Wow, what a Sunday in the National Football League. <Ron Jaworski voice>

We had overtime stunners, late field goals, season-ending injuries, and a couple of crazy upsets as well. When NBA people say “THIS LEAGUE!” they’re actually talking about the NFL.

As the Birds prepare for Monday Night Football against the Vikings, some thoughts on what the rest of the division did Sunday:

 

Giants 19, Panthers 16

Are the Giants for real? I don’t think so, but they’re 2-0 and you have to respect that. Carolina isn’t a world beater, but opening with a road win in Tennessee was huge, even if it came down to a missed field goal at the buzzer.

The main takeaway for me is that New York has a quality coaching staff now. Brian Daboll is the real deal. Mike Kafka comes from the Andy Reid coaching tree and is no dummy. Wink Martindale is quality, and while nobody would call the Panther offense a juggernaut, the Giants held them to 16 points with a bunch of dudes out:

We’re past the days of absolutely crushing guys like Ben “McAdoo a better job,” Pat Shurmur, and Joe Judge, who is a disgrace to the great borough of Lansdale. The Giants seem to have finally stumbled into a quality group of coaches, and when GM Joe Schoen completes the roll over of Dave Gettleman’s craptastic roster, the Giants could turn a corner, hard. They’re not gonna do much this year, I don’t think, but I can’t imagine they’re going to be a laughingstock in the coming years.

Final thought – I really liked the play they scored on:

Really nice design here. Pistol and misdirection with play action and two receivers running dummy routes to clear space for the tight end. Eagle legend Kafka schemed that up and they worked it to perfection:

That’s the takeaway for me. These coaches know they don’t have an amazing roster but can scheme these dudes into the end zone regardless.

 

 

Cowboys 20, Bengals 17

This one was shaping up nicely for a Cowboy choke. Blown 14 point lead? I was getting my phone ready to snap a picture of sad Jerry Jones in the luxury box, but it never came.

With Cooper Rush under center, Dallas scored on its first two drives. They only mustered a pair of field goals the rest of the way, but Rush moved the Cowboys 33 yards on six plays to get Brett Maher in position for a game-winning 50 yard kick. He finished 19-31 for 235 yards and a touchdown pass, and he played a relatively clean game. He didn’t turn the ball over and he seems like a serviceable backup for them, i.e. the highs aren’t very high, but the lows aren’t very low, and if the defense is playing well, he’s going to put them in positions to win these games:

It’s not exactly profound to say that Dallas falling to 0-2 would have benefited the Eagles. Any lifeline these losers get after the Dak Prescott injury instills a little bit of hope. They’ve got the Giants and Commanders next, so they could conceivably get to 3-1 before they go to LA and Philly in consecutive weeks. I just can’t see them being any better than 3-3 coming out of their first six games, but they’ve got a Colts/Texans/Jags stretch in the back half that could see them rip off a few wins if they stay afloat until Dak returns.

 

Commies 27, Lions 36

Say what you will about Carson Wentz. He lost a fumble out the back of the end zone and threw a pick, but he also chucked the ball for 337 yards and three touchdowns. You’re going to get the good with the bad, and that’s the entire Wentz package in 2022.

Washington had to throw it 46 times to get back into the game, and they could have rolled over after going down 22-0 at halftime, but didn’t. If you’re a Commie fan looking for silver lining, maybe you can focus on the fact that they didn’t curl up and die there.

Couple of random thoughts from this game. Let’s do thoughts within thoughts, like the movie Inception:

  • Washington’s passing offense is good. Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, and Jahan Dotson are all solid ballers. Throw in J.D. McKissic and Logan Thomas and Carson has diverse group of guys with varying skills to sling the ball to.
  • The Commie defense stinks. They’ve given up 58 points in two weeks and are allowing 383 yards per game (over admittedly a small sample size of two outings).
  • Remember that shitty 2020 season where Washington won the division? Of course you do, even if you don’t want to. That defense was ranked top five in the NFL and barely gave up 300 yards and 20 points a game. They’re really fallen off quickly on that side of the ball.
  • HOWEVER – the Lions might actually be the real deal. They put up 36 in this game and 35 against the Eagles in week 1. Jared Goff threw for four touchdowns and they added 191 yards on the ground. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dan Campbell find success in the NFC North. Seems like a guy who is easy to root for.
  • Whenever we post something about Carson on the site, a few people respond with something like “Philly media is so obsessed with Wentz, fuckin let it go!” This is way off-base. First of all, Wentz stories do huge numbers on the site, so blame your fellow Eagles fans for reading those posts. Second, I think Wentz is actually a more relevant topic this year, compared to the Colts year, because he’s in the division and playing for a rival. If Daniel Jones or Dak Prescott/Cooper Rush do something significant and/or stupid, we’ll post about that as well.

This was the play that pretty much summed up the afternoon for the Commie defense. Eagles go down to the swamp next week: