I was half-watching ESPN this morning (no audio, just closed captioning) and I believe I saw one of the analysts call the Eagles offensive scheme “high school level”.
It’s not like San Francisco dominated them. The Niners won by 4 points. If you want to see a team absolutely handled on Wild Card weekend, watch what the Patriots did to the Chargers. That’s a game that should be demoralizing. Philly came up short but I think they showed why they were the 3 seed.
The defense just wrecked Justin Herbert. I’m surprised he escaped injury in that game. There was one time the officials missed what should have been a roughing penalty from forcible contact to his helmet, but otherwise those were clean hits from a punishing pass rush.
And I have to say, Maye might be careless at times, but the guy is fun to watch. I told my wife I was rooting for the Patriots because I am a fan of Maye, and also I like watching Jim Harbaugh lose.
I told my wife, “I’m as torn as Kittle’s Achilles.” Because I like him a lot and hate him being hurt, but I’m also glad the Seahawks won’t be facing him next weekend.
The idea that he might not even be able to play next year sucks. Sometimes there are players on rival teams I like despite the rivalry. Kittle is one of those guys, just like how I loved Larry Fitzgerald back in the day. You can’t not like guys like that.
One thing about attending a game, you hear a lot of nonsense. The guys behind us were complaining about all the blitzes because sometimes they didn’t work, but it was clear they were working, just sometimes the Chargers had play calls going the right way…but their OL was truly awful, and the blitzes were protecting the Pats DBs from long balls, and it was clear that sooner or later he was going to get clocked hard.
Yup! A pressure doesn’t have to end in a sack to be successful. Sometimes it forces the QB to abandon the initial plan. It can prevent a long route from developing. And if you keep it up, it has a cumulative effect on an offense. The only time you can complain is when a team is taking advantage every time, by exploiting soft coverage with too many rushers. I don’t remember that being the case with the Chargers though. And you can’t complain too much when you sack their guy 6 times. (Even one case where there were back-to-back sacks on two plays, which is a total drive-killer.)
Well, my favorite teams are the Bears, Niners and Steelers, so I had a good NFL weekend and am hoping for the trifecta. In any case, the Steelers are going to be a very distant third in my heart as long as they have Aaron Rodgers on the payroll, so tonight is the least important.
(Of course, I’m also an Oregon fan, and by extension a Justin Herbert fan, so it wasn’t a great weekend by any means 
)
People in general are too results-oriented but this is especially true of sports fans. If something works, then obviously it was smart and the right decision, but if it fails, then it was the dumbest decision ever and we should fire the coach! The reality is that football is a lot more random and probabilistic than people think.
Even about teams that win and lose – they act as though the result of one game is the definitive unmistakeable proof that one football team is clearly and thoroughly better than the other, when in reality a lot of close matchups can be like 52/48 and if they played the same game a thousand times over with slightly different random factors like wind gusts and fumble bounces or when a player lets his attention lapse for half a second, it could go either way.
That is so true. If analytics strongly recommend a punt but you go for it and succeed, what a genius for going against conventional wisdom! If you fail, you are an idiot for not doing the obvious thing, and now you’ve just given up favorable field position to the opponent.
I think every play comes down to strategy, execution, and luck. They are all a factor. The smartest plan will fail if a guy runs the wrong route, or the center snaps the ball poorly, or somebody misses a key block, or anyone draws a penalty. Players can run things perfectly, but can slip on wet turf, or a defender makes a ridiculously athletic move to get penetration, or you just step wrong to get hurt or get a cramp or whatever.
Basically:
It keeps football exciting, but also really sucks sometimes. Flukes happen so often that you question what a fluke is anymore.
A similar game to last night. Close at the half, and neither team able to get on a roll. And cold and windy!
Thanks for kind respectful comments about SF; what surprises me is your guy Richard Sherman seems to talk more about Niners–he only played 2-3 years with us–than Seahawks where he made his bones
I mean the kickers that make 50-65 FG regularly yet miss 35-40 XP surprises me
um, this is last game of 2026, and he will miss the 2027 season
You’re off by a year. These playoffs are part of the 2025 season (it’s only January 12th, 2026), and the next regular season will be the 2026 season.
As I said in another thread recently: kicking is weird. (And I say that as a football fan who has been a particular student of the kicking game for over 40 years.)
This season, the overall league success rate on XPs was 95.9%. In other words, on average, a kicker is missing an XP on one out of 20 tries. XP accuracy in the league has consistently been around 95% since they moved the scrimmage line for an XP back to the 15 yard line (making an XP a 33 yard kick) in 2015.
This season, nine different kickers successfully made at least one field goal of 60+ yards. Of those, only two of them (Minnesota’s Will Reichard and Blake Grupe, who played for both New Orleans and Indianapolis) were perfect on XPs; Cincinnati’s Evan McPherson made 89% of his field goals (including a 63 yarder), but also missed three XPs.
In the case of the Packers’ Brandon McManus (who missed two FGs and an XP on Saturday), he was an instant solution to the Packers’ kicking woes last year, and has a very strong leg (and was very accurate in '24), but he hasn’t been the same player this year. He missed three games after suffering an injury to the quadriceps muscle in his kicking leg in early October, but he’s been inaccurate all year, even before the injury: including the playoff game, he missed eight field goals this season (only a 75% success rate), and also missed two XPs.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?? Discouse!
The old man is getting his ass kicked, and I am here to enjoy it.
This game is to Aaron Rodgers’ career what the debate was to Joe Biden’s.
Aikman talking about Rodgers’ advanced age is icing on the cake.
Next week Texans at New England is going to be a battle. Two great defenses.
Indeed. I might consider going to that one too.
My wife commented that Rodgers retired in the middle of the 4th quarter.