We interrupt this season of taunting, bow-and-arrowing and other wonderful displays of unsportsmanlike conduct to bring you some old-fashioned NFL head-hunting — the kind that shortens careers and, years later, sends brains to Boston University’s lab for CTE study.
That may sound a bit overdramatic, unless you saw this play.
The Bills were leading 10-3 and the Dolphins had the ball first-and-10 on the Buffalo 11 with 6:13 to go in the second quarter. As Jay Ajayi ran around left end, Dolphins receiver Jarvis Landry slanted across the middle, turned his shoulder and launched into pursuing Bills safety Aaron Williams with a hit to the head and neck area. A flag came out, and Williams went down, stayed down and eventually left Hard Rock Stadium in an ambulance.
Not long after the hit, the Bills’ Twitter account posted: “cheap shot.” After the game, Bills coach Rex Ryan said he didn’t see the play and added, “I hope it wasn’t cheap. That Landry, I have a ton of respect for that kid. I wouldn’t think he would do that. I hope that wasn’t the case.”
There were a couple of redeeming elements, as Landry showed concern for Williams, apologized to him on the spot and was contrite afterward.
“If I could take that hit back, I would,” Landry told the Miami Herald. “The guy has a family to feed and this is his livelihood. You never want to see that with anybody.”
And later Sunday night, the Bills tweeted Williams was able to travel home with the team, thankfully, after having a precautionary MRI exam.
“Jarvis Landry was called for a personal foul for a hit on a defenseless player,” Mike Pereira, former NFL head of officiating, said on FOX, where he now is the rules analyst. “It was a crack-back block, and the player that is being blocked in a crack-back block is defenseless, so you can’t hit him in the head or neck area with a shoulder, helmet or forearm. This is clearly a foul and it was called.”
Ironically, the penalty on Landry was declined and a holding penalty on the Dolphins went in the books, so there was no official justice for Williams, who returned this season after missing most of 2015 with a neck injury.
Pereira said he didn’t think the play warranted an ejection because “it is a football play. [The referee] certainly [has] the right, by rule, because the rule does say that flagrant offenders can be disqualified. But usually ejections come from non-football acts that happen after the play.”
Earlier in the game, Landry caught a 26-yard deep ball from Ryan Tannehill and was called for taunting the Bills bench. Referee Brad Allen announced Landry would be ejected if he were to receive another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That’s where this gets interesting. Taunting plus taunting equals ejection. Taunting plus this hit keeps Landry in the game, where he gets to catch a two-point conversion pass that brought the Dolphins to within 17-14 on their way to an eventual 28-25 victory that ended Buffalo’s four-game winning streak. Better yet, Allen should have thrown Landry out of the game for the hit, as he had the right to do.
The incident overshadowed what should have been a feel-good win for the Dolphins on a day when Ajayi rushed for 214 yards and Kenny Stills put the game away with a 66-yard touchdown reception.
Karma’s a switch
The Chargers started the season with a colossal loss in Kansas City in which they blew a 27-10 lead. That started them on the road to a 1-4 record that included all kinds of horrible luck, injuries and blown leads. Well, after beating the Broncos last week, the Chargers were the ones to come back from a 27-10 deficit to stun the Falcons, 33-30, in overtime at Georgia Dome.
San Diego closed to within 30-27 on Philip Rivers’ touchdown pass to Melvin Gordon with 5:50 to go. Then with the Falcons driving, LB Denzel Perryman, who earlier knocked two teammates out of the game on collisions, stepped in front of a Matt Ryan pass to Julio Jones for an interception. Josh Lambo’s field goal tied it at 30 with 18 seconds to go, but Ryan got Matt Bryant into position for a potential game-winning kick from 58 yards. It had the distance but hit the left upright, showing how the Chargers’ luck has changed.
Atlanta won the toss in OT and drove to its own 45 before Perryman stuffed Devonta Freeman on fourth down. From there, Rivers threw 11 yards to Antonio Gates (remember him?) to set up Lambo’s 42-yard game winner.
“We flipped the script,” Rivers said, according to Chargers.com. “It wasn’t quite the 17-point deficit that Kansas City had with 10 minutes to play, but it was a 17-point deficit nonetheless. … We came in at halftime and I must have said it seven or eight times, that we’re going to win the game.”
Bad beat
You’ve got the Cardinals minus-2, and although they’ve missed some opportunities, they still lead 3-0 with 4:44 to go in the fourth quarter and the Seahawks had yet to run a single play in Arizona territory. But then, Seattle’s Tanner McEvoy, the 6-foot-6 former quarterback at Bergen Catholic HS in New Jersey, blocks a punt, catches a 10-yard pass, and Stephen Hauschka ties the game with a field goal.
In overtime, the Cardinals win the toss and drive for a field goal, which the Seahawks match. Now it’s next score wins, and the Cardinals look as if they’ll get it when J.J. Nelson beats Richard Sherman for 40 yards down to the 5. The Cardinals run two plays to the 1, and decide to send Chandler Catanzaro out for the shortest game-winning field goal ever. But there’s a delay of game, and then Catanzaro hits the upright as an incredulous coach Bruce Arians spikes his play sheet.
The Seahawks get it back and Russell Wilson hits Jevon Kearse for 30 yards and Doug Baldwin for 27 and it’s a sure win when Hauschka lines it up from 28. But he hooks it left. Two plays later, a Carson Palmer Hail Mary lands incomplete and this craziest of games ends in a tie for both teams — and a loss for you.
Play of the Day
The Bengals led the Browns 14-10 and had a third-and-9 from the Cleveland 48 with seven seconds to go in the first half. Andy Dalton dropped back and heaved the ball downfield. A.J. Green leapt between the “B” and “E” in “BENGALS” in the end zone with Cleveland’s Jamar Taylor on his back and a half-dozen players from both teams buzzing around him, tipped the ball to himself and hauled it in one-handed as he went to the ground.
Post Patterns
Rex Ryan defended his decision to play LeSean McCoy, whose ailing hamstring didn’t make it through the third quarter. “We never play a guy that our doctors and our trainers don’t clear, so he’s cleared to play and we thought he was fine,” Ryan said. … When Cody Kessler got injured, the Browns had to call on Kevin Hogan as their sixth quarterback of the season. Hogan, a rookie from Stanford who was drafted in the fifth round by the Chiefs, threw for 100 yards and incredibly ran seven times for 104 yards and a touchdown. … The Lions won their third in a row as Matthew Stafford hit Anquan Boldin from 18 yards out with 16 seconds to go to beat the Redskins, 20-17. After playing in his 100th career game, Stafford’s 27,890 passing yards are the most in NFL history at that milestone. … Drew Brees, who threw for 367 yards in the Saints’ 27-21 loss at Kansas City, is the first quarterback all-time to have 100 games of 300-plus yards passing.
Three Stars
1. Jay Ajayi, Dolphins RB
Ajayi rushed for 214 yards and a touchdown — his second 200-yard game in a row — to lead the Dolphins to a 28-25 comeback win over the Bills.
2. A.J. Green, Bengals WR
Green caught eight passes for 169 yards, including a one-handed touchdown on a 48-yard hail mary to end the first half in a 31-17 win over the Browns.
3. Andrew Luck, Colts QB
Luck went 27 of 39 for 353 yards and three touchdowns as the Colts beat the Titans for the 10th time in a row and 15th in their last 16 meetings.
He said what?
“It’s on us as a team to hold each other accountable. To have two or three guys or whatever to get thrown out is kind of ridiculous and embarrassing.” — Jaguars QB Blake Bortles after DT Malik Jackson (two unsportsmanlike conducts) and CB Jalen Ramsey (post-play scuffle) were ejected in a 33-16 loss to the Raiders
Fantasy Insanity
* Back-to-back 200-yard rushing games had happened just three times in NFL history heading into the season — a list that includes Ricky Williams, O.J. Simpson and Earl Campbell. Who would have thought Jay Ajayi would be the one to join that club following his 204-yard torching of the Steelers last week with another 214 and a touchdown against the Bills on Sunday? If you snapped him off waivers last week, you might want to shop around to see if someone is willing to overpay. He should be solid the rest of the way, but if someone is willing to pay for greatness instead of just goodness, sell, sell, sell.
* Jeremy Hill finally had a breakout game, racking up 168 rushing yards and a score against the Browns. Look closer and you will realize how much of an anomaly this likely was — he did so on just nine carries, including a 74-yarder. You can’t expect that kind of efficiency every week, but you can expect something close to that kind of workload. Don’t buy into a resurgence just yet.
* First, it was reported Friday that LeSean McCoy would be out Sunday. Later, he was just questionable and a game-time decision. Shortly before kickoff, he reportedly was a “full go.” Almost immediately, another report suggesting he didn’t look good in pregame workouts. Then he played, only to be sidelined when his hamstring started bothering him again — but not soon enough to save Mike Gillislee’s fantasy potential. Grab Gillislee if he’s on waivers. Just guessing, but would wager Rex Ryan will be more cautious with McCoy next time around.
— Drew Loftis