Go For 3 (And Stop Being Silly)

It seemed like a lot happened in the NFL since I wrote a post in the early hours of yesterday morning.

In the post, I noted how gutted I was to see Buffalo eliminated from the playoffs after their overtime loss to the Denver Broncos.

I then woke up to the news concerning the Broncos' quarterback - Bo Nix - who injured his ankle in the win. He is reportedly going under the knife tomorrow, so that ends his season. 

So, I went from feeling sorry for the Bills to feeling a bit bad for their victors in the space of a few hours.

I kind of want the Broncos to go on and win the Super Bowl now because it'll be a cool Cinderella Man story for Jarrett Stidham if he is able to lead the team to a win over the New England Patriots in Sunday's AFC Championship game to qualify for the Super Bowl.

Speaking of the Patriots, I thought they - and I hate having to write this considering how much I dislike the Pats - played exceptionally well against the Texans. 

It could have simply been because the offence of the Texans was abysmal, but a win is a win.

Speaking of wins and poor performances - the Bears lost to the LA Rams in the early hours of this morning. The Rams won, but I don't think the Bears truly lost. The loser of the night was Bears' head coach: Ben Johnson.

I haven't rewatched the game, but there were at least two early occasions when the Bears were in field goal range on fourth downs. The HC didn't bring on the field goal unit. Instead, they went for those opportunities. And failed.

That kind of coaching seems to be the in-thing nowadays. Maybe I'm a bit of traditionalist, but - to me - going for a field goal on fourth down, especially in the early part of the game is the rule.

I worked out that, instead of losing 17-20 last night, the Bears could have won yesterday's game with a score of 19-17 if they had taken, and converted, those early field goal opportunities.

Easy for me to write that, though. My only experience is from watching televised games over the past forty-plus years. Still - I strongly believe Johnson is the only reason why the Bears haven't made it to the NFC Championship game.