Sports

[gardenman]

He's back! The never-ending Ezekiel Elliott suspension is delayed again until Monday, so Elliott can play this week which pushes his suspension back one more week. He'll need more court intervention to keep playing, but he's got one more week free from the suspension. Come Monday they'll have to figure out the next move.

[redwingsgal]

Well, Shady scored 2.5 points for me in my FF league

Not gonna be a good weekend for my team....

[teganslaw]

---

@redwingsgal wrote:

Well, Shady scored 2.5 points for me in my FF league

Not gonna be a good weekend for my team....

---

I play daily fantasy football, and this week I had McCoy in my lineup. I usually don't do Thursday Night Football, but since it looked like a good matchup, I tried it. McCoy let many fans down this week. 

I have T.J Jones in the same lineup, so hopefully, he'll do better on Monday night.

[gardenman]

Expect to see the Eagles throwing the ball to Alshon Jeffery more each week. He reportedly told Carson Wentz the other day that on 50/50 balls, he'll get it 80% of the time and that the twenty percent he doesn't get, he'll make sure the defense doesn't get. If he can hold true to that boast, he'll likely be seeing the ball a lot. Carson's been mostly throwing to him when he's open, but if Jeffery can truly get the ball 80% of the time on those fifty-fifty plays and stop the defense from getting it when he can't, he'll likely see the ball coming his way a whole lot.

If Wentz starts to trust Jeffrey to make a play even when he's covered, that will cut down on the sacks Wentz takes and, if Jeffrey can hold true to his word, give the Eagles big chunks of yards. 

[Drythe]

Loosing one of my faves, Kelvin Benjamin, man he could bring it - OUCH IT HURTS!

Still I say ~ Keep On Pounding ~

[gardenman]

---

@Drythe wrote:

Loosing one of my faves, Kelvin Benjamin, man he could bring it - OUCH IT HURTS!

Still I say ~ Keep On Pounding ~

---

I was kind of surprised by the trades that went down. Kelvin Benjamin was a big part of the Panther's offense and I hadn't heard any rumors of trouble with him. It's a good pickup for Buffalo though.

Likewise the Jay Ajayi trade had me literally doing two spit takes. The first when I heard the Eagles got him and the second when I heard the price. A fourth round pick for a top five runningback? Sure, I'll take that trade any day of the week. Maybe it won't end well, but for now, it looks like highway robbery.

[gardenman]

It's game day!!! We have three pretty interesting games today. The Eagles take on the Broncos, The Cowboys take on the Chiefs. And then Miami takes on Oakland. (The local TV schedule is a tad heavy on AFC West teams this week.)

The Eagles are seven to eight point favorites in today's game which is kind of a lot. Scoring on the Broncos isn't all that easy. They've got the best run defense in the league and two exceptional corners. The middle of their defense is a bit vulnerable to tight ends and backs out of the backfield however.

It looks like we'll see Jay Ajayi take the field for the Eagles a bit today. Doug Pederson said he'll give him a ten to fifteen play workload and see how he does. Ajayi strikes me as a guy who will be motivated to show the Dolphins that they gave up on him too early. I'm not sure how impressive he'll be against that Bronco defense however. When he comes into the game it'll be like waving a red flag to a bull. The Bronco defense will assume it'll be a run and attack the line of scrimmage. The Eagles could defang them a tick by making his first play a flea flicker. Have Wentz hand him the ball and then Ajayi toss it back to Wentz for a pass down the field. With the defense collpasing on the line of scrimmage, the receivers could end up running free down the field. It'll be interesting to see if there are any two back sets featuring both Ajayi and LeGarrette Blount. The defensive players will be adjusting their pads taking on both of those guys. A 230 and 250 pound back both in the same backfield looking to punish anyone who tries to tackle them is not what a defense wants to see.

We'll have to see if Carson Wentz gives Alshon Jeffery the jump balls Jeffery wants. Alshon said this week that he'll win 80% of those balls and make sure the defenders don't get the ball, so if Carson feels pressure coming and no one's open and he doesn't have a clear scrambling lane, will he throw it up to a covered Jeffery? We'll have to see.

In the second game we get to see the Chiefs take on the Cowboys. The Chiefs have scored the most points of anyone in the league so far (236) and that Dallas defense is a bit vulnerable. Expect the Cowboys to stick to a ball control type game to keep the ball out of the hands of Alex Smith as much as possible. Ezekiel Elliott is not suspended (for today anyway, his suspension kicks back in tomorrow pending yet another court filing) but how effective will he be with limited practice this week? It should be a good game.

The late game is the Dolphins and Raiders. The Dolphins have a  minus sixty point differential, but somehow have won four of their first seven games. That's kind of unusual. For the Raiders this is a win, or the season is done game. They're 3-5 now and going 3-6 with the Chiefs at either 6-3 or 7-2 (depending on the outcome of the Chiefs/Cowboys game) they'd be in big trouble. Oddly enough teams have been scoring quite a bit on the Raiders this year (190 points over eight games) but the Dolphins QB situation isn't especially good right now. I'm not sure what kind of an impact trading Jay Ajayi will have on the locker room in Miami, but generally speaking trading away your best offensive player doesn't help a team. Trades can motivate those left behind to play harder so they won't get traded, but this trade took place on the trading deadline so they can't be traded now anyway. A trade like that in week one can get a team's attention, but at the deadline, not so much. West coast teams coming east for early games tend to have issues, but a night game is essentially a four or five in the afternoon game for them, so the night games tend not to affect the west coast teams much. I strongly suspect the Raiders will get the win.

It should be a good day of football watching.

[LonestarBabs]

Chiefs Kingdom is wide awake!!!!!!  Tamba Hali is suiting up. The return of Zeke does not phase us, only makes us more focused.

Got my nachos ready (apologies to T.O. for changing up his signature phrase)

[gardenman]

---

@LonestarBabs wrote:

Chiefs Kingdom is wide awake!!!!!!  Tamba Hali is suiting up. The return of Zeke does not phase us, only makes us more focused.

Got my nachos ready (apologies to T.O. for changing up his signature phrase)

---

Ironically enough, the Chiefs used film of Ezekiel Elliott to prepare for the Cowboy's game since the other backs had seen the ball so little. That has them ready to face Zeke since he's the guy they studied all week.

[sunshine45]

our games today.......

CBS

ravens vs titans early afternoon

chiefs vs cowboys late afternoon

FOX

redskins vs seahawks late afternoon

NBC SNF

raiders vs dolphins

ESPN MNF

lions vs packers

flacco will be playing today......hope he is able to come on strong. it helped that he had 10 days to work through the concussion. alonso ended up being fined only a little over $9000 for the hit. suh walked away with no fine at all.