Michael David Smith

I think some of the Hall of Fame voters who didn't vote for Bill Belichick voted strategically. They thought, "Belichick is a lock and I can only vote for 3, so I'll vote for 3 other candidates and not use one of my votes on the shoo-in. And I'll assume 10 other voters won't do the same thing."

I don't think I've ever seen a player hurt his team quite like Riq Woolen just did. The Rams were about to punt when Woolen decided to taunt their sideline, giving them an automatic first down. Very next play, Woolen is burned for a touchdown pass. Incredible.

Miami just standing there, running all that time off the clock and calling timeout on fourth-and-2 is dumb. At least line up your offense and see if you can draw Indiana offside before the timeout.

If you have so little faith in your QB getting a first down that you feel the need to punt while down by 12 with 4 minutes left, then you should have benched your QB a long time ago.

Punting for 25 yards instead of trying a 58-yard field goal at Denver's altitude (with a kicker who has made a 60-yarder at sea level) is a shockingly bad decision by Sean Payton.

CBS has the Bills' field goal target line at Matt Prater’s career long, which he made in Denver when he was 29 years old. That’s not his range at sea level and 41 years old.

Always funny to see a guy run off the field celebrating after an interception on a deep pass on fourth down. You're celebrating that you just cost your team 27 yards of field position.

Newsflash: Curt Cignetti is better at evaluating talent than the people who decide if high school football players deserve 4 or 5 stars.

The Packers getting Malik Willis for a seventh-round pick was one of the best personnel moves in the NFL in recent years. The Titans giving up Willis for a seventh-round pick was one of the dumbest moves in recent years. If you can get a talented QB, get him. If you have one, keep him.

Dan Campbell has turned into a different coach. bsky.app/profile/nfl4...

Dan Campbell has looked gun shy the last few weeks. Kicking on a play when the analytics say you should go for it is unusual for him. The fact that they missed the field goal makes it worse for the Lions, but the issue is the decision, not the result. bsky.app/profile/nfl4...

I would love to be proven wrong because it would be fun to see Philip Rivers play a great game today, but I just do not believe a 44-year-old coming off a five-year layoff can walk back into the NFL and play at a high level.

It's not just you, RedZone Channel's audio is out all over the place. Don't worry, I'm sure they'll fix it in time to show lots of commercials. It really sucks what the NFL has done to this once-great product.

"A Mississippi man will coach Mississippi."

That was not an Ohio State touchdown. He lost possession for a split-second and that was the only split-second he was in the end zone. Replay process basically concluded, "We hate to overturn such a great play for such a stupid reason so we'll pretend he had possession across the goal line."

Mike Kafka with the rare "Go for it when the analytics say to kick" call. Coaches often kick when the analytics say to go for it. They virtually never go for it when the analytics say to kick. bsky.app/profile/nfl4...

Football is so much more fun thanks to the nerds teaching the coaches how to coach. A team going for it on fourth-and-1 is just a fundamentally more exciting play than a punt.

I watch NFL games on my iPad using the apps for ESPN, Peacock, Prime Video and YouTube. ESPN is by far the worst. Constant glitches.

Teams with bad kickers on windy days should go for two as the default.

The Titans gave Malik Willis to the Packers for a seventh-round pick just before last season. Since then Willis has played well every time the Packers have needed him, and the Titans' offense has been a disaster. A talented QB for a seventh-round pick is such an obvious steal of a trade.

Josh Allen already has as many interceptions this year as he had in 17 games last year, as many fumbles as last year, and more sacks than last year. He's always had a lot of, "What's he doing? ... Wow it worked!" plays, but this year more of them are missing the "it worked" part.

So are we all agreed that Russell Wilson is the worst of the three QBs on the Giants' roster? It's far from the only reason Brian Daboll is now unemployed, but he should've just let Jaxson Dart work with the first-string offense from Day One and have Jameis Winston back him up.

I thought the Dolphins should have kicked the field goal. The analytics says it was not a bad call to go for it, even though it didn't work. bsky.app/profile/nfl4...

The Packers trailed 3-0 in the fourth quarter and faced a fourth-and-11 at the Eagles’ 40-yard line. The analytics said the best choice was a 58-yard field goal and the next-best choice was going for it. Matt LaFleur picked the worst choice, a punt. www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootb...

The NFL's officials have just decided to stop doing their jobs on the tush push. The Eagles false start? Don't call it. The Eagles fumble? Claim forward progress was stopped. It's unreal.

The Panthers beat the Falcons 30-0. The Falcons beat the Bills 24-14. The Bills beat the Panthers 40-9. Football is weird.

ESPN's officiating analyst Russell Yurk will tell the viewers one thing, the replay ruling is something else, and then the ESPN broadcast just acts like there’s no need to explain.

When the NFL started running commercials on RedZone Channel, the spin from the league was that they would be very minimal, just four 15-second ads over the course of seven hours. That didn't last long. www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootb...

The Giants were winning 19-0 at the start of the fourth quarter, scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, and lost. Amazing.

Right call by Matt LaFleur to go for it on fourth down but you'd hope he wouldn't need to burn a timeout before making the right call.

Remember when people first started complaining about commercials during RedZone and we were told, "Relax! It's only four commercials during the whole seven-hour show"? Yeah, well they've already increased it. By my count there have been six so far today. They'll keep steadily adding more and more.

There have been as many field goals longer than 60 yards in the NFL in the last five minutes as there were in the entire 20th Century.

Did Shohei Ohtani just play the greatest game in the history of baseball? As a pitcher he threw six innings, gave up no runs and struck out 10. As a hitter he went 3-for-3 with three home runs. The game won the Dodgers the NL pennant. Has any player ever done that much in a game that important?

Are we sure the Bills are good? The four teams they've beaten have a combined record of 3-22.

Buccaneers now have four wins and they did not have a lead with 1:00 remaining in the fourth quarter in any of them

Adonai Mitchell just fumbled away a sure touchdown because he started celebrating at the 2-yard line and dropped the ball. It's amazing that this happens every football season. You'd think it happens once, ever, and then every single player makes absolutely certain to secure the ball before scoring.

USC just got called for roughing the passer when Illinois ran the Philly Special. Rare to see roughing the passer called for a hit on anyone other than the quarterback, but by rule roughing the passer applies to all forward passes except illegal forward passes beyond the line of scrimmage.

Matt Eberflus finally got the most out of Caleb Williams' talent.

The Buccaneers were losing with 1:00 remaining in the fourth quarter of all three of their games this season. They're 3-0.

Eagles -3.5. Never in doubt.

There have been five fumbles in the Steelers-Patriots game and the Steelers have recovered all of them. The Patriots have out-gained the Steelers by almost 200 yards but it's tied in the fourth quarter because the Steelers are getting all the luck on fumble recoveries.

With how much NFL fans pay for Sunday Ticket, it should be a flawless viewing experience. Today it's glitching like crazy, with viewers all over the country reporting that they can't watch the games they paid for. www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootb...

Fox broadcast just going to ignore the fact that the Eagles false-started on the first tush push?

Eagles-Chiefs, one of the biggest games of this NFL season, is unavailable to almost everyone in the country because almost every Fox affiliate is still on Giants-Cowboys and YouTube hasn't lifted the blackout to let Sunday Ticket viewers watch.

Matt Gay has made just 4 of his last 15 field goals from 50+ yards. You just can't be a kicker in the NFL in the year 2025 if your field goal range cuts off in the 40s.

Ben Johnson screwed up the clock management with 2:02 left in the Bears' loss to the Vikings. Peyton Manning recognized it at the time. www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootb...

The Bears have more interception return yards off J.J. McCarthy than the Vikings have receiving yards catching his passes. That's never a good sign.

Viewers of the ManningCast just missed two full plays while Peyton and Eli did some kind of little skit. I like the ManningCast (and I wish more networks did alternate broadcasts) but the focus has to be the game, first and foremost.

YouTube multiview isn't allowing me to combine early games with late games. Very dumb that I can't have both Seahawks-49ers and Bucs-Falcons on.

The Giants have one long drive for a field goal. Their other five drives are 19 plays, 27 yards, five punts. I don't think Russell Wilson can keep Jaxson Dart on the bench much longer.