Cincinnati Bengals rookie Joe Mixon apparently spends a lot of time thinking about Pittsburgh's Le'Veon Bell.
After seeing limited touches in last week's 29-17 loss to the Steelers, Mixon compared himself to Bell who rushed 35 times for 134 yards while adding 58 receiving yards on 3 catches. Conversely, Mixon only had seven carries and three receptions that he turned into 68 yards from scrimmage.
"It's frustrating," Mixon said. "I feel like I'm seeing [Le'Veon Bell] got the ball 35 times, and I got it seven in the first half and then don't touch the ball again."
"Me personally, I feel like I can do way more than [Bell] did," Mixon said Monday, per Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com. "Like I said, I only had seven carries. I can't showcase nothing if I don't get the ball. There's nothing else I can say."
Bell responded on social media to the comments Sunday, calling his rival out for copying his style.
"for someone who feels they can do "way more" than I can, sure seems like u wanna be me! tryin to mimic my run style, my 1st down celebration"
"now u wear an arm sleeve on your left arm AND went to the mismatch gloves too?! lol just change your number from 28 to 26 while your at it.."
Weird, Part I
The NFL can get pretty weird at times. This one ranks up there.
Midway through the third quarter of Sunday's Cincinnati-Indianapolis game, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton threw a flare-out pass to Brandon LaFell who turned upfield and, inexplicably, began carrying the ball in one hand like he was palming a basketball.
Enter the Colts' Barkevious Mingo, who wrapped around LaFell's back and punched the ball straight into the arms of teammate Pierre Desir.
The initial ruling was that LaFell was out of bounds before the punch-out. The Colts challenged that play, and guess what? The referees ruled that, yes, indeed, LaFell had fumbled. Good news, right? The Colts would get the ball well inside Cincinnati territory.
Not so fast. A further review indicated that Desir didn't get both feet in bounds before stepping out. So, while LaFell fumbled, the Colts didn't recover. And that led to the strange spectacle of Colts Coach Chuck Pagano celebrating the fact that he won the challenge, but his team didn't end up getting the ball.
Pagano's face at the end of that ruling was the face of a man who's seen everything good happen to him in Indianapolis turn to ash.
Just as weird, the sequel
Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Travis Benjamin may no longer return punts for the club after what happened during the second quarter of Sunday's game against the New England Patriots.
With roughly nine minutes to play in the opening half, Benjamin muffed a kick at his own 11-yard line.
He collected the ball on a bounce and then ran toward the end zone to avoid pursuing defenders, but he was brought down behind the goal line for a safety that propelled the Patriots to a 9-7 advantage.
A fair catch can be your friend, Mr. Benjamin.
QUIZ
Where did Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Travis Benjamin play collegiately?
ANSWER
The University of Miami
Sports on 10/30/2017