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San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey walks on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets in Santa Clara, Calif., Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel talks to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) as he leaves the game after suffering a concussion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Analysis: Injuries already piling up, forcing teams to turn to the next man up
Analysis: Injuries already piling up, forcing teams to turn to the next man up
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) in helped off the field after getting hurt during the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at the Neo Quimica Arena in Sao Paulo. (AP Photo/Doug Benc)
Injuries already are accruing across the league, knocking out several star players and forcing teams to turn to backups and reserves.
Everyone has to be ready because “one play away” is more reality than a cliche in football. The best teams at the end of the season often are the ones who have the depth to overcome injuries early on.
The inactives read like a Pro Bowl roster.
Russell Wilson hasn’t made his debut for Pittsburgh because of a calf injury sustained in the preseason. Jordan Love went down with a knee injury in Green Bay’s season opener. Miami lost Tua Tagovailoa for at least four games and possibly longer after he suffered his fourth concussion in five years last week.
Those are just the starting quarterbacks on the sideline.
Reigning NFC champion San Francisco keeps losing playmakers. Already missing running back Christian McCaffrey because of Achilles tendinitis, the 49ers won’t have wide receiver Deebo Samuel this weekend due to a calf injury. All-Pro tight end George Kittle missed practice Thursday with a sore hamstring and his status for Sunday is uncertain.
That may limit what coach Kyle Shanahan calls on offense.
“We still have the same amount of plays, just somewhat different styles of plays, different people in different spots,” he said. “You eliminate some special things that you would only do for those guys, but the number doesn’t change. Just, there’s things those guys do very well. Nothing other guys can’t do. But there’s kind of different percentages on how much you call them and things like that.”
Brock Purdy still has Brandon Aiyuk as a go-to receiver and Jordan Mason has 247 yards rushing and two touchdowns filling in for McCaffrey.
“Obviously it sucks not having your guys like Deebo and Christian and stuff, so it’s like, all right, how can we figure out to get the ball to other guys,” Purdy said. “But man, we’ve got playmakers. We’ve got a really good scheme, great play caller and some great players that step up in the roles and do their job really well. So for me, I still have to do my job, in terms of my reads and my progressions, more so than I need to now change the way I think and make sure I’m getting it to this guy or that guy because a couple guys are out. It’s not like that.”
The 49ers face the Los Angeles Rams, a team that’s also depleted. Wide receiver Cooper Kupp has an ankle injury and Puka Nacua is on injured reserve with a knee injury.
Matthew Stafford not only is missing his two top targets but he’s playing behind a banged up offensive line. Guard Steve Avila (knee) and tackle Joe Noteboom (ankle) are on IR.
“There are a lot of different moving parts but our job is to be able to figure it out all right, how do we move forward? How do we represent the things that we want to represent?” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “I like the way the guys have come in here with a good look in their eye and we have to have a great week of preparation.”
The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs lost running back Isiah Pacheco indefinitely. Pacheco had surgery this week after breaking his fibula.
The Bengals were missing wide receiver Tee Higgins (hamstring) the first two games and he’s questionable this week. Eagles wideout A.J. Brown (calf) is doubtful this week after missing one game and Bears wideout Keenan Allen (heel) is questionable. Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson (quadriceps) is also battling an injury.
Texans running back Joe Mixon (ankle) is questionable, though it seems he escaped a more serious injury after what he thought was a hip-drop tackle that wasn’t called against the Bears.
There are plenty of talented defensive players out, too. Bills linebacker Matt Milano, Colts defensive lineman DeForest Buckner, Panthers defensive lineman Derrick Brown and Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland are on injured reserve.
Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore is aiming to return this week after missing one game.
The Buccaneers were missing defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield last week when nose tackle Vita Vea sustained a sprained knee ligament in a win at Detroit.
“Everybody that made our roster was asked that, ‘You have to be able to do your job. When your number is called, be ready to go,’” Buccaneers defensive assistant coach Kacy Rogers said. “And that’s kind of worked out for us because we’ve had a lot of guys step up when guys went down and we’ve had guys (go) from one position to another position. It’s just kind of worked out that guys were ready when their numbers (were) called.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey walks on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets in Santa Clara, Calif., Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel talks to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) as he leaves the game after suffering a concussion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Analysis: Injuries already piling up, forcing teams to turn to the next man up
Analysis: Injuries already piling up, forcing teams to turn to the next man up
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) in helped off the field after getting hurt during the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at the Neo Quimica Arena in Sao Paulo. (AP Photo/Doug Benc)
LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons.
There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but most by individuals. The motives – where they could be established – have varied widely. Some were inspired by Islamic militant groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS, which encouraged followers to carry out low-cost, low-tech attacks with cars and trucks. Others have been linked to mental illness, far-right extremism and online misogyny.
What law-enforcement authorities term “vehicle as a weapon attacks” have reshaped cities around the world, as planners erect concrete barriers around public spaces and build anti-vehicle obstacles into new developments.
Here are some major vehicle attacks:
MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.
ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.
LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family die when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck while they are out for a walk, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist attacker Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison.
TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight.
BARCELONA, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man driving a van slams into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring many others. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar vehicle attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils before they are shot dead by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. intentionally drives his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people.
LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He is shot dead. June 3, 2017 — three attackers drive a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed and the attackers shot dead by police. June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. Perpetrator James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis.
BERLIN, December 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind.
APELDOORN, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 – Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery.
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, lightly injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas.
FILE - Injured people are treated in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 after a white van jumped the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district, crashing into a summer crowd of residents and tourists. (AP Photo/Oriol Duran, File)
FILE - In this April 23, 2018, file photo, police stand near a damaged van after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Forensic officers move the van at Finsbury Park in north London, where a vehicle struck pedestrians in north London Monday, June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo the trailer of a truck stands beside destroyed Christmas market huts in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
FILE - In this July 14, 2016 file photo, authorities investigate a truck after it plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, killing 86 people. (Sasha Goldsmith via AP, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 file photo, police secure the area on the south side of Westminster Bridge close to the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
FILE - People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo Christmas decoration sticks in the smashed window of the cabin of a truck which ran into a crowded Christmas market Monday evening killing several people in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)