Prescott’s severe injury dampens exciting week
Sunday got off to a rocky start when the NFL announced it would delay this week’s game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots because of continuing issues with the coronavirus.
As for the games, there were surprising results, exciting action and a comeback by Alex Smith that almost no one predicted. Here’s what we learned: Dak Prescott’s recordsetting season is almost assuredly over. Prescott had scrambled for a 9-yard gain in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the New York Giants when the Dallas quarterback had his legs tangle underneath him as he was tackled. His right foot appeared to spin around, and the veteran sat on the field clenching his calf as medical staff ran to help him. He was in tears as he was carted off the field and replaced by Andy Dalton, who led the Cowboys to a 37=34 victory.
Prescott, who threw for at least 450 yards in each of his three previous games — an NFL first — set incurred a compound fracture near the ankle and had surgery Sunday night. On top of an arduous recovery, the ramifications of the injury will likely affect Prescott’s contract negotiations with Dallas this offseason.
There is no quit in Alex Smith. A devastating knee injury in November 2018 had doctors contemplating amputating the veteran quarterback’s right leg. His career was declared over
by numerous pundits, Washington used its firstround pick that offseason on a new quarterback, and the world moved on.
That is, everyone moved on except for Smith, 36.
He endured 17 surgeries, received medical clearance shortly before the season began, and entered Washington’s game Sunday after an injury to Kyle Allen, throwing an official pass for the first time in 693 days.
When you factor in just how unlikely Smith’s return was, his so-so passing day in a 30-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams was nothing short of phenomenal.
Kansas City needs to work on its concentration. The Chiefs opened their Super Bowl defense with four consecutive wins, including a dominant
effort that ended Baltimore’s 14-game regularseason winning streak. But on either side of that win over the Ravens, the Chiefs had to survive an overtime scare against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2 and then struggled for much of the game against the Cam Newton-less Patriots in Week 4.
Sunday, that tendency to play down to their competition caught up with the Chiefs in a big way, as the Las Vegas Raiders, who came in as 13-point underdogs, beat them 40-32.
The Ravens don’t need a huge day from Lamar Jackson to be dominant.
While he had 180 passing yards and two touchdowns, he barely completed 50% of his passes (19 for 37), was intercepted and very nearly threw at least two more picks. He
carried the ball two times for 3 yards — and the Baltimore Ravens still beat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-3.
The Jaguars are good for your self-esteem. Houston had been in disarray, starting 0-4, which resulted in the firing of Bill O’Brien, who had been serving as the coach and general manager.
A switch to Lynchburgborn Romeo Crennel, 73, at head coach is not yet permanent, but he started off his reign as the oldest head coach in NFL history with a convincing win, as Deshaun Watson threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns while leading Houston past Jacksonville 30-14. The big question is if Houston can do anything like this against a team that fields something resembling an NFL defense.