Mini-Hippo Wild Card Thoughts

Good morning, fellow dick joke enthusiasts.  You may have noticed that Super-Duper-Mega Wild Card Bitches! weekend began yesterday.  Two FITBAW games on the docket – well, one game and one brutal skullfucking.

That’s Rikki’s Raiders! met up with Team WKRP in what was, despite the shambolic officiating, an excellent game.  A fine opening drive TD pass and a really excellent strip sack – deep in Vegas’ own territory – looked like we might get a Bungles runaway.  But every time the dam threatened to break – that maligned (ok, other than Maxxxx) Raiders defense held.  On the whole, they kept Joe Burrow about as well-contained as they could have hoped.  And their offense was able to move the ball pretty well, and wear down the Cincy defense as we entered Q4.

It just wasn’t quite enough.  Cincy countered Vegas cutting the margin to 23-16, by going methodically down the field and chewing up the clock.  About half the 4th quarter, really.  But 3rd and 1 at the 10 turned into 4th and 2 feet, just under 7 minutes to play.  Yoiu could tell Burrow and Taylor WANTED to go for it, but just REALLY COULD NOT.  I felt the same watching, and I am just a pill-addled neutral.  Two more minutes off the clock would have been YUUUUUGGGGE, especially had Al been commentating.

Speaking of – Mike Tirico and Breesus Christ were just damned excellent.  You might think they are too equally mild to work – but it’s an easy chemistry, and they don’t talk over the game and make themselves the centre of attention.  Very nice.  Don’t get used to it, the shit crews are all working today.

Back to the action – Cincy kept ALMOST stopping the medium-hurry-up, but Carr kept converting 3rd downs, along with the occasional 4th down.  But the Bengals DL got a fingertip and/or crown of the helmet on a 3rd and 3 red zone pass, and they had to settle for 3.  With only one timeout, it meant one first down would ice things for the Bengals.

Burrow and company…would not get it.  Nor would they get a good punt (like 34 yards).  Nor would they get normal officiating (key, horrifyingly-bad-even-by-NFL-standards roughing BLEERGH).  But Carr made a few nice throws, setting up 1st and goal just inside the 10.

First thing I really didn’t like – the spike with 30 seconds left.  Look, downs are more important than seconds at that point.  Call and endzone shot, and run it.  Even if Carr scrambles or dumps it off and someone is tackled in-bounds…THEN you can still spike it and have two more shots.  But, you’ve now ensured that the “floor” of “three shots” is now your “ceiling.”  In fact, 4th and goal was snapped with a whopping 17 seconds on the clock.  Very wasteful.

Point of order – Tirico and Brees noted their similar disagreement, but moved on and called the action afterwards.  You don’t have to beat everything to death with a sledgehammer.  Especially when a great game is having a great ending.  Carr tried to force one in to Zay Jones around the 1 (he almost surely wouldn’t have scored anyway), which got pickercepted by NC State’s own Germaine Pratt.  Yes, my little brother (Bungles supporter, fellow Wolven Sort alumnus) was quite pleased.  He said “this is our year!” and he might be right.  Getting over that first hurdle can be the hardest, mentally.  They’ll be playing with house money now, and can play free and easy on the road, in Nashville and then possibly KC/BUF.  It will be a fascinating journey to follow – being a neutral kicks ass.

And look, I enjoy Sassy Ref.  But he had a ‘mare today, and ought be done for the tournament.

There isn’t much to say about Bills/P*ts.  Good Brokeback showed up, McDermott called some running plays, and Buffalo kicked the living shit out of them.  It was 27-3 at the half, and could have been worse.  Too much White, not enough Legend Of, Mac.  Oh well, he will have more chances in his career.  I am filing this at halftime, and may pass out.

See y’all Monday, for three MOAR tilts.