2017 Week 12 Sunday Game Ball

Yesterday, I fell in love with football again. Even though the Jets lost and the overall excitement about Thanksgiving was wrapping up I really enjoyed watching football yesterday.

I think it was the fact that the football played yesterday actually looked like football that I recognized. The games where close (for the most part) and the drama was engaging. Sunday Night Football was the most entertaining it has been all year and it showed why the Sunday Night game has been the game of the week for some time now. An incredible performance by Brett Hundley against the high-powered Pittsburgh Steelers—along with some incredible plays by Antonio Brown, made for some great television.

From the Jet performance, to a bounce back by Buffalo, a close win by Tennessee, an upset in the desert by the Cardinals, and of course the great game in Los Angeles between the Rams and Saints.

But, the game of the week was the Sunday Night Game in Pittsburgh. That game was what football should be like at this time of the year. The way that the game turned out in the shoot-out fashion just heightened the game last night. Last night is a classic case of late November football. a smash mouth performance by Le’Von Bell running for 95 yards on 20 attempts and adding 12 catches for 88 yards through the air. Antonio Brown stepped up through double teams and dominated the Packers defense having 10 catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Brett Hundley showed a giant step in the right direction going 17/26 for 245 yards and three touchdowns.


There is a bunch of worthy candidates that played incredible yesterday. Like Jared Goff who went 28/43 for 354 yards and two touchdowns, or Joe Mixon who ran the ball 23 times for 114 yards and a touchdown, or Zach Ertz who had 10 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. However, to me none of it was better than the game that Green Bay Packers line-backer Blake Martinez. It is not often that I give a game ball to a player on a losing team but this performance might be the performance of the year. Martinez had the game of the year yesterday for a defensive player. Martinez lead both teams in tackles with 12, had an interception, and a fumble recovery. That is a night that players only dream about. You cannot have a better night than that. Martinez is an outstanding young talent and if Green Bay keeps him on the roster they will have a cornerstone piece for the future. The future of 2017 football is looking bright if this Packers-Steelers game was any indication that football is headed in the right direction.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 MLB Preview

  Opening Day is about 24 hours away and the Shohei Ohtani gambling story has stole all the headlines and fleeting moments of baseball conversation over the past few days, many have now forgotten about the exciting marathon ahead of us! Even with the ever-evolving Ohtani story clouding the beginning of the Los Angeles Dodgers season, that doesn’t change the fact that L.A. is still the team to beat in baseball. The Dodgers have put their chips at the center of the table, no pun intended, for 2024 to show they can raise another World Series trophy after sending upwards of a billion dollars in free agency. In division however, the surprise Arizona Diamondbacks are capitalizing on their newfound championship window with a fantastic offseason that will have them in the mix to get back to a second straight fall classic. The San Diego Padres are done shopping for superstars, sort of, following a massively disappointing season that saw them move on from one of the games generational talent...
Read more

Dan Hurley Saved College Basketball

When you think of Men’s College Basketball, the names of Wooden, Dean, Krzyzewski, Williams, Thompson, and Calipari shoot to mind right away. All the memories of the great teams from UCLA, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, the Big East, UNLV, and even the Fab Five start to rush back. Nostalgia of a time when the sport meant something different. For all those longing for the days when great teams didn’t dissipate into the transfer portal after one disappointing year—Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies are here to save the day! UConn has done something that only seven other programs have done in the history of college basketball, repeat as champions. Forget all the talk about “best team of all-time,” even though if you look at point differential (like it truly matters), this UConn team is the best team to ever play in the NCAA Tournament. This team means much more to the game of college basketball than that. Coach Hurley has given college basketball what it has been missing since the in...
Read more

Last Year the Season was one game long, it's different this year

  It took 363 days, but Jets fans finally got the debut from Aaron Rodgers they waited for. This time around that debut ended in a blowout loss on the road to the San Francisco 49’ers. Last year the Jets won the battle but lost the war following their overtime walk-off win against the Buffalo Bills. This year, the Jets hope they lost the battle but because they have Rodgers they will win the war.   Of all the ways the game could have gone last night, having the Jets defense get thoroughly dominated on the ground by a third year running back, Jordan Mason, who wasn’t a household name until last night, wasn’t on the bingo card. The trademark for Robert Saleh has been his defense. That’s what got him hired from San Francisco. The defense is what Jet fans have pointed to as a reason for optimism heading into this year with Rodgers. The defense was finally supposed to get the complimentary football they have been dying for since Robert Saleh walked in the doors at Florham Park...
Read more