The official NFL Discussion Thread

[Philrad71]

It could be worse. You could be a Cowboys fan. (Like me)

 

Or be a fan of a team that lost four Super Bowls in a row (two to Dallas that I'm sure you fondly recall) and (soon to be) 14 years in a row of not going to the playoffs.

 

I have the right to cry...or laugh...or drink harder than any other NFL team fan at this point!

 

Signed,

A tortured Bills fan in Western, NY.

 

 

PS - It's snowing & blowing outside now - yay!

[arby]

Nice win for the Panthers Sunday at San Fran, it seems like I've been predicting them to have a breakout season for about 3 years now and it just never happens. Now they're riding a 5 game winning streak with New England coming to town on Monday night so we'll see if they're for real or not.

 

It was a nice win. I knew they had all the pieces they needed to make it to the playoffs this year, if only they could pull it all together. It looks like they are finally starting to put it all together. I still don't think they have it together enough to make it all they way through the playoffs but you never know. If they can keep the injuries down.

 

Monday night is going to be a tough battle for them.

[Philrad71]

I will definitely be rooting for the Panthers in that one!

[arby]

^They may need all the help they can get although with their strong running game potential and New England's weak defense against the run they have a good chance. Especially if the Panther's defense continues to dominate like they have been.

[cmullin]

I'm just happy my Ravens finally won. It was a good game, but man we need to get our run game going.

Yeah, so much for Ray Rice in the first round for fantasy, that was a big mistake.

[DevilSaint]

I'm just happy my Ravens finally won. It was a good game, but man we need to get our run game going.

Yeah, so much for Ray Rice in the first round for fantasy, that was a big mistake.

 

There was a great quote in the Baltimore Sun about Ray Rice which was something like "He looks like a little kid in a puffy snowsuit trying to run". It's also all but been confirmed by Harbaugh that he's battling injuries that are obviously effecting him this year.

[simaticable]

If Mike Smith is not fired after this terrible season, I will be very surprised. People can blame the injuries all they want, but a great coach should be able to form a decent football team out of the players that they hired. Horrible, very horrible. I'm predicting another blowout against the Saints Thursday and eventually a 2-14 season, ironically, the opposite of the best season they had in 1998 when they went 14-2 and to the Super Bowl 15 years ago. A team that is getting a billion dollar stadium in 2017 should have a billion dollar team calling it home. This is ridiculous considering the season the team had last year.

[Jew]

The NFL is the only league that can really back up the talk about "parity." Seems like every single year at least half of the playoff teams from the year prior fail to repeat.

[cfc]

^It certainly makes for an interesting season.

[Meteornotes]

Eagles win

Steelers win

Redskins lose

49ers lose

 

Football does not get much better than this!

 

dt

[Barge84]

The Vikings didn't get any better this week. Hopefully Jacksonville can steal another win somewhere along the line. I'd love to get the #1 pick.

[Philrad71]

Didn't even notice this when I watched the Bills game yesterday.

 

Check out the far away shot from CBS sports and watch the guy on the 300 level. This idiot is sliding down the railing...and then falls backwards onto some guys head down into the 200 level!

 

And then we wonder why people think Americans are stupid and wonder why we have to constantly spend money on baby-proofing everything?

 

Luckily, both were treated and released from the hospital with no life threatening injuries, but the guy that slid down the rail should be in jail just based on his sheer stupidity alone....wow.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PONK852P6ro

[Barge84]

I saw that on Deadspin this morning. What an idiot.

[cmullin]

Well the Chiefs put up a much better fight than I expected, kept it lose the whole game, just couldn't put together some finishing drives. Got to give them credit though, going into Denver and playing them tough.

[arby]

What a game last night. The Panthers pulled it off. I've been thinking since preseason that they have a good chance of making the playoffs this year and they are delivering.

[Hercules]

The NFL is the only league that can really back up the talk about "parity." Seems like every single year at least half of the playoff teams from the year prior fail to repeat.

 

A bunch of rich, white Republicans are promoting socialism?

[cmullin]

The Panthers played well, but the last play was clearly PI. Kuechly had him by the shoulders before the DB touched the ball.

[arby]

The Panthers played well, but the last play was clearly PI. Kuechly had him by the shoulders before the DB touched the ball.

 

I agree. Unfortunately there are always games won or lost by calls or non-calls of the officials.

[cmullin]

The Panthers played well, but the last play was clearly PI. Kuechly had him by the shoulders before the DB touched the ball.

 

I agree. Unfortunately there are always games won or lost by calls or non-calls of the officials.

Like Seattle GB last year. That was probably the worst call I've ever seen a professional ref make.

[Jew]

Sports Science did a segment on the non-call today: contact was only made 2/3 of a second BEFORE it was intercepted. So technically it was PI, but when it was that close it is hard to entirely fault the ref. I really don't want them to start reviewing PI calls either…games already drag on too long with commercial timeouts.

[arby]

Thanks for posting that, Jew. I just looked up the article from Sport Science and it was an interesting read. I agree that we don't need PI calls reviewed either or football games would start being as long as NASCAR races.

[Hercules]

I don't know how long NASCAR races are, but just having football and NASCAR in the same sentence made me cringe.

[arby]

LOL. Sorry for mentioning NASCAR in the NFL thread. I used to be a fan but I got tired of the 10 month season and 5+ hour races.

[cmullin]

I think penalties be non-reviewable bring a certain element to the game, that kind of keeps it imperfect, because if everything's reviewable then I feel the game would lose an exciting edge of human error.

[Hilltopper39]

I think that play had to have been an interference or at least a holding call, I mean Keuchley was face guarding Gronk with his arms around the guy keep Gronk from extending his arms, if that aint holding I don't know what is! I head a lot of arguments that said the pass was uncatchable, but with Gronk nothing is catchable, he would have made a play at the ball.

 

Being an official isn't an easy job but I've always thought that if I were in that role and there was a controversial call that could potentially end the game that isn't entirely clear which call is correct, my tendency would be, if possible, to extend the game so both teams have a second opportunity to win. In this case, whether it's a PI or a defensive holding, there would have been 1 un-timed down to win the football game from a reasonable position on the field.

 

Seems like it happens in basketball a lot as well, late in the game and a guy is trying to get to the basket to draw a foul and a defender is trying to draw a charge, sometimes those calls are so questionable that there almost is no right answer. If it were me, and there isn't a clear correct call, I'd look at the game situation and make a decision that allows competitive play to continue for an additional possession.