This article is part of our NFL Reactions series.
Sunday included a few events that proceeded as scheduled – namely another Rams victory, another big game for Adam Thielen, and a shootout in Atlanta – but among a litany of much stranger outcomes the most novel is perhaps Brock Osweiler's long anticipated return to glory. The former Broncos and Texans starter made a short-notice sub for the injured Ryan Tannehill (shoulder), and finished by completing 28-of-44 passes for 380 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions in the 31-28 overtime win. The Bears had conceded eight touchdowns and interceptions each prior to Sunday, and we of course should have known it would be Osweiler who would tilt the Chicago pass defense into the negative. To be serious, it seems like the Chicago defense just fell asleep in the second half – perhaps related to the heat? – and Osweiler is still a near lock to head to the bench whenever Tannehill is ready to return.
A similarly novel but much more disheartening outcome occurred in Tennessee, where Marcus Mariota and the Titans offense put forth a showing that can only be described as 'narcoleptic.' Mariota completed 10-of-15 passes for 117 yards while running for 25 yards on two carries, and the Titans ran only 29 plays. With numbers like that, the most probable hypothesis would be that the Titans waged a Bourbon Bowl strategy for the first three quarters, kneeling three times and then punting on each drive to prevent Bobby Boucher from scoring defensive touchdowns, as he
Sunday included a few events that proceeded as scheduled – namely another Rams victory, another big game for Adam Thielen, and a shootout in Atlanta – but among a litany of much stranger outcomes the most novel is perhaps Brock Osweiler's long anticipated return to glory. The former Broncos and Texans starter made a short-notice sub for the injured Ryan Tannehill (shoulder), and finished by completing 28-of-44 passes for 380 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions in the 31-28 overtime win. The Bears had conceded eight touchdowns and interceptions each prior to Sunday, and we of course should have known it would be Osweiler who would tilt the Chicago pass defense into the negative. To be serious, it seems like the Chicago defense just fell asleep in the second half – perhaps related to the heat? – and Osweiler is still a near lock to head to the bench whenever Tannehill is ready to return.
A similarly novel but much more disheartening outcome occurred in Tennessee, where Marcus Mariota and the Titans offense put forth a showing that can only be described as 'narcoleptic.' Mariota completed 10-of-15 passes for 117 yards while running for 25 yards on two carries, and the Titans ran only 29 plays. With numbers like that, the most probable hypothesis would be that the Titans waged a Bourbon Bowl strategy for the first three quarters, kneeling three times and then punting on each drive to prevent Bobby Boucher from scoring defensive touchdowns, as he tends to do otherwise. But that hypothesis would be wrong, demonstrating again the limits of science. What instead happened was Mariota managed to accumulate 11 sacks, and from eight different defenders. It's anyone's guess whether Mariota is still dealing with the elbow nerve in his throwing arm, but failure of this scale just isn't tolerable. The offensive line can't take all the blame for that many sacks, but the whole show was an incredible disaster. If Mariota's elbow isn't an issue, then it's fair to worry that something is profoundly and permanently off with him. It would be perplexing given the extreme promise he showed in his first two seasons, but something is wrong.
• Although the Bears were embarrassed by Osweiler, at least Mitch Trubisky put forth his second encouraging box score in a row. Despite a dreadful first three weeks, Trubisky heads into his sixth game with a completion percentage of 70.2, a YPA of 7.8, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. The 164 yards and rushing touchdown are a significant boost to that total. The level of concern is growing for Jordan Howard, however. He ran well Sunday, totaling 69 yards on 14 carries, but he saw just one target as Tarik Cohen totaled 121 yards and a touchdown from scrimmage. Trubisky's two big games have correlated with peaks in Cohen's production, and if that isn't a coincidence then Matt Nagy may need to designate a bigger, more consistent role for Cohen, which would likely be at Howard's expense.
•Peyton Barber may have done enough in Tampa Bay's 34-29 loss to hold off the advance of rookie second-round pick Ronald Jones. Barber finished with 82 yards on 13 carries while securing all four of his targets for 24 yards and a touchdown. Jones finished with a three-yard carry while catching all three of his own targets for 16 yards. Barber still isn't very good – the improbably bad injury luck of the Atlanta defense claims the credit here – so I'll probably try to sell him in the league where I have him. If you can't trade him, though, he should have bought himself some leash after today. I'm just concerned that he might use it up again rather quickly against tougher defenses.
• I can't tell whether the Falcons are souring on Tevin Coleman or are merely very high on Ito Smith, but at least one of the two must be true. Both runners saw two targets Sunday, while Smith saw 11 carries to Coleman's 10. The result was 22 yards and a touchdown for the third consecutive week for Smith, while Coleman totaled 35 yards. When Devonta Freeman (foot) returns next, Coleman might not be more than a backup flex for bye weeks and injuries.
• Calvin Ridley (ankle) was reportedly able to walk on his own after leaving Sunday's game, which is encouraging for his chance of playing against the Giants in Week 7. He will need to undergo an MRI first, though. The injury resulted in a big missed opportunity Sunday, and if he misses time it should be a boost for the projections of Mohamed Sanu and Austin Hooper.
• Quincy Enunwa suffering what looked like a potentially significant ankle injury is quite a bummer. For however much time he misses, Jermaine Kearse should reestablish himself as a viable possession wideout while Robby Anderson continues to work the sidelines and downfield.
• We'll also need to hold our breath on Cooper Kupp, who left with and then (kind of) returned with a knee injury that will probably need further inspection before giving him the green light again. Sean McVay is mostly infallible, but Kupp shouldn't have gone back onto that field.
• With 111 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries, James Conner raised his season total to 453 yards and seven touchdowns on 103 carries (4.4 YPC), adding 26 receptions for 257 yards. I still don't think there's a serious comparison between him and Le'Veon Bell, but it's also safe to say Conner has raised his profile much higher than DeAngelo Williams ever did in Pittsburgh. Bell should get a heavy workload when he's back, but he's probably losing at least a few touches from scrimmage per game.
• Todd Gurley is the top asset in fantasy football, but Melvin Gordon would probably be your second overall pick if we were allowed to re-draft at this point. With three more touchdowns against the Browns, he's up to 466 yards (5.1 YPC) and six touchdowns on the ground to go with 30 receptions for 279 yards and three touchdowns. Perhaps he's healthier this year than last – I can't imagine how the guy on tape from 2017 could produce like this. But given the current conditions, there's no reason to expect him to slow much, and less reason to think he's at risk of losing his relative ranking.
• If we're still sifting for running backs with breakout potential from Week 6 onward, I'll continue to insist Rashaad Penny is one of the top candidates to do so. He's clearly behind Chris Carson and Mike Davis in the Seattle rotation, but he gained ground today, and he should gain more with the bye week. There are a number of incoherent takes on Penny's struggles to this point – people tend to oscillate between his weight, his pass blocking, or even the suggestion that he straight up sucks – but I think it'd take an incredible lack of perspective to not see that the weight is the beginning and the end of the explanation. Carson and Davis are not starting NFL running backs. Penny didn't look exactly lean in his last two games, but he's looking faster all the time, and as long as he keeps trending positively with his weight then Carson and Davis will soon make obvious the inferiority of their talent. Carson runs hard and has anchor strength from his muscular build, but there's very little burst or elusiveness, and his motor can only take him so far. He's basically what you'd get if Troy Hambrick had hit the weight room harder. Davis runs with his eyes low and reliably finds piles. Penny's speed and vision is a sharp contrast, and he'll need to get fat again or suffer some other complication if Carson and Davis hope to escape with their winnings. The Seattle offensive line has been getting some good push, so if Penny keeps improving his shape and picks up on the rhythm of the game he should be worth well more than a lot of the players we'll look back on as wasted waiver wire picks in these weeks.
• If Larry Fitzgerald isn't playing hurt, then he might be toast. Not only was Fitz outpaced by Christian Kirk (six catches for 77 yards on seven targets), but even Ricky Seals-Jones (five catches for 59 yards on six targets). In tallying five catches for 39 yards on eight targets, Fitzgerald heads into Week 8 with 22 catches for 215 yards and no touchdowns on 35 targets (6.1 YPT). Fitzgerald played through a hamstring issue for an indefinite period, so perhaps he'll finish stronger following the Week 9 bye.
• Kelvin Benjamin is cool and good now, actually.
