Thursday
KC @ OAK
Sunday early
BAL @ MIN
NO @ GB
NYJ @ MIA
CAR @ CHI
ARI @ RAMS
TB @ BUF
JAX @ IND
TEN @ CLE
Sunday late
DAL @ SF
CIN @ PIT
SEA @ NYG
DEN @ LAC
SNF
ATL @ NE
MNF
WAS @ PHI
Didn’t see much of the game due to work, but I did catch the “highlight” of Lynch getting ejected. Can’t really expect anything different when you’re throwing multiple referees around, but what led to it?
The NFL has got to get rid of this mandatory run-off if it’s an official review. And what a ticky-tack call on Crabtree on the fade in the end zone.
Saw it live (on TV).
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A play broke down and Carr kept the ball and made a halfhearted attempt to run it.
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Carr got swarmed by a pair of defenders short of the line of scrimmage and was clearly going down (I assume) as a sack for a loss of about a yard, and loss of a down.
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A third defender came flying in out of nowhere to hit Carr for no good reason.
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To the surprise of nobody, Carr’s teammates did not take kindly to cheap shots against their QB recovering from a fractured spine. A scuffle erupted.
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Then Beast Mode ran in (off the bench, mind you) to get involved.
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As things escalated he grabbed a ref’s shirt and pushed him back (big no-no Marshawn).
Defense charged with personal foul, offense charged with unsportsmanlike conduct. Lynch is ejected, and the defense’s foul makes it a first down but the offense’s foul makes it 1st-and-25.
Marshawn by the way storms off, changes into street clothes to go in disguise including a mask covering his face, and watches the rest of the game from the fan seats. He’s as unique now as he was as a Seahawk.
Oh, that wasn’t the craziest thing in the game, the craziest was probably the 3-4 plays that happened at the end with 00:00 on the clock because the Chiefs kept drawing fouls in the end zone, until the Raiders finally got a touchdown and won by 1 point.
Further wrinkle to the story (as if it needed more): Marshawn was apparently coming to the aid of the guy who hit his QB (Marcus Peters, Chiefs cornerback) since he and Marshawn go back to when Peters was a college kid staying at Lynch’s house and was mentored by Lynch. So Beast Mode was running out to help the other team’s guy!
So weird…
It wasn’t a particularly late hit - if it had been anyone but a QB (who was a runner at this point), no one would have said boo. But I understand that QBs are given special protection (I didn’t really think the hit on Smith last week has very far across the line either, but I guess the Steeler got fined).
The Chiefs really need to find a defense somewhere. Traditionally, the D has been their strong point, but this year it looks like they want to see if Smith really is an MVP caliber QB by forcing him to score lots of points.
You got that right. Last week their offense struggled a bit but not this week, they were great (I believe they scored on 5 of their first 6 possessions) but the defense failed to step up when it really mattered to stop the Raiders.
Eh, that’s just Peter’s interpretation. I don’t think Lynch has spoken (ha!) about it yet. It looks to me like he was going after someone on the Chiefs, the ref got in the way, and he just reacted without thinking.
It was about the most blatant push-off imaginable.
Agreed, he knocked the defender to the ground, not subtle at all.
I looked at a yt of Crabtree’s TD catch, and that sure looked damn close to OPI. Which might raise an interesting conundrum.
If a CB, covering a receiver, steps on the white grass, what is his status? If he has a foot OB and the receiver shoves him out of the way in order to make the catch, is that still OPI?
I’m thoroughly confused. Why are the NYJ vs MIA on Fox? They’re both AFC teams and Fox is NFC. I thought I understood the TV rules, but this one has me baffled.
Steelers week!
Who dey, who dey, who dey think gonna beat them Bengals?
NOOOOOOOOBODY!!
This is the season for the Bengals. They’ve played themselves back into the conversation, but at 2-3, with the AFC almost wide open now, and the division lead a game and a half away, dropping to 2-4 most likely dooms them.
Their defense has been stellar all season and the offense has really come along under the new OC Bill Lazor. The Steelers are so tough to predict, they’ve been really up and down this season, but they are a hated rival and are the dirtiest team in the NFL, whom also happen to get favoritism from the zebras.
So pumped for this game!
Weird, the Carolina Panthers vs Bears is on CBS.
I wonder if any of these oddball network/game pairings has anything to do with the Bengals game being flexed out of the 1:00 slot and into the 4:25 slot.
Kizer doesn’t improve much, so two weeks ago Hue throws out Hogan, who does a little better but still throws a few boneheaded INTS. So he decides to start Kizer again and says Kizer is the starter going forward. Then, two quarters later, they pull a healthy Kizer for Cody Kessler.
He’s not wrong, if he really needs to win a game - the defense is playing well and Kessler can win it.
Joe Thomas just missed the first snap of his career. Over 10,000 straight snaps to start his career - really amazing.
Edit: 10,325 the announcer just said.
That’s probably close to the attendance figure too.
I don’t know how you do it, Beef. I guess I was in a similar boat from 1993-2003 when it was the Bengals that were the laughingstock of the league. Like you, I soldiered on, posited on supposed positive changes (Shake and Blake!) and just muttered under my breath. I don’t understand how Cleveland keeps switching QB’s from Couch up until now. They have more QB changes in the last 20 years than any other team in history!
Stick with someone and develop your offense…they need to stop worrying about wins, although this game against the Titans is certainly winnable as of now.
The Panthers are losing and Cam Newton has 2 interceptions. They haven’t shown Cam pouting on the bench, although I’m sure he is. I’ll assume he’s planning his post game press conference wardrobe.
Hundley has not looked good this game. The Packers have a good running game going, the offensive line has kept him relatively clean, the defense has gotten two turnovers, but the QB play just isn’t there. I wasn’t hoping for the second coming of Rodgers, but Hundley looks like he’s a young, inexperienced QB who is lost out there. I thought those 3 years in the system would help him out more than it has apparently. But he’s young.
Hopefully he’ll be able to build off of this experience and get better, because it will be a long season if he doesn’t develop.
Meanwhile, Chicago is agog with Trubisky-fever after two straight wins in which he started, despite the fact he’s thrown for just about 350 yards in 3 starts, has a sub 500 completion percentage, and 70% of his yards came on one play this game. Happy to see Cam suck again, though.
And the Vikings get a win against the Ravens. Defense and running game can win a games … at least against the useless Ravens offense.
Patriots dismantle the Falcons in the fog. Not a single prognosticator anywhere could or did predict how the miserable Pats D would manhandle Ryan and the Falcons O. In Hollywood minds, the Pats set up the Falcons for a miraculous comeback, a revenge comeback for the Super Bowl, if you will. Only nobody told the Falcons and they could only manage to limp in one TD in garbage time.
Is the Pats defense finally starting to gel or did the Falcons just choke and lay an egg on national TV again? Or both?