Picking winners or not

On Sunday I was sort of watching a NFL game that had been long decided when the network switched over to a more competitive game which was actually in the early stages of overtime. The Detroit Lions and the Pittsburgh Steelers were tied at 16 apiece. Detroit was moving the ball and had good field position when their QB was sacked on third down.

In the next 7 plus minutes of the game one had to wonder if the teams had actually employed professionals or if these were replacement players from a players’ strike that no one else knew about. To get to this point Detroit led 16-10 after the Lions’ kicker missed an extra point. Pittsburgh would tie the game with two field goals.

Now to be fair it was cold and rainy in Pittsburgh but I saw at least two plays where the QBs made good passes and the receivers turned their heads before catching the pass to see where they were going to run and the ball fell harmlessly to the ground. I see this so often and it makes no sense. It is about concentration. See the ball into your hands before you start running for yardage. This element of pass receiving is stressed at the middle and high school levels and yet every week receivers at the college and pro levels forget the basics and ruin a QBs stat line when it comes to completions.

During those seven minutes of painful football I saw the Pittsburgh center snap the ball way over the QBs head; their punt returner fumble the ball after a long return; multiple penalties that helped Detroit and finally as the game was nearing a close the Steeler tight end was hit and a fumble ensued eliminating the opportunity to kick a game winning field goal.

The sad thing is Detroit was 0-8 and couldn’t capitalize on those Christmas gifts. The Lions did have a couple of good shots at winning their first game of the season but their kicker nubbed a field goal try with the ball falling well short of the goal post.

After the Steeler fumble there was still about 8 seconds left and the Lions ran the hook and lateral and lateral until there was no more room to roam and the last Lion with the ball was mercifully forced out of bounds. I say mercifully for the fans because as bad as things went in overtime a tie was the best outcome because neither team deserved victory in that particular game.

Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger had to sit out this game due to a positive Covid-19 test. Big Ben has been vaccinated so the football world hasn’t treated him like a super spreader as they did Aaron Rodgers who sat out last week’s Packers game after testing positive for C-19. Unfortunately for the Seattle Seahawks Rodgers didn’t seem to feel a lot of ill effects from the virus. The Packers topped Seattle 17-0.

Seahawk QB Russell Wilson was coming off a finger injury to his throwing hand about four or five weeks after the injury occurred. Wilson was certainly not the QB Seattle fans are accustomed to throwing two interceptions to Packer DBs in the end zone leading to Wilson’s first career shutout as a professional.

Getting back to Rodgers I think it is interesting that the media was in full support of him in May when he made some statements about never playing for the Packers again. I’m not a big Rodgers fan when he makes those kinds of statements that are detrimental to his team but I can support him for the reasons he didn’t get a vaccination. Now that he’s back on the field and appears to be healthy I’m sure the media will look for another unvaccinated fall guy to attack and make their life miserable.

Just to be clear, I’ve been vaccinated and I’m not anti-vax but I am anti mandate. I know a fair amount of people that were vaccinated because of their age or because they wanted to be able to see grandchildren or elderly parents. Having clear cut reasons makes sense. But when something is mandated it is a lot like the Lions-Steelers game, a lot of miscues and blame thrown around but in the end no one is declared the winner.