The Giants’ overtime victory in Houston on Sunday counts in the standings as a single win. It means so much more than that.
The outcome is a validation of the organization’s decision to commit to a full overhaul, through the hiring of a coach who was able to apply jumper cables to a dead-ass battery.
John Harbaugh has changed everything about the Giants. And it’s working. They have a new identity, forged by Harbaugh. They’re tough, gritty, focused. They have the kind of healthy fear of true accountability that comes from failing to live up to the standard Harbaugh has set.
We saw it last week. Running back Cam Skattebo had fallen short of the coach’s expectations. So he barely played, and he didn’t touch the ball once. Then, when running back Najee Harris publicly questioned the approach to the ground game, he promptly got a pink slip.
It’s all because of Harbaugh. He has a vision for the culture and the character of the team, and he’s stubbornly implementing it. It’s a football team, and he’s the head coach. It’s his way. Adapt, or take a seat. Conform, or take a hike. It’s a bottom-line business, and he’s doing what he believes he needs to do to impact the bottom line in the best possible way.
The team’s 4-2-1 record, despite the loss of starting quarterback Jaxson Dart early in Week 2, confirms the wisdom of the decision to give Harbaugh whatever he wanted. The team’s reward could be, based on the struggles from the other teams in the division, an NFC East title and a home game in January. Maybe two. Hell, maybe three.
Maybe the Giants will end the season back in the stadium where they lost Dart for the year.
However it plays out, it feels like the Giants have a real chance. Which is all any NFL team can hope for. And which is more than plenty of franchises enjoy on a consistent basis.
And here’s what it means for the coming coaching carousel, which is less than three months away. Although former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has given no indication that he intends to coach again, the league’s perennial also-rans should be plotting a run at luring him to town.
Whatever it takes. Money, roster control, anything else he’d want. With the going rate for the best coaches in the range of $25 million per year, offer Tomlin $30 million. Or $35 million. Or $40 million.
Every year, teams spend hundreds of millions on players. Many would spend even more if they could, but the salary cap prevents it.
As to coaches, there’s no cap. And while there’s likely a not-so-subtle collusive effort to keep coaching pay under control, owners either want to win or they don’t.
They act like they do, even if guaranteed victory comes in the form of the annual profit margin. Any owner with a team that has become the gang that couldn’t shoot straight should shoot his or her shot at Tomlin.
It’s not hard to come up with a list of teams that should be making a full-court press for Tomlin. The Jets, who share a stadium with the Giants, have been lost in the NFL wilderness for years. And the Jets now have to witness the impact that Tomlin’s former arch rival is having on the other team in town.
It could be the perfect litmus test for the bad teams that hope to become good teams. If the owner is trying to hire Tomlin, the team is trying to be good.
None of this means Tomlin will jump back into coaching. He seems to truly enjoy what he’s doing. It all comes down to whether he can tolerate walking into a stadium every week and watch others do the job he held for 19 years. Is proximity a sufficient replacement to being in the fight?
That decision ultimately won’t be made in a vacuum. If the owners who see what Harbaugh has done believe Tomlin can do it for their teams, there will be a very real financial component that will be difficult to ignore.
And, depending on the size of the offer, potentially impossible to refuse.
Steelers Clips
Mike Tomlin has no qualms regarding a decision from Dan Campbell that may have seemed curious on the surface.
Facing fourth and one from the Detroit 24 with 4:53 to play, Campbell opted to go for it. The play resulted in a two-yard loss, and a very short field for the Packers.
“I thought we would get it, number one,” Campbell said after the game. “I really believed we would get that. Number two, I knew we would get the ball back if it didn’t work out. Those were the two thoughts.”
After Sunday night’s Chiefs-Seahawks game, NBC’s Mike Tirico asked Tomlin for his take on Campbell’s decision.
“It centers around elite quarterback play,” Tomlin said. “When you got elite quarterback play, and particularly when you’re playing elite quarterback play, you want to make sure your guy at least has a chance to have the ball at the end of the game. And that’s what that decision appeared to be about for me. If he punts that ball the way Jordan Love and company has been operating, it’s not possible, it’s probable that they’re gonna matriculate the ball down the field and win the game. And so what he did by going for it, he was either gonna be successful and keep the ball for his quarterback, or he was at least gonna give his quarterback an opportunity to answer. I was always ready to make that decision when I had Big Ben [Roethlisberger], for example, and I was facing another elite quarterback.”
The Lions got the ball back because their defense stiffened, forcing a field goal try. And because the Detroit special-teams unit blocked the 35-yard try.
But even if the Packers had scored a touchdown, the drive started with 4:50 to play. The Lions would have had a chance to answer.
And that’s only if the Lions first failed to gain a yard on fourth down by handing it to Jahmyr Gibbs.
It’s another tangible example of the key differences between analytics and feel. The coach, considering all circumstances, knew it was the right call.
That said, the age of analytics had made it much easier to do something that would have once been ignored as unconventional, since reliance on the math has torn down the wall between what is and isn’t “normal” for a coach to do.
And Tomlin’s past actions give his words even more credence. Via NBC Sports research, Campbell was the first coach to go for it on fourth down inside his own 25 in a tie game since Week 1 of the 2014 season.
That day, Tomlin’s Steelers ran a fake punt from their own 20 in a 27-27 game against the Browns. It happened with 9:48 to play in a 27-27 game. The play worked, the drive later stalled at the 50, and the Steelers won with a walk-off field goal, 30-27.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the most diverse passport in the NFL, regardless of his trip to Egypt during mandatory minicamp in 2024 or wherever he goes to do ayahuasca. Rodgers, who didn’t play in a foreign country until 2022, has now started games in England, Ireland, and France.
After Sunday’s 16-10 win over the Saints in Paris, Rodgers told reporters that the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement could have included a full-blown international week, with 16 games in 16 foreign locations.
“The reach of the league is fantastic, and I think I always wanted to be a part of it,” Rodgers said, via Garrett Podell of CBS Sports. “I think it’d have been phenomenal for the game. Now, the owners wanted to push for 17 games for the extra revenue because they care so much about player safety, but it would have been nice.”
Seventeen regular-season games and a full week of international games are not mutually exclusive, on the surface. However, even though Rodgers apparently would have been in favor of a full-blown international week, plenty of players would not be thrilled about playing one game per year in another country every year. (Even though 16 international games seems inevitable in the next CBA.)
Rodgers still wants to see an international week, even as he finishes what he insists will be his final NFL season.
“I think there are great opportunities for expansion in those things,” Rodgers said. “It’d be awesome to see them, you know, have an international week because I think it’s great for the game and the expansion of the game. And I wish there was a mandate, though, from the league [that] they would have to open up their pocketbooks too, and they’re maybe a little tight on money and stuff. I think they should mandate every team coming over Sunday or Monday to really enjoy the culture and the place you’re going. You could do events in those cities and outreach stuff and community work. But they won’t because they’re tight.”
Although Rodgers and I don’t see eye to eye on various subjects, I’ll agree with him wholeheartedly on that point. The league is, to put it kindly, extremely careful with money.
Still, it’s hard to imagine all 16 international games being placed in the same week. The early-morning window for the European games has the potential to become a full-blown broadcast package. Likewise, jamming all 16 international games would limit cities like London to only two games for the season — one at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one at Wembley Stadium.
Bottom line? Sixteen international games are coming. But it seems unlikely that all 16 international games would be played in the same week.
The AFC North and NFC North are loaded, to an unprecedented extent in NFL history.
All eight teams in the two North divisions are above .500 after Week 7. Never before has the league had two divisions with every team having a winning record heading into Week 8.
The Browns lead the AFC North at 5-2 because they have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the 5-2 Steelers. The Bengals are 4-2 and the Ravens are 4-3.
The Vikings are 6-0, the only remaining undefeated team in the NFC. The Bears are in second place in the NFC North at 5-2, followed by the Lions at 4-2 and the Packers at 4-3.
If the playoffs started today, the Browns would be the No. 3 seed in the AFC. The Steelers would be the No. 6 seed and the Bengals would be the No. 7 seed. The Ravens would be out of the playoffs.
In the NFC, the Vikings would be the No. 1 seed and the three other teams would be the three wild cards: The Bears would be the No. 5 seed, the Lions would be No. 6 and the Packers would be No. 7 — as they have been each of the last three years.
We’re a long way from the playoffs, but right now, it looks like most of the biggest games down the stretch will be played in the North.
Steelers running back Jaylen Warren has been the focal point of the offense this season, and it was no different today against the Saints in Paris.
Warren made big plays both running the ball and catching passes out of the backfield as the Steelers won 16-10.
On a day when both quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Tyler Shough, were fine but not spectacular, the difference was the running game: Warren and Rico Dowdle consistently picked up yardage against the Saints’ defense, while Saints running backs Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller could do nothing against the Steelers’ defense.
Warren finished with 18 carries for 101 yards and three catches for 36 yards. Dowdle added nine carries for 41 yards and six catches for 45 yards.
Kamara had six carries for five yards and Miller had eight carries for six yards against a Steelers front that was dominant all game. Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen had a big day.
Rodgers also made his presence felt running the ball, with an eight-yard run on third-and-6 just before the two-minute warning to keep the Steelers’ game-clinching drive alive.
In addition to losing the game, the Saints lost safety Justin Reid left the game with a concussion, and running back CJ Donaldson left the game with a shoulder injury.
Saints wide receiver Barion Brown had a big day in a losing effort, leading the team with 57 receiving yards and also having a 42-yard kickoff return and 20-yard punt return.
The win improves the Steelers’ record to 5-2 and they’re in the thick of the race in the very competitive AFC North. The Saints fall to 2-5, and they’re not out of it in the NFC South.
The last play of the first half today in Paris saw the Steelers’ offense have to rush off the field after Aaron Rodgers was sacked on third down with no timeouts remaining, and the Steelers’ field goal team had to rush onto the field.
But despite the somewhat chaotic scene, Chris Boswell hit a 47-yard field goal as time expired on the first half, and the Steelers lead 13-10.
It’s been a back-and-forth battle that saw Rodgers throw for 164 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and Saints quarterback Tyler Shough throw for 152 yards and a touchdown. Shough came into the game with broken bones in his left hand, and during the game he appeared to be getting his right hand examined by the medical staff as well, but he hasn’t shown any ill effects.
Although it’s officially a Saints home game, t’s a largely pro-Steelers crowd in Paris for the NFL’s first regular-season game in France. And those fans liked how the first half ended.
Maybe the words “clear and obvious” get lost in translation into French.
That’s the only explanation for why the replay review process in Paris today overturned what appeared to be Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt strip-sacking Saints quarterback Tyler Shough.
Watt hit Shough, knocked the ball loose and came up with it when they both fell to the ground, and the officials on the field immediately ruled it a fumble that Watt recovered. But an expedited replay review overturned it to a sack and Shough down by contact.
That’s not the way it looked, and it certainly didn’t look so clear and obvious to justify the immediate overturn from the expedited review.
Two plays later, the Saints kicked a field to tie the score 3-3.
On the next drive, however, Pittsburgh re-took the lead, on a quick drive that saw Aaron Rodgers hit DK Metcalf downfield for a 51-yard pass, and then throw a four-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Washington. That touchdown pass was the 540th of Rodgers’ career, moving him ahead of Peyton Manning and into third in NFL history, behind only Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
The Steelers lead 10-3.
The Steelers’ offense has revolved around running back Jaylen Warren all season, and in the early going today in Paris it’s no different.
The Steelers received the opening kickoff and marched down the field on the first possession of the game with Warren carrying three times for 43 yards, including a big 29-yard run. Warren also caught the Steelers’ only completed pass on their opening drive, a three-yarder from Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers tried to hit DK Metcalf in the end zone on third-and-goal, but it came up incomplete, and the Steelers settled for a Chris Boswell 28-yard field goal.
It’s a 3-0 Steelers lead early in the NFL’s first-ever game in France.
As Aaron Rodgers prepares to become the first quarterback in NFL history to play in four different countries, he’s on the verge of taking over third place on the all-time touchdown pass list.
Via NBC Sports research, Rodgers needs only one more to break a tie with Hall of Famer Peyton Manning for No. 3. Rodgers and Manning are currently tied at 539.
Rodgers likely will be stuck at No. 3, given his plan to retire after the season. He needs 32 (when I taped the attached video my math skills had me thinking it was 22) to catch Hall of Famer Drew Brees with 571. Future Hall of Famer Tom Brady holds the all-time record at 649.
In six games this season, Rodgers has 12 touchdown passes and five interceptions. For his career, his 539 touchdown passes are offset by 128 interceptions, which translates to a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4.21.
More importantly, the Steelers are trying to win their third game in a row after starting 2-2. A victory in Paris would put them at 5-2 and, possibly, all alone in first place in the AFC North (if the Browns and Ravens both lose on Sunday).
It’s too late to turn back now.
With kickoff to Sunday’s game between the Steelers and Saints in Paris less than 13 hours away, as of this posting, the plan continues to be full speed ahead for Steelers-Saints at Stade de France. Even if the league is potentially going to be stepping into a steaming pile of merde.
Via Mark Maske of Front Office Sports, the game remains set for a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff after another day of local protests in Paris. More than 400,000 participated in the demonstrations, which resulted in more than 1,000 arrests. Per the Associated Press, a march that started peacefully ended with protesters throwing fireworks and other objects at police. They responded with tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons.
The question remains whether protestors will target the NFL game, in an effort to send a clear international message. No matter how secure the stadium may be, the path to the venue’s security perimeter may not be.
Hopefully, there will be no incidents. It’s still a calculated risk for the NFL, one that many would regard as unnecessary.
For the NFL, the necessity to play flows from the ongoing obsession to export the game to other countries. If something occurs, it will be impossible for the league to shrug and to say, “We didn’t know that could happen.” And it will throw a wrench into the plan to globalize the game.
Even without any specific problems on Sunday, the situation underscores the realities of potentially putting teams in other countries, with other governments and other citizenries that could eventually complicate the effort to play all games as scheduled.
For now, the league doesn’t care. It only sees one thing — the possibility of transforming a billion-dollar business into a trillion-dollar behemoth if fans in other countries become as passionate about pro football as Americans are.
