49ers...window won't stay open too much longer. Just ask Green Bay and the Rams or the Colts.
Do you feel that way about Kansas City? New England seemed to be able to do it for years. Pittsburgh hasn't had a SB in a while, but they also haven't had a losing season in aeons.
I bring this up because media pundits like to talk about that mirage of a window. Same thing about Buffalo: Oh no, their window is closing! I call BS on it. If it were true, then an inverted window would have opened for Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, NY Jets, and any number of other teams at this point. Key player losses can hurt, of course, and have to be balanced, but I don't buy the whole "window" thing. San Francisco's "window" in theory was closing 2020, when they finished 6-10. This year they had no QB, right? People were saying their season was rebuilding anyway, which is why Lance was starting. He gets hurt, they win, and Jimmy makes it all seem possible. He's hurt, it's all over. So no, I see no window. SF has a damn good org, and I expect them to be good, and even a SB contender off and on for some years, unless ownership mucks it up like so many do. There's already talk by some to get Brady there for next year "before the window closes". That's a perfect example of what I mean. I suppose that could in theory
close an invisible window if the did that.
HMM, I didn't see the lop-sided officiating that others are referring to.
Numerous, numerous article today, even from legit sources, writing about it. I'm not going to bother linking, or re-listing. Don't care enough. Maybe a Bengals fan around here wants to dig it up.
Chiefs won, bad calls or non-calls. Game over. SB in two weeks.
The Ossai penalty is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen at the level of football. Where was his head?
I slightly disagree. I think he was trying to make a play at maximum effort, and got lost on his location. And he's a rookie. One NFL exec (anonymous) today said he felt Mahomes flopped. Well, players flop. Punters flop every other play. But it was still a penalty. I've definitely seen worse. How many times have we seen a team line up trying to get the other side to jump, everyone knows it, yet a defensive player bites anyway? Giving the offense a first down? Those are just incredibly dumb. But it was costly considering the timing, yes, for sure.
SI has an article about this weekend's games about penalties and rules. Two keys they brought up were there are so many 15 yard unnecessary rougness, roughing the passer, personal foul calls were implemented years ago, during the days of players like D
ick Butk
is, Mike Curtis, Conrad Dobler, Lyle Alzado, etc. to prevent guys from maiming someone every other play. Yet now, that same 15 yard penalty is called when someone is bumped in the head. The NFL could easily split the penalty in two. That is, some of these run of the mill, almost accidental hits, could be 5 yards and an automatic first down. Or just 5 yards. While the rough stuff would still be 15, or 15 plus an automatic first down. Not sure where that last hit by Ossai would have fit.
Brady Quinn brought something up also. Years ago there was only a 45 man roster. But the NFL voted to allow one extra player, making it 46, as long as that player was a QB. At a CBA they voted to just make rosters 46, and teams went back to just carrying two QBs almost always. SF would have lost anyway, but...
Years ago Bill Walsh said something I read Howie Long elaborate on. That is, I'm in favor of a larger roster for every team, even if most of those players have to sit on a practice squad, and/or could be signed by another team at any given time. When the pandemic hit the league bumped practice squads from 15-16 players. I think there were seasonal limits they also wiped away. This could easily be doubled. Certainly if practice squad guys are paid weekly. It's currently around $11k to $15k per player. That's it. Too much greed by owners have prevented this from happening apparently.
Btw, that ESPN computer is looking pretty smart.
Really went out on a limb didn't it? Picking the #1 seed from each conference to play one another. No one expected that. Many, in fact most, humans likely picked the same. And this was the same computer that had Dallas beating SF.