I do love to see Sean Payton not only lose, but lose and have his hand-picked team suck on offense.
Let’s not go crazy.
Patriots played not to lose and a dumb sack by Brissett hurt badly.The sack made the field goal a lot longer (blocked). They had 4th and one on the O/T drive (punt) - big powerful backs and frankly, they aren’t challenging for a playoff berth unless they start going for it with your strength. Come on Mayo, you preached power and conditioning in camp - put it to use.
Chiefs survive 26-25 on a last-second 51-yard FG by Mr. Reliable, Harrison Butker. KC’s last drive was kept alive by a 4th-down DPI on the Bengals. (Which was the correct call, BTW).
Bengals once again start 0-2.
The Patriots were widely picked to “win” the #1 pick. The fact that they have won a game and lost a close second is practically a miracle.
Some very interesting observations on kicking so far this season, in this article (gift link below) from the Washington Post:
A completely unrelated question about football. Often when a player is tackled or cuts to change direction, you see a very dark powdery-like substance kicked up. I suppose this could be very dry dirt, but I’m not sure. You see this in baseball as well in the outfield, I certainly don’t see anything like this in any lawns I know.
Any idea what it is?
It’s tiny balls of black rubber. It provides a bit of cushion to the surface. Also works to help see when someone’s feet touch the ground, incidentally.
Crumb rubber, used for cushioning like dirt in modern artificial turf systems.
I was low key rooting for the Bengals just because they were the underdogs, but yes that DPI was correct. The defender, in his zeal to get to the ball, interfered with the receiver before the ball arrived to the extent of shoving his head down toward the ground so he couldn’t even look at the ball as it was arriving. That was pretty clearly interference.
It may not have been intentional; it looked like the defender was doing it incidentally as part of the attempt to get to the ball, but that doesn’t matter. It was interference.
Saints have scored more points in the opening 2 weeks than all but one team in the last 50 years. That one team? The '09 Saints, who won the Super Bowl that season.
The old adage about DPI, “you’re not allowed to climb up the receiver’s back to make a play on the ball”, still holds.
There was no “climbing”; his hands never touched the receiver (they were up in the air trying to get the ball), but he did smack into the back of the receiver with his body as he leapt. It looked like what pushed the receiver’s head down was the defender’s chest. Anyone can see what happened in slow motion from the video in RGIII’s tweet:
I also like how RGIII put it:
you can’t run through a guys back before the ball gets there and complain when they throw a flag.
That’s basically what it looked like to me. This wasn’t your typical DPI where a defender grabbed or tripped the receiver, but regardless of how he interfered, he interfered.
Just to add a footnote to the DPI call:
Earlier in the game, the Chiefs’ Trent McDuffie was flagged for DPI, which I originally thought was the correct call. However, the replay (and Tony Romo) pointed out that Bengals receiver Ja’marr Chase clearly pulled McDuffie into him as both were going down at the sideline. Probably a no-call, or maybe OPI, but clearly not DPI. Bengals eventually got a field goal, which they probably would have converted without the penalty.
The video is in this link.
It could have made a good Aussie Rules mark, but in America, that’s interference.
After week 1, the Washington Commanders fired their kicker and brought on Austin Siebert for a try-out.
He made the team.
Siebert kicked seven field goals, including a last second game winner, and accounted for all of Washington’s 21 points. The record is eight, btw. I couldn’t determine if a team has ever scored all its 21 points on FGs. Be an interesting record to set.
The rest of the offense was still iffy. No TD’s, lots of penalties
I watched this just now and there was plenty of contact before both players went down. As I unerstand it, pass interference can happen any time while the ball is in the air, not just in the split second before a catch. Perhaps the flag was thrown based on contact by McDuffie a few steps before they both went out of bounds.
In addition to the record of 8 field goals in a game, and yesterday’s game, there have been five other instances of a kicker converting 7 field goals in a game. In two of those games, those field goals accounted for all 21 points scored by the kicker’s team. Interestingly, one of the other 3 games resulted in an overtime win by the kicker’s team. The final score was 23-21, and the game ended on a safety when a punt was blocked out of the end zone. (November 5, 1989, Vikings 23, Rams 21)
My middle former home team, and my old/new home team. No, wasn’t impressed by either effort.
Yeah, I think the competition committee may have to consider narrowing the posts at this point. I like field goals (note Dallas’ kicker got cheated out of tying the all-time record of 66 last week when they didn’t get the snap off in time-it still went through), but this is getting pretty ridiculous.
I’ve pondered why kicking accuracy has gone so stratospheric. The usual suspects:
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Field conditions are now MUCH better than they used to be-not only are fields much better maintained, the demise of the multipurpose donuts means no kicking from baseball infields anymore either
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Everyone in the 3 person kicking chain does endless reps from the start of preseason onward (and likely in the offseason)
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All 3 are also specialists and do nothing but said jobs (ok usually the holder is also the punter), while in the old days they would typically play another position
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The demise of the straight-on kickers, natch
The thing is tho, you’d think coaches would have realized all of the bullet points there in the middle MUCH earlier. The straight-on guys went extinct by the early/mid 80’s (oddly, the only kicker to win MVP was the last one, Mark Moseley), and even the best soccer guys were still only hitting 70% at that point.
Note the last time they felt the need to dial the kicking game back was 1974 when they moved the posts to the end line.
You list some very valid points. Another factor of the superior field conditions is the marked improvements in artificial turf. 15 of the 30 NFL stadiums have such turf. Additionally, there are 10 stadiums that are either roofed or domed, which certainly cuts down on the natural elements, such as wind and rain.
Still, though, anymore, a 50-yard FG is hardly uncommon. And that used to be considered to be somewhat of a herculean effort.
The pool of kickers has also exploded and thus the competition for kicking spots is VERY strong now. Here is the 1977 Super Bowl on YT. The Raiders chose a kicker, Fred Steinfort (soccer style), to replace the retiring George Blanda, but he got injured and they got Errol Mann (straight-on) from the Lions.
He attempted 3 field goals, missed 1, but also missed 2 extra points. If you scroll to the kicks in the video (game log for your convenience), every single one looks like a dying duck in flight. He was only 8 for 21 in the regular season (both teams), and 6/9 in the postseason, tho his career % wasn’t too bad for his era (64%). There’s NO WAY a guy that pathetic would even get a phone call or a second look in today’s environment, much less remain as the kicker to the end of the playoffs for a Super Bowl contender like the Raiders.