Inside The Hashes Football Q & A with Kris Thomas
Inside The Hashes Football Q & A with Kris Thomas
Who is the most unfortunate team this year?
A tie between the Falcons and the Eagles. The Falcons came off a season where Matt Ryan and the offense still had a good year despite the injuries and a defense that didn’t catch a break at all with the injuries. This season they have been much worse defensively as well as Matt Ryan. I really believe coming into this season that a healthy Falcons team would be a playoff team this year, but Dan Quinn has been getting exposed on the defensive side of the ball due to firing everyone and taking over as the main play-caller for defense. This team is 3 years removed from the Superbowl but after that 28-3 blown lead, they haven’t been close to that same caliber team. The worst part of it is with all the money they spent on extensions they can’t afford a rebuild.
The Eagles are unfortunate because every week they switch issues. One week the defense can’t stay off the field, another week the offense can’t put the pieces together. The first month the Eagles have a laundry list of injuries on the defense, then as the defense gets healthy the offense gets injured. Coaching issues, Carson Wentz not performing up to par, drop passes just a mess overall to watch. The only reason why they are still in the playoff race is because they are in the NFC East and Dallas can’t beat a winning team to safe Jason Garrett’s job. After this loss to Miami which starts off the easiest stretch to end the season for any other team in the NFL, all confidence for this team is shot. If they do get in it’ll be by being the best team in the worst division in football and with all the hype all the moves made by Howie Roseman the past offseason is what makes them unfortunate.
Have the 49ers find how to beat the Ravens?
Well, the Browns and the Chiefs already have done that. The game that had to rewatched on Monday( because I got the Eagles Dolphins game on my TV) was as good as advertised. Two of the best defenses and best-running attacks on a rainy day in Baltimore in a physical contest. Watching the game, what the 49ers did well was stop Baltimore on 3rd down. They were converting at an NFL high 50% this year and held Baltimore to 30% on Sunday. Raheem Mostert ran for nearly 150 yards and a TD against a top 3 run defense, Deebo Samuel made a great play to score on Marcus Peters and they held the Ravens to under 30 points for the first time in five games. Lamar Jackson was held to only 105 yards passing but still had over 100-yard rushing and the Ravens have 178 rushing yards for the day.
In the end to beat a physical team like the Ravens you need to match their physicality and counterpunch them. The Ravens did that with the Patriots was dominating and undefeated and the 49ers almost did it against the Ravens. The 49ers have a great front seven which is why the game was close all through the end but when I look at the AFC side I see no team that is close to matching that. The Ravens run on everyone so trying to key on that and forcing them to pass on 3rd and longs is a tough task. Baltimore defense has been great especially in stopping the run which I didn’t see coming due to the losses of Za’Darius Smith and CJ Mosley in Free Agency but you can run on them if you have a good offensive line to back it up. If we do get this rematch in the Superbowl in February in Miami, the 49ers need to take their game film and see that you can hurt Baltimore if you have a good offensive line and a commitment to the run and Jimmy Garoppolo doesn’t need to be the driving force to win you the game. The Ravens have an established identity no matter what Lamar Jackson will always get the ball in his hands when the game is on the line. The 49ers still have time to figure it out but in January they have a great defense and a good running game to win games so don’t try to force it on Jimmy G to win it.
Are you concerned with New England for the rest of the year?
Yes. The fact that every time of the Patriots take on the playoff-caliber team they don’t play to par. When they taking on the likes of the Jets, Dolphins, Giants, and Washington the Patriots defense plays is an all-time great level and dominates with turnovers and defensive touchdowns. That wasn’t the case when they took on the Ravens and the Texans. Lamar Jackson ran all over that great Patriots defense and Brady put up an average performance. Watson dominated the Patriots defense and Brady with a bad night passing dug a hole too deep to dig themselves out of. Even in-game against the Bills, Eagles, and Dallas Brady didn’t play well at all to win those games for them. Josh Allen got hurt and the defense got 4 interceptions. Edleman threw the Patriots only TD against the Eagles and Brady threw for less than 50% of his throws against the Cowboys. Winning hasn’t equated to Brady playing well against any good teams in the playoff hunt except the Steelers in week one. The trade for Sanu hasn’t panned out well for them at all and the big bad boogie man that is Tom Brady is the same as he used to be. Baltimore controls their own destiny now with being the #1 seed but with this trend of the Patriots struggling and losing to playoff-caliber teams the Bills have a legit shot to take this division from them but with the Patriots being 24-1 in the month of December since 2003 under Belichick that would be a sight to behold.
With Alabama Losing to Auburn who gets the Last Playoff spot?
Georgia or Oklahoma. Georgia controls their own destiny with a win in the SEC game against undefeated LSU however with the injury of Bulldogs running back D’Andre Swift that could alter their plans. If Georgia loses to LSU it opens the door for Oklahoma to get back into the conversation considering their bad loss against Kent State two months ago. Oklahoma takes on Baylor in a rematch this time in the Big 12 title game. If Swift’s injury is serious enough to keep him out of the big game on Saturday this helps out Oklahoma’s chances to backdoor into the CFP immensely. Georgia has struggled to score more than 27 in six of the last seven games and Jake Fromm has completed under 50% of his passes in four straight games which is good for an LSU defense that has given up 641 yards and 37 points to Mississippi State. Oklahoma has already beaten Baylor this season playing their absolute worst and coming back from a 28-3 hole. This time around should be different. Jalen Hurts is playing top tier football and the Sooners defense is 16th in the nation in points allowed. The combo of Lincoln Riley’s offense and Alex Grinch’s defense is a match made for the playoffs and a potential tough outing for LSU.
-By: Kris Thomas
Writer/Interviewer