Post by spiderfan on Sept 9, 2019 22:12:12 GMT -8
So, as some of you know the column was originally titled Random Thoughts & Stuff and after 2 seasons I finally decided "Hey let me get a better name for this thing" and Web of Football is what I came up with. I'm spiderfan and Web of Football sounds good doesn't it? Doesn't it? Oh, Week 1 of the National Football League season was today and boy howdy is there some stuff to talk about. Let us begin!
How a Lion almost swallowed a Cardinal and why NFL overtime needs to be changed
There are 2 people currently in the National Football League who intimately know the Air Raid offense. Both of them happen to be involved with the Arizona Cardinals in HC Kliff Kingsbury and QB Kyler Murray. Now, for those of you who didn't watch Kyler Murray in college, do yourself a favor and look up some of his highlights because there was a reason he won the Heisman and was the number 1 pick in the NFL Draft, because he is special. There is also a reason why the Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury to be their head coach, because his offense is special. For most of the game against the Lions neither Murray nor Kingsbury looked special. The Cardinals were down 24-6 in the 4th quarter, Lions QB Matthew Stafford does what he does (plays well) and the Cardinals looked exposed.
One must keep in mind that the Cardinals didn't run their real offense in preseason and the starters barely played, the side effects of which meant that the Cardinals had to get used to everything on the fly. Once they did? Oh boy, did the Cardinals start to fly. 18 unanswered points on efficient and effective drives in up tempo fashion. The Lions defense was clearly tired and unlike in college where defenses are swapped out to avoid being tired, in the NFL you are stuck. It is worth mentioning that late in the game, the Lions called a timeout that had they not called, would have let them chew the rest of the clock and win the game. However in the Lions' defense the coaching staff didn't think the play was going to work, hence why they called a timeout. The game ended up going into OT and after getting themselves in the Red Zone (and with the refs missing a late hit call) the Cardinals kicked a FG to take their first lead of the game. The Lions drove down the field and did the same and the game was tied 27 all.
After what had been up to that point a thrilling and exciting series of events that got us to OT, there was a catch. There are ties in NFL overtime and it became apparent once the Cardinals couldn't quite get in FG range that the game was going to be a tie. THIS. NEEDS. TO. CHANGE. There is no more unsatisfying feeling in sports than a tie and the fact that I'm sitting here writing about how neither one of these teams won is ridiculous. Every game should have a winner and a loser no matter how long it takes. I say add college football overtime rules to the NFL or just make it so that if the first overtime ends and there is still a tie, add another one. Something, ANYTHING, because as their premier sports league in the world the NFL should know better.
Putting aside my beef with the NFL OT rules, something became clear in the late in the Cardinals-Lions game: The Air Raid is going to work in the NFL. Now that the Cardinals have gotten this tie behind them and have had their de facto preseason the sky could very well be the limit for these birds. I'm going to have my eye on them all season long.
Lamar and Hollywood annihilate the Dolphins both on and off the field
As long time readers know I like to toot my own horn. For now new readers, just so ya know I toot my own horn a bunch. In this case I toot my own horn because of former Oklahoma WR Marquise "Hollywood" Brown. I said during the draft that the Ravens picking him would end up as one of the best picks of the whole draft. If what we saw against the Dolphins is even close to what the Ravens look like going forward, the league better take note.
Hollywood Brown had 4 receptions for nearly 150 yards and 2 touchdowns. Lamar Jackson had 5 TD passes and a perfect passer rating. Ravens RB Mark Ingram 2 TDs and over 100 yards rushing. All of that and more and you end up with 59 points. The defense held the Dolphins to just 10 and the Ravens won by 49 points. Folks, I understand that the Dolphins have been projected to be the worst team in football, but when you score 59 points and looked how the Ravens looked, ya have to be impressed.
What is hysterical about the Ravens performance is that according to PFT, various players on the Dolphins now want out of the organization because they are convinced the Dolphins coaching and management are tanking. It is obvious that the Ravens ended up demoralizing the Dolphins, which is fair because how can you not be demoralized after losing 59-10? Tua get ready to buy a house in Miami.
Fun fact: Ryan Fitzpatrick has now thrown a TD and INT for 8 different NFL teams, which perfectly describes his NFL career.
The Cowboys beat the Tinys whaaaaatttt??
The New York Football Giants couldn't make it one week before I started calling them the Tinys for the 3rd year in a row could they? They just had to shrink and make the Cowboys look good. Now Dak is going to get a morbidly obese contract because the Tinys defense was no match for Cowboys OC Kellen Moore's voodoo. For shame.
All of that aside, I must say that the Cowboys offense looked better with Randall Cobb instead of Cole Beasley. In Beasley's defense the Cowboys didn't use Beasley like they are using Cobb, which makes you realize how poorly coached the Cowboys are. Also, keep in mind that in recent years the Cowboys beat the Tinys in opening games so, I'm not really surprised that the Tinys lost. The title was my attempt at sarcasm, which may or may not have landed depending on how you read the title and what you know about this column.
Nick Foles and Tyreek Hill injured in weird game
Patrick Mahomes is the GORN (Greatest of Right Now) we all know this. Him breaking records and having a great game against the Jags isn't surprising. What is surprising is how the game went from a showdown between Patrick Mahomes and Nick Foles to a showdown between Patrick Mahomes and Gardner Minshew. After Foles threw an incredible TD pass to make the game 10-7, the ensuing hit apparently broke his collarbone. That stinks because in the little bit that he played it became apparent that the Jags were going to be good with him. Because Foles got injured his backup former Washington State standout Gardner Minshew entered the fray and actually played decent, it wasn't enough and the Jags still lost.
But because Minshew played decent, I think that while the AFC South is now more open than it was before Foles' injury, Minshew will lead the Jags to some wins. That isn't something I would have expected to be writing about, but hey here we are.
Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill also got injured and while one might think that would mess up the Chiefs, they played fine without him today. For the Chiefs sake, they better hope they can keep up the solid production until Hill gets healthy.
Zone Coverage (where I have tweet length thoughts about other happenings in the NFL)
-Packers-Bears was boring and hopefully there aren't more games like it.
-Turns out that the Steelers totally need Antonio Brown. It isn't like I called that one (sarcasm, I totally called that one).
-Kirk Cousins passed only 10 times, which shows that his signing was a mistake because if it wasn't the Vikings wouldn't have a run based offense.
-The Bengals aren't bad.
-Despite the Redskins loss, Case Keenum is good.
-Congrats to Josh Allen and the Bills to their comeback against the Jets.
-The Browns hype train shouldn't be dead... yet. Remember the Titans beat the Patriots last year by nearly 30 points and looked what happened.
-Enjoy 2020 free agency Melvin Gordon because the Chargers don't need you!
-Jameis Winston is still a bust.
-I'm not sure if the Raiders beating the Broncos means the Raiders are going to be good this year, but my sentiment still stands Trust the Gruden.
-The Texans finally lost a game they didn't deserve to win. In previous years Will Lutz wouldn't have made that 58 yard kick, but it went in. Bad sign of things to come from the team from the Big H.
ROAD TO 0-16
15 teams have opened the season with a loss and this segment will keep existing as long as someone doesn't win at all. Like last year, because a tie happened (in this case Lions-Cardinals) those teams don't qualify for either this segment or ROAD TO 16-0
Teams that lost this week:
Miami Dolphins
New York Jets
Denver Broncos
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Washington Redskins
New York Giants
Chicago Bears
Carolina Panthers
Atlanta Falcons
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Of these teams I would say that the Dolphins and Buccaneers are the most likely to go 0-16.
ROAD TO 16-0
In this segment I like to appreciate the great teams of the National Football League and so far 15 teams are undefeated they are:
Buffalo Bills
New England Patriots
Oakland Raiders
Kansas City Chiefs
LA Chargers
Baltimore Ravens
Tennessee Titans
Dallas Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
LA Rams
Seattle Seahawks
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
New Orleans Saints
Of these teams I would say that the teams most likely to be undefeated at the end of the year are the Ravens, Chiefs, and Patriots.
People of Sports to Coast, that is my Web of Football for Week 1 of the National Football League season. I thank you reading and I hope that you join me as the season continues as we ultimately lead up to the Big Game. This is spiderfan out.