2025 NFL Season discussion thread

Hurts definitely had a bad game, but the playcalling has been an ongoing issue the whole season. We have a pretty easy run for the rest of the season bar the Bills (though the Chargers could give us a lot of trouble with the way we're playing), but we'll get into the playoffs when we really don't deserve to. We'll be very quickly out.

Tonight was a shambles on all sides. They won't get rid of the OC during the season (still currently have an 8-4 record), but on the list of issues to solve for next season, the offensive playcalling has to be high on the list.

I don't mind Sirianni or his comments (most coaches will say the same thing, they're not going to go into any detail or analysis heading back out to the field), but even if he's publicly backing Patullo he needs to be giving him a kick in the hole behind the scenes, and I don't think he's doing that. It's the same problems week after week. There's been no adapting to the fact the O-Line isn't as strong as it was last year and they're being plagued with injuries, and because of that Barkley and Hurts are being largely neutered. But nothing has changed to compensate for that, and now they're becoming so predictable and playing so short and safe that they're being completely destroyed and having to hand the ball back.

The night game was a cracker. Well worth the watch.

I wouldn't even be betting small on the Broncos because eventually that skin on their teeth that they keep winning by will run out.

But it's a big part of why I prefer NFL over the Premier League; it's not just the same 5 teams being top most of the time and everyone else being an also-ran. Fortunes can change for teams so quickly with just a few personnel changes between each season, or even just because teams run out of steam or are figured out. The landscape of teams for the playoffs this year could be wildly different than last year.

Last year was all about the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, Bills, Ravens and Commanders. This year… f*ck knows.

Saw a short clip of an interview after the game where he said the bottom of the ball was moving (which it was) so he abandoned the kick.

The question is; what's the alternative? The holder then had to grab the ball, try make some sort of a run or throw and got tackled instead because nobody was ready for that sort of play. Just kick the ball! At worst, you miss. You'd have a good reason as to why it missed if questions were asked but at least you'll have tried. The hold wasn't steady but it's not like the ball was fumbled or the holder was really struggling to get the ball into position.

Absolutely crazy.

Edit: Actually though, I did find this comment on Reddit which may explain what actually happened:

Basically his plant foot is immediately next to the ball, usually it needs to be about 8-12 inches away but here it looks to be a about 2 or 3. Either the spot was way wrong or the kicker was running to the wrong place. He’s basically just grounding his leg because he’d be nailing the holder if he actually followed through. I kicked for a decade into college and was very very spotty when it came to fgs (more of a punt and kickoff guy), i have never done this, this egregiously. You can miss by an inch and be an athlete and kick the ball, he missed by like 6 inches.

So it may be that he put his plant leg too close to the ball and would have kicked the holder if he'd went for the kick.