The 2020 NFL Week 4 Roundup | Clap of Thunder
Zeus Has Company
It was an unseasonably brisk late July morning in tony Great Falls, VA where tucked atop a sleepy cul-de-sac, “Riverboat” Ron Rivera — Washington’s freshly signed Head Coach — woke up, arms outstretched. Ensconced beneath his fluffy down-filled duvet on the second floor of his $2.2M nearly 7000 square foot glassed-in modern manse flanked by flagstone walkways, bleary-eyed Ron began his day like any other. He trudged out of bed, ambled past his beloved zebra-print sectional and glanced briefly at the ornate surround of the see through dual-sided fireplace marking the entrance to the primary bath, yawning all along the way. With prominent views overlooking the surrounding woods themselves a football spiral to the mighty Potomac, Ron showered and bellied up to his custom-designed bathroom vanity outfitted with an expansive granite waterfall countertop where he, as he would on any day, lathered up, picked up his razor and began to shave. And THAT’S when it happened. He nicked himself. Instinctively pressing his left index finger to the source of irritation, Ron thought it odd to feel a bump where he hadn’t noticed one before. So he wiped aside the lather to gain better purchase, saw a miniscule laceration and thought it to be little more than a pesky pimple. So he finished up his morning routine without giving so much as a second thought to his teenage-throwback discovery and shuttled through his busy day down at the Team Training facility in nearby Ashburn.
The next morning, Ron’s regimen followed to a T the one that had unfolded just 24 hours prior. Looking at himself in the back-lit thick picture-framed mirror, he rubbed at his still-prominent and still-present mysterious pimple. But this time accompanied with a neck strain. He didn’t associate the two at the time and made a mental note to casually run it by Team physician Tony Casolaro later in the week if his discomfort failed to improve. Thinking a pulled muscle, Ron’s mysterious ailments didn’t subside. Dr. Casolaro, visibly grimacing and growing ever more alarmed, gently prodded Ron’s neck and didn’t like what he saw or felt. What was crystal clear was that this was no zit and further, presented like a swollen lymph node. But Ron was not sick further deepening the puzzle. After a battery of follow-on testing was ordered at a local hospital, Ron’s greatest fears would be founded and spelled out in five letters: Cancer. Technically termed Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Ron was officially diagnosed with skin cancer. What’s more, though this type of cancer is completely common, curable and not life-threatening, left untreated it can metastasize. And that’s just what Ron’s inconspicuous scaly patch did. It leached into his left lymph node where it promptly set up shop only to be discovered unsuspectingly with the banal scrape of a razor just two week prior.
It’s said that cancer moves fast but not as fast as the emotions that accompany it. At once Ron was angry, scared, bewildered, embarrassed, sad, numb, anxious, drained. Memories of his late brother Mickey, only 3 years his senior, who in 2015 lost his own two year battle to pancreatic cancer, flooded back in an instant. Ron was unable to phone his mother fearful of burdening her with news of yet another cancer-stricken son. It took him several failed attempts, with wife Stephanie close at his side her arm clinging to his quivering shoulder, before Ron was able to utter his diagnosis to his mom. He needn’t have worried. Dolores, his mother, immediately took on the role of cheerleader-in-chief who was able to rally Ron to inspired fearlessness. She asked of him simply, what kind of example will you set for your family? And what of his players who had taken quickly to their Coach as a revered friend an father-figure. Dolores firmly intoned as only the mother of a football Coach can: Are you on Offense or Defense? And with that, a promise was made, sealed with tears of joy and embossed with a smile. Ron would see to it that he and his family would battle-back as ONE. And, much as Zeus, he-united — would do so with a clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning and the snap of a of his fingers.
And so with his cancer detected at an early stage, a seven week treatment therapy complete with proton therapy was ordered and quickly undertaken. Doctors encouraged Ron’s continuing to work as much as possible and he does so with the unfiltered brotherly love, support and counsel of the finest 55-man roster this side of the Potomac. This week, A little more than halfway through his treatment course, Ron is not yet out of the wood but doctors report promising results so far and are guardedly optimistic. And yet through it all, Riverboat Ron quietly reflects on his 58 years and surmises that they agree with him. Individually and in the abstract. That the sweep of his experiences, the love of his family, the scope of endured hardship, the glean of the unrealized, and the fear of the unpromised each conglomerate to symphonically underscore his signature “Ready to Roll” work ethos. Whether to Cancer, his fluffy down-filled duvet or the NFC east, Ron Rivera is Ready to Roll!
After a tough afternoon loss to the Ravens at a fanless Fedex Stadium this past Sunday, Ron made his way back to his Great Falls home, lumbered up to his bed, tugged his duvet up to his chin — drained — and whispered to himself under his breath, OFFENSE!, in reflective answer to his mom’s rhetorical question of him. Ron settled into his pillow colored with wisdom, smiled and fell asleep as claps of thunder draped his inner kingdom.
Turning the page to a Covid-infected Week 4 in the NFL, if only Rivera’s WAS Footballers received that memo regarding those thunder claps. QB Dwayne Haskins continues his descent with an on-field squad that slumps with him in lock step, the whole embedded within a Team locked in a fruitless battle of the brats in the NFC East. It’s an ugly situation in DC, one that has Riverboat Ron better off for having chosen to sleep off the L. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, meanwhile, rack up a much-needed Win after last week’s bruising loss to KC. Across the country, there’s a new #1 in the NFC East where Philly (1–2–1!) overtook the injury-plagued and seemingly still-hiring 49ers at Levi’s Stadium, 25–20 . The Eagles slid into their ill-fitting Winner’s jeans and watched as San Francisco fades further and further from their illustrious, surprising and ultimately Super Bowl-bound 2019 glory. Similarly weighted down with the loss of 6 injured players, the Saints skirted past the Lions in a game that saw Drew Brees deliver yet another in a string of tempered outings. NOLA’s record (2–2) on the Season perfectly reflects the state of the state down in the Big Easy. Another big Loss is what Detroit picked up despite the best efforts of Matt Stafford and Adrian Peterson and an imperfectly timed resurgence after a fools gold 14–0 Q1 start.
Over in the Lone Star State, an unexpected barnburner of a game unfolded with our beloved Brownies at Cowboys. A world-beating performance turned in by DAL QB Dak Prescott (41/58 502yds 4TDs) elevated the gameplay of those around him and unfortunately for the Cowboys, also too CLE’s Odell Beckham Jr, who morphed into the everyman who could do no wrong on Sunday afternoon. OBJ relentlessly sliced through DAL’s continued weak Defense and in doing so offered up an all-star outing in what turned out to be a high scoring affair and WIN for the Cleve, 49–38. Might the Brownies be the underrated Cinderella story of the 2020 Season? Well their 3–1 record disguises weak opponentry in as many weeks, with the true test coming up against more formidable and credible Teams in the weeks ahead. So we’re just gonna go ahead and press pause on all the Cinderella talk spewing forth out of Cleveland and will return to address CLE goings on in a future edition. Deal? Deal!
Meanwhile, Jags at Bengals revealed to JAX fans that Gardner Minshew truly is the real deal as he continues to storm him way through the Season along with RB James Robinson and WR DJ Chark. As appealing to the masses thought they are, the Jags were ultimately outgunned by the Bengals, 25–33, who with #1 Draft Pick Joe Burrow (of LSU) escaped with a W. Joe Burrow is awarded 5 stars with a performance as interesting as it was unexpectedly smile-inducing (25/36 300 yds 1TD). Cincy can’t be blamed for doling out another hearty helping of their signature celebration chili. But at 1–2–1 they’d do well to keep those Tums piled high and in quantity. Down in Houston, the Texans are going to need more than Tums to right the world as they slide to 0–4 (along with the odious Jets and Giants) at the hands of the Vikings and Kirk Cousins, who picked a particularly fine time to turn in a more than fine performance. A weak Texans Defense paired with an equally strugglicious Offensive line allowing too many visitors to the QB pocket party coalesce to find superstar QB Deshaun Watson struggling to work the phones. Disaster ensued, a 23–31 loss resulted, and HOU GM/Coach Bill O’Brien received his walking papers. The Texans will struggle to just to reach the sidelines in January. They’ll find company in the Vikings who at 1–3 are not exactly answering the NFC North switchboard either.
And lastly in our Round Robin, the Colts bear-sprayed Chicago which saw starter Nick Foles picking up precisely where benched Mitchell Trubisky left off. In a word: catastrophe. Down in Charlotte, the Panthers extinguished any talk of a Kyler Murray-driven Cardinal 2020 comeback tour. After a hot 2–0 start, the Cards have flopped two straight the latest being to Teddy Bridgewater (who subbed so admirably for injured Drew Brees last year down in NOLA) and crew. So far, that Arizona renaissance is looking pretty, pretty shaky. NOT looking shaky is rookie Chargers QB Justin Herbert who looked every bit Tom Brady’s equal in an appearance at the Buccaneers, even if it resulted in a loss. LA fans must be perplexed that their zeal for Teddy is not matched in the Team’s 2020 record, 1–3. As with all things in the Golden State of late, you can’t have it all (we see and smell you Glass Fire). Seattle and Russell Wilson trounced the Dolphins whose starting QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has spectators uttering a simple question: Where’s Tua? And Finally, the rotten Giants fell to the Rams in a game that ought not have been as close as it was (9–17) considering the talent involved while the underappreciated talent of BUF QB Josh Allen propelled the Bills stampede over the Raiders in Vegas where the Bills gallop off confidently into Week 5 with their unbeaten record remaining blemish-free.
