VITO'S VIEWS

Just three weeks ago, when the San Francisco 49ers were 1-10, their Christmas Eve matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars seemed likely to attract little intention.

But now it is suddenly an intriguing matchup between two young quarterbacks who’ve been on fire the last three weeks.

Jimmy Garoppolo has led the 49ers to three consecutive victories since taking over as quarterback and now is being hailed as the team’s franchise quarterback of the future.

But the victories were against the Bears, Texans and Titans. The Jaguars defense, the best in the league, will present him with his toughest challenge yet.

While Jimmy G is trying to establish his reputation, Blake Bortles of the Jaguars is trying to change his reputation.

Continue reading “Can the Jaguars’ “Trashman” continue to pick them up?”

1..   Going into the second to the last week, five teams have clinched playoff berths (Philadelphia, New England, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Jacksonville) and four (Eagles, Patriots, Steelers and Vikings) have clinched division titles and one (Eagles) has clinched a first round bye. Two more AFC teams (Jaguars and Chiefs) can clinch division titles with a win  Christmas Eve. The Eagles can clinch top seed in the NFC with a win while the Rams can clinch a division title and the Saints, Falcons and Panthers can clinch NFC playoff berths with wins. Baltimore’s win Saturday night means they can clinch a playoff berth with a victory over Cincinnati in its season finale. Minnesota’s victory over Green Bay Saturday night means they can clinch a bye Sunday if Carolina loses to Tampa Bay.

Continue reading “Taking a look ahead: NFL Week 16”

A look back at Week 15 in the NFL:

1. The highlight of the weekend was New England’s 27-24 victory over Pittsburgh in the best game of the season and the highest rated TV game of the year. It shows the fans are still attracted to a great matchup, but the NFL doesn’t have enough good matchups and good teams this year as overall ratings decline. Even the bad things about the game – Pittsburgh’s coaching mistakes and another controversial no catch ruling — created more talk and buzz after the game. The biggest consequence about the game is that the Patriots now will win the No. 1 seed and have home field advantage in the playoffs if they win their last two. If the Steelers and Patriots wind up in the AFC title game, it will be the most hyped game of the year.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 15”

Mike Tomlin and Todd Haley, c’mon down!

You are now members in good standings of the NFL coaches Game Mismanagement Club.

Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell of Seattle and Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan, who was then in Atlanta, are among the members.

Carroll-Bevell and Quinn-Shanahan both lost Super Bowls because of their game management blunders.

We all remember Seattle being a yard from a second consecutive Super Bowl title before the Seahawks braintrust decided to have Russell Wilson throw from the one on second down instead of running Marshawn Lynch. We all know how that worked out.

Continue reading “Still hard to comprehend Steelers’ last-second bungling in Patriots loss”

A look ahead to Week 15 in the NFL:

1. This is a week to test if the NFL has a problem with over exposure. Starting with Denver’s win at Indianapolis Thursday night, the NFL has four prime time games in five nights. The Chargers at the Chiefs Saturday night, the Cowboys at the Raiders Sunday night, and the Falcons at the Bucs Monday night. The problem is that only one of these four games featured two teams with winning records. That’s the Chargers at the Chiefs. The best game is Sunday at 4:25 p.m. when New England goes to Pittsburgh, but CBS protected the game so it couldn’t be switched to Sunday night. It will be interesting to see how the ratings go.

Continue reading “Taking a look ahead: NFL Week 15”

A look back at Week 14 in the NFL:

1. The takeaway from Week 14 is that the Super Bowl race is now wide open. Just a week ago, Philadelphia was the NFC favorite, but the loss of CarsonWentz means the odds are against them. Pittsburgh and New England were the AFC favorites and one of them may make it, but the Steeler defense isn’t the same without Ryan Shazier. And the New England offense has been sluggish the last two weeks. The Patriots led Buffalo only 9-3 at halftime two weeks ago and lost to Miami last week as the Patriots went 0-11 on third down and Tom Brady threw two picks. Jacksonville, likely to be the third seed, has possibly the best defense in the league, but an inconsistent quarterback in Blake Bortles even though he has played well the last two weeks. San Diego, which started out 0-4 but is 7-2 the last nine games, could wind up the fourth seed. In the NFC, Philadelphia has the best record at 11-2, but Wentz injury opens the door for the 10-3 Vikings and the 9-4 Rams, Saints and Panthers and the 8-5 Falcons and Seahawks. Of those seven teams, one will be left out of the playoffs. In a year without a dominant team, it’s anybody’s guess which teams will wind up in the Super Bowl.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 14”

As if the NFL didn’t have enough problems, it now has a lame-duck commissioner.

In effect, Roger Goodell became a lame duck Wednesday in Dallas when NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart announced Goodell will leave the league when his five-year extension expires after the 2023 season.

And Lockhart said, according to Pro Football Talk, that Goodell will get no post-retirement payments after he leaves, and while he can continue to use the league’s plane service, Goodell will pay for the reduced rates as he does now for private travel.

Lockhart also said that Goodell’s new contract is performance-based and that “some owners will have some involvement in the oversight as we look at these things (like the CBA and TV deals) in the next seven years.’’

In effect, they’ve also clipped Goodell’s wings, with some owners (Jerry Jones?) having oversight.

Continue reading “Owners’ bizarre decision to make Goodell a seven-year lame duck is a mess”

A look ahead to Week 14 in the NFL:

1. The first two picks in the 2016 draft, the Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Carson Wentz, meet for the first time Sunday to start what could be a classic rivalry over the next decade. And the stakes are high for both teams with the Eagles at 10-2 and the Rams at 9-3. This is the Eagles’ second game in a row on the West Coast, so they practiced in California after the loss in Seattle rather than fly back to Philadelphia. Wentz and the Eagles’ high-flying offense were held to 10 points in a 24-10 loss to Seattle. Wentz threw an interception and lost a fumble into the end zone in that game and will be looking to bounce back.

Continue reading “Taking a look ahead: NFL Week 14”

All it took was one game to get the Jimmy Garoppolo hype machine ignited.

San Francisco general manager John Lynch even said in a radio interview on KNBR that was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle that if he had Garoppolo as his quarterback in Tampa Bay, Lynch would have five Super Bowl rings instead of one.

The Chronicle reported that Lynch then laughed, and it was obvious hyperbole, but Lynch probably would have won more than one Super Bowl in Tampa Bay with a good quarterback.

In the 1999 NFC title game against St. Louis, the Tampa Bay defense held the Greatest Show on Turf to 11 points but lost 11-6 because they didn’t have a good quarterback or offense.

Still, even Lynch said that the game winning drive Garoppolo led against Chicago was just one game and they have to “pump the breaks’’ on the hype for the young QB.

Continue reading “Garoppolo trade already looking like a risky decision by Belichick”

A look back on Week 13 in the NFL:

1. The Steelers rallied from an early 17-0 deficit to beat Cincinnati 23-20 on a late field goal of 38 yards by Chris Boswell to remain tied with the New England Patriots at 9-2 for the best record in the AFC. The two teams meet a week from Sunday. But the victory was overshadowed by a spine injury suffered by Steeler linebacker Ryan Shazier in the first quarter. Shazier underwent surgery after returning to Pittsburgh and his season is apparently over and there are fears his career could end. The game also featured several illegal hits including one by JuJu Smith-Schuster on Vontaze Burfict that knocked him out of the game. Smith-Schuster was suspended for a game. The Bengals’ George Iloka also was originally suspended for a game but the suspension was overturned on appeal. The two teams have a history – Burfict knocked Antonio Brown of a playoff game last week and he was sidelined the following week when the Steelers were eliminated by the Patriots. Clearly, the rivalry needs to be toned down.

Continue reading “Taking a look back: NFL Week 13”