NFL Thread

[voiceover]

28 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

Can't wait until next preseason for football nerds and pundits to declare that this is the year for the inevitable rise of Justin Herbert and the Chargers again.

Every. Fucking. Year.

[NUguy514]

1 hour ago, Carey said:

The Chiefs are really phenomenal; it's a shame this Kansas City team never shows up during Bengals games but what a game

As a Bengals fan, I think it's wooooooooonderful.

[twoods]

1 hour ago, Fukui San said:

Can't wait until next preseason for football nerds and pundits to declare that this is the year for the inevitable rise of Justin Herbert and the Chargers again.

They were pretty damn good until the injuries started piling up. 

[Salacious Kitty]

And this is only Herbert's 3rd year. Given his surrounding cast of characters, he's doing pretty well. 

[mojoween]

For anyone still feeling indignant on behalf of the Jets, the officials said after the game it was a block from the side, not in the back, so no penalty.

[Fukui San]

5 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

And this is only Herbert's 3rd year. Given his surrounding cast of characters, he's doing pretty well. 

So what you're saying is that the sleeping giant in waiting Chargers are primed to take over in 2023?

On another note, both the Patriots and Vikings seemed to have suffered key injuries on the OL yesterday. Their game on Thanksgiving might be a tough watch for good offense enjoyers.

[merylinkid]

In Dak We Trust.  What a game.   

Everyone in the NFC East except the giants won today.   We back and we bad.   

How the hell do you lose to the Lions?   Who by the way are somehow SECOND in the NFC North while only having 4 wins.     Thanksgiving is going to be interesting.

[Calvada]

7 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

And this is only Herbert's 3rd year. Given his surrounding cast of characters, he's doing pretty well. 

I think he doesn't have the awareness to make adjustments at the line enough.  The really good QBs, in their prime, have that ability to just know what the defense is going to do.  It comes from a lot of film study but some of it is simply football smarts - some guys are better at it than others.  When that guy is on your team, it is wonderful to watch, but when it's happening to your team, there's nothing more frustrating.  This usually clicks on for QBs in year 3 or 4, so Herbert has a bit of time to move from  what I think of as the B+ group of QBs to the A group.  

[JTMacc99]

2 hours ago, merylinkid said:

How the hell do you lose to the Lions?

Sadly, the already very thin on talent Giants roster is ravaged by injuries. Again. Every freaking year. 

They played the first 8 games of the year with the same five offensive linemen and the same TE. In that eighth game, they lost Bredeson, Neal, and Bellinger to injuries. Since then they've been rotating through offensive linemen for Neal and Bredeson, and using some seriously down the depth chart guys at tight end.

In the Detroit game, they decided to start Shane Lemieux (who was hurt all year) in place of Bredeson, and before he got benched he gave up a bad sack and 5 pressures. Center John Feliciano got hurt in the game, so now they're down 3 of the 5 offensive linemen who started the first 8 games. 

All in all, that has made it really hard to keep the running game going. Offensive lines do best when they operate as a unit, and always struggle when they have to substitute in a bunch of new guys. (See the Chiefs/Bucs Super Bowl for a fine example of this.)

On top of the OL injuries, they have already lost WR Sterling Sheppard for the year, and had seen very little playing time from Golladay and Toney also from injuries. Golladay at least played a little and did okay against Detroit. Toney got his ass traded due to being unreliable, and by the way his box score from last night was 1 target, 0 receptions, left game with a hamstring. Sounds about right.

At least from the WR group, second round pick Wandell Robinson was playing after being injured earlier this year. He had 100 yards in the Detroit game before he went down with what looks like a season ending knee injury.

Over on the defense, the Giants are playing without their excellent safety Xavier McKinney who broke multiple fingers in an ATV accident during the by week. In the Detroit game they lost their #1 CB Adoree Jackson to a knee injury when he was returning punts. He was returning punts because the Giants have no wide receivers left who can return punts without fumbling. 

So what was already a very thin bunch of defensive backs is without the two best players.

And THAT, is how you go from a team that was managing to make just enough plays to win games every week, to a team that doesn't actually have enough good players on the field to eek out wins.

That, and the QB made a couple of bad reads throwing the ball to the other team, which is a thing the Giants can't overcome.

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, JTMacc99 said:

At least from the WR group, second round pick Wandell Robinson was playing after being injured earlier this year. He had 100 yards in the Detroit game before he went down with what looks like a season ending knee injury.

Yes, torn ACL, he's done for the season...

Giants lose Wan'Dale Robinson for the rest of the season - Newsday

[Magog]

15 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

Well this sorry game is finally over. Sorry, Dallas haters, that my team disappointed you. I'm disappointed, too.

Somehow, I'm not surprised about that. Thanks for nothing Kirk Cousins. Thanks for putting a smile on Jerry Jones's face & pissing me off in the process. Now, we really know that we can't count on him & the Vikings in the Playoffs if they meet the Cowboys again.

3 hours ago, merylinkid said:

In Dak We Trust.  What a game.   

😒

3 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Everyone in the NFC East except the giants won today.   We back and we bad. 

If the Cowboys are somehow playing in the NFC Championship Game 2 months from now, then I'll believe you. There is still plenty of time for them to mess it up like they always do. 

[JTMacc99]

I probably should have seen that Vikings game coming from them.  Just the fact that it's not 1:00 PM Kirk Cousins should have been enough.  

I went 8-5 versus the spread this week in my office pool, which currently has me one game behind three other people who went 9-4. Seems unlikely that all three  other people are taking the 49ers giving up 7.5, and that my Cardinals pick could sneak me into a tie breaker with them. (Murray is out, so maybe the Cardinals will try to play it close enough to cover that spread.)

Of my five losses, I most regret not seeing the Vikings loss coming, and maybe picking the Rams getting 3.5 in New Orleans. Although the Rams were actually doing okay before Stafford took another shot to his head. That Vikings team, coming off the big win last week, was SO obviously set up for a stinker. I would assume my dislike of the Cowboys impacted my decision making.

[Lamb18]

2 hours ago, Magog said:

Somehow, I'm not surprised about that. Thanks for nothing Kirk Cousins. Thanks for putting a smile on Jerry Jones's face & pissing me off in the process. Now, we really know that we can't count on him & the Vikings in the Playoffs if they meet the Cowboys again.

😒

If the Cowboys are somehow playing in the NFC Championship Game 2 months from now, then I'll believe you. There is still plenty of time for them to mess it up like they always do. 

Well, Magog, I don't know about that. Yes, we've lost to Dallas in regular season games for several years now, which was why I was worried about this game. But postseason Dallas is a different story . . . We'll see!

[grommit2]

Patriots break tie with Jets, win on Marcus Jones punt return with 5 seconds left in the game.
84 yard return. Excellent special teams play.

 

[mojoween]

This was in my newspaper five years ago and it is going to make me giggle until the end of time.  

[Lamb18]

6 minutes ago, mojoween said:

This was in my newspaper five years ago and it is going to make me giggle until the end of time.  

I wonder who they really meant.

[mojoween]

I think it was Demarcus Cousins, the New Orleans center.

My husband was not quite a fan of the lady who sang the US National Anthem, but I absolutely loved her.

[Lamb18]

34 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I think it was Demarcus Cousins, the New Orleans center.

My husband was not quite a fan of the lady who sang the US National Anthem, but I absolutely loved her.

I see, it was one of Cousins' cousins!

[twoods]

Poor Demarcus, having to be associated with that turd.

[Lamb18]

If 49ers win 47-10, I won't feel so bad.

[Carey]

1 minute ago, Lamb18 said:

If 49ers win 47-10, I won't feel so bad.

Neither will I.  That's mainly because I picked them to win.  Though in a closer contest, so if they pound their division foe, I'd prefer 55-10

[Xeliou66]

Niners looked great tonight - they have a very good team especially on offense, and if Garoppolo doesn’t turn the ball over or choke under pressure they can go a long way. I fully expect them to win the NFC West and they are one of the top Super Bowl contenders in the NFC.

Cards have been disappointing but they’ve been riddled with injuries, haven’t had their full team healthy all year. Regardless, I think Kingsbury is gone after this season, he just hasn’t won enough despite having a solid amount of talent on both sides of the ball.

[Carey]

Week 12 Picks: Buffalo, Dallas, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Miami, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York, Carolina, Washington, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis

[Carey]

It's looking like it'll be a matchup featuring the Niners vs the only two teams that gave them a Super Bowl loss.  Philadelphia is a little more complete, but San Francisco is just playing at a higher level & with less.  They have officially jumped up to 3rd place currently, with a decent chance of hosting up to 3 playoff games.  Not likely since it's unlikely both lower seeds will knock off Minnesota & Philadelphia in the NFC leaders first games.  The NFC isn't as awful as advertised.  Whereas the AFC isn't that loaded.  TBH, it's the NFL East (AFC East & NFC East) that are holding things for the league.  All 8 teams have a winning record with 7 weeks remaining in the 2022 regular season.

Yeah, I think Kingsbury is done.  I do have to check his contract situation, but they guy was hired after getting booted following a losing record at T Tech with Mahomes.  No playoff success or wins since his arrival, and it's probably not going to happen with Seattle & SF crushing it

[Lamb18]

Yes, and I think NFC North drew the toughest schedule this season. We play East and East, so 8 games against good teams. So far Vikings have played 5 of them and lost 2. And we still have to win 4 games to win the division.

Are playoffs scheduled by best record among division winners, then best record among wild card?

[Carey]

Ranking the playoff teams starts by the best record amongst division winners, and then the best record from the teams that didn't win their division regardless of where they placed within their division.  So it's possible that the 3rd place finisher in the NFC East will get in over the 2nd place finisher in the NFC North

[JTMacc99]

Right. The NFL sets the seeds for the playoffs as follows:

1. Division winner with the best record
2. Division winner with the 2nd best record
3. Division winner with the 3rd best record
4. Division winner with the 4th best record
5. Wildcard team with the best record
6. Wildcard team with the 2nd best record
7. Wildcard team with the 3rd best record

So the wildcard round will be:

1 (Division winner with the best record): Bye

• 2 vs 7
• 3 vs 6
• 4 vs 5

In the divisional round, the games will be set as the 1 vs the lowest seeded team to advance. So if the 2, 6, and 4 teams win their games, the next games will be 1 vs 6 and 2 vs 4.

Highest seed will be the home team in each game. So that means if the NFC South team makes the playoffs at 8-9 and are the 4 seed, they'll have the home game against the likely 11-6 or even 12-5 wildcard 5 seed.

[Colleenna]

6 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

Right. The NFL sets the seeds for the playoffs as follows:

1. Division winner with the best record
2. Division winner with the 2nd best record
3. Division winner with the 3rd best record
4. Division winner with the 4th best record
5. Wildcard team with the best record
6. Wildcard team with the 2nd best record
7. Wildcard team with the 3rd best record

So the wildcard round will be:

1 (Division winner with the best record): Bye

• 2 vs 7
• 3 vs 6
• 4 vs 5

In the divisional round, the games will be set as the 1 vs the lowest seeded team to advance. So if the 2, 6, and 4 teams win their games, the next games will be 1 vs 6 and 2 vs 4.

Highest seed will be the home team in each game. So that means if the NFC South team makes the playoffs at 8-9 and are the 4 seed, they'll have the home game against the likely 11-6 or even 12-5 wildcard 5 seed.

And sadly,  none of those will be my Stillers. 

[Carey]

56 minutes ago, Colleenna said:

And sadly,  none of those will be my Stillers. 

Probably a good thing this season.  No sense getting routed by 40 or 50 when this year's offense wouldn't be able to do something to make the end result less horrid

[TVbitch]

Jimmy G is lovin' life. Go Niners! 

Yeah, they beat the Cardinals, but I've already given up on them. KK is dead man walking. Not sure another coach will have any better luck with Kyler.

I didn't even know Hard Knocks was doing the Cards this season. I wonder if it worth watching just to see them implode. 

[merylinkid]

On 11/22/2022 at 8:09 AM, Carey said:

they guy was hired after getting booted following a losing record at T Tech with Mahomes. 

and only getting ASSISTANT coaching jobs at the college level.   No one was going "Oh hey Kingsbury is available, let's get him."   But the Cardinals swooped in and made this completely inexperienced guy HC.   The only people surprised he is a bust are the Cards front office.   Let's think who ELSE the Cards could have hired and figure out what the difference was here.

[bluegirl147]

20 hours ago, Colleenna said:

And sadly,  none of those will be my Stillers. 

I feel your pain.  It sucks watching them lose.  

19 hours ago, Carey said:

Probably a good thing this season.  No sense getting routed by 40 or 50 when this year's offense wouldn't be able to do something to make the end result less horrid

I agree.  Watching us lose in the first round the past two years was worse than not making the playoffs.   Now I can watch them and hope they are spoilers for the teams I hate.  

[xaxat]

Wow, just wow. (The Washington Post)

Quote

On the first day of classes at North Little Rock High, a crew-cut sophomore named Jerral Wayne Jones found his spot among a phalanx of White boys who stood at the front entrance and blocked the path of six Black students attempting to desegregate the school.

Better known as Jerry Jones.

[AimingforYoko]

24 minutes ago, xaxat said:

Wow, just wow. (The Washington Post)

Better known as Jerry Jones.

Obligatory:

[bluegirl147]

44 minutes ago, xaxat said:

Wow, just wow. (The Washington Post)

Better known as Jerry Jones.

Jerry Jones on the wrong side of........everything.

[Popples]

[Fukui San]

Going to be one hell of a Hard Knocks season!

[Xeliou66]

5 hours ago, xaxat said:

Wow, just wow. (The Washington Post)

Better known as Jerry Jones.

Not surprising at all to find out that Jerry Jones is a racist jackass, I mean remember his comments about the anthem protests and threatening to not play anyone who knelt during the anthem. Jerry is a prick.

[Lamb18]

Well I was 6 - 8 on my picks last week. So let's see how this week goes. I'm hoping for a Happy Thanksgiving for Lions, Giants, and Vikings.

Bills* vs Lions
Giants vs Cowboys*
Patriots vs Vikings*
Texans vs Dolphins*
Bengals* vs Titans
Broncos vs Panthers*
Bears vs Jets*
Falcons vs Commanders*
Buccaneers vs Browns*
Ravens vs jaguars*
Raiders* vs Seahawks
Chargers* vs Cardinals
Saints vs 49ers*
Rams vs Chiefs*
Packers vs Eagle*

Steelers* vs Colts

(Gosh, the cursor was by "Colts" and one of my word choices was Colton! My phone does not forget. It wishes it could.)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your team win except for the Patriots.

Edited November 29, 2022 by Lamb18

[Carey]

2 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your team win except for the Patriots.

Though to be fair, I wonder how the Packers are feeling about that for that NBC late evening matchup.  They might need a New England win, but they need a ton more than that!

I already did my picks on Monday.  Right after MNF, but I planned to post them before the game.  The earliest I've made them ever.  Not sure if I'll get to them this weekend, and I didn't feel like posting 3 games on Thursday and coming back with everything else (which I've done in the past).

The only thing I didn't post was my stuff in terms of FanDuel odds.  Not every game, and I likely will not until the weekend of January 14-15.

Anyway, with that, here come Turkey Day stuff, along with the GOTW, SNF, and MNF:

Bills 9.5; 54.5 O/U ; Lions & over

Cowboys 10; 45.5 O/U; Giants and Over

Vikings 2.5; 42.5 O/U; Patriots and Under

Chiefs 15.5; 43.5 O/U; Chiefs barely; over

Eagles 6.5; 46.5 O/U; Eagles and under

Colts 2.5; 39.5 O/U; Colts and under

Buffalo have to regain their glory; what better spot than against Detroit.  More on that later.  Cowboys continue to roll, but not by double digits.  It's still division football, but the GMEN are banged up.  So maybe Dallas covers against New York, but IMO, not by much. The 3rd game, in its 17th year of existence (and that helped the move toward garbage, weekly Thursday Night Football), is a toss.  I think New England can win outright since Cousins sucks in primetime.  Not an automatic thing he's pissed off enough to win the game; 40-3 loss at home might mean you suck when it matters.  FWIW, they're very good but the winning results aren't really blowouts.  They got lucky against Buffalo.

Maybe McVay, Donald, and company should've retired along with Whitworth.  FWIW, if they ever get back to positive football, they probably are not winning another title.  Just my current opinion.  Meanwhile, Kansas City might like to extend that statistic of not playing a postseason game outside of Arrowhead.  The last time they played on the road they nearly knocked off the champs in New England in a season where they nearly started a season winless after 6 weeks.  Philadelphia, meanwhile, would like to stay home in January.  Why not increase that honor against the Packers.  Green Bay is done this year. And so is Pittsburgh.  Sure it's against Jeff Saturday, but you don't have to go far back for examples of the Steelers losing to teams missing their head coach, or a head coach.

The Buffalo Bills still have sone tough games ahead, including Cincinnati at Paycor. Despite an early declaration of their win, coupled with the fact that I probably shouldn't have done that, I don't see the need to change it.  However, the Bengals can totally win that game. What does help the Bills is that Kansas City has to face what may be their historic nemesis, also at Paycor.  So Buffalo could obtain a chance to regain the top AFC spot.  For what it's worth, it might not matter with Baltimore in the mix, and despite who the Titans have fallen to, I can't rule out Tennessee.  At the end of the day, what may favor the NFC winner is if the teams that could knock them off the most all end up falling, which IMO happened in the Rams favor.  I think Buffalo, Kansas City, and maybe Tennessee knock off LA in SB 56.

To those that celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving to Lamb18, Xeliou66, and everyone else!

Edited November 24, 2022 by Carey

[Xeliou66]

Here are my picks for Week 12’s games

Bills over Lions. 
Cowboys over Giants   
Vikings over Patriots.  
Buccaneers over Browns.  
Bengals over Titans.  
Dolphins over Texans.  
Jets over Bears. 
Falcons over Commanders.  
Broncos over Panthers.  
Ravens over Jaguars.   
Chargers over Cardinals.  
Seahawks over Raiders.  
Chiefs over Rams.  
49ers over Saints.  
Eagles over Packers.  
Colts over Steelers

[mojoween]

On this day of thanks I am grateful that CBS has the early game, to get Romo right the fuck out of the way.

Detroit, those grey unis are a hard pass.

[mojoween]

My son, who is really paying attention to football for the first time so he can chat with the guys at work, blurted out “I can’t stand the announcers”. I said well one is a legend and the other is Tony Romo. He listened a second and said “not that guy [Nantz], the other one [Romo].  He’s really annoying.”

I’ve never been so proud.

[Bastet]

On 11/21/2022 at 7:27 AM, JTMacc99 said:

And THAT, is how you go from a team that was managing to make just enough plays to win games every week, to a team that doesn't actually have enough good players on the field to eek out wins.

Which is going to make today's game incredibly painful.

[Xeliou66]

Bills up 17-14 at halftime, really good game, both offenses are moving the ball well. The Bills are now without Von Miller, and they were already with Rousseau and Edmonds, and so their defense is banged up and is giving up a lot of yards. The Lions have an okay team and can move the ball pretty well.

[Popples]

The camera work on this halftime show is giving me vertigo.

[Xeliou66]

Bills win it on a last second FG. Very good game, both teams played well, Lions just can’t find ways to win close games it seems.

[AimingforYoko]

Nice week for the Bills, and now they get a mini-break going into the home stretch.

[mojoween]

Now the boy is watching the Giants game with me and he said “you didn’t sound like this during the Bills game.”  I think he’s scared.

[Xeliou66]

Giants lead this game 13-7 at halftime, good game, the Cowboys have been hurt by the 2 costly picks from Dak and getting stopped on 4th down in their own territory. The Giants defense has made some plays and their offense has done okay, Barkley hasn’t done much, Jones has been decent. Should be a good second half, the Cowboys would be ahead right now if it wasn’t for the turnovers though IMO.