The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Week 8

The Good:

London, once again. The National Football League (NFL) is now considering having an 8 game package in London next year. It is clearly no secret that Roger Goodell has a huge interest and desire of expanding over seas. Peter King, of SI, announced a couple of days ago that the NFL was considering this package. This week the San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars played in London and it was interesting to see how much these fans loved the Jacksonville Jaguars arguably more than the fans in Jacksonville. Next year, three games will be played in London. An eight game package will be another step in getting a team in London, which Goodell has made it obvious that he wants.

 Another good this week was the battle between Calvin Johnson and Dez Bryant. While it was clear that Calvin Johnson won the battle with his 329 yards and a touchdown on 14 catches, Dez had a good night with 3 catches for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns. I liked this for the NFL as well s the players going forward because it gave people another reason to watch the game. Although Dez was not happy that he did not get the ball as many times as he wanted it, NFL fans were enjoying watching this feud on the field. Calvin Johnson made history with the second most receiving yards in a game and fans, who might not have tuned in if this feud had not started, got to see it.

The Bad:

Mike Pouncey. Right after the game against New England, a man walked up to Mike Pouncey handed him some papers and was heard saying, “Make sure you arrive.” It was then reported that Massachusetts State Police issued Mike Pouncey a grand jury subpoena on Sunday, which is reportedly believed to be related to the ongoing Aaron Hernandez case.  

Mike Pouncey and Aaron Hernandez have been friends ever since they were teammates as Florida Gators. Shortly after the Aaron Hernandez information was released and he was imprisoned, Mike and his twin brother were seen wearing Free Hernandez hat. Although a subpoena does not mean that Pouncey is going to get charged for anything, one still has the right to wonder what if he is somehow tied to this whole thing.

            
Overall, I think this is horrible news for the NFL. More and more of their players are getting in trouble and somehow finding their names in the headlines for the wrong reasons. What does this say about players as a whole in the NFL? More and more people are starting to make stereotypes of “Gangsters” playing in the NFL. Stories like these do not help those stereotypes. Roger Goodell is, in my opinion, hoping that he is just being asked to go there to try and find out more about Aaron and not because he is somehow tied to the investigation.

The Ugly:

New York Jets. Geno Smith went from playing spectacular last week to horrible this week. The J-E-T-S jets lost 49-9 to the Cincinnati Bengals this week. The Bengals exploited a lot of holes on this Jets team. Marvin Jones and the Cincinnati defense had a break out game this week. Marvin Jones had 8 catches for 122 yards and 4 touchdowns. The defense racked up 2 pick-6’s and 4 sacks.

Dee Milliner, in my opinion, should be benched by now. The man who was supposed to replace Darelle Revis has been awful this year. Quarterbacks have been picking on Dee Milliner all year and leaving him in the starting line up is hurting the Jets. Alabama players have had a lot of history in struggling their first years so if I were the Jets I would start Darrin Walls and transition Milliner into being ready to break out next year.

Another thing that was apparent to me was the Jets lack of weapons and offensive line. Yes, Geno Smith played awful but a lot of the blame on his awful play goes on the offensive line. The offensive line gave him no time to throw the ball and thus forcing a rookie to make quick decisions. Those quick decisions resulted in two interceptions going back for touchdowns. Not to mention that Geno Smith has no body to throw the ball to. No disrespect to David Nelson but he is not and should not be a quarterbacks best receiver. The Jets have a lot of holes that need to be fixed before we can call them a legitimate threat in the AFC.

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Lindrit Shkodra is originally from Diber, Macedonia but lives in Maple Shade, NJ. He is a sophomore in the Sports Management program and is currently the Treasurer of the Drexel Sport Management Student Union. He has work experience with Ron Jaworski's Celebrity Golf Challenge and Ridgewells Catering at the 2013 U.S. Open.  Follow Lindrit on Twitter @LindritShkodra.

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