Welcome to the Week 17 edition of Sunday FreakOut, where we react and exaggerate to everything that happened on Sunday late games. For the full podcast-style Sunday recap, be sure to subscribe to The MMQB podcast, in your feed every Monday morning …
Before getting into the usual nonsense, I wrote about Antonio Brown separately. You can read it here. Now, the aforementioned nonsense …
Things that made me dizzy
The ballad of Nameless Joe Burrow: He has played as well as any quarterback in football for the past two months, and on Sunday he played shot for shot with Patrick Mahomes and walked away with the win. I can’t stress how impressive it is for a second-year quarterback to play empty sets as often as Burrow does. He made a red-hot Chiefs defense and clinched the AFC North in style. (And apparently his dog tag was ripped off at some point.)
Ja’Marr Chase after the capture: The first is amazing. The second is also incredible but it will be less noticeable because it was a nine-yard gain and not a touchdown.
The Bisaccia Raiders: For the second week in a row they lost the battle on turnovers 2-0, and for the second week in a row they won anyway, and this time it was on the road against a quality opponent in Indy. Vegas has weathered an almost unfathomable series of off-the-field incidents and yet, 17 weeks into the season, they are still in it.
Herbert and the Chargers leave no room for doubt: A week after a failure in Houston, and towards the end of a season during which they simply let inferior opponents stay too often, the Chargers got back on track Sunday against a stubborn division rival. Questions around this running defense will linger – the Broncos weren’t going to air it with Drew Lock in center – but Brandon Staley’s defense kept Denver’s running game in check as the offense did its thing as usual.
Vance Joseph to the rescue: The Cardinals offense managed to roll on some big plays (including an early double move on Trevon Diggs) and got some help from a false punt conversion. But it was Vance Joseph’s variety of zoning styles that led Arizona upset in Dallas. It was the kind of performance the Cardinals needed to get back on track. (And it was the kind of performance that should get the attention of any team looking for a new head coach.)
More good than bad from Isaiah Simmons: It was still lopsided, but the second-year linebacker had the play of the game forcing a fumble from Dak Prescott and it was generally a pain in the butt for Prescott in coverage.
Holy Cow, Hands of Odell Beckham Jr .: He followed this up with the game-winning touchdown, but on a must-have fourth attempt, these hands, on a ball at this speed, with a defender dangling from him … it’s just a monster catch.
Russell Wilson’s (likely) Seattle Swan Song: Beating the Tim Boyle Lions in a no-nonsense Week 17 game is probably not a proper way out. But at least it was good to see Wilson score some flashy numbers in the form of four TDs.
Regrets
Governed by contact in the field: Which is unfortunate, because it was a mistake. But it’s also silly that the judge in heaven can’t just walk in and ask for a review without the coach’s challenge mechanism coming into play. But hey, that’s what the competition committee gave us, and when have they ever been wrong. Or decades behind the times. (But also, this is a matter of millimeters between Chase Edmunds’ knee and the grass and the Cowboys lost this game for many, many, many other reasons.)
Stop it, Carson Wentz: His most positive play of the game was also his ill-advised shot, a double-coverage second-reaction jump jump that ended up bouncing off defenders and into the arms of TY Hilton. Wentz played poorly on Sunday, and most worryingly, he continued to make poor decisions when forced to play after hours. He was very good in the Christmas night win at Arizona, but other than that, his game over the past month has made it very difficult for Frank Reich to trust him.
Matthew Stafford, careless again: He put together the puck they needed late, but once again allowed a safety to read it like a book for an easy pick-six. In the end, things were too interesting for the Rams in Baltimore.
Jalen Ramsey hits Taylor Rapp: Hey. Looks like this one didn’t get the attention you were hoping for.
Shotgun in quarters and inches at the goal line: I’d put my life in Joe Burrow’s hands right now, but those shotgun formations on the goal line limit your options in an unpleasant way. And the Bengals did it twice in the last minute of a tied game. It was annoying to see.
Daniel Sorensen in Coverage: He’s a useful player as a Jamal Adams-style designated blitzer, but Sorensen remains a problem at the back of the Chiefs. On the 69-yard touchdown to Ja’Marr Chase early in the second half, Joe Burrow did indeed use his eyes effectively, but by playing a 2-deep gaze, Sorensen cannot abandon his responsibility for the deep half when Chase is on that side of the court. country.
Chiefs O-Line Injuries: They lost Orlando Brown Jr. and Lucas Niang on Sunday. It wasn’t a disaster, but it will test their depth in a way that they … really don’t want to test again.
Zach Wilson with the very sad fourth-and-two snitch: There’s no problem with the Jets trying to seal the game at a quarter and short, even after they failed, they were still forcing the Bucs to drive most of the field, for a touchdown, in less than two minutes. no downtime. But Wilson tried to sneak out for two yards, and it was immediately clear that he wouldn’t come within, oh, about five yards from a line to win.
Why is Matt Ryan making fun of someone with two touchdowns ?: He began to speak ill of Bills safety Jordan Poyer after what he thought was a touchdown run that would have reduced the Bills’ lead to one possession. But instead, Ryan missed the goal line and received a mocking 15-yard penalty, which pushed Atlanta back and nearly ended the series.
All about the day of Tua Tagovailoa: I’m not sure what else to say. Trying to get around Tagovailoa’s limitations, the Dolphins have been running an offense that doesn’t suit the NFL. They were fortunate to have a series of games on the schedule where they didn’t need an NFL offense to win (among the quarterbacks they faced during their winning streak were Tyrod Taylor, Joe Flacco, Cam Newton, Mike Glennon and Ian Book). There is a portion of the fanbase that is upset with the persecution of Deshaun Watson considering the sexual misconduct lawsuits he currently faces, but Tagovailoa has done little to prove that he is the quarterback of the present, let alone the quarterback of field of the future, in Miami.
Mike Glennon’s revenge game: He highlighted a team that trailed by multiple possessions and ultimately lost by 26 points, scoring 39 runs against 16 passes (Glennon completed three passes for positive yards and took four sacks as the Giants racked up –10 net passing yards).
FedExField: In a way, it’s funny, people fall over and everything. Until you consider Jalen Hurts and all these people’s lives were in danger.
Moments that we will tell our grandchildren
Jonathan Ward beats David Tyree: In the fake punt, with the helmet catch using someone else’s helmet. The only way to overcome that is to catch the ball between your helmet and the opponent’s helmet, and I think we are unlikely to see that. At least between now and the end of the regular season.
What will we talk about this week
Garoppolo is the guy from San Francisco (for the rest of this season): If you had thought of a Trey Lance offense that caught opponents off guard down the stretch, you can probably rule them out now. Lance could still be a very good quarterback in a few years (I’m a believer!), But Sunday was another rocky, off-beat performance, one that he was able to get away with due to the quality of the opponent. Kyle Shanahan’s offense works more than enough well when the quarterback operating it is playing inside the structure, and right now that’s not the level Lance is at.
Ja’Marr Chase is his rightful rookie of the year: And Jaylen Waddle is the runner-up. With all due respect to Mac Jones, who had a solid year but didn’t define his team’s offense the way those two did.
Does anyone want to play for Joe Judge ?: Their quarterback is out, but this team seems completely uninterested in playing organized soccer right now. There are worse rosters staying competitive right now (Houston and the Crosstown Jets, for example). The other team that isn’t (Jacksonville) has already fired their head coach.
Sorry Rohan, but this Dolphins team was never real: Unless they were going to petition the league for Ian Book to start for the opposing team in every game going forward. And let’s be honest, such a request is unlikely to be successful.
Ben vs. Cleveland, one last time: In all likelihood, Monday night will mark the final showdown between Ben Roethlisberger and the Browns, against whom Big Ben is 25-3-1 in his career. Legend has it that he left the upstairs in every bathroom at FirstEnergy Stadium, and then Baker Mayfield found them when he started living there. At least that’s the ad I’d write for that series if Progressive even asked me for ideas. That they won’t. Because all my ideas are related to grooming. Regardless, a victory on Monday would provide vague and narrative symbolism.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.