|
1) Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams put on a clinic against the Detroit Lions. He couldn’t be stopped , which has been the story for most of his career, but against the Lions he had 5 tackles, 2 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, 4 quarterback hits, and a forced fumble. His highlight reel from that game is frightening. With 16.5 sacks already this year, Donald has a chance at the single season record of 22.5 that was set by Michael Strahan in 2001.2) Way back on Thursday, the Dallas Cowboys found a way to upset the New Orleans Saints, and in doing so put Dallas in the driver’s seat to win the NFC East at 7-5. That win was their fourth straight, and it seems to be the addition of Amari Cooper that has righted their season. Cooper has given them a legit number one receiving option which has benefited quarterback Dak Prescott.With their offense coming around, and their defense being one of the league’s best, the Cowboys are a team no one wants to play in the playoffs. 3) I didn’t watch one second of the Colts vs. Jaguars game, so if anyone did, please let me know what I missed in the Jags’ 6-0 victory. Those two teams combined for 476 yards of total offense. 4) Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs racked up 469 total yards in their win against the Oakland Raiders. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes had another 4 TD passes to give him 41 on the season which already ranks 9th all-time for a season. With 4 games left he has a real shot at Peyton Manning’s all-time record of 55 passing touchdowns in one year which he set in 2013. 5) With this being the Ten Thoughts and a kind of catch-all for your general NFL discussion , keep in mind that any comments about Kareem Hunt that try to make excuses for his idiotic actions will be deleted. Hitting, pushing, and kicking a woman while she’s on the floor is inexcusable.6) In case you missed it, the Packers fired their head coach on Sunday. Did you realize that Sunday, December 2, was Aaron Rodgers’ birthday. That’s a heck of a birthday present. I want you to watch the first few seconds of Rodgers’ post game press conference from Sunday. I can’t help but wonder if that initial smirk had anything to do with him knowing his head coach was about to get canned. 7) After 19 seasons, New England QB Tom Brady has finally hit a thousand yards rushing, and the huge moment received the meme treatment.He’s averaged 1.7 yards per carry during this time, with his best statistical year on the ground coming way back in 2002 when he had 110 yards on 42 attempts. The 1,000 yards was such an important milestone that when he was kneeling in victory formation to end the game, he went forward towards the line of scrimmage to ensure he wouldn’t lose yardage. Brady even had a mock retirement (for a few seconds) to honor the historical moment. 8) The hottest team in the NFL is the Houston Texans, winners of nine straight games, and an argument can be made that they are the most complete team in the league right now. 9) The Washington Redskins lost another QB to a broken leg. This time Colt McCoy went down in the Monday Night game, and they were forced to play Mark Sanchez.It’s almost like there’s some bad karma surrounding that franchise.10) I know the popular narrative is to blame head coach Matt Nagy’s decisions, or to blame not having Mitchell Trubisky playing , for their loss against the New York Giants, but how about we get some of the blame over to Vic Fangio and the defense? Even with all the problems the offense had (6 fumbles and 2 interceptions), they still hung 27 points on the board. Scoring that many points should be enough to win if you have a great defense. DAVIE, Fla. (AP) — The home crowd still loves Ryan Tannehill, even if lately he hasn’t given Miami Dolphins fans much to cheer about.Tannehill’s wife recently gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, Stella. They also have a 2-year-old son, Steel.“We’re settling in nicely to a family of four,” Tannehill said after practice Wednesday. “I put a lot of time and energy and effort into what I do here. But whether it’s good or bad, I go home and my little guy runs up to me — ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ — and it definitely warms your heart and puts a smile on your face.”That’s in contrast to the frowns Tannehill’s play has elicited lately, and he knows it. He performed poorly in ugly losses the past two weeks, inspiring hopeful talk among his many detractors that 2018 will be the final season for the Dolphins’ Tannehill era.To quiet the critics, he’ll need a dramatic turnaround Sunday for Miami (3-2) against the Chicago Bears (3-1) and their No. 2-ranked defense. And he might not have a lot of help up front, with two linemen out for the season and left tackle Laremy Tunsil limited in practice after suffering a concussion in Sunday’s loss at Cincinnati.Tannehill’s offense has scored only one touchdown in each of the past two games. To go with the sputtering attack, he had three turnovers in the second half against the Bengals , with two of them returned for scores.“I have to play better ,” Tannehill said. “I have to take care of the football. That’s what it comes down to, eliminating the turnovers. You eliminate those and we’ll be in good shape.”Doing so with the offensive line so banged up will be a challenge, because a longstanding knock on Tannehill is that he’s prone to poor decisions when facing pass-rush pressure.This year it has been a problem for Tannehill only recently, coach Adam Gase said.“I thought we were good the first three weeks,” Gase said. “He had some touchdown passes when he had pressure. We just had a couple of bad choices, this last game especially.”Gase has been Tannehill’s staunchest defender since becoming coach in 2016, and there’s no sign of his loyalty wavering. The backup quarterbacks are journeyman Brock Osweiler and the unproven David Fales, so there has been no speculation Tannehill might be benched.But his salary cap hit in 2019 is $26.6 million, which is sure to influence the Dolphins’ decision about whether to bring him back next year.There’s still lots of time to salvage this strange season, which has the Dolphins tied for the AFC East lead even though they have been outgained by 472 yards. Tannehill said he can lead a turnaround by tempering his tendency to be too aggressive at times in his decisions.“That’s what got me in some trouble last week,” he said. “It’s hard, right? You want to stay on the attack. You want to be the aggressor. It’s kind of anti-intuitive to come off the gas and have a big-picture mentality. That’s something I have to work at and will get better at.”After 82 career starts, Tannehill’s still pledging to improve.
|
