By Brandon Simmons
Revisiting Shutting Down the Season
Earlier this year, I wrote about the idea of the NFL shutting down the season due to COVID issues surrounding a few teams. That was back when the outbreak happened amongst the Tennessee Titans and games had to get moved around. Last week I wrote about the protocols the league introduced in hopes of preventing games to be affected and keeping players safe. However, despite all the new rules being implemented, COVID has very much affected the NFL this week, even though it seemed like some progress was being made. Not only did the Ravens start off with 2 of their running backs testing positive for COVID, but the number increased to 18 players, including starting quarterback Lamar Jackson. This caused the Thanksgiving night game against the Pittsburgh Steelers to be moved to Sunday afternoon, then pushed to Tuesday night. This was also brought on by a few members of the Steelers testing positive for COVID, including a quarterbacks coach and running back James Connor. A snowball effect that happened was the Ravens’ game against the Dallas Cowboys – originally scheduled to be played Thursday, December 3rd – has now been pushed to Sunday afternoon of Week 13. But that wasn’t even the biggest COVID-related headline of the week. The Denver Broncos had their whole quarterback room wiped out from COVID. Broncos QB Jeff Driskell tested positive for COVID, then the other 3 QB’s – Drew Locke, Blake Bortles – were all declared ineligible through contract tracing.
The rising number in positive cases is beginning to affect how teams compete week in and week out. The number of cases on the Ravens continue to rise and take out some of their key players such as linebacker Matthew Judon and wide receiver Willie Snead. The same Ravens/Steelers game that was moved to Tuesday, has now been rescheduled for Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. eastern time. The Redskins/Steelers game has been pushed to Monday while the Ravens/Steelers game has been moved to Tuesday. There is just so much change going on with teams has to be tough for the league to keep up. That is not to say that they have not done a great job at adjusting, but there can be only so many adjustments made this late in the season. A lot of teams are fighting for their playoff hopes right now, and a rescheduled game can throw off the momentum for a lot of teams. Outside of the postponed matchups
But the problem isn’t whether a game can be played; it’s really all about the prevention. Every week a player or coach is being added to the COVID/Reserve list from either testing positive or through contact tracing. This is what’s causing these games to be moved but also tearing down all these teams’ seasons. Look at the Baltimore Ravens again and their situation. Ravens are clinging to their playoff lives and they have to face a division rival without their MVP starting quarterback as well as other key pieces on their team.
The NFL’s efforts to save the season may very well be in vain if things continue to get worse. One of their solutions to combat postponed games, is to award an 8th seed to each conference. But that will do no good if COVID rise in the league as they are expected to do so across the country in the next few weeks. Cancelling the season sounded like a call of fear just a month or so ago, but with each new case it’s becoming a reality. However, that’s a decision to be made within the next few days as opposed to be faced with that possibility during the postseason and waste the time of every team remaining.
Matt Patricia, The Lions, and the risk of Looking for Better
There is a lot of things to consider that went wrong leading to the Detroit Lions firing Matt Patricia. You could blame the players not buying into his Patriot ways; you could also consider their division opponents retooling at key positions, vastly improving, and making the playoffs. But you can’t blame the Lions on wanting better for their team; or can you?
At the time of Patricia’s hiring, the Lions didn’t feel they were reaching their full potential. They came of off their 2nd straight 9-7 season and just missed the playoffs. Detroit let go of Jim Caldwell as their head coach and decided to bring in Patricia, who at the time, was the defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots but considered one of the more sought after head coach candidates. So yeh bringing in a new voice from one of the more successful franchises in the past 20 years sounds like a great idea, until it isn’t. While the Lions made the postseason 2 out of 4 seasons with Caldwell, they did not have a winning record at all under Patricia. They ranked low defensively, including this season where they ranked 29th against the run and 31st for points allowed.
A team will dump a coach with a winning record if they feel they need to reach a championship level, but there is always a risk in that. The Lions weren’t winning playoff games, and they couldn’t allow that to continue; so they made the change they felt was needed. The way it backfired on them, was they got someone who came from one of the more polarizing cultures in the league and could not get players to get on board with the program. In retrospect, a lot of players recently spoke out against Patricia being the head coach, especially this season, but also showing support for Caldwell. The problem with that is it’s 3 years too late and time to move on to the next. This time around the standards might be a little low. The playoff win goals might just be dwindled down to reaching the postseason. It’s too much to ask of a head coach to do in his first couple of years with a roster that has been in last place the past seasons. Sometimes you just have manage your risks to achieve your reward.
Stop the Count…on the Playoff Race
This is not intended to be a suggestion for the NFL’s COVID problem, but rather a personal suggestion: start the playoffs today. If Donald Trump can say “Stop the Count”, we should honor that by stopping the games for some of these teams, to make a more competitive postseason. With the 7 team format this year, there are some enticing matchups in the first round and, depening on who wins, could spill into the 2nd round. For example, the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the 3rd and 6th seed, respectively. If Seattle beats Tampa, the Seahawks will face the Green Bay Packers on the 2nd round, a matchup between 2 MVP candidates in Seahawks QB Russell Wilson and Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. In the AFC, the story is a little different. As teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Oakland Raiders sit outside the playoff, their spots might be occupied by the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. However, the Raiders have not played great in these last couple of games, including a 43-6 blowout to the Atlanta Falcons on the road. The Ravens have lost some crucial games recently as well, in addition to dealing with COVID losses. It’s going to be tough for them to recover from that, as they have already been spotty in the playoffs the last couple of seasons. League is facing some real possibilities of cancelling the season, or in this case, the postseason; at least make it worthwhile for the fans before doing so.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to wide receiver D.K. Metcalf, who had to make a coach eat their words. According to the New York Post, Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz made a comment that the Seahawks wide receiver was great but not yet on the level of Megatron, better known as former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Schwartz should have a little insight, as he was Johnson’s former head coach. Long story short, Metcalf took it as a slight and it inspired him to go off for 10 catches for 177 yards. It was very much a petty move on Metcalf’s part to misconstrue his words, but nonetheless, you have to give hi props for being motivated by anything to go out and put up big numbers for his team.
Shutout to PED’s. The Houston Texans lost wide receiver Will Fuller and cornerback Bradley Roby to 6 game suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs. Fuller has filed an appeal but if it fails, then him and Roby would done for the year.
The COVID rescheduling may continue but the intensity of the games will remain the same. On paper, the game between the Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans should be a tough game for either side. Both teams will win this game based on how effective they are running the ball. The Arizona Cardinals hosting the Los Angeles Rams will be another matchup to watch. The NFC West foes will be at each other’s throats fighting for the playoff positioning. The Seahawks will have some favorable games in the coming weeks, so the Cardinals and Rams will be fighting to either hold on, or move up, another spot in the playoffs, in the event Seattle gets caught slipping. But until then…I’ll holla.
by 