TUESDAY TIDBITS: "You're Gonna Get What's Coming"

Gonna stay with music lyric quotes again this week. Yesterday was Robert Palmer's birthday and always enjoyed the power chord stucture to his song that is the title for for today's column. Down to the final four teams, and have a stat for you folks, what is the win% since the merger in '70 for the team that scores the first touchdown on Championship Sunday? Since both the Chiefs & Eagles last year scored the first touchdown's in their respective games just added to the fact that the team that finds the "promised land" first wins 74.76% of the time (40-14 historically in the AFC & 40-13 in the NFC)! Read online that with Stroud throwing errant passes all over the field in Foxboro that quarterbacks who have thrown 4 interceptions in a game have a record of 3-35 since the merger. Why did the writer not go back and research the games from 1933 through 1969? Eleven times a quarterback or tailback "achieved" this starting with Filchock in 1940. Though could detail most of those games, the game that intrigued me the most was former Packer Arnie Herber in '44 as he attempted to beat his former team now as a New York Giant. The excellent game plan conceived by Lambeau has the Packers ahead 14-0 at the half. The Giants ran the ball with former Fullerton Junior College star Howie Livingston (he gained 14 yards on 10 carries)in the first half! Herber threw just one pass; which was intercepted by Joe Laws. Second half has Arnie pitching the pigskin 21 times completing 8 with three more interceptions. Herber's long completion to Frank Liebel on the last play of the 3rd quarter set up Ward Cuff's one yard run to begin the 4th quarter. Herber ended the game with 4 consecutive pass play's from their own side of the fifty gaining only 6 yards(thank you Mr. Eric Goska for the play by play). Returning to the upcoming games let's start with the Rams in Seattle playing a team that they have struggled to beat on the road. Seattle ranked 4th in the defensive passer rating category, and no doubt coach McDonald is devising a defensive game play to stop? well at least limit future Hall of Famer Matt Stafford. Ok folks, who is the key for the Rams offense? Can the Ram defense pressure Darnold and take the ball away? Will end my column with Denver having twice played on January 18th in the past. Though leading at the half the Broncos were outscored by the Giants 30 to 10 in the 2nd half as Phil Simms continuing his unerring accuracy completes all 10 of his 2nd half passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns in the victory in the Rose Bowl. Eleven years later in San Diego a different story as the "under dog" Broncos pounded the Packer defense as TD rambled for 157 yards on the ground due to the punishing blocking of the Denver offensive line. Was in attendance at that game, and boy oh boy was it exciting to watch! Can Denver win again on a January 18th Sunday? Since their quarterback is not John Elway or even Bo Nix is sure looking like coach Vrabel will take his Patriots to the "Silver Trophy" game in his first season in Foxboro. If some of you believe Denver will win, hopefully you will share how he Broncos can win this game? See you next week.

The Flag Report: Winners, Losers, and the Discipline Gap of the 2025 NFL Season

 by Nick Webster

Football is a team game and coaches are always preaching discipline, but individual discipline can be the difference between a touchdown drive and a punt. Using the final 2025 data, we’ve identified the "Flag Kings" of the season—the players whose names were called most often by the referee's microphone.

1. The Volume Leaders: The 14-Flag Club

Two offensive linemen shared the dubious honor of leading the league in total penalties committed: J.C. Latham (Tennessee) and Jermaine Eluemunor (NY Giants), both finishing with 14 flags.

• J.C. Latham (TEN): Not only did he lead in volume, but his penalties were objectively the most damaging. He tied for the NFL lead (Along with Darnell Wright) in Stalled Drives (drives which, after the penalty - didn't result in a First Down or TD), with 8 of his infractions directly killing his team's momentum.

• Jermaine Eluemunor (NYG): A "False Start" specialist, Eluemunor struggled with snap counts all year, accounting for 9 False Starts, a massive chunk of the Giants' league-leading penalty count.

2. The Yardage King: Riley Moss’s Vertical Problem

If J.C. Latham was the king of volume, Riley Moss (Denver) was the king of field position . . . and why do all the white CB's come from Iowa? Moss surrendered a staggering 203 penalized yards.  Since 1999, this is the second-largest total ever, falling behind only Brandon Browner's disastrous 2015, where he had 21 penalties accepted for 207 yards, which drove him out of the league the following season.  The fact that Moss "achieved" this on just 10 accepted penalties tells you that he was flagged for DPI on some very long plays. 

Moss became a frequent target for "underthrown" deep balls, leading to 10 Defensive Pass Interferences, including plays of 47, 40, 38, 25 and 22-yards, to name a few. While Denver’s defense was elite, Moss’s tendency to get grabby allowed opponents to gain 20+ yards at a time without completing a pass. He and Keisean Nixon (Green Bay) also shared the league lead for most First Downs gifted to the opponent, with 10 each.

3. The "Drive Killers": Wright and Latham

A penalty is annoying, but a penalty that ends a drive is fatal.

• Darnell Wright (Chicago): Tied with Latham for 8 stalled drives. Wright’s holding calls frequently turned 2nd-and-Short situations into 2nd-and-Long, a hole the Bears' offense often couldn't climb out of.  Wright was a breakout player for the Bears, particularly his mauling style in the run game - but the penalties must come down.

• Jawaan Taylor (KC): Despite being on a championship contender KC, Taylor remained a flag magnet, as he's been for many years, committing 13 penalties (ranking 3rd overall).  It seems the Chiefs can't live without a Penalty-machine at tackle they needed Taylor there after Donovan Smith retired.

4. The Hidden Cost: Nullified Yards

The most frustrating stat for a wide receiver is seeing a highlight-reel play erased by a mistake.

• Darius Slayton (NYG): Slayton led the league in Nullified Yards, with 158 yards of offense wiped off the board due to penalties.  Darius Slayton negated 2-TDs of his own, a 72-yarder and a 68-yarder, respectively, by committing OPI in order to make the reception.  The 140-yards negated on just those two plays got him most of the way to his seasons' total and the highest figure since 1999 - second place being Keyshawn Martin in 2015 with a mere 137 yards negated.

• Stefon Diggs (NE): Following closely behind, Diggs saw 112 yards of his production disappear because of yellow flags due to OPI's of 51 and 61 yards, respectively.  Adding insult to injury, one of Diggs' OPI's was on a play where he wasn't even targeted, negating a 61-yard TD from Drake Maye to Dermario Douglass.

TUESDAY TIDBITS: "I'm Gonna Tell You a Story"

By TJ Troup

NFL films captured the essence of each of the Super Bowl Champion teams with "America's Game" series, and the story of the 2003 Patriots begins with the classic garage band song "Dirty Water" by the Standells. The New England Patriots that season beat the Colts on January 18th as their defense intercepted Peyton Manning four times. 

Starting outside linebacker Mike Vrabel sure contributed in that game (also during the season). Can Coach Vrabel continue his successful season by taking down a Houston Texans team that can run the ball, and play the best pursuit defense in the league? 

Houston is one of the teams that kept the streak alive of at least one road team winning in the playoffs each year since 1970. Oh, there were other road teams that won this past weekend? San Francisco was sure impressive in defeating the defending Super Bowl Champion Eagles. Can the Niners beat the division rival #1 seed Seahawks? 

The NFC team that won at home was those cuddly little Bears in another amazing second-half comeback. Their reward for the victory over the Packers is to take on a Ram team that won on the road. 

Historically, the Bears beaten the Rams many times, yet I want to take a closer look at a rivalry that I have seen many times in person. When I attended my first Bears vs. Rams game on November 15, 1964, I was elated that Chicago easily beat the Rams that day in the Coliseum. 

Since that day the Rams have beaten the Bears 23 times and lost 18; some of those watched in person in both Los Angeles & Anaheim. Let's focus on the two playoff games; we are in the Coliseum on December 17th, 1950, as an offensive powerhouse Ram team that has lost twice to the Bears in the regular season, wins 24-14. Waterfield shreds shoddy Bears man coverage on Tom Fears while the defense intercepts Johnny Lujack 3 times, and takes him down for 52 yards in sacks!

Tom Fears

Buddy Ryan, after losing to the Rams in Angel Stadium in both '83 & '84 (was there both times), candidly spins his tale that the Bears' creative defense known as the '46' will stop Dickerson and the Rams. 

The illustrious Dieter Brock has a nightmare of a game (28.0 passer rating), throwing an interception, losing a fumble, which Wilber Marshall happily gobbled up and sped down the field to score. Brock was sacked three times! McMahon was a very efficient passer that windy day with a passer rating of 96.1. 

Wiber Marshall

Bet you can see where I am going with this? The key to the game is both the pass rush & pass defense. Can the Rams pillage the Chicago pass pocket? Can future Hall of Famer Matthew Stafford shred a suspect Bear secondary, or does Caleb W. continue his 4th quarter magic? 

See ya next week.

Packers Blown Away in the Windy City

 By Eric Goska

A winner in the regular season, Matt LaFleur
is just 3-6 in the postseason.
(photos by Eric Goska)

How can a team with an 18-point halftime lead be behind?

Ask the Green Bay Packers.

Up 21-3 as the second quarter came to a close, the Packers of 2025 imploded against the Bears in a wild card playoff game at Soldier Field. In falling 31-27 to Chicago, Green Bay squandered a lead as never before in franchise postseason history.

How could Matt LeFleur and his coaching staff not have not seen this coming? How could they not have repeatedly stressed that Chicago would throw everything short of the Willis Tower into the mix down the stretch?

More importantly, how could LeFleur and the brain power on his side of the field not have prepared something – anything – to counter the second-half onslaught that was predictably heading their way?

I could sense a tsunami was coming. I knew what was brewing four days before the game kicked off.

Here, verbatim, is a snippet from a Jan. 6 email I sent to my good friend and rabid Bears fan T.J. Troup. Go ahead. Call me Nostradamus!

“I can all but guarantee that the Packers and Steelers will NOT advance. GB has given up 26 points in the first quarter and 133 in the 4th. That's a league-leading negative difference of 107.”

Translation: the Green and Gold can’t finish.

This was supposed to be a column about how Green Bay had corrected its red zone woes. How the club – 2 for 12 in the final four games of the regular season – bounced back with the season on the line.

I would lead off by noting how seriously lacking that 2-for-12 number truly was. Only one other time in the last 90 years have the Packers come away with just two touchdowns in the red zone in the final four games of a season, that in 1974 when Dan Devine’s final aggregation went 2-for-10.

I would then give credit where credit was due. Green Bay went 3-for-3 against the Bears in the red zone, its best mark since going 4-for-4 in a 27-20 win over the Giants in mid-November.

Issues fixed. Deficiencies corrected. Congratulations!

Jordan Love threw four TD passes in Chicago.

Except all this took place in the first half. When Green Bay was setting up a yet another lead Chicago could overcome in the fourth quarter.

Prior to this meltdown, the Packers had played in 64 postseason games. They had battled through 256 quarters, not counting overtime periods.

Only once in that time, a run that started in 1936, had the Green and Gold surrendered more than 20 points in any one quarter. And that came against – you guessed it, the Bears in 1941.

Chicago erupted for 24 points in the second quarter that afternoon. Norm Standlee (two) and Bob Swisher scored touchdowns. Bob Snyder booted a 24-yard field goal.

Poof! And just like that, Green Bay’s puny 7-6 first-quarter lead was toast. The Bears romped 33-14 and then went on to defeat the New York Giants in the NFL championship game a week later.

Saturday, the Bears went one better. They exploded for 25 points in the fourth quarter with D’Andre Swift, Olamide Zaccheaus and DJ Moore reaching the end zone. Cairo Santos started the feeding frenzy with a 51-yard field goal early in the period.

And like that effort at Wrigley Field some 30,708 days ago, it was game, set, match!

If so moved – and we are not – a masochist could recite the litany of plays that contributed to Green Bay’s downfall. But we all saw what unfolded and need no reminders. This was a collapse of epic proportions.

Where to rank it? Was it worse than the 28-22 loss to the Seahawks in 2015 where Green Bay blew a 16-point lead. Was it more infuriating than 4th-and-26 against the Eagles in 2004?

You make that call. I made mine four days ago when I predicted the Packers’ would wind up losers in Chicago.

Belly Up
The most points opponents have overcome to defeat the Packers in the playoffs.

Pts.    Team               Date
18       Bears                  Jan. 10, 2026
16       Seahawks          Jan. 18, 2015
14       Eagles                Jan. 11, 2004

2025 Run/Pass Stuff Leaders

By Nick Webster 

The stuff king for 2025 is Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, who had 18. A "run/pass stuff" is a statistic that tracks tackles for loss on run plays and pass plays, not counting sacks, accounted for the same was sacks are. The way the NFL compiles a similar statistic often leaves out certain plays and has not been consistent since 1999.

I have followed the lead of Stats Perform (formerly Stats, LLC.) and compiled a leaderboard every year.

Breaking it down, Crosby had 17 run stuffs and one pass stuff in addition to his 10 sacks.

Here are the leaders:

Likely 2025 Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett had 12 stuffs to match with his 23 sacks, making a total of 35 sacks plus stuffs. It is one of the top seasons ever, rivalling J.J. Watt who was the guy who just dominated in this stat. 

Tre'von Moehrig is an interesting name, being the leader among defensive backs with Andru Phillips following him.

2025 Pro Football Journal All-NFC

 By John Turney

Offense

Center—Ryan Neuzil, Falcons

Second team—Jake Brendel, 49ers

Guards—Joe Thuney, Bears; Chris Lindstrom, Falcons;

Second team—Damien Lewis, Panthers;  Kevin Dotson, Rams

Tackles—Laremy Tunsil,  Commanders; Penei Sewell, Lions

Second team—Andrew Thomas, Giants; Darnell Wright, Bears

Tight end—Trey McBride, Cardinals

Second team—Kyle Pitts, Falcons

Wide Receivers—Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks; Puka Nacua, Rams; George Pickens, Cowboys

Second team— Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions; Chris Olave, Saints; Drake London, Falcons

Quarterback—Matthew Stafford, Rams

Second team—Jared Goff, Lions

Fullback—Kyle Juszczyk, 49ers

Second team—Hunter Luepke, Cowboys

Running back—Bijan Robinson, Falcons

Second team—Christian McCaffrey, 49ers

Defense

Edge—Micah Parsons, Packers-Cowboys; Aidan Hutchinson, Lions

Second team—Brian Burns, Giants; Jared Verse, Rams

Defensive interior—Byron Murphy, Seahawks (nose); Derek Brown, Panthers; Leonard Williams, Seahawks

Second team—Jordan Davis, Eagles (nose); Quinnen Williams, Jets-Cowboys; Kobie Turner, Rams

Linebackers—Ernest Jones IV, Seahawks; Tremaine Edmunds, Bears

Second team—Nate Landman, Rams; Zack Baun, Eagles and Eric Wilson, Vikings (tie)

Cornerbacks—Quinyon Mitchell, Eagles; Jaycee Horn, Panthers 

Second team—Devon Witherspoon, Seahawks; Nahshon Wright, Bears

Slot—Cooper DeJean, Eagles (slot)

Second team—Nick Emmanwori, Seahawks (slot)

Safeties—Jessie Bates III, Falcons; Kevin Byard, Bears

Second team—Tre'von Moehrig, Panthers; Xavier McKinney, Packers

Special Teams

Kicker—Will Reichard, Vikings

Second team—Brandon Aubrey, Cowboys

Punter—Tress Way, Commanders

Second team—Daniel Whelan, Packers

Kick Returner—Kavontae Turpin, Cowboys

Second team—Deonte Banks, Giants

Punt Returner—Jaylin Lane, Commanders

Second team—Rashid Shaheed, Saints-Seahawks

Special Teams—Luke Gifford, 49ers

Second team—Nick Bellore, Commanders

Note: Due to personal family issues, I am unable to post a full analysis of my picks at this time, but plan to update as soon as I am able.

2025 Pro Football Journal All-AFC

By John Turney

Offense

Center—Aaron Brewer, Dolphins

Second team—Creed Humphrey, Chiefs

Guards—Michael Onwenu, Patriots; Peter Skoronski, Titans

Second team— Quinn Meinerz and Quenton Nelson, Colts

Tackles—Garett Bolles, Broncos; Troy Fautanu, Steelers

Second team—Dion Dawkins, Bills; Spencer Brown, Bills

Tight end—Hunter Henry, Patriots

Second team—Travis Kelce, Chiefs

Wide Receivers—Ja'Marr Chase, Bengals; Nico Collins, Texans; Zay Flowers, Ravens

Second team—Alec Pierce, Colts; Stefon Diggs, Patriots; Courtland Sutton, Broncos

Quarterback—Drake Maye, Patriots

Second team—Josh Allen, Bills

Fullback—Reggie Gilliam, Bills

Second team—Patrick Ricard, Ravens

Running back—Jonathan Taylor, Colts

Second team—Derrick Henry, Ravens

Defense

Edge—Myles Garrett,  Browns; Maxx Crosby, Raiders and Will Anderson, Jr.; Texans  (tied)

Second team—Nik Bonitto, Broncos; Danielle Hunter, Texans

Defensive interior—Jeffery Simmons, Titans; Chris Jones, Chiefs; Travis Jones, Ravens (nose)

Second team—Zach Allen, Broncos; Cameron Heyward, Steelers; D.J. Jones, Broncos (nose)

Linebackers—Devin Lloyd, Jaguars; Jordyn Brooks, Dolphins

Second team—Carson Schwesinger, Browns; Henry To'oTo'o, Texans

 

Cornerbacks—Derek Stingley Jr., Texans; Pat Surtain II, Broncos

Second team—Donte Jackson, Chargers; Jarrian Jones, Jaguars

Slot—Jalen Pitre, Texans 

Second-team—Ja'Quan McMillian, Broncos 

Safeties—Derwin James Jr., Chargers; Kyle Hamilton, Ravens

Second team—Antonio Johnson, Jaguars; Talanoa Hufanga, Broncos

Special Teams

Kicker—Cam Little, Jaguars

Second team—Ka'imi Fairbairn, Texans

Punter—Jordan Stout, Ravens

Second team—Rigoberto Sanchez, Colts

Kick Returner—Charlie Jones, Bengals

Second team—Ray Davis, Buffalo

Punt Returner—Marcus Jones, Patriots

Second team—Chimere Dike, Titans

Special Teams—Devon Key, Broncos

Second team—Ben Skowronek, Pittsburgh

Note: Due to personal family issues, I am unable to post a full analysis of my picks at this time but plan to update as soon as I am able.