First off…R.I.P. to Oakland Raiders legend Willie Brown!
Did Brissett Solidify himself as the Future Starting QB of the Colts?
Indianapolis Colts quarterback is having the greatest job interview of all time. Brissett took over the starting job when former Colts QB Andrew Luck abruptly announced his retirement. Instead of the Colts taking a hit and jumping on the tank train, they put their faith into Brissett for the immediate future and now sit atop the AFC South. Brissett has been decent so far this year and even it’s been highlighted by performance Sunday against the Houston Texans, in which he threw for 326 yards and 4 touchdowns. He has done a good enough job for the team this year but can he be someone to do this same job in the future?
Brissett has given this team a good start for the year to really do some things in the regular season and well into the playoffs. Part of this reason is because the Colts’ offensive line playing great. Brissett is 2nd least sacked quarterback in the league. With all that time he has, Brissett can throw for 14 touchdowns, which is 1 more than he had in 2017 when he took over the starting for an injured Luck and went 4-11 as a starter. Brissett does have a penchant for taking care of the ball, but it can be a little bit of a hangup on his game. Coming into last Sunday’s game, he only threw for over 200 yards twice. He did have one another 300 yard passing game, which was a win against the Atlanta Falcons, where he also completed around 75% of his passes.
The Colts should seriously take into consideration about making Brissett their QB of the future. He is winning games right now in a very efficient manner. Another thing that helps, is he has been in head coach Frank Reich’s system for a good season and a half. Brissett came to Indy in a trade with the New England Patriots in 2017, but Reich was hired in 2018. So it’s not some journeyman coming in from another team engraved with a playbook from a previous team; this is a QB that has had a chance to really learn the system at its earliest stages. Brissett will become an unrestricted free agent in 2020, s the Colts could essentially wait it out to see what will become.
The Sinister Six
The New England Patriots remain one of two undefeated teams in the NFL and you could look to their schedule played so far as a reason for that. Their schedule has been softer than a pile of laundry, which has allowed them to fold teams quicker than a towel out the dryer. Many fans and analysts have been quiet about this fact since the consensus is that the Patriots have been successful for so long, the idea that they could be a fluke seems outrageous. Well the talk has been heating up lately, as New England is getting ready to go on a six team gauntlet that can really define their season.
Through 7 games, the Patriots faced teams that share a combined 7 wins; in their next 6 games, all of their opponents share a win total of 23. The Patriots will be facing the Cleveland Browns at home, Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles on the road, come back to New England to host the Dallas Cowboys, go back on the road to face the Houston Texans then come back home to host the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s a mixture of teams in the mix for AFC supremacy along with teams looking to compete and knock off the big dog that is New England. If anything, the Patriots defense is going to meet its challenge in the games against Houston, Dallas and Kansas City. All three of these teams have dual threat quarterbacks who can any defense on their toes, so the notion of “Belichick takes away what you’re good at” could fall on deaf to these opposing coaching staffs. Should the Patriots fall into a hole, they have their own QB in Tom Brady – who obviously isn’t athletic as the previously mentioned – that can figure out a way to lift his team with his own arm.
The fans are finally going to see what makes them so engaged with the Patriots. Bill Belichick has not been held in such high regard because he beat teams that were tanking at the beginning of the year. His legend has grown because he finds ways to win games and that’s going to be challenged within this stretch. Now it could be argued that with the Patriots having Brady under center, then they have a clear shot at going undefeated, and that’s not a bad thing to not dispute; but something has been troubling in regards to his play recently. In the first 3 games of this season, Brady threw for 7 touchdowns, 0 picks and sacked 3 times; the last 4 games he has thrown 4 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and sacked 7 times. They were still blowing people out, except for the Buffalo Bills game – the first of this stretch – where Brady threw for a season low 150 yards but the Patriots still won by 6. Don’t expect to see too many blowouts over these next six games but don’t expect them to be all Patriots wins either
Trade Reviews
The trade deadline is next week, and a lot of moves are being made before then. The Patriots sent a 2nd round pick to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for wide receiver Mohamed Sanu. The Denver Broncos sent wide receiver Emanuel Sanders and a 5th round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for 3rd and 4th round picks. The Detroit Lions traded Quandre Diggs along with a 2021 7th round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2020 5th round pick. Monday, the Texans traded a 3rd round pick to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for cornerback Gereon Conley.
These seem like some good trades all around but the Sanu and Sanders trades sort of stand up. The Broncos have been in rumors about moving Sanders for while now, and it makes sense to stock up on draft picks, if they’re looking to make another move before the deadline or holding on to it around draft time. New England has been looking for a spark on offense while wide receiver Josh Gordon deals with his knee injury. Brady was able to put the ball in 8 different receivers hands against the Jets on Monday night, but only one of those receptions went for a touchdown. The Patriots could be hoping for Sanu to give that extra jolt, especially with the heightened difficulty of their upcoming schedule.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon for owning up to your mistakes. Gordon told the Los Angeles Times that he admits his holdout during the preseason was a fail and he will never miss another training camp. This comes in the wake of him being held to 32 yards in the Chargers’ 20-23 loss to the Tennessee Titans. It’s really big of him to admit that things did not go as he planned, after really sticking to his guns about getting his money. Hopefully, he is rewarded for his humbleness.
Shut out to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson for running his mouth. Last week, the Super Bowl winning coach made a slight prediction that the Eagles would beat the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Obviously, that was not the case but the embarrassment should definitetly enough of a reward for Pederson adding bulletin board material, especially at this time. Just the week heading into this last game, the Eagles cut linebacker Zac Brown when he said Minnesota Vikings Kirk Cousins was a “weakest link” of that Vikings offense. So far the “weakest link” of the Eagles has been shutting the hell up.
Shout out to the New England Patriots defense who got Halloween going early. Monday, the secondary scared up 4 interceptions for their unit. Apparently, it was such a frightening performance that New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold thought he was seeing ghosts.
Shut out to ESPN for even putting the mic on Darnold in the first place. Originally, I was going to give this to Jets head coach Adam Gase and Jets running back Le’Veon Bell for taking up for Darnold’s misspeaking, but if you put a microphone on a young quarterback in the AFC East, going up against a Bill Belcichick defense on national television, you’re just setting them up for failure.
In all honesty, unless you have a fantasy football interest this weekend, you might as well do some early trick or treating because there’s just 2 legit good games coming on. The Philadelphia Eagles will hopefully try to keep their mouths closed when they go on the road to play the 5-1 Buffalo Bills. That’s going to be a good test for Buffalo and a temperature check for Philly. The San Francisco 49ers will be hosting the Carolina Panthers, which will showcase 2 strong defenses and 2 very stout running offenses. Niners Quarterback Jimmy Garropolo and Panthers quarterback Kyle Allen should provide some fireworks in the sky as well. But until then…I’ll holla.