Man! I really wanted to pick the Dolphins for the upset in pick’em, but I picked a bunch of other upsets already.
And, the Dolphins gave up a “butt-punt” safety against the Bills, when their punter, Thomas Morestead, punting from the back of his end zone, hit the punt directly into the backside of one of his blockers, who had backpedaled too far; the deflected punt went out of the back of the end zone for the safety.
That was awful! Watching that too and I yelled for a punt. But if you look at all the points the Lions scored so far, the NFC north is still up for grabs.
The Packers barely held off the Bucs, giving up a last-minute touchdown pass to Tom Brady, but deflecting his pass on a two-point conversion attempt, which would have tied the game. Aaron Rodgers threw touchdown passes on their first two drives, but the offense then did little for the rest of the game (which has felt like a recurring theme the past few seasons).
The Bears won on a last-second field goal, thanks to their defense, and backup running back Khalil Herbert (157 yards rushing); starting RB David Montgomery left early with a leg injury, and QB Justin Fields was again ineffective (eight completions, two interceptions, and five sacks).
Last week, the Eagles played about as good a first half as I’ve seen from them in a long time against Minnesota. They were even better in the first half this week. Just utterly dominant. The Eagles gave up -16 net passing yards. They had 6 sacks and forced 2 fumbles. 0 points given up. They scored 24 with 3 passing TDs and had over 300 yards of offense. It was Washington, granted, but good teams dominate the bad teams. That’s step one.
But for the second week they sat on the lead, got extremely conservative, and did basically nothing in the second half. I don’t know that this is how you learn to win, and it isn’t like they are resting their starters. Next week’s game suddenly looks like a surprise litmus test
This is one of the more interesting endgame scenarios. It’s fairly similar to the end of the Packers-Steelers Super Bowl, although there Green Bay had 4th and goal.
The really strange thing is that having the extra 3 points actually seems to be bad. I remember the analysis around that Super Bowl decision: teams getting the ball in their own end, down 3, around 2 minutes left, win about 20% of the time. Teams in the same situation, but down 6, win about 25% of the time. Teams further behind seem to do better! The suggested explanation was that teams down 3 play too conservatively, so being down 6 instead makes them play the more optimal strategy.
Jimmy G steps out of the back of the endzone for a safety. He cracks me up.
Plus, we get the very rare 7-5 score.
This season’s broadcast schedule is pissing me off. In seasons past, we could watch both “local” teams (Indianapolis and Cincinnati) on two different channels. Cincinnati would be on the Fox affiliate , and Indianapolis on CBS.
So far this season, CBS has been showing the Cincinnati games, and I haven’t been able to watch a single Colts game. I don’t know if this is because Cincinnati did so well last season, or some other factor is driving it. I haven’t found a way to watch Indy play, except for on my phone, and I can cast it to my TV, but takes away my playing with my phone during commercials or any downtime, plus any connection issues that may affect things.
I think I like watching Kyle Shanahan lose.
I thought we were going to get a scorigami here; turns out, the Steelers and Chargers had an 11-10 game in 2008. Oh well.
Yep, although that one shouldn’t have happened. The Steelers scored a touchdown on the last play that was incorrectly ruled out.
The Eagles 24-8 win over the Commanders was also only the second time that score has occurred.
Watching the Bills OC lose it, is a true demonstration of the passion of frustrated gamesmanship.
Me too but I think it’s because I like seeing the 9ers lose.
That was one of the most disastrous plays I think I’ve ever seen. Jimmy gives himself a self-safety, which is something that still haunts Dan Orlovsky. So he’ll never live that down. Then, even though it didn’t count, he threw a pick-six. Then, the team’s best player on offense gets hurt. All on the same play.
I thought Trey Lance would sabotage the 49ers chances to contend in a shitty conference this year. A lot of people assumed that when he went down, the “backup” would actually improve their chances to contend. It looks like he has not improved anything, in any sense
Yeah, Campbell’s Lions are really schizoid about this. I’ve complained in the past about how they seem to force it on 4th down too much, and they did go for it on 4th down several times yesterday and it paid off. But if there ever was a time and place to go for it on 4th, that was it. Or punt, anything but attempt a long FG that doesn’t do much for them even if they got it.
But it’s the defense that really needs to step it up. The Lion’s offense are actually putting up pretty good numbers. Look at game 1- if you score 35 points you should be putting up a W.
I view the Lions’ capacity for self-destruction with both wonder and dread. How, I ask, can you be habitually worse than us year after year after year? That is a monumental accomplishment, believe me.
the Lions do have an amazing capacity for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory time after time, year after year. They had what, a 13 point lead at the half yesterday? And last week’s game against Washington, yes, the Lions managed to squeak out a win there, but they were 22-0 at the half and let the Commandos claw their way back to a tie in the third. I cannot remember the last Lions game I watched that was enough of a blowout for them that I wasn’t on the edge of my seat, biting my nails late in the game.
With streaming we get every Dolphins game. New deal for me and the wife, and this is the year for it!
Miami definitely has momentum going against the Bengals.
So, I don’t know if anyone else noticed this or if it was just me… I was watching the Chiefs - Colts game on CBS yesterday, and something just didn’t look right. I felt like I was watching an “NFL Films” film rather than a live game. The picture wasn’t video-sharp, it had that film-like fuzziness and the motion was kind of blurry. I found it very distracting.
I had to run to the grocery store at halftime. By the time I got back, the second half had started and everything looked back to normal.