Ryan Mathews owners had their pitchforks out Sunday night. They’re looking for blood — or the best offer.
Mathews didn’t start Sunday and played sparingly behind the likes of Jackie Battle and Ronnie Brown. It was punishment, or a message, after Mathews’ fumble last week. It’s a confusing move by the Chargers, but it’s obvious that if they’re going to do anything this season, they’re going to need a ton of Mathews. Turner admitted as much after the game.
Based on sheer talent alone, Mathews will regain the starting and feature back job shortly. Buy up now.
Other thoughts from Sunday:
* Alfred Morris is the real deal. Runs really hard, never gets taken down by first guy. 1,300 rushing yards and 12 TDs when it’s said and done would no longer surprise me.
* Don’t freak out over Michael Turner’s big day. This Panthers defense is proving to be even worse than last year.
* Jake Locker’s injury looks bad. His left shoulder popped out for the second time in four weeks. The good news is that Chris Johnson looked much better as Matt Hasselbeck settled down the offense.
* The Redskins’ go-to play in the red zone is a QB draw for Robert Griffin III. He’s on pace to run for 1000 yards and run for 16 touchdowns.
* Fred Jackson is back and starting over CJ Spiller, who looked really tentative off that shoulder injury.
* I talked about not panicking over Stevan Ridley’s fluky Week 3 usage. He bounced back big in this one.
* One guy worth worrying about is Doug Martin. He’s struggled to get anything going on the ground and lost third-down reps to DJ Ware today. He also lost red-zone work to LeGarrette Blount.
* Greg Jennings’ groin is acting up once again. James Jones is going to be worth another look.
* I wouldn’t panic on Ryan Williams yet. The Cardinals ran a hurry-up scheme for much of this game and Miami’s run D is no joke.
