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FMQB: 26 Years of Mikes!

Posted by fmquarterback on December 7, 2018
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FMQB: 26 Years of Mikes

We’re down to the final 4 weeks of the season, which means….dun dun dun, my favorite website of all time is back up! http://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

 

Play around with it, and compare to my predictions below.

 

Week 13 Highlights:

 

  • Lamar Jackson is the last rookie 1st round QB to start, but he’s 3-0
  • The Broncos are getting hot at the right time
  • Cardinals over Packers in Lambeau? McCarthy deserved to get fired just for that
  • Crazy last play for the Bills. Guy was wide open, how do you miss that throw. I mean WIDE open, nobody within 15 yards of him in the endzone
  • The Panthers are getting cold at the wrong time, have dropped 4 straight and still have to play the Saints twice to end the season
  • How do the Colts win 5 in a row, and then put up 0 against the Jags?
  • The Chargers comeback was insane

 

 

Stat of the Week:

Phillip Rivers tied Peyton Manning with the most comebacks of 16 points or more. Both now have 7

 

Stat of the Week #2:

In their last 8 games, the Colts were averaging 33.1 points per game. They put up 0 on Sunday, against a team they scored 29 on 3 weeks prior

 

Stat of the Week #3:

Aaron Donald is 6 sacks short of tying the all time record. He has 4 games to do it. He’s on pace to be a half sack short.

 

Stat of the Week #4:

If/When the Patriots clinch their division, they will be the only team in the 4 majors to do so in 10 straight seasons; the other being the Atlanta Braves

 

Stat of the Week #5:

The stat line does enough justice. Derrick Henry: 17 carries, 238 yards, 4 TD’s, and 14 yards per carry. Became the 2nd person ever with a 99 yard TD run.

 

Stat of the Week #6:

Coming into Sunday’s game, the Steelers were 174-0-1 when leading by 16 points.

 

Stat of the Week #7:

 

 

The Situation:

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about Kareem Hunt, the breaking news that came out literally minutes before I published last week’s article. I credit the Chiefs over the NFL in this situation. I think the NFL truly botched this one, and if it wasn’t for the video then Hunt would still be playing in the league. They didn’t even interview Kareem or the woman in question, it feels like they turned the other cheek. Credit the Chiefs on this one, it’s incredibly hard to straight up CUT a superstar, especially when you’re on a Super Bowl run. And they technically cut him for lying to them, not even the abuse. So kudos to them, that’s a hard business decision but the right one.

 

Mike Mike Mike:

Do we think the new Packer’s head coach will be another Mike? Their last 3 have been Mike McCarthy, Mike Sherman, and Mike Holmgrenn. That’s 26 years of Mikes!

 

Quick Hits:

  • Still can’t get over the Packers losing to the warmest of warm weather teams, at home, in December.
  • Mike McCarthy being fired was a foregone conclusion, but still crazy to me that a guy who took a team to the playoffs 9 out of 11 seasons isn’t good enough?
  • Laughed at the fact that Tom Brady FINALLY hit 1000 career rushing yards on the dot, and was afraid to kneel and lose a yard, so he awkwardly knelt forward to end the game.
  • The final field goal in the Chargers Steelers game was nuts. 3 straight offsides flags. First kick was wide right, but offsides. Second kick was blocked, but offsides. Third kick was made, but also offsides.
  • Crazy call for the Bears to have 1 play left with 3 seconds in the game, at the 1 yard line and down by 7. They put the ball in the hands of their RB to throw a pass, and converted!

 

 

FMQB’s Playoff Machine Predictions:

 

Whoah! Tennessee? Seattle? And Vikings? It looks like the AFC is actually more exciting than the NFC despite what it looks like now. I had the Broncos, Ravens and Titans all jumping into the 6th spot as I played around.

 

Meme’s of the Week:

 

 

 

 

I want to preface this last one, letting you know how wrong I know it is. However I did that “it’s offensive but I’m laughing” uncontrollably thing when I first saw it, so sorry in advance if you’re offended. (watch Facebook pick this as the cover photo)

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Friday Morning Quarterback: 54 to 51

Posted by fmquarterback on November 22, 2018
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FMQB: 54 to 51

Special early edition of FMQB! I traditionally do an earlier Thanksgiving one so on can avoid family for 10 minutes. I mean, so I can talk about Thursday’s games next week… Before we get to the best regular season game of all time (trust me I could have written the entire column on that game), let’s look at the rest of the week.

 

Week 11 Highlights:

  • If there was any doubt in the Bear’s division lead, I think they proved they meant to be there on Sunday
  • The Chargers actually had the best record in the NFL dating back to mid-season last year. And they lost to the Broncos at home…
  • The Jags looked like the team of old for the first 50 minutes of that game. The comeback was pretty sweet, game winning score with 4 seconds left.
  • Yikes, Alex Smith’s injury was brutal. Feel terrible for the guy. There goes the Redskins chances this year.
  • Because…wow, Dallas. They’ve found their groove, and it’s handing it off to Zeke. The fact that wasn’t happening the first 6 games is a bit disturbing.
  • The Saints demolished the Eagles, it was the worst loss for a defending Super Bowl champ

 

Stat of the Week:

Lamar Jackson had 27 Carries for 117 yards. He ran the ball 8 more times than he threw it! 27 carries was 5 more than the most QB carries in the past 60 years.

 

Stat of the Week #2:

Todd Gurley already has a 1000 yd season. By next week, Patrick Mahomes will likely be at 4000 yards

 

Stat of the Week #3:

The Ravens rushed the ball 54 times! Versus 19 passing attempts. What is this, 1967?

 

Stat of the Week #4:

Saints have scored 45+ points in 3 straight games, becoming the first team ever to do so

 

Colts Stats of the Week #5:

In Indy’s last 5 games have put up 34, 37, 42, 29 and 38 points. They started the season 1-5 and have rattled of 4 straight wins. Their last loss they gave up 42 against the lowly Jets. Andrew Luck has also had 7 straight games with 3+ TD passes.

 

Stat of the Week #6:

The Bears franchise record for most 300 yard passing games in a season is only 4. Mitch Trubisky has tied that record through the first 10 weeks.

 

Stat of the Week #7:

Aaron Donald leads the NFL in sacks, and is nearly on pace to match the single season sack record, and yet faces a double-team on 72% of snaps played.

 

Most Overused Stat of the Week:

Alex Smith’s gruesome leg injury happened 33 years to the day of Joe Theismann’s career ending sack by Lawrence Taylor. The result of that game was also 23-21.

 

 

For the Record:

  • Not a fan of the Riverboat Ron call to go for 2. That’s more of a desperation move if you’re 3-6 and need to win out to make the playoffs. The Panthers were outplaying the Lions and they’ll need wins to stay in the wild card hunt.
  • In back to back games, Derek Carr has made two huge mental mistakes. Last week he threw the ball away on 4th down, and this week got a penalty for calling back to back timeouts.
  • Bucs are struggling, but they only show up in the 4th quarter. They have had 4 games now where they’ve scored at least 14 points in the 4th quarter to pull within a possession but lose. Games against PIT, ATL, CIN, and NYG.
  • Believe it or not, I’m giving the division to the Cowboys. The Redskins are likely going to fall apart. Philly is a shell of what it was last year. And the Cowboys end the season playing the Bucs and Giants.
  • The Titans have taken out both AFC Championship teams from last year (NE and JAX) as well as the Super Bowl Champ Eagles, but have lost to the Bills, Dolphins, and Colts.

 

 

Stat/Quote of the Week:

The Over/Under for Rams and Chiefs was 63.5 points. It was the highest over/under since 1986. My first reaction literally was “holy crap that was a long time ago!” Only to realize it was the year I was born, boo…

 

Best Regular Season Game of all time:

For the rest of the column, we’re talking about one game. But OH what a game! Somehow Monday night’s matchup surpassed the huge expectations. It felt like a Super Bowl. It has been hyped for 5 weeks, and the crowd was electric. It was a pure back and forth, and even when defense stepped in, they were scoring TD’s as well.

 

Notable Stats:

  • There were 1001 total yards
  • Teams combined for 105 points, which is 3rd most all time
  • It was the first time in NFL history that both teams scored 50 points
  • Mahomes became first QB to throw 6 TD passes and have 5 turnovers
  • Rams Samson Ebukam was first ever with a sack, interception, and 2 TD’s.
  • The Chiefs are the first team in NFL history to score 50 points and lose. In every other game, teams that scored 50+ were 216-0.
  • Jared Goff had never thrown a go-ahead TD in the last 10 minutes of the 4th quarter. He did it twice on Monday
  • The Rams and Chiefs combined for 14 TD’s on Monday night football. Through 10 games, the Bills have only scored 13 all season (8 of which came in their two wins against MIN and NYJ).
  • Last week, the Buccaneers recorded more yards (501) than the Rams did on Monday night (455), but the Bucs scored 51 less points than the Rams.
  • Despite a whopping 7 TD’s, somehow Todd Gurley’s 13 game TD streak was snapped
  • There were 4 lead changes in the 4th quarter
  • Surprisingly there were 7 punts, but they scored so quickly that each team had the ball 15 times in the game (30 total possessions). That’s insane! It averages less than 4 minutes per possession.
  • From 1970-2017, only 3 teams made it through a season averaging 35+ points. So far in 2018 alone, 3 teams are averaging 35 pts.

I know the recency of this game is why people are overreacting, but I’m also having trouble not arguing that this was the greatest NFL game ever played. My only hesitation is the very first point is “well a playoff game or Super Bowl actually means something.” And I fully agree, but here’s my problem with that. Look at some of the greatest Super Bowls, and many are either low scoring, or only BECAME great because of a single play. I’m talking the helmet catch, Kevin Dyson’s tackle at the 1, or Malcolm Butler’s interception in the endzone. But the games themselves could be considered “boring.” The Helmet Catch game featured only 31 points scored, with 8 Punts and 4 turnovers, it was 7-3 going into the 4th quarter. You could easily put Falcons vs. Patriots in that sentence, but it’s essentially a 1 sided game; the first 3 quarters was all ATL with NE struggling, and the 4th and OT was the opposite. Hell of a comeback, but greatest overall game is hard to argue with only one side dominating each segment. The back and forth between the Chiefs and Rams with nearly a score every possession was riveting.

 

Proof it’s the Best Game Ever:

Awesome article by ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. He ranks the top 10 and has criteria on which games he chose. http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25328333/2018-nfl-los-angeles-rams-win-kansas-city-chiefs-was-greatest-regular-season-win-ever

 

For the Record #2:

My DVR records any Rams game that’s on TV. It’s sitting in my DVR, I may just have to watch it again

 

Quote of the Week:

“They’re not the reason the game’s in primetime, we are!” Kirk Cousins…

 

Quote of the Week #2:

“He’s putting Father Time in a chokehold and giving it a noogie!” NFL Network analyst about Frank Gore

 

Quote of the Week #3:

“God, if you are a football fan, please please PLEASE make Super Bowl LIII the Rams and Chiefs” FMQB

 

Question of the Week 4:

I found it a bit surprising that the announcers talked for 15 minutes about the wildfires in California, then cut to the first responders on the field for the national anthem, and then proceeded to light off a crap ton of fireworks and light a giant torch…

 

Memes of the Week:

 

 

 

 

Quota Met:

Turducken, there

FMQB: Tripped on the 41 yard line

Posted by fmquarterback on November 16, 2018
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FMQB: Tripped on the 41 yard line

Week 10 Highlights:

  • Shocked is an understatement, to see the Cowboys beat the Eagles at home.
  • Shocked for a 2nd time to see not only the Patriots lose to the Titans, but get demolished
  • Shocked for a 3rd time to turn on the 2nd half of 49ers vs. Giants and actually watch a very good game!
  • The Rams’ emotions are going to lose them some games, almost did on Sunday
  • Dang Cleveland!
  • Dang Matt Barkley!

 

Stat of the Week:

The Bucs became the 2nd team ever to have over 500 yards of offense, but only rack up 3 points

 

Stat of the Week #2:

We’re through Week 10, and Patrick Mahomes already has the team record for most Passing TD’s in a season. Pretty surprised that none of the Trent Green or Montana years had more.

 

Stat of the Week #3:

Larry Fitzgerald now #2 on receiving yards list. Only 6,943 away from Rice’s record

 

Stat of the Week #4:

We’re through week 10, and Aaron Donald just hit a career high number of sacks in a season at 12.5

 

Stolen Stat of the Week #5:

42 QB’s have started games this season in the NFL. In regards to passer rating, the 3 QB’s the Bills have started rank 40th, 41st, and 42nd.

 

Stat of the Week #6:

The Bengals became the first team to allow 500+ yards in 3 straight games

 

Stat of the Week #7:

Stat of the Week #8:

Brady and Jerry Rice are now the only players in NFL history to catch a pass at 41 years old

 

Bonus Pics:

 

For the Record:

  • RGIII was the only QB to practice on Thursday. OOOOOOOOO
  • Jacksonville went from AFC Championship, to 1st in the Division by Week 3, to now alone in last place after 6 straight losses.
  • You have one of the Greatest QB’s of all time, and punt on 4th and 2 with 4 minutes left in the game and 1 timeout? I think that’s the play that pushed me over the edge in agreeing Mike McCarthy should be fired this season
  • Falcons, Eagles and Packers are on their last breath. Another loss will kill any playoff chances
  • Ezekial Elliot went off on Sunday, holy cow!
  • Dude, LeVeon Bell, what are you doing? You’re 27 for a position with a short shelf life, and pass up $14.5M this year?

 

New RB trend:

Back in the day, you’d hand the ball off to Shawn Alexander or Larry Johnson 25+ times a game. Which made it easy to rack up 100 yards if you maintain even a normal average. The new trend I’m seeing is RB’s getting like 8-12 carries a game, but still racking up some pretty crazy yards. For example, Todd Gurley had only 16 carries but 120 yards, Mark Ingram had 13 for 104 yards, Aaron Jones 15 for 145. These are like 8-10 yards per carry games, and I’ve been seeing more and more of this. Watch for this trend this week.

 

Total Domination:

The Steelers possession results vs. the Panthers were touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, half ends; touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, starters leave game.

 

Quick Hits:

  • Bears K Cody Parkey hit the upright 4 TIMES on Sunday! If you had told a pro to do that, you couldn’t replicate that again
  • Loved coach Vrabel calling the same play that Brady screwed up, Brady was wide open and somehow tripped over the 41 yard line
  • There are more and more trick plays this year. I think I mentioned this last week, but literally every week now!
  • Moving MNF from Mexico City to LA was the right call. Very embarrassing for the league, and embarrassing for Mexico City, but the right call
  • Sean Payton destroyed a fire alarm because it was annoying. That’s the kind of coach the NFL needs!
  • Patrick Mahomes puts Ketchup on steak. And yes, this is what we’re reporting nowadays.

 

Quote of the Week:

“I wanted to see if ours looked any better than theirs” Mike Vrabel, on why he called an identical trick play that didn’t work for the Pats

 

Quote of the Week #2:

“When I woke up this morning, I was feeling dangerous” Baker Mayfield

 

Memes of the Week:

 

FMQB: The End to Brock-Tober :(

Posted by fmquarterback on October 26, 2018
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Most recent Week here: https://fmquarterback.com/2018/11/09/fmqb-hill-has-the-runs-and-it-tyreeks/

FMQB: The end to Brock-tober ☹

Week 7 Highlights:

  • Panthers are quiet this year, but beating the defending champs on the road after being down by 17 in the 4th quarter is pretty special
  • I like the call by Vrabel going for 2 and going for the win in London after scoring a TD in the waning seconds. Not so much the execution, they had 2 shots at it due to a penalty. Roll Mariotta out and have him run it if nobody’s open
  • Aaron Donald went off on Sunday with 4 sacks!
  • The Bears Hail Mary down to the 1 yard line was the most exciting play of the year
  • Wow the Jags have fallen quickly. Blake Bortles looked awful Sunday against a very winnable game

 

Stat of the Week #1:

Patrick Mahomes, 22 TD passes is the most for a player’s first 8 starts ever

 

Stat of the Week #1:

After having no 100 yard rusher in the past 5 seasons, the Lions have 2 through 6 games this year.

 

Stat of the Week #1:

Odell Beckham Jr. is the fastest player to 5,000 receiving yards.

 

Stolen Stat of the Week #1:

In the first three quarters at Philadelphia, Cam Newton was 9-of-17 for 68 yards. In the fourth quarter Newton was 16-of-22 for 201 yards and two touchdowns.

 

Stolen Stat of the Week #1:

Until Sunday, Justin Tucker went 40-40 on PAT’s in High school, 71-71 in college, and 245-245 in the pros.

 

Stat of the Week #1:

Chandler Catanzaro missed an extra point, missed a 30 yard FG in the 4th, but nailed a 59 yarder to win the game in OT

 

Stat of the Week #1:

The Saints were 4 for 5 on 4th down conversions on Sunday, including one in the 4th quarter where a FG would have tied the game, or a failed conversion would have left them trailing.

 

Stat of the Week #1:

The fact that somebody has 4 blocked punts in 2 seasons should not be underappreciated!

 

Stat of the Week #1:

Patriots have scored 38 pts in 4 straight games, that has only happened 4 other times in last 20 years

 

For the Record:

  • Eagles vs. Jaguars LOOKED like a good London matchup, but both teams have struggled. It will be the 24th game played in London, and not 1 has offered 2 teams with winning records.
  • The fact that Justin Tucker can miss an extra point means the longer extra point is working. It’s not a gimme anymore and makes the play more exciting.
  • Blake Bortles was benched for Cody Kessler, who once went 0-8 with the Browns
  • There’s a lot of controversy in the Cowboys penalty, but fact of the matter is, the center is clearly moving the ball. I don’t care if that’s how he’s done it for years, that’s a penalty.
  • The Browns have 4 overtime games through only 7 weeks
  • Coming into Sunday, the Titans hadn’t scored a TD in 2 games. Which is also why I like the call to try to win the game right there.

 

Record Watch:

  • The Eagles and Jaguars; teams in last year’s Championship games, are 3-4 this year
  • The Bears could easily be 6-0 right now, with heartbreaking losses to the Packers in Week 1, Dolphins in OT last week, and both turnovers and 1 yard separated a win last Sunday.
  • After starting 0-3, the Texans are in 1st in their division after winning 5 in a row.
  • If the Playoffs started today, the Steelers would host a playoff game despite having 3 wins, while the Chargers would play on the road with 5 wins.
  • The Steelers, with a BYE, went from 3rd to 1st in their division despite both the Bengals and Ravens having 4 wins to Pittsburgh’s 3.

 

Sequence of the Week:

Vikings CB Xavier Rhodes went down with an injury. As rookie CB Holton Hill came in, the announcers said “This is a great time to attack the rookie, watch for Darnold to throw that direction.” Throw he did, and Hill got the first interception of his career.

 

Surprise ages:

Doesn’t it seem like Odell Beckham Jr. and Amari Cooper have been in the league for several seasons? Odell is in his 5th season, but is only 25 years old. Cooper is in his 4th, and is only 24. That’s nuts to think they both could have another decade in them!

 

Arrest of the Week:

The Broncos just released their backup QB Chad Kelly (nephew of hall of fame QB Jim Kelly) after his criminal trespass charge. The homeowner also beat him with a vacuum cleaner tube. Can’t make this stuff up!

 

Games of the Week:

Saints at Vikings: Should be an awesome offensive matchup, Minneapolis Miracle part 2?

Packers at Rams: Could be an early playoff preview

Browns at Steelers: I’m praying for another tie

 

 

 

Memes: