Post by spiderfan on Oct 23, 2023 19:10:22 GMT -8
Happy Week before Halloween Sports Coast to Coast, it is I, Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst coming to you a not very spooky edition of Red Hot Gridiron. Without further ado, let us begin!
Roll Tide
As a LSU fan, the phrase "Roll Tide" isn't exactly a favorite one of mine, as Alabama is LSU's main rival. Although, funnily enough when I hear the phrase "Roll Tide", I think of Hannah Brown almost immediately due to the comedic nature of that thought. Around the same time she was The Bachelorette, Alabama had a QB controversy between Jalen Hurts who had been the starting quarterback for multiple seasons and the highly touted #1 QB recruit in the country Tua Tagovailoa. The controversy started during the 2017 CFP National Championship Game where at halftime, Hurts was benched for Tua. Tua led Alabama to a comeback victory and never gave the Alabama QB job up.
Despite losing a season of eligibility because of it, Hurts chose not to transfer immediately and stayed on as the backup for a year, although early in that season there was some brief question as to who's job it would be. Hurts' decision to not transfer led to Alabama coming back against Georgia in that year's SEC Championship Game after Tua got hurt, in what was one the more memorable football games I've ever seen. Hurts would go on to play at Oklahoma, where he would lead the Sooners to the Peach Bowl, where the Sooners were totally outgunned by LSU, the same LSU team by the way, that defeated the Tua led Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa that year.
After their successful college careers both came to the NFL and have had the near opposite style careers in the NFL as they did in college, at least from a perception standpoint. Tua was a Heisman contender, a #1 pick contender, and someone that had a hashtag about #TankforTua. Hurts didn't even go in the first round and him being picked by the Eagles was controversial in Philadelphia because of the presence of Carson Wentz at the time, a presence that in hindsight feels totally bizarre, but at the time was very much not bizarre. Hurts immediately improved the Eagles upon Wentz being benched and the Eagles have been on an upward trajectory ever since. Meanwhile, despite all the hype coming into the NFL, if not for behavior by Deshaun Watson that I can't and won't discuss on this family friendly forum, Tua wouldn't even be the QB of the Dolphins due to his underwhelming play to start his career. But despite being thisclose to acquiring Deshaun Watson, Tua remained the Dolphins QB.
And so the former Alabama Crimson Tide QBs met on Sunday Night Football to play each other for the first time ever. The results? Well coming from the Alabama program they'd both tell you that the only stat that matters is the win, and Hurts came out victorious. Not only did he come out victorious, but Hurts had the better statline throwing for nearly 300 yards and three total touchdowns, although he did have a fumble and a pick six. Tua had an unimpressive statline over a little over 200 yards passing, 1 TD and 1 INT. Prior to this season Tua's statline would have been unsurprising, but this season, considering the numbers that he has put up as the Dolphins QB, they are surprising.
It wouldn't be fair to blame the loss on Tua though, because as a whole early on you could tell that despite the 5-1 records, the Eagles were the much better team. Offensively and defensively, the Eagles felt like a bigger, tougher, and more physical team than the Dolphins. Usually that type of phenomenon doesn't happen in the NFL, but the Eagles have managed to accomplish that for now multiple years in a row. Speaking of the Eagles, the Dolphins as a whole felt like they were a year away, similar to how the 2021 Eagles felt like they were a year away, at least looking back on them. This is not the Dolphins year. Not to say that they won't win games and put up more numbers, but they aren't on the level of a true contender like the Eagles yet. After taking some lumps this year? I think the Dolphins will be truly ready to compete next year. Call it a hot take if you'd like, but that's the way I see it and it's my column soooooo....
National Tight Ends Day!
Since Sunday was National Tight Ends Day, I'd figured I'd spotlight some of the notable performances by TEs on National Tight Ends Day.
While Falcons TE Kyle Pitts only had a few receptions for than less 50 yards, his catch at the end of Falcons-Buccaneers set the Falcons up in game winning FG range.
If it wasn't for Tinys TE Darren Waller's giant near 100 yd 1 TD performance, the Tinys do not beat the Commanders. By the way, congrats to his wife on winning the WNBA championship!
In a surprisingly lopsided game against the Lions, Ravens TE Mark Andrews didn't have a lot of receiving years but had 2 trips to the endzone which was the most TDs by any Ravens player not named Lamar Jackson in the game.
Eagles TE Dallas Goedert had 77 yards yards recieving and scored the first TD of Dolphins-Eagles on Sunday Night Football.
Chiefs TE Travis Kelce had close to 200 yards and a TD that brought much to the joy of Mrs. Mahomes and that obscure pop star who the TV cameras keep showing for no particular reason at all.
Last but not certainly not least is Patriots TE Mike Gesicki who despite having by far the fewest receiving yards and catches of anyone I've talked about in this segment, accounting for only 2 catches of 5 yards, his second catch was the biggest catch of all the games on Sunday, a game winning TD to upset the Buffalo Bills in what is arguably the biggest upset of the NFL season up to this point and what could be a turning point for the Patriots season and franchise as a whole. It's the type of play that makes National Tight Ends Day worth commemorating in the first place.
Other thoughts:
-It is kind of funny to see a generation of Saints fans spoiled by all time great QB play and more success than their franchise ever had up until that point, be humbled by mediocrity. Appreciate what you have while you have it!
-The Falcons barely won by 3 and yet they should have won by 31 points with all of the redzone problems they had. Can't say I'm wholly impressed by the Falcons or Buccaneers coming out of that game.
-If the Buccaneers actually want to be real NFC South and playoff contenders, they've got to figure out how to generate offensively, otherwise they'll go down as one of those teams that won a few games early and then didn't win any games of the rest of the year type teams.
-Congrats to Tyler Bagent, the undrafted rookie out of Division II Shepherd, for not only starting, but winning a NFL game, a remarkable feat for a DII QB. Love to see to stuff like that!
-I don't think anyone would have thought a QB duel between Gardner Minshew and 2020 XFL MVP PJ Walker would have resulted in a thrilling super high scoring game, but the NFL is weird like that.
-The Commanders are such an up and down team, that I can't get a read for how good or bad they are. New owner Josh Harris can't be too impressed by that.
-Because he has been injured late in the season the last couple years, people forget just how good Lamar Jackson is when he is healthy. Outside of Mahomes, I don't think there is anyone better.
-The Bills are an overrated team that unlike the fellow overrated AFC "Chiefs Killers" the Chargers, doesn't have all that talented of a roster, so they are only going to get so far before they inevitably don't make the Super Bowl.
-Geno Smith should be benched, but he won't, so the Seahawks only have a low ceiling. Hopefully as a Seahawks, their low ceiling talented roster, convinces them to get a better QB.
-It is absurdity that blatantly obvious plays that everyone on TV sees and everyone in the stadium sees on the video board can't be reviewed because some rule written in the 90s says so. We've come a long way since then and the NFL should adapt accordingly!
-Now that Jim Harbaugh has been busted for cheating at Michigan, maybe he'll bail and take the Chargers job when the Chargers give into the LA based sports media complex and fire Brandon Staley. Fun fact: Jim Harbaugh shared the Chargers QB room with Ryan Leaf at one point.
-This is Jordan Love's first season as a starter and he has had moments, so I don't want to write him off yet. Remember Aaron Rodgers went 6-10 his first years as the Packers QB.
-Kirk Cousins playing well and winning a game on Monday Night Football? Something that would have been unheard of a few years ago, but it has happened more than once in the recent past.
Will the Carolina Panthers go 0-17?
That is to be determined as their ROAD TO 0-17 was paused due to the Panthers being on their bye week. A bunch of bad teams won, meaning that the Panthers winless record looks even worse than ever. I'm still convinced they are going to win a bunch of games late in the year. Having said that, I also thought the Browns weren't going 0-16 and we saw how that turned out.
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.