Post by spiderfan on Jan 29, 2019 21:47:18 GMT -8
The Pro Bowl is lame. Y'know what isn't lame? The Best of all my 2018 season columns of course! Hey, I am Spiderfan and this is The Best of Random Thoughts & Stuff, the 2018 edition. I'll also have a segment of "Where I was correct and where I was wrong". Let us begin!
From Week 1
-The Dallas Cowboys are the now the Dallas Ostriches. You know you are sticking your head in the sand when you call the arguably greatest QB in the history of your franchise an "armchair QB".
Oh, ho, ho, Fitzmagic! (from Week 2)
(image via Larry Brown Sports)
We start out this Week's column with quite possibly the biggest storyline of the young NFL season and that is the play of Tampa Bay Buccaneers Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. As of right now, the man has 9 total TD's, 1 Interception (which Bucs HC Dirk Koetter took responsibility for), 819 passing yards, and 151.5 QB Rating. No Buccaneers has ever had this good of a 2 game stretch in the 40+ year history of the franchise. Jameis Winston (currently on suspension for off-field conduct) has never had a 400 passing yard game in his career (bolden his career).
I predicted that based on his history Fitzpatrick would play well, but THIS WELL? Wow. I can't tell you how long Fitzmagic will last, but it will be fun to watch. Speaking of which here is this song (it was done when he was with the Bills, but it still works) about the subject:
Bakermania (from Week 3)
The top story of this week has to be the debut of the Heisman Winner and No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield against the New York Jets. Mayfield went 17 of 23 for 201 yards, no TDs, and no INTs. He entered the game after starter Tyrod Taylor was injured with a concussion and the Browns were down 14-0. Baker led the comeback and the Browns won the game 21-17, their first win since the 2016 season (Fun Fact fellow Heisman Winner RG3 led the Browns to that win).
The Browns should have started Baker Mayfield from the beginning and he should been given the starting job from the moment Browns GM John Dorsey called him to let him know he was being drafted. All you do not playing him, is taking away reps that a young player like Baker should have.
Tyrod is a good player, but with the Browns only winning 4 games since November 23, 2014 it was time for Mayfield to come in and to lead the Browns. Admittedly, they are the Browns and they have found ways to screw things up in every which way, but I wish Baker the best in his efforts to turn the worst franchise in major pro sports around.
As for the Jets and Sam Darnold well, I can toot my own horn when I said Sam Darnold is overrated. Throwing 2 4th quarter INTs and ultimately cost your team the game? Not what you want to see out of your franchise QB. I know it is only 3 games, but I'm getting Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith vibes, in that the hype was WAY overblown.
(image via NESN)
In the immortal words of the legend DJ Khaled
The Mack Attack ends Fitzmagic (from Week 4)
After an up and down game against the Steelers, I thought the Buccaneers would bounce back, beat the Bears, and Ryan Fitzpatrick would cement himself as the starter in Tampa Bay. Not only did none of things happen, but this game also appears to be a devastating loss, as I'm not sure how a team can come back from that.
On the other hand, this appears to be a glorious win for the Bears. After absolutely choking on opening day, almost choking against the Seahawks, and trying their best to lose against the Cardinals, It appears the team has finally hit a good point. Offensively they dominated and while they won't score 48 every week, if the offense can play well and the defense can keep playing good football, this team will make some noise.
Speaking of defense Khalil Mack has continued to dominate week after week after week after week and he didn't even spend any preseason or training camp with the Bears. We are talking 5 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, and a pick six in 4 games. One of which he didn't even start. I would fully agree with the notion that he should be in the MVP discussion.
The Greatness of Drew Brees (from Week 5)
To begin this week's column, I have to talk about New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees breaking the all-time career passing yardage record on Monday Night Football against the Washington Redskins. It was a special moment for sure, and I'm glad that it happened in the Superdome in front of those fans in New Orleans.
When you think about where the Saints were pre-Brees and where they are now it really is something. The Saints didn't win a single playoff game from their creation in 1967 all the way until 2000. After that, they didn't make the playoffs until 2006. This is what Saints fans were like prior to Brees
(image from the New York Times, photo is circa 1999 when the Saints went 3-13)
Post Brees showing up? The Saints have 7 playoff wins, oh and they also have a Super Bowl trophy and he brought the city of New Orleans positive energy after Hurricane Katrina. IMO Brees has to be considered one of the all-time greats for doing those things, let alone all the Pro Bowls, All-Pros, and various other accomplishments he has.
Congratulations to Drew Brees and to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana!
The Stupid Roughing the Passer Rules (from Week 6)
In a game worthy of being on Sunday Night Football, both teams played great. Tom Brady continues to defy expectations and Patrick Mahomes continues to be the truth. My big takeaway from this game sadly is that the Chiefs were ultimately robbed. How so? Because of this play (click Watch on YouTube to see the clip):
Chiefs LB Breeland Speaks has Tom Brady, but due to the rule change where you can't put your "full" body weight on the QB, he lets him go which ultimately led to a Patriots TD instead of a FG or a potential 4th down stop. The Patriots won by 3 points, so when ya do the math it becomes clear that the Chiefs would have won if it weren't for this rule. Dear NFL, change the roughing the passer rule back to the way it used to be, please.
Congrats NFL, you finally figured it out! (from Week 7)
With the success of the Kansas City Chiefs led by The Truth himself Patrick Mahomes, I want to bring up that there was doubt (I never had doubt BTW, I'm referring to other people) as to whether Mahomes would have success because of the "gimmicky" offense he played in at Texas Tech.
Well, Chiefs HC Andy Reid decided to create a version of the Air Raid for himself and it is working spectacularly. Guess what, there is a reason places in college have run that style of offense for years, because it works. A few years ago, someone like Lincoln Riley would have never been mentioned as a potential NFL HC, yet here we are and I think the NFL is better off for it.
Fitzmagic Lives! (from Week 8)
After the Bucs lost to the Bears, I thought the Bucs with Jameis Winston would get close to losing out the rest of the season after the 2-0 start. I thought I wouldn't talk about the Buccaneers very much after the benching of Ryan Fitzpatrick and I thought Fitzmagic had run its course. That is until Sunday when after throwing 4 interceptions, Bucs HC Dirk Koetter decided to pull Winston and put Fitzpatrick in the game against the Bengals.
I was watching the Chiefs game at that point, but when I looked down on the ticker I saw the Bucs cut the deficit from 21 to 8 and that they had the ball. I turned on the Bucs game and had a huge grin on my face when this happened. (click Watch on YouTube)
How can you not have a big grin on your face after watching that? I can only imagine what the atmosphere would have been like had that been a Bucs home game. Sadly, the comeback ended up like the John Tyler-Plano East game with the Bengals winning on a last second FG.
Regardless, there a couple takeaways from this game. 1.) The NFL is a more fun league when Fitzmagic is ongoing. Whether it was with the Bills or Jets or Buccaneers, when Fitzpatrick is playing well it adds an extra fun factor to things. 2.) Jameis Winston is a flat out complete and total bust. The Bucs should rip off the band-aid, cut him and look for a QB in the draft next year, as Fitzpatrick is older and will need someone younger to ultimately replace him. 3.) The Bucs defense is atrocious and has cost the team multiple games.
From Week 9
-The Packers are a bad team. The Patriots are really good. Enough said.
Demolished (from Week 10)
Before Thursday night I was excited to see the matchup between the Carolina Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both well above .500 teams and both with playoff and SB aspirations. But when it became apparent the Steelers had flat out demolished the Panthers, the thought becomes, well are the Panthers actually not any good or are the Steelers actually in the elite caliber of the NFL? At this point, who knows because in the NFL there are always what I call "there is nothing real in the world" games where the outcome in the big scheme of things makes little to no sense. When you think about it, that is what makes the NFL the best league in all of pro sports, at any point, any team can win. Just like the Steelers did Thursday night.
Monday Night Madness (from Week 11)
I have to start this week's column talking about the epic Monday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams. It was originally supposed to be played in Mexico City, but due to bad field conditions, the game was moved to LA.
I would describe the game as a football game with the pace of a basketball game. Obviously, it was high scoring, but the pace felt like an NCAA or NBA game with both teams making runs and having big plays to lighten up or silence the crowd. Not only that, you also had aggressive hero ball in the last minutes of the game, which is something that usually doesn't happen in football.
If this game is a preview of SB 53 then I would like to say that the Chiefs win next time. Why? Because the Chiefs didn't play that good and still nearly won, while on the other sideline the Rams played close to their A game, especially on defense with having 3 defensive TDs. Nonetheless, the game was absolutely worthy of the hype and I hope we see more games like it across the NFL.
Danger Mayfield refuses to hug Hue Jackson (from Week 12)
Browns QB Danger Mayfield threw 4 TDs on Sunday against the Bengals who had recently added Hue Jackson. Above was his lack of desire to hug his former coach. Mayfield then explained his decision via Mary Kay Cabot:
"Left Cleveland, goes down to Cincinnati, I don’t know. It’s just somebody that was in our locker room, asking for us to play for him and then goes to a different team we play twice a year."
Considering that Hue Jackson recently went on a Browns-bashing media tour, I think Danger Mayfield's comments are absolutely fair. One other thing to mention: Hue Jackson was hired by the Bengals to give the Bengals a better chance to win this game because y'know Hue was the HC of the Browns a month ago (embolden that) and could give the Bengals all sorts of inside knowledge on the Browns. Well, even as a defensive assistant Hue is a terrible coach, because considering the Bengals got completely torched by the Browns he failed at his job. He should be fired... again.
About Chargers-Steelers (from Week 13)
Sunday Night Football was weird. Entertaining, but weird. Let me explain:
The game starts off with the Steelers having a 23-7 at halftime and I'll admit during the beginning of the 2nd half my interest in the game had waned and I was looking at other things. Then the Chargers start to play way better than they did, go on a 23-0 run and it turns from a possible blowout to a thrilling comeback. Then the Steelers tie the game up, the Chargers get into FG range and this mess happens (click Watch on YouTube to see the video):
That might be the weirdest ending to a game I have seen. Seriously 3 offsides in a row? The first of which cost your team a chance to win in OT? Yes, the Chargers got some breaks in the officiating (most notably the missed false start and illegal block in the back) but considering the Steelers lost their first ever game as a franchise where they had a 14+ point lead at home (credit to SNF), they deserve to lose regardless. When you allow on defense 2 made 2 point conversions and your offense only scores 1 TD in the 2nd half after having a 16 point lead, you deserve to lose simple as that.
On the other sideline, you have the Chargers who made plays when they needed to on both offense and defense and absolutely deserved to win the game. As Al Michaels said during the broadcast, it was a good idea to flex this game to primetime.
Do you believe in miracles involving mammals that are kinda sorta similar to fish and sometimes confused with porpoises?! YES! (from Week 14)
In a back and forth game with playoff implications between the Patriots and Dolphins, it appeared that there was going to an exciting finish. I don't think anyone in their wildest dreams expected THIS to happen:
I would like to apologize to the Miami Dolphins for my outward mocking of them. I thought their culture change was going to produce at max 3 wins and result in a new regime. This was a team that looked like it was collapsing after starting 3-0. They may not make the playoffs, but they certainly exceeded my expectations and I have to give credit where credit is due. Congrats guys.
Fantastic Foles and I know where to find him (2019 Free Agency folks) (from Week 15)
After being beaten in the Chicago cold weather the LA Rams came home to play the Philadelphia Eagles who were going to lack Carson Wentz. His replacement? Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles. And Foles led the Eagles to an upset against LA's beloved Rams. (Click Watch on YouTube)
Did Foles have a boneheaded interception? Yes. But the play above and what he has overall done with the Eagles shows that someone in 2019 whether it be the Raiders, Jaguars, Buccaneers, or whoever will be happy having him as their starter. I'll go bold here: Nick Foles is a better QB than Dak Prescott. #hottake
The Rams meanwhile are not doing good and while I don't want to blame all the Rams struggles on Jared Goff, plays like this don't help his cause (Click Watch on YouTube)
That is probably the worst interception I've ever seen and that is coming from someone who watched Brock Osweiler on a regular basis.
NFL on Saturday? I'll take it (from Week 16)
NFL Network for the second and final time this season had a doubleheader of games they were the Redskins-Titans and Ravens-Comebacks. Both were actually quite good and had big playoff implications.
First, because the Redskins lost meaning they were eliminated from playoff contention. The Titans won thus putting themselves in good position to make the playoffs (we'll get to that later). It was kind of a shame to see AAF 1st overall pick Josh Johnson fall apart in the 4th quarter, considering he had played well up until then. Still, Adrian Peterson got to over 1,000 yards rushing for the season something which only a handful of RBs have done this year. Peterson is a free agent next year and he should get a bigger contract, whether that be from the Redskins or someone else. As for the Titans, they lost Marcus Mariota to injury and there is doubt as to whether or not he will play next week. Even if he does, he is likely to not be playing at 100% which is a disadvantage for the Titans.
Second, the Ravens won thus putting themselves in a good position to make the playoffs (we'll get to that later). Lamar Jackson played pretty good and the Ravens defense showed why they are the #1 unit in the league. The game actually had a college feel, with the crowd being in the game all the way through, the stadium lighting, it was truly great stuff. As for the Comebacks, they already clinched their playoff spot but had they won, they would have been in the driver's seat for the #1 seed in the AFC something which they desperately want. Also, Phil Rivers has made great plays, but he has made some boneheaded mistakes which he needs to stop doing come playoff time.
Coaching Change Chaos (from Week 17)
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 possibility 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.
Note: I didn't talk about the Packers and Browns opening in this segment because my thoughts on the jobs were spread out over various weeks. Looking back on it, I should have talked about them in this segment in some capacity. Better luck, next year.
Where I was correct and where I was wrong (in chronological order)
-Of the 8 divisions in the NFL, the only division champs I predicted correctly were the LA Rams and New England Patriots winning the NFC West and AFC East respectively. Yikes.
-I thought the Falcons would be SB contenders. That didn't happen.
-I predicted Norv Turner would be a bad OC for the Panthers and that prediction was wrong. The offense issues came more from Cam's injury, not Turner.
-As I said earlier in the year, I did correctly predict that Fitzmagic would occur. I did think that after being benched Winston would not be a Buccaneer, or that if he was he would have to fight for the starting job. It appears as that none of things are going to happen. So 1 prediction correct, 1 prediction wrong.
-I predicted that if the Packers didn't win the NFC North that Mike McCarthy's seat would heat up. Later in the year I predicted that he would be fired. So I was right and wrong? I guess?
-I predicted that the Bears would make the playoffs and have a Los Angeles Rams style turnaround. That did indeed happen.
-I predicted that the Lions and Cardinals would be decent teams. Wrong.
-I was correct in my estimation that Kirk Cousins would be a disappointment and that the Vikings would ultimately not make the playoffs.
-I predicted that the 49ers would finish last in the NFC West and they did. Correct.
-I predicted that the Cowboys would finish with a top 5 draft pick due to their poor play. Amari Cooper kept that from that happening.
-I predicted that the Titans would become irrelevant. Well, they appeared on SNF for the first time in nearly a decade. Incorrect prediction.
-I predicted that the Le'Veon Bell holdout would not affect the Steelers making the playoffs. It clearly did.
-I thought that the Browns would continue to the worst team in the league. They were in the first half of the season, but they actually played good in the second half of the season, so I am both correct and incorrect.
-I thought that Patrick Mahomes would be the truth. I think it safe to say I was right on that one.
-I predicted that the Miami Dolphins would be the worst team in the NFL and that GM Mike Tannebaum and HC Adam Gase would be fired. The Dolphins weren't the worst team in the NFL, but Tannebaum and Gase were fired, so again I am both right and incorrect on this one.
-SB 53 would be Rams-Patriots. Right.
-I thought that the Cowboys made a big mistake in trading for Amari Cooper. Cooper turned out to be the reason the Cowboys made the playoffs. Wrong.
-I predicted that Fitzpatrick would take Winston's job for a third time during the season. Wrong.
-I predicted that Ron Rivera and Doug Marrone would be fired. Wrong and wrong.
-I predicted all 4 Wild Card games and every team that I thought would win lost.
So I Spiderfan have a prediction accuracy of around 40%. Hopefully I can improve on that next year. Also, due to the length of this column, I'll do my season awards in a separate post in the coming days.
With all of that said (and boy was there a lot), I hope you enjoyed this special look back at not only my various columns, but the NFL season as a whole. See ya next time. This is spiderfan out.
From Week 1
-The Dallas Cowboys are the now the Dallas Ostriches. You know you are sticking your head in the sand when you call the arguably greatest QB in the history of your franchise an "armchair QB".
Oh, ho, ho, Fitzmagic! (from Week 2)
(image via Larry Brown Sports)
We start out this Week's column with quite possibly the biggest storyline of the young NFL season and that is the play of Tampa Bay Buccaneers Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. As of right now, the man has 9 total TD's, 1 Interception (which Bucs HC Dirk Koetter took responsibility for), 819 passing yards, and 151.5 QB Rating. No Buccaneers has ever had this good of a 2 game stretch in the 40+ year history of the franchise. Jameis Winston (currently on suspension for off-field conduct) has never had a 400 passing yard game in his career (bolden his career).
I predicted that based on his history Fitzpatrick would play well, but THIS WELL? Wow. I can't tell you how long Fitzmagic will last, but it will be fun to watch. Speaking of which here is this song (it was done when he was with the Bills, but it still works) about the subject:
Bakermania (from Week 3)
The top story of this week has to be the debut of the Heisman Winner and No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield against the New York Jets. Mayfield went 17 of 23 for 201 yards, no TDs, and no INTs. He entered the game after starter Tyrod Taylor was injured with a concussion and the Browns were down 14-0. Baker led the comeback and the Browns won the game 21-17, their first win since the 2016 season (Fun Fact fellow Heisman Winner RG3 led the Browns to that win).
The Browns should have started Baker Mayfield from the beginning and he should been given the starting job from the moment Browns GM John Dorsey called him to let him know he was being drafted. All you do not playing him, is taking away reps that a young player like Baker should have.
Tyrod is a good player, but with the Browns only winning 4 games since November 23, 2014 it was time for Mayfield to come in and to lead the Browns. Admittedly, they are the Browns and they have found ways to screw things up in every which way, but I wish Baker the best in his efforts to turn the worst franchise in major pro sports around.
As for the Jets and Sam Darnold well, I can toot my own horn when I said Sam Darnold is overrated. Throwing 2 4th quarter INTs and ultimately cost your team the game? Not what you want to see out of your franchise QB. I know it is only 3 games, but I'm getting Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith vibes, in that the hype was WAY overblown.
(image via NESN)
In the immortal words of the legend DJ Khaled
The Mack Attack ends Fitzmagic (from Week 4)
After an up and down game against the Steelers, I thought the Buccaneers would bounce back, beat the Bears, and Ryan Fitzpatrick would cement himself as the starter in Tampa Bay. Not only did none of things happen, but this game also appears to be a devastating loss, as I'm not sure how a team can come back from that.
On the other hand, this appears to be a glorious win for the Bears. After absolutely choking on opening day, almost choking against the Seahawks, and trying their best to lose against the Cardinals, It appears the team has finally hit a good point. Offensively they dominated and while they won't score 48 every week, if the offense can play well and the defense can keep playing good football, this team will make some noise.
Speaking of defense Khalil Mack has continued to dominate week after week after week after week and he didn't even spend any preseason or training camp with the Bears. We are talking 5 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, and a pick six in 4 games. One of which he didn't even start. I would fully agree with the notion that he should be in the MVP discussion.
The Greatness of Drew Brees (from Week 5)
To begin this week's column, I have to talk about New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees breaking the all-time career passing yardage record on Monday Night Football against the Washington Redskins. It was a special moment for sure, and I'm glad that it happened in the Superdome in front of those fans in New Orleans.
When you think about where the Saints were pre-Brees and where they are now it really is something. The Saints didn't win a single playoff game from their creation in 1967 all the way until 2000. After that, they didn't make the playoffs until 2006. This is what Saints fans were like prior to Brees
(image from the New York Times, photo is circa 1999 when the Saints went 3-13)
Post Brees showing up? The Saints have 7 playoff wins, oh and they also have a Super Bowl trophy and he brought the city of New Orleans positive energy after Hurricane Katrina. IMO Brees has to be considered one of the all-time greats for doing those things, let alone all the Pro Bowls, All-Pros, and various other accomplishments he has.
Congratulations to Drew Brees and to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana!
The Stupid Roughing the Passer Rules (from Week 6)
In a game worthy of being on Sunday Night Football, both teams played great. Tom Brady continues to defy expectations and Patrick Mahomes continues to be the truth. My big takeaway from this game sadly is that the Chiefs were ultimately robbed. How so? Because of this play (click Watch on YouTube to see the clip):
Chiefs LB Breeland Speaks has Tom Brady, but due to the rule change where you can't put your "full" body weight on the QB, he lets him go which ultimately led to a Patriots TD instead of a FG or a potential 4th down stop. The Patriots won by 3 points, so when ya do the math it becomes clear that the Chiefs would have won if it weren't for this rule. Dear NFL, change the roughing the passer rule back to the way it used to be, please.
Congrats NFL, you finally figured it out! (from Week 7)
With the success of the Kansas City Chiefs led by The Truth himself Patrick Mahomes, I want to bring up that there was doubt (I never had doubt BTW, I'm referring to other people) as to whether Mahomes would have success because of the "gimmicky" offense he played in at Texas Tech.
Well, Chiefs HC Andy Reid decided to create a version of the Air Raid for himself and it is working spectacularly. Guess what, there is a reason places in college have run that style of offense for years, because it works. A few years ago, someone like Lincoln Riley would have never been mentioned as a potential NFL HC, yet here we are and I think the NFL is better off for it.
Fitzmagic Lives! (from Week 8)
After the Bucs lost to the Bears, I thought the Bucs with Jameis Winston would get close to losing out the rest of the season after the 2-0 start. I thought I wouldn't talk about the Buccaneers very much after the benching of Ryan Fitzpatrick and I thought Fitzmagic had run its course. That is until Sunday when after throwing 4 interceptions, Bucs HC Dirk Koetter decided to pull Winston and put Fitzpatrick in the game against the Bengals.
I was watching the Chiefs game at that point, but when I looked down on the ticker I saw the Bucs cut the deficit from 21 to 8 and that they had the ball. I turned on the Bucs game and had a huge grin on my face when this happened. (click Watch on YouTube)
How can you not have a big grin on your face after watching that? I can only imagine what the atmosphere would have been like had that been a Bucs home game. Sadly, the comeback ended up like the John Tyler-Plano East game with the Bengals winning on a last second FG.
Regardless, there a couple takeaways from this game. 1.) The NFL is a more fun league when Fitzmagic is ongoing. Whether it was with the Bills or Jets or Buccaneers, when Fitzpatrick is playing well it adds an extra fun factor to things. 2.) Jameis Winston is a flat out complete and total bust. The Bucs should rip off the band-aid, cut him and look for a QB in the draft next year, as Fitzpatrick is older and will need someone younger to ultimately replace him. 3.) The Bucs defense is atrocious and has cost the team multiple games.
From Week 9
-The Packers are a bad team. The Patriots are really good. Enough said.
Demolished (from Week 10)
Before Thursday night I was excited to see the matchup between the Carolina Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both well above .500 teams and both with playoff and SB aspirations. But when it became apparent the Steelers had flat out demolished the Panthers, the thought becomes, well are the Panthers actually not any good or are the Steelers actually in the elite caliber of the NFL? At this point, who knows because in the NFL there are always what I call "there is nothing real in the world" games where the outcome in the big scheme of things makes little to no sense. When you think about it, that is what makes the NFL the best league in all of pro sports, at any point, any team can win. Just like the Steelers did Thursday night.
Monday Night Madness (from Week 11)
I have to start this week's column talking about the epic Monday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams. It was originally supposed to be played in Mexico City, but due to bad field conditions, the game was moved to LA.
I would describe the game as a football game with the pace of a basketball game. Obviously, it was high scoring, but the pace felt like an NCAA or NBA game with both teams making runs and having big plays to lighten up or silence the crowd. Not only that, you also had aggressive hero ball in the last minutes of the game, which is something that usually doesn't happen in football.
If this game is a preview of SB 53 then I would like to say that the Chiefs win next time. Why? Because the Chiefs didn't play that good and still nearly won, while on the other sideline the Rams played close to their A game, especially on defense with having 3 defensive TDs. Nonetheless, the game was absolutely worthy of the hype and I hope we see more games like it across the NFL.
Danger Mayfield refuses to hug Hue Jackson (from Week 12)
Browns QB Danger Mayfield threw 4 TDs on Sunday against the Bengals who had recently added Hue Jackson. Above was his lack of desire to hug his former coach. Mayfield then explained his decision via Mary Kay Cabot:
"Left Cleveland, goes down to Cincinnati, I don’t know. It’s just somebody that was in our locker room, asking for us to play for him and then goes to a different team we play twice a year."
Considering that Hue Jackson recently went on a Browns-bashing media tour, I think Danger Mayfield's comments are absolutely fair. One other thing to mention: Hue Jackson was hired by the Bengals to give the Bengals a better chance to win this game because y'know Hue was the HC of the Browns a month ago (embolden that) and could give the Bengals all sorts of inside knowledge on the Browns. Well, even as a defensive assistant Hue is a terrible coach, because considering the Bengals got completely torched by the Browns he failed at his job. He should be fired... again.
About Chargers-Steelers (from Week 13)
Sunday Night Football was weird. Entertaining, but weird. Let me explain:
The game starts off with the Steelers having a 23-7 at halftime and I'll admit during the beginning of the 2nd half my interest in the game had waned and I was looking at other things. Then the Chargers start to play way better than they did, go on a 23-0 run and it turns from a possible blowout to a thrilling comeback. Then the Steelers tie the game up, the Chargers get into FG range and this mess happens (click Watch on YouTube to see the video):
That might be the weirdest ending to a game I have seen. Seriously 3 offsides in a row? The first of which cost your team a chance to win in OT? Yes, the Chargers got some breaks in the officiating (most notably the missed false start and illegal block in the back) but considering the Steelers lost their first ever game as a franchise where they had a 14+ point lead at home (credit to SNF), they deserve to lose regardless. When you allow on defense 2 made 2 point conversions and your offense only scores 1 TD in the 2nd half after having a 16 point lead, you deserve to lose simple as that.
On the other sideline, you have the Chargers who made plays when they needed to on both offense and defense and absolutely deserved to win the game. As Al Michaels said during the broadcast, it was a good idea to flex this game to primetime.
Do you believe in miracles involving mammals that are kinda sorta similar to fish and sometimes confused with porpoises?! YES! (from Week 14)
In a back and forth game with playoff implications between the Patriots and Dolphins, it appeared that there was going to an exciting finish. I don't think anyone in their wildest dreams expected THIS to happen:
I would like to apologize to the Miami Dolphins for my outward mocking of them. I thought their culture change was going to produce at max 3 wins and result in a new regime. This was a team that looked like it was collapsing after starting 3-0. They may not make the playoffs, but they certainly exceeded my expectations and I have to give credit where credit is due. Congrats guys.
Fantastic Foles and I know where to find him (2019 Free Agency folks) (from Week 15)
After being beaten in the Chicago cold weather the LA Rams came home to play the Philadelphia Eagles who were going to lack Carson Wentz. His replacement? Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles. And Foles led the Eagles to an upset against LA's beloved Rams. (Click Watch on YouTube)
Did Foles have a boneheaded interception? Yes. But the play above and what he has overall done with the Eagles shows that someone in 2019 whether it be the Raiders, Jaguars, Buccaneers, or whoever will be happy having him as their starter. I'll go bold here: Nick Foles is a better QB than Dak Prescott. #hottake
The Rams meanwhile are not doing good and while I don't want to blame all the Rams struggles on Jared Goff, plays like this don't help his cause (Click Watch on YouTube)
That is probably the worst interception I've ever seen and that is coming from someone who watched Brock Osweiler on a regular basis.
NFL on Saturday? I'll take it (from Week 16)
NFL Network for the second and final time this season had a doubleheader of games they were the Redskins-Titans and Ravens-Comebacks. Both were actually quite good and had big playoff implications.
First, because the Redskins lost meaning they were eliminated from playoff contention. The Titans won thus putting themselves in good position to make the playoffs (we'll get to that later). It was kind of a shame to see AAF 1st overall pick Josh Johnson fall apart in the 4th quarter, considering he had played well up until then. Still, Adrian Peterson got to over 1,000 yards rushing for the season something which only a handful of RBs have done this year. Peterson is a free agent next year and he should get a bigger contract, whether that be from the Redskins or someone else. As for the Titans, they lost Marcus Mariota to injury and there is doubt as to whether or not he will play next week. Even if he does, he is likely to not be playing at 100% which is a disadvantage for the Titans.
Second, the Ravens won thus putting themselves in a good position to make the playoffs (we'll get to that later). Lamar Jackson played pretty good and the Ravens defense showed why they are the #1 unit in the league. The game actually had a college feel, with the crowd being in the game all the way through, the stadium lighting, it was truly great stuff. As for the Comebacks, they already clinched their playoff spot but had they won, they would have been in the driver's seat for the #1 seed in the AFC something which they desperately want. Also, Phil Rivers has made great plays, but he has made some boneheaded mistakes which he needs to stop doing come playoff time.
Coaching Change Chaos (from Week 17)
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 possibility 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.
Note: I didn't talk about the Packers and Browns opening in this segment because my thoughts on the jobs were spread out over various weeks. Looking back on it, I should have talked about them in this segment in some capacity. Better luck, next year.
Where I was correct and where I was wrong (in chronological order)
-Of the 8 divisions in the NFL, the only division champs I predicted correctly were the LA Rams and New England Patriots winning the NFC West and AFC East respectively. Yikes.
-I thought the Falcons would be SB contenders. That didn't happen.
-I predicted Norv Turner would be a bad OC for the Panthers and that prediction was wrong. The offense issues came more from Cam's injury, not Turner.
-As I said earlier in the year, I did correctly predict that Fitzmagic would occur. I did think that after being benched Winston would not be a Buccaneer, or that if he was he would have to fight for the starting job. It appears as that none of things are going to happen. So 1 prediction correct, 1 prediction wrong.
-I predicted that if the Packers didn't win the NFC North that Mike McCarthy's seat would heat up. Later in the year I predicted that he would be fired. So I was right and wrong? I guess?
-I predicted that the Bears would make the playoffs and have a Los Angeles Rams style turnaround. That did indeed happen.
-I predicted that the Lions and Cardinals would be decent teams. Wrong.
-I was correct in my estimation that Kirk Cousins would be a disappointment and that the Vikings would ultimately not make the playoffs.
-I predicted that the 49ers would finish last in the NFC West and they did. Correct.
-I predicted that the Cowboys would finish with a top 5 draft pick due to their poor play. Amari Cooper kept that from that happening.
-I predicted that the Titans would become irrelevant. Well, they appeared on SNF for the first time in nearly a decade. Incorrect prediction.
-I predicted that the Le'Veon Bell holdout would not affect the Steelers making the playoffs. It clearly did.
-I thought that the Browns would continue to the worst team in the league. They were in the first half of the season, but they actually played good in the second half of the season, so I am both correct and incorrect.
-I thought that Patrick Mahomes would be the truth. I think it safe to say I was right on that one.
-I predicted that the Miami Dolphins would be the worst team in the NFL and that GM Mike Tannebaum and HC Adam Gase would be fired. The Dolphins weren't the worst team in the NFL, but Tannebaum and Gase were fired, so again I am both right and incorrect on this one.
-SB 53 would be Rams-Patriots. Right.
-I thought that the Cowboys made a big mistake in trading for Amari Cooper. Cooper turned out to be the reason the Cowboys made the playoffs. Wrong.
-I predicted that Fitzpatrick would take Winston's job for a third time during the season. Wrong.
-I predicted that Ron Rivera and Doug Marrone would be fired. Wrong and wrong.
-I predicted all 4 Wild Card games and every team that I thought would win lost.
So I Spiderfan have a prediction accuracy of around 40%. Hopefully I can improve on that next year. Also, due to the length of this column, I'll do my season awards in a separate post in the coming days.
With all of that said (and boy was there a lot), I hope you enjoyed this special look back at not only my various columns, but the NFL season as a whole. See ya next time. This is spiderfan out.
