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FMQB: The Miracle in Miami

Posted by fmquarterback on December 14, 2018
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FMQB: The Miracle in Miami

What an absolutely crazy and insane weekend in the NFL! This by far had the most upsets, surprises, crazy plays, and it kept going with last night’s last minute Chargers win!

 

Week 14 Highlights:

 

  • Patrick Mahomes continues to be magical. His 4th and 9 conversion throwing across his body was nuts, he’s the only QB who can complete that throw 39 yards while running to the opposite direction. And of course his no look pass (which you NEVER see in the NFL) was a part of his repertoire that Safety’s should be fearing.
  • Amari Cooper had one of the most electric 4th quarters and Overtimes for one player that I’ve ever seen. His game winning catch after being tipped by the defender for a walkoff TD, superb!
  • The Bears defense will be scary in the playoffs, they just shut the Rams down with zero touchdowns
  • Panthers have lost 5 straight now, Cowboys have won 5 in a row
  • Utterly shocked to see that the Giants had scored 34 points by halftime
  • Colts upsetting the Texans at home leaves the door open for their playoff push and possibly the division!
  • Quick note about Thursday’s game. Holy cow San Diego (yes San Diego), scored 15 points in the last 4 minutes of the game. LOVE the call to go for 2 for the win or loss. You’re on the road, against the best team in the AFC and it’s a MUST win to try to get a home playoff game. Going for 2 has been a 60% conversion this season. Going into OT, the Chiefs likely have a slight edge. Way to play the odds. THAT is when you go for 2, not week 4.

 

Upsets:

Take a look at these upsets from last week:

  • Raiders over Steelers
  • 49ers over Broncos
  • Colts over Texans
  • Dolphins over Patriots
  • Bears over Rams
  • Browns over Panthers
  • And NEARLY Ravens over Chiefs

 

Stat of the Week:

Aaron Rodgers set the new record for most pass attempts without an Interception. With as much flak as he’s gotten for poor play, when you look at the stats it doesn’t support that. He has 22 TD’s and 1 INT

 

Stat of the Week #2:

The Browns have the same number of wins in 1 month (at 3-2) as Hugh Jackson had in 2 ½ years (3-36-1)

 

Stat of the Week #3:

Amari Cooper first person ever with 3 go ahead TDS in the 4th and OT

 

Stat of the Week #4:

Brady is 25-2 on the road in December, but against the Dolphins in December, he’s 1-6

 

Stat of the Week #5:

Baker Mayfield is the 3rd QB in NFL history with a TD in his first 10 games. The other two are Marino and Warner

 

Stat of the Week #6:

Sunday was Sean McVay’s 29th game as a head coach, and only the first time the Rams didn’t score a TD

 

Stat of the Week #7:

TE George Kittle set the franchise record for the 49ers (yes, beating Rice, Taylor, Owens, and other greats) with 210 yards receiving. Oh, I forgot to mention, he had the record by halftime

 

Stat of the Week #8:

Quiz time, guess which QB has the most rushing yards in a 3 game span, and just demolished Michael Vick’s record of 294 yards during that span? Cam Newton? Nope. Lamar Jackson has to be it now! Nope again. Josh Allen!!! And he has the record by 39 yards

 

Stolen Stat of the Week #9:

Since holding a 4th quarter lead over the Patriots in last years AFC Championship game, the Jaguars are 4-10.

 

Stolen Stat of the Week #10:

I’m nervous about Jared Goff. In his last 2 games, he’s completing 48% with 1 TD and 5 INT’s

 

 

The Miracle in Miami:

Hands down play of the year, which is why 1 play is getting it’s own section. There are so many things to talk about! First off, the Patriots absolutely blew basic situational football at the end of both halves which just never happens. Brady took a sack and the clock ran out in the first half, and then the Pats defense was not ready for the hook and lateral. For as good of a coach Belichick is, why the hell was Gronkowski on the field for the final play? There’s no QB in the league that could have made that throw, especially since most Hail Mary’s are thrown way behind the line of scrimmage anyway, so 75 yards by Ryan Tannehill? Never going to happen! Apparently on the Patriots radio broadcast, after the play happened there was 35 seconds of silence haha! For the record, “The Miracle in Miami” already has it’s own Wikipedia page.

 

 

QB Change:

Fairly surprised that Lamar Jackson remaining the starter over a healthy Joe Flacco. Although he’s 3-1 and almost beat the Chiefs at home. But other than his rushing, his stats are pretty mediocre. Jackson is completing 58% of passes and 4 TD’s to 3 INT’s. Bold move, especially for a team that is holding the 6 seed with 3 other teams tied with them.

 

AFC Shakeup?:

  • There is mathematically a scenario where the Browns still win the AFC North! And the Steelers’ next 2 games are against the Patriots and Saints! Buckle up!
  • Although also not likely, the Dolphins have a shot at dethroning the Patriots as well. They would have to win out and have the Pats lose 2 of 3.
  • The Colts can win the South under the same scenario
  • And the Chargers can beat the Chiefs if they win on Thursday (did they win last night) and win 1 more than KC the rest of the way.

 

 

Giants and Packers:

So, truth be told these crazy scenarios never work out. HOWEVER! There are 2 very likely scenarios, in which the Packers could still make it in, as well as the Giants who started 1-7. Because this isn’t “the Cardinals need to beat the Rams and it happens” type of scenario, they’re all realistic, I feel compelled to bring it up.

 

Packers: Of course the Packers need to win out, but they’ve already beaten the Bears, and the Jets and Lions should be doable. THEN, they need the Redskins to lose 1 game (with a 3rd string QB, they’ll probably lose all 3), the Panthers to lose 1 game (they’ve dropped 5 in a row), and the Vikings lose 2 of their last 3.

 

Giants: Also need to win out. BUT, they play the Titans, Indianapolis, and a Dallas team that will likely be resting. Tough, but very doable. Then, they need the Vikings to lose twice, Packers lose one, Panthers lose two, Eagles lose 2, and Redskins lose 2. And looking at the schedule, those are VERY possible.

 

 

Quote of the Week:

“So whoever’s watching that in New York should stay off the bottle”- Malcolm Jenkins. Haha, while funny, he should expect to be writing a check to the league very soon!

 

Games of the Week:

Packers at Bears

Cowboys at Colts

Patriots at Steelers

 

Memes of the Week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by fmquarterback on October 27, 2017
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FMQB:

 

Roller Coaster:

Even though they are division rivals, I feel just terrible for the Cardinals. I know every fan base minus maybe the Patriots has the “woe is me” approach, but the Cardinals can definitely be up there. They’ve had YEARS of mediocrity, never in the playoffs but too good for the #1 pick. All of a sudden they get Kurt Warner, and have a Super Bowl win locked down only to have heartbreak happen. They’ve been solid since, but have lost several playoff games. They finally get Adrian Peterson, who absolutely goes off in his resurgence. Enough so that Larry Fitz was talking about the “rings” they would have had if AP had been there the whole time. Flash forward 1 week, Palmer gets hurt and is out for the season, Bruce Arians (a coaching genius) is talking about not returning, and AP regresses to Saints-like numbers. They were a playoff caliber team as of last week, and it looks like they’ll lock up pick #8 again.

 

Stat of the Week:

Bears CB Eddie Jackson is the first defensive player to have 2 75+ yard defensive return TD’s in a game.

 

Stat of the Week #2:

There are 3 QB’s in the league who have thrown for more INT’s than TD’s this season (looking at at least 75 attempts). Two of them play for Cleveland…Fun fact, I decided to save a stat for next week but didn’t want to re-number all of these. I had to come up with one more stat, which is how I discovered this gem!

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FMQB: A Tale of 2 Quarters

Posted by fmquarterback on October 28, 2016
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week-7

FMQB: A Tale of 2 Quarters

 

Even with 15 games this week, you could have watched a mere 2 quarters and been satisfied with enough football excitement for the week.

 

The first happened in the first quarter of the Vikings vs. Eagles game. What people may not know is that I’m the nerd that sits there watching games and will take notes on my phone for FMQB (the things I do for you people!). I can honestly say in 6 years, I haven’t updated the same note more than watching the turnover-fest that occurred between the 2 teams. By the 2nd turnover, I was thinking “holy crap, these are the 2 teams with the least giveaways in the league and I’ve just seen 2 interceptions thrown in just a few plays!” All you heard about through Week 4 was the fact that Bradford and Wentz (and Prescott) hadn’t turned the ball over at all. Then 3 plays later there was a Fumble and I start freaking out. The VERY NEXT PLAY is another fumble! Then 3 plays later Wentz throws another interception. What the heck is going on here!!! In 4:59, we just watched 5 turnovers happen. It was such a bizarre sequence!

 

The other quarter was the 5th in a sleeper of a Sunday night game. I started watching in the 4th quarter and realized I turned on a 3-0 snoozer. The 4th wasn’t any better, despite the fact that the Seahawks tied it up. And then something amazing happened. Going into OT at 3-3, it was obvious there was zero offense, but all of a sudden the flood gates opened up! The Cardinals got the ball first, and marched down the field with 18 and 20 yard passes, and kicked a field goal. Then the Seahawks did the same, getting 4 first downs on big plays to tie it up again. Then the Cardinals had 27 and 40 yard plays, only to have David Johnson barely get pushed out of bounds at the goal line. Somehow they clanged the FG off the uprights on a 24 yard kick. There was life in Seattle, and after their 31 and 27 yard plays (where was this all game?!?!), Haushka looked like he kicked his 28 yarder after playing dizzy bat! Hands down the most exciting Tie ever.

 

Quote of the Week:

“I’ve been in this league 13 years. I’ve played in more than 200 games, regular season and playoffs. And this is the craziest game I’ve ever played in.” Larry Fitzgerald…Think about that, crazier than the Packers shootout, or last years 2 time hail mary playoff game, or even the Steelers Super Bowl. A TIE was the craziest game he’s played in

 

Headline of the Week:

“Mike Zimmer refutes reports about slaughtering stuffed animals” ESPN Headline. Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. The fact he had to address this in a press conference is even more ridiculous

 

Stat of the Week #1:

Just 2 games into the season, Tom Brady leads the league in passer rating at an astonishing 132.6, leads in completion percentage, yards per attempt, yards per game, and has thrown 8 TD’s and 0 INT’s since his return.

 

Stat of the Week #2:

Tom Brady has the same or more TD passes than Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Carson Wentz, Carson Palmer, Alex Smith, Dak Prescott, and Joe Flacco. Brady has played 2 games.

 

Stat of the Week #3:

Adam Vinatieri, correction, 43 year old Adam Vinatieri hit his NFL record 43rd consecutive Field Goal. He’s also leading the league in scoring, and is 3rd all time for most points in NFL history.

 

Stat of the Week #4:

The Lions have won 3 in a row, and all 3 were 4th quarter comebacks.

 

Stat of the Week #5:

All 7 Lions games have been one score possessions. They have won by 4, 1, 3, and 3 points; and lost by 1, 7, and 3 points.

 

Stat of the Week #6:

The Raiders are now 4-0 on the road. All 4 of which were games played in Eastern Standard Time

 

Stat of the Week #7:

There have only been 2 kickoff returns for TD’s this year, both are by the Eagles and they happened in back to back games

 

Stat of the Week #8:

Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi is just the 4th person with back to back 200 yard rushing games (OJ Simpson, Ricky Williams, and Earl Campbell)

 

Stat of the Week #9:

The Vikings went 318 offensive plays without having a turnover. Plays number 319 and 320 were an Interception and a Fumble

 

Stat of the Week #10:

There had never been a game with an 11-3 score at halftime, in NFL history

 

Stat of the Week #11:

To reiterate how crazy the Sunday night game was, at one point in OT the Cardinals had a 99.6% chance of winning. 3 minutes later, the Seahawks had a 97.3% chance of winning.

 

Stat of the Week #12:

The Seattle defense was on the field for 46:21. That’s over 3 full quarters of play.

 

Ultimate Stat Ever:

That’s out of 15835 games played in NFL History…yes I just did the math, it’s current including Week 8’s Thursday Night game. Whew!

 

Bad News Bears:

  • The running joke in Minnesota is that the Vikings have another bye week. Because they’re playing a Bears team, and not against 6 TD 0 INT Brian Hoyer, but against Jay Cutler
  • A Houston fan set up a Go-Fund me page to buy out Brock Osweiler’s $72M contract
  • The Rams looked just awful. If anybody watched NFL Primetime this week, they did a great job essentially saying that all 4 INT’s were the receiver’s fault and not Case Keenum’s. What Brian Quick was doing on the final play is beyond me.
  • Despite not liking Geno Smith, you gotta feel a little bad for the guy. Lost the starting job due to being sucker punched in the face. Sat for 24 games before finally getting his shot again. AANNDDD torn ACL in the 2nd
  • Homecomings were not kind to both Bradford and Osweiler this week.

 

If the Playoffs Started Today:

  • Please tell me we could have an Oakland at New England rematch!!!! They’re #1 and #2 right now in the AFC.
  • Brock Osweiler would have a chance at redemption, hosting the Broncos
  • San Francisco, Chicago, and Cleveland are battling for the top spot and a top QB. By the looks of it, they all need it.

 

Games of the Week:

Patriots at Bills: Brady is back but on the road against the team that has given them their only loss

Chargers at Broncos: Eliminate all 4 of the Chargers’ terrible losses and they’re undefeated.

Packers at Falcons: Could be a shootout

Eagles at Cowboys: Finally a Primetime game to get excited about!!!

 

 

The Browns are 0-4 since Pryor suggested they could win out. This week against the Jets are their best and perhaps last chance to snag a victory.

FMQB: The return of Manziel, Emmitt Smith, and Deflategate

Posted by fmquarterback on October 21, 2016
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week-6

FMQB: The return of Manziel, Emmitt Smith, and Deflategate

 

Sorry for the nearly all Packers edition of FMQB, that wasn’t intentional. Hoping to bring up a few names or issues you hadn’t heard about in awhile though.

 

Emmitt Smith Re-incarnated:

As a rookie, Ezekiel Elliot is leading the league in rushing. In fact he has a 116 yard lead on the 2nd place guy! He is on pace for a whopping 1875 yards this season. On Sunday, he went the 4th straight game with 130+ yards rushing. Elliot is the only rookie to do that. Not only that, he’s the  only Cowboy to do that! Not even Emmitt Smith or Tony Dorsett had a similar 4 game run. What’s even more impressive is he  just did it against the top rush defense in the league. He’s the most exciting back to enter the league since Adrian Peterson, and by the looks of it, we may be seeing some flashy moves for years to come. Here’s to hoping he can stay out of the dispensaries long enough to break some records.

 

For the Record:

  • The last Browns QB to win a game was Johnny Manziel
  • The Titans have already equaled their Wins from last year
  • Before getting injured, Brian Hoyer threw his 200th pass without an INT
  • Richard Sherman got away with Pass Interference, hands down

 

Stat of the Week #1:

Week 6 featured first kickoff return for TD of the season. The rule is working, whether you like it or not.

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FMQB: Taylor Off-Center

Posted by fmquarterback on October 14, 2016
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week-5

FMQB: Taylor Off-Center

 

Bit of a shorter post this week, but Week 6 has a slew of awesome matchups and hopefully a lot to talk about next week!

 

And Then there was One:

The Broncos and Eagles lost last week, which leaves the Minnesota Vikings as the last undefeated team of the year! Last year we had 5 teams that made it deep into the season at undefeated, so it’s a bit bizarre to only have 1. On the flip side, only the Browns have yet to win a game this year.

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FMQB: Game of the Year

Posted by fmquarterback on January 22, 2016
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Divisional round

Photo Credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

 

 

With all the Wild games from the first week, with road wins and crazy calls, we have a bit of a normal playoff set, with the #1 and #2 seeds facing off in both conferences. Perhaps a bit boring, but we had another great week of games.

 

Race against the Clock:

Despite dominating the Patriots in time of possession, yards, and even first downs, New England held the lead the entire day. The first drive, the Patriots had an 11 play scoring drive. What was telling about this is what has plagued the Patriots recently; all 11 plays were passes, not runs. I’ll get into that later, but the lack of a running game proved to be an issue. The Pats ran 14 times for 38 yards, but Brady was efficient enough to win the game for them. The story of the game however came down to clock management. The Chiefs got the ball back with 6:29, all 3 timeouts but down by 2 TD’s. This is feasibly plenty of time, as you can even take your time and score in 4 minutes, then use your timeouts and get the 2 minute warning. Inexplicably, they get down to the 1 yard line with about 2:53 left, but it takes 5 plays to punch it in and the Chiefs huddle for every one. Their score came at 1:13 left in the game; or 5:16 after they got the ball. That’s inexcusable, and they didn’t even give themselves a chance. In true Patriots fashion, needing one first down, Brady throws it to Gronkowski who tips the ball up and into Julian Edelman’s hands getting the perfect amount of yardage for the first down and the win.

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FMQB: Icing the Kicker

Posted by fmquarterback on January 15, 2016
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Wild Card

Photo credit: NFL.com

 

11 Seconds In:

Wild Card Weekend opened up with a bang! The Chiefs took the opening kickoff back for a TD, and immediately deflated the raucous Houston crowd. Little did we know, we could have turned the TV off 11 seconds into the game. Houston didn’t show up, and turned the ball over 5 times in the game, 2 of which were in the 1st quarter. It was also the first playoff shutout in a decade. A few of Brian Hoyer’s throws were to a wide open Chief, not a Texan in sight. The Chiefs on the other hand looked dominant and played complete football. They’re on 11 straight wins now.

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FMQB: Playoffs? Don’t talk about Playoffs

Posted by fmquarterback on January 8, 2016
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Week 17

Photo credit: NFL.com

 

We’re to playoff time! The season is always fun, but the final 11 games always ramp up the pressure and drama. But first, a few Week 17 notes.

 

Week 17

The Jets controlled their destiny and missed out on the playoffs, losing to nemesis Buffalo with only revenge to play for. Feel bad for Ryan Fitzpatrick, who sort of revitalized his career this year and played solid football, but has never seen the playoffs.

 

Still shocked that the Patriots laid an egg against the Dolphins, and gave up the #1 seed. It’s a good thing that Brady has a BYE, because he looked severely hobbled after the game.

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FMQB: Unstoppable Force meets Immovable Object

Posted by fmquarterback on January 9, 2015
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TerrellSuggs

Wild Card Recap:

 

Slightly anti-climactic week, especially when the “Wild” in Wild Card normally comes into play. The fact that 80% of this section will talk about one game kind of sums up the weekend.

 

Cardinals at Panthers:

You have to be a true fan to like low scoring affairs, but even this one got a little brutal. The Cardinals couldn’t do anything on offense, and the only time they scored was when Carolina made mistakes. The goal line fumble by Arizona, which turned into a TD was about the only exciting part of the game. Cardinals set the record for the lowest offensive yards in playoff history with 78. To be fair, this was after a 19 yard loss due to a lateral fest. I feel bad for the Cardinals, they started 9-1 and seemed to be cruising to the Super Bowl in their home stadium, but my how fast things change.

 

Ravens at Steelers:

This game was closer than the final score eluded to. The Steelers kept showing life, but then the Ravens D would step up with a crucial sack or the crazy Suggs INT catch between the legs. I’ll admit I was proved wrong in thinking they could still run the ball without Bell. But I think Chris Collinsworth put it best in saying “as a defense the first thing you want to do in a playoff game is take away the run, and it’s almost like the Steelers have done that to themselves for the Ravens.” At the end Baltimore pulled away and scored the only road win of the weekend.

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FMQB: Da Raiders

Posted by fmquarterback on November 21, 2014
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DerekCarr

Hail to the Chiefs…well almost:

My initial post about the Chiefs was lauding their great game and defensive performance put up against the Seahawks. And I will still give them props. It was the battle of the stadiums who try to out-do each other with the decibel record, and at least in this matchup the Chiefs won. My idea was quickly banished after seeing the 0-10 Raiders, who were on a 16 game losing streak, take down the team that was tied for 1st in their division. Last night was an awful loss, and they need division wins if they want a shot at taking down Denver.

R-E-L-A-X:

It’s tough to Relax when you in and out of your seat with your team scoring every drive! The Packers have gone off the past two weeks, and scored 50+ points in each game, a first in their franchise’s history. Their defense has also been stout, turning Mark Sanchez into the savior of the future into the Jet we all love and remember. It was kind of a crappy game, but I think the Packers have cemented themselves as the team to beat at the moment, and a team nobody wants to play.

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