There are no apologies in this league

Andy from Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Hey Mike, I remember this offseason when Mo Drayton took over the special-teams unit there was excitement but also angst for promoting from within a less than spectacular unit. I’m not one to “fire everybody” but ST have been a disaster this year. Is it Mo? Is it players or plays? Or is it something else?

All I know is it’s not good enough. In situations like these, there’s usually plenty of blame to go around. If it were one thing, anybody could fix it. Like last year, I’m back to holding my breath on every special-teams play, and I hate that feeling. At least Mason Crosby seems in a good place now.

With all due respect to Aaron Rodgers, something is terribly wrong if Jonathan Taylor doesn’t win MVP. Everybody knows he’s getting the ball, and they can’t stop him. Heck, they can’t even contain him.

He’s making a whale of an argument, approaching 300 carries and averaging 5.6 on the year. That’s nuts. As far as I’m concerned, it’s between Rodgers and Taylor now. That performance Sunday night dropped Brady out of the conversation in my book.

Well, if there had been any question before, no doubt Arians will bring back Antonio Brown after this game.

And yes, I know a win is a win is a win. But the inability to put away an inferior opponent is a clear sign of a team not capable of winning a championship. I worked in professional sports for over 20 years and was fortunate to enjoy six championships. This team is not of championship caliber. I would love for them to prove me wrong. This will be another bitter disappointment when all is said and done. If anyone wants to bet against it, send them my way.

We have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I have to ask you, based on your criteria through 14 games this season, what team in the NFL is championship-caliber? Only one team in the AFC has four losses and it needed overtime the other night to avoid a fifth loss; everybody else in that conference has at least five. We just saw what happened to the Bucs and Cards. Dallas nearly blew a 24-0 lead at Washington last week. The Rams coughed up an onside kick with the game on the line last Monday night. Nobody in the NFL is screaming “team to beat” right now, and that does not surprise me in the slightest. It’s the way of this league.

Congrats to the NFC North Champs! It’s crazy that (with four games left to play in Week 15) the Packers are not only the first team to clinch a division crown, they’re also the only team to have clinched a playoff berth at all. And only four teams have been mathematically eliminated. Parity achieved.

Christian from Plymouth, MN

Is Justin Herbert the real deal?

He absolutely is, but with a first down on his own 44-yard line with 43 seconds left in regulation and multiple timeouts remaining, he’s got to get his team into position to win that game. There’s no whining allowed (not saying he did, but a lot of fans have) about not getting the ball in overtime when you waste an opportunity like that.

Is it OK to put a HUGE shout out to Kelly Sheffield and the UW women’s volleyball team? What an extraordinary group of athletes these ladies are to finally get over the hump and bring a championship to Madison. Congratulations all!

Outstanding achievement. What an incredible pair of Final Four matches to cap a dynamite season and the amazing careers of several star players who came back for one last go-round.

James from Farmington, NM

Good morning, I was wondering why the two of you are prohibited from viewing practices during the regular season, but the announcers for the upcoming game don’t face such a restriction? Often times, you’ll hear them say, “Oh, we saw team X practice that play or player X really stood out when we saw them on Friday.” When did the league create this rule and for what purpose? Does it make it more challenging to create content? Just curious and thanks in advance for the consideration.

The network broadcast team often watches the Friday practice of the home team when it gets into town prior to the Sunday game. The announcers aren’t allowed to talk about anything they see until the broadcast, but that’s been part of network access/procedure forever, just like the production meetings with both coaches, QBs, etc. The networks pay billions of dollars to broadcast the games, so they get special consideration. Part of the deal.