18 มีนาคม 2567 , 11:32:44
The Sunday action after Thanksgiving is always odd because so many games are isolated during the holiday, even more so this year with the and squaring off in the first-ever "Black Friday" game. Take four games off the Sunday slate and it can get pretty thin pretty quick. That was extremely evident during the early slate of games, where nary a single team topped the 30-point mark.Six slow-moving slogs served to emphasize the increasing late-season warmth of several hot seats around the league. And it's impo sible to start anywhere but Carolina when looking at who might be the next coach fired (Editor's note: on Monday morning).David Tepper hasn't been happy with this team's performance and Sunday's embarra sing effort against a meh team only exacerbated the problems. Leaving the locker room, David Tepper shook his head and yelled, F-! Joe Person (@josephperson) Now, let's be clear: the mostly have a Tepper problem on their hands from an overarching, roster-building perspective. But they are not a good football team, and scored le s than 14 points for the SIXTH time this year while falling Ben Coates Jersey to 1-10 on the season. Rookie didn't have to do much in this effort for Tenne see, attempting just 28 pa ses. Mostly the Titans handed off to (76 yards on 18 carries and a pair of rushing touchdowns) and let their defense handle the rest, snuffing out Carolina's run game and letting the pa s game look like, well, what it's looked like all season. actually had multiple plays longer than 20 yards and Carolina held Tre Nixon Jersey Tenne see to 2-for-11 on third down and the Panthers still were never really in this game. Young had a chance to engineer a game-tying drive but Carolina only managed to muster 4 yards before turning it over on downs.Carolina's had three legitimately winnable games over the past month and was only really mildly competitive against the and Titans, but not in any sort of way where you believed they might actually win. Which makes it significantly likely Frank Reich is going to be a one-and-done coach in Carolina. Tepper went out and wooed Matt Rhule, gave him a ma sive contract, saddled him with questionable quarterback choices and still canned Rhule le s than three years into his tenure with the Panthers. Not saying it was a bad move, but the whole proce s was completely flawed.So is what's going on with Carolina this year. Reich is a good coach. He hasn't done a good job coaching this year. Those two things can live in mutual exclusivity. Reich got saddled with a rookie quarterback who cost significant draft and personnel capital to acquire. Young has no real weapons. The Panthers are like a homele s man's Jets team with their bad offensive line, lack of offense and a stout defense that can't hold every team to le s than 10 points.Bill Belichick won't get fired ... right? RIGHT?? It's impo sible to fathom the po sibility of Belichick being canned in New England, considering he brought a ridiculous six Super Bowls to the over the last 20-something years. But, man, any other football mind coaxing this poor performance from a football team would be getting fired without question after this season. Somehow Sunday was a new low, impre sive considering the two weeks before the bye featured a lo s at home to and a lo s in Germany to on a very public stage. But Sunday, oh buddy Sunday ... it was a new low as Belichick's team lost as a 3.5-point road favorite to .DeVito's got as many wins this season (two) as the Patriots, who fell to 2-9 on the year Matt Light Jersey , easily the worst start in Belichick's tenure and the worst Patriots start since Drew Bledsoe's rookie year of 1993.The Patriots have recorded four games scoring seven points or le s this season. They had five such games in the 283 starts of career. They're the first team in 30 years to allow le s than 10 points in back-to-back games and lose both of those games (shoutout to the 1993 Brandon Bolden Jersey Patriots). Belichick's two games lost while allowing 10 points or le s matches the total for the entirety of his 28 years as a head coach previously. was reportedly named the starter shortly before kick after Belichick spent all week long refusing to name who would be under center for this team in Week 12, as if it mattered between Jones and . It really didn't: reports indicated Zappe would get some work as well and he sure did, but largely because Jones basically got benched. He finished with two picks and a fumble that the Patriots should have lost. Zappe wasn't much better and the Patriots sunk to a new low.Only the Bears (via the Panthers) and the are preventing New England from holding the first overall pick. And there's a very viable question if the Pats would want to keep the keys in Belichick's hands for a rebuild with a new first-round quarterback. Given the offense Tedy Bruschi Jersey the last two seasons, it's not an unreasonable question.Wherever they end up picking, there's no turnaround in sight. It's hard not to see this season as a fast track for a divorce between Belichick and the franchise he's captained to unimaginable succe s for over two decades once the offseason gets here. This one feels obvious but there's little to no chance Ron Rivera is coming back next year. After a humiliating performance against the on Thanksgiving afternoon in which piled up 20+ points in the final nine minutes to turn things into a blowout, Rivera met with new owner and agreed to dismi s defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio.It's the type of firing that is almost clearly and certainly a precursor for a head coaching change, especially with new ownership in place.Rivera is a defensive coach and JDR was a close confidant who ran his defense. The Commanders traded both and off a defense that was already bad. What could they po sibly expect? This firing is as much about setting the table for a future house cleaning as it is trying to shake up the defense in its current iteration. Rivera would need a miracle turnaround to save his job at this point. Click here |
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