The official NFL Discussion Thread

[CoasterRench]

Biggest things for me yesterday were:

 

Colts vs Lions - I expected the Colts to come in and win big. Luck coming back from his injury, the Lions losing Megatron due to retirement. And, it was also in Indy, home field didn't do much to help Indy, it's going to be a long year with their defense.

 

Packers vs Jaguars - A lot of people are picking the Packers to win the super bowl this year, the Jags had a chance to knock them off. If it wasn't for a horrible play call on fourth down at the end of the game, I believe the Jags would have won the game. They could make a run for the playoffs this year.

 

Raiders vs Saints - Love the aggressive play call at the end, going for 2 for the win instead of the tie. I grew up being taught, when your on the road you go for the win, when your at home you go for the tie. The Raiders went for the win, and it worked.

 

Overall - Lots of very close games. There was only 1 game that was decided by double digits. And, I'm sorry if there are any Browns fans, but unfortunately they are going to lose a lot of games by double digits this year. But the future looks bright in Cleveland, you do have Gordon coming back, and Hue Jackson is one hell of a coach.

[Philrad71]

^ To add insult to injury for Cleveland - RGIII out until at least November.

 

I feel their pain. Buffalo looked just as shitty yesterday as they have for the past 16 years and counting. It's just such a joke what this team has become after the Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed days that it's really hard for me to stomach their games anymore.

 

New coaches, new owners, new players, new GM's = the same results year after year.

 

Then you have someone like New England that can just crap out victories year after year - even with different personnel. Heck Garoppolo could have been being played by Brady for all I could tell last night - and this behind a patchwork offensive line. While a good game, I was devastated that my second favorite team lost the game by....gee, a missed 47 yard field goal. Sound familiar, Buffalo fans?

 

As much as I hate to admit it, this all falls back on Belichick. As much as I despise him for beating us twice a year for like 20 years in a row, he still gets the best from all of his players and doesn't take any crap from any of them. Ya gotta respect that even if you despise the Patriots like I, and everyone else in all of NY, NJ and Miami do (as well as a lot of other teams/fans).

[DILinator]

^I just wish the other three teams in their division played the Pats tougher, because that's been one of the keys to the NE "dynasty", is basically getting handed 5-6 victories out of the gate, and getting a leg up on the rest of the AFC competition for HFA in the Playoffs.

 

Honestly though, Pats winning last night was a bit fluky (as was the Broncos win, in much the same way), and I think Miami's defense is going to give Garoppolo and Belicheck all they can handle next week. Seattle is as good if not better than NE overall, pretty even from a coaching standpoint, and Wilson is MUCH better than Garoppolo, and yet they couldn't hardly do anything at home against Miami. It'll be interesting to see how that game in NE goes next week, especially if Gronk is sidelined again!

[CoasterRench]

One thing that I think separates NE from most of the other NFL teams is how well they are coached. They very rarely make "bonehead" plays, don't typically get called for stupid penalties, which I think can attribute a lot of that to coaching. I enjoy watching NE play, they play the game correctly, when showing my son the game of football, those are one of the teams that I prefer him to watch, and I am by no means a NE fan, I love to see them lose, but as a fan of the game, they do it right.

 

I feel your pain as a Bills fan, I cheered for them when they lost the 4 super bowl's in a row. I remember after the fourth loss telling my dad I am going to be a Dolphins fan now instead of a Bills fan, I was only 9 years old at the time, so I didn't really understand. But, now I'm a Bengals fan....which isn't much better.

 

I am curious to see how Miami's defense looks the rest of the way, are they finally going to live up their expectations that they didn't really live up to last year, or is Seattle's offense going to struggle a lot more than we thought with Marshawn Lynch being retired.

 

As for the games last night, as much as it pains me to say, the Steelers looked pretty good. Antonio Brown is a beast, I don't know if anyone can stop him 1 on 1. And what a disappointing start for LA, shut out against the 49ers. I don't know if I expected them to win, but I expected them to put some points on the board. When is the last time a Chip Kelly defense shut somebody out?

[Philrad71]

^^ You are spot on with regards to NE basically getting handed wins from our division every year. Belichick & the coaching staff knows and understands other teams strengths and weaknesses and plays to them each game. Buffalo always seems to have a plan on offense and then keeps going to the same thing over and over whether it works or not (usually not).

 

The Bills game plan always seems to play not to lose versus playing to win and it always kills them because they end up with a critical turnover, or a really stupid penalty or special teams blunder. Although most of the time, it seems to be that they do all three in the 2nd half when playing NE...I actually called them last year (in the game that mattered) and they happened one right after the other after we had played them close through halftime.

 

It will be interesting to see if they actually try going after Revis the way the Bengals did or simply refuse to take deep shots down the field like they did against Baltimore. If they decide on screens and dump-off passes at the line of scrimmage & don't test deep, the Jets will do the same thing and stack the box...and probably shut them out this Thursday night.

 

^ Yeah, going from a Bills fan to a Bengals fan...I feel your pain. I've always liked the Cardinals and Buccaneers as my 2nd and 3rd favorite teams (for more than 20 years) so there were a LOT more painful games than good ones.

 

Although at least one of my teams has won it all once...the Bucs! And I like the way Winston is starting to come around as a leader. Sure hope he can keep it up!

[Jew]

NFL security rant:

 

Thanks to the Rams, the Coliseum is a nightmare to get into now. AND it's not easy to get booze in anymore (not sold inside during USC games because of a PAC-12 policy) thanks to the NFL security procedures. Only allowing clear bags is frustrating too.

 

Oh, and the Rams are awful. So it's a double kick in the nuts.

[Lameformer]

Oh, and the Rams are awful.

 

From the 2011-2012 season until the 2015-2016 season the Packers were my favorite team.

 

Once the Rams announced that they were coming to LA, the Rams became my favorite team.

 

After Monday night, the Packers became my favorite team once again.

[DILinator]

^

 

They do look rather dreadful after that game! However, one win this weekend at home against the Seahawks (who didn't look that strong themselves on Sunday), and all will be forgotten! (Not saying that's going to happen, just that it could.) Honestly, I think them not starting Goff is pretty nuts... I know he didn't look great in the Pre-Season, but Case Keenum? Seriously? After you mortgaged the future to draft Goff? Oi...

[Jew]

I cannot comprehend how Jeff Fisher still has a job.

[CoasterRench]

I can understand not starting Goff, what I can't understand is not even dressing him. Atleast put him in a uniform, that way if your team looks bad enough (like they did)you can put him in there and get him some snaps. There have been plenty of QB's drafted in the first round that have sat out their first season, but they dressed every game. Hopefully for the Rams, this isn't a sign that they have already lost faith in him and wasted a top pick. I expect to see him dressed this week, and probably starting by week 4 or 5 if they continue to play like they did.

 

To add onto the Rams, Tavon Austin better show up better next week. He got a pretty nice contract in the offseason and only put up 4 catches for 13 yards in the first game of the season. But what would you expect from a guy that hasn't cracked 500 yards receiving in a season yet.

[Jew]

Their offense is too vanilla for someone like him. He needs to be put in space, but the Rams haven't done anything even remotely creative with him.

[simaticable]

17 penalties for the Lions....someone please wake me up when Caldwell is fired and someone comes in who knows how to discipline a team. That was horrible all around.

[Genx24]

Giants 2-0 for the first time since 2009. What has me impressed the most is that Ben McAdoo actually knows how to manage the clock. If they still had Crypt Keeper as coach, the team would probably be 0-2.

 

Oh, and that 200 million dollar defense looks damn good thus far.

[Lameformer]

That Adrian Peterson for David Johnson straight up trade looked pretty one sided at first but with Peterson out this may turn out to be an amazing trade for Storm Chasers.

[DILinator]

^Actually, that trade was a straight up win for him from the word go! We both had Johnson rated higher than Peterson anyway, and I actually drafted Johnson over him in another league when given the chance. But this was my last draft, and I wanted Peterson on one of my teams, so since Peterson was ranked stupidly high by ESPN, and I knew he wouldn't be there when I drafted, while Johnson likely would be, I simply told Ian if he drafted Peterson, I'd trade him Johnson if I got him. Believe me... That was always going to be a better trade for him than me, barring a Johnson injury. Peterson getting hurt is just icing on the cake! Don't worry about Ian... He's won a Fantasy Football Championship three years in a row! He knows what's up!

 

17 penalties for the Lions....someone please wake me up when Caldwell is fired and someone comes in who knows how to discipline a team. That was horrible all around.

 

Caldwell was such a terrible hire from the word "Go"! I don't care how "nice" he is, or whether he can "coach up" QB's... Running a team, he is imbecilic, and that's not an overstatement! Additionally, if I had a dollar for every time he made a statement that literally caused me to face-palm, I'd be a wealthy man...

[Hilltopper39]

I cannot comprehend how Jeff Fisher still has a job.

 

Did you watch Hardknocks this year? After watching that I see why he's been a HC for 20 years with a 500 records, he's a pretty likable guy off the field who appears to do things the right way. But yeah.

 

What a weird week, LA beats Seattle after getting blasted by SF last week. The Jags get blasted by San Diego after playing Green Bay tough, and Green Bay loses to a team with a QB they signed last week. Week 2 is the "don't overreact it's still early" week, by week 5 the usual suspects will be on top of their divisions again.

 

"If New England beats Houston on Thursday with Jacoby Brisett as their starting QB I give up"

-The rest of the NFL

Edited September 26, 2016 by Hilltopper39

[pdcon]

fantasy football not going to well for me

[xstech25]

I've always found it funny when people say sports tickets are over priced and instead of going they watch it on their big screen at home, like somehow they are sticking it to the man (not realizing how much $$ is being made off them from watching it on TV). Every time I see an article online about the NFL there are a lot of comments "overpriced, management sucks, I watch at home" etc.

 

The games are selling out and there are still always lines for concessions, TV ratings are through the roof, do you really think the NFL gives a **** about your opinion?

[CoasterRench]

I love going to sporting events. I do think they are overpriced, but people will pay it and for many people that attend sporting events they are building memories with their families. I will never forget seeing my son's face the first time he seen a professional baseball field.

 

With that being said, I refuse to take him to an NFL game. The fans are way to rowdy for a 5 year old, some of the things I have seen/heard I don't think he needs to experience that at the age of 5. I could be over protective of him, but don't feel people know how to act correctly at sporting events.

 

But as to your question, no the owners don't care at all if I go or not, if I don't I'm sure somebody else will be there.

 

But watching it at home makes it much easier to walk away when your team is playing like crap.

[Hilltopper39]

fantasy football not going to well for me

 

I'm kind of getting tired of Fantasy Football but that's an entirely different discussion for a later time and date.

 

 

I love going to sporting events. I do think they are overpriced, but people will pay it and for many people that attend sporting events they are building memories with their families. I will never forget seeing my son's face the first time he seen a professional baseball field.

 

With that being said, I refuse to take him to an NFL game. The fans are way to rowdy for a 5 year old, some of the things I have seen/heard I don't think he needs to experience that at the age of 5. I could be over protective of him, but don't feel people know how to act correctly at sporting events.

 

But as to your question, no the owners don't care at all if I go or not, if I don't I'm sure somebody else will be there.

 

But watching it at home makes it much easier to walk away when your team is playing like crap.

 

Maybe I'm just spoiled but in Jacksonville the owners really have made great strides in improving the "in game" experience so that's it's really enjoyable, better food (albeit still somewhat expensive but at least it's good!), better access, wifi, it's a pretty fun time. So saying the owners "don't care" probably isn't very true when it comes down to it.

[Genx24]

I've been to a few Giants games, and while fun, I'm of the opinion that football is much better on television. When you're sitting in a corner and the action is moving in the opposite direction you have to watch the game on a screen anyway. So might as well stay home and save $500.

[simaticable]

Well, if I've learned anything from tonight, it's that the Patriots are simply unstoppable, and this team will be scary once everyone is back.

[DILinator]

^Funny... The biggest takeaway I had from the game is that the Texans really screwed up when they paid so much money to an incredibly mediocre QB to lead an otherwise talented team! Additionally, their coaching staff was also WAY too conservative and timid in their game plan early on, and they made some serious Special Teams blunders that handed the game to the Pats early, and often.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm surprised and impressed that New England has managed to go 3-0 without Brady, and in spite of being a less impressive team on paper in two of those three games. But don't buy the pop narrative too hard when it comes to the Pats... They have been very fortunate to start this way as well, as a missed kick is all that separated them from an "L" in Week 1, and I saw a laughably unprepared, and overrated Texans team tonight hand the game to them on a silver platter. We'll see what happens when they play the best of the rest of the teams in the league, even with Brady. I don't see this team going 16-0, and I will be quite surprised if they win the Super Bowl. But props to them for their start to the season, in spite of adversity!

 

But again, the Texans tonight...

[simaticable]

The Texans certainly made Elway look like a genius for not overpaying for an overrated back up QB.

[DILinator]

The Texans certainly made Elway look like a genius for not overpaying for an overrated back up QB.

 

 

I'd actually take Siemian over Osweiler at this point anyway! Siemian has really impressed me with his poise in the pocket, and his unflappable demeanor, while Osweiler's timidity was on full display last night. Even though Manning's skills had declined dramatically last year, there is no way the Broncos win the Super Bowl if the switch back to Manning from Osweiler wasn't made. Brock just doesn't have that "it" factor you need to win in the clutch.