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Snap Judgments from One Day of Watching the 2015 NFL Season

December 27th, 2015 · No Comments · Abu Dhabi, NFL

I have been away. Have I mentioned that? And it’s hard to see the NFL play where I was living, on the other side of the world.

But, back in the USA for a slow Sunday … I slipped back into the couch potato mode and pretty much just stared at the NFL all day.

I have a sort of second-hand knowledge of what happened over the first 14 games, mostly by looking at the standings, but I do have some snap opinions from one day of new exposure to the league.

A list of 10:

1. What’s all the hoo-hah about Cam Newton? I was thinking about this and I’m fairly certain I have never seen him play on live TV. I was in Abu Dhabi before he led Auburn to a national championship and, really, who pays any attention to the Carolina Panthers, which accounts for the rest of his career.

Anyway, he was nothing special, as the Panthers lost their perfect season in a 20-13 loss to Atlanta. Newton also gave off a weird vibe, through the TV, of not being particularly invested in the game. Is “lassitude” a “thing” with him? Anyway, he looked good in his uniform, but the rest of it … unimpressive, including what seems to be a lack of touch in his passing. Give him credit for accepting blame for a lackluster performance by the league’s last team to lose a game.

2. The Arizona Cardinals, the best team in the NFL? Well, probably not, but they are pretty good, at least against the Packers, whom they trashed 38-8.

3. I wonder if Carson Palmer feels like he was playing for USC just the other day, because that’s how it seems to me. Maybe not, in his case, since he is “only” 36. He ran his team to perfection and reminded me of a previous Cardinals quarterback, the relentlessly competent Kurt Warner, who got Arizona to the Super Bowl seven years ago.

4. Is Aaron Rodgers overrated? Over the hill? I see that he doesn’t seem to have many competent receivers, but he didn’t exactly look scary against the Cardinals — and that was before the Cardinals began sacking him every second or third play. (Eight sacks, in all.)

5. The NFL continues to abuse its fans. The league has no problem with having Snow Belt teams host night games, and it did so again today: New York Giants at Minnesota Vikings, outdoors, 14 degrees Fahrenheit at kickoff. Meanwhile, the Arizona Falcons, who play in a dome, had an afternoon game. How hard would it be to swap kickoff times for those two? And allow Vikings fans to sit in 30-degree temps?

6. I once knew nearly every NFL coach on sight. Now? Just the old guys. Tom Coughlan, people like that. Bill Belichick. The Other Harbaugh. For the rest of the coaches, how about they have to wear numbers, so I can check the program to figure out, “Oh, that’s Bruce Arians …”

7. Speaking of Harbaughs, how much credit/blame does Jim Harbaugh get for running the San Francisco 49ers into the ground before jumping to Michigan? A lot. That is a bad team. The Niners. He wrung them out and left them limp. Reminds me of Jose Mourinho.

8. If I understand this correctly, Greater Los Angeles may soon have its pick of three NFL teams? How silly would that be, after 21 seasons with none at all? If I have to pick one, it’s gotta be the Rams. They were in SoCal from 1946 through 1994. Yes, the Raiders and Chargers played in L.A., but the former mostly left behind a rep for gang attire and the latter are just a sort of shoulder-shrug thing — with bad ownership. The Rams come back, and we just chalk up to “evil Georgia Frontiere” those 21 seasons in St. Loo — and never speak of them.

9. Chip Kelly is nearing the “another college system that doesn’t work in the NFL” zone. His Philadelphia Eagles aren’t very good, not that they really run Kelly’s Oregon offense, anyway.

10. Nice to see some things never change. Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots remain the villains in this show, and all right-thinking Americans understand it. Seeing them screw up the coin toss in overtime, and lose to the New York Jets without getting the ball … made me smile. It got better when Bad Bill insisted, in a bald lie, to take the blame for the “kick” rather than “receive” decision. It was clear from the body language of the player who made the coin-toss call that he screwed up the message. It’s only honorable, Bill, to try to take a bullet for one of your players (and lie to the public), when the lie isn’t patent nonsense.

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