I really thought that the Chargers would have kept Mike Bagley as the FG kicker after he was perfect in the two games in place of Caleb Sturgis (3FGs, 4 PATs). Sturgis has missed 3 FGs and 4 Extra Points this season...that's right 4 extra points (that total is now 4 FGs and 6 extra points)! Even if Bagley didn't work out, Sturgis wasn't worth keeping anyway. The word on Bagley is that he struggled on kick offs, but I don't recall seeing anything that stood out. It's a good thing the Chargers brought Bagley back to the practice squad since Sturgis played himself out of a job.
Sturgis could have cost the Chargers the win vs. Seattle. Russell Wilson drove the Seahawks down to the 1 yard line with LA up 25-17. Chargers should have been up 30-17 or at least 27-17, but Sturgis missed two extra points and a 42 yard FG. Fortunately for the Chargers a false start pushed the Seahawks back to the 6 and S Jalhleel Addae got a finger nail on Wilson's last pass to prevent the TD.
The last time an AFC team won in Seattle was 2011. Chargers are 6-2 for the first time since 2006.
200th straight start for Phillip Rivers. He becomes only the 4th QB to make 200 consecutive starts (Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning). Rivers hasn't missed a start since he took over for Drew Brees back in 2006.
I haven't seen a Chargers O-line run block like this in a long time. Melvin Gordon is averaging 5.4 yards per carry and against a pretty good Seahawks run D gained 113 yards on just 16 carries. They are doing this with a platoon at RT (Joe Barsdale and Sam Tevi) and 2nd round pick Forrest Lamp still recovering from last years season ending injury.
...and my thoughts on the rest of the NFL this week...
Chiefs-Browns features Patrick Mahomes vs. Baker Mayfield. No doubt that Mahomes has the more talented team behind him, but Mahomes has been almost flawless, seemingly setting a record every week. I see a lot of talent in Mayfield and love his attitude, but he was playing against a stacked deck in the Chiefs. I give credit to Cleveland for hanging in for a while, but the Chiefs offense has been unstoppable so far this year.
JULIO JONES SCORED A TD!
Heck of a game in New Orleans. 39 year old Drew Brees out dueled 24 year old Jarrod Geoff giving the Rams their first loss of the season, 45-35. Rams fell behind by 21 points and came back to tie it at 35-35, but the Saints put up 10 more to put the game away. I can't wait to see the Rams-Chiefs game in two weeks.
Patriots-Packers...old man Tom Brady out plays young stud Aaron Rogers. In the NFL, quarterbacks are judged by titles and Brady has 5. He's led the Pats to 8 Super Bowls! In this era of free agency where its rare to see a player stay with a single team, you wonder if 8 Super Bowls by one QB will ever be matched. Rogers is the most physically gifted QB (although that is being challenged by Mahomes now) playing in the NFL today. With Brady you keep wondering how he does it, with Rogers you wonder how he did that. Pats again find a way to win. This time a couple trick plays, using a WR at RB, and forcing a timely fumble.
With the way RB James Conner is playing, does Pittsburgh even care if LeVeon Bell comes back let alone paying him big dollars by franchise tagging him or renegotiating his contract? Bell is obviously just looking for the big pay check and he doesn't care if it comes from the Steelers or not.
Does anyone even know who Nick Mullens is? He started the season as an drafted addition to the 49ers practice squad. Is he for real, or was it just that the Raiders are that bad right now?
Speaking of the Raiders. What the F... is Jon Gruden doing? Raiders traded LB Khalil Mack and WR Amari Cooper and earlier this week released DE Bruce Irvin. OK, maybe it's a mad scientist at work (Gruden kinda looks like one). According to the site OverTheCap.com, the Raiders will have over 83 million in cap space next year. He also picked up 1st round draft picks in 2019 and 2020 for Mack and another 1st round pick in 2019 for Cooper. This gives the Raiders 5 first round picks in 2019 and 2020.
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