A wild ride of a week with some good bits and bad bits but if rising star QB Wentz did suffer an ACL this season will go down as perhaps the worst ever for key players going down. The list is too long but star players have been dropping like flys this season. I have a theory and White Lightening suggested white youth participate in soccer and track and field which is a great idea. I think running and jumping around is a good thing but ever since the emergence of weight lifting the injury level seems to have gone up dramatically. Take baseball for instance. Guys pull hamstrings running the bases now. I don't recall that happening back when. The athlete of today is more explosive and stronger but they appear much less limber than players from an earlier era. Everybody seems so packed with muscles and are as stiff as boards. The black DB's might run fast 40 yard dashes but most of them are totally uncoordinated and incapable of adjusting to balls in the air. With all this stretching and muscle building all I see are more injuries than ever. Not an expert but I figure the muscle bulk strains the joints.
As mentioned above S Clayton Fejedelem had a career game in a loss. One week too late idiots. They could have used him in the second half against the Steelers last week. That loss took the spirit out of them and expect HC Marvin Jones to be fired at the end of the season. Their QB Dalton is still young enough to build a team around.
Speaking of building teams around the two elite MLB's today put on a show yesterday. Sean Lee and Luke Kuechly are the type of old fashioned linebackers you don't see as often in college anymore. They have top of the line athletic skills. Can chase down runners sideline to sideline. They diagnose plays and quickly attack. They relish contact. They are the field generals who run the entire defense. And they are the type of player college recruiters often ignore. They look up how mostly black players "scored" on the Nike camp drills and sign them up instead. Meanwhile on the college level we get to witness a plethora of bad black defenses that are made up of players who "look good in shorts" but can't diagnose a play or tackle or anything else for that matter other than running fast in a straight line. Hence we get these 68-62 football scores where clueless defensive players have left their pride at the door. No if I am building a team the FIRST group of players I want are linebackers in the Kuechly/Lee mold. That is how you build a winner. Not the fancy pants mostly black Nike camp studs that litter college football today.
The lack of stellar white safeties is another sore spot. Finally given a chance players like the superb Jeff Heath and Daniel Sorensen have proven they have what it takes. As the Bengals twiddle their thumbs you would hope the light bulb finally turns on concerning Fejedelem.
Eric Weddle is still a good player at his age but the best S mantle now sits with Harrison Smith. There was a time white safeties littered the NFL landscape. Top flight athletes like Nolan Cromwell or Cliff Harris were fantastic and exciting. They would QB the defensive backfield and were brilliant with their all around play. Back in the day the all pro teams featured many stud white safeties who were the equivalent of Lee and Kuechly today.Yet once again when you check the college landscape, like the evolution of the CB position, white safeties are becoming more and more rare. And we get these 59-51 final scores with black WR's piling up massive stats as the black DB's who performed well on the Nike run tests get sizzled all game long. If nothing else I would love to see the return of the white safety as a staple on college and pro teams. A lot of the early Super Bowl teams often had an athletic white free safeties to anchor their defenses.
It was nice to see Cole Beasley finally bust loose on a long play (3-59) and Eric Decker got a little more involved (3-56) but the black QB and white WR dynamic is still lacking big time. Every time I think of Jordy I get sick to my stomach.
Thielen (6-105-1) as mentioned had a solid game and a beautiful 52 yard TD. And what should have been the huge break out game for Cooper Kupp (5-118-1) somehow got derailed. First off the Rams got nailed with two bad calls and one of them cost them a TD. After a hot start the Rams were seldom on the field as I was licking my chops hoping for more big plays from Kupp. But it never transpired and the Rams, who had a chance to pull away from the dreaded Seahawks, lost an uncomfortable game. Still Kupp looks like the real deal after his second good game in a row. One smaller note Denver WR Jordan Taylor looks to be their PR now and he sported a nice 5-62 stat line on that score.
Below is a video of the Thielen 52 yard TD. Where is Don by the way? He is usually active here on NFL Sunday?
