Post by spiderfan on Jan 2, 2019 19:56:48 GMT -8
Happy New Year SCtoC, it is me spiderfan here! The final week of regular season play of the National Football League has concluded and with that being the case, it is me for me to give you my Random Thoughts & Stuff. Let us begin!
Results of the Games to Watch and what they mean
If you remember last week, I discussed all of the various games with some sort of playoff implications and the scenarios that could play out. Well, now that the games have been played let's look at what happened.
Games to Watch in early window: Jaguars-Texans and Jets-Patriots
Results: Jaguars 3 Texans 20 and Jets 3 Patriots 38
What do they mean? Well, because the Patriots beat the Jets and because the Patriots beat the Texans in Week 1, the Patriots secured the #2 seed and a bye and a home playoff game in Foxborough a place where they usually don't lose, especially in the postseason. As for the Texans, they ended up with the #3 seed, a home playoff game, and an AFC South Division title.
Games to Watch in the late window: Every one of them, but we'll start by looking at the AFC
Results: Raiders 3 Chiefs 35, Comebacks 23 Broncos 9, Bengals 13 Steelers 16, Browns 24 Ravens 26
What do they mean? For starters the Chiefs won which means that they have secured home field advantage (the road to the Super Bowl will go through Arrowhead), the #1 seed, and an AFC West Division title. It also means that the Comebacks are officially a wild card team.
Looking at the AFC North the Steelers beat the Bengals which kept the Steelers in the playoff hunt and Heinz Field was watching the Browns-Ravens game with eagerness as if the Browns beat the Ravens the Steelers would make the postseason. (Click Watch on YouTube)
The Believeland Browns had a choice between kicking a 57 yard FG and going for it on 4th and 10. I would have kicked the long FG, because with 3 straight incompletions the likelihood of getting 10 yard completion didn't seem likely. Regardless, the Browns lost ultimately eliminating the Steelers and giving the Ravens the #4 seed, a home playoff game, and an AFC North Division title.
Game to Watch: Colts vs Titans
Because the Texans beat the Jaguars earlier in the day, whoever won the Colts-Titans game was going to end up the #6 seed and play the Texans for a third time. The winner was ultimately the Colts and the Titans were eliminated.
So now that the AFC playoff picture is set, here is what the schedule looks like:
#6 Indianapolis Colts vs #3 Houston Texans ABC/ESPN 1:35 PM PST/3:35 PM CST Saturday January 5th.
#5 Los Angeles Comebacks vs #4 Baltimore Ravens CBS 10:05 AM PST/12:05 PM CST Sunday January 6th.
Colts or Comebacks or Ravens vs #1 Kansas City Chiefs NBC 1:35 PM PST/3:35 PM CST Saturday January 12th.
Texans or Ravens or Comebacks vs #2 New England Patriots CBS 10:05 AM PST/12:05 PM CST Sunday January 13th.
TBD vs TBD CBS 3:40 PM PST/5:40 PM CST Sunday January 20th.
Should be some good games huh?
Games to Watch in the late window in the NFC: Every one of them except Cardinals-Seahawks
Results: 49ers 32 Rams 48, Bears 24 Vikings 10, Eagles 24 Redskins 10
What do they mean? Because the Rams beat the 49ers, the Rams clinched the #2 seed in the NFC, a bye, and a home playoff game. Despite what was at times a big lead for the Rams, the other team in the running for #2 seed the Chicago Bears did not rest any starters against the Vikings and that helped the Bears knock the Vikings out of the playoffs. The Bears ended up with the #3 seed and a home playoff game. Because the Vikings were knocked out by the Bears that opened the door for the Eagles to get the #6 seed and make the playoffs if they took care of business against the Redskins, which the Eagles did winning 24-0 led by Nick Foles' 25 straight completions tying an NFL record.
With the NFC playoff picture being set here is the schedule:
#5 Seattle Seahawks vs #4 Dallas Ostriches FOX 5:15 PM PST/7:15 PM CST Saturday January 5th.
#6 Philadelphia Eagles vs #3 Chicago Bears NBC 1:40 PM PST/3:40 PM CST Sunday January 6th.
Cowboys or Seahawks or Bears vs #2 Los Angeles Rams FOX 5:15 PM PST/7:15 PM CST Saturday January 12th.
Eagles or Seahawks or Cowboys vs #1 New Orleans Saints FOX 1:40 PM PST/3:40 PM CST Sunday January 13th.
TBD vs TBD FOX 12:05 PM PST/2:05 PM CST FOX Sunday January 20th.
Spiderfan and the Picks of Destiny
Usually I don't do picks, but being that it is playoff time I'll do some picks, feel free to leave yours down below. If Freezing Cold Takes happens to be reading this, I have no problem with you marking these down.
Seahawks vs Ostriches Pick: Seahawks
Eagles vs Bears Pick: Bears
Colts vs Texans: Texans
Comebacks vs Ravens: Ravens
Each round I'll make picks. Hopefully I get them all right.
Coaching Change Chaos
8 NFL teams have fired their head coaches. The Packers and Browns jobs have been open for a while, so the jobs that have opened up in recent days are the Bengals, Broncos, Buccaneers, Cardinals, Dolphins, and Jets. I'll take a look at each job and give my thoughts on each of them.
The Bengals fired Marvin Lewis who has been their HC since 2003 and someone who Bengals owner/GM Mike Brown never really wanted to get rid of, but it sounds like they both made the decision that after all these years it was time. It sounds like the Bengals are wanting someone from inside the family so to speak, so guys like former Bengals OC Hue Jackson and former Bengals DB coach Vance Joseph are under consideration. The guy who IMO should get the job is Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy as even though he doesn't call plays, at least he doesn't have the stench of being a failed HC. When he was a player he actually played for the Bengals back in the day, so he counts as "in the family".
Even if the Bengals decide to not hire Bieniemy, they can NOT hire Hue Jackson and I'm not even talking from a football perspective. His tenure with the Browns was so bad and so publicized that if the Bengals were to happen I would not be surprised to be season ticket sales decrease and being that Mike Brown is one of the few owners who thinks in business terms at least to some degree, I would think that he would recognize that hiring Hue would be bad for business.
The Broncos fired Vance Joseph who was hired because John Elway has near complete control of the Broncos organization and does not want anyone to tell him no on anything ever, something which Vance Joseph and his predecessor Gary Kubiak were happy to oblige by. Being a DBs coach and then a terrible DC, Vance Joseph didn't turn out be a good HC (ya think?) so Mr. Bronco has now had to go back to the drawing board.
I think the Broncos fall is punishment from the football gods for Elway treating Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning like yesterday's trash. It is a shame that guys Von Miller, Phil Lindsay, and even Case Keenum are the guys who work at the dump known at Sports Authority Field (for the record I know it isn't Sports Authority Field anymore, I'm calling it that because considering that Sports Authority sign is probably at some dump near Denver and being that the Broncos are a dump it seems fitting to still call their stadium Sports Authority Field). With all of that said I'm not sure who will play the role of Elway yes man at this point. Whoever it is, good luck.
The Buccaneers fired Dirk Koetter who got the job because the Bucs were afraid that he would leave to go take a HC job somewhere else, thus leaving their franchise QB Jameis Winston in a bad spot. 3 years later, it has been shown that despite being picked No. 1 overall Jameis Winston is not a franchise QB and is a bust who would be better served being a backup than a starter and even then Winston wouldn't be one the better backup QBs in the league. Even with this being the case the Glazers (the family who own the Bucs) have decided that Winston will in fact be the Bucs QB in 2019. I'm guessing that they want to prove to everyone that they don't want to admit they dun goofed. Why I am bringing this all up? Because when the Jaguars HC job opened a couple years ago, Jags ownership insisted that whoever the next HC is keep Blake Bortles something which made candidates run away from the job. That is how they ended up with Doug Marrone who at this point I'm not sure is a good HC or not, I'm digressing.
Being that one of the criteria for the job is working with Winston, that will require someone who is willing to work with Winston, which I imagine will be tricky because of his aforementioned bust status. I would keep an eye on current Bucs OC Todd Monken being the next Bucs HC because he has already worked with Winston and I haven't seen anything suggesting that he wouldn't. The Glazers have been rumored to want to make a splash and want to go get Brian Kelly from Notre Dame. I would think that if Kelly gets offered a pot of gold he would have some interest he was also high on Winston before the draft although at this point I don't know if that means much. I would like to give credit to the GM Street podcast on The Ringer as they were talking about the possibiity of Brian Kelly to the Bucs a while back.
The Cardinals fired Steve Wilks who I wasn't high on last year and while I'm not high on Josh Rosen, he does give the Cardinals hope. Unlike last year, it is clear that the Cardinals are going to be a rebuild so I would think there would be some level of job security for whoever the next guy is. Rams QB coach Zac Taylor and USC OC Kliff Kingsbury are guys who I think have a good shot at becoming the next HC of Cardinals.
The Dolphins fired Adam Gase in a move that I thought would happen before the year albeit with the expectation of the Dolphins going 2-14, not 7-9. There are various reports out there that Gase wasn't popular in the locker room, apparently because players in the locker room realized that the Dolphins "culture change" was stupid, like I said it was. The advantage that the Dolphins job has over all the other jobs is that because of the "culture change" the Dolphins are more or less starting from scratch, meaning that new personnel boss Chris Grier and whoever the next HC is can shape the roster however they want. Miami also has the advantage of being a nice place to live something which coaches and especially assistant coaches are concerned about. The Dolphins appear to be looking at defensive coaches and of those guys the best one IMO is Vic Fangio.
Finally the Jets fired Todd Bowles and like the Cardinals the Jets have a young QB who gives them hope and even though I'm not high on him, Darnold is beloved in NFL circles. Former Packers HC Mike McCarthy IMO probably going to be the next Jets HC.
I've talked about the Packers and Browns in the past so they won't be talked about here. Feel free to leave who you think will the various jobs down below.
Other thoughts:
-The Steelers drama is getting old.
-Mike Mayock as the new Raiders GM? I like it.
-Jim Bob Cooter's firing proves that Matt Patricia has brought the Lions down because before Jim Bob was a success and now he isn't. I have a feeling that Patricia has something to do with that.
-The playoffs are going to be great.
With all of that said my final 2018 regular season Random Thoughts & Stuff has concluded. I hope that you have enjoyed them each of these 17 weeks and I will see you next week to talk about Wild Card Weekend. This is spiderfan out.
