NFL 2020 Season

[worstblogever]

Y'know, because tomorrow's MNF matchup is Bears/Rams and both squads are comfortably over .500 and mathematically both will still be over .500 following their tilt, I think I can go ahead and do the...

Week 8 "WHO'S COOKIN' ON THE HOTSEAT?/FIRE THIS COACH!" Watch

ALREADY FIRED BEFORE WEEK 8: Bill O'Brien (Texans) , Dan Quinn (Falcons)

TOTALLY OFF THE STOVE FOR NOW: Matt Patricia (Lions) Detroit is now 3-3 after a comeback win versus the Falcons, who had Todd Gurley fall into the end zone when he wanted to avoid scoring too quickly, and leaving Matt Stafford the ability to mount that comeback (which tells you how bad Atlanta's defense is and why Dan Quinn got fired). Matt Patricia might return to this list in a few weeks' time, given the Lions' second half schedule will see business pick up quite a bit from what they've seen early in the year, with virtually a playoff caliber team coming at them every week.

8. Ron Rivera (LUKEWARM SEAT): The WFT just flat-out handled Dallas yesterday in a 25-3 win where their defense mauled Andy Dalton and left Dallas playing most of the 2nd half with a rookie QB they drafted in the 7th round. Kyle Allen had a safe start for the WFT, making their fustercluck situation at QB seem a little less like the carousel was spinning out of control. Again, why Rivera is even on this list... I want to be clear, here... I don't think Ron Rivera is a bad coach. I think this roster is hot garbage outside of an impressive defensive front, but Rivera didn't build it. Their QB and skill positions are woeful, and I wouldn't put it on him. 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 hope that isn't what happens, but if this team doesn't squeak out some more wins, it could happen. Luckily for Rivera, he's in the NFC (L)East and can probably get some wins in 6 divisional matchups. This squad will be lucky to get to six by year's end.

7. Mike McCarthy Again, first year coaches don't usually get fired. The Cowboys were, I s*** you not, the NFC Super Bowl pick by Dan Patrick, and they're 2-4 now. They look far worse than that record the past two weeks. 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 (RIP Dak's ankle, I think it died of the 'Rona or something), but what was always obvious was the defense was atrocious. Like, Dallas' defense is on pace for a historically bad year, and somehow, they had a "good" day by only giving up 25 to WFT yesterday. But as I started saying, the O-Line fell apart, and they had to start playing Andy Dalton at QB, which... he ended up leading the offense to a safety on their opening drive, and 75 yards of offense before he got a concussion and sat out most of the second half. 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. And yet... they're still completely in the hunt to win this division, as the Eagles are only a half-game ahead of them at 2-4-1. Still, 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.

6. Zac Taylor "Why did the second year Bengals coach not end up on this list sooner?" I was asked. Your answer: "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. He's a bargain bin option, and the Bengals will say no matter how bad they look on the field (sure, they're 1-6, but they gave the Browns a run for their money yesterday), that they're in a transition season with a rookie QB to blame it on (even though Burrow has the goods), and that they want consistency to help with Burrow's development... and Taylor worked under Rams coach Sean McVay, therefore he's THE FUTURE OF THE NFL COACHING RANKS. But we'll all know,

5. Vic Fangio: Last week, Denver came out of their BYE week, went up 18-0 on the Patriots (yes, this offense is so good it managed six McManus field goals), and had to hang on for an 18-12 win. This week, though? WHOOO-BOY. The Broncos got their s*** kicked in so hard by the Chiefs in a 43-16 beatdown that they'll be flossing it out of their teeth until at least Wednesday. Their offense had 6 turnovers, which included four fumbles. Just an embarrassing performance across the board, and the Chiefs sat down Patrick Mahomes in the 4th quarter to not pour it on too much. 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 220,000 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.

[worstblogever]

4. Mike Zimmer: 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, and their defense officially "got a case of the olds" going into 2020. Minnesota is improbably 1-5 and looking WAY, WAY up at both the Bears and Packers in this division. Hell, right now they're even looking up at the Lions, who are 3-3. Two weeks ago, his team was up 13-0 over the Seahawks in the 3rd Quarter of Sunday Night Football, and then Russell Wilson decided to make MVP voters pay attention by leading Seattle on a comeback that included 3 TDs against the Vikes in under two minutes. Then in the 4th Quarter, Mike Zimmer made the call to go for it on 4th and 1 from Seattle's six yard line and rather than kick the FG and go up by eight. Well, they failed to convert that and AGAIN Russell Wilson drove the Seahawks down for a TD, which was enough to change a five point deficit into a 1 point win. Zimmer, post-game, defended that decision, because his offense was averaging five yards a carry, and a FG would still would still have been a one-score game... but a TD and two-point conversion after a 2 minute drill? That would have only triggered an overtime? Look, hindsight's always 20-20, but c'mon, how many times do we have to see Mike Zimmer psych himself out of a win before it's a pattern? At least this week, the Vikings didn't blow a close one, as they allowed 40 points to the, up until that point, winless Atlanta Falcons. Zimmer's only consolation was not getting fired going into the BYE week for the Vikes, but if he doesn't turn this squad around, he'll be looking at a pink slip at year's end.

3. Joe Judge (Lukewarm) The Giants are 1-6 after blowing a 4th quarter lead to the Eagles. Daniel Jones, still trying to shake the "draft bust" label, decided to give us one of the funniest blooper reel plays since the butt-fumble. Jones got pressured, but scrambled and got into the open field with no one in front of him on a 80 yard scamper that started from his own goal line. AND THEN... proceeded to trip like a co-ed fleeing from Michael Myers in a Halloween movie and fall on his face without any contact at the Eagles' 11 yard line. Just... goddamn, man. Back to the rest of this squad... they're in "fire sale" mode going into the trade deadline, sending Markus Golden back to Arizona. They're without Saquon Barkley for the rest of the year. The only upside is... they're still in the hunt in their division, because it's utter shite. 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, 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.

2. Doug Marrone: I haven't had Doug Marrone on my list, mostly because 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, and as they start trading going into the trade deadline, that could get lower. For now, though, they only have seven guys left from their franchise high point. 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 1-6 after a loss to the LA Chargers... who were fielding rookie QB Justin Herbert... look like they'll have a third straight double-digit loss season. Gardner Minshew and his "cop in a porno flick" mustache have been benched. The team identity of "hairy upper lip" wasn't exactly something to build a franchise around, though. 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), but if Arthur Blank could fire Dan Quinn mid-season, anything's possible. The OC on this team is Jay Gruden, who has former head coaching experience, and with this loss... if Jacksonville were to want to fire Marrone mid-season, it could happen this morning.

1. Adam Gase: No one believes in this guy in that locker room. After getting shut out 24-0 by the Dolphins last week, Adam Gase gave up play-calling duties, and all of a sudden, the Jets went up 10-0 on Buffalo yesterday, only to do absolutely nothing for the last 40 minutes of the game, save let Buffalo win the contest on 18 unanswered points on 6 FGs. The Jets are now 0-7, and are losing by an average of about 17 points a game. The Jets have lost by 20 or more points seven times since the start of 2019. They play the Chiefs this coming week, and the first line out of Vegas I saw has Kansas City favored by, no s***, 22 points. Sam Darnold is still seeing more ghosts than Pac-Man. In one out of three games the J-E-T-S are blown out by three TDs with Ol' Bug Eyes as head coach over his 22 game tenure. He's also got his own defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, taking potshots at him in front of the New York media, who are eating that s*** up with a spoon. Adam Gase is a likely candidate to get fired in Week 10, when the Jets enter their BYE week. He deserved to be fired before Bill O'Brien and Dan Quinn.

[worstblogever]

By the way, the AZ/SEA re-match comes in 3 weeks time on Thursday Night Football. That's gonna be must-see TV for any football fan.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

10 char can’t post story

[Kirby101]

I turned off the AZ-SE game when the Cardinals missed the FG in OT because I didn't want to see Seattle win.
Guess I should have stayed awake.

[Surf]

I DVR'd Hawks/Zona and that's gonna be my own personal MNF game tonight, and looks like I need to put WBE on the ignore list until Tuesday-ish.


Just when I'm starting to shake off some of the surface level Pats hate that's built up the last, what, 20+ years. Likely beginning at or around the time Willie Mcginnest faked a leg injury in the RCA Dome to effectively give his **** club extra time, they've become a struggling team all of a sudden... Almost sympathetic??? I did enjoy Stidham's first past being an INT though lol.

[Scott Taylor]

Tuned out of that Zona game when they were down ten with three minutes left in the game. Tuned back in and saw them kick the game-winner in OT. WTF! I'm just glad to see Pete Carroll sad, he makes such great, pouty sad faces.

Wow, Brady getting it done while New England struggles and Belichick appearing on stupid Subway commercials. I'm happy for Tampa fans.

[BeastieRunner]

New England's blowout loss was their first blowout loss of the century with less than 10 points.

CEN.TU.RY.

That is insane.

It was also the first time a New England game had been changed to a more competitive game this century without them being in the lead.

[Gray Lensman]

New England's blowout loss was their first blowout loss of the century with less than 10 points.

CEN.TU.RY.

That is insane.

It was also the first time a New England game had been changed to a more competitive game this century without them being in the lead.

It certainly looks like Brady is the big winner in his divorce with Belichick right now.

[BeastieRunner]

It certainly looks like Brady is the big winner in his divorce with Belichick right now.

My theory in the beginning of the year was one would do well and the other would do poorly. Then next year, both teams meet in the SB. I had it opposite than is happening now but I still think it will happen.

NE has 7 players out on COVID breaks, 5 of them being their 1-5 defensemen with Hightower being the captain out that really killed their linebacker corps.

I think they will be fine when those players come back. This year, they can coast and get some better picks and probably sell off players like Edelman who are overpaid for what they are. In fact, it sounds like they are trading the twins to Seattle for two #2 picks.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I said it for a long while...Belichick as a coach had issues in Cleveland and his 1st year in New England without Tom Brady. This was his record in those seasons ...


Cleveland Browns/New England Patriots

41wins , 55 losses . - The Browns in his 5 seasons only finished with a winning record once , they never finished higher than 2nd in division that 1 winning season. Also in this span Belichick went through 6 QB's in his time with the Browns. With Testeverde doing ok , but chasing away local legend Bernie Kosar as the team had a winning record one season at one point (and then watching as games were lost after it).

[Sacred Knight]

The performance stuff about Fangio is completely on-point but this:

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 220,000 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.

is just silly and completely out of context. When talking about COVID and the whiners, he was specifically speaking of players complaining about games being rescheduled and whatnot. Having to practice in what would turn out to be their bye week. He was speaking of people whining about the football-related inconvenience within the measures; he was backing up the moves happening because of the disease (the fact the NFL botched it from the get-go on their own notwithstanding). Furthermore he made no bad comments about unjustified police killings. The only gaffe he made was in sticking up for the league saying he didn't see racism within the NFL. Which it of itself was a company guy, not true statement, but still, had nothing to do with unjustified shootings.

[Gray Lensman]

I said it for a long while...Belichick as a coach had issues in Cleveland and his 1st year in New England without Tom Brady. This was his record in those seasons ...


Cleveland Browns/New England Patriots

41wins , 55 losses . - The Browns in his 5 seasons only finished with a winning record once , they never finished higher than 2nd in division that 1 winning season. Also in this span Belichick went through 6 QB's in his time with the Browns. With Testeverde doing ok , but chasing away local legend Bernie Kosar as the team had a winning record one season at one point (and then watching as games were lost after it).

With how important the QB position us to the game of football I don't think any coach can pull off long term success without a solid player at the position. One doesn't need to have Mahomes or Brady in his prime, but you need at least the tier right below that if you want to be a serious contender season after season. A team can do well without one, and even win a Superbowl, but I can't see any of them becoming a perennial contender without.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

NFL News...


- The Dallas Cowboys have informed teams Everson Griffen is on the trade block right now. Griffen is due only half the $6 million against salary cap right now. Also the Cowboys will not be signing another QB right now with Andy Dalton in concussion check this week. They have Garrett Gilbert on practice squad right now and will start rookie QB Ben DiNucci this week. But people are wondering if the team will sign a 3rd string emergency QB right now.


- Cam Newton has said he will be benched permanent if he doesn't improve. (Which is right , really)

- NFL.Com has updated the current draft order.


https://www.nfl.com/news/2021-******...********-no-11

It details the needs each team has and will be looking at right now.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

NFL News...


- The Dallas Cowboys have informed teams Everson Griffen is on the trade block right now. Griffen is due only half the $6 million against salary cap right now. Also the Cowboys will not be signing another QB right now with Andy Dalton in concussion check this week. They have Garrett Gilbert on practice squad right now and will start rookie QB Ben DiNucci this week. But people are wondering if the team will sign a 3rd string emergency QB right now.

With Dalton in concussion protocol, I'm guessing my Eagles will be facing DiNucci when the Cowboys come to town for Sunday Night Football (I'm sure the suits at NBC are gulping Pepto non-stop over this dog with fleas). It was hard to take anything away from DiNucci's relief performance against the Deadskins as that game was pretty much out of hand, will he be ready to handle Philly's potent pass rush? Will Carson Wentz be able to take advantage of a Dallas defense that's giving a leaky sieve a bad name? I guess we'll find out.