Post by spiderfan on Dec 12, 2022 20:32:32 GMT -8
Hello there, Sports Coast to Coast, Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst here, coming to you with the Week 14 edition of Red Hot Gridiron. Without further ado, let us begin!
The Thursday Night Miracle
I always say at the end of each week to remember that football is the greatest game in the world. Never was that personal belief more validated than on Thursday Night Football. Keep in mind that I'm not a Raiders fan nor a fan of the Rams. In fact due to my mutual fandom of the Seahawks and Chiefs, I don't have much reason to have a rooting interest for the Raiders or Rams in a game they participate in. Going into this week the prospect of the lowly Rams going against the not tanking yet bad Raiders was not exciting. Why would there be reason to be excited? The Rams are without their various stars (Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Aaron Donald) and the Raiders are in "bad team that wins a bunch of late season games to pump up their win total and reduce their draft stock and still not make the playoffs" mode. On Tuesday, there became reason to be excited.
Enter Baker Mayfield, the former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick. After being cast aside by the team that drafted him the Cleveland Browns in favor for Deshaun Watson, Mayfield ended up being traded to the Carolina Panthers. Mayfield's Panthers tenure was basically disastrous. Mayfield played poorly (I even said in Other Thoughts recently that Mayfield was playing his way out of the NFL and into the XFL), HC Matt Rhule was fired (and is now at Nebraska), Mayfield got benched after Rhule's firing, was then demoted to third string, and finally put on waivers after he requested his release. It was a shame to see a player like Mayfield seemingly go to waste. Having watched him play college football at Oklahoma on numerous occasions seeing his NFL career fall on hard times was a bummer. With their QB situation being a mess because of injuries and with Mayfield on wavers, the Rams swooped in and claimed Mayfield. Then with less than 48 hours as a Los Angeles Ram and with usual backup QB John Wolford continuing to suffer from injury, Mayfield became the quarterback of the Rams.
Considering the lack of much practice and much knowledge of the playbook, Mayfield played solid early. In fact the Rams put themselves in position to keep it a one possession game after the Raiders went up 13-3. The Rams did not make it a one possession game as Rams RB Cam Akers fumbled the ball in the red zone. The Raiders then went down the field and tried to make it a three possession game. That plan was foiled when Derek Carr decided to throw a downright terrible pass in the red zone. The game stayed at 13-3.
As the second half progressed it was clear that as intriguing as it was to see someone play quarterback with about as fresh off the waiver wire as possible, the Raiders were in control. The Rams offense started to sputter and it felt like eventually the Raiders would put the game away. The Rams did not help their cause when for the second time they came away from the red zone with no points, this time late in the 3rd quarter after multiple penalties. The Raiders would go up 16-3 on the next series. It all came crumbling down for the Raiders after that.
The Rams went on a LONG 17 play 9 minute drive, a drive that was aided by not one, but two Raiders penalties that resulted in first downs for the Rams. The Rams ended up getting it done and finally capitalized on a trip to the red zone with a touchdown. Raiders lead 16-10. Not only did the Raiders have the lead, but because the Rams drive was so long, there was only 3:15 left to in the game, and the Rams had only one timeout remaining. Despite the late game heroics of the Rams offense, the Raiders offense was in clear position to chew the rest of the clock out.... which they did not. The Rams defense forced a Raiders three and out, a three and out which became a three and out after Josh McDaniels decided to not go for it on 4th and 1. Even though the Raiders would have won the game outright had they converted the 4th down, I still think it was a smart decision to punt the ball considering the Raiders were at their own 34 yard line. If they didn't get it, the Rams would be in excellent position to win the game.
Speaking of excellent, the punt by Raiders punter AJ Cole was excellent. The Rams ended up at the 2 yard line with no timeouts left and less than 2 minutes to go. A couple plays into the drive it looked like Raiders had secured victory when Mayfield threw what appeared to the game losing interception... except there was defensive pass interference on the play meaning that not only was the interception called back, but the Rams gained much needed yardage. Then on the very next play Mayfield was sacked, which not only caused a 9 yard loss, but kept the clock running... except there was an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty because Raiders DT Jerry Tillery made the decision to knock the ball out of Mayfield's hands when Mayfield tried to get the ball to the ref for a spike. Again, not only was the sack called back, but the Rams gained much needed yardage.
From there Mayfield came in clutch with great throw after great throw. Despite the lack of Cooper Kupp the Rams receiving game was on point with Ben Skowronek making play after play for the Rams. And then it happened. With 15 seconds left Mayfield went back to pass and hit Van Jefferson in stride for the game winning touchdown pass. If there was ever a feel good epic NFL Films moment it was that play and the subsequent sideline reaction to it. The Rams were as joyous as they have been all season. The 3-9 record, the losing streak, the deficit, none of that mattered. What mattered was that they had won a game in primetime despite all odds. The Raiders sideline was a mixture of disbelief and pure sadness that is only seen when a team suffers a defeat of this magnitude. The playoff hunt, the win streak, the lead, all of that mattered. Their season which after a humiliating start had finally shown some optimism, had fallen back to stark reality of being a likely losing one.
Barring something unforeseen this is my pick for the game of the year bar none. Sure there have been plenty of close games and sure Tom Brady led an epic comeback in primetime himself last week on Monday Night Football, but this game takes the cake. Reminder: Baker Mayfield just came off of being put on the waiver wire less than 2 days before playing against the Raiders. For him to led his team to a comeback victory? Improbable. But that is why they play the games. In fact, it is games like this why I love football especially, NFL football. The competitiveness, the drama, the characters, the emotion, all of it is great.
Kudos to the Rams for not quitting and keeping up the good fight despite their record and kudos to Sean McVay for believing in Baker Mayfield and putting him in position to succeed despite the circumstances. You don't see coaches do that for their players nearly as much as they should.
Other thoughts:
-The Vikings are odd in that in every single game that they've won, they have been competitive. In every loss, they really haven't been competitive. They seem to prefer big losses to small ones.
-Weird stat of the week: Mitch Trubisky threw more INTs in the loss against the Ravens (3) than the final point differential (2)
-Early season losses matter. Just look at the Bengals. 3 of their 4 losses were early in the season and were last second losses. If even one of those had been a win, the Bengals would staring down the real possibility of home field advantage in the AFC playoffs.
-Even with Josh Allen getting out of his slump, without Von Miller, I don't see the Bills making a deep playoff run.
-One day the Texans shall be good again. Once they finally rid of themselves of last ex-Patriots employee in their midst (GM Nick Caserio who got there because of Jack Easterby who was there because of Bill O'Brien who was the one who wanted Caserio originally), they can start from the ground up and build something truly sustainable. I look forward to that day.
-The Tinys deserve credit. You can't shrink if you never grew a lead or were never in a good position to win the game.
-At this rate the Eagles are not only going to go to the Super Bowl, they'll be the favorites to win it.
-The Jaguars are very good at getting impressive wins that won't amount to anything more than giving someone else a loss on their record.
-When you spot a team 17 points to start with like the Seahawks did against the Panthers, or you spot a team 27 points to start with like the Broncos did against the Chiefs, even with a valiant comeback effort you aren't likely to win. Hence why the Seahawks and Broncos lost.
-I can't figure the Buccaneers out. One week it seems like they are going to be Super Bowl contenders, the next week they look like they aren't making the playoffs. My "the Buccaneers are turning a corner" take hasn't aged great.
-OOOOOOOOO The Chargers won a primetime game so now I'm supposed to think that they are great and Justin Herbert is a top quarterback. As long time readers know I reject that narrative and will continue to reject it until I think it is a valid narrative.
-The Patriots look like they are on a similar trajectory to last season. Find a way to make the playoffs and then get blown out in the first round as a wild card.
And with all of that said that is it for this week's edition of Red Hot Gridiron. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya again next week. No teams have a bye left in the season, so the final race is on. Just one of the things that makes football the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
