102.9 m.p.h. Jordan Hicks heat for a two-run single that put the Toronto Blue Jays up 8-7 in the eighth. Then it was a Lars Nootbar walk, a Paul Goldschmidt double and a two-run Nolan Arenado double off Yimi Garcia in the bottom half that restored a 9-8 lead for the defending National League Central champs.
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Not even Ryan Helsley, the other fire-breathing dragon in the Cardinals bullpen who came up in trade discussions between these two clubs during the off-season, could lock down that lead as he walked Whit Merrifield to open the ninth, Kevin Kiermaier followed with a base hit, George Springer flared an RBI single just into shallow left and Guerrero delivered a go-ahead sac fly.
Finally, Jordan Romano, the eighth Blue Jays pitcher of the day, put a lid on the madness, locking down a bonkers 10-9 season-opening victory before a festive crowd of 47,649 at Busch Stadium.
Such was the depth of drama at the end that the rough outings for all-stars Alek Manoah and Miles Mikolas, each of whom lasted only 3.1 innings and allowed five earned runs, could be easily forgotten.
In between there was so much to take in, from Manoah finding his velocity but still taking damage, to the defensive upgrades immediately showing dividends to clever baserunning helping to make the difference in the end.
The Lamar Jackson sweepstakes are well underway, with the consensus being that the Baltimore Ravens will be forced to trade the superstar quarterback before the 2023 NFL Draft or the start of next season.
Although Jackson hasn’t been as hot a commodity as anticipated, the versatile quarterback may have a solid trade suitor in the form of the Indianapolis Colts, who admitted recently to not ruling out the prospect of trading for him.
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It appears that Colts fans are avidly supporting the potential trade to acquire Jackson and have been trying to get team legend Reggie Wayne to help Indianapolis make the push for the one-time NFL MVP.
Wayne hasn’t been too happy about fans constantly nagging him to do something about the situation and responded with this hilarious tweet.
Will y'all stop @'n me to tell the Colts to get Lamar. I have no way of making your wish come true. Hell… I'm still trying to get my kids to listen to me… Let alone a organization.
At this point, there’s no telling where Jackson will end up or how serious the Colts brass may be about going after the superstar quarterback.
The Ravens still want Jackson in the fold for the foreseeable future, especially head coach John Harbaugh.
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However, the team has been reluctant to pay Jackson’s asking price, and that appears to be the only thing the 26-year-old quarterback cares about right now.
A fully guaranteed deal is what Jackson wants, and that’s a lot to ask for in a league that doesn’t give out fully guaranteed contracts.
Along with the league’s reluctance to make fully guaranteed deals the new trend in the NFL, Jackson has had injury issues, making it much more challenging for teams to commit a lot of money and years to a mobile quarterback.