NFL 2020 Season

[BeastieRunner]

Alex Smith is so fucking gutsy his win against Pittsburgh already has another story coming out. During the game Smith in his shin took a cleat from a player by accident. He started pouring blood and stayed out there to play before the half so they could tape it up in locker room. Smith acted like it was no big deal and kept going.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

So what happens to Wentz?

He sticks around. Wentz would count over $50 million in dead cap space in 2021 if he were cut. Depending on how things finish this season, I’m guessing there will be an open competition for the starter next season.

So no big deal then?

URGH! I always get that backwards. And I was in the military too!

[BeastieRunner]

He sticks around. Wentz would count over $50 million in dead cap space in 2021 if he were cut. Depending on how things finish this season, I’m guessing there will be an open competition for the starter next season.

Is he a tantalizing enough piece to trade? Or would Hurts be better if he gets hot?

URGH! I always get that backwards. And I was in the military too!

It's alright. It is rather counter-intuitive, IMHO. Just playing anyway.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

It all depends on how Hurts plays really. If he stinks it up as a rookie QB , they will admit Wentz needs help at WR , OL and TE. That he can't do it all himself. I mean yeah Wentz is responsible for some **** mechanics as I posted a video of some break downs with over throws and more a week or 2 ago someone did. But they can get a QB coach to work on Wentz and help him this off season.

[cable guy]

I'm so curious to see what Hurts does behind that line and those WR's for a whole game.

[godisawesome]

Alex Smith is so fucking gutsy his win against Pittsburgh already has another story coming out. During the game Smith in his shin took a cleat from a player by accident. He started pouring blood and stayed out there to play before the half so they could tape it up in locker room. Smith acted like it was no big deal and kept going.

In hindsight, the formula of “Ron Rivera + Great Defensive Front + Alex Smith” really should have been evaluated as scarier going into the game than it was. While them as the underdog was still the right call, it wasn’t a question so much of “Can the WFT have their best day of the season while Pittsburgh has their worst?” and more “Is this going to be closer to a shootout by Pittsburgh or a knife fight from Washington?”

Like... don’t score low if you’re facing Alex Smith. He loves low scoring games, because his preferred style is the passing equivalent of “prison rules”: relentless stabbing at the enemy defense to inflict quantity of gradual yardage damage instead of quality of yards per play.

[BeastieRunner]

My brain keeps changing WFT to WTF.

Hehe ...

[Scott Taylor]

Pittsburgh just ran for 21 yards on Monday, is that true? Yikes. My favorite stat of that game:

Benny Snell had eight carries for five yards. He’s the first Steelers’ back with at least eight carries for five or fewer yards since Frenchy Fuqua in 1971, who put up a nine carry, zero yard performance against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Way to go, Pittsburgh, reminding us all of the good old days of having a guy named Frenchy Fuqua on the squad.

[Gray Lensman]

It all depends on how Hurts plays really. If he stinks it up as a rookie QB , they will admit Wentz needs help at WR , OL and TE. That he can't do it all himself. I mean yeah Wentz is responsible for some **** mechanics as I posted a video of some break downs with over throws and more a week or 2 ago someone did. But they can get a QB coach to work on Wentz and help him this off season.

There's just something wrong about a QB named Hurts playing behind a bad O-Line.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

There's just something wrong about a QB named Hurts playing behind a bad O-Line.

Just imagine if he throws a passing TD or rushes for 1 . You know this is gonna play in the stadium....

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Just imagine if he throws a passing TD or rushes for 1 . You know this is gonna play in the stadium....

Heh! That’s funny! Meanwhile, it’s been reported that Dez Bryant tested positive for Baltimore, so he won’t face his old team Dallas tonight.

[worstblogever]

Alex Smith is so fucking gutsy his win against Pittsburgh already has another story coming out. During the game Smith in his shin took a cleat from a player by accident. He started pouring blood and stayed out there to play before the half so they could tape it up in locker room. Smith acted like it was no big deal and kept going.

I have concerns that he's had his leg operated on so many times that it's just numb to pain now.

[worstblogever]

Week 13 "WHO'S COOKIN' ON THE HOTSEAT?/FIRE THIS COACH!" Watch

ALREADY FIRED BEFORE WEEK 13: Bill O'Brien (Texans) , Dan Quinn (Falcons), Matt Patricia (Lions)





11. Joe Judge, Giants (LUKEWARM SEAT)

The Giants are now in first place, and have won four in a row to sit at 5-7 after an upset against Seattle IN Seattle. Their defense is leading the way, because frankly, their offense is led by Colt McCoy & Alfred Morris, so it’s like 3rd string Washington circa two years ago. They’re in the hunt for this division, because, frankly, it’s shite. We have no idea who put laxatives in Russell Wilson’s Gatorade to make him s*** the bed quite that badly, and even the New York media is putting out headlines like, “They Might Be Giants?”, which, nice reference to a geeky band if you’ve never heard of ‘em. We don’t think the Giants are actually GOOD to get that kind of praise, it’s just that in comparison to the Jets, they look like they’re gods of the gridiron right now.

Joe Judge is probably not a name you've heard, in general, as New York's coach. You will be for the rest of the year. He was formerly New England's assistant special teams coach. How he got elevated to his first HC gig... lord only knows. How the Giants have not paid attention to how everything on the Belichek coaching tree has died on the vine through the past 20 years... yeah... don't know. What we do know is, Joe Judge made his players run sprints when he wasn't happy with them prior to this season, fired his offensive line coach during the middle of the and the only thing that will save his ass to get a second season will be if he blames Daniel Jones, GM Dave Gettleman, or injuries for his woes. But it's gonna be a long year for the G-Men.

10. Ron Rivera, WFT (IS THIS A ROOM TEMPERATURE SEAT?) : The NFC (L)East is a disaster, make no mistake. But the WFT’s awful start to the year may now be trending in a better direction because this team has been lucky enough to fall ass backwards into competent play from Frankenleg, Alex Smith, at QB to resolve a lot of offensive woes they saw then they were running Kyle Allen and Dwayne Haskins out there under center, they’ve somehow managed to emerge as the team who might end up taking this division by default. This team just upset the undefeated STEELERS! Mind you, Pittsburgh’s been going all year without a BYE week and just lost Bud Dupree for the season from their defense… but the WTF are clicking.
Again, why Rivera is even on this list... I want to be clear, here... I don't think Ron Rivera is a bad coach. It's bad practice for a franchise to fire coaches after only one year. Also, if this wasn't obvious... it would be really f***ed up if the team fired a guy who's trying to coach THROUGH CANCER TREATMENTS. So, based on everything I know about team owner Daniel Snyder being a colossal ***hole... he could absolutely still fire Ron Rivera and then try to spin it in the media that he was doing him a favor because of said cancer at the end of the year. I’m THIS CLOSE to pulling Ron Rivera from my list of potential axe victims at the end of the season… but with the next two weeks, the WF face San Francisco and Seattle. I think at best that’s gonna leave them at 5-9 before they host Carolina and close at the season on the road in Philly.

9. Mike Zimmer, Vikings (LUKEWARM SEAT): The Vikings were supposedly "just a QB away" from winning a Super Bowl with the impeccable defense they had, and they spent BIG for Kirk Cousins. Then they traded away Stephon Diggs (BIG MISTAKE), and their defense officially "got a case of the olds" going into 2020. Minnesota got to 6-6 yesterday and are in the #7 seed in the playoffs (because Arizona has lost 4 of 5, and we’re starting to wonder if Kliff Kingsbury ends up on this list of coaches if he doesn’t do something with the talent he’s got), because they had the luck of facing an abysmal Jacksonville squad… and barely pulled out a victory. No team has ever started 1-5 and made the playoffs. The closest example would be the the 1994 Chargers who started 1-4 and went to the Super Bowl… their final 4 games though… are a mixed bag. Winnable contests versus the Bears and Lions remain… but they also have the Bucs and the Saints in the mix. Just… stay tuned.


8. Matt Nagy, Bears: The Double-Doink happened like 2 years ago, but it made something snap in Matt Nagy. He spent that entire off-season talking about it, and making his players relive that trauma, and they responded by getting worse afterwards. Where they didn’t respond was fixing their QB situation. Instead, they set some sort of record post-draft for having like 10 Tight Ends on their roster, which… isn’t how you should build a team. Their defense? They still have DPOTY candidate Khalil Mack. Somehow, they still gave up 402 yards passing to Matt Stafford and the Lions yesterday. The offense? Yeah, again, that QB situation. They brought in Nick Foles to be Mitch Trubisky’s backup. Trubisky struggled early this year, got benched, and then Foles got hurt. So every week has been a tease of if Chicago would have to backpedal and put Trubisky back in. Trubisky lost another fumble yesterday, something he does practically once a game. The Bears are now 5-7 after a 5-1 start. Yes, they’ve lost six straight. They don’t even look like they have the coordination to stumble into the playoffs, and after going 8-8 last year, finishing with a losing record might be enough for the team to go a different direction.

7. Doug Pedersen, EaglesThe gauntlet of the Eagles’ schedule continues, as Philly got a Packers team that looks like they will be the #1 seed in the NFC yesterday that’s clicking in all three phases, and dropped to 3-8-1. They remain in the race in this division because the teams in it collectively are something that fell out of a dog’s arse. Carson Wentz was a guy people talked about as an MVP candidate just a few years ago, and now Philly has started giving a test drive to Jalen Hurts (he was put in for the second half when Wentz struggled again with a stat line of 6/15 passing for 79 yards in the first half, and Doug Pederson would not commit to Wentz as the starter next week). While a lot of people want to lay blame for Philly’s woes on the coach, the real problem might be they gave a huge contract to a guy who already got a ring while sitting on the sidelines watching Nick Foles, and he’s not playing up to it. The defense has been keeping the Eagles in games, but Foles is just failing to deliver. Foles’ pick-six yesterday is the difference between a win and a loss. He also gave up a safety. Take those 9 points off the board, and Philly’s D held Cleveland to 13 points.

Again, all season, people were looking at the Eagles and thinking, “The rest of the division has been decimated by injuries and/or has no talent. Philly’s got this, right? RIGHT?” Well, it’s really starting to look like they don’t. The offense just cannot get it done. We only know one thing, whoever wins the NFC (L)East it is will likely have the record, and the on-field talent to be called “The Worst Playoff Team Ever”. Whether it’s Philly or someone else.

6. Vic Fangio, Broncos : A reminder, Fangio declared that Covid-19 is showing "who the whiners are" around the NFL, which is one of the dumbest "fake tough guy" quotes I think I've seen in some time about a disease that's killed 270,000 people. This is in addition to his terrible opinions on police killings of African Americans in the off-season that were completely unnecessary for him to even opine about in the first place. If it were only "on the field" failings, I think Fangio would be in trouble, but that AND his mouth are making him a likely candidate for getting the boot at year's end.

On the field, though... “Mr. Covid Tough Guy” Fangio Denver just moved to 4-8. They got all their quarterbacks again after trying to play a game last week with a practice squad WR, Kendall Hinton under center. Somehow, they hung with the Chiefs for three and a half quarters before Patrick Mahomes remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m the best signal-caller in the league” and took the Broncos to the glue factory. Denver’s final month has them heading to the east-coast next week for an early game against Carolina, hosting the Bills, a trip to LA to play the Chargers, and ten closing out at home versus the playoff-contender Raiders. This team seems like they were doomed to go 6-10 all year, and they’re going to manage just that. And that is NOT good enough for this fan base.

[worstblogever]

5. Anthony Lynn, Chargers: HOLY F***, 45-0? Against THIS Patriots team? How the f*** do you let Bill Belichek call upon all his unholy powers to deliver an absolute drubbing like this? New England’s offense wasn’t even trying to risk it, as Cam Newton threw for all of 69 yards (NICE) before they put in Jarett Stidham to keep Cam healthy… and Stidham only threw 3 passes because the Patriots were actually trying to just run the ball to run clock and be gentlemanly and not step on the Chargers’ throats. It was 28-0 at half. HOW?

Special teams. New England had a punt return for TD from Madden “create a player” Gunner Olszewski (no way that’s a real person), and blocked a FG and returned that for a TD. Their defense also picked off Justin Herbert twice in the second half when they KNEW the Bolts had to chuck the ball.

Lynn's in his fourth season as Chargers head coach, he just got his contract extended through 2021 in February... but after going 5-11 last year, if he doesn't improve on that, he might not get that fifth. He’s 3-9 and finishes his schedule against Atlanta (who seem like they’re figuring out their offense), Las Vegas, Denver (okay, this one should be winnable), and Kansas City. They’ll be lucky to get to 5-11 again with what they have left to face. Your sad statistic? Anthony Lynn is 4-20 in one score games as a head coach. Your maybe they’ll let him finish this contract note? EVERYBODY likes Anthony Lynn. I’ve not heard a player, coach, or NFL pundit speak ill of him. He’s got this team close to something… he just needs a little bit more talent on the roster, and he might have something next year. Unfortunately, his team’s owners are the Spanos family and are a bunch of self-owning cheapskates… so good luck bringing in a key free agent to help the guy.

4. Mike McCarthy, Cowboys) Again, first year coaches don't usually get fired. But, given the preseason hype where the Cowboys were, I s*** you not, the NFC Super Bowl pick by Dan Patrick… and they're 3-9, that’s not good. They look far worse than that record. The offensive line that made them so threatening only a few seasons ago is already dilapidated due to injuries, and right now, it's second stringers across the board. That decline in talent across the O-Line wasn't glaring when Dallas had Dak Prescott keeping them in games with gaudy numbers through their first five this year (RIP Dak's ankle, I think it died of the 'Rona or something), and they’ve ended up starting four different guys at QB. They’re actually relieved they got ginger legend Andy Dalton back to manage the kind of mediocre output that has been the hallmark of his career.

After a long layover from last Thanksgiving, practically giving them another BYE week, the Cowboys got the Ravens who were on a losing skid, enduring a Covid-19 outbreak, and off a loss to the Steelers. Could they take advantage? AW HELL NO. Their historically bad defense gave up almost 300 yards rushing to the Ravens, who barely needed Lamar Jackson (just activated from the Covid-19 list and without practices) to even attempt to throw the ball. 17 attempts. That’s it. The Ravens barely needed to break a sweat to top Dallas.

Going forward, this team has dropped all its money into skill position players and no one is left who can block for Zeke, or buy enough time to throw to Amari Cooper. For the last three years he was in Green Bay, Mike McCarthy was considered to have been more of a hindrance to Aaron Rodgers from the point they won a Super Bowl going forward, and he doesn't seem like his return to coaching after a year away is going to prove Rodgers was the problem. Hell, after Thursday, he made it pretty clear that he wasted the prime of Rodgers’ career. Whether or not Jerrah and Son are dumb enough to stick by him in 2021 so he can make their franchise a laughing stock for a second year… we’ll have to see.

[worstblogever]

3. Zac Taylor, Bengals: The Bengals went up 7-0 over the Dolphins… and then never looked competent on offense again, giving up 19 unanswered to Miami. This puts Cincinnatti’s record at 2-9-1, and while I’ve been saying “all hope is lost” because they’re without both Joe Burrow and Joe Mixon… at least what I can’t say is “This team has no fight in them.”

THEY CLEARLY HAVE A FIGHT IN THEM. THEY WERE IN FIVE SCUFFLES YESTERDAY.

However, that’s not a sign that Zac Taylor has any control over his players, or if anyone has any control over their emotions. Like… think about the Marvin Lewis era. Cincinnatti had players having off-the-field issues, but could make the playoffs on the field. Now, they’re a goddamned train wreck on-the-field in terms of both play, and emotional stability. Vontaze Burfict (who got arrested last week, BTW) was cheapshotting dudes, but the whole roster wasn’t ready to rack up personal fouls and ejections. How many Burficts are on this roster now? What sort of scouting does this team do on the mental make-up of people it drafts and signs? And why can’t they find a coach who, y’know, coaches guys to be better than that?

The story here of why Taylor might not get fired is "Mike Brown is a f***ing cheapskate." Remember all the years where people thought FOR SURE Marvin Lewis would get fired because he couldn't win a playoff game? And Cincinnatti kept him around? Well, the talk always was because Mike Brown couldn't find a cheaper, better option than that, and the skinflint would never spend money on a good coach. So I look at Zac Taylor, and think they're gonna give him at least until the end of the year and maybe longer because as bad as the Bengals look outside of Joe Burrow and as disgruntled as this locker room is... Zac Taylor still only makes between $400,000 and $600,000 a season. He is valued at roughly 1/20 of Bill Belichek, and maybe like 1/16 of an Andy Reid. And Mike Brown LOVES HIM A BARGAIN MORE THAN ANYTHING.

2. Doug Marrone, Jaguars: I honestly thought he got fired at the end of the 2019 season... but NOPE, he's still down in the swamps of Jacksonville. We're now going to three years removed from the Jaguars being up on the Patriots with 10 minutes to go in the AFC Championship Game, and the number of players from that 53-man squad still in Jacksonville is 7. They have had two Top 5 picks from recent drafts in Jalen Ramsey and Leonard Fournette flat-out escape this franchise. They've had two double-digit loss seasons coming into this one, and now having dropped to 1-11 after a loss to the Vikings (that’s eleven losses in a row, for those keeping track)... Gardner Minshew and his "cop in a porno flick" mustache was benched, and then he got a thumb that left the team in the capable hands of rookie Jake Luton (from University of Idaho) who threw 4 INTs against Pittsburgh and was replaced this week by athletic giraffe Mike Glennon, who has looked... well... picture Blake Bortles, but with a much longer neck.

Shad Khan is one of the more patient owners in the league (hell, he let Gus Bradley stick around to build the worst losing percentage in coaching history), and the team stuck by Marrone through the BYE week. While firing Marrone at any point to let OC Jay Gruden take over as the interim coach would make sense... it looks like Marrone will stick around through season's end in their quest to try and overtake the Jets to get Trevor Lawrence. They'll likely have to settle for Justin Fields from Ohio State, though. And we all know how well Buckeyes signal callers do in the pros...

1. Adam Gase, Jets: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL JETS. J-E-T-S. JETS! LOL JETS!

Okay, I got it out of my system. Amazingly yesterday, the godawful New York Jets lost Frank Gore in the first quarter to concussion protocol and trailed the Raiders 24-13 in the fourth quarter. To the surprise of everyone I saw commenting on the internet… Sam “Sees Ghosts” Darnold… okay, earlier in the week, Adam Gase admitted he has not developed Darnold well as a starter as if when God gave out eyes and obviously handed more to Gase than he should have so he was at “Rudy Giuliani bug-out” levels, that it meant there were no eyes left for anyone else. Well, guess what, Adam? WE ALL CAN SEE YOU HAVE FAILED SAM DARNOLD AS A COACH JUST LIKE YOU DID RYAN TANNEHILL. Anyway, Darnold actually mounted a comeback and with five and a half minutes to go, gave the Jets a 28-24 lead.

Derek Carr then went on a four minute drive, and took the Raiders down into the red zone, only to have a TD nullified by a holding penalty, and then turn it over on downs. The Jets had the ball back, and were a minute and a half from victory… but the Raiders still had two time outs and forced the Jets to punt the ball on a three and out… Las Vegas was 61 yards away with 35 seconds left.

We have pointed out for WEEKS that Adam Gase is publicly feuding with his own defensive coordinator Greg “Bountygate” Williams. Greg Williams is quite known for trying to protect “tough guy” vibes and usurp authority from his head coaches… but holy s*** did he f*** this up for his players. Williams called a “cover zero” blitz on a 3rd and 10 from the Jets’ 46 yard line with 19 seconds left, leaving one poor rookie, former Nebraska CB Lamar Jackson (aka not the Ravens QB, but it may have well been) trying to cover Henry Ruggs III aka THE FASTEST GUY AT THE COMBINE WITH A 4.27 second 40 YARD DASH THIS YEAR by himself. The blitz wasn’t even executed properly, as the Jets defenders were like, “We’re doing WHAT?” and the safety lingered in the middle of the field around the 25 yard line rather than head in after Carr. But the result of Greggggggg’s stupid call? Raiders get the long TD bomb to win it with five seconds on the clock. Immediately post game, Jets defenders threw their DC under the bus, and admitted they had no idea what the f*** Williams was thinking, including defensive captain Marcus Maye. Statisticians came to criticize the call, pointing out the 252 pass plays attempted under similar circumstances in the past 15 seasons, the Jets were the only defense to send more than six rushers on a blitz in that scenario. It was a call so terrible that even former Jets head coach and bloviating ***hole Rex Ryan could look relatively competent by tearing him a new one on ESPN about it. Immediately on Monday morning, Gregg Williams got the axe, and somehow… somehow still Adam Gase clutched the photos he has of Woody Johnson with a donkey and was spared joining him at the chopping block.

The Jets are now 0-12, and are losing by an average of about 14 points a game even after this close loss. The Jets have lost by 20 or more points eight times in Ol' Bug Eyes’ 28 game tenure. The question most have is, “How HASN’T Adam Gase been fired?” This team almost blew their chances of that #1 pick in the draft yesterday and got to fire Williams to make it look like they’re not tanking (they 100% are). Remember, Adam Gase picked his own GM, who ridiculously lied to the New York media that Gase was the best man for this job. At this point, even Joe Namath is coming out and predicting the Jets will have the #1 pick in the draft, and that Trevor Lawrence should threaten to go back to school for another year at Clemson if the Jets pick him or force a trade away from this disaster of a franchise.

The Jets have four games left to escape 0-16. If any of the coaches in those games manage to fall to this team, we have to instantly place them somewhere on the HOT SEAT list. We don’t care if Pete Carroll just signed a long-term extension in Seattle, if the Seahawks lose to the Jets, it wouldn’t be wrong of the team to fire him. If Bill Belichek loses the Week 17 rematch of last week’s game against the Jets? Robert Kraft would be within his rights to kick the guy who won him six rings to the curb. It’s nothing personal… but DO NOT be the coach that flubs and gives this squad its win for 2020. Send them to the land of the winless with the Lions and Browns like they deserve.