Steelers MMQB: NFL Week 2 Wrap Up

What We Learned in Week 2 in the NFL:

Adrian Peterson deactivated after indicted for child abuse charges
Panthers finally deactivate Greg Hardy
NFL owners 100 percent behind Goodell says Jerry Jones
Philip Rivers picks apart Seattle defense
RGIII dislocates ankle
NFL refs still at their zany antics
Steelers head back to work after 1-1 start

Another glorious week in the NFL. Nothing but blue skies and smooth sailing for this league am I right? I wonder how many players would have to be indicted or arrested for abusing women and children before the rest of us just throw up our hands and tap out. The reality is that the vast majority of NFL players have not been nor will be arrested for any kind of offense; abuse, drugs, DUI, weapons, etc. That being said, the shield sure looks a bit tarnished right now, doesn’t it?

The Minnesota Vikings immediately deactivated the league’s top rusher, Adrian Peterson, after the announcement that he had been indicted in Texas for child abuse charges. Peterson had a warrant issued for his arrest but immediately turned himself in. The charges were filed after the mother of Peterson’s 4-year-old son took him to the doctor following a visit with Peterson in which the boy had a “whopping”. The details are rather disturbing and Peterson has apparently been fully cooperative with authorities in this investigation. The Vikings have a number of options for what to do with Peterson. They could seek a trade or just continue to deactivate him while this case is still pending.

The Carolina Panthers were fully committed to hiding behind the old “letting the criminal justice process work” in regards to whether or not to keep DE Greg Hardy on the field. The only problem with that is that the criminal justice process had kind of already worked, considering the fact that Hardy has already been convicted of domestic violence charges, he’s just appealing his conviction. The process has more or less played out already, Hardy is just appealing the judge’s decision. The Panthers were all about keeping Hardy on the field until obviously bowing to public pressures to bench him in light of the seemingly nonstop abuse scandals rocking the NFL at this moment. The biggest thing to remember of all these cases is that every one of their situations are different, Hardy shouldn’t be punished harsher by the NFL because they dropped the ball so egregiously with Ray Rice. However, Hardy should be punished harsher because he is the only one of the players under fire right now because he’s been convicted of these charges already. These aren’t “allegations” or anything like that. He’s appealing his guilty verdict and requesting a jury trial set for November but it could be delayed until 2015.

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If there is anyone in America that still likes Roger Goodell its Jerry Jones. That’s a comforting thought. Jones backed his Commish recently in light of the glaringly obvious facts involving how the commissioner and league botched the Ray Rice case. The league has now opened its own “independent” investigation on the whole thing and hired former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III to head it up. The league also tapped owners John Mara of the New York Giants and Art Rooney II of the Pittsburgh Steelers to “oversee” the investigation. The fact that the owners are having this farce of an “investigation” while the evidence is overwhelmingly obvious that Goodell and the league failed epically in this case only proves that the owners are attempting to save face for the league while trying to retain Goodell as commissioner.

When Aaron Rodgers faced the Seahawks defense in Week 1 he openly avoided throwing in the direction of Richard Sherman. Philip Rivers didn’t. He threw at Sherman four times in the Chargers 30-21 victory over the Seahawks and completed each one of those passes. In Sherman’s ever mature response, he avoided the media following the game so apparently he wouldn’t have to answer why a sorry quarterback like Rivers could make him look like an incredibly average cornerback. I’m sure he’s just thinking of the perfect comeback.

Robert Griffin III hasn’t done much to dispel the idea that he has the durability of an egg shell after he was carted off the field on Sunday with a dislocated ankle. He’ll undergo an MRI on Monday to determine if surgery is needed but dislocated ankle certainly does have season-ending injury written all over it. Thankfully for Washington, they were only playing the Jaguars and were able to pull out the 41-10 victory with Kirk Cousins replacing Griffin.

The NFL attempted to streamline and improve their officiating this offseason by having the in-game referees communicate with the officiating command center in New York for replays. Problem is the refs on the field still have to get the call right as far as which call is being reviewed. So there’s still plenty of times where they can look like complete and total Jagoffs and blow obvious calls. Percy Harvin stepped out of bounds while scoring a Seattle touchdown in San Diego but was given the touchdown because the replay official didn’t initiate a review. The 49ers had their first touchdown that shouldn’t have been stand because the refs failed to notice the play clock had run out before Colin Kaepernick snapped the ball. It’s only week 2, I’m sure they’ll get the hang of it.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are back at the South Side facilities hopefully ready to work on their run defense, or lack thereof based on their first two games this season. The defense allowed 183 rushing yards against the Browns in the first game and the Ravens rushed for 157 yards on Thursday night. The staple of the Steelers defense has been stopping the run but they haven’t stopped much of anything so far. As much as the NFL has the reputation of being a passing league now it’s still a sure way to win football games if you can run at will against your opponent. The Steelers defense has some work to do as far as getting back to the basics in that respect.

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