NFL 2022 Regular Season Thread.

[worstblogever]

WEEK 17 "WHO'S COOKIN' ON THE HOTSEAT?/FIRE THIS COACH!" DISCUSSION
(ALREADY FIRED BEFORE WEEK 6): Matt Ruhle (Panthers), Frank Reich (Colts) FIRED! THEY’RE FIRED!


10. Todd Bowles, Buccaneers: I’ve personally rooted for Todd Bowles since he was Bruce Arians’ DC in Arizona, and getting a coaching job with the Jets was a near death sentence for the man’s career. Still, he went back to Tampa Bay and got a ring working as DC under Arians there when Tom Brady walked through the door. This is his first year in his second stint as a head coach and…

Things do not look as predestined for the Bucs at the moment, as they lead what currently is the worst division in football at 6-8. Yes, were it not for how awful the Saints, Falcons, and Panthers are, Tampa Bay would likely be out of the playoffs entirely. Their offensive line is a patchwork of reserves in for guys out with injuries, and Brady’s marital problems with Gisele were a distraction through the first half of the year, but week to week, Brady has been as emotionally unstable than he’s ever been on any sideline, ever, with him chucking tablets and berating his own offensive linemen for giving up too many sacks. It’s not a good look for a franchise that looked like they would be atop the league as long as the were running the GOAT out there.

Sunday, Brady had 2 INTs and 2 lost fumbles, to help trigger a 17 point comeback at the hands of Joe Burrow and the Bengals. The Creamsicle Crew just have not locked up this division with three weeks to play, and Bowles is reportedly “under review” by the Glazer family right now. Brady is a free agent again after this year, and there are postulators predicting a reunion with Belichik in New England.

But, there’s hope for Bowles to get his team to finish with a winning record, as next week they’ll be playing the Arizona Cardinals while they are likely to field Trace McSorley at QB, and then they play with Carolina running out Sam Darnold and his mononucleosis, before finishing the season at Atlanta, who are, in theory, spinning the tires on rookie Desmond Ridder. If Tom Brady manages to take this mediocre team into the playoffs on the benefit of sucking less than every other team in the NFC South, and pull a first round upset, Bowles will have justified he knows what he’s doing… but that’s a big IF right now.



9. Sean McVay, Rams : The coach of the defending champs. Sure, they’re 4-10, mostly because they let a lot of talent depart from the offensive line and didn’t replace it, as well as two Pro Bowlers in Von Miller and OBJ without doing much to replace them… and they’ve traded away all their high draft picks until like 2025 or something… so maybe their championship window slammed shut right after they pulled the Lombardi trophy through it. Can you blame Sean McVay for Les Snead’s plan for a title getting done, and then the consequences of how they did it coming this hard and fast?

I’m gonna be clear. Sean McVay is a coach who’s owned his division the past several years. He coached Jared Goff into being at least a respectable QB after being miserable when he arrived. He’s got an eidetic memory, and knows every play call he’s ever made in every situation like you are I are just reciting our phone numbers. Injuries and front office management have made this year be even more than he can handle, and I haven’t even gotten into Matt Stafford exploding into a thousand injury-pieces at the same time after finally getting a ring…

But I think Sean McVay is going to be done in Los Angeles after this season. Not because he sucks, or he’s getting fired… I just think he’s going to “pull a Madden” and take that steel trap of a mind to a broadcast booth while he’s young, and get paid stupid amounts of money with infinitely less stress in his gig.

Plus, y’know, he’s a year removed from a title, and it would be weird to FIRE FIRE FIRE a guy that soon after. But then again, Stan Kroenke is kinda awful, so I wouldn’t put it past him.

In the meantime, he looks like he’s going to take Baker Mayfield off the scrap heap and refurbish him into being a functional QB in literal DAYS of effort. Watch, Cleveland and Carolina gave up on him, and in the next four games, McVay’s going to prove the Rams just found and rehabbed their next franchise QB.




8. Matt Eberflus, Bears: All right, we’ve left Eberflus, a first year coach alone for as long as we have because, y’know… first year coach. It’s hard to fire a guy in his first year. But when he’s 3-11 with a week until Christmas, and on a seven game losing streak, we think maybe that coach could be kicking around the top ten hottest seats. Getting a win or two in the final four games would do a lot to convince fans around Chicago that this team is trending in the right direction.

The problem with that is the Bears finish the season with a schedule of:
Bills
Lions
Vikings

Goddamn, that’s rough. That might be the hardest finish of any team in the league. Justin Fields has already put up record-breaking numbers for rushing yards by a QB with a month left (He already broke 1,000 yards rushing)… but Eberflus, a supposed “defensive guy” has the Bears 30th in scoring defense, and not exactly doing better in yards per game, particularly against the run. They kept it close versus the Eagles yesterday, but still came up short.

Should they upset one of those elite teams, it could do a lot to help Eberflus prove he’s the guy. If they don’t? Well, my math says they’d end the year on a ten game losing streak. That’s usually the job the Lions do in the NFC North, not the Bears. They just suck a moderate amount, but not completely.



7. Dennis Allen, Saints : You took over for the guy who brought a Super Bowl to New Orleans. The first rule is, “Never be the guy, who follows THE guy.” Then, you took a job where Jameis Winston was your initial QB. Your first job was, obviously, “Minimize his mistakes. His stupid, stupid mistakes.” You failed at that, and now have turned your team over to the Red Rifle, Andy Dalton, whose best years in the league were about taking a Wild Card team to the playoffs to immediately get sent home. The outlook is not even as bright of that now, in the “veteran journeyman” stage of Dalton’s career.

We were thinking New Orleans would take a step back this year, but this… yikes.

Dennis Allen has gotten the Saints off to a 5-9 start, in spite of all their talent at the skill positions and on defense. Their battery of offensive weapons are all on the shelf with injuries, and their 2023 draft prospects are irrelevant to any attempts at tanking… the Eagles own their first round pick because of the Saints trading up for WR Chris Olave… so it doesn’t look like they’re solving their hole at QB unless there’s a free agent they can snag… which isn’t traditionally the Saints’ forte.

The Saints came out of their BYE to face the Falcons, with both teams playing at this point for pride and/or draft position. New Orleans also lucked out that Atlanta were beginning the Desmond Ridder era, and their defense consumed the rookie to hold him under 100 yards passing to hang on in a 21-18 matchup.

They now travel to play the Browns on Christmas Eve, and wondering if they might not be able to steal the division away from Tom Brady and the Bucs. All four NFC South coaches are looking like their seats are warm right now, but whomever takes this godawful division and gets to the playoffs might get a pass.


6. Arthur Smith, Falcons: All right, here’s one of our true hot seats on this list. Matt Ryan is, again, gone to Indianapolis. This team was led by Marcus Mariota, for the final four games, rookie QB Desmond Ridder waiting to step in to try and prove something. Their top WR is suspended for gambling for the whole year, and their best RB (when available) is actually a WR. They have virtually no one you’ve ever heard of on the defensive side of the ball (28th in the league in defensive yards allowed), and their best player, currently, might be their kicker. And while some were crediting Smith for coaching the Falcons to hover around .500 through the first half of the season and be in contention in a pathetic NFC South without a team over that mark…

This team had a stretch of games against mediocre opponents. The Chargers, Panthers, Bears, Commanders, Steelers, Saints, all in a row, and the only win they got was against Chicago by a FG. We have had Atlanta as a coaching hot seat, but come early December, this could be a team trying to swipe a playoff spot with that schedule. But they need someone with a pulse playing on the defensive side of the ball to make that happen.

They’re sitting at 5-9, and debuted Desmond Ridder coming out of their BYE week, with a conservative game plan to protect him and prevent him from turning it over, Yeah, getting 231 yards on the ground was great, but their miserable defense couldn’t get stops against a struggling Saints offense.

Atlanta travels to Baltimore to play the Ravens, who are just trying to limp into the playoffs right now without Lamar Jackson, and that might be a team their pourous D can keep out of the end zone.

[worstblogever]

5. Matt LaFleur, Packers: Green Bay has lost six of their past nine, because Aaron Rodgers and the offense for Green Bay have a problem with a lot of young receivers who are not in synch with the back-to-back MVP. The main mystery right now is why they’re still playing Aaron Rodgers when he’s nursing an injury, and not trying to see if Jordan Love really is his heir apparent.

They failed to convert even a single third down against the Commanders, got absolutely handled by the Buffalo Bills... and lonely put up 9 points in a loss to the Detroit Lions, which in any season for Green Bay practically ever, would be a “get right game”… Were it not for Mike McCarthy blundering away a game when the Packers played Dallas, the losing streak would have hit 8. They got handled by the Titans, and the Eagles rolled over them.

They’ve now won two in a row, because Green Bay was lucky enough to get Chicago with a dinged up Justin Fields, and they followed that with a game against the Rams, who are pulling offensive linemen right off the street while doing their damnedest to rehabilitate the image of Baker Mayfield (MNF didn’t help much).

Green Bay remains at the mercy of Aaron Rodgers’ ego, and would throw Matt LaFleur into a burning oil drum if it meant keeping their temperamental signal-caller for just one more year.



4. Jeff Saturday, Colts : The Colts have been underachieving this year, and hired former Colts center and current ESPN commentator Jeff Saturday as the interim coach to replace Frank Reich. This had to be a shock that Irsay didn’t trust anyone on Reich’s staff to fill in, and that Saturday’s only coaching experience prior was at a Georgia high school. He was apparently asking fellow commentators at ESPN for weeks about “what scheme would you use if you were running a team?”, a sure sign he might be in over his head. Saturday already deked everybody by claiming he would continue to start Sam Ehlinger the rest of the year, but immediately went back to Matt Ryan (or what passes for him these days).

He won his first game in spite of all that chaos, because the Colts were lucky enough to be in Las Vegas to play, at the time, the hapless Las Vegas Raiders and their terrible defense, getting a 25-20 win.

They now have lost their last four.

In his second game, Saturday narrowly came up short against the 9-1 Philadelphia Eagles.
Game #3: Saturday forgets time-outs were a thing against a struggling Steelers team on Monday Night Football, doubling-down on this obvious f***up postgame.
Game #4: Six days later, the Colts were in primetime again, and within a FG of taking the lead against the Cowboys until… 33 consecutive points by Dallas in the 4th quarter in an utter implosion.
Game #5…

Jeff Saturday just coached a game where his team went up 33-0 in Minnesota the half, and proceeded to have the dubious distinction of blowing the largest lead and losing in any game in NFL history. EVER. A league that has existed for 102 years, and we’re talking over SIXTEEN THOUSAND GAMES.

Did we mention that maybe they jumped out early because they had their BYE week to prepare for that debacle against the Vikings?

Suffice to say, Matt Ryan can at least no longer have 28-3 hanging over his head now that he’s got 33-0 to underline his “choke artist” label, and it seems unlikely that Jeff Saturday is not going to be a full time hire, so hopefully he didn’t burn any bridges on his way outside the door and still can go get rehired at ESPN for the ’23 season.




3. Nathaniel Hackett, Broncos : The Broncos simply cannot put points on the board with the dessicated husk of Russell Wilson under center. Their three wins have underwhelmed, with one against the lowly Texans. They are averaging only 14.9 points per game, dead last in the league. If they’d poached Eric Bienemy from the Chiefs, they wouldn’t be having this problem right now. Instead, they have a coaching staff with a first time head coach, first time OC, first time DC, and first time Special Teams coach, and all the inexperience is showing, what with them leading the league in penalties. Nathaniel Hackett’s situational awareness seems like he’s coaching from the moon, thus he had to hire an assistant to help him with game management before the first half of the season was even over.

Russell Wilson was brought in for a king’s ransom and underwhelmed from the jump. Every week, he’s still the center of attention, but not for his play, but rather if he still CAN play. Either from an injury status, or if he’s totally washed up. Russ had possibly his best game of the season against the Chiefs last week before leaving with an almost definite concussion after his head bounced off the turf. Once Brett Rypien was under center, the Broncos’ chances at victory vanished, and it was only a matter of time before Andy Reid would figure out where they’d placed the kryptonite on Patrick Mahomes, take it off, and let him be goddamned Superman to come from behind and win.

Yesterday, the Broncos snapped a five game losing streak on the good fortune that Arizona came to town and Kliff Kingsbury can’t tell the difference in Kyler Murray and Colt McCoy and called QB runs for the only signal caller who had taken snaps suited up since the preseason. Denver didn’t win so much as Arizona lost from that point, but Brett Rypien can always tout his 197 yards passing against second and third stringers forced on the field for the red birds.

At 4-10... Denver fans are adamant that Nathaniel Hackett’s middle name is “can’t”. He should be one-and-done, especially given the expectations in Denver were he’d lure Aaron Rodgers to town (he didn’t), and even with Russell Wilson, this team was supposed to be an AFC favorite. Right now, they’re only playing to make the Seahawks’ draft picks less shiny.

[worstblogever]

2. Kliff Kingsbury, Cardinals: Kliff Kingsbury convinced GM Keim to spend most of the Cardinals’ salary cap on the offensive side of the ball, and yet, they got all the way to Week 9 before they scored a first quarter touchdown, by far the last team to do so. They have done so twice in their first twelve games.

Kingsbury has got weapons on that side of the ball ranging from Kyler, James Connor, Ertz, Nuke, Hollywood, Rondale Moore, A.J. Green, and Robbie Anderson, and he’s doing f*** all with all that talent. Kyler Murray isn’t throwing for 300 yards in a game, partially because he only throws the ball 5 yards or less when he does drop back. AND ALWAYS IN SHOTGUN. Kingsbury does not push his QB to take snaps under center, either. His forte is offense, and it’s a complete disaster. And if Kyler’s out? He forgets that not every QB can scramble for a first down on their speed along, and calls QB runs for the statuesque Colt McCoy, and then calls pass plays to be thrown by Trace McSorley after that, who should be the one running.

His coaching staff has been a trainwreck, with the original RB coach fired for domestic battery, his replacement just “dismissed” for mystery reasons, and a O-Line coach fired on the team’s trip to Mexico City for sexually assaulting a woman in a bar so they gave him a pink slip literally hours before kickoff against the division leading 49ers. They never had a true Offensive Coordinator, and Kliff is calling all the plays (badly). The Cardinals are third only to the Broncos and Raiders in the NFL in penalties, and lead the league in pre-snap penalties.

The Cardinals franchise is run by Bill Bidwill, and he’s a boob like his father. He already resigned GM Steve Keim and Kingsbury to contracts this offseason to keep them in AZ until 2027… so no matter how bad the Cardinals fall on their face this year, it seemed like both those morons are safe. Because the Bidwill family are some of the biggest skinflints in the league, they’re not paying coaches to stay home. GM Steve Keim traded away several late round draft picks for Trayvon Mullen and Robbie Anderson, the former of whom didn’t play because of a freak deep fryer accident, and the latter has six catches for 63 yards in his first eight games with the team… so you can’t say he did nothing to help the coach mid-season… but now he’s fled the team with mysterious “health issues” that sound more like “Bidwill doesn’t want to fire his buddy, so they’re orchestrated a scenario to maintain his pride.”

Goddamn, I sit in awe on Sundays of how s***ty a coach Kliff Kingsbury is, and cannot believe he was thrown enough money to own a mansion in the hills when he has so much talent and can do f*** all with it. This team was 2-4 without DeAndre Hopkins, and has gone 2-6 since his return to sit at 4-10, as well as being 1-4 in NFC West Divisional games. Kingsbury already had a reported mid-season rift with Kyler Murray (including Kyler screaming at his coach to “CALM THE F*** DOWN!” in a game until Hopkins pulled him away), but good news! Kyler tore his ACL so there’s no more feuding between the two in the final four games. If anything, Kingsbury’s done a real thinking man’s move by avoiding yet another a late season collapse by stepping on his d*** in the first half this season, so at least his team will consistently suck all year long.


I have admitted to everyone on this forum I’m a masochist, just by saying I root for the Cardinals, and at this point, I’m hoping the Kingsbury curse about losing after Nov. 1st continues to Michael Bidwill gets angry enough to at least fire him after the season, and then can hire Sean Payton, who’s making noise through the rumor mill he wants to “unretire” to coach Kyler Murray.

Arizona hadn’t played in 15 days, and went out to embarrass themselves in primetime against the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football this week. In this game, Kliff dropped to 3-8 in primetime games, lost his 11th out of the past 12 games at home, and since Arizona sat at 10-2 last season… they’ve lost 16 of their past 20 games. In his four years as coach, Kingsbury is 17-48 after November 1st.


I’m one of the most patient fans, and I’ve seen plenty of bad coaches in the past quarter century in the desert. But I have never rooted for someone to get run out of town as hard as I am for Kliff Kingbsury. Not since Buddy Ryan was here. But at least Buddy’s players were all washed up when they came to the Cardinals for a paycheck. Only half of Kliff’s are, and the good half are flat out wasted in this abortion of a team.

Guess what we all get for Christmas? Sunday Night Football next week is Arizona (likely with 3rd string QB Trace McSorley and an entire O-Line consisting of backups) versus Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. Yes, back in April, that seemed like a primetime matchup, but now, it’s sure to keep families turning to “A Christmas Story” on a loop on Cable TV. Unless you like hate-watching Kliff Kingsbury coaching, then it's going to be exactly what the doctor ordered.

1. Lovie Smith, Texans: We respect Lovie Smith, but we also know that the owners of the Houston Texans wanted Josh McCown to be their next coach, and it’s only because of Brian Flores’ lawsuit that the f***sticks in their front office got caught potentially skirting the Rooney Rule and backpedaled to hire Lovie to cover their asses from any league punishments that could have come.

The best news for Lovie is that Jack Easterby got FIRED FIRED this season, so there’s no longer a guy trying to elevate Josh McCown to replace him. IN THEORY.

Lovie is regarded as the architect of the Bears’ highly touted defenses of the mid-oughts, but is in charge of a team so devoid of talent that they are currently dead last in the league in yards of offense, and dead last in rushing defense. They’re in the bottom five in the NFL in most team stats, and are dead last in point differential at a staggering -109.

Lovie’s coached them to an underwhelming, even for Houston… 1-12-1. I wouldn’t expect them to reverse trend this week when they play against Kansas City. They almost are guaranteed to have the top pick in the draft, and every college QB must be sweating bullets for fear they end up having to play for this travesty of a franchise. Probably not for Lovie, though.

In spite of this team having 1.5 wins… they’ve given a scare in successive weeks to the Cowboys, and yesterday, the mighty Kansas City Chiefs, who needed Overtime to get the win. Even with the extra time, the Texans only had 254 yards.

Houston travels to Nashville on Christmas Eve with that league worst rushing defense to face Derrick Henry and the Titans.

Suffice to say, I think they’re going to lose their tenth straight.

[Scott Taylor]

McVay may be on the way out but, if its not by his choice, that will rank as top 5 stupidest decisions by the Rams ever. And that goes back to the Georgia Frontiere days

Green Bay officially eliminated the Rams from the playoffs with a 24-12 win last night, tying the 1999 Broncos for the earliest elimination ever for a defending Super Bowl champion. Admittedly, I had zero interest in that game, so I watched the hometown Sixers nip Toronto in overtime instead.

The championship was worth it!

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Houston has a tough decision come draft day ahead. If they lose on out they will have the top QB in the draft fall to them. But they can get a nice ransom of draft picks if they pass on him from these potential teams ahead :


Atlanta
Carolina
Indianpolis
New Orleans
NY Jets
NY Giants
Seattle
Tampa Bay *
Washington


- Stories are coming out that Tom Brady will be meeting with Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft after the season to discuss a 1 or 2 year contract to return to New England to finish his career out with the team. There is also talk rumor wise of possibly going to San Francisco to start a final season so Brady can do his childhood dream of QB of the 49ers. But the big thing seems to be a possible return to New England.

[MRP]

Rumor is youtubeTV is the front runner to win the Sunday Ticket contract after this season when the NFL's deal with DirectTV expires.

-M

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So as a Chiefs fan , this story I just discovered is ....well its f'n insane. But it also features a couple super fans. One of them is "ChiefsAholic" who wears a wolf costume with KC hat and more. The Chiefs have literally started having a lot of fans transition to wolf costumes and wear to look like the new mascot they introduced years ago.




https://thelibertyline.com/2022/12/2...c-bank-robber/


You gotta love this man's dedication to the Chiefs. I mean...insane and crazy for sure. American Greed will have a great episode ahead.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Listening to the DA (Damon Amendolara) Show on CBS Sportsradio Network and he just announced that Franco Harris passed away:

Steelers Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris dead at 72

Damn! Mere days before the 50th anniversary of the "Immaculate Reception". Unbelievable.

[Deathstroke]

Listening to the DA (Damon Amendolara) Show on CBS Sportsradio Network and he just announced that Franco Harris passed away:

Steelers Hall-of-Famer Franco Harris dead at 72

Damn! Mere days before the 50th anniversary of the "Immaculate Reception". Unbelievable.

Damn. As a young football fan, I really liked him. I collected football cards as a kid and I was always thrilled to get the cards for Harris, Stallworth, Swan and Bradshaw.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A one woman recap of the week that was in the NFL, got a goodly amount of chuckles out of it:

https://twitter.com/AnnieAgar/status...50913639469056

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

NFL Week 15 Sunday had highly entertaining games.

The Titans had used teamwork to get an interception in the End Zone 1 in a million play because a Titans defender pushed the football to the closest Titans defender that caught the football.
While the Chargers did outplay the Titans slightly to win that low-scoring thriller 17-14 I'm still confident the Titans will be playing better by defeating the hapless Texans mainly by outplaying them even if the Texans manage to contain Derrick the Freight Train Henry. I don't expect they'll have another great fruitless performance vs a Texans team in Nashville after a frustrating defeat to the Chargers since that was their most winnable game during the losing streak.

While the Patriots did comeback to take the lead vs the Raiders it was futile because the Patriots couldn't protect the lead, and the Raiders Chandler Jones returned a lateral for a TD to end that amazing thrilling competitive game. That lateral mostly looked like a Music City Miracle backfire, and was hilarious the Patriots didn't take the knee to go to overtime also because it's very slim for the Patriots to score a TD since the Patriots RB would have to run more than 52 yards.

The Cowboys had a glorious choke job vs the Rebuilding Jaguars because while they did choke a 17 points lead, and couldn't protect the 3-point lead late in the game, the worst has to be an interception returned for the game-winning td in overtime. A rebuilding Jaguars team that is finally gelling after more than 7 games of growing pains.

The Jets found a new to choke because while Wilson did play great that was fruitless since the Jets weren't able to protect a narrow lead in the 4th Quarter so the defense can be blamed for this disappointing defeat in what was a winnable game for the struggling Jets which got outplayed by the resilient entertaining Lions.
Kudos to the Detroit Rock City Lions that have defeated both the Giants and Jets in New Jersey, they are playing great since they've won 6 of their last 7 games to reach 500, also they have a realistic chance to make the Playoffs as a Wild Card team.

[Witchfan]

I thought that the Cowboys would win the rematch with the Eagles regardless of who played at QB, so I think it best that Jalen Hurts sits on Saturday.

[Jimbi]

Its a really sad day for fans of the Black and Gold.

RIP Franco.

[babyblob]

I thought that the Cowboys would win the rematch with the Eagles regardless of who played at QB, so I think it best that Jalen Hurts sits on Saturday.

To be honest it is very unlikey that the Cowboys catch them any way. Even if they do win Saturday. So let Hurts sit make sure he is back to 100 percent.

[MRP]

Having found out that Ehlinger is hot trash and seen that Matt Ryan is cooked, the Colts are turning to Nick Foles to start this weekend.


-M