Friends, it is a pleasure to be back for one more season in First and Ten, and as we have done the last couple of years I will share with you in this Monday column some impressions of what is happening in the NFL and other parts, everything From the Shotgun Formation.
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Offseason 2021 Quick Prints
The last time we read in this space, the Buccaneers were just coming off winning Super Bowl LVI, so it’s fair to say some things have happened since then. This is a brief account of what caught my attention during this period:
1. Totally unnecessary. It seems to me that the subject of vaccines has been unnecessarily controversial. Players are known to do anything that gives them a competitive advantage, but interestingly, several of them are reluctant to receive a vaccine that would effectively give them a competitive advantage.
2. QB carousel. Matthew Stafford is Ram; Sam Darnold is Panther, Ryan Fitzpatrick is in Washington, Teddy Bridgewater is Bronco and Carson Wentz is Colt… and that Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson were left in simple threats of change of scenery. It was a very eventful offseason for the quarterbacks, a sign that this is a critical position on an NFL team.
3. Talking about Aaron Rodgers. The whole subject of your holdout and of the “Last dance”Is unnecessary. If you want to leave a team, you tell the management directly. If you want to see this year as the last with your classmates, talk about it with them. It seems that Aaron Rodgers wanted to establish himself as the most “passive-aggressive” quarterback in the league, and he succeeded. But in the end he did not leave the team and the theme of the last dance remained in memes.
The things that I think I know
In this section I seek to pay tribute to Peter king, one of the first NFL columnists who inspired me. I’m just telling a few things that I think I know from what I’ve seen so far. After offseason these are the first three of the 2021 NFL Season:
1. NFC West will be a very fun division to watch… as a fan of another team. The battle that the Rams, Seahawks, 49ers and Cardinals will have for the title of this division will be extremely interesting, and it will be much easier to enjoy if you do not go to any of the four.
2. Rams and Bills will play the Super Bowl. If we are going to talk about things that I think I know at this point, this is one: we will have a team playing the Super Bowl at home for the second year in a row, and their rival will be the team that will seek to leave behind the four-game loss mark. Matthew Stafford and the Rams offense against Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs and company. It will be a Super Bowl of many points.
3. Ron Rivera will be the coach of the year. Regardless of how far Washington goes in the year (I think they will stay in the Divisional Round), Rivera’s work at the helm of this organization will not be overlooked. Let’s remember that just two years ago they finished so badly that they had the second pick of the first round in the 2020 Draft, and that is why they were able to play Chase Young. In one season, Washington went from being the worst team in the NFC to being a postseason hopeful, and they could be one of the biggest upsets of the year. It is not yet the year to think about a Lombardi for the WFT, but the Coach of the Year award will be on the scene of the team in the capital of the United States.
the song of the week
Every Monday I will present you a song that reminds me of something of what happened this week. In this first installment of the 2021 NFL Season I leave you a song specifically made for football: “The Boys of Fall” by Kenny Chesney. Perfect for this moment of the start of the season.
Note: for some reason someone started cutting onion while writing this part of the column. You guys excuse me.
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Talking about college football
The NCAA has already started and brought everything: great plays, some surprises and above all a lot of people in the stadiums. Here are some stories that I liked about what happened this weekend:
1. The start of the Chip Kelly era at UCLA? The Bruins have started the regular season with everything, and in a week they scored a couple of firsts for this show under Kelly: last week (the famous “zero week”) they beat Hawaii 44-10, marking the first win outside the conference; and this weekend they defeated LSU 38-27 as the Bruins achieved their first win against an SEC rival. Excellent way to start the season, if you ask me.
2. They paid to be displayed. The University of Washington decided to face a single opponent to start their regular season, so they invited the University of Montana. In fact, they were paid $ 675,000 to tackle them, a figure that obviously works great for an FCS program like Montana. To Washington, it sounded like a great warm-up game, especially considering that the last time they had played they had beaten the Grizzlies 63-7. The match ended 13-7.
3. Record of tackles. This stat is very new to the NCAA (taken since 2000), but Fordham’s Ryan Greenhagen decided to break the all-time high by hitting thirty! tackled in the game against Nebraska. Yes, his team lost 52-7, but what Greenhagen did is noteworthy.
4. Without losing power. Alabama lost eight offensive starters during the offseason, including QB Mac Jones, RB Najee Harris plus wide receivers DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle, and on the defensive end went Patrick Surtain II. Even so, they beat Miami 44-13, making it clear that there is plenty of talent and will remain in Nick Saban’s team.
A little (very little) of college football from Mexico
This column usually includes some information on national football, but ONEFA is in a “stalemate” on the subject of COVID. Some institutions will give permission for their teams to train because they have a hybrid system for classes, but others are still online, so there is no permission to train. Hopefully it will be resolved soon, because if not we will have another year without a Major League in our country.
The data of the week
D’Eriq King is the starting QB for the Miami Hurricanes in the NCAA, and he is 24 years old. That makes him bigger than six QBs in the NFL: Jalen Hurts (23), Justin Herbert (23), Tua Tagovailoa (23), Mac Jones (22), Zach Wilson (22) and Trevor Lawrence (21).
The entry video of the week
College Football is full of traditions, and one of the coolest is that Virginia Tech enters the field with “Enter Sandman” as its entry music. And it’s quite a show:
VIRGINIA TECH.
ENTER SANDMAN.ABSOLUTE CHILLS. @HokiesFB pic.twitter.com/jRnd97Xs1R
– ACC Network (@accnetwork) September 3, 2021
Here we end this first installment of this column for the 2021 NFL Season. You already know that you can leave me here under this article or on my Twitter account in the comments your suggestions for topics to be discussed from the Shotgun Formation.
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