KRYK SLANTS
Six of 30 teams this week amassed single-digit point totals. Ten teams scored fewer than 14, and 19 teams (nearly two-thirds of the league) scored fewer than 21. And the weather again on Sunday was absolutely beautiful, everywhere.
For starters: perspective on the big news
Scoring is down in the NFL. Significantly.
Before Monday night’s Detroit at New York Giants game, teams so far this season were averaging 20.3 points per outing. That’s on pace to be the lowest since the 20.2 in 2001, and tied for second lowest in the past 24 years, according to annual stats posted at ProFootball-Reference.com.
To put the 20.3 per-game output in further perspective, from 1994 to 2007 NFL teams averaged in the range of 20-21 points per game. From 2008 through last season, the average range rose to 22-23 — making it the NFL’s highestscoring era since the early 1960s. Indeed the past five seasons produced the highest such averages of any fiveyear span in NFL history, as scoring ranged annually from 22.6 to 23.4 points per game.
Suddenly this season, however — pffffft. Two weeks isn’t much of a trend, granted. But, as we Canadians all know, at this time of year you only have to take one whiff at night to know if a skunk’s nearby. What reeks, reeks. NFL teams averaged 20.2 points per game in Week 1, and before Monday night averaged 20.3 in Week 2.
The deeper into this you look, the uglier it gets.
Six of 30 teams this week amassed single-digit point totals. Ten teams scored fewer than 14, and 19 teams (nearly two-thirds of the league) scored fewer than 21. And the weather again on Sunday was absolutely beautiful, everywhere — so no excuses there.
Ugly yardage totals further reflect the drop in offensive production.
Fourteen of 30 teams playing in Week 1 (Miami and Tampa Bay had emergency byes owing to Hurricane Irma) failed to gain as many as 300 total yards. While that number dropped in Week 2 entering Monday night, to nine teams, if you raise that threshold by just 20 yards, to 320, you find that 13 teams failed to hit it this week.
And only four teams cracked the 400-yard threshold, one week after only three teams did.
Probably the worst offensive showing by any team thus far occurred at Carolina on Sunday, where QB Tyrod
Taylor and the Buffalo Bills gained just 176 total yards —52 of which came against soft coverage on Buffalo’s final desperation drive, which died 13 yards shy of the red zone. The Bills could barely advance the ball before that last drive, picking up just seven first downs while averaging an abysmal 3.4 yards per play.
Part and parcel is the dearth of touchdowns. Two teams haven’t even scored one yet: Cincinnati and San Francisco. After two games! Four other teams this week didn’t score a touchdown.
Reasons for all this? Pretty simple: (1) too many bad quarterbacks, (2) too many bad offensive lines and (3) some defences are better than expected.
Look, the winds of late autumn and the biting cold and snow of early winter are coming. Offences had better start scoring while the sun shines, or that 20.3 number will look good come the new year.
TRENDS NOT COINCIDENCES
It happened again, so it probably will happen again Need anymore proof
that Kansas City Chiefs rookie running back Kareem
Hunt is the real deal? I don’t. That Eagles front seven he burst through, on his latest exhilarating long TD run, is good. The kid is fun to watch, he opens up things offensively for Alex Smith and his receivers and has to be the sure-fire frontrunner for NFL rookie-of-the-year.
2. For the fourth consecutive season Sean
Payton’s New Orleans Saints aren’t just 0-2, but an ugly 0-2. Points allowed in those eight games, in order: 35, 16, 31, 26, 37, 26, 29, 36. Even worse news for Saints fans? The three previous teams kept struggling, especially on defence. All were 1-3 after four games. It’s rare to make the playoffs out of such a deep hole. 3. Under head coach
Bruce Arians since 2013, the Arizona Cardinals have not lost in overtime. They’re 3-0-1. Probably a big reason is that Arians by nature is an aggressive coach, and come overtime he becomes even more so. Conservativism doesn’t usually win in OT.
INSIDE FOOTBALL
Shining more light on a strategic decisions
Seems it isn’t just a handful of teams anymore that have different running backs for entirely different purposes. Like the Patriots or Saints. The way Bill Belichick shuffles his New England lineups, a back who stars one week might not even start, or even dress, in another.
Looks like you can add the Eagles to that group.
In Week 1’s win at Washington, newly acquired
LeGarrette Blount (the ex-Patriot) — a downhill pounder — started, got 23 snaps and led the Eagles in rushing with a modest 46 yards on 14 carries. Backups
Wendell Smallwood (a speed back) and Darren
Sproles (a classic, shifty, good-hands third-down back) added six yards on six carries, combined.
Totally different story at Kansas City on Sunday.
Sproles started and was on the field for 50 snaps, more than two-thirds of Philly’s offensive plays. Blount got in for only six plays and didn’t carry the ball once. Even Smallwood saw more playing time (14 snaps) than Blount. Eagles head coach Doug
Pederson on Monday was asked to explain.
“We’ve got roles for all the guys,” he said. “LeGarrette has a role, Sproles has a role, Wendell Smallwood and we even had (RB) Corey
(Clement) a little role, a little piece of the pie.”
Pederson was criticized for calling so many pass plays (46) compared to runs (17), even though the game at KC was close, except for part of the final half-quarter.
“A lot of times, when you’re in these games like this, and you struggle to run your core runs, it becomes hard,” he said. “Yesterday I believe we had seven 3rd-and-10-pluses again, and then there were another five 3rd-and-7s, and that’s unacceptable. We can’t be in that many long-yardage situations in these football games. We’ve got to focus on the run game and we’ve got to get the run game fixed.”
In other words, expect more Blount.
HERO
Trevor Siemian, QB, Denver Broncos Seen last year as the oneyear placeholder QB between
Peyton Manning and Paxton Lynch, Siemian had to fight for his starting job all over in spring and summer. It was no contest; Siemian was better by far than Lynch. He’s continuing to prove his doubters wrong, and is flourishing within Mike
McCoy’s aggressive passing concepts. Four TD throws on 22-of-32 throwing against Dallas showed the third-year Siemian is in his element.
ZERO
Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas Cowboys If you haven’t seen it yet, look it up. In the third quarter of the Cowboys’ loss at Denver, Dallas QB Dak Prescott was intercepted. There’s TV footage showing Elliott literally just standing there, hands on hips, as the Broncos’ interceptor raced away. Elliott made zero effort to try to track him down. Listen, Elliott deserved much fairer treatment by the NFL over allegations of his domesticviolence. But the kid has some serious entitlement/ attitude issues. Was he pouting over his NFLworst eight-yard rushing output? Shouldn’t matter, of course. Is Elliott gong to wind up a bright star who burns out fast?
STOCK UP
Philadelphia Eagles No team looked better in defeat Sunday. With a promising young hotshot QB in Carson Wentz, better receivers this year, and a defence boasting one of the league’s top front-sevens, the Eagles should surprise teams all season long. As they did in Kansas City on Sunday, in a close game eventually won 27-20 by the Chiefs. The Philly line has to run-block better, and the secondary is pure patchwork, but the Eagles are 1-1 heading home for the first time in 2017, after a pair of promising road efforts.
EXPORTS, EH?
Eye on Canadian connected NFLers Maybe it’ll go down as the Luke Leap. Midway through the second quarter of the Seahawks’ 12-9 defeat of San Francisco, Seahawks tight end Luke Willson of LaSalle, Ont., took a dump pass from Russell Wilson, charged up field and timed perfectly a hurdle leap over submarining 49ers tackler Jaquiski Tartt, to gain another five yards or so -as Tartt wrapped up air behind him and tackled it to the ground. Willson caught three passes for 25 yards.