THE CHRONICLES OF HAYNE - Week 2

Jarryd Hayne watched much of it from the sidelines and what he saw was not pretty. Drives were often interrupted by penalty flags; the run game was stifled; the receivers were harried even while open. Playing catch up is impossible if your team-mates can’t catch conversions on 3rd down. Here he was in Pennsylvania, a state where football is religion, a long way from the housing commission digs in Minto where he was raised by his mum and grandmother. It’s not the outcome that matters so much as the dream itself. He knows this. It is inherent in how he flies down the field. But today the Plane is grounded.

Hayne waited nine minutes to catch a ball at the 15 yard line. It was punted by another Australian, Jordan Berry, who was born and raised in Melbourne’s inner north. This was a moment of supposed historical note. Never before had one Australian kicked to another in the NFL. It was greeted with little fanfare. There were more flags to be thrown.

The learning curve for an undrafted free agent is steep. But for Hayne, a novice without the legacy of Friday Night Lights and a college background behind him, this must seem like an exam without absolution. He understands his role is at once flexible and not guaranteed. Some weeks he’ll be on standby, a member of the special teams, just a bit player. This was one of those weeks. Learning is endless. Getting thrown into the deep end, however, doesn’t prepare anyone for the Olympics.

The first half, in which Hayne saw limited action - four snaps, a couple of carries for negligible yards - was where the game had been decided. Backdoor plays and the bootlegging that proved decisive against Minnesota were fodder for a hungry Pittsburgh determined to atone for an opening week demolition at the hands of Super Bowl champions New England.

This road trip was a homecoming of sorts for head coach Jim Tomsula. He had been raised in nearby Homestead, Pennsylvania, less than eight miles away. Someone had forgotten to put out the welcome mat. He shuffled his bulk up and down the sidelines. The anguished moustachioed face suggested an incumbent mayor given news he is soon to be put on the scrapheap in Yonkers, New York. He had two weapons on the outside in Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith, both former Ravens who had previous firsthand experience at tormenting Pittsburgh in the AFC North. Smith’s involvement in the first quarter was swift, snatching a bullet from Colin Kaepernick for a 14 yard gain. Carlos Hyde then dashed up the middle for 8 yards and the ascendency was with the 49ers. Then defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt sacked Kaepernick prompting the first of a series of momentum killing plays soon followed by Boldin spilling a pie for a gimme first down. The officials deemed it incomplete but the replay was less forgiving. Boldin turned and stepped and coughed up the football when Steelers corner, William Gay, momentarily latched onto him like he was in the hydraulic forklift suit Sigourney Weaver pilots at the climax of Aliens.

Even if he’d rather be out there making a difference, impacting the contest, Hayne, at least for the second game of his fledgling NFL career had dropped down in the pecking order. He can’t do anything about the experience he lacks. “I just worry about what I can control,” he told reporters more than once in the offseason. It was up to us to manage expectations.

Of course standing around doesn’t sell headlines back in Australia. For the moment the outside perceptions were changing and after thumping the Vikings last week, so too, were the moveable pieces in the back field.

Opportunity was afforded fourth-in-line tailback Mike Davis. Carlos Hyde, who again carried the bulk of the rushing on his shoulders, found the going much tougher. After sustaining a heavy hit to his lower half and severely injuring what looked like a medial ligament late in the 1st quarter the tough-as-nails Hyde miraculously returned only to suffer a high hit much later on that ended his day. It was his 24th birthday. Davis who was on the field for 41 snaps had little impact. But he wasn’t alone. Injured running back Reggie Bush put it into perspective. “He’s obviously better at it than Jarryd because he played football longer, he has more experience at it,” he said of Davis. “But Jarryd’s doing well also. He’s coming along.”

San Francisco, for many of the pundits, is a work in progress this season. The summer was punctuated by a mass exodus of coaching staff and playing personnel. Retiring were Borland, Willis, Smith and Davis. To free agency they lost their all-time leading rusher Frank Gore, along with Culliver, Crabtree, Upati and Cox. Tomsula himself was replacing the popular Jim Harbaugh, who’d been offered a king’s ransom to head up the football program at the University of Michigan. Co-ordinators Roman and Fangio had also departed. After one week it was too early to tell what football team they might become. By halftime of Week 2 Pittsburgh were painting an unflattering picture. They looked weak on the outside and vulnerable when it came to the pass rush. The undersized secondary would be hopelessly outmatched. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, once his offence found its rhythm, repeatedly put them to the sword. And that sword was Antonio Brown.

It was 3rd down and 10 yards on San Fran’s 20. Brown, whose speed causes almost instant separation, has his man beat cold. Free safety Eric Reid back pedals after drifting out from behind the line of scrimmage, a late read on the play, to take Brown out of bounds some 30 odd yards down field. But not before Brown, without breaking stride, sticks an over-the-shoulder catch. It was his 400th making him the third fastest player ever to reach the milestone. Most of the other receivers on the day would have grassed it. Tomsula, unwisely, decided to challenge the play. Brown’s slight but wiry frame, as Reid crunches into it, in high def slow motion, bends like a palm tree in a hurricane before he is sidelined, literally. The call stood. So too did the now delirious home crowd. They would not be silenced for the rest of the afternoon.

TOP TEN POINTS OF INTEREST FROM WEEK TWO

10. Shaking off an opening week embarrassment in which rookie QB Jameis Winston announced himself in the pros with one of the worst debuts in history, Lovie Smith took his young charges to New Orleans, where the Saints had lost five straight at home and played with heightened aggression. Drew Brees and his patchwork offense were asked questions he, ultimately, couldn’t answer. While Jimmy Graham has been slow to learn the playbook in Seattle his loss in New Orleans is being felt often where it hurts most: on 3rd down. Led by defensive end Jacquies Smith (3 sacks), Tampa unnerved Sean Peyton’s once formidable team often by jumping the snap count. It has cost the Buccaneers 23 penalties in two weeks but once Smith irons out a few more of the creases and grows the confidence wins against Texas (away) and Carolina (at home) no longer look as impossible.

9. Aaron Rodgers hasn’t thrown an interception at Lambeau Field since 2012. It’s just as well for the Packers who sought redemption for their heartbreaking loss in the NFC title game last year when they lost the unlosable game to the Seahawks. Once again Green Bay dominated possession all but for a third quarter sequence in which Russell Wilson mounted a series of deadly drives and history, as it has a knack of doing, began to repeat itself. In the end it was Packers line backer Jay Elliott, despite failing to trouble the tackle column, who made a one handed pick that saved the day. Or did he? Seattle’s Justin Witt didn’t seem to think so when emerged much later with the ball. Screw the rules. By then the game had moved on in the minds of everyone else.

8. “Last week was not about confidence… we’re not very good. Those questions never came up. It was more about what we did. We came in there and missed an opportunity in our minds and we didn’t play our best and it was about getting back to that.” Jacksonville head coach Gus Bradley communicates his game plan.

7. Guess which part of the following sentence is true? Cutler throws interception and pulls hamstring trying to make tackle that ultimately fails to prevent touchdown on the ensuing play. Answer: all of it.

6. The Redskins packaged up three tight ends to help with the blocking and it worked as rookie Matt Jones used his explosive speed to rip apart St. Louis, who started the game as overwhelming favourites. Jones rushed for 123 yards and 2 TDs and helped share some of the burden carried by the underrated Alfred Morris. The Rams had not started a season 2-0 since 2001. Incidentally, the same year they won the Super Bowl. A helpful statistic ignored by the many thousands who were knocked out of an Eliminator/Suicide pool this week.

5. Right now it’s hard to think of a team less relevant than the Lions. After Minnesota gave up 230 rushing yards last week Detroit could only put up a meagre 38. The great Florida crime writer John D. MacDonald once noted “if they were never aware of your presence, they won’t be overwhelmed by your absence”. Sadly the Lions are in a race with Chicago in a race to the bottom.

4. At 2-0 the Arizona Cardinals are hot property right now and quarterback Carson Palmer, who would nominally get injured if he tripped and fell inside a cottonwool warehouse, is for the moment in the kind of scintillating form that saw some claim he was an elite talent back in his unfulfilled days with the Bengals. That ended in tears. Now with rookie rusher David Johnson a legitimate threat on offense and special teams (110 yards on a punt return) the pressure comes off veteran Larry Fitzgerald who starred in the 48-23 demolition of Chicago and despite getting coat-hangered in the end zone managed to connect on a flea flicker to complete one of the plays of the week.

3. KC head coach Andy Reid’s record in closing out big games (see Super Bowl 39) is akin to Shane Watson’s LBW referrals (not real great). On Friday morning instead of going for a long downfield pass to insure the game against Denver went into overtime he opted to run the ball and Jamal Charles who had already fumbled in the first quarter thought it best to bookend the game the same way handing the Broncos their second consecutive ugly win. Manning is 14-1 against the Chiefs.

2. In a helmet Sam Bradford is a dead ringer for Ryan Reynolds. After the diabolical showing by Philadelphia’s offense this weekend he looked more like a sad Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds, say, when the first reviews arrived on his desk for Green Lantern. DeMarco Murray contributed 2 yards in the black. Marshawn Lynch falls over for more. Watching Klaus Kinski drag a paddle steamer over a mountain in Fitzcarraldo is less futile than the sight of wideout Jordan Matthews right now. Chip Kelly’s offense is impotent and the Eagles home crowd in their 20-10 loss to Dallas sounded like 70,000 frustrated housewives.

1. No such problem afflicts Antonio Cromartie, who got a vasectomy after compiling 10 kids to eight different women. Thankfully that’s all the statistical data currently available in that area of his game. But on the football field with his secondary partner Darrelle Revis, the Jets corners anchor what is fast becoming a defensive powerhouse under the helm of new head coach Todd Bowles. The more highly fancied Indianapolis is currently a mess. It’s as if the 2-0 Jets have swapped identities with the Colts like in one of those ‘80s era comedies starring Fred Savage or Kirk Cameron. Nobody was amused then not unlike Chuck Pagano now. The Jets are only 33% on 3rd down efficiency but when accommodating opposition keeps giving the ball back they keep getting opportunities to improve upon that just like they will their standing in the division this week if the Eagles’ Sam Bradford arrives at The Change-Up point in Ryan Reynolds’ career.