ASA's NFL News & Notes

TAMPA BAY BUCS vs HOUSTON TEXANS – We were on Houston -2.5 on Monday night and lost out when Tampa Bay scored a TD with 6 seconds left to get the backdoor cover winning 20-19.  Tampa outgained Houston by 96 yards, however they also ran 72 offensive snaps to just 46 for Houston so the Texans actually held a 5.8 to 5.0 YPP advantage.  TB was also outgained 5.0 YPP to 4.6 YPP in their win @ Atlanta.  The Bucs are 2-0 and both of their wins @ Atlanta and @ Houston have come on a TD with less than 1 minute remaining to get the come from behind W’s.  Unfortunately, we played against them in both games.  

CLEVELAND BROWNS – Keep an eye on this defense.  They held 2 potent offenses to very low YPP numbers in their first 2 weeks.  Cincinnati averaged a terrible 2.9 YPP vs Cleveland (and still won 17-16) and Baltimore averaged 4.5 YPP in their win last Sunday.  Those 2 opponents averaged 5.8 YPP and 6.8 YPP last year respectively.  The Browns are 0-2 partly due to their -4 turnover margin already after 2 games. 

GREEN BAY PACKERS – We try and make sure we don’t overreact to results the first few weeks as things often change quite a bit throughout the season.  That being said, it’s hard not to be really impressed with Green Bay so far.  They have played 2 of the top teams in the NFC (Detroit & Washington) and outgained them by +1.9 YPP and +2.9 YPP respectively which is pretty dramatic.  For comparison’s sake, the Lions outgained Chicago by +3.5 YPP and Washington outgained NY Giants by +2.9 YPP in their other games.

CINCINNATI BENGALS – The Bengals are 2-0 however they’ve been outgained in both of their games (vs Cleveland and Jacksonville) by a combined 727 to 491.  In last week’s 31-27 win over the Jags, the Bengals never led until 18 seconds left in the game.  QB Joe Burrow was injured (turf toe) and will miss multiple months.  Backup QB Browning does have some solid experience throwing for over 2,000 career yards

MIAMI DOLPHINS – What is up with this defense?  They’ve allowed 33 points in each of their first 2 games vs Indianapolis & New England.  This stop unit has faced 14 offensive possessions this year (not including late half or end of game running kneel downs) and they’ve allowed their opponents to score points on 12 of those drives.  The Fins are @ Buffalo on Thursday night and the Bills have scored 71 points through 2 games.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES – The Super Bowl champs are 2-0 on the season but they have been far from impressive thus far.  They’ve been outgained in both games vs Dallas and Kansas City both in total yards and YPP.  Last week @ KC they were outgained 5.2 YPP to 3.7 YPP and still came away with a win.  The Eagles currently rank 30th in YPP offense and 18th in YPP defense.  Last season they leaned heavily on their running game ranking 1st in carries per game and 4th in YPC at 5.0.  Thus far this season they are still relying heavily on their ground attack (2nd in carries per game) but they are only averaging 3.9 YPC (20th in the NFL).