NFL Weekend Review: Brian Flores dominates Chicago Bears, Tyler Shough heroics and more Justin Herbert misery

Brian Flores strikes again, another New Orleans Saints comeback and more pressure on Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. Here is our review of NFL Sunday…

The lead

The Chicago Bears scored 59 points in Week One of the NFL season. On Sunday, they scored three. Welcome to the Brian Flores experience.

It had been billed as the ultimate chess match between two of modern football’s smartest and most unhinged minds, Ben Johnson’s free-scoring offense against Flores’ blitz-heavy Minnesota Vikings defense. Their collision of controlled chaos would lean in favour of the latter as the Vikings claimed a 9-3 victory, coming with the minor asterisk of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams leaving the game due to a hamstring injury midway through the fourth quarter.

Williams was blitzed on 81.8 per cent of his drop backs prior to his departure, according to NextGen Stats. It made for a blitz rate that would have ranked as the third highest in a game since at least 2018.

By the end of the game the Vikings had recorded four sacks, 10 quarterback hits and seven pass breakups, capped by Dallas Turner’s game-icing sack of Tyson Bagent on the final play. With the win Flores improved to 2-1 in his duels with Johnson since the latter’s appointment as Bears head coach, and 5-2 dating back to Johnson’s time as Detroit Lions offensive coordinator.

It was the latest marquee addition to a brimming resume in the campaign to launch Flores back into head coaching contention. In fact, that he isn’t already an NFL head coach again is an injustice. Few in the league are capable of stifling a Johnson offense with such command, guile and fire-with-fire aggression, Flores further bolstering what has become a glowing reputation during his time alongside Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota.

The narrative in Minnesota has long been O’Connell’s ability to achieve a lot with little when it comes to accentuating and elevating once-written-off quarterbacks. But Flores’ influence has been equal if not superior when it comes to keeping the Vikings in playoff relevance. From the variation and ludicrousy of his blitz angles, to the way he manipulates the versatility of multi-faceted personnel like Josh Metellus, Flores has forged one of the most dynamic units in football.

It helps, too, to unlock a star pass rusher, and it appears Flores is the perfect man to raise the curtain on Dallas Turner’s breakout campaign. Turner added two sacks to his tally, including the finisher on the final play, while notching 10 more pressures to lift his total to a league-high 20 through two weeks.

The Vikings defense is among the best in the league, and Flores is the primary reason. The Bears, Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions are praying the silver lining to this is that he won’t be around in the NFC North much longer. If football is being honest with itself, he should be a head coach in the next cycle. He probably should be already.

Long live the box office Brian Flores blitz.

What we learned

Jaylen Waddle has arrived in Denver. The Broncos wide receiver announced himself on his home opener in Mile High with eight catches for 138 yards as Denver overcame a slow start to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-13 in a response to their Week One loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and a bounce back game of sorts for new play-caller Davis Webb. Waddle highlighted his value to the Broncos offense in the second quarter when he flipped the field with a 49 reception in tight coverage to set his side up at the one, sparking his offense into life in the process. He is the splash play outlet Bo Nix needed to take this aerial attack forward.
The New Orleans have a quarterback. For the second week in a row Tyler Shough spearheaded a Saints comeback, this one though ending in victory as Kellen Moore’s side stunned Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in a 24-17 win. The Saints entered the fourth quarter trailing 17-9 before Shough went 12 of 14 passing for 119 yards, one touchdown pass and one rushing touchdown to cap the fightback. It came a week after Shough shrugged off his poor start to throw for 410 yards and three touchdowns as the Saints fell 31-30 to the Detroit Lions in an overtime thriller, both performances underlining his blossoming connection to Chris Olave. The former Ohio State Buckeye had eight catches for 86 yards and a touchdown on Sunday as he seeks to establish himself among the premium wide receivers in football.

Kevin Stefanski is in hell. Once at the helm of a quarterback nightmare in Cleveland, he is now staring at a similar state of sputtering purgatory in Atlanta, where his Falcons just fell to 0-2 after a 34-3 defeat to the Panthers. With Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr out, Cooper Rush took the reins again under center as he completed just 10 of 17 passes for 86 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions, before fourth string option Jack Strand went eight of 15 for 59 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. It makes defending Bijan Robinson that little bit easier when opponents know every down is reliant on him, the Falcons running back still mustering 72 yards from 16 carries as one of the most unjustly wasted stars in football.

Overreaction or reality?

Justin Herbert may need to move on from the Los Angeles Chargers in order to reignite his NFL career. There will always be the argument it would and should have happened for him by now were he worthy of recognition among the league’s elite quarterbacks, but between a talent vacuum on offense in recent years and a sack tally higher than any other quarterback since he entered the league, there is an undeniable flip side to his struggles. After falling to the Arizona Cardinals in Week One, he was dealt another low on Sunday as the Chargers lost 26-14 to Kirk Cousins and the Las Vegas Raiders. Herbert finished the game 15 of 27 for 192 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions while being sacked three times. This was supposed to be the season of fireworks alongside new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel; so far, it has been a disaster with no sign of prospective Chargers contention. The lack of playoff win is an overbearing monkey on his back, and now the pressure is truly mounting. Herbert isn’t playing well and isn’t immune to criticism, and this has become a bizarre situation in Los Angeles.

Winners & Losers

Winners:

Ja’Marr Chase: Joe Burrow’s star weapon delivered another reminder of why he stakes a claim for being the best receiver in football with an absurd swivelling, back-peddling 32-yard touchdown catch in Cincinnati’s 20-6 win over the Houston Texans. He finished the game with seven catches for 75 yards and two scores as Zac Taylor’s leading stars neutralised one of the most feared defenses in the league.

DeVonta Smith: With AJ Brown no longer in the fold, DeVonta Smith is the unequivocal No 1 in Philadelphia. On Sunday, he lived up to the task with an instrumental role in the Eagles’ 24-20 win over the Tennessee Titans. Trailing by three and staring at third-and-six in the final 20 seconds, Jalen Hurts floated deep in the direction of Smith, who was on hand to make a leaping grab that would set-up Darius Cooper’s game-winning three-yard touchdown catch. It featured within a defining performance that saw Smith make 10 receptions for 117 yards and a score.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba: The reigning Offensive Player of the Year continues to reach new heights, recording one of the best games of his Super Bowl-winning NFL career with nine catches for 155 yards and three touchdowns in Seattle’s 31-7 win over the Arizona Cardinals, who in comparison had just 151 yards in total as a team.

Losers:

Jesse Minter: Wavering identity tripped up Jesse Minter and his Ravens on Sunday as they threw away a fourth-quarter lead in a 24-17 loss to the Saints. They had looked in command behind Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry early, the latter of whom ran in a touchdown out of wildcat formation. Declan Doyle’s offense then saw Henry carry the ball just five times for 17 yards in the second half, drifting from their star running back to pave the way for the Saints fight-back.

Baker Mayfield: Revenge game defeats are tough. Revenge game defeats to the Cleveland Browns taste that little bit more bitter. Being out-played by Deshaun Watson in a revenge game defeat tastes even worse. That’s what happened on Sunday as Mayfield’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell to a 23-19 defeat to Browns, the newly-paid quarterback failing to find Emeka Egbuka for a game-winning touchdown pass in the final 20 seconds.

Player of the Weekend – Devin Lloyd, LB, Carolina Panthers

Devin Lloyd was unfortunate not to get his bumper pay-day in Jacksonville this past year, but is already looking like one of the best free agency signings of the offseason. The linebacker, who signed a three-year $45m deal with the Carolina Panthers, starred with two interceptions, one pick-six, one sack, three pass breakups, nine tackles and two tackles for loss in his side’s 34-3 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

Game of the Weekend

Let’s go with Denver’s home win over the Jaguars, mainly because I was here and on hand to experience the Mile High atmosphere for the first time in my career. What I did enjoy was the eruption of boos from the home fans as the big-screen displayed the number of ‘no shows’ for the game, which is apparently a regular feature here. The noise is quite incredible, even from inside what is sold as a sound-proof press box. Multiple penalties and a sluggish start prompted some early groans from Denver locals, but by the end their elite defense had resumed its league-leading work of last season to thwart Trevor Lawrence and Liam Coen’s Jags offense. Bo Nix, too, has found a new best friend in Waddle, making for a passing attack capable of stretching the field.

Latest news

Jayden Daniels was handed a fresh injury setback as he dislocated his left elbow again less than a year after the injury that saw him sidelined for the second half of last season.

Daniels was taken off on a cart at the end of the first half of Washington’s 37-20 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams also suffered a right hamstring injury that saw him exit midway through the fourth quarter of Chicago’s defeat to the Vikings.

“We’ll know more tomorrow [Monday],” said Bears head coach Ben Johnson.

“I’m actually happy it’s nothing with the knee. That was my first inclination, but the hamstring could be pretty damaging as well. We’ll see how bad it is tomorrow, and we’ll go from there.”

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