NFL Thread

[AimingforYoko]

Christian McCaffrey is the first player to get the triple crown of TDs (Passing, receiving and rushing) in a single game since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2005.

[mojoween]

I am displeased.

[twoods]

McCaffrey has made the Niners very good. When Deebo comes back and barring McHottie not screwing it up too much, they are locked to win the division. 

[Xeliou66]

Niners beat the Rams 31-14 - Rams looked like shit in the second half after a good first half, I’m not sure why the Rams have looked so weak so much of the time but they seem to lack depth and their O-Line really struggles. The Niners looked very good, Garoppolo was very effective and McCaffrey is a great addition to their offense, they are a very dangerous team when Garoppolo is playing well, but you never know how well he’ll play.

Seahawks beat the Giants, Seahawks have been a huge surprise this season, Geno Smith is playing much better than I thought he would, and they have a potent offense. Giants played a sloppy game today, but Daniel Jones is going to have to do more going forward, he’s averaging under 200 passing yards a game and has a banged up receiving unit, that’s not a recipe for success.

Commanders come back and beat the Colts 17-16, Heinicke leads them on a game winning drive in the last minute.

Titans beat the Texans as Derrick Henry goes for over 200 yards rushing. 

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, Calvada said:

I keep telling him it's the cycle of the NFL.  But he gets no comfort from that.  Perhaps by the time he's the age I am now, he will be more philosophical about the rise and fall of sports teams.  For now, like jangling the car keys in front of a baby, I try to distract him by pointing out how exciting it is to watch the Milwaukee Bucks.

So true!  We have our college team, so it's not a total loss of a football season!  Thing is, we've been through the good, the bad, and the ugly with the Bucs, so it's not like we're sitting here crying over them.  We hope they can pull it together, but if not, we'll see what next year brings.  Besides, there are other loser teams in the NFL, so we're in the same boat with them.  We won't abandon ship though.  We will fire the cannons another day. 

We root for individual ex-Bama players on different teams, so even though some of those teams are rivals of ours, as long as they're not playing us, we'll root for them.  Although not a team we play in the regular season, watching Tua and Waddell is a lot of fun.  Seeing Jalen have success with the Eagles is nice - until the Bucs play them!!  

[Calvada]

ChitChat, I always root for former Badgers in the NFL, as long as they're not going against the Packers.  It's the reason I was rooting for the Rams in the SB - they have 2 Badger o-linemen.  In fact, Edwards and Havenstein were the honorary captains for the Badgers when the Rams had their bye a week ago.  Sometimes this is difficult when I don't like the team the former Badger is on.  James White with the Patriots is the best example of this.

[Lamb18]

I'm just happy the Vikings won and are 6-1. We are 2nd place in the NFC. We need to beat the Commanders next week, because after the Commanders we play Bills, Cowboys, Patriots and Jets. I think we can beat the Patriots but we may lose the other three. So if we go into the Bills game at 7-1 and four weeks later are 8-4, that won't be so bad.

Boo! Packers just scored.

I think Vikings could end up 12-5, which would be decent. Of course 16-1 would be better but not a realistic expectation. (Although we could do it.)

[Lamb18]

Rodgers is mad. 

Funny how both Rodgers and Brady are tanking this season. 

Wow, Allen just threw a Mpls miracle pass to Diggs!

[Xeliou66]

Bills dominated the 1st half aside from one Packers drive. Strong balanced attack on offense for the Bills and their defense hasn’t allowed Rodgers to do much. The Packers offense is so much weaker this season.

[Lamb18]

Now this game is getting crazy! Back to back interceptions!

[Lamb18]

So James Cook on Buffalo is Dalvin Cook's brother. In a couple of weeks it will be brother vs brother. Plus Stephon Diggs and Vikings (his former team) playing each other for the first time since the trade.

[roamyn]

1 hour ago, Lamb18 said:

I’m just happy the Vikings won and are 6-1. We are 2nd place in the NFC. We need to beat the Commanders next week, because after the Commanders we play Bills, Cowboys, Patriots and Jets. I think we can beat the Patriots but we may lose the other three. So if we go into the Bills game at 7-1 and four weeks later are 8-4, that won't be so bad.

I mentioned to hubby earlier today that the Vikings are quietly winning while attention is all on Eagles & Giants.

Funny how the analysts were all over the AFC as being the better conference, pre-season.  Yet with the exception of the Bills & Chiefs, most of the better playin teams are in the NFC:  Eagles, Giants, Vikings, Cowgirls

Most AFC teams are still inconsistent mid-season.

[twoods]

What a couple of boneheaded picks by Allen. I hope he learned from those dumb throws that it’s okay to throw away the ball if there is nothing there. This game is closer than I want it to be.

[Xeliou66]

The Bills dominated that game by more than the final score indicated, they were in control from start to finish and it never felt like the Packers were a threat to win, the Bills would’ve won by more if it wasn’t for the 2 Allen INT’s. The Bills have the best team in the NFL right now IMO. The Packers continue to struggle, on both sides of the ball, their defense hasn’t lived up to expectations at all and their offense has no weapons and Rodgers is struggling more than he’s ever struggled.

[Danielg342]

14 hours ago, ChitChat said:

I used to dislike Brady, but I'll admit that it was because he and the Patriots were always winning!!  Sour grapes for one, please!  Once he came to Tampa Bay, I saw a different side to him.  Again, lowering your own salary so that you can have great players around you is a pretty smart move.   I think that some of the criticism of him is that he comes across as an a**hole because he demands so much from his teammates.  That's what a leader does.  I'm not saying that he should berate his teammates, but I think some of the sideline frustration is blown out of proportion.

I was the same way, especially so since Tom Brady did a lot of winning against the Buffalo Bills. He always had his "Tampa Bay" side as a New England Patriot, but I didn't see it until I was rid of his menace. One of my favourite Brady stories in Tampa was after winning the NFC Championship in 2021, he scolded his teammates for crying, telling them "we haven't won anything yet". A leader doesn't just perform well on the football field- he does what he can to make sure everyone else does what they need to do as well.

6 hours ago, Calvada said:

Tell this to my nephew, whose head is imploding at the same rate as the Packers' season.  He was a 5 year old when Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren made the Packers relevant in the NFL again, but he has no memory of years when the Packers were horrible.   I keep telling him it's the cycle of the NFL.  But he gets no comfort from that.  Perhaps by the time he's the age I am now, he will be more philosophical about the rise and fall of sports teams.  For now, like jangling the car keys in front of a baby, I try to distract him by pointing out how exciting it is to watch the Milwaukee Bucks.

It's the cycle of sports, really- everyone has their down periods and their up periods and, as sad as it is, you don't really appreciate the ups until you've experienced the downs. I started watching the Bills during their infamous Super Bowl streak and saw the team fall down hard from that high. So that just makes me appreciate this high period a bit more, but I'm also not trying to get ahead of myself- having seen how cruel sports can be to both my team and other teams, I'm not going to start planning Bills parade routes until they've actually accomplished the task.

I don't know what you can say to your nephew except maybe that there's nothing wrong with being sad. My mother used to yell at me for being sad about sports because "it's just a game" but she was never a sports fan herself so she never understood. So if he's sad, tell him it's fine. I'd also say to remember this feeling so that when the Packers do come back- and they will- it will feel all that much better.

1 hour ago, Xeliou66 said:

The Bills dominated that game by more than the final score indicated, they were in control from start to finish and it never felt like the Packers were a threat to win, the Bills would’ve won by more if it wasn’t for the 2 Allen INT’s. The Bills have the best team in the NFL right now IMO. The Packers continue to struggle, on both sides of the ball, their defense hasn’t lived up to expectations at all and their offense has no weapons and Rodgers is struggling more than he’s ever struggled.

The key difference between the Josh Allen/Patrick Mahomes type of quarterback vs. Aaron Rodgers/Tom Brady/Peyton Manning type is that Allen and Mahomes are the types that wear their hearts on their sleeves, as opposed to the "ice in their veins" of the other type. This is why Allen and Mahomes make so many mistakes (and compound those mistakes) because they take the screw-ups so personally that there's this compulsive need to "fix" it on the next drive or the next play when they don't need to do that.

I've said it before about Allen, but it's a tricky situation. You can tell him to "dial it down" and not take everything so personally, but wearing his heart on his sleeve makes him the effective quarterback that he is. So, do you tell him to calm down, risking his effectiveness, or do you accept that's just the way he is and ride out the good and the bad periods?

I'll just say it's one reason I'm glad I'm not actually a NFL coach.

[merylinkid]

Man the NFC iEast is exciting to watch again.   Except the Commanders.   The Commanders can disappear into the sun for all I care.  

The Bills are pulling it together and put on a complete game.  

Literally no idea what happened to the Rams.   They just imploded this year.   

[Kip Hackman]

Me (Panther fan), watching all the other teams' kickers make their kicks on Red Zone:

[Lamb18]

9 hours ago, roamyn said:

I mentioned to hubby earlier today that the Vikings are quietly winning while attention is all on Eagles & Giants.

Funny how the analysts were all over the AFC as being the better conference, pre-season.  Yet with the exception of the Bills & Chiefs, most of the better playin teams are in the NFC:  Eagles, Giants, Vikings, Cowgirls

Most AFC teams are still inconsistent mid-season.

I still think overall AFC is the better conference. My picks do better when there's more AFC vs NFC matches.

2 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Man the NFC iEast is exciting to watch again.   Except the Commanders.   The Commanders can disappear into the sun for all I care.  

The Bills are pulling it together and put on a complete game.  

Literally no idea what happened to the Rams.   They just imploded this year.   

I know what happened to the Rams. They lost their Offensive Coordinator! Ha ha ha ha ha!

[JTMacc99]

10 hours ago, roamyn said:

I mentioned to hubby earlier today that the Vikings are quietly winning while attention is all on Eagles & Giants.

Funny how the analysts were all over the AFC as being the better conference, pre-season.  Yet with the exception of the Bills & Chiefs, most of the better playin teams are in the NFC:  Eagles, Giants, Vikings, Cowgirls

Most AFC teams are still inconsistent mid-season.

I think the attention on the Eagles and Giants is understandable, each for it's own reason. Many people felt like the Eagles could be a good team, so when it turned out that they're a very good team, the "experts" like to point out they're right. And the Giants got attention for their 6-1 start because, WTF? How is that team 6-1? 

The fact that the Vikings are off to a good start isn't super shocking to anybody, and unfortunately due to their LONG history of finding a way to not do anything with their good records, they get the "I'll believe it when I see it" treatment.

And yeah, everybody was super high on the AFC pre-season, especially all of that talent that ended up in the AFC West.  Turns out that "on paper" doesn't win games. The two teams that changed coaches are struggling big time, and I think it's directly related to the coaching changes. The Raiders staff feels like it could be very good, but they need to get it together. The Broncos... not sure what to say about them. And I'm not a big fan of the Chargers coach either, and that team also is dealing with some rough injuries.

So surprise, surprise, the Chiefs are in control of the division.

[bluegirl147]

13 hours ago, ChitChat said:

We root for individual ex-Bama players on different teams, so even though some of those teams are rivals of ours, as long as they're not playing us, we'll root for them.

My college team is West Virginia so I don't usually have too many players in the NFL to root for.  Until this year when Geno Smith is doing really well.   My second college team is Ohio State.  I would need a score card to for all their players in the NFL.

9 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

It's the cycle of sports, really- everyone has their down periods and their up periods and, as sad as it is, you don't really appreciate the ups until you've experienced the downs.

As a Steeler fan I'm not used to too many downs.  This year has been challenging.  I have to stop watching the games when they are not playing well. They can be losing but if they are playing well I will keep watching but if they are making mistakes I'm out.  I turned off yesterday's game at halftime.  I cannot let a football game ruin my day.  I also cannot have remotes being too close to me.  Back in Ben's rookie season during the playoff game against the Jets I broke a remote by beating it on the arm of the chair I was jumping out off.   In my defense I was jumping out of my chair because if not for two missed FGs by the Jets we would have lost that game.  I'm a lot older now and I don't like getting that upset.

[NUguy514]

6 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Literally no idea what happened to the Rams.   They just imploded this year.   

What has happened to the Rams is pretty simple: they went all in last year for the sole purpose of winning the Super Bowl, knowing that it was a one-year bet.  It paid off last year, and the downturn this year was expected and inevitable; it was a tradeoff everyone in the Rams' organization seemed to be OK with.

[Xeliou66]

16 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

What has happened to the Rams is pretty simple: they went all in last year for the sole purpose of winning the Super Bowl, knowing that it was a one-year bet.  It paid off last year, and the downturn this year was expected and inevitable; it was a tradeoff everyone in the Rams' organization seemed to be OK with.

Yeah the Rams traded away a lot of draft picks to go all in to win it all last year, and it paid off for them, but as a result they have some holes and are thin in places - their O-Line isn’t very good and lost several guys from last season, they clearly miss the injured Van Jefferson and OBJ at receiver, and their defense is rather thin in places, and Stafford has turned the ball over a lot. I still didn’t expect the Rams to be this bad though. Next week’s Rams/Bucs game is looking like a must win game for both teams. 

[Fukui San]

Weird factoid:

Every AFC East and NFC East team: .500 or better

Every other division in the NFL are each below .500 if each division is considered as a group..

Edited October 31, 2022 by Fukui San

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I still didn’t expect the Rams to be this bad though.

Nor did I; I expected the drop-off, but not this steep.  I didn't expect this degree of inconsistency, either.

[Lamb18]

Never mind!

Edited October 31, 2022 by Lamb18

[merylinkid]

Oh boy.   Fan AND sport loyalty are going to be tested Thursday night.   MLB purposely scheduled the World Series games to avoid Sunday Night football.   Unfortunately, the game tonight had to be postponed so now they play Tuesday, Wednesay and Thursday night in Philly.   It's the Astros v. the Phillies.   The Thursday game will be the SAME NIGHT, the Eagles are playing the Texans in Houston.    Who says the Gods have no sense of humor?

[Carey]

Happy birthday, mojoween!  Sorry it wasn't a great time in terms of your team on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Joe and Troy as classic MNF folks for Halloween!

[Lamb18]

Goodness, Stefanski is getting gray. I wonder if there will be any pumpkinheads in the stands.

Regarding the Thursday night dilemma, I suggest watching whoever will give you a good game. Or the most satisfactory game. Then record the other one.

5 minutes ago, Carey said:

Happy birthday, mojoween!  Sorry it wasn't a great time in terms of your team on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Joe and Troy as classic MNF folks for Halloween!

That's right, when I first saw Joe and Troy, I thought why is Andy from Bravo on football? And his hair sure got white. Then I realized it was Joe and the guys had matching blazers. They should have worn pumpkin orange blazers.

[Lamb18]

I remember seeing guys with paper bags over their heads in the stands.

[Lamb18]

What is that logo at Cleveland's 50-yard line?

[Lamb18]

Yay for Cleveland!

I had a feeling there were too many men on the field, that penalty before the kick. 

Good work, Cleveland getting the 2 points.

[Xeliou66]

Extremely sloppy and dull game so far, neither team looks impressive, and not having Chase is a killer for the Bengals offense it seems.

[Carey]

33 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

Extremely sloppy and dull game so far, neither team looks impressive, and not having Chase is a killer for the Bengals offense it seems.

It's all about parity.  Cincinnati has the great teams' numbers (AFC North powerhouses, Kansas City), while Cleveland has Cincy's number.  First time giving up a TD in the second half too.  Same Cincy team that beat up on a Miami team that ran through everyone prior including Buffalo & New England.

If Cincinnati can come back like they did twice against the Chiefs, great.  If they end up dominating their next several opponents, then it's more a Browns problem than a Chase-free issue

[Xeliou66]

This is just a damn ugly performance from the Bengals - this can’t all be about Chase being out, they’ve underperformed a lot this season - they have an extremely talented offense and they are looking like utter shit. Zac Taylor has to be somewhat responsible for this, he isn’t getting the most from this team. 

[Carey]

Cincinnati finally scores.  Missed PAT.  It was smart to save the 2-point try for later, but now they'll need to hit it twice.  Or do whatever it takes to score 3 times.  Probably not going to happen.  Margin is decent enough for Cleveland to run out the clock

[roamyn]

Thank God we didn’t embarrass ourselves on MNF.  Where the Hell has this defense been all season, Joe Wood?

That stupid logo at the 50 is the new ‘Brownie’, our unofficial mascot.  No one likes it.

Here’s the old one.

[Carey]

Rather than like the above post, I'll do so in writing.  Hats off to Cleveland.  Cincinnati may be for real, but as mentioned, it's all about parity.  There is a ton of it.  First time scoring against the AFC Champs in the second half, and in a big way.  A much needed win to officially keep Pittsburgh at the bottom right now.

In the history of the NFL, Burrow might be a guy full of success, the first guy to be that without ever winning a game against the Browns.  It's incredible!

Yeah, that logo, the current one, looks like something out of a Disney Haunted House

[Notabug]

3 hours ago, roamyn said:

Thank God we didn’t embarrass ourselves on MNF.  Where the Hell has this defense been all season, Joe Wood?

That stupid logo at the 50 is the new ‘Brownie’, our unofficial mascot.  No one likes it.

Here’s the old one.

Here's a link to the midfield logo for comparison.  I prefer the old Brownie to the new one with the mean look on his face.

https://www.nfl.com/news/cleveland-unveils-new-brownie-the-elf-midfield-logo-for-2022-home-opener

[Lamb18]

19 hours ago, roamyn said:

Thank God we didn’t embarrass ourselves on MNF.  Where the Hell has this defense been all season, Joe Wood?

That stupid logo at the 50 is the new ‘Brownie’, our unofficial mascot.  No one likes it.

Here’s the old one.

The new logo looks like an orange eighth dwarf.

Or the Fighting Irish mascot.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Lamb18

[Lamb18]

I got 9 out of 14 picks correct for week 8. Now for week 9, while I'm sitting out here watching a couple of cows in labor. 

On a very sad note, Mike Zimmer's son, Adam, died. He was co-defensive coordinator of the Vikings last year.

Eagles* vs Texans
Colts vs Patriots*
Packers vs Lions*
Chargers* vs Falcons
Bills vs Jets*
Vikings* vs Commanders
Panthers vs Bengals*
Raiders vs Jaguars*
Dolphins* vs Bears
Seahawks* vs Cardinals
Rams vs Buccaneers*
Titans vs Chiefs*
Ravens* vs Saints

One of the cows in labor has #98 on her ear tag and I named her Linvall. Anybody guess who she's named after?

Edited November 8, 2022 by Lamb18

[Lamb18]

I watched the second half of the Vikings/Cardinals game tonight. I think the Vikings are getting better as the season progresses. However, I'm a little worried about the Commanders. That's a game that we should win, but often the games you should win are the ones you don't.

[Crashcourse]

Please, PLEASE let this be true!

https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/11/02/commanders-owner-dan-snyder-hires-bank-to-handle-potential-sale-of-team-per-report

If this happens, we will be dancing in the streets in the DC area.  I hope it's not just a minority stake he's selling; I want him to sell the whole damn team. 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Crashcourse

[Popples]

[merylinkid]

All hell just broke loose.

Rumor hath it, its the stadium deal.   No one would give Danny a shiny new stadium because he is so reprehensible.   So he just gave up.   FINALLY.

[Carey]

It took long enough.  The only "bad" thing in the aftermath may be who replaces him

[mojoween]

On 10/31/2022 at 8:03 PM, Carey said:

Happy birthday, mojoween!  Sorry it wasn't a great time in terms of your team on Sunday. 

Thank you!  It definitely did suck, that fourth quarter was BRUTAL. 

Such a sad week for the NFL - Mike Zimmer’s son, Sean McVay’s granddad and Tom Coughlin’s wife all passed away within days of each other.

And all were part of the game - Adam Zimmer was currently with Cincinnati, John McVay helped build the 49ers dynasty and Judy Coughlin was the rock of that family.

Edited November 2, 2022 by mojoween

[Crashcourse]

2 hours ago, Carey said:

It took long enough.  The only "bad" thing in the aftermath may be who replaces him

Bezos or Musk?  😱

[bluegirl147]

43 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

Bezos or Musk?  😱

Bite  your tongue.

Doesn't the other team owners have to sign off on any new ownerships?

[merylinkid]

Musk is not buying the Commanders.   He has nothing left after buying twitter.   The banks are admitting they might be stuck with bad debt on that one.

Bezos has been salivating at getting the Commanders.

Yes 2/3 or 3/4 can't remember which have to sign off.   But let's see Guy who ran a franchise into the ground then threatened to blackmail us if we did anything about it OR new guy who may or may not be jackass.   This is an easy one folks.

[Carey]

Bezos or Musk would be better than Snyder, TBH.  However, as mentioned, it's not going to be the latter as the Commanders aren't going to anyone for free.

Bezos owning a team might not be a big deal.  Sure he and Musk may not be popular to a number of people, but I don't know how much they'd care enough to meddle with the team.  They'd be too busy with other stuff & just get a guy to run the team.  Just as long as they make them money (and win).

It's 75% for successful approval (or 24 owners or 3/4).  Chances are that it's neither one, but I imagine that the NFL would prefer to get someone with a decent record.  As in someone that doesn't have anything that makes the league look horrible (and something that would trend toward legal stuff i.e. federal law violations)