The NFL Is Kind Of Hard To Watch, Eh?

Your friendly neighborhood blog likes to watch the NFL.

Or did.

Your friendly neighborhood blog is running out of teams to watch. Especially after the Miami Dolphins looked more like your last pet gold fish in going belly-up on Monday night in a sorry 45-21 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Our passions are formed by childhood attachments and geography. Your friendly neighborhood blog, a child of northern New Jersey, grew up watching the New York Giants. The blog, after a long career covering the NFL for USA Today in the Washington, D.C. area, later spent two years in the employ of the Washington Redskins, again a team followed originally for geographical reasons.

And now the Dolphins. Geography, again. At least the blog enjoys the weather in South Florida.

The Dolphins are 4-5, having now lost three in a row after this latest primetime debacle. The Redskins are 4-5. The Giants are 1-8. The Giants just lost to the previously-winless San Francisco 49ers. The Dolphins gave up four touchdown passes to Cam Newton and allowed 548 total yards (294 on the ground, just shy of a Panthers record). The Panthers scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions.

The blog waves the white flag and asks for help. To whom can the blog turn to for sustenance, to cheer in its non-journalism moments?

Forgive the blog for having had high hopes. The Dolphins and Giants made the playoffs last season. The Redskins made it the one before. Now the postseason will be sprinkled with Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams, and no member of the blog’s Big Three.

The Giants were widely expected to win the NFC East, but instead may “earn” the top pick in the NFL draft. The Redskins are pretty much an 8-8 pick from year to year, with a game swinging in either direction. The Dolphins? A perpetual afterthought. Their playoff berth last season was their first since 2008, a complete anomaly.

Some parts of the Dolphins’ failure are understandable. When they lost quarterback Ryan Tannehill for the season – before the season started – and signed Jay Cutler, the faint odor of death hung in the air. Now they can’t block or tackle or run the football.

The Giants seem to hate their coach. The Redskins, with their multitude of injuries, at least show up to play but often can’t do it well enough. They’re undermanned and haunted by personnel moves that cost them receivers who could actually catch.

So the blog sits and waits. Will a team catch the blog’s fancy?

Ah, there’s always the New England Patriots.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman