2014 NFL Thread
Preseason is over!!!!!!
Here's to hoping for at least a season of 10-6 for my beloved Eagles.
Fly Eagles Fly........E-A-G-L-E-S...........EAGLES!!!!
I wonder if they will go with Parkey as their kicker or stick with dreadful Henery. Sigh....
Calico696 
Old Gent Michael Vick made his encore appearance at the Linc last night.
Anybody catch that? One snap, a handoff, and he was done for the night.
Andy Loigu Based on what I've seen in the preseason, I don't have much reason to be all that confident in the Steelers chances this year... then I look at their schedule:
Cleveland - W - count it; no way we lost at home to the Clowns
@ Baltimore - for the sake of argument, I'll count this as an L, even though Ray Rice won't be playing.
@Carolina - again I'll be conservative and give us the L on the road, but I think we have abetter team than Carolina.
Tampa Bay - W - Josh McCown?
@ Jacksonville - W
@ Cleveland - W
Houston - W - Ryan Fitzpatrick isn't going to win in the 'Burgh. Just not gonna happen.
Indianapolis - I'll chalk this up as an L, but we could very easily pull it out at home
Baltimore - W ; we'll split, we always do.
@ New York Jets - W - I'll be there again; it's like a 9th home game, lol.
@Tennessee - Jake Locker, Shonn Greene and Nate Washington? W
New Orleans - Again, I'll pick us to lose this one at home, but I wouldn't be surprised if we pull it out. Breesy aint great outdoors.
@ Cincinnati - L - I'll give them the home game
@ Atlanta - L - could get ugly in the Dome with Roddy and Julio against our corners
Kansas City - W - it's possible we lose this game if we turn the ball over 6 times
Cincinnati - W - again, we usually split.
That's 10-6 overall and I really can't see us doing any worse than that with the easy schedule we have. But they've surprised me before, lol.
ianimal ianimal - What do you mean by "we", didn't know you signed a contract with the Tinmen, ;-)
The one snap, handoff and out was predictable for Vick last night. The crowd gave him his due, as they should have. I dislike Vick very much as a person. If I ever got close enough to him I'd probably spit on him for what he did to those animals. That said, during his time in Philly as a member of the Eagles team he was always professional and played to the best of his ability.
Looking at the schedule, I think the Eagles can go 10-6 this year. I'm hopeful for 11-5. ;-)
The Raves may even be a BETTER team when Rice isn't playing.
They had a backup run for over 100 yards last night at New Orleans ... and they keep kicking those field goals. Perfect 4-0 pre-season.
So, Ravens-Giants in the Super Bowl? Probably not.
The other day, when I least expected it, I was the only guy in the room and a football conversation broke out. I said what Ray Rice did was inexcusable and the NFL needs to re-think its policy about domestic abuse ... (yesterday they did) ...
and a woman says ... well, his wife is still with him and she forgives him ... actually defended Ray Ray.
I was stunned, at a loss for words, which does not happen to me often.
As an optimistic "fan" I'm going to expect the Ravens to improve offensively and go 11-5. I know they were third from the bottom in rushing last year and that also hurt the passing game, but the new offensive coordinator (Gary Kubiak) has put in new blocking schemes which will accent Bernard Pierce's ability to stretch runs to the outside.
Getting Steve Smith may be the best free agent signing of the year, he makes catches against man-to-man defenses the way Anquan Boldin used to, and that will help Torrey Smith get open on straight-line speed routes as the number two guy. He struggled last year as the number one.
The Ravens are using more two tight end formations and I look for Dennis Pitta and Owen Daniels to catch more balls. Could be a big bounce-back year for Cool Joe at QB.
The defense's strength used to be in the middle, but now their stars and depth are on the outside. Suggs can rush the passer and stop the run, and Elvis Dumervil, Matt Elam, Jimmy Smith, and Court Upshaw are multi-skilled up and coming guys.
Ozzie Newsome re-tooled this team last year and the jury is still out on how good the defense will be; they'll need the big playmaking on offense they had in 2012 to make another playoff run.
NFC East preview:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/onion-sports-2014-nfl-preview-nfc-east,36825/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview%3A1%3ADefault&recirc=fantasy-football#1
AFC East preview:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/onion-sports-2014-nfl-preview-afc-east,36817/
emaxxman There right on in the NFC east. I fact they have higher hopes than I do for my Giants.
Wes Welker has been suspended for the first 4 games due to PED's (he supposedly used molly.)
You all know what? That makes Emmanuel Sanders 1 rung higher on the Peyton WR love fest...and guess who drafted Sanders this year? Moi!
With both Peyton and Sanders as my starters (as well as Dez, Jimmy Graham, Beastmode, and the LOB), I'm hoping for a complete onslaught on my competition.
Last I checked, Molly wasn't a PED... unless you're entered in a glow stick battle, lol.
He's probably better off with a 4 week vacation though; he's less likely to get concussed that way.
Molly itself is not a PED but it contains an ingredient that is used to mask PED use. It is therefore banned under the PED policy and the standard drug abuse policy. It's the same suspension that CB Scandrick of the Cowboys got.
I'm going to be positive and say the Giants will be 8-8.
That's hoping that if Manning starts the season throwing the football to the other team he gets benched by game 3 or 4.
Other than that it's gonna be a long season....
BrownEyesGuy Bubba is a dope.
Michael Sam has been signed to the practice squad in Dallas. He performed better in the preseason than any Dallas d-linemen did. I suspect that if he does well in practice, he'll be moved to the #2 spot on the DL rotation within 2-3 weeks.
Dallas needed more talent and depth and this gives Sam the best chance of making a roster. Obviously I hope it works out for both parties.
Oh, I'm just waiting for my Facebook page to blow up with all of the jokes from all of the haters. I've had to endure those Brokeback Mountain jokes for years.
It's a good football decision for Dallas ... they need a pass rusher (among many other things) and Sam showed in the Southeast Conference (a level above any other college football conference) and in pre-season games that he can do that.
Dallas should have drafted him, but, better late than never.
I agree Andy. It was unfortunately lost that he was the SEC co-defensive player of the year. Right now, he's done more on the field than any of the projected starters on that DL.
Interesting. I just read that the Steelers are first in the NFL for least amount of travel miles in 2014 with 5,918. By contrast, Oakland will need to log over 36,000 miles as the most heavily traveled team. The Steelers don't have to play a single game outside of the Eastern time zone and their furthest flight is to Jacksonville. I think that has to give them a significant advantage down the stretch. Airplanes suck the life out of you, lol.
The Ravens' traveling schedule looks pretty decent, too.
What's really bad is when you have to travel to a Thursday night game, or you travel for a Monday night game, giving you a really short week.
San Diego comes to Baltimore and their longest trip is to Houston.
Most of the pre-season picks I've seen from the 'experts' have Baltimore and Pittsburgh both going to the post-season. Last year's playoffs just didn't feel right with them not there ... I couldn't get pumped up about it ... knew all along Seattle was the best team .... not bragging ... it simply seemed kind of obvious.
The Rangers in the spring made up for what I considered a ho-hum football post season, although the Colts' comeback win was really something. The real Super Bowl was the Niners vs. the Seahawks, and I remember posting that.
Not that I put any stake into the Mike and Mike show, but they tend to be the KOD with their picks. This morning Greenie picked the Saints to win it all and Golic picked the Eagles to win it all. I guess neither myself or my other half will be celebrating a SB victory this season. Not that I thought otherwise for myself, but I thought the Saints had a good chance. All gone now.....wait until I tell him later. LOL
I thought Golic picked Denver over Eagles?
Either way, I don't see the Eagles winning over Seattle, Saints, or Green Bay.
You're right, it was to win the NFC I mistyped above. My bad. I almost spit out my water when he put them in the SB. No way, at least not this year. If they have a decent go with the offense again this year and pick up a couple more defensive pieces in the off-season. Maybe, they will have a decent shot at it next season.
Well, Super Bowl champions usually don't repeat ... in the case of the Ravens last year the GM decided it was an old team that wasn't going to get better so he ripped it apart, overpaid the QB and started with a clean slate almost everywhere else.
Now, Seattle is young, reminds me a lot of the Steelers teams that won back-to-back in the mid-70s, but strange inexplicable things happen to SB champion teams.
If Seattle has top seed for the playoffs ... fuhgeddaboudit, they'll win again. BUT ....
if they have some sub-par games and have to go to the city of brotherly cheesesteaks, it would not shock me to see the Eagles get to THE BIG GAME. That team has some serious mojo.
The Boys are picking up a little spending money.
https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/josh-gordon-will-spend-his-year-off-of-football-as-a-car-salesman-160458452.html
Somebody posted this in the NFL forum I frequent. We do a thread every week and post our picks. I thought it was pretty funny.
Packers @ Seahawks: Eagles
Saints @ Falcons: Eagles
Vikings @ Rams: Eagles
Browns @ Steelers: Eagles
Jaguars @ Eagles: Eagles
Raiders @ Jets: Eagles
Bengals @ Ravens: Eagles
Bills @ Bears: Eagles
Redskins @ Texans: Eagles
Titans @ Chiefs: Eagles
Patriots @ Dolphins: Eagles
Panthers @ Buccaneers: Eagles
49ers @ Cowboys: Eagles
Colts @ Broncos: Eagles
Giants @ Lions: Eagles
Chargers @ Cardinals: Eagles
Chip Kelly's system is just out of control.
The first half of the Eagles game was like bizzaro world! Thank goodness they pulled it off. I wouldn't have liked going out of my survivor pool week one.
I found this pic just for you emaxx.
Lots of strange games yesterday. The Steelers had the Brownies down and out at halftime 27-3 but play-called them back into it in the second half. Same with the Saints, Patriots, Bengals, 49ers and Broncos. (I won't even count the Jaguars, whose 17-point lead was a product of the Eagles ineptitude and three turnovers.. although you could probably make the same argument against the 49ers... Romo was pathetically, almost comically bad in that first half).
I'm just glad we were one of the three that held on and won instead of the three who blew it completely.
Nick Foles looked like he had never seen a football before in his life in that first quarter yesterday. Scary for sure.
And, how about those Buffalo Bills????
I truly expect the Lions to spank the Giants tonight. The NFC East is looking just as good, er uh I mean as bad as promised so far......
Putting the Eagles into some historical perspective ... the old Johnny Unitas Colts trailed 17-0, 20-0 a few times and came back to win. It's a good sign, to my way of thinking, that Foles and the Eagles could pull it together and win.
Comebacks start with defense, you can't catch up if the opponent keeps scoring.
Usually, as summer turns to fall, I start thinking when will I get a chance to go see the Ravens?
This fall, I'm thinking, gotta get down there and see those ORIOLES.
botheredbyuu2 The Eagles halftime adjustments:
Chip Kelly: Foles, quit sucking out there.
Nick Foles: Okay, Coach.
Chip Kelly: Defense, somebody cover that Hurns kid.
Defense: Okay, Coach.
The rest was easy, lol.
I supposed we have to talk about Ray Rice again now that the "inside the elevator" video has come out.
What should the Commissioner do? Reconsider the suspension? What should the Ravens do? Release him?
I vote for yes and yes. How that woman went ahead with marrying him after that really makes me SMH.
http://www.tmz.com/
Ravens terminate Ray Rice's contract. I wonder if they still have to pay him.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11489134/baltimore-ravens-cut-ray-rice-new-video-surfaces
The NFL knew that he knocked her out. Seeing the act shouldn't give them an excuse to go back. The NFL screwed up and now they need to accept their screw up. Of course, that doesn't mean the teams can't do anything (of which the Ravens demonstrated that already.)
Who's the backup to Pierce? I may pick him up in FF. I'm light on RB's.
I can't wait to see how the NFL is going to squirm out of this one. Egg on their face for sure. In the end it won't matter. I don't know anyone who would stop watching football because of it.
Justin Forsett (former Seachicken, Texan and Jaguar) had the primary stats at RB for the Ratbirds yesterday. Of course, Joe Flaccid threw the ball 62 times... so the lion's share of the rushing workload only worked out to 11 carries for 70 yards and a score. Not bad, as far as YPC goes... up next is Pittsburgh Thursday night. Still not sure if I'm going to the game or not...
"I vote for yes and yes. How that woman went ahead with marrying him after that really makes me SMH."
She was obviously wasted and then she got KDFO'ed... she probably had absolutely no clue what actually happened in that elevator. Now that she's seen it, you can likely expect her to file for divorce shortly.
But, personally, I want to know how and why AC police and the Atlantic County prosecutor didn't file and pursue charges. Even if she didn't want to cooperate, there was more than enough on that video to convict.
The way I understand it, Rice has been released by the Ravens, sparing the NFL of the PR nightmare of determining length of suspension for him. It certainly would have been a PR nightmare for the Ravens with people picketing outside the stadium had he returned in week three.
Since it's a first offense, he's not banned from the NFL for life.
Legally, I think Rice gets a year of "pre-trial intervention" to show he's sorry and means it.
He hasn't gotten any jail time, we can beef about the state of New Jersey about that if we wish.
If Michael Vick could come back, after the reprehensible things he did, I suppose Rice will come back, too, perhaps next year. It probably won't be as a Raven.
Giants didn't look too good. Turnovers, turnovers.
Stafford looked like Randall Cunningham tonight, making so many plays on the run. He was pretty impressive.
Stafford looked great. The kid is good. Hopefully he can stay healthy. Megatron is an absolute BEAST!!
The Lions defense really impressed me. A couple of sacks, a couple of turnovers and they held the G-men to less than 200 yards of total offense. The Norris Division should be pretty tough this year with the potential resurgence of the Vikings. I think the Bears may find themselves at the bottom of the NFC North when the season is over.
I was impressed with Stafford. He was pretty cool in the pocket but also ran very well. I think there are two Giants' defenders who needed to find new sneakers after Stafford juked them out their sneakers at the goal line.
Silly stat. The Eagles scored 34 points in their home opener. The Giants, Cowboys and Redskins scored only 37 points combined in Week 1. Taking this division should be as easy as taking candy from a baby for the Eagles. Can't wait to see how they screw it up.
The Eagles have won plenty of division titles ... their fan base is frustrated because they've been unable to win a Super Bowl.
I feel a lot of positive vibes going on with that team ... keep the faith.
The playoffs will be rough, but they'll be there.
Uh oh.....my beloved Eagles have been moved up to #4 in the ESPN power rankings.
(puts face in hands)
http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings
Calico will appreciate me for this ...
the Eagles were NFL champs in 1948, 49 and 60.
I'm old enough to remember 1960, watched it on TV the day after Christmas, in black and white.
The Eagles are still the only team to win back-to-back NFL championship games by shutouts.
The 1960 Eagles are the only team to beat Vince Lombardi's Packers in a championship game.
Yes Andy, but unfortunately fans of other teams seem to feel that those three championships don't count since it wasn't called the Super Bowl then. Which, of course, makes me sigh. ;-)
Plus, in 1948 and 1949, the NFL was only a ten team league. It's a lot easier to win a championship against nine other teams than it is against 27 or 31 other teams.
In 1950, the NFL merged with three teams from the defunct All-America Football Conference... the Cleveland Browns, SF 49ers and Andy's beloved Baltimore Colts. Hell, the two best teams of the '50s were probably the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns... none of them have done anything since the AFL-NFL merger, either... maybe there's a curse (-;
The Colts were always willing to change conferences.
In 1970, just so the AFC and NFC would have the same number of teams,
the Colts, Steelers and Browns went to the AFC after being long-time NFL teams.
Worked out well for the Colts and Steelers, who won Super Bowls in the 70s ...
poor Cleveland ... my sympathies to their fan base ... sorry we stole your team. Your city didn't want to spend public money on a new stadium ... our city wanted a team so bad we gave Modell his sweetheart stadium deal.
At least we let Cleveland keep its name ... we still call Andrew Luck's team the Indianapolis Irsays after 30 years.
We also won a Canadian League title, becoming the only US city to do it ... it was a final title for old horseshoe shaped Memorial Stadium.
The Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl before these Indy guys wearing our horseshoe did!!!
Those Lombardi Packers were no easy team to beat ... a lot of future Hall of Famers, just like the 70s Steelers.
That's the thing, comparing teams from the un-salary capped days when there were fewer teams, to today's mega league.
You could keep your guys and the talent wasn't watered down the way it is now. Every team has a weakness somewhere now ... teams like those old Packers and Steelers did not have any weaknesses anywhere.
Are the Ravens defending the pass really well or are the Steelers just not good passing the ball anymore? Ben and his receivers seem really out of sync with each other.
They put a lot of heat on Big Ben, the pass rush was mighty strong.
I'd say the defense really got after it, and made some big takeaways.
By the way, for future reference, the Baltimore quarterback's name is Joe Flacco.
The two-tight-end sets were effective, big night for Owen Daniels.
Grrrrr.....ianimal! I took your stupid Tinmen last night in my Pick 'em after going back and forth on that game for days. I originally had Baltimore, but changed at the last minute. It's your fault! ;-)
Calico, did you even read my predictions on this season? I picked them to lose this game, lol.
http://www.hackettstownlife.com/forum/629974#t630050
Division game against your biggest rival, on the road, on three days rest? Not usually a recipe for success. Add in three turnovers and some terrible penalties (not that the bad calls were the factor in deciding the game) and a defense that is unable to consistently get off the field or make "splash" plays and you get what we had here last night, which is the way He wants it. Well, He gets it.
The important thing about your Thursday night game isn't to win it; it's to survive it. Lots of season ending injuries happen on Thursdays because of the lack of proper rest from the previous game. Luckily, I think the Steelers made it through ok.
My biggest beef is that Ravens-Steelers was always a marquee matchup because you knew it was going to be a no-holds barred, knock-down, drag-out slobberknocker. When these stupid officials on direction from God-dell start throwing the flag on every good solid hit, regardless of whether it was clean or not, how is that good for the fans or for the game?
A funny story (to a Ravens fan anyway) came from WBAL ... while the whole outside world was talking about Ray Rice, in the locker room Suggs showed the team a picture of Tomlin's stunt on the sidelines last year and he said ... we will not forget.
They said it turned the mood of the whole team around.
There is something to be said for good locker room leadership from veterans.
These days, you have fewer of those veteran leaders because the teams don't want to pay them.
Ravens pounded Steelers in impressive win 28 - 6
Last week The Steelers Kick the opposing team in the face.
This week they were throwing right Hooks.
They look more like a Kick boxing team, than a Football team.
Terrell Thuggs a leader? Ha! You mean the same guy that beat and dragged his girlfriend alongside a car? The same guy that held her down and poured bleach on her? That same guy?
Yeah.
Ray Rice may be a Cowboy next year, you never know.
Who ever thought Vick would come back?
We all are so sanctimonious on social media, like we've never made a mistake in our lives.
Fortunately, I've never had a violent nature ... I also was a crappy, timid football player.
Drugs and alcohol are so prevalent today ... people can be totally different when they get help and get away from the drugs and booze... and finding God can also transform a person... not everybody goes that route but it has helped many who turned their wretched lives over to Him.
I guess, if I believe people can be rehabilitated, that puts me in the minority on social media. It takes a long time, though, Ray Ray should not go anywhere near a football field for the rest of this season ... he's got bigger issues to resolve.
The National Felon League has to institute a no tolerance policy for anyone convicted of a felony. Convicted of one = gone!
We all are so sanctimonious on social media, like we've never made a mistake in our lives.
I like that. Serve your time and move on. I think he received the message.
Playing a professional sport is a privilege, not a right. Being able to enter society again after serving time is a right, not a privilege.
yes the nfl has a chance here to make a strong statement, unfortunately they look like they are equivocating and weaseling out of their responsibilities,
"equivocating and weaseling" ; those are not good qualities for football players, right? so why is the league taking those kinds of positions? it's bad anyway you look at it.
now about last nights game, i think the refs and the players are having a hard time understanding and applying the new emphasis on illegal contact.
i had to feel bad for the steeler's defensive backs last night, the hits were hard, yes, but to my eye not really illegal contact, but the back field judges had a quick trigger finger on that yellow flag. and the Pittsburgh backs looked genuinely confused about how to play without getting flagged again. that detracts from a good game, refs and players on different pages, in those situations we can't be sure that the best team on the field won the game. now last night, this may or may not have made the difference in who won, but you never know for sure. it throws off the balance, kinda like there is a 'disturbance in the force'
am i the only one who seems confused on this?
BrotherDog "like we've never made a mistake in our lives. "
Well, aligning my fandom to Dallas might be one of them. :-)
Now, giving someone the wrong change is mistake. Turning left when you should be turning right is a mistake. Tell your wife that her pants make her look fat is a big mistake.
Beating your girlfriend/wife (Thugs/Rice), dragging her from a car (Thuggs), pouring bleach on her (Thuggs again), trafficking drugs (Nate Newton), hiring a hitman to kill your pregnant girlfriend (Ray Caruth), taking part in the cover up of a murder (Lewis), killing people (Hernandez), operating an illegal gambling network whereby dogs are brutally murdered for not winning their match, etc. are not mistakes IMO.
If they are, yeah, I've never made a mistake. And I certainly wouldn't call someone like Thuggs a leader.
+1 emaxx. Dead on.
If the NFL would adopt a no tolerance approach to felony convictions, it would greatly clean up the league. It would also send a clear message to the high school and college athletes that the NFL isn't just a bunch of free money for those who are talented. I would also show them that they can't live the life of being gangsters, rapists, murderers and other assorted trash and continue to bring home the big bucks.
Here's an article about Suggs. Note the frequent use of the word alleged ... that's what journalists are trained to do.
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2014/09/terrell_suggs_domestic_violence_like_his_teammate_ray_rice_the_ravens_linebacker.html
Adrian Peterson indicted on child abuse charges. If there's one thing in this world worse than abusing a woman, it's abusing a child.
This story probably also belongs in the "things our parents did..." thread, because there's no way anyone gets indicted for this 30-40 years ago.
Actually, the more I hear about this, I'm thinking AP is getting a raw deal.
Have we really come to the point in this country where the court of public opinion dictates when and in what manner you are allowed to discipline your own children? Have we come to the point where spanking is actually illegal? I know there is a certain segment of our society that definitely believes that it SHOULD be true... but are they actually in charge? I don't recall voting for any of them.
ianimal - I don't even want to get started talking about government sticking their nose into everything.
Some big upsets yesterday, yikes! Having the Monday night game this week allowed me to enjoy watching yesterday without being a wreck. My husband did not fare so well. He is one disgruntled Saints fan to day for sure.
Yeah, the Steelers might be bad, but at least we can beat the Browns (-;
I've often said that the Saints are a terrible outdoors team. I don't think that Brees has the type of arm strength needed to make the big throws outside in the elements and he gets exposed time and time again. Overall, his numbers don't look that bad for yesterday... 27 of 40 for 237 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT. But then, when you look a little deeper, you see that none of his WRs had more than 3 catches and none of them even got 40 yards receiving.
Take away the 10 catches on thirteen targets for 118 yards and two TDS that Jimmy Graham got and Brees was 17 of 27 for 119 yards to everyone else.
You need to be a lot less one-dimensional in the passing game if you're going to win games and the Saints usually are when they're indoors... but again, I don't think Brees has the arm to make the big throws into the wind, so he's stuck making 8-10 yard passes over the middle to his tight end all day. Eventually, even the Browns can stop that once or twice when the game is on the line, lol.
But, at least Horatio had enough sense not to pick the Saints in the Survivor pool... unlike the thirty-seven dead who didn't, lol.
True. He took Green Bay and had a heart attack and changed the channel when The Jets scored that touchdown which got reversed. The last thing I needed was for his Saints to have lost to Cleveland AND he go out of the survivor pool in the same day. Suicide watch for sure.
So nice to see posts about football GAMES.
Two females wearing Flacco jerseys, overheard at the Orioles game, "Ray Rice is appealing."
"No he's not, he's ugly to the core."
"No, I meant he's appealing the decision."
God help us.
I'll take Brees 10 yd. passes to Jimmy Graham all day long. Graham put up 33 pts for me this past weekend.
Now, the question is, when do I start Sammy Watkins. He killed it in FF this past weekend too. Buffalo has some tough matchups though - SD, @Hou, @Det.
I have mixed feelings about AP. I was physically disciplined as a child and while I've never really had to discipline my kids physically, I'm not opposed to it. What I'm uncomfortable with the AP story is that he allegedly left significant marks from it. A red butt cheek is one thing, deep bruising/lacerations (I'm not saying this is what he inflicted) is another story altogether. I guess the only way for us to decide if it was too much or not is for us to see the marks (which I'm sure we'll never get a chance to do so.)
I felt bad for Geno Smith and the other offensive players after that botched timeout call negated the TD. They played their hearts out and had the game tying score. Coaches and refs robbed Geno of that victory.
BTW, Geno is looking pretty good IMO. He had great poise in the pocket at times and made some very good decisions.
Can we all agree that Michael Vick should never take another snap? He looked so indecisive on that late snap they put him in.
What are they putting Vick in for, wildcat plays?
If Geno Smith is the QB, then let him be the QB.
Unfortunately, people love QB controversy.
If Foles has a bag game tonight, stupid Eagles fans will be calling for Mark "The Butt Fumbler" Sanchez to start. Sigh....
The Browns did the same thing with Manziel. With both (Vick and Manziel), it just seemed like they were trying to force playing time for both of them.
Nice comeback on the road, Eagles.
Clutch kick, and he had to do it twice.
Way to beat those Indianapolis Irsays.
Great comeback for the Eagles again. They have to take a look at what's going wrong first half though. They can't depend on coming back like that every week. A road win is always sweet!
Not doing well in the form Pool but my called score for last nights game was 30 to 25. I never will be that close again. I Picked Plilly
Run game, screen passes, and short passes to McCoy/Sproles looked very good. Foles looks really off when trying to throw more than 10 yards. It could be the pressure he's under or a "coming down to Earth" type thing.
Have to give the Eagles credit though for hanging in there and coming back. That takes fortitude.
As opposed to the "easy" games that I went 7-9 on last week? Bring on the hard ones, lol.
After two weeks, I believe Clyde (under the name The Champ is Here) leads the Pick'em pool with a 16-16 record; everyone else is under .500, lol.
I went 10-6 week 1 and 8-8 week 2 in my Pick 'em. Week 2 didn't seem hard when I was picking and that didn't turn out great. Way too many upsets. After I did my picks I remember thinking that I didn't pick enough underdogs. Famous last words.
Maybe, since week 3 seems super tough I will go 14-2!
We do just winners. Which, believe it or not, is harder than it seems. One of the people in my Pick 'em went 5-11 week 2. Yikes! The winner went 11-5. Talk about polar opposites.
The Eagles make you defend the whole field, the whole game.
They wear a defense down, probably best explanation for why they've come back the way they have, two weeks in a row.
It depends on how many people you have in your pool. I was in an office pool with between 10 and 20 people and yeah, 11 or 12 wins would usually get you the money.
But, I sometimes get into the office pool down at DCA and I think there are about 250 people in it... if you get more than one wrong in any given week, you don't have a chance.
If there are a lot of upsets, then it seems hard to pick winners. But overall, picking against the spread essentially reduces everything to a coin flip... so you would expect most sets to be between 10-6 and 6-10. Anything beyond that is a fairly significant deviation from the mean. The odds of going 16-0 against the spread are about 65,000 to 1, whereas most weeks, picking straight up isn't nearly that difficult.
Stat from ESPN: When trailing by 14+ points...
Andy Reid in 14 years: 2-47
Chip Kelly in 18 games: 3-5
In Chip we trust!!!!
Ummm that's not a very impressive stat for chip kelly. The fact that his team has been down 14+ points in 8 out of his first 18 games as an nfl head coach is terrible.
Reid coached 224 games and found himself down 14+ points 49 times...meaning his team was down 14 + one out of every 4.571429 games.
Kelly has coached 18 games and found himself down 14+ points 8 times meaning his team is down two touchdowns(plus extra points) one out of every 2.25 games.
Yes his record coming back to win from 14+ is better but it's not sustainable. I would much rather have the coach that is less frequently down by a large margin.
the doctorPeyton Manning, when he was still a Colt, was asked about his ability to come back and win games. His answer was:
"You hear about how many fourth quarter comebacks that a guy has and I think it means a guy screwed up in the first three quarters."
A famous comeback was the one in 1969, when Brian Piccolo was dying and Gale Sayers gave an emotional speech to the Bears ... it was in the movie Brian's Song ...
a fired up Bears team took a 21-0 lead, but Johnny Unitas brought the Colts back to a 24-21 win.
Piccolo, with his endearing sense of humor told Sayers the next day, "when you tell the team to win one for the gipper, you're supposed to win the game ...nobody ever says blow one for the gipper..."
What never gets mentioned in a discussion of comebacks is the defense ... you can't catch up if the defense keeps allowing more points.
"you can't catch up if the defense keeps allowing more points."
You mean the QB's don't play defense too? From the crap Romo got last year, you would've thought he was the only one on defense out there.
Here's that speech ...one of the all-time tear jerkers, because it was a true story.. fired the Bears up, but they still lost the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJGwzUHfspk
"Romo doesn't get crap from me, he's one of the game's better QBs."
Hmmm, just curious what constitutes "one of the game's better QBS" in your opinion?
Top ten? Top 15? For me Romo might make it to number 17 or 18.
No it isn't. I'm rating them as of this season, which is what I thought was the point. If it was overall career stats among active QBs, he'd be higher. But not by much. ;-)
I'm not a fantasy player, and I'll be 64 years old soon, so I probably "evaluate" players differently than y'all do ... but I've always believed the quarterback gets too much credit when the team wins, and too much blame when it loses.
You can't win without a quality quarterback, but certainly, you can't win without a defense or pass protection, either.
The allas Cowboys have no "D"
Considering "the game" is played at Canadian, Arena, College, High School and Pop Warner levels, it's safe to say that Romo is one of "the game's" best... I'm just not sure he's one of the NFL's best.
Calico - if you are going to base a ranking on only two games, then Romo might not even be bottom 10. He had a horrible first game and was a game manager in the second. His past history has demonstrated that he can carry his team when the rest is semi-competent. The problem is that the defense has been horrible for years and doesn't stop anyone (and this was a problem before last season.)
I think, when healthy (which he is not really right now), he's just as good as Matt Ryan (who never seems to get crap for his poor performance in his losses), Cam, and Russell Wilson.
I think Romo is a much better regular season QB than Flacco but I would rank Flacco ahead because Flacco has unbelievable post-season performances.
Peyton, Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger, Flacco - top tier QB's.
Wilson, Rivers,Kapernick, Romo, Ryan, Cam, Cutler, Stafford - next tier (Wilson and Rivers are the top of this tier - the others are basically tied IMO)
Foles, Geno, Tannehill, EJ Manuel - next tier of potential stars but we need to see more
Eli is an enigma. You can't discount his performance in those SB wins but his non-SB seasons have shown that he's terrible when he doesn't have a solid team around him. I'm not sure where to put him.
The rest of the starting QB's have either shown that they're just not franchise-level QB's. discalimer - I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.
Just remembered:
Rodgers - top tier QB (although I don't think he's as elite as Brady, Manning or Brees...he's had success in only one post-season - granted it was the SB winning post-season but truly elite QB's advance more than that)
Dalton - I put him in the "next tier of potential starters" and he's at the top of that list.
Derek Carr - too new to rate.
Last year, with personnel changes all around him, Flacco had a bad year.
But he has come up big in the post season ... that intangible quality of mental toughness.
Joe's had problems with receivers dropping passes over the years ... maybe he just throws them too darn hard. If Alex Ochoa was a QB he'd probably have the same problem ... I just mentioned him to drive the baseball posters crazy ... having fun because the O's won a division title.
One thing I like about Flacco .... he went to the U of Delaware, an eastern school that places a higher priority on academics than football.
Not too many guys from schools like that make the NFL.
How many industries would choose an applicant who can hardly read, write, or do even the most elementary math, over graduates of schools like Lafayette, Princeton, etc.
That kind of gets at what is the NFL's problem.
Let's be honest, Andy... Flacco transferred to the University of Delaware because he couldn't get on the field at the University of Pittsburgh, which is probably better academically than Delaware as well, so it's not like he left because he wasn't being challenged enough in the classroom, lol..
Wow, you really don't like Joe Flacco ...never realized the intensity of it until now.
Johnny Unitas went to the Baltimore Colts because he was cut by the Steelers ...
does that minimize Johnny U's accomplishments?
I don't hate Joe Flacco (much); I'm just stating the facts... you're the one who made it sound like he chose to go to Delaware for the academics when he could have played for a D-1 school instead... and you "liked that about him".
The fact of the matter is that he made a commitment to one school and quit because he wasn't getting the playing time and he didn't want to "wait his turn"; hardly a redeeming character quality.
I'm not sure why you dragged Unitas into this. Did he accept a scholarship from a college and then welsh on it, too?
Unitas went to Louisville because he didn't make it in a tryout at Notre Dame.
Guess he should have said to himself, gee whiz, guess I just don't have it for big time football, I should just quit.
I guess you shouldn't invent "likeable" aspects of your favorite player's biographies that aren't true. It's disingenuous...
Holy mackerel! This game is ridiculous! 49-0 Atlanta. I considered picking them in my survivor pool, but didn't. My bad. Talk about an ass whoopin!
These Thursday night games suck. There's no way for a team to play a game on Sunday, get three days rest and then be ready to play a road game on Thursday night. It's a case of the NFLs greed being put before the good of the game.
"There's no way for a team to play a game on Sunday, get three days rest and then be ready to play a road game on Thursday night. "
It hasn't been a huge problem for those teams playing against Detroit and Dallas. There are countless instances where those home teams have lost.
I think the problem with the Thursday night games is that they've been mediocre match ups. The schedulers could easily put some marquee match ups there but I suspect they can't because of Sunday game contracts (esp. Sunday night.) Monday night games used to be great too but I've seen them (and maybe it's just perception and not reality) go down in quality since it moved to ESPN.
At least the first 8 weeks of Thursday night games are available to everyone to watch on CBS. Thursday night games have only been on NFL Network in the past.
If you notice, the Thursday night matchups are exclusively (or almost exclusively, anyway) intradivisional matchups. I imagine the NFL did this for a few reasons.
Firstly, intradivisional matchups are usually somewhat "marquee" in and of themselves (with varying degrees, of course - Packers Bears or Cowboys Redskins has more national appeal than say Atlanta TB) in that they are "rivalry" games.
Second, the teams for the most part know each other very well, playing twice a year at least. The reduction in preparation time should have less impact than if you were playing a team you only see once every four years.
Lastly, since realignment, the travel distances are typically less, unless Dallas or Miami is involved... they are still pretty far outside the zone of the rest of their division. And there are some other examples... STL in the NFC West, KC in the AFC West... but for the most part, travelling from Pittsburgh to Baltimore or from Tampa to Atlanta doesn't take up a whole day.
So, I concede that they've done as much as they can, but the product still isn't good. They're oversaturating the market for no reason other than greed; I would rather watch a college game on Thursday night, to be perfectly honest.
The division rivalries should absolutely, in theory, account for some of the greatest games. Seattle/SF is probably the best rivalry right now. I just think that doesn't plan out right now. The gap between the good teams and bad teams just seems so wide.
Seahawks/Rams would be a terrible matchup. Most of the NFC East, which was a marquee division just a short time ago, is abyssmal.
After just reviewing this week's schedule, I think the only good matchup (excluding the Sunday/Monday night games) would be Seattle/Denver. On its face, the Atl/TB doesn't look that bad now when compared to the other games. It just didn't work out to be a good game.
if you live in georgia or louisianna the game has more interst, correct?
like if Thursday night had a giants - eagles game, up here we get all ginned up, no?
or a jets - miami game? up here we get all involved, but out in SF i can't imagine they are as interested
agree with you emaxx, since espn got the monday night games the match ups have not been as good. abc should have never let that get away from them, monday night football used to be a really big thing, not so much anymore, sad.
Upcoming Thursday night matchups...
Wk 4 - Giants Redskins - probably seemed like a good idea when they scheduled it
Wk 5 - Vikings Packers - had some cache' until AP whipped out the hickory stick
Wk 6 - Colts Texans - pretty decent matchup between potential playoff teams
Wk 7 - Jets Patriots - eh, it's the Jets... they have to play at some point, lol
Wk 8 - Chargers Broncos - two best teams in the AFC West at this point
Wk 9 - Saints Panthers - Brees outdoors, Panthers could pull the upset
Wk 10 - Bengals Browns - probably not much interest outside of Ohio, but AJ Green gets a chance to shine on a national stage (Josh Gordon will still be on suspension though)
Wk 11 - Bills Dolphins - could go either way
Wk 12 - Chiefs Raiders - one of the oldest and deepest rivalries in football... probably won't mean anything, but they always play hard against each other
Wk 13 - Turkey Day - Seahawks 49ers in primetime after Eagles Cowboys and Bears Lions... i'll be glued to the TV all day.
Wk 14 - Cowboys Bears - both teams played the previous Thursday, so they'll actually get their full week off (only non-intradivision matchup of the year)
Wk 15 - Cards Rams - bleech
Wk 16 - Titans Jaguars - double bleech
So, there it is... decent matchups for the most part, but will we continue to see the sloppy execution that has plagued these games to date?
Weeks 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 all look like crap on paper because at least one, if not both, of the teams were garbage based on their performances last year.
Wow...some guy just tried to crash the NFL press conference...at least that's what is implied by his screaming off screen.
HA HA..it was Benjy from the Howard Stern show. Can't believe that dork is still around.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2204465-man-interrupts-roger-goodell-press-conference-on-nfls-shortcomings?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming
How does he still get press passes or entry?
I knew it was Benjy as soon as I heard the high-pitched woman's voice of his... "Don't take me to an elevator!!!!", lol
Big win on the road for the Steelers. Those extra three days of rest and game planning really paid off. They were a completely different team than the one that failed to show up in Baltimore 10 days ago. Cheech and Chong both rushed for over 100 yards, the defense pressured Newton all night (3 sacks, 6 hits) and held him to 7 yards rushing and the special teams forced a turnover for a TD... pretty solid game in all three aspects.
Now, they're sitting at 2-1 with Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Houston up next. Realistically, they could (should) be 6-1 when Indy comes to town at the end of Buctober... although Cleveland isn't exactly a pushover any more and shouldn't be taken lightly.
Nice comeback by the Cowboys yesterday... of course, it was against the Lambs, lol... but they're 2-1 and right in the thick of it.
Arizona made a statement yesterday, too, by knocking off the 49ers... I think the Niners are in trouble and don't make the playoffs this year. All the off-field stuff is showing up on the field, it looks like. Philly is next and could drop them to 1-3.
How 'bout those Niners? I remember when I first looked at the Eagles schedule and immediately cast off Eagles @ Niners as an Eagles loss. The Eagles certainly have a fighting chance in that game after what I've seen of the Niners.
Solid Bengals win yesterday. They could possibly be the best team in the AFC right now.
I've never seen a player complain after a 3-0 start:
http://www.csnphilly.com/football-philadelphia-eagles/cary-williams-im-burnt-out-and-im-not-only-one
I wonder (hope?) there is some truth to what he's saying.
I have to give Foles some due respect. He got rocked by Baker #92 on that cheap shot and he still got back up and QB'ed them to a victory.
Dallas defense is already getting rocked by injuries. It's going to be a long haul this season (even if they do win.) Saints are coming to town and it's looking like another high yardage game by the visiting team.
Yeah, Calico, the Bengals look like the team to beat in the AFC right now. Luckily the Steelers don't play them until Week 14 (and again in Week 17)... I'm hoping they morph back into The Bungles again by then (-;
Cary Williams needs to shut his pie hole. Foles took quite the beating yesterday even before that Baker hit. Yet, he kept getting up. He's certainly durable. The new kicker seems to be working out famously as well. I'm hoping Kelce's injury is not too serious.
Um...whaaaatttt?
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2206785-cam-newton-channels-his-inner-dwyane-wade-with-postgame-outfit?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming
Who wears purple like that?
stay classy Eagles fans. way to fight with your own kind.
http://deadspin.com/ugly-brawl-at-eagles-game-features-green-on-green-viole-1637631805
darwin Are those Capri pants he's wearing? And black shoes with no socks? Purple is the least of this guy's problems, lol.
Cam does apparently. LOL
darwin - I've seen Yankees fans fight each other at the stadium as well. People only think things are news when Philly is involved. :-)
On a sad Eagles note, Jason Kelce will have sports hernia surgery. Not sure how long he will be out, but it most likely be 4-6 games. Their o-line is limping early on for sure. :-(
http://deadspin.com/brawl-at-cardinals-game-goes-tumbling-down-the-stairs-1637605594
It must have something to do with birds...here's a Cardinals brawl...although it looks like it's at least Cardinal vs 49er. I feel bad for the security that got choked.
Lions played injures his ACL celebrating.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/21/stephen-tulloch-celebrating-injury_n_5857644.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Return of the Silverback....
After losing Jarvis Jones (OLB) and Ryan Shazier (ILB) to injury Sunday night, the word on the street is that the Steelers will re-sign James Harrison this week to fill the roster spot vacated when Jones was put on the Injured Reserve-Designated to Return list.
Arthur Moats will replace Jones on the outside and Sean Spence will take Shazier's place inside; it's not like the original J Hay is going to be thrust into the starting lineup or anything, but it'll be good to have him back on the sidelines, coaching up the young kids.
I'm also willing to bet that Silverback will NOT be wearing Capri pants at his press conference...
This just in... Roger Goodell has announced that James Harrison will be fined $100k for coming out of retirement too aggressively.
LOL ianimal.
The Week 4 power rankings are out. The Eagles are at #2....gulp!
I hate it when that happens. It makes me really nervous.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000399508/article/nfl-power-rankings-week-4-bengals-at-no-1-packers-slip
Bum calls and they stink! They had a chance to win that game and they blew it big time.
The Iggles are only #4 in this week's ESPN.com power rankings. To be honest, I think this is a better judge of the top 5 teams. The NFL.com rankings just automatically put the 3-0 teams at the top. The Cardinals ranked ahead of the Seahawks? The Chargers in the Top 4? That's silly...
http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings/_/year/2014/week/4
Those ranking are always crazy. They're so easily influenced by the current week's performance. A mediocre team could jump 7 spots just by beating a good team.
I still have the Eagles winning the division (although I don't have them sweeping it anymore.) I still can't see how they're the #4 team in the league especially with their slow first halves.
Sal Palontonio and Mikey Miss today were saying that the Eagles could be a 13+ win team (even throwing out the 16-0) if they beat San Fran this week. Really?
I assume the general thinking with the so called "experts" is that the Eagles wear teams out second half. I was just saying yesterday, that if it weren't for all the injuries the Eagles have to their offensive line I would think they could beat SF in SF. But with the injuries (especially Kelce), I'll have to bet against them. If the Eagles somehow manage to come out on top of SF in SF despite all of the injuries, theoretically I'm not sure what team can beat them.
That said, it's been a really exciting season for me so far!
Shenanigans in SF. I guess the Niners fans think their team could possibly be in trouble with today's game and resorted to juvenile nonsense. LOL
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11605167/philadelphia-eagles-deal-fire-alarm-going-hotel?
Darren Sproles couldn't see high enough to read it and thought it was a light switch. At least that's how I heard it (^;
As a die hard Redskins fan, can we just change the subject?
This may be the earliest in the season I have ever pursued lawn work on Sunday afternoons.
mistergoogle Horrible football week for me. My Pick 'em picks were pathetic, I went out in my survivor pool (*&^%$#@! Steelers) and my beloved Eagles lost a very bizarre game.
Oh well, on to Week 5.
Pick'em sucked for me but my FF team won (even with four of my starters out on bye.) Tannehill and Eddie Royal came through big for me.
And.....
Who dat?
I like the Redskins Post summary: "Robert Griffin III breaks easier than the Waterford crystal that some fans sent him when he got married, and Kirk Cousins is a good backup quarterback but fit for emergency use only."
Just change those lyrics to: “Are you ready for some . . . baseball!?”
Megatron (ranked as #1 WR overall for Week 4 by the Yahoo "experts") and Shady McCoy (#4 overall RB by those same "experts) absolutely KILLED my fantasy team this week. Zero points combined from my top 2 picks. I'm really starting to hate the frigging Eagles... one TD in four weeks for McCoy? If that doesn't change in a hurry, it's gonna be a long fantasy season...
As for the Steelers, they lost three starters on defense against the Panthers last week and gave up 125 yards in penalties. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Bills are benching EJ Manual and putting in Kyle Orton. Stupid move by the Bills. Orton wasn't there for all of training camp.
As a Dallas fan, I hope Orton gets destroyed. He pulled a sleazy move by never reporting to camp, banking his undeserved paycheck from Dallas, and forcing their hand in cutting him.
I enjoyed the Patriots getting shredded last night very much. :-)
I also found myself, just like old times, wanting to choke Andy Reid as the 2nd quarter ran down. Terrible clock management by him at the end of of the first half. I guess some things never change.
The Pats are getting old like the Giants by keeping people to long.
Calico, Andy won, Philly lost.
Yes, this week.......
My point was, he's not even my team's coach anymore and it was still maddening to watch. He made some insane calls at the ends of halves when with the Eagles. Sometimes they won and it didn't matter, but sometimes it did.
I'm not ready to completely write off Tom Brady & Co., but we will see.
Brady took a beating last night. I almost felt bad for him... almost.
It's like he's QBing a semi-pro team and being forced to play against NFL competition. Julian Edelman is your WR1? Ben Vereen and Ridley's Believe it or Not are the two guys you can hand the ball off to?
I think Brady is busy hiring a dream team of lawyers to get Aaron Hernandez acquitted as I type this, lol.
Check out this map of the best selling team jerseys by state. Apparently Alaska has a bunch of Rams fans. And WTF is up with Oklahoma?
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/10/1/6881169/nrl-jersey-sales-dicks-sporting-goods
Hey, at least the Eagles own Delaware, Calico... the Steelers have West Virginia and Arkansas in addition to Pennsyltucky. Not sure if that's a good thing, lol.
I'm really surprised that TB outsells the Fish in Florida. I never would have guessed that.
I missed it when I first looked at the map, but now I see that Idaho is filled with Packers fans. Weird.
I think Miami is mostly a basketball town. The fact that Miami often faces blackouts is reaffirms that. I'm shocked by Denver's coverage. I would have thought Dallas had New Mexico. Oklahoma? Weird, just weird.
New Mexico is probably a state typically in flux. The Broncos are a top team and the Cowboys aren't in recent years. Also, this isn't even total jersey sales, only sales at Dick's Sporting Goods....
Oklahoma going to the Browns can only mean one thing... Johnny Football. Who else's jersey would they be buying? Doesn't mean that they are actually Browns fans.
Sadly, these Thursday night blowouts are becoming the norm. At least I started of my Pick 'em this week with a "W". :-)
I was going to watch the second half (watched Grace Point on Fox during the 1st half) and then I saw the score...so I went to bed.
Interesting article on why TNF has been so bad:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2219276-whats-to-blame-for-the-nfls-thursday-night-failures
Oh man, my poor Jets. The whole team sux. Benching Geno wasnt the solution. He and Vick weren't the problem. The whole team was bad. They werent getting any protection from the front line. What can we do?
No respect for Dallas BEG? It will be a 3-way tie if the Giants win. I expect the Cowboys to lose @Seattle. All 3 teams could be 4-2 by the end of the weekend.
That Giants @ Cowboys game the week after is a huge match up with division standings.
Detroit has released PK Alex Henery. Big shocker there. LMAO
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/10/06/lions-release-kicker-alex-henery/
If the Giants win and Cowboys lose then Giants take the tie-breaker, I think...
too early to say that, but as bad as they played the fisrt couple of games Giants deserve an "Improvement" ribbon..
Giants are very good in not seizing the opportunitiy and making things harder...
Yeah, if all 3 teams are 4-2, then Giants will be 1st since they'll have 2 division wins. I think we'll see the division lead change hands a few times. It's shaping up to be a very good division. Most analyst and fans (myself included) left the division for dead at the start of the year.
Both the Giants and Cowboys will play @Seattle. That should tell a lot about both teams. Of course, because of the pathetic fans in Dallas, Dallas stadium looked like a home game for the Texans.
Dirty, filthy Lions fan with a laser pointer.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/buffalo-bills-lasers-detroit-lions-kyle-orton-dan-carpenter
I still watched last nights game, think we needed 1,000 lasers.
Might as well change the name, we could use a new beginning......
I have to say, considering the horrible game vs. the Giants, Washington played a respectable game vs. Seattle. I thought it was going to be a blowout.
I actually thought they would cover, my homerism not withstanding. Seattle doesn't play all that great on the road, and Washington does have some good players: Kerrigan, Orakpo, DeSean, Morris. Jury is still out on Cousins. He was solid. Seemed like they had SEA defended pretty well and Wilson was the difference. Man, he is good.
Even though I picked my team I still won the weekly office pool.
MeisterNJ Washington didn't stop Seattle, Seattle stopped Seattle. Seattle outrushed them 225 to 32 and if you take those two deep balls to DeSean for 137 yards out of the equation, the 4Skins didn't pass the ball all that well, either.
Holding calls and other penalties committed by the Seachickens at inopportune times allowed what should have been a 41-17 or so game to wind up a "respectable" 27-17... when they really looked terrible, if you watched the game closely. 17 carries for 32 yards on offense while allowing Russell Wilson to run all over them on defense. How is containing him not your #1 priority on defense? Make him beat you with his arm, not his legs.
But at least they didn't turn the ball over... that was a big improvement over last week, lol.
Thanks Iman, I feel better now :>)
I think the best was when the commentator said he wouldn't like to be the radio play-by-play for Seattle given all the penalty take-backs and busted plays.
Sure we have good players, mostly injured, and Cousins might come around if he can man-up and shake it off.
Meanwhile, change the name and maybe the stink won't cling to the new one. In keeping with the city, how about:
- the Gridironlocks
- the Entitlements
- the Deficits
- the Earmarks
Keeping with the hogs
- the Porkbellies
Wilson hadn't run all that much before last night, (~90yds in the previous 4) so no, that shouldn't have been priority #1. How can you see 120 yds coming? He's not really a runner. Passer first, runs when he has to. Can he run? Obviously yes, he normally chooses to move around more to make a pass than to take off down the field.
Take out this, take out that? It all counts. The long touchdown to Jackson was a very nice pass under pressur by Cousins.
"Wilson hadn't run all that much before last night"... because other teams had made it a point to stop him as priority #1.
I listened to the first part of the game on the radio. The sideline guy for NFL Radio, Ross Tucker, said that he spoke to Ryan Kerrigan before the game and RK told him that keeping Russell Wilson in the pocket and not letting him break off big runs WAS in fact a big part of their game plan. Wilson had already racked up 16, 29 and 13 yard runs when he told the story. Then, just as he finished telling the story, Wilson ripped off another 20+ yarder.
Then Boomer made a comment/joke about how defensive guys are stupid and everything goes out of their heads once the whistle blows.
So, apparently it was SUPPOSED to be the game plan, just poor execution by the players.
As for the other... yeah, it all counts, but they don't call them Hail Marys for nothing. The TD was a very nice pass and a very nice catch... but they are very fluky and impossible to rely on. That's why DJax has yardage totals of 62, 19, 117, 9 and 157 in his 5 games this year. He has 357 yards receiving total with 80, 60 and 57 yard catches totalling 197 of them and his only 2 TDs. The other 299 minutes of games, he's done next to nothing. It's not like they're ripping off one of these plays every other drive.
It must be Thursday... there's a completely unwatchable game on CBS. Thankfully, hockey season has started, lol.
Edit... May have spoken too soon. Houston is staging a minor comeback, but I doubt it lasts.
"Yeah, the Steelers might be bad, but at least we can beat the Browns (-;"
"Now, they're sitting at 2-1 with Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Houston up next. Realistically, they could (should) be 6-1 when Indy comes to town at the end of Buctober"
Ian
In what universe?
Wow, just wow! 8 sacks last night. It was a delight to be Eagles fan last night, especially around a bunch of Giants fans. ;-)
All tied up emaxx.
Nice Eagles fan
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/mans_prosthetic_leg_stolen_by_woman_in_eagles_gear_outside_stadium_report_says.html
"Yeah, the Steelers might be bad, but at least we can beat the Browns (-;"
Week 1 - Pittsburgh 30, Cleveland 27... Q.E.D
"Now, they're sitting at 2-1 with Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Houston up next. Realistically, they could (should) be 6-1 when Indy comes to town at the end of Buctober - Ian In what universe?"
Do you not understand the difference between "could (should)" and "will"? I also have to laugh at your selective editing, considering the very next line was "although Cleveland isn't exactly a pushover any more and shouldn't be taken lightly." But, yeah, once again the Steelers blow a couple games that they should have dominated. Last year, it was the Raiders, Vikings and Dolphins. But they were right there in Week 17. We'll see how it plays out this year when the dust settles. I don't take it as seriously as I used to. It's all good.
LAS Dallas Cowboys RB Joseph Randle was impressive against the Seahawks, rushing for 52 yards on 5 carries. Did he celebrate by going to Disney World? Nope... he chose to go to the local mall for a little 5-finger discount shopping spree (reportedly underwear and cologne). Unbelievable...
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/cowboys-running-back-joseph-randle-arrested-for-shoplifting-at-mall-145102925.html
What the hell? He's making $500K/yr (possibly more since he's a second year guy and was a 3rd round draft pick.) Idiot.
On another Dallas note, I think the analysts are all overreacting to Dallas' string of wins. BleacherReport has them ranked as the #1 team. Yes, the win in Seattle was impressive not only because of the win but the domination throughout it. However, even I would temper my enthusiasm.
I put Dallas as a solid contender for the division title. Dallas has had more impressive wins than Philly has. That's as far as I'll go. No one is a lock for the NFC East division title let alone a SB run (like Philly radio is saying the Eagles are primed for.)
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/dal/roster/
According to this, his salary for 2014 is $495,000. You would think that would be enough to keep him in BVDs and CK1, but apparently not, lol.
This isn't new information, apparently, but it was news to me.
The next NFL game in London is the Lions versus the Falcons on Sunday, October 26th. The game will be broadcast at 2:30 pm local time, which is 9:30am Eastern Daylight Time and the game is going to be nationally televised in the USA. I wonder how early Hawaiians need to get up... they have to be 6 or 7 hours behind us... 2:30 or 3:30am?
So... football at 9:30, 1:00, 4:15 and 8:20? Sounds like a pretty good day, lol.
Congrats to Mr. Manning on passing Brett Favre for the all time TD record. He's a class act.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11731334/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-breaks-brett-favre-all-touchdown-pass-record
What a difference a month makes for Cincinnati, huh? They went into their bye week with many anointing them as the best in the AFC. Since then, they've been blown out twice and played to a tie by the Carolina Panthers. I have to think that Marvin's seat is getting a little warm at this point.
So true about Cincy. How about that trick play on the punt return by STL yesterday? I'm still giggling about it.
That was great. Also loved the fake punt call on their own 20 with less than 3:00 left. That was ballsy... and it SHOULD have locked the game up, but they almost blew it when the RB fumbled, but luckily they recovered.
Russell Wilson was the first QB to ever throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 in the same game and the Seahawks didn't turn the ball over; yet, they still lost to the Rams. Add to that the fact that they just practically gave away their 3rd best player on offense to the Jets... and things are looking bad in Coffeetown right now.
Colt McCoy outlasts Charlie Whitehurst in the "I Escaped Cleveland" Bowl, while their former team rewards all their fans who had started to feel hope in their hearts again by getting blown out by the previously winless Jaguars. What a wretched existence it must be to be a Browns fan; I think you have to be or have been a Mets fan at some point to empathize.
Joseph Randle... underwear thief turned underwear spokesman. And people wonder why football players have a sense of entitlement...
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2236838-joseph-randle-and-meundies-partnership-announced-following-arrest
Some of the match ups yesterday were just painful. CLE/JAX, BUF/MIN, WAS/TEN.
I think Detroit might be the worst 5 win team in the NFL. That game was plain ugly. But, they squeaked another one out.
If Drew and the Saints don't turn it around soon, my life is going to be a living hell. ;-)
There were mumblings last night of requesting a brown paper bag the next time I got to Shop Rite. LOL.....the 'Aints are baaaaaaack!
bothered - The JeSt only have one win. They are on par with Jacksonville and Tampa Bay at this point. ;-)
I know, but they are still my team. Never jump ship. LOL. Giants are 3-4. Not too much better.
I wasn't suggesting you jump ship, just pointing out that the Giants don't stink as bad as the Jets right now. LOL
Lol, they are not too far behind them. Still a lot of football to go. We'll see who comes out on top. ;)
ianimal - You're Tinmen never cease to screw me over and antagonize me this season. I picked Houston last night.
Kelce, Sproles, Kendricks and Polk returned to practice today for my beloved Eagles.
http://mobile.philly.com/blogs/?wss=%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fsports%2Feagles%2F&id=279928462
The Steelers haven't lost at home on Monday night since the G-men beat them in 1991. That was a bad pick on your part, lol.
Your beloved Eagle, Shady McCoy, has REALLY been screwing over some of my fantasy teams. He finally had a good week, then they had a bye and now the midget is coming back.
You really think the Lions are the worst 5-win team in football? Their offense has been sputtering without Calvin Johnson, but their defense only gives up 15 points a game. A great defense goes a long way and certainly leaves them out of that discussion.
I think your team might actually be the worst 5-win team... if not for a lucky seven TDs by the defense and special teams, who knows what your record might be. But, I'll give you the benny and lay that one on the Patriots... their defense is atrocious and their offense is uneven at best. Plus, how many other 5-win teams lost by two TDs to the Fish and lost 41-14 on primetime TV?
Don't worry. Shady will have a few more big games before the season is out. I'm not sure Sproles will be playing this Sunday. He's just back to practice. We will see.
Wins are wins and I'll take the 5-1 record. It's should actually be 6-0 as they had the Niners beat and blew it big time.
I'm just waiting for the Cowgirls to start giving it back. They usually do. ;-)
I was listening to the Fan in Philly on the way home and it was sickening how the Eagle fans were making excuses:
- Eagles have been holding the playbook back
- Just wait till the team starts clicking
Those were two prevailing excuses.
Really? Philly had to rally back from deficits against Indy and the Jags. They almost let the Rams beat them. And please about SF. They got physically dominated. So we're supposed to believe that Philly was holding back?
Dallas, despite its record, has similar struggles. Fumbles, down vs the Rams, etc. I put both teams as equals and I sure as heck haven't seen a thing from either team that says they could beat Aaron Rodgers. Neither team is a lock for the division based on their own performances. Arizona may just spank both of them.
It's amazing how one good season has Philly talking SB lock again.
Not this Eagles fan. I'll take the 5-1, but I'm not blind to the issues. Getting back a couple more starting O linemen by the beginning of Nov. and Kendricks on D this week will hopefully help clear up some of the problems. If not, other adjustments need to be made.
They look great... but it's the regular season. They have no shot at the Super Bowl... unless Rex Grossman gets signed by the NFC participant and forced into action, lol.
Does anyone know what happened to D. Ware last night? Last week 3 sacks and last night not even 1 tackle. Way to start off my fantasy week.
Tracy (mobile) Are you playing the Denver defense or Ware specifically on your FF team? Just curious.
As a Dallas fan, I love Ware. However, he was a ghost in the second half of the last two seasons. He was not the best d-linemen Dallas had in both years but the media continued to talk about him like he was. Anthony Spencer and Jason Hatcher outplayed by a large margin in the last two years.
NFL Network this morning was discussing Ware. Their analysis was that his sacks were primarily a result of other linemen creating pressure and flushing the QB towards Ware. I found that interesting.
Sounds like an IDP (individual defensive player) league that Tracy's in. I've never done one, if you can believe that, lol.
Ah, OK. Never played in one. I guess I shouldn't tell you that I have Peyton and Sanders as starters on my team? Sweeeeet!!!!
I have Sanders, which was nice... unfortunately, my opponent had Antonio Gates, who also had a big game, esp. compared to my TE, Julius Thomas, who did next to nothing. The combined points between Sanders and Thomas were a lot more than I could have hoped for, though, so overall, it was a good start to the week for me.
Thankfully I played Sanders last week and am not opposing Peyton this week either. I do have D. Thomas and his 10 points was a disappointment after last week.
So if the Redskins are 2-5 and they play Dallas, then just when I though I was out, they dragged me back in................
Not going to be a good weekend even if the weather is nice........for me. At least they're will be Zombies later.
The Foreskins don't play until Monday night, mister g. Your weekend should be fine.
This is a watershed weekend in football vegetation Sundays. For the first time, there's a fourth game Sunday morning at 9:30am. Church attendance should be WAY down, lol. If the ratings are high enough, this might become the new normal time for games played in England.
I love the 9:30 game situation. It's like living on the left coast!
Tough game for my beloved Eagles this week. Let's see what happens. I would love for the Deadskins to take those Cowgirls down this week!!!!
Pittsburgh finally got their offense going... it's about time. Way too much talent on that side of the ball to score 20 points a game. The defense got shredded by Luck to an extent, but at least they beat the living hell out of him. They must have knocked him down 12-15 times. I would always prefer getting beat while attacking instead of sitting back and getting picked apart.
A well-deserved congratulations to Big Ben... not only did he "allegedly" become the first QB in history with two 500-yard games on his resume, by going an astounding 40/49 for 522 yards and 6 TDs, but he also became only the 4th QB in history to win 100 of his first 150 starts, joining Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Tom Brady.
Now, Ben, you need to do even better next week... the Ratbirds are coming to town and the Steelers need a win to split the season series.
How much longer do we have to listen to announcers gush over "Chip Kelly's high-powered offense"? Through 7 games, they have 12 passing TDs and 4 rushing TDs to go with14 FGs for a total offensive output of 22 points per game, which is hardly "high-powered".
Yet, that's all they ever talk about... is it the fact that LeSean McCoy rushes for 6 yards followed by negative 5 yards faster than any running back in the league? Does that qualify as "high-powered"? Is it the QB with as many turnovers (9 picks, 3 fumbles lost) as TD passes who completes less than 60% of his passes? Does that qualify as "high-powered"?
I don't know... I just don't see it. I don't think Philly is half the team that Dallas is, and a lot of it stems from them being unable to get McCoy going, especially in the passing game. I think Foles can be a decent QB... I just don't think he's the guy to run Kelly's offense effectively. And their WR corps is mediocre at best. Without a strong running game that the defenses have to respect, I don't see it getting much better anytime soon.
Are they due to get some starters on the O-Line back in the near future, Calico? Because it's just miserable to watch... I won my fantasy matchup yesterday in spite of Shady and it's been a really long time since I won one that I could point to him as a primary reason why. He's killing me.
Yes, Kelce could be back this week against HOU. If not, definitely for CAR on 11/2. Mathis is scheduled to be back on 11/2 as well.
The Eagles didn't look too sharp yesterday, but I'm just glad I'm not a Jets fan. ;-)
LOL, this is so hilarious!
http://profootballmock.com/rex-ryan-asks-day-laborers-outside-home-depot-know-play-qb/
I wonder if I should put this in one of the "Main Street is going downhill" threads?
Can't be worse than Geno or Vick....“And sí, I can play American Football, if you like. Unfortunately, I’m not too sure how to throw a spiral or read a defense, but I know the basic rules. Throw to the men wearing the same uniform, yes?”
Cowboys went in yesterdays game too confident, they do this too much.... We really needed the win with the Eagles losing... Cardinal game is going to be big with us losing this game and now it is a must win. Cowboys must now win against the Eagles, losing this divisional game.
On another note, any key moves that are being made today?
Tony111 Who is we? Are you on the team Tony? Is that you Romo? LOL
Sweet Dallas loss. Thanks Deadskins!!!
So I turned in at kickoff expecting to catch Sleepy Hollow at 9pm.
But I stayed.
Then I expected to catch The Black List at 10pm
But I stayed.
Figured I would catch the news at 11pm, but I stayed and stayed and stayed.
It was messy, it was ugly, we executed poorly, but OK for third string, we were lucky, very lucky, took huge defensive risks and got even luckier, and even a blind squirrel.........
But I'll take it. And at Dallas ever better. Just hope Romo is OK. Not the most vicious hit but he was certainly bending the wrong way instinctively trying to protect the previous injury and I am sure that did not help. Even die hard fans don't want to win against Dallas that way. (Now had he been 100% healthy...........)
Yet the win changes nothing and it's like the wound is sealed but you know it's gonna gush again and that just makes it hurt even worse. Then again, I could have been a Jets fan......
LOL Calico... Yes, this is the man himself, Tony Romo, No. 9.... I love the "hate" for America's team! Good loss against the Cardinals lolll.... we will play you soon enough....
Smacktalk between Philly and Dallas fans is like members of the FF consolation ladder talking smack. Both teams are good enough to contend for the division title but neither is going anywhere against teams like the Packers or Broncos.
I cant wait for Turkey Day, will be munching down on Philly Cheese Steaks...
All jokes aside, I think if the doctor just said for Romo to take the night off, I think Weed was playing well enough for us to get the win.
I like our chances against the Packers or Broncos, if we can run the ball effectively and keep Manning off the field I believe we can win a close game. The Packers are unpredictable, but again I like our chances running the ball (healthy players permitting).
Saw the guy in that tshirt Calico. So true! Maybe, just maybe with Vick starting now, they can win their remaining games and make it to the playoffs. Plenty of football left.
;]
So, Colt McCoy is the flavor of the week. He'll last another game or two, then back to the RG Three Yards Per Pass Show. At least the Redskins have a first rd pick this year. Oh, wait, trade deadline hasn't passed yet and it's burning a hole in Snyder's pocket. Eh, they're my team.
See, it doesn't only happen in Philly!
http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2014/10/jets_fan_who_knocked_out_buffalo_bills_fan_was_arrested_and_charged_per_report.html
I would have kept Weeden in the game too. He performed well because Wash. didn't really blitz him. There were two issues I had with the game:
1) Not letting Murray run the ball into the endzone after that big run in the 3rd. Give him 3 tries and if it doesn't work, go for the FG. That decision there cost them the game as there would not have been a tie
2) Letting Romo back in the game with that injury was bad enough but why the hell is Jerry on the sideline talking to Garrett?! Get off of the field!!!!
I agree completely E.... Supposedly he told Garrett that Romo would be back, I presume after that pain killer shot the doctor gave Romo....
Calico, I thought Jets fans only beat up women?
http://deadspin.com/male-jets-fan-decks-female-fan-in-metlife-stadium-fight-1448796519
Although, in his defense, white trash broads from Southie aren't exactly feminine.
The new video only serves to illustrate two axioms: Jets fans are thugs and Bills fans are punks.
Did you notice how shocked "Chad" was when "T.O." went down with the setup punch? He was ready to really blast him when the guy slumped over the seat.
Note: if you are a Bills fan who went out and bought a Terrell Owens jersey, your judgment is already suspect and I have to think that you had that punch coming in some way, shape or form.
I remember that mess from last year now. I had forgotten about it.
"Did you notice how shocked "Chad" was when "T.O." went down with the setup punch? He was ready to really blast him when the guy slumped over the seat. "
Yeah, I can't believe he got knocked out cold with that lame assed punch.
"Note: if you are a Bills fan who went out and bought a Terrell Owens jersey, your judgment is already suspect and I have to think that you had that punch coming in some way, shape or form."
So true.
Considering the bogus two years of salary cap draft pick penalties imposed on the Redskins, and given to the other teams, on top of lousy years, it's amazing they can find the talent they did.
Crap, now Sanchez will be the QB of my beloved Eagles for what looks like a while. Foles has a broken collar bone. :-(
As far as back ups go, at least Sanchez is one of the better ones, so long as he doesn't butt fumble. Anybody see Weeden yesterday? LOL
Solid road win for the Eagles yesterday, plus a Dallas loss and they are back on top of the NFC East.
I'm looking forward to the game tonight. I'm sure Mr. Luck will be eager to chew up and spit out the Midgets after being embarrassed last week by the flying bumble bees.
Speaking of the bumble bees, they continue to burn me week after week. I had BAL last night. Grrrrrrr!
OMG LMAO! Sanchez in for the Eagles and did a good job. Cant believe it! (And we're stuck with Vick).
My JETS......OUCH again. The pain just never ends. Just watched interview with Rex. Looked like he was going to cry. Well, I guess if I were to lose my "high paying" job, I'd be crying too.
Calico, I can't thank you enough for picking the Ratbirds last night. You're the best (-;
At least Sanchez has a better team around him in Philli. Hang in there. My boys are going down tonight. They never win after a week off.They forget how to get out of bed.
Weeden looked awful. He stared down every receiver and then his throws were all over the place. Considering he took all 1st team reps during training camp and preseason and every Wednesday since, it's really pathetic.
Dallas and Philly got beat up yesterday for sure. Two of Dallas' better defensive guys left the game towards the end. Foles stands a good chance of being done for the season. 4-6 weeks; if the Eagles are out of it by then, then he'll be done for the season.
Let's see how Sanchez looks after a team has time to prepare for him. My guess is that teams will key on the run and force Sanchez to pass. Ryans, on defense, being done for the season is what will really hurt Philly.
It was a big open wound gash that bled for months but two weeks ago it finally scabbed over in Dallas.
And on Sunday, as Dallas continued to play touch football, it appeared the planets might be aligning into the Wildcard pattern. Dallas lost and we were winning. And then they came. They ripped the scab of with pliers, poured in some salt and asked "how does it feel?" Worse yet, I could see them coming and all I could do was lift up my arm and say ------ "here you go boys, rip away......"
I am never going to Subway again.
Old Gent- Im hoping they go down tonight. Lol. They are not much better then the Jets.
How about James Harrison "turning back the clock" ten years instead of only an hour yesterday. He looked like the Silverback of old.
LOL, I actually won a bit in the Super Bowl pool. Last season, but still this year. ;-)
What a beat down of the Giants! Best tweet I saw last night:
"John Mara must be pissed. Dallas and Washington better hope they don't wake up to $20 million more in salary cap penalties."
Those penalties still piss me off.
F YOU MARA. Suck it!
Wowza! Browns opened up a can of whoop a** on Who Dey last night! That puts the Browns tied for first place with the Tinmen.
ianimal - I picked your Steelers this week, so that pretty much guarantees a JeSt win. That would leave Cleveland alone in first. Sorry.
I'll be at the game... so if that happens, fully expect a video of me to go viral on Monday morning. I'll take a "F!@# you, Calico" sign to hold up as the cops are leading me off to jail (-;
I just want to apologize to ianimal. Sorry, buddy. The Jets win over the Steelers was completely my fault. I'm not sure what to do going forward. I think I just won't even make a pick in the Steelers games going forward and just take the automatic L. I get the L every week anyway regardless of which way I pick. ;-)
No wonder why ian hasn't posted. He's probably still trying to make bail. He did text me yesterday with the message he posted above, regarding the sign he was going to make. He sure has a potty mouth. ;-)
That wasn't ian on the field at the end pulling the Polamalu leap over the Jets' victory formation, was it?
"Will the Philthadelphia Sanchez era begin tonight?"
I sure hope not. He's not the QB I want this team to be tied to long term in any shape or form.
Fly Eagles Fly.......
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would see a head line like this.
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/11/giants_defense_is_officially_the_worst_in_the_nfl_after_loss_to_seahawks.html
Yup, that about sums it up Old Gent. I bumped into a friend today (Giants fan) and he said that he has been hoping he wouldn't run into me with how bad they've been this season. I told him that he didn't have to worry. That the Giants are so bad I feel sorry for him and don't even have the energy to bust him. Now if it were the Cowgirls...............
On at least 1 TD run my Lynch, you can see the defenders not even make an attempt to stop him. Brown (safety?) was the player that I noticed. The Giants quit in that game. Shocking considering they were leading in the 4th.
It gives me great pleasure to see the Giants again have a disastrous season. I hope John Mara stews in his team's failure. I don't care if the Cowboys make it to the playoffs (OK I do care) or win one. I just want to see the Giants organization suffer and suffer greatly for that salary cap bullsh*t they pulled. Yes, I'm still bitter.
Tom and Eli need to go. They've stayed longer than they should have. Kind of like Big Red and Donovan in Philly.
Speaking of Big Red, I had the stupid Buffaloes in that game yesterday. Almost had the upset! Grrrrrrr!
Additionally, I think the Saints need to go in a different direction as well next season. They are terrible. Brees is just not looking like Brees at all and the secondary is just awful.
Ha... no jail time for me, although there was certainly a prime candidate at the end of my row. Loud, drunk and obnoxious with a mouthful of teeth only a meth dealer could love.
I wasn't even surprised that they got beat. I had a premonition about halfway through my third screwdriver that they were going to crap the bed and it just became a matter of watching it unfold. Four turnovers and a missed chip shot FG... you just aren't going to beat anyone when you do that.
I sure hope Dirty Sanchez doesn't take a hit on the noggin' or anything tonight. Matt Barkley is just scary.
It's not Eli. Its Reese. His first draft was good and then screwed up the drafts. Beckham was a no brainier. He went far to long with the OL. and we have new LB's every year. I watched the Alabama game. Did you see the size of the OL and the speed they had. I would swap the Giants OL for theirs. It's going to takes years to develop an OL that works together.Not as long for other positions.
Well, it took 3 years for Dallas OL to be remade. In the meantime, the DL fell apart. I agree on the Giants' perplexing picks. Eli was getting crushed last year and they went with Beckham when they could have picked Martin. Good thing for Dallas that they didn't. Martin has been playing at a pro bowl level.
Carson Palmer has a left ACL and is done for the year. Stick a fork in the Cardinals... they aren't going anywhere in the playoffs with Drew Stanton. I still think they'll make the playoffs at 8-1, but I don't think they win a playoff game. Shame... they were one of the better stories going.
Stanton went 2-1 and the only loss was to Denver. Seems to me that the Cards can win with either QB (which also makes the $50M extension given to Palmer that much more perplexing.)
The Steelers once (2010?) went 3-1 to start the season with Charlie Batch at QB. That doesn't mean he would have led them to the Super Bowl that year, like Ben eventually did.
Stanton beat the Giants and the 49ers and his stats were extremely unimpressive against the Giants. The 49ers game was the only one that you can say he played well in and even then, he barely completed 50% of his passes. He won't lead the Cards to victory under playoff atmosphere type pressure against a good team... I just don't see it.
It's not Eli? Really? Hmmmmm....
Regarding Stanton, he is not the answer, neither is Palmer. Arizona is a good team because of their other parts, not the QB.
I think you guys are underestimating what Palmer has done. In his 5 starts prior to this week, he had thrown for at least two TDs with 3 against the Cowboys while throwing only 3 INTs and averaging about 275 yards per game.
With their tough schedule down the stretch (2 vs Seattle, Detroit, KC, and road games against SF, ATL and STL, they're going to miss Palmer's production a lot more than you think.
Palmer is ok. He's never been the same since getting his knee blown out the first time. Although he has done a good job this year, there are at least 15 other QBs I'd rather have than him.
I suppose 15 is fair... none of those 15 are named Stanton, Foles or Sanchez though (-;
Nine sacks, five turnovers and two touchdowns... I would say that the Defense and Special Teams carried the day for the Eagles. They now have nine DST TDs on the year... that's amazing.
Lucky for me, I have them to counteract the absolute load of crap that McCoy is putting up week after week. If not for the 1 yard TD he got last night, it might have been his worst effort yet... 12 carries for 19 yards and 1 catch for -2; in my league, that adds up to a big fat goose egg, lol.
That's what most thought about the Jets last week........
Which Berger are you picking?
Most people make assumptions by just looking at a team's record, but the Jets are better than most 2-8 teams in that they've been mostly competitive. They lost by 7 to the Packers and the Lions, 14 to the Broncos and by only 2 to the Patriots. Then, they had other games where they had turnover issues and got blown out. I would still say that they're much better than Tennessee.
This is a tough week for picks. Almost every match-up falls into one of these three categories:
Both teams are equally good;
Both teams are equally bad;
One team is much better than the other, but the bad team is so due for a "W".
I smell 7-7 coming in my Pick 'em. :-(
Maybe this will help you pick. though it didn't for me. It fills every day.
http://www.nfl.com/injuries
Some great match-ups today in the NFL.
If my beloved Eagles were to win today, I might drink a glass of that Kool-aid. ;-)
No one ever mention how Eli is elite again. Both teams didn't want to win that game but Eli really sucked. 4 ints...I won't put that 5th one on him.
Whip I can't wait to hear what Philly sports radio is like tomorrow. They have done nothing but talk about how the Eagles are better with Sanchez (despite eviscerating him while he was with the Jets.) I bet plenty of Philly fans will want some of that special Jim Jones-flavored Kool-Aid tonight.
Sanchez is not the answer been saying it all along. At the end of the day only 3 losses. So Fly, Eagles... Fly!
Yes, the division is tied up and it's still up for grabs. Thanksgiving game will be huge. Sensible people see that. People like Joe Decamara aren't sensible.
Things are looking up according to McCoy
http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2014/11/lesean_mccoy_says_packers_arent_better_than_eagles_after_33_point_loss.html#incart_river
Calico-boy oh boy, your Eagles looked worse then the Jets & Giants put together. Lol
In their defense, still have a good record. Just wasnt their week. ;)
Yup, huge game on Turkey Day. Can't wait. I can't believe how bad the Giants and Redskins continue to stink it up.
ianimal - I have Pittsburgh tonight, so that kind of guarantees a Tennessee win. ;-)
To put things into perspective...Eagles and Cowboys are 1-2 against teams with a winning record. Whoever makes the playoffs (and I think both do) is not going far.
I hope Dallas doesn't look past the Giants this week. They can't get caught up in trap games.
Arizona looks damn good. As of right now, I'm picking AZ/GB as the NFC conference championship teams.
"As of right now, I'm picking AZ/GB as the NFC conference championship teams."
I disagree, and I'm really not sure why. LOL
I agree Cailico. Az really isn't as good as their record. They are like the steelers 2009 where they won games they really had no business winning.
Seattle and San Fran have no shot... and what's up with "Beast Mode"? From what I hear, he didn't even join the team in the locker room at halftime; he sat on the bench getting a massage from a trainer. I don't like Arizona, either. Their offense is 30th running the ball and their defense is 29th against the pass. I just don't see them as a great team, even though they keep winning. Maybe if they get to 12-1 , I'll start to respect them, lol. Other than Green Bay, I still like Dallas in the NFC.
Thanks, Calico... I knew I could count on you. Hopefully, a little birthday magic will counteract the Calico curse. Because, not only do I need the Steelers to win tonight, but I need Le'Veon Bell to get 60 yards and a TD (or 180 yards) to pull my Fantasy fat out of the fire. I just traded away my first round pick next year for Aaron Rodgers and I really need a win or it's all for naught. If the Eagles could have gotten that blocked punt into the end zone, I'd be sitting pretty right now, but of course they got downed at the 5... and McCoy sat on the bench with his measly four points while they handed the ball to some Polkin a-hole three times from the five. Die, Eagles, die...
emaxxman really Eagles and Cowboys are 1-2 against teams with a winning record The Eagles alone have only one win against a winning team the Colts and they have lost 3 other ones Arizona Green Bay San Francisco if I were a Eagles fan I would wish I was in the NFC South the Eagles have no trouble beating up teams they should but as soon as they run in to a good team they lose and as you seen yesterday Sanchez is not very good. He falls a part once things start to go wrong once he is hit he starts to hear footsteps and panics throws way too early to high to low or coughs it up
The 49ers were 1-2 when the Eagles played them. Maybe that's why they weren't put on that list?
oldred - you're correct. I missed one of the teams. It probably was SF that I blanked out on.
I'm glad to see that they're worse than Dallas. Dallas still worries me. Romo's back is a major concern and the defense is still giving up tons of yards (although they are better with scoring defense.)
I think Andrew Luck is going to carve them up. Cutler and the Bears have a good chance of spanking them too (since that game will be @Chicago in the cold.)
Dallas OL needs to get A LOT better with pass protection if they play AZ in the playoffs and don't want Romo to end up on a stretcher. Dallas still hasn't shown an answer for Washington's blitz (3 years running now.)
AZ just seems to find ways to win. That defense is keeping them in games.
I enjoyed the Eagles getting shredded last night very much. Woot woot! And how about those Broncos. Woot woot! Even Peyton says he sucks. And the icing on the cake was the Saints loss. What a great Sunday. Woot woot!
Don't worry BLD, I'm fairly confident that my beloved Eagles can right the ship.
I hear Nick Foles is ahead of schedule for his return. Isn't that convenient news after a blowout. Is someone high up in the organization not so thrilled with Dirty Sanchez? LOL
Don't over-react to a bad day in Green Bay.
The Eagles will be fine.
That said, why do I have a feeling it will be Green Bay vs. New England in the Super Bowl?
Andy - That's who I think it will be too...and Bill and Tom win their 4th.
LOL Calico. It reminds me of the recent Big Bang Theory episode where Sheldon, looking for possible "cave-tunnel" simulators decides to google "wet, dark, and moist."
ianimal - The curse has been broken!!!!!! Steelers win! I still was a pitiful 7-7 in my Pick 'em this week though. :-(
Question on Mike and Mike this morning. If you had to go forward with one of these three QBs, which one would you take?
Manning (as in Eli)
RGIII
Cutler
A harder question there never was. LOL
To be honest, I think I would sell my team. There really is no clear answer here, it would probably take me two months to decide.
Calico, now it's your beloved Eagles turn at the Titans; but they get them at the Linc, where they're an 11-point favorite. Hopefully, Shady can at least run against those schlubs that gave up 204 yards to Bell last night.
But, I'll tell you what... if Sanchise takes anything resembling some of the shots that Ben took last night in the passing game, you're going to get to see how Matt Barkley runs the Chip Kelly offense, lol.
bbu - Which news outlet? I can't find anything on it. Only an article on ESPN saying that Governor Cuomo said the game is impractical.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11908094/new-york-governor-andrew-cuomo-says-new-york-jets-buffalo-bills-game-impractical
I would go with Eli no question about it. To be fair, Eli has performed well enough all season long until that last game. The Giants have no run game, OL, and the secondary is terrible. If Donnell would have held onto the ball on that goal-line stance, we wouldn't even be talking about how bad the game was for the Giants. Eli has at least proven that he can play at a high level when there is a solid team around him. He's not elite and can't carry a bad team but outside of Brady/Peyton, who can?
Cutler has a decent offensive team around him and has proven nothing to date. RG3 is RG-Bust and a major douchebag.
Given those choices, I would go with Eli as well. If he had Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey (or, hell, even Alfred Morris, Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson), we wouldn't be having this conversation at all.
Nothing official, yet... but they're talking about maybe as late as Tuesday on Channel 2.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/11/20/report-epic-snowstorm-could-push-jets-bills-as-late-as-tuesday/
Most of the Bills' players can't even get out of their houses.
As for QBs, I remember when Bill Parcels said he prefers to stay away from "celebrity quarterbacks" in the draft, they usually don't have the work ethic of guys like Kurt Warner, Big Ben, Flacco, Romo, who got passed over, played at smaller schools and came into the NFL feeling they had something to prove.
As for Eli, he's a good guy who works hard, but the team around him has become just awful. I was at their first day of training camp (as media, not a "fan"), and it looked like a mess, and it hasn't gotten better. It's just a dysfunctional organization right now and they made some personnel decisions the last few years that just have not worked out.
Sigh....
I remember the last time there was Tuesday night football. It was 2010 and my beloved Eagles lost to the Vikings. :-(
NJ101.5 news said Gov Cuomo made the decision to postpone the game.
(I posted this earlier but guess it didnt go thru)
Postponing the game is the NFL's decision to make, not Cuomo's. Cuomo has only said that it would be "impractical" to play the game. I have to imagine that it IS eventually going to be postponed or relocated though.
ianimal- you are correct. NFL decision. From what I understand, the airport is open. But can any of the Buffaloes even get out of their houses if the game is relocated?
And we're just telling you that the news was wrong. No need for exclamation points.
Yes, you got bad information bothered. No big deal. As soon as something is confirmed by the NFL, I sure it will get posted here.
Dont tell me how to post ianimal !!!( mr know it all)
Link please to show me where you get your knowledge from.
Behave you two brats!!!! LOL
bothered - ianimal and I posted links two hours ago. Scroll up. I posted the link about Governor Cuomo and he posted the link about the possibility of the game being on Tuesday.
Saw that Calico. I wanted to know if there is a link that shows who makes the decision to postpone a game.
ianimal-PLEASE NO, NOT THAT!! ; )
I'm not sure there is a link for that. It's just common knowledge that the NFL is a corporation. Therefore, it is the only entity that has the right to cancel, postpone or relocate its "business". It's the same as Exxon deciding whether or not to close down one of their offices. Government has no say in it, it's a corporate matter.
From the link I posted:
"The team has stayed in constant contact with the NFL, which will have the final say on whether to postpone the game or have it played elsewhere. An announcement is expected to be made on Thursday."
I remember that postponed game Calico referred to ... Gov. Rendell said they were "wusses" for postponing it ... a quote that will be part of his legacy forever.
Here's the Rendell story.
I was at a Ravens game against the Bears, where there was so much snow in Charm City that I watched as trucks were dumping it into the waters in the harbor the next morning. Never saw so much snow in my life.
Drove into Baltimore the day before the snow came, took the train to the stadium from where I was staying. It was fun, but don't ask me to ever do it again (-;
Coming home on 95, the snow was piled so high on the sides of the road it really was scary.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5960674
Whip-I heard that too, but lets wait for ianimal to confirm it. ;)
Will it be aired? Ianimal?
bothered - The Bill/Jets game will be played in Detroit on Mon. @ 7 pm. It will be on CBS.
FYI - The NFL is contractually obligated to air local teams (Giants/Jets) in their local markets regardless of the day of the week or time of the day the game is played.
Was kinda hard to tell who the winless team was last night. Chiefs looked like absolute dogshit.
Heard that Calico, but you know we have to wait for ianimal to have the final word. Lol.
Glad it will be aired. Go JETS ! ;}-
Yes, bby.. just for you, I'll confirm it. It will be aired, but ONLY in the New York City and Buffalo markets. Imagine being those poor announcers... having to spend time in Detroit covering the sh*t game of the week on Monday night and Detroit isn't even in it, lol.
They'll probably hand out free tickets to the game to Detroit residents. I wonder how many of them will go. I wouldn't, lol.
I'm wondering how many Buffalo and Jets fans will go. It's only about 250 miles from Buffalo to Detroit. But can they even find their cars?
Anyway, it will be awesome to have two NFL MNF games again this season. Hubby and I will have to go down to the watering hole on Monday night so we can watch them both.
It's only 250 miles if you go through Canada but you have to go through two border crossings... who knows how long that might add to the trip. If you stay in the US and go through Ohio, it's about another 100 miles.... and it's Ohio. I'd probably risk getting cavity-searched at the border, lol.
You'll probably see me there watching the Ravens.
By the way, back in 1996, when they held their "name the team" poll, I sent in Baltimore Bees.
A buddy of mine sent in Baltimore Blockers, in honor of 'The Block.'
If you don't get it, it's a Baltimore thing.
Haven't met anybody yet who says they sent in Ravens.
Thanks ianimal. Now I can go on with my day and look forward to Monday night. ; - )
I'm a really big Giants fan this week. GO BIG BLUE! Yuck, I have to go rinse my mouth out now. :-(
I'm a really big Giants fan this week. GO BIG BLUE! Yuck, I have to go rinse my mouth out now. :-(
Calico696
You know it feels good to say that. Plus you can finally cheer for a team with a ring (2)
lmao
Clyde Potts LOL, it's entirely possible that a team could win the NFC South with a 6-10 record...
Clyde - Let's not get into the ring debate again. The Eagles have 3, they just weren't called Super Bowl rings back then. :-)
The NFC South is pathetic!
NFL announced, tickets to Jets/Bills game FREE to public! If you want to go to Detroit.
The Jets are FREE? Did you see the classified adv in Hackettstown life this week for Giant tickets. $200. I guess they don't lose as much as the Jets.
Great game by the Eagles. Giants were a lot better too, but couldn't pull it off. I didnt see the 4th quarter. Saw the fantastic catch by Becham Jr. He's a great player.
Hoping the JETS win tonight.
*&^%$#@ Giants! The one week that I really want them to wine, they totally blow it. Grrrrrr!
I have the Jets tonight. Let's hope the Jets and not the Jest show up.
Eagles continue to fly. Can't wait until Thursday. I have no idea why Kelly kept Dirty Sanchez in that game so long. Thank goodness he didn't get hurt. It's a scary football life when you are an injury away from Matt Barkey QBing your team. Sigh.....
Sanchez only threw for 1 TD, so the winning was done on the ground. Good game, I must admit ;)
Emaxxman-I agree. They kept showing him practicing before the game, doing the same catch. It was great, but lets move on. Probably would mean more if they won! Haha.
Next up on Beckham, Jr.'s to-do list... fathering 10 children with 8 women in 6 states by the time he's 27. He's got some work to do if he's going to catch The Cro.
To think, fans were predicting Vick would be the MVP after that one successful season in Philly. I really don't understand how he keeps getting chances. He's a known commodity at this point and he's not a good one (not that the rest of the team doesn't stink.) There must be a few more Colt McCoy's (who aren't good enough to carry a team for an entire season) but could win a few games for you. Give them a shot.
Inominal says: Next up on Beckham, Jr.'s to-do list... fathering 10 children with 8 women in 6 states by the time he's 27. He's got some work to do if he's going to catch The Cro.
Would you make that comment about a white player?
Yankeefan If it were a white player that made the same type of catch as Antonio Cromartie and emaxxman posted the picture of him, sure I would. What does race have to do with it?
pmnsk It's a well known fact that Cromartie has fathered a ton of kids (and that is what ian was remarking on.)
From Wikipedia..."Cromartie has fathered 12 children with eight different women.[24] In March 2010, the Jets provided Cromartie with a $500,000 advance so he could make outstanding child support payments.[25] Cromartie married Terricka Cason, who starred on E!'s Candy Girls, on July 2, 2010.[25] Cason gave birth to a daughter in April 2010[25] and a son in early 2012.[26] In mid-April 2012, it was reported that Cason was expecting twins in November 2012.[27]"
The picture I posted was of Cromartie hence the comparison.
Yankeefan - What part of "The picture I posted was of Cromartie hence the comparison" are you struggling to comprehend?
Ianimal's comment was in direct response to the Cromartie picture being used as a comparison.
No wonder why this Country is a mess. People are constantly assuming a comments are racist because they don't use common sense to understand the comment.
Because, instead of commenting on the catch, Cromartie's off- field mistakes become the topic. As if that's somehow relevant to Beckham's catch. Pretty simple, really.
Still not getting it. Whatever.
How about those Buffaloes? Best team in NY this year.
Missrx Dont want to hear another word about how the Jets suck, after watching today's Giants game. They were totally pathetic the 2nd half. ;)
The Giants are a joke. The Steelers continue to kill me. Thank goodness my beloved Eagles are doing well.
Dont want to hear another word about how the Jets suck, after watching today's Giants game. They were totally pathetic the 2nd half. ;)
botheredbyuu2
EXCEPT the Jests DO. LOL
Ok Old Gent! :-)
How about that awful Springsteen performance at the Jets game? Eeeek, I had to mute the TV. I usually only do that for Joe Buck and Michael Kay.
I witnessed an awful performance by the referees at the Chargers-Ravens game on Sunday, but I'd just come off as a biased "spoil sport" if I went into detail.
By the way, as I saw John Harbaugh on TV later on, he seemed to agree with my assessment.
Justin Forsett reminds older fans of Tony Dorsett, and it rhymes.
Justin Forsett doesn't remind anyone of Tony Dorsett, except for the obvious name similarity. Tony Dorsett was a Heisman Trophy winner and a Hall of Famer who was the all-time leading rusher when he retired (or, he might have been 2nd to Sweetness... I'm not 100% sure about that). He was also relatively tall and fast.
Forsett is short and (relatively) slow and is an injury-prone journeyman who is now in his late 20s or early 30s, who played a backup role everywhere he's been. He reminds me more of Rashad Jennings in that respect than Tony Dorsett. He's having a helluva year for the Ravens though.. I think he broke 1,000 yards last weekend. I have him on one of my fantasy teams (-;
Tony Dorsett is, to my knowledge, the only person in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor who had a street in Pittsburgh renamed after him.
And, speaking of awful officiating... did you happen to catch the Easton P'burg game this year? It was downright dreadful... fair catches not being whistled down, fumbles being missed, passes caught out of bounds being missed. They even gave Easton an extra 7 yards on a punt after they had to respot the ball when P'burg declined a penalty. It was pathetic... but the bad calls evened out on both sides and didn't affect the outcome... and P'burg won, so I can't really complain.
P'burg overcame all that.
Unfortunately, the Ravens were done in right at the finish.
The people in our section all were "ravin" about Forsett ... for one day at least he looked like Dorsett ... helps to get blocks. They don't miss Ray Rice.
Giving old Pitt star Dorsett his due, though, he was the man when Pitt was number one in 1976 ... I've always been happy to see Eastern teams win. Loved Marino, too. He was my fantasy QB when I used to play. I purchased a Dolphins hat and Marino jersey because I had the first pick, so I could walk in there ... hmm, Andy, who ya gonna pick there?
Speaking of Pitt, hope they get matched with Penn State in a bowl game this year. It could happen, most likely in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
The schools haven't played each other in football for 14 years, but back in the good old days it was one of the nation's top rivalries, as good as Alabama-Auburn, Texas-Oklahoma, Ohio State-Michigan, any of them ... and often with national championship implications.
Pitt should have gone to the BIG instead of Maryland ... The Terps have such an ACC basketball history, battling Duke, Carolina, NC State, and Virginia through the years. Not much in the way of football tradition. An ACC basketball season upcoming without Maryland? It's like Sonny without Cher, like Ralph Kramden without Norton, like Dean Martin without Jerry Lewis, like Jake without Elwood, like eggs without a side of bacon.
Dino was just fine without Jerry Lewis, but I get your point (-;
It definitely would have been good to renew the Pitt/Penn State football rivalry. I loved those games as a kid and I really miss them.
Penn State has played Temple more often during the past decade than they've played old rivals Pitt and West Virginia.
What's wrong with this picture?
No Pitt/PSU matchup in the Pinstripe Bowl. Penn State will be playing BC at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on December 27th. Pitt will play Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl on January 2nd in Fort Worth. Rutgers is playing North Carolina in the "Quick Lane Bowl" (whatever that hell THAT is) in Detroit the day after Christmas.
What does this have to do with the NFL? Not much... GO STEELERS!!!
Maryland will essentially play a road game against Stanford.
Was Ohio State impressive against Wisconsin, or what?
Heart breaking to see my Jets lose in OT. They played well.
As for the Giants, Eli cracked me up. Smiling his ass off. For what? Because they finally won a game in 2 months. Please Eli, go away!
ianimal - You are super lucky that I took Cincy yesterday. I guess the curse is still on.
Dirty Boy and my beloved Eagles took a big fall yesterday losing their first home game this season. Here's to hoping they come out like gang busters next week at home against the Cowgirls.
Can the Deadskins get any more pathetic????
Yes, he was smiling because they finally won a game, I would imagine.
You should only hope that the Giants let him go and he signs with the Jets. Eli is a better QB than anyone the Jets have ever had, Namath included.
Lol....I say that to all the Giants fans in the family and they say not a chance. We'll see.
He's not as good as he use to be. Every game he gets a delay of game penalty. He's played long enough to not do that. "Elite" QB? Not even close.
That Seattle defense is back, they played a plus game for the third straight week.
Since Namath's name came up, I've always thought he got too much credit for Super Bowl III ... the Colts' defense made sure Don Maynard wouldn't beat them deep, so Namath kept taking what the defense gave him, like the short underneath stuff to the tight end. The only Jets TD came on the ground.
The real story was the Jets defense, the score was 16-7. Shula put Unitas in too late, should have started him. Namath will be remembered for his bold prediction, at a time when the AFL was not being respected. Unitas did not have the ability to throw long anymore, after the injury he suffered that pre-season. He didn't have the zip to his throws anymore, but still managed to win a lot of games for a few more years.
It was one of those right place, right time, situations for Broadway Joe.
The St. Louis Rams seems to be the team no one wants to play devastating defense in the last two games the Rams have scored 80 something points and have given up 0 and the game before those two only gave up 7 to Denver and have a knack for tackling hard and injuring opposing players
You never know what can happen in the NFL though.
In 1998 the Rams were 4-12 and wanted to get rid of head coach Dick Vermeil, tried to buy him out of his contract, but Vermeil said they didn't offer enough money so he stayed.
The Rams put Kurt Warner on the expansion list for the new Cleveland Browns franchise, and the Browns didn't want him, even though they could have had him for nothing.
So what happens in 1999, with a coach they didn't want and a quarterback they didn't want (who became the MVP) ... the Rams won the Super Bowl.
You never know, in the crazy NFL.
Oh RGIII......you can't make this stuff up.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/robert-griffin-iii-hits-rock-194600165.html
He needs a new start in another city .A QB is the leader and he never be that in Washington anymore. Just like me. If I did not like a job,move on. Get out of the contract and move on for your own mental health. .
Cam Newton was in a car accident this afternoon. Not seriously injured.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12004613/cam-newton-carolina-panthers-involved-car-accident
Yet another Cam Newton drive that ended in a turnover. ;-)
Oh, now I see... you hadn't added that to your post yet. (Or it was there and I just didn't see it). Like GC says, it was one of those slow hanging curves, lol.
Calico, tell Horatio that if his Saints make the playoffs at 7-9 while your beloved Eagles miss the playoffs at 11-5, he's welcome to stay on my couch as long as necessary (-;
Haha! It's not like that at our house. Plus, it's not his fault if the Eagles don't get in. I can think of a bunch of players to blame though.
I think the NFL needs to look into some some stuff. Although I agree that if you win your division you should get a playoff spot, I'm not too keen on a sub .500 or a .500 team getting a home game. It should be the team with the best record.
It annoys me in baseball too that the team that gets home field is not necessarily the team with the better record.
The NFL is way too busy handling the task of fixing the country's social problems to deal with something as mundane as competitive fairness, lol.
But I disagree that a team that didn't even win its own division should get a home playoff game. I actually like how the NFL playoffs are set up, for the most part. The one thing that I DON'T like is that the #2 seed gets a first round bye. They didn't win anything; they shouldn't get a week off. Add a seventh seed and make them play the opening weekend... three games on Saturday and three games on Sunday.
"Add a seventh seed and make them play the opening weekend... three games on Saturday and three games on Sunday."
Though I would normally be for MORE football, I have to say no to this. I don't want more teams. What do you want, the NFL to get to be the NBA? The less teams, the more competitive it is. Especially with so few games to play.
I agree ... if the Ravens get the sixth seed, I'll say the league has enough teams in the playoffs as it is LOL
Actually, I've felt that six per conference is the perfect number all along, even last year when the Ravens missed the playoffs on tie-breakers ... 8-8 teams had their shot, they don't belong.
I remember the Colts missing the playoffs in 1967, when they were 11-1-2 (the NFL did not have regular season overtimes in those days)... they didn't lose a game until the final week of the season, and they missed the playoffs!
Everybody loves to remember the Ice Bowl game that year in "the frozen tundra" ... the Colts beat both the Packers and Cowboys during that regular season, so forgive me if I don't get all that nostalgic about it.
The NBA lets in 8 out of 15 teams in each conference. The NFL would need to have 9 teams before they exceeded the 50% mark. There's not much difference between 6 or 7 teams. The only thing it does is take away the benefit of being #2, which shouldn't gain you any advantage other than a home game, not a week of rest and healing.
I *would* say to knock it down to 5 teams, but that wouldn't work because you'd wind up with only 3 teams in the semifinals, lol. I guess you could give the #1 seed a bye all the way to the championship game, but the NFL is never going to contract the playoffs and lose all that money. I bet that within the next 5 years, they'll add a 7th playoff team to the mix.
"8-8 teams had their shot, they don't belong."
What about 11-5 teams? They've missed the playoffs on more than one occasion. That's like winning 110 games in baseball and not making the playoffs.
True, 11-5 teams have missed the playoffs. It's not a perfect system ... the Eagles could miss the playoffs this year while some crappy team (probably New Orleans) goes to the party.
Too many divisions ...what would be wrong with having two eight-team divisions in each conference, rather than four fours?
Regarding the playoffs, here is what I would do:
- 6 teams per conference
- Still have the concept of division winners
- 1st and 2nd seed division winners are guaranteed a playoff spot with a first round bye just like today
- 4 wildcard spots:
- next top 4 teams in the conference get the spots based on usual ranking and tiebreaker rules except for one modification
- if there is a tie (2-way or 3+-way), the first tiebreaker is "division winner" wins it.
This system should allow the best 6 teams to get into the playoffs but also give a "reward" to a team for winning the division.
Scheduling? After you played the 7 other teams in your division twice, there would only be two games left for the other 24 teams in the league. So teams not in your division you would only play once every 12 years... unless they changed it to only playing each team in your division once per year. I think they would HAVE to do that.
And, if that were the case, can you imagine trying to break divisional ties in an 8 team division? Team A beat Team B who beat Team C who beat Team D who beat Team A and they all have the same record... who goes to the playoffs?
Actually, I like the way it's set up with 4 divisions and the scheduling. You play a rotating in-conference division and a rotating out of conference division and the teams from the other two intra-conference divisions who finished at the same position as you the previous year. It doesn't get much more elegant than that.
If division winners aren't guaranteed a playoff spot, there's no point to having divisions at all.
Sounds more workable than what we have now.
If we had just eight-team East and West divisions in each league, these would be the playoff teams as of today..
AFC East champ - New England, West champ - Denver, they get the bye.
Wild cards - Indy, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. The Ravens get in, I like the system LOL (-;
NFC East champ - Detroit and Green Bay tie (one would be a wild card)
NFC West champ - Arizona.
Three remaining wild cards assuming the East tie -- Seattle, Dallas, and Philly.
Yay, the Eagles get in and the Aints (not a typo) don't.
Sure, there would be tie-breakers, weren't there FIVE teams at 8-8 in the AFC last year?
The NFL in simpler times, had no games scheduled after the last week of the regular season. When a tie occurred in the NFL West in 1965 Green Bay and Baltimore broke the tie with a playoff game ... Baltimore was in the West and Dallas was in the East ... don't get me started on the wacky geography.
Andy, you're ignoring the fact that the schedules of each team would have been entirely different. Lining teams up now according to schedules that they wouldn't have played is pointless.
In last year's AFC, there were four teams at 8-8 and none of them made the playoffs, so tiebreakers weren't necessary. Now, if that punk kicker from KC had done his job, there WOULD have been five teams at 8-8 and the Steelers would have won the tiebreaker (-;
But, in the current setup, they are able to eliminate certain teams based on divisional tiebreakers first; I think it will be different and more difficult if all of those teams were located in the same division.
"If division winners aren't guaranteed a playoff spot, there's no point to having divisions at all."
I disagree. I think having divisions provides additional excitement during the year through rivalries and sub-races. However, the potential for a team like the Saints to get in over an 11-5 team takes away from the quality of the game. My proposal improves the quality of the playoff teams while also giving an incentive to win your division.
I'm advocating an eight-team AFC East and eight-team AFC West, and...
an eight-team NFC East and an eight-team NFC West.
Division winners and the wild cards with the better records would earn home field. The lesser wild cards start on the road..the two division winners in each conference get that bye for their reward. The better wild cards would get a home game, but not the bye.
I don't care that Carolina and Atlanta from the NFC graced Baltimore with their inept presence this year ... I'd rather play New England twice and give them a run for that division title ... if the Ravens were to lose a tie-breaker in the AFC, I'd rather it be to a team they played, rather than one we didn't play.
I don't think you'd see a 7-9 team in the playoffs while an 11-5 team stays home this way. Do a metric or whatever, you guys are engineers, experts in statistical probability and all that.
Two games each home and home against your seven division rivals would probably produce fewer complicated tie-breakers and I don't care about playing games against NFC teams, the fewer the better.
If you want to play an NFC team, there will be one waiting for you at the Super Bowl, provided you get there. You can also schedule all the NFC teams you'd care to have your fans see, in the preseason.
The priority is to get the deserving teams into the playoffs.
As Barry Goldwater's supporters used to say in 1964, in your heart, you know he's right. LOL
Know what I might like even better? Simply play every team in your conference once... that's 15 games and then you get one NFC team via luck of the draw.
What the heck, this is the closest thing to a balanced schedule in the framework of a 16-game schedule and at least there would be no tie-breakers between teams that did not play each other.
We could still maintain the bye reward for two division winners in each conference and keep a system in place with six playoff teams in each conference.
If they took away the second bye and put a seventh team in, for each conference, I wouldn't go crazy over it.
I just grew up in an era of no wild cards, you won your division and went to the championship game, period. If a division race ended in a tie, that's the only time you had a "playoff game" and they set a weekend aside for those.
All these four-team divisions will create 7-9 champions from time to time, with 10-6 and even 11-5 teams missing out ... the schedules for teams within a conference are so different.
The Ravens went 4-0 in the NFC this year, but the Bills and KC and others played a different group of NFC opponents .... also in a multi-team tie breaker the Ravens' 4-0 record in the NFC won't help them at all, because conference record is usually the first consideration.
It's all part of the no losers culture. On second thought it's about MONEY.
Old Gent
If it was ALL about money, there would be more teams in. People say the same thing about baseball. The series will go 7 games so the players can get more money. WELL the players get paid for only 4 games, even if series goes 7.
Regarding the playoffs, here is what I would do:
- 6 teams per conference
- Still have the concept of division winners
- 1st and 2nd seed division winners are guaranteed a playoff spot with a first round bye just like today
- 4 wildcard spots:
- next top 4 teams in the conference get the spots based on usual ranking and tiebreaker rules except for one modification
- if there is a tie (2-way or 3+-way), the first tiebreaker is "division winner" wins it.
This system should allow the best 6 teams to get into the playoffs but also give a "reward" to a team for winning the division.
emaxxman
BEING A COWBOYS FAN, YOU HAD MANY OF YEARS TO THINK OF THIS PLAN LMAO
Yes, Clyde, I've heard that stuff 'the series will go seven so they can make money,' also.
The three times the Orioles won, it went 4, 5, and 5.
They lost one to the Mets in 5 that I'm sure you remember. KC swept them this year.
The Pirates are the team that took them to a seventh game twice, in 79 the O's led three games to one, but there was no quit in the Buccos, to their credit.
I DON'T THINK the O's let it go seven on purpose. No way, Jose.
LOL Clyde! If I were Dallas focused, I'd go for an 8 team playoff bracket like Jerrah proposed. My proposal would leave Dallas out if anything. I have a coworker (Giants fan) and we discuss hypotheticals all the time. You'd be surprised at the hypothetical scenarios we come up with.
Here's one - what would you do as the runner?
- Your team is losing by less than one score
- It's close to the 2 minute warning but still outside of it so there are no reviews called by the officials in the booth
- You may not get another possession
You get a pass, you know you didn't catch the ball (it touches the ground) cleanly but the refs don't see it, and you have a free run to the endzone. Other team has no challenges and since it's outside of the 2 minutes, no booth reviews either.
As the runner, do you run it into the endzone (knowing that the entire scoring play will be reviewed and most likely overturned) -or-
Do you stop at the goal line and chance not getting the score?
Remember when Brian Westbrook of the Eagles (against the Cowboys) had an easy touchdown in front of him and took a knee ... just so the Eagles could kill the clock?
The play is in this video of Westbrook highlights .. the man was some kind of a running back, reminded me of old Colt Lenny Moore (there's a blast from the past)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERtNFF7pb-w
Here ya go, this one is called The Worst Moment in Fantasy Football History ... imagine if you had him and he does this? And it was a good play for his team, the video has play by play of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkrRTYbVmpU
In-depth analysis of the playoff possibilities for the teams still in contention...
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-nfl-buddy-system-how-one-team-helps-another-make-the-playoffs/
Interesting stuff, guess the NFL money moguls like it this way.
Meanwhile, on Mike and Mike, they are asking, would you rather play in the NFL and enjoy the glory and money if you had the ability, or not play and live a long life?
Is this what has become of the sport we used to play for FUN?
If my beloved Eagles can't win out against WAS and NYG, they don't deserve to make the playoffs.
Unfortunately, not only do they have to win out but need help from either IND or WAS. It's gonna be a long next couple weeks.
"Remember when Brian Westbrook of the Eagles (against the Cowboys) had an easy
touchdown in front of him and took a knee ... just so the Eagles could kill the clock?"
I remember that Andy. That was before the automatic review of all scoring plays. Just curious..what are your thoughts on the situation I proposed? I'd love to hear your take.
Calico - I think the division will come down to that very last game. I think both teams win this week. I won't discount the skins since they pummeled Dallas already. NYG is playing a lot better and I don't expect another blowout (was Beckham playing last time?)
I'd run it into the endzone, maybe the refs will give us a gift, nothing to lose. I'd act like I thought I caught it.
If we get the touchdown we play defense. Why are teams so d*** afraid to ask their defense to protect a lead?
New England lost a Super Bowl because they allowed the Giants to score, thinking Brady would have the ball last and thus they would win it.
Well, they dropped Brady's passes and they lost.
Get the touchdown if it is out there for you, you need to catch up or else you'd lose.
I need help from WAS too.........
Frankly it is so dismal, I was glad the Giants won.
We call our strategy "playin for picks."
If emaxx presented his hypothetical as a question of whether one is ethical or not, he shouldn't be too sanctimonious. I recall a play where Tony Romo nudged the ball up the field a yard with his foot, while the referee wasn't looking.
Winning teams call that "gamesmanship." The NFL isn't the Ivy League.
Maybe the ref didn't see it, but the camera did.
Andy - What are you talking about? It wasn't an ethical question but one of strategy. There are many times when a receiver has a borderline catch and tries to sell it. As the receiver/runner, would you risk a review (via scoring the TD) or take a knee at the one yard line? That's what I was just wondering.
Regarding the Romo nudge, it was hardly a sneaky play. There are two refs and Jared Allen standing right over the ball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5CHg-Y0Vs
Anyone remember the touchdown John Mackey scored for the Colts in Super Bowl Five? They didn't have replay in those days, but if they did, it might have been called back. Mackey seemed to hesitate at first, but then scored a 75-yard TD.
The Cowboys argued like crazy, jumping up and down and screaming.
The Colts ended up winning on a last-second field goal. Poor Cowboys.
Later, when asked about it, he simply replied, "you catch the ball, you go for the end zone."
It was part of the Cowboys' many frustrations before they broke their jinx and won the whole show the next year.
Sometimes the really simple quotes are the best, like Herm Edwards saying, "you play to win the game."
Strategy wise, when you're behind, you've got to score. If you pass up a chance to score, you may not get that chance again ... NFL defenses may not be what they used to be, but they still are pretty good.
When you're ahead, yeah, kill the clock, be deliberate.
And if you want to chat with someone who likes the Cowboys, Chris Christie's your guy ... LOL
I used to think he was a Giants' fan, where did this Cowboys stuff come from?
I'm with Calico, that is not news.
I guess a lot of people were watching the game and saw him. A lot of people are talkign about it.
Well, it is in the best interest of the state, financially, for the Giants to do well, because home playoff games would bring money in.
Anyway (sigh) I'm the last guy you should ask about scoring touchdowns.
When I was left tackle in high school, anytime that ball was loose I just fell on it, except for one time, when it took a nice bounce right into my hands while I was running. I was fool enough to think I could score a touchdown up the sideline, as if I was Jacoby Jones or something (Lenny Moore in those days).
Trying to stay inbounds when a tackler dove at me, I sprained my ankle. Shoulda just fell on it.
We had a horrible season, but I came away from it with a lot of funny stories I've enjoyed telling when I've done public speaking.
No concussions or anything terrible. THANK GOD.
OK, time for serious issues, here.
Who is the best after-touchdown in the end zone dancer?
I may have a Baltimore bias, but I vote for Jacoby Jones (-;
Dam 
OK, who said my name? This had better be good, I woke up from a nice snooze for this. ;-)
White Shoes Go get em. White Shoes. MEOW.
Even though I'm a Ravens fan, I got a kick out of TO in 2004 (a great season for the Eagles) imitating Ray Lewis' dance after a touchdown that year.
Don't think Ray was too pleased, but that's show biz.
The Ravens traded for TO but he didn't go because Kyle Boller wasn't a top notch quarterback. Well, he wasn't.
Those USFL guys in the 80s used to have some hysterical end zone celebrations.
Not dancing, but TO + Dallas Star = LMAO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn83uDUle3o
Dallas and their fans feel like they are "entitled" to lord the America's Team thing over everyone, and then they are so offended when other successful teams and players have fun at their expense.
The highest and mightiest fall the hardest.
Some of the ESPN "experts" are saying Mariota will have some rough adjustments to the NFL game, that in the spread Oregon offense he's throwing to wide open receivers on his first read all the time.
Also, you can't just take off and run all the time in the NFL when the first option isn't open. You won't have a long career, with the kinds of hits you'll be taking.
Heisman winners haven't been a sure thing in the NFL, as we have seen.
Kris "Dallas and their fans feel like they are "entitled" to lord the America's Team thing over everyone, and then they are so offended when other successful teams and players have fun at their expense.
The highest and mightiest fall the hardest."
Hilarious. I love how a former member of the media is criticizing fans for embracing a creation of the media. Dallas didn't give themselves that name. As far as a team for America, the ratings show that Dallas is easily the most popular team to watch (whether you're a fan or a hater.) I'd give the nod to the Steelers as the only team that could rival Dallas for fanbases.
You obviously have a hard one for Dallas based on how much you gripe about them. Your franchise is filled with thugs and yet you feel the need to call out Dallas repeatedly.
Heisman winners haven't been a sure thing because they've routinely been drafted by some of the worst franchises in history. There is a reason why a team is able to draft at the #1 position.
Aaron Rodgers got 4 years to sit on a bench and learn and it still took him 3 more years of starting before he had any playoff success. He was routinely criticized for taking too long to get rid of the ball in his early starting days. That's the same thing Manziel is being criticized now for.
Take away both Thomases and Sanders and how good would Peyton be? The Browns are without their star center, no reliable RB, and Gordon is still rusty from a long suspension.
As far as Mariota goes, he may very well go to Skins for all we know. Raiders, Jags, Titans all just drafted a QB. They need to put weapons around them. Mariota will see his career die in Washington (where Snyder has killed countless QB careers) if that's the case.
The dangerous team that nobody is talking about (except ianimal) is those Pittsburgh Steelers ...
they've got the best offense in the NFL ... Peyton, Romo, and Brady included.
Hahah looks like it Calico696, but I still have to support my team through the good and the VERY bad... Lol
I'm not one of the media members who 'created' the Cowboys thing ... I did cover Eagles games in the 70s but the team I was really big on ... the coming power and Raiders fans hated me for it ... was the Steelers.
If you knew what was going on in those days, you saw them coming.
Their win over the Raiders in the AFC title game was vindication for me.
You don't know me, emaxx, the team of the future I was touting in 74 was the Steelers and I was right on with that.
I had a Heisman Trophy vote in those days, and was overjoyed with John Cappelletti of Penn State winning ... a guy from the East. That was really nice, to see the guy I voted for win.
The team that drafted him was the LA Rams, and they are the team I wanted to do well, because I liked Cappelletti, one of the nicest people to ever play football.
It's really funny to see people talk about "the media" like it is one big monolithic "club" where everybody thinks and writes and speaks the same.
Far from it.
The second Heisman winner I voted for was Tony Dorsett, once again displaying my Pennsylvania "favoritism" or "bias" or whatever.
He ended up being a Cowboy ... I remember being in the newsroom when that come over the wire ... my reaction was a big, loud, "oh, s*** Dorsett is a Cowboy."
I liked Staubach from his days at Navy, so that's pro sports for you ... everybody gets their share of good guys ... he invented the term 'Hail Mary' ... that may have been the game that set off a media frenzy that created lots of Cowboys fans.
But the Steelers were the better team in those Super Bowls. YEAH!!!!
I went with The Steel Curtain for both of those.
Actually emaxxman the Broncos have replaced the Cowgirls as the most popular team in the NFL
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/twitter-map-nfl-fans
http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/10/14/denver-broncos-dallas-cowboys-america-favorite-team
Polls are meaningless...actions (in this case, viewership) speak louder:
Top 25 watched games in 2012
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2013/01/04/cowboys-dominate-tv-ratings-once-again-4-top-6
2013
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/08/34-of-americas-35-most-watched-fall-tv-shows-were-nfl-games/
2014 as Nov. 20th
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11909048/nfl-games-comprise-28-30-most-watched-television-shows-fall
When Peyton retires, the Broncos will return to mediocrity. Dallas, even during mediocre 8-8 seasons, still draws viewership. Not saying they give the viewers much to watch but they still watch.
I'm sure the Ravens are the least popular, without even looking at any data.
They'd be "my team" even if they were 0-16 for 10 years in a row, given the affection I've had for that city since I was a kid, which I've shared many, many times on these threads.
It's funny, Calico may disagree, but since I had the opportunity to cover the Eagles in the days Dick Vermeil got there (I was at that Vince Papale game against the Giants that got so much play in the movie Invincible) of course they became my favorite NFC team, but I've never cared for the fans there.
By the way, Papale is one of the very few pro athletes I ever got an autograph from ...I asked for it because he just seemed to be "one of us" if you get my drift.
Not speaking for all of them, but there is very much a pathologically NASTY element in play with the fandom down there, I've seen blood at that Veterans Stadium, which makes me a guy who is happy when the Eagles win, for the pros who do the work, but who does not lose any sleep over them losing (because they have so many idiot fans).
I read in Sports Illustrated once, that the biggest ratings for Cowboys games come when they are getting blown out ... people either call each other on the phone, see it on their gadgets, whatever ...
but when the Cowboys are getting beat, people actually tune in to enjoy it.
I've often considered it a compliment when people say they hate the Ravens, because they envy their success ... for Steelers fans to start hating them ... a great franchise like the Steelers ... means the Ravens became good, a worthy opponent.
Everybody has good guys and thugs mixed together ... it's the NFL... it's the world we live in.
emaxxman - your viewership numbers have even less meaning than the polls. Many people don't have the same opportunities to view the same games. Some people have cable stations that carry the games, some people don't. Some games don't get broadcasted in certain markets. The Cowgirls are a mediocre team and have been for a while. Success brings fans and Dallas has become irrelevant.
Done with the thread for today ... have to decide where I'll go tonight... I'm leaning toward seeing the Phillipsburg girls basketball team -- they have a D-1 player.
Roger, over, and out.
Even though they had two missed field goals (from a guy who has been so consistent all year) the Eagles still had their chances to win today.
Sanchez didn't make good throws when he needed to.
The big bird flew off into the sunset. No ring again when you cant beat a 3-11 team.
The skins gift wrapped so many chances for the Eagles and they just wouldn't take it. I hope Dallas doesn't crap the bed vs. the Colts. I read that if Dallas goes 12-4, they would be the #2 seed. That would be crazy considering how bad their defense was expected to be. I just have an awful feeling that they beat the Colts but then lose again to the skins. Go figure.
The Eagles got flagged for a ridiculous amount of penalties ... should never happen to a team that's supposed to be good.
Great Giants win today. May be the last for the season though... Don't know if anyone else caught the game today but they had quite the brawl out in St. Louis. 52 personal fouls may be a new league record, along with 3 ejections and countless broken cameras/cameramen.
52 is a lot. Up until 2007, it looks like 37 was the most in a game combined between both teams.
http://www.nfl.com/history/randf/records/team/penalties
Surprised the thread has been so quiet the past week with the playoffs starting up.
Glad the Ravens avoided the tie-breaker and got in. Thank you, Andy Reid. I may be the only guy in the Hackettstown area who likes Andy Reid right about now.
Whatever happens, making the playoffs six of seven years looks good for Jersey Joe Flacco's career "resume."
The NFL is set up to keep teams from sustaining success ... seems like the only ones who stay consistent are the ones who have a top tier quarterback. The Ravens keep making the playoffs by beating the struggling teams and breaking even with the top teams.
Can't wait...wifey's nephew expects to get a lot of playing time after their bye this weekend .
Even though no one from the NFC South deserves. To be in the playoffs I'm sure Carolina will win over Arizona the Cowboys will win over Detroit Pittsburgh will beat Baltimore and Cincinnati will beat the Colts
I'm picking Cardinals, Cowboys (though I'm rooting for the Lions), Steelers (sorry Ian) and Colts.
I love these next couple weeks of football. Some great games two days in a row! Then we get to do it again next weekend!
Enjoy NFL fans!
"Go Colts"?
Really? Got a thing for the neck beard? Or is that a hate for the Bengals?
Haha! Neither. Colts have always been my second favorite (behind my beloved Eagles of course) since I was a wee tot. I'm surprised you didn't know that from previous year's NFL threads. I've definitely mentioned it on here at least 100 times. ;-)
My love for the Colts leads to my love for Peyton Manning. Although I can't stand the Broncos, I wouldn't mind seeing him get another ring.
It would be great to see the Lions in a Super Bowl as well.
Well, the team in Indianapolis was my "first love" in the NFL, but that was when they played in Baltimore.
By the way, the AFC never won a Super Bowl during the years Baltimore was left without an NFL team ... from 1984 to 1995 ... can you say "curse?"
For the record, the Baltimore Colts were trucked off to Indianapolis in Mayflower moving vans in March of 1984. The Baltimore Ravens kicked off their first season in September of 1996.
Check for yourself, how many Super Bowls did the AFC win between those dates?
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Stars won the USFL championship (at Giants Stadium) in July of 1985 and the Baltimore Stallions won the CFL championship in November of 1995. Now the Ravens are two-time Super Bowl champions while many other franchises are still seeking their first title in this millennium.
Well, it's the 3rd weekend where I forgot to make my picks for the pick'em league. The holidays really messed me up. I think I'm as dead as you can get in the league. Good luck to those that still have a chance.
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