4C z THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 z USA TODAY E3 SPORTS
game (181.1) and time of possession
(34:31), both of which are second best in
the league. Another winner has to be de-
fensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who
looks like he’s auditioning for a head
coaching gig soon. He’s leading San
Francisco’s defense to new heights and
has rookie defensive end Nick Bosa (
tackles, seven sacks, one interception,
one forced fumble) playing like a candi-
date for defensive player of the year.
Wide-open MVP race:It seems like
the consensus for the player who most
deserves the most valuable player
award changes each week. At varying
times, quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers
(Packers), Deshaun Watson (Texans),
Lamar Jackson (Ravens), Russell Wil-
son (Seahawks), Dak Prescott (Cow-
boys) and Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs)
each had a legitimate argument. Pan-
thers running back Christian McCaffrey
and Saints receiver Michael Thomas are
getting some love in the conversation,
too. It’s almost as if each player is trying
to one-up the field, and it has been fun
to watch.
Sean Payton:This year – with quar-
terback Drew Brees (thumb) and run-
ning back Alvin Kamara (ankle) missing
time with injuries – has reinforced that
Payton is one of the best coaches in the
NFL and a master game planner. In par-
ticular, Payton altered his offense from
week to week when backup Teddy
Bridgewater was starting – at times em-
phasizing short, accurate throws and at
others shifting to a dominant, physical
rushing attack. Now that New Orleans is
getting healthy, the Saints (7-1) are
primed for a playoff run and Payton
might be in line for coach of the year
honors.
Dolphins:Yes, it’s curious to put a
team that has yet to win a game on a list
of winners, but Miami lands here be-
cause it has stuck to the plan to raze the
organization and completely rebuild.
The Dolphins have steadily been pack-
aging veteran players in exchange for
draft capital. And yes, they’ll eventually
need to hit on their picks, but the fran-
chise is executing the rebuild as it
should. Every personnel decision the
team has made has been made with the
future in mind. The coaches are trying to
maintain a competitive atmosphere,
but the roster simply isn’t good enough.
That’s by design. Look instead at the
Jets, the Redskins, the Bengals and the
Falcons – teams that thought they’d
compete in 2019 but now face difficult
overhauls. Those teams face an uphill
battle while Miami is steps ahead.
Losers
Pass interference rule:The rule that
coaches could challenge pass interfer-
ence calls brought optimism that the
league would be taking legitimate steps
to correct the inconsistency associated
with the enforcement of fouls. The
problem has been that the rule change
has been mostly for show. Just this past
weekend, only the second successful
pass interference call was overturned,
despite there being well more than 20
challenges. In many cases, there ap-
peared to be a clear case for a foul.
That’s why the league used the “clear
and obvious” language when it crafted
the rule. Coaches should use the first
half of the season as an indication that
unless a player gets the treatment Tom-
mylee Lewis did for the Saints in the
NFC Championship Game, they should
hold on to their red challenge flags. The
clear message is that unless it’s an egre-
gious case, any challenge is going to be a
waste of a timeout.
Rookie coaches not named LaFleur
and Kingsbury:Aside from Matt La-
Fleur, the coach of the 7-1 Packers, and
Kliff Kingsbury, the coach of the 3-4-
but surprisingly competitive Cardinals,
it has been rough for rookie coaches.
Brian Flores (Dolphins), Zac Taylor
(Bengals), Vic Fangio (Broncos) and
Freddie Kitchens (Browns) have com-
bined for a 4-26 record through Week 8.
Two of those teams, Miami and Cincin-
nati, are winless and in the middle of
complete rebuilds. Throw in Denver,
and it’s safe to expect multiple years be-
fore any of them are legitimately com-
petitive in their divisions. The Browns
are a different case in that they have
young talent at key positions and have
fallen well below expectations. Their
schedule does lighten and become easi-
er, so Cleveland should – in theory – im-prove. But there’s no other way to paint
the start of the season in Cleveland than
as a letdown.
Kickers:If it seems like it has been a
bad year for kickers in the NFL, it’s be-
cause it has. This season has seen the
highest number of missed combined
kicks (field goals and extra points)
through Week 8 since 1985 with 121 mis-
fires. That mark is 12 more than the 109
that happened through eight weeks in
both 2001 and 2017. It says a lot that
even longtime kickers are going through
troubles. Matt Bryant was just released
from the Falcons on Tuesday, and Adam
Vinatieri has battled inconsistency with
the Colts.
Teams that won the offseason:This
is geared toward the Browns and the
Jets. Cleveland made a splash by adding
receiver Odell Beckham Jr., edge rusher
Olivier Vernon and defensive tackle
Sheldon Richardson, among others, and
the Jets signed running back Le’Veon
Bell, linebacker C.J. Mosley and receiver
Jamison Crowder. Instead of seeing the
infusion of talent gelling right away,
both teams have sputtered. The Jets
have dealt with injuries, but Bell’s pro-
duction has been minimal. And Cleve-
land added all those players but didn’t
fix its offensive line, and turnovers and
unforced errors remain serious issues.
This is yet another reason why the Patri-
ots are so successful: They make quiet
but calculated decisions in free agencyand don’t feel the need to overpay.
Chargers:This was a team many
were expecting to compete for a Super
Bowl. They have their veteran quarter-
back in place in Philip Rivers. They have
dynamic skill position players. They
have a stout defense that has star talent,
including defensive end Joey Bosa. Yet
the Chargers are 3-5 and in third place in
the AFC West, and they’re 2-4 in the
conference. They just fired Ken Whisen-
hunt as their offensive coordinator after
they struggled to gain traction in the
rushing game and are tied for 24th in red
zone conversion rate (48.15%) and 29th
in goal-to-go conversion rate (46.15%).
The good news is the Chargers have
played one division game, losing it to
the Broncos. That means that if the
Chargers can get hot and rip off some
victories against AFC West foes, they
could get back in the playoff picture.
Redskins and Bengals:They have
stars who reportedly want to play else-
where in offensive tackle Trent Wil-
liams for Washington and receiver A.J.
Green for Cincinnati. Green (ankle inju-
ry) will become an unrestricted free
agent at the end of this season. Williams
(holdout) has the rest of this season and
the next left on his contract now that he
reported. But rather than trade the play-
ers and recoup some draft capital to
help their rebuilds, they closed them-
selves off to the possibility. In the end,
that hurt both team and player.NFL
Continued from Page 1C
≠Aaron Rodgers, rushing for yardage against the Chiefs, has completed 65.4% of his passes for 2,324 yards and 16 TDs as
the Packers went 7-1 and he emerged as an MVP candidate in the season’s first half.JAY BIGGERSTAFF/USA TODAY SPORTScould have maintained its one-loss tra-
jectory.
As a result, now assured of a 31st con-
secutive season without a national
championship, the Irish will spend the
week practicing introspection as much
as formations.
Having seven team captains should
prove helpful. Kelly met Monday with
his captains, as he always does, but a
spate of further meetings should follow,
both coach-player and coach-coach.
That’s how much of a ripple effect the
Wolverines caused by scoring 28
straight points after Notre Dame pulled
within 17-7 with 5:27 left in the third
quarter. As the margin grew, a rain-
marred loss to a traditional opponent
turned into something entirely differ-
ent.
Instead of Jim Harbaugh improving
to 2-10 against top-10 teams, there was
more talk about Kelly’s program suffer-
ing its 11th straight road loss to a top-
team. The average margin of defeat in
those past five tests has been 21.
points; overall it has been 14.2 points.
That streak began in 2013 at Michi-
gan Stadium, so Saturday’s loss, both
“devastating” and “embarrassing” in the
on-air estimation of ABC analyst Kirk
Herbstreit, offered a painful bookend.
“We really start to focus on who you
are as a person and what’s your why?”
Kelly said. “Why are you doing this?
That’s so much more important after a
week like we had.”
Kelly, signed to a six-year contract
extension through 2021, hasn’t heard
much squawking about his job status
since reassessing and recalibrating ev-
ery aspect of his program after a 4-8 di-
saster in 2016.
A 10-3 season followed, despite that
turnover-fueled embarrassment at Mi-
ami, and 2018’s 12-game run of perfec-
tion gave Kelly his third Home Depot
National Coach of the Year Award in adecade. The Irish have won 27 of their
past 33 games.
Another strong recruiting class is al-
ready lined up for 2020, with 247 Sports
ranking Notre Dame eighth overall,
thanks to commitments from seven
four-star recruits and two five-stars:
Virginia running back Chris Tyree and
St. Louis wide receiver Jordan Johnson.
The grumbling could increase if Kelly,who turned 58 last week, is unable to
snap Notre Dame out of its post-Michi-
gan doldrums. He reminded reporters
on Monday that the Hokies, in Novem-
ber 2016, were the last Atlantic Coast
Conference team to come into Notre
Dame Stadium and win.
Duke also beat the Irish at home that
season, and Louisville, in 2014, was the
only other ACC team to successfully raid
The House That Rockne Built during
Kelly’s 10-season tenure.
Four of Notre Dame’s remaining op-
ponents will be coming off bye weeks,
starting with the 5-2 Hokies. Even Stan-
ford, which opened 1-3, has returned to
.500 and recently got senior quarter-
back K.J. Costello back from a thumb in-
jury.
Then again, if Notre Dame can re-
claim its much-discussed “physicality”
and run the table, it will have three
straight 10-win seasons for the first time
since the Lou Holtz era (1991-93) and
just the second time in school history.
“The word that brings everybody to-
gether is: Are you accountable or not ac-
countable?” Kelly said. “Are we account-
able as coaches and are we accountable
as players? If everybody is accountable,
then you get up, you get going again. I’m
very confident our guys are accountable
guys.”
Nor, Kelly said, is he concerned about
outside distractions overtaking his pro-
gram.
“They know they have to avoid the
noise,” he said. “They won’t be defined
by one game.
“They can be remembered by win-
ning the month of November. They win
the month of November, the noise will
change. All will be happy.”Irish
Continued from Page 1C
Notre Dame is 86-37 under coach Brian Kelly, including a loss in a BCS title game,
but the Irish haven’t won a national title since 1988. QUINN HARRIS/USA TODAY SPORTS