In the old days, a coach might beat his chest if he made a controversial decision that went right. Nowadays, he posts on Twitter about it.
Shortly after the Raiders’ come-from-behind 35-34 victory over the Saints in the Superdome on Sunday, in which the winning play was a two-point conversion pass from Derek Carr to Michael Crabtree with 47 seconds to go, Jack Del Rio took to Twitter to respond to a tweet that had been posted by the math majors at ESPN. It said that based on ESPN’s win probability model, the Raiders had a 51 percent chance to win if they had kicked an extra point in that situation and a 44 percent chance if they went for two.
“Good thing ESPN isn’t coaching the Raiders,” Del Rio tweeted.
Indeed, Del Rio showed a good feel for the game he was watching and experiencing.
He’d seen Drew Brees dissect his defense (Brees ended up with 423 yards passing and four touchdowns). He’d endured a 98-yard Brees-to-Brandin Cooks touchdown. He’d suffered through 14 Raiders penalties for an insane 141 yards.
Del Rio was correct not to want to play into a fifth quarter with Brees and the Saints.
“I was thinking that we’re here to win,” he said. “Let’s win it right now.”
According to the NFL, the Raiders became the fourth team to score the winning points in the final minute on a two-point conversion and the first on opening weekend.
“It was not unexpected,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “If you were looking closely at that fourth quarter, we were having trouble stopping anything, and I felt like, on the road, in a game like this, I probably would have done the exact same thing .”
As it was, Brees threw passes of 17 and 13 yards to Willie Snead to tie Peyton Manning for the most 400-yard passing games (14) and set up kicker Wil Lutz for an unlikely 61-yard field-goal try to win the game. Lutz’s kick had more than enough juice but tailed wide left.
The Eagle has landed
As soft landing spots go, a rookie quarterback probably couldn’t hope for better than a home game against the Browns. More will be asked of the second-overall pick from North Dakota State, but the Eagles have to be happy with what they saw on Sunday. Carson Wentz went 22 of 37 for 278 yards and two touchdowns. The first, a nicely delivered fade to Jordan Matthews, will have a worthy place on his highlight reel.
“This is who he is. This is his DNA.” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said of Wentz. “And he really handled himself great all week long. He prepared like he was a five-, six-year veteran, and obviously, he played that way.”
Watch out, Rexy!
The Bills didn’t do Rex Ryan’s coaching career much good with a moribund performance in a 13-7 loss to the Ravens. The defense was decent, allowing just one touchdown and sacking Joe Flacco four times. That’s nice if Ryan plans to be a defensive coordinator at his next stop.
Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula are not going to be as patient with Ryan as was Woody Johnson. Of course, Ryan took the Jets to the AFC Championship game his first two seasons before a steep and steady decline. Terry Pegula is 65 and he and his wife spent $1.4 billion (with a “B”) for the Bills. If Ryan can’t figure out how to put up more than 176 yards and seven points on the board, he won’t be long for Buffalo.
Life after Teddy
The Vikings are out to prove that football is not a one-man game and that a season is not over before it starts just because the quarterback, in this case Teddy Bridgewater, goes down. With Sam Bradford not ready to start after his trade from Philadelphia for two picks, including a No. 1, the Vikings went with 15-year man Shaun Hill in Tennessee.
Hill managed the game OK, throwing for 236 yards without a touchdown or interception. But it was 10-0 Titans at the half. Cordarrelle Patterson took the second-half kickoff 61 yards to set up the first of two Blair Walsh field goals. Then the Vikings continued a 25-point explosion with two defensive touchdowns — Eric Kendricks’ 77-yard interception and Danielle Hunter’s 24-yard fumble return — and two more Walsh field goals.
Play of the day
The Aaron Rodgers-to-Davante Adams touchdown connection with 13 seconds to go in the first half had a little bit of everything. First, Rodgers averted a rush and stepped up in the pocket, then heaved the ball downfield as he was being dragged down by the shirt by Jaguars rookie Jalen Ramsey. At the goal line, Adams made a diving catch with Davon House draped all over him to give the Packers a 21-17 lead.
The big number
220: Chargers RB Melvin Gordon finally set foot in the end zone on the 220th touch of his career, a 1-yard run in the first quarter in Kansas City. He would score again on a 6-yard run but the Chargers would blow a 24-3 lead and fall 33-27 to the Chiefs in overtime. The 15th-overall pick in the 2015 draft had 184 carries and 33 receptions as a rookie without scoring.
For starters
Four games were decided by one point (Broncos/Panthers, Bengals/Jets, Raiders/Saints, Giants/Cowboys), a record for Week 1. There were also two two-point games (Seahawks/Dolphins and Patriots/Cardinals) and two four-point margins (Packers/Jaguars and Lions/Colts). … There were five coaches making debuts Sunday, and they went 3-2. The winners were the Eagles’ Doug Pederson, the Giants’ Ben McAdoo and the Buccaneers’ Dirk Koetter. The losers were Hue Jackson of the Browns and Adam Gase, whose Dolphins hung tough and lost on a touchdown with 31 seconds to go in Seattle. Chip Kelly will start his 49ers career Monday night at home against the Rams. … Aside from Jimmy Garoppolo, the most anticipated starting quarterback unveiling was in Houston, where Brock Osweiler led the Texans past the Bears, 23-14. The Texans gave Osweiler a four-year, $72 million deal with $37 million guaranteed in the first two years to wrest him away from John Elway and the champion Broncos. His overall numbers (231 yards, 2 TDs) weren’t eye-opening, but he did find a second receiving weapon to join DeAndre Hopkins in rookie first-round pick Will Fuller, who debuted with 107 yards receiving and a touchdown.
Three stars
1. Alex Smith
Chiefs QB
Down 24-3 in the third quarter and 27-10 early in the fourth, Smith led a furious Kansas City comeback. He threw for 363 yards and two TDs and scored on a 2-yard run to beat the Chargers in overtime.
2. Jimmy Garoppolo
Patriots QB
He impersonated Tom Brady perfectly on a 13-play, 61-yard field-goal drive that gave the Patriots the winning points. Hit on 24 of 33 for 264 yards and a touchdown on the road against an elite Cardinals defense.
3. Eric Kendricks
Vikings LB
The Vikings were in a post-Teddy Bridgewater daze, down 10-6 late in the third to the Titans, when Kendricks intercepted Marcus Mariota and raced 77 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
Fantasy Insanity
- Devonta Freeman fantasy owners watched in horror Sunday as Tevin Coleman hoarded half the Falcons’ RB touches. Coleman had eight carries to Freeman’s 11 (neither was effective with 22 and 20 yards, respectively). Worse for those who drafted Freeman, Coleman, previously not an active part of the passing game, had six catches on eight targets for 95 yards. Freeman had four catches for 20 yards on four targets.
- Spencer Ware took the ball and ran with it and caught it and scored it. Though he ended up with just 11 carries (mostly due to the fact Kansas City was playing from behind), he tallied 70 yards and a score. Better, Ware — like Coleman, not previously a big part of passing game — caught seven catches for 129 yards. Even when Jamaal Charles gets healthy, Ware will continue to play a significant role.
- Sunday’s “Oh no!” moment came when Chargers receiver Keenan Allen went down, reportedly with a torn ACL that will end his season. As we saw when Allen was hurt last year, QB Philip Rivers never really settled into a new favorite, unless you count RB Danny Woodhead or TE Antonio Gates. Travis Benjamin is more deep threat than possession receiver. Dontrelle Inman is, well, he’s Dontrelle Inman. Don’t be surprised if the Chargers bring back camp cut James Jones.
–Drew Loftis