I believe with the Jets current version of ground and pound and scoring being down in general gives the Jets a very good chance to make a run this season. ( who woulda think it?) https://apnews.com/article/miami-do...l-super-bowl-82469efdb549025283013f25f72b9b84 Halfway through the 2022 season it appears NFL defenses have finally started catching up. After a five-year run of hot-shot quarterbacks lighting up scoreboards and leaving defenses with few answers, the pendulum has turned away from the offense for a change. With star quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Russell Wilson showing signs of decline as they age, a new crop led by five first-round draft picks in 2021 has been slow to develop. And defenses geared toward limiting big plays in the passing game have put offensive production in a significant decline at the halfway mark. The 21.8 points per game average through nine weeks is the lowest at this stage of the season since 2010, when teams averaged 21.7 points per game. Scoring is down a staggering 3.5 points per game from this point two years ago when offenses peaked in partly empty stadiums due to the pandemic, and 1.6 points per game from last season. While rushing production is at its highest mark since 1987 thanks to defenses willing to cede yards on the ground, passing has been harder than it’s been in years, with the NFL passer rating of 89.2 the lowest through nine weeks since 2017 and the 6.12 yards per drop back the lowest since 2006. NFL NFL MVP race matches ex-Alabama teammates Hurts, Tagovailoa New quarterbacks not working out across NFL this season First half of NFL season produces faster games Falcons slipping in NFC South after 3rd loss in 4 games The decline in passing production has led to 33 games already when the winning team scored 20 or fewer points, tied for the most through nine weeks since 2007. There have also been only nine games this season when the losing team scored at least 30, down from 21 at this point in 2020. The lack of offense has helped keep games close, with the NFL having a record 72 games decided by seven points or fewer — the most ever through nine weeks. The average point differential per game of 9.4 points is the lowest through nine weeks in the Super Bowl era. RECORD WATCH The passing slowdown hasn’t made it to Miami, where new receiver Tyreek Hill is thriving under first-year coach Mike McDaniel and is on a record-setting pace. Hill has 1,104 yards receiving, the most for a player through nine games since Charley Hennigan had 1,122 for the Houston Oilers of the old AFL in 1961. The last NFL player with more was Raymond Berry with 1,147 for the Colts in 1960. Hill could become the NFL’s first 2,000-yard receiver. He is on pace for 2,085 yards receiving — 121 more than Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson’s record 1,964 in 2012. While Hill could benefit from a 17th game, his 16-game pace is just 1 yard off Johnson’s record. Dolphins teammate Jaylen Waddle has 812 yards receiving, and their 1,916 yards combined are the most for a duo in the Super Bowl era. DIVISION DOINGS It’s been rare in the eight-division format starting in 2002 for an entire division to be full of winners or losers. Through nine weeks this season, the NFL has one of each. All four teams in the AFC East have a winning record through nine weeks, marking the fifth time that’s happened since 2002. It happened in both the AFC North and AFC West last season, as well as the 2014 AFC North and 2008 NFC East. The NFC East has three winners, with Washington bringing up the rear at 4-5. But the .727 combined win percentage for the division is the highest through nine weeks since 2002. The NFC South is at the other end of the spectrum, with no teams with winning records. The only other times that happened through nine weeks since 2002 were in the 2020 NFC East and 2015 AFC South. UNDEFEATED WATCH The Eagles became the 29th team in the Super Bowl era to win their first eight games of the season as they try to join the 1972 Dolphins as the only squads with a perfect season. Miami was one of eight of those 8-0 teams to win the Super Bowl, with New Orleans the last to do it in the 2009 season. The other champions were Dallas (1977), Chicago (1985), the Giants (1990), Washington (1991), Denver (1998) and Indianapolis (2006). Seven other 8-0 teams went to the Super Bowl and lost. The 49ers were the last to do that in 2019, along with the only undefeated regular-season team since ’72 in the 2007 Patriots. While all 28 made the playoffs, 10 of those teams didn’t win a single game in the postseason, with the 2020 Steelers the last to go out in their playoff opener. BLOWN LEADS There have been 27 games this season when a team has overcome a deficit of at least 10 points to win or tie a game — the third-most through nine weeks in NFL history behind the 31 in 1987 and 29 in 2020. No team has been worse at protecting big leads than the Las Vegas Raiders. For the third time this season they lost a game they led by at least 17 points as they blew a 20-0 lead to Arizona in Week 2, a 17-0 advantage over Kansas City in Week 5 and a 17-0 lead over Jacksonville on Sunday. Las Vegas joined the 2020 Chargers and 2003 Falcons as the only teams to lose three games in a season after leading by at least 17. The Raiders have lost as many games after leading by at least 17 points in eight games with Josh McDaniels as coach as they did in the 628 regular-season and playoff games before he arrived. They had a 106-3 record (.972) when leading by at least 17 points since 1984 but are 1-3 this season under McDaniels.
I hope the NFL doesn’t look at this and decide to tinker with more rules changes to help the offense. I’m enjoying this season.
This. News like this has to scare the heck out of the NFL money makers. No one wants to buy season tics (or watch a game on TV) to watch a 9-6 kicking duel. Chicks dig the long ball...true in all sports. The run game has re-immerged as defenses got lighter to defend the pass, leading to more and more clock control, ground and pound. So what rule changes will the NFL enact next? They really can't go any further to enhance the passing game with their 'can't touch the qb, cant touch the WR'. So they'll have to do something that discourages teams from running the ball.
It has to be the offensive line play. Receivers and playmakers are certainly important but not only has offensive line play been under-emphasized by the entire league but it’s easier to play offensive line in college due to the quick air raid schemes.
...they'll blame in on concussion protocol...keeping the game 'safe'. They'll ban TE's sealing the edge, giving a running back time to build a head of steam. Or they'll ban 'pulling guards'. Or they'll ban pancake blocks by Olineman on 'defenses' line bakers. It's all coming.
The note about Tyreek Hill is insane. He could crack 2,000 yards. And he's doing it with Tua as his QB. I think it's safe to say that Mahomes wasn't the reason for Hill's success in KC.
It's because teams with terrible QBs have finally woken up to the fact that nobody prepares to stop the run anymore and nobody can tackle. Now these teams with bad QBs (*cough*) are just running the ball between the tackles, getting first downs, taking time off the clock, keeping the other team (with a good QB) off the field, and generally keeping games close. It's really an indictment of coaching in the league over the last decade that almost nobody else was doing it until this year.
Eliminate offensive pass interference, 50 yd line new starting point for touch backs, DB's have to wear sneakers...
Tua's really good. Even when he was stuck under shitty coaching, he still put up decent numbers; for some reason it just became a meme that he was bad. And now that he has a good coach and elite receiver, he's putting up elite numbers.
I think the NFL will make adjustments if this trend continues. Offense sells tickets and viewers. That said, there's already enough in the rules to enable a potent passing attack if you have the right ingredients: a good OL, a good QB, good skill players, good OC. Teams that lack one or more of these have looked to developing a strong running game and defense. Personally I like the high scoring offense, but I like winning more, which is why I'm okay with how the Jets are doing business right now. In a year or two, when Zach has really settled in, and assuming JD continues to add pieces, I think we'll see that explosive offense, and hopefully continue to play great defense. If we can do that, it's SB time!
Yes it could. But they've done about all they can do to encourage high scoring passing games. But the downside is as defenses become leaner to chase the WRs around, offenses (w/o top QBs) have bulked up and reverted to running the ball against those lean linebackers. So we have teams that pass if they can, and the rest just the run the ball. All that running has led to lower scoring games, fewer TDs, and more kicking competitions for FGs. In other words, more boring. The opposite to what the NFL wants. So if the NFL can't encourage anymore passing with dumb rule changes, then they may resort to de-encouraging the run game with another set of dumb rule changes. Kind of forcing teams with a weak passing game to go ahead and pass it anyway, the stuff the fans wanna see. So how could the NFL de-encourage running the ball? By making rule changes that makes it harder to have a successful run game. Of course they'll say it's all in the concern for player safety, like they did with kickoffs. So in your mind, what kind of rule changes would they try to de-encourage running the ball? Outlaw the fullback? Outlaw pulling guards? Outlaw 3 TE sets? RB must be lined up no more than 5 yards behind the LOS? I dunno. It's all just a guess at this point. But if more and more seasons have fewer passing fireworks and more ground and pound, I wouldn't be surprised to see rule changes that makes it harder to have a good running game, forcing all teams to air it out. Turning the NFL into 7 on 7 Arena League stuff.
Oh, you mean like when Tagovailoa's brains were dripping out of the back of his skull two weeks in a row and then the following week when Tom Cheat got breathed on the week after that a huge flag was thrown in the name of player safety?