The NFL in the Moment – Friday @ 18:00 – Week Three 2017

The NFL in the Moment – Friday @ 18:00 – Week Three 2017

It is hard to tell just what in hell is going in with the NFL these days. A normal sample of games that appeared to be unadjusted ended with very few of them being within one score, as has been the trend. This resulted in dwindling TV ratings. Last Sunday, the officials seemed to do everything within their power to prevent New England’s win over New Orleans from becoming a rout and then curiously prevented Green Bay from closing the gap on Atlanta before the half in the nightcap.

And how about them Cowboys? The 2015 Dallas squad that went 4-12 without Tony Romo showed back up in Denver where Ezekiel Elliott was smacked around like the petulant child that he is. Jacoby Brissett looked like a top 100 draft pick and played much better at Quarterback in Arizona, taking the Colts into overtime, than the 135^th pick in 2016, Dak Prescott, did in Denver. Prescott was utterly neutralized by a premier AFC Defence, while Brissett is creating “the good kind of problem” in Indianapolis, as he will be of no further use to the Colts once Luck returns.

The other side of that transaction, Phillip Dorsett, is, to absolutely no one’s surprise, positively flourishing under the steady hand of one Tom Brady. Dorsett will go over 1,000 receiving yards this season along with Cooks, Hogan and Gronk while Brady becomes the first Quarterback to throw for 6,000 yards and 60 Touchdowns.

Conspiracy Theorists had their fuel stoked further on Thursday Night when the San Francisco 49ers actually recovered an on-side kick inside the final minute only to have their first down precariously close to Robbie Gould’s outer Field Goal range nullified on a phantom Offensive Pass Interference call. Are we witnessing the construction (by artificial means) of Jared Goff? Is that why the Eagles were on the wrong end of some calls in Kansas City, so Goff could appear to be getting better than Wentz?

SI MMQB's Peter King was a guest on NFL Networks Good Morning Football where he said “We probably won’t know about the Offensive PI penalty under the all-22 film is available", as if it needed to be sent to Rochester or some such place to be developed and printed. This is a different age. With instantaneous HD copies available on everything these days, the only reason we haven’t seen a definitive replay of the call is because it doesn’t exist. It never happened. King and the NFL are merely hoping that by Monday, everyone will have forgotten about the call because many others will have taken its place.