I haven't had many reasons to celebrate this season. My 49ers had their season derailed in Week 3 when Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL. Surprisingly I've still been able to watch several games of theirs. I watched them beat the Raiders, and I watched them beat the Broncos last week. I watched them give away/get screwed over in a couple games, as well. But that happens to everyone, right? Sure, let's say that.
This week, though, I got an early Christmas present. For the first time since 2013, the Niners beat the Seahawks. If you know me even a little bit, you know I loathe the Seahawks more than just about any team in football (The Ravens are the only ones who even come close).
I enjoyed how Seahawks' coach Pete Carroll acted perplexed that they lost. You know, because Seattle played a great game, and all. Whatever, Carroll. The Niners had several big plays, a little under 300 yards passing, and had a big start that changed the complexion of the game, much to the chagrin of the Seahawks. The Niners' defense was great in the fourth quarter, which has been their achilles' heel all season. The Niners' win against their nemesis came courtesy of Robbie Gould's game-winning field goal in overtime, which gave the home crowd something to get excited for. Seriously, I haven't had many reasons to hoot and holler with joy the way I did today in a long time. My throat genuinely hurt. And I wasn't even watching the game.
The win kept the Seahawks from clinching a playoff spot for at least one more week. When your team has been irrelevant pretty much since Week 3, fans like myself have to resort to other things to cheer for. At this point, Seattle not making the playoffs would be a great consolation prize. The problem is, even if the Chiefs get a big road win next week against them, the Seahawks have the Cardinals in the regular-season finale, so the odds of them not getting into the playoffs are pretty low. Still, I can dream, right?
Even if the Niners aren't going to the playoffs, I love this time of year in the NFL. Defenses start playing better. Weather is colder. Players are fighting through injuries. After the completion of the Eagles' somewhat stunning road win over the Rams, NFL teams combined to score exactly 597 points (The Saints play the Panthers tomorrow night). To put it in perspective, the NFL combined to score 801 points in Week 4, and that was with two teams on a bye week. I love offense, don't get me wrong, but I appreciate great defensive effort far more. It's so hard to defense well in the league. I always hope teams with good defenses fare well in the playoffs.
Week 15 game thoughts:
-Steelers 17, Patriots 10: When these two play, it always seems to be a big game, and this one had major playoff implications. JuJu Smith-Schuster made maybe the best catch I saw today with a grab while reaching his arms around the Patriots' DB and snatching out of the air while being blanketed in good coverage for a big gain down the sidelines. The Patriots made the coolest special teams play of the day with the way they flipped and dove and played hot potato with the football to down the ball around the 1. Great effort. Tons of great defense. Tom Brady looked mortal today, especially in the second half when he flung the ball with bad passes. One ended with an interception. The final drive of the game in the red zone looked awful as Brady faded away a couple times in the key moments.
-Vikings 41, Dolphins 17 Much to the chagrin of my brother-in-law, the Miami Dolphins are one of the hardest teams to figure out. Miami is coming off the "Miracle in Miami" play that knocked off the New England Patriots last week and kept their playoff hopes alive, yet they didn't seem to play like that today. Minnesota had even been slumping against good teams and just fired their offensive coordinator. But that turned out to be a decent decision for the Vikings, at least for this week, as they got back to the ground-and-pound game. They previously ranked near the bottom in the league in every major rushing category. But Dalvin Cook had a huge game with 136 rushing yards and two scores (which somehow doubled his pedestrian two TDs in his young career so far), and the Vikings took care of business. The Dolphins just can't seem to play consistent high-level ball like they've shown they're capable of at times this year.
-Eagles 30, Rams 23 The Eagles have a long shot to make the playoffs as they host Houston and travel to Washington to close the season, but they put together an impressive win against the high-priced Rams. On one series, Nick Foles threw deep to beat the Rams' expensive secondary, then ran through the Rams' expensive defensive line for a touchdown. The Rams got lucky when the Eagles missed a field goal, but they made dumb players by not getting out of bounds twice with no timeouts in their back pocket. The Rams came up short, and continued to struggle on offense since the injury to Cooper Kupp. Also, why does Sean McVay always sound like his voice is talking through a fan? He sounds so weird.
Colts 23, Cowboys 0 I love when a team pitches a shutout, especially when it's against the Cowboys. But are the Colts the least talked about team on a major roll right now? Andrew Luck is playing well. Mack is proving to be a beast in the backfield, which is something the Colts really haven't had in the Luck era to this point (Can we just institute the "Mack Attack" nickname already, or does Khalil Mack have that already?). Meanwhile the Cowboys looked so great two weeks ago against New Orleans, then again against the Eagles. How do they produce such a stinker now? Most times when a team gets shut out, there's some hilarious shenanigans. The Cowboys had a dropped pass at the goal line, and they had a field goal blocked. Still, the inability for Dallas to score at all was surprising. I guess they need to go home and take their medicine (that's what Zeke said, anyway).
Bears 24, Packers 17 - There's no better way for the Bears to clinch the NFC North division championship than with a big win against their rival, Green Bay. The Bears' defense picked off Rodgers, which finally lets us stop talking about his record-breaking streak of no INTs, which ended at 402 passes. Sure, that's a great record, but Rodgers is also on pace to set a single-season record for most passes thrown away, so it's not like he's shredding defenses and lighting the league on fire in the process. Chicago's defense is legit. On one play, Khalil Mack sacked Rodgers with his back! Maybe change his nickname to "Back Attack." The Bears had a great special teams play when Tarik Cohen had a long return in the fourth quarter that allowed the Bears to gain a two-possession lead. Mack should get major defensive Player of the Year consideration as he's got the Bears primed to be serious Super Bowl contenders.
Other Thoughts:
I love when defensive players get amped up after a great, hard hit on a running back or receiver, then celebrate their own hit with a arm pump or a long stroll in the offense's backfield as he looks into the crowd at the other end of the field at pumps them up. But I can't wait for the day when an offense follows up a big hit with a quick snap as the celebrating player is way in the backfield, which would result in either an offsides or a defensive timeout. It'll happen someday. I'm also not sure how I feel about defenses getting together for a team photo-op in the end zone after every single takeaway. I guess it's a team effort? Sure.