Month: December 2017

We have the best receiver, the best running back, the best quarterback in the NFL, we have a helluva offensive line, a great core of receivers and a solid tight end group. To only put up 17 points per game is that [a waste], James said. It means we’re not executing the play calls being made. I don’t know if it’s lack of prep or not getting locked in when things are going crazy on the field. We have to improve. If the defense holds a team to 17 points, we should be able to win.

Things won’t get any easier. The next stop is Baltimore, where the Steelers have averaged 12.3 points per game in their past three road games against the Ravens.

Cleaning up road play, somehow, is priority No. 1.

I don’t know if it’s something in the food, the water, DeCastro joked. It just sucks because you can prepare all week, feel good, then come out here and lay a big, fat egg. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot a lot.

Bulaga, who missed the first two weeks, could not finish Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He dropped out after 47 of the 70 snaps and was replaced by Justin McCray, who started the Week 2 game at Atlanta. Bakhtiari was inactive for the second straight week. Murphy, who started Week 1 in place of Bulaga and the past two games at left tackle, showed up on the injury report Monday even though he finished Sunday’s game.

The Packers did not practice on Monday but were required to submit an estimated participation level because they’re playing on Thursday. Of the three tackles, only Bakhtiari would have practiced, and it would have been on a limited basis. Two other tackles, Jason Spriggs (hamstring) and Don Barclay (ankle), are on injured reserve.

We are the 2017 Buffalo Bills. We’re focused on the future, Hughes added. We’re focused on winning games. If he wants to offer anything of encouragement to our team, to our quarterbacks, to our offense, please provide all of that. We could use all the encouragement we need to figure out how they won games back in those days and be successful as they were. But we’re trying to bring a team together, we’re trying to bring a community together, we’re trying to bring a nation together. And by dividing us, by dividing the team, that doesn’t work.

Bills coach Sean McDermott said Kelly is one of the hallmarks of the organization and is still welcome at the Bills facility and games. Kelly said in an Instagram post he wants to unite and not separate and hopes all Bills players stand with locked arms before next Sunday’s game in Atlanta.

Touchdown . Make that three touchdowns for Marcedes Lewis. The third, a four-yard TD pass from Blake Bortles, came courtesy of a Telvin Smith fumble return to the Ravens’ 3-yard line. Jacksonville needed just two plays from there to find the end zone and extend its lead. 37-0, Jaguars

Touchdown . The Jaguars’ domination spilled into the second half, in which Blake Bortles opened up the scoring with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Marcedes Lewis, the tight end’s second score of the game. The touchdown came courtesy of a Jalen Ramsey interception of Jor Flacco a few plays earlier. 30-0, Jaguars

The flag, the national anthem means a lot to me, to my teammates, McCoy said. We had a long meeting Saturday night, and I was very bothered by the comments of our president, of this country. As a president, you’re supposed to lead, and you’re supposed to bring us together. You’re supposed to lead this country. I can’t stand and support something where our leader of this country is just acting like a jerk, angry and upset about NFL players protesting in a peaceful manner.

Redskins’ Josh Norman rips Raiders receivers: ‘Do not run your mouth’

Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman did what Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr couldn’t do much of during the game: target his receivers. But Norman did it with a postgame tirade, fueled by what he said was pregame banter.

Norman said some Raiders receivers let him and the Redskins’ other defensive backs know what they would do during Washington’s 27-10 win. He said they told him they’d hit 200 yards.

The Raiders’ receivers, though, didn’t have a good night. Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper combined for two catches and 13 yards.

The longtime NFL receiver went on to detail how Shanahan’s replacement, Jay Gruden, openly ripped Griffin in meetings.

Griffin responded Tuesday via Twitter, writing, Santana Moss, I treat you like a brother & have always had your back. To openly lie about me is a betrayal … Been lied on a lot over the years.

Some so desperately want me to fit this negative narrative that has been pushed about me, Griffin continued. But I don’t fit it. Never have. Never will.

Moss retired after the 2014 season. Griffin played only nine games for Gruden’s Redskins in 2014 because of an ankle injury suffered in Week 2, then spent all of 2015 on the bench before being released and signing with the Browns. He played in five games for Cleveland while again battling injuries and was released this spring. He remains a free agent.

Their decision is no different from the one made by countless others who refused to let ‘what they do’ define or restrict ‘who they are’ as Americans, it said. No man or woman should ever have to choose a job that forces them to surrender their rights.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, then with the San Francisco 49ers, began the wave of protests in the NFL when he sat during the national anthem before a preseason game in August 2016. During the regular season, Kaepernick modified his protest of social injustice and knelt during the anthem.

Trump didn’t mention Kaepernick or any other NFL player specifically during his Friday speech. Earlier this year, Trump took credit for the fact that Kaepernick hadn’t been signed.

The Buccaneers were small favorites throughout the week, but line-moving money drove the line down to a pick ’em right before kickoff.

The late money backed the right side.

With starter Sam Bradford out injured, Vikings backup quarterback Case Keenum threw three touchdown passes, and the Minnesota defense picked off Jameis Winston three times in the win. Keenum opened the second half with a 59-yard touchdown to Stefon Diggs to put the Vikings in command leading 28-3.

The NFL followed with a more general message issued on behalf of commissioner Roger Goodell, who, without specifically naming Trump, called his comments divisive but avoided the subject of player protests.

The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture. … Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.

Pittsburgh’s defense will be among the most sought-after waiver-wire pickups in fantasy leagues this week playing against the Bears, who just turned the ball over four times in a 29-7 loss to the Buccaneers.

Bears quarterback Mike Glennon committed three of the turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble), so as long as he’s playing, the odds are the Steelers have great shot at forcing another turnover this week.

His actions weren’t supported by all, including his own coach. Asked after the Steelers’ 23-17 loss to the Chicago Bears what he thought of Villanueva’s positioning for the anthem, Mike Tomlin responded, I was looking for 100 percent participation. We were gonna be respectful of our football team.

While Villanueva, a Spanish-American, already has a strong following in Latin America, it is unprecedented to see an offensive lineman rise to the top of NFL player sales for any period of time. The only comparison of an out-of-nowhere player to see a rise to the top was backup defensive end Devon Still, whose Cincinnati Bengals jersey became one of the league’s most popular jerseys in 2014, after his daughter’s fight with cancer became public.

I don’t know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that’s providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year … when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year, Villanueva told ESPN last year, when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first started kneeling.

Roughly 180 players didn’t stand for the national anthem Sunday. Three teams — the Steelers, Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks — didn’t come to the sideline for the song.

During the 1985 season, Wade Wilson started a game in Philadelphia but was pulled by Grant in favor of Steve Bono as the Vikings fell behind 23-0. Wilson was reinserted after Bono struggled, and the original starter threw three fourth-quarter TD passes to lead the team to victory.

When the Bengals are getting beat 20-0 by the Ravens, why not make a change at the most impactful position? You’ve got a fourth-year quarterback in McCarron who won two national titles at Alabama, so why not give him a shot when Dalton could not get anything going? Against Houston, it was three field goals and lots of missed opportunities, but still not one snap for the backup.

McCarron is an impending restricted free agent, so it behooves the Bengals to see whether he can reclaim his college magic or if they need to look again to the draft. Above all, in this quarterback-driven NFL, the Bengals are not going to be an elite team until they find a new franchise passer. Dalton obviously is not that guy.

The Saints over the last few years have struggled to build a competent team around Brees. Since their peak from 2009-11, in which they won 37 games and a Super Bowl, the Saints have won more than seven games in a season just once (2013). This year, they might not reach seven wins for the first time since Brees signed with them in 2006.

Brees has masked the fact that the rest of the roster has not been seven win-worthy. That has only made matters worse for the long term in New Orleans.

The signs pointing to roster problems were clear in 2013 and ’14, when the Saints began signing massive player contracts and continuously deferring salary cap charges to future years. They found themselves having problems with their salary cap over and over again. Since 2015, the Saints have carried nearly $100 million in dead money, or cap charges for players no longer on the team. That’s $20 million more than any other team and about $55 million more than the league average.

Manning has the best complement of pass-catching weapons he’s had in his career. In a passing league, the Giants have the personnel for a high-flying aerial attack. It was grounded on Monday for the most part, once again, because of a porous offensive line.

You can’t just go out and win on paper, Pugh said. We’re not comparing teams in fantasy football.

On a night the Giants honored the 10-year anniversary of their 2007 Super Bowl team, one that lionized the wide receiver position after a miraculous, once-in-a-lifetime catch, the Giants wide receivers were largely caged animals Monday, with Manning’s gatekeepers leaving too wide of a gap between the bars.

Touchdown. Devonta Freeman found the end zone for his second touchdown of the first half, a score that capped Atlanta’s second impressive drive of the game. This one, a 10-play, 87-yarder, took just 4:12 off the clock. 14-7, Falcons.

Touchdown. Well, that was easy, too. The Packers on their first drive of the game answered the Falcons’ first drive with seven points of their own. The 11-play, 75-yard drive was capped by a 1-yard Ty Montgomery touchdown run. 7-7, tie game.

It was 14-13 when Whitney Mercilus got free around the end and sacked Brady from the blind side. The ball popped free on the hit and it was picked up and returned 22 yards by Jadeveon Clowney for a touchdown.

But the Patriots responded again late in the half when Brady found Hogan wide open again for a 47-yard touchdown.

Clowney had two sacks along with his fumble return. He became the third player in Texans history with two sacks and a fumble return for a touchdown in a game, joining Mario Williams and J.J. Watt.