Tag: post season

Rules analyst Dean Blandino assured Chiefs fans Carl Cheffers will officiate Super Bowl fairly

Rules analyst Dean Blandino did his best to allay #Chiefs fans’ angst ahead of a Carl Cheffers-officiated Super Bowl.

Kansas City Chiefs fans have been worried about the Super Bowl since news broke in January that the big game would be officiated by referee Carl Cheffers, who some perceive to have a vendetta against the team due to recent matchups he has officiated.

One of the most notable games Cheffers officiated for Kansas City was Super Bowl LV. During that game, Cheffers penalized the Chiefs 11 times for 120 yards compared to the Buccaneers’ four penalties for 39 yards. Cheffers is known to be quick to throw the penalty flag, but he was chosen to officiate the Super Bowl this season due to exceeding in metrics that the NFL has determined are indicative of successful referees.

FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino, the NFL’s former head of officiating, did his best to allay Chiefs fans’ concerns about the Super Bowl matchup during media availability this week. He told reporters that Cheffers’ crew is just as worried about their potential impact on the game as fans are.

Check out his response below:

While nothing that Blandino could say would totally negate the angst of Kansas City fans across the country, it is worth remembering that Cheffers’ legacy would be negatively affected by a bad performance on Sunday. The Super Bowl is the NFL’s biggest stage, and all parties are fully invested in making the occasion go off without a hitch.

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Chargers’ top 10 offensive performers in 2022, per PFF

These 10 Chargers were Los Angeles’ top performers in 2022, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Los Angeles Chargers’ season came to an abrupt end when they blew a huge lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Wild Card round of the AFC playoffs, but it is said that in great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.

Though any glory the Chargers found over the course of the season pales in comparison to the sting of their playoff loss, with the offseason on the horizon, Pro Football Focus’ year-end offensive player rankings will become all the more important as Los Angeles looks to re-tool for 2023.

Here are the Chargers’ top-10 offensive performers by PFF’s metrics:

Marcus Freeman goes to bat for Michael Mayer

If Mayer and Bowers were on the same team, which would you feature in the traditional tight end roles?

One of the best feelings as an employee is knowing your boss has your back. It allows you a freedom with your work that generally results in a better performance.

In every sport I ever played that applied to a coach having your back, too. Defending you to an official after a call you didn’t like, or speaking highly of you to the press after perhaps a not-so-hot performance.

It’s safe to say Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman has his players backs. One night after star tight end Michael Mayer was passed over for the John Mackey Award, which goes to the nation’s top tight end, Freeman weighed in on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/marcus_freeman1/status/1601233814424289280?s=46&t=2JXRzURSX6mdQnX_AMMALw

Freeman is the latest to weigh-in defending Mayer. Last night Brady Quinn, Julian Love, Logan Diggs, and plenty of Notre Dame fans let their thoughts be known as well.

I hate writing these reaction and it coming off at all as a knock on Brock Bowers, the actual award winner. Bowers is an incredibly talented player that has a unique skill set which allows him to be used in very creative ways. He thrives at that and he’s great, no question about it.

The best way to me to make my case for Mayer, besides in just production (that doesn’t always tell whole story anyway), is to think of it like this:

If Mayer and Bowers were on the same team – who would be primarily a tight end and who would be used in less traditional tight end roles?

It’s Mayer as your tight end and it’s not particularly close. But then again, neither was their comparable statistics, either.

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Notre Dame/Iowa State: Camping World Bowl Watchability Rankings

You can go over recruiting rankings all you want and look at records but I really do buy into Iowa State’s coaching staff.  It’s not a mistake that Matt Campbell gets linked to NFL jobs an incredible amount despite his record being far from outstanding.

Pretty much no Notre Dame fans are excited that a 10-2 season ends in Orlando for the Camping World Bowl against an unranked 7-5 Iowa State team, but it’s a Notre Dame game at the end of the day and the last one we’ll have until they open the 2020 season against Navy in Ireland.

We’ll all soak it up, even if commenters here and on the message boards are full of those complaining and claiming they’ll protest it by not watching.

The rest of the nation has been weighing in on all bowl games though and ranking them from worst matchup or the least-watchable to the best match-up and most-watchable.

Where does Notre Dame’s contest against the pass-happy Cyclones rank?

Here’s what everyone else says and remember, the ranking is out of the 39 total bowl games this season:

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Notre Dame Football: Ranking Potential Bowl Game Opponents

Finally the biggest draw in the Big XII comes up on our breakdown.  Is Texas back?

In one of the worst kept secrets in college football at this point, we sit and wait to act surprised when on Sunday we will all officially find out that No. 15 Notre Dame will be headed to play a Big XII opponent in the 2019 Camping World Bowl.

That means a trip to Orlando but who the Irish play in the game is still very much up in the air for multiple different reasons.

For one – Oklahoma and Baylor both right now sit at six and seven in the College Football Playoff rankings respectively, with both still being very much alive for a potential New Year’s Six Bowl game berth if they are to fall in Saturday’s conference championship.

That’s important because it would change the Alamo automatically getting whoever loses and instead, give the bowl the chance to pick which of the 5-4 Big XII teams it would like, as Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Texas all finished in a tie for third place after all going 5-4 in conference play.

It got me wondering though – who should Notre Dame fans be rooting for to play?

I get that some Irish fans will have a family or friend that is connected to one of the schools that will make that their obvious choice, but for everyone who doesn’t, what are you rooting for to happen?

A quick look at the potential match-ups, one at a time.

Kansas State

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