First Down
It wasn’t a matter of if but when.
The Titans are the first team to have multiple cases of COVID-19. Players and team personnel contracted the virus and it’s thrown a wrench in the NFL schedule.
COVID has also struck in New England. Cam Newton and Stephon Gilmore also tested positive this week. The positive? It’s early in the season so it’s a little easier to reshuffle games but what’s the league going to do on the back nine of the year? What if an outbreak leads to a team having multiple bye weeks? Granted, teams would rather deal with playing multiple weeks than bye weeks due to COVID but it still may lead to a competitive advantage down the road.
What’s the solution?
Earlier this year we outlined that it would be almost impossible for the NFL to create a bubble because of the length of the season but since we’re knee deep in this thing a few better ideas have surfaced.
A 10 game schedule, with no bye week, followed by the playoffs starting in the divisonal round would mean that the Super Bowl champion would spend 13-14 weeks (3-3.5 months) in the bubble.
For reference that’s just about the same amount of time the Heat and Lakers have been in Orlando.
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To take this to a level that does not need to be reached let’s rank the most interesting hypothetical bubbles and who would win the Super Bowl if the NFL had went this route.
- AFC/NFC East: The MOST LEAST interesting bubble out of the four. These games would be the Thursday night special and most of the country would be fortunate if they were blacked out. What game is interesting? Patriots/Cowboys? Giants/Jets? Eagles/Dolphins? The only thing America would pay attention to is Cam’s meme count.
- AFC/NFC South: These divisons are mirrors of each other. Two teams that have the potential for deep playoff runs then two teams that will probably have a top-ten pick next year. Buc/Titans sounds like primetime TV but then we’d have to watch Falcons/Jaguars and it’s not woth the price.
- AFC/NFC North: This is great on paper. Green Bay/Baltimore, Vikings/Steelers, and you can even talk me into Lions/Browns. The Bears and Bengals aren’t that good but I’m not passing up the opporunity to see Maserti Mich go up against Joe Burrow.
- AFC/NFC West: Every single NFC West team taking a crack at Patrick Mahomes? What are we even talking about? Is this even a question?
The Chiefs would win it all regardless. Shocked?
Anyway.
Myron Rolle, former FSU star and Titans safety turned MD thinks the NFL has “fallen short” since the season started.
This will be a recurring issue as the season goes on, you can bank on that.
As of now the bubble doesn’t appear to be happening but the league will be coming down hard on teams that do not follow protocols.
The league better get ready to enforce these policies because teams haven’t been taking this as seriously as they should (looking at you, Raiders). The truth is they can only do so much. If the league wants complete control then a bubble is the only route.
Second Down
Bill O’Brien is out in Houston.
The biggest question is that if O’Brien was fired after going 0-4 then why didn’t you fire him during the offseason? More specifically, why didn’t you fire him after trading Nuk and Clowney without receiving a first round pick for either? If was a very real possibility that the Texans would go 0-4 to start the season. If you take a majority of teams in this league and give them the Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens, and Vikings a good chunk would come out 0-4 or 1-3.
The worst part of this entire ordeal is that another year of Watson‘s career has been wasted because ownership decided to stick with a guy who was clearly not good at his job.
The potential good news? He could be getting a coach that’s actually good at coaching.
That would mean ownership making the right decision.
In other words; y’all pray for Deshaun.
While we’re here. How many branches of the Belichick coaching tree have to rot before teams realize that Bill is the secret sauce?
Third Down
You know what; let’s talk about another branch in the Belichick tree.
Matt Patricia
The Lions coach got to his postgame press conference after losing to the Saints and fixed his mouth to talk recklessy.
Let the record show that before the Lions fired Jim Caldwell he went 21-15 in his last 36 games. Patricia has gone 10-25-1 in his first 36 games as Lions coach and that’s AFTER getting the gig while the Eagles hung 41 on his defense in the Super Bowl.
Since Patricia took over the Lions in 2018 his “vaunted defensive mind” has given up 24.45 points per game. That’s going to go up if they keep the current pace of 32.8 points per game going for the rest of the year.
Not only are Patricia’s remarks tone deaf; it’s just not true.
Dan Orlovsky, former Lions backup QB during Caldwell’s tenure turned ESPN analyst, had some strong words for the coach.
It’s one thing to be a bad coach; it’s another thing to be a bad coach and a jerk. We’ve seen one former Patriot coach fired before week six. Patricia might be the second.
Fourth Down
Pick time!!!
Last week I went 9-5 (Pittsburgh/Tennessee has been postponed) which brings my yearly total to 42-19-1
You know the drill. Winners are in red.
Thursday Night Football
Tampa Bay @ Chicago
Sunday Games
Buffalo @ Tennessee
Jacksonville @ Houston
Cincinnati @ Baltimore
Carolina @ Atlanta
Las Vegas @ Kansas City
Arizona @ New York Jets
Philadelphia @ Pittsburgh
Los Angeles Rams @ Washington
Miami @ San Francisco
New York Giants @ Dallas
Denver @ New England
Indianappolis @ Cleveland
Sunday Night Football
Minnesota @ Seattle
Monday Night Football
Los Angeles Charges @ New Orleans
Extra Points
Don’t know if this is sad or hilarious.
I felt MY chest cave in on this play.
Accurate.
I’VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL Y’ALL ABOUT KYLER MURRAY‘S RUNNING…
Ramsey vs. Tate at Wrestlemania for the belt. MAKE IT HAPPEN, VINCE!
This will always be the most coldest photo in sports history and Burrow is a first ballot HOF.
R.I.P. Griddy.
Don’t forget; Colin Kaepernick is being blackballed for peacefully protesting police brutality. The NFL hijacked his message with Jay-Z, apologized for not listening to Kap four years ago, and continue to deny him employment.
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@ me madads14
As always, thanks for reading.
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