Depression

• Last week's win delayed the process a bit, but Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens was a pretty perfect representation of depression. The feeling of hopelessness. The sluggishness. The knowing that, even if the Green Bay Packers did manage to score or get a turnover or something, it wouldn’t really matter. 

I couldn't find a Packers gif to adequately represent the situation, but there
were plenty of Jay Cutler gifs, and I couldn't resist.

• It is only by the grace of Joe Flacco that the Green Bay Packers weren’t defeated 40-0. The Packers defense only gave up 219 yards and still got killed! The offense, um, let’s charitably say struggled. Five turnovers (and should have been more). Six sacks. Zero points. Oof.

• Okay, so I’ll be honest: not Brett Hundley’s best game. There were a lot of bad decisions and very ugly throws. There were the three interceptions. And the fumble. There was the 13.6 QBR. 

• The lurking depression really set in early on, then increased when Clay Matthews left with an injury. Then Kenny Clark left with an injury. Then backup right tackle Justin McCray left with an injury.

• I literally don’t have anything else to say about the game. There aren’t any offensive highlights because Green Bay DIDN’T SCORE ANY POINTS. 

• Here’s Richard Rodgers smiling his aggravating smile that literally never leaves his face ever.

• I’m sad about the Packers losing, but I’m irked by the announcers talking about the Ravens and Joe Flacco as if they played well. They gained fewer yards than the team with zero points! They would have been humiliated by any other team that didn’t turn the ball over five times! 

• Poor Devante Mays. The Green Bay rookie running back got his first three NFL carries today … and fumbled two of them. 

• Packers fans, don’t say careless things like, “It can’t be any worse,” because I saw this picture and thought our third-string quarterback was a ball boy.

• Hold up -- they put the jerseys on the pads before the players put the pads on?? I’m not sure how I feel about that. I feel deceived somehow.

• Antonio Brown helmet catch. Difficult and cool on its own, but to move the ball, one-handed, from your helmet to your body without losing control of it and protecting it in time before you hit the ground so you don’t lose it in “the process of the catch” must take a crazy amount of skill and body control. Utter madness!

• NFL wide receivers are getting too good! What used to be circus catches are now run-of-the-mill receptions. There were so many crazy catches in the Monday Night game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks, I couldn't even choose one to highlight. 

• Jay Cutler had three interceptions in the first half before leaving the game with a concussion in the second half. Man, I wish he were still in the NFC North. 

• It was an awkward week for the Buffalo Bills. The team benched starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor after two consecutive losses, which was a head-scratcher because he hasn’t been terrible, the team was 5-4, and the playoffs were still in reach. (That last part might have been the problem.) Rookie Nate Peterman took over on Sunday and … threw three interceptions in the first quarter, which is the same number of interceptions Taylor has had all season. He added two more in the second quarter and was finally pulled for Taylor at halftime. I don’t want to pile on the poor rookie who was put in a bad and unfair position, but he had six completions and five interceptions!! 45% of his completions were to the California Chargers defense! The good news is that the Bills seem to be under leadership: coach Sean McDermott stated that he didn’t regret playing Peterman and that he would “evaluate” before naming a starter for next week.

Decisions like this might have something to do with Sunday's stat line.

• I just said that I didn’t want to kick Peterman while he was down, but some of his numbers are truly incredible, such as the fact that on his dropbacks, he averaged -8.79 yards. He averaged almost negative 10 yards when he dropped back!!

Peterman’s negative 8.79 yards per dropback is an insane figure https://t.co/GJZ3udHBBo

— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) November 20, 2017

• I’ll never cheer outright for a team quarterbacked by Eli Manning, but it was fun to see the 1-8 Giants knock off the (yawn) 6-4 Kansas City Chiefs in overtime.

• Now that the Chiefs have dropped four of their last five games, can we all stop pretending that they’re a threat? It’s not that I don’t love Kareem Hunt and Tyreek Hill, but Alex Smith is still Alex Smith and let’s not forget it.

• Oh, man, Chicago Bears kicker Connor Barth really choked on Sunday. It’s a lot of pressure to line up for a 46-yard, potentially game-tying field goal with only three seconds left on the clock. There’s probably even more pressure when your counterpart on the other team has just kicked a 52-yarder, against the wind, to take the lead, as the Detroit Lions’ Matt Prater did. Not only did Barth lose the game by missing the kick, it wasn’t even close. (And yes, he was cut the next day.) Normally this sort of heartbreak would bring me joy, but as the Bears have no chance to win the division (but probably still a better chance than Green Bay), I am forced to cheer not-against them in division games.

• The LA Rams scored on their opening drive … and then never again. The score was actually 7-7 going into the fourth, but the Minnesota Vikings turned up the heat and ended up winning 24-7. Minnesota receiver Adam Thielen trails only Antonio Brown in receiving yards this season, and racked up another 123 on Sunday.

• Wait, when did New Orleans become good again? After three straight seasons going 7-9 and missing the playoffs, the Saints are now 8-2 and atop the NFC South. They’ve got a tough schedule coming up, so we’ll see if they’re for real. 

• New Orleans scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game on the way to an overtime win against the Washington Redskins. Voodoo magic like this helped:

• New Orleans running back Mark Ingram has eight touchdowns in his last five games. 

• Whew, Bengals corner Dre Kirkpatrick is very, very, very lucky that the Denver Broncos did not recover his fumble. Kirkpatrick intercepted the ball in the endzone, ran 100 yards, and then inexplicably fumbled the ball just outside the goal line. No one touched him or anything! Unfortunate that he ran 100 yards and somehow did not score a touchdown, but fortunately he recovered his own fumble and Cincinnati scored a few plays later.

• Tom Brady had fun in Mexico. It helped that the Oakland Raiders didn’t really bother to show up in the 33-8 Patriots victory.

• There’s a wide receiver named Jeremy Sprinkle, and I’m jealous that he doesn’t play for Green Bay. 

I'm jealous because of his name, not because he's
good. I have no idea if he's any good.

• Is fear the next step in grieving? Because I’m very scared of the 8-2 Steelers next week. They’re going to humiliate us in prime time and then do fun and creative celebrations. They are going to have a field day with our defense. And our offense. Our special teams, too.