Post by spiderfan on Sept 26, 2022 20:21:37 GMT -8
Aloha Sports Coast to Coast, it is I, Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst, back with yet another edition of Red Hot Gridiron. We have a lot to get to, so without further ado, let us begin!
A Complete Team Loss
One of the things that makes the NFL better than college football (amongst other reasons) is the inherit parity. No one is more physically dominant than the other, which means that teams (at least when mostly healthy) are on an even playing field. What then matters is coaching and the players making the plays (or not) they need to make to win the football game. This explains why a team that looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL through the first 2 weeks of the season can in Week 3 upset one of the best teams in the league. Of course, I'm talking about the Colts upset of the Chiefs.
During the week and even Sunday morning when everyone was talking about the Chiefs would absolutely for sure total lock 100% beat the Colts, in the back of my mind I was like "this is either going to be the easy Chiefs win that is expected or the Colts are going to do what "bad" teams do to good teams, make the game way closer than previously thought, and win the thing." Welp. That's what ended up happening. But for it to happen, the Chiefs had to put themselves in position to lose. For a "good" team like the Chiefs, who normally put themselves in position to win games, there has to be things going array and to say things went array for the Chiefs would be an understatement. They lost in every phase of the game.
Offensively, the Chiefs did not come up with the plays late in the game they needed to make. Travis Kelce dropping a TD that would have put the Chiefs up 11 late in the 4th quarter? Patrick Mahomes throwing an INT when the Chiefs were near FG range to tie with seconds left? Those are game losing plays.
Defensively, the Chiefs gave up a nearly 9 minute drive in the 4th quarter aided by Chris Jones picking the worst possible time to trash talk and become cause of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, after a sack that would have forced the Colts to either punt or attempt a crazy long 4th down. Instead Chris Jones did the aforementioned trash talking, the penalty flag was thrown, the Colts drove down to win the game. A game losing penalty that kept what ended up being a game losing drive alive.
Special teams wise, the Chiefs played horrendously. Skyy Moore messed up on multiple kick returns, one of which led to Colts points, you had a missed extra point, a botched fake FG, and a missed FG that would have made the game a 7 point game, theoretically making it so the game would have been decided in overtime not regulation.
Which leads me to my last point. The Chiefs coaching staff looked like they gave way under the pressure. When you have a head coach and special teams coordinator being giving each other dirty looks and being chippy on the sidelines late in the game, that isn't a good look. An even worse look is when you have a head coach separating your franchise quarterback from an argument with your offensive coordinator at the end of the first half. The rumors about Patrick Mahomes and Eric Bienemy not being fond of one another appear to have validity.
This segment reads and is at least partially pro-Chiefs biased. Here's the thing the Colts didn't play all that great. I'd love to tip my hat to the Colts and say they were totally the better team, but as I watching the game, it didn't feel that way. What ultimately matters though is the scoreboard and on the scoreboard the Colts won. This is a total hot take, but after seeing the sideline interactions, I'm not optimistic about the Chiefs going forward. Will they be outright bad? Probably not. Will they be dominant like they have been? I very much doubt that at this point.
The Battle of Heavyweights!
I can rather quickly sum up the Packers-Buccaneers game. The Packers played great to start out until they fumbled at the goal line which then kept the game from a being a complete blowout, then a whole lot of punts and turnovers happened, the Buccaneers had a classic late game Tom Brady drive, and the Buccaneers failed to convert on a 2 point conversion that would have sent the game to overtime. It was actually a mostly boring game that all in all didn't live to the hype.
What is truly notable in my opinion is that the Packers managed to go on the road and win a low scoring game against a good Bucs team that they have struggled mightily against. In that regard it is an impressive win and one that shows me that this Packers team may very well be different from their teams of the past few years (i.e. great regular season teams, not great playoff teams).
BAH GAWD THAT'S REDUCTO'S MUSIC
I genuinely believed that this Tinys team was different. On Sunday night as I was writing the bulk of this column, I was mentally prepared to write yet another segment discussing how the Tinys had continued to be Giant and (at least for this early part of the season) proved me wrong. Even when things looked dire and the Tinys were down 10 in the 4th quarter, I expected my takeaway to be that it was a respectable loss, and one that they could bounce back from easily. Then the Tinys went down got a FG, made the game a 7 point game. It looked their defense would shrink and then future Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Kellen Moore gave the Tinys a gift by calling the worst possible play you could call when trying to win the game with 2 minutes left and the other team having no timeouts, a play action pass with a receiver well behind the line of scrimmage. Not only was it a 4th down, the clock was stopped giving the Tinys nearly a full 2 minutes to get down the field and tie the game.
I changed the game to the ManningCast wanting to see New York Football Giants legend Eli Manning's reaction what looked to a potentially season defining drive. The Tinys had the momentum, as previously through the first 2 games the team felt different, a team that would succeed in a drive like this... and then our old friend Reducto decided to make his glorious return and shrink MetLife Stadium to a very small size.
Tinys WR David Sills fell down on a wide open route leaving Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs in position to intercept the ball. BUT WAIT it gets even worse than that. Diggs made a diving catch and usually such catches by defensive backs turnout to be incomplete due to the ball hitting the ground prior to possession. As it turned out Diggs had his hands in the just the right position to secure the ball where it wouldn't hit the ground. A one in a million play.
I know it is mean spirited and is overreacting to say the Giants shrunk back to being Tiny after just one game. That would be fair... except such endings are so common for this team that it has been a recurring segment ever since the first year of this column all the way back in 2017. The overreaction was me reversing my preseason stance that this Tinys team would be different than any other Tinys team. The reasoned take is to keep assuming that they will lose in embarrassing fashion and be a sucky team. Welcome back Reducto. Glad to see you again.
Other thoughts:
-The Browns with Jacoby Brissett are certainly overachievers. Shame they'll be held back when Deshaun Watson comes back and is rustier than Mater from Cars.
-About time the Bengals and Panthers finally won a game.
-Mac Jones regressing is what happens when you have two former failed HCs who are first time play callers trying to run an offense. It isn't like the ENTIRE football world saw that coming (sarcasm very much intended).
-Every time the Lions lose a close game, all I can think of is the Bobby Layne curse.
-The Chargers shouldn't have played Justin Herbert. He was hurt and considering his injury decreased the quality of his play, holding him out would not have changed the outcome.
-I feel bad for Davis Mills throwing the interception that set up the game winning FG for the Bears. That's the kind of play that makes a team (in this case the Texans) look at getting a different QB for next year.
-The Cardinals are the up and down team of the season up to this point. They need consistency if they want to get where they want to go.
-Geno Smith is like a lesser version of Ryan Fitzpatrick. He has stretches of producing nothing, then he'll have stretches where he is balling out. The problem is that unlike Fitzpatrick who went up and down through stretches of games, Geno's stretches are within a single game.
-Russell Wilson looked washed right until he had to lead the drive to take the lead in the 4th quarter. It was the first time Russell Wilson looked like Russell Wilson in a LONG time.
Will the Las Vegas Raiders go 0-17?
And here comes the debut of a potentially recurring segment for this column. This would usually be the ROAD TO 0-17, except the only team without a win or a tie remaining is the Raiders, so until they win or tie the segment has the above title. To answer the question the title asks, no, I don't think the Raiders will go 0-17. For as memetastic as such an outcome would be considering Josh McDaniels' long anticipated return to being a head coach, the Raiders have too much talent to be that bad. I get the sense that they'll be the type of team to suck for the first half and then win a bunch of kinda meaningless games down the stretch to keep their draft stock from being high. High draft picks however, will be the subject of another day.
ROAD TO 17-0
Two 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:
Miami Dolphins
Philadelphia Eagles
Butt punt aside, the Dolphins managed to come out of Week 3 as the AFC's only undefeated team with a close win against the Bills. The Eagles had a much easier time becoming the NFC's only undefeated team with their dominant win over the Commanders. My biggest hot take of the season thus far is this: Jalen Hurts will be in the MVP conversation by the end of the year. I won't go out on a limb and say he'll win the MVP, at least not yet, but I very much think Hurts will be in the conversation.
And with all of that said Week 3 of the National Football League season is in the books. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya again next week. Remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
