To be fair to the Lions, they should not be 0-6. And I’m enjoying them going all-out early with a recovered onside kick and a successful fake punt in just the first quarter. Get that win, Detroit.
It’s been intentional; Jags owner Shad Khan has been willing to give up home games in Jacksonville in favor of playing in London.
I really appreciate what the Lions are doing. People are often very bad intuitively with strategy, they want to lose by the least rather than maximize their chances to win. If the situation suggests that following a normal game script will almost certainly result in a loss (because the other team is better than you), why not throw out an unusual game script? Raise the variance, try to make the unusual happen, because making the usual happen does not favor you.
The reason coaches refuse to do this relates to my post in last week’s thread about the diffusion of blame and avoiding criticism. It’s not exactly the same situation, but it’s the same principle. If a coach had a choice between winning 5% of the time but trying to keep it relatively close and having a “respectable” loss that wouldn’t draw much criticism, or a a chance to win 20% of the time, but when you lose you suffer an embarasingly large loss with lots of unusual decisions that leave you open for criticism, NFL coaches would take the former almost every time even though the latter increases their chance to win by 4x. Both because their goal is to avoid blame, and because people are really very intuitively bad at strategy and mistake less painful losses as being the best strategy for trying to win when it is often not.
Is there a mercy rule in the NFL? Bears might look into it.
Lions pulled off another fake punt, amazing. I really really hope they win this one.
Oh I forgot to answer your question last week about Baker. I think Baker is better than he is perceived - he was much better last year and is clearly suffering effects from his injuries this year. And I want him to be the Browns QB going forward. But paying him as a top QB would be unwise. He’s not going to single handedly carry a team a team without support, and when you give a QB a ridiculous salary you’re crippling your ability to keep those other components. There are a few - maybe 3-4 QBs around the NFL that are worth that much to their team, but I don’t think Baker is one. So I would like to sign him long term at something like $25-30m, and if he won’t take that… I’m not sure what I’d do. Browns fans have suffered for 20 years with absolute garbage at QB, just endless suck and pain and I wouldn’t want to go back to that just to save 5-10% of the cap, so I might end up supporting signing him for too much money if that’s the only option.
Maybe he’ll end up having to get surgery and sit out the year, and Case will do pretty alright with a well-built team. That might influence him to take a good but not top tier salary. That might end up being the most ideal outcome long term.
Could Mayfield be an Eli?
A strong case could have been made that Eli wasn’t worth the largest contract in history at the time he signed it (am I remembering that right?), but then he delivered two Superbowls. He and a star-studded defense that wasn’t crippled by his record-setting contract. (Also in no small part by the very good offensive line that largely stayed intact from 2004 to 2013, and which the Giants have still never rebuilt since.)
I gotta be honest, I see the Browns as a legit good team that Mayfield could legitimately lead to a championship or two. Their recipe for success travels.
I think I might pay him.
The Lion-Rams game is surprisingly fun. The Lions are using their entire playbook and I’m really enjoying the commentary of Mark Sanchez.
TB up 35-3 near the end of the third quarter, and they go for it on 4th and goal from the 1-foot line. Just kick the field goal, don’t be jerks.
Nice to see them get stuffed.
Could that be a low risk opportunity to practice that play against real opposition, which may be critical in later games?
Okay I’m a big Brady fan, and even I thought that was unsporting.
- It’s not peewee football, there’s no mercy rule. We don’t need to protect the feelings of professionals.
- Going for it on fourth actually gives the other team a chance to stop them from scoring. Taking the field goal there is almost guaranteed to put up points and run up the lead.
I’m not saying you go easy or put out less than 100% effort. But I think going for 7 in that case is a jerk move.
I guess even if it was low risk opportunity to try something for real, it is kind of saying you view the opposition as something marginally better than a strenuous practice.
I didnt see it as I am watching the Houston’s give the Cardinals a tough run for their money.
Which in Texans terms mean we have some single digit points on the board as the opposition runs off into the sunset.
Sam Darnold seems to have returned to Sam Darnold-ess.
Justin Field’s was an accurate, athletic, excellent college QB. He, like pretty much every college QB since Andrew Luck, was not prepared to play in the NFL. By continuing to throw him out there with that bad Oline, those pass catchers (except Allen Robinson who, for some inexplicable reason Fields isn’t throwing to) and that bad play calling, the Bears are ruining a potentially very good QB. It’s really a shame.
Except it’s the Bears. They can’t have nice things.
I’m assuming you mean in the QB’s rookie season?
Kicking the field goal is the jerk move in that spot. You can’t just kneel down because that’s borderline disrespectful. You don’t throw a pass because you’re not trying to run up the score. You run it up the gut and give them a fair shot to stop you. That’s the traditionally accepted sporting thing to do.
EDIT: Actually, end of the third is kind of early for this line of thinking. I was thinking more like 10 minutes left in the game.
Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a new Worst Pass Ever, thanks to Carson Wentz.
I came here to ask (as a very casual football watcher) WTH happened to Carson Wentz.