2019-20 NFL Season Thread

[Robbie]

Wow! Overtime thriller win by the Seahawks against the 8-0 San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football. Excellent effort by the Seahawks to fight back from a 0-10 deficit to put on 21 points led by three big turnovers leading to three touchdowns. Seahawks dodge a few bullets after giving up a fumble and crucial interception of their own but the 49ers kicker miss a game-winning OT. This time, the Seahawks defence did their job by forcing a three and out, and win on the last play of the game and Myers redeemed himself after last week's terrible performance by making the field goal this time.

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Fabulous long weekend for the city of Seattle as the Sounders win the 2019 MLS Cup as well after being dominated by Toronto FC in the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, but after a lucky own goal deflection, the Sounders woke up and put the game away with two more goals.

[South Pender]

A nice win for the Seahawks, although a real nail-biter. The defense showed up and made some important adjustments: (1) getting real QB pressure, particularly from Jadeveon Clowney, who was just a beast, and (2) more aggressive sets by the secondary, with the corners up pressing at the LOS and playing a lot of man coverage on the outside. (Did you see that great pass deflection by Shaquill Griffin on the long pass down the sideline to Deebo Samuel in OT?) Far less soft zone. These adjustments kept Jimmy Garoppolo at just 52% passing, and the Niners' normally great run game was also nicely contained (87 total rushing yards) by the 'Hawks' D-tackles, Jarran Reed, Poona Ford, and Al Woods, and their excellent 'backers. So kudos for a good game plan to DC Ken Norton Jr., who had been under a lot of fire over the past two or three weeks (I admit that I was among those doubting him).

The Seahawks now get their bye week, and it's coming at a good time. (They were to play the Sunday-nighter in Philly in two weeks, but the game has evidently been bumped out of the Sunday night slot--for Packers-49ers--and will be played earlier on that Sunday.) There was one potentially scary injury last night to No. 1 receiver Tyler Lockett who suffered what looked like a pretty serious lower-leg contusion before OT. The team doctors were very concerned with the excessive swelling, and Lockett spent the night in a Bay Area hospital. It could have been very serious, but, fortunately, Lockett will not require surgery, and, according to Pete Carroll, he should be OK going forward, although undoubtedly some healing will be required. The two weeks until the next game is a blessing for Lockett. He's one guy that the offense just can't afford to lose. In addition, Luke Willson had a hamstring injury, but Carroll seems to think that he will be OK by the next game.

It was far from Russell Wilson's best game, with the bad interception in OT (albeit only his second of the season against 23 TDs, tops in the NFL at this point) that led to excellent field position for the Niners, but he did show why he's in the MVP conversation with his coolness under fire and the plays he makes with his legs--particularly that one run late in OT which set up the game-winning field goal. Another thing worth noting is the play of TE Jacob Hollister who has been excellent in the past two games, stepping in for the injured Will Dissly and making some acrobatic catches. He had 8 for 62 yards last night, including the nearly impossible TD catch in the 3rd quarter. Hollister has pretty decent speed (4.62) for a big man and appears to have good hands and body control.

[Robbie]

While I've definitely seen football brawls before such as the one in 1992 involving Rocket Ismail when he stomped an opposing player's helmeted face, or the one in November 2006 involving Raiders Tyler Brayton kneeing Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens in the groin, what happened on Thursday Night Football was definitely a first.

With 8 seconds left and the Cleveland Browns securing a 21-7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, there were so much blatant unnecessary roughness. Cleveland Browns' Myles Garrett made a late hit onto Pittsburgh Steelers' Mason Rudolph after he already passed the ball. After the players got up, Garrett proceeded to grab the helmet off of Rudolph and used it to hit it over his head. And before everything was over, Garrett’s teammate Larry Ogunjobi then pushed the helmet-less Rudolph on to the ground as well.




Mason Rudolph has declined to press file criminal charges against Cleveland Browns' Myles Garrett. I guess the main reason was because Rudolph wasn't really all that hurt and was not put out of action. Garrett has been suspended for the rest of the season.

[South Pender]

Yeah, that was really despicable. To a very small extent, Rudolph brought it on himself by grabbing at Garrett's helmet first, but Garrett's use of Rudolph's helmet as a weapon against Rudolph was just way beyond the pale. So Garrett is out for the rest of this season (including playoffs in the unlikely event that the Browns make the playoffs) at the very least. There remains some chance he may be grounded for some games next season. Depends, I guess, on how much the NFL and Roger Goodell want to emphasize player safety and the need to adhere to the rules. This isn't the first dirty play by Garrett, and he may be following the same disreputable path as Vontaze Burfict in establishing himself as a chronic dirty player.

There was this dirty play that some may remember by the Titans' 6' 6" 350 lb. thug, Albert Haynesworth (No. 92 in the clip), in 2006 when he stomped, with his cleats, on the helmet-less forehead of Cowboys' center Andre Gurode, narrowly missing Gurode's eye. Gurode sustained a serious injury in the incident. Haynesworth got a 5-game suspension without pay for that one--the longest NFL suspension at the time. I wonder whether had that incident occurred this season he would have drawn the same suspension that Garrett got. You'd have to hope so....

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... dirty+play

[Robbie]

Dirty 17-9 win by the Seahawks in a game filled with fumbles, interceptions, turnovers, and bad and dropped passes by both the Seahawks and Eagles. At least the Seahawks offence was aided by one good TD run by Rashaad Penny and their defence forced numerous turnovers in the form of fumbles and interceptions. 33/45 by Wentz sounds good, but not if it's all marred by turnovers.

When a team and especially the offence led by the QB has a very bad outing like Carson Wentz and the Eagles offence today, then there's always second guessing. And with that said, are the Eagles wondering if they should have kept Nick Foles as starting QB instead of buying out his contract and letting him go to the Jaguars?

[Ballistic Bob]

The score flatters the Hawks. Philly had two regular receivers out. BB

[South Pender]

That was an ugly win for the Seahawks. Neither offense could move the ball consistently. However, I'd say the final score flattered the Eagles, who only managed to get a TD in garbage time and were completely dominated by the Seahawks' defense. The 'Hawks should have had two more TDs. There was the drop on the goal line by D.K. Metcalf and the miss to Jacob Hollister all alone in the end zone where Russell Wilson air-mailed the ball.

The Seahawks' defense really beat up the Eagles' offense causing 5 turnovers. And they mounted the best pass rush of their season without their best D-lineman, Jadeveon Clowney, and losing their best D-tackle, Jarran Reed, early in the game. Ezekiel Ansah showed a little of what the Seahawks had hoped for with 1.5 sacks. We can hope that the last two games show that the defense has finally come together, with a decent pass rush and better play on the back end with newcomer Quandre Diggs at FS.

I think that some of the inconsistency from both teams stemmed from the weather conditions in Philly. It was a cold and windy day, and that seemed to affect the passing game.

Next Monday night's home game against the Vikings should be a doozy.

And to your point, Robbie, it's definitely true that Carson Wentz hasn't returned to his 2017 form. So far in 2019, he's been pretty mediocre. It's hard to tell whether and to what extent this has been due to small injuries, but at 5-6, the Eagles are nowhere near a playoff team at this point. Whether they'd be doing better with Nick Foles is anyone's guess.

[Robbie]

A rematch between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Let's see how emotional that will be given the dramatics from two weeks ago.

[Robbie]

No altercations and scuffles between the Browns and Steelers in the rematch. I suppose as the Steelers still have wild card spot, they can no longer afford any suspensions. And I'm sure the clean game was aided by the fact that the Steelers coach Mike Tomlin decided to bench Mason Rudolph for the entire game so that he won't be vulnerable to any Browns defenders who might still have a grudge against Rudolph and want to avenge their suspended comrade Myles Garrett.

In a rematch of Super Bowl XVII, the Ravens helped out the Seahawks by winning a close game against the 49ers 20-17 with a last play field goal.

[Robbie]

Decent effort by the Seahawks to fight back from a 17-10 halftime deficit for a 37-30 win which gives them the lead in the NFC west. Both offence and defence were good for the most part but sides made one mistake which allowed the Vikings to first take the lead and fight back to the end. Also great discipline for the Seahawks to not have a single penalty throughout 3.5 quarters and only have one penalty throughout the entire game midway in the fourth quarter - albeit a huge, serious, and costly pass interference penalty which allowed the Vikings to score their final touchdown.

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This Russell Wilson's own YouTube channel and posting, and it's good to see him and his wife Ciara participate and praising his brothers the Seattle Sounders at their 2019 MLS championship rally.

[South Pender]

Another win for the Seahawks, and that's good. But why do they have to serve up so many white-knucklers? I'd like to see them build up a big lead and win going away for a change.

Nice to see 1st-round pick RB Rashaad Penny have another big night. He and Chris Carson make for a nice one-two punch in the Seahawks' run-oriented offense. The 'Hawks put up 218 rushing yards against the Vikings.

Both teams were operating at less than full strength last night. The Vikes were missing their top receiver Adam Thielen and one or two other players, and the Seahawks battled through a week of the flu before the game. Starters DT Poona Ford, WRs Tyler Lockett and David Moore, and CB Tre Flowers were all hit pretty hard with it, and G Jordan Roos and LB Shaquem Griffin also were down with it. I'm wondering whether this accounted for Lockett's zero receptions in the game. He's also still recovering from the serious leg contusion from a few weeks ago.

So, it's almost a certainty that the Seahawks will make the playoffs now that they're 10-2. They can clinch that with a win against the Rams in LA on Sunday. Winning their division will be much more difficult, however. It's possible, but they'll have to win some tough games ahead--Rams and 49ers.

All things considered, though, this year's edition of the Seahawks has done far better than was expected when the season began. Some were predicting a rebuilding year with a losing record. I had thought that 9-7 might be about it for the season. The final emergence of a decent defense seems to have made the difference. John Schneider deserves a lot of credit for getting Jadeveon Clowney (really a steal) early on and Quandre Diggs midway through the season. And Pete Carroll has done a great job of coaching his guys to perform well.

[Ballistic Bob]

I still dont understand why flu shots are not mandatory. The Canucks had players down too. BB

[South Pender]

I still dont understand why flu shots are not mandatory. The Canucks had players down too. BB

I was wondering the same thing. Flu shots would seem like a no-brainer.

[KnowItAll]

I still dont understand why flu shots are not mandatory. The Canucks had players down too. BB

mandatory for the players, or for general public?

[Robbie]

Reality has finally set in for the Seahawks after winning so many close games that could have gone either way.

Aside from a single interception TD, the Seahawks defence was completely flat against the Rams. The offence was flat as well by producing only two field goals. The loss prevented them from clinching a playoff spot and lost the NFC west lead as well. Seahawks need to regroup for the last few games.