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Sunday, September 21, 2014

NFL 2014 - Week 3

Just a few quick notes about fantasy football before I get into my observations for the week. Brian Quick, Kirk Cousins, and Justin Forsett are all guys that should be owned in your fantasy leagues. Bernard Pierce is hurt, and if Forsett performs well as the starter he could steal the job. Forsett has performed better in limited action. Kirk Cousins is going to be the starter going forward for the Redskins. He's better than Andy Dalton as a quarterback, and I can tell that Gruden wants a pocket passer to run his offense. Cousins is just a much better fit for what he wants to do. Brian Quick is the number 1 receiver for the Rams, and has had good production even though they are using their third string QB.


Redskins vs. Eagles


Right from the start you can tell that these teams don't like each other. It's getting pretty chippy to start off. Exactly what you would expect for a big game like this. The Eagles fans are booing Desean Jackson every time he's thrown to. Why? You guys dropped him. Stop hating because he went to a team that actually wanted him. It just makes me wonder if Philly fans want to be known as jerks. All week they have been talking trash to me about this game. The irony of it is that they don't seem to know much about the game. I try to talk football to them, and they can only reply with 'We're going to kick your butt, Redskins suck!' I've told them that I just hope it's a good game and they reply with 'It will be. Eagles win by 30 points.' I ask them to name 3 players on the Eagles and most of them can't. I don't really talk trash, I talk football. If you talk trash to me then be prepared to be told what I think about the poop that is coming from your mouth. I'm not going to be nice about it anymore.

Injuries are going to have a big impact on this game. Leshean Mccoy just went in to get checked out for a possible concussion. Desean Jackson has been grabbing at his shoulder from time to time. Alfred Morris just hurt his knee. Everyone is back in the game. Two key players on the Eagles offensive line are hurt now. They've done a good job so far, but Kerrigan and Hatcher have been in Foles' face a few plays. Foles is grabbing his shoulder after Chris Baker throws him to the ground. On the same play Brian Orakpo goes out. The very next play DeAngelo Hall goes down with a badly twisted ankle. Both big losses for the Redskins. Orakpo comes back in to put another big hit on Foles. He definitely could have been called for intentional grounding. It turns out that the hamstring injury for Forbath ends up being the difference with his missed short field goal try keeps the game from going to overtime.

Cousins has been very very sharp. He is moving the offense better than RGIII did. Wow just wow. He's hitting everything with perfect accuracy. So far in the first half he's had 1 toss that floated a bit on him. For the most part he has put the ball on the receiver's hands, and he's hit 4 or 5 throws that you would expect from an Aaron Rogers or Drew Brees. Foles has looked good too even though the Redskins have dominated time of possession. I'm impressed with Foles mobility, he has avoided several sacks. Foles looks sharper than he has all season even though he has missed some wide open receivers. Cousins just hit Jackson for a huge bomb to tie the ballgame up. The Philly fans boo him again. Foles just hit Maclin to take the lead half way through the 4th quarter. Foles is one tough guy. He's been roughed up this game.

Mistakes and turnovers are having a big impact for the game. The Redskins special teams still look terrible, and they give up a 102 yard kickoff return. A fumble for the Eagles leads to points for the Redskins. The Redskins defense is leaving a lot of receivers running free, but they have bottled up the run so far. The refs just made a big pass interference call in favor of the Eagles, but it's the same call they could have made three other times and haven't. The refs for the most part have been doing a great job this game, but they need to be consistent. The Redskins are making a lot of mistakes on defense. Grant had a critical 3rd down pass slip through his fingers. Forbath continues the special teams woes by missing a field goal that could have taken the lead. Cousins just made his first mistake of the game at the wrong time as Niles Paul doesn't run very hard on his route. The resulting field goal gives the Eagles at 10 point lead.

The fight that took place on an incomplete pass causes the refs to eject Chris Baker and Jason Peters. They originally said that number 71 of the Redskins would be ejected (Trent Williams), but they eventually corrected that. Jason Peters was the one who was throwing the first punches on the Redskins sideline. The officiating crew reviewed the play and got the call right. This has been the best officiated game I have seen all year. They have still made some errors, but they haven't been as awful as in previous weeks.

Surprises


Dalton catches a pass for a touchdown and breaks a tackle to do it. Manziel catches a pass from Hoyer. Is this a new trend? Nahhh..

The Giants have come alive against Houston. Part of it may be Arian Foster being out, but the strength of Houstn's team is their defense. Victor Cruz has been a non-factor for most of this season, but he's prodced some highlights so far this week. Houston's offense isn't built to come back like this without Arian.

The Rams have been playing surprisingly well for a team that is using their preseason 3rd string QB. They are currently beating the Cowboys in a close game. The Cowboys have come back to take the lead. The QB for St. Louis tossed a pick 6. The Rams scored again to get back to only 3 points down, but that ends up being the final score.

The Vikings even without Adrian Peterson are playing a close game with New Orleans. What has happened to the high powered New Orleans offense? They have been sputtering all year long. Is everyone playing nickel defense against them all season thus far? New Orleans holds on to win as Minnesota can't seem to score more than 10 points.

Final Thoughts

The Redskins look like a tough team to beat. They almost took one from the Eagles on their home field. Going forward they should win a lot more games as long as they can eliminate the mistakes. On the same note if Foles can stay healthy and play as well as he did this week it will be very difficult to outscore them. No team has figured out how to defend Chip Kelly's scheme yet. It seems like the only way to stop them is to put pressure on Foles and hope he misses the open receiver, and you have to shut down Mccoy and Sproles. The Eagles are still going to score points. I can't wait to see them play a team like Seattle or Carolina who have great defenses. The Redskins defense may have come into the week as the number 1 ranked defense, but we all knew that wasn't going to last.

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