The Boston Globe - 11.09.2019

C4 Sports The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Browns top the Week 1 duds

would be bad, but the 59-10 loss to the Ravens was histori- cally bad. The 49-point deficit is the fifth-largest in Week 1 history, and the biggest blowout since the Browns beat the Steel- ers, 51-0, in 1989. The Dolphins allowed eight touchdowns, allowed Lamar Jackson to compile a perfect 158.3 passer rating, and were outgained, 643 yards to 200. It was so bad that several Miami players reportedly called their agents after the game, begging to get traded. And the road doesn’t get any easier, with the Dolphins’ next three games against the Pa- triots, Cow- boys, and Chargers. Start stitching those aqua Tua jerseys. RNo team was a bigger dud than the Browns, who followed up six months of hype with an embarrassing 43-13 home loss to the Ti- tans. Baker Mayfield threw three interceptions, and Odell Beckham’s debut was a yawner, with seven catches for 71 yards and no touchdowns. The game was competitive late in the third quarter, with the Browns trailing only 15-13, but they fell apart over the final 17 minutes, allowing four touchdowns. That doesn’t bode well for first-year coach Freddie Kitchens. ROf the other first-time head coaches, the best performance was by Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor, and his team lost. But the Bengals were feisty in Seat- tle and nearly pulled off the up- set as Andy Dalton threw for 418 yards in a 21-20 loss. And the second-best performance came in a tie. Kliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals couldn’t get anything going for 3½ quarters, but he and Kyler Murray deserve credit for pull- ing off an impressive fourth- quarter comeback. Murray’s 54 pass attempts were the second- most in a quarterback’s debut (Sam Bradford, 55). Otherwise, the new coaches fizzled. LaFleur got the victory, but he clearly hasn’t clicked yet with Aaron Rodgers, who threw for just 203 yards and looked discombobulated trying to run the new offense. The Jets’ Adam Gasecouldn’tgetanythinggo- ing with Sam Darnold (175 yards on 41 attempts) or Le’Veon Bell (92 total yards and a touchdown) and blew a big lead at home to a division rival. The Bucs’ Bruce Arians, brought in to salvage Jameis Winston,couldn’tpreventhis QB from throwing two pick-six- es in a 31-17 loss to the 49ers. And Vic Fangio’s defense didn’t register a single sack or even a quarterback hit in the Broncos’ 24-16 loss to the Raiders. RThree teams with return- ing coaches had serious flops, which will turn up the heat on their job security. Mike Tomlin’s Steelers have been a major disappointment the past two seasons, and his team was woefully underpre- pared in its 33-3 loss to the Pa- triots. Dan Quinn replaced all three of his coordinators this offseason, and the Falcons re- sponded with a heartless 28-12 loss to the Vikings. And the Gi- ants look no closer to turning it around in Pat Shurmur’s sec-

uONFOOTBALL Continued from Page C1

ond season following a 35-17 loss to the Cowboys. Eli Man- ning wasn’t the problem, but he wasn’t the solution, either. RJacksonville’s debut was also a dud, but only because of bad injury luck. Nick Foles’s big debut lasted just 11 snaps, as he suffered a broken clavicle mid- way through the first quarter of the 40-26 loss to the Chiefs. The Jaguars were consid- ered a strong bounce-back team by many this year, but now will have to rely on sixth-round rookie Gardner Minshew for at least the next couple of months (they also traded for Steelers backup Josh Dobbs Monday). Minshew actually looked OK in his debut, completing 22 of 25 passes for 275 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. But it’s asking a lot of him to keep the Jag- uars afloat un- til (if?) Foles returns. RI’m going to be tracking the new pass interference/ instant replay rule this year to see how of- ten the plays get challenged and overturned. Coaches challenged this play only four times in the 16 games, and only one call was overturned: Tampa Bay challenged an incomplete pass and won, with Richard Sherman being given a defensive pass interference penalty. It marked the first time in NFL history that a flag was “put on the field” by a replay challenge. Minnesota and Seattle both lost a challenge to take away a defensive pass interference, and the penalties were upheld. Green Bay lost a challenge looking for a defensive pass interference, and the no-call was upheld. The Jets had a touchdown nullified by an offensive pass interference that was called upon replay, but this was an automat- ic review, not a challenge. Director of officiating Al Riv- eron established a very high bar for overturning calls during the preseason, and stuck to it for Week 1. REven after the Texans drafted a left tackle in the first round, and traded the moon for Laremy Tunsil two weeks ago, they still can’t protect Deshaun Watson, who is coming off a 62- sack season. Watson took six sacks and 11 hits in Monday night’s 30-28 loss to the Saints, and was in and out of the medi- cal tent during the first half. Perhaps Watson’s fearless- ness in the pocket and willing- ness to extend plays is what leads to him taking so many hits. And no matter how many resources the Texans sink into their offensive line, they won’t be able to protect Watson un- less he changes his style. RNow we know why the Raiders gave $22 million guar- anteed to free agent receiver Tyrell Williams, even after trad- ing for Antonio Brown. Wil- liams had six catches for 105 yards against the Broncos. The Raiders probably had an in- kling this spring that they need- ed to sign a second receiver, in case this Brown thing doesn’t work out.

Ex-Patriotplayers RTitans CB Malcolm Butler: Had a 38-yard pick-6, his second career touchdown, to cap the win over the Browns.

RNiners QB Jimmy Garop- polo: Not the best performance in his return from ACL surgery, completing 18 of 27 passes for 166 yards, one touchdown, and a pick-6. But he got the win. RColts QB Jacoby Brissett: Was an efficient 21 of 27 pass- ing for 190 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in a 30-24 overtime loss to the Chargers. Brissett marched the Colts 80 yards for a tying touchdown in the final minute of the fourth quarter. RLions DE Trey Flowers: Had two tackles and no other stats, playing 53 of 89 snaps in the Lions’ 26-26 tie with the Cardinals. RLions WR Danny Amendo- la: Had seven catches for 104 yards and a touchdown. RRaiders RT Trent Brown: Played all 58 snaps at right tackle, helping Derek Carr com- plete 22 of 26 passes as the Raiders didn’t allow a sack or QB hit.

Ex-Patriotcoaches RLions coach Matt Patricia: Tied the Cardinals. Better than last year, when he lost, 48-17, to the Jets. RDolphins coach Brian Flores: His 49-point loss was the second-largest in a coaching debut in NFL history (Saints’ John North, 55 points, 1973). RTitans coach Mike Vrabel: Established an early lead for Coach of the Year with win over the Browns on the road. RHouston coach Bill O’Brien: His team fought hard in a tough loss to the Saints on the road. But he still doesn’t know how to manage the clock or timeouts.

Statsoftheweek (With help from NFL Re- search and ESPN Stats and In- fo) RThe 49ers had three inter- ceptionsagainsttheBucs,top- ping their total (two) from their previous 17 games. RRavens rookie WR Mar- quise Brown had an efficient day, scoring a touchdown on each of his first two catches. He is the first player in NFL history withmultiple40-yardtouch- downs in his debut. Brown played just 14 snaps. RTexans DE J.J. Watt failed to record a tackle or QB hit for the first time in 105 career games. RLions TE T.J. Hockenson’s 131 receivingyardswerethe most by a tight end in his debut in NFL history. RColts K Adam Vinatieri missed two field goal attempts and an extra point in the same game for the first time in his 24- year career. RTexans WR DeAndre Hop- kins, who had zero drops on 163 targets in 2018, had three drops Monday night. RBen Roethlisberger’s streak of 26 games with a touchdown pass was snapped, ending the longest streak in the NFL. Kirk Cousins now has the longest current streak at 17 games. RDolphins QB Ryan Fitzpat- rick became the first player to start and throw a pass for eight teams. RMelvin who? RB Austin Ekeler became the first player in Chargers history to compile 150 total yards and three touchdowns in a season opener. RFuture Hall of Famer DeSean Jackson? The Eagles WR scored his 30th touchdown of 50-plus yards, surpassing Randy Moss for second all time. Jerry Rice has the record (36).

Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin.

Heavy baggage with Brown

owner, coach, and quarterback
he clashed with finally reached
their limits. Forget the frozen
feet and foolhardy helmet bat-
tles in Oakland; the fundamen-
tal nature of Brown’s self-above-
team actions go back to his
Pittsburgh days.
Not that Belichick was ready
to concede as much early Tues-
day (before the rape accusation
was made public), chiding re-
porters who asked him about
Brown by saying, “Same thing
you said about Randy Moss
when we brought him in.”
But Moss came of Patriot age
in a pre-social-media era, and
Brown’s public oversharing in
Pittsburgh did him in. In many
ways, the Steelers are a much
more compatible franchise
match to the Patriots than the
Raiders, given how Pittsburgh
and New England perceive
themselves as above the dra-
matic fray, programs steeped in
stability and tradition.
The Steelers, whose NFL his-
tory stretches back to 1933,
have had only three head
coaches since 1969, and while
the Patriots are relative new-
comers, Belichick is closing out
his second decade at the helm.
They are the twin leaders of the
Super Bowl pack, tied at six ti-
tles apiece.
If the Steelers couldn’t find a
way to make it work with
Brown, that has to give the Pat-
riots pause.
Pittsburgh couldn’t, and,
given what Brown did, the Pat-
riots wouldn’t have been able
to, either. Habitually late to
meetings, constantly posting to
social media, publicly feuding
with teammates, complaining
about touches, missing walk-
throughs, getting benched for a
crucial late-season game...
that won’t fly in New England.
That is why legendary Steel-
er quarterback Terry Bradshaw
said on the “Tiki and Tierney”
radio show Monday, “I do not
see him surviving in New Eng-
land. I don’t know him, but I
personally don’t like him. I’ve
done a couple of things with
him, he’s always late. He’s disre-
spectful of authority.
“I’ve got some serious
doubts about him. He’s a diva.
He’s not the kind of person I
would want to play with. You
don’t win with ‘me’ and he’s a
‘me’ guy.”
Brown’s first public misstep
in Pittsburgh was one of his
worst. In January 2017, he de-
fied both league and team poli-
cy by using Facebook Live to
stream a postgame locker room
celebration, revealing coach
Mike Tomlin profanely calling

uSULLIVAN
Continued from Page C1

out his next opponent (which just happened to be the Patriots in the AFC Championship game). Tomlin yelled, “We spot- ted those [expletives] a day and a half... We’ll be ready for their ass.” Brown and Tomlin later apologized, and Brown was fined $10,000 by the team. But when other details emerged — that quarterback Ben Roethlis- berger had only recently asked Brown to tone down his social media exploits, that Facebook had been paying Brown hun- dreds of thousands of dollars for content — the apology rang hollow. And it didn’t portend change, despite Tomlin telling the public at the time, “It was foolish of him to do that. It was selfish of him to do that. And it was inconsiderate of him to do that.” The easiest marker in the de- mise of Brown’s relationship with the Steelers is what happened last December, when after a Week 16 loss at New Or- leans (in which Brown torched the Saints for 185 yards on 14 catches), he had a midweek confrontation with Roethlis- berger, left the facility, skipped a walkthrough, and ended up suspended for the season finale. He has said Tomlin told him to go home because he was nurs- ing injuries, but the team dis- puted that account, marking Brown as unexcused. There was plenty of belief that it was the continued emer- gence of fellow receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (11 catches, 115 yards vs. Saints, and later voted team MVP) that really rankled Brown. The fallout ended with the decision to accommodate Brown’s trade request in March, but it was not an isolat- ed incident. In an exhaustive analysis of Brown’s Pittsburgh years pub- lished by ESPN in February, re- porter Jeremy Fowler wrote “several [teammates] say Brown routinely showed up late to team meetings that set up the upcoming game week. If he was loosely on time, he might be the last one to walk through the door. One player went as far to say he didn’t see Brown once in the Wednesday morning meetings during his one season with the team.” Belichick doesn’t do late, nor does he do star treatment, which, according to Fowler, Brown got during training camp by staying off site in a lux- ury Airbnb rather than dorm rooms. Belichick also doesn’t do social media, routinely dismissing

it with mangled names such as “MyFace” or “SnapFace.” But Brown uses it to an extreme and the results are rarely team- friendly. Belichick was asked specifi- cally about social media during a conference call with reporters Monday (the morning after his Brown-less team beat the Steel- ers, 33-3) and his interminable pause before answering made it clear he is not a fan. But Brown is. Back in Febru- ary, he did a Twitter Q&A with fans that led him to describe Roethlisberger, who had called out Brown for a mistake run- ning a route, by saying, “He has a owner mentality like he can call out anybody including coaches. Players know but they can’t say anything about it otherwise they meal ticket gone. It’s a dirty game within a game. #truth” Brown later deleted the tweet, but the damage to that relationship was long done any- way. Imagine taking shots at Tom Brady that way? Brown used Twitter to bid farewell to Pittsburgh fans while he was still on the roster. He did an Instagram live video, while on a treadmill, to repeat his demand for a trade. (And also to be called “Mr. Big Chest” instead of “AB.”) He has since established a personal YouTube channel to promote his own brand. Does any of that fit the Belichick way? As Josh Gordon confirmed after Sunday night’s game, itis different in New England. “For me, initially it was a culture shock, it was definitely different,” he said of Belichick’s rules and structure. “I knew this is the way it was going to be. I could get with it or look for a transition somewhere else. It’s tough, but if this is what you want to do, then this is the best place to be.” Will it be for Brown? As his former coach Jon Gruden said Monday night after the Brown- less Raiders beat Denver, “You know, we gave it a shot. Now New England gets their turn. Good luck to them. I can’t deal with it anymore.” That’s more than reporters could get from Tomlin, who had no reaction to Brown’s newest team because, “We moved on from that stuff in March.” Let the Patriots be warned. The baggage keeps piling up.

Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Globe_Tara.

PatriotsdealThomastoJets

the year on IR after tearing his
Achilles’ in December, then
signed a one-year deal with
the Patriots in April.
Thomas spent most of
training camp on the PUP list
but made his debut in the
fourth preseason game, where
he caught 7 of 8 targets for 87
yards. The Patriots didn’t in-
clude him on their initial 53-
man roster but re-signed him
Sept. 2, two days after his cut
day.
The maneuver allowed New
England to avoid putting Har-
ry on season-ending IR and in-
stead put him on the designat-
ed-to-return IR list.
“I actually feel a lot better
now,” Thomas said after his
lone preseason performance.
“Before the injury, I was a little
smaller.
“But I’m a little heavier, a
little stronger. The program

uPATRIOTS
Continued from Page C1

we’ve been doing here has helped out a lot, so I feel great.” When the Patriots agreed to terms with Antonio Brown on Saturday, it was difficult to en- vision Thomas being a major part of the offense. Before the trade, New England had seven receivers on its roster: Brown, Thomas, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon, Phillip Dorsett, Jako- bi Meyers, and Gunner Olsze- wski. They also have insurance in the form of Harry and Cam- eron Meredith on IR and PUP, respectively. “I wish we could just wave a wand and all of that would happen, but unfortunately I don’t really see how that would happen,” Belichick said last week when asked if there was a simple way for receivers who missed time in camp to catch up. “We’ll have to do whatever everyone that’s been here for a number of weeks

has been doing, go out there and get the reps together and get our timing and develop that consistency and continu- ity and confidence on the field.” Thomas wasn’t active Sun- day against the Steelers, an in- dication he would have had a hard time getting snaps even without Brown, and before Harry potentially returns. The Jets were looking to upgrade their receiving corps, which makes the trade a good fit. Belichick also has a good relationship with Gase. Still, given the Patriots know better than anyone where Thomas is physically, there had to be some trepida- tion in New York over making the deal.

Nora Princiotti can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.

JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF

Demaryius Thomas (88) briefly shared a sideline with Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, and Bill
Belichick this preseason but was the odd man out after the team added Antonio Brown.

NORM HALL/GETTY IMAGES Rookie tight end T.J. Hockenson had an NFL record-setting 131 receiving yards in his debut and helped Matt Patricia and the Lions salvage a Week 1 tie against the Cardinals.

KLIFF KINGSBURY

ADAM GASE

BRIAN FLORES

10-3W BEARS

21-20L SEAHAWKS

43-13L TITANS

17-16L BILLS

59-10L RAVENS

24-16L RAIDERS

31-17L 49 ERS

27-27T LIONS

MATT LAFLEUR

ROUGHSTART Eight new head coaches combined to go 1-6-1 in Week 1.

ZAC TAYLOR

VIC FANGIO

FREDDIE KITCHENS

BRUCE ARIANS

The Boston Globe - 11.09.2019

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