No matter how well they play, bad teams lose games, good teams win games- evidence this last weekend

A lot has been made about field goal kickers, but has anyone noticed that virtually all of them were from the underdog teams who are perennial league doormats. I watched a good hodge podge of games this weekend, and rooting for the underdog/team playing Pats rivals was brutal. Here is what I saw go down:

Steelers versus Ravens

I'll start by deviating from this thread a little bit because the Steelers are not a loser franchise, but the underdog Steelers were clearly beaten before the game started coming in without Roethlisberger. Even a usually strong team like the Steelers proved to be mentally weak, with atrocious play calling down the stretch and two missed field goals that would have put the game nearly out of reach. Thursday Night was a harbinger of things to come, with the underdogs just beating themselves and inventing ways to lose. The Steelers outplayed the Ravens and lost.

Jaguars at Colts

The Colts haven't lost to any of these AFC South losers in like three years. It was obvious the Jags would figure out a way to pull out the Loss, and they did. Again, it came down to bad field goal kicking but only for the underdog laughingstock team. Two missed field goals by Myers in a dome...actually it was three. On the first field goal attempt at the end of regulation, Pagano called a timeout to ice Myers, and he missed that one, too. In fairness to Gus Bradley, he actually didn't go conservative once the Jags moved the ball into outer field goal range, as he continued to call pass plays. However, the Jags psyched themselves out and lost, and I think everyone in the world knew it would happen as soon as they missed the first FG. The Jags outplayed the Colts handily and lost.

Browns at Chargers

My father-in-law is a Browns fan, and I had him over for the game. It just absolutely brutal to watch these games with him because you KNOW the Browns will find some spectacular way to lose the game no matter what. It's just another example of the theme of this thread, which is that bad teams cannot beat good teams, even if they play better. In this case, the game was evenly matched. The Chargers drove the ball down for a 39-yard FG at the end of regulation, and their rookie kicker missed. Of course, this is the Browns. Offsides penalty. Re-kick. Money. Anyone remember that spectacular loss the Browns had at Foxboro a few years ago, when Gronk got his knee blown out by TJ Ward? It involved like three scores in the last three minutes and an onside kick recovery. But you knew it would happen, because it was the Browns playing in Foxboro.

Vikings at Broncos

This wasn't quite as big a choke as the others, but it's another example of a team playing quite well and standing their ground but losing based on just being destined to lose. Walsh missed a field goal from within 40 yards early in the game, and the tone was set. Sometimes you just know that is going to come back and be the difference. The Vikings were taking it to the Broncos in the fourth quarter and picked off Manning with about five minutes remaining down three. Of course, you knew they would do exactly what they did, which is give Manning the ball back with a couple minutes left. Many opportunities for the Vikings to win that game.

Lions at Seahawks

We all know the story and the bad call, but let me ask you something. Had the Lions gotten the ball back, does anyone think they would have actually won the game? It is pretty clear when your all-world WR FUMBLES the ball at the ONE-YARD LINE in that situation, that you are just a loser team that makes loser mistakes and lose games, and you are not winning a game in Seattle. The Lions absolutely had the Seahawks on the ropes, but they are engraved losers all around while the Seahawks know they will find a way at home.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Had the Lions gotten the ball back, does anyone think they would have actually won the game?

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Yes, I think with 4 downs on the one yard line with a minute left to play the Lions would have won that game. The Seahawks were given a gift by the refs in the form of one of the most egregious non-calls I've ever seen.

At the very least it would have been a fun ending, and deserved chance for the Lions. Oh well, he shouldn't have fumbled.

This is one of those truisms, right?

Bad teams lose because they're bad. And in losing, they demonstrate they're bad.
Good teams win, and you can tell because they win.

Lose, bad. Win, good.

When a bad team (like the Bengals) start to win, they're actually a good team. When a good team loses (like the 2014 Pats @ KC), everyone decides they're actually bad-- see how quick the wind can turn? But then they win, and they're all good again.

Still, I do get your point. There are some teams that seem to find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They don't know how to close out. Some fluke play in the 59th minute and an entire game worth of great play gets flushed down the ****ter. I think that is 90% coaching, 5% individual players and 5% dumb luck.

I was interested in hearing what the boys on EEI (other than Ordway, who is a blowhard douche and perhaps the worst hire of the year, but alas...) about the Detroit game but it was ridiculous how off base they were.

Merloni kept insisting that it would have been 4th down, but Johnson's catch converted the 3rd and 1. Ordway said that Megatron had two hands on the ball, but neglected to point out that he never tucked the ball away and actually took an arm off when going through contact. Fauria was correct in saying that your natural instinct is to reach for the end zone.... but that is the point of being situationally aware! To adapt your behavior to what is most beneficial at that moment in time!

There are numerous instances when reaching is sensible. Perhaps if it was 4th down, or if there were only seconds left, or if you were down by 10 and needed to score as quickly as possible. But when you just set up a new set of downs inside the 2 yard line and there are still 2 minutes remaining and hurrying only gives the opponent a better chance at responding, the only thing you should be thinking about is not dropping the damn ball. Two arms around it, if you plow through the tackle into the EZ, great, if you don't, that's fine too. The fact that Johnson never saw Chancellor is irrelevant because even if Kam wasn't there the priorities don't change. Hold onto the ball first, score the TD second.

Was in the car last night and Jim Gray had TB12 on the Westwood One pregame show.

TB12 had a great line..."Before you win a game, you need to figure out how not to lose a game."

So freaking true.

Here is the interview.

http://westwoodonesports.com/2015/1...ilson-dealing-with-crushing-defeats-and-more/

Winners find ways to win when they're losing.....and losers will find ways to lose when they're winning

rookBoston said:

This is one of those truisms, right?

Bad teams lose because they're bad. And in losing, they demonstrate they're bad.
Good teams win, and you can tell because they win.

Lose, bad. Win, good.

When a bad team (like the Bengals) start to win, they're actually a good team. When a good team loses (like the 2014 Pats @ KC), everyone decides they're actually bad-- see how quick the wind can turn? But then they win, and they're all good again.

Still, I do get your point. There are some teams that seem to find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They don't know how to close out. Some fluke play in the 59th minute and an entire game worth of great play gets flushed down the ****ter. I think that is 90% coaching, 5% individual players and 5% dumb luck.

Click to expand...

Or, as Bill Parcells puts it, "You are what your record says you are."

I was pretty bummed about all of the upsets that could have happened this week but didn't end up happening.

Just awful that jax didn't win that game

This was one of the worst bye weeks I remember. So much bad football, and bad decisions made at critical moments. Mistakes all over the place.
It was like some teams (kickers especially) missed practice.

Im watching a lot of bad football in this season to be honest, the Pats and Packers are the only teams with an A+ game, bad football all around, bad coaching and now bad officiating too. Special teams sucking big time and Goodell finding a way to shutdown the Patriots. Why? For this ****?

I was going to open a thread about this but ive been really busy, anyway this season the level of suckage is through the roof, this past weekend prime time games were garbage and I could see that coming a long time ago, the NFL doesnt have competence to figure out the good matchups to put in primetime in a weekend with 10 games or so.