Post by spiderfan on Sept 25, 2023 20:02:32 GMT -8
Ahoy Sports Coast to Coast, I am Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst, and I am back once again to bring you another edition of Red Hot Gridiron. Without further ado, let us begin!
The AAF and XFL figured this out
Near the end of overtime Colts-Ravens, the Ravens had the ball near midfield. On 4th and 3 Ravens QB Lamar Jackson passed the ball to Ravens WR Zay Flowers, which ended up resulting in an incompletion due to Flowers being held... except no flag for holding was thrown, which resulted in a turnover on downs, which led to a Colts game winning field goal shortly thereafter.
People have asked for a Sky Judge for a while now, that is a referee upstairs who has access to what we the viewers and the people at the league office have access to when reviewing plays see, and call penalties when they see it. This prevents missed calls or even prevents bad calls from affecting games. For those that remember, the Alliance of American Football had the Sky Judge and it was something that that league got right. Considering the league office already has been people reviewing plays, I don't see why one or all of them can't act as a Sky Judge in the event that the league doesn't want to pay for a Sky Judge for every game.
Here's another idea: how about doing what the XFL is currently doing and the IFL has done (or is still doing it has been a long time since I've watched IFL ball) and give coaches the ability to challenge calls, whether they be a missed call or a bad call in the opinion of the head coach. It made XFL officiating look like the model for the sport of football as far as I'm concerned. Not only does it have the potential to fix calls, but it also creates a situation where coaches can do something about it during the game as opposed to complaining about it at the press conference after, thus leading to a more satisfying outcome for both the teams and the officials.
Blowout Bonanza
As opposed to past couple weeks, this week had a lot of blowouts. The week started with an unsurprising outcome, with the Tinys getting beat 30-12 by the 49ers on Thursday Night Football. On Sunday you had the Texans beating the Jaguars 37-17 in a game that briefly looked competitive in the second half, but was quickly non-competitive due to the Texans playing their best game in years. The Browns beat the Titans 27-3 and showing that the Browns are a solid team, with QB Deshaun Watson finally looking like he is remotely worth his morbidly obese contract and DE Myles Garret having 3.5 sacks. The Bills beat the Commanders 37-3, although when you realize that Commanders QB Sam Howell had 4 INTs such a score should be expected. The Chiefs beat the Bears 41-10, although if the Chiefs had wanted to run up the score they could have, but they didn't care in the second half, nor should they have because risking injuries to beat up an already humiliated team would have been dumb.
And last but not least the Dolphins beat the Broncos by a final score of 70-20. This one deserves more focus because the type of blowout that the Dolphins were on the winning end of does not happen in the NFL. 20ish point blowouts happen with some regularity, 30ish point blowouts are rarer but do occur. A 50 point blowout? Those don't happen very often. Something that is even rarer than a 50+ point blowout? A team scoring 70 points, something that before Sunday hadn't happened in the Super Bowl era. The Dolphins also set a record for offensive yards in the Super Bowl era with 726. Absolutely incredible performance and one that despite leading to an uncompetitive outcome was must see TV due to the sheer ridiculousness of it. Just when you thought the Dolphins wouldn't score anymore points, they did. And what was most crazy was the ease that which they did it.
I've played plenty of Madden in my time and I can tell you that even on rookie mode I've never scored 70. That in and of itself would be a very hard challenge and one that I'm sure various Madden YouTubers are going to try and fail at a lot. What would make it even more challenging? Is when you realize that those 70 points, when broken down into 10 touchdowns... were all on offense. That's right, it wasn't like Russell Wilson kept throwing pick sixes or there was a fumble return touchdown or two, no it was all on offense. Now, to be fair the Dolphins offense was given some short fields because of turnovers forced by their defense, but even still to capitalize on ALL of them? Impressive doesn't begin to describe it.
The NFL is Weird
How else do you describe the Cardinals beating the Cowboys with any other word than weird? I mean, you can use other words, but I don't they fully encapsulate it. You have a team that is 2-0, coming off of dominant wins, going against a 0-2 team that despite having moments of quality football, is a team that by all accounts is tanking, something that I went into detail about last week. Having seen what happened last week, I kept expecting the Cardinals to lose. Even when they were ahead 28-16 with a little over 7 and a half minutes to go in the 4th quarter, I thought the Cowboys would go down, score a TD, get a three and out on defense, and score another TD. Instead Cowboys QB Dak Prescott threw a game clinching interception in the red zone, an area where the Cowboys had a VERY difficult time scoring.
The game was a reminder to me why I like the NFL better than college football. I love the atmosphere and stakes of college football. When upsets happen the emotion that comes from the glory of victory and the sadness of defeat are incredible. HOWEVER, most of the time you have an idea who is going to win in college football. There is little to no parity, and the vast majority of colleges will never come close to a national championship or a big upset win, in large part due to the difference in physical talent of teams. In the NFL that is a non-factor. Not only does this lead to more regular quality play, but more importantly it means that you never know who is going to win or lose. It is weird, but it as wonderful as heck.
The Rumors Are True
Well would look at that? Donna "Mama" Kelce made a new friend.
In all seriousness it has been quite an event to see the formation of a power couple that the football world nor the pop music world did not ask for, yet now can not get enough of.
I wish them the best!
Other thoughts:
-I thought McDaniels was right to kick the FG instead of going for it on 4th down in the redzone. Considering they were down 8 and were doing well defensively, it made sense to me to kick the FG, try to force a stop and win the game with a TD. Defense has to do their job in that situation and they didn't.
-Falcons-Lions wasn't a blowout but it sure felt like one. Kinda weird in contrast to the other games that were actual blowouts but were interesting to watch at some level.
-How bout Jordan love leading the Packers to a comeback? The beginning of a new legend?
-It is high time for the NFL to get rid of the onside kick and institute the proposed 4th and 15 from the 30 yard line play. It will make finishes more exciting and produce more comeback wins, which is something that everyone wants to see.
ROAD TO 0-17
4 teams are currently 0-3. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a win or a tie. Teams currently without a win or tie are:
Denver Broncos
Minnesota Vikings
Chicago Bears
Carolina Panthers
After winning a lot of close games last year, it only made sense that the Vikings were due to lose close games. Instead of being 2-1 they are 0-3. They are too talented to be on this list for much longer. The Panthers aren't that good, but as I said last week, I think they'll win a bunch of games late in the year. The teams I'm really keeping my eye on at this point with the Cardinals out of the 0-17 race are the Broncos and Bears who both play each other next week. I think whoever loses that game is the team IMO to most likely go 0-17.
ROAD TO 17-0
3 teams are currently 2-0. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a loss or a tie. Teams currently without a loss or tie are:
Miami Dolphins
Philadelphia Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
If it wasn't clear already, the Eagles showed Monday night that they are the class of the NFL. They were for all of last year minus their thisclose lost in the Super Bowl and right now it looks to me that they'll get there again. Before they do that they have to go through the regular season and IMO they are the team that is most likely to go undefeated.
And with all of that said, that is all for this week's Red Hot Gridiron. As always I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to see ya again next week. Remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.