One: Admit it, Darnell Washington is becoming one of the most entertaining players to watch in the NFL.
The 6′ 7, absolute tank of a tight end has been worked more and more into the passing game for the Steelers this season, and it’s giving us some incredible television. On Sunday afternoon, Washington recorded a season-high 67 receiving yards and also demolished three Bengals at the same time.
That’s in the same game where he hurdled a Bengals defender…very gracefully, I might add. Every time this guy gets the ball, it’s must-see entertainment. Sure, because he can do things that you usually don’t see someone of his size doing, but because of how he goes about it.
I selfishly hope he gets ten catches every week for the rest of the way, just because it’s so much fun to see him get out in space and bully defenses along the way.
Two: I was really looking forward to the Sunday Night Football matchup this past week. Eagles vs Lions, Jared Goff vs Jalen Hurts, Dan Campbell vs Nick Sirianni.
And instead, what we got was a complete dud. A boring 16-9 game where both offenses looked out of sync for a lot of it. Neither quarterback had a completion percentage over 50% or a passer rating north of 64. These teams were a combined 7-for-28 on third downs, and the Lions went an incredible 0-for-5 on fourth down.
I mean, credit to Campbell and the Lions, I guess, for not backing down from the fourth down strategy. But watching them fail again and again was frustrating to watch. It almost felt like they were turning it over on downs on purpose.
Honestly, I thought this game just sucked. This should have been a really good primetime game, probably one of the league’s best this year. Instead, we got whatever that was.
Three: One of the reasons for said bad game was the game-deciding call. On a 3rd-and-8 play for the Eagles, where a first down ices the game, Philly got bold and went for the pass. Hurts dropped back and threw one in the direction of AJ Brown that went incomplete. The Lions were going to get one last chance, until…
We could argue which call was worse: this one or the one in the morning game between Miami and Washington. Honestly, no matter what side you’re on, you’re right. But I would give the edge to the Lions-Eagles call because of when this happened in the game. That’s not pass interference. At all. And that call effectively decided a one-score game between two of the powerhouses in the NFC.
I know a lot of people don’t like Cris Collinsworth (personally, I don’t mind him), but I think we can appreciate how blatantly he disagreed with this call on the air. And I think he’s right: if anything, Brown committed offensive pass interference.
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