Should the Houston Texans be worried after a big loss in New England? Can Kirk Cousins replace RG3? Plus all the latest NFL playoff news
The NFL needs to address its DUI problem
Just one week on from the fatal shootings in Kansas City, the NFL found itself mourning another tragedy. On Saturday the Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jerry Brown died in a car accident. His team-mate Josh Brent had been behind the wheel. Brent, who survived, has subsequently been charged with manslaughter. He is alleged to have been intoxicated at the time of the crash.
It would be trite to say that the Cowboys were playing for Brown as they recorded an impressive road win over Cincinnati. The important part of this story is not how a team performed on Sunday but rather that another young man has died needlessly. Brown was just 25-years-old.
As with the case of Jovan Belcher in Kansas City, there is a danger in rushing to judgement. Brent is yet to be tried in a court of law. Nevertheless, there is no question that the NFL is facing a serious problem with players driving under the influence.
Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today provides some damning statistics:
Since January 2000, NFL players have been arrested at least 624 times on various charges, including 42 times this year, according to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports.
Of those 624 arrests, 177 (28%) were arrested because they were suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Despite the league's various attempts to stop the problem, it remains the single-biggest criminal issue in the NFL.
Nothing else comes close.
Such figures are rendered all the more troubling by the fact NFL players should have no reason to drink-and-drive. Both the players' union and teams provide car services – most of them theoretically anonymous ones – that players can call at any time.
Solutions are not easy to find. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports that the league's efforts to instigate two-game suspensions for first-time DUI offenders have been resisted by the NFL Players Association. The former Cowboy Calvin Hill, now a consultant for the team on off-field issues, has mooted the installation of devices in players' cars that would prevent the vehicle from starting if the driver was inebriated.
There is no easy answer to this problem. But equally, it cannot be ignored.
The Houston Texans are losing steam
If that really was a playoff preview at Foxboro on Monday night, then we're in for a pretty lousy postseason. New England did not so much beat the Houston Texans at Foxboro as ridicule them, serving up a victory so emphatic it made the visitors' 11 wins to this point look faintly absurd.
The deficiencies of Houston's banged up secondary have been exposed more than once in recent weeks, but perhaps never quite so ruthlessly as they were by Tom Brady and company. Four minutes into the second quarter, the Patriots quarterback had already thrown for three touchdowns. By that stage the Texans already looked beaten – down 21-0 and showing no sign of a response.
It would finish 42-14, but even that was generous on Houston – their second score arriving with just over two minutes left on the clock after an interception thrown by the Patriots' back-up quarterback Ryan Mallett left them them a short field. As poor as they were on defense, they fared little better on the other side of the ball. Running back Arian Foster managed just 46 yards on 16 carries.
The Patriots, by contrast, looked like a team ready to rise to the occasion. Brady would add a fourth touchdown through the air, while Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen were each effective on the ground. A defensive line led by Vince Wilfork dominated the Texans at the point of attack to stifle Foster.
Of course we should be wary of reading too much into a single game. History suggests that regular season match-ups are often no indicator of how two teams will fare if they go on to meet in the postseason. Just two years ago, New England themselves were beaten in the divisional round by a New York Jets team that they had crushed 45-3 in week 13.
What should be worrying the Texans is the general trend which shows they have given up more than 30 points three times in the last four games. A defense which was among the best in the league during first part of the season seems to have lost its way at the worst possible moment.
At 11-2 Houston remain the top seed in the AFC but that position now looks decidedly precarious. Two of their three remaining games are against the 9-4 Indianapolis Colts and the other is against the 7-6 Minnesota Vikings. There will be no easy rides between now and the postseason.
RG3 is not the only rookie QB who can get it done in Washington
When Washington's offense ran back out onto the field with four minutes and 39 seconds remaining against Baltimore on Sunday, the crowd at FedEx Field knew that their hopes of overturning an eight-point deficit rested on the shoulders of a brilliant rookie quarterback. They just didn't know which one.
All season Robert Griffin III had been the star of the show – not just for Washington but often the entire league. With 18 touchdowns through the air – including a four-yard pass to Josh Morgan on Sunday – and six on the ground, he was the single greatest reason that the Redskins had reached this point with postseason hopes still alive. At 6-6 coming into the weekend, they trailed the Giants by just one game in the NFC East.
But then, it happened. Tucking the ball in and scrambling upfield on second-and-19, Griffin made up a big chunk of yardage before getting clobbered by Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, badly hyper-extending his right knee. He would leave the game for one play, then return to steer his team down to the Baltimore 16. At that point the pain became overwhelming, RG3 collapsing onto his hands and knees after throwing the ball away on first down.
On the sideline, Kirk Cousins was ready. The fourth-round draft pick had already stepped in four plays earlier, throwing incomplete to Pierre Garcon but drawing a pass interference penalty. Taking over now on second-and-20 following an intentional grounding call against RG3, he immediately hit Leonard Hankerson for 15 yards. On the next play he drifted out of the pocket before finding Garcon in the right side of the end zone.
The job was still not done, of course, Washington still requiring a two-point conversion to tie the game. This time Cousins would take it in himself, dropping back on a designed draw play before squirting through the line for the score. No further heroics were required. In overtime a huge punt return by another rookie, Richard Crawford, set up Kai Forbath's winning field goal.
It has been a particular year for Cousins, who admitted to being surprised the Redskins would want him after already taking RG3 in the same draft. This year he has been called upon to back up not only a starting quarterback but, as Mark Maske put it in the Washington Post, "a growing pop-culture phenomenon".
But where he might have little hope of ever dislodging RG3 as the starter, Cousins will know that his team-mate's tendency to tuck the ball in and run will always make injuries such as these a possibility. Indeed, he had already been called on once this season after Griffin was concussed during the loss to Atlanta on 17 October.
Cousins said all the right things after the game, stating that he tried to approach every game like he was the starter and claiming to have learned just from watching RG3. But the true test of his ability may come next week against the Browns in Cleveland.
An MRI on RG3's knee showed that he had not torn his cruciate ligaments but he has suffered a sprain. Mike Shanahan struck an optimistic note on Monday, saying that the quarterback's status was "day-to-day", but at this point there remains a real possibility, at least, that Cousins may have to step in.
With no margin for error in the playoff hunt, that would be some spot to make his first professional start. But the Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan, who chose Cousins over the 10-year veteran Rex Grossman as his No2 quarterback in the offseason, has faith. As he noted on Sunday: "For me to put Kirk in that situation so early in his career kind of gives you an idea what I think of Kirk."
Adrian Peterson wants more than just 2,000 yards
The subject has been raised here before, but as we race towards the end of the NFL season, now is a moment to pause and take stock of the absurd achievements this year of Adrian Peterson.
It is still less than a year since the running back tore the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his left knee, injuries which have cut short many a career – including that of his Minnesota Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier. The common assumption was that it would be a struggle for Peterson even to return this season – and that if he did there would be little chance of him performing to his usual high standards.
Instead he has surpassed them, his 1,600 yards through 13 games putting AP on course to smash his previous record of 1,760 in a season. His sights, indeed, are set considerably higher. Peterson hopes to make this not only the most productive year of his career – but of any running back ever.
"I'm eying Eric," Peterson told Sports Illustrated's Peter King after rushing for 154 yards in the Vikings' win over Chicago on Sunday. His reference was to Eric Dickerson, the former Los Angeles Rams running back who holds the single season rushing record with 2,105 yards back in 1984.
To reach that figure, Peterson would have to average just under 169 yards per game over the next three weeks. On paper it looks like a tall order, but the miraculous nature of his season to date makes you want to believe that this might just be the year that we see All Day rechristened as All-Time.
Quick hits
As usual, there are far too many storylines around the league this week to cover in five measly subheads, so from now until the end of the regular season I'm going to be dedicating this last spot to a round-up of items that I couldn't get to above.
• It's as you were in the two most closely fought divisions – with the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys all winning in the NFC East, and the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals all losing in the AFC North. The most shocking of all those results was surely Pittsburgh's defeat to San Diego. Much as they do have a history of playing down to their opposition, more was expected on the day of Ben Roethlisberger's return from injury.
• On a week of surprising results, the Atlanta Falcons suffered their second defeat of the season against, of all teams, the Carolina Panthers. "They were much better than us today," said Falcons head coach Mike Smith after the 30-20 loss. "They beat us in all three phases."
• Baltimore responded to their loss in Washington by firing their offensive co-ordinator Cam Cameron. Defeat on Sunday marked the first time the Ravens have lost two straight since 2009, but this nevertheless felt like a surprising move for a team who lead their division with three weeks left to play. Cameron will be replaced by the quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell. ''It's not about fair or unfair, right or wrong. My responsibility is to the whole team and what's best for them right now,'' said the head coach John Harbaugh. ''We need a change. Our plan and our goals are to win games, win our division and get to the playoffs.''
• The Indianapolis Colts need just one more win to seal their place in the postseason after another comeback win orchestrated by the rookie quarterback Andrew Luck. Indianapolis would be just the second team in league history – after Miami in 2008 – to make the playoffs after having lost 14 or more games the previous season.
• Seattle, too, are closing in on a playoff berth after a 58-0 win over Arizona that served as both the biggest win in franchise history, and the Cardinals' heaviest defeat. "How bad is #azcardinals QB situation?" tweeted the azcentral writer Kent Somers afterwards. "[I] asked [Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt] Whiz who was starting next week. He says, "do you play?""
• In the snow at Lambeau Field on Sunday Night Football, Detroit did what they've been doing all season – finding new ways to shoot themselves in the foot. They led 14-3 midway through the second quarter when the ball slipped out of quarterback Matthew Stafford's hand as he drew it back to throw. Packers defensive end Mike Daniels scooped the ball up and ran it back 43 yards for the score, setting his team on the path to an eventual 27-20 win. The Lions fall to 4-9 on the season, while Green Bay claim a one-game lead over Chicago in the NFC North.
• And finally: Frank Gore sports a natty dead Dolphin T-shirt after his team's win over Miami.
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Paolo Bandini
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