Four Down Territory: Week 7

Overall this was one ugly week of football. We saw a putrid Sunday Night game that ended in a tie, a game where the quarterbacks combine for six turnovers, and another awful game across the pond. No worries, they’re still enough for another edition of 4DT.

1st Down: For weeks we’ve been clamoring for Geno Smith to start for the Jets and Sunday he got his chance. The problem? Smith went down in the second quarter and it appears he’s torn his ACL. Fitzpatrick jumped in and, for once, didn’t implode and led the Jets to a 24-16 win over the depleted Ravens. Geno’s knee should be the lead story but what Fitzpatrick said during the press conference after the game is grabbing headlines.

“The biggest thing in this game in order to last, is to have belief in yourself, because when the owner stops believing in you and the GM stops believing in you and the coaches stop believing in you, sometimes all you have is yourself. That’s something that I’ve had to deal with before. That’s something I’m dealing with now.”

If you haven’t been following along then let’s bring you up to speed. This summer Ryan decided to hold out for a bigger contract. In his mind he should be paid like a franchise quarterback even though he’s never led a team to the playoffs. The Jets gave him a one year, $12 million deal with an opportunity to earn $3 million more in incentives. This season he’s only thrown six touchdowns but has a bad habit of throwing it to opposing teams. His eleven interceptions leads the league and he completely melted down against the Chiefs to the tune of six interceptions. To say he’s been playing bad is a compliment. I know that Fitzpatrick went to Harvard but he doesn’t seem like a smart guy when it comes to self awareness.

2nd Down: NFL ratings are down this year and they’re a lot of speculations to why. There are many critics taking this opportunity to criticize Colin Kaepernick‘s anthem protest as the reason for the dip. Those same people tend to gloss over the domestic violence issue that plaguing the league but you know…whatever. There is no one reason for the down ratings but a combination of a few variables. First, it’s an election year. Americans are more worried about who’s going to be leader of the free world, as they should. Second, for years the ratings have been climbing at an exponential rate. If the housing market has taught us anything it’s that nothing can grow forever; the bubble will eventually pop. Third, the football is just bad this year. We just sat through a game that ended in a 6-6 tie. I know defense wins championships but offense fills stadiums and gets ratings. Another factor to the bad football is the over saturation of games and the lack of concern for the players health. We know that Roger Goodell loves talking about player safety but there’s nothing safe about Thursday Night Football. Six days is barely enough time to recuperate from an NFL game but only having three is unhealthy and dangerous. If the NFL wants to make the product sacred again then they need to scale back. A little of something great is a lot better than a lot of something that’s mediocre.

3rd Down: No matter what odds are stacked against them it seems like the Patriots always come out golden. Tom Brady was suspended the first four games of the year, both of their backups were injured, and Gronk‘s hamstring went haywire yet the Patriots are sitting pretty at 6-1. Their excellence is a nod to how great Belichick is as a coach.

4th Down: Well would you look at that, the Rams are 3-4. Not too long ago they were sitting in first place of the NFC West but it was inevitable that Jeff Fisher would find his way to mediocrity. ESPN posted this stat about Fisher’s losing.

Jeff Fisher has become the 3rd coach to lose 160 games in NFL history. He is now five shy of Dan Reeves for the most in NFL history.

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 23, 2016

What makes this worse? Case Keenum is awful yet he’s still better than Jared Goff. I’ll ask this again, HOW DOES HE STILL HAVE A JOB?

Tidbits: I’m starting to fear for Russell Wilson‘s health; he’s practically playing on one leg and behind an awful offensive line. Enjoy retirement, Arian. You were one of the good ones. Never change, Bruce Arians. Now that everyone is showing Matthew Stafford love I’m more than certain that he’ll revert to being Matthew Stafford again. Brock Osweiler is bad, like really bad. Like really really bad.

Brock Osweiler: 1st QB in NFL history to have 3 games in a single season with 200 yards or fewer on 40 att. in each game

via @EliasSports

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 25, 2016

Tweet Me: @mattgarrett41

As always, thanks for reading.

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