Post by spiderfan on Nov 7, 2022 19:48:44 GMT -8
Hello, Sports Coast to Coast, it is I, Spiderfan, your official NFL Analyst back with the Week 9 edition of Red Hot Gridiron. We are now officially at the half way point of the NFL season and like usual we have a bunch of things to discuss, so without further ado, let us begin!
Frank Reich Fired
The Colts firing of Reich should be a lesson learned for NFL teams. If at the end of a season, as an owner, you are seriously thinking about firing the head coach and/or general manager, you should fire them. Reich was nearly fired after last season's debacle of not making the playoffs due to poor play by Carson Wentz who was brought to the Colts because of Reich's previous experience with Wentz in Philadelphia. By bringing back Reich just to fire him midseason, you now have a wasted season, something that no NFL team strives to have. It will be an interesting experiment to see if interim HC (and former Colts center) Jeff Saturday who previously was an ESPN talking head and NOT a member of the Colts coaching staff can come in and properly function as a NFL HC.
Thinking more in the long term, at this moment in time the Panthers job is still more attractive because in all likelihood the Panthers are going to have a higher draft pick and have a younger team to build around. The Colts are a team that has a bunch of talent that never amounted to anything, which cracks me up because Colts GM Chris Ballard kept getting media hype for assembling a "talented" team only for said "talented" team to not amount to anything. People can say all they want that Ryan Grigson sucked as a GM for the Colts. At least the Colts team he built managed to go to an AFC Championship Game. Ballard's Colts haven't got close to matching that, so I think he'll be fired next.
The next GM and/or coach will probably have to tear the thing down and start over. I say next GM and/or coach specifically because I still think that Jim Harbaugh leaving Michigan to coach the Colts (who he took to the AFC Championship Game and if not for a dropped Hail Mary to the Super Bowl) is going to happen one of these days.
One Teams Season Changing Win is Another Team's Season Changing Loss
Do you like boring games with lots of three and outs and punts? Do you like games between two teams that are under .500 that shouldn't be relevant but are because of the amount of players that people recognize and the fact that one of the teams plays in a division that sucks eggs like Squidward Tentacles? No? Well too bad, because if you watching NFL football on Sunday more than likely you saw at least some of the Rams-Buccaneers game because it was broadcast nationwide on CBS.
The only truly notable things that happened were as follows: Cooper Kupp having a 70 yard TD catch because Todd Bowles learned nothing from last year's NFC Divisional Round game and decided to all out blitz, leaving arguably the best WR in the NFL wide open AND the final game winning TD drive for the Buccaneers. Everything else was incredibly uncompelling.
Focusing on the other part of the game that was actually compelling, I think the Buccaneers have turned their season around. After struggling all season long and having just a horrible game against the Rams, with 44 seconds left and no timeouts Tom Brady led his team 60 yards for what felt like an easy TD drive. For as bad as the Buccaneers played, the Rams could not put them away, and as fans of the NFL know, not putting away Tom Brady led team can very well lead to a loss. The emotion on the sideline and of the fans in the stands was palpable.
I figured a turnaround would happen at some point as I have repeatedly said in "Other Thoughts", I just didn't know when. I think this win against the Rams is the beginning of a turnaround for the Buccaneers season. Now, saying that a turnaround has started is an admittedly hot take, but frankly I'm willing to go out on a limb and have a hot take because now more than ever I think the Buccaneers are going to win the NFC South and go to the playoffs.
As for the Rams, as I have repeatedly said in "Other Thoughts" they STILL are suffering from the Super Bowl hangover. Unless the Rams go on some crazy winning streak and/or the Seahawks and 49ers both fall apart, I don't see the Rams winning the NFC West. More importantly and realistically because of the quality of the NFC at large, I don't see the Rams making it as a wild card either meaning the 2022 Rams would go down in history as yet another defending champ to miss the playoffs. Maybe Aaron Donald and Sean McVay should have retired.
A Titan Sized Reminder
And now comes the annual Titans win over the Chiefs in the regular season that leads to the Chiefs regrouping and going on a deep postseason run... right?
Just like they do every year the Tennessee Titans gave the Kansas City Chiefs everything they could handle. Similarly to the afternoon CBS game there were long stretches of absolutely nothing happening especially in the second half. As a game it wasn't nearly as boring because 1.) There were a few touchdowns early, so it felt like it wouldn't be low scoring and 2.) There was the impending possibility of an upset (The Titans were 12.5 point underdogs). That upset did not occur. Why?
The difference this year was that even though they were playing pretty poorly, the Chiefs managed to not commit any turnovers and hang around. Despite Malik Willis not playing nearly as bad as his stats say he did, the Titans passing game was a non-starter due to a combination of consistent drops by the Titans WRs and great coverage by the Chiefs secondary. That left the Titans offense having to go through Derrick Henry almost exclusively, which worked against the Texans last week, but didn't ultimately work this week because of the talent discrepancy between the Texans and Chiefs. The Titans did manage to force the game into OT though, so their effort deserves respect.
The game was also a reminder of something: Patrick Mahomes is STILL the GORN (Greatest of Right Now). His ability is truly unmatched in my opinion and even though by season's end he probably won't have the MVP numbers of Hurts or the media hype of Josh Allen or Justin Herbert, he will still be when push comes to shove the best QB in the NFL, at least in my opinion. My bias may be coming out with that take, but I think I'm right so...
Other thoughts:
-I am SO glad I didn't fall in line with the "tHe bIlLs aRe bEtTeR ThAn tHe eAgLeS" narrative that some in the national media have been throwing out there.
-After stealing victory from the jaws of defeat last week, the Falcons were due to steal defeat from the jaws of victory this week. The life of the Dirty Bird is an unlucky one to say the least.
-Do I like that the Vikings are 7-1 and the Seahawks are 6-3? Well I don't really care either way about the Vikings and I do root for the Seahawks so in the latter case I do like that. Along with the Tinys I have to deal with 3 NFC teams that WAY overpaced my preseason prediction. Not to brag, but at least I'll admit that and be transparent as opposed to pretending or hiding I didn't think they would suck.
-AAAAANNNNDDD the Panthers are firmly back in the running for the #1 pick. Them not tanking was fun while it lasted!
-With the Packers losing to the Lions, it is more relevant that ever to repeat my thoughts on the Packers from what was now a few weeks ago "-Wouldn't ya know it, trading your #1 receiver makes your team worse? I would feel kinda bad for Aaron Rodgers, except it is clear from the MASSIVE extension he got that he didn't ultimately care whether the Packers were any good or not."
-Which is a more humiliating loss? Being blown out or choking a three possession lead? Because the Raiders have now experienced both outcomes in consecutive weeks. Personally, the choke is more humiliating because at when you are blown out there isn't a sense of missed opportunity and/or regret that happens. I'm curious to see what others have to say on the topic.
-The Bears have now officially embraced the "team with a bad record that manages to play every game close so they are endearing" label, which is certainly better than being a team with a bad record that manages to get beat badly on a consistent basis.
-When they actually hold on to a lead the Ravens have a case for being the most dominant team in football.
Will The Philadelphia Eagles Go 17-0?
With Philadelphia's baseball team the Phillies going up against Houston's baseball team the Astros, it was fitting that on the same night as Game 5 of the World Series, Philadelphia's football team the Eagles went up against Houston's football team the Texans. While the Phillies lost, the consolation prize was that the Eagles won. Because of the level of talent, NFL games are usually FAR more competitive than in college football overall. I point this out because the Eagles win against the Texans felt like one of those "the high ranked team plays a bad team on the road and the bad team hangs in for a half and then because of talent discrepancy ends up losing in the end" kind of games.
The Eagles now have their best start to a season ever being 8-0. The previous best start? 2004 when the Eagles were 7-0 and eventually went and lost the Super Bowl. Can these Eagles succeed where the '04 team failed? It wouldn't surprise me.
And with all of that said Week 9 of the NFL season is now in the books. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya again next week. We have half a season to go, so buckle up it is gonna be a bumpy and fun ride. That's what makes football the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
