AROUND THE NFL
Prescott unexpectedly carves up Jaguars defence ... Jacksonville ‘ain’t playing like’ NFL’s top D ... Cold weather can’t slow red-hot Rams ... Titans come up small
Just when you were nearly convinced Dak Prescott wouldn’t flash elitism as an NFL passer ever again, he goes and carves up one of the league’s best secondaries.
Prescott passed for 151 first-half yards and two touchdowns without interception, and by game’s end rushed for a career-high 82 yards and a score, as the host Dallas Cowboys on Sunday wiped out the suddenly shaky Jacksonville Jaguars, 40-7, at AT&T Stadium.
Both teams are now 3-3. Dallas improved to 3-0 at home for the first time since 1999.
Prescott probably could have racked up 300 pass yards or more, except Dallas decided to conservatively nurse a 24-0 halftime lead home by mostly running, barely throwing and smartly just waiting for Jacksonville to screw up over and over, which they obliged.
Prescott, you’ll recall, was named the NFL’s rookie of the year in 2016 with an outstanding 23-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio, a 68% completion percentage and 3,667 yards. Last year, Prescott’s numbers dropped to 22-13 TD-INT, 63% and 3,324 yards — and until Sunday those stats were on pace to plummet further in 2018, to 62%, 16-13 and 3,075.
Although observers all year criticized the Cowboys’ dearth of playmaking receivers and wondered if the team’s no longer all-world offensive line could properly protect Prescott anymore, he continually embarrassed a proud Jaguars secondary on Sunday, especially on crossing routes, most often to Cole
Beasley — for nine connections, 101 yards and two touchdowns.
Prescott afterward said nobody in the Cowboys’ locker room ever lost faith in the beleaguered offence’s ability to burn defences, either through the air or on the ground.
“We leave the questioning to y’all,” he said.
“It’s definitely the best we’ve played (this year) from executing on offence and taking advantage of when the defence is giving us turnovers and good field position. We were just feeding off each other. We felt it early.”
Next up for Dallas? The first of two games against the arch-rival Redskins, in Washington, next Sunday afternoon.
As for the Jaguars, not even uber-outspoken cornerback
Jalen Ramsey felt much like talking by nightfall Sunday. Asked whether he thinks the Jags still possess the NFL’s best defence, as universally believed before the season, he said softly, “We ain’t playin’ like it.”
Once again, quarterback
Blake Bortles was far short of even serviceable. The fifthyear QB continues to have good games, bad games — prolific efforts, sub-standard efforts — with no rhyme or reason. He’s the Yahtzee of NFL quarterbacks.
Against Dallas his stat line — 15-of-26 for 149 yards, one TD and one sack — did not reflect just how poorly he performed. His thoughts on the loss? “I mean, just, pretty much a waste of a day and a trip,” Bortles said. “Not by any means what we expected to do (or) were planning on doing. We’ve got to find a way to fix it, and we will.”
His head coach agreed. “We’ve got to take a good look at ourselves,” Doug Marrone said. “We’ve got to look at ourselves, and we’ve got to put the responsibility on all of us, starting with me, and pull your boot straps up and let’s go.”
RAMS MARCH ON
The Todd Gurley machine, sometimes also known as the Los Angeles Rams offence, proved it can win in winter weather as well as hot.
On a cold, snowy mid-October day in Denver, the Rams edged the Broncos, 23-20. Thanks largely to Gurley.
The dual-threat running back did nearly all of his damage on this day on the ground, rushing 28 times for 208 yards and two touchdowns.
Gurley leads the league with 11 scrimmage touchdowns so far this season and is only the fifth NFL player since 1970 with that many scores through six games, joining Shaun Alexander, Emmitt Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson and Priest Holmes.
Good thing Gurley was so
prolific, because Jared Goff had an off day throwing, completing only half of his 28 throws for 201 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
For Denver, Case Keenum had a pretty decent day passing: 25-of-41 for 322 yards, two TDs and one interception — but the locals seem to despise him. They’re screaming on social media for second-year pre-season sparkler
Chad Kelly, Hall of Famer Jim’s nephew.
Los Angeles remains undefeated at 6-0. Idle New Orleans (4-1) is the only other team in the NFC with fewer than two losses. Denver fell to 2-4.
RAVENS BLANK TITANS
The Baltimore Ravens can beat any NFL team, any day, with their defence.
It’s that good.
In shutting out the Titans 21-0, the Ravens embarrassed an already bad host Tennessee offence — sacking Titans QB Marcus Mariota
11 times, one short of the NFL single-game team record. Ravens linebacker
Za’Darius Smith had three of the sacks.
It was so bad for Tennesee, Mariota was sacked at least once on eight of nine possessions. Eesh.
Baltimore thus concludes a three-game road trip with victories against two 2018 playoff teams (Pittsburgh and Tennessee) and a loss to Cincinnati.
“But to be 2-1 on this trip, to be 4-2 with four road games — that’s where you want to be,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said.
Baltimore hasn’t allowed a touchdown since the first half of its 26-14 win at Pittsburgh two Sunday nights ago; it allowed only four field goals in a 12-9 overtime loss last week at Cleveland.
Tennessee, meantime, has not scored a touchdown since defeating Philadelphia in overtime two weeks ago. And this was the fourth time in six games the Titans failed to score as many as seven points through the first three quarters. Pathetic.
Fast becoming the NFL’s worst offence, the Titans punted at the end of all nine possessions. Just as bad, they never advanced the ball past the Baltimore 37-yard line, were held to seven first downs, were 1-of-10 on third downs, gained 2.7 yards per snap and gained a total of 106 yards.
Don’t worry, the latter wasn’t close to the NFL single-game record for fewest total yards. The Los Angeles Rams in 1979 held the Seattle Seahawks to minus-seven total yards.
What’s wrong on offence? “A lot of things,” Titans head coach Mike Vrabel said. “Bad coaching ... bad execution. There’s no excuse for it. We have to be better, at all levels.”
Still, the Titans are 3-3, tied in first place with Jacksonville and Houston in the surprisingly mediocre-at-best AFC South, ahead of 1-5 Indianapolis.