NFL: Two Week 15 Thoughts

 Week 15 wow the season always just flies by. I need to get myself back into football mode here, I was at the Raptors game last night just on a whim. Tickets are going for <$40 for some of these games and the team is fun despite the losses. Crowd was super into it last night too, the real fans have returned! Anyway, football! Another really fun one in the books and things are really starting to heat up in the playoff race. Lets get into it: 

Goal Line Fumbles

It is spooky how the world works sometimes. I frequently take very long walks around the city while listening to podcasts. On Sunday I was listening to a Bill Burr podcast from back in 2016, he was watching football when someone in the game dropped the ball in celebration just before he passed the goal line. Bill talked about how he can't believe that still happens and how it should be impossible. Of course then I turn on the TV to see that this week that most ridiculous transgression happened once again!

In the 3rd quarter of the Colts Broncos game with the Colts up 6 lined up around mid field, Jonathan Taylor got the handoff and took off for a huge run down the field. Taylor made it all the way to the end zone, but dropped the ball behind him JUST before he crossed the goal line. The ball bounced out of the end zone resulting in a touchback and a turnover. One of the more boneheaded things you'll ever see. With how many times this has happened you'd think that players would make sure they're all the way in before even thinking about letting go of the ball, but no. The Colts end up losing the game by a ton, and this was probably only the second most ridiculous thing that happened. 

In the 4th quarter with the Colts down 4 now, they lined up on second and 7 and ran what could've been the stupidest play of the year. Their QB drops back to pass and throws a screen to his receiver, but it's a trick play! The receiver attempts to throw it back to the QB who was presumably going to launch it down the field, but with all the time the defense had to watch this trick play develop, Nik Bonitto gets into the backfield and picks off the pass back to the QB taking it in for an easy TD. This play only makes sense if you assume the defense isn't rushing anyone. As soon as you saw that the WR wasn't going to run down the field as a defender you had all day to sit on his next move. Not only that, the WR threw a soft lob of a pass back to the QB, the type of pass that took probably a full 5 seconds to arrive at its destination. Nik Bonitto pretty much had to just run with his hands up and accept the gift. The Colts needed that one to stay in the playoff race, if I was a Colts fan this would be the angriest Colts react post anyone's ever seen. Luckily I am not. 

Lions Craziness

It is absolutely wild that the Lions have been terrible my whole life and the second they get really good, the rest of their division does the same, except the Bears of course. After starting the season 12-1 you'd think the Lions would have the division locked up, but a 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills now has them tied with the Vikings who play them on the final week of the season. This is setting up to be an all time division battle and I couldn't be more excited. Anyway, this Lions game had a lot as Lions games typically do. They've found themselves in my 5 thoughts almost every week because they pretty much never have a normal game. 

The first thing a lot of people are talking about is the onside kick decision. After scoring a TD, the Lions were down 10 points with 12 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the Lions lined up for an onside kick. Now in every other NFL season, you could surprise a team with an onside kick, something I'm sure Dan Campbell would have busted out a few times by now. With the new kickoff rules, you have to announce onside kicks before you attempt them. The Lions didn't recover it and it lead to an easy Buffalo TD with a short field. Now a lot of people are questioning the onside kick decision, but I don't think it was that crazy. The Bills had already scored 38 points at that stage of the game, they clearly were having trouble getting stops and Dan Campbell is a famously aggressive coach, you need to play into that. Ultimately it was a risk that didn't pay off, but I think trying anything you can to keep the ball out of the likely MVP's hands in Josh Allen is something you have to consider. Also featured in this game was a big man TD! Dan Skipper is listed at 6'10, 330 lbs and you knew when he was reported as eligible that you couldn't lose him, especially against the Lions. The Lions ran play action and got Skipper the ball for an always exciting big man TD. Finally, the most fun stat I saw this week is Jarred Goff now has won a game in which he threw 5 interceptions this season and also lost a game where he threw 5 TDs. Crazy stuff in Detroit as always. 

Ok yes I know I've been doing 5 thoughts, but holy this week had a lot of blowouts and not a lot of things to think about if you ask me. I will try to be back stronger next week guys I just completely ran out of steam on this one. Find it in your hearts to forgive me! Go Steelers!