Figuring out this NFL season

 

Okay, so I chose the wrong season to “figure out” the NFL. But I'm not the only person feeling this way. That should encourage me that this thing I'm doing has some value.

For the past decade, I've listened to people talk about how the NFL is a superior product to other sports leagues because the regular season is engaging and matters. I'm not here to evaluate that statement – though I am willing to agree with its face. It hasn't really been true – the Patriots were in half of the Super Bowls in that span, and last year's Buccaneers were lucky to make the Playoffs at all – and wouldn't have without more than a little help from the zebras – but it is descriptive. If nothing else, it describes the ideal of the NFL season: every team “in the conversation” entering the final stretch of the season. In this case, the last five weeks.

The 2021 season is, through 13 weeks, the most NFL season ever, I think. With a little Christmas magic, the Lions could still be in the Conversation come New Years.

And somehow the Texans have managed to already be eliminated.

It turns out that I want to talk about the Patriots.

What they did to the Bills should leave Buffalo fans shook.

Quietly I have pondered why the Bills don't feel like a top-3 team this year. I'm not sure anyone else feels great about them, either. But— I've been trying not to have the Soft talk because I haven't seen or heard a lot of quality chatter on the topic except for the Rams. But while I was thinking over the game yesterday while watching Ja'Marr Chase's Mic'd Up, it occurred to me that my learning to box as a child analogy for the Dolphin's season might be better than I thought.

The Bengals got punched in the face early against the Chargers – and then didn't keep their gloves up. There's a moment, down 24-0, where the WRs are all sulking on the bench, and a coach comes over and says something like, There's still three quarters to go – are you going to sit here feeling sorry for yourselves all day, or are you going to go out there and fight?”

They're not just going to stop hitting you because you aren't fighting back, in other words.

I'm also thinking about how Sean McVay told Matthew Stafford to keep his receivers “positive.” I think he might have started to say focused or in the game, but happy was probably his first impulse. Which – it's interesting that he hitched. Not only because this is Matthew Stafford we're talking about, not Jared Goff, but also because keeping wide receivers happy is a task that seems to run counter to a productive offense.

I think I'm starting to understand why some coaches just do not like dudes who identify as pass catchers.

You hear coaches and quarterbacks and commentators talk about getting pass catchers “involved in the gameplan” often. It's one of those clichés - “If they're going to win today, they have to get their best receivers going early and keep them going often.” What they're talking about seems to be calling plays designed to get these pass catchers the ball. Because evidently it's more common than not for pass catchers to not go 100% on routes not meant for them – especially early in the game and early in the season.

I don't understand wide receivers.

I don't really understand what it is to be an individual on a team. But watching Chase struggle, especially in that 24-0 first quarter, I understood a little better how WRs can think they're individuals.

There was a shallow out where Chase was swarmed by defenders after the catch. By my count, there were eight dudes attempting a tackle before a Bengal was within I'd say 10 yards of the action.

The game is different for receivers. The mindset is different. I guess for corners, too. Darelle Revis made the Mercenary CB make sense to me, I think is the difference, there.

As you no doubt know, I played on the line, where all the bodies are, and where you're working with the dudes beside and behind you to accomplish your goals. Corners and wide receivers don't have “help” in that same way. And to hear Aqib Talib tell it, they prefer when they have safety help over the top, in the same way that receivers have to like it when they know they're going to get a pick or rub from the slot.

I am still talking about the Patriots/Bills, even though I'm thinking of DeVante Parker on Isaiah Ford's TD catch.

The Patriots are so good because Bill doesn't ave players who aren't his QB1 who only do one thing – who only identify as one thing. And if they're on the roster, they aren't on the field – unless they're longsnappers, I guess. That's a position I forget exists. Okay, fine, so except for the specialists, everyone has to be versatile – but more than that, everyone has to have 100% buy-in with what the team is doing.

The Buffalo game was about more than the wind.

Sean McDermott is a defensive coach in Buffalo, New York who has assembled a finesse defense – a finesse team, really.

Finesse, if you don't know, is the accepted nomenclature to use when a team can win but can't out-physical anyone.

As we were watching that game, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “This has nothing to do with the win,” meaning New England's offensive gameplan. It would have been sometime during the third quarter, with Peyton totally apoplectic that Mac Jones wasn't going to throw the ball with the wind at his back. Because you don't run it that well and that often by accident.

Bill and Josh McDaniels (because I don't think he gets enough credit) saw something in the Bills' defense. The Mannings talked about wanting to force Buffalo out of their Nickle D, but the big run TD was sprung against the three-linebacker look. Something else that's true about those two is that philosophically they aren't going to move off a play or a style of play until you can prove you can stop it. The Bills couldn't stop the run. If you can't stop the conceptually most basic plays in the game of football, you can't stop anything. Doesn't matter how low the score is.

Especially not when the only people surprised that Buffalo couldn't score were fans of Buffalo's offense and the Bills team themselves.

The reason so many Bills players and McDermott were upset after the game is because they were disrespected at home. The Patriots never planned to pass. Neither Mac nor his pass catchers seemed all that upset by all the runs. For good reason, for the WRs: you don't have to take all those big hits.

But they still have to block.

And let me tell you – blocking in the cold is much better than tackling or being tackled in it.

I think the Buffalo defense made that pretty obvious.

But it wasn't the cold, either.

New England didn't think the Bills could score on them. And they were right!

Buffalo not addressing their running game this offseason is going to look about as bad as Miami's choice to do the same. With Allen regressing and so many teams In the Conversation, it's hard to say I think Buffalo are a Contender right now.

I do think it's impressive that New England have managed to dominate The Conversation again this year, though. They're back atop the AFC East, and playing the kind of football that best translates to wins in December and January. So good luck keeping them out of the Super Bowl. Who in the AFC has a legitimate shot at beating them in the Playoffs right now?

They've already whooped up on the AFC North and South. Can any of the teams in the West beat them? The Chiefs – maybe? And I don't know that I trust any of the NFC teams, right now. Any given Sunday is a thing, but right now we're looking down the barrel of Mac Jones's first Super Bowl appearance.

You've just gotta love the NFL season.