What a legendary comeback by the Ravens. Lamar Jackson made NFL history too.
Perhaps we saw a preview of a playoff meeting of these great teams.
Jackson finished 18 of 26 for 239 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, while also finishing with 16 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns in the Baltimore Ravens’ thrilling 36-35 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. The former MVP became the first player ever to throw for 200 yards, rush for 100 yards, and rush for two touchdowns in a regular season game (Colin Kaepernick accomplished this feat in the 2012 NFL divisional playoffs against the Green Bay Packers, but the NFL separates regular season and playoff individual game performances).
At some point, this news might be its own thread. The Chicago Bears have put one foot out the door of their historic stadium.
Did you know it's the smallest stadium in the league, and also it would be very hard to expand and then only by a low number of seats for sake of modern needs?
I remember attending a Notre Dame game there at Soldier Field in my senior year in the mid-1990s, so of course that was before the renovation.
Much as you describe, the exterior stadium was impressive and way back after it was opened in 1924, it was a far larger venue at that.
Inside though - wow talk about shoddy though to be fair back then a few years later in the late 1990s they opened the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and it was unimpressive and look how that’s been replaced already in just over 20 years.
I grew up in Indianapolis and was there the day in April 1984 that the Hoosier Dome was opened to the public for the new Colts. And then over the years we went to many of the games including many before Peyton Manning came to town. Peyton Manning not only changed the Colts but also elevated football to the top sport in Indiana from amateur basketball.
I dreaded the experience of watching games in what felt like a shopping mall instead of the outdoor stadium experience as I had in college and then later for an NFL game in another city.
Just say no to the indoor facilities for football but for a small few cities. Of course the retractable roof makes a big difference, but those are expensive but then again when they can get the government to fund that too like they did in Indiana, well now …
The Really Good
It's been a stronger NFL season so far after only four games than I expected. There are far more haves than have-nots as far as execution of skills, ability, and talent at the highest level.
I'm encouraged that the players seemed to have used the off-season to boost their game.
It's like highlight-reel top plays of the week for throws, catches, runs, and other plays are made in almost every game every week now as opposed to 15 years ago when it was easier to select the Top 10 plays on Sunday.
The Bad
The game day product on Sundays has never been worse to watch given so many more disruptions and commercials than I remember in recent years. It's not long I can tune in any more between the announcers trying to create spicy, hot takes in our social media era or the untimely, long, and repetitive commercial breaks.
I've been catching an awful lot of highlights in the evenings via the NFL site anyway, for there is not even a good highlight show any more and what NBC does with the highlights, to which they have the rights, has sucked for a long time and now they rush them even more.
The Ugly
I figure some more of the off-the-field stuff lurks and is yet to come out beyond Deshaun Watson and his 22 civil lawsuits that involve allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards women. Watson has not been charged with any crime. The Texans are still working to trade him to try to wash their hands of him, but who wants this issue now? Maybe some team takes a chance for next season by getting him near the trade deadline.
As this is my second team, I was puzzled like most folks paying attention to the first round of the NFL draft.
Go figure the Raiders are somehow 3-1 despite having this guy as their swinging gate at right tackle such that they have effectively perhaps only 4.2 offensive linemen on every down at best.
And it shows. Apparently starting at RT, Leatherwood is the worst rookie tackle in the first four games since 2006 as drafted in ANY round who played.
And so, either this guy shows up at right guard, or I see quick bust here.
The silver lining is if they find out he can't show up at guard either, they can replace him with one of an untold number of candidates who would be far better.
Overshadowed by the news about Jon Gruden like most NFL news this week, I thought this was a positive development for both the NFL and the Premier League. It's interesting and telling that they are working together, for those are two of the most valuable sports leagues or sporting ventures in the world.
Oh well, I've seen this before, play spoiler maybe get lucky if the Cowboys flop, but I am thinking the rebuilding for 2022 starts really early the way this is going.
Hurts is not our franchise QB either. I don't see it.
