Post by spiderfan on Oct 3, 2022 19:54:00 GMT -8
Salutations Sports Coast to Coast, it is I, Spiderfan, the official NFL analyst of this great forum, back with yet another edition of Red Hot Gridiron. It was exciting week of football, so without further ado, let us begin!
How To Lose A Game Even You Should Win
Ravens-Bills, the game is tied 20-20 in the 4th quarter after a 17 point rally by the Bills. The Ravens have the ball, are chewing clock, getting first downs, and getting down the field in their usual efficient effective manner. With less than 4 and a half minutes to go, the Ravens are inside the 5 yard line and it is 4th and Goal. Ravens HC John Harbaugh makes the decision to go for it. I absolutely agree with that decision. Not only is it a short yardage situation that should be makeable, once made you have a 7 point lead and worse case scenario, with how little time left there is in regulation the game goes to overtime. If not made, you force the Bills to drive 70 some odd yards to get into FG range and could potentially score a game clinching safety with the right defensive play call. Things could go right or wrong. They went the worst possible way for the Ravens. How? Because not only did the Ravens not make it, Lamar Jackson threw an interception in the end zone which gave the Bills a touchback and 20 yards of field position.
Nonetheless, the Ravens could have gotten a defensive stop and tried to win the game anyway. They did not get a defensive stop. Not only did they not get a defensive stop, the Ravens offense did not see the ball again. Why? Because when the Bills were inside the 10 yard line instead of letting the Bills score and giving their offense a chance to force the game into overtime (or knowing John Harbaugh going for 2 and the win), the Ravens defense did not let the Bills score, thus letting the Bills chew the rest of the game clock out. The Bills would kick a FG and win the game.
The Ravens 2 losses this season have come about because of choking. Suffice it to say if the Ravens want to get where they want to go, they can't be blowing leads like they have been. It is a starting trend for what should be one of the better clubs in the National Football League.
You CAN NOT Turn The Ball Over In High Scoring Games
You'll often hear the football cliche about how when you lose the turnover battle you lose games. Generally, this is true, although if your defense is good enough and/or you have an offense that can bounce back quickly, they can be less impactful than once thought. HOWEVER, that is not the case in high scoring games where the defense exists in a weird limbo state where you know it exists but for all practical purposes it doesn't feel like it. You turn over the ball in that type of game, you are in a BAD way. Case in point the Seahawks-Lions and Chiefs-Buccaneers.
Seahawks-Lions the final score was 41-38. A surprisingly immensely compelling contest between two teams with losing records. Both teams had no problems scoring. The Lions kept blitzing, leaving Seahawks WRs wide open for Geno Smith to hit in stride and the Seahawks defense is clearly lacking the presence of Jamal Adams. The difference in the game? A pick six thrown by Jared Goff at the very beginning of the second half. If not for that, the Lions could very well have won. Because of it, the Lions were in constant catch up mode. I kept waiting for the Seahawks offense to eventually stall out, because as I mentioned in last week's column Geno Smith's play seems have up and down stretches during a game. Not this game. Geno and the Seahawks kept chugging along and came out with the victory.
Chiefs-Buccaneers the final score was 41-31. Not surprisingly a compelling contest between two of the best (if not the two best) quarterbacks in the National Football League. Their respective defensives aren't terrible on paper, and Patrick Mahomes repeatedly said he thought the Bucs defense was a great defense. Turns out the Chiefs offense was even greater. Where that left the Buccaneers offense is needing to score at every possible opportunity to keep up with the Chiefs. They did not. Not only did they not, the Buccaneers turned over the ball, not once, but twice near their own 20 yard line, meaning the Chiefs were given free red zone opportunities which resulted in 14 points. Considering the game ended up in a 10 point difference it is hard to not look at those fumbles and say they did not impact the final outcome. Instead of being 3-1 and leading the NFC South, the Buccaneers have to battle for first place with the Falcons.
Other thoughts:
-I don't have any hot takes on the subject of Tua's concussion situation. I just hope he gets better.
-For a few minutes it looked like Teddy Bridgewater would lead the Dolphins to a unexpected victory and then it turned out that the Dolphins were lead by Teddy Bridgewater and they lost. Being undefeated was fun while it lasted!
-International games are fun. I hope the NFL continues to do more of them all across the world.
-I don't have a dog in the whole Mitchell Trubisky-Kenny Pickett quarterback controversy thing. Having made that clear, I think it is hysterical that Trubisky got benched and the Steelers still lost. Maybe, just maybe Trubisky wasn't the problem after all.
-The Tinys win over the Bears is not impressive in the slightest. The Bears are lucky to have the record they have.
-Yep, the Colts are still bad.
-For once the Chargers didn't a blow a game it looked like they were going to blow. Progress!
-For all the talk about how bad the Falcons would be going into the season, they have been one of the surprising teams in the league thus far. Kudos to Arthur Smith!
-Cooper Rush won't replace Dak Prescott (if for no other reason than because the Jones' don't want to admit it was a mistake giving Dak the contract they gave him). He will end up getting traded and competing, if not outright be given a starting job somewhere next year.
-As someone who is a regular watcher of Big 12 football it was kinda sad to see the Cardinals-Panthers game be as bad as it was. The quarterback play and coaching was not what it was back in the college ranks for Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Kliff Kingsbury, and Matt Rhule respectively.
-Just like I expected, the Raiders are not going 0-17. Congrats to Josh McDaniels for his first win as the head coach of the Raiders, against his former team no less!
-To quote Steven A. Smith: Aaron Rodgers is a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD MAN
-The Rams appear to be in the middle of a Super Bowl hangover.
Will The Philadelphia Eagles Go 17-0?
Bill Parcells once said "You are what your record says you are". Well, if that is the case then the Eagles are the best team in the NFL as of Week 4. They showed some real grit coming back against the Jaguars on Sunday, making sure their old coach Doug Pederson did not get his revenge on the team that fired him. The Eagles offense shows no signs of slowing down and the Eagles defense is an aggressive turnover forcing bunch. There are a lot of games to go, so as of right now, I think it is not a hot take to say the Eagles won't go undefeated. At this point I do think it would be a hot take to say they won't make the playoffs (barring injury).
And with all of that said, Week 4 is now in the books. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya back next week. And remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
