Tag Archives: Colin Kaepernick

TWF Midweek Post: On the Road Edition

20 Wednesday Nov 2019

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So this is a bit of an improvised post as I’m on the road for work, in a hotel but still working so I’m going to try a quick sprint through the usual format from week eleven.

What I Saw

The week started with the Cleveland Browns hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers, winning the game and still managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Browns won the game convincingly thanks to the four interceptions Mason Rudolph threw, but on the last play of the game a tussle between players escalated when Myles Garrett not only pulled off Rudolph’s helmet, but used it as a weapon and although he hit Rudolph in the head with it – he got lucky in that Rudolph was not seriously hurt. However, Garrett has been suspended for the season, which is totally understandable, and as the best player on the Browns’ defence this could snuff out what small chances they had of making the playoffs

On Sunday we got to see the Cincinnati Bengals travel to the Oakland Raiders and make the game competitive. I said I wouldn’t back the Bengals to keep a game within ten until I saw it, and on Sunday we saw it thanks to a tougher defensive performance. I don’t know if it can be the start of something, but it was nice to watch a game and not know the result in the fourth quarter. As for the Raiders, well they continue to impress and maintain their place in the chasing pack for the playoff. They may not actually make the post-season but they look like they are heading in the right direction with two more wins than they managed in all of last season.

The final game I saw was the final international game of the season when the LA Chargers hosted the Kansas City Chiefs in Mexico City’s Azteca stadium. Obviously it’s a step in the right direction with the game actually getting played this year, although the turf still looked like it was cutting up a little, but it was quite the spectacle in an impressive stadium. However, it was a curious game on the field as the Chiefs never quite took off on offensive and continued to struggle to stop the run, but they were able to generate enough turnovers, including four interceptions of Philip Rivers to overcome being out-gained by over one hundred and twenty yards and win 24-17. It feels like if the Chiefs do make the playoffs, no one will want to face them whilst for the Chargers, the injuries have combined with Philip Rivers suddenly struggling to hold everything together to sink the season. I’m not saying that Rivers is done or that he won’t play well next week, but if feels like his chance of making a Super Bowl is slipping away.

What I Heard

The big stories have been the brawl at the end of the Thursday night game, with no one questioning Garrett’s suspension or the two Steeler linemen who retaliated for the attack on their quarterback.

Next we had the curious situation with the Colin Kaepernick workout, which was unusual because the league announced it, seemingly out of nowhere and giving him a couple of hours to agree or not. Additionally in the strange column was holding it on a Saturday when most big decision makers wouldn’t attend as they would be preparing for Sunday, as opposed to Tuesday – the tradition day for teams to work out potential new signings. The situation continues to get muddled as Kaepernick then refused to sign an NFL waiver that I’ve heard would have prevented him from future legal action as well as any injury responsibility. Kaepernick’s change of plan was to stage his own workout in front of a handful of NFL people and his own camera crew (who the league also would allow to film/publish) – and whist I think I can understand some or most of this, I get the feeling we won’t be seeing him in the league any time soon, if at all. He stuck to his principles but you can already see how some will spin this as being unwilling to put the team ahead of the individual.

Finally, in a rare side step into college football for TWF, the big news for those in the middle of the 2019 NFL Tankapalooza – was that Tua Tagovailoa dislocated his hip this weekend, throwing again into the question of losing games for draft picks. For me the real shame is that Tua did this in college whilst not getting paid a cent, and I hope that he can get healthy again and play up to his potential whoever it may be for.

What I Think

I think that this season is continuing the transition from the quarterback stars we are so familiar with to the new generation. You can’t see Eli Manning holding on for much longer longer if we ever see him again, for the first time Philip Rivers is struggling to keep his team competitive, and even Tom Brady is looking mortal. Meanwhile, after Patrick Mahomes announced himself last season, it is Lamar Jackson’s turn for a tilt at MVP, whilst Deshaun Watson continues to impress with the Texans. This makes the struggles of Mitch Trubisky even tougher for fans of the Bears to watch knowing that their franchise was tricked into trading up to take him when they could have stayed put and picked Watson or Mahomes.

What I Know

That I seem to be talking an awful lot about quarterbacks this season and I’m beginning to worry about myself.

What I Hope

I would hope that next week I could get back to something like a normal week, but of course it’s Thanksgiving, so I hope we get three good games to watch!

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We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

28 Thursday Sep 2017

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The weekend saw a number of statements and responses to Donald Trump’s rhetoric about disrespecting the flag across the weekend’s NFL games, and several tight finishes. I will pick up the actual football in a minute, but I feel I have to take a moment to broaden a little on what I wrote at the weekend given what happened before kick offs of the week three games.

The kneeling of Colin Kaepernick, and the other players was to protest social injustice and police brutality. This has been reframed as protesting the flag and anthem by those that object to these actions, and by Trump himself. The response from the NFL over the weekend sought to project unity against the criticism of Trump and to say we stand with these players using their first amendment rights, even if they don’t agree with the action themselves.

This does not look to be a problem that is going away any time soon as the actions of the players and owners still upset people, and we shall have to see how things proceed. However, I do think it is important to keep stating the players are not protesting the flag or the anthem, they are making a statement on society.

And so on to the football, which saw multiple close game and signs that teams are finding their way a bit on offence. It was also a topsy-turvy weekend that saw several unexpected results including the Pittsburgh Steelers losing to the Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins losing to the New York Jets. The Baltimore Ravens travelled to London and were totally outplayed by the Jacksonville Jaguars, losing 44-7.

What does this tell us? The honest answer is that we don’t know what we don’t know – i.e. we only have a small sample size and until we get well into October we should treat our general feelings about a team with a pinch of salt. The Cincinnati Bengals have a better defence than their 0-3 record might indicate, but they have a huge amount of work to do if they want to finish with a respectable record, yet alone think about playoffs, which must surely be out of reach. There are plenty more teams like this and I am excited to take a closer look now that coaching tape has hit the European Gamepass site.

Schedule allowing I shall be taking a look at the coaching tape of the Tennessee Titans’ offence taking on the Seattle Seahawks’ defence to see how the managed to be effective against the scary Seahawks’ front seven.

And so onto tonights game, but before that here are the results of our picks last week.

Gee:      Week 3   7-9                       Overall   25-23
Dan:      Week 3   5-11                     Overall   20-28

Bears @ Packers (-7.5)

This is an interesting line given that the Green Bay Packers needed overtime to get a win against the winless Bengals on Sunday, and the Chicago Bears just beat the Steelers at home. The Bears are on the road, and I would expect the Packers to find a way to win. However, given their continued injury problems I can’t quite bring myself to back the Packers to win by eight. I may well suffer from the stupidity of picking against Aaron Rodgers at home for a second week in a row, but that’s what I’m going to do.

Gee’s Pick:          Bears
Dan’s Pick:          Bears

The Wrong Football Podcast – Episode 33

24 Thursday Nov 2016

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It’s Thanksgiving this week, and we’re giving thanks for all of the great Football games we’ve been able to watch over the last couple of weeks… Dan’s definitely thankful for the Dolphins current run of form! This week, we’re talking about Colin Kaepernick and his charity donations and analyse exactly what on earth is going wrong for the Green Bay Packers! Also, all the best action from Week 11, and our picks for Week 12, all here this week on The Wrong Football Podcast!

Source: The Wrong Football Podcast – The Wrong Football Podcast – Episode 33

Week 7 Seahawks at 49ers

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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This game is possibly easier to write up than it was to watch. The 49ers were thoroughly beaten on Thursday night in a game that convincingly demonstrated the offensive line deficiencies of both teams, but the Seahawks looked more like the team we are used to as they ran out 20-3 winners.

Unfortunately for the fans in San Francisco, the 49ers first drive setup a familiar pattern for the rest of the game as they failed to move the ball or get a first down as they went three and out. They would have a further five three and outs in this game and punted the ball a ridiculous nine times. The opening drive included a play where Colin Kaepernick had lots of time in the pocket, and he found Vance McDonald for a yard, but that was the only time in the game that this happened. The protection was awful from the offensive line, and whilst the 49ers were trying to help Kaepernick by the extensive use of play action to provide simple reads, he was sacked six times and was hit a further eight. As a consequence the 49ers were unable to get anything going through the air with only four catches to going to wide receivers, a total matched by Vernon Davis on his own in a stretch where it looked like the 49ers might be able to take advantage of Seattle’s problems against tight ends this season. It was not to be, and combine this with a failure to run the ball or sustain drives at all, and it was all too obvious why they only scored three points.

If the 49ers offence was bad in this game, some credit must go to the Seahawks’ defence which looked a lot more like the frightening unit of recent years. In particular their defensive line was incredibly effective with Michael Bennett and Clif Avril combining for five sacks between them and seven quarterback hits as they terrorised the 49ers o-line and made life miserable for Kaepernick. The legion of boom looked more like their dominant selves, although this was not a stern test and the play of Cary Williams still needs to be monitored. More worrying still for this team is that they came into this game ranked thirty-first by DVOA in pass defence against tight ends, and if they give up six catches for seventy yards to tight ends against this offence, then they are going to continue to have problems. There is still time to turn things round, but this is something I will be keeping an eye on over the coming weeks.

In fairness to the 49ers, their defence looked pretty solid, although losing strong safety Antoine Nethea is going to hurt, but they got pressure of their own and picked off Russell Wilson twice. Some of this was due to the Seahawks bad o-line, but I was impressed with second year outside linebacker Aaron Lynch who had two sacks and a further two QB hits, and was causing all sorts of problems from the outside. The big plays they gave up to Russell Wilson will worry them, but the offence was giving them very little time off as the Seahawks had the ball for over thirty-eight minutes, and right now I would not be overly concerned with where their defence is despite their lowly ranking as it didn’t look that bad to me.

The Seahawks got back to their old formula on offence, with the opening drive a statement of intent as they repeatedly ran Marshawn Lynch, who looked much more like himself and was finally able to find the end zone after five previous snaps inside the five yard time on the opening drive, finishing the game with one hundred and twenty-two yard. The passing game was a bit more hit and miss with some big chunk passes going for twenty-three, thirty-six, and forty-three yards and a touchdown, but Russell Wilson also through two interceptions, one on a long bomb that I’m not sure why he threw the ball into double coverage, and one in the end zone where he did not see the safety. Wilson was again scrambling to keep plays going and they could have given up more than five sacks if he had not been so mobile. If they can keep the running game going then they can recreate the pattern that has served them so well in recent years, but it is still strange for them to have given up so much for Jimmy Graham and not utilise his skills more.

The 49ers played horribly in this game, and whilst they lost a lot of players in the offseason, it is still startling to see how quickly what was once one of the best offensive lines in football has fallen apart. They need more talent on both sides of the ball, but they have to find a way to generate more than one hundred and forty-two yards of offence if they are going to add to their win total this season.

We are going to need to see more than one sold win against a poor 49ers team to say that the Seahawks are back in the hunt, but it was a good start. However, they still need to find a way to provide Russell Wilson with better protection, and their trouble against tight ends could really hurt them if they can’t get it resolved.