To paraphrase the late, great New York Yankees player and accidental philosopher Yogi Berra, it gets late early during a National Football League season.
Though we’re only heading into the third week of the NFL season, our latest episode of Down and Distance starts off on First Down by breaking down the eight teams that, as of Friday, are 0-2 to start the season, and the prospects of each of those teams making a turnaround to fight for a postseason berth. And it will be a fight. Since 1990, teams that have started 0-2 have gone on to make the playoffs only 11.7 percent of the time, so 2014 playoff teams like the Seahawks, Ravens, Colts and Lions all are staring that reality in the face as they try to get their 2015 seasons on the right track.
On Second Down, we have a one-on-one interview with Jacksonville Jaguars running back Denard Robinson, the converted quarterback who’s hoping to help the Jaguars ground game support second-year quarterback Blake Bortles. In the conversation, we ask Robinson what has been the most important things he’s been taught technique wise to make himself a better running back, what clicked for him in the middle of last season when he had back-to-back 100-yard rushing games, and what inspired him to start his Shoelace Foundation.
Third Down brings a preview of, and predictions on, nine different games in Week Three of the season, including whether the Dallas Cowboys can start 3-0 without the services of Tony Romo and Dez Bryant when they host another 2-0 team, the Atlanta Falcons. We also talk about another 2-0 team, the New York Jets, as they look to continue the misery of the Philadelphia Eagles when the teams meet at MetLife Stadium. On fourth down, Holly ponders whether the Dallas Cowboys, if Tony Romo misses eight games with the broken clavicle injury he suffered last week, can win the same number of games in his absence as the number of games Brandon Weeden, Romo’s replacement, has won as a starter in his NFL career: five.
Please enjoy the podcast, and leave us any and all comments that you have. Click here to go to the A Lot of Sports Talk podcast page on iTunes, and from there, you can download this show as well as subscribe to our podcast page and receive new episodes on your device the second it is posted. You can also open iTunes, and in the Podcasts section, type in “A Lot of Sports Talk” in the search box to find our shows.
[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/ALOST/DownAndDistance_Wk3_2015.mp3]Interview Order: First Down (0:00-28:58); Denard Robinson Interview (29:07-35:00); Third/Fourth Downs (35:08-1:31:19)
[Cover photo (Robert Quinn/Russell Wilson) courtesy of Jamie Squire/Getty Images]
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