Rangers make history with offensive futility and botched handoffs rule Monday Night Football

How does this keep happening?! It was disappointing when the Rangers were shut out on opening night at MSG by the lowly Penguins. It was strange when they didn’t score again in a loss to the Capitals on Sunday night. Then, on Tuesday night the Rangers lost 2-0 at home to the Oilers and it is starting to feel like a sick joke or a curse or both. How do you not have a home goal in 180 minutes?! The worst part is that scoring on Edmonton is supposed to be the easy part. New York let in just one goal against Connor McDavid and company before the net was emptied, and yet the Blueshirts still came up short. They even had back-to-back power plays (only a few seconds of five-on-three) followed by a breakaway for Sam Carrick, but nothing went in the net.

At least the Rangers have 10 goals in two road games, albeit against two lousy squads in Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Another silver lining is that New York outshot the defending Western Conference champions 30-22, but it’s painful to get shut out by Stuart Skinner, who had just six career shutouts in 168 career starts before Tuesday.

We saw two upsets on Monday Night Football with Buffalo falling in Atlanta 24-14 for a second straight loss and Washington losing at home to Chicago 25-24 in heartbreaking fashion. The Bills had a lot of trouble defending the Falcons’ star players with Drake London catching 10 passes for 158 yards and a score and Bijan Robinson gaining 170 yards on the ground and another 68 in the passing game. Robinson’s night was highlighted by an 81-yard touchdown run in which he ran over Buffalo safety Cole Bishop along the sideline without stepping out of bounds.

That is pure savagery. The Bills appeared to get back in the game when they strolled down the field on their first possession of the third quarter and scored on a touchdown pass from Josh Allen to Ray Davis. That brought Buffalo back within seven points, but the offense would go to bed for the rest of the game. The Falcons did a great job pressuring Allen with blitzes, which seems like a good strategy when Buffalo lacks a superstar receiver who can burn one-on-one coverage. Sure enough, Allen was held to 15-for-26 passing and just 180 yards with two interceptions and two touchdowns. No Buffalo receiver caught more than three passes, and Joshua Palmer led the team in receiving with 60 yards despite catching a 45-yard bomb on the Bills’ first play from scrimmage.

Despite the disappointing offensive performance, the Bills hung tight throughout the second half, and the game might have come out differently if not for a botched third down play early in the fourth quarter. With Buffalo facing 3rd and 1 from around midfield, Allen tried to hand off to Elijah Moore on a misdirection end around play, but the ball came loose, resulting in a four-yard loss. If the Bills had tried just about anything else, they probably get the necessary yard on either third or fourth down, but instead they punted and only saw the ball one more time before Atlanta’s clock-killing drive that it used to kick a field goal and go up by 10 points with less than two minutes remaining.

Just like Buffalo, the Commanders were felled by a botched handoff at the worst time. Washington was in great shape with 3rd and 1 on the Chicago 40-yard line. With another first down, it would get to run more time off the clock and move into field goal range, where the team could have run the clock out completely or kicked a field goal to put Chicago in a deeper hole. Instead, Jayden Daniels had the ball slip out of his hand as he attempted to give it to Jacory Croskey-Merritt, and Chicago’s Nashon Wright fell on it to set up his team with a game-winning field goal drive.

It was Washington’s first turnover since the first quarter, when Daniels threw an interception and Croskey-Merritt lost a fumble while the Bears built a 13-0 lead. Daniels and the Commanders took control of the game after that, though, and went on a 24-3 run that culminated with a touchdown pass to Zach Ertz early in the fourth quarter. Chicago answered on the next possession when D’Andre Swift turned a four-yard out route into a 55-yard touchdown reception by running past two Washington defenders. The Bears missed the two-point try and trailed 24-22 until the handoff snafu set up Jake Moody’s field goal with no time remaining.

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