FMQB

I was 2 months late on my Super Bowl post, and strongly considered hanging up the keyboard after my team won last year. But the magic of football has brought me back for Year 12! If this isn’t too late to start.

Tons to talk about, tons that I’ll have missed, but we’ll do a season recap of Quick Hits, playoff predictions, and memes of the year so far.

Quick Hits:
* Tua was definitely a star this season, but with 2 (likely 3) concussions, questions on his health and durability will likely always be there.
* Mac Jones didn’t take a leap his sophmore year, tough to convince me he’s the long term thing in NE.
* The Jets were a surprise with a hot start. Zach Wilson had a huge postgame blunder that cost him his job, likely moving foward too.
* Mike Tomlin has still not had a losing season in Pittsburgh, just wow
* Jacksonville’s comeback in the AFC south after starting 3-7 should prove no team is out of it that late in the season.
* The Colts hiring of Jeff Saturday was rightfully scrutinized, he went 1-7 and gave up the largest lead in NFL history to the Vikings. 33 points!
* I can’t believe Houston had locked up the #1 overall pick, without a good QB, and then went for 2 to win the game (and lose the pick).
* The Chiefs literally gave up one of the best receivers in the league, and won 14 games and the top seed in the AFC.
* The AFC as a whole coming into this season looked like an absolute powerhouse, and that seemed to calm down a bit with the Raiders, Broncos, Titans and Patriots missing the playoffs. But coming in, you really felt like there were probably 13 teams that had a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

* The NFC East, long a division of mediocrity, was the only division with 3 playoff teams and the 4th was exactly .500.
* It’s not surprising the Eagles made the playoffs, but the dominiant way they did is. Hurts looks like a true dual threat runner and thrower, not your typical “great runner but inaccurate passer with a big arm who sometimes connects.”
* The Giants seemed doomed to a 5 win season, but may have actually found their coach. Still not sold on Daniel Jones yet.
* Dan Campbell likely saved his job with a nice win increase, 2nd in the division, and knocking out the Packers in Lambeau the final game of the season.
* The Vikings had a great year, but is a confusing team. They’ll either win all 4 games by a field goal, or get blown out by 40 points in the National Championship game.
* The NFC south was just ugly. Only 1 win separted 1st from 4th, and Brady barely hung on. That 16 point Buccaneers comeback against the Saints was the deciding game.
* San Francisco went on a 10 game win streak with their 2nd and 3rd string QB’s to end the season after starting 3-4.
* The Rams had the fewest wins by a Super Bowl champion ever.
* Even if Kyler Murray had stayed healthy, the Cardinals did not seem like a strong team.

Stats of the year:
Dak Prescott lead the league in INT’s, and he missed 5 games!
Tom Brady has over 100,000 total passing yards in the NFL. And for all time yards, is 16,000 ahead of 2nd place.
Brady was 3rd in the league for passing yards, with 4,694.
If you would have told me 3 RB’s would break 1500 yards rushing this year, I would have thought you were carzy. That’s the same number of WR’s who broke 1500 yards receiving.
The all time leading QB in Seattle history for passing yards? Geno Smith

Playoff predictions
Seems like a weird year with 7 of the 14 teams having QB’s who have never played in a playoff game, and 3 teams rolling in with backups. Here are my predictions for the Wild Card round, Championship round, and then Super Bowl.

Wild Card: I have the 49ers, Vikings and Cowboys winning in the NFC. And Bills, Bengals and Chargers in the AFC. That would put home teams at 4-2, with both 5 seeds advancing.

Championship level: Eagles take on the Vikings, and it’s another drubbing. 36-13. In the AFC, it’s Bills vs. Chiefs, and the Bills take it this year in another incredible game, 38-35.

Super Bowl: A shootout in the Super Bowl, final score 35-32 Bills finally win one!

Wild Card round
A few things to note about this weekend’s games.

49ers-Seahawks
The niners won both games during the season, and are on a 10 game winning streak. Still, they’re being lead by Mr. Irrevalent and a 3rd string QB. Christian McCaffrey has been a turning point in their offense, and he’ll explode on Sunday. 49ers 31, Seahawks 20.

Charger-Jaguars
Potentially the most exciting game this weekend, it’s the closest spread. The Chargers are a stronger team, but got beat by the Jags in Week 3 when Herbert was banged up. Expect lower scoring, but very close. Maybe coming down to a mistake, missed 2pt conversion, etc. I have the final being Chargers 23, Jaguars 21.

Dolphins-Bills
I think the Bills are playing with purpose this year, as if they weren’t a scary team as is. And with Tua out, this could be a rough game to watch. I expect it to be over by halftime. Final score, Bills 42, Dolpins 10.

Giants-Vikings
The Giants are still a surprise to me, and the Vikes are 11-0 in one score games this year. I’d expect the same. The Giants got to rest last week, but that’s the only advantage I’d throw their way. It’s close but out of reach, 28-20 Vikings.

Ravens-Bengals
Another backup QB matchup that renders this game much lower than a division rivalry should have been. And another game that should be handily won by the Bengals. I’ll put it as 31-10 Cincy.

Cowboys-Buccaneers
As bad as I think the Bucs are this year, this is one of the toughest games to judge. The Cowboys have looked like garbage their past few games. But it also seems like Brady can’t get the team to score more than 20 points in a game. The Cowboys are also 0-7 against Brady, already losing this year. But I have it as Cowboys 24, Bucs 17 as the final.

Story of the Year:
I think the Russell Wilson trade is this generations Herschel Walker trade. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team get fleeced as bad as the Broncos did with nothing to show for it. The Broncos traded away 2 first round picks (both being top 10 picks), TE Noah Fant who actually played fairly well this year, a 4th and a 5th round pick, and cap space for a $245M contract. The Seahawks gave up their Super Bowl winning QB, only to have their backup QB lead them to the playoffs and set a franchise record for passing yards.

Quote of the Year:
“Let’s Ride” Russell Wilson

Memes of the year:

Surprise, it’s a Draft Post! Just kidding, it’s my “Better Late than Never” Super Bowl edition!!! Final post of the 2021 season (yes we’re past the Combine, past Easter, the snow is gone, give me a break). As a Rams fan, this was probably the most consequential FMQB post I could have ever done, so yes not only did I miss it, but I’m over 2 months past when I should have written this; but I had to get it in. Yes, seems like a lifetime ago that the game happened, but I’ll do my best to talk through it.

I was/am elated that the Rams are Super Bowl champs this year! From a personal perspective, my interest in football kicked into high gear in 1999 with Kurt Warner’s magical run, and the Rams 1st Super Bowl win. I then held onto this team through 15+ years of not even medocrity, but bottom of the barrel football. So this makes this Super Bowl win that much sweeter.

Game Recap:

The Bengals were gutsy going for it on 4th down on their 1st drive and missing it. I was actually so confident they were going to punt that I ran to get a snack and by the time I came back saw the Rams had it at midfield! They would score that drive to take an early 7-0 lead.

The Rams would score later in the 2nd to go up 13-3, but then miss the extra point. Something that was arguably a turning point, as we’d see later in the game (forced the Rams to score a TD the final drive vs. a FG).

The Bengals would score with some trickeration and RB Joe Mixon tossing a TD pass, so headed into halftime the Rams up 13-10.

As a fan perspective, I felt pretty good going into halftime. It seemed like the Rams Defense was holding them even though only sacking Burrow once. I was nervous seeing OBJ go down (you could tell it was ACL immediately), but overall felt pretty confident.

That confidence lasted a whopping 16 seconds and just 2 plays. On the 1st play of the 2nd half, the Bengals hit a bomb for a 75 yard TD to take the lead. The very next play, Stafford threw an INT and the Bengals had the lead and the ball on the 17 yard line. They’d kick a FG that drive, but suddenly a 3 point lead was a 7 point deficit just 5 minutes into the half.

I can tell you my cautious optimism essentially turned into nervousness and feeling downright depressed for a majority of the 2nd half. Ironically the Bengals wouldn’t score the rest of the game (next 25 minutes of game time). But the Rams offense would also majorly stall withough OBJ in the game (went from 2TD’s in 4 possessions with him on the field, to only 10 points the final 9 possessions).

And actually, as tough as it is to say since it was the Super Bowl, most of the 3rd and 4th quarters were pretty benign and boring. After starting the half with TD, FG, FG, both teams would go on to do 3 and out Punt, 3 and out Punt, 3 and out Punt, 3 and out Punt, 5 plays Punt, 3 and out Punt, 7 plays Punt. A big part of it was defense, and Burrow would be sacked 6 times in the 2nd half alone!

Final Rams Drive:
The Rams got the ball back with 6:13 in the 4th with their timeouts. Realistically, probably 2 drives at best to score and needed a TD due to that missed extra point. Cooper Kupp completely took over and put the Rams offense on his shoulders. A gutsy call on 4th and 1, but they handed to Kupp on a sweep and he rattled off 7 yards. On the rest of the drive, Kupp had 4 catches for 39 yards and a TD.

The Rams got it to the 8 yard line at the 2 minute warning, a ton of time left. I am fully aware the refs had a part in these final plays, seeing that the Rams got 7 shots at the endzone after getting 1st and goal. The 3rd down call clearly the biggest. But was also crazy the TD that got nullified by Kupp when he got absolutely blown up in the endzone. I was convinced he was concussed on that play (still am). Eventually, for reasons unknown by the Bengals D, the Rams got Kupp 1 on 1 at the 1 yard line; a no brainer. Backshoulder throw for the TD!

By this point, I wasn’t cheering, my first instinct was that 1:25 was still way too much time, and they only needed a FG. The Bengals were at midfield by 54 seconds, seemed like 1 first down would be plenty to get into range. But after 2nd and 1, 3rd and 1, and finally 4th and 1, the defense was holding. The Rams were winning the line of scrimmage every single play, but still seemed hard to process that this 4th and 1 was essentially a game deciding play. Of course it would come down to the best defensive player in the NFL making a play. Despite being flung around and a desperation throw, Aaron Donald blew up the play and forced Burrow to throw it short, sending the Rams to victory! Honestly, it was sort of an odd ending, I didn’t even cheer, it just sort of happened and you wondered if that was it.

For the Record:

• Matthew Stafford became only the 3rd QB to win the Super Bowl his 1st year with a new team
• Say what you want about the Refs on the final drive, but after the Bengals kicked their FG with 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, they only had 50 more yards of offense in 5 drives and 25 minutes of game time.
• Al Michaels, pretty much the voice of Sunday Night Football for 2 decades, is done at NBC. Sounds like he is going to Amazon so we’ll still hear him, but end of an era for sure.
• Was baffled but scared about the retirement rumors for Sean McVay (36) and Aaron Donald (30).
• Personally I found it hilarious that the Bengals Kicker stayed out to watch the halftime show, but understandably his coaches were not happy.

Stats of the Week:

• Sean McVay became the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl
• Matthew Stafford had a winning percentage of .448 before joining the Rams. As a Ram he is .705. He was also 0-3 in the playoffs, but is now 4-3.
• 2 of the last 4 Super Bowl MVP’s have been WR’s

Best WR Season of All Time:
There are only 2 Wide Receivers in the history of the game to win the Triple Crown (#1 in TD’s, receptions and yards in a season), Offensive Player of the Year, and Super Bowl MVP. Jerry Rice did it in his career, and Cooper Kupp just did all 3 in the same season!

Memes of the Week

AND finally, not relevant anymore but it was funny for 1 month…

FMQB: Super Bowl Sunday Edition

It’s finally here! Super Bowl Sunday, or for many football fans, Christmas 2.0.

As most FMQB readers know, the Rams are my team, but will try to get through these next 2 weeks without too much bias.

What to watch for:
Aaron Donald and Von Miller vs. a beleaugered Cincy offensive line. Not expecting another 9 sack day, but not out of the question either. The Rams were 1st in pass rush and the Bengals were 30th in pass blocking.

Rams to go up, and Cincy to comeback. Rams have a propensity this season of blowing leads, and Cincy has experience with double digit comebacks. So both put together means no lead by LA is safe.

About equal on offense, in fact both teams scored the exact same amount of points in the regular season. And if you include playoff stats, Cooper Kupp was #1 and Jamar Chase was #2 in receiving yards this year.

Matthew Staffords habit of throwing bad interceptions, Stafford is tied for the most INT’s this season.

Jalen Ramsey vs. Jamar Chase: The top Cornerback in the league vs the #2 WR in the league. Jamar Chase is the best rookie WR we’ve seen since Randy Moss, and has rookie records for both yards in the regular season and now the post season.

What happens to Cooper Kupp? Kupp seems to get open on plays where everybody in the stadium knows where the ball is going.

Bengals K Evan McPherson kicked the team into the AFC Championship and then into the Super Bowl. He’s about as cool as Joe Burrow, does he have another game winner in him?

My Prediction:
Won’t be a shootout, but scoring will happen. Looking for a 1st quarter with 3 points or less, and then things to open up. I think the Rams get 4 sacks, and Bengals have 2 INT’s, but Rams go up 27-14 with a late push by Burrow to get it within a TD, but will have <30 seconds to take the lead and come up short with a sack to end the game. Final score- Rams 27, Bengals 21

Award Section:

Super Bowl Stats
Only 2 QB’s have won a National title and a Super Bowl; Namath and Montana. Burrow has a chance to become the 3rd. If that happens, all 3 QB’s will be named “Joe.”

Joe Burrow getting to the Super Bowl in his 2nd year is the earliest of a #1 overall draft pick, Matthew Stafford making his Super Bowl debut in his 13th year is the latest of any #1 draft pick.

We went 54 years with the stadium host not having their team play in the big game, and now we’ve had back to back years with home game

For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will not feature the Top 3 seeds. Both were 4 seeds in the playoffs.

No player has ever won a college national championship, won the Heisman trophy, and won a Super Bowl. Joe Burrow could become the 1st.

Aaron Donald has more All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections than the entire Bengals roster

Stafford has the most yards and TD passes of any QB making their Super Bowl debut

This is only the 2nd Super Bowl between 2 QB’s that were drafted #1 overall. The other one as Carolina vs Denver.

Both teams scored exactly 460 points in the regular season, and the Rams gave up 372 points with the Bengals giving up 376

Joke of the week (From the NFL Awards Show):
Nobody knows where Aaron Rodgers will end up next year, but Vegas has him 2-1 in Green Bay, 5-1 in Tampa, and 10-1 at Spotify.

Memes of the Week:

Oh, it’s a random Monday edition of FMQB! Had to get my thoughts on the crazy week that was…

In what was one of the most newsworthy weeks in NFL history, we have to also remember there were 2 games that set up Super Bowl LVI. So we’ll start there. Both games included double digit comebacks!

Bengals vs. Chiefs
A typical “Tale of Two Halves” game, the Chiefs were really piling it on the Bengals in the 1st, but proof that no lead is safe. A few pivotal points to the game. 1st, with the Chiefs up 21-10 in the 1st, they drove down the field and had 2 plays from the 1 yard line and a decision. I think you take 1 shot and then kick a FG to go up by 14. The Chiefs got greedy though, and failed to score, meaning even a FG drive by CIN would make it a 1 score game. This was a huge momentum killer in my opinion, sure if you go up by 18 that’s big, but Cincy gets the ball after the half, if I were there coaches you tell your defense that if they score on the 1st drive, the D gets just 1 stop, then all of a sudden it’s a 1 possession game and a deficit at halftime doesn’t look that bad. Sure enough, the Bengals had the game tied by the end of the 3rd quarter.

3 other plays were make or break. First, Mahomes’ pass 2 yards into the hands of the Bengals D lineman was awful and set them up for a short field for a TD.

The Final drive of the 4th had chess match written all over it. KC needed a FG to tie, but would get to the 15 yard line with 2 minutes left. Do you score too soon? Do the Bengals let them score? Then when Mahomes fumbled, there was a gasp that the Bengals could have walked off there!

Finally, as if the football Gods were all playing with us, in OT the Chiefs won the coin toss AGAIN! But, in a reversal, as the clock hit 13 seconds into OT, the Bengals had just picked off Mahomes and would seal the deal with a GW FG.

Rams vs. 49ers.

After an uneventful 1st quarter, the rams seemed to be outplaying the 49ers quite a bit and dominating the time of possession, and the Rams having 40 plays vs the 49ers 19. Went into halftime with the Rams down 10-7. After a few long drives, the Rams found themselves down by 10 going into the 4th quarter. The 49ers went Punt, Punt, Interception in the 4th while the Rams went TD, FG, FG, Kneeldowns. The 2 main plays I’ll talk about: 1st, Stafford has had a major issue of tossing up 40+ yard bombs and getting picked off this year. He threw one right to the bread basket of the 49ers, who dropped it, which likely would have changed the outcome of the game. Finally, the 3rd and 13 that Garropolo faced and hucked one underhand for an INT iced the game. The Rams came back from being down 10 in the 4th quarter to play a Super Bowl at home!

Stats of the Week

• Bengals tied biggest championship round deficit with 18
• Bengals kicker Evan McPherson has the most FGs by a rookie in playoff history with 11, the old record was 9
• The Rams set the record for the largest deficit overcome in the 4th quarter of a Championship game by 10 points, old record was 9 by the 2004 Seahawks
• No team has won back to back OT games in playoffs
• Odell Beckham recorded his 1st 100 yard game in his last 33 games
• Cooper Kupp has the most 100 yard receiving games in a season with 13
• We’ve gotten through 20 games which is the most any NFL player has ever played before. And Cooper Kupp now officially smashed a record of most receiving yards by any WR. He has 2333, beating Larry Fitzgerald by 356 yards in the same amount of games.
• Mahomes scored 21 points on his first 3 drives, and 3 points on his next 8.

For the Record

• Mahomes is now 37-1 when up by 15 points
• Matthew Stafford is 86-94-1 in his career. Crazy to see what getting a QB into the right situation can accomplish
• The Bengals are 373-459-5, and 8-14 in the playoffs which puts their win percentage 26th in the league. Sort of amusing that their chant is “Who Dey think gonna beat them Bengals,” my response would be “Everybody!”
• The Buccaneers have the worst win percentage of any franchise, yet has 2 Super Bowl wins. The Vikings have the 7th best and have never won.
• Coming into this season, Zac Taylor was 6-25-1 and is now a Super Bowl Coach
  365 days from when Matthew Stafford was traded to the Rams, he punched their ticket to the Super Bowl

Josh McDaniels hiring:
This would have been bigger news without the other 3 massive stories. But a few things of note. I find McDaniels team choice a bit odd compared to his other choices. He famously accepted then turned down the Colts offer 2 years ago, and rumor was he was going to replace Bill Belichick who is now 2 years older. So why the Raiders? You’re going into a division that has Justin Herbert, a team that has been to 4 straight AFC title games, and the other team is making a run at Aaron Rodgers? The Colts have way more upside and youth in their roster, and in a cakewalk division. The Pats also have the Bills but a super easy division. But overall surprised at his choice.

Brady Retirement:
I have to have a section here about Brady. My thoughts on him have changed a few times throughout the years. Definitely had a vengeful vitriol for him for his first 10 or so years, he beat my Rams to kick off his dynasty and just got sick of seeing him winning Super Bowls. At a certain point, his personality came around to me and while I never rooted for him, I respected his game. I think towards the past 3-4 years (minus the 2nd Rams Super Bowl victory), there was a part of me that was excited that I got to be a part of the generation to watch the GOAT’s entire career. I still vividly remember the Tuck Rule game as a Sophomore in High School, and now I wake up with back pain if I sleep wrong.

The news/leak of his retirement was a bit of a shitshow though. Adam Schefter announced it on Saturday and the sports world went into a tizzy with highlight videos and thank yous. Within a couple hours, the Bucs said Brady had not contacted them at all, Brady’s dad and agent came out saying it was premature, and rumors were Brady was so upset with the leak that he was considering coming back for another year. The news sat for 3 days until he officially announced it. And then his announcement had a pic of him in a Bucs uniform and thanking about 6 different Buccaneer staff, GLARINGLY omitting any mention of the Patriots and his 20 years and 6 Super Bowls won there. Then rumors were Robert Kraft “had a temper tantrum” seeing nothing about the Patriots. Kraft did release a statement thanking Brady a day later, and Belichick released a statement the following day, both commented on positively from Brady, but still wasn’t much.

Brady Stats:

• Brady retired with more Super Bowl rings (7) than any other franchise’s entire history in the NFL (multiple with 6)
• Tom Brady threw more TDs in his 40s (168) than Troy Aikman did in his entire hall of fame career (165)
• 4 of Brady’s 7 rings came after the age of 36
• His career high in passing yards came his final year at age 44, was also his 2nd most TD passes
• Tom Brady is #1 in NFL history in these categories: Super Bowl Wins, Super Bowl Appearances, Super Bowl MVPs, Pro Bowls, Games started, Playoff Games started, Regular season wins, Playoff wins, Completions, Passing Yards, Passing TD’s (204 more than Marino), Playoff passing yards, Playoff Passing TD’s, Game Winning Drives, and 4th quarter comebacks.
• Including playoffs, Brady did not have a losing record to any NFL team
• BUT, for the record, Brady has never beaten the Washington Commanders…

Brian Flores lawsuit:
We later had a complete bombshell lawsuit from Brian Flores, the ex-Dolphins coach that accused the Broncos and Giants of “sham” interviews to abide by the Rooney rule, and being paid to lose games. A few things, first, the Rooney rule was well intentioned but has never really successful in accomplishing the diversity the NFL was desiring. It’s no different than any company “posting” a job but already having their candidate in mind. There ends up being sham interviews or candidates don’t get taken very seriously, but obviously in this case, race is front and center in every one of those interviews. So the fact that “sham” interviews happen across the NFL really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The question is how to fix it. In a league with nearly 80% of players being black, currently 3% of coaches are. Many of these players study football for 20+ years in their playing career, and work on sidelines after they retire, so they should theoretically be qualified.

Not ignoring the sham interview piece, but I think the biggest revelation from Flores was that Dolphins owner offered to pay him $100,000 for every loss so they could tank and get get the top pick (eventually ended up being Joe Burrow). There is an unnamed witness corroborating this story. Additionally Hue Jackson the old Browns coach said the same thing happened to him! I know that it’s no fun watching a 3-10 team, but this story brings up a HUGE concern about the competitive teams that are being put onto the field each week. There are jokes about “Tanking for Tua” or “Suck for Luck,” but if teams are actually being incentivized to throw games, there is zero distinction between that and the Blacksox Scandal in 1919. If those allegations turn out to be true, I would expect “Death Penalty” style sanctions, including Stephen Ross being forced to sell the team.

Washington Commanders:
Faithful FMQB readers will know that I was rooting hard for the Redtails, but Washington came out with the Commanders this week. Meh, although I think most name changes take quite awhile to have people come around to. With a big reveal and a month waiting for February 2nd, the Commanders had to have been the worst kept secret in football. Joe Theisman leaked the name on a radio interview, a news helicopter zoomed in to FedEx Field and you could clearly see “Commanders” painted in the concourse, and internet sleuths realized that WashingtonCommanders’ website was registered to the domain that hosts every other NFL team. So a bit anticlimactic. And of course there were plenty of jokes, such as realizing that the team is in Washington DC, wearing red, and shortening the name goes to “Commies.” Or that they really went from a name disparaging Native Americans and changed it to the people who killed them in battle. BUT, I will say their desire for it to be military themed is pretty cool, I think there’s a lot they can do with that. Nonetheless, I think a lot of people got used to and even liked Washington Football Team.

Memes of the Week:

FMQB: The Best Playoff Weekend of All Time

Disregarding recency bias, this was also statistically the best playoff weekend of all time. Prior to Sunday, the closest point differential for 4 playoff games (wild card or divisional round) was 18 points. This week’s differential was 15 points. So this was the Best Playoff Weekend in the history of the NFL. 3 games ended in walkoff field goals (all by the road team no less), and the 4th and most lopsided game ended with an OT Touchdown was probabaly a Top 5 playoff game of all time.

For the Record:

• FMQB went 3-1 last week. In a week where 3 road teams won, I’ll take that in a heartbeat!
• Crazy to see the #1 and #2 MVP candidates have major questions on whether they’ll be back with their teams or not. My prediction? Brady does another year, Rodgers is out in Green Bay.
• Jimmy Garrapolo has now made the same number of Conference Championship games as New England has since they traded him

Bengals vs. Titans:
If there’s ever an argument that turnover differential is make or break, this game showed that Joe Burrow could get sacked NINE TIMES and still win the game since the Titans threw 3 INT’s. Burrow looked rough to be honest, but a lot of that was his offensive line. He had a 28.2 QBR (ouch) but 348 yards passing. Tannehill threw INT’s on the first play of the game, at the goal line of the 1st drive of the 2nd half, and the last drive of the game.

49ers vs. Packers:
Not that this was an awesome game, but it was close and meaningful. Both QB’s combined for 356 yards passing (Mahomes and Stafford alone threw for more than that), and there was only 1 offensive TD the entire game (vs. 3 TD’s in the last 2 minutes of the Bills game). But Packers special teams made, or breaked, this game with 3 huge blunders. First, they allowed a FG block at the end of the 1st half, they then allowed a Punt Block for the 49ers only TD, and finally on the game winning FG, they only had 10 guys on the field to attempt a block. That’s terrible football. One thing of note, I was shocked the 49ers ran the ball on 3rd and 7 with 1 minute left in the game and out of FG range. If you don’t make it there, it’s going into OT. Apparently the Packers were just as shocked since it went for 9 yards.

Rams vs. Buccaneers:
I will caveat this game with “it was awesome as long as you didn’t turn it off.” When the Rams went up 27-3, I’ll admit I 100% thought it was over. Heck, I hung on just to be able to watch Brady’s potential last game. But as we should have known, if 1 team can make mistakes and be outscored by 24 points, the other team can just as easily do the same. The Rams tried everything they could to give the game back, with their last 6 drives before the TD ending with Fumble on 1st play, 3 and out Punt, snap fumbled backwards on 1st play, Missed Field Goal, 3 and out Punt, Fumble on 2nd play. As a Rams fan, the swing of emotions from watching the momentum completely shift and the lead melt away, only to have a miracle final drive and chip shot field goal.

Bills vs Chiefs:
This is 100% going to be the Brady vs Manning of this generation, and we’re in for a treat if this is the case. I don’t even know where to start with this game as nothing I say will give it justice, but it was tied 14-14 at halftime. The 4th quarter is when this game became a classic. Buffalo was down by 5 with 9 minutes left. After a long drive, they scored on a 4th and 13 to go up by 3. The Chiefs then scored in 52 seconds to go up by 4. The Bills then scored in 49 seconds to go up by 3. And then, with 13 seconds left at the 25 yard line, the Chiefs gained 44 yards in 2 plays by throwing it right up the middle and calling timeouts. What ended up being the only anticlimactic part of this game is we all knew whoever won the coin toss was going to take the game. That was the Chiefs, and sure enough they drove down and scored easily.

After the 2 minute warning, 31 points were scored, there were 3 lead changes in the final 2 minutes as well as a game tying FG.

There has been a ton of talk this week about the NFL changing the OT rules. And the odds definitely go to the winner of the cointoss, which is very unfair. There have been 11 OT playoff games since the new rule was implemented in 2010. Of those 11, the team that won the coin toss is 10-1, with 7 of those teams scoring a TD.

So will this playoff game of the century be enough to change it? I say it won’t. Why? Because the only Super Bowl to go to OT was also won by a TD on the 1st drive. If the NFL doesn’t want to see that drive matched in a Super Bowl, they’re not going to change it due to a divisional round game.

Stats of the Week:

• This is the first time in 12 years that the Championship round won’t have Brady or Rodgers in it.
• The last 18 Super Bowls have had either Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger or the 49ers in it
• All 4 road teams had never won in the divisional round, and we were 13 seconds away from that happening
• The Packers had scored 20 or more points in every playoff game Rodgers was in until Sunday.
• Gabriel Davis was the team’s 6th leading receiver on the team, and just set a playoff record doing something Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Cris Carter, Lynn Swan, etc had never done.
• The Bills’ had 13 drives without a punt, and then their 1st punt was downed at the 1 yard line
• The Bills were 4 for 4 on 4th down, with 2 of the plays going for a TD
• Andy Reid’s Chiefs are the 1st team ever to host 4 Championship games in a row. The team in 2nd place with 3 in a row? Andy Reid’s Eagles.
• The Chief’s game tying FG drive took less seconds (13 seconds) than Dak Prescott’s final run (14 seconds)
• Patrick Mahomes has more playoff wins and Super Bowl appearances than Aaron Rodgers, and it’s only Mahomes’ 4th season as a starter
• The Regular season passing yards leader has never won the Super Bowl (0-56)

2 Retirements (possibly more):
Not shocked about Ben Roethlisberger, but will be super weird to see the Steelers with a different QB. I was a freshman in college when he was a rookie, and Big Ben was the QB for the Steelers for over half of my life.

I am shocked by Sean Payton though. Not saying that Jameis Winston is close to Drew Brees, but they definitely make the playoffs if he doesn’t go down. My guess is he’ll take a year off and come back and coach the Cowboys. Maybe he just needed a change of pace.

Packers Fans, look away:

Without getting into it too much, the ire of Aaron Rodgers out there is palpable. I saw one person accurately describe it by saying “if you had told me 7 years ago that Tom Brady would get more sympathy and be more well liked than Aaron Rodgers, I would have thought Aaron Rodgers was a part of a hit and run that caused a death.”

Aaron Rodgers went from one of the most well liked players and well like personalities, to one of the most hated in about a 10 week period. He again opened his mouth this past week and completely misquoted a CDC study, but I’ll hold off on going on a rant.

My point with all of this, is there were Jokes-a-plenty after his loss! Here were a few of my favorites:

• Aaron Rodgers must have gotten his coaching advice from Joe Rogan

• Rodgers must have done his own research on the 49ers

• Rodgers thought that he was going to the Super Bowl, but it was just a false positive

• Once again, we all mistakenly believed that Aaron Rodgers had a shot

• Everyone needs to stop making fun of Aaron Rodgers, he hates being needled

• Losing to the same team 4 times in the playoffs builds natural immunity
• Rodgers spent a lot of time talking about Covid, when he should’ve been more worried about the common Gould (Robbie Gould kicked the game winning FG)
• Aaron Rodgers’ new nickname should be “Joe Throwgan”

• And my personal favorite: “Aaron Rodgers can still make it to the Super Bowl this year if Mike Pence has enough courage.”

Rams vs 49ers:

The Rams have blown 2 big leads in the last 3 games. Definitely cause for concern, and 1 of the leads was against the 49ers in Week 18. The 49ers have won the last 6 matchups against the Rams which is also concerning. But Garrapolo is still banged up, and the Rams technically have the better team. I see them finally busting free and winning it Rams 31, 49ers 21.

Bengals vs. Chiefs:
This was another awesome regular season game, but it also took a flag on a 4th and goal for the Bengals to win it. But they did face this hot KC team, breaking their 8 game win streak. I think KC takes it in the end, definitely high scoring again: 38-35

Setting up…
Rams VS. Chiefs in the Super Bowl! A rematch of the greatest regular season game of all time.

Quote of the Week:
“I’m being silenced” Aaron Rodgers on a 28 minute interview

Quote of the Career:
“Are you disappointed the 49ers didn’t draft you?” Reporter
“Not as disappointed as they will be that they didn’t draft me” Aaron Rodgers
Since that comment, the 49ers have made more Super Bowls and are 4-0 against Rodgers in the playoffs

Quote of the Week #2:
“Well, it looks like we’re going to the AFC Championship” Evan McPherson BEFORE his kick to win the game

Quote of the Week #3:
“OH MY GOD, Kupp has it at the 10. Spike the freaking balllllll !!!” FMQB

Memes of the Week:

FMQB: It was the Best of Games, it was the Worst of Games

Kind of a strange Wild Card weekend to be honest, felt more like the divisional round. There was only 1 upset out of 6 games which is rare, and 4 of the 6 were blowouts and never really competitive. But the 2 games that were competitive (CIN vs LV and SF vs DAL) were well worth the watch! Both games came down to the final drive, and those will be the ones I focus on the most.

Bengals:
First win since 1991 in the playoffs! There was a controversial play at the end of the 1st half with an inadvertant whistle on a TD play. Couple things to say about this. 1st, it came so late that it didn’t cause any player on the field to dial back at all. The corner defending the play was still actively engaged through the end. Had they ruled otherwise, that the whistle made it a dead play, you also get 1 team that gets royally screwed. So no good answer here, but realistically the play was a TD and the whistle didn’t change anything vs. a TD that gets erroneously nullified.

49ers:
The 49ers look surprisingly tough coming into the playoffs. Their last 2 wins were over the 3 and 4 seed in the playoffs, and their defense for the most part held a high flying Cowboys offense to 17 points. The final drive is the big story, but Dak couldn’t get it going all day. A couple notes on the last play(s). First, without a timeout why the heck are you running it with 14 seconds left when at best that gives you 1 shot at the endzone from 25 yards out. They were getting 10 yards while knocking off 5 seconds off the clock on the plays leading up to it. If you want one more to get you to the 35 or 40, do that and you still have 2 shots at the endzone. Bonehead play call there. Second, I’m with Tony Romo all the way, Dak tried to give the ball to his center to snap, when it needed to be given to the ref to spot. Error in judgement there as well.

What I’ll say about the Bills game, if you’ve ever wondered what retaliation looks like for 20 years of frustration, that game was it.

Total Domination by the Chiefs. I think any talk about them being weak this year is gone and teams are nervous again.

The Bucs also dominated the Eagles, and without garbage time they would have won by 31 points.

Surprised by the Rams output, these teams play close, and Kyler Murray had a few gaffes and missed throws that were not like him.

Roethlisberger, been in the league for 18 years, some off the field issues but likely a 1st ballot hall of famer.

For The Record:
FMQB was 4-2 with last week’s picks
If there’s an argument against letting a 7th team into the playoffs, last weekend was it.

Quick Hits:
* I thought it was super impressive that the Bengals scored on every drive of the 1st half, UNTIL:
* The Bills had a Perfect Offensive Game! They had 7 possessions, and 7 TD’s! No Punts, no turnover, and not even a Field goal! They scored a TD every time they touched the ball!!!
* The Bengals playoff win was the longest playoff drought in all 4 major sports
Wasn’t Jerrick McKinnon the mediocre backup RB in Minnesota years ago? He was lighting it up for KC

Stats:
* Josh Allen had more TD’s (5) than Incompletions (4)
* Only 3 of the last 20 Super Bowl hosts had their home team have a home playoff game in the same year.
* In 3 years, OBJ had 6 TD’s with the Browns. In the past 8 games, he’s had 6 TD’s for the Rams
In this weekend’s matchup, Tom Brady has 35 playoff victories vs Matthew Stafford’s 1.

Divisional Round:
Bengals at Titans: The Titans are rested and getting a fresh Derrick Henry back for this game. I find it hard to pick against them, however they have some really bad losses this year against the Jets and Texans, so anything is possible. I think Joe Burrow will keep it close, but a late INT will seal it. TEN 27, CIN 21

49ers at Packers: The 49ers played them really tough in Week 3, actually taking the lead with 37 seconds left before a miracle drive by the Packers. I think this is a different 49er team, and against my gut and my bracket, I’m going to pick SF to win 31, GB 28

Rams at Buccaneers: I’m going to sound like a homer, but I’m also going to pick an upset in this game as well. The Rams handled TB back in September, and Brady was their leading rusher with 14 yards! The Bucs have a lot of weapons missing that were there that day, so despite it being on the road I think the Rams take it in a high scoring game: LA 34, TB 28

Bills at Chiefs: This is the biggest “what if” game. Both have different but strong offenses, and both have different but strong defenses. And both teams have had struggles during the year, so it depends on what team shows up. In the end, I’m taking a shootout game, KC 38, BUF 35.

Quote of the Week:
“It’s a little early for tears” Jim Nance with 4 minutes left in the Cowboys game

Quote of the Week:
“Let’s go to Peyton to breakdown that touchdown”- Eli
“Can’t Hear Shit” Peyton
“Nevermind!” Eli

Meme’s of the Week:

Like Cam Newton, I’mmmmm BBBaaaacccckkkk, after a long hiatus that I really don’t have an excuse about, but it doesn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying the football season! The blog takes a lot of time, so hope the 12 of you enjoy it haha.

The final weeks of the season had a huge number of teams realistically still in the hunt. This has been one of the more interesting playoff pushes that I can remember. And in Week 18, we probably saw more playoff movement than we ever have the final week of the season.

In a 5 week span, the Ravens, Chiefs, Patriots and Titans all held the #1 seed in the AFC.

The Colts had a chance to lockup a fairly high playoff seed by beating the worst team in the NFL, and couldn’t pull out off, thus being eliminated.

The Ravens started 8-3, and didn’t win a game the rest of the season. They were the #1 seed as of Week 12, and completely missed the playoffs. They had an outside shot at the playoffs entering Week 18, but dropped to the 12th seed in the AFC showing how close the AFC was this year. Also of note, the Ravens went for 2, two different times with a shot of either winning or losing the game, and lost both times. If they take any 1 of those, they’re likely in the playoffs.

The Rams had to win at home to get the #2 seed, and guaranteeing 2 home playoff games (if they won), but dropped 2 seeds to #4 seed.

The Chargers were in with a Win or a Tie, but fell to the 10th seed with the loss.

The NFC Playoff picture in WEEK THREE, had 6 of the 7 teams that would eventually make the playoffs.

For the record:
* The Dolphins started 1-7, and then won 8 in a row
* The Bengals snapped teh Chiefs 8 game win streak, as a reminder they were the worst team in the league 2 seasons ago
* Mike Tomlin has 15 straight seasons at .500 or better

Stats of the Week:

• We’re now up to 14 QB’s in the 5000 yard club, adding 2 more this year. Only 9 different QB’s have ever done it, welcome Justin Herbert to the list.
• The difference between 1st place in rushing yards (Jonathan Taylor) and 2nd place is 552 yards. Derrick Henry ended up in 9th place on the rushing list, despite being out since Week 9!
• Adrian Peterson has now scored a TD for 6 different teams.
• In Week 14, 26 of the 32 teams were within 1 game of making the playoffs.
• Joe Burrow threw for 942 yards in 2 games against the Ravens this season, that’s the most yards against 1 team in a season, beating Joe Montana’s record by 67 yards.

Say what you want about the Chargers calling a timeout with 39 seconds left, but I don’t buy in a heartbeat that the Raiders were going to kneel out the clock. The difference is going to Cincinnati against an albeit hot QB, but a QB with less than 2 seasons under his belt in his first playoff game, VS. going against the Chiefs which clobbered the Raiders twice this year.

Coaching Carousel:
As with every year, tons of coaching movements, with a full 25% of the league’s coaches getting fired! The Broncos, Texans, Vikings, Bears, Giants, Dolphins, Raiders and Jaguars will hall have new coaches next year.

Predictions:
I’m forcing myself to make 2 upset picks, the Division round typically goes by seed, but anything can happen in the Wild Card round.

Raiders at Bengals- Get ready for some fireworks, both QBs are playing their first playoff game. Burrow is coming into the game hot, but going to have the Raiders with the upset, Bengals 21, Raiders 24.
Patriots at Bills– 3rd time’s a charm! They each won on the road, the Patriots won a matchup by throwing the ball 3 times, and then the Bills dismantled the Patriots in Week 16. I have it low scoring again, but Buffalo winning 17-13
Eagles at Bucs– The Eagles should have a solid chance with the run game, but ultimately no match for Brady. Bucs 34, Eagles 17
49ers at Cowboys– In the 90s this would have been the game of the year (ahead of the Super Bowl even), and now it’s on Nickelodeon. Eitherway, I see the 49ers playing tough but Cowboys 31, 49ers 28.
Steelers at Chiefs– While I don’t think the Chiefs dismantle the Steelers like Vegas has them doing, I’ll have it Chiefs 24, Steelers 13
Cardinals at Rams– Two teams that are arguably limping into the playoffs, and another division rematch. I hate to do it, but I have the Cardinals pulling it out, another high scoring affair: 35-31 Arizona.

My Playoff Prediction

The #1 and #2 highest receiving yard seasons were both led by Matthew Stafford. Different receivers, different teams, and a decade apart

TJ Watt tied the season record for sacks at 22.5. Before you start clamboring about the 18th game, due to injuries he did it in 15!

Although I’m one of the people who think a ton of records will now fall due to the extra game, it’s interesting to note that the records for Interceptions came in a 15 game season and has still never been broken. And we see the sack record above.

Quote of the Week
“We’re like 20 point underdogs, we don’t have a chance” Ben Roethlisberger

Quote of the Week #2:
“You’ve seen the meme, f’it, Jamar’s out there somewhere” Joe Burrow

Memes, lots of Memes:

I’ve been bad and missed the past 4 weeks or so of FMQB. We’ve had a lot to talk about! I’ll try to summarize some interesting pieces of the season without getting too long winded. Sorry if it’s a bit scattered.

Prior Week Points of Interest:

It was interesting to see the Ravens completely dismantle the Chargers in Week 7, but then get outplayed by the Dolphins.

There was a ton of bluster about the fan who caught Brady’s 600th TD but gave it back. People were saying he gave up $750,000! Brady and the Bucs took care of the guy with season tickets, autographed merch, and 1 Bitcoin. But I highly doubt the actual ball would go that high. Why would it, because it’s a round number? And Brady will have thrown probably 40 TD’s past that number by the time he’s done?

Tough to see Jameis Winston go out for the season with an ACL.

That Daniel Jones catch was insane as it was, but even better since he is a QB!

Week 8 was the week of Backup QB’s, and all 4 Backup QB’s won games: Jets, Cowboys, Seahawks, and Saints all won

Week 9 was the week of upsets, with the Titans over the Rams, Broncos over Cowboys, Giants over Raiders, and Jags over Bills

Mahomes is definitely off, something is wrong. It’s almost like he used his athletic ability the past 3 years and that was enough to not only get him by but to excel. But now mechanics seem flawed, he’s throwing INT’s like crazy. They barely beat the Packers with a backup QB. Tough to be confident they make the playoffs this year.

Carson Wentz’ left handed pick 6 was one of the worst plays I’ve ever seen. A-la Dan Orlovsky running out the back of the endzone.

Old Interesting Stats:
* Trevor Lawrence has only lost 2 games in his football career after leading by double digits. Both were to Joe Burrow
* Trevon Diggs is on pace for 17 INT’s this season
* Mike White, in his first NFL start, had more passing yards than any Jets QB in the past 21 years!
* Derrick Henry has been out for 2 weeks, and is still 110 yards ahead of the 2nd place running back.
* Cooper Kupp is on pace for 1924 yards and Stafford is on pace for 5234 yards.
* Myles Garret is on pace for 22.5 sacks

Quick Hits

The Titans are looking like the team to beat in the AFC. Weird that one of their losses was to the Jets, but otherwise they are 6-0 against playoff teams from last year. They beat the Chiefs and Bills in back to back weeks (the AFC Championship last year).

Raise your hand if you had the Bengals and Cardinals as the #1 seeds after Week 7. Didn’t think so.

Every team in the AFC North and AFC West have 5+ wins and winning records.

Quotes of the Week:
Aaron Rodgers to the Bears “I own you.” Not really wrong, he’s 22-5 against them in his career

FMQB on Tuesday: “I don’t know what happened with Odell Beckham Jr, but he’s going to be a cancer to any team who picks him up”
FMQB on Thursday: “OMG we got Odell!!!!”

Free Agency:
The Trade deadline came and went without much bluster. I think most people expected DeShaun Watson to be traded to the Dolphins, but it never happened. Probably the biggest surprise was Von Miller going to the Rams. And then the Odell saga was just odd, like all of a sudden his offensive line didn’t know what was going on, his dad posted the video of all the times he was wide open and Baker didn’t throw to him. And then he was released. You’d have to think the Browns could have gotten a 2nd or 3rd round pick for him. Also Cam Newton getting signed by his old team is definitely a surprise but sort of fun!

Aaron Rodgers and his Misinformed take on COVID (Warning, this is a rant):
The past 2 weeks, the news that has dominated the NFL is Rodgers positive COVID case, which isn’t terribly surprising since they Packers had a small outbreak ahead of the Cardinals game. What IS surprising is that everyone thought Rodgers was vaccinated. I’m going to go on a bit of a rant here, and talk about a few things point by point on how Aaron is trying to defend his decision, and about COVID in general in the Sports world right now.

First off, he lied about his status. He half-heartedly tried to apologize this week for “misleading” people, but the damage he did by saying he was “immunized” (when he wasn’t) is what the fallout is about, not his choice, it’s the lie and his justification for it. His teammates had to have known as he was apparently following some protocols for unvaxxed players. But the fallout would have been dramatically less if he had taken the Kirk Cousins, Carson Wentz approach and said in the offseason that he wasn’t vaxxed.

He claimed to have consulted with Joe Rogan. If there’s anything worse you can say than “I did my own research,” it’s probably “I got my medical advice from Joe Rogan.” Subsequently, he’s taking Ivermectin, which although we love to give people crap about taking horse dewormer, it does have human uses. But it’s been proven by all the top doctors in the world to not be an effective drug against COVID. But his top doctor is Joe Rogan, so that’s saying something.

He questioned the vaccine’s effectiveness and that people were still contracting and dying from COVID even though they had been vaccinated. First off, months before the vaccine was readily available doctors were hoping for 70% effectiveness, the fact that it’s 90% is wildly successful, but it’s never been pitched as 100%. The goal is to bring the cases and deaths down, which the vaccine is successful in doing. We’ve seen study after study that essentially shows that unvaccinated people are somewhere betwen 5-40 times more likely to even get a case, and anywhere from 88-97% of deaths come from unvaccinated people. With Rodgers’ rationale, there’s no point in wearing a seatbelt because people still die in car accidents who are in seat belts, or if Brady is the best QB of all time, why does he still throw interceptions?

Back on the Ivermectin comment, he claimed he was taking it and “felt great.” So what? Nearly 80% of cases are still asymptomatic. Somebody could claim that they got COVID, but went to Cracker Barrel and they feel great. They’re not interconnected. He also claimed it has been used over a Billion times in India, but didn’t leave out the fact that India has removed Ivermectin from their treatment protocols.

Rodgers also claimed that people who contract COVID have the most robust immune response. He’s most likely referencing the Israel study which as a reminder is not peer reviewed. But even looking locally, they’ve said that 1/3 of people who have had COVID don’t even develop any antibodies (vs. 100% of vaccinated individuals), and a recent study in Oklahoma of all places showed that even at the height of Delta, reinfections were outnumbering breakthrough cases 2 to 1.

He claims an NFL Doctor told him that it was impossible for vaccinated individuals to contract or spread COVID. This is also highly unlikely, as we’ve known really for over a year that the vaccines aren’t 100% effective, so very unlikely that comment would have been said from the medical community (the NFL also vehemently denies that was ever communicated).

He claims that he’s allergic to an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines. While doctors claim this is extremely rare, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say it’s true. Then take the JNJ vaccine. He said his reasoning not to was due to blood clots. On a large study, they found 28 cases of blood clots after 9 million doses, (1 in 320,000 get a blood clot) while the dangers of blood clots by contracting COVID are incredibly higher (1% of anybody recovering from home get blood clots, up to 5% of hospitalized patients have them). I’ll take 1 in 320,000 over 1 in 20 anyday.

He whined about the unvaccinated being “superspreaders” and being “made to think we’re the danger.” Well that’s also true, because not only do they spread the virus in higher rates, they’re also more likely to get it in the first place.

Rodgers claims that he’s a critical thinker, except he runs to the circles to where he wants the answers from (aka. Joe Rogan) instead of top doctors and epidemioligists in the world. If he’s a critical thinker, he should listen to all sides and make a decision, and there are actual statistics and studies that essentially debunk nearly every point he has brought up.

And then to top it off, he attempted to quote Martin Luther King to explain the plight he’s going through, but of course botched the quote.

So why should we care? A few reasons. Rodgers claims not to be an “anti-vax flat-earther” but then goes to spew all the information the anti-vaxxers use to not get vaccinated. Rodgers is 100% a role model, and his platform was just used to put every talking point out there to an audience. The vaccines are the #1 way out of this pandemic, it protects those who cannot be vaccinated (any child under 5, or the people who have legitimate medical reasons). It also protects the vaccinated. This seems to be the biggest complaint from people saying “it’s not our obligation to protect the vaccinated.” Well it’s also not your right to endanger the entire country from something that is preventable at this point. Colin Powell is a perfect example, he has multiple diseases going on, so of course gets vaccinated to protect himself, but in these rare instances it still killed him. If we get to herd immunity (which isn’t likely) or at least endemic stage, those that are vaccinated are also inherintly safer.

Back to football after this, but the $14k fine was a joke for multiple violations of protocol. A suspension was needed as now every other unvaccinated player sees the precedent. Also CeeDee Lamb was fined $20k for an untucked jersey, so it’s safe to see where the NFL’s priorities are.

Last thing, but part of the reason that Rodgers faced so much backlash is of course because he’s MVP caliber, however he’s in the SEVERE minority with his reasoning. Reminder that nearly 80% of adults have at least 1 dose, so while the other 20% are incredibly vocal about their stance, a vast majority of Americans are looking at Rodgers like he’s a quack.

Playoff Predictions

As the AFC stands now, in order it’s Titans, Ravens, Chargers, Bills, Raiders, Steelers and Patriots. I think the Browns and Bengals are knocking on the door, it’s hard to show confidence in KC but you have to imagine Mahomes figures something out. My prediction would be that the Raiders and Steelers fall out, and the Browns and Chiefs make it in. Otherwise I like Tennessee to nail the 1 bye.

The NFC is Cardinals, Packers, Buccaneers, Cowboys, Rams, Saints and Falcons. What, the Falcons are in as of now?!?! I think injuries will catch up with Arizona to let the Bucs take the #1 seed. I also see the saints and Falcons falling out, replaced by maybe the Vikings and Seahawks. But narrow field considering the #7 seed is .500

Memes (lot of them!)

Catching up on 2 weeks again here

Week 4 recap:

• Brady has won more games this year in Foxboro than the Patriots have
• Brady has now beat all 32 teams, just the 4th person to do so
• When Brady was legally old enough to enjoy his first beer, Mac Jones hadn’t been born yet
• Having the Pats game end with a FG off the uprights was crazy. Mac Jones held his all though, he kept them toe to toe with the Super Bowl champs
• Geno Smith was responsible for more points in 1 Quarter, than Russel Wilson was in 3
• The Giants and Jets have finally won, the Cardinals are the last undefeated team
• The Bills had their 2nd shutout in 4 games, a feat that hadn’t happened since the 2000 Ravens. They have also scored 40 points in consecutive games; that’s scary!
• Sam Darnold is leading the league in Rushing TD’s
• The “Double Punt” was probably the worst field position missed call by a ref in history. Difference was easily a 70 yard change.

Craziest Stat of All Time

Tom Brady has thrown 155 TD’s since turning 40. To put this in perspective, Hall of Fame Quarterbacks Bart Starr and Roger Staubach threw fewer TD’s than that in their entire career! Also Brady has thrown more TD’s since turning 40 than Daunte Culpepper, Patrick Mahomes, Archie Manning, Jim McMahon, and Doug Flutie’s 19 year career. Just wow!



Week 5

Stats of the Week:

• The Browns were the first team to score 40+ points, have 500+ yards, have 0 turnovers, and lose the game
• Mahomes has thrown 6 INT’s through 5 games. He had 6 or less INT’s the entire season for both years he took the Chiefs to the Super Bowl
• Lamar Jackson (a running back) has the best completion percentage by a QB who threw for over 400 yds with 86%
• For the 1st time in his career, Brady threw for 5 TD’s and 400 yards. He’s 45 years old!!!
• The Bills have scored 35 pts in 4 straight games, only 2nd time in team history. This on top of their crazy defense stats.
• The Bills also have a 100 point, point differential through 5 games, which is only the 9th time ever. They have outscored their last 4 opponents 156-41
• Lions are 1st team in NFL history to lose 2 games by a 50+ yard FG on the final play of regulation
• The Colts were 120-0 when leading by 16 points in the 4th quarter
• In the Chargers Browns shootout, they had 403 combined yards in the 4th Quarter alone!!! The Chargers scored 26 points in the 4th, and had a combined 41 points in the 4th quarter.

Packers Bengals play by play:

After the Bengals tied the game at 22. Possessions looked like this

GB- Missed FG

CIN- Missed FG

GB- Missed FG

CIN- Interception

GB- Missed FG

CIN- Missed FG

GB- Game winning FG

Chargers Browns Play by Play:

This game looked a bit different, here’s the 4th quarter alone!

CLE- Punt

LAC- TD

CLE- TD

LAC- TD

CLE- TD

LAC- TD

CLE- Punt

LAC- TD

For the Record:

• How in the hell are the Bears 3-2 right now?
• Sheesh, how many times are the Vikings going to make grown men cry this season, at least it wasn’t Vikings fans this time
• Urban Meyer will be fired after Sunday’s game, mark my words
  
  

Greatest QB list?

So I was looking at the career of Emmanuel Sanders, and the number of top notch QB’s he’s played with. Sanders has been on teams with Ben Roethlisberger (2 Super Bowl wins), Peyton Manning (2 Super Bowl wins), then Jimmy Garropolo but it was their Super Bowl year, then Drew Brees (1 Super Bowl but tons of records) and now Josh Allen who is an up and coming star. You almost feel bad for the guys like Calvin Johnson, you can only imagine what his career could have looked like with a better QB (or lets face it, Stafford is proving it was more of the organization).

Gruden:

Here are my thoughts on Gruden. I think Adam Schefter summed it up perfectly, he may have survived the first email about DeMaurice Smith, but the subsequent emails essentially offended every group out there. The NFL literally has “End Racism” painted in every endzone, and there’s essentially no way the NFL could have justified keeping him on after what was released. I’m sure Gruden was offered to either resign or be fired. I think the question came into play due to the fact he wasn’t an NFL employee when the emails were sent, if he was on a team I don’t think he would have made it until Monday. On a further note, I think the email scandal will finally lead to Dan Snyder being out as owner of the Redskins. It will take time, but this will be the catalyst.

Memes of the Week:

Great games:

• The Packers/49ers game was awesome. Seeing Garrapolo drive the length of the field to score with just 37 seconds left, and then with no timeouts having Aaron Rodgers go 42 yards in 2 plays and Crosby kick a 51 yard FG for the win, instant classic!

• The Chargers upseting the Chiefs was also a great game. Justin Herbert is shining this year.

• Seeing any major record fall is fun, but seeing Justin Tucker boot a FG that broke the record by 2 yards, for the win, as time expired? Chills. 66 yards is the new record to beat

• Also, the Cardinals had a chance to beat the FG record by 4 yards! They tried a 68 yard FG, it came up short, and the Jags returned it for an NFL Record (tying) 109 yard TD.

Stats of the Week

• Lamar Jackson is currently leading the league in yards per completion and yards per carry, which has never been done before in NFL history.
• The Browns had 9 sacks on Sunday, with Myles Garret getting half of them at 4 1/2 sacks
• Cooper Kupp is on pace for a 2000 yard season
• Matthew Stafford had only one 3-0 start in 12 years with the Lions
• Patrick Mahomes had never thrown an interception in September prior to this year. Now he has 3
• The 3 teams with the most turnovers this year are the Jets, the Jaguars and the Chiefs
• Joe Burrow threw 3 TD’s on just 14 completions
• Justin Fields was sacked 9 times for -67 yards. He had 68 yards passing, meaning the Bears had 1 net passing yard

For the Record

• The Broncos are 3-0, but their three opponents are a combined 0-9
• The Chiefs are 1 botched punt away from being 0-3
• The Buccaneers were on a 10 game win streak
• In a 4 day span, the Bears went from “Andy Dalton is our starter” to “Justin’s Fields is starting” to “all 3 QB’s are under consideration”
• If he wasn’t already, that 66 yard FG just put Justin Tucker into the Hall of Fame.
• Ben Roethlisberger is doneski, last year for sure. He looks terrible out there.
• Out of the Bengals, Panthers, Broncos or Raiders, which is the 1st team to prove they’re “pretenders?” Tough to tell, but with the 7th playoff team, they essentially can go 6-8 the rest of the way and likely be in.
• The Ravens were losing, faced a 4th and 19 from their own 16 yard line with less than 30 seconds left in the game; they won.

Crazy Coach Career
Brandon Staley (I didn’t know who he was either and had to look him up) is the head coach of the Chargers at a wee 38 years old. Glancing on how he got here, he had quite the career progression. Just 9 years ago he was a Graduate assistant at Tennessee. Then went to D3 football as a Defensive coordinator, D1 for 1 year, D3 for 2 more years (all defensive coordinator). Then jumped to the Bears outside linebackers coach, same role with the Broncos, Defensive Coordinator for the Rams, Head Coach for the Chargers. My point is this, 2 years ago he was an outside linebackers coach, and 5 years ago he was a coordinator at the D3 level. That’s insane!

C’Mon Man

• Davante Adams had about the fastest cleared concussion protocol since that was implemented. Seemed like he was in and out in 2 minutes. Also, how do the refs not throw a flag on that play, but a Packer swatted Garrapolo’s back and gets a roughing the passer.

• Eli’s double middle fingers are what this country needed right now, ESPN shouldn’t have made him apologize. One of the funniest screenshots I’ve seen in a long time.

• A ref in the Cardinals game threw a flag, which actually hit the ball from an incoming punt, and made the player fumble. Couldn’t do that again if he tried.

Quote of the Week
“You take you a deuce, you don’t sit there and look at it, you flush it and move on. We gonna flush it and move on.” -Jalen Hurts in perhaps the most eloquent way ever to say you’re moving on from a loss.

Game of the Week/Century:
Obviously it’s the return of Tom Brady to New England. Ironically he is going to break the all time passing yard mark back home (you have to think the NFL planned that). Expect a standing ovation. The storylines are abound for this game, but unfortunately I would expect it to be “over” by the 2nd quarter with the Bucs trouncing Mac Jones and the Patriots

Memes of the (2) Weeks!