Post by spiderfan on Jan 7, 2020 19:28:01 GMT -8
Happy New Year SCtoC! What a wild card weekend, huh? We've got a lot to cover, so I am Spiderfan the official NFL Analyst and this is Web of Football. Let us begin!
Bill O'Brien has to have sold his soul
How else can the Texans being consistently outcoached and outplayed and still win games? Take the first game of Wild Card weekend as an example. The Bills are up 16-0 late in the 3rd quarter. Up to this point they outplayed the Texans on field, they have been physically dominant, and have outcoached the Texans on the sidelines. Bills HC and defensive play caller Sean McDermott and Bills OC Brian Daboll are just whooping Texans HC and offensive play caller Bill O'Brien and Texans DC Romeo Crennel, it was really an impressive effort for the Bills. Then all of the sudden JJ Watt (who by the way came back WAY early from tearing his bicep and really shouldn't have been playing at all) gets a sack and the WHOLE momentum of the game shifts.
Bills QB Josh Allen goes from looking like a 1st round pick QB to looking like Brock Osweiler. The Bills defense goes from physically dominating to being physically dominated by the Texans offense. The Bills coaches are being outcoached by the Texans' coaches which shouldn't happen ever. The Texans go on to win the game 22-19 in overtime.
I would say that it was an exciting game, but having a game where one team dominates and then the other team dominates to result in a close game isn't all that good of a game. All it does is make you wonder what the heck happened after watching it. Bill O'Brien has to have sold his soul to Football Satan get this point in his NFL coaching career. He should have been canned years ago for being a complete schmuck and yet here we are, with the Texans going to KC and the Bills going home. The biggest takeaway from the Bills this game has to be that Josh Allen needs to work on his accuracy like a mad man. It was okay to ignore that coming into the draft, because pro coaches should fix what Wyoming coaches didn't. At this point, you can't ignore it, because if you continue to ignore it you will only keep yourself from winning big games.
Winter Storm Derrick Henry
Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts has seen a lot of wins. It has seen 6 Super Bowl banner raisings in its existence, more than any other stadium before or likely after its existence. It has seen a dynasty the likes of which the NFL hasn't seen in the Super Bowl era. It saw Winter Storm Henry. On Saturday night, it saw a loss in the Wild Card round by its own Patriots the first time such an occurrence has happened in 10 years (the last time the Patriots played in a Wild Card round game, they lost to the Ravens in 2009) at the hands of Winter Storm... Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans. How did this happen?
The game opened up with a solid drive by the Patriots, which to give the Titans defense credit was kept from being a TD drive. Score 3-0. Then Titans RB Winter Storm Derrick Henry came out onto the field. He ran over the Patriots defense with force and set up a beautiful play action pass by Titans QB Ryan Tannehill to TE Anthony Firkser. 7-3. The Patriots then had yet another solid drive that wasn't stopped and ended in a TD run by Patriots WR Julian Edelman of all people. 10-7 at the end of the 1st quarter At this point I'm thinking "This game is going to be a shootout, this going to be awesome!". Then a whole bunch of nothing happened, at which point the Patriots had yet ANOTHER solid drive, however like their first solid drive it was kept to a FG instead of a TD. This will be important later. 13-7.
The Titans after having back to back three and outs finally get moving after Titans RB Winter Storm Derrick Henry got running again with even more force and ultimately scored the go-ahead TD before the first half ended. Score now 14-13 and the score would stay 14-13 for a LONG LONG time. In fact I'm gonna skip all the way to the last 4 minutes cause that where things got interesting. After a 8+ minute drive by the Titans which resulted in a punt the Patriots got the ball back down 1 only needing a FG to take the lead at their own 11 yard line.
Patriots QB Tom Brady throws a medium length pass to RB James White who runs for good yardage. 20 yard gain. Brady then throws to WR Philip Dorsett for a 6 yard gain. Then Brady throws to WR Julian Edelman. We've seen this work so many times to fabulous results in both the regular and postseason. One of the best duos in NFL history. All that history was for naught because Edelman dropped a wide open pass that would have set up another first down. Instead the Patriots were put in a situation where they were Brady was under pressure and missed Dorsett on third down, thus setting up a punt. The Titans then chewed up the vast majority of the clock and after an excellent punt by Titans P Brett Kern, Brady threw a pick six on the Patriots 1 yard line. Game over.
It is crazy to think that this game will be the last game of the Patriots dynasty, the last game Tom Brady plays as a Patriot. Which is why I think the Patriots will be back with Brady and the gang next year on a revenge tour. Until Brady and Belichick are both officially retired and out of football? The dynasty ain't dead.
As for the Titans, Winter Storm Derrick Henry as stated before was a big time playmaker. Ryan Tannehill wasn't really ever put in a situation where the game was on his shoulders, which is surprising considering how dominant he has been. The Titans defense shut down the Patriots offense in the second half and the Titans special teams kept the Patriots from having short fields to work with. A true solid team win and I think they are going to give the Baltimore Ravens a heck of a fight.
Kirk Cousins and the Vikings have served me up a big plate of crow and it doesn't taste good
I have been a leader in clubhouse of the "Kirk Cousins can't and don't win big games" movement. I said when they were 6-2 that their successful play was not sustainable and would eventually stop dead in its tracks. Welp. I was wrong.
The game started out actually pretty boring. The game was 3-3 up until early in the second quarter Saints QB/TE/WR/Special teamer/Mormon Taysom Hill threw a beautiful deep pass across the center of the field to Saints WR Deonte Harris. This sets up a short TD run by Alvin Kamara and the Saints are up 10-3. The Vikings then have an excellent drive with Dalvin Cook running the ball efficiently and Kirk Cousins throwing some great passes. This leads to the Vikings getting 1st and Goal at the 3. The Saints defense then shuts down the Vikings offense and forces them to kick a FG. In a playoff game as heavy underdogs to be kept out of the endzone after what was an excellent drive up until that point? Crushing. Saints now up 10-6.
This is where the Saints should either get a FG or TD to extend the lead and put themselves in the driver's seat. Yeah, the Saints decided they wanted to be in the passengers seat because Drew Brees threw a horrendous interception, which set up the Vikings with good field position. The Vikings take advantage and Dalvin Cook rushes for a TD to give the Vikings the lead, 13-10. The Saints had a solid drive that put them in FG position with seconds left in the 1st half, however Saints K Will Lutz missed the FG (which will become important later) giving the Vikings even more momentum and making sure they kept their 13-10 lead going into halftime.
The Vikings kept up the pressure both offensively and defensively, eventually setting up another Dalvin Cook rushing TD and a 10 point lead going into the 4th quarter. At this point, it became clear to me that the Vikings were for real when they said they believed they could win this game. Having a 10 point lead going into the 4th quarter in the New Orleans Superdome being quarterbacked by Kirk Cousins? Unfathomable, right?
The Saints finally after being sluggish most of the game, put there foot in the ground and decided to come to play. Saints QB Drew Brees lead a clutch drive that ended in a fantastic TD pass to Saints QB/TE/WR/Special teamer/Mormon Taysom Hill to cut the deficit down to 3. To make things even better, the Saints forced a Vikings punt, so the Saints got the ball back with all the momentum on their side. Drew Brees is leading a fantastic clutch drive and it is looking like the Saints are going to take the lead... that is until Drew Brees decides to not throw the ball away when is he is under pressure and fumbles the ball. Vikings recover and are still up 20-17 with only a few minutes left in the game.
The Saints defense makes a big stop forcing the Vikings to punt. However, the Vikings did manage to take time off the clock, making it so that the Saints would likely only get a FG opportunity. The Saints offense looked to redeem themselves and managed to get into FG range. Now, remember when I said Saints K Will Lutz's earlier miss would be important later? Yeah, if he had made that kick the game would be tied, and this next FG opportunity would be for the win. Instead it is for the tie and to his credit, Will Lutz made the redemption kick sending another Wild Card weekend game into OT.
The Vikings win the toss and I'm thinking "This is the moment where the Vikings are going to choke. Kirk Cousins is going to throw a pick six any second and I'm going to laugh when I write my column." As I'm thinking this, Cousins throws a spectacular deep bomb to Vikings WR Adam Thielen setting the Vikings up at the 2 yard line. Then it hit me. "The Vikings are going to win this game. I don't believe it." 2 plays later this happens:
I would normally say "The Saints should have won this game, they had all kinds of chances and choked, this isn't really a great win the Vikings" but forget that. This IS a great win by the Vikings. They went on the road to a hostile environment in the playoffs on national TV and took it to the Saints offensively and defensively. They showed no fear and they showed belief that they were going to win the game and they did. Congrats to the Vikings players, coaches, and fans on what is one of, if not the most shocking win in my time writing this column.
DK Metcalf eats the Eagles cheesteak
As discussed last week the NFC East division title was won by the Philadelphia Eagles. Also, as discussed previously the Seattle Seahawks came into the playoffs as a wild card. The match up? A rag tag team with a star QB vs a rag tag team with a star QB. Now, the game itself started slow. There wasn't a whole lot of big plays and there was barely any scoring. In fact the only real notable thing that happened during the first 28 minutes of the first half, was that Eagles QB Carson Wentz was taken out of the game due to a concussion, thus removing him from his first playoff start ever. Keep in mind that in 4 seasons as the Eagles starter he either didn't make the playoffs as a starter or was hurt before the playoffs. Now, in his first playoff start he is injured? Bad luck.
His replacement was journeyman (and ESPN talking head for 3 minutes before the Eagles snatched him up) Josh McCown. McCown did some good things in the first half, but nothing spectacular. The Seahawks didn't do anything spectacular either, until with less than 2 minutes left in the half Seahawks WR David Moore got WAY more yards than he probably should have on a screen pass, setting the Seahawks inside the 5 yard line. With the game being 3-3 at that point, it looked like a TD would be a HUGE play in the game. What ended up happening was a HUGE effort by Oakland Panthers owner Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch to get into the endzone scoring the first TD of the game. The score was 10-7, and as stated previously the way the game was going it looked like that could ice things. Which it kinda did, I'll elaborate.
Because of the Seahawks TD, the Eagles were always in a position of catch up in the second half. This made it so that the Seahawks pass rush had more opportunities to make plays, which they did having 7 sacks in the game. The kept the Eagles out of the endzone the whole game, instead forcing the Eagles to FGs. So did the Eagles win with FGs? No. Because on offense the Seahawks had a weapon that is known to anyone who has played the Seahawks, DK Metcalf. This is the guy who completely destroyed the NFL combine and was a 3rd round pick for some reason. It became clear during the season that Metcalf was a stud. Now there should be discussion as to whether this guy will be the best WR in the NFL going forward.
Ya think that is a hot take? Consider this: He set the rookie WR yardage record in a playoff game with 160 yards receiving and he isn't even technically the Seahawks #1 WR. And keep in mind he made the game sealing plays for the Seahawks. First a spectacular 53 yard TD run, in which Metcalf was flat out determined to get to the end zone, extending the Seahawks lead to 11 points. 17-6. Then after the Eagles had cut the deficit down to 8, the Seahawks were facing a 3rd and 10, the Eagles having a timeout and if the Seahawks don't convert, are likely to get the ball back. The pressure moment. Russell Wilson goes back and throws deep to DK Metcalf who beat the Eagles zone coverage to officially ice the game, for all in tense of purposes a game winning catch. Seahawks win 17-9.
It wasn't exactly the most fun game to watch, outright boring at times. However, that doesn't matter for the Seahawks because Russell Wilson, DK Metcalf, Beast Mode, and the rest of em are going to Green Bay and the Eagles are not.
Cowboys fire Jason Garrett and hire Mike McCarthy
After days of limbo Jason Garrett who has been with Cowboys organization for about a century was finally fired. My reaction to the poor game managing, bad staff hiring, giant ego fueled, leaking, red headed, locker room cancer being fired?
My thoughts on the firing? Well, Dez Bryant on Twitter said it best:
With that said in a bizzare turn of events the Cowboys were actually interviewing people while Garrett was still technically under contract, something which made everyone in the Cowboys media world uncomfortable. I don't really care personally. What I do care about is who the Cowboys interviewed. On Friday going into Saturday the Cowboys interviewed former long time Bengals coach and current Arizona State assistant Marvin Lewis. Being that the Bengals are basically run like the Cowboys this move didn't completely surprise me. What surprised is when it sounded like there was actually a shot at Marvin Lewis being the Cowboys HC and hiring Hue Jackson to be OC. I'm thinking "really Cowboys, you are going to strive to be the 2014 Bengals?" What?
The Cowboys also interviewed someone else, former longtime Packers HC Mike McCarthy, Saturday going into Sunday with it later coming out that McCarthy had spent the night at Jerry Jones' house. As stated last week, McCarthy had interviewed with the Panthers multiple times and it came out after I wrote last week's column that he there were interviews happening with the Tinys and Browns in the near future. McCarthy was someone who was in demand and seeing this the Jones' decided to scoop him up. Yep, that is right Mike McCarthy is new the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. My thoughts?
I'll admit that I had gotten my hopes up for Urban Meyer. Even if it wasn't him, I'm thinking well surely the Cowboys could get Ravens OC Greg Roman and even if it wasn't him they could get former Cowboys player and currents Saints TE Dan Campbell. McCarthy was never someone who I thought of as a candidate for the Cowboys partly because I thought he was going to go the Panthers and partly because after the Packers success without McCarthy this season doesn't exactly put him in the best of light. Remember, McCarthy got fired because he didn't get along with Aaron Rodgers and it has turned out that Rodgers was at least partially right, because now he has Tyronn Lue, I mean Matt LaFleur as HC and the Packers have won a whole bunch of games.
It is worth mentioning that in his year off, McCarthy has been studying the game and analytics to prepare for what his next job would be and that he won't be the same coach that was in Green Bay. It is also worth mentioning that while McCarthy and Rodgers didn't get along they won a LOT of games, including SB 45. And he isn't Mike Zimmer or Norv Turner who someone who's only qualification would have been that they were on the Cowboys coaching staff at some point in Jerry Jones' tenure as owner/GM. An outsider like McCarthy being brought into the fold is kinda a big deal.
So overall, I'm lukewarm on the hire. It isn't most splashy hire in the world and has the potential to be a less than stellar hire (49ers SB winning HC George Seifert went to Carolina and fizzled out), because as stated previously his exit from GB is concerning. It also has the potential to be a stellar hire (Andy Reid with the Chiefs) because as stated previously, he won a lot of games and is supposedly refreshed. If nothing else, McCarthy being hired means that there is a different feeling surrounding the Cowboys then there has been in years and that is a big plus.
More coaching hires! Panthers hire Matt Rhule and Tinys hire Joe Judge
So I'm putting the finishing touches on the column and word comes that both the Carolina Panthers and New York Football Tinys have filled their head coaching vacancies too.
First, the Carolina Panthers hired Baylor HC Matt Rhule signing him to a 7 year $62 million contract. As stated previously, I thought that Mike McCarthy would take the Panthers job. Even when McCarthy got hired by the Cowboys, I didn't think that despite Rhule interviewing with the Panthers, that Rhule would become the Panthers coach. I predicted last week that Matt Rhule was going to be the next HC of the Tinys and in the week since, there were media reports that made it sound like that is where things were headed. Well, apparently Panthers owner David Tepper went down to Rhule's house in Waco and made him an offer that he couldn't refuse, hence the almost 9 mil per year contract. Oh, did I forget to mention that Rhule also got a $2.5 million signing bonus? Yeah, when you get offered that kind of money and a chance to go coach in the NFL? You take it.
I'm still skeptical about Matt Rhule as a NFL HC. I'm not exactly sure how making Temple and Baylor not suck translates into making a NFL team not suck. But he did prove that he can win games, and ultimately that is the only part of the NFL/CFB jump that needs to be translated.
Secondly, the New York Football Tinys hired New England Patriots Special Teams/WR coach Joe Judge. Interestingly, enough he had actually become a candidate for the Mississippi State HC vacancy, so I guess the Tinys didn't want to lose to them? Yeah, this is a weird unexpected hire. I'll be honest and say that before his name came up in the Miss. St search, I had never heard of him. Maybe, he did stellar in his interview and is totally legit. Maybe, because the Tinys are poorly run and their other choice was Jason Garrett, they decided to give Judge a shot instead. Maybe, he'll be the next John Harbaugh (Harbaugh was the Eagles ST coach before he became the HC of the Ravens) and succeed. Or maybe, he'll be in the next Belichick assistant to fall flat on his face after leaving Foxborough. We'll have to see.
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. This week's recommendation was featured in the 1st and 2nd season of Initial D. It is Speedy Speed Boy by Marco Polo. Enjoy!
Folks, that is it for my Wild Card Weekend Edition of Web of Football. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya again for the divisional round! This is spiderfan out.