Post by spiderfan on Jan 23, 2022 21:13:45 GMT -8
Fantabulous football SCtoC! It is I, Spiderfan the official NFL analyst of this great forum and today I bring you the Divisional Round Edition of Web of Football. We have a lot to talk about, so without further ado, let us begin!
Pitchforks out for Tannehill!
When you are in a low scoring defensive kind of game, you CANNOT turn the ball over. If you do, you give the other team an extra possession, likely in better field position than they otherwise would have gotten, and therefore give the other team points that they otherwise would not have gotten, especially since the game is a low scoring defensive game, as I just mentioned. Titans QB Ryan Tannehill did not get this memo. 3 INTs are bad enough on the stat sheet in any game, but they are far worse when they have as much of an impact as Tannehill's did. The first offensive play of the game for the Titans was a Tannehill INT which the Bengals turned into 3 points and a lead (which they never fully surrendered BTW), later in the game with the Titans having a very promising drive (which they hadn't had many of up to that point) that got into the redzone. Even if the drive stalled 3 points were sure to be had... except another Tannehill INT. Then, with less than 30 seconds left, the game improbably tied and likely heading into overtime, Tannehill throws yet another INT which because the Titans were near midfield, set up the Bengals near midfield and only needing a Ja'Marr Chase out route catch to set up the game winning FG.
Now to be fair, the Titans offensively were out of sync all game, but that is what happens when you put a bunch of guys together who really haven't played together all that much in a playoff game. The fact that the Titans got to have the #1 seed and a bye at all with all their injuries was impressive. What was far more impressive was the effort by the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals defense which has been up and down played their hearts out and made the plays they had to make to win the game. Bengals QB Joe Burreaux was sacked 9 TIMES and led his team to a win despite all those sacks, a feat which had not happened in the Super Bowl era prior to Saturday's game. Bengals RB Joe Mixon ended up being a X factor and deserves credit for his contributions as well.
Considering, Tannehill's performance which has caused the aforementioned angry mob, I wonder if the Titans will enter the Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers sweepstakes. The Titans still have a bunch of money owed to Tannehill, although with the right draft pick compensation, I imagine Titans GM Jon Robinson could figure out a way to unload Tannehill's contract if they decide to go that route. Considering the talent the Titans have, figuring out how to upgrade at the QB position just might be what the doctor ordered.
Let the Aaron Rodgers Sweepstakes Begin!
The biggest winner of the San Francisco 49ers-Green Bay Packers game was the Denver Broncos. Why? Because with the humiliating loss suffered by the #1 seeded Green Bay Packers to the upstart San Francisco 49ers, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers has in all likelihood played his last game as a Packer. Rodgers tried to force his way to the Broncos this past offseason, but was not traded to due to the Packers being unable to start a bidding war for Rodgers' services as by the time he made his trade demand known it was late into the offseason and the Broncos were the only team on the table. Theoretically, a team like the Steelers or the Raiders or even the Titans could come in with a crazy trade offer and get Rodgers, but I think he is going to end up where he has wanted to be for the last year which is with the Broncos. They have the assets and have been the most motivated to get the trade done and I think Broncos GM George Paton's patience will pay off in the end.
As for the actual the 49ers-Packers game itself? It was another low scoring defensive style of game, except with even less points, and less sacks and turnovers, making for a rather boring game at times. I mean the Packers only TD of the game came on their opening drive. The 49ers didn't get on the scoreboard at all until midway through the 3rd quarter and that was with a field goal. It was 7-3 at the start of the 4th quarter. The only 49ers TD came on a blocked punt with less than 5 minutes to go in the game. If it hadn't been snowing, the game would have even been less interesting.
Boredom aside, the 49ers pulled off a great team win. Their defense was fantablous and likely earned 49ers DC DeMeco Ryans a head coaching job, which I think he deserves at this point. The special teams unit was on point, securing field position, scoring, and playing a little defense themselves by blocking a Packers FG. The offense did enough as well. To upset a contender like the Packers, you need all 3 phases of the team to contribute and in the 49ers case, they did in what will go down as one of the bigger upsets in the NFL playoff history and one of the biggest butterfly effect games in recent memory.
The Last Game of Tom Brady's storied career (at least IMO)
Hall of Famer Bill Parcells once said "If you're thinking about retirement, you're retired". The belief amongst most people (including myself) had been that Tom Brady would keep leading his Buccaneers for the forseeable future. They are a well built team, and Brady has shown no signs of slowing down, in fact, this season was one of the best of his all time great career. And then all of the sudden every outlet started reporting Sunday morning that Brady is seriously considering retirement.
In a classic example of "the score looks closer than the game actually was" the Tommy Bay Buccaneers lost to the Los Angeles Rams 30-27, primarily because (at least in my opinion) Tom Brady played poorly. He looked like someone who had retired. The score ended up being as close it was because the Rams felt bad that they were blowing out the Buccaneers in what felt like Brady's last game, and started turning the ball over and giving the Buccaneers great field position. Field position that the Buccaneers had a hard time capitalizing on because Brady kept missing throws and making uncharacteristic poor decisions. Brady's poor play overshadowed Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles having an ineffective defensive game plan and making some of the worst defensive play calls ever (seriously all out blitz and one and one coverage against the best WR in the league with 30 seconds left in the game? Really?). Call it a hot take all you like, but after the Rams game, I don't think Bowles deserves a HC job. Choking as a coach is inexcusable especially for someone who already was unsuccessful in his first time around as a HC.
Maybe, Brady doesn't retire and comes back and leads the Buccaneers to another Super Bowl. I'll be surprised if he does though.
No Hooplah! Just a great game!
Games between great teams always have the potential to be great. In fact they are often expected to be great and sometimes they end up being lame games that when you look back on it, did not deserve the hype. Others? Absolutely lived up to the hype. The Bills-Chiefs game absolutely lived up to that hype.
The game started out as slow and methodical, lots of clock being chewed up by both teams, and lacking chunk plays. While it wasn't as low scoring as the Saturday games, and while certainly it was more interesting (at least consistently throughout) than either of the Saturday games, it certainly was not a barn burner. The only real highlights to speak of were the frequent QB runs by both Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Bills QB Josh Allen.
During the 3rd quarter, the Bills offense stalled and the Chiefs managed to create some separation and got a 9 point lead (which should have been 13, but Chiefs K Harrison Butker missed a FG before halftime and missed an extra point). The Bills immediately cut that lead that 2 when Josh Allen threw the ball 70 yards in the air for a TD. This is a good time to mention that Chiefs S Tyrann Mathieu suffered a concussion early in the game, and by the 4th quarter it became blatantly obvious that the Chiefs secondary was lost without him. All sorts of blown coverages and miscommunications led to the Bills offense successfully managing to get out of their slump and look like they did against the Patriots.
As for the Chiefs offense, while they initially couldn't capitalize on a redzone possession set up by a punt return and only managed to extended their lead to 5, they managed to successfully counter BOTH of the clutch go-ahead seemingly game winning drives by the Bills, with spectacular plays by Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill, Chiefs TE Travis Kelce, and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and get the game into OT with a game tying FG by Harrison Butker who redeemed himself after the aforementioned misses that he had. The Chiefs won the OT coin toss and won the game.
The following is from my post-Conference Championships column in early 2019 and I still agree with every word:
IMO, the NFL overtime rules need to be changed. The idea that a coin flip has the potential to have final say over who wins a game whether it be regular season or playoffs is absurd. Instead of having it where if the team that wins the coin toss can win the game automatically with a TD, have it where the team that wins the coin toss gets first shot and if they score a TD then that team has to attempt a 2 point conversion. The trailing team then has an opportunity to answer with a TD and either the 2 point conversion wins the game or ties the game. After that the game keeps going in a similar fashion to CFB overtime.
Setting aside my Chiefs fandom, I do feel bad for the Bills that after all the effort they put into the game, the game was ultimately decided because of a coin toss. Games should be decided on the field and to see Josh Allen sitting on the sideline having no chance to counter, is a shame that the NFL should fix in the offseason.
Embracing my Chiefs fandom, I want to say PATRICK MAHOMES IS THE GREATEST OF RIGHT NOW AND JOSH ALLEN IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE AS GOOD AS HE IS DEAL WITH IT NATIONAL SPORTS MEDIA TALKING HEAD PUNDIT PEOPLE!
Other thoughts:
-The New York Football Tinys hired Bills Assistant General Manager Bill Schoen to be their new General Manager. Because of interoffice politics, this leads to me believe that either Bills DC Leslie Frazier or Bills OC Brian Daboll are going to be the next HC of the Tinys. I still think that Daboll with ultimately end up with the Dolphins, although I will not be surprised if he chooses the Tinys instead.
-The fact that the Raiders haven't already given Rich Bisaccia the full time head coaching job is a sign of organizational incompetence. He is beloved by the players and led the team to an improbable postseason berth. Good luck keeping player morale up with Josh McDaniels (who comes from the notoriously player-unfriendly Belichick coaching tree) or Jim Harbaugh (who ran himself out of San Francisco despite having a great win-loss percentage)!
-The 49ers are going to the Super Bowl aren't they? They already beat the Rams twice and nothing that the Rams showed Sunday leads me to think that the 49ers won't beat the Rams in SoFi in front of a bunch of 49ers fans once again.
And that is for this week's Web of Football. It was eventual weekend for sure. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya again next week for the Conference Championship edition of Web of Football. This is spiderfan out.
