Any hope of recalcitrant running back Le’Veon Bell returning to

the football field in the black and gold — or any other team’s colors — any time soon took a major hit when Seattle star safety Earl Thomas broke his lower left leg Sebastian Janikowski Color Rush Jersey , illustrating the dangers of playing without the security of a long-term deal.Thomas and Bell each held out this summer, but while Bell continued to work out on his own, Thomas returned to the Seahawks in time for the season opener without a trade or a new contract in hand.,That move didn’t pay off financially or otherwise.He got hurt in a game at Arizona, and when he was carted off the field at State Farm Stadium, he raised his middle finger toward the Seahawks’ sideline.“Earl wanted an extension and at the end of the day he didn’t get that,” Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark said. “It sucks to see a guy who puts his heart into something, put his all into his team and he doesn’t get what he deserves.”Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner said in an Instagram post, “If he doesn’t come then he’s not a team player. If he does come and gets hurt, then it’s ‘he shouldn’t have came.’ If I was him, I’d be (ticked) off.”ESPN posted the quote and a photo of Thomas’ obscene gesture, and that’s when Bell chimed in , suggesting he wouldn’t be back on the field anytime soon.“Smh, exactly …” wrote Bell. “Get right bro bro (Earl Thomas)! I’ll continue to be the ‘bad guy’ for ALL of us.”Bell has refused to sign his $14.54 million one-year tender, concerned that he’d get overused in a contract year, either subjecting him to the risk of injury or to a devaluation of his talents.NFL Network reported earlier Sunday that the Steelers were shopping Bell.Trading him is a tricky proposition because Bell would have to first sign his tender. Because he can’t negotiate a long-term deal until after this season Dontae Johnson Color Rush Jersey , he’d still be taking on the injury risk with a new team.Bell can return in Week 10 and still accrue a full season to become a free agent in March.Other takeaways from Week 4 include a fourth-down gamble that backfired on Colts coach Frank Reich, the “Big Four” rookie QBs going 0-4 Sunday after the hype meter cranked up to high last week and the Ravens tricking the Steelers and the officials on a trick play in their 26-14 win over Pittsburgh.FIT TO BE TIED Reich earned kudos from both his players and the Texans for his decision to go for it on fourth-and-4 from his 43 with 27 seconds left in overtime rather than punt, bury Houston deep and settle for the NFL’s third tie game.“We’re not playing to tie,” Reich insisted after his decision led to a 37-34 overtime loss instead. “We’re going for that 10 times out of 10. That (play) has just got to work.”It didn’t.With his favorite target, T.Y. Hilton, on the sideline with a hamstring injury and a short week ahead with the New England Patriots on tap Thursday night, Andrew Luck bounced his pass to Chester Rogers.The Texans took over and Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a 37-yard field goal as overtime expired. But wait! In yet another call that backfired, Reich had called timeout.Fairbairn nailed the do-over to end the league’s longest losing streak at nine.Reich’s only regret was calling timeout before the fourth-and-4 play after the Texans didn’t jump offside, he said.Luck’s only lament was misfiring the pass, but he loved the bold call.“It had my stamp of approval,” Luck said. “We did not execute well enough.”COOL YOUR JETSAfter a dominant debut against Detroit in the Jets’ opener, Sam Darnold has cooled off in three straight defeats, including a listless loss at Jacksonville on Sunday.A week after being hailed as a hero for leading Cleveland to its first win since 2016 by rallying the Browns over the Jets in relief of an injured Tyrod Taylor, Baker Mayfield had four turnovers in his first NFL start, a 45-42 overtime loss to the Raiders.Mayfield threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns but suffered a pick-6, got strip sacked D.J. Fluker Color Rush Jersey , fumbled a snap and threw an interception in the final seconds of regulation.“You don’t want to rein him in,” coach Hue Jackson said, “because I like the things he’s doing.” Josh Rosen had a strong debut in his first start for Arizona but it wasn’t enough to keep the Cardinals from falling to 0-4 for the first time since 1986.Josh Allen accounted for three turnovers in the Bills’ 22-0 loss at Green Bay a week after a stunning win at heavily favored Minnesota in his starting debut.“I take this one on my shoulders,” Allen said. “We can only go as far as the quarterback goes.”TRICK OR TREATBaltimore coach John Harbaugh was furious when the Patriots fooled the Ravens in the playoffs a few years ago with a trick play to an eligible receiver who looked like he was lined up as an offensive lineman.The Ravens stole that idea from New England eight months later and unwrapped it again Sunday to fool the Steelers.Tight end Maxx Williams lined up next to the center as the left guard but just far enough off the line of scrimmage to make himself an eligible receiver. He was wide open for a 22-yard gain that set up a field goal for a 23-14 lead.Retired referee Terry McAulay, now an NBC Sports rules analyst, said Williams probably shouldn’t have been an eligible receiver on the play, but no flag was thrown. Everyone could see Shaquill Griffin was having a rough game last Sunday. Casual observers, emotionally charged viewers and financially invested watchers; Dallas Cowboys fans, Seattle Seahawks supporters and NFL followers; Griffin was bad to the most inexperienced football spectator.I wrote the previous week about the ability of Tre Flowers resulting in “some teams,” targeting “Shaquill Griffin more.” Flowers’ excellent debut season has coincided with an underwhelming second campaign for Griffin. What started so brightly for Griffin with interceptions against the Chicago Bears dwindled. Sure, the 2017 third-rounder was bugged by an ankle injury. But his wild card round failures were not issues of athleticism or fluidity. While it’s impossible to determine the impact playing hurt had on Griffin’s confidence, his poor plays were based purely in ghastly technique and awareness. His performance was so disappointing that drafting another cornerback looks essential, irrespective of whether slot defender Justin Coleman is re-signed.One method Dallas utilized to attack Griffin was their “duo” run scheme. (I wrote about Seattle’s misdirection version here) The Seahawks’ front played the design well each time. Encouragingly for Seattle, Ezekiel Elliott was forced to bounce his read to the EDGE. Negatively, the two instances saw Elliott beat the unblocked Griffin one-on-one. Griffin out-leverages himselfOn the first occasion, the Cowboys aligned in a 2x2 11 personnel single back formation. They then shifted Tavon Austin into a “sniffer role”—so named for its location right behind the buttocks of the guard. On the 3rd and 1 Barkevious Mingo Color Rush Jersey , post-shift, the Seahawks had nearly 9 men in the box for the 7 Dallas blockers. Their choice of dime personnel, rather than nickel, for the 11 personnel was somewhat strange given the short-yardage but was testament to their faith in Bradley McDougald as a box player. Pete Carroll and Ken Norton Jr. were likely fearful of being burnt again via an empty set too.The Cowboys managed to get 3 double teams at the line of scrimmage, but there were too many Seattle bodies for Elliott to run this up the middle. The ball carrier’s first read was middle linebacker Bobby Wagner. Wagner thundered downwards to close the cutback B-gap. Elliott then looked toward McDougald in the other A-gap and saw that closed. The running back’s sound process took him to the perimeter. The decision to bounce on 3rd and 1 was exactly what the Seahawks wanted to force. They just needed Griffin, the contain man, to make the tackle. Unfortunately, Griffin was conflicted by Austin’s sniffer location and had already aligned inside. After reading the overall downblock motion of the offensive line, and trying to follow Austin inside, Griffin totally out-leveraged himself by moving further inside. As the outside cornerback, Griffin’s run fit assignment is to never let the running back get close to being outside of him. His job is to turn the running back towards the help and not surrender the sideline. On this play, Elliott exploited Griffin’s relinquishing of outside-in leverage and scampered into the forbidden territory. What should have been a 3rd down stop became a 3rd down disaster. Having just taken the lead on the previous drive and with only 1:22 left in the 2nd quarter, this was one of the biggest Seattle mistakes of the game. These types of errors result in elimination. Griffin stiff-armedLooking to finish the game leading 17-14 with 3:59 remaining in the game, it was smart of Dallas to return to their “duo” play. The Seahawks only had two timeouts remaining and they desperately needed to get off the field on the Cowboys’ 1st and 10.Dallas shifted into a very similar 11 personnel look. Seattle at this point responded with nickel personnel over dime and Griffin, thankfully, remained firmly outside. The gaps for the Elliott to run through were well filled by the Seahawks once more. Wagner was waiting clean in the B-gap. Center Joe Looney was fortunate to escape a holding call on the penetration of Poona Ford in the A-gap. K.J. Wright lurked in the playside A-gap. Elliott again read across the line of scrimmage and was forced into bouncing the run. In stark contrast to the first play Ed Dickson Color Rush Jersey , Griffin had superb leverage here. Facing zero resistance, he came downhill outside of Elliott needing to turn the runner back inside. The corner’s biggest mistake was not staying on the near-hip of Elliott. Instead, he paused his feet as Elliott faked to cut up inside. The defender would have been better suited closing the gap between Elliott and him while attacking the near hip firmly outside-in.The result of Elliott’s superiority was the outside opening slightly. In the footrace to the outside, Elliott gave Griffin a nasty off-hand stiff arm and shoved the hurrying cornerback to the floor. Elliott 2 Griffin 0. First down Cowboys. Switching sidesWhat made the two Elliott duo runs so frustrating as a viewer, and I’m sure as a Seahawks player too, was that the rest of the defense executed. The two Griffin mistakes serve as clear examples of the importance of assignment-sound football. “Do your job” is a fatigued clich茅, yet it’s so true’ just one person needs to mess up and the whole thing collapses. It was telling that Dallas chose Griffin as the weak link rather than targeting Tre Flowers, who has largely been excellent in run support. Griffin had been guessing a lot in the latter weeks of the season, most notably biting on double moves and relying on his athleticism to recover. A surprising aspect to 2018 was that teams didn’t target Griffin more. A bad performance was coming, it just needed a team to highlight the weakness. Sure, there’s no better coach than Carroll to rectify the sophomore problems Griffin experienced. However, there may well be offseason discussion over Griffin and Flowers switching sides in 2019.