NFC West Week 3 Card Tricks

Article by Rob Newell

Week Three saw talk of one Offence being on pace to break records as Tom Brady threw his 400^th and 401^st career touchdown passes, but there is another team in the league residing in the NFC West that is racking up the points this season and that is the Arizona Cardinals.

Having racked up the points in their first two games against the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears respectively the Cardinals showed no sign of slowing down in their opening divisional game against the San Francisco 49ers.  In fact you could argue the Cardinals were given every encouragement by the Niners as Colin Kaepernick showed the sort of form that has previously earned him the nickname of Colin Throw A Pick! The Niners QB threw up 4 interceptions in this game including 2 pick 6’s in his first few passes to throw San Francisco out of their game plan pretty much straight away.

 

Arizona then proceeded to capitalise on this start on the backs of two stars that have returned to form that many thought had long passed them by.  Chris Johnson (the former Titan & Jet) he of CJ2K fame churned out 110 yards on the ground from 22 carries and 2 touchdowns, and with Andre Ellington likely to be out for at least one more game, Johnson will be having another chance to pitch a starting claim going forward.  Meanwhile at receiver, alongside youngster John Brown, veteran and future Hall of Fame first ballot Larry Fitzgerald went over 100 yards for the second week in a row, this time Fitzgerald hauled in 9 catches for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns.

There were thoughts that going into this year the Arizona defence would be hampered by the loss of Antonio Cromartie and Todd Bowles it the Jets, but Justin Bethel showed he can replace Cromartie with the opening pick 6, and was quickly followed into the end zone by Honey Badger Tyrann Mathieu, who added a second pick later in the game.  The Cardinals move on to a 3-0 start and have a second divisional game next weekend against the Rams, after losing 2 starting QB’s last year against the Rams, Bruce Arians team will be looking to get through this week unscathed and on what we have seen so far if Carson Palmer does stay healthy he has shown he had mastered the offensive scheme and this Cardinals team could well be in the playoff race come January.

The biggest rivals to the Cardinals were always likely to be the Seattle Seahawks and they had the good fortune to be an 0-2 team playing the Chicago Bears, a scenario that is always likely to cure your team's problems especially when starting QB Jay Cutler was missing for the Bears.  The Seahawks were also boosted by the return of Kam Chancellor who has ended his contract holdout, and the Seahawks defence suddenly clicked into gear and pitched a shutout protecting a 26-0 victory for the Seahawks.

Rookie Tyler Lockett in just his third career start, recorded his second career kick return touchdown, but the most talked about moment in this one was another kick return, when Richard Sherman ended up returning a punt 64 yards following a fake fielding of the catch by Lockett who was standing on the other side of the field.  The last team to fall for this trick was the Seahawks when the Rams pulled this off for a touchdown last year, and the Hawks showed they remember last year by replicating the play this time.  From an outside looking in perspective it is very difficult to know how teams fall for this move each season, you are the team punting the ball, surely you know which direction the ball is going, somebody waving their arms on the other side of the field, should not make the entire coverage team rush to the wrong part of the field.

However, future Seahawks opponents, might want to take notice, of the stats posted by Jimmy Graham, who is starting to show signs

The St Louis Rams were involved in a strange one at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers, it was the first time I have heard of a game delay for pitch conditions inside a dome stadium.  When this one got going it was a very heavy dose of defensive play as Pittsburgh Steelers outlasted St Louis 12-6.  The difference in the end turned out to be the returning Le'veon Bell who recorded the only touchdown and 70 yards on the ground and a further 60 in the air. 

The Rams D can add another name to the list of QB’s they have knocked out, not that a Gregg Williams coached team would be interested in stats like those obviously, when Big Ben Rothlisberger went down with a feared ACL injury, which now seems to be an MCL problem and is likely to keep Ben out for 4 to 6 weeks only and not the year.  Nick Foles showed he was efficient going 19 of 28 for 197 Yards, just over 100 of those were to Kenny Britt.  One bright spot for the Rams was this was the debut of rookie Todd Gurley who will benefit from having proper game snaps under his belt going ahead to Arizona next week.  So lets see which Rams team shows up when the Cardinals host them this weekend

NFC West Week 2 Reality Checks

Article by Rob Newell

Week Two of the regular season saw a dose of reality sink back into the NFC West, and perhaps the biggest dose was perhaps served up at Lambeau Field to the Seattle Seahawks, where if they didn’t realise already, they were very quickly reminded of just how badly they are missing Kam Chancellor.

The fact that the holdout is now over, combined with the fact the Seahawks return home for their home opener to take on an injury ravaged Chicago Bears should see the Seahawks start to rebound this week.  A cautionary note to the Seahawks fanbase though, Chancellor instantly upgrades the secondary back to Legion of Boom status, but history tells us that players who hold out tend to pick up injuries early into their return without the benefits of preseason training camp.  I hope it's not the case this time around so fingers crossed twelves.

Arizona Cardinals, showed yet again that with Carson Palmer at QB they have to be in the conversation as a legitimate Super Bowl team.  This is an offence that when it clicks is highly productive and does not ease off for anyone, it simply is not in Bruce Arians DNA to entertain the idea, and in rookie David Johnson they have unearthed another special talent.  He is the first player in NFL history to register Return, Rushing and Receiving Touchdowns over his first two games.  His return TD was recorded as the quickest run of any sort in the league.

The San Francisco 49ers, had the misfortune to be served up as the opening home sacrifice for Ben Roethlesburger and the high powered Pittsburgh Steelers team.  Fresh off their opening win at Levi’s Stadium, the Niners showed a little more of the form that we all expected from them this year, perhaps it is unfair to judge them against the Steelers whom we all expect to be in the final shake up in the AFC, but bear in mind this Steelers team did not have Le'veon Bell and the Steelers racked up yardage in huge chunks, the Niners defence did not register a single QB hit or sack in this game.  The Niners need to find more of the Vikings game form and quickly otherwise their season will run away from them very quickly.

As for the Rams, following a win at home over the Seahawks, a trip to the lowly Redskins shouldn’t have caused to many problems should it? Yet for much of the game the Rams didn’t even seem to have turned up.  This is why so many people assume the Rams will always end up 8-8 no matter what.  If the Rams are to finally turn the corner and become the playoff team that a team of their obvious talent level should be, they are going to have to be more consistent and find a way to take their home form on the road.  Not sure the Los Angeles fanbase will want a middle of the pack .500 team for very long.

NFC West Week One Review - Part 2

Article by Rob Newell

 

Week One is in the books following the matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings and we are now well and truly back to Football.

After the off-season that has been talked about by everybody as the worst in NFL history, if any team earns the right to debut a new black uniform it was the 49ers, and following this game (and yes it is dangerous to draw conclusions from just one game) reports suggesting the demise of the 49ers were very much exaggerated. 

For weeks now, we have heard about how the Vikings were the trendy pick for at least a Wildcard pick in the NFC this season, maybe more following the injury to Jordy Nelson in Green Bay and this game was supposed to be the first step on the returning Adrian Peterson’s road to redemption, which according to him at least was supposed to be at least 2,500 yards long.

 

The Niners had their own returning star to welcome back, in Navarro Bowman.  His last game was the infamous Richard Sherman game in the 2013 NFC Championship, and judging by this game and the preseason evidence Bowman is back to full health, and may just be the best inside linebacker in the league, finally good news for the 49ers faithful.  However the early blocked field goal was certainly not good news for San Francisco, and had most Niners wondering just what else would/could go wrong?

As it turned out the answer to that question on this night, would be very little!  The final score of 20-3 to the Niners I would imagine have garnered you fairly long odds before kick off.  But that is how it played out, and despite some flashes from the so called purple Jesus, included one run which took what felt like the entire Niners defence to stop, the best running back on the field was wearing black.

Carlos Hyde showed that the decision to let franchise legend Frank Gore move on, may have been perfectly timed as he torched the Vikings for 168 yards and showed that he could just be the every down back that teams love.  However it was on the defence that people believed the Niners would be crippled, but this is far from the truth as Bowman led a Niners defensive effort that saw them swarming to the ball.   Antoine Bethea was everywhere, including getting away with what looked like a clear pass interference infraction, but in a more positive light was making tackles all over the field.

Aaron Lynch was another standout performer, the 2^nd year man was bringing pressure to Teddy Bridgwater all night long, trying to find the replacement to Aldon Smith.  Credit must go to Eric Mangini, the Defensive Coordinator for San Francisco, who found ways to generate pressure that kept the Vikings guessing.

It's taken this long but I ought to mention Colin Kaepernick, who did not rack up the numbers in part to the success of Hyde, but you could see evidence of confidence and leadership in the QB.  He caught the Vikings offside with some hard counts and although not looking to run first himself, Kaepernick did show a willingness to tuck the ball and run himself where opportunity presented itself.  In so doing Kaepernick did take a couple of big hits especially from Harrison Smith, but Kaepernick bounced straight up and called the next play.  He even found himself lead blocking for his running back on one TD run.

 

The Vikings will be better than this as the season goes along, and if they can work AP back in to Norv Turner’s offence, they could still be a potential playoff team, the Niners showed that predictions of 3-13 etc… are perhaps a little on the low side, they will be looking for at least a .500 record if not better.  If their number 28 can continue to play like this and not put in a Jekyl performance instead, then the NFL has found a new star.

NFC West Week One Review - Part 1

Article by Rob Newell

It has taken what has felt like forever, but week 1 of the regular season has arrived, and the hits are that little bit harder, the results matter a whole lot more, and out in the West we have already had the first overtime game of the season.

Defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks visited the St Louis Rams in the early game on Sunday and two teams who expect to have some of the best defences in the league served us up a thriller with over 60 points put on the board.  At the end Russell Wilson’s 100% record in overtime games came to an end, when Seattle failed to convert a fourth and short, a situation they were in last time they played a proper game.  This time though the Hawks did hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, so all those people who have been crying about the playcall in the Super Bowl can stop now, turns out Lynch might not have got in either.

 

So what about the 2015 Seahawks, firstly they missed Kam Chancellor, the safeties holdout perhaps not the most impactful in preseason, will show up a lot more now that it counts proper!  Would the Rams have scored 34 with Kam back there, it's possible of course, but I doubt it. The Seahawks OL is still a work in practice, having lost Pro-Bowl centre Max Unger as part of the Jimmy Graham trade, putting the new look line up against the Rams front 4 was as tough a test as you can get, and as you would expect with Robert Quinn, Chris Long, Aaron Donald etc… The Rams got to Russell Wilson quite regularly, but the OL unit will benefit from a test like this.

Seahawks and Rams matchups are usually tough, but the Rams may have inadvertently shown the rest of the league the blueprint of how to disrupt the Seahawks OL.  Having said that if your going to go for that approach you better get home, as the Seahawks do have the players to punish mistakes and you know the Seahawks will never knowingly be beaten until the game is over.

As for the Rams, it does seem that those bemoaning the offensive scheme of Brian Schottenheimer for the last few years, may well of had a point, as Frank Cignetti did seem to know how to utilise Tavon Austin a bit more.  The Rams were without there top two running backs in Todd Gurley and Tre Mason but backup Benny Cunningham was effective in relief against the usually stringent Seahawks D.  The Rams also have themselves a new QB this year in Nick Foles.  Foles achieved the almost unthinkable in St Louis, a starting QB who hasn’t been lost to injury for the year in the first game.

One of the narratives about the Rams, is they don’t have receivers worth the name, but I challenge people who say that and the Rams coaches as well to watch the film of Stedman Bailey.  He is grossly underrated in the league and at times by his own team.  Bailey runs good routes and seems to have great hands, under pressure and needing a play, Foles already seems comfortable with Bailey.

 

When Gurley returns, expect the Rams receivers to have more space and the likes of Bailey will benefit as should the electric Tavon Austin.  Now, we know what the Rams are capable of at home, we now need to see what they can produce on the road before we anoint them contenders.  Having as a team they seem to have more about them.  In previous seasons a big return TD as Tyler Lockett produced would have knocked the stuffing out of the Rams, but on this evidence the Rams have more identity about them.

Topping the division with the Rams right now are the Arizona Cardinals, who opened up the season with a home victory over the New Orleans Saints.  Any questions about returning QB Carson Palmer can be laid to rest, as Palmer racked up the yards and 3 TD passes.

Give a Bruce Arians team a confident QB and you see a completely different proposition to the team that limped out of the playoffs to Carolina last year.n the returning QB got the best out of youngsters David Johnson and John Brown and paced the team with Larry Fitzgerald who seems destined to now finish his Hall of Fame career in Arizona. 

The Cardinals look to have lost Andre Ellington with injury again, so we will see now what rookie Johnson and fit again CJ2K Chris Johnson can do, but as long as Palmer is fit, Arians will live and die by the pass as he doesn’t know how to coach conservatively it seems, one of the reasons we love to watch his team's play.

I predicted Arizona to win this division and after one week, so far so good! The 49ers will round out the division later tonight when they welcome Minnesota Vikings to what will be the home of Super Bowl 50. I will report later in the week on that one, as the two comeback of the year contenders in Adrian Peterson and Navarro Bowman go head to head.

NFC South ready to go!!

Article by Matt King

Final preparations have been underway this week before the season gets real for the division.

The Saints worked out pass catcher Hakeem Nicks as a potential addition as they are down to just four receivers to begin the season. Nicks used to possess great speed in his arsenal, but injuries to his lower body have sapped this. 
The Saints also got a boost this week in seeing safety Jairius Byrd avoiding the PUP list. This is good news and it means that he will be able to play at any time within the next six weeks [which would have been his earliest return date should he have been placed on the PUP list] and will be a boost to the defensive core when he does return.

Arthur Blank, Falcons owner during a Q-and-A with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that he’s “not interested in a slow rebuild. We’re about winning, and winning now. The Atlanta fans are entitled to know that this leadership and ownership team will do whatever it takes to field a winning team. We’ll leave no stone unturned, and we’ll look at everything possible. We owe that to our fans and to the NFL”. 30 year old Jake Long worked out for the Falcons on Wednesday after being cleared following an ACL tear. This was the second time Long auditioned for a job with Atlanta after his earlier July appointment. 

Carolina has had a quiet week with the only thing of note being an extension to Luke Keuchly’s contract. Keuchly signed a five year, $62 million extension. Keuchly expressed his delight in this matter by telling reporters via a news conference “It’s awesome. To get to this point is really cool”. He also added that “It’s never been about me, I want to win, and I’m one guy on an 11-man defense that needs to do my job”.

With nothing doing in Tampa Bay this week, the NFC South is raring to get into game action.

NFC South teams ready for the big kickoff!

Article by Matt King

 

As teams trim their rosters, the other news from around the NFC South is as follows:

With the most to gain this year, the Buccaneers do have a great core heading into the regular season opener. And finished camp 2-2 with this week’s pre-season win over Miami [22-17]. Neither team played many of their first stringers, and the Buccs rested Winston [ankle] entirely. Mike Glennon didn’t help his cause to be the starter [even had Winston not been confirmed starter] with an 11/20 outing for 141 yards with 1 TD and 2 INTs, although that wasn’t as bad as the Dolphins QBs who threw 4 between them [2 apiece]. This had the classic feel of final warm up game about it and nobody really stood out on the stat sheet. Both teams will be glad to start the regular season and both should be more competitive next week.

The Falcons also wrapped up their camp with a 2-2 record sealing a one point 20-19 victory over the Ravens in their final tune up.
The back-up QB job now belongs to Sean Renfree following the release of TJ Yates and Rex Grossman. Yates led the team in pre season with 35/58 for 370 yards at a 6.4 yards per attempt average with 0 TDs and sadly for him, 2 INTs. Grossman didn’t get much time on the field and combined for 41 yards from 4 completions off 9 attempts for 4.6 yards per attempt with 0 TDS and 0 INTs.
Renfree had an impressive showing in their final tune up throwing 10 completions from 15 attempts for 75 yards and 1 TD.
The Falcons are going to need big performances every week if they are to overthrow the Panthers from their nest atop the NFC South, and LB Allen Bradford could be part of the defensive unit which will cause many problems for foes over the next 16 weeks, although he’s only made 13 plays in the NFL across his 5 year career, he had a team leading 22 combined tackles [15 total, 7 assisted] although 3^rd year player Stansly Maponga [6 combined tackles, 4 total 2 assisted] will be looking to increase his role and push for a start or two in the opening weeks.

The Saints may have moved on from Jimmy Graham and Junior Galette, but the Saints have a lot of talented players, who this far in their careers have failed to produce what might have otherwise been expected of them [Kenny Vacarro, Keenan Lewis] new acquisition Brandon Browner could be a stand out, but with a weak secondary, the Saints will have to play unconventionally to return to the playoffs although rookies Stephone Anthony and Hau’oli Kikaha could be a dynamic which helps the New Orleans faithful to forget about Jimmy Graham.  The Saints may have finished camp with an 0-4 record, but they didn’t really play their main signal caller Drew Brees for an extended period though as a team they just didn’t move the chains enough in camp which is something they will be keep to fix in week one.

 

The Panthers made a trade prior to the preseason finale, acquiring receiver Kevin Norwood from the Seattle Seahawks, sending as of now an undisclosed draft pick in 2017, and this acquisition will be a short term boost to the receiving line with Benjamin out for the year, and his expected replacement [Devin Funchess] banged up with a hamstring injury.
 Carolina beat the Steelers in their final tune up, after being up 17-0 at the half, by a final of 23-6 which saw the QB Joe Webb, and RB Jordan Tolman had much success with Webb throwing for 193 yards off 17 completions from 22 attempts with a TD and Tolman made mincemeat of the Steelers D with 72 yards from just 5 attempts with a 49 yard TD. The Panthers looked in mid-season form in this one with the aggression and all around play looking like a good sing heading into the regular season opener and the defence really took it to the Steeler QB unit registering 5 sacks. The Panthers managed to rack up 226 yards on the ground, with another 228 through the air although the Steelers did show some pluck with only allowing the 2 TDs mentioned above, the rest of the points came via the FG with Graham Gano hitting all three attempts for the 3 points. It is looking likely that the Panthers have had a great camp and preseason programme and the rest of the NFC South will surely be taking notice of when they are scheduled to play them.

If I were asked who I thought might win the division, I would answer, well the money would be on the Panthers, but the team with the most to gain this season is the Buccaneers, and they will be nowhere near as bad as they were last year, with maybe the Saints being the biggest flop in the division this year, it will be a close race [and above .500] to decide who comes out on top, but I will say maybe just about the Panthers, though the Falcons will be ready to swoop should they falter and the Buccs will be more competitive then people might otherwise think and could snatch a wild card .

*Stats sourced via ESPN.Com and NFL.com throughout.

NFC West preseason hasn't cast any new lights - yet

Article by Rob Newell

The common principle accepted in the NFL is that Week 3 of preseason is the closest thing you get to a proper dress rehearsal for the coming regular season, and as Week 3 is now in the books, it therefore feels like a good time to review where things are in regards to the NFC West.

Generally speaking the NFC West has given very little away, everything has been very, very vanilla.  If Week 3 is supposed to be a proper walk through then the West is not accepting the script.  Nothing is really known now that wasn't really known before.

 

The Seattle Seahawks so far have played 3 close games, but the preseason for them has been mainly about Russell Wilson knocking off some rust and getting that game chemistry with new target Jimmy Graham, and new wide receiver Tyler Lockett.  The defence have been playing without most of the Legion of Boom for either injury or contract holdout, and the situation involving Kam Chancellor is still ongoing at time of writing.  Seattle’s offseason could have kept Jerry Maguire in business for years as they gave shown several stars the money, Wilson, Bobby Wagner etc… However Chancellor seems like a deal that may not happen.  With more money in their accounts or dissatisfaction at lack of new deals, will the Seahawks continue to buy into the Always Compete mentality that has got them to the last 2 Super Bowls?

Arizona Cardinals, have gone from being regular offseason news items due to being linked with a move for Adrian Peterson to being one of the quieter teams in the preseason, a move for Chris Johnson for CJ2K fame excepted.  You know however that a Bruce Arians teams is not going to be so quiet when the games are for real.  For them having Carson Palmer back after the knee injury last year is absolutely critical, despite the best efforts of Drew Stanton and others at the end if last season, it is Palmer which causes this team to thrive.  With him in the team last year, Larry Fitzgerald was putting together his best stretch of games for a while, and rookie John Brown showed some dynamic moves.  The defence is also well set when things start to matter, the only question is at cornerback, Patrick Peterson is expected to be a huge contributor but opposite him can the team thrive now Antonio Cromartie has returned to the Jets?

 

The St Louis Rams have turned themselves into the big IF team in the league, obviously the defence is set and should prove once again to go one of the top units in the league, and the team should prove to be a real playoff contender If:-

Nick Foles can settle in and provide starting  QB play for sixteen weeks,

The new offensive coordinator can finally work out how to use Tavon Austin

Todd Gurley can return from injury and be the next best thing, everyone predicted he might be

The Rams receivers can develop into a reliable unit

If all goes their way the Rams could be one of the better teams in the league, but will the lure of Los Angeles prove an unwarned distraction? Time will tell for this team!

This leaves the 49ers, the team with the offseason from hell, as front office and coaching staff would feel, if ever team just needed to get back to actually playing football, then this is the team.  Yet it is the 49ers that have perhaps the most promising run.  Jarryd Hayne the ex-Aussie Rugby League recruit, has produced some very nice touches and seems likely to make a final Roster now, shame that London 2012 star Lawrence Okoye is not going to make it having been cut by the 49ers over the weekend.  Navarro Bowman is back in the Niners defence though and that one move is probably the single best item of news any Niner could have hoped for this preseason. 

The coming year is tough to forecast in San Francisco, many experts would tell you that 6-10 is the maximum they might do, but this is a team with Carlos Hyde, Colin Kaepernick, Vernon Davis etc… And despite the pessimistic thoughts of the greater audience if everything goes right, this 49ers outfit could be an outside wildcard contender.