NFL 2020: Week 12

Pages

It's Thanksgiving week, so let's dig in.

...

...

...

Yeah, I got nothing except WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS?!

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/Zx6g0Vt93qbcTQyGwU/giphy.gif)

Anyway, I know everyone has lots to be thankful for this year. Among them: that we have football to watch and that we've survived the Covid so far, not necessarily in that order.

Me? I'm thankful for this group of knuckleheads that can come together on this message board and talk about football.

Group hug? Group hug.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/agNbS8CRqXOAdGp9N9/giphy.gif)

OK, then. Moving along ...

LEGION WILL HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS

The Pro Football HoF came out today with its 25 modern-era semifinalists for its 2021 class. Here's the list.

This NFL.com writer ranks them: Peyton Manning, Calvin Johnson, Charles Woodson, Patrick Willis and Jared Allen (who was briefly a Panther!) are his top 5. Four of those guys (all but Willis) are first-time semifinalists.

STAT OF THE WEEK NO. 1

Dak Prescott threw for 1,856 yards in five games this season before his right foot was torn from his leg. In 10 games, Baker Mayfield has six fewer passing yards.

STAT OF THE WEEK NO. 2*

Until Dallas QB Andy Dalton threw a (game-winning!) TD pass to TE Dalton Schultz, there had never been an NFL TD pass where the last name of one guy is the same as the first name of the other guy.

* I think I heard this correctly; I mean, I guess it's possible that Baker Mayfield once threw a TD pass to Dusty Baker. (Mayfield, as you know, isn't very accurate, and that Dusty Baker manages a team in a whole different sport. That's the joke!)

STAT OF THE WEEK NO. 3

If DC wins Thursday, they'll be in first in the NFC East. If the Giants wins Sunday, they'll move into first. And if the Eagles win Monday night, yep, you guessed it, they'll lead the division. (source)

WEEK 12 SCHEDULE
(with coverage maps)

Lots of football, but none of it's all that great, which is an apt T-giving dinner metaphor:

Thursday: Texans-Lions, WFT/WTF-Cowboys, Ravens-Steelers

... anyone old enough to remember when DC and Dallas were arch rivals? Now it's a Skip It except for the lulz. Texans-Lions is another hard pass. Ravens-Steelers is the best of this bad bunch (and it should be really interesting, assuming the Covid doesn't run through the entire Ravens roster by then).

Sunday early: Fins-Jets, Cards-Pats, Panthers-Vikings, Browns-Jags, **Titans-Colts**, Giants-Bengals, Chargers-Bills, Raiders-FaLOLYOUCANTSTOPTAYSOMHILLcons

... one compelling game; see if you can figure out which one

Sunday late: Niners-Rams, Saints-Broncos, **Chiefs-Bucs**

Sunday night: Bears-Packers. Eh.

Monday: 'Hawks-Eagles. Meh. Marvel at Russ, laugh at Wentz, who leads the NFL in INTs, sacks and fumbles

Ravens - Steelers is not going to be good, it's gonna be the Ravens having their butt's kicked.

Tuesday? WTF

Peyton Manning is clearly about as easy a lock as could ever be, but that guy ranks Steve Tasker #6 on that list of 25, so, you know . . .

Enix wrote:

LEGION WILL HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS

The Pro Football HoF came out today with its 25 modern-era semifinalists for its 2021 class. Here's the list.

This NFL.com writer ranks them: Peyton Manning, Calvin Johnson, Charles Woodson, Patrick Willis and Jared Allen (who was briefly a Panther!) are his top 5. Four of those guys (all but Willis) are first-time semifinalists.

My three unquestionable, shoo-in, no-defense-needed picks:

* Peyton Manning
* Patrick Willis
* Calvin Johnson

After that, there's a lot of ways to go, but I'll go with:

* Tony Boselli - the induction of Terrell Davis decided the career length vs dominance question, and no one should be pretending it didn't. So with that resolved, who is the next most dominant football player on the list? And it's Boselli, without question.

* Richard Seymour - He's the defender from those Patriots teams that most deserves induction. New England's DEs in those 3-4 schemes really carried a lot of water for the defenses as a whole, and Seymour was the gold standard of the role.

The near misses:

* Charles Woodson - Woodson's career is overrated due to his early Raiders years getting WAY more recognition than they deserved. He made big plays but was lazy and not dominant on a play by play basis. It wasn't until his 30s in Green Bay where he became a legitimate Hall of Fame caliber player. He deserves in, but people that just count Pro Bowls will rate him higher than he deserves.

* Jared Allen - Allen is not as good as his career sack total. But when your career sack total is 136, you can be worse than it by a good margin and still be Hall caliber. He's more a pure pass rusher and less of a complete DE, but he made too damn many plays to complain about that (and not just sacks, but forced fumbles, recoveries, non-sack pressures, etc). Still, it was only in his peak years in Minnesota where he was even a 3 down player.

* Bryant Young - Let's put it this way: Young had only 7 fewer career sacks than Warren Sapp, while being a markedly better run defender than Sapp ever was. One of the most overlooked careers in football.

Outside the top 25 of a list with only 25 names on it:

* Steve Tasker - there's a reason gunners in punt coverage are usually Just A Guy: it's not that valuable. Even if you're great at it.

Let’s see how many coronavirus cases it takes to cancel Ravens-Steelers. I’m putting there like at 22.5

Stele wrote:

Tuesday? WTF

Short week, baby!

BREAKING: Jags will start Mike Glennon on Sunday.

I love this move, mostly bc it allows me to roll out one of my favorite gifs:

IMAGE(https://media1.tenor.com/images/afcad65b9040ce0369ece4fd7e82a004/tenor.gif?itemid=7965009)

IMAGE(https://static.clubs.nfl.com/image/private/t_editorial_landscape_8_desktop_mobile/f_auto/jaguars/uorqd1xw7qt4kl9gmjc8.jpg)

I do enjoy looking at him.

Via Twitter (source)

Here's the craziest part: Mike Glennon got benched in 2017 for Chicago's Mitchell Trubisky, who got benched this year for Nick Foles, who got benched last year for Gardner Minshew, who got replaced by Luton, who is now benched in favor of Glennon

Checks out!

Glennon should be known as The Cheeseburger, because he's what finally ended Josh Freeman's career.

*cries in corner*

Glennon looks like Certis' older brother.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Let’s see how many coronavirus cases it takes to cancel Ravens-Steelers. I’m putting there like at 22.5

Postponed to Sunday.

Rat Boy wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Let’s see how many coronavirus cases it takes to cancel Ravens-Steelers. I’m putting there like at 22.5

Postponed to Sunday.

Im shocked. The NFL actually putting safety above money!?

The Bengals quarterback is going to be Brandon Allen. HOW MANY OF THESE ASSHOLES HAVE THE LAST NAME ALLEN?

Enix wrote:

BREAKING: Jags will start Mike Glennon on Sunday.

RIP Jay Gluten.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

The Bengals quarterback is going to be Brandon Allen. HOW MANY OF THESE ASSHOLES HAVE THE LAST NAME ALLEN?

Brandon Not Kyle Or Josh.

garion333 wrote:

IMAGE(https://static.clubs.nfl.com/image/private/t_editorial_landscape_8_desktop_mobile/f_auto/jaguars/uorqd1xw7qt4kl9gmjc8.jpg)

I do enjoy looking at him.

Someone distracted God when he was working on his neck and God just said oh hell and left it alone to work itself out.

I’d just like to remind everyone that Colin Kaepernick is still not employed.

Apparently, he needs to change his last name to Allen.

I made this with my fine Photoshop/MS Paint skills years ago:

IMAGE(https://u.cubeupload.com/MilkmanDanimal/Girennon.jpg)

iaintgotnopants wrote:

Apparently, he needs to change his last name to Allen.

Fun fact: those 3 are the only QBs with the last name Allen to record NFL stats in the modern era.

The only other Allen QB was Ermal Allen, whose career was 13 pass attempts in 1947.

He completed 4 of those attempts.

He was a Cleveland Brown.

Spoiler:

Which, of course, technically means he doesn't count toward the NFL Allens tally, as the 1947 Browns were in the AAFC

*Legion* wrote:

Fun fact: those 3 are the only QBs with the last name Allen to record NFL stats in the modern era.

What a time to be alive.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Fun fact: those 3 are the only QBs with the last name Allen to record NFL stats in the modern era.

What a time to be alive.

IMAGE(https://i.imgflip.com/4nuwqn.jpg)

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Let’s see how many coronavirus cases it takes to cancel Ravens-Steelers. I’m putting there like at 22.5

Sadly, it took 1 coach who refused to mask up *or* wear the tracking device. I really want the league take away a pick and give it to the Steelers, even though it doesn't make sense for the Steelers should get rewarded for being screwed twice.

Also, a lot of yall may hate on the Steelers, but don't tell me you didn't want to see 4 quarters of Lamar Jackson and RG3 trying to face the Steelers D without any RBs or OL. It's Justice Hill time in my dynasty league!

Tony Boselli would only be HOF worthy if he had ever protected Carr for even a snap, which never happened.

bighoppa wrote:

Tony Boselli would only be HOF worthy if he had ever protected Carr for even a snap, which never happened.

Carr would be HOF worthy if Boselli had protected him.

You know who's playing fantasy football in your family's Thanksgiving Zoom call just by listening to the random outbursts.

Ravens defensive end Jihad Ward was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Thursday, according to ESPN's Field Yates.

I'm sorry, who?

Lamar has covid. sh*t.

Prederick wrote:
Ravens defensive end Jihad Ward was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Thursday, according to ESPN's Field Yates.

I'm sorry, who?

He's a real terror as a pass rusher.

*Legion* wrote:
Prederick wrote:
Ravens defensive end Jihad Ward was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Thursday, according to ESPN's Field Yates.

I'm sorry, who?

He's a real terror as a pass rusher.

Haha.

If you're curious about the guy (and his name), read this.

Or, better yet, Robert Mays' piece on him before the draft.

Pages