Post by spiderfan on Oct 16, 2023 19:45:05 GMT -8
Welcome SCtoC to Red Hot Gridiron. I'm Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst and with Week 6 of the National Football League season in the books, it is time for me to talk about it. Without further ado, let us begin!
Undefeated No More!
The Road to 0-17 is officially over after Week 6. If you would have told me that prior to Sunday's game action my reaction would have been something akin to:
The San Francisco 49ers were playing the Cleveland Browns minus Deshaun Watson and the Philadelphia Eagles were playing the New York Jets, a team who people, including Jets fans, were trying to figure out how they didn't have a worse than 2-3 record, which is an already an under .500 record. And yet both the 49ers and Eagles lost their respective games to their on paper less than stellar opposition. How? Well, despite both the Browns and Jets offenses being as lackluster as... insert a movie or TV show that you think is lackluster, their defenses are as good as... insert something that you think is really good (Yes, I know did that joke twice in succession, but it is my column, I do it how I want to).
Both 49ers QB Brock Purdy and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts played their worst games as NFL QBs, with Purdy's statline being 12/27 for 125 yards 1 TD 1 INT and Hurts' being 28/45 280 yards 1 TD 3 INTs. You might think I'm bringing up those statlines to point how out how due to uncharacteristicly poor QB play, the 49ers and Eagles lost. I'm not, at least not really. I'm bringing them up to illustrate that both the Browns and Jets defenses respectively forced poor QB play. But teams especially good to great teams have managed to overcome poor QB play and still find ways to put up points in the past. That did not happen on Sunday. The 49ers were kept to 17 points (although admittedly the 49ers ended up being without RB Christian McCaffrey or WR Deebo Samuel, so their lack of offensive production makes sense with that context) and the Eagles were kept to 14 points. You aren't going to win many games when you only put up that many points offensively.
It is kind of a shame too because the 49ers defense kept the Browns to only 19 points and the Eagles defense kept the Jets to 20 points. Those are beatable numbers most of the time, but with the way the Jets and Browns defenses were playing obviously it wasn't good enough and to be 17-0 you have to be perfect.
The Falcons are still the Falcons and the Tinys are still the Tinys
I know I've pointed that before but Sunday REALLY illustrated that point. The Atlanta Falcons had not 1, not 2, but 3 chances down 8 to score a TD and get a 2 point conversion and scored 0 points. Falcons QB Desmond Ridder completely threw the game away with two backbreaking INTs late in the 4th quarter that should get him benched for The Taylor Heinicke Experience but won't because the Falcons have a decent record, the NFC South division title is still within reach, and because the Falcons want to see if Ridder can actually develop into something above a preseason game rep taker, which I'm still skeptical of considering he wasn't all that great in college at Cincinnati to begin with. Everything surrounding the situation is very much like the history of the Atlanta Falcons, adding just another chapter of disappointment to many disappointments.
The Tinys almost avoided being talked about at length due to the simple fact that they were actually competitive in a game they really had no business being competitive in, which to me said more about the Bills than the Tinys, but it was Sunday Night Football and with SNF pretty much always being the centerpiece of a NFL Sunday, Reducto was not going to let the spotlight get away from him
At the end of the first half up 6-0 with no timeouts and only 14 seconds left at the 1 yard line, the decision was made to do a shotgun handoff run play to RB Saquon Barkley. This was stuffed at the line of scrimmage and the rest of the time on the clock went away. Instead of getting at least 3 of the easy points imaginable or scoring a TD, the Tinys came up with 0 points. It was at that moment that I knew they weren't going to win the game, because if they were going to become Giant it was going to be in a moment like that go up 13-0 at half on the road, with the ball to start the second half and really put the Bills on the ropes. They shrank.
They didn't score any points before half and they didn't score any points to start the second half. They did take the lead in the 4th quarter with a FG on a drive that looked like it would result into a TD, until the worst possible play you can call on 3rd and inches, a play action shotgun pass with a questionable at best offensive line, resulted in a 4th and inches, which resulted in Tinys HC Brian Daboll kicking a FG instead of going for it. I want to criticize the decision to not go for it, but considering that the Tinys were actually about to take the lead on the Bills in the 4th quarter, I don't blame him for kicking the FG.
Even after the Bills retook the lead, the Tinys had 2 chances to win the game with a TD, a scenario they could have avoided if they had kicked the FG at the end of the first half, but the Tinys did not score a TD. Ironically since they ended up with 2 chances they actually could have kicked 2 FGs instead and won the game, but they went for it on 4th down on the first chance and didn't convert, so on the last chance they didn't have the option to kick the FG. Incomplete pass on the last play of the game, Bills win. Reducto would be proud.
Drew Lock Should Be The Starter
Geno Smith should be benched and Drew Lock should be put in for the Seahawks. Geno is a statue in the pocket, who's inconsistency results in completely garbage quarters and halves for the Seahawks where they get 3 yards offensively. Lock is at least mobile and has a strong arm that at least in theory looks like can make every throw. That theory should be put to the test because as far as I'm concerned the Seahawks aren't going anywhere with Geno. The last guy you need quarterbacking your team with a below average offensive line is an inconsistent statue and that is what the Sehawks have at the QB position right now.
They won't bench Geno because the Seahawks and the majority of Seahawks fans still get a kick out of Geno being the starting QB in spite of him being in obscurity for a decade and playing in the XFL if it had existed prior to recently. If the Seahawks don't turn it over to Lock, I hope they draft someone good. While I like the idea of Washington Husky (and former Indiana Hoosier) Michael Penix Jr being the next Seahawks QB, he is basically a younger better version of Geno, and what the Seahawks really need is a guy like Oregon Duck (and former Auburn Tiger) Bo Nix who is a duel threat QB. As a Seahawks fan it still stings that the Colts drafted Anthony Richardson, because it sounded like the Seahawks were going to draft him. Oh well, Devin Witherspoon has been good.
Will the Carolina Panthers go 0-17?
Just because the ROAD TO 17-0 is over doesn't mean the ROAD TO 0-17 isn't at full speed. I give the Panthers credit for producing an eye popping 14-0 lead in the first quarter, something which made an otherwise uncompetitive matchup worth following into the second half. Shame for the Panthers that they scored no offense points in the second half, with their only points coming on a pick six that didn't make even the final score more respectable as the Dolphins still won 42-21. One of those games where the final score isn't surprising, but the way in which it came about is.
Other thoughts:
-The Broncos are so bad that the Chiefs completely phoned it in and still won by double digits.
-While I don't wish injuries upon players, I am curious to see what a Year 2 Malik Wills looks like for the Titans in the event that Ryan Tannehill is out for a period of time.
-CJ Stroud may have thrown his first INT as a NFL QB, but the Texans won regardless and that is the only stat that matters in the end.
-Two of the Jaguars 3 wins have now come against the Colts something that is actually kind of a big deal when you consider tiebrakers and the like. The AFC South may come down to Anthony Richardson injuries.
-Full on tanking is happening with the Chicago Bears. Not to say that Justin Fields' injury is necessarily exaggerated, but when you have an injury with "no timetable" of return when if you were winning games there would be one? Yeah the tank is real.
-The Patriots are the worst kind of bad team. They aren't tanking and they aren't in "we suck but we might be good someday" mode. They just flat out suck.
-The Buccaneers are a real Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde kind of team to me. One week they look really good and they other they look pretty bad. They clearly aren't cut out to compete with the upper echelon of the NFC.
-Remember that period when it looked like the Cardinals weren't tanking? That was fun.
-Looks like all the LA based talk shows in sports media complex will have reason to call for Brandon Staley to be fired with the Chargers being under .500 and then they'll talk about how good the Cowboys are! Sigh...
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.
