STILL IN A FOG
Falcons can’t get their revenge against Pats for Super Bowl flop
THE Super Bowl rematch turned into the Soupah Bowl, but the result was more of the same on a foggy Sunday night in Foxborough, Mass. The Patriots drilled the Falcons 23-7 in a game that was far less interesting than the facts and figures it produced:
From the point they trailed 28-3 with a little more than two minutes to go in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI, the Patriots scored the next 51 points before a late Matt
Ryan touchdown pass. New England’s 32nd-ranked defense had given up at least 300 yards passing to each of the first six quarterbacks it had faced this season before Ryan managed just 233 — and 71 of those came on the final drive against a very loose defense. Virtually everything went wrong for Atlanta.
Matt Bryant had one field goal blocked and had another doink off the left upright. Down 20-0 in the fourth quarter, on a fourth-and-goal from the 1, Taylor Gabriel lost 5 yards. The Falcons have dropped their last three, all to AFC East teams and have not scored more than 17 points. Next week, they visit the Jets.
“The fog was really crazy; I’ve never seen that,” said Tom Brady, who threw for 249 yards and two touchdowns after his parents were introduced as part of pre-game ceremony. His mother, Galynn, and offensive lineman Nate Solder’s 2-year-old son, Hudson, are battling cancer.
QUITE THE FEET
The Saints enjoyed the thrill of victory, now they will get relief for any agony they may have in their feet.
Before Sunday’s game at wet Lambeau Field, Saints coach Sean Payton promised his players free pedicures if they successfully wore lon-
ger metal cleats that players typically don’t like. According to ESPN, Payton was lining up a salon crew for Monday after New Orleans ran past the Aaron Rodgers- less Packers 26-17. “Oh, I’m a pedicure guy,” said Saints receiver Ted Ginn JrJr., who beat feet for 141 receiving yards. “I need to put my feet up in that hot water with all the running [Payton’s] got me doing.”
Drew Brees said he isn’t going to get his toenails painted.
“Nah, j ust go with the cl ear,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I’m ashamed I even know that.” It may be the girliest thing a star quarterback will have done since Joe Namath donned pantyhose for a 1973 ad for Beautymist. But what the Saints are doing now is quite manly, as they won their fourth game in a row after an 0-2 start. And they lead the NFC South by a half-game over the 4-3 Panthers. The Packers fell to 4-3 in the starting debut for
Brett Hundley, who ran for a touchdown but was ineffective in the air, going 12-of-25 for 87 yards and an interception.
“I needed to do a much better job with him in the drop-back passing game,” coach Mike
McCarthy said. “He tried to do a little too much. You try to guard against it but he’s competitive. He makes some big, big plays with his feet, and we’ll grow from that.”
SAY IT AINT SO, JOE
Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas saw his career-long iron-man streak come to an end on an innocuous-looking play in the third quarter in a 12-9 loss to the Titans. The third-overall pick from Wisconsin in 2007 had played 10,363 consecutive offensive snaps when he suffered a triceps injury hand-fighting with Titans defensive end Brian Orakpo.
“It was a routine run play. I’ve done it a million times,” Thomas said. “It was probably a freak injury. It’s a violent game, and these things happen. … It was not an infinity streak. It was going to end. It was just a matter of time.”
PLAYS OF THE DAY
Bears rookie safety Eddie Jackson became the first player in NFL history with two defensive touchdowns of 75 or more yards in a game. On the opening series, Curtis Samuel couldn’t handle a pitch from Cam Newton, and Jackson picked it up and ran 75 yards. Two-and-ahalf minutes into the second quarter, Newton’s pass was tipped into the air by intended receiver Kelvin Benjamin and cornerback Prince
Amukamara. Jackson swooped in, picked the ball out of the air in stride, avoided a diving tackle attempt by Newton at the Carolina 42, and took it all the way for a 76-yard score.
BAD BEAT
There wasn’t a classic bad beat on Sunday, but if you had the Chiefs on Thursday night, that’s enough for one weekend.
POST PATTERNS
The Rams have won in California, Texas, Florida and, with a 33-0 bludgeoning of the Cardinals, they’ve added London to their international magical victory tour. Under 31-year-old wunder coach Sean McVay, the youngest head coach in modern NFL history, the Rams are 5-2, are in first place in the NFC West, and have transformed from the lowest-scoring team in the league to the highest. While a championship-caliber era may be getting started in LA with McVay and QB Jared Goff, it appears one is closing in the desert. The Cardinals lost Carson Palmer to a broken left arm in this game. He’s expected to be out for at least eight weeks. At 3-4, the playoff picture looks grim for them. And with Palmer closing in on age 38, the end of the Palmer
Bruce Arians era may be at hand in Arizona. … The Jaguars defense posted its second 10-sack performance of the season in a 27-0 win over the Colts in Indianapolis. Yannick Ngakoue led the way with 2.5 sacks of Jacoby Brissett, with Calais Campbell getting him twice in the Colts’ first shutout loss since 1993. In Week 1, the Jaguars recorded 10 sacks at Houston. They are the first team with multiple double-digit-sack gams in a season since the 1984 Bears, and are on pace for 75, which would top the ’84 Bears record of 72, according to ESPN. Colts WR T. Y. Hilton called out his corn-fed teammates up front, saying, “[the receivers] were winning our matchups. The O-line just has to play better.” And to cap the Colts’ day, rookie S Malik Hooker tore both his ACL and MCL, ending his season. … The 49ers had lost their previous five games by a total of 13 points. Against the Cowboys, they were already down 14 in the first 7:04 after two Ezekiel Elliott touchdown runs. Dallas ran away to a 40-10 win to drop rookie 49ers coach Kyle
Shanahan (the anti-McVay) to 0-7. … The Broncos followed up their embarrassing home loss to the then-winless Giants with a 21-0 blanking by the Chargers at the soccer stadium in Carson. It was the first shutout loss for Denver since 1992.