Post by spiderfan on Nov 28, 2022 20:27:42 GMT -8
Greetings and salutations Sports Coast to Coast, Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst here, back with the Week 11 edition of Red Hot Gridiron. Hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving, and without further ado, let us begin!
Crashed Jet
After last week's loss to the Patriots in which the Jets offense put up a staggeringly high three points, Jets QB Zach Wilson was asked if, in his opinion, the offense let the defense down, considering the defense held the Patriots offense to only 3 points. Wilson said no, which caused a massive uproar in New York, which because national sports media is either fully or partially based in New York, meant that Wilson's response got an insane amount coverage. I didn't mention it last week because I thought the uproar would die down. Little did I know that because of the aforementioned New York bias, the uproar would have legs well into the week.
It was a refreshingly honest answer in my opinion, although in football, honesty doesn't always end up being the best policy. Especially when in Wilson's case he's putting up a Jamarcus Russell-esque statline. Openly admitting that you aren't self aware about your own poor play is bound to rub people the wrong way. So, Wilson was benched and replaced by Mike White who's performance last year against the eventual AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals caused a hype flight that crashed into the ground 2 weeks later after a horrible performance against the Bills.
How did White do this year? Well, 315 yards and 3 TDs ain't bad that's for sure. It is worth mentioning that the Jets went up against the "scrappy with a bad record" Bears without Justin Fields, so it isn't as impressive as last year's initially impressive performance. The Jets have to go up against the Vikings and the Bills in the next 2 weeks, so we'll find out if White can put himself in position to replace Wilson long term, or if this is yet another flash in the pan. I tend to think the latter personally, but I could easily be wrong.
Honey, We Shrunk on Thanksgiving!
There are many things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, but when it comes to football, I was thankful to see a team that I have consistently talked about for a half decade return to form. Regular readers know that the early season success of the New York Football Tinys caused me to have self reflection and doubt about my view of them as a franchise. Was I hater? Could I not objectively appreciate their success? Or is my belief that their success is fleeting valid?
To be fair there is still plenty of season to go, but y'know what on Thanksgiving Day, my prior doubt is officially gone. The mascot of Tinys, Reducto himself, returned for the most watched NFL regular season game of all time.
The Tinys started out respectable, getting a 13-7 lead at halftime. Dak Prescott played terrible, leading to me to once again think about what the Cowboys would look like with Cooper Rush as the starting QB. Rush after all, was the one who led the Cowboys to victory against the Tinys on Monday Night Football earlier in the year, a victory that turned out to be Tinys only loss in their first seven games. And the Cowboys scored 3 consecutive TDs to take a 28-13 lead. The Tinys defense collapsed and the Tinys offense couldn't produce points. You could feel the shrinking happening in real time. Sure they scored a garbage time TD to make the score look not as bad, but make mistake about it, the final 28-20 score is misleading.
What made the loss even worse is the Tinys crazy tough schedule ahead. In order: Commanders, Eagles, Commanders, Vikings, Colts, and Eagles. They'd be lucky to come out of that stretch 3-3 and even if they do 10-7 may not be good enough to make the playoffs. You better believe I'm going to have a say a lot about the Tinys down the stretch and that is something I'm thankful for, because this column is always more fun to write when the Tinys are tiny and miniature.
An Airing of Grievances of Sorts
Call it Seahawks fan bias all you want, but I'm sick and tired of the 49ers hype machine. I'm aware that Kyle Shanahan's last name is Shanahan and his dad won Super Bowls back before Trey Lance was born, but c'mon. The 49ers are 7-4 right now. They aren't close in record to the Eagles or Vikings and yet I'm supposed to believe that the 49ers are serious contenders? They have same record as the Tinys for crying out loud. Say what you want about Jimmy G, but Kyle Shanahan has a near Hue Jackson level win percentage without him as their starting QB.
When Jimmy G ends up getting a new contract with a new team whether that be the Jets or Texans or Raiders or Saints and Trey Lance is still adapting to playing in the NFL after playing not even a half dozen games over the last 3 years, there will still people that insist that Shanahan is going to lead the 49ers to a Super Bowl win. He got close and lost once (twice if you count his time as Falcons OC) before and if and if they somehow manage to get back they'll lose again. There won't be some sort of dynasty and there isn't one now. So people should stop acting like there is one.
Other Thoughts:
-The Lions throwing a deep pass on 3rd and 1 instead of running the ball ended up leaving the Bills time to kick a FG. Never leave ANY time for a team like the Bills. ANY.
-Kirk Cousins playing well and leading his team to victory in primetime? I don't care who the opponent, that in and of itself makes me ask if there is anything real in the world anymore?
-Outside of the Georgia Bulldogs, I'm not sure the Texans would beat anyone this point.
-I didn't know roughing the long snapper was a penalty until it decided the Titans-Bengals game in the Bengals favor. Don't let that distract you from Ryan Tannehill once again doing everything in his power to lose the game for the Titans. Those tiger stripes seem to get to him.
-The Seahawks may have suffered a shocking loss that puts them on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff picture, but the Broncos loss means that as of today the Seahawks would have a top 5 pick, so Sunday wasn't a total failure.
-A couple weeks ago I said "-The idea of an NFC South team with an under .500 record was fun while it lasted.". Every NFC South team lost on Sunday. So contrary to what I said a couple weeks ago, the idea of a losing record NFC South champ (which is what I meant to write but I suck) is still on the table soooo...
-I am not a fan of going for the win when it comes to point conversions, but considering the Jaguars were 3-7 you might as well. Worst case scenario, you still suck. Best case scenario, you get an epic win. The Jaguars got the latter so good for them.
-As for the Chargers going for the win that was an insane decision that if failed would have had people calling for Brandon Staley's firing. It worked so now the sports media complex's Chargers hype can come back. That is something I'm not thankful for.
-The Chiefs beating the Rams is my pick "least surprising win" of the week.
-Calling it now and I will either look like a supergenius or a complete moron later: Barring major injury, I will be shocked if the Eagles don't represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
-I'm quite curious to see if Jordan Love can play at a high level. He sure looked like he could in the 4th quarter against the Eagles.
-I know TCU HC Sonny Dykes decided to run out the rest of the clock in a close game against Baylor a couple weeks ago, but such a strategy has no margin for error. The Colts errored and they lost.
And that is all for this week's Red Hot Gridiron. As always I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to see ya again next week. Remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
