Ten Thoughts on the NFL and the Bears

1) The New Orleans Saints are not trading Teddy Bridgewater while having a legit Super Bowl contending team right now. He stepped in and kept their offense working when Drew Brees was injured and proved his worth to the franchise. Sure it wasn’t Brees-esque, but it was winning football.

Bridgewater is set to be a free agent after this season and I’d expect him to cash in with some legit starting QB money somewhere (maybe in Navy and Orange). Plus, the Saints would be in line for a comp pick when he signs elsewhere, so there’s no chance he’s traded.

2) The offense of the New York Jets has scored 42 points each so far this season (7 total touchdowns).

The New England Patriots’ defense and special teams has scored 38 points so far this year on 6 total touchdowns and a safety.

Okay, the Pats have played 8 games to the Jets 7, but that’s still an impressive stat.

3) Atlanta Falcons’ back up QB Matt Schaub threw for 460 yards on Sunday in their 27 to 20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. This was Schaub’s first start since December 6, 2015, and he became only the third 38-year old to pass for more than 450 yards.

*Care to guess who the other 2 QBs were?

4) Speaking of older players, Adam Vinatieri, who had rumors of retirement swirling around him earlier this season, had himself a day for the Colts in his 24th year.

At 46 years and 303 days old, Vinatieri is the oldest player to make a game-winning field goal of at least 50 yards in the final minute of regulation or overtime in NFL history. He is also the oldest player to convert at least two field goals of 50-or-more yards in a single game in league annals.

5) It would seen that Denver Broncos’ starting QB Joe Flacco has a neck injury now and is already ruled out of this week’s game. The injury is so severe that the team is considering injured reserve for him.

But his neck seems fine in this post-game clip in the Tweet below.

I’m sure everything is fine with head coach Vic Fangio and the 2-6 Broncos.

6) Another two win team, the Cleveland Browns, are the most penalized team in the league, and what makes that stat even worse is the ridiculous decision by head coach Freddie Kitchens on Sunday. They were down by 17 in the 4th to the Patriots when their punt team took the field, but Kitchens wanted to go for it, so instead of taking a time out he instructed his team to take a penalty.

From NFL.com.

“Sometimes in the course of action with punt teams, sometimes they’re used to, when you’re at your own 25 or whatever we were, just fourth-and-11, they’re running on the field,” Kitchens said. “The buck stops with me. I should not have let that happened. But once the punt team was out there, there were two choices: Use your last timeout or take a penalty. And I decided to take a penalty.”

On that 4th down play after the penalty Baker Mayfield was sacked.

7) The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, another 2 win team, is tacking their own players.

8) His college coach compared him to Michael Jordan, and now Jon Gruden is saying the same thing about Deshaun Watson after he went 27 or 39 for 279 yards and 3 TDs, including this one in the 4th quarter of the Texans win.

Watson also had 10 runs for 46 yards.

9) The Bosa brothers had a great Sunday.

Joey Bosa went off against the Chicago Bears with 7 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 3 quarterback hits, and his little brother Nick Bosa had 4 tackles, 3 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, and an interception in the 49ers 51 to 13 win against the Carolina Panthers.

10) Did you know that Nick Bosa’s 7 sacks in his first 7 games as a pro isn’t the most all time from a rookie in his team’s first 7 games?

That record belongs to the Chicago Bears Mark Anderson who racked up 7.5 in his first 7 games for Lovie Smith’s 2006 team.

And speaking of that ‘06 team, have you seen this sweet Thomas Jones video yet from our very own Robert Schmitz and Jack M Silverstein?

* Peyton Manning and Tom Brady