Plus, Marcus Mariota steps in for the Commanders, what’s next for the Browns after Deshaun Watson’s injury, appreciation for Sean Payton and more.
Week 7 was chock full of great games and story lines, and it lived up to the expectations. As we’ve been doing all season, we’ll publish the takeaways Sunday and update them live through Monday morning.
“It’s what you don’t see,” Campbell told me after the game. “It’s what you can’t see with your eyes. That’s the most important thing for any player that’s in this league, that wants to be a player you can count on. That’s what he’s got in his brain and what he’s got in his heart. The guy’s a competitor. He doesn’t get frazzled. He’s tough. He’s durable. That’s what makes him dangerous. That’s what makes him a winner.
“We’re sitting there with under two minutes, a minute and a half, and we hit the pass to Saint across the middle that really puts us in position for Bates to kick the game-winner,” Campbell says. “Believe me, he had more than that, but those are the ones I think of.” Yup, Campbell knows what he’s got—just what he hoped he was trading for three years ago. Even if this is a little better than even he might’ve expected.The Kansas City Chiefs are what the New England Patriots used to be in a lot of ways, and one of those has been on full display over the past few weeks.
It’s also not an accident that it keeps happening this way, just like it was in New England when Tom Brady was the quarterback. And both helped to fulfill a challenge defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had for his defense a few months ago, after last year’s unit was good enough to pull its weight as much as it had in any year of Kansas City’s Mahomes era.
This week, it was Roland-Wallace and Hicks on defense, and Hunt and Noah Gray on offense. And even Mahomes as a scrambler, his big 33-yard run helped put the game away on a day in which he threw two picks. Next week, it’ll be someone else. Cooper, five days separated from the trade, was able to muster four catches for 66 yards and his first touchdown in red, white and blue.
Even the stat line wasn’t far off—in that first game as a Cowboy against Tennessee, Cooper had five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown. Yes, the Carolina Panthers are awful, and maybe the Washington Commanders could’ve won Sunday with a scarecrow at quarterback. But that doesn’t change what was clear on that field—Mariota looked like a different guy taking over for Jayden Daniels.
That’s because he, and the rest of the players, have been immersed in a new culture that’s the antithesis of what the franchise was over a quarter century with Daniel Snyder as owner., he did it with the lessons of having lost his job in Atlanta on his mind. But he also came with the foundation that got that Falcons group to a Super Bowl, one built on the human connection that it takes to fight through an NFL season.
“He’s been awesome,” Mariota says. “He’s helped me tremendously with his knowledge of the game. Going out there and playing, it’s fun to be a part of. He does a great job of putting the quarterback in the best position possible.,” Which brings us back to what they can possibly do about the $92 million they still owe Watson, who’s been hurt, and ineffective when he’s not. The answer—and, again, this is the hard reality—is not much. They could move on, of course, but it wouldn’t lessen the lasting cap-and-cash impact of the contract.
Russell Wilson was terrible out of the gate—throwing the ball at receivers’ feet, and looking uneasy and unsure of himself.Prior to that throw, he was 2-of-8 for 19 yards. And while their teams are in different spots, though they came in with identical 1–5 records, I think both give their teams some hope.
As for Drake Maye, it’s not hard to see why he was the third pick in the draft. There was a throw on New England’s first possession where the rush was bearing down, and he stood in and got it to Hunter Henry for 18 yards. The team’s first touchdown came with pressure bursting through on a third-and-10, and Maye quickly finding his outlet JaMycal Hasty. His other touchdown pass was on third-and-15, and came with Maye finding a hole in coverage and delivering a strike to K.J. Osborn.
I know, for sure, those two are appreciated locally. Yet I’m not sure that, on a national level, they get enough credit for what they accomplished. “I think everyone acknowledged that the Saints’ success after Katrina was a big catalyst for the recovery of the city,” GM Mickey Loomis told me just before the game. “That probably gets overblown a little bit, but it doesn’t get overblown in terms of the psyche of the town. Sean and Brees, everybody connected to that, ownership, takes a lot of pride in that we helped. We weren’t the reason, but we helped. That’ll always exist. That’ll exist until the day that all of us are gone.
Bo Nix, of course, hasn’t been great thus far, but the Denver defense has been so good, pushing the Broncos all the way to 4–3, buying the team’s first-round quarterback time to develop. And, therein, Payton’s new team has a chance to be pretty interesting going forward, with the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs looming on the schedule at the start of November.I think Tom Brady will eventually get involved on the football side with the Las Vegas Raiders..
Until then, as Davis said, he can have a voice in the organization and give Davis counsel, as he has as part owner of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. Davis says that he’s already seen the legendary competitiveness of No. 12 after the Aces have lost playoff games. And, clearly, he sees a scenario where, down the line, his Raiders can put it to good use.
• Really nice bounceback for Mike Macdonald’s Seattle Seahawks, particularly in taking them cross-country for a 10 a.m. body-clock game. There’s been way more good than bad thus far from Macdonald and his staff.
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