Football Film Room Weekly Newsletter

Week of September 4

This week at Football Film Room…

Lions win stunner over Chiefs

I’m not entirely sure what to make of the Lions’ season-opening win over the Chiefs. While they escaped with the W, they did get beat on both sides of the ball.

Their offense scored just 14 points and looked sloppy at times. The defense may have held the Chiefs to just 20 points and returned an interception for a touchdown, but that pick-6 was the result of a perfectly thrown Patrick Mahomes pass that Kadarius Toney tipped up into the air.

The Chiefs seemed to generate a lot of open receivers throughout the night, in fact. But the Lions didn’t end up paying for it because there were so many drops (mostly by Toney). Not to mention, Detroit had a tough time getting to Mahomes (0 sacks) and allowed him to extend plays regularly.

That said, the Lions still beat the defending champions on their own turf despite not firing on all cylinders… [Click here to read the rest]

How They Match Up - Week 1

One of the things we like to do at Football Film Room is give you a statistical preview of every NFL game based on team stats. We’re not comparing one offense to another offense since they’re never on the field at the same time. Instead, we’re taking a look at how each team’s offense matches up to that week’s opponent on defense, and vice versa (Below is an example from the Giants-Cowboys game).

For Week 1, we’ll be using 2022 team stats. In Week 2, however, we’ll begin using 2023 numbers. So dig in, find the mismatches, and watch closely to see which teams exploit their opponents’ weaknesses on game day.

Remember: Green = Good; Red = Bad.

[Click here to see the rest of the Week 1 games]

To spy or not to spy a mobile QB

As we enter the 2023 season, one trend that shows no sign of slowing down is the prevalence of mobile quarterbacks. There are probably 7 or 8 quarterbacks who are flat-out weapons when they choose to run. And most starting quarterbacks in the league have the ability to at least scramble for first downs in critical moments. There are very few statues in the pocket still playing in the NFL.

That leaves defenses with a difficult choice when it comes to accounting for a quarterback’s running ability - Should they use a spy or not?… [Click here to read the rest]

2023 NFL season predictions

The 2023 season is finally here, so it’s time for our predictions. Two years ago, we did pretty well as both Ed and I had the correct final-4 in the NFC (Packers, Buccaneers, Rams, 49ers). Last year, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster (only one of us had the Chiefs even making it to the AFC Championship).

With that said, here are our picks for this season. You can also find the 2022 team stats and rankings for all 32 teams at the bottom of this post… [Click here to read the rest]

Don’t forget, we provide previews based on team stats and rankings for every NFL game in the How they Match Up section of Football Film Room.

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