Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL

Posted on December 23, 2019December 23, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

It’s the beginning of a long holiday week. People are dashing around from shopping malls to shopping malls. Amazon Prime trucks are dashing from address to address. The BBR staff is having it’s annual holiday golf tournament today. So we’ll keep it short with a quick, NFL Ten Piece Nugget served five from the NFC and five from the AFC style. It will be good to get something in your stomach before the eggnog and bourbon take control.

The NFC side of the playoff picture is as clear as a bell and as foggy as England. Huh? Five of the six spots are spoken for, with the sixth a Philadelphia and Dallas mess. Dallas controlled it till yesterday’s loss to Philly. Now if Philly wins against the New York football Giants they are in. If they lose, Dallas is in with a win over Washington. Winner is division champ. Loser goes home.
If the loser is Dallas, Jason Garrett is going home too. Jerry Jones said he was very disappointed in his team’s performance yesterday. Duh. They failed to score a touchdown against a banged up, but hungrier, Philly team. With Cooper, Prescott, and Elliot as your big three on O a lot of money isn’t getting a lot of production. Prescott was asked post game, “what’s the problem?” His answer was profound. “I don’t know.”
The other five spots are sealed while the order and bye’s are anything but. San Francisco, Green Bay, New Orleans, Seattle, and Minnesota are in. Only N.O. is for sure the division champ and therefore a host of a wild card at a minimum. But home field is at stake as are the top two seed spots. There are too many “if’s” to detail them.
One thing is for sure though. There are too many “if’s” by team to consider anyone of them a prohibitive NFC Super Bowl favorite. New Orleans inexplicably lost to Atlanta a while back. San Fran did the same yesterday to lowly Arizona. Green Bay is much better at home than the road. Minnesota and Seattle might both need to win three in a row on the road. But, they are both very live wild card teams, if they wind up as wild card teams, built for post season play.
New Orleans lacks weapons outside of one who is nearly unstoppable this year. Marvin Harrison’s NFL record of 143 catches in a season stood for 17 years, and no one came within even six catches of it. Sunday New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas broke Harrison’s mark with one game to go. Thomas already has 145 catches on the year after he caught 12 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown in Sunday’s 38-28 come-from-behind victory over the Tennessee Titans. Can a wide receiver win the MVP award? Well, Thomas is 66-1 while Lamar Jackson is 1-30.
Speaking of Thomas as we swing into the AFC, the QB and his Baltimore Ravens now have to be considered a strong favorite to take home the Lombardi Trophy in Miami regardless of who the NFC rep is. Baltimore is winning big weekly and dominating in all aspects of the game. After a 2-2 start, they are winners of 11 straight. Eleven straight wins in the NFL is called domination. In an AFC Conference loaded with really good quarterbacking, this just in, Lamar Jackson is good.
But, as usual, don’t count out New England just yet. Their yearly trip to the biggest game of all got a shorter route thanks to Saturday’s gut check win against a gutsy Buffalo Bills team. A win this week against Miami in New England will give them a first round bye. This just in, Tom Brady is good.
Perched at # 3 is KC. If you fell asleep Sunday night you missed a 26-3 Chiefs snoozer over the somnambulistic Chicago Bears 26-3. They need a win and a week 17 loss by NE to have a bye. This just in, Patrick Mahomes is good. The Bears are not.
Don’t sleep on the Houston Texans. They clinched the AFC South for the fourth time in five years Saturday. They can score and they can play decent defense. If KC loses and Houston wins they could move up to the all important #2 seed and gain the all important bye week as well. This just in, Deshaun Watson is good.
Buffalo has won ten games and counting this year and are in as the fifth seed. They are a dangerous wild card team. They’ll scrap you for a ball anytime, anywhere. This just in, Josh Allen isn’t good yet, but he’s moving in the right direction. The Tennessee Titans could still get in. They drafted Marcus Mariotta in round one a few years back. Miami did the same with Ryan Tannehill. Tennessee looks to have given up on MM like Miami did on Tannehill. Miami’s loss is Tennessee’s gain for now. Pittsburgh needs lots of help to get in. Oakland needs lots and lots of help to get in.

Enjoy a few lousy NCAA Bowl games that no one really cares about and a few NBA early season games that no one really cares about till the weekend. Then it’s the NCAA playoffs and the final regular season week in the NFL.

A little sprinkle of cinnamon on top of the eggnog is just the right finishing touch.

The NFL’s Seeds are Sown.

Posted on January 14, 2019January 15, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

The NFL rules committee reviews in painstaking detail all proposed changes to its game and its league once each year. The definition of what a catch is, a fumble is, and what roughing the quarterback is has changed far too often for well-intentioned but misguided reasons. Booth reviews became a necessity when the complexity of the rules rose exponentially.

However, one competitive rule that has not changed in many years is how playoff teams are seeded and how the resultant path to the Super Bowl paved. We think that it’s the best format of any major sport and second place isn’t close. Why? We briefly touch on that in a few thoughts below.

In each conference if you make it as a wild card you travel in week one of the playoffs to the two lower seeded (of the four) division champions. You’re in, but your road is three games long and all three are away from home. Advantage division champions.
The survivors of wild card weekend travel to the one and two seeded team’s stadiums. The lowest seed travels to the one seed, the other to the two seed. Advantage one seed and two seed division champions.
The one and two seeds have the wild card weekend off. After five months of physical grind this is a very welcome respite. Big advantage one seed and two seed division champions.
The highest remaining seed after the second weekend hosts the lower seed. If the seeds hold this is the last advantage earned by the number one seeded division champ.

So what happened this past weekend? Points three and four above is what happened. The AFC and NFC top two seeds hosted and held serve in all four games. Their success in the regular season earned them this leg up and they made good use of it.

On average three of the four home teams in the just completed division championship weekend win. However, this year it was all four. Many “experts” talked about how competitive the four visiting teams (Indianapolis, Dallas, Los Angeles (Chargers), and Philadelphia) would make those games. Indy was done by halftime. Dallas tried, but never climbed back in from a 13 point halftime deficit. The Chargers were manhandled. Only Philly was within a touchdown late in the fourth.

Visitors have tired legs. Home teams have a week off to rejuvenate tired legs. Speed kills on the football playing field.

Therefore, in the NFL every regular season game matters. Maybe the committee will figure out what constitutes a catch one day. Hopefully it will keep them so busy trying to figure that out that they will leave the seeding system and rewards of it exactly as is.

This coming weekend the best four teams in the NFL will decide who the best two teams in the NFL are.

The Rare, but Fair, Fair Catch Kick.

Posted on January 2, 2019January 2, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

File this one under the “did you know.” It’s a good one for around the water cooler to kickoff(see what we did there?) the New Year. You really didn’t want to work very hard this week anyway did you? Heck., it’s already late Hump Day or Thirsty Thursday depending on when you read this.

Four juicy NFL playoff games are looming. Could one end in a last second touchdown pass? Possible. Could one end with a last second field goal? Probable. Could one end in a last second fair catch kick? Say what?

Per NFL.com after a fair catch, the receiving team has the option to put the ball in play by a snap or a fair catch kick (field goal attempt), with fair catch kick lines established ten yards apart. All general rules apply as for a field goal attempt from scrimmage. The clock starts when the ball is kicked. (No tee permitted.)

Obviously, the plan can’t unfold without the right conditions. You need pin your opponent deep and force a punt with time expiring or near to expiration.

This is the time that might be right to call for a fair catch followed by a free kick. Think of it as a kickoff formation where the receiving team must remain minimally ten yards back from the spot of the kick. But, the big difference is that if the kick goes through the uprights it’s good for three points.

After you have successfully executed the fair catch, you have the opportunity to align for a free kick. The ball can be placed anywhere along the line of scrimmage, so the kicker has the opportunity to line his kick up wherever he wants it. The ball is live after the kick and can be returned by the opposing team if it stays in the field of play.

In high school, the kicking team is allowed to use any legal tee, including the one for kick-offs. Also, in high school if the ball goes into the end zone it’s automatically considered a touchback.

It’s critical that the punting team players not interfere with the fair catch. If the team fair catching is interfered with, they will march off 15 yards and the fair catch is still awarded, which means they may attempt a free kick even if there is no time left and fifteen yards closer.

Has a fair catch free kick happened before in an NFL game? Yes. Research is a bit sketchy, but it looks like there have only been 21 free kicks attempted in NFL history, and only three since 1990. There hasn’t been a successful attempt since Ray Wersching made a 45-yarder entering halftime in a Bills-Chargers game in 1976.

Will it happen again? Sure. It’s only a matter of when, not if. With the increasing length and accuracy of kickers today the field is stretched further, increasing the possibility. With no oncoming rush allowed, isn’t a 70 yarder soon in the cards?

It’s an obscure rule for sure. One wonders how many NFL coaches are even aware. But it might come in very handy one day soon. Oh, and you can drop kick a free kick too. Never heard of a drop kick? Drop back in soon and we will examine that obscure, but not lost opportunity, as well.

It’s rare, but it’s fair. And, it’s free. It’s the fair catch free kick.