Welcome to Belly Up’s Over-Reactionary Coach’s Hot Seat Scale for NFL Week 14! (Or BUORCHSS, for short.) Only three more weeks remaining in the 2020 NFL Season. For some fans of NFL teams, it’s a race to the playoffs, other it’s a race to the bottom and for a scant few fans, it’s a race to the bottom of a bottle because the end can’t come soon enough. The hot seat scale can’t stop and won’t stop, though. As always, this week was no exception. Let’s check it out.
Coach-For-Life
Sean McVay, Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, Bruce Arians, Vic Fangio, Mike Vrabel, Frank Reich, Matt LaFleur, Ron Rivera, Sean McDermott, John Harbaugh.
The race for the NFC West title is starting to heat up just like the hot seat scale after NFL Week 14. Both the Rams and Seahawks are looking for that home playoff game. McVay’s Rams had a dominant performance against the Patriots on Thursday night while Carroll’s Seahawks got a ‘get-right’ game against the Jets. Then again, every game for any Jets opponent is a ‘get-right’ game this season. Reid’s Chiefs survived a late rally in Miami and Arians’ Buccaneers had an easier than expected game against Minnesota. Washington now owns the longest winning streak in the NFC and sits in first place in the NFC East after a convincing win in San Francisco Arizona over the 49ers. Washington didn’t score a touchdown on offense and yet, wound up with the win, including defensive end Chase Young’s first NFL touchdown.
CHASE YOUNG. @youngchase907 #WashingtonFootball
— NFL (@NFL) December 13, 2020
?: #WASvsSF on FOX
?: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/3alYfT3slD pic.twitter.com/dv5glFuSMh
Tepid
Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennell, Brian Flores, Kliff Kingsbury, Joe Judge, Mike Zimmer, Jon Gruden, Darren Revell, Sean Peyton, Raheem Morris, Kyle Shanahan, Mike Tomlin, Kevin Stefanski.
Plenty of teams suffered either their first loss or gained their first win in a while. That’s why we see so many coaches in this hot seat scale level after NFL Week 14. Kingsbury climbed his way out of the Instant Pot level as the Cardinals, led by linebacker Haason Reddick’s five sacks, beat Judge’s Giants. Elsewhere, the playoff chances of Gruden’s Raiders are melting faster than an ice cream cone in the Las Vegas sun. The Raiders surrendered 456 yards to Indianapolis and as a result, defensive coordinator Paul Guenther is out of a job. He’s the second DC to lose his job in a matter of weeks.
#Raiders fired Paul Guenther as defensive coordinator. Defensive line coach Rod Marinelli will serve as interim defensive coordinator for the remainder of the season.
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) December 14, 2020
Tomlin’s Steelers lost their second game in a row on Sunday night in Buffalo. Are the cracks starting to show in the armor of the Steelers? The Browns’ rallied from 14 down on Monday night, only to have quarterback Ravens Lamar Jackson flush their chances of a win.
(I’ll be here all week, folks. Do try the prime rib!)
Instant Pot
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Matt Nagy, Mike McCarthy, Matt Rhule, Anthony Lynn, Doug Pedersen.
Several coaches climbed out of the Circle of Hell this week with some significant wins in NFL Week 14. Nagy’s Bears were led by quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s three touchdown passes (yes, you read that right) in a rout of Houston. McCarthy’s (no relation) Cowboys beat up on the hapless Bengals as quarterback Andy Dalton threw two touchdowns to defeat his former team. Lynn’s Chargers rallied from 10 points down to stop a four-game skid. Finally, Pedersen made arguably the biggest gamble of his season to stay in the NFC East hunt by starting rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts. The result? The Eagles snapped their own four-game losing streak by stopping New Orleans’ 10-game winning streak.
Circle of Hell: Level 8
Adam Gase, Zac Taylor, Doug Marrone.
Even though we’re in NFL Week 14, several things have stayed static in this level of the hot seat scale. One of those things is that both Gase and Marrone remain in this level as the Tank for Trevor (or Fail for Fields) sweepstakes continues. Gase’s Jets were embarrassed in Seattle. How bad was this game for the Jets? It got so bad that Pete Carroll took Russell Wilson out in the third quarter for Geno Smith, who played for the Jets from 2013-2016. Marrone’s Jaguars were literally run over by running back Derrick Henry and visiting Tennessee. Taylor, meanwhile, lost their fifth game in a row. Since quarterback Joe Burrow had his leg bent backwards in Week 11, the Bengals have averaged only 8 PPG since. It’s gotten so bad that 2020 has broken a usually-chipper Taylor. From The Athletic’s Jay Morrison following the game:
“When you lose, it’s frustrating,” Taylor added. “It’s hard to get rid of this feeling that we feel at the end of every week.”
Zac Taylor, Bengals Head Coach, per The Athletic
Toast
Bill O’Brien, Dan Quinn, Matt Patricia.
