Gulp. Great first half by the Bengals and a bad showing by the patchwork Packers offensive line had me worried, but some big stops in the second half and overtime and some a vintage Rodgers throw gets the Pack the win. It wasn’t pretty, but it’s a win.
Other thoughts on the week:
Is Cam Newton done? I will forever believe he didn’t earn the MVP he got in 2015 (only one non-QB has won in the last 10 years, so of course the QB of a 15-1 team wins it), and I’m not really a fan of his personality, but man, he has not looked good the last two years. When he has to be a passer, it’s not great for the Panthers.
I do so love watching the most overrated QB’s of our generation (Eli, Joe Flacco, and Jay Cutler) struggling so much. There was a lot of bad QB play his week. It happens when rookies (Kizer and Watson) or young, inexperienced QB’s (Siemian) are starting, but a lot of QB’s had a rough week.
Jordan Howard, Kendall Hunt, Chris Jones, Khalil Mack, and others sure make watching football fun.
The NFC North and the AFC West are going to be a dog fight every week it looks like.
Did Sherman even make contact with Mariota? On the replay, it look like he might have made contact with his arm, but otherwise the entire hit was on his own teammate.
I thought Kizer would improve significantly after facing off against the Steelers and Ravens defense to start the season, but meh. He was both better and worse than his stat line. The third interception was a meaningless hail mary interception, so he only really had two meaningful ones, but he could’ve thrown 2 or 3 more if the defenders had been a little more on the ball. On the other hand his receivers dropped 8 balls and generally weren’t playing a very good game so he could’ve looked a lot better with competant receiving.
His pocket awareness still needs a lot of work, he’s actually too risk averse as a runner (most rookies will get themselves killed if they’re used to running regularly, but Kizer actually plays it safe too often), and worst, his accuracy just isn’t there. He keeps throwing balls off by a couple of feet turning what could be a nice, open throw into something that bounces at a receiver’s feet or sails just out of their reach. Worst is that he has plays where he inexplicably throws behind a receiver and those are almost always picks in the NFL.
Not seeing a lot of progress so far, but being thrown into the fire at 21 without any good receivers is a pretty big challenge. I wish that they had a competant veteran going into the season so he could’ve sat for 8 games, but Osweiler was so terrible that they didn’t even have that option.
The NFL has finally made their London breakthrough that they’ve wanted after playing all those useless London games: BBC sport and Sky news are covering the national anthem protests. Nothing about the games themselves, however.
The Lions get screwed by the rules again. The game ending call that had the runner come up short was correct, but I disagree with the principle of the 10 second runoff. Why should a team be penalized for committing the sin of having a close call within the last 10 seconds of a game?
The Bears got totally screwed on that call that claimed Cohen ran out of bounds on that amazing TD run. Luckily it didn’t cost them the game and they beat the Stoolers anyway.
Because if the play had run as it should (with no stopping the clock to do the review and the Lions had no more timeouts), they never could have lined up and ran a play in the remaining time. Imagine you’re the Falcons and you fight off the Lions comeback, making a huge stop just short of the goalline for the win … yet the Lions, again who had used all their timeouts, get a free one and the chance to run another play to beat you. That’s not fair at all.
As mentioned, first win agaiunst the Bengals for Aaron Rodgers who has now won against every other team.
To me it was more interesting that it was also his first overtime win
Let’s say the play was ruled short of the goal. The Lions would have rushed to the line and probably would not have had a chance to get the snap. But they had a theoretical chance. With the runoff, no such chance. I just dislike runoffs on principle. The clock runs when it does normally, in my book.
I was starting to wonder if I would be allowed to add some spices to my crow. 90 degrees at kickoff, Rodgers throws only his second pick 6 of his career, and the Bengals are up 14 at halftime. The last ten minutes was a thing of beauty, and it was nice to see the defense NOT shit the bed in overtime. Fun fact - Rodgers hasn’t touched the ball in OT in the playoffs since his first season.
Talk about a complete reversal of everything I think I know.
8 seconds, with everyone standing right there? Stafford gets that play off.
Is it just the games I’ve watched this year, but is O line play really bad this year? Or are there a bunch of really good pass rushers right now? Seems like every QB is running for his life.
So far, the Bears have shown that they have two very good running backs and a decent front seven on defense. If only they had a young, dynamic quarterback who could really spark their throwing game.
The Bengals really killed themselves, though. The kicker we kept (Bullock)over the guy we drafted with a fifth round pick, sent to the practice squad and got scooped by the Eagles (Elliot, whom then made a franchise record 61 yard walkoff for the Iggles) simply CAN’T kick the ball out of bounds like he did in the second half and give the Packers a shorter field and a quick score. You CAN’T miss a 48 yard FG that probably would have won the game instead of OT.
Andy Dalton CAN’T miss a wide open Brandon Lafell in the endzone like that. That was a TD lost. Mixon, you CAN’T slip and fall on a CRUCIAL 3rd and 1 and force the punt.
This type of second half play is so typical of Marvin Lewis and the Bengals. Just piss victories away like water.
