Post by spiderfan on Oct 6, 2020 21:00:18 GMT -8
Week 4 of the National Football League season is over and done, so now it is time for us to have fun! Ok that was cheesy and I won't do that again. Where was I? Oh, I'm Spiderfan the official NFL Analyst for SCtoC and this is Web of Football. Let us begin!
Bill O'Brien fired
Long time readers will know that I've waited a long time for this moment to come. The firing of Bill O'Brien is something that I wanted to see years ago and something that should have happened years ago but for a variety of reasons it didn't happen... UNTIL NOW!
It has been long forgotten now (I'll talk about why that is in a minute) but there was actually talk of Bill O'Brien getting fired after the 2016 season. There were 2 dynamics. 1 was that O'Brien took over play calling duties during the '16 season and was utterly terrible and 2 was that O'Brien didn't get along with the then longtime GM of the Texans Rick Smith. It was a good ol' fashioned power struggle one that anyone who kept up with the Texans knew Rick Smith was going to win due to Rick Smith ties with the McNair family and (the fact that Texans fans at the time wanted to desperately ignore) the fact that Rick Smith had built a championship caliber roster.
While O'Brien was not fired after the 2016 season, the power struggle continued into 2017 even after the drafting of Deshaun Watson with O'Brien declaring Tom Savage the starting QB. After every player on the Texans anyone had ever heard of getting season ending injuries, the Texans bottomed out, looked terrible, and still needed a coaching change. There was going to be a meeting with ownership where the power struggle was sorted out but PLOT TWIST, Rick Smith's wife tragically was diagnosed with cancer and thus he left to take of her and his family. With the power struggle being settled by default, O'Brien actually got a 5 year extension. Yes, a 5 year extension and he got a yes-man GM in Brian Gaine.
The 2018 season was amazingly frustrating to watch in that a poorly coached team team that had no business winning games, won a bunch of games and then were destroyed in the playoffs because O'Brien's terrible coaching. People ignored his terrible coaching because DIVison titLES like that actually had any meaning whatsoever, and which was achieved due to the roster that Rick Smith built. 2019 is where people FINALLY started to notice O'Brien being terrible. Why? Because Brian Gaine ended up having a falling out with O'Brien because O'Brien had no desire to pay Jadeveon Clowney because... O'Brien is incompetent. This would then lead to Brian Gaine being ousted (after he was supposed to be the yes-man GM) and O'Brien getting all the power.
With this power O'Brien would trade Clowney for pesos on the dollar to the Seahawks, trade 2 1st round picks for Laremy Tunsil (who had not actually accomplished anything of note with the Dolphins), and trade DeAndre Hopkins for David Johnson (who the Cardinals were likely going to cut).
Now, the formerly #1 ranked defense is a shadow of it's former self with guys like JJ Watt and Whitney Mercilus being past their primes and guys like Brian Cushing and Vince Wilfork being retired. The offense is now Deshaun Watson and a bunch of scrubs that O'Brien liked for some reason. Worse of all, Bob McNair the man who brought NFL football back to Houston did not live to see his team play in a Super Bowl or even an AFC title game like they should have.
I think back to when the Texans were 2-5 in 2015 and there were active rumors that University of Maryland wanted O'Brien to be their coach and wish he would have left. It would have been better for everyone involved. My final message to Bill O'Brien? Go back to Foxborough where you and all the other failed Belichick assistants belong. As Belichick assistants. Oh, and to the Texans fans who actively rooted for O'Brien to win his power struggle against Rick Smith? You got what you deserved.
Other thoughts:
-As the Patriots were losing against the Chiefs, the image of Tom Brady and Gronk talking about how great Florida is popped into my mind.
-Tom Brady is GOAT... until further notice.
-Congrats to Joe Burrow on his first win as a NFL quarterback!
-My thoughts on the Cowboys are the same as last week. Here is last week's column for those opinions
-Kyle Allen should the be the starter of The Artists formerly known as Redskins
-Nick Foles did not have the best showing with his first start as a Bear. It will interesting to see if this becomes a pattern or a one off game.
-I once made the proclamation that Nick Mullens was going to be a $100 million QB. I don't think that is happening anymore. P.S. Kyle Shanahan is still overrated.
-The Eagles are leading the NFC East with a 1-2-1 record. I would say "only 2020" but the NFC East has been this bad before, so I won't say that.
ROAD TO 0-16
4 teams are currently 0-4. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a win or a tie. Teams currently without a win or tie are:
New York Jets
New York Tinys
Atlanta Falcons
Houston Texans
The New York Jets lost to the previously winless Denver Broncos on Thursday Night despite the Broncos obviously not being that good. The Jets are a disaster and Adam Gase should be fired, but that is old news. What is news is that because Bill O'Brien's aforementioned firing, the question now becomes will more teams start to fire their coaches? Are Adam Gase and Dan Quinn now more likely to be fired? Yes, because the Jets and Falcons ownership would be stupid, not to fire them and begin the search for their replacements. What is also worth mentioning is that the Jets and Falcons tend to go on late season runs that reduce their draft position so it is far too early to enter them into the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes. I expect the Texans to not be on here for much longer due to Romeo Crennel now being the interim and as far as the Tinys? They'll win one eventually. Maybe.
The team most likely to 0-16 IMO is the New York Tinys.
ROAD TO 16-0
6 teams are currently undefeated. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a loss or a tie. Teams currently without a loss or tie are:
Buffalo Bills
Kansas City Chiefs
Pittsburgh Steelers
Tennessee Titans
Seattle Seahawks
Green Bay Packers
Due to COVID-19 the Steelers and Titans did not play on Sunday, so they stay on this list by default. With that said, I would be shocked if any of these squads don't make it into the postseason and I think that most of them will win at least a game if not more come postseason time.
Teams most likely to 16-0 IMO are the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks
I know this week's column was a shorter than usual, but the nonetheless I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to see ya back again next week! This is spiderfan out.
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