By Brandon Simmons
Reaction to the Dolphins win and Broncos loss
The Miami Dolphins beat the edibles and airplane workouts out of the Denver Broncos Sunday, to a score of 70-20. It was a game that Miami completely dominated, especially through the ground where they ran for 350 yards. QB Tua Tagovoiloa also had himself a game throwing for 309 yards, 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, but also tossing a couple of no look shovel passes like he was Magic Johnson. He might as well been since they were football’s version of the Showtime Lakers in this game. Yet while the big story should be the Dolphins’ big victory, it does not appear to be my main takeaway.
Once again, the Denver Broncos have posted another low light in the Russell Wilson era, and this obviously has to take that crown. Wilson is the biggest piece in this whole operation so he is going to the most heat for this. However, Wilson doesn’t play defense. Granted, the Broncos were missing quite a few players on defense, including safety Justin Simmons, but it makes no sense to lose in that manner. That’s really been the theme of this whole time Wilson has been at QB. But not just him, you have a head coach in Sean Payton, who has been credited with some of the more proficient offensive football this century, and he can’t find a way to get over 20 points? This is not going to end well for Wilson if things keep going at this rate. If this season goes sour, they are not going to fire Payton, they will do all they can to get from under Wilson’s contract and start over at the QB position. That’s how demoralizing this loss is or at least should be. Nobody in the NFL gets beat this bad. It’s literally a handful of times that a team has scored 70 points and it just their current fate that the Denver Broncos got smacked up by tht hand.
Did Deshaun Almost Throw Way His Contract?
Cleveland Browns spent over 230 million guaranteed to bring in Deshaun Watson as their quarterback and he almost threw it away. It was reported that there is a clause in Watson’s contract that his deal would be voided, should he get suspended for personal foul penalties. This comes in the wake of him committing 2 facemask penalties in the Browns’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last Monday night. The report came at an interesting time, when Watson has n9t been playing best football going back to last season and had a rough game against the Steelers in that Week 2 matchup.
But the reason this report was even put out there speaks to something other than Watson catching a supposed mean streak. Up until the game this past weekend, he hasn’t really played to the level a lot of people thought he would. He’s only thrown for over 200 yards, 5 times out of the 9 games he’s played. You also have to consider this guy went a season and a half of not playing a regular season football game, so the rust is going to be there. Now that Nick Chubb is out for the season, he will really have to carry this offense as the Browns expect a quarterback with the highest fully guaranteed contract is expected to do.
Cam Akers Trade
The Los Angeles Rams finally cut ties with running back Cam Akers and traded him away. They sent the former 2nd round pick was sent to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a 6th round pick. There’s 2 part to this trade and both of them could be beneficial for each team. The Rams finally get rid of the dilemma of figuring out what to do with Akers, which seemed to be a saga of keeping him involved in the gameplan. He finished last season with a career high in rushing (786), but that was probably due to the 3 staright 100 yard games he posted at the end of the year. Ironically he was also in and out of the lineup because of injuries and benchings. It just seemed like it was time to part ways, especially with this being his contract year. As for Minnesota, a fresh start could spark something in Akers to be an immediate contributor in this backfield. The Vikings cut running back Dalvin Cook and are feeling the sting of it sitting at 28th in rushing offense. But the real stat to be worried is their 3 losses. Despite having the leading passer and receiver, the Vikings have not won a game. What makes it even worse is all the losses have been one score losses, which usually meant a victory for them last season. Akers won’t be a fix-all to the losing, but he can provide alternate explosion from the backfield that will help secure more wins down the road.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Houston Texans fullback Andrew Beck for accomplishing a rare fullback dream. Sunday, against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Texans were receiving a kick but it got muffed. Beck made the heads up move to pick up the ball and run with it. That heads up move resulted into in an 85 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Kickoff returns are hard to come by with the regular assortment of wide receivers, running backs and defensive backs, so for a fullback to actually make this happen is quite admirable. Congrats to him and the Texans for their first win of the season.
Shut out to more injuries affecting players. Dalas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs is out for the season injuring his ACL during practice last week. The Cowboys defense lost a huge part of their unti but hopefully he has a successful recovery.
Shout out to the Miami Dolphins again for dropping 70 points on the Denver Broncos, but also big shout out to Tua’s no look pass. In the 2nd quarter, the Dolphins marched down to the goal line leading the game 14-7. Tua drops back, in a motion like he was going to hand off the ball, but instead of doing a play action gesture, he does a no look shovel pass to running back De’Von Achane. It was as effortless and clean as you would expect for anyone to do that.
Shut out to the Denver Broncos for getting crushed like that. Yes, the Dolphins have some of the fastest skill players in the league on top of having wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who doesn’t know how to slow down, but that’s still no excuse to get cooked like that. And if you’re going to get beat by somebody dropping 70 on you, at least score 50. You have one of the best offensive minds in the league as your head coach, along with one of the better quarterbacks of this past decade – up until last season arguably – and you put that result on the field. Shame and embarrassment is too kind to describe the effort of this team on Sunday.
Week 4 is here with 2 big games that could put some teams to an early test. The Cleveland Browns will host the Baltimore Ravens, which marks the first time that Browns QB Deshaun Watson will face Ravens QB Lamar Jackson in an AFC North battle. These two have history tht dates all the way back to their college days when Clemson (Watson’s alma mater) faced Louisville (Jackson’s alma mater) in an instant classic. This game should be a preview of what’s to come in many years ahead. The game of the week might be the Buffalo Bills facing the Miami Dolphins at home. While Miami dropped 70 on their opponent, the ills went on the road and put 37 on the Washington Commanders. It was the 2nd straight game that Buffalo put up 30+ points so it will be interesting to see this offense either keep up or outlast the Dolphins attack. But until then…I’ll holla.