BROWN’S BAD ATTITUDE PITIFUL IN PITTSBURGH
Steelers receiver puts out tweet challenging team to trade him after loss to Kansas City
Pittsburgh Steelers star receiver Antonio Brown has been prone to displays of extreme childishness and selfishness on the field when he feels he isn’t getting the ball enough.
He was at it again on Sunday in Pittsburgh’s 42-37 home-field loss to Kansas City.
Columnist Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette took Brown to task after, writing he feels sorry for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for having to put up with it all from Brown.
“Does he force the ball to Brown even when he’s covered in an attempt to get him his precious catches and keep him in the game?” Cook wrote. “Or does he go to the open receivers and risk having Brown zone out on him and the team, as he did against the Chiefs?”
Worse, Brown got into the face of Steelers offensive co-ordinator Randy Fichtner on the sideline, and walked off the field alone when teammates were celebrating a late touchdown run by Roethlisberger that narrowed K.C.’s lead to five points, Cook reported.
Brown uncharacteristically bolted the Pittsburgh lockerroom before it was opened to reporters after. Nice.
But he fired back Monday at a critic on Twitter who suggested Brown ought to be grateful he’s had Big Ben throwing him passes to him his whole career.
Incredibly, Brown retorted on Twitter: “Trade me, let’s find out.”
Wow.
IMPRESSIVE PIVOTS
It’s not so much how many, and which NFL passers are performing like hall of famers early this season — Ryan Fitzpatrick, really?! — but how.
On Sunday alone, six quarterbacks who attempted at least 25 passes threw eight incompletions or fewer. That’s a pretty remarkable stat. The six: Philip Rivers, L.A. Chargers: 23-of-27 (85.2 per cent) Matt Ryan, Atlanta: 23-of-28 (82.1) Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City: 23-of-28 (82.1) Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tampa Bay: 27-of-33 (81.8) Drew Brees, New Orleans: 28-of-35 (80) Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams: 24-of-32 (75) Combined, that sextet threw only 35 incompletions on 183 throws. Mahomes threw more TD passes (six) than incompletions (five).
So, yeah: 2018, year of the passer indeed.
INTERESTING STATS
Arizona’s meek offence had five ■ first downs versus the Rams.
The Giants are 0-2 for the fifth ■ time in the last six years.
According to Sam Farmer of
■ the Los Angeles Times, the Rams over the last six quarters have allowed the opposition just four snaps on their side of the 50-yard line, three by Oakland and one by Arizona.
Houston leads the league
■ in rushing offence (158 yards per game) and is 0-2. Tampa Bay leads the league in passing offence (405 per game) and is 2-0. DEJ.J. Watt was on the field for all 59 of Houston’s defensive plays. He forced a fumble, had one tackle for a loss and was in on six tackles.
YARDAGE MARKERS
During the first two weeks last season, teams gained as many as 400 total yards only seven times.
Well, this season, the 400-yard barrier has been cracked 18 times through Sunday night. And the per-team, per-game scoring average is on a record pace: 23.6 points.
Imagine how much better that latter number would be if the Arizona Cardinals had scored more than eight measly points so far.
KICKED TO THE CURB
While quarterbacks en masse are ripping up the NFL, a few placekickers are compelling their head coaches to rip out their hair.
Especially in Minnesota and Cleveland. Both clubs cut their struggling kickers Monday.
The Browns could be 2-0 instead of 0-1-1 if Zane Gonzalez (who was kicking despite a groin injury) hadn’t been so inaccurate.
Indoors on Sunday he missed two extra points and two field goals — a 44-yarder wide left, and a 52-yarder wide right that would have sent the game to OT — as Cleveland blew Sunday’s game at New Orleans and lost 21-18.
“I just let everybody down,” Gonzalez said.
A week earlier, Gonzalez’s attempted 43-yard field goal at the end of overtime was low and blocked, allowing Pittsburgh to escape Cleveland with a 21-21 tie.
On Monday, the Browns agreed to terms with former Miami kicker Greg Joseph.
Minnesota, meantime, waived Daniel Carlson, the latest in an ignominious line of Vikings kickers who have blown pressure field-goal kicks in recent years. Carlson missed two makable game-winning kicks in Sunday’s overtime tie at Green Bay.
Maybe Charlie Brown is available.