Philadelphia Dreaming

Welcome to the Week 3 Colts Edition of WTS. This game marked the first time Wentz was back under center since last December, and any lingering doubts which may have plagued fans regarding his play style or durability should’ve been greatly diminished simply by watching his mobility and command, as well as his walking off the field in an upright position after absorbing over 9,000 sacks.

While this was an ugly, messy game, it held a level of importance that on a personal level, greatly improved my outlook for this season and beyond. Things that I looked out for in this game, such as the play calling creativity or discrepancies between Reich and Pederson, as well as Wentz taking that first “Welcome Back” hit, helped to calm my inner negledelphian.

That’s not to say that we don’t have work to do, because we do. However, I think back to how we looked in 2016, with Wentz suddenly starting after Bradford’s trade, aided by a newly assembled and severely underrated coaching staff trying to get the pieces to fit. I think Reich is a brilliant offensive mind and it sucks that we lost him this past off season, but I also think that our coaches will find a way to make the pieces fit again.

Thanks New England!

Some notes on the game:

1. Andrew Luck was the Colts leading rusher with 1 carry for 33 yards.
2. We won.
3. Fuck Dallas.

That being said, the NFL has a major problem with their new rules regarding “roughing the passer” (RIP Clay Matthews). The refs in general seem to exert too much power over the flow of the game, and that doesn’t make for a very entertaining product.

At least the game threads were somewhat amusing, albeit relatively empty. With a 1:00 pm kick-off and little to no fanfare, it was easy to see how spoiled we’ve become as fans. This is the first non prime-time WTS written since last January. It’s also the first WTS I’ve done in a while that wasn’t covering some massive controversy, huge trade, major FA acquisition, or national prime-time game... AKA we’re not lingering on the collective league mind. Nobody really had much to say about anything, and that’s probably a good thing at this point, because while the league is drooling over Mahomes and the Rams, we can silently work our shit out and get back to where we need to just in time for the post season.

The game itself was a sloppy, flag filled shit fest, played on a wet field between two familiar coaching staffs who scripted conservative game plans surrounding two franchise QB’s fresh off of injury...

Fittingly, reddit comments are back for this edition, so keep an eye out for them at the end of your regularly scheduled WTS. Also, at the requests of BGN members HoldTheDorial and SakPrescott, I wanted to compile a short yet sweet bonus collection featuring some of the best comments from both the Cowboys and Vikings pathetic game threads.

And when I say pathetic, I mean glorious.

Because the Vikes game was held at the same time as ours, I elected to pepper their comments in throughout, so please keep in mind that they were largely focused on their own “game”. As for the Cowboys, that really does deserve a WTS all to itself, so look for some variation of that around the bye week.

Special side notes on some of the NFL’s most “Special” teams & tidbits:

• The Bills traveled to “Minnesota” to blow out the Vikings. Nobody saw this coming, not even the Buffalo Bills official twitter page, who put up a pre-game graphic which had the team traveling to what seemed to be the border of Wisconsin and Illinois...

• The Browns beat the Jets, securing their first win since December 24th, 2016. It had to happen at some point, and the entire city rejoiced with free Bud Lights via citywide “Victory Fridges”, which unlocked simultaneously once the Browns were able to finally secure anything resembling a win. For those unfamiliar with this cruel and humiliating advertising ploy, Bud Light beer fridges were distributed throughout Cleveland, then locked and connected to each other via “Super High Tech Totally Awesome Bud Light WiFi Victory Fist Bump Lock System”, only to simultaneously open in the the rare case of a Browns win.

These inhumane yet highly amusing contraptions finally released their mock, semi-alcoholic piss water to Browns fans following their Thursday night victory over the Jets, who then took full advantage of this joyous and not at all humiliating event, and have been collectively drunk ever since.

Good for you Cleveland!

• In 3 games, the Cardinals have scored just 20 points, and the Saints have allowed 103. Not sure why I find that fascinating, but I do. I promise to bring this back up in the WTS week 19 edition.
• Four teams (GB, Min, Cle, & Pit) have a 1-1-1 record.
• Off topic, can somebody please explain to me what the fuck this is?

Gif God Norm’s Weekly Car ride:

On to the game, enjoy!

PRE-GAME WARMUPS & 1ST HALF