Matthieu Proulx – Five takeaways from week 4 in the NFL

Here are five things to take away from the fourth week of NFL activity.

1. 2020 NFL season and cursed COVID

It was inevitable. COVID19 was going to seep into the NFL locker room at one point or another. Despite all the precautions and measures put in place, this damn virus would find a loophole.

Two weeks ago, AJ Terrell of the Atlanta Falcons had to miss a meeting due to a positive test. A week ago, it was the Tennessee Titans who saw several members of their team infected. These results forced the postponement of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Friday, it was the Patriots’ turn to see their quarterback Cam Newton test positive for COVID-19, which forced the game to be postponed until Monday night.

These are the first cases, but they are certainly not the last. So far, the league has managed to cope with these events and the schedule has been reshuffled without too much difficulty. But more outbreaks are to be expected and things will get tough when the teams no longer have a bye week to juggle the schedule. Other matches will be postponed, it should come as no surprise. But we shouldn’t panic either. All the sports leagues have had to postpone the end of their season and I think it will be the same for the NFL. I think we’ll have to add a few more weeks to the regular schedule and probably postpone the Super Bowl. It’s far from serious, but that’s to be expected. The important thing is to control outbreaks and protect players, team staff and their families. At worst, we’ll have football until March… and that’s far from bad news!

2. Bill O’Brien fired

With the poor performances of several teams since the start of the season, one wondered which head coach would be the first to lose his job. I had bet a little two dollars on Dan Quinn in Atlanta (0-4) or Matt Patricia in Detroit (1-3), but it was ultimately Bill O’Brien in Houston (0-4) who suffered.

Didier Orméjuste correctly pointed out, in his podcast on Quarter bag, that the pandemic could save some coaches as organizations are desperately looking for some stability at the moment. But the recent results of the Texans have forced the hand of the McNair family.

In addition to the current results, in my opinion, it was the long-term risks to the organization that led to his firing. Since 2019, O’Brien has been making the decisions on player personnel and since the start of 2020 he had officially inherited the title of general manager. He was therefore the one who made ALL the decisions in the organization. And the decisions were far from convincing. In 2019, he made two first-round picks and one second-round pick for tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills. We can say today that he largely lost this transaction. Last March, he let go of star receiver DeAndre Hopkins in return for a second-round pick and veteran forward David Johnson. It could be said from the confirmation of the transaction that Bill O’Brien was royally wrong. It is also considered one of the worst deals of recent decades in the NFL. So finding themselves without a first-round choice in 2021, the highest payroll on the circuit and a 0-4 team, team management feared that O’Brien would do even more damage to the Texans.

This dismissal proves once again that combining the responsibilities of GM and head coach is a very difficult task. The CEO’s vision is long term while that of the head coach is short term. Not to mention that the two jobs require very different skills and require a lot of time to be spent in order to be successful. I hope the Texans have learned their lesson.

3. Browns c. Cowboys

The most talked-about game this weekend is certainly the one between the Cleveland Browns and the Dallas Cowboys. Firstly because they are the two most publicized teams on the circuit (we could have called it the MediaBowl), and also because of what happened on the field. Here are some numbers to explain the kind of game we got: 87 points, 68 first plays, 1074 yards of attack on 152 offensive plays! These are numbers that you hardly ever see.

The main subject could and should have been the performance of Dak Prescott. He became the first player to pitch for over 450 yards in three straight games. But his team’s loss forces us to look the other side of the ball.

It was the Browns and their devastating ground attack that came out on top. With a total of 307 yards rushing, Kevin Stefanski and his offense have served Mike Nolan and his defense a football lesson. The formula was simple and we all knew it beforehand, that’s what the Browns want to do, run. So why haven’t we been able to stop the steamroller? Difficult to say, but two reasons can help us understand.

First, defensive end Demarcus Lawrence gave us a first line of thought by qualifying his defense as “soft” (soft). It is the worst kind of insult for a defensive unit to say it lacks bite and aggression. Every defensive player needs to have an aggressor mentality and should give maximum effort on every play. That’s basically what playing defense is. The effort and robustness of a defensive unit should never be questioned. It has to change on the part of the players. The second element goes to defensive coach Mike Nolan. When he was hired, he said he wanted to be more complex and varied than his predecessor Rod Marinelli. But more complex doesn’t always mean more efficient. Even sometimes, more complex means more complicated and more confusing. If players are hesitant for a fraction of a second or aren’t sure exactly what to do on each game, it’s lost. The game book must be simplified and that is the responsibility of the coach. If the Cowboys fail to straighten out the defensive game a bit, Prescott may throw for 7,000 yards this season, his team will not accomplish anything worthwhile in 2020.

4. Some costly mistakes for the Patriots

Originally scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m., the Patriots v Chiefs game was played Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium. It was hard to see how the Pats would manage to measure up to the defending Super Bowl champions in the absence of their quarterback Cam Newton. Not only is he a great player, but the team’s identity orbiting his ability to run with the ball. The task was shaping up to be difficult for New England.

Bill Belichick has decided to go for veteran Brian Hoyer as quarterback. He capitalized on the experience during a week of preparation turned upside down by COVID. In my opinion, it was the right decision. But it soon became apparent that Hoyer was not the preferred choice. From the first moments of the match, we saw a quarterback imprecise and outdated by the moment. For me, the key play came at the end of the first half when the Patriots were in field position with 7 seconds to go and no more downtime. Hoyer, inexplicably, took a sack and ended the half without taking any points. It wasn’t a rookie mistake, it was an amateur football player’s mistake. We should have replaced him at half-time. Belichick’s mistake in my opinion.

Belichick made another mistake when in the first half, Pat Mahomes dropped the ball and did not request a replay. On the sequence, the referee whistled the end of play prematurely. It knocks me down every time the officials do that! Let go of the damn business game, we’ll look after! Belichick’s mistake was not to ask for a review when the fumble and catch were clearly in favor of the Pats.

These decisions were costly for the Pats and a shame since they were in the game. Their defense was playing great (aside from a few breakaway interceptions), the ground attack was in full swing and Pat Mahomes was not at his best. One thing is clear, these two teams will be in the final fight in the American association in January.

5. Stefon Diggs

Since the start of the season, we’ve been throwing flowers at Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills for his incredible start to the season. It is completely justified. But it takes a moment to give receiver Stefon Diggs some credit. The latter is a newcomer to the Bills as they acquired the services of the star receiver through a transaction last March. The idea of ​​GM Brandon Beane was to offer a weapon of choice to his young quarterback to allow him to flourish as a passer. After four weeks, we can say that it is mission accomplished. Diggs is everything we expected of him and more. So far, he’s been targeted 35 times and he’s caught 26 of those passes for a total of 403 yards and two touchdowns.

Not only is he a prime target for Allen, but he also gives him confidence on the pitch. On Sunday against the Raiders, Diggs was targeted by Allen on three of his first four assists of the game. We want to get him involved early in every game and make sure the connection between the two players is established quickly every week. When a quarterback develops a bond of trust with a receiver, they become more confident in themselves. He knows he can count on his ally to help him out at any time. This is what we see developing between the two and it’s encouraging for the Bills. Of all the player moves we’ve seen since the conclusion of the 2019 season, the Bills’ acquisition of Diggs ranks very high on the achievement chart!