NFL Week 12 -- I Wish Turkey Only Cost A Nickel

Watching Pats-Giants yesterday, tie game early in the 3rd quarter. The Pats have 4th and 1 from their own 40 or so and try to draw the Giants offsides and called a TO when the Giants didn’t bite. That floored me because back in the day, Hoodie would never waste a second half TO like that.

 

But please, David Tepper ... continue to be fine with the fact that Nicole likes Scott Fitterer ...

 

I was entertained by Steelers-Bengals, and not just because Pittsburgh won. The Steelers have made a habit of winning ugly. The final score, 16-10, fits into their usual pattern, but it was a lot prettier than anything we had seen all season. Mike Tomlin is fond of saying that style points don't matter. To an extent he is right, but as a fan, I want to see their offense move the damn ball. The Steelers broke a streak of 58 games without 400 yards of offense one week after firing Matt Canada, who had been offensive coordinator for most of them. You had to watch the game to see it, but the difference was very easy to spot. Of course, it helps that the Bengals' defense sucks.

 

So what IS the deal in Carolina? Is Young a bust? Was he Reich's call? Tepper's? Fitterer's? A GM can last a long time when he just relays the moves the owner wants to make and takes the slings and arrows. It will be interesting to see who they hire, thought likely an OC who can convince Tepper he can make Young a half a foot taller.

 

The thing in Carolina is that losing to this Titans squad is undoubtedly a fireable offense.

 

There's no way to determine what Bryce Young can be. Christian McCaffrey would be a young quarterback's wondrous security blanket, but he was shipped off because they didn't like his contract. DJ Moore would have helped, but the Bears wanted one of Moore, Brian Burns or Derrick Brown, and Fitterer opted to hand Chicago Moore in the deal that gave them the No. 1 overall used to draft Young. So Young's best option is Adam Thielen, a dependable target if there ever was one ... but a slot receiver. The Titans were smart enough to double him and force Young and Reich to find production elsewhere.

Word has it that Reich wanted CJ Stroud and David Tepper wanted Young. If you see what has been going on down in Charlotte, you can figure out who won that power struggle. I honestly have zero issue with Young being maybe 5-foot-10 - I mean ... my handle, hello? - but so far, this has not looked good. Plus, unless Young suddenly inherits Michael Vick's legs and feet, no one will survive behind this poor excuse of an offensive line.

As for Fitterer, he's still a bad, bad GM. No, he didn't sign McCaffrey to that last contract, but he hasn't done anything to upgrade the line - Ickey Ekwonu has struggled massively at left tackle, the guards are turnstiles and center has been shaky. Also, aside from Thielen, the free-agent WRs and TEs and draft picks have bombed. Working for Tepper doesn't exactly help matters.

 

Not that I'm a scout or anything, but I was never that impressed with Young as an NFL prospect when he was at Alabama.

 

The Lions are mostly hiding their quarterback? Have you been watching their games all season?

Just statistically, Goff has attempted 405 passes in 11 games this season -- an average of 36.8 per game. Only three QBs have thrown more, and two of those (Sam Howell with 486 and Josh Allen with 433) have played one more game than Goff. Mahomes is third at 411 in 11 games.

So Goff has thrown more passes this season than C.J. Stroud, Tua Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert ... and everyone else in the league.

He also ranks sixth in yards per pass attempt (behind Purdy, Tua, Stroud, Dak and Lamar Jackson), ahead of Jalen Hurts, Kirk Cousins, Trevor Lawrence, Allen, Mahomes, Herbert, etc.

If they're trying to hide him, they're doing a damn poor job of it.

 

You're right, that was a bad job by me fresh off a recency bias bad game against the Packers. Goff just feels like the type of solid enough caretaker QB w/whom teams used to win Super Bowls all the time...but who hasn't won one since Brad Johnson w/the Bucs (I suppose, ironically, you could count Brady's last Patriots win against the Rams as an example of a caretaker QB winning it all). I'd love to be wrong. It'd be great if the Lions won and Goff shoved it in the face of douchy bro McVay.

 

Nah. Let Hendon Hooker lead them to the championship NEXT season.

 

https://x.com/chisportsday/status/1729200064114073736?s=46&t=3h1AnURCaCOlm1-UZ3KQog

 

FWIW, I wasn't impressed with Hooker as an NFL prospect, either.