The official NFL Discussion Thread

[CoasterRench]

I guess people didn't realize that the only reason Osweiler was even remotely successful in Denver was because of that defense. Props to Belicheck and the Patriots, they had a game plan going into the game and executed it perfectly. The Texans were outplayed and outcoached on every level.

[Philrad71]

Additionally, their coaching staff was also WAY too conservative and timid in their game plan

 

This. This. And more of This.

 

I have seen Buffalo (as well as lots of other teams) do this every year and when the game counts, this is what they do - the opposing defenses will play conservatively and let the Patriots offense take what is given to them. Or the opposing team has a huge turnover or special teams gaffe that hands the Patriots a win. Or both.

 

If the opposing teams defense isn't quick enough to immediately put pressure on Brady (or any other of their QB's), they are going to be in for a long day.

 

You'd think coaches would really study how the Giants defense has beaten them in the past and used it as a blueprint. But nope...they try to be cute and outsmart Belichick...and they always get burned.

[simaticable]

So, anyone else not expecting Wentz and the Eagles to beat the crap out of the Steelers yesterday?

[Genx24]

Haven't expected Wentz and the Eagles to do much of anything, yet they're proving everyone wrong thus far.

 

 

Yeesh, I need a shower after complimenting that team.

[Philrad71]

And who thought the Bills would demolish the Cardinals? I certainly didn't and I have been watching Buffalo play for 30+ years.

 

Actually, I never saw the Eagles dismantling the Steelers like that, the Vikings whooping on the Panthers at home...and wow, what happened to the Giants with that big lead over Washington?

 

And this is why I don't bet on football games anymore - I can't even come close to picking the winners, let alone cover the spreads!

[Hilltopper39]

^ I liked Buffalo against the spread this past weekend just because of the West Coast to East coast 1pm kickoff, those games are always weird, but didn't expect them to win.

 

But yeah, betting on the NFL is tough, the odds makers are so good I don't know how they do it sometimes. Early in the season you might be able to steal a few from them but after about week 6 it's all over, they've figured out everyone.

[Philrad71]

^ That's a good point as I had forgotten that the Cardinals seem to struggle when they visit the east coast for some reason (ala last year's NFC Championship blowout in Carolina). The announcers were quick to point out their horrible east coast record once they went down 17-7 on Sunday.

 

I agree about the spreads too. When I used to play tickets at works, I would usually only play the first few weeks because once Vegas started figuring out which teams were good and which were bad, it made it awfully hard to pick. I don't think that I have ever won playing the spread late in the season.

 

Now I just save my money and go in for about $250 on as many Super Bowl pools (playing the squares) as I can get in. That's paid off pretty good for me the past few years. Actually one year, it bought Michael and me a trip to Vegas!

[Hilltopper39]

Yeah, I still do an eliminator pool every year with some friends (still alive, thank you Dolphins), and do a college football pick em pool for some money (nothing serious, $100 for the season), but yeah picking the NFL against the spread is just tough. I used to do a pool where we picked every game every week and the 10 people or so in the pool for a few years the best anyone ever did was about 58%, it's just hard.

 

With that being said, one of these days I wanna play the Westgate Las Vegas Supercontest, I'd probably lose all of my $1500 entry fee but it would still be fun. The guy who won it last year (and won like $800,000) picked at like a 74% clip for the season which is just insane, but hey it takes a little luck to win big.

[CoasterRench]

Could be an interesting week in the NFL, lots of changes taking place wonder how they will impact the teams, if at all:

 

Steelers - Le'Veon Bell comes back this week, how does he fit in in the backfield with DeAngelo Williams, does Big Ben throw the ball a little less now, or does he change the offense at all?

 

Ravens - Off to a 3-0 start and Elvis Dumervil is expected to make his season debut this week, will be the first time since the 2014 season that the Ravens will have both of their pass rushers back on the field at the same time.

 

Bengals - (my Bengals are off to a slow start) Vontaze Burfict comes back from suspension, dude plays out of control, but no one can deny when he is on the field and not making stupid penalties, he is a game changer. He brings a toughness that the Bengals are lacking right now. What they really need is Tyler Eifert to come back and help out the red zone offense.

 

Texans - JJ Watt moved to IR, Texans already looked horrible against the Patriots and had people starting to bring up doubt about Oswiler's ability to lead the team, now they lose their leader for the rest of the season. Next four games don't get any easier for them either, vs Titans, at Vikings, vs Colts, and at Broncos. They could easily lose 3 of those 4.

 

Cowboys - Dez Bryant has a hairline fracture, said he could miss 3 weeks, which include games at 49ers, home against the Bengals and at Packers. Oh, and apparently Dez didn't show up for his MRI, so who knows. Not shocking at all.

 

Patriots - Who starts at QB week 4, does it even matter who plays QB? Last week before Brady comes back. What if they start the season off 4-0, Brady comes back and they lose to Cleveland in his first game back? QB debate? I wish.

 

Browns - Speaking of Cleveland, Terelle Pryor believes Cleveland can win out the season. They will be lucky to win 3 games this year.

[DILinator]

Terelle Pryor is such a d-bag, I intentionally avoided him on all my Fantasy Football teams, just out of principle! (I don't have Dez anywhere either, FWIW)

[Hilltopper39]

^I team full of D-bags might actually be a pretty decent fantasy lineup, that might be my strategy next year. What would be the ultimate D-bag fantasy lineup?

 

QB- Jay Cutler

RB1- Adrian Peterson

RB2- Leveon Bell

WR1- Dez Bryant

WR2- Steve Smith Sr.

TE- Aaron Hernandez

Flex- Terrelle Pryor?

D/ST- Seattle

Kicker- Sebastian Janikowski

[Philrad71]

^Forgot the biggest one: Brady.

[CoasterRench]

^I team full of D-bags might actually be a pretty decent fantasy lineup, that might be my strategy next year. What would be the ultimate D-bag fantasy lineup?

 

QB- Jay Cutler

RB1- Adrian Peterson

RB2- Leveon Bell

WR1- Dez Bryant

WR2- Steve Smith Sr.

TE- Aaron Hernandez

Flex- Terrelle Pryor?

D/ST- Seattle

Kicker- Sebastian Janikowski

 

I think you have to consider Big Ben in there as QB.

[Hilltopper39]

^Forgot the biggest one: Brady.

 

 

You watch your mouth, enjoy that shutout while ya can cause after today Brady is back!.

[Hilltopper39]

I cannot comprehend how Jeff Fisher still has a job.

 

 

What a difference 3 weeks makes, 3-1 and first place in the division with wins over Seattle and Arizona with Case Keenum playing QB. If Goff pans out a develops the future in LA might be bright.

[DILinator]

^I team full of D-bags might actually be a pretty decent fantasy lineup, that might be my strategy next year. What would be the ultimate D-bag fantasy lineup?

 

QB- Jay Cutler

RB1- Adrian Peterson

RB2- Leveon Bell

WR1- Dez Bryant

WR2- Steve Smith Sr.

TE- Aaron Hernandez

Flex- Terrelle Pryor?

D/ST- Seattle

Kicker- Sebastian Janikowski

 

I think you have to consider Big Ben in there as QB.

 

 

I don't like Brady at all, and yes, Cutler is a D-Bag. But compared to Big Ben? Not even close!

 

I actually don't agree with either RB pick... I can see why AP gets that rap, but Bell? So the dude loves Pot more than playing all of his teams' games... He's actually a very friendly and personable fellow (as is AP, actually...), and not at all somebody I'd classify as a D-Bag. Marshawn Lynch was an awesome RB, but he would definitely qualify, just based on personality...

[Hilltopper39]

^I mean Ray Rice is probably the obvious choice at RB but he's been out of the league for a while now, but so has Aaron Hernandez, my list isn't perfect okay give me a break here?

[DILinator]

^Oh, I'm not trying to give you a hard time really! Just discussing the topic is all!

[Hilltopper39]

Haha, I'm just messin with ya. As far as Leveon Bell I don't know much about him other than he can't keep his nose clean long enough to play a full season, then again that doesn't seem to hurt Pittsburgh much, what are they now 5-2 in games without him or something? If there's any position you don't mind a start player taking a few games off through the season it's probably at running back anyways.

 

 

It's amazing how the game of football somehow re-invents itself to an extent every few years. I mean 5 or 6 season ago if you didn't have an elite quarterback who was throwing 50 TDs a season you weren't going to win a Superbowl. Now all of the "elite" QB's a struggling and teams with elite defenses are thriving (Denver, Minnesota, Seattle, Carolina last year). The two best teams in the league right now have Sam Bradford and Tevor Seimien/Paxton Lynch playing QB, haven't seen that in a long time.

[Philrad71]

^ I'm hoping that Buffalo will fall into that mix this year as well in terms of their good defense getting us some wins. I admit that I was utterly flabbergasted that they shut the Patriots out on Sunday. Although I admit that it seemed like Belichick just kinda gave up hope after the first half as if to think, "Oh well, we went 3-1 without Brady...we'll just go undefeated the rest of the way now."

 

After starting out the year like a train about ready to fly off the rails, the Bills went out and got two pretty big wins against the Cardinals (despite their early season struggles) and Patriots (albeit without Brady).

 

I like Tyrod Taylor and all, but he has got to stop throwing off his back feet all the time as well as throwing left while running to the right. Dude is gonna throw some seriously bad INT's against good teams if he doesn't knock that sh%t off.

 

Given the way the Rams have surprised since their Game One loss, this is now looking to be quite the match-up this week against Buffalo...gotta love to see good defensive teams going up against one another. At the beginning of the season, this looked like a ho-hum game, but now this is looking more like one of the games of the week...should be exciting!

 

I can't believe what a pleasant surprise that Zach Brown has been to our LB corps! I'm intrigued to see how he plays this week after 18 tackles, a pair of forced fumbles, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and a sack against NE! Leading the league in tackles right now with 52...holy chit, the man is a beast!

 

And we'll have "lovin' my pot smokin'" DT - Marcel Dareus back from suspension, so it will be interesting to see how Brown performs with Dareus and Kyle Williams both in front of him.

[Jew]

I cannot comprehend how Jeff Fisher still has a job.

 

 

What a difference 3 weeks makes, 3-1 and first place in the division with wins over Seattle and Arizona with Case Keenum playing QB. If Goff pans out a develops the future in LA might be bright.

 

I still stand by that comment. I still don't see the outlook being better than the typical Jeff Fisher 7-9, 8-8 record when all is said and done unless the passing game can get going.

[DILinator]

Count me in as another who isn't really impressed by the Rams yet... A closer analysis of their wins, doesn't show a team that is actually playing that well. They haven't scored over 13 points except against the terrible Buccaneers defense, and they've yet to beat any of their opponents by even a TD. A win is a win, and they have three of them, so props to that. But aside from a strong defense (that still gave up over 30 points to a Buccaneers offense that got shut down by my Broncos), they are still a fairly anemic team overall... I'm picking Buffalo in all of my Pick-ems this week, to put my money where my mouth is.

[Hilltopper39]

I still stand by that comment. I still don't see the outlook being better than the typical Jeff Fisher 7-9, 8-8 record when all is said and done unless the passing game can get going.

 

Good enough to justify a 3 year extension! I guess.......

 

Yeah, I'm not "sold" on the Rams as a playoff team or anything but wins vs two playoff teams from last year in the division is nothing to laugh at. I may have said it here a few pages back, or somewhere else I don't remember (thanks lack of concussion protocol before 2007) but wait until about week 7 and the picture will be a lot clearer. Are the Falcons good? They lost to the Bucs week 1 then smoked the Panthers this week? The Steelers? they boat raced the Chiefs a week after losing to the Eagles by 30. Falcons at Broncos is probably the best game this week, should be interesting to see what that offense can do against Denver's defense.

 

Also, are we watching the beginning of the OBJ 30 for 30 about that time when the best receiver in the league decided to walk away from football because no body liked him and he didn't like the game anymore? The Giants are a mess.

[Genx24]

Also, are we watching the beginning of the OBJ 30 for 30 about that time when the best receiver in the league decided to walk away from football because no body liked him and he didn't like the game anymore? The Giants are a mess.

No, we're watching the New York media search for a scapegoat to give McAdoo a pass for being a rookie head coach who seems to be in way over his head. Also doesn't help that our once excellent QB is starting to play afraid and is making even more mistakes than usual.

 

They aren't a mess yet, but the situation is much more grim than it seemed just two weeks ago. If they win Sunday night most of this is forgotten about.

[Hilltopper39]

Yeah, as someone who follows football as closely as I do I honestly had never heard of Mcadoo when the Giants made that hire. His resume wasn't particularity impressive but then again the Redskins hired an offensive coordinator when he was 28 so who knows what the makeup of a successful coach is these days.