Baltimore, You Have A Problem

In today’s NFL, you are bound to blow a significant lead in at least one game. When you do it in two of your first four games, that isn’t a good sign. Granted when Baltimore blew their 21-point lead against Miami in Week 2 it was worse in that it happened in the 4th quarter. With the latest one coming against Buffalo it was slow and meticulous and it started before halftime. QB Lamar Jackson had a terrible performance and his last pass of the game was everything you’re not supposed to do as a quarterback in the NFL. The receiver was open in the back of the end zone, but Lamar doesn’t rollout to his right and rather back peddles and throws off his back foot. This gave time to the Bills defender to close the gap and intercept the pass. Buffalo would go on to drive the length of the field for the eventual game winning field goal. This one is going to sting for a while and that doesn’t bode well for this team. Also what makes these blown leads worse is that both of them happened at home.

Where’s The Defense?

The NFL has become pass happy with no defense. The game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Detroit Lions epitomizes that. Both quarterbacks threw for over 320 yards and both had a receiver gain at least 149 yards receiving. Lions QB Jared Goff threw four touchdown passes while Seahawks QB Geno Smith threw only two. Both teams leading rushers had over 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns each on the ground. Were there any turnovers? Of course with the two teams involved why wouldn’t there be? Detroit turned the ball over twice and Seattle once, so there was some defense, but Seattle never punted the ball and that’s probably why they ended up winning this one. If Detroit wants to turn the page on their mediocrity they need to avoid these kinds of games and have some semblance of a defense. Otherwise your offense looks legit so far, but that’s all I can say on the positive side for now.

This Is The NFL

Before I proceed with my opinion on Tua Tagovailoa’s status, I want to preface this part of the Weekly Review by saying I don’t want to see anyone get hurt playing an inherently violent sport. Realistically that will and has never happened where no one gets hurt either during said event or later on in life when their playing days are long behind them. With that said all of this opinionated criticism was quite the sight to see. One part of this was never discussed and the fact is that Tua chose to play football. No one put a gun to his head and said, ‘you must do this for our entertainment.’ Ask anyone who has ever played in the NFL for any length of time whether they have had or are currently having medical problems from playing football if they would still play knowing what they know now. Most wouldn’t hesitate in saying ‘yes’ they would do it all over again. This is their choice just as I’ve said before that I chose not to play football going into high school because of the chances of getting hurt weren’t appealing to me. I don’t criticize anyone for not wanting to play nor will I criticize anyone for walking away at an early point in their careers. The NFL will always have injuries of this kind. That is unless it becomes flag football. Even then you can still have guys blowing out their knees, but this isn’t my call nor should it be anyone else’s but the player(s) involved. Stop spewing a bunch of opinionated crap for clicks, views or likes. Being sympathetic is one thing, but trying to demonize or find someone to blame for this is just pointless and dishonest. I hope Tua continues to play if he wants to. He is a talented individual and a person that is easy to root for. This is his decision to make and whatever he wants to do is fine by me.