NFL Week One Recap
- JJ
- Sep 15, 2022
- 3 min read
Oh hi :3
A hearty "welcome back" and "happy thigh-high thursday" to you all! Got your thigh-highs on? I knew you would.
Hope all of your drafts went well and you got everybody you wanted. I was really banking on getting Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffery, Derrick Henry, Justin Jefferson, Austin Ekeler, and Cooper Kupp...so I was a smidge disappointed. I'll just have to fight through adversity, I guess.
I think most NFL kickers can relate. Combined, they missed at least 7 potential game-winning field goals in week 1. Not that it was entirely their fault. Some were blocked, some were mishandled by bad snappers, and some were just too goddamn long. And when it's just too goddamn long, it can be hard to handle. Trust. Not much you can do other than grit your teeth and end up taking it on the chin. The feeling might still be there the next morning, but you walk it off anyway and get ready for next time.
Unless you're Rodrigo Blankenship — the undisputed face of the Indianapolis Colts franchise until he was waived on Tuesday after missing what would've been the game-winning field goal in overtime against the... *checks notes* ... ah yes, the Houston Texans. That game ended in a rare tie.
Elsewhere around the league, Younghoe Koo had his 63-yard potential game-winner blocked, and the Falcons (stop me if you've heard something like this before) blew a 16-point lead in the 4th quarter. Some ATL fans were less than pleased.
Titans K Randy Bullock missed his 47-yard potential game-winner against the Giants.
Bengals K Evan McPherson was working with a backup long snapper against the Steelers, but the snap on what would've been the game-winning extra point was decent. The kick, however, was blocked by Minkah Fitzpatrick. McPherson would get another chance in OT, but only after Steelers K Chris Boswell doinked his potential game-winner off the upright. It would be McPherson's turn again, but the snap on that one was high and he shanked the kick. Boswell, what felt like about 10 years later, hit the game-winning 53-yarder as the OT clock expired, ensuring that we wouldn't have to have *2* ties on opening weekend. Was it McPherson's fault the Bengals lost? Joe Burrow's 4 interceptions and 1 lost fumble beg to differ.\
We're not done yet. We still have to talk about what happened on Russell Wilson's homecoming Monday night. After a whole offseason of tension and drama surrounding the Seahawks and their relationship with Russ which resulted in him being traded to Denver, the former Seahawk QB took his Denver Broncos back to Seattle to get dumpstered by Geno Smith.
And how it happened?? Aaron Sorkin couldn't have written it better.
Russ and the Broncos, still somehow in the game after being on the 1-yard line twice and failing to score any points, had a chance to get a walk-off win with one final drive at the end of the 4th. Down by 1, Russ was driving his team to midfield. On 3rd and long, Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett opted for a dump-off to RB Javonte Williams 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. It should've been a disaster, but Williams somehow eluded multiple defenders and turned the play into a much-needed 9-yard gain to the Seahawks' 46-yard line with less than a minute left and all 3 Denver timeouts remaining.
And here we are. A very manageable 4th and 5. A chance for Russell Wilson, in a home turned hostile, to silence the boos from his former crowd by converting on 4th down and setting up the game-winning field goal to defeat the team he once led to Super Bowl glory.
But.
Buuuutttttt.
BUT.
Coach Hackett had other plans. Instead of taking one of their 3 timeouts to draw up the perfect 4th down play, the clock ticked all the way from 55 seconds to 20 before the timeout was finally taken. Even then, we expected Hackett would put the ball back in the hands of the QB the team paid $245 million and 5 draft picks for.
But rather than "letting Russ cook," Hackett sent out kicker Brandon McManus for what would've been the 2nd-longest field goal in NFL history: a 64-yarder. And I have to admit, the kick was a lot closer than I thought it would be. But of course it missed, sailing wide as the $245 million man watched from the sidelines.
Seattle took over with seconds remaining and no hope left for the Broncos. And in an equally bonkers move, Hackett used his final 2 timeouts on the kneel-downs, trolling us all and delaying the inevitable L.
I think I speak for all of us when I say...what the fuck.
Twitter, as you probably guessed, went wild in the aftermath. Here's a small sample:
I know y'all missed my Cardinals updates, too. But I'll keep this one short.
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