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 jreilly89 wrote:
Man, for being a Superbowl team, the Panthers sure have fethed up this season. Maybe the Broncos rattled them too hard? Or all the gakky helmet to helmet hits on Newton in the first game KO'ed him?

There's a lot wrong, but the team does still have heart to not just pack it in and roll over like they did in Atlanta. Hoping with the bye week, we can get healthy as the back half is now all must win games. I think Cam has had a concussion since the horribly officiated Denver rematch, the Niners being awful masked that, but watching him get back in form even though it was still a loss is a relief. Also got to stop shooting ourselves in the freaking foot!

We could easily be 4-2 even with the poor effort from everyone on the D that doesn't play the LB spot and the OTs being horrible. (Remmers has to go, he was solid last year but Von Miller completely rattled and exposed him. When he went down the back up actually played better then he did.) Charles Johnson has hit an age wall I think, and Kony Ealy has regressed to the point I want them to put Lavar Edwards in. The DTs are getting doubled too much as well. The rookies aren't that bad their physical gifts are clear, but they DESPERATELY need a vet back there to help them cause they are biting on every double move they see. I think they NEED a Harper and/or Tillman more then they need to have Norman back. Still the core is there to get this thing back on track and Rivera has made a habit of slow starts and then hot runs. J-Stew when healthy is a beast, Olsen is the 2nd best TE in the league. Cam I swear I feel like he's a good LT away from making even his MVP season numbers look paltry. And we do have 2 of the best LBs in the game, with Denver having the other one.

At least the Lions and Jags won...Bengals....not so much.

And the 49ers decided to stab themselves in the head with their pick axes.

And the night ends with the Colts choking haaaaard.

 curran12 wrote:
And the night ends with the Colts choking haaaaard.

Sweet!

Go Texans. I can't believe they won that game...

 NorseSig wrote:
And the 49ers decided to stab themselves in the head with their pick axes.

Should have just took a knee and stayed there...

Ugh. Rough week for my picks. 1-3 this week.

I did notice that the Home teams won most of the games this week.

 helgrenze wrote:
Ugh. Rough week for my picks. 1-3 this week.

I did notice that the Home teams won most of the games this week.

I noticed that, too. During the Bears Post-Game show, they mentioned that Jacksonville (over the Bears) was the first road win of the day.

Edit: Just did a quick look on the ESPNs, and there were only 3 road wins yesterday. Jaguars, Chiefs, and Cowboys.

I probably should stop making picks here. I am now 7-9-1 since last week.... but here I go again...

Tonight Chicago at Green Bay
Divisional games are always the hardest, but Green Bay needs to find their passing game. Yeah they can run the ball on Chicago's mediocre Run Def, but Cutler has been letting things fly and The Packers Pass Def is as bad as the Bears Run Def.
I'm going with Chicago on this one.

Dallas is off this week but may find a way to lose anyway with their brewing QB issues.

Morning Game From London NYG "at" LA Rams
UGH..... Can we get a decent game there sometime next year?
Both teams have been average, for the most part, each scoring 11 TDs, and allowing nearly the same amount of points, even have close to the same yardage in penalties. The Rams kind of have an advantage in Turnovers on Def, but also have given up quite a few on Off.
Eli is also sack prone, and LA has been getting to the QB enough to disrupt plays.
This is going to be a Kickers battle I think.
Rams have the advantage in that metric.

Washington at Detroit
Both teams have been successful on Offense but have bad Defenses. Victory margins for both teams have been, typically, within a touchdown Washinton's widest margin of 11 points was against the bottom dwelling Browns. Cousins also has a tendency of making bad decisions while being chased by rushers. I think Turnovers rule this one....
Detroit takes advantage of Washington's mistakes.

Minnesota at Philadelphia
I will refrain from making comments on the officiating in the last few Eagles games.
The Vikings rank dead last in Run Off, and not much better in passing. Philly has had some issues with the passing Off, but are developing a decent Run game.
This one comes down to the Defenses. Both teams have been great (mostly) in pass Def and have some awesome pass rushers.
I think Cox and company take advantage of what they know about Bradford to force turnovers
Eagles take this one.

 helgrenze wrote:
Washington at Detroit
Both teams have been successful on Offense but have bad Defenses. Victory margins for both teams have been, typically, within a touchdown Washinton's widest margin of 11 points was against the bottom dwelling Browns. Cousins also has a tendency of making bad decisions while being chased by rushers. I think Turnovers rule this one....
Detroit takes advantage of Washington's mistakes.

In your hilariously terrible prediction for the Washington/Philly game, the "amazing" Philly defense gave up over 230 yards on the ground to what most people considered to be a bad rushing team (I believe you even said they have "no run" earlier in this thread) while their offense was unable score a touchdown.

The Skins defense has (rightfully) received a fair amount of criticism for their performance in the first two weeks of the year, especially for missing tackles. They've largely corrected those problems and have been playing pretty solid overall; they haven't allowed a touchdown in in seven quarters of play and haven't given up a second half touchdown in four games. On top of that, they've only allowed seven of twenty-seven third down conversions in the last two weeks (another weakness they've had earlier this season).

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 helgrenze wrote:
Washington at Detroit
Both teams have been successful on Offense but have bad Defenses. Victory margins for both teams have been, typically, within a touchdown Washinton's widest margin of 11 points was against the bottom dwelling Browns. Cousins also has a tendency of making bad decisions while being chased by rushers. I think Turnovers rule this one....
Detroit takes advantage of Washington's mistakes.

In your hilariously terrible prediction for the Washington/Philly game, the "amazing" Philly defense gave up over 230 yards on the ground while their offense was unable score a touchdown.

The Skins defense has (rightfully) received a fair amount of criticism from their performance in the first two weeks of the year, especially for missing tackles. They've largely corrected those problems and have been playing pretty solid overall; they haven't allowed a touchdown in in seven quarters of play and haven't given up a second half touchdown in four games. On top of that, they've only allowed seven of twenty-seven third down conversions in the last two weeks (another weakness they've had earlier this season).

Washington's Def is rated 21st overall, allowing an average 366.5 yds per game and a total of 142 points. Detroit's is 25th, allowing an average of 379.7 yrd, and a total 153points. That's out of 32 teams.

Even with the issues in the last two games, Philadelphia's Def is ranked 6th, allowing 312 yards per game and a total of 78 points.

 helgrenze wrote:
In the Philly game, Both teams also benefitted from bad calls and missed holding penalties..

Yeah, I guess the refs let the horrible run game of the Redskins nearly out-gain the entire Eagles offense with wunderkind Carson Wentz at the helm. I guess the refs also are at fault for Wentz only completing 11 passes and getting sacked 5 times (including twice by Ryan Kerrigan, a dude who has literately only one move).

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 helgrenze wrote:
In the Philly game, Both teams also benefitted from bad calls and missed holding penalties..

Yeah, I guess the refs let the horrible run game of the Redskins nearly out-gain the entire Eagles offense with wunderkind Carson Wentz at the helm.

I deleted that bit, but Offensive Holding can do wonders for a run game. And consider The 'Skins ripped Wentz's jersey from the collar down... but no call for the Horse Collar. Kerrigan was going against a rookie in his first pro game. That's a steep learning curve.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Damn, Chicago is down to Barkley at QB. And the Game might be tied at 3 each going into the half.

The Bears just can't buy a break...unlike Hoyer's arm, which is broken.

 helgrenze wrote:
I deleted that bit, but Offensive Holding can do wonders for a run game.

Right, the refs just handed Washington the game. I know it's easy to look for an outside source to blame for the loss, but the reality is that the Eagles were a fake 3-0 team going into their bye. Wentz has been exposed as a rookie quaterback (albeit one with considerable talent), the defense has put them in early holes, receivers haven't been making plays, and their overall team play has been undisciplined.

And consider The 'Skins ripped Wentz's jersey from the collar down... but no call for the Horse Collar.

That's because it wasn't a horse collar tackle.

Washington's Def is rated 21st overall, allowing an average 366.5 yds per game and a total of 142 points. Detroit's is 25th, allowing an average of 379.7 yrd, and a total 153points. That's out of 32 teams.

Funny enough, those are two teams the Eagles lost to and the end of the easiest part of their schedule. Imagine what will happen when they play teams with good defense, like the Vikings.

And it looks like the Vikings decided they really want that loss. Haven't seen them play this badly all year. Really getting sick of my Vikings inconsistency.

Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?
They are on their 6th QB in 7 weeks.

 helgrenze wrote:
Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?
They are on their 6th QB in 7 weeks.

So what youre sayin is, there's a chance we'll get Manziel back?

 helgrenze wrote:
Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?

There's something in Cleveland that isn't?

 Peregrine wrote:

 helgrenze wrote:
Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?

There's something in Cleveland that isn't?

Lola's!

http://lolabistro.com/

 Peregrine wrote:

 helgrenze wrote:
Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?

There's something in Cleveland that isn't?

The Cavs and the Indians?

Unless we're sticking to football - if so, then I got nothin'!

Those kickers in the Cardinals/Seahawks game......... each missing field goals at the end of over time.

Wow.

Dumbest game ever. But hey, Seahawks offense plays like they hate winning and walk out with a tie, I'll take it.

 Peregrine wrote:
Dumbest game ever. But hey, Seahawks offense plays like they hate winning and walk out with a tie, I'll take it.

The Vikings did the exact same thing. Maybe the Vikings were trying to emulate the Seahawks.

I feel like the Ravens are trying to either give all their fans a heart attack or make us collectively develop a drinking problem.

 helgrenze wrote:
Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?
They are on their 6th QB in 7 weeks.

It's tough to watch. We (The Texans) had a revolving door last year at QB. It is a crappy thing to go through all season.

 kronk wrote:

 helgrenze wrote:
Can we finally admit that Cleveland's O-line is crap?
They are on their 6th QB in 7 weeks.

It's tough to watch. We (The Texans) had a revolving door last year at QB. It is a crappy thing to go through all season.

All season? They have Started something like 26 QBs since restarting in '99. 17 years, 26 Qbs... and that's just the starters. Tebow's baseball contract might keep him unavailable, but J-Money is still kicking around. I don't think Philly has another QB they'd trade for a first round pick.

For some reason, I find myself agreeing with Skip Bayliss on something...

A few evenings ago, he and Shannon Sharpe were talking about NFL ratings/viewership being down.... While Skip denied that there's such thing as "too much" football, Shannon definitely was blaming the on-field quality of play, especially on Thursday Night games, on "too much football"... Regardless, both agreed that viewership was down because quality was down, the games simply haven't been all that good.

This was severely highlighted in last night's primetime game.... Seattle and AZ seemed to both not want to win, and while I expected a close game between division rivals, I expected better overall play. I also watched the Vikings game, which was terrible. The Steelers/Pats game wasn't much better to watch either... I think that something has got to change, and probably needs to change soon.

I agree with...most of that, but injuries are always going to be a thing.

The Steelers were missing a lot of key personnel on offense - and a few on defense too!

 Alpharius wrote:
I agree with...most of that, but injuries are always going to be a thing.

The Steelers were missing a lot of key personnel on offense - and a few on defense too!

That was one facet of at least one of their arguments (this was the weekend directly before TB came back)... They were mentioning how Aaron Rodgers hasn't been playing like Aaron Rodgers, the same as many other "star power" players, injuries happen, and that affects the game, naturally...

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
For some reason, I find myself agreeing with Skip Bayliss on something...

A few evenings ago, he and Shannon Sharpe were talking about NFL ratings/viewership being down.... While Skip denied that there's such thing as "too much" football, Shannon definitely was blaming the on-field quality of play, especially on Thursday Night games, on "too much football"... Regardless, both agreed that viewership was down because quality was down, the games simply haven't been all that good.

This was severely highlighted in last night's primetime game.... Seattle and AZ seemed to both not want to win, and while I expected a close game between division rivals, I expected better overall play. I also watched the Vikings game, which was terrible. The Steelers/Pats game wasn't much better to watch either... I think that something has got to change, and probably needs to change soon.

I think it is two related factors at play. By increasing the number of games in the season, players get less recuperation so injuries and fatigue become a bigger issue. Don't forget that travel takes its toll as well. Second, they are oversaturating their target market. If you flood the air with football, people, especially casual fans, are going to get tired of it and be less interested in catching games overall. If teams are playing at a lower caliber due to the first issue, it will amplify the effect. I think the NFL has overestimated their growth potential and are now reaching a saturation point.