FMQB

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!

I’m Back for Year 11!!!! Seems like a lifetime ago I started this, it can be tough to keep up on but I can’t seem to stay away. I’m going to attempt to do more condensed versions of FMQB this year to stay on top of things, but of course there’s always issues to talk through.

Maybe Brady was Right:

I laughed when Brady poo-poo’d the new NFL rule that basically said any jersey number was fair game, instead of your typical “RB’s can wear jersey numbers 20-39,” etc. He thought it would be tough for offenses/defenses to differentiate players, and we all laughed and laughed and laughed. Then of course, game one, an RB wearing number 7 got tackled by a CB wearing number 7, and it’s just weird. I don’t think I like it either.

Week 1 Recap:

• Dallas played hard, on the road against the Super Bowl champs, and easily could have won
• Matthew Stafford looks like he may have been worth the price the Rams paid
• There were so many doubters of Jalen Hurts coming into the season, he may have shut all of them up with the 34-6 shellacking of Atlanta
• People had the Texans as the worst team in the league. Sure they beat the Jags, but Tyrod is enough to win games
• The Browns had the Chiefs number for the first 50 minutes of that game
• Easily the worst performance of Rodgers career, yikes
• I had doubts on Jameis Winston, but he looked like the Saints will be competitive without Brees

Stats of the Week:

• Tampa Bay became the first NFL team to lose the turnover margin by 3+, have over 100 penalty yards, allow more than 450 yards of offense, and still win the game
• Jameis Winston had 5 TD’s but only 148 yards passing. Which is the fewest yards for a 5 TD game in NFL history
• Jalen Hurts has more 300 yard passing games in 5 starts (2), than Lamar Jackson has in 38 starts (1)
• Ryan Fitzpatrick has thrown a pass for 9 different teams
• Rookie QB’s wen 0-3, 2nd year QB’s went 4-0
• Matthew Stafford played 165 games for the Lions and never had a passer rating as high as he did on Sunday

For the Record:

• I know everybody has heard this, but Trevor Lawrence had never lost a regular season game in his career. High school or college. Until Week 1
• Only 2 QBs have beaten both Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. Ryan Tannehill and Derek Carr
  

Hold up:

Can we take a second to appreciate how good all of the primetime games have been so far? After years of stinkers on Monday night. Tampa vs. Dallas was a heck of a season opener. The Rams game was over after 20 minutes, but as a Rams fan it was fun! Raiders Ravens may be in game of the year contention. And even last night’s game which should have been a snoozer, had 3 lead changes in the 4th, a missed FG but after an offsides the WFT won instead.

NFC East Garbage:

And I’m not talking about the teams for once! One fan posted a picture of his hot dog that had maggots in his ketchup, YUCK! And then fans at the Red Tails game had an overhead pipe burst that was spewing water onto the fans below. Until someone sniffed their arm and said “It’s raw sewage.” What the heck!
Covid

Hard Knocks:

They announced last night that HBO’s Hard Knocks will be doing an in-season version of the show! This is awesome news, it’s so well done and put together, and the 5 episodes you get each year isn’t enough. Shocked that it took 20 years for this to happen. It’s with the Colts though and doesn’t start until November. So I suppose we’re probably only going to be graced with 5 episodes anyway.

Quote of the Week:

Drew Brees on NBC when going through the Jameis Winston-Deonte Harris deep TD: “I guess apparently this is what the Saints have been missing over those last couple of years. … Let’s launch them baby! Let’s go”

Quote of the Week #2:

Peyton Manning while watching the first snap of the Raiders season

“We’re about to find out what sort of year the Raiders will have this season on this play….6-11!”

Memes of the Week

FMQB: Brady = GOAT

I can’t believe I’m ending the season saying this yet again, but Brady is going out on top. To go to a brand new team and skip the rebuilding phase and go straight to a Super Bowl title is rare if not non-existent as it is, but for a 43 year old QB to do it is insane. It’s safe to say that Brady wasn’t just a system QB in NE, that it was due to him and his leadership that brought in 6 (and now 7) Championships. I’m done fighting it, it’s true. Brady is the Greatest of All Time.

Super Bowl LV:

The game wasn’t even close, the Bucs defense held Mahomes’ offense without a TD. That had never happened in his entire high school, college or pro career. That stat alone tells you why the Bucs won, but here are a few key observations.

• The Chiefs goal line stand in 2^nd was insane, that seemed like the turning point in the game to me where momentum could shift. Instead of 14-3 or 10-3, it was still a 4 point game.
• In the 2^nd quarter again, momentum shifted. Brady was picked off but it came back due to a flag on a non-involved player. Then they settled for a FG, but KC lined up offsides so TB got a 3^rd chance and ended up scoring a TD. There’s another 7 point swing that could have changed th tide if the original pick had stayed.
• Like in the Packer game, Brady led the Bucs to a last second first half TD. The Chiefs calling timeouts in anticipation of getting the ball back with time. Ending up punting, the Bucs went 71 yards in 55 seconds. 2 Huge Pass Interference calls helped, one in the endzone to put the ball at the 1.
• The game really came down to something as simple as the Chiefs’ offensive line injuries and issues. Mahomes was running for his life the entire game
• Gronk really didn’t seem to do a lot this season, but turned it on in this game for 2 TD’s. His first, where he slipped on his side of the line of scrimmage for an open TD was interesting, that’s a Run blocking move. He said he’s done that move a thousand times in his career, and never for a pass play.
• The game proved that no matter how good a player is, he needs a team to carry him. The 4^th down play where he scrambled and threw while horizontal to the ground hit his receiver in the endzone in the hands! It was one of the best throws I’ve ever seen, and all for nought.
• As Tyreek Hill torched Tampa in the first game and threw up the peace sign and then backflipped in front of Antione Winfield Jr., it’s hard to get mad at Winfield returning the favor and taking the penalty.

Stats of the Week:

• Mahomes ran for 496 yards before throwing or being sacked
• For the 1^st time in his 10 Super Bowl appearances, Brady scored a TD in the 1^st
• Gronk became the 1^st player with a Reception in at least 5 Super Bowls
• 14 of the last 20 Super Bowls have had either Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, and Manning has been retired for 5 years
• Tom Brady has 21 TD’s and over 3000 yards passing. In his Super Bowl career!!!
• Jason Pierre Paul is 8-0 in the playoffs
• Tom Brady has more Super Bowls than any franchise, more than the Pats and the Steelers. He also has more Super Bowls than 18 Franchises combined
• In the Super Bowl, Tom Brady is 1-0 against the AFC, 3-0 against the NFC West, 2-0 against the NFC South, and 1-3 against the NFC East.
• Only 3 QB’s have ever thrown 50 passing TD’s in a season, and all 3 were in the stadium Sunday. Brady and Mahomes were on the field, and Manning in the stands.
• LeSean McCoy has more Super Bowl rings than Rodgers and Brees, and has never played a snap in either game
  
  
  

For the Record:

• Say what you want about Brady, but he went through Brees, Rodgers and Mahomes to win the Super Bowl this year. Hardly a fluke
• Budweiser “we’re not going to advertise in the Super Bowl this year and donate that money to vaccine awareness.” Also Budweiser “Have you tried these 17 versions of our fruity seltzer, or our light beer?”
• That might have been the first time we’ve seen Brady drunk. The first time I saw the video of him throwing the Lombardi trophy from one boat to the other I held my breath, that thing would have sunk like an anchor!
• Not saying it means anything, but for the record, female ref Sarah Thomas does have a son named Brady…
  
  

Memes:

The day is finally here! In such a weird season and a weird year, we’ve actually made it to a normal day, Super Bowl Sunday, with hardly any issues.

The matchup is huge, Mahomes vs. Brady! If you have an argument that the NFL isn’t rigged, you might have to sit this year out! Mahomes is seen as the heir apparent to Brady. This game could either be a handing of the torch, or Brady making a statement that he’ll always be the best. You get the feeling that this game will be looked back on as a deciding factor on who will be the best of all time. You look at Jordan vs. LeBron, and the debate that is there. The issue is that they never got a chance to suit up against each other. Now we’ll have a chance to see if Brady can go for his 7^th Super Bowl, or end up 6-3. If he wins, that makes it awful tough for Mahomes to have a chance at catching him, but if he loses, Mahomes is 25 years old and only needs 4 more to catch him.

Homefield?

Interesting that the first Super Bowl in NFL History where a team gets to play on their homefield, is the year of COVID where Bucs fans can’t necessarily pack the stands to give them an edge. Perhaps only the travel helps here.

Stat of the Week:

Tom Brady has 33 playoff victories, which is more than double Joe Montana in 2^nd place, with 16

Stat of the Week #2:

Brady has appeared in 6 of the last 7 Super Bowls.

Super Bowl Factoids:

• Reid and Arians make up the oldest coaching duo to meet in a Super Bowl
• Brady is the oldest player ever (not just QB) in a Super Bowl
• Mahomes is the youngest QB to start in his 2^nd Super Bowl
• This is the 14^th Super Bowl matchup where the 2 teams met previously in the season. The record of the winning team in the big game? 6-7
• The Super Bowl series is actually tied! 27 AFC, 27 NFC. That’s impressive since the NFC won 13 in a row in the 80’s and 90’s, and 15 of 16 in that timeframe.
• The Bucs are the 4^th team in the past 5 years who will appear in the Super Bowl after missing the playoffs the season before
• This Super Bowl features the winning QB’s of the past 2 Super Bowls

Memes

FMQB: Playoff Recap

I have been so bad about keeping this up during the most exciting time of the year for football fans! But it has been a fun playoff year, couple upsets, a  5 seed winning 3 road games to make the Super Bowl, and a Brady vs. Mahomes matchup. We’ll talk Super Bowl next week, but let’s do our best to discuss an exciting 3 weeks knowing that it won’t do it justice.

Wild Card Round:

• The Bills beat the Colts for their first playoff win in 25 years! Phillip Rivers decided to retire after 1 year as a Colt.
• The Rams shocked the Seahawks with an upset on the road. Backup QB went out in the 1^st quarter, and Jared Goff was able to secure a win with a broken thumb.
• The 7-9 Washington Redtails hung in with the Buccaneers but not enough to win
• Ravens downed the Titans for Lamar Jackson’s first playoff win. He’s now 1-3 in playoff games
• The Saints took down the Bears in a snoozefest, showing why an 8-8 team shouldn’t make the playoffs. However the broadcast on Nickelodeon was awesome! Splashy, slimy, and hopefully worked to get a new generation of football fans in. They also did a really good job of explaining the rules of football without making it cheesy.
• The Browns took down the mighty Steelers on the road by scoring 28 unanswered points in the 1^st quarter.

Record of the Week:

The Buccaneers won their first playoff game in 18 years, the Bills won their first playoff game in 25 years, and the Browns their first playoff win in 26 years! The Browns win was also their first Road playoff victory in 54 years.

Divisional Round:

• The Rams #1 defense was no match for the Packers top Offense which goes against playoff norms.
• The Bills Ravens matchup was a weather game that the Bills easily dominated
• Chiefs Browns ended up being the most exciting game of the weekend. Mahomes went down early, the Browns had an awful fumble-touchback that was the game changer. And Andy Reid running a 4^th down play with Chad Henne to win the game was insane!
• Bucs and Saints was a 3^rd meeting between the 2 teams. Game between the #1 and #2 most Passing TD’s in NFL history will probably never happen again! Brady was barely 50% in the game but still pulled off the win. Also seeing Jameis Winston throw a TD against his old team was pretty hilarious to watch!

Point of the Week:

• We witnessed Drew Brees’ last game. He was emotional on the sidelines, he appeared to tell Jameis “It’s your team now.” He looked back at the crowd on the way into the tunnel, and he and Brady had a moment on the field after the game. End of an era.

Championship Week:

Packers vs Bucs:

Why didn’t Rodgers run the ball in on that 3^rd down play?!?! I think at a minimum he gets to the 1 yard line, better than 50-50 he makes it in. I hate the FG call on 4^th down. They have to score a TD somewhere. Might as well go for the tie there. Worst case scenario, you have the Bucs backed up at their own 5, which forces them to run. They punt and you get the ball at midfield with more shots at the endzone.

You have to ask yourself looking back, when GB drafted Jordan Love in the 1^st round. Does an Antoine Winfield Jr, or Clyde Edwards-Elaire end up pushing them over the top in some way?

Chiefs vs Bills:

Will say I was shocked by the end of 1 to have the Bills up 9-0 against the Chiefs, and seemingly dominating per se on defense. However, we’ve all watched the Chiefs lead playoff comebacks in dramatic fashion last year. And after rattling off 3 straight TD drives and going up by 12, the game almost seemed over at halftime.

Missed Memes

FMQB: Wild Card Weekend

Week 17 Recap:

• The Browns ended the longest NFL playoff drought for their first playoff appearance in 18 years. Then as luck would have it, COVID struck and they’ll be missing their head coach and a handful of players.
• The Dolphins laid an egg on Sunday, but will miss the playoffs at 10-6 while the NFC has an 8-8 and 7-9 team make it. I was fairly convinced that adding a 7^th playoff team, that any team at 9 wins was essentially in.
• The Rams and Cardinals essentially had a “win and you’re in game,” and Murray was out after the first series making this a lousy battle of the backups. In which case defense tends to win. That being said, props to Cardinals QB who went to my alma mater the University of South Dakota! We rarely see players in the limelight.
• The winner of Dallas and NYG would have a shot at the playoffs and it ended up being a pretty crazy ending. The Cowboys made it to the 7 yard line and 1^st and goal, but would throw a pick in the endzone. Looking over, the Giants actually fumbled the ball but were able to recover and win the game.

Eagles Tanking:

The Giants went into Sunday night knowing that if Philly could win, they’d be in the playoffs. Philly was up late in the 2^nd quarter with Jalen Hurts, but inexplicably benched him for the 3^rd string QB Nate Sudfield, who would end the game with a 14.6 QB Rating. A couple points, and I’m not exactly sure where I stand on the issue, although leaning towards purposefully losing is bad football ethics. That being said, the difference between Philly winning and losing is either the 6^th pick or the 9^th pick and no playoff chances, so why not lose? I think it’s more poetic justice rather than purposeful shading that their rival the Giants miss the playoffs because of it.

Titans Texans finish

I only caught the last 2 minutes of this game, but was quite the doozy. There were 7 TD’s in the 2^nd half alone, and 13 points scored in the last 1:42. The win probability flipped 3 times in the last 2 minutes. The AFC South was on the line, and Tennessee was looking at either a 4 seed or 7 seed. The Texans scored with 18 seconds left to take the lead. 1 play later, the Titans were in FG range and nailed a 37 yarder that went off the post to win the game and division, and right to host a playoff game.

Stat of the Week:

Deshaun Watson led the league in passing yards after the team traded away their top receiver

Stat of the Week #2:

The difference between the #1 and #2 RB’s was 470 yards. The difference between #1 and #3 was 858 yards

Stat of the Week #3:

Dak Prescott ended the season with more TD’s than Cam Newton, despite his season ending injury in Week 5.

Stat of the Week #4:

Derek Henry became the 8^th player to amass 2000 yards. He had a 250 yard day, so it sort of snuck up on everybody.

Stat of the Week #5:

The Giants started the season 1-7, and weren’t eliminated from playoff contention until the 256^th game of the season.

Stat of the Week #6:

Stat of the Week #7:

Wild Card Weekend

We’re in for a treat with two triple-headers for playoff season now instead of just 4 games. Here are my picks:

Bills (2) vs. Colts (7)

The Bills are a very scary team this year, with their offense finally catching up to their vaunted defense. I have this as a blowout, Bills 34- Colts 17

Steelers (3) vs. Browns (6)

Last week’s teaser was against number twos for Pittsburgh. I think a rested group takes care of them. Steelers 27- Browns 21

Titans (4) vs. Ravens (5)

This is the biggest toss up in my opinion, and I think it depends on which Lamar Jackson shows up. I think the Titans eek it out 37-27.

Saints (2) vs. Bears (7)

Rematch from earlier in the season, and the Bears hung with them into OT. Different QB. I have this one as not as close, Saints 28, Bears 10.

Seahawks (3) vs. Rams (6)

Will come down to who is QB’ing for the Rams. If it’s Wolford, look for it to turn ugly 6+ sacks and Seattle 35, Rams 6. If it’s Goff, I have it closer, but an unfortunately picking against my team SEA 27, LAR 24.

RedTails (4) vs. Buccaneers (5)

The most likely “upset” this week, I have Brady ramming past Washington 35-17. Chance their D puts up a fight, but hard to see Washington winning this game.

Memes of the Week:

Whew, it was a long haul, but it only took 10 years for us to finally make it to poop jokes! And there will be a lot this week, so if you don’t care for crappy bathroom humor, you can flush off.

A few things we missed:

• In the recent weeks, Joe Flacco passed Joe Montana in passing yardage
• Brian Griese called a Monday Night Football game with Tom Brady as the QB. This is significant because Brady backed up Griese in college. It also seems like Griese retired ages ago, and that’s because he’s been out of the league for 12 years!
• Fantasy football blunder, I lost to a team who was able to put Taysom Hill in as a TE but get all the QB stats. ESPN fixed that glitch the next week
• We had a successful Fumblerooski play for a TD, and I forgot to talk about it!
• The week the Broncos had no QB’s, they actually inquired with the NFL on if they could start one of their coaches who was an ex-QB
• Week 13 points
  • The Raiders hail mary (or the Jets botching of that play) was utterly insane, and Gregg Williams deserved to get fired after calling that play
  • Browns Titans ended up being a good game, but the Browns really took it to them in the 1^st half
  • How to the Giants beat the Seahawks, in Seattle?!?!

Back to Reality:

• Before Sunday’s game, the Saints were 8-0 in the prior 2 seasons without Drew Brees as their QB
• The Steelers started 11-0, and are on a 2 game losing streak
• Wow, Jalen Hurts took the woeful Eagles and beat the NFC leading Saints!’
• Yes, Jon Gruden wore an “Oakland” Raiders hat while in Vegas

Defensive strategy:

This is the first season I’ve really noticed this, but I’ve seen a lot of interceptions (many of which are pick 6s) that are stemming from Cornerbacks who are on another receiver. They jump the route, leaving their man wide open. It seems to be working pretty efficiently, and is taking QB’s quite by surprise. Would be curious to see the INT stats compared to other years, because I’m sure I’ve seen 8 or 9 of these just in casual watching.

Browns Ravens, Game of the Year:

Before we get into the poop jokes, the Ravens game was truly the game of the year. 35 points were scored in the 4^th quarter, the Browns came back from being down by 14 and there were 3 lead changes after that, and in the last 6:00, the win probability shifted teams 7 times! Jackson went down (more on that to come, hehe) and it looked like the Browns were going to run away with it. Especially when the Ravens Backup went down! Then Lamar magically returned the very next play and led them to a TD.

“Cramps”

What everybody is talking about is QB Lamar Jackson mysteriously left the game in the 4^th quarter of Monday night’s game. Commentators said he was cramping, which everybody thought was a leg, but makes sense now. Jackson is denying it, but I’ve seen that run to the locker room before (hell, I’ve DONE that run). The fastest QB in the league went from streaking on the field to streaking to the toilet, went from running the ball to having the runs, and went from beating the Browns to the Browns taking him down. I love how RGIII, his backup, is making fun of him about it. Jackson went from wanting the Super Bowl to needing the toilet bowl! Gives a new meaning to doing squats.

Playoff Machine is Back!

Play around with it http://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs/machine , here’s what I get:

AFC:

1. KC
2. BUF
3. PIT
4. TEN
5. CLE
6. IND
7. BAL

*Notes: Miami misses at 10-6, KC holds a 7 game division lead, NE misses the playoffs for the first time in 18 years, Jets go winless

NFC:

1. GB
2. NO
3. SEA
4. WAS
5. LAR
6. TB
7. ARI

*Notes: Was gets to .500, SEA takes the NFC West,

Memes of the Week:

FMQB: Since You’ve Been Gone

Sorry for the hiatus (somebody actually noticed, woohoo!), but I’m back in action!

*Cue Kelly Clarkson music*

Since You’ve Been Gone:

We’ve missed a rockin 5 weeks of the NFL season, including:

• The Bengals knocking off the 5-1 Titans
• Tua starting, winning, then hurting
• The Bears going from 5-1 to 5-6
• The Ravens going from 5-1 to 6-5
• The Vikings have gone from 1-5 to 5-6
• Dez Bryant is back in the league, so is Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon
• Alex Smith back at QB, and having his team leading the division
• Joe Burrow’s catastrophic injury
• The Matt Patricia era is officially over
• DeAndre Hopkins had one of the more insane hail mary catches against 3 defenders

Week 12 Quick Hits:

• Panthers at Vikings ended up being one of the more exciting final few minutes of the week. Panthers had a 95% chance to win at the 2 minute warning
• How do the Raiders beat the Chiefs one week, and get obliterated by the Falcons this week
• In the race no team wants to win, 1 game separates 1^st and last place in the NFC East. It’s the Giants now, but all 4 teams have held a share of the lead at somepoint in the season.

For the Record:

• Nathan Peterman consistently had games where he threw more picks than the Practice Squad WR did for the Broncos on Sunday
• The Chargers loss on Sunday was the first game in 11 where the difference was by more than one score.

Most 2020 Week of the NFL:

This week, we had a Wednesday afternoon football game. It was Wednesday afternoon so NBC could broadcast the lighting of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree that night. RGIII was throwing passes to Dez Bryant. And we had a WR start at QB for a different team.

Stat of the Week:

The Broncos and Saints combined for 75 yards passing, and ran the ball 77 times vs. 25 passes.

Stat of the Week #2:

Panthers defensive Rookie Jeremy Chinn scored his 1^st NFL TD on Sunday. He scored his 2^nd a mere 10 seconds later

Stat of the Week #3:

There were more positive COVID tests in the past 3 weeks (172) than the NFL had in their first 3 months (168).

Stat of the Week #4:

Tom Brady is 2^nd in the league in passing yards, 4^th in TD passes, but also 2^nd in INT’s.

Stat of the Week #5:

Despite playing 6 ½ fewer games, Dak Prescott still has more passing TD’s than Daniel Jones

Stat of the Week #6:

Dwayne Haskins, in 4 games, has thrown the same amount of TD passes that Cam Newton has thrown all year.

COVID update:

Ravens/Steelers

I’ve heard about 4 different reasonings, but I still don’t understand why the Broncos were told “Play Sunday or you forfeit” while the Ravens were told “let’s postpone, postpone again, and postpone a 3^rd time and play on a day the NFL has never played on before so you get healthy.” I also think the Steelers have a legitimate reason to be upset with how this played out. Keep in mind, the same thing happened with them and the Titans earlier this year. The Steelers have essentially been punished twice now, due to the fact that a different team can’t figure out its stuff.

Broncos/Saints

All 4 QB’s were in the same film room, maskless, and 1 tested positive making all of them ineligible to play. If anybody comes back to read these in the future, I want a reminder that the Broncos had 4 QB’s who couldn’t play, so they signed a practice squad WR to play at QB. He was the only QB to complete a pass, he went 1 for 9 for 13 yards, 2 INT’s. A 0.0 rating and a 0.1 QBR.

Undefeated watch!

The Steelers have a legitimate chance to go undefeated this year after starting 11-0. Granted they are blessed with one of the easier schedules I’ve ever seen, and had injury/covid situations help them out.

Remaining Schedule:

Relatively tough final slog, but very winnable games at the same time. They finish with the RedTails (likely win), Bills (tougher), Bengals (easy win), Colts (tougher), and Browns (eh?).

Barely Here:

THAT being said, and it’s really hard to look at an 11-0 team as not even top 2 in their conference, but they’ve BARELY won some games, including ones that should have been fairly easy. 1 Score wins against the Broncos, Texans, Eagles, Cowboys, and a decimated Ravens team. They have played 4 games against teams with winning records (Ravens, Ravens, Browns, and Titans).

Quote of the Week:

“I felt bad for the cardboard fans” Sean Payton, after coaching his own backup QB against a practice squad WR at QB

Memes of the Week:

Catching up a bit here as well