The NFL is setting records for penalties this year. Some 963-penalties have been accepted through 64-games this season. That works out to 15 per game. The Indianapolis/ Washington tilt this past weekend only had 11-penalties. The rub was that 10 of them were called against Washington.

Thankfully that was the only overseas trip for the Burgundy and Gold this season. The faithful that made the trip had a good time…until the game got underway. Washington’s Defense came out of the chute like a Rodeo Bull; full of menace and mayhem. It didn’t last. The Offense couldn’t punch in Touchdowns on two close trips. If the old Spider Sense kicked in as you watched those 7-points turn into 3-pointers it should have. That unrequited early momentum stuff is always an ominous sign. In this case it the foreboding was realized in full.

“Medic”

At some point the League is going to have to come to grips with the fact that the modern version of the game is close to being beyond the capabilities of the human body. The “Injury Lists” are staggering. Some 4-weeks in some 54 different Quarterbacks have thrown a pass. That’s 1.7 per team. Washington has now contributed 3-QBs to the list. The total will grow to the mid-60s by the end of the season.

Tottenham Hotspur stadium is a beauty. It even has the retractable grass much like Phoenix’ facility. It allows the grass to be outside getting sunshine apart from the partially covered roof. For what Americans call Soccer the grass is in the stadium. In fact, when the World Cup was in North America artificial-surfaced stadiums placed turf on the floors. FIFA won’t allow their lads to play on plastic in a tournament. It was not a problem. There are no shortage of pics of pink grow lights in Jerry Jones‘ AT&T Stadium. The second the World Cup was over that grass went away. At Tottenham the grass went outside while the plastic was rolled out for the Gridiron game. It looked awful. And, who is to say it didn’t contribute to several injuries?

Jalen Lane is done for the year. He suffered a gruesome ankle injury likely exacerbated by the plastic rug. But, the biggest injury was early when Marcus Mariota suffered a Medial Collateral Ligament strain on his right knee. This was all of 10-snaps into a 64-snap game.

So, how does this sound for a QB distribution after 4-games? QB1 plays 6-Quarters. QB2 plays 6.5 Quarters. QB3 plays 3.5 Quarters. That’s not a recipe for success.

Washington started this game without the two best Offensive Linemen, it’s best Receiver, it’s star QB, it’s prime Linebacker Free Agent acquisition, and it’s best Cornerback. It ended the game in even worse shape. It’s hard to compete with backups. It’s even harder to win.

The Kid

Quarterback tiers in the NFL are fairly standard. Obviously the QB1 is the star of the show. Every team carries a QB2. Ideally this is a veteran who needs minimal repetition work during the week. When the QB1 goes down the job of this guy is to come in and give the team a chance to win. A number of teams don’t have a QB2 out of this mold. Washington is fortunate to have one. Marcus Mariota is one of the best QB2s in the business. But, what happened on Sunday was that he went down also. Enter into the world of QB3s.

First of all, not every team has a QB3. Some go with just 2. As recently as 2023 there were only 12-teams carrying 3-QBs. The number is higher now. And, there are 4-teams that broke camp this season with 4-QBs on the roster. And, yes, all four of those QB Rooms were a bit of a hot mess. But, the QB3 is almost always a “Developmental” project. Athan Kaliakmanis is no exception. He was drafted in the 7th Round. Hopefully, he was going to stand on the sideline in a ball cap holding a clipboard for the entire season. His job during the week is to run the Scout Team during practices. He’s in the QB Room for all the meetings. Just learn the ropes.

So much for that. After just 13-Quarters and change the kid inherits the keys to the car. It’s not a good formula for success.

How did he do? Honestly, better than expected. Most grass-green project QBs are going to take one look at the big uglies on the other side and blanch. When the pressure comes, and it’s coming, normally things go South quickly. Bet the ranch that the Defensive Coordinator is going to let the dogs out after a newb. Most of them either find check-downs prematurely or just tuck the rock and bolt. Not this young man. He took “Shots” down the field. And, he took shots to the body as well. But, he never quit looking downfield.

What we learned about him is that he’s fearless. He’s got a great sense for longer routes. And, he throws a beauty of a deep ball. Of course he made a bad decision that resulted in the season’s first interception against the team. That was mandatory for the exercise. It’s a given. Peyton Manning, he of the Hall-of-Fame threw 28-Interceptions his rookie year. The game takes time to learn.

When, not if, when Ahtan gets his next chance the question will be; what did he learn? Because he was exposed to a lot more in those 50-minutes of game time than all the classroom exposure so far.

Already Athan Kaliakmanis has provided more Return-on-Investment than most 7th-Rounders. He could be one of these guys that stays in the League as a backup for years. There’s material there worth molding. If you want Silver out of that black cloud from the other day there it is.

Plans

The plan for the game was basically the boilerplate with one added item. Unlike last week where nearly every box was checked this week was close to a reversal.

Ball Security:

One interception. Not ideal. But, the WFT still won the turnover battle. And, as noted above it’s hard to throw the Developmental project into the heat of the fire without at least one pick coming out the other end.

Ball:

Two takeaways. That gets the total up to five for the season. Two-per game is a great number. If the trend holds there is some encouragement to be had there.

Run the Rock:

This was glaring. The team rushed for only 100-yards on 22-attempts. Over half of them, some 54-yards were split between Mariota’s 35-yard designed run and Austin Ekeler‘s 29-yards on 4-carries. The other 17-attempts generated 46-yards. Washington could not run between the A and B Gaps. (Center/Guard, Guard/Tackle). Bill ran some 9 times for all of 15-yards. Kaytron Allen and Craig Reynolds ran 5-times for 5-yards. It’s not good.

Take Full Advantage of Opportunities:

This one gets the big red “F” on the test paper. Last week the turnovers turned into Touchdowns. This week two takeaways turned into 3-points. That’s not going to win anything.

Stop Taylor:

This was going pretty well for a while. But, Jonathan Taylor is the prototypical Bell Cow Back. He’s especially good in the Red Zone. Washington held him to under 100-yards by a handful. But, he was money in tight to the Goal Line scoring 3-times. On balance it was a pedestrian effort against Taylor. He didn’t get completely loose like Marcus Allen did in the 1984 Super Bowl to the tune of 191-yards on 20-carries. But, he did plenty of scoring damage.

Overall the plan results reflect the score.

The Officiating Crew

…was awful. As bad as the 10-flags were when combined with only 1-flag on Indianapolis, the “Non-calls” were even worse. There are people in jail for Assault that did less than the Colts’ Defensive Backs did on Sunday…without penalty. The timing on these things was particularly beneficial to the Colts. Feel free to watch the All-22 Camera film. It’s not for the faint of heart.

The old NFL Quarterback Jim Miller in his radio days would take an annual sportfishing trip to Mexico. Every year he’d return with the same message: “Everyone down there thinks the NFL is rigged.” Is it? A display like the Zebras put on during Sunday’s game can and will prompt many to start wondering. The NFL has only itself to blame for this. It went into business with the Gambling Industry. They are “Official Partners” don’t you know. Business Partners look out for each other by definition.

Two-years ago THE ATHLETIC ran several pieces about gambling action surrounding the Detroit Lions. After decades of frustration the Lions were a star ascending. The Lions’ faithful put their money where their heart was by betting extensively on the team to win the Super Bowl at generous pre-season odds. The guys in the desert were nervous enough about a potential fleecing the story got out into the media. Up on Park Avenue the NFL was looking at a business partner taking a big hit. By virtue of the business relationship with the gambling biz the League put itself where it should never be: It had a vested interest in the outcome of games.

The League most likely paid some PhD in Ethics to sign off on the gambling linkage. It may well have passed that test. But, it opens doors best left shut. Basketball survived a rouge official having crossed the line with gambling. Football will as well. It just doesn’t need more loose data around to gel up suspicions that the product isn’t genuine.

The good ship NFL looks unstoppable and unsinkable. The ocean floors of the world are littered with similar vessels. Whatever the League makes in revenue off of the gambling is not going to be worth it if a big scandal gets loose.

This Week

Washington gets back its QB1. Tell everyone you’re not nervous for him. But, you know deep inside you are.

More pieces and parts return to bolster things. Samuel Cosmi is supposed to play as is Nick Cross. Rub a lamp and maybe Scary Terry shows up as well.

The Giants are going to be interesting. New York media has all but commissioned a bronze statue for John Harbaugh. We’ll see.

At 2-3 the Division is not out of the realm of possibilities. The Eagles are in a serious funk. Whatever they got back from New England for AJ Brown is not worth it. Jalen Hurts needs that guy, and he’s gone. Their star Right Tackle Lane Johnson retired 4-games into the season. The home team got booed out on to the adjacent I-95 at the end of last week’s game. Something is askew there. It seems to happen regularly with that bunch. Dallas can score. Note to the League: Double-team CeeDee Lamb. But, their revamped Defense looks like the old Defense. Some team is going to win this Division without running away with it.

We’ll break down the Giants before Sunday’s 1:00 pm EDT game.