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Random Shots From Week 9

Joe Bryant's Random Shots From Week 9
By Joe Bryant, November 11, 2020

Random Shots From Week 9
Photo: USA Today Sports

Hi Folks,

We do a ton of insightful, thoughtful, and serious features here at Footballguys with smart people thinking deeply for you.

This is not one of those features.

This is Random Shots and it's a few pages of me downloading my goofy and dysfunctional mental hard drive that gets stuffed with way too many random items from too many hours watching, reading about, and listening to football every weekend and throughout the week. It's the only way I manage. Here's hoping it has some value for you.

We'll see. Now let's get to it.

J

Pretty much this.

Physics.

Russell Wilson doing Russell Wilson things.

Backup quarterback Alex Smith came in after the starting QB suffered a gruesome leg injury. That's just great. :cannotwatch:

It's a little bit different as I didn't actually see the injury like I did for Alex Smith but Teddy Bridgewater makes me nervous too.

God Bless you Bears Fans.

Philip Rivers is all of us.

But you knew these were coming...

And...

I don't know how you stop this.

Buffalo Mood:

It probably should have never been allowed to start in the first place, but I think we can put to bed the "Christian McCaffrey is a system RB" talk.

I love JuJu Smith-Schuster. And I'm pretty neutral on the Cowboys. But I'm not a big fan of this.

Do the talking with your play in the game.

Terry McLaurin, you're kind of ridiculous.

I'm a football nerd so I think about these things. You may too.

As you know, Dallas usually uses their white jerseys as their "home" uniform. Where most teams use their dark jersey. What this means, of course, is Dallas gets to play in their white uniforms in all their home games but also in most of their road games. It seems to me, more than any other team, you mostly see them in that one uniform. Except for when a team elects to wear their white jerseys at home and forces Dallas to the blue jerseys. (A move I love...)

The downside to this obviously is visiting teams get to wear their home jersey on the road.

I've often wondered what effect, if any, this has. I think about weird stuff.

I love how in a league full of offensive-minded young coaching stars like Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, it's old-timer Andy Reid that keeps innovating. Mahomes here with the motion and misdirection.

I would love to be a fly on the wall as he comes up with these. I imagine him at his desk with a big cheeseburger chuckling quietly to himself, "Oh yeah. That's a good one..."

Evan Engram kills me. How does he catch these but drop the much easier (sometimes potential game-winning) passes?

The NFC East in one video...

I continue to be amazed by how quickly young players are ready to contribute at this level. And it's not just quarterbacks more ready to play than they used to be. Receivers are entering the league much more polished than in years past. Jerry Jeudy throwing up the hand for a go route and then breaking it back is the latest example.

That's just cold.

Pay attention. Life comes at you pretty fast.

Hmmm.

Last year Super Bowl thought: If Jimmy Garoppolo could throw a deep pass like Kyler Murray, the NFL world might look a lot different today...

That's a fascinating part of football to me. Sometimes, one play can change the course of a team or even a career.

I'm here for all of this.

This was ruled an interception. OK then...

#35 here with what we might call a sub-optimal effort.

These are their third-best uniforms. It's really not fair.

Nailed it.

Somewhere Alan Iverson is smiling.

Mike Evans is a great WR. But Marshon Lattimore has his number. He's locked down Evans in the last few games.

Dang.

Ladies and Gentleman, Chris Jones...

This official forgot the longer cleats.

We lost Alex Trebek this week.

Maybe you, like me, could use this.

Jameis ATE THE W.

I saw this and thought it had to be fake as it's too good.

It's real. And it's spectacular.

Joe Flacco. Elite? Jamison Crowder is pretty good too.

I picked Tampa Bay to win the Super Bowl. But I'm starting to think Bruce Arians isn't capable of taking them there. We'll see.

Jakobi Meyers saw this flag a bit differently than the officials...

Todd Gurley has his eye on the QB Money.

Whoever runs the Saints social media deserves a raise.

Music note this week is a song I've talked about before. Not quite sure why but I'm feeling Whitley's More Than Life this week.

Christian McCaffrey's dad, Ed, was famous for wearing what looked like junior high size shoulder pads.

Christian's version of carrying on the family tradition appears to be rocking a helmet two sizes too small.

One more on Alex Trebek. The man loved football.

Wrapping with this one. Chris Nikic is remarkable. He completed an Iron Man Triathlon recently. That's remarkable on its own. Chris' achievement was even more special as he's the first person ever with Down Syndrome to complete an Iron Man.

An Iron Man race is swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and then finishing with a marathon distance run of 26.2 miles.

Chris reportedly had trouble walking until he was four years old. He underwent open-heart surgery at 5 months of age. This is a great read here if you're interested in more on him. The point is he battled. He dreamed and he worked and hit a pretty amazing goal.

Rock on, Chris Nickic.

That'll do it for today. Thanks to Footballguys Keith Overton, Clayton Gray, and David Dodds for the help on this one. If you've got a Random Shot of your own, send me an email at bryant@footballguys.com.

Thanks for playing along and I hope you make the most of whatever you're doing in your life. Love your neighbor and stick together.

Peace and Grace to you.

J

Photos provided by USA TODAY Sports
Tags Fun Timeless Tom Brady Teddy Bridgewater Jamison Crowder Evan Engram Mike Evans Joe Flacco Jimmy Garoppolo Jared Goff Jerry Jeudy Chris Jones Desmond King II Marshon Lattimore Christian McCaffrey Terry McLaurin Jakobi Meyers Kyler Murray Matt Ryan JuJu Smith-Schuster Russell Wilson

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