Most everyone plays the overreaction game in the NFL

The NFL’s once-a-week schedule makes overreactions, well, over the top.

I’ve always said after Week 1 that 16 fan bases believe their team is going to the Super Bowl and the other 16 are looking for the nearest bridge to jump off.

There’s a great quote from New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who famously told Packers fans to R-E-L-A-X after they started a recent season 1-2.

Wednesday, two days after the Jets somehow lost to the San Francisco 49ers, a team that was in the Super Bowl seven months ago, Rodgers dipped into the “relax” playbook when he said, “I think we always gotta stay relaxed. It’s a long season. I think, at times, people think the season is like you’re out in the prairie or the desert and you’re wandering around trying to find water. It’s more like a nice, slow Bolero, where we’re just swaying with the music and reacting to whatever comes to us and through us, just trying to not get too high with the highs or too low with the lows. The league is a lot different than when I said relax years ago in that there’s just so much more coverage, so much more opportunity for overreaction.”

Yes, there’s massive coverage now in numerous platforms, but the overreaction has always been there.

It certainly is the case with the Cardinals where so much attention has been focused on the lack of targets and receptions for wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. in Sunday’s season opener.

Yes, it’s understandable that expectations are through the roof for the fourth overall pick in the draft. But, it’s not as if Harrison was the only one whose stat line was sub-standard.

Wide receiver Michael Wilson had two targets and one reception for five yards. Tight end Trey McBride did have nine targets, but his catches totaled only 30 yards. Even Greg Dortch, who had six receptions on eight targets, totaled only 47 yards.

Some have talked about the ground game working, but aside from a 20-yard run, running back James Conner had 30 yards on 15 attempts. Yet, there’s hardly been any questions about those issues. It’s all about MHJ.

There’s also been minimal questioning about the affect the brutal wind had on the game and how that could have impacted the passing attack.

However, when asked, it was acknowledged, knowing that the no-excuse crowd might go wild.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon said, “I think the wind affected the entire game. Offense, defense and the kicking game, absolutely. There’s a reason, if you look how the game played out, why us and them did certain things with the wind and without the wind.”

“It definitely plays a part and I think that’s why we took the ball first,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “That’s why we chose to go against the wind in the first and third quarter to have it in the second and fourth. Everything is thought out and calculated. So yeah, I won’t say it affected the game, but it does (affect) play-calls and stuff like that. I’m not calling the plays, but I think it does kind of affect the game.”

Then, there is the 28-yard punt by Blake Gillikin late in the game that gave the Bills the ball at the Cardinals 42-yard line with a three-point lead and 4:30 to play. A touchdown would have effectively clinched the game for Buffalo, but the defense held and a field goal with 1:56 to play kept it a one-score game.

Gillikin was kicking with the wind at his back, but special-teams coordinator Jeff Rodgers said the punt was affected by the wind.

He said, “Blake punted it, and right as the ball’s being dropped, there’s a little bit of a gust, so it moves on his foot. And then once it got in the air, it blew further. So yeah, the wind factored.”

One thing we know is that no one will be concerned with the wind on Sunday against the Rams.

But whatever happens, you can bet on overreactions being plentiful.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.