Overreactions, Exaggerations & Just The Plain Out Truth – Week 4
Oct 6, 2021, 9:25 AM | Updated: 10:30 am
(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
With the AFC West battle between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers finalized after the Monday night tilt, Week four of the NFL slate is in the books and per usual, with each passing week in the league, there’s always questions, answers to those questions and a mix of head scratching thoughts that coincide with both.
Week four of the 2021 season was no different. From an upset of the Tennessee Titans by the hands of the New York Jets to get their first win of the season to the league only having one undefeated left; the Arizona Cardinals, this week’s action certainly caused…
Overreactions
San Francisco 49ers Injuries: Add Jimmy Garoppolo, Robbie Gould and Trent Williams to the ever-growing list of injuries 49ers who are hurt or injured.
Once again this team is on the verge of seeing their complete season going down the drain due to injury. I saw a graphic of stats last year during the 49ers game versus the LA Rams on November 29th, Week 12 detailing just how many players and games were missed by 49er players due to injury.
It was so outlandish I had to take a picture just to have proof if anyone questioned if it was real. I knew I would have to vent to my fellow 49er fans about how bad it had gotten, so I needed the proof.
That graphic stated that the 49ers had placed 25 different players on the IR during the season and a total of 171 games had been missed due to those injuries, of course both most in the NFL. That was entering week 12 of the season, WEEK 12! Fast forward to this year and it’s happening all over again.
The 49ers at some point in time through four weeks now have lost…
Five running backs (Raheem Mostert, Elijah Mitchell, John WIlson Jr., Jaymichal Hasty, Trey Sermon), their starting quarterback (Garoppolo), a starting wide receiver (Brandon Aiyuk), one of their starting linebackers (Dre Greenlaw), a kicker (Gould), their starting left tackle (Williams) and Center (Alex Mack), two more offensive lineman (Justin Skule, Aaron Banks), five cornerbacks (Jason Verrett, Josh Norman, Emmaunel Mosley, Ambry Thomas, K’Waun Williams), starting defensive linemen Javon Kinlaw and DJ Jones, reserve defensive linemen Kevin Givens, Zack Kerr and Maurice Hurst all to injuries. Not to mention, quarters, halves, series and plays missed by George Kittle.
Should I go on?
This team when healthy can compete against anyone but that’s just it, they haven’t been and don’t look to be anytime soon. The season may be slipping away already and it’s only Week four.
San Francisco 49ers Medical and Training Staff: The 49ers have been one of the most injury plagued teams under Kyle Shanahan’s regime. At some point don’t we have to place the training and medical staff under a microscope and see what the problem is?
Most injuries could probably be chalked up to bad luck, but this many injuries, my goodness, everyone in the 49ers headquarters should be looking in the mirror trying to figure out what’s going on in the training facilities.
Rookie Quarterbacks: The epitome of this section…
Rookie Quarterbacks this week actually won games, everyone can calm down now, Mac Jones has some company in the win column from his fellow rookie class.
Cleveland Browns Defense: After surrendering an opening drive touchdown the Browns defense closed the floodgates and showed no further cracks the rest of the way versus the Minnesota Vikings. Limiting the Vikings the rest of the way to 180 total yards while giving up no points.
A dominant performance following last week’s nine sack extravaganza against the Chicago Bears, where they only allowed one net yard of passing. That’s two weeks in a row where a team has scored no more than 7 points on this defense.
With Myles Garrett the NFL’s sack leader looking as if he wants to claim the NFL’s Defensive Player Award and about 90 percent of the defense healthy(starting defensive backs Greg Newsome II and Ronnie Harrison II are banged up, listed as questionable this week) this team could be the best defense in the NFL, I SAID COULD BE!
Exaggerations
Kickers in the NFL: Every week in the NFL it seems a game comes down to a made or missed field goal. There is an on going joke that kickers don’t matter among a large group on the NFL community. I keep finding my self thinking “maybe they do matter”?
Alright, alright, who am I kidding they are kickers, right?
Austin Ekeler: He isn’t the biggest name in the league at running back but he sure plays like one of the biggest names to dawn the field each week. If you haven’t watched many LA Chargers games in the last few years then you probably haven’t taken notice to Austin’s ability.
He is an all around running back and someone who we might need to begin to speak about being a top tier player in this league. Dare I say a top 10 running back in the league… He totes the rock, catches the rock and is tough as they come.
The Kansas City Chiefs Defense: Coming into this past week’s matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs had allowed 91.7 percent of their opponents to score a touchdown once they entered the red zone.
Against the Eagles, they were 50 percent, only allowing the Eagles to reach the promise land 3 out of 6 times, which is an improvement if we are going by pure numbers, but to the naked eye, allowing an opponent 6 trips to the red zone is still troubling.
Especially when the other three trips resulted in touchdowns only to be taken off the board due to some bonehead mistakes by the Eagles and questionable calls by the officials. On top of that, the Eagles never even attempted a punt during the game, racked up 461 yards and 30 points all while playing without four of their five starters on the offensive line.
The name of the game is to win, which the Chiefs did but if giving up almost 500 yards a game and allowing a team to enter the red zone 6 times and technically score a td 6 times is the plan moving forward, Kansas City could find themselves in plenty of shootouts this season.
The Truth
Injuries: In sports, injuries are inevitable, they just are. It is apart of life for teams to handle the bumps, bruises, tears and breaks that occur to their players throughout the haul of a season.
Injuries are such a terrible thing, not only for an organizations sake but also for a person to have to deal with on a personal level, it’s an all around bad situation. As stated above for teams the like the 49ers, it can really derail a team’s season.
Just take a look at some of the leagues injured starting quarterbacks and their teams who have wilted since their injury.
The Dolphins offense sure has not been the same since Tua Tagovailoa’s injury, Tyrod Taylor’s injury that has kept him out of action since the beginning quarter of the Texans week two game has caused the team to put up desolate, as well as look at what happened to the Denver Broncos offense after Teddy Bridgewater was knocked out of the game and into concussion protocol this week.
We as a sports community have come to realize it’s apart of the sports world but it’s always tough to see when a player, team, fan base and organization’s season changes due to an injury!
Lamar Jackson: There is a point and time where all questions regarding a player’s ability, ability to win and if he is good or great is answered and should not be questioned again.
For many, Lamar Jackson, the former league MVP has already answered those questions, for some, I still think they are aren’t quite convinced just yet; which I can’t fathom why?
Jackson’s second 300 yard career passing game this past week, where he showed he is an all around quarterback should just about put the icing on the cake and the sprinkles on the icing. He can throw the ball if need be, he is the former NFL MVP, how could anyone still be questioning his ability at this point?
Tom Brady over Bill Belichick: No matter how you slice it, Tom Brady was the heart, soul and brain behind the New England Patriots 19-year, six championships run. If last year’s Super Bowl win with the Bucs didn’t convince you, “TB12” once again showed Sunday that he is the best to ever do it at the QB position and that he was the heart beat of that tenure.
Belichick is a professor for sure but a professor is only as good as his best student. Brady showed long ago, he was not only the student but that he surpassed learning from the professor and began teaching his own classes.
He schooled the teacher Sunday evening.
