NFL 2018 Season Thread

[Lathum]

Has there ever been an official worse at explaining the replay review call than this guy?

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Has there ever been an official worse at explaining the replay review call than this guy?

I want to give him a chance to explain himself.

[Jas_lov]

Wow

[PilotMan]

Wow is all you can say after that.

[Atocep]

Fitting end to this season for the Bears.

[cuervo72]

I'm almost as happy to see an old-style Cowboys/Rams matchup in LA as I am to see the Eagles advance (to get blasted by the Saints).

[EagleFan]

That was intense.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

That was intense.

Very intense!

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Fitting end to this season for the Bears.

It was pretty much a guarantee the Bears season was going to end on a missed FG.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

It was pretty much a guarantee the Bears season was going to end on a missed FG.

And on another doink from Captain Klank to boot. Pace is going to go through kickers like Lovie went through OCs.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Is it me or has the NFL just decided to stop calling false starts when they're withing half a snap count or so? I see a lot of tackles appear to jump into their stance just ahead of the snap and it's not getting called.

I was seeing that too.

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Per a couple credible sources on Twitter, the rule book states: "If there is no video evidence of a clear recovery or the ball going out of bounds,the ruling of incomplete stands."

Add that to the dumbest rule out there.

I mean, we can just go check the rulebook and see if it's in there... Oh wait no that's a closely guarded secret so the NFL can invent justifications after the fact.

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

Meh, seems to me both teams deserve what happened considering players on neither team made an effort to recover it. If the Bears pick it up, they score and get 7. If the Eagles pick it up, they save themselves from allowing that field goal at the end.

Split the difference (7-3) and the end result of a Bears field goal seems just.

I actually do agree the end result felt just, but clearly players weren't going to make an effort to pick it up when the ref was running over the ball waving his arms and blowing the whistle.

Btw, did I miss it or did we never get replays of the Bears failed 2-pt conversion? I know it's one where Gabriel disappeared into the pile instead of jumping so it's doubtful anything would've been conclusive, but I thought he was close enough to get a review based on first look.

Also between Nagy waiting until the next play to call his first time out instead of doing it at 1:55 and Mitch Trubisky being confused and wasting 15 seconds before spiking it with :20 left he really is an Andy Reid disciple. I know you can say he got his kicker a 40 yard FG & a chance to win, but every single Bears fan was probably screaming don't let it come down to Parkey in that last drive.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

And on another doink from Captain Klank to boot. Pace is going to go through kickers like Lovie went through OCs.

His 3.5 million is guaranteed for next year. Probably will be back.

[weegeebored]

Imagine that disaster if Parkey returns. He's already unreliable. How well will he perform next year? Pace wasted $18.5 million on Glennon. Surely the Bears can afford to eat the rest of Parkey's contract. They just have to make sure that someone other than Pace and his braintrust finds a different PK. Clearly kickers are not his forte.

[Atocep]

Not a fan of the pound it with Howard offense Nagy turned to the last few weeks. Howard is a good back with solid vision, but he's a poor fit for what Nagy wants to do systematically. Cohen had just 4 touches in this game and didn't have more than 7 in a game the last 3 weeks of the season.

The fact that Mizzell got a touch and a target in the first quarter is criminal. Would have been better off just having Trubisky spike the ball on those plays. He's been a waste all year.

Holy shit I have no idea what Josh Bellamy has on Pace or Nagy to keep a roster spot. He can't catch and doesn't block. I guess he threw a decent punch against the 49ers so he has the going for him. He had a 34 yard catch in this one, but Kevin White (yes he's bust) looked better as a receiver and even if he didn't he blocks his ass off on the outside which is a great thing for Cohen.

Nagy did a hell of a job this year and Pace has done a good job of building up the overall talent level since he took over so I acknowledge this is nitpicking after a wildly successful year.

Love Nagy, hope Fangio sticks around, and Pace has done a good job overall. I really needed to vent about those things a bit though.

[RainMaker]

I'm not sold on Nagy yet. This team won because of defense which Nagy doesn't touch.

Howard is gone after this year. Not sure they'll get a ton but like you said, they need someone that fits this system. Bellamy is active because he can play all 3 wide receiver slots. White apparently can only play on the outside where Robinson is.

Pace has been fine although dumping Gould and riding Parkey all year will haunt him. Also trading up for Mitch when they could have had Mahomes is a franchise altering decision.

[sabotai]

Robbie Gould is 82 for 85 on FG attempts (96%) since the Bears cut him shortly before the 2016 season. Chicago kickers (Barth, Nuggent, Santos and Parkey) are 57 for 75 (76%).

[bhlloy]

Yeah, a lot not to like about that last Bears set of downs. Even a couple more yards would have seen that kick good. Throwing a low percentage heave to the end zone just didn’t make a lot of sense. Understand the time issues but most teams have a quick five and out for that situation, and the the time issues were completely self inflicted in the first place.

[ISiddiqui]

Also it is seems like it was tipped. Super slow motion shows that an Eagles player got it with the tips of his fingers just to throw it off enough.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[molson]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Has there ever been an official worse at explaining the replay review call than this guy?

Ed Hochuli should come back and work every playoff game just to explain everything.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Also it is seems like it was tipped. Super slow motion shows that an Eagles player got it with the tips of his fingers just to throw it off enough.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

As true as that may be, it doesn't look like it changed the path or rotation of the ball much, if at all. Even he didn't think he got enough on it. If I'm the kicker that's not helping me feel any better. That ball was going to hit that upright one way or another.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I'm not sold on Nagy yet. This team won because of defense which Nagy doesn't touch.

Howard is gone after this year. Not sure they'll get a ton but like you said, they need someone that fits this system. Bellamy is active because he can play all 3 wide receiver slots. White apparently can only play on the outside where Robinson is.

Pace has been fine although dumping Gould and riding Parkey all year will haunt him. Also trading up for Mitch when they could have had Mahomes is a franchise altering decision.

Doesn't Bellamy also play Special Teams? White can't (for reasons unknown). I would have rather seen Wims than either of the other two. He had a good pre-season and a nice game in limited action.

Totally agree about Nagy. I like that he changed the losing culture to a positive winning one, but his clock management is atrocious and his playcalling seems suspect to me. He does better with scripted plays, but to me he doesn't have a feel for what's happening during the game. I seem him as a gadget play coach, not some offensive genius (unless we're comparing him to Eric Man-genius). The defense was the reason the Bears were 12-4, not the offense. But imagine Mahomes as the QB. Damn.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

As true as that may be, it doesn't look like it changed the path or rotation of the ball much, if at all. Even he didn't think he got enough on it. If I'm the kicker that's not helping me feel any better. That ball was going to hit that upright one way or another.

It actually does seem to change the path of the ball slightly to the left. I think it's just enough.

[Logan]

The slight tip might have turned it from good to hitting the upright, might have made it hit the upright a half inch over in a different spot, and it might have turned it from hitting the upright to missing completely. But an object of significant weight/force hit another object in flight. The effect was obviously non-zero.

[weegeebored]

People want to excuse a bad kicker or a good kicker having an awful year, whatever. There was no penetration on the play, and a kicker with $9 mil guaranteed money has to be better than that. That kick has to be made. The punter can do kickoffs and easy field goals; save a roster spot if your K can't hit important FGs.

We don't know that the tip had enough "significant" force without measuring it. So it's speculation. Even if it did, how much? Enough to move it an inch or two at most? It was an effing fingertip. If he aims to put it through the center of the uprights, it's three points even with the tip.

The Bears lost for a myriad of reasons, but don't excuse the kicker. That's his effing job.

[Kodos]

Of course, he made the one that didn't count.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

The Bears lost for a myriad of reasons, but don't excuse the kicker. That's his effing job.

Don't see anyone excusing it.

[weegeebored]

Then why all of the discussion about how the tip affected the miss? Useless factoid? It's implied.

[molson]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

People want to excuse a bad kicker or a good kicker having an awful year, whatever. There was no penetration on the play, and a kicker with $9 mil guaranteed money has to be better than that. That kick has to be made. The punter can do kickoffs and easy field goals; save a roster spot if your K can't hit important FGs.

We don't know that the tip had enough "significant" force without measuring it. So it's speculation. Even if it did, how much? Enough to move it an inch or two at most? It was an effing fingertip. If he aims to put it through the center of the uprights, it's three points even with the tip.

The Bears lost for a myriad of reasons, but don't excuse the kicker. That's his effing job.

And aren't blocked kicks also at least partly on the kicker? It's probably a kick-by-kick thing, but especially on shorter kicks, when avoiding a block is more important than length, a kicker will kick higher and sacrifice length they'd get from a lower kick.

And here, particularly, there wasn't a clear blocking miss, it was tipped by the guy running around the line, from the spot where a player runs around the line on every single kick attempt.

Edit: Oh wait, looking at it now, I guess it was a guy coming through the line? I don't know if there was a clear blocking error or not then.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

Totally agree about Nagy. I like that he changed the losing culture to a positive winning one, but his clock management is atrocious and his playcalling seems suspect to me. He does better with scripted plays, but to me he doesn't have a feel for what's happening during the game. I seem him as a gadget play coach, not some offensive genius (unless we're comparing him to Eric Man-genius). The defense was the reason the Bears were 12-4, not the offense. But imagine Mahomes as the QB. Damn.

Yeah I don't understand all the love for Nagy. Bears were 20th in offensive DVOA this year. It's an improvement over last year but that's still a below average offense.

The Bears were good because that defense was a monster. And Nagy has said he doesn't touch the defense at all. It's all Fangio. If he leaves for a head coaching job, Bears might see a dip.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

Then why all of the discussion about how the tip affected the miss? Useless factoid? It's implied.

"All the discussion"? You wrote more about it than everyone else combined.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by Logan

"All the discussion"? You wrote more about it than everyone else combined.

I don't know wtf your problem is but I am not about to do a post count Mr. non-zero physics guy.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

I don't know wtf your problem is but I am not about to do a post count Mr. non-zero physics guy.

Yikes.

[ISiddiqui]

The NFL has officially changed Cody Parkey's missed FG to a block by Eagles' Treyvon Hester. pic.twitter.com/hyMmY6rrsh

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 7, 2019

And to those saying does this matter in terms of the kicker's fault? I think, in general, less people are willing to be mad at the kicker if the ball is blocked (unless the ball hits a blocker in the chest at the line of scrimmage or something). So public perception of the kicker would change.

[RainMaker]

Parkey missing the kick got Nagy off the hook for a terrible gameplan and an offense that could only muster 15 points against a mediocre defense.

[molson]

Do blocked kicks not count as misses in placekicker stats?

[Carman Bulldog]

There's probably a lot of blame to go around and I think plenty of that should go to the Chicago defence as well.

I know, I know... they were excellent against the run, had some very good timely picks, etc. But if you want to be called the best defence in the league and consider yourself elite (and to be fair, by many metrics they were... points allowed, yards per play, takeaways, 1st downs allowed, etc.) then you need to come up with a stop when needed.

The punt that setup the Eagles winning drive was awful to begin with (not hearing much said about the punter but there is probably equal blame to be put at his feet). At the end of the day though, all you need to win is to have your #1 defence stop Nick Foles from going 60 yards and scoring a TD.

Ultimately, they couldn't come up with a stop when it counted most. If your #1 defence is able to stop the Eagles backup QB from driving for the winning score, you don't even need to worry about your kicker.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

There's probably a lot of blame to go around and I think plenty of that should go to the Chicago defence as well.

I know, I know... they were excellent against the run, had some very good timely picks, etc. But if you want to be called the best defence in the league and consider yourself elite (and to be fair, by many metrics they were... points allowed, yards per play, takeaways, 1st downs allowed, etc.) then you need to come up with a stop when needed.

The punt that setup the Eagles winning drive was awful to begin with (not hearing much said about the punter but there is probably equal blame to be put at his feet). At the end of the day though, all you need to win is to have your #1 defence stop Nick Foles from going 60 yards and scoring a TD.

Ultimately, they couldn't come up with a stop when it counted most. If your #1 defence is able to stop the Eagles backup QB from driving for the winning score, you don't even need to worry about your kicker.

They also missed on a 2 point conversion that would have put them up 7 instead of one, so the game would have been tied.

Plenty of blame to go around, but people love a scapegoat.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

There's probably a lot of blame to go around and I think plenty of that should go to the Chicago defence as well.

I know, I know... they were excellent against the run, had some very good timely picks, etc. But if you want to be called the best defence in the league and consider yourself elite (and to be fair, by many metrics they were... points allowed, yards per play, takeaways, 1st downs allowed, etc.) then you need to come up with a stop when needed.

The punt that setup the Eagles winning drive was awful to begin with (not hearing much said about the punter but there is probably equal blame to be put at his feet). At the end of the day though, all you need to win is to have your #1 defence stop Nick Foles from going 60 yards and scoring a TD.

Ultimately, they couldn't come up with a stop when it counted most. If your #1 defence is able to stop the Eagles backup QB from driving for the winning score, you don't even need to worry about your kicker.

They gave up 16 points and got 2 turnovers. That should be enough to win in today's NFL.

[cartman]

The games this weekend definitely made people happy that played the "buy a square" game and got the usually awkward combinations.

[Logan]

Apparently Packers are hiring Titans OC Matt LaFleur as HC.

Seems odd.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Logan

Apparently Packers are hiring Titans OC Matt LaFleur as HC.

Seems odd.

That juggernaut of an offense how could he not get a head coaching gig.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

That juggernaut of an offense how could he not get a head coaching gig.

Being labeled a "McVay disciple" is the ticket to gold.

[spleen1015]

Any chance a team at some point decides to go kicker-less? Just have your punter handle kickoffs, go for it on most 4th downs on the other side of the field and always go for 2.

[bhlloy]

I don’t really see the logic in that - is the 5th WR or 3rd QB you can put on the roster that you wouldn’t otherwise worth more than the chance you are tied or down by less than 3 with a second left on the clock and in relatively easy FG range? The first coach to not have a kicker on the roster and lose in that situation would get crucified.

Now why there aren’t more kickers who can punt or punters who can kick relatively accurately, I’m not really sure. Seems to happen every now again in college.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Now why there aren’t more kickers who can punt or punters who can kick relatively accurately, I’m not really sure. Seems to happen every now again in college.

It's even rare to see in HS at this point. I'm not sure I saw a combo kicker all season, and that's on teams with rosters of only 30-40 players a lot of times.

[bhlloy]

Interesting. I can’t for the life of me imagine why a kicker who can kick off a tee doesn’t have the leg strength to be at least a passable punter, I can understand why a punter might not have the accuracy to kick FGs.

Assuming that is the trend at the HS level, I wonder if it’s down to parents not allowing kids to play any other position due to safety.

[stevew]

Most likely the QB on most teams is probably the 2nd best punter. If you’re just going by punt/pass/kick competitions

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Interesting. I can’t for the life of me imagine why a kicker who can kick off a tee doesn’t have the leg strength to be at least a passable punter, I can understand why a punter might not have the accuracy to kick FGs.

Assuming that is the trend at the HS level, I wonder if it’s down to parents not allowing kids to play any other position due to safety.

Doesn't seem to have been a factor in the cases I see. We've had two soccer players kick (but that couldn't punt), we've had a D1 scholarship kicker who played QB but also was no better than our #3 or #4 punter, we had a punter (now the punter at Ga Southern) who played nothing else but also didn't kick.

I'd say it's more a function of different skill sets + the positions being specialty trained separately

[bhlloy]

Sounds like Kingsbury to the Cardinals has some serious legs... not sure what is more of a joke at this point, the Cards for hiring a 5-7 college coach while retaining the GM who put together that train wreck of a roster, or SC for losing their shiny new OC a couple weeks after he was hired, after getting the bad press for stopping him from interviewing initially.

Who am I kidding it’s clearly the latter. Complete joke of a program right now.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Sounds like Kingsbury to the Cardinals has some serious legs... not sure what is more of a joke at this point, the Cards for hiring a 5-7 college coach while retaining the GM who put together that train wreck of a roster, or SC for losing their shiny new OC a couple weeks after he was hired, after getting the bad press for stopping him from interviewing initially.

Who am I kidding it’s clearly the latter. Complete joke of a program right now.

So disappointing.