The Frankish Reich

Glad to see Barstool Sports, as it enters its 20th year, is finally acting like a grown-up.

His naked running was never of a predatory or sexual nature. Who among us hasn't run naked through a hotel at 2 a.m.?

Sometimes a team decides it's out of the playoff run, or that if it somehow manages to sneak into the playoffs, it'll surely be one and done. Sometimes that team changes QBs as a not-so-subtle way of tanking. Sometimes that new QB plays the role perfectly. It's not as easy as it seems! You have to be marginally acceptable as an NFL QB or the fans (and in turn the players, coaches and ownership) will revolt. But you can't be good enough that the team actually is better with you than it was with the guy you replaced; that ruins everything. Nate Peterman is that first guy - the guy who was so bad that the tank was immediately called off and the status quo mediocrity (Tyrod) was reinistated. We saw the same thing this year with Indy going with the utterly unprepared Sam Ehlinger. You can do this in Game 17 (think "Cardale Jones gets the start") because that fan revolt doesn't matter anymore. But you can't do it in Game 11. So my theory of "tank but don't look like you're actually trying to lose" means Peterman gets activated and then gets the Week 17 start when Fields sits out with a phantom injury. Meanwhile, guys like Taylor Heinecke and Gardner Minshew screw up your tank-and-get-better-draft-position strategy by actually being an improvement over the incumbent. You do not want these guys anywhere near your non-playoff team!

That was some horrid clock management. They had one timeout and Prater has the leg to hit from 60. 2 really slow developing plays and nothing ... Something makes me think he'd enjoy that more.

Damn ... Wanted the Chargers out of the playoff picture. They are - at least in theory - dangerous if they make it.

Yeah, not impressive given that the Cards really have nothing to play for anymore.

The next Miami game has me concerned. Dec 18, so there's 3 weeks to get maybe a little bit healthier and more in sync. And maybe for Miami to have their own critical injuries, etc. (not wishing for it, just saying it happens)

Umm, 30-0 at halftime ... I didn't watch it, but really ...

This is an outrage! They were only up 30-0 at halftime. Tua should be required to drop back to pass until he has either 300 yards passing (the wimp stopped at a gentlemanly 299 today) or a concussion. Preferably both. (Seriously ... Bills fans seem to be getting more than a little worried that the Dolphins may be legit. What else explains a comment like this?)

Well, there aren't that many future Hall of Famers playing QB today. There's Brady, Rodgers, Mahomes and Allen if they maintain this level for another decade or so ... and then other Super Bowl Hall of the Very Good QBs like Matthew Stafford.

Mike White is not scared out there. Which is the opposite of Zach Wilson. He’s also not a 37 year old larger than kid statue like Joe Flacco. So…I’m sorry the Jets finally figured out it’s time to give him a shot.

Too young to have experienced the Leodis McKelvin era?

Correct. Dane Jackson was toast is retrospective looking. This one is about the Dane Jackson problem going forward. And with that, I will issue a reminder that last year was our year.

This is why Leslie Frazier deserves credit, not blame. Dane Jackson, Christian Benford, and Damar Hamlin are recent Day 3 draft picks who should not be starters on any NFL team, much less a Super Bowl favorite team. That's not to say they're useless players - all 3 have had their moments this year (and Hamlin has generally been good in run support). It's just that they are all limited/role player guys pressed into critical roles.

If you check the archives here, I am quite sure you will also find "Never draft an Alabama QB." I think there was some sense to the old "Never draft a [name of college] QB" when college offenses were wildly different. It is the same way of thinking that got USC or Stanford labeled as NFL QB factories. It's really difficult to make it in the NFL

Well…no. There’s still a fair amount of randomness in football - weird bounces, perfectly thrown balls that bounce off a receiver and turn into interceptions, etc. The NBA season is too long and teams take certain games off, but you aren’t seeing a team without 2 or 3 legitimate stars ever losing to a team of replacement level players when it counts.

1. If the salary cap and other things are negotiated with the NFLPA - the players’ collective bargaining union - then it’s perfectly legal. 2. If not - and the NFLPA seems to be saying that they never bargained for standard contracts being non-guaranteed - then it is illegal. Execs from Walmart, Target, Costco, Home Depot, etc. aren’t allowed to all get together at a private meeting and agree that nobody will pay a starting sales associate more than $10 (or $20, or whatever) per hour. That’s illegal and it has been illegal for a century or so. As to whether they can prove it? That’s a different story. But the baseball player’s association - a much stronger and better run union - has been able to prove collusion before, most recently proving that teams colluded to put a ceiling on salaries of free agent players.

I think I am the only football fan in the world who thought that Bryce Brown was screwed out of a legitimate shot.

I think Bill Maher said this a few years ago after a botched lethal injection — say what you will about the death penalty, but it shouldn’t be hard to kill someone. Every day we hear about accidental exposures to fentanyl killing someone. And the old Dr Kevlrkian death machine was just carbon monoxide — another manner of death in which people drift off in their sleep … Oh, I agree. But I’m speaking of confessions (affirmed in court), etc. Or true no-doubters like the mass shooters.

Not necessarily. The part about the possibility of executing the innocent could be nearly eliminated by raising the standard of proof. You can be convicted - and executed in many states - based on a jury finding that you’re guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So may that means a 1% chance that you didn’t do it? Take 1,000 convicts on death row and that’s 10 innocent people being executed. What if we made juries find “no doubt whatsoever” in the penalty phase? Obviously this won’t satisfy people with a moral objection to the concept of capital punishment, but it would do much to satisfy those with more pragmatic concerns.

True … it’s an “always darkest before dawn” low point.

Yep. Not one play that symbolized a franchise hitting bottom, but one half of a game. If only Vontae Davis had quit in the middle of a defensive series (walking out the tunnel never to return) we would have one of the all-time low points. But if there’s no video it’s like it never even happened.

Agreed. No knock on Trey Lance, but Jimmy G being restored as starting QB is the best thing that could have happened to their playoff prospects this year. CMC is the second. He’s got himself a West Coast version of the Dolphins offense to manage now, and he’s fully capable of managing that right through the rest of the NFC.

You really want to go there - the Billsiest moments of the Forgotten Decades …

Hey, I’m not saying he’s The Answer. I’m saying there’s a reasonable chance he doesn’t suck as bad as Zach Wilson or Joe Flacco. It’s a low bar ….