Post by spiderfan on Jan 22, 2023 22:15:48 GMT -8
Aloha SCtoC, it is I, Spiderfan, the official analyst of the National Football League for this great forum, coming to you with the Divisional Round Edition of Red Hot Gridiron. We have plenty to talk about, so without further ado, let us begin!
An Unsurprising Outcome
Chiefs games can be bizarre viewing experiences. For those that aren't fans of the Chiefs and/or happen to watch them on a regular basis, I'll explain. With rare exceptions that end up being nationally televised, most times the Chiefs are playing a team that are inferior to them. In college football, such a thing would result in a team running over their schedule, something that Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence was used to in his time at Clemson for example. Because of the NFL's "all teams basically have the same level of physicality" truism, rarely do teams completely dominate their competition, even if they come out with the win in the end.
What the Chiefs do is end up playing their competition quasi-close, meaning that while they rarely blow their opponents out, their opponents rarely win, with games that aren't blowouts feeling like inevitable Chiefs victories. You can give pieces of credit pie to numerous people for this causing this phenomenon any number of different ways. Chiefs GM Brett Veach for assembling a quality roster, Chiefs HC Andy Reid for being a good coach, and/or Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes being the GORN (Greatest of Right Now). However you dish the pie out, one thing is certain, the Jaguars got no pie.
See despite Mahomes suffering an ankle injury which took him out of the game for a period of time, the Jaguars were never really able to put themselves to win the game. I attest this to the Jaguars offense being a year or two away from being where it needs to be seriously compete in the AFC. Despite, the insane amount of money he got due to the glories of the "bad teams generally have a ton of cap space" truism, Jaguars WR Christian Kirk is not a #1 WR. Add on that Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence is 3 months removed from looking like a bust, and you end up with a quarterback who is still developing into the "generational talent" that he was supposed to be. The Jaguars defense certainly has promise, but it isn't the Sacksonville defense of yesteryear.
Ultimately though, the Jaguars know they were just lucky to be even position to be playing a Divisional Round playoff game anyway, and they'll the make the necessary adjustments to be a better team next year... maybe.
The Dominance of the Philadelphia Eagles Should Not Be Underestimated
I won't use this segment to beat up on the Giants, because I didn't think they were going to win the game, and they were so clearly overmatched from the get-go any idea that they shrank would be mean spirited. They got their winning record, playoff spot, and upset playoff victory, which is WAY more than I thought was possible for them, so instead I'll look forward.
I know I'll be accused of homerism (an accusation that I throw at others on a regular basis) for saying this, but this is my column and this is what I think: With the possible exception of the Kansas City Chiefs, I don't think anyone is beating the Eagles.
The Bengals have backup lineman and while they dominated a Bills defensive line that apparently is a joke, I see a Bengals-Eagles Super Bowl looking VERY similar to the Bengals-Rams Super Bowl last year in that the Bengals offense will keep the game close, but in the end because the Eagles defensive line kicks butts and takes names, the Eagles would come out with the victory. The 49ers have been a cute story with Brock Purdy, but again the Eagles defense is the best that Purdy will have faced, and the Eagles offense will the best offense that the 49ers defense has faced. Based on past history, I don't see the 49ers figuring out some miracle scheme to win the game, therefore ending their magic carpet ride and ending up in an Eagles win.
I say the Chiefs are the possible exception because Patrick Mahomes is SO good and can do things that no other quarterback can, that he'll find ways to make some plays on the offensive side of the ball and put up points. Whether it will be enough points or whether the Chiefs defense can stop the Eagles offense is totally up in the air. Despite my homerism, I think the Eagles should be and deserve to be the Super Bowl favorites. I know I've said that before, but especially after Saturday, it deserves repeating.
Snowed Out
The Buffalo Bills front office and coaching staff would never admit it publicly, and may not even admit privately due to fear of leaks of publicly, but I would bet that they wish they lost to Miami in the Wild Card Round. For as much as an upset would have shocked the football world, the Bills could have spun the loss by saying things like "We were looking ahead when we shouldn't have" and/or "We were still reeling from what happened to Damar Hamiln". After the 17 point loss to the Bengals? The Bills organization is going to have to take a hard look at things, because they are not as close to a Super Bowl championship, heck Super Bowl appearance, as people thought they were.
Don't let the 17 point difference fool you, the game was far less competitive than that. From the offensive and defensive series you could tell the Cincinnati Bengals were the better team. To give the Bills credit they managed to chew a bunch of clock in the 2nd quarter and gave the brief perception that the game was competitive if you just looked at the scoreboard, but if you watched the game from start to finish, that scoreboard did not fool you.
Call it a hot take all you want, but at this point the idea of Bills DC Leslie Frazier becoming a HC is laughable to me. I don't have any idea what kind of scheme Frazier was running, but it looked like every defensive play call was prevent defense. Whatever the scheme was, the Bengals offense cut through it like one of those old 4000 degree knife videos, with Bengals QB Joe Burrow being the heated up knife. Speaking of defensive coordinator HC candidates, I completely agree with CBS analyst Tony Romo that Bengals DC Lou Anarumo should be a head coaching candidate. With the way he's got his guys playing, the fact that Anarumo isn't a name thrown around is odd.
Bills QB Josh Allen played like a parody of himself at times, escaping the pocket only to be sacked or get away from the pressure and then overthrow his receivers. To be fair there were some drops here and there, but that also happened with the Bengals and look how they turned out.
My final thought on the game is this: how awesome of a viewing experience it was for the game to be a snow game? Personally, I think it made the game far more fun to watch that it would have been otherwise if there had not been snow, although I guess you could say that about most games couldn't ya?
The Cowboys' Streak Continues!
In a low scoring defensive slugfest the last thing you can is have turnovers and commit stupid penalties. So what did the Cowboys do? Have turnovers and commit stupid penalties! The whole broadcast was filled with discussion by Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen about this game being big for Cowboys QB Dak Prescott's legacy. Well, after having arguably the best game of his career against the Buccaneers, Prescott had a dud. The DFW sports media and national sports media complex will try to make excuses about how if Cowboys RB Tony Pollard hadn't got hurt, the Cowboys would have won or if Cowboys K Brett Maher hadn't sucked against the Buccaneers, the Cowboys would have run their offense differently they would have won. I'm cutting through that bologna like Joe Burreaux cut through the Bills defense.
The first interception Dak threw ended with the 49ers putting 3 points on the board and could have ended up with the 49ers scoring 7 because the 49ers started near the red zone. The second interception threw was in the red zone, thus keeping from the Cowboys from scoring any points. The 49ers would then take the ball and score 3 more points. Near the end of the game, Dak almost threw a pick six which wasn't a pick six only because 49ers LB Dre Greenlaw dropped the ball. Dak then missed an open Michael Gallup downfield the next play, clearly reeling from the fact the previous play was almost a pick six.
Dak and the Cowboys offense as a whole weren't helped by an awful red zone series by the Cowboys defense where seconds after it looked like they had forced the 49ers to a FG, it turned out there was defensive holding and then after that defensive holding penalty there was another defensive holding penalty. Instead of 3 points, the 49ers scored 7, got the lead and never gave it up. To be fair, the Cowboys and 49ers traded FGs after that, so you can argue that series didn't decide the game. If you decide that to use that argument, it actually increases the amount of blame for Dak because it means that the Cowboys offense had more opportunities to win the game after the 49ers TD that the Cowboys didn't capitalize on.
Regardless, there won't be many big changes for the Cowboys. Dak won't get traded. Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy won't get fired. Cowboys OC Kellen Moore won't get fired. Cowboys DC Dan Quinn may end up being a HC, although I could easily see a scenario where he doesn't get a HC job, put the situation is spun as "Quinn decided to stay with the Cowboys".
Congratulations Cowboys! You have now made it 28 years without making the NFC Championship Game!
And with all that said, that is all for this week's edition of Red Hot Gridiron. As always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya for the Conference Championship games! Remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
