VITO'S VIEWS

Where have you gone, Shad Khan? The Jacksonville Jaguars turn their losing eyes to you.

With apologies to Simon & Garfunkel, that’s where the Jaguars stand now since their season has skidded out of control.

With the collapse to 3-7 after six consecutive losses, the focus turns to their owner and what Khan will do at the end of the season. He rarely gives interviews, so he is not likely to tip his hand.

The Jaguars need fixing, and the question is whether Khan will make the right moves to fix the franchise.

He has to take the responsibility for the fact the team has had one winning season since he took control in 2012. It all starts with the owner.

Continue reading “IN DEPTH: Khan is under the microscope as his Jaguars crumble”

Five quick takes on Week 11 in the NFL:

1. In the biggest game of the regular season, the league’s two 9-1 teams — the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs – will meet at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. The game was moved from Mexico City because of the poor field conditions of the field there. This will be the biggest Monday night game since the series was shifted from ABC to ESPN. Each team has a young franchise quarterback (Jared Goff of the Rams and Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs) and a dynamic running back (Todd Gurley of the Rams and Kareem Hunt of the Chiefs). The Rams are slightly favored, but they don’t get a big homefield advantage because the game was moved to LA. It moved the line by only a point because the Los Angeles support for the Rams has been lukewarm and there are likely to be a lot Chiefs fans at the game. This is the fifth game since 1970 to match two teams with one or fewer losses in the 11th week of the season. The Chiefs played in the last one in 2013 when they were 9-0 and Denver was 8-1. The Broncos won that one and went on to make the Super Bowl but were routed by the Seattle Seahawks.

Continue reading “A quick look ahead at NFL Week 11”

When John Riggins sat out the 1980 season in a contract dispute with the Washington Redskins, there was no salary cap, no franchise tag, no social media, no Internet and no NFL Network. ESPN was just in its second year of existence.

Not surprisingly, the Riggins holdout got little attention compared to Le’Veon Bell’s decision to sit out the 2018 season and probably become a free agent next year.

Bell’s circumstances, though, are different. Riggins was under contract at $300,000 for the 1980 season and wanted to renegotiate it during training camp.

O.J. Simpson, who was the highest-paid player in the league, was making more than twice as much at the end of his career.

When Riggins left camp, the Redskins placed him on the left camp-retired list, making him ineligible to play that season.

Continue reading “Contract saga still figures to end well for Bell, at least in the wallet”

It’s a well-documented fact that the Bill Belichick coaching tree is more like a twig.

Former Belichick assistants tend to struggle as NFL head coaches.

To start with, they don’t have the advantage of having Tom Brady, and they also are too steeped in the self-proclaimed “Patriot Way,” which doesn’t work too well without Brady.

The latest example is Matt Patricia, the guy who was noted in New England for his beard and red pullover.

Patricia was hired by the Detroit Lions to take the team to the next step after they went 9-7 the past two years under Jim Caldwell, who was fired at the end of last season.

Continue reading “Patricia is yet another Belichick NFL coaching-tree debacle”

Five quick takes on Week 10 in the NFL:

1. Drew Brees continued his climb up the standings in the record books and kept New Orleans in the driver’s seat for homefield advantage in the NFC playoffs by leading the Saints to a 51-14 rout of the Cincinnati Bengals. Brees threw three touchdown passes to move ahead of Brett Favre with 509 for his career. Favre had 508. Tom Brady, who didn’t throw a touchdown pass in a loss to the Tennessee Titans, is at 505. Peyton Manning is on top at 539.

Continue reading “A quick look back at NFL Week 10”

Five quick takes on Week 10 in the NFL:

1. The New Orleans Saints have to avoid a letdown against Cincinnati after their big victory over the Los Angeles Rams last week and avoid looking ahead to next week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. This is a sandwich game for the Saints, who are now in pole position in the battle for NFC homefield advantage in the playoffs. They don’t figure to get careless enough to lose to the 5-3 Bengals.

Continue reading “A quick look ahead at NFL Week 10”

The return of Leonard Fournette from his ailing hamstring is the big storyline for the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s game at Indianapolis.

The Jaguars are hoping that they will be able to return to their power running game with him in the lineup.

One factor, though, has been overlooked.

Is Fournette really a key to the game?

Last year, he didn’t play in the first game and Blake Bortles threw for 330 yards and a touchdown while T.J. Yeldon ran for 122 yards on nine carries. The Jaguars scored 14 points in the first quarter and won 27-0.

Continue reading “Jaguars’ season is clearly on the line in Indianapolis”

Five quick takes on Week 9 in the NFL:

1. The Los Angeles Rams became the last unbeaten team to fall when they lost to the New Orleans Saints, 45-35, and now the Saints have the tiebreaker edge on them if they tie for the best record in the NFL. The game also featured the second puzzling call by Rams coach Sean McVay in as many weeks. A week ago, he got away with taking the field goal for a two-point lead and giving Aaron Rodgers the ball with two minutes left to drive for the game-winning field goal. McVay got away with that when Ty Montgomery took the ensuing kickoff out of the end zone and fumbled. Against the Saints, McVay went for a fake field goal with the game tied 14-14 and didn’t make it, although the officials appeared to have blown the call. Still, it will be interesting to watch McVay’s decisions in the playoffs.

Continue reading “A quick look back at NFL Week 9”

Five quick takes on Week 9 in the NFL:

1. The first week in November is usually one of the highlights of the season. The World Series is over and the holidays are still a few weeks away. The season is half over and the NFL tries to stage some of its best games to kickoff the second half of the season. And Sunday night, it has its best attraction of the season– the New England Patriots vs. the Green Bay Packers. Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers. For star power, it doesn’t get better than that. And they’ve only met once in their careers (at Lambeau Field, when Rodgers won), and unless they play in a Super Bowl, they won’t meet again for four years if they are both still playing then. Since neither quarterback has a great supporting cast, this could come down to which one plays better and which one has the ball last.

Continue reading “A quick look ahead to NFL Week 9”

Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay is the flavor of the year in the NFL.

The second-year coach has the Rams unbeaten at the midway point of his second season after they went 4-12 in 2016 and Jeff Fisher was fired with three games left.

McVay revitalized the offense in his 2017 debut, turned the team around and they went 11-5 before losing a first-round playoff game to Atlanta.

This year they are the league’s only unbeaten team at the halfway point at 8-0 with two big games coming up against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs sandwiched around a division game against Seattle.

McVay is the prototype of the bright young innovative offensive coach that teams are looking for in this era. And he has a knack of remembering every play in every game.

Continue reading “Despite the plaudits, McVay’s end-of-game strategy needs work”