Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti expressed confidence in coach John Harbaugh, general manager Ozzie Newsome and quarterback Joe Flacco after his team was upset at home by the Chicago Bears to fall to 3-3.
“I look at them, and then I look at us as a team, and I don’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Bisciotti said on the “Ravens Rap” show. “I think a lot of this comes down to … I hate to tell you that all our planning comes down a lot to a bounce of the ball.”
Bisciotti was referencing the two interceptions on Sunday that bounced off the hands of Ravens receivers.
He spoke about how one game can change perceptions. If Baltimore would have beaten the Bears, the Ravens would be 4-2 and own one of the top four records in the AFC. But the loss dropped Baltimore to the middle of the pack.
“I have to evaluate people on their ability to do their job over a long period of time, and that doesn’t satisfy short-term thinkers,” Bisciotti said. “That frustrates me to no end, but I understand it. I’m not telling you or anybody else how to be a fan; I’m just not going to let you influence how I’m going to be an owner.”
Since winning the Super Bowl in 2012, the Ravens have gone 34-36 (.486) and missed the playoffs in three of the past four seasons. Bisciotti, though, said that shouldn’t discount the fact that Harbaugh led Baltimore to the postseason in his first five years.
Over that same period, Flacco is the NFL’s 35th-rated passer (81.2) with 84 touchdowns and 69 interceptions. In the previous four drafts, Newsome has only drafted two Pro Bowl players.
“You have to trust me that if there was a weak link, I would extricate myself from that problem,” Bisciotti said. “This is, unlike my business, a collaboration of everything going right. You really have to understand it before you start pointing fingers.”
ATLANTA — Hall of Famer Bob Griese can relate to Matt Ryan’s pain.
Griese, a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback with the Miami Dolphins, first made it to the Super Bowl during his MVP season in 1971. Griese, like Ryan, dropped his first Super Bowl appearance — a 24-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI.
Griese didn’t let the disappointment deter his focus on the NFL’s ultimate prize.
“Well, there’s been a lot of us that have lost our first Super Bowls,” Griese said. “But fortunately, in our case, we went back and won the second and third time. The mentality — and Coach [Don] Shula struck this from the time we lost the Super Bowl until the time we were in camp the following year — was, ‘We’re going to have to play as hard as we did the season we went to the Super Bowl just to get back because there’s no guarantees you’re going to get back.’ “
Bob Griese and the Dolphins bounced back from a loss in Super Bowl VI to defeat the Redskins for the championship the next season. Focus on Sport/Getty Images
The window for a return Super Bowl trip might be small but not impossible for Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons, who face the New England Patriots on Sunday in a rematch of Super Bowl LI. Griese is also one of three quarterbacks to lose in their first Super Bowl appearances and then return to win one at some point in their careers. The other two are also in the Hall of Fame: Len Dawson and John Elway.
Dawson, with the Kansas City Chiefs during the 1966 season, fell to Bart Starr and Green Bay in Super Bowl I, 35-10. Three seasons later, Dawson and the Chiefs topped Joe Kapp and the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV, 23-7.
Elway, the Denver Broncos legend, dropped his initial Super Bowl appearance with a 39-20 loss to Phil Simms and the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI. He returned the next year but fell to Doug Williams and the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXII, 42-10. He lost a third Super Bowl — 55-10 to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV — before winning back-to-back Super Bowls 11 years after his first appearance. Elway defeated Brett Favre and Green Bay 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII, then beat Chris Chandler and the Falcons 34-19 in Super Bowl XXXIII.
“Losing a Super Bowl is the most disappointing loss you can have,” Elway said. “It’s so devastating because you get to that final game and are one of only two teams left. For me, losing a Super Bowl only increased my desire to win one. The pain you felt in losing a Super Bowl felt like fuel on the fire.
“The one thing I’d tell any young quarterback who has lost a Super Bowl is to keep chasing that dream, because it’s worth it in the end, for what it means and for your legacy.”
Elway was 26 when he lost his first Super Bowl. He won his last at 38.
Griese was 26 when he lost his first Super Bowl appearance to Roger Staubach and the Cowboys. It ate at him, sure, but it certainly motivated him.
“It weighs on you,” Griese said. “When you lose, that’s the last game of the year. When we got back to Miami, we met one time. I don’t know if we looked at the film or not. I know that I wanted to get the film and look at it and see what they did that we weren’t expecting and how we can do better on our mistakes.
“It’s a loss, and you’ve got to carry that loss over to the regular season the following year. But there’s nothing you can do other than just try and be your best and win every game the next season.”
Two straight losses have Ryan and the Falcons at 3-2 heading into their matchup with the Patriots. In a wide-open NFC there is ample time to get back on track toward at least another playoff run. Griese, now a radio voice for the Dolphins, saw Ryan up close on Sunday and has monitored his mindset from afar.
“You read some stuff and you see some stuff on what’s he’s doing: putting it behind,” Griese said of Ryan. “You do everything you can to move forward. You watch the film. You learn from the film because teams are going to try and do the same things. But the [Super Bowl] loss, you just put it out of your mind and just play one game and win every game if you can, though you can’t. And you just make an effort to get back that way.”
The 32-year-old Ryan, now in his 10th season, appears to be following that playbook, at least publicly. He believes he’s been candid through the offseason and preseason regarding his thoughts about losing the Super Bowl, which he says he watched several times soon after the game before moving on. Although the reigning MVP is intent on putting the loss behind him, Ryan admitted it still stings, even if he doesn’t dwell on it daily.
“I mean, I think it’s always going to be part of you,” Ryan said. “I think that’s every athlete, right? There’s things throughout your life that motivate you to be the best player that you can be and gets you out of bed in the morning.
“For sure, I think from a big-picture standpoint, you certainly use all those kinds of things as motivation. But honestly, it’s about this 2017 team and seeing how good we can be. … That’s the mindset that you have to have.”
Washington Redskins defensive lineman Jonathan Allen will miss the rest of the season after suffering a Lisfranc injury in his left foot during Sunday’s win over San Francisco, a source said Wednesday.
It’s a crushing blow for a defense that had been improving, in part because of Allen’s performance.
Allen, the 17th overall pick in this year’s draft, visited noted foot specialist Dr. Robert Anderson on Tuesday. Redskins right tackle Morgan Moses had a similar injury near the end of the 2014 season, but underwent surgery and returned for the start of training camp.
The Redskins picked DL Jonathan Allen 17th in the draft, and coach Jay Gruden said he’d been playing his position “like a veteran, really.” Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire
Allen had been starting as a tackle in the nickel package, usually playing alongside Matt Ioannidis. The two had been giving Washington what it needed: players who can drive offensive linemen back and collapse the pocket.
Allen only had one sack, but he had a number of strong rushes to help set up others — or prevent the quarterback from escaping. Those two, plus the outside linebackers, enabled Washington to often send just four rushers and focus on coverage.
On Monday, head coach Jay Gruden said Allen was playing the position “like a veteran, really.”
“He has got great fundamentals,” Gruden said. “He’s got a great idea of run/pass, how to get off blocks. He has got strong hands and he was getting a pretty consistent pass-rush push. He doesn’t have a lot of sacks obviously, but he was getting push in the pocket which was critical for the interior guys so the edge guys can get home. Just all around, he has played well.”
Allen had fallen in the draft in part because of concerns about his shoulders. The Redskins did not share those concerns and were ecstatic that he fell to them. He provided them with versatility, too; Allen also played end in their 3-4 base front and could line up at different spots. He also occasionally rushed from a standing position behind a nose guard, picking his spot where to rush.
Second-year player Anthony Lanier II will replace Allen in the lineup. The Redskins like his length and the fact the 6-foot-6 Lanier he bulked up to 286 pounds; Gruden said Lanier is much stronger than he was as a rookie. He can play tackle in their nickel package and end in their base. He’s also considered a good athlete, but more raw than Allen.
Washington’s defense is allowing just 88 rushing yards per game, the eight-best total in the NFL. Philadelphia’s offense is fifth with 132.5 rushing yards per game.
NEW ORLEANS — Sean Payton was upset after his team’s win Sunday. Yes, upset after a win. The Saints had beaten the Lions 52-38 in a 1 p.m. ET game that took so long that former Saint Adrian Peterson already had rushed for 76 yards in the first quarter of a 4 p.m. ET game for his new Arizona Cardinals team by the time the New Orleans coach’s postgame news conference began.
All of a sudden, the Cardinals have their three-headed offensive monster back — and it all starts with Adrian Peterson.
Blocking matters in fantasy football, and in Week 6 we saw a pair of running backs stand out with big fantasy point totals. Are their performances sustainable? KC Joyner explores that and more in his review of the matchups along the line of scrimmage.
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The Saints had built a 45-10 lead only to see it whittled down to seven in the fourth quarter. Payton was annoyed about the way his team struggled to finish. So when someone asked about what Peterson was doing in Arizona and whether it gave him pause about trading the old warhorse five days earlier, Payton wasn’t having any.
“That’s a dumb question,” Payton said. “We’re trying to win games, and I’d love to have that player. But it’s hard to have that many and get into a rhythm. I thought Mark [Ingram] and Alvin [Kamara] had some big plays, and I would hope we would have had that type of rushing output if Adrian was a part of it.”
Ingram and Kamara combined for 189 yards on 35 carries in the Saints’ win on Sunday. And while they couldn’t salt away the game by running it late, they won it by running it early and often, which makes you realize the Saints were loaded at running back and just couldn’t come up with anything for Peterson to do.
“I told you all, he’s still got the juice,” Ingram said after hearing what Peterson was doing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his first game as a Cardinal.
He does, or did on this one day, and who’s to say that at age 32 a player as freakishly dominant and resilient as Peterson can’t possibly resurrect his career and the Cardinals’ season at the same time? Arizona’s offensive line has had a rough year, but Peterson in his prime was one of those running backs the old coaches like to say “brings his own blocking.” This is no longer his prime, but what if he has enough motivation to muster three good months?
Adrian Peterson had 26 carries in his Cardinals debut. He had only 27 total carries in four games with the Saints. Photo by Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports
Saints players with whom I spoke last week talked in near-reverential terms about Peterson and the impression he made on them in six months as their teammate.
Saints players were loving the news of Peterson’s performance in Arizona, while also happy about what they still have at running back. This could be the kind of thing that works out well for everyone, if Peterson helps rescue the Cardinals and the Saints’ backs blossom in their opportunities. Hey, the NFC is wide-open, folks. Go run through that hole.
Some other stuff we learned in Week 6:
All is still not well with the Steelers, but it’s getting there
The truth on the Martavis Bryant story, regardless of what the player is saying publicly, is that Bryant and his agent have expressed unhappiness with the way he’s being used in the offense and, some weeks ago, told the Steelers that Bryant would prefer to be traded if his current role is all they have in mind. Multiple sources say Bryant’s agent has spoken with Steelers management since the season began to express these sentiments, and that Bryant himself spoke with coaches during the week leading up to Pittsburgh’s Week 5 game to ask about being a bigger part of the offense. That has not materialized, though Bryant isn’t exactly being ignored. He has played 71 percent of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps, second among Steelers wide receivers to only the incredible Antonio Brown (93 percent) and slightly ahead of rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster (66 percent), though Smith-Schuster saw the field more in Week 6. Bryant has been targeted 34 times, which is third on the team behind Brown (74) and superstar running back Le’Veon Bell (39). Smith-Schuster has 24 targets.
I can see the reason for Bryant’s frustration. He views himself as a difference-making player whose size/speed combination is unique and who, if given the opportunity, can do serious damage downfield or in the red zone. He has worked extremely hard to come back clean, healthy and in better shape than ever following his one-year drug suspension. By all accounts, he looks incredible in practice. On a representative number of current NFL teams, he’d have a claim on the title of No. 1 wide receiver.
Martavis Bryant has 17 catches for 231 yards and a touchdown this season after being suspended for all of the 2016 season. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Bottom line, the Steelers aren’t going to trade Bryant, who still has more value to them as a member of their team than he does in trade. As brilliantly talented as he might be, he has yet to establish himself as an NFL dominator, and until he does, the Steelers aren’t likely to get a team to offer them sufficient return for his still-latent potential. There’s still likely a breakout coming, and when it does, the Steelers want to benefit from that with points and wins.
A victory Sunday over previously unbeaten Kansas City has the Steelers feeling better. And the production and opportunity Brown and Bell are getting has those guys placated for the moment at least. Bryant’s day will come, and while it’s easy to understand his impatience, the Steelers have no reason to act on it.
Ben McAdoo did some coaching this week
In this space last week, I laid out the case for the New York Giants moving on from Jerry Reese after this season. He has been general manager for 11 seasons and will have made the playoffs in only four of them — two of which were in his first two seasons. This is a large sample size.
But I also made the point that changing GMs doesn’t automatically mean changing coaches, and that two years on McAdoo would be too small a sample size. Week 6 proved my point. McAdoo was taking a lot of heat this time last week, and it got worse as the week went on because of the Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie discipline issue. But the proof is in the pudding, and the display the Giants put on Sunday night in dominating the Broncos in Denver shows that McAdoo pulled off an NFL head coach’s No. 1 job. He had his team completely ready to play in Sunday night’s upset at Denver.
The discipline of Rodgers-Cromartie was, Giants coaches believed, necessary to send a message that turning your back on teammates won’t be tolerated. The decision to hand over playcalling to offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was a case of a head coach swallowing his pride and realizing his attention was needed for the bigger picture. Smart, responsible moves that paid off. At 1-5, this Giants season isn’t salvageable, but McAdoo will rightly be judged on how he navigates it now that it’s lost. The final score Sunday night indicates he’s on the right track.
But … did Vance Joseph?
There was a lot of focus on how surprisingly great a night that was for the Giants, but wasn’t it also just an inexcusably terrible loss for the Broncos? At home, coming off a bye against an 0-5 team that was down its top three wide receivers, its starting center, its best pass-rusher and one of its top two cornerbacks? And your top two division rivals had already lost, like, an hour before? How do you come out flat in a game like that? Should be a wake-up call for a Broncos team that has mainly played angry after missing the playoffs in 2016.
Brett Hundley was 18-of-33 passing for 157 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions in relief of Aaron Rodgers on Sunday. AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn
Mike McCarthy is betting on himself, and it could pay off
There’s no way Hundley has Rodgers’ gifts for accuracy, for manipulating the pocket, for game-winning throws on the run — no one does. But Hundley, who is signed on a cheap deal through 2018, has some talent, and McCarthy now gets more than half a season to figure out how to maximize that talent and minimize his weaknesses. If he succeeds, the Packers could have one of next offseason’s more compelling trade chips on their hands.
A fantasy note on the Cowboys’ running backs
This isn’t a “What We Learned” from this week, because the Cowboys were off, but I have spoken with people close to the situation about what the Cowboys would do at running back if they had to play without Ezekiel Elliott for a long period of time. And with Elliott apparently re-suspended for the next six games, it’s worth mentioning.
They do like McFadden better than Morris in some areas, however, including the passing game. So if they know they’re going to be without Elliott, expect a change in the way the Cowboys’ offensive coaches make a game plan and a lean toward a system in which Morris and McFadden (and maybe Rod Smith) split duties and carries in some way. That’s what I’ve been told to expect by folks in the know there, which is unfortunate for fantasy players who might have been hoping that Morris or McFadden would simply slide into Elliott’s spot and get his workload. Sorry to be the bearer of bad fantasy tidings.
