Post by spiderfan on Sept 27, 2021 18:56:59 GMT -8
Howdy everyone it is me Spiderfan SCtoC's own NFL analyst here and today it is time for yet another edition of Web of Football, this time my thoughts on the third week of NFL regular season play. Without further ado, let us begin!
The lowly Chiefs?
I wrote at length last week about how the Kansas City Chiefs are a mortal team (In case ya missed it the point was that I came to the realization that because of a lack of a really good running game, the Chiefs live and die by the play of Patrick Mahomes) and my take on their loss to the Baltimore Ravens. While it wasn't up to usual Chiefs standards, it certainly was not an ugly loss. Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers on the other hand? That was an ugly loss. 4 turnovers and some atrocious defensive play and play calling led to the 30-24 loss. What made it even uglier was that the Chargers desperately tried to do their "We are a talented team but choke in pretty much every close game" routine and the Chiefs STILL lost.
Now the Chiefs are 1-2 and in a distant fourth in the AFC West. I have at least some degree of confidence that the turnover issues can be resolved by the offense because I think Andy Reid is a good coach and the offensive talent will work extra hard to not turnover the ball. However, the Chiefs have a bottom 3 defense in the whole league (which was THE worst coming into the game) and unlike past years where the excuse was "Well the guys are trying to learn Steve Spagnulo's playbook", Spagnulo has now been their 3 years and the Chiefs have actually regressed defensively. I'm not confident that the Chiefs can turn that around and with that being the case the Chiefs are gonna have a tough road to get into the postseason.
I won't do a hot take and say the Chiefs won't make the playoffs entirely, I will say that if the other teams in the AFC West don't take advantage of this opportunity to keep the Chiefs a wild card team or force them out of the postseason, people will be fired.
The Greatness of Aaron Rodgers
This is one of those times where I am genuinely irritated that I don't have any inside sources that give me info about a topic in the NFL. The topic at hand? The answer is another question: Why in the world are the Packers pushing Aaron Rodgers out of the door? For real, this man deserves whatever contract he wants and whatever players he wants on the team. Rodgers absolutely should be treated by the Packers like the Buccaneers have treated Tom Brady, instead the Packers are treating Rodgers like how the Patriots treated Tom Brady... which is why Brady (or for that matter Gronk) is no longer a Patriot. The fact that Packers CEO Mark Murphy and GM Brian Gutekunst think that the Packers can win without Aaron Rodgers is a sign of total arrogance. At least in New England, Bill Belichick has enough rings to earn his arrogance. What have Murphy and Gutekunst done to earn their arrogance? Whatever team ends up with Aaron Rodgers in 2022 (I still think it will be the Broncos, but it could totally be someone else) are going to have one of, if not the best QB of his generation on their team. Disrespecting and running off your franchise QB doesn't end well. Just ask the Detroit Lions.
The Curse of Bobby Lane is real
For those of you that aren't super knowledgeable about NFL history and/or aren't avid viewers of NFL Films content like myself let me give the story of how the Detroit Lions became cursed. Throughout the 1950s Texas Longhorn alum Bobby Layne was the quarterback of the Detroit Lions and was actually one of the best QBs of his era. In his time with the Lions, he went to 4 Pro Bowls, was named first team All-Pro twice, was named second team All-Pro twice, led the league in passing yards twice, led the league in passing TDs in 1951 (26 TDs in a 12 game season, which when extrapolate that to 17 games would be nearly 40 TDs), led the league in completion percentage in 1955, was named to the 1950s All Decade team, at the time of his retirement was the all time leader in quarterback stats (passing yards, TDs, etc.), has his number #22 retired by the Lions, is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and led to the Detroit Lions to 2 NFL championships and was a part of a 3rd championship, which is where the curse started. See, late in the 1957 season Bobby Layne had a leg fracture, which resulted in him being replaced with Tobin Rote (who while not a Hall of Famer had a solid career in his own right) who would do what Jeff Hostetler and Nick Foles would later do in the Super Bowl era, come off the bench and lead the team to championship.
The next year in 1958, Bobby Layne would be traded to Pittsburgh Steelers and as legend has it said on his way out "The Detroit Lions won't win another championship for 50 years". There has been debate whether or not the late Bobby Layne actually said that or something to that effect, although the proof is in the pudding as they say. Whether it be the fact they've won 1 playoff game in the Super Bowl era or the infamous 0-16 (which ironically came during the year the curse was set to expire), they've been far from the top of the line franchise that they were in the 1950s. Because Matthew Stafford grew up on the same street as Bobby Layne and played at the same high school (Highland Park HS) there was a belief that if anyone was going to break the curse it would be Matthew Stafford... yeah he didn't.
Which leads us up to now where the Lions started a new era with Dan Campbell as HC and Jared Goff as QB. They hadn't won yet this season going into Sunday's game against the Ravens, but during the game against the Ravens the Lions showed some grit and actually came back from a multiple possession deficit to take the lead in the final minute. That's when the Ravens managed to miraculously get into "FG range" (albeit with some help from the refs). I say "FG range" because Ravens HC John Harbaugh decided to try a 66 yard field goal which if made would be the longest FG ever. Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, the new NFL record holder for the longest field goal in NFL history, reflected on the kick the next day on the Dan Patrick Show:
To watch the NFL's video of Tucker's kick, click on the following link: Longest field goal in NFL History
The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs eventually beat their curses, so it is possible. But whether it be Bobby Layne himself, karmic retribution, North Texas VooDoo, or some combination of all three that is haunting the Detroit Lions, I don't see that going away any time soon.
Fields of Nightmares
Throw out records for a second. Chicago Bears HC Matt Nagy is currently the worst head coach in the NFL in my opinion. I have previously written how Nagy's stubborn decision to have Justin Fields on the bench in favor of Andy Dalton was going to get him fired and going into Sunday it looked like I would be proven wrong. Andy Dalton ended up getting injured and is going to miss an extended period of time. At this point my thought process was "Well Fields is in, Dalton won't get his job back despite Nagy saying he would and Nagy will pull this out and keep his job". What I didn't expect to see was one of the worst gameplans in my time of keeping track of the NFL (and this is coming from someone who watched games coached by Bill O'Brien on a regular basis).
The Bears gameplan was literally the same one they would have used with Dalton: stay in the pocket and hope for the best. This is moronic for 2 reasons: 1.) Justin Fields is more athletic than Andy Dalton has ever been, so using Fields' legs is an asset to your team and something that the opponent (in this case the Browns) would have to put extra effort in gameplanning against and 2.) The Bears O-line was not double blocking anyone on the Browns D-line. That means someone like Myles Garrett can completely wreck the game, which is exactly what he did with 4.5 sacks. If you think that is bad, how about the Bears giving up 9 sacks in total. Sacks that that shouldn't have been given up in the first place.
Fields had a bad stat line, although it is hard to tell if it means anything or not based on Nagy's horrendous coaching. After Sunday I'm now convinced more than ever that Matt Nagy is going to get fired either at the end of the season or during it. Whoever the next guy is though is going to be totally stoked, so good for whoever that ends up being. Doug Pederson perhaps?
Other thoughts:
-Bill Belichick's and Josh McDaniels' legacies are not the line Sunday, but any mystique Josh McDaniels and Belichick have is certainly on the line against the Buccaneers.
-Ya know if the Seahawks offense was as good as it sometimes looks, they'd be the best team in the entire NFL. Wait didn't I already say that last week?
-Josh Allen is the man and by far my worst take as an NFL pundit was saying he would be the next Jamarcus Russell.
-It would appear that the Titans blowout loss to the Cardinals was a fluke.
-Congrats to Joe Burreaux and Ja'Marr Chase for leading the Bengals to an upset win over the Steelers!
-Either the Cowboys defense is all of the sudden good or the Eagles offense is pretty bad. Not sure which at the moment.
ROAD TO 0-17
5 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:
New York Jets
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
New York Football Tinys
Detroit Lions
The Tinys had the Falcons on the ropes but wouldn't ya know?
Being up 14-7 with 5 minutes left, dropping an INT, and giving up 10 unanswered to lose the game to a fellow bad team. That is more embarrassing than the losses by the other teams in the winless club, with the exception of the Lions at least for this week, because the Tinys are in my opinion the team most likely to 0-17.
ROAD TO 17-0
5 teams are currently 3-0. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a loss or a tie. Teams currently without a loss or tie are:
Las Vegas Raiders
Denver Broncos
Los Angeles Rams
Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers
This is an odd bunch of teams to still be undefeated because going into this year because while I thought the Cardinals and Rams would both be good, I did not expect them to be this good, let alone the Panthers or Raiders or Broncos. Due to roster talent and lack of recent Fools Goldness (The Raiders, Cardinals, and Panthers have all had mid to late season collapses within the last few years) my pick of team most likely to go 17-0 is the Los Angeles Rams, although credit to the Broncos for being where they are at. The Broncos' game against the Ravens will be a big measuring stick to see where they are in the big scheme of things as a team.
That is all for this week, as always I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to see ya again next week. This is spiderfan out.
