And, then there were only seven left. After the sheer volume of NFL football last weekend with six-games this week’s slate is a full one-third smaller. With four-games this weekend, and two next there’s only one left thereafter. Football is on its way out the door for 8-months. But, it’s not going without making a lot of noise. Let’s winnow through some of it.
Locally on Offense
The WFT wasted no time in hiring young David Blough to be the new Offensive Coordinator. It feels like a bold move. But, it wasn’t out of the blue. After last season the Lions, Jets, and Bears all tried to hire him away from Washington. But, the team wouldn’t allow him to interview. They knew they had someone good in the building. As for what kind of Offense he will run, only the shadow knows. There are some tantalizing clues, however.
Per the rumor mill General Manager Adam Peters was not enamored with some of Kliff Kingsbury‘s Offensive strategy. Peters came from San Francisco where Kyle Shanahan’s Offense produced consistent results. Zone Blocking run plays are the norm. Shanahan came by that honestly. His father Mike made a living with that approach. In the Kyle Offense a hybrid Receiver/Running Back is a prominent feature. Christian McCaffrey was a perfect fit for that role. With him there and Deebo Samuel as another hybrid there was no telling what was coming next.
Kingsbury’s Offense got boxed in a bit by his no-huddle strategy. Wide Receivers were stuck on one side of the ball or the other. Teams knew Terry McLaurin was lining up to the left on the vast majority of occasions. The frustrating part of this approach was that Kliff would leave the Offense in no-huddle only to substitute personnel. That allowed the Defense to substitute thereby muting the real weapon of no-huddle: Keeping the same Defensive personnel on the field.
The guess here is that Blough will run an Offense much more like Shanahan’s than Kingsbury’s. Look for more huddles.
Locally on Defense
The Defense has been bad for both years of the new regime. Talk “Scheme” all you want. The personnel aren’t there. Whoever gets this job will be standing on the table in the Draft Room yelling for Defensive picks. There’s plenty of speculation that Dan Quinn will pick someone that has worked alongside or for him at some point. Raheem Morris sits at the top of that list. The recently-fired Atlanta Head Coach has been making the rounds of interviews for vacant Head Coaching positions. There were 9-openings until yesterday when 1 was filled. He may get one. If not, he’s a strong possibility here as Defensive Coordinator. Then again, when he was DC in Atlanta when Quinn was fired. He took over the interim role. Dan may be leery of Deja Vu’.
After Morris the list of other candidates is fairly long. Leading the list is Brian Flores, who was Minnesota’s DC this past year has interviewed. He’s also interviewed for the Ravens’ Head Coaching vacancy. Flores was the Head Coach in Miami 2019-2021. At the end of that he famously sued the NFL. That is not a good career move. Jon Gruden is not on the sidelines for partially the same reason. The Owners are a club. It’s doubtful one will hire him as a Head Coach. Ryan Fitzpatrick does the pre and post-games for Amazon Prime. Fitzpatrick was at Miami for two of Flores’ years. He described in some detail how Brian had burned every bridge in sight in Miami. Still, his Defenses are terrific. It will take a big paycheck to lure him anywhere.
Others being considered are Jonathan Gannon, the ex-Head Coach at Arizona. He interviewed on Thursday. Jeff Ulbrich was the DC at Atlanta this past season. For decades the Falcons did not have a pass rush to amount to anything. That changed this year. Ulbrich is also in the Quinn coaching tree. So is Al Harris, the Defensive Backs coach for the Bears. Finally, the team interviewed Karl Scott, the Defensive Backs coach for Seattle. There may be others that interviewed that aren’t publicly known yet.
The thinking here is that Quinn will pick an experienced Coordinator. He already has a newbie for the Offensive Coordinator. It would be a bold move to have both Coordinators with no mileage. We’ll have to wait on this. Between Morris making the rounds and the teams still in the playoffs the delay is understandable.
An Era Ends
Two weeks ago the Steelers and Ravens played essentially a “Play-in” game for the AFC North Title. The coaches had a combined 37-years at the helm of their teams. Nine-days later they were both out of their jobs. It was quite a shock to the NFL system. The League churns coaches at an astounding rate. Right now only 6-Head Coaches have more than 5-years tenure with the same team. There are 9-openings in a 32-team League (28%). Are there 9 good candidates out there?
Ravens’ Owner Steve Bisciotti removed all intrigue concerning the firing on Tuesday. He did it all by himself. That included overriding his Football people. When asked how much longer would Harbaugh have had if the final kick at Pittsburgh had gone through giving them a playoff berth: “One more week” was the answer. This had been set for a while. Then he called Harbaugh on the phone to fire him. If it sounds a little Snyder-esque that’s because it was.
Harbaugh had apparently been lusting for the Giants’ job for some time. He got it to the tune of $100-Million for 5-years. Giants’ nation is as giddy this offseason as Jets’ nation usually is this time of year. The Fun Meter goes from giddy to cranky in a hurry in New York. It’s not that they hope he delivers, it’s that he darned well better.
Where John Harbaugh went without a job for nine-days his foil on the Steeler’s sideline is taking a break. We’ve all seen the graphics with long-time Steelers’ coaches. Chuck Noll retired at age 59. Bill Cowher retired at age 49. Mike Tomlin is 53-years old. He walked away from the job just as the other two did. Is he done?
Quick Hits from Last Week
The Panthers scared the bejeebers out of the Rams. A wet ball and some wind were enough to get the domers off their game. Bryce Young no longer looks like the shell-shocked kid. He still has to slide around in the pocket to find a throwing lane because of his diminutive height. That entire team has turned a corner.
“The Beloved” as the Bears are often called pulled a victory out of the hat. That team looks flat-out bad for long stretches in these games. Yet, they pulled off the miracle. Give Dennis Allen the credit for this win. The Defensive Coordinator applied plenty of “Mug Looks” (6-8 players on the Line of Scrimmage in the second-half. He’d then drop 2 to 5 of them into coverage. It stopped Green Bay’s Offense. At one point they took a time out. Chicago’s Defense was moving around like scurrying ants when the anthill is stepped on. Green Bay took a Delay of Game penalty after a time out. That’s sowing confusion in a big way right there.
The Bills and Jaguars provided the best game of the week. Josh Allen is arguably the only player in the League that can put his team on his shoulders and just take the game over. He did just that. The NFL Network will play a replay of this game. Even if you watched it live, it’s worth watching again.
Undermanned San Francisco beat the Kensington Avenue Eagles. It wasn’t a particularly pretty game. But, the result was pretty satisfying. San Fran played like a team. The Eagles played like independent contractors. A.J. Brown dropped passes and then yelled at his Head Coach. Nothing to see here. Still, with all that talent on Philadelphia they were in position to score late and take the game. San Francisco went to a variation of “Quarters” Defense. They dared Jalen Hurts to beat them. One coach said, “We were gonna make (Hurts) play quarterback.” He couldn’t. Every other year this “team” falls apart. Somehow it’s never the Head Coach’s fault. The answer seemingly is to fire Coordinators…which they did to the OC post haste. Next year will be the fifth OC in five-years. The Head Coach remains.
Justin Herbert has been beaten, battered, and bruised. That continued on Sunday Night as the Patriots pounded him all game long. Unfortunately for the League they got the game order backwards. The pick of the litter was the first game. This one struggled to maintain attention.
Finally, Pittsburg lost its first Monday Night Home Game in 34-years. The streak of 23-straight came to an end with a thud. So did the probable last game of Aaron Rodgers‘ career. Houston’s Defense is all that and a bag of chips and a case of beer. They rush four Defenders and dare you to stop them. Their Quarterback could not hang onto the ball. No matter. This is not the Ravens’ Defense of 2000. But, it isn’t that far off.
This Week
The theme of the Saturday games is the Rested versus the Weary. Both #1 seeds watched football on television last week while this week’s contestants got weaker via injuries and just plain wear-and-tear. Josh Allen ended the game with a foot injury, a head bump, and a knee. Other than that he’s been described as “Sore.” George Kittle tore his Achilles in the first-half last week. His Owner asked him if there was anything he could get for him: “Tequilla” was the answer. A bottle of Patron was delivered to the Tight End. He watched the rest of the game drinking the Agave fluid straight from the bottle.
Denver has the biggest home-field advantage in the sport. It has nothing to do with fans. It’s the altitude. It gets little notice. Visiting pass-rushers are gassed in the fourth-quarter. Pat Kirwan often cites John Elway‘s fourth-quarter comeback stats. He had 53 of them. But, 38 came at home. Notice all those Denver comebacks this year? The Bills are really hurting. They have 15-players on the Injury Report. A Starting Safety and Cornerback are out. One has to like Denver’s chances here. And, the Bills are coming in with four-days of rest/walkthroughs and a travel day.
San Francisco has the same rest/travel situation. They are equally beaten to pulp. They play hard. Will that be enough? Brock Purdy is 5-2 in playoff action. One of the two losses had him tearing his Ulnar Collateral Ligament in the first-quarter. Look for the Niners to give them a game. But, that probably won’t be enough.
Sunday’s games are intriguing. Houston takes that tremendous Defense to New England. Again, the visitors come in on reduced rest. This time it’s because of the Monday Night Football playoff game. The Over/Under on this game is 40.5. That seems high.
The most interesting game of the weekend is the Rams going into frosty Soldiers Field to take on the Bears. That’s a night game. Forecast temperatures for the game are in the teens. Matthew Stafford hurt his index finger against the Panthers. Dr. David Chow says that the injury won’t affect him as much as others because of how he holds the ball. But, you can bet that Arctic air won’t feel good on it. Inside, and on turf the Rams win this in a walk. Outside in that cold?
Next week there are only two games. If you’re a hardcore football fan drink it in while you can.
Games Information
Saturday, January 17
Buffalo Bills at Denver Broncos; 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS (Jim Nantz, Tony Romo)
Broncos favored by 1.5-points
San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks; 8 p.m. ET on Fox (Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady)
Seahawks favored by 7-points
Sunday, January 18
Houston Texans at New England Patriots; 3 p.m. ET on ESPN (Joe Buck, Troy Aikman)
Patriots favored by 3-points
Los Angeles Rams at Chicago Bears; 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth)
Rams favored by 3.5 points
