Post by spiderfan on Dec 4, 2023 20:54:00 GMT -8
Aloha SCtoC, the official NFL analyst of this great forum Spiderfan here with the Week 13 edition of Red Hot Gridiron. Without further ado, let us begin!
Early Field Goals Set The Stage For Upsets
The main late window game, the rematch of last year's NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles, and Sunday Night Football between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers, had a notable commonality: early field goals leading to the other team having the lead for the rest of the game. This is by no means a rare occurrence during a week of NFL action, but with these games being the biggest games of Sunday back to back, it stuck out much more than it usually would.
The Eagles offense went up and down the field on the 49ers defense in the first quarter, getting into the redzone twice. They only came away with 6 points. This allowed the 49ers to take the lead late into the 2nd quarter and never relinquish it, in what would end up being a blow out win for them. That isn't to say that if the Eagles had gone up 10-0 or 14-0, they would have won the game as the final 42-19 score would indicate that it was the 49ers day anyway. What am I saying is that by not capitalizing on their red zone possessions, the whole dynamic of the game was changed. The 49ers were never forced to be in desperation mode. The Eagles were and clearly that had an impact. Of course, the overarching theme of the whole game was if they would play each other again in the NFC Championship Game for the second year in a row. With the way the seeding is as of the writing this column, I'm skeptical that ends up being the case. A lot can change in 5 weeks though.
As for the Chiefs, their situation against the Packers was a little bit different in that, after the Packers went up 7-0, the Chiefs were stopped in the redzone and were down 7-3, and they never got the lead. The Chiefs-Packers game was much more competitive than the 49ers-Eagles game, coming down to the last play where Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was maybe interfered with (kinda hard to say). What isn't hard to say is that it felt for a lot of the game like it was just the Packers, especially Jordan Love's night. He had some passes that were way above his proverbial paygrade that he made. It kinda felt like a college basketball or college football game where one guy has a hot hand and the higher ranked team is semi to completely helpless. Luckily for the Chiefs, they have Patrick Mahomes who did his best to keep the Chiefs in the game despite being down the whole time and despite officiating that made both teams mad. Mahomes couldn't do it all and the Packers won.
The Chiefs are now a game back over a few different teams for the #1 seed in the AFC and my prediction of a different AFC representative in the Super Bowl looks to be trending to be correct. As with the NFC, a lot can change in 5 weeks so we'll see.
The Game With No Punts
Going into Thursday there had been only five games in the history of the NFL where neither team had punted the whole game. Seahawks-Cowboys was the sixth. If there was ever a game that simultaneously debunked AND confirmed both my view that Geno Smith should be benched AND that Dak Prescott is overrated it was this game.
The fact that Dak Prescott found himself in a mano a mano matchup with Geno Smith of all quarterbacks shows the class that Dak probably belongs to be viewed in. At the same time, he for nearly 300 yards had three TD passes and led the Cowboys to 41 points, certainly nothing to scoff at. The fact that Geno Smith had nearly 350 yards passing and three TD passes against a vaunted Cowboys defense, especially their secondary, shows that Geno has talent at the position. His interception and his overthrows and his missed passes that cost the Seahawks the game, show that before drafting someone next year they should give Drew Lock a shot to see if he can be the one to take the Seahawks to the next level.
I'm happy that Geno had his one decent year in an otherwise forgettable career as a backup to cash in a big payday. Journeyman backup types rarely get that. I'll be more happy when he isn't quarterbacking my NFC team of choice of many years.
Bad.
The New England Patriots defense in the last three games has allowed only two touchdowns. That is a genuinely impressive feat that would usually result a three-game winning streak, or maybe two out of three if there is a game where they had some bad luck on special teams. The Patriots offense has only scored one touchdown in the last two games and only two field goals both of which came in the same game against the Colts.
In that same three-game stretch the AFC East rival New York Jets, whose offensive ineptitude has been notable, has scored two touchdowns (and two field goals that came against the Falcons). The Patriots are actually worse offensively than the Jets. It shouldn't be possible, yet the stats don't lie.
If the Patriots wanted to they could put in dual threat Malik Cunningham who played great in the preseason, and maybe fire Bill Belichick for all that matter, to scrounge some wins together. They aren't going to do that, which leads me to believe that they are tanking. Is this a tank of which Belichick the beneficiary? Or, is this is an ownership style tank where Bob Kraft realizes that any changes for the better now would result in a worse draft pick so, therefore, those changes are not made, I have no idea.
Other thoughts:
-Whether or not the Colts make the playoffs, the fact that they didn't bottom out and tank after Anthony Richardson got hurt is admirable. They have a bright future ahead.
-I didn't know that Trevor Siemian was still in the NFL, let alone playing for the Jets.
-When spot a team 21 points early, you have put yourself in a situation where it is very likely you are going to lose. The Saints put themselves in that position and lost despite a valiant comeback effort.
-The Texans had opportunities to blow out the Broncos early and missed out which resulted in the Broncos hanging around. In the past this would have cost a team, in this case the Texans, against Russell Wilson. Except he isn't the same guy that he was, despite all of Sean Payton and his media friends efforts to try to make it so.
-The Cardinals active efforts to play hard and not tank are finally rewarded. Nice to see!
-I would take a victory lap in my "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." take, except Kenny Pickett got hurt so the jury is still out on the Steelers offense in my opinion.
-Ron Rivera fired DC Jack Del Rio after the Commanders gave up 45 points to the Cowboys and took over defensive play calling duties... only to give up 45 points. Maybe Del Rio wasn't the problem?
-The firing of Frank Reich clearly resulted in an uptick for the Panthers, at least from an offensive standpoint as the 18 points they scored was the most they've scored since their Week 6 game against the Dolphins where they scored 21.
-The Rams are a dangerous team. They have talented youth, they have veterans who have won a championship, and they have arguably the best head coach in the NFL today. They have the potential to make a run and throw off somebody's Super Bowl aspirations.
-A Bengals playoff run now in the mix? Too early to say, but their win against the Jaguars was impressive to say the least.
And that is all for the Week 13 edition of Red Hot Gridiron and as always I hope ya enjoyed and hope to see ya again next week. This is spiderfan out.