Post by spiderfan on Dec 9, 2019 20:53:46 GMT -8
It is December already SCtoC! That means it is time for me Spiderfan to talk about the 14th week of regular season play in the National Football League. Let us begin!
The Foxborough Faux Pas
The top story of this past Sunday has to be the much anticipated rematch of last year's AFC Title Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots. The game started with a Patriots drive which ended in a flea flicker TD from Tom Brady to Julian Edelman. Patriots lead 7-0 and after a Mahomes INT and then a Pats punt and then a Chiefs FG, the Patriots were in position to kick themselves a FG and increase their lead back to 7. The kick was missed and from that point onward the Chiefs went on a 20-0 scoring run, which felt more dominant then that because on the series where the Chiefs settled for FGs they were well into Pats territory. Pats HC Bill Belichick also lost a coaches challenge on a questionable 1st down conversion call during that run too. Keep that in mind because all of that will become important later.
With the game 23-7 in favor of the Chiefs, the Chiefs are obviously in control and it appears that the Chiefs will finally break the Patriots 21 game home winning streak. But if the Patriots have shown anything over the last number of years it is that they are a resilient bunch that won't go away quietly. Thus the Patriots block a Chiefs punt which the Patriots offense turns into 6 points (after a failed 2 point conversion) and the Patriots are back in the game 23-13.
Now comes the part of the game that everyone is talking about. On the Chiefs next series Chiefs TE Travis Kelce catches a pass and gets flipped in the air. While flipping in the air Kelce fumbles the ball which is then picked up by Patriots CB Stephon Gilmore for a TD. Except... the refs blew Kelce's forward progress down. So, instead of a defensive TD by the New England Patriots it appeared as though the Chiefs were going to keep the ball. After another Belichick challenge, on further review it was determined that Kelce had indeed fumbled the ball and the Patriots recovered, but again due to the play being blown dead no TD for the Patriots. Just ask Tom Coughlin how much that hurts.
The Patriots offense drove down the field and after a short pass by Tom Brady to N'Keal Harry the Pats score a TD cutting the deficit down to 3! Except... the refs determined on the field that Harry stepped out of bounds prior to crossing the goal line. CBS showed a replay and that looked like a bad on field ruling. Time for a Pats challenge... yeah those were used up. Yep, remember how I mentioned that earlier in the game that Belichick used a challenge to try to keep the Chiefs from getting a first down. That failed challenge made it so that the Patriots next challenge would be their last. The next challenge was on the aforementioned Kelce fumble. So at the point where the Pats absolutely needed a challenge they didn't have one. A true faux pas in Foxborough.
The Patriots couldn't score a TD after having 1st and Goal inside the 5 yard line, instead settling for a FG. Score now 23-16 in the 4th quarter. After a lot of nothing happened, the Patriots ended up with ball again and after what looked like would be a successful drive to take the game into OT, Chiefs CB Bashaud Breeland knocked a pass intended for Julian Edelman down on 4th down and the Chiefs came out of Foxborough with a victory.
Whenever Tom Brady has the ball with a chance to tie or win, it always seems like the other team loses and that is what I thought was going to happen to the Chiefs, but I give the Chiefs defense a lot of credit holding the Patriots to 16 points with the only TD coming after that blocked punt. If the Chiefs defense continues to play at the level they did against the Patriots, the Chiefs will be a scary team to face in the postseason and with the Raiders losing to the Titans, the Chiefs clinched the AFC West guaranteeing themselves a spot in the postseason.
Boringness in Buffalo
One might think that the Ravens-Bills game would have been a shootout. Two dynamic young QBs and various offensive playmakers on both offenses. Both teams being two of the top 2 teams in the AFC and both very much in playoff contention. Ok, the punch line is the game was boring. A lot of punts and non-explosive plays. Neither Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen made any spectacular plays. The Ravens offense didn't really have any dominant offensive drives like they usually do. Josh Allen didn't have pretty deep passes. Instead the game was a defensive slugfest. However, even with that being the case, the Ravens made enough plays to ultimately win, increasing their win streak to 9 games. Really, there isn't much more to say than that.
Seahawks what was that?
Y'know Seahawk there is a thing in football called offense? That is an incredibly snarky thing to say to a football team, but after watching the Seahawks-Rams SNF matchup that question came into my mind because the Seahawks started with a good drive that ended in a FG. After that? They only scored 3 more offensive points the entire rest of the game. The Rams meanwhile? Scored 28 points and when they didn't score it looked like they were going to. The only real miscue that the Rams offense had all night was a pick six by Jared Goff, which even then wasn't that big of a deal because the Seahawks couldn't capitalize on the momentum.
The Rams have looked impressive the last 2 weeks and finally look like the team everyone had come to know them to be. The question now is can the Rams get into the postseason after what has been an average season up until this point?
The Seahawks are still within striking distance of the #1 seed and the NFC West title, but it felt like they would come into Sunday Night Football and take this game from the Rams. At least it did to me anyway, and boy was I wrong.
Zone Coverage
-So much for the "Indy is fine without Andrew Luck narrative"
-Someone in the league office wants Joe Burreaux to go to the Miami Dolphins. Why else would they overturn an on the field no call of pass interference?
-2 point conversions are important in late game situations and when you don't convert them, you put yourself in position to lose. Just ask the Saints.
-The Vikings beat the Lions? Yeah not impressive.
-How bout Drew Lock?
-Congrats to Adrian Peterson for crossing the 14,000 career rushing yard mark!
-The Browns aren't dead... yet.
-The Panthers morale is low right now.
-Hey Jaguars, maybe your problems aren't all on Nick Foles. Just saying.
-How bout Ryan Tannehill?
-How bout Duck Hodges?
-The Tinys had a 14 point lead on Monday Night Football against the Eagles on the road. The Tinys shrunk and the Eagles won. Never think the Tinys will win a game. Ever.
Random Eurobeat Recommendation of the Week
What is Eurobeat? It is basically European disco pop music. It was made most famous by the anime series Initial D and Initial D is my favorite anime of all time in part because of the Eurobeat music throughout it. However, this week I'm not recommending a song that was featured in Initial D. Instead I'm going to recommend a song that was on the Eurobeat Disney album that was released in 2000 in Japan. My recommendation for this week is Winnie the Pooh by King & Queen a cover of the original Winnie the Pooh theme by the Sherman Brothers. Enjoy!
The playoff race is on and Christmas is almost here, and I hope to see ya for my next columns in these upcoming weeks, because we are in exciting times people. Congrats to the Oregon Ducks for winning the Pac-12 and making the Rose Bowl and Congrats to the LSU Tigers for winning the SEC and making the College Football Playoff! Geaux Tigers! This is spiderfan out.