New England Patriots placekicker Stephen Gostkowski has been placed on injured reserve, leading the Patriots to search for a new kicker for the first time since 2010.

Gostkowshi had been dealing with a long-term hip injury and will be undergoing season ending surgery to treat it. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, he will be ready to play for the 2020 season.

The Patriots have had consistently incredible kickers for more than 20 years. The team had surefire Hall of Fame kicker Adam Vinateiri for ten years starting in 1996 and smoothly transitioned to Gostkowski right after. Barring an injury-shortened season where he was replaced by Shayne Graham for seven weeks in 2010, Gostkowski has been the foot to remember in Foxborough.

This marks relatively new territory for the Pats, as they usually have never had to delve into the free agent market for kicking. They worked out several kickers on Wednesday, including veterans Mike Nugent and Kai Forbath, but have not yet signed any player.

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If no new kicker is signed, the Patriots are content with sending rookie punter Jake Bailey to kick and punt. Bailey — who the Patriots traded up to draft in the fifth round — was a kicker and punter at Stanford, so he is acclimated to the role well. During training camp, Bailey and Gostkowski shared similar leg strength while splitting kickoff duties.

Special teams Captain Matthew Slater gave advice to whoever ends up replacing Gostkowski.

“They just have to be themselves, whoever it is, you don’t have to be Steve, you don’t have to be Adam [Vinatieri], you just have to be yourself,” said Slater. “That’s the call for each and every man that steps into this locker room. Don’t try to be someone that you’re not. Just be yourself. Do your job to the best of your ability, and know this team is going to support you as best as it can.”

Whoever New England goes with, he will have tough shoes to fill given the recent history of its kicking corps. However, the team’s next kicker will fit right into the Patriot Way as long as he can be consistent.

The Minnesota Vikings offense was stymied by the Chicago Bears defense on Sunday. Even running back Dalvin Cook — who has torched the league thus far — couldn’t muster up much against the Bears, as he gained a mere 35 yards on 14 carries. It was time for the Vikings’ pass offense to step up and it failed to do so.

Behind the arm of Kirk Cousins, the Vikings were only able to score six points the entire game and subsequently lost 16-6. It was a loss that frustrated many, but none was more frustrated than Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen. After the game Thielen criticized the team’s offense, especially the passing game.

“At some point, you’re not going to be able to run the ball for 180 yards, even with the best running back in the NFL,” Thielen told reporters. “That’s when you have to be able to throw the ball. You have to be able to make plays. You have to be able to hit the deep balls. You have to do that.” Thielen’s comments suggested frustration mounting over the entire season and not just one game. Thielen only has 13 catches through four games so far.

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Cousins, who is now 5-27 against teams with records over .500, did not ignore Thielen’s criticisms. Instead, the quarterback took them to heart. Cousins went on Minnesota radio to talk about the missed opportunities he cost his team.

“I really want to apologize to (Thielen) because there’s too many opportunities where we could have hit him on Sunday & post game when I talk to the media I always say ‘Hey until I watch the film it’s hard for me to really give you a straight answer,” Cousins said.

The QB is doing his best as a team leader. He is clearly taking the blame and trying to improve based on the criticism every week.

The Vikings’ next matchup might be exactly what the doctor ordered  to fix their passing attack, as they face a New York Giants team filled with defensive injuries. There might be many more issues than just a wide receiver’s valid criticism if they can’t get things back on track this week.

After losing by a combined score of six in the past two weeks, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally earned their first win of the season against the division rival Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night.

Since trading Josh Dobbs to the Jacksonville Jaguars less than a month ago, the Steelers have committed to Mason Rudolph being the future of this franchise. While that future came early with Ben Roethlisberger‘s season ending two weeks ago, Rudolph hasn’t disappointed in his first two starts and led his team to Monday night’s victory.

A new kind of offense blossomed for Pittsburgh this week, with Jaylen Samuels and James Conner picking up over 200 yards from scrimmage, using sweeps and Wildcat formations on some downs to run all over the Cincinnati front seven. A good running night was boosted by Rudolph proving himself through the air: he threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns and completed 24-28 passes.

Rudolph mostly threw short and let his receivers do the rest, as 169 of the 229 yards came after the catch. While mostly throwing short passes to the running backs, Rudolph proved he had could threaten long when he threw a 43-yard bomb to rookie wideout Diontae Johnson for a score in the third quarter. While the Steelers’ offense fired on all cylinders, the defense fared just as well, as they sacked Andy Dalton eight times and forced two fumbles.

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After allowing an early field goal, the Pittsburgh defense kept Cincinnati scoreless for the next 51 minutes. They were led by Mark Barron’s 11 tackles and Cameron Hayward’s 2.5 sacks, as the Bengals could never get their offense rolling against the stout Steelers defense.

While it was a new style of offense — sometimes more comparable to college playbook than NFL ones — the Steelers got the job done with Rudolph at the helm and will continue to develop him into the quarterback they need. Instead of giving up on the season due to Roethlisberger’s injury, the Steelers look determined to continue winning this season, even if it means using a new playbook to make it all work. The Steelers will have a mightier challenge next week as they face Lamar Jackson and the division rival Baltimore Ravens at home. The Bengals will take on the equally winless Arizona Cardinals in hopes of getting their season on track.

For the first time ever, the NFL this week suspended a player for the rest of the season due to a dirty hit on the field: Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict. 

In a recent matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, Burfict initiated a blatant helmet-to-helmet hit against tight end Jack Doyle, which resulted in an immediate ejection from the game for unnecessary roughness. Despite his absence, the Raiders ended up winning 31-24.

The Oakland Raiders linebacker was not only suspended for the remained of the year: he will also forfeit $1.16 million dollars in salary. However, this is not the first time Burfict has had to pay for his dirty hits on the field.

Burfict’s headhunting history goes back to his college football days where, despite his talent, his dirty play led him to be undrafted out of Arizona State. 

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Burfict also previously received three-game suspensions in both the 2016 and 2017 NFL seasons for dirty headhunting hits while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals.

The NFL clearly factored in the linebacker’s history and saw that he had not learned from his mistakes or prior suspensions. Thus, the league felt the need to send him to the sidelines for the entire year instead.

In a public statement, the NFL elaborated:

“Vontaze Burfict of the Oakland Raiders has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the 2019 season, as well as any postseason games, for repeated violations of unnecessary roughness rules, including in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. 

“NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan issued the suspension for a violation of Rule 12, Article 10, which states that: ‘It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.’ 

“In his letter to Burfict, Runyan wrote: ‘There were no mitigating circumstances on this play. Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant and should have been avoided. For your actions, you were penalized and disqualified from the game. Following each of your previous rule violations, you were warned by me and each of the jointly-appointed appeal officers that future violations would result in escalated accountability measures. However, you have continued to flagrantly abuse rules designed to protect yourself and your opponents from unnecessary risk.’

“Under the collective bargaining agreement, the suspension may be appealed within three business days. Appeals are heard and decided by either Derrick Brooks or James Thrash, the officers jointly appointed and compensated by the NFL and NFLPA to decide appeals of on-field player discipline.”

Will Burfict be able to turn it around next season and remedy his dirty hits or will this pattern of behavior continue to plague the various teams he has played for?

After the Dallas Cowboys’ 12-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday — the team’s first loss of the year — Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was quick to pin the loss on himself and the rest of the offense.

“Our defense played their (butt) off,” Elliot told reporters following the loss. “They kept us in the game. They gave us a chance and we just didn’t hold up on the offensive end. We can’t let our guys down like that.”

Elliott managed a measly 35 yards on 18 carries on Sunday and even coughed up a fumble right before halftime.

“I just coughed it up,” he said. “They just took it from me. It’s not acceptable … I just can’t let the team down like that.”

The Cowboys’ offense managed just 257 total yards and featured a season-low passer rating from QB Dak Prescott.

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The Saints’ offense, on the other hand, was not much more successful, as New Orleans failed to score even one touchdown in the victory. The Cowboys’ defense has stood out on this young campaign and they certainly held down a Saints offense with multiple different weapons.

“The only positive is the defense played their tails off,” Elliott said. “Offensively, we just didn’t do our jobs.”

Though the Cowboys suffered their first loss of the year to drop to 3-1, they remain atop the NFC East thanks to their stalwart defense.

The Saints’ defense also deserves praise for shutting down a Dallas offense featuring Elliott and Prescott, who had looked promising up to this point in the season. Getting shut down by the Saints in primetime has certainly increased criticism of the previously undefeated Cowboys.

Conversely, Prescott explained that the team is taking the loss in stride and moving on:

“There’s no confidence lost with this loss,” Prescott said. “I can promise you that. There’s a lot of things we’ll take from this and learn from.”

The Cowboys’ offense will have to prove itself heading into Week five, especially if the defense continues to shut down opposing offenses.

The New England Patriots’ 16-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday might appear inconspicuous to most. However, most viewers seemed to take away three things.

Josh Allen is concussed

After a hit early in the fourth quarter by New England safety Jonathan Jones, Bills quarterback Josh Allen was immediately taken out of the game. Allen has since been placed in concussion protocol, according to Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott.

Following that vicious helmet-to-helmet hit, Jones was flagged for unnecessary roughness, which is grounds for ejection from the game. However, Senior Vice President of Officiating Al Riveron argued that the hit did not garner an ejection.

“We looked at it and, in this situation, we didn’t feel that that contact rose to the level of an ejection,” said Riveron. “The player actually turns. Obviously, there is helmet contact, but we have standards for an ejection, and this did not rise to that standard; therefore, we did not eject him. There was a foul called and obviously the penalty stood, but we did not feel this contact rose to that level.”

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Bills offense commits turnovers and draws penalties aplenty 

The Bills’ offense struggled Sunday against the Patriots’ defense, as it was able to move the ball but found itself consistently unable to cash in for points at the end of drives. Rather, Buffalo appeared snake-bitten by turnovers and penalties that killed many of its drives.

Allen threw for three interceptions on Sunday, not to mention various missed throws and bad decisions throughout the game. Those turnovers — coupled with multiple pre-snap penalties and the team being forced to burn timeouts in order to avoid delay-of-game flags — led to the Bills’ offense getting in their own way more than once.

Tom Brady throws his first interception of 2019

Another big story from Sunday’s game was Tom Brady’s struggles versus the Buffalo defense. The six-time Super Bowl champion finished 18-of-39 passing for 150 yards and an interception, his first of the year. That defense held the All-Pro quarterback to a passer rating of just 45.9 after he forced three-and-outs on seven of the Patriots’ last 12 drives. Though the Bills’ defense held in check an offense with a lot of firepower, it was not enough, according to cornerback Tre’Davious White:

“We don’t take pride in moral victories,” White said. “Obviously (Brady) made a few more plays than we did to stop him. He put his team in a position to win and we had to get a few more three and outs and that would’ve helped our offense out more.”

With the win, the Patriots improved their record to 4-0 on the year. Meanwhile, the Bills dropped their first game of the young season to fall to 3-1.