Let's chat about the National Football League: This week's schedule (all times Eastern):
Thu 2024-10-24 8:15PM Minnesota Vikings @ Los Angeles Rams
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Atlanta Falcons @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Chicago Bears @ Washington Commanders
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Arizona Cardinals @ Miami Dolphins
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Green Bay Packers @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM New York Jets @ New England Patriots
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Tennessee Titans @ Detroit Lions
Sun 2024-10-27 1:00PM Baltimore Ravens @ Cleveland Browns
Sun 2024-10-27 4:05PM Buffalo Bills @ Seattle Seahawks
Sun 2024-10-27 4:05PM New Orleans Saints @ Los Angeles Chargers
Sun 2024-10-27 4:25PM Carolina Panthers @ Denver Broncos
Sun 2024-10-27 4:25PM Kansas City Chiefs @ Las Vegas Raiders
Sun 2024-10-27 4:25PM Philadelphia Eagles @ Cincinnati Bengals
Sun 2024-10-27 8:20PM Dallas Cowboys @ San Francisco 49ers
Mon 2024-10-28 8:15PM New York Giants @ Pittsburgh Steelers
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Notes -
This week was the closest thing the Eagles have had to a Get Right win since October of '23. While there was some weirdness to it (70 or so net passing yards in the entire game), it was for the most part a wall to wall win. The Browns win would have looked pretty similar, to be fair, without the blocked field goal TD; but if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle. The Giants are terrible, and were banged up, but this is what you're supposed to do to terrible teams and the Eagles seemed incapable of just being normal for almost a year now, every game featured unaccountably weird and bad decision making or performance issues. This win probably protects Nick Sirianni's job for the rest of the regular season, though if he misses the playoffs he's probably out in the off season.
Jalen Hurts didn't throw the ball much, but he didn't turn it over either, and he was out by the middle of the fourth quarter to rest anyway. Interesting contrast between the Eagles and the Lions: against the Cowboys the Lions had an insurmountable lead, and used the opportunity to scheme up bizarre trick plays to get an offensive tackle a touchdown. The Eagles, with a smaller lead, chose to take their foot off the gas, putting in lots of backups to get reps. Even Saquon personally, when Nick Sirianni asked him if he wanted to go for a new PR in rushing yards against his old team, he demurred, saying to get the other guys some reps. Maybe the Eagles lack killer instinct, or maybe they have sportsmanship. I'm not sure which.
Elsewhere, it looks like Deshaun Watson's sad saga has taken another turn. Watson tore his Achilles during the game Sunday, and will be out for the remainder of the season. Browns fans reportedly booed aggressively, having no patience for their downed hero, leading to Miles Garrett pronouncing afterward that Watson had been a model citizen "most of the time." The Browns reportedly insured Watson's contract, and thus will get salary cap relief as a result of the injury, which may therefore be a best case scenario for the team. I'm a Truther here, this is entirely too convenient for the league and the team. While players tear their ligaments all the time, and Watson was getting beat up by every pass rush he faced, the timing lines up a liiiiitle too conveniently. Every football commentary podcast was talking about "what are the Browns going to do about Watson?" It was a black eye on the league, even moreso because the off-the-field stuff interacted with the on-the-field product. I think this is all kabuki theater to shuffle Watson out of the league.
As a related aside for the other kind of football, The NYT proves again and again why women's sports never makes it. TLDR: there's a new pro women's soccer team coming to Boston, their marketing slogan is that up until now sports has had too many balls, meaning men. There's been an outcry against the "transphobia" of equating lacking testicles with being a woman. I have occasionally watched women's sports: the olympics, the UFC women's divisions. But I'm so angry that women's professional sports, which I don't watch, is held hostage by weirdo activist types, who also don't watch the games. Professional Women's sports isn't about winning, it's about making some kind of political point. Women just don't understand that if Watson had played well, the Browns fans would have forgiven him, and as long as they even thought he might help them win his teammates accepted him. Have politics, fine, but they come after winning on priorities.
It was non contact though right?
The mysterious extra law suit though...
The injury was non contact but getting smashed in the backfield over and over isn't doing any favors in terms of movement quality. Beyond the sacks, I thought the Eagles were gonna catch a suspension for the late hits they were laying on him last week.
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