We’re a quarter of the way through the season and my Super Bowl pick is looking pretty good. How about yours? Fresh from the week four oven: HOT TAKES!!!
1. Every Kicker Sucks
Kickers have the easiest job in the NFL. They just have to kick a ball through two goalposts and then sit on the sidelines. They step on the field maybe three times a game, sometimes not at all. So how come they all suck?
On Thursday, Josh Scobee missed two field in the fourth quarter that would’ve put the game away for the Steelers. Not to be outdone, Jason Myers of the Jaguars missed two game-winning field goals, Caleb Sturgis of the Eagles left four points on the board and the Eagles lost by three, Zach Hocker missed a 30-yarder at the end of regulation that would’ve given the Saints the win (they won in OT), and Kyle Brindza missed his sixth kick in two games.
NFL teams should just adopt the strategy that 90% of Madden players use: don’t kick field goals. Just go for it on every 4th down when your in opponent territory. Sure, if you don’t convert then you give up field position, but if your kicker misses the field, you still give up field position. Riverboat Ron showed that going for it on 4th isn’t always a bad thing. The rest of the league should follow suit.
2. Dolphins Fire Philbin
I’m not sure Joe Philbin is the reason for all of Miami’s woes. I place some of the blame of Ryan Tannehill, who has yet to take the next step as a quarterback, and ownership for overspending on Ndamukong Suh instead of filling out the rest of their defense.
But it’s much easier to let the head coach go then let the players go. So, Philbin was let go. The guy just isn’t cut out to be a head coach. Aaron Rodgers inflated his value when he was the offensive coordinator in Green Bay and he was able to turn that into a head coaching job. Now, without the best quarterback in the league, we saw that he was in over his head. I’m not sure that Dan Campbell is cut out to be a head coach either, but with no obvious candidate sitting out there, they had to do something to try and spark the team and salvage the season. They were losing with him, so losing without him doesn’t change too much.
3. New York Giants will win the NFC East
I predicted this to start the season and it didn’t look so good when they blew their first two games to start 0-2, but now they’re tied for the division lead at 2-2 and are in the best shape of any team. The Eagles are an absolute mess and DeMarco Murray is complaining about his touches, even though he’s done nothing to earn more touches. the Cowboys don’t have their quarterback or top receiver and their defense is average, and the Redskins will come back to earth pretty soon.
As I said last week, the Giants have the best quarterback and the best coach in the division. Their pass defense is terrible right now, but they have the best run defense in the league. Odell Beckham Jr. hasn’t even been fully unleashed yet and when Victor Cruz returns, their passing game is going to be a nightmare for other teams.
It helps that they have an easy schedule as well. They could easily win their next five games before facing the Patriots in week 10. Then again…
4. Sorry, Arizona
Last week, I gave Arizona some love and said they wouldn’t be tested until week 10 at Seattle. Well, they were tested this past Sunday and ended up losing to the Rams at home. Todd Gurley ran wild on the Cardinals defense and Nick Foles hooked up with Tavon Austin for two touchdowns. I really thought that the Arizona defense was better than they showed on Sunday and that their offense could do just enough against a tough Rams defense.
I still think the Cardinals are one of the better teams in the NFC. The Cardinals were still in the game despite Gurley’s big game and three turnovers. As always in the NFL, if you fail to protect the football, you usually lose the game. The Cardinals will be fine moving forward as long as Palmer remains healthy.
5. Illegal Bat
When I saw “illegal bat” trending on twitter on Monday night, I thought it was some baseball scandal just before the playoffs started. But it wasn’t. It was trending because of some rule that says a defensive player can’t bat the ball out of the endzone because ummm, well, it’s just not cool to do. Or something like that. The outrage on twitter was something else. You’d think that everyone in the world knew this rule and the refs were the only one’s that had no idea what was going on. Except that the refs didn’t know the rule, the announcers didn’t know the rule, the coaches didn’t know the rule, and the players didn’t know the rule. Basically, no one knew this rule.
Sure, it’s the refs job to know these rules, but we spend all game complaining about the refs and then we’re supposed to be shocked when they don’t know this rule?
The bigger story here is the Seahawks issues. Their offensive line is terrible and they’re going to get Russell Wilson killed at this rate. Their defense has looked good since the return of Kam Chancellor, but I’m not exactly buying into them given that they’ve played the Bears back-ups and the Lions.
Quick Takes
*PANTHERS 4-0!!!!!!! Everyone can say that they’ve played an easy schedule (they have) but think about this. The combined win-loss record of Panthers opponents is 4-12. The combined win-loss record of the Broncos opponents is 4-12. The combined win-loss record of Packers opponents is 5-11. So when you’re crowning the Broncos and Packers as contenders and the Panthers as pretenders, just remember that they’ve all faced weak competition through four weeks and the Panthers are missing the best linebacker in the league.
*Josh Norman is elite and is the defensive player of the year right now.
*The Colts will win the AFC South, but they are going nowhere in the playoffs unless they make significant improvements.
*The Raiders should be 3-1. Instead, they’re the Raiders.
*The Bengals will win a playoffs game this year. Mark it down.
*Can we please have Johnny Manziel back in our lives? Josh McCown didn’t play bad, but look at the record. McCown is 0-3 as the starter. Manziel is 1-0. Why is McCown still starting? IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!
*Todd Gurley sure looks like the guy worth taking with the 10th overall pick.
*The Texans offense is terrible, but what has happened to their defense? Damn you, Hard Knocks.
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