There are far more important things to be thankful for in this world than being a fan of an NFL team with consistent quarterback play. Beginning with that caveat, many Americans do spend a lot of hours watching football. The product is exponentially better when the quarterbacks are above average.
During the season, I watch RedZone on my main screen so I can keep track of all the action on Sunday and know what I want to later look at more closely. Being born and raised in the Chicago area, I usually have the Bears on my second screen if they are not playing a stand-alone game.
The team has a large fan base, and an interesting player in Justin Fields, so they do appear on national television several times per year. Watching him and Josh Dobbs do battle on Monday Night Football in a 12-10 Bears victory over the Minnesota Vikings, those of you out there who are not accustomed to that type of play, take some time to be thankful now, if you did not while the turkey was being carved on Thursday.
Fields and Dobbs had rough, turnover-filled nights, but they were far from the worst that Week 12 had to offer. At least they are both threats in the open field and can complete passes more than five yards past the line of scrimmage, even if Luke Getsy chose not to call those plays most of Monday night.
Some of you out there don’t have RedZone, and also do not desire it. Folks in Hoboken, N.J., Framingham, Mass., or anywhere New York Giants vs. New England Patriots was 1 p.m EST Fox broadcast, many of them wanted nothing more on Sunday than to watch Tommy DeVito, Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe pass for less than 300 combined yards in a 10-7 win for the G-Men.
Bill O’Brien called so many screens in the second half of that game, by comparison, Getsy looked like Sean McVay. DeVito’s hand gesture following his only touchdown pass, and the Fox broadcast showing his dad in the stands doing it as well going into the commercial break, was the most entertaining part of the game unless I missed Bill Belichick destroying a tablet.
A game of massive importance in an NFL division race was played with Derek Carr and Desmond Ridder as the starting quarterbacks. The Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints don’t even have injury to blame for that. Those are the QBs who they named as starters coming out of training camp.
Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ newly promoted offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner, managed a narrow victory against the Cincinnati Bengals and backup Jake Browning. At least they reached the 400-yard mark for the first time in 58 games.
Tim Boyle, P.J. Walker, and Aidan O’Connell. The NFL may be America’s No. 1 television product, but some of the offensive performances led by those quarterbacks had me ready for The Golden Bachelor Finale.
For fans of several NFL franchises, quarterback struggles are all they know. The Bears, Jets, Browns, and Raiders have spent decades with mediocre QB play, at best. While the Green Bay Packers had 30 combined years of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, the Dallas Cowboys have two former starters calling the biggest games of the week while Dak Prescott is currently having an MVP season, and the Kansas City Chiefs are led by Patrick Mahomes.
If Mahomes left Kansas City on Saturday, never to return again, Chiefs’ fans should still refrain from complaining about quarterback play for a minimum of five years. They have behind center, what the Chicago Bulls had when Michael Jordan was taking last-second shots, a reason to always be favored to win the championship along with a lifetime of memories.
On Monday night, Fields came through at the end of the game for the Bears with the biggest throw of his NFL career — a 36-yard completion right down the middle of the field on 3rd and 10 with a minute left in the game and his team down by a point. While that play was gigantic, the game-winning score was a field goal. As bad as Bears quarterback play has been since Favre first started for the Packers, their Week 12 victory was their first without scoring a touchdown since 1993.
Having access to the NFL and the time to watch is something to be thankful for in itself. That is a luxury many in this world do not have. But for those whose NFL viewership has not been largely spent viewing quarterback play that resembled Week 12 on a regular basis, do know that you are the envy of many sports fans.
