Month: October 2017

There is one NFL coach who has figured out how to stop wunderkind Houston Texans rookie Deshaun Watson.

Unfortunately, that coach is his own – Bill O’Brien.

Watson had a game for the ages Sunday in Seattle in just his sixth NFL start, becoming the first quarterback to throw for 400 yards, four touchdowns and rush for 50 yards in an NFL game.

Richard Sherman told Watson it was the best game a quarterback has played against the Seahawks defense and he noted they’ve played all the legends.

The only downer in this story is that Watson and the Texans lost 41-38 to Russell Wilson, who also threw for over 400 yards and four touchdowns.

Continue reading “Wondrous Watson’s biggest obstacle in Houston remains his own coach”

Five things I’ll be looking at in the eighth week of the 2017 NFL season:

1. What was expected to be an interesting game between 3-3 Houston and 4-2 Seattle took on new significance in the wake of Texans’ owner Bob McNair’s inmate comments.

It’s uncertain if the Texans plan a pre-game protest. And whether the uproar will become a distraction that will affect their play. It could pull them apart or make them come together.

Either way, the game will now get a lot of attention.

2. Atlanta at 3-3 will be attempting to snap a three-game losing streak when it goes to the 3-4 New York Jets.

Continue reading “Five things to watch: NFL Week 8”

“Don’t you see, you’re the cattle and we’re the ranchers,’’ former Dallas Cowboys president Tex Schramm told former NFLPA head Gene Upshaw during the 1987 strike.

Schramm’s comments are worth remembering in light of the controversy over Houston Texans owner Bob McNair saying they can’t let the inmates run the prison during a meeting in New York earlier this month.

Once the comment was included in an ESPN the Magazine story on the meeting, there was a firestorm. The uproar transcended sports and was reported in network TV newscasts.

The Houston players threatened to walk out Friday, although veteran DeAndre Hopkins and rookie D’Onta Foreman were apparently the only ones who did.

Coach Bill O’Brien and general manager Rick Smith were left to clean up the mess with the players and convinced the rest of them to stay for practice. O’Brien then said that Hopkins was taking a “personal day,’’ as if NFL players take personal days during the season unless there is a family emergency.

Continue reading “McNair’s boneheaded comment another unforced NFL ownership error”

Five observations on the seventh weekend of the 2017 NFL season:

1. The number 10,363 will be remembered in pro football history like 73-0 – a number we will never see again.

Joe Thomas played 10,363 consecutive snaps until the streak was snapped Sunday with a triceps injury and ended his season. The shame is he did it for the today’s version of the Cleveland Browns, who are 0-7 and 1-22 the last two years. He should have had a chance to play for the Paul Brown Cleveland Browns.

Now the question is whether Thomas will retire next year or come back from his triceps injury. Whenever he retires, he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

2. In just his second season, quarterback Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles is reaching elite status.

Continue reading “Taking a look back at the NFL’s Week 7”