There was a stretch early in overtime Monday night, right after Nate Landman punched the ball loose from James Cook, when Freddie had something to root for. I want to be clear about how short that stretch was. The Bills got another chance, won it 37-34, and Hitmen lost a matchup they led by 23.30 points on Sunday night.
I think most people will start this story on Sunday night, and I’d argue that’s the wrong place to start it. Hitmen had 159.84. Jeepsters had 136.54. That’s a big lead, but Jeepsters still had two Bills to play, Cook and Cole Bishop. Hitmen had one guy. Dorian Williams, a Bills linebacker.
Leading a matchup on Sunday night with the other side’s running back still to play is like being up on a parlay with the late game still going. It feels like money until kickoff.
Cook scored from 17 yards out in the third quarter, then again from five yards with 1:39 left to put the Bills up 34-27. The Rams tied it with five seconds on the clock. Then came overtime, then the fumble, and I have to recuse myself a little here. Landman is my linebacker. He scored 16.50 for Angels of Harlem this week in a loss, and his biggest play of the night helped somebody else’s team. That tracks with how my season is going.
Cook finished with 23.18 and Bishop with 10.00. Williams gave Hitmen 5.25. That’s a 27.93-point swing on Monday night against a 23.30-point lead.
Final: Jeepsters 169.72, Hitmen 165.09. A 4.63-point loss. The two teams combined for 334.81, the most of any game in Week 5, and Hitmen lost while posting their season high.
The easy version of this column says Jeepsters pulled off a heist. I don’t buy it. Dan left 27.23 points on his bench, more than Hitmen did. Jayden Daniels scored 33.59 sitting behind Jacoby Brissett’s 30.87. Jordan Addison started and scored zero while Courtland Sutton put up 7.90 on the bench. Nobody is putting this lineup in a coaching clinic. But Jeepsters’ best possible lineup was 196.95, and Hitmen’s was 185.14. That 11.81-point gap is the real story. A deeper roster gets to make a few mistakes and survive them.
Which brings me back to Sunday. T.J. Watt started at defensive end and scored 0.00. Nik Bonitto scored 11.45 on the Hitmen bench. Swap them and Hitmen win 176.54 to 169.72. The Cook touchdown is the part everybody will talk about. The Watt decision is the part Freddie controlled.
Jeepsters are 4-2 with three straight wins. Hitmen are 3-3 after their best week of the year, which is a strange sentence to write. I’ve gone back and forth on whether this loss says anything about Hitmen going forward, and I don’t think it does. Their 165.09 would have beaten 12 of the other 15 scores this week.
Everyone will say Hitmen lost because they only had one guy playing Monday night. They had another one. He scored 11.45 on their bench.
