NFL Thread

[Carey]

Yeah, onto Sunday Night Football.  With the Dirty 30 and 40 Burger, courtesy of Kansas City at the expense of San Francisco, that should just about do it.

While my picks were in reverse (and I actually did well because if it, I was torn between this game and the Colts/Titans game.  Both were evenly matched.  I usually get stomped by New York, so it was a nice blessing for going with New York today.

Somehow, parity will be complete if and when the Niners pound the Bills in February

[mojoween]

Goddamn they’re doing it again.  “Tom Brady is 3-4, Aaron Rodgers is 3-4 and San Francisco is about to go 3-4”.

Like, unless they’re trying to say that all things California are 3-4, they are not doing it right.

[Salacious Kitty]

I missed the beginning of the late games. I am watching Red Zone and saw that Rypien was in at QB for Denver. Did Russ get benched, or did he not even start? 

What a mess in Broncoland. I love it! 😂

[meowmommy]

2 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Goddamn they’re doing it again.  “Tom Brady is 3-4, Aaron Rodgers is 3-4 and San Francisco is about to go 3-4”.

Like, unless they’re trying to say that all things California are 3-4, they are not doing it right.

And even if they'd been syntactically correct, saying "Jimmy Garoppolo" instead of San Francisco, it'd still be "one of these things is not like the other."

Just now, Salacious Kitty said:

I missed the beginning of the late games. I am watching Red Zone and saw that Rypien was in at QB for Denver. Did Russ get benched, or did he not even start? 

What a mess in Broncoland. I love it! 😂

He didn't start.  Has a hamstring pull that kept him out, although supposedly he was lobbying to be allowed to play.

[Salacious Kitty]

Thanks @meowmommy! I've been knee deep in figure skating and baseball of late, so I didn't hear any injury reports. 

[Xeliou66]

Chiefs beat the Niners 44-23, dominant win for the Chiefs as they rebound from their close loss to the Bills. Mahomes threw for over 400 yards and the Chiefs dominated, I think this game also showed why the Niners need an upgrade from Jimmy G, he just can’t win in a lot of big games and he made a very costly mistake with the pick before the half, and later he got sacked for the safety, he’s just not a top tier QB, he’s a decent QB who’s capable of winning but I don’t think he’s capable of winning a Super Bowl or of consistently winning against top tier teams.

Seahawks up 37-16 late against the Chargers - the Chargers are just not a good franchise and I feel like they are wasting Herbert right now, he is a top tier QB but I think injuries, a shaky roster and a shaky coaching staff are hurting him. The Chargers should be better than they are. The Seahawks have been a huge surprise, no one saw it coming that they would be in first place in the NFC West in late October, Geno Smith has done a much better job at QB than I expected. 

[mojoween]

Then if that score held (…I would hope so) Seattle is in first place in the NFC West.  Hands up if you saw that coming!

[Xeliou66]

1 minute ago, mojoween said:

Then if that score held (…I would hope so) Seattle is in first place in the NFC West.  Hands up if you saw that coming!

Yeah that’s what I just said, no one saw it coming that the Seahawks would be leading the NFC West at this point in the year. Suddenly next week’s Giants/Seahawks showdown is a big game. 

[meowmommy]

2 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Then if that score held (…I would hope so) Seattle is in first place in the NFC West.  Hands up if you saw that coming!

Yeah, a lot of people had Seattle picked as 32nd in their rankings at the start of the season.  Who would have thought Geno Smith would have a better record than Russell Wilson at this point?

[bluegirl147]

32 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Huh.  I always thought I hated the Niners and was neutral/sorta liked Kansas City, but this game is making me annoyed.  Weird.

I told a friend earlier the Chiefs have become the new Patiots for me.  I root against them just because. 

[Carey]

1 minute ago, bluegirl147 said:

I told a friend earlier the Chiefs have become the new Patiots for me.  I root against them just because. 

On one hand I have to disagree.  Patrick Mahomes hasn't done much winning as the Patriots.  Plus, New England never got humiliated in the big game (unless they were facing NFC Central teams).

On the other hand, there is some truth to that.  They roll over everyone, but there's that one team that scares them.  It just happens to be a former AFC Central team in the form of Cincinnati (same division as Baltimore, who made the Patriots slightly above ordinary)

[meowmommy]

2 minutes ago, Carey said:

Plus, New England never got humiliated in the big game (unless they were facing NFC Central teams).

The NFC East-dwelling and currently 6 - 1 New York Giants would beg to differ.

[Carey]

8 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

11 minutes ago, Carey said:

Plus, New England never got humiliated in the big game (unless they were facing NFC Central teams).

The NFC East-dwelling and currently 6 - 1 New York Giants would beg to differ.

Meh.  The GMEN beat the Pats twice, but by a combined score of 38-30.

To be fair, it was embarrassing, especially in 2007 since the Pats were offensive juggernauts and could only produce 13 points.  I had to laugh at their failed 2011 revenge tour when they lost at home and then in the Super Bowl again.

Pittsburgh lost a game 17-13 and the king of Pittsburgh sports media Ed Bouchette (recently retired) said it was the worst loss out of all the painful ones.  That's debatable but the 1994 Steelers were not an elite offensive team.

Speaking of the Steelers, for a second I almost forgot there was a game tonight while watching football today.  There's something special about watching football when there are no Steelers game in the early winner (usually due to a bye, or a night game on Thursday, Sunday, or Monday)

[meowmommy]

2 minutes ago, Carey said:

Meh.  The GMEN beat the Pats twice, but by a combined score of 38-30.

Heh.  When you're already smugly printing up the 18 - 0 swag, polishing the crown, and planning the parade, only to find yourself 17 - 1 and suddenly without swag, crown, or parade, you're humiliated.  And like you said, the revenge tour was a bust, thanks again to the G-men.

You could say that solely but for the Patriots, we wouldn't have our annual argument about whether Eli belongs in the Hall of Fame.

[mojoween]

Eli HOF yes.  Ben marginal.  Phillip fuck no.  Am I biased?  Maybe.

[Carey]

6 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Eli HOF yes.  Ben marginal.  Phillip fuck no.  Am I biased?  Maybe.

Biased...probably.  Accurate?  Possibly

[Lamb18]

Pittsburgh finally woke and started playing in the 2nd quarter. Pit 10 and Miami 13 right now. Miami could still score w/11 seconds left in the half.

[Carey]

Field goal for Miami.  Could end up being an exciting finish after what looked like a rout in favor of the Dolphins

16-10 Miami, with Pittsburgh getting the ball to start the second half

[Xeliou66]

16-10 Fins lead it at half, good game, Tua looks pretty sharp in his return, 176 yards passing so far, and the Dolphins have gotten some decent rushing plays as well. Steelers offense came alive some in the second quarter. Should be a good second half.

[voiceover]

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

Illegal for the offense.  Defense can do the polka before the snap and it’s legal

Okay I’m still lmfao over this.

I was trying to remember the last time the 49ers blew a 10-point lead to the Chiefs 🤔  #voiceovertroll

[Danielg342]

So Miami goes for it at 4th and 3 near the 10 instead of kicking the field goal that would have put them up by nine points.

Good call? I don't know.

[Salacious Kitty]

1 hour ago, Danielg342 said:

So Miami goes for it at 4th and 3 near the 10 instead of kicking the field goal that would have put them up by nine points.

Good call? I don't know.

The Dolphins will escape. 

[Xeliou66]

Dolphins win it 16-10, no points scored in the second half by either team. Good win for the Fins, Tua looked pretty good in his return and their defense played well. I think if they stay healthy the Fins are a playoff team.

[Carey]

5 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

Dolphins win it 16-10, no points scored in the second half by either team. Good win for the Fins, Tua looked pretty good in his return and their defense played well. I think if they stay healthy the Fins are a playoff team.

I respectfully disagree.  It was more of a bad loss by the Steelers than a good win by the Dolphins.  Pittsburgh is not going anywhere.  Beating the Bucs (who aren't all that right now anyway) changed nothing.

Winning is winning, and Miami did that.  It'll go down as such.  Despite beating Buffalo, they'll have to play better going forward, or they could find themselves in last place.  Looks like both New England and New York aren't awful.

Steelers getting swept by another division.  I believe it's been 4 years since that happened (AFC West in 2018)

Feel awful for the defense of the Steelers.  Miami had no answers on offense, but Pittsburgh chose to be a dumpster fire offensively themselves for their 2022 plans.  Felt like Pats/Broncos in 2016

[Danielg342]

14 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

If we assume Ryan doesn't win a SB then those cases are going to be hilarious.  How much does regular season longevity matter without the playoff resume? 

I'm of the opinion that there's too much weight placed on winning a championship, given that we're talking about a team game and winning a championship is a team achievement, not an individual one. I suppose, for a quarterback, a championship might mean a bit more because the quarterback heavily influences the offence and there's, at least, a strong correlation to how good the team is and how good their quarterback is.

Still, I'm not sure how much it should detract from the accomplishments of Phillip Rivers and Matt Ryan. If they were rated as borderline Hall candidates, the lack of a championship may mean something. They're not. The quarterback may do a lot for the team but he can only do so much.

16 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

The Dolphins will escape. 

6 minutes ago, Carey said:

It was more of a bad loss by the Steelers than a good win by the Dolphins.  Pittsburgh is not going anywhere.

^ That's what I think too. The Steelers did nothing. The Dolphins didn't look amazing either but they could afford to grind out the game after taking the lead. The Steelers- especially Kenny Pickett- needed to make something happen and they didn't.

[merylinkid]

The Dolphins got lucky.   If the Steelers Defense could CATCH there would have been more than a few interceptions in that game.   Now whether or not the Steelers did anything with those interceptions is an open question.   But on more than one ocassion, a Steelers player was the only one in position to catch a ball thrown by Tua.  

[Lamb18]

I think if Pittsburgh played the first quarter like the second quarter they could have won.

[Carey]

To be honest, if Pittsburgh played the first quarter like the second quarter they still may have lost, especially if McDaniel did the right thing and take points.

A lot of what ifs, which isn't a surprise when you plan on winning a certain way instead of multiple ways.  The problem is if your plan doesn't work at or anywhere close to an A+ level.

By the way, speaking of Miami's blunder, if we go back in time, and then say Pickett scores toward the end of game.  They still would lose since I imagine Mike McDaniel would've kicked a FG to go up 2 possessions.  Then following what would've been a 19-17 score, an onside kick is recovered by Miami.  OTOH, if they actually succeeded in turnovers more often then maybe Pittsburgh does win with another FG or two if they did a little more offensively.

ESPN's McFarland mentioned elsewhere that his team won a game kicking 5 field goals.  This was, BTW, in criticism of Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins.  This is 5 field goals with Manning as their QB.  It was impressive given the fact that it was a road win for Indianapolis at M&T Bank Stadium of all places.

The point is scoring isn't easy.  That said, it's 2022.  Sure you want to shut down another team, but you have to be better offensively.  One isn't beating Kansas City, Buffalo, and/or Cincinnati (when it counts) with incomplete plans.  Those AFC juggernauts can play defense too

[JTMacc99]

10 hours ago, Carey said:

I respectfully disagree.  It was more of a bad loss by the Steelers than a good win by the Dolphins. 

Over the weekend I heard somebody say that Parcells once gave advice that games are usually decided by which team did enough things to lose. Implying that as a coach, one of the best things you can do for your team is do your best to minimize catastrophic mistakes and wait for the other team to screw up.

Which, by the way, is the 2022 NY Giants way of life. This is probably why they caught Daniel Jones showing a rare outburst at one of his 17th string wide receivers with a "CATCH THE F'ING BALL".  DJ is on board with the plan. 

14 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Suddenly next week’s Giants/Seahawks showdown is a big game. 

1. The only reason this game is on the schedule is because this is the "reward" of the last place schedule both teams got for sucking last year. 
2. The Giants are really limping into this game as far as offensive personnel goes. Thank goodness they have their bye the following week. Their entire WR group has been wiped out due to injury. At least they've played with the same 5 offensive linemen all year...
   
   And then they had their LG and RT (as well as their starting Tight End) all leave the game with injuries that hopefully aren't season ending against Jacksonville. 

I'd assume the Giants will be like 5-6 point underdogs in Seattle. There are only so many games a team can win with half the roster on the shelf.

[JTMacc99]

Athletic Klutz.  That's kind of awesome.  To be fair to Jones, he did get hit on his hip on this one, which probably caused him to fall down like that.

[Carey]

4 hours ago, JTMacc99 said:

I'd assume the Giants will be like 5-6 point underdogs in Seattle. There are only so many games a team can win with half the roster on the shelf.

Who would have thought of that at the beginning of the season.  Though I figured they still would've been underdogs even if the Seahawks had sucked as speculated.  The Giants are around +2.5 BTW.

FWIW, New York are all but undefeated, but several of their games have gone down to the wire.  If they lose, so be it.  You can only do so much, I agree there.

Meanwhile, can't make the positive move toward a chance at Canton on the bench

[JTMacc99]

Holy cow. The Colts have spent an awful lot of resources on veteran quarterbacks the last few years, and now it looks like Reich is pretty much at the "I'll give it a few games, and if it doesn't work, I'm not sticking with it" part of the process.

I was looking at my office pool and wondering if I had a chance to pick up a game on everybody with a good pick the Monday Night matchup.  

The thing is, nobody in their right mind would pick the Bears over the Patriots, and I'm sure as hell not going to do so either.   

[DrSpaceman73]

Colts starting ehlinger shocks me but i think ryan had been awful and is immobile with a bad line.  He isn't even the immediate future. Time to see if ehlinger can play or if they need to draft someone.  

Though I wonder whose decision this is, Reich, Ballard or irsay. 

Ehlinger had a good preseason will see if it translates as a starter. He can run and scramble at least. 

[Xeliou66]

It shocks me that the Colts are benching Ryan for Ehlinger, I wonder if they are just throwing in the towel on this season and seeing if Ehlinger is any good as a pro QB. Ryan has struggled a lot this season, but I didn’t see it coming that the Colts would bench him for an unproven QB. Very curious move at this point in the season.

On another note, Jets RB Breece Hall tore his ACL yesterday, very tough break for him and the Jets, he was having a good rookie season and is a talented rusher.

[JTMacc99]

20 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

On another note, Jets RB Breece Hall tore his ACL yesterday, very tough break for him and the Jets, he was having a good rookie season and is a talented rusher.

They also lost their best offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker for the season with a triceps injury.  

And I'm over here complaining that my team lost a couple offensive linemen for the next 2-4 weeks....

[Fukui San]

Being a high draft pick by the Jets is basically the football version of Final Destination.

[Danielg342]

62% of people responding to Monday Night Football's poll concerning who will win tonight picked the Chicago Bears on the road against the New England Patriots. I'm sure 90% of those people are anti-Patriot fans, because I don't know anyone who would realistically think the Bears could actually win this game (though this is the NFL...).

[Lamb18]

Was that a real giant razor being assembled on Gillette field or was that just a TV graphic?

Let's go Patriots!

[mojoween]

Is anyone watching Manningcast?  (I normally don’t, but there’s a, uh, guest I need to see).  Anyways does anyone know what the statue behind the Giants helmet on Eli’s screen is?  Is that his Walter Payton award?

[Danielg342]

10 hours ago, Carey said:

The point is scoring isn't easy.  That said, it's 2022.  Sure you want to shut down another team, but you have to be better offensively.  One isn't beating Kansas City, Buffalo, and/or Cincinnati (when it counts) with incomplete plans.  Those AFC juggernauts can play defense too

The counter to that- which I've said before- is that this is the NFL. There's no team that's so far behind of every other team that, even against the best performers in the NFL, they can't at least be competent. The Colts held the Chiefs earlier this year to 17 points, and last year (as much as I don't want to remember it) the Jags held the Bills to six points.

Now, if this were college and I was the Buffalo Bulls and I had a 4th and 2 on the Florida Gators' 12-yard-line with a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, that would be different. Going for it there might be a smarter call since I'm not sure I could beat the Gators with just field goals. Sure, the defence may hold out and my offence could continue burning Florida's defence but it's not a realistic proposition.

In the NFL, it is a realistic proposition, no matter who I'm playing. Unless it's getting late in the game and I need the points, I'll just take what I can get.

[Xeliou66]

Mac Jones sucked so the Pats put in Zappe, and he immediately leads them to a TD. It’s clear Zappe is playing a lot better than Jones right now and I think he should be the starter going forward.

[Fukui San]

I liked Mac, loved what he did his rookie season, and was on board with him leading the team into the future. But right now Zappe is just having the team play better and you can’t ignore it. 

[Danielg342]

1 minute ago, Fukui San said:

But right now Zappe is just having the team play better and you can’t ignore it. 

If Bailey Zappe weren't a divisional opponent I'd be happy for him. What a story he has been.

[Xeliou66]

And just like that the Pats have the lead. I give Belichick credit for making the change and putting in Zappe, the Pats are playing much better with him. 

[Lamb18]

22 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

And just like that the Pats have the lead. I give Belichick credit for making the change and putting in Zappe, the Pats are playing much better with him. 

Not anymore. Boo! Is it hazy there or is something wrong with my screen?

[Fukui San]

Foggy and damp I believe. 

[DrSpaceman73]

I think there is even more parity this year than most years. The middle about 20 teams I think are all pretty close.  Even green bay, Tampa aren't that good.  San Fran underperforming. Rams are mediocre.  Like five or six teams separate out right now and the rest are mediocre and can lose any week. 

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Is that his Walter Payton award?

I only caught a glimpse of it, but I think it is.

ETA: Just saw a better view, and yes it looks to be.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Moose135

[Xeliou66]

16 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I think there is even more parity this year than most years. The middle about 20 teams I think are all pretty close.  Even green bay, Tampa aren't that good.  San Fran underperforming. Rams are mediocre.  Like five or six teams separate out right now and the rest are mediocre and can lose any week. 

The NFC is really wide open - I have no idea who will emerge from it. I think the Eagles and Vikings are the favorites right now but who knows - teams like the Giants and Seahawks have been surprises, the Bucs, Packers and Rams have struggled, who knows how it will all play out. It’s an exciting year.

[Carey]

I guess I might be better of making predictions opposite of logic going forward