Post by spiderfan on Nov 14, 2022 20:33:53 GMT -8
Hallo Sports Coast to Coast, it is I, Spiderfan, your official NFL Analyst back with yet another edition of Red Hot Gridiron, this time about Week 10 of the National Football League season. We have a whole lot to talk about this week, so without further ado, let us begin!
American Football in Deutschland
On Sunday, the first ever NFL regular season game played in Germany was held in Munich between the Tommy Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks. The lack of a prior regular season game played in Germany surprised me, because for those of you who know your non-NFL league history, the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe were the most popular team in NFL Europe. I'm all about spreading the greatness of football to other parts of the world, so as a NFL analyst (and Seahawks fan), being witness to history was something to be excited about.
The game itself vindicated my insistence last week that the Buccaneers had begun a turnaround was entirely accurate as the Buccaneers played their best game of the season. The Buccaneers defense held the Seahawks to only 3 points for the first 3 quarters, and the Buccaneers offense had its best running performance all year. This of course allowed for Brady to not get hit as much as well as an increase in the amount of play action passes, which left the Seahawks defense on its heels.
The Seahawks offense scored a couple of garbage time TDs late, which even though they were garbage time TDs, were still impressive looking. If only they had managed to have those earlier in the game, they wouldn't have been garbage time TDs. Obvious, I know, but I am the type of football pundit to make obvious observations as long time readers know.
Considering coming into the game the Seahawks were one of the better teams in the NFC and considering the fashion in which the Buccaneers defeated the Seahawks, my ultimate takeaway is that the rest of the football world should watch out because the Super Bowl contender Buccaneers are back.
Squidward, You're Choking!
The Buffalo Bills have a history of famous chokes. Whether it be Super Bowl XXV or the Music City Miracle or Week 17 of 2004, the Bills have fallen short in spectacular fashion before. Their opponent the Minnesota Vikings have even MORE examples of famous chokes whether it be the original Hail Mary or the 1987 NFC Championship Game or the 1998 NFC Championship Game or Week 17 of 2003 or the 2009 NFC Championship Game. With that being established the question becomes what happens when you have those 2 franchises play in a marquee game? You have a choke bowl where both teams are determined to lose!
It didn't start out that way, in fact the Bills had a 17 point lead in the second half. Then the Vikings chipped away until eventually they put themselves in position to win the game with a TD. Vikings WR Justin Jefferson made an epic catch on 4th and 18 to keep the final(?) drive alive. The Vikings got all the way down to the 1 yard line and after Vikings QB Kirk Cousins failed to see a wide open running lane for himself, instead throwing a bad pass, it was 4th and Goal. A QB sneak was attempted and it FAILED! With no timeouts left the game was over... or so I thought since I changed the channel.
As I found out a minute later, Bills QB Josh Allen fumbled the ball inside the end zone on a QB sneak trying to run the rest of the clock out, resulting in a Vikings touchdown. With only one timeout and less than 40 seconds it looked the Vikings had somehow someway found a way to win a game that they were seconds away from losing... and then the Bills managed to get into FG range (in part thanks to a controversial no review catch) and forced overtime.
The Vikings won the toss and drove right down the field into the red zone and failed to capitalize on said red zone possession. Instead of scoring the game winning TD (for the third time no less), the Vikings kicked a FG. I thought the Bills would go right down the field and score a TD to win the game. I got the first part right. They went right down the field and because this was a choke bowl, the Bills were the ones to choke. Specifically, Josh Allen who threw a horrendous game losing interception.
Joe Davis, the play-by-play guy for Fox calling the game, said that the game was the game of the year. I disagree primarily due to the aforementioned fact that it was a choke bowl. When both teams are doing everything they can to lose, is it really a good game? I certainly don't think so. I'm curious to see what other people's thoughts are on the question.
What Makes Kellen Moore Special?
That would be the question I would ask the Jones'. There are hundreds of young offensive coaches when you consider the NFL, FBS, and even FCS level. I refuse to believe they can't find someone better than Kellen Moore to be the offensive player of the Dallas Cowboys. There is zero chance he gets fired after the Packers game, which is absurd when you consider this factoid: The Cowboys had NEVER in their over 60+ years of existence EVER blown a 14 point or more lead in the 4th quarter of a game. That is a mind blowing stat when you consider how many games there have been in the last 60+ years.
Of the last 24 offensive plays for the Cowboys which is every play after the Packers responded to the Cowboys TD that made it a 14 point game with a TD of their own to make it a 7 point game, all the way to overtime, Moore called 14 passes. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott threw 46 passes in the whole game. Meaning that over 25% of his passes came when the goal should have been to chew the clock out and NOT pump up Dak's stats. This is especially egregious when you consider that Cowboys RB Tony Pollard was averaging over 5 yards a carry. The final set of downs in overtime were 3rd and 4 and then 4th and 4. Neither play call was a run. Both passes were incomplete. The Packers took advantage and won the game a few plays later on a field goal.
Here's another notable statistic coming out of the Cowboys loss to the Packers (I know I'm bombarding you with stats, but that is the way this segment has gone) Dak Prescott has a 2-2 record as a starter this season. Cooper Rush's record had a 4-1 record. Make of that what you will.
The Philadelphia Eagles Will Not Go 17-0
Because of bad officiating plain and simple. I would be the first to give credit to Taylor Heinicke or break down the Eagles loss in terms of how they failed to play up to their standards. Forget that noise.
The Eagles should have gotten the ball back one more time plain and simple. They didn't because on 3rd and long, after Taylor Heinicke decided to take a knee after running around in the backfield, an unnecessary roughness penalty was called despite the fact that he wasn't touched prior to taking said knee. Not only that, but both Eagles defenders were going for the sack at the same time Heinicke took the knee, meaning that any idea of a "late hit" is totally bogus. The Commanders got a first down and ran the rest of the clock out.
It sucks when a competitive contest is decided not by the players on the field, but the officials. It makes the sport worse when after a game, you feel gross after watching it, and that is exactly how I felt after the game.
Other Thoughts:
-The idea of an NFC South team with an under .500 record was fun while it lasted.
-Here comes the part of the year where the Lions win a bunch of games and reduce their draft stock! Hopefully for the Lions their winning translates into more winning next season.
-My biggest hot take (at least IMO) coming out this week is this: The Dolphins are better than the Bills. They have a good defense and their offense is much better than Bills is.
-In case you needed a reminder, Russell Wilson wanted the football world to know in the final seconds of the game against the Titans that he is just as washed as he looked earlier in the season.
-Unlike other bad teams, the Texans continue to be in the business of not winning games. Good on them... I guess?!
-The Chiefs could have beat the Jaguars by worse, but Andy Reid felt bad for his old buddy Doug Pederson and in typical Chiefs fashion turned on the cruise control late in the 1st half.
-It's actually kind of weird that a mid-November game between the Saints and Steelers would be entirely irrelevant as not too long ago it would have been must see TV, but here we are.
-I stand by my prediction that Kliff Kingsbury isn't getting fired.
-If the Chargers had been fully healthy, I think they would have won, said a lot of people over a lot of years. Seriously, they need better strength and conditioning coaches.
-It appears that Matt Ryan broke out of the glue factory and has a couple more rides left in him.
-Congratulations to Colts interim HC Jeff Saturday for his first win as a NFL head coach! Considering how McDaniels' tenure as Raiders HC has gone, the Colts lucked out (no pun intended) on not securing his services and eventually ending up with Saturday.
And with all of that said Week 10 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.
Graphic courtesy of David.
