Ankündigungen » can provide that inside push only mak

Even with last week’s huge swing in fortunes by the Bills Christian Wilkins Jersey , Giants, Seahawks, Lions and Browns, there remain lots of questions about each of them.At least they aren’t winless.Then there are the projected contenders who are struggling through three games: New England, Atlanta, Green Bay, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and the Chargers.Several figure to get going: the Patriots always seem to, and get Julian Edelman back in Week 5; the Packers when Aaron Rodgers is healthier; the Steelers if things ever calm down in the locker room.Unfortunately, the injuries that have ravaged the Falcons might be too much to overcome.Still, they have a win, which is more than Houston , Oakland and Arizona can say. Man, are things getting ugly in those places.“It’s frustrating,” says Texans coach Bill O’Brien, whose team has been outscored only 74-59. “It is, but that’s the way it is. That’s the NFL. These are close games and it’s the team that doesn’t beat themselves that ends up winning, and we’ve been beating ourselves too much.”As have the Raiders , who can’t hold onto a lead. They are the second team in the past 20 seasons to start the season with three straight losses after leading the first three games at halftime.“Nobody cares right now. They want results,” returning coach Jon Gruden insists. “We want to win. I think the players see a lot of things to be confident about, but we know we got to finish football games much better.”The Cardinals need to start and finish games much better. They were blown out in their first two matches, then led Chicago for most of last Sunday’s game before folding.“The guys are disappointed, they’re down, but they understand right now it’s still early http://www.dolphinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-michael-deiter-jersey ,” new coach Steve Wilks says. “We need to find a way to finish football games, as we did not do (Sunday).”Wilks is correct that it is still early, and 0-3 is not a sentence to purgatory for the remainder of the schedule. Last season, the Chargers began 0-4 and nearly made the playoffs.The difference between these three 2018 stragglers and the 2017 Chargers is, for one, talent.Let’s start with Oakland.RAIDERSWhen Gruden and upper management opted to deal Khalil Mack, it not only was a massive hit to the linebacker position, but to the entire defense. Super defenders such as Mack are like a Tom Brady on the other side of the ball, making everyone around them better.His departure created a major void in the locker room as well. Sometimes a player is worth whatever he’s asking, or close to it. This seems to be such a case.Opponents can run on the Raiders, and there’s virtually no one to fear as a pass rusher. Oakland has a total of three sacks and one takeaway.Only Buffalo in the AFC has scored fewer than the Raiders’ 52 points. The passing game hasn’t flopped, but Derek Carr has been picked off five times already; he threw 13 last year. Marshawn Lynch, to his credit, has three rushing touchdowns, but otherwise the ground game has been mediocre.All of that enthusiasm in the Bay Area has been dampened by the Mack trade and the 0-3 record. Should the Raiders fall to the Browns on Sunday, whatever honeymoon period Gruden had would be over.CARDINALSThis is the least surprising of the early collapses. While Arizona went 8-8 last season, it lost so much offensive firepower and brain power that having scored 20 points so far — the next-worse team is Dallas with 41 — isn’t shocking.Coach Bruce Arians, all three quarterbacks, including solid veteran Carson Palmer, and wideouts John Brown and Jaron Brown are all gone. The new attack installed for Wilks by Mike McCoy has been a dud despite the presence of versatile running back David Johnson, who missed all but the opener last year, and all-time receiving great Larry Fitzgerald.Only the Jets have more giveaways than Arizona’s seven, and now rookie QB Josh Rosen gets the call. He likes to gamble, which could lead to a lot more turnovers.The defense under Wilks can get to the quarterback. It hasn’t done much else Garrett Bradbury Jersey , though.TEXANSThis slump is most confounding.Unlike the Cardinals, the Texans got back a ton of skill in J.J. Watt — the NFL’s best defender when he has been healthy — Whitney Mercilus and Deshaun Watson. Many prognosticators picked them to win the AFC South or contend for a wild card in an improved division.Instead, the Texans have been perhaps the biggest disappointment of September. Watson hasn’t been nearly as dynamic as in his six starts of 2017 before tearing up his knee. The offense has sputtered badly in the red zone.Watt had a big second half against the Giants last Sunday, the first time he’s looked like a star.Of the three winless teams, though, Houston would seem to be the best bet to get headed in an upward direction.“There’s no magic dust, there’s no magic wand we can just say, ‘Hey, wave this magic wand and everything’s going to be OK,'” O’Brien says. “It’s hard work, it’s trying to figure out what we do best, do it better, and the things we’re not doing well, either stop doing them or figure out how to improve them.“There’s no other way out of it. There’s no choice. … You have to go to work and you have to figure it out. That’s sports, that’s life and that’s the way it is.” SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Generating pressure on the quarterback has never been a major problem for DeForest Buckner since entering the NFL in 2016. Turning that pressure into sacks, however, was missing his first two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers.Buckner has finally started to put the whole package together this season, becoming one of the league’s top inside rushers and justifying the 49ers’ first-round investment made a few years ago.Buckner recorded two more sacks last week against Seattle’s Russell Wilson, giving him 11 on the season to join Aldon Smith as the only 49ers players to reach double-digits in sacks in the past 16 seasons.After recording just nine sacks total in his first two seasons, Buckner set a goal of reaching double-digits this year. He’s done that with two games to spare and earned Pro Bowl alternate honors for his work.“I knew I could do it and I worked my tail off in the offseason to get there,” he said. “I’d like to thank most of my teammates. It’s not one guy, it’s the whole unit up front rushing as a team. Eventually if you rush as a team, someone will get rewarded.”That player has been Buckner so often this year after his work as a rusher often went overlooked his first two seasons when he didn’t pile up the sacks.Buckner had 76 quarterback pressures his first two seasons http://www.vikingsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-irv-smith-jr.-jersey , according to SportRadar, a number that put him near the top among players who primarily rush the passer from the inside instead of the edge.But of the 60 players in the league who had at least 50 pressures during 2015-16, only six had fewer sacks than the nine Buckner recorded, a cause of much frustration.This year, the sacks have started to come, with Buckner recording 6 1/2 sacks the past six games, including four in two meetings against the elusive Wilson.“It’s really just taking advantage of the one-on-ones I get and also finding a way through double teams,” he said. “There were a couple of times this year I got a sack through double teams. It’s just finding that extra step and finishing.”This production is coming at just the right time for Buckner, who will go into the final year of his rookie contract in 2019. If San Francisco can’t reach a long-term deal with Buckner this offseason, the organization will undoubtedly exercise the fifth-year option to keep Buckner in place through 2020, but reaching a deal for longer will assuredly be a priority once the season is over.Coach Kyle Shanahan said having a player like Buckner who can provide that inside push only makes the entire defense better.“You can have guys get up the field all day and if there’s nothing in the middle, all the quarterback has to do is step up and just let those guys run around them and have a true pocket,” he said. “Even if the tackles aren’t truly blocking the guys one-on-one, just stay inside out, run them up the field and tell the quarterback not to get deep. That’s extremely hard when you have guys on the inside. You tell them not to get deep, but guys are in his face so you either run into them or get balls tipped or you back up and that’s when the edge guys get sack fumbles.”NOTES: LB Mark Nzeocha (groin) and T Joe Staley (not injury related) didn’t practice. … RB Matt Breida (ankle), S Antone Exum (hip), C Weston Richburg (knee), LB Malcolm Smith (Achilles), S Jaquiski Tartt (shoulder) and CB K’Waun Williams (knee) were limited. … The Niners signed WR Jordan Smallwood to the practice squad.