Day: September 11, 2023

The New York Giants felt small on Sunday night, when they were, getting thrashed 40-0 versus the Dallas Cowboys in a streaking rain at MetLife Stadium.

There was no downplaying the defeat for coach Brian Daboll.

“We just got skunked here, 40 to nothing,” he said after the game, via the official transcript.

“When you play a game like that and coach a game like that, there’s nothing that’s good enough. Our job is to go back and look at it with a critical eye, just like we would do in any game, but 40 to nothing is not a good score, obviously.

So, a lot to work on, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Whatever the New York Giants do to move forward from a loss of this magnitude, cannot be worse than what they put on film Sunday night.

The offense committed three turnovers and racked in 171 total yards (2.

6 yards per play), they got to the red zone once in 12 possessions, putting up a goose egg on the scoreboard. The defense got flattened, permitting scores on four of Dallas’ first five possessions. And the special teams had a field goal blocked for a score, and Graham Gano yanked another 36-yarder.

“This wasn’t our best game, there is no doubt about it,” quarterback Daniel Jones said. “This wasn’t who we are capable of being.

We’ve got to show that. We’ve got to put that on the field and play that way. We didn’t do that tonight, and we have a lot to work on going forward.”

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Steelers HC Mike Tomlin speaks on worst home loss of his career; ‘We got kicked in the teeth’.

All the goodwill and hope brought by a perfect preseason ended for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the terrible reality of their regular-season opener. Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh offense, which had high expectations after scoring on each of their preseason drives, were dragged in a Week 1 home loss to the San Francisco 49ers, 30-7; the most lopsided home defeat in the Mike Tomlin reign.

While San Francisco left the game looking like an NFC Super Bowl contender, the Steelers walked away from Acrisure Stadium looking like preseason imposters.

“We accept responsibility obviously for the outcome,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game, via the team website. “We compliment those guys on the quality of work that they did. We absorb the negativity that comes with how we performed today, and we go back to work. We’ve got to prepare them better. They’ve got to play better. That’s just the reality of it.

“We got kicked in the teeth today in a lot of ways.”

The Steelers defense permitted Christian McCaffrey to run for 152 yards on the ground, CMC’s highest total as a 494er and since Week 5 of 2019. 

Pittsburgh’s offense was truly disappointing to the tune of 239 yards of total offense (a meagre 3.9 yards per play). Pittsburgh dropped behind, 20-0, in the first half and got shut out in the second.

The same way Pickett and Co. looked great weeks earlier, they looked sick on Sunday.

“We didn’t win enough possession downs to be competitive,” Tomlin said. “You can’t start games 0-5 on third down and think you’re going to have the type of day that you desire. You’ve got to win the weighty downs.”

Pittsburgh was 5-for-15 on third downs in the game with Pickett throwing a couple of interceptions (including a touchdown to Pat Freiermuth). Over his last eight matches of 2022, Pickett had just one pick. 

Tomlin who coached the Steelers since 2007, had only two home losses of 15-plus points in his tenure before Sunday. Week 1 was a wake-up call for the team.

“Disappointing day for us,” Tomlin said. “Not how we wanted to perform.”

More From The NFL:

New York Giants embrassed by 40-0 loss to cowboys on opening night.

The New England Patriots, held a special ceremony to honor the legendary quarterback during halftime of the team’s season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and there was no empty seat when Tom Brady addressed the teeming crowd at the Gillette Stadium.

“This is an incredible celebration for me, for our family, for my teammates, for all of us to come back and thank you guys, for what you’ve done for us,” Brady said. “I was so fortunate to be drafted here two decades ago — 23 years, to be exact — not even knowing where New England was on the map. And not that we put it on the map, but I think a lot more people in the U.S. know where the New England Patriots play.”

A sure first-ballot Hall of Famer, Brady will enter the Patriots Hall of Fame first, owner Robert Kraft announced on Sunday. Kraft announced that he was waiving the four-year waiting period for the team’s Hall of Fame, allowing Tom to be inducted next year. His induction is slated for June 12, 2024, inside Gillette Stadium.

Tom Brady’s long dynasty in New England featured six Super Bowl championships, 17 division titles and 2019 regular-season wins. Wearing his legendary No.12 Patriots jersey, the former sixth-round pick raced out onto the field before addressing the crowd, shouting to the New England crowd once crossing the end zone as he had done for 20 wonderful seasons.

“We had a culture of teammates and cared about two things,” Brady said. “They cared about each other and they cared about winning. And if you didn’t care about those two things, you did not last here very long. And we were very happy to play against you. So I think we proved to America what teamwork’s all about. We prove that believing in each other, believing in playing for this community, and believing in playing for a common mission, we were able to pull down six of those banners and celebrate them in this stadium.”

This was the first time Brady appeared in New England since he announced his retirement in February. He finished a 23-season-long career after his third campaign in Tampa Bay, where he added a seventh Super Bowl ring and became the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns.

He finished his speech with an excellent summation of his legendary career and a proclamation that got a big cheer from the crowd. 

“All our lives take us on different journeys,” Tom Brady said. “They take us to different places, they bring different people into our lives, but one thing that I am sure of — and that will never change — is that I am a Patriot for life.”

Related News:

Michael Irvin returns to NFL Network, settles $100 million misconduct allegations lawsuit with Marriott.

Former Dallas Cowboys star and Hall of Famer Michael Irvin settled his defamation lawsuit against Marriott and officially made his return to the NFL Network on Sunday morning, in time to begin the 2023 season.

Irvin filed a $100 million lawsuit against Marriott and six others for defamation and tortious interference in a business relationship after a female employee accused him of making lewd and inappropriate comments in a hotel lobby in Arizona in February. He was removed from the NFL Network’s Super Bowl coverage in light of the incident and has been off since then.

He and Marriott have settled that lawsuit since then, the Dallas Morning News reported on Sunday morning. However, the terms of the settlement are not known.

“Michael Irvin has been reinstated and will be a part of the NFL Network’s coverage of the 2023 season,” NFL Media vice president of communication Alex Riethmiller said in a statement, via The Dallas Morning News.

An employee of the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel accused Irvin of misconduct before the Super Bowl earlier this year. However, the specifics of the allegations were not made clear right away. In a legal motion, Marriot stated that he called the hotel employee, “appeared to be visibly intoxicated” and began “aggressive” behaviour toward her after returning to the hotel from dinner that night.

Video of the event with the female employee was released in March, although Marriott wanted to prevent its release. Irvin was seen shaking hands with the woman, he touched her arm twice, and then they parted ways after a roughly two-minute encounter.

He denied the allegations against him at every turn, saying he was “baffled’’ by it all.

He told the Dallas Morning News that he had been drinking earlier that night at dinner and did not remember the details of the conversation.

“This all happened in a 45-second conversation in the lobby,” he said earlier this year. “When I got back after going out … I came into the lobby, and I talked to somebody.

I talked to this girl. I don’t know her, and I talked to her for about 45 seconds. We shook hands. Then, I left. … That’s all I know.

“I don’t really recall that conversation, to tell you the truth. We were out drinking. It was just a friendly conversation.

‘What’s up?’ I don’t even know. … I am totally perplexed.’

More From The NFL:

Michael Irvin returns to NFL Network, settles $100 million misconduct allegations lawsuit with Marriott.