Make Football Football Again

My post football depression has already started to kick in. With one game left in the season, I have 2 weeks to contemplate what my life will look like after football. Mock Drafts? certainly. College Basketball? Of course. College Football is a 24 hour news cycle that keeps me on my toes as well, but it’s not the same without live action. Let’s not bum ourselves out; there were great games this weekend.

Chiefs@Ravens

“Games” was the operative word because this game STUNK. It was a masterclass by both defensive coordinators, but there were points where it was just inept, unwatchable offense. I’m not going to take the cowards way out and say the refs blew this game for the Ravens. The Ravens did that themselves by turning it over on the goal line, throwing into triple coverage when your team’s in field goal range, spotting a salty defense a 10 point lead going into halftime, and completely abandoning the run game. The Ravens have nobody to blame but themselves for this Baltimore Beatdown.

The Chiefs essentially took the Ravens game plan (what we said they needed to do Sunday morning) by playing ball control offense and relying on their excellent special teams to flip field position. They only averaged 2.8 yards per carry on the ground, but the Chiefs were able to run it enough to keep the clock running and used their passing game as an extension of the run game. No turnovers, only 9 incompletions, just 3 penalties, all equated to Kansas City owning the ball for almost 2/3rds of the game and forcing the Ravens to play at a frenetic pace. You have to give them credit for adapting to a style that helps them win.

Officiating Tangent

Again, I’m not blaming officials, but part of what’s driving me crazy about the NFL is the way the game is officiated. You can’t touch a quarterback without him screaming for a flag; if there’s ANY contact whatsoever downfield, it’s automatically on the defense, and there is a discussion between officials after EVERY close play. I don’t sit down to watch a 4 hour telecast to spend half of it watching the stripes debate whether Mahomes’ ego was hurt because a 300 pound defensive tackle running full speed grazed the back of his helmet. I already spend half of it watching damn commercials.

Speed this shit up by giving these guys a guy in the booth for expedited replays/penalties. They’ve already started it with some replays, but let’s just make it that official’s fulltime job to look at replays and communicate with the on field official. Add the responsibility of relaying penalties when flags are thrown on the field or communicating if a quarterback was out of the pocket/receiver in the area on grounding discussions, and let’s get back to football.

Let’s stop treating quarterbacks like they’re completely different than any of the other athletes on the field. I understand the owners want to protect their most precious asset, but it’s not working. 16 starting quarterbacks sat out games this year, so clearly the rules aren’t working the way they intended. You can’t hit them low, you can’t hit them high, so where do you aim if you’re rushing the quarterback? Right through him, but if you fall too hard on him, you’ll get flagged for this as well. It’s impossible.

What happened if the NFL had it’s own January 6th by football fans?…It’d be a real shame…I had to get that off my chest. Let’s get back to football.

Detroit@San Francisco

I had to take a day with you Lions fans to get over this loss. You’ll be able to look back at this team and say “what a run”; hopefully it’s after you guys win a Super Bowl, but in the moment it was heartbreaking. After experiencing misery for your entire life, Lions fans, you can officially say you’ve felt heartbreak.

I’m not going to shit on Dan Campbell for going for it both times when he’s been doing it all year. They don’t have a great kicker, and they’re used to being aggressive. It was also the right playcall on the first 4th down; it hit Josh Reynolds right in the hands and he dropped it. Personally, I would’ve attempted the first field goal to make it a 3 score game with just over 20 minutes to go, but I don’t have the balls Dan Campbell has. If you’re going to shit on him for anything, it’s running the ball on 3rd and goal to completely take yourself out of the game at the end of the 4th quarter. You have to give yourself a chance, and if you’re going to run it, do it on 4th down.

What made this game more heartbreaking was how it transpired. The Lions were the better team for most of the game, and a prayer was answered when a ball deflected off Kindle Vildor’s facemask into the arms of Brandon Aiyuk for the 49ers to make it a 1 score game. Then, on the ensuing possession, Jahmyr Gibbs coughs it up and gives it right back to the Niners in field goal range. In a span of 1 minute of game time, Lions fans got their hearts ripped out of their chest.

Niners fans go ahead and skip to the end of the blog…San Francisco can’t keep getting away with this, right? This is two games in a row where they were severely outplayed by the other team and the opposing offense pissed down their leg. Credit to the defense for being opportunistic, but they’ve gotten bullied at times this postseason and are going against a Chiefs team that has shown they’re willing to run the ball. As a Broncos fan, I’m clearly rooting against KC, but I’m not confident in San Fran.

It’s okay to be excited

I’ve heard so much “I’m NoT eVeN wAtChInG tHiS gAmE….waaaa”. Stop it. Get some help. I have Kansas City fatigue as much as the next guy, but who cares? It’s football and we won’t get it back for 6 months. So use this bye week to dry your tears, put on your big boy/girl pants and enjoy it before it’s all over. Be like T-Swizzle and shake it off.