Post by spiderfan on Nov 27, 2023 23:55:36 GMT -8
Happy Days After Thanksgiving SCtoC, Spiderfan, your official NFL analyst here, bringing you a post Thanksgiving dish... metaphorically speaking. So without further ado, let us begin!
Caleb Williams to Patriots?
The Carolina Panthers suck right now. They suck so much that they've fired their coach Frank Reich 11 games into his tenure as coach. It's the worst they've sucked since before Cam Newton arrived, except unlike before Cam Newton arrived, their suckage will not be rewarded with the #1 pick as they traded up to get the #1 pick last year with the Chicago Bears. The Arizona Cardinals also suck right now, although they've been scrappy and the eye test says they aren't as bad as their record indicates. The Chicago Bears suck right now, although they feel even worse than their record indicates because of multiple humiliating blown leads. If it weren't for those, to say the Bears suck would be kind of a hot take.
I say all that to say that objectively, Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and New York Football Tinys was never going to solely decide who gets the #1 pick in 2023 NFL Draft and likely pick quarterback of the USC Trojans (and former quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners) Caleb Williams. What I can say is that subjectively, most everyone in the chat on NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube late in the game (including myself), were talking as if it did. I think this because in large part you can make the argument that the other sucky teams have QBs to build around. Bryce Young was the #1 pick last year, Kyler Murray was the #1 pick once upon a time and got a big contract extension, Justin Fields has never played on a good team, yet has continued to show flashes of brilliance into this season. You can't say that about the Tinys or Patriots.
The Tinys have a starting QB in Daniel Jones whose shining moment was having an impressive playoff performance which convinced Tinys management to give him a fat contract that he didn't really deserve when you looked at his body of work, who then regressed to the mean and now that he has out for the season with injury has likely played his last game in a Tinys uniform. They have a backup QB in Tommy DeVito, who I have no doubt will end up in the XFL at some point in the next few years and be one those guys that the announcers go "you might remember this guy played some games in the NFL at one point".
The Patriots have a starting QB in Mac Jones who they should have traded to the Raiders while they could still could have gotten value for him from somebody and a backup QB in Bailey Zappe who probably should have been made permanent starter at some point last season, but wasn't for some reason that Bill Belichick will never explain because he thinks explaining that will cause the team to become victims of some type of Michigan Wolverine type advance scouting by other teams, which is ironic because 1.) The Patriots aren't winning so not explaining anything isn't helping their cause and 2.) Has caused the Boston sports media complex to actively want to sink Bill Belichick as HC and football czar of the Patriots.
Do they have other roster holes? Yes. Could both the Patriots or Tinys stand to have Caleb Williams? Absolutely. But as the title of this segment indicates, it will not be the Tinys in all likelihood that get Caleb Williams. It is far more likely to be the Patriots.
The Patriots have scored 3 touchdowns in the last 3 games and 2 of those came in the same game against the Commanders, meaning that in the last 2 games, the Patriots have scored 1 touchdown. Keep in mind that in the last 2 games a quarterback change was made midgame to try to spark the offense. That didn't work in Frankfurt against the Colts, but it actually... sorta did against the Tinys. Upon Mac Jones being removed, Bailey Zappe did lead a TD to tie the game at 7. I do want to mention that the touchdown that the Tinys scored was on a short field that resulted from an inside FG range INT by Mac Jones. I say that putting Zappe in the game sorta worked is because after leading the Patriots to that aforementioned tying touchdown, he produced no points afterwards. In fact, he had an interception thrown into triple coverage that is worst interception I've seen all year.
But despite the Patriots terrible QB play, they were still in the game into the final minutes because of their defense.. and the Tinys offensive ineptitude take your pick which had more impact on the game. That was when Bill Belichick with just under two minutes left and two timeouts left past midfield and with a horrible record decided to not try to play for the go-ahead touchdown, but instead decided to play for the tying FG. Now, an argument can be made that was the prudent thing to do considering the poor QB play. I'll make the argument that since the goal of a football game is to win it and not tie it, which is what probably would have happened if the game had continued into overtime, you should take advantage of the field position and the timeouts and the amount of clock and the small deficit to win the game. Here's the other thing, when you play for a field goal, especially in the position that the Patriots were in, the kicker better make the kick or you are going to look even more stupid than you already look mismanaging the situation. Patriots owner Robert Kraft won't do it, but if there was ever a moment to cap off a game, to bring about a swift end to Belichick's long standing career with the Patriots, bring about an early beginning to the Jerod Mayo era, and be a moment that Patriots fans forever remember as the moment that the dream of Caleb Williams playing in a Patriots uniform began to become a reality it would be this one:
I literally laughed out loud and clapped when Ryland missed the field goal. It was the perfect ending to that game. All I can say now is, good luck Caleb!
The Two #1 Seeds
As of the writing of this column the Baltimore Ravens sitting at 9-3 are the #1 seed in the AFC and the Philadelphia Eagles are sitting at 10-1 and are the #1 seed in the NFC. I think it is interesting that these two teams specifically lead their respective conferences as at least to my eye, they are similar teams. Both have mobile QBs, whose dual threat ability has been a major asset to their offenses. Both teams are big on running the football and winning at the line of scrimmage. Both teams have very good defenses. And most interesting to me is that both teams have gotten to where they are at despite not being entirely dominant during their games. As I mentioned last week, the Eagles are not as dominant statistically as they were last season, yet they continue to find ways to win. The Ravens have had dominant performances this year for sure, but they've also had multiple blown leads and unimpressive performances.
Originally, I was intending to write this segment (how many times have I begun a sentence with that statement over the years?) on the Ravens' dominance over the Chargers and how it showed me that the Ravens are a legit contender who needs to be taken seriously... until they barely beat the Chargers, this on the same day that the Eagles barely beat the inconsistent Bills. Which made me think about the above aforementioned similarities between the Eagles and Ravens as a whole. If they end up meeting in the Super Bowl, which is not an unrealistic idea, it would be a great game because I think they would be evenly matched.
Other Thoughts:
-The Lions played a horrible game and still managed to be within 7 points. The Lions will come out better after looking at the mistakes they made and the Packers will just be happy to take the win.
-Cowboys blowing out a bad team? OOOOOOOO Impressive! (not)
-The Seahawks' game against the 49ers made me thankful to have experienced prime Russell Wilson. He made that offense do wonderful things that it is not going to do until they get someone like prime Russell Wilson.
-The Dolphins pick six on the Jets Hail Mary at the end of the 1st half was one of, if not the most unbelievable play I've seen this year. It was also a reminder that it sucks to be the Jets, something their fans say more than non-Jets fans!
-And not having Joe Burrow has now cost the Bengals one of their seven remaining games on the season. I'm curious to see just how many more it costs them.
-Sure, the Steelers offensive statistics improved, which is good for them, but the game was against the Burrow-less Bengals, so I'm waiting until they play a better team or at least put more points on the board before I jump on the Steelers hype train.
-All it took was the Jaguars firing Urban Meyer a couple years ago during his first season for it to become acceptable to fire coaches during their first season. It has happened in the other 3 major sports plenty of times, but the NFL wasn't about that. Now it is. Not a trend I'm a fan of personally.
-This part of the season is where the rubber meets the road for the Texans. Were they just a lucky upstart to start the season that folds once the games matter more or are they going to rise to the occasion and show the football world that they are going to become a force to be reckoned with in the AFC? That is what these last 6 games will show.
-The NFC South winner is going be 8-9 again aren't they?
-The most impressive performance this week to me is the Rams dominant win over the Cardinals. I expected the game to be a lot closer than that and boy was I wrong. It will be tricky for them to make the playoffs, but at this point I'm not going to sleep on the Rams any longer.
-Aw great. Now I gotta hear even more from everyone in the national sports media complex talk about how great Sean Payton is and how Russell Wilson isn't washed up, etc. Sigh.
-That is the best that Chiefs have looked all season. If they sustain that level of play, they are going to re-enter themselves into the Super Bowl conversation for me. I need to some more games like that before I become fully bought into the Super Bowl hopes again.
-I really admire the way Antonio Pierce has the Raiders playing right now. Their .500 in his tenure up to this point, but their effort is definitely 1.000
-Last week my "Josh Dobbs' Linsanity run is over" take certainly was a hot take. After throwing 4 INTs and losing to the Bears, I think it is safe to say I was vindicated and it was not a hot take after all.
And all this for week's Red Hot Gridiron. 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.