A Look Around the National Football League, Week Three

The league makes little sense through three weeks. Let’s discuss.

Can’t imagine how popular Dave Canales is right now in that Panthers locker room. He made one of the most difficult decisions for a young coach to make and changed the fortunes of the 2024 Panthers. Andy Dalton isn’t the future, they know that, but players want to win, and those players knew why they weren’t winning.
Brian Callahan can say anything he wants, but there is no way the Titans locker room isn’t frustrated with Will Levis losing them games. And he is overtly losing them games with some of the worst decision making we’ve seen at the position. Could Mason Rudolph be any worse?
Week 3 Saints is why you don’t overrate anything that happens in the NFL before Halloween. The league’s two-week juggernaut looked like what many of us expected in 2024.
The Niners just aren’t the same team when they don’t have their stars. Good roster. Good coaching. But McCaffrey, Deebo, Trent are what make them a uniquely difficult matchup. Without all three of those guys, they become somewhat ordinary.
Miami can’t compete with these quarterbacks.
How can the Steelers even be considering going back to Russell Wilson? Fields fits that structure perfectly.
Baltimore at Dallas was a microcosm of those two organizations currently. The latter never show up for a big game. The former can’t hold a lead anymore. Is either a title contender? I don’t think so.
Josh Allen is going to be the runaway MVP if he stays healthy.

Why Do I Like the Chicago Bears This Week?

Always.

Like.

THE.

Chicago.

Bears.

An 18-Week Sidney Lumet Syllabus

This season, I’m trying something different. Instead of using this space to randomly comment on culture, there will be a recurring theme: the work of Sidney Lumet. Lumet is one of America’s most prolific cinematic artists, and yet is dramatically underrepresented by the critical and academic communities. My long-term mission is to remedy that injustice, and I’ll be using this space to work through concepts, notes, etc.

There’s a poetry to this decision, as well. Lumet was born in 1924, making this his centennial. As my book on Lumet is still years from reaching the desk of a publisher, I’m thrilled to celebrate his 100th birthday right here on this little old blog Noah and I started two decades ago.

Below you’ll find the syllabus. Why am I publishing this? Because if you’re interested in taking a “class” on Lumet, this is your opportunity. There are fourteen films listed and each of them is rentable on one platform or another for a few bucks. If you want a thorough appreciation of a great filmmaker, and also to understand what we do in the Cinema Studies world, I welcome you to watch the films each week and follow along. And any questions you might have along the way, simply email me: jeff@dabearsblog.com.

Week 2: Lumet and The Group Theater

Week 3: Early Television Aesthetics and 12 Angry Men

Week 4: Stage Adaptations

Week 5: The Pawnbroker and Post-War Memory

Week 6: Fail Safe and the Cold War

Week 7: The Sean Connery Collaborations, or Lumet Abroad

Week 8: Serpico, Prince of the City, and the Police

Week 9: Dog Day Afternoon

Week 10: Network and Auteur Theory

Week 11: New York City in The Wiz

Week 12: The Verdict

Week 13: Garbo Talks in the Middle of Ronald Reagan

Week 14: Sins of the Father: Daniel, Running on Empty, and Family Business

Week 15: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Post-9/11 New York

Week 16: The Legacy of Lumet’s Seminal Book, Making Movies

Week 17: Final Thoughts and Bibliography

Three Thoughts on the Titans

Tennessee had arguably the strangest offseason is the NFL. They fired their well-respected coach and looked poised to enter a rebuilding period. They did not. Instead, they were one of the most active teams in free agency, bringing in a collection of expensive veterans and role players. After all of those moves, the Titans still find themselves, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, with the longest odds to win the NFC South at 10-1. (For comparison, the Colts are the third favorite at about 3.5-1.)