Another regular season in the books, one that'll surely go down as the Year of the Backup Quarterback. I've watched football for as long as I can remember and have never seen anything like the turnover we saw at the position this season. Surely will be a talking point with the league, though it seemed to be more of a fluke than a policy thing. That hasn't stopped the NFL from making stupid changes before though, so we'll see what extra lengths they go to to protect the guys under center.
A discussion for another day though! Let's jump into our Week 18 recap:
Steelers 17- Ravens 10
-Remember when people thought Tyler Huntley could replicate Lamar Jackson's style effectively enough to justify not extending #8? Some people just can't acknowledge greatness when it's in front of them. I've seen enough of Huntley though. Slow processing, slow reads, just not very good
-Melvin Gordon fumbled, once again. He leads all non-quarterbacks in the statistic since being drafted in 2015, not an achievement for the mantle. Expect to see Dalvin Cook as RB3 in two weeks
-Nice showing from Nelson Agholor, catching 5 balls for 39 yards-- both team highs. 35/381/4 isn't a bad output from your 5th option in the passing game. Solid season
-Jadaveon Clowney's awesome too, very much deserving of that $750k sack bonus he secured Saturday. He finished with 9.5 on the year
-Not sure Najee Harris has looked this good at any point in his career. 3 straight games averaging over 4 yards per carry, with 5 touchdowns to show for it. If Pittsburgh is going to steal a road playoff game, Harris is going to be a key component
-Mason Rudolph couldn't get anything going in the terrible weather, failing to even target George Pickens. Fortunately for them, Diontae Johnson was able to catch and run a 71-yarder to the house that ended up being the difference. The play accounted for half of Rudolph's passing yards
-Losing TJ Watt to an MCL sprain is horrific luck for the unlikely postseason attendees. Alex Highsmith will have a lot of slack to pick up
Texans 23- Colts 19
-The throw to Tyler Goodson was a little off, but it was catchable. I'd imagine he and Gardner Minshew have had their troubles sleeping
-Jonathan Taylor was outstanding, leaving it all on the field for Indianapolis. He handled 30 carries for 188 and a house call, presumably leaving ownership content with his extension
-Not many expected the Colts to go 9-8, so all the credit in the world to Shane Steichen for his coaching job. The offense overcame adversity to generally perform, while the defense was consistently decent. This was a tough opponent each week who should only get better with some free agent upgrades and the return of Anthony Richardson
-Welcome to the playoffs CJ Stroud. From the #2 pick to the AFC South champions, an unbelievable turnaround for a franchise that needed a boost. Future's very bright in Houston
-Dameon Pierce didn't even register a carry, crazy how far out of favor he's fallen
-What a season from Nico Collins. He more than doubled all of his career stats, posting an absurd 80/1,297/8 line-- while missing two games. The Texans will surely consider extending him this offseason before he enters the final year of rookie deal
Bengals 31- Browns 14
-As a Ravens fan, I take pride that our backups played Pittsburgh substantially tougher than the Browns played Cincy. It was 31-0 until about midway through the 4th
-5th starting quarterback for Cleveland this season, the most ever for a playoff team. And as bad as some have been, Jeff Driskel was by far the worst. There were at least 4-5 plays I remember where he just chucked the ball up and hoped for the best. 2 were intercepted
-Jake Browning's 3 touchdowns fill up the stat sheet, but it was his girlfriend's ski suit that's filling the headlines. Not sure of the fuss behind it, a little Power Rangers-y, but seems like she was enjoying herself
-Joe Mixon was a workhorse, rushing for 111 and a score on 14 totes. The Browns had no answer for him. He added a 6-yard receiving touchdown too, where he completely disrespected a smaller defensive back on the way into the end zone
-Two touchdowns for rookie Andrei Iosivas, ending his first go round in the league on a high note. Many are hoping his big body will help alleviate the blow from Tee Higgins' impending departure. This performance will send the Bengals into the offseason with some more optimism in that regard
Lions 30- Vikings 20
-A lot of disdain directed at Dan Campbell for playing his starters for majority of this essentially meaningless contest. You could spin it as him playing the anti-rust side of the rest-rust debate, but Sam LaPorta's knee injury is going to be the headline people remember
-Jared Goff was excellent, dishing dimes all afternoon. Amon Ra St. Brown was his favorite target-- surprise, surprise. The Pro-Bowl snub deserved the better, backing up his objections with a 7/144/1 line to wrap up the regular season
-I've been the first to poo poo Aidan Hutchinson's overall production, but he was incredible Sunday. The former #1 pick racked up 2 sacks and 5 QB hits, paying rent in Minnesota's backfield
-Interceptions be damned, Nick Mullens was absolutely the correct start at quarterback. It's rarely pretty for long with Mullens, but the man takes chances, which is what you need to do with receivers like he has. Dude should absolutely be retained as the backup
-Jordan Addison connected with his QB on one long touchdown, curiously pulling up short on what should've been a second. But he paled in comparison to Justin Jefferson. Jettas caught 12/14 targets for 192 and a score, doing whatever he wanted to to Detroit's secondary. Just a reminder that he's still an elite wideout
-Ty Chandler looks to be in line to lead the Vikings' backfield next year. He toted the rock 12 times for 69 yards; nice day
Titans 28- Jaguars 20
-Trevor Lawrence sucks. One of his interceptions wasn't his fault, but the second was terrible. He failed to break the plain on fourth and goal, then overthrew a wide open Calvin Ridley deep on the last drive that would've given the Jags a chance to tie things up. I don't care about his toughness playing through an injury; if it was that bad, he should've taken one for the team and sat out. Cue the bust talk-- or at least failure to live up to the draft status
-The aforementioned Ridley got open a lot, catching 6 balls for 106 and a touchdown. A better quarterback would've had those numbers really balloon
-One more sack for Josh Allen to wrap up 2023, giving him a career high 17.5
-Nice victory for Ryan Tannehill if this ends up being his last game as a Titan. He was far from a world beater, but he didn't have to be the way Derrick Henry was running the ball
-Speaking of the King, who may also be on his way out of Tennessee, 19 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown. Jacksonville had absolutely no answer for him
-If Henry does leave though, Ty'Jae Spears has the team in good hands. The versatile rookie had 6 touches for 69 total yards and 2 trips to pay dirt
Jets 17- Patriots 3
-The Jets ended their 15 game losing streak to the Patriots
-There was a lot of snow. Probably a pretty awful coaching/playing/viewing experience live
-Bailey Zappe is very, very bad
-I can't wait to see Breece Hall behind a decent offensive line. He doesn't even need quality QB play, just block for the man! 37 carries for 178 rushing and a late 50-yard touchdown scamper to ice things
Saints 48- Falcons 17
-Bye Arthur Smith, it hasn't been fun. This game was 17-17 at the break, before the Falcons decided to sit out the second half. What an embarrassment
-I'm done with Desmond Ridder too. Outside of the two turnovers, his box score actually looks pretty decent. If you watched this game though, it felt like there was almost no threat against New Orleans' in the air
-Bijan Robinson's 71-yard catch and run for a touchdown was awesome. That's about where the compliments stop for Atlanta
-I talk lots of shit on Derek Carr, and will continue to, but he was great Sunday-- throwing for 4 touchdowns compared to just 6 incompletions. He even ran it once on an RPO, which feels like a pulled quad for the unathletic quarterback. Good thing he's off next week
-Kendre Miller looked awesome in place of the injured Alvin Kamara, bursting for 73 yards on 13 carries. Shame he had to miss so much of his inaugural season
-Who thought A.T. Perry was going to cash two scores? The rookie from Wake Forest took advantage of his snaps in this one, finding the end zone on 2 of his 3 receptions. I bet those odds on FanDuel were like +2200...
-The Saints going rogue and getting Jamaal Williams that touchdown from victory formation was one of the most bush league plays I've ever seen. Absolutely hilarious, but wouldn't fall under my classification of good sportsmanship
Buccaneers 9- Panthers 0
-I'll shit on Bryce Young, because he was abysmal, but he should've had a long scoring strike to DJ Chark. Unbelievable forced fumble by the Bucs defense at the 1/4 inch line to prevent the touchdown
-Young did go 11/18 for 94 yards though. He also lost a fumble. Some spoiler
-Expected a much bigger day from Baker Mayfield and Rachaad White. Baker balls on the road, while White should've killed the league's worst run defense. Neither had days to write home about, averaging 4.3 YPA and 3.9 YPC, respectively
-The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are your NFC South Champions! A wild feat when considering they were 4-7 just two months ago
Packers 17- Bears 9
-Not the taste Justin Fields wanted to leave in Chicago's mouth. He missed a prime opportunity to end the Packers' season and give further evidence that he's the guy moving forward, going 11/16 for 148 scoreless yards. He only managed 27 on the ground too, completely neutralized in what could've been a major turning point in his career
-Back to Earth big time for Khalil Herbert, recording just 28 yards on 12 carries against a weak run D. Very surprising lack of production, certainly causing harm to some prop bet hopes of mine
-The Bears are on the clock with the #1 pick
-Major credit is due to Jordan Love. There was a large contingent of Green Bay fans who were out on him after a pretty crappy first half of the year. He's inserted himself into the MVP discussion since, finishing the season with just a 32:11 TD:INT ratio and a top 10 QBR. The Packers seem to have found their quarterback of the future, yet again
-Aaron Jones shredded what had been the league's top run stuffing unit, taking 22 carries for 111 yards
-Jayden Reed's had an incredible rookie season, racking up 793 receiving and 119 rushing yards, with 10 total touchdowns. The versatile receiver's going to be a big part of this offense moving forward
-Let's not overlook fellow first year wideout Dontayvion Wicks. The 5th rounder from Virginia caught 2 touchdowns Sunday, doubling his total for the year
Rams 21- 49ers 20
-All considered, this was a pretty entertaining matchup here
-Carson Wentz gave us an interception like we were all hoping, but he played pretty decently outside of that. Not sure anybody expected him to be LA's leading rusher, taking 17 carries for 56 yards. Dude's not a spring chicken, so I'd imagine he was pretty sore Monday morning
-Puka Nacua finished his rookie year on a high note, finding the end zone on the Rams first drive as part of his 4/41/1 day. What a late round find by Les Snead
-That was about what I'd expect from Sam Darnold: 2 fumbles (one lost), 189 yards and 2 touchdowns (one rushing, one passing). Nice fit in Kyle Shanahan's offense, much more so than Adam Gase
-Honestly forgot Chris Conley was in the league. He had 3 receptions for 69 yards
Cowboys 38- Commanders 10
-This went about as expected. Outside of an interception, Dak Prescott was just about perfect. Tony Pollard ran well, CeeDee Lamb continued to be incredible
-A word of warning: Don't put a ton of weight into this win, lest forget the Commanders are abominable on defense. Complete tune up in all facets before a big playoff game in Jerry World
-If there was any fleeting doubt that Sam Howell wasn't the guy, please rest assured. He sucks, throwing for 153 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. Their 10 points were set up by a blocked field goal that was returned to the 20 and Dak's pick. No semblance of competency on offense with Howell at the helm
-Washington picks second in the upcoming draft, presumably poised to select his replacement
Chiefs 13- Chargers 12
-The Chiefs first touchdown was easily the coolest part of this game. LA had driven down inside the 5 yard line, in the midst of an 18 play, 9 minute and 9 second drive. Then Easton Stick fumbled, it was picked up by Mike Edwards and we were off to the races. All that work to end up giving up points; disheartening
-Fun fact: the longest drive ever to not result in points, at least that I could find in a reasonable amount of research was by the New York Giants in the 2001 NFC Championship game. They melted the final 12:53 off the clock without scoring, but didn't need to as they were already up 41-0
-The Ravens defeated those same Giants 34-7 two weeks later in Super Bowl 35. Happy 9th birthday to me
-Apologies for the digression, this game certainly warranted it
-Blaine Gabbert threw an interception and Austin Ekeler is cooked. 11 yards on 10 carries for the impending free agent. That's all I got
Giants 27- Eagles 10
-Speaking of cooked...what the fuck has happened to the Philadelphia Eagles? From 10-1 to 11-6, this team has completely collapsed. We discussed on the show how they weren't that good and kind of lucked into some of those 10 wins, but what a rapid regression to the mean
-To make matters worse, Jalen Hurts dislocated a finger on his throwing hand and AJ Brown left with a knee injury in this final installment to their embarrassing season. Both seem to be good to go for the wild card round, but it might not matter with how bad Hurts has thrown the ball. 7/16 for 55 yards and an interception before exiting
-Philly's linebackers are terrible, the secondary is a year older, the coordinators were new-- there's plenty of reasons why this defense shouldn't have been as dominant as a year ago. But after allowing the 2nd fewest yards in the league a year ago, setting the NFL record for sacks in a season, to now giving up the 7th most yards and over 25 points per game, with arguably improved personnel. Tough
-Tyrod was slinging it! He briefly exited after taking a big hit, but returned to throw for 297 and a touchdown
-Wan'Dale Robinson is pretty dynamic when he gets the ball in space. Glad to see him back to form after his ACL injury
-A story came out yesterday that Saquon would be "numb" to playing on the franchise tag next season. He was clearly a huge part of what the Giants needed to do to be successful on offense, but I'm not sure this team is close enough to the Promise Land to be doling out a massive contract to a running back
Raiders 27- Broncos 14
-Jakobi Meyers' touchdown run on a busted WR pass was pretty cool. He had to reverse fields to sneak across the goal line after Denver's defense snuffed out the trick play
-Zamir White looked pretty good once again, possibly putting himself in line to compete for the starting job next season
-Jerry Jeudy's touchdown was impressive, shrugging off a couple of would-be tackles to find the end zone
Seahawks 21- Cardinals 20
-Such a gutsy win by the Seahawks, all just to miss the playoffs. Got to avoid those pesky, mid-season 5 game losing streaks
-I think we can rest assured that Geno Smith's not the guy long term. He only had 189 yards passing against one of the worst secondaries in the league, 67 of which came on the game winning touchdown drive. It was a trend we saw far too commonly from Geno as the year progressed-- slow starts that he couldn't overcome against good teams. Against the Cardinals and Titans though, he's gotchu
-Kyler Murray and Justin Fields are kind of in similar, purgatory-style situations. While I still think Fields' ceiling is way higher, I'd feel much more comfortable moving forward with Murray as my franchise quarterback at this point. He finished his abbreviated season on a high note, going 22/30 for 262 and a touchdown. Big decision ahead in the desert
-James Conner is awesome. 27 rushes for 150 yards while adding 4 for 54 through the air, capping off a campaign that was especially strong when considering he was working with Josh Dobbs and Clayton Tune at QB for half of it
-Rookie Michael Wilson caught 6 balls for 95 yards, finishing his first NFL go-round with a 38/565/3 line. Not bad for a third rounder who wasn't supposed to contribute much
Bills 21- Dolphins 14
-Such a Bills game by Buffalo. Josh Allen came out cold, throwing 2 horrible interceptions that cost them at least 6 points. Things never unclicked, as he finished with 359 passing yards + 2 touchdowns and 67 rushing, but still not a confidence inspiring output
-473 total yards by Buffalo, yet it took a fourth quarter 96-yard punt return to break into the double digit points. So many long drives just ending in turnovers
-Khalil Shakir led the way with 105 receiving yards, but Stefon Diggs and Dalton Kincaid had the most receptions, with 7 each. The best Diggs-Allen connection we've seen in a month
-7 carries for Leonard Fournette! The man is back in action right in time for the playoffs, ever so appropriate
-Miami really blew this opportunity, with all three units failing them in the fourth quarter
-It's Tyreek Hill or bust far too often for Tua Tagovailoa. Hill caught 7 passes for 82 yards, while no other pass catcher had more than 3 receptions or 30 yards. Losing a guy like Jaylen Waddle hurts, but I thought Tua was supposed to be an MVP caliber quarterback? Gotta overcome that
-Devon Achane, one of my proudest draft hits to date. Kid's so, so fast, fitting perfectly with this offense
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@Choppinglines
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