NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Bucs think O.J. Howard is out for year with ruptured Achilles



The Buccaneers were able to win their third straight game in a seesaw battle with the Chargers on Sunday, but it’s not all smiles after the game in Tampa.

Head coach Bruce Arians said in his postgame press conference that the team believes tight end O.J. Howard will miss the rest of the season after rupturing his Achilles tendon.

Howard caught three passes for 50 yards from Tom Brady on Sunday, including a 28-yard touchdown that cut the Chargers lead to 24-21 in the third quarter. He has 11 catches for 144 yards overall this season.

Cameron Brate, Rob Gronkowski and Tanner Hudson are the other tight ends on the Bucs roster. Brate also caught a touchdown Sunday and Gronk had one catch for 29 yards.

NBC

 

Raiders hanging tough on the Bills. Im beginning to think they are a legit team. 17-13, Bills, Raiders driving.

 

Colts’ defense shuts down Nick Foles and the Bears



The Colts’ defense is legit, and the Bears are 0-1 with Nick Foles as their starting quarterback.

In a low-scoring and often dull 19-11 Colts win this afternoon in Chicago, the Indianapolis defense shut down Foles, who was making his first start for the Bears after replacing Mitchell Trubisky last week. The Bears didn’t score a touchdown until after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, and they fell to 3-1 with the loss.

The Indianapolis defense has been excellent all season, and Foles was the latest quarterback they held in check. They also kept the Bears’ running game from doing much of anything, as the Bears finished with just 28 yards on the ground. Bears punter Pat O'Donnell punted seven times.

The Colts’ offense was far from great and only found the end zone once, but quarterback Philip Rivers and running back Johnathan Taylor made just enough plays to sustain some long drives, and Rodrigo Blankenship went 4-for-4 on short field goals.

If the Colts’ defense can keep playing like this all season, they won’t need their offense to be great. This looks like a defense the Colts can ride to the playoffs.

NBC

 

Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said after Sunday’s game that he didn’t know how bad running back Austin Ekeler‘s injury was, but that it didn’t look good.

A report indicates that it’s a pretty serious injury. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Ekeler suffered a hyperextended knee in addition to a hamstring injury and that he was on crutches while wearing a brace after the game.

Ekeler will go for an MRI for further information about an injury that Schefter reports is expected to keep him out for multiple weeks.

Justin Jackson and Joshua Kelley handled the running back duties after Ekeler’s injury on Sunday and it seems they’ll be the duo for the near future as well.

NBC

 

The Eagles took control of the NFC East, with perhaps an iron grip on the top spot in the division — with their first win of the year.

In a game as ugly as your neighbor’s Halloween decorations, the skeleton of the Eagles beat the ghost of the 49ers 25-20.

That moved the resurgent Eagles to 1-2-1.

Quarterback Carson Wentz hit wide receiver Travis Fulgham for a 42-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and linebacker Alex Singleton followed on the next play from scrimmage by picking off 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens and returning it for an interception.

Fulgham was just promoted from the practice squad Saturday to fill in the blanks on an injury depleted roster, and Singleton had played 11 snaps of professional defense prior to Sunday’s game.

Such was the night in a game full of replacements, and replacements for the replacements on both sides of the ball.

Wentz actually played relatively well, considering what he was surrounded with (the Eagles had one healthy receiver in practice this week). He finished with 193 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and ran for a touchdown early.

Mullens was pulled for C.J. Beathard late in the game, which should end the ill-advised speculation that he might replace the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers (2-2) were just as strapped by injuries, but tight end George Kittle returned to catch 15 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown, and rookie wideout Brandon Aiyuk had a 38-yard hurdle-and-run touchdown, but there were few other moments of competence.

Beathard took a shot at the end zone on the final play, but the ball flicked off a number of hands before falling incomplete.

NBC

 

San Francisco defensive end Ziggy Ansah is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Coach Kyle Shanahan said after Sunday night’s loss to the Eagles that Ansah suffered a torn biceps and will likely need season-ending surgery. Ansah will have an MRI today to confirm the diagnosis.

That’s particularly tough news for the 49ers because they’ve already been devastated by injuries on the defensive line, with Nick Bosa, Solomon Thomas and Dee Ford all hurt.

A 2015 Pro Bowler with the Lions, the 31-year-old Ansah has struggled to stay healthy in recent years, and this is another major setback.

 

Nick Chubb to IR with MCL injury, Browns expect him back this year



Browns running back Nick Chubb left Sunday’s win over the Cowboys in the first half with a knee injury and it will be some time before he’s back with the team.

Head coach Kevin Stefanski said on Monday that Chubb injured his MCL and will be placed on injured reserve. Stefanski called it a “several week” injury and added that the Browns expect him to return to the lineup later this season.

The Browns didn’t miss a beat on the ground without Chubb. Kareem Hunt, D'Ernest Johnson and Dontrell Hilliard combined for 185 yards on 27 carries during the 49-38 win.

Other defenses may not be as forgiving as the Cowboys were, but Hunt’s history and Sunday’s overall production provide some reason to think they’ll be able to produce offensively while Chubb is out of action.

NBC

 

Packers WR Davante Adams out for 'MNF' vs. Falcons

Jones, Ridley expected to play vs. Packers; Michel out

 

With no additional positive COVID-19 tests, Patriots en route to Kansas City

The New England Patriots are headed to Kansas City for a rare game-day plane trip ahead of Monday night's postponed bout with the Chiefs.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the Patriots had zero positive results from their COVID-19 tests, paving their way for their flight to K.C., per a source informed of the situation. The Chiefs' tests from Sunday night also came back negative, Rapoport added, giving both teams the all-clear for Monday's matchup.

The Pats-Chiefs match was postponed from Sunday afternoon after New England QB Cam Newton and Kansas City practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta'amu tested positive for COVID-19.

No other positive tests have popped up for either team after several tests since Saturday morning, per Rapoport.

The Patriots pushed their flight to Kansas City as long as possible in order to ferret out any other potential positive tests before making the trip. New England also plans to take two planes to K.C. to help separate players and personnel who might have been in contact with Newton from the rest of the club. How traveling on a game day affects the Patriots mentally and physically adds another layer to a big AFC bout.

NFL.com

 

Tough break for one of the NFL's better individuals. He's not only a good player - he's a good person.

 

Several NFL teams finding success with low-cost running backs



Before NFL General Managers spend a lot of money on a free agent running back in 2021, or spend a high pick on a running back, they may want to consider how the 2020 season has gone for teams that are giving the ball to bargain-basement running backs.

Several NFL teams are having success on the ground despite going from highly paid and/or highly drafted running backs to whatever running back they happened to grab to fill out the roster.

Yesterday the Browns’ starting running back, Nick Chubb, was lost with an injury after six carries. The Browns proceeded to rush for 307 yards, most in any NFL game in two years, in their win over the Cowboys. The Browns’ leading rusher in their 307-yard onslaught was D'Ernest Johnson, who was undrafted in 2018 and had to prove himself with the Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Football in 2019 before the Browns gave him a shot.

When former No. 2 overall pick Saquon Barkley was lost for the season with a knee injury, he had 34 yards on 19 carries. The two running backs who have replaced him, career backup Wayne Gallman and recent arrival Devonta Freeman, both have more yards on fewer carries.

The Lions have used two recent second-round picks on running backs, Kerryon Johnson and D'Andre Swift. Their leading rusher is 35-year-old Adrian Peterson, who arrived less than a week before the first game and has more yards from scrimmage than Johnson and Swift combined.

The Jaguars cut former No. 4 overall pick Leonard Fournette and replaced him with undrafted rookie James Robinson, who is on pace to finish this season with 1,140 yards rushing and 644 yards receiving, more yards from scrimmage than Fournette had in any season in Jacksonville.

The Dolphins traded for Matt Breida and signed Jordan Howard to a two-year, $9.75 million contract in free agency this offseason. Their leading rusher is Myles Gaskin, a 2019 seventh-round pick. Gaskin has both more rushing yards and more yards from scrimmage than Breida and Howard combined.

Carolina made Christian McCaffrey the highest-paid running back in the NFL this year. He got hurt after two games and was replaced by career backup Mike Davis, who has more yards from scrimmage than McCaffrey. The Panthers won both games Davis started after they lost both games McCaffrey started.

Across the league, the picture is clear: You don’t need a highly paid, highly drafted running back to get production out of the running back position. Better to use that cap space, and those high draft picks, elsewhere.

NBC