I completely forgot to write this up until someone emailed me & mentioned it.  Thanks Laura!  I was hiking in Discovery Park in Seattle on Sunday, so I had to catch up on the games via Sunday Ticket.

My favorite players the week were…

Joe Mixon, Texans running back

Mixon didn’t seem to have any trouble adjusting to a new scheme on a new team.  He carried 30 times for 159 yards & a touchdown.  That’s a whopping 5.3 yards per carry.  His longest run was 13 yards, so the 5.3 average is indicative of the performance rather than inflated by one play.

Rhamondre Stevenson, Patriots running back

Stevenson ran for 120 yards on 25 carries for a 4.8 average and scored the only Patriots touchdown of the game.  There were backs who rushed for more yards than Stevenson did in Week 1, but I believe his showing might have been more impressive.  Joe Mixon had a great game, but the defense had to account for CJ Stroud at quarterback with his 2 touchdowns & 115.9 passer rating.  The Bengals were more focused on stopping the running game given the Patriots anemic passing game.  Jacoby Brissett wasn’t bad, but his 121 yards & 82.2 rating meant that the Bengals could stack the box more often than they would have against the Texans. Stevenson played a physical game & ran over & through the Bengals to get those yards.

Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers quarterback

Tua Tagovailoa passed for the most yards in week 1 (338), but only managed to come away with 1 touchdown.  Mayfield threw for 289 yards & 4 touchdowns on 7 fewer attempts & earned a 146.4 passer rating, the highest of week 1.  Mayfield really seems to have found the right team, or to have developed his football IQ or both (probably both) since the Browns gave up on him & spent a fortune in draft picks & cash for Deshaun Watson.  Somehow the Browns continue to be a factory of sadness.

Tyrique Stevenson, Bears cornerback

With the Bears offense MIA on Sunday, managing only 148 yards for the entire game, any chance of a win was up to the defense & Stevenson & the Bears defense came through.  They held the Bears to 244 yards of total offense.  Even though that is almost 100 yards more than the Bears managed, it is still awful.  Titans coach Brian Callahan even said. “If we’d just punted it on 1st & 10 every time, we might’ve won the game the way that we gave it away.” Stevenson was a big part of the defensive effort.  He made 4 tackles, 2 passes defensed including an interception returned 43 yards for a touchdown that proved to be the winning score.

Jonathan Jones, Patriots cornerback

I’ll admit that this is even more of a nod to the overall defense than the Stevenson pick, but I wanted to mention a specific player.  With their offense only able to put 1 touchdown & 3 field goals on the board, the Patriots defense had to carry the load.  They limited what is expected to be an explosive Bengals offense to 224 yards & 1 touchdown.  The Patriots secondary was excellent.  Christian Gonzalez generally locked down Ja’Marr Chase, holding him to 62 yards receiving. The Bengals looked like they had a touchdown when former Patriot Mike Gesicki appeared to catch a pass in the corner of the end zone, but Kyle Dugger managed to rip the ball out as he went to the ground.  On the next play he forced a fumble & prevented a touchdown.  I’m going with Jones here though.  He was great in coverage allowing zero catches against him in 25 snaps & recording a pass breakup, which made him the second highest rated cornerback of the week for Pro Football Focus.  He also made three tackles with the most impactful being a stop of Andrei Iosivas on 4^th & 2 that ended a Bengals drive at the Patriots’ 36 yard line.

Gregory Rousseau, Bills defensive end

I thought about Alontae Taylor or Keion White here, but Rousseau was more dominant.  He had 3 sacks, another 6 tackles & forced a fumble.  It was a tight game & he might have made the difference.

Chris Boswell, Steelers kicker

Boswell scored all 18 points for the Steelers with 6 field goals.  These weren’t chip shots either. Three of the kicks were over 50 yards including a long of 57 yards.  Usually 6 scoring drives produce a lot more than 18 points, but that was enough to get the Steelers an 18-10 win over the punchless Falcons.

Jake Moody, 49’ers kicker

Oddly enough, Moody also connected on 6 field goals including 2 over 50 yards (53 for the longest).  That tied the team record for a game.  He also made his two extra points attempts.

Ryan Rehkow, Bengals punter

One of the few highlights for the Bengals was the performance of their undrafted rookie punter.  He punted 4 times for 258 yards!  The 64.5 yard average punt set a team record.  His most impressive punt was also a team record of 80 yards!  It came within inches of going out of bounds & pinning the Patriots inside their 1-yard line.  He consistently was able to flip field position for the team. 

My favorite wine of the week was…

Myburgh Bros. Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022 $13 Paarl South Africa

100% Chenin Blanc.100% stainless steel.  Aged on lees for 5 months

The wine features ripe fruit that is underpinned by ripping acidity.  It tasted like there was almost a bowl of fruit here.  I tasted peach, guava, green apple, & some almost lime pith notes.  There’s also a hint of cream.  The wine also showed the distinct honey & wool note on the long finish that marks good Chenin Blanc. 

This is from the southwest part of Paarl, which is one of the warmer regions in South Africa, although their location is cooler than it gets further inland.  Much of the wine from the area is made by co-ops & higher yields are often a goal.  That isn’t the case here.  The organically certified grapes are dry farmed in bush vines rather than trellised & the vines are 40 years old (38 when this vintage was harvested).  Planting bush vines rather than trellising means that the vines must be handpicked.  In this case, the grapes are harvested in a series of passes (often called “tries”).  They do an early tri to pick less ripe fruit for high acid & then additional tries to get ripe fruit & then even riper fruit.  Whatever they are doing, it results in a tasty wine that is just an incredibly good value.

I know that it is starting to cool off as we approach Fall in some places, but it’s still hot where I am & this is perfect on a hot day just by itself.  It would also pair well with lightly spicy food (shrimp, pork, or chicken).