After a long offseason, the NFL played an action-packed Week 1. We saw utter silliness with the Ravens and Raiders, a showdown of Alabama football legends with Mac Jones and Tua Tagovailoa, and a surprising blowout win for the Houston Texans.
A couple of teams also found out they need to get real with themselves. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows around the league, and frankly, some teams should be embarrassed.
Then there was a performance so dominant there really aren’t words to describe how deadly it was.
Welcome to this week’s Four Verts column.
1
Try again next week, Falcons
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
After an entire offseason of Falcons head coach Arthur Smith preaching the value of toughness and physicality, they got absolutely clobbered by the Eagles at home in a 32-6 beatdown that showed just how far the Falcons have to go in order to get back to the postseason. Taking a loss is one thing, but the manner in which teams lose can teach fans and analysts a lot about where teams are in their organizational journey.
For the Falcons? Everyone learned this team is plagued with fatal flaws that will make it hard for them to win a game.
The Eagles just whipped their a** in the trenches. Rookie Jalen Mayfield was completely outmatched in pass protection, giving up eight pressures on 41 pass blocking snaps according to Pro Football Focus. Right tackle Kaleb McGary and center Matt Hennessy also got torched in pass protection, combining to allow eight more pressures.
Those numbers paint a picture that the Falcons have a problem along the offensive line, but actually watching the game provides more depth to the actual issues.
They got punched. In. The. Mouth. Knocked the h*ll out. Tossed out the club. Whatever your preferred metaphor is for a mauling, that’s what it was.
Run blocking? Demolished by the Eagles, especially late in the game.
Pass blocking? Bullied.
If you’re a supporter of the Falcons, the loss to the Eagles was incredibly frustrating because it showed that this team has the same flaws as previous years.
Ever since they tried to rebuild their offensive line by signing journeymen offensive linemen James Carpenter and Jamon Brown in 2019, they’ve been chasing the ghost of the 2016 offensive line that helped carry them to Super Bowl 51. Carpenter and Brown whiffed, and are still counting against the cap despite not being on the team, 2019 first round pick Kaleb McGary hasn’t worked out, and they didn’t have misallocated resources trying to find a replacement for veteran center Alex Mack.
The organizational failures and decisions have led the Falcons to this point. Not ready for the physicality of the league and unable to fix it. The Falcons have enough weapons to put together and decent offensive output, but it doesn’t matter if they’re just going to get their teeth caved in by the other team’s big fellas.
It’s going to be a long season in Atlanta.
2
The Bears should play their best quarterback
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Matt Nagy, come on. Ryan Pace, do the right thing.
What are we doing here? Trying to hold onto the last vestiges of job security in Chicago? Look, any person can understand why Nagy and Pace would want to keep their jobs as the head coach and general manager. Getting to this point in a football career is damn near impossible.
With that said, it’s fair to question their strategy for keeping their jobs. In a year where everything is on the line, Andy Dalton is Option A?
Dalton had a lackluster start to the season against the rugged Los Angeles Rams defense, throwing for 206 yards and an interception on 38 attempts. Sure, the offensive line struggled at times, but a longtime veteran quarterback like Dalton, in theory, should have been able to mitigate some of that and help Nagy and Pace save their careers.
That’s the front they’re putting on at least, but it just has one flaw, well multiple flaws as a plan, but one big one.
Dalton isn’t even the best quarterback on the Bears. They just spent multiple first-round picks on Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, who has been able to add a different dimension to the Bears offense in his limited snaps. At this point in Dalton’s career, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that Fields is flat out the better option.
Nagy himself couldn’t help but get Fields into their game against the Rams. On the first drive of the game, he randomly put Fields in for a pass that was completed in the redzone. In the third quarter, when the Bears really needed a play before the game got out of hand, they put in their more dynamic option.
Dalton had some wheels in his prime, but he’s not the guy that is going to force the defense to play 11-on-11 football in tight quarters in the low redzone.
Maybe Nagy and Pace are trying to slow play this by waiting until the last feasible second to start Fields, but it’s not irrational to suggest that they’re at that point right now. Assuming Fields can match Dalton’s production as a passer against the Rams, which is a very low bar based on the recent successes of passing games in the league, he should absolutely be in the game due to his ability on the ground.
Trotting out Dalton again doesn’t really help anyone. The best option for the Bears is to get their first round pick that runs a 4.4 with high level passing ability on the field. What they’re doing right now is a total farce.
3
The Giants need to look in the mirror
Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants need to have a heart-to-heart with themselves.
They have an idea of the team that they want to be, but have horribly executed that vision. They can’t block a soul on offense, the defense has to carry too much of a load, and Daniel Jones just can’t stop turning the ball over.
On paper, being a team that can bully teams up front and control the ball with a dynamic running back is a football fever dream as old as the sport itself. To be clear, superstar running back Saquon Barkley doesn’t deserve too much blame for what happened in the Giants 27-13 drubbing at the hands of the Broncos to open the season. Barkley is still returning from ACL surgery and admitted he needs some time to knock off the rust and get back to form.
The real problem is that the first game of 2021 looked like all 16 games the Giants played in 2020. Jones continues to fumble at a historic rate, racking up 30 fumbles in just three years. Jones led the league in fumbles in 2019 and 2020 and doesn’t appear to have a firm grip on this issue.
The offensive line is only exacerbating Jones’ fumble issues. Andrew Thomas hasn’t looked anything like the shutdown offensive tackle he was drafted to be, Nate Solder is only on the team because he was too expensive not to be, and the rest of the offensive line has been shaky for a while now.
This isn’t due to lack of trying on the Giants front office, they’ve spent the resources, they just whiffed repeatedly on what were supposed to be sound investments. It’s left the Giants in a hole that will be difficult to navigate once the season is over.
Unless Jones turns into a quarterback that was not only worth the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft, but one that’s worth starting at all, then the Giants don’t really have hopes of going anywhere. This leaves the Giants in a precarious situation as they try to navigate the immediate future and get back into the playoffs.
Financially and organizationally, the Giants have put themselves in a situation where the immediate future is of great importance. This isn’t the crosstown rival Jets who are working with a long leash as they try to create some semblance of a quality football team. This is year three of Jones as quarterback. Year four of Dave Gettleman as the general manager. Joe Judge still has time to right the ship as the head coach, but at some point they have to start looking different and performing different.
According to Spotrac, the Giants have $219.6 million allocated to player contracts for the 2022 offseason. Only three teams (Saints, Packers, Cowboys) have more money scheduled on the books next year. Not all of those contracts can be moved on from easily without suffering dead cap penalties that will make it hard to build the rest of the team. The Giants are structured to be a win-now team without the talent of a win-now team.
Week 1 is too early to look completely ahead to the offseason, especially since this team does have pockets of talent. The secondary should be one of the better units in the league moving forward and they have household names at skill talent.
However, they need to be honest with themselves about the immediate future of this team and how to structure this roster for improved success in coming years.
And maybe stop letting Jason Garrett call plays. That hasn’t seemed to work in almost a decade.
4
Reliving Chandler Jones' dominance against the Titans
Andrew Nelles-USA TODAY Sports
What Chandler Jones did to the Titans was unholy. Five sacks, two forced fumbles, and one Twitter apology issued by Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan.
Honestly, I was going to sit here and break down the sacks, but words can’t do this justice. So, here are all five sacks for you watch at your pleasure over and over and over and over and over again. I don’t need to tell you what a natural force of destruction looks like. Appreciate it with your own eyes.
Right now, Jones is on pace for 85 sacks. I’m not going to sit here and say that he can’t do that after what he did to the Titans.
