To Add Insult to Injury: NFL Week 2
NFL WEEK TWO
We're back! It's officially fall! And in an unsurprising turn of events, our theme for the second week of the NFL 2020 Season is....A! Plague! Of! Injuries!
For some reason, this violent sport is ..harmful to players? Wild. The main narrative of the week is just how many players were injured- a slew of ACL injuries took out big names (like Saquon Barkley), teams like the 49ers lost half their key players, and the Broncos QB took a heavy hit (then they promptly bought backup). Katrina : Of course, the commentators will come in with the takes telling you this is “to be expected” since “there was no pre-season” because “Covid”. Pre season is not the issue here guys and I for one am glad we cut out like 24 extra hours of football.
What a DOWNER right? Don't these players know they're here to ENTERTAIN us? Put your dang body on the line! Who CARES about CTE and if you "never will walk again". Stop being a BUZZKILL!
(If you failed to read that with a heavy dose of sarcasm, I hate to let you know but you're on the wrong blog)
Is it problematic that this sport literally ruins lives? Yes! Is that Fan Duel commercial that portrays James Harrison as a straight up ANIMAL very cringe? Yes! But in case you haven't heard the NFL is ~ WOKE ~ now (and they are boldly taking a hit in their ratings because of it). In fact, according to the Commish on MNF, they've always stood for social justice probably!
Ok on to the ACTUAL football, because a couple of players were left healthy enough to eke out some games. As we mentioned last week, we don't have the bandwidth to watch 16 games a week (we're just two girls! be gentle with us!) so we each picked 2 games to watch and give some takes on. Before we get into that, we're giving some honorary mentions to The Games We Did Not Want to Write About But Were Still Good (title is still in the works there), including, the Dallas Cowboys making one hell of a comeback (Katrina : I picked Ezekiel first in fantasy and tbh I think he feels the pressure of my expectations!!) and the Seahawks squeezing win out in the final play of the game because they're finally letting Russ Wilson COOK. The Bears are going to the Super Bowl now because they lit a fire under Trubisky's ass, the Ravens are still good, and the Packers offense is still scary.
TNF Buckeye Derby: Browns 35 Bengals 30
Full disclosure I watched this game at a bar (a concept!) where alcohol WAS consumed, so I wasn't paying 100% attention, but the general takeaway is that Joe Burrow is wonderful and threw for 3 TDs (and was also sacked just as many times), but it wasn't enough. In a battle of No. 1 Pick vs. No. 1 Pick, which is a phrase they said roughly 300 times, Baker Mayfield actually pulled it together thanks to help from OBJ, who caught a 43yd pass, and Nick Chubb. For newbies, you might recognize Baker from the Progressive commercials where he pretends the stadium is his real house!! a joke that NEVER gets old!
Monday Night Football: Saints 24 Raiders 34
The other game I watched took place in a fancy new stadium that looks like a roomba. The commentators talked about 3 things mainly:
1) The fact that the Raiders are in Las Vegas and how great Vegas is and how wonderful it was for Vegas and how much Vegas was excited about this team and how Oakland was sad but actually totally okay with it and super supportive (continue, ad nauseum).
2) The fact that it was the 50th anniversary of MNF which meant an annoying amount of stupid statistics (which thanks to our drinking game, made today a rough morning for me), and
3) How the Saints were REALLY missing Michael Thomas.
The Ain’ts came out swinging in the 1st quarter, at which point I said "I feel bad for the Raiders, it's their first home game they should score some points" and apparently they heard me and went on to throw to their best receivers for the win. While I would take full responsibility for the Saints throwing their lead away, I am blessed to share that burden with a ridiculous amount of holding by the saints defense (come on guys, I know we all crave intimacy but cut it out).
Also, even after they got a SECOND TALKING TO this week, NEITHER coach wore their mask correctly (even the lady ref kept pulling hers up and down), but Sean Payton really threw caution to the wind and didn’t even pretend to wear his mask so....NOT GREAT BOYS. Katrina : Lady ref is the real MVP.
From Katrina:
49ers 31 Jets 13
As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, I ended up watching a LOT of 49ers games last year since my boyfriend is from the Bay and I am #supportive. They ended up going all the way to the Super Bowl and I was all, hey! Turns out this time wasn’t a waste! Jk it was. I had high hopes for this year but despite how impressive that win looks, this week was actually… very bad (although 31-13 is a palindrome? So maybe some hidden meaning there). In this game, the following 49ers players got hurt :
Jimmy Garropolo, QB and QT got a high ankle sprain and was out for about half the game. Supposedly he’ll be ok to play next week. Maybe this will teach the line to actually do their job and protect this beautiful man.
Tevin Colemen, RB , out with a sprained knee (football is teaching me that any and all parts of your body can and will be sprained)
Raheem Mostert, RB, sprained MCL, will be out for several weekends which is devastating because he arguably has the best celebration in football with his surfing antics and ALSO because he SCORED ON AN 80 YD RUN before his injury and my fantasy hopes were hangin’ 10!!
Nick Bosa and Soloman Thomas, defensive linemen, BOTH TORE THEIR ACLs
NOT TO MENTION those injured GOING IN to this game : My main man Kittle is currently out, a bunch of tackles are injured and defensive end Dee Ford is out with a back injury and might retire???
To sum up, I’m truly unclear on if I watched a football game or the last scene of 300.
Chiefs 23 Chargers 20
Gonna keep it 100 with y’all, I did not watch all of this game so I am not going to comment on most of it. What I am going to comment on is the last quarter. We’ve made much of the time football takes (approximately 800 hours per game). Well, some teams apparently can’t get their HEAD OUT THEIR ASS and need EVEN MORE TIME. When we tuned in, looked like the game was almost over. Apparently the Rookie Chargers QB Justin Herbert did a great job, which was displeasing to me as I root against as LA in sports and in life. But!! The Chiefs weren’t done yet! They tied it up and the game goes to OT! As Drake once said, never much love when we go OT and I could not concur more. The OT rules deserve their own post because they’re nonsensical and totally random?? But to cut to the chase, it all came down to the kicker, Harrison Butker. He initially had to make a 53 yd field goal, then there was some penalty BS, so he had to redo it, then he had to do it AGAIN??? FROM 58 YARDS??? 3rd times the charm baby, the Chiefs take it.
The Takeaway
In all seriousness, we keep harping on injuries and you experienced fans are probably thinking, sry gals that’s how the cookie crumbles. We might be newbies, but we encourage everyone to think critically about the actual consequences of this game. A hard hit is not just “oh no, he might be out for the season” it’s also “oh no, he might never walk in the same way again". This style of gameplay has untold ramifications. The NFL does a really good job of deflecting so you don’t have to confront this reality (note how they cut to commercial every time someone gets injured). Does that mean we can never play football? No! It just means we need to start thinking of better ways to protect players. The game can and should evolve!!
