NFL thread 2021-2022

[Torn Mind]

LIke I said earlier .... Chad Pennington's second coming.

Pennington: "I shall now call him "Mini-Me". "

 

[Torn Mind]

My pixx this week:
Pats over Bills
Chiefs over Broncos
9ers over Seachickens
Ravens over Steelers
Raiders over Washington
Jags over Rams
Bucs over Falcons
Bengals over Chargers
Cards over Bears
Jets over Eagles
Vikings over Lions
Colts over Texans
Giants over Dolphins
Cowboys over Saints

 

[Captante]

My pixx this week:
Pats over Bills
Chiefs over Broncos
9ers over Seachickens
Ravens over Steelers
Raiders over Washington
Jags over Rams
Bucs over Falcons
Bengals over Chargers
Cards over Bears
Jets over Eagles
Vikings over Lions
Colts over Texans
Giants over Dolphins
Cowboys over Saints

WFT over Raiders - In a close one.

Dolphins over Giants - Giants get killed.

Rams over Jags - This will be a blowout despite the Jags improved D.

Bills over Patriots - Sb a great Monday night matchup! - I believe this game comes down to if the Bills D can get to Mac Jones.


Otherwise I agree with your picks. (WFT vs LV s/b interesting)

 

[Torn Mind]

WFT over Raiders - In a close one.

Dolphins over Giants - Giants get killed.

Rams over Jags - This will be a blowout.

Bills over Patriots - Sb a great matchup


Otherwise I agree with your picks. (WFT vs LV s/b interesting)

It's Vegas. I expect a lapse in focus as they enter the new city and enjoy its "delights" along with having to deal with time zone change. Vegas Golden Knights were especially successful at home in their inaugural year, and I expect the same of the Raiders.

With the way the Rams are reeling and way out of sorts, I'm expecting a close one.

I know you dream of the top 10 pick, but Tua is no beast.

Conventional wisdom is that the BIlls simply suffocate the Pats and Mac gets his first humiliation. But I suspect the hood is thirsty for real vengeance from last year and got his gameplan against Allen all set and ready. And Mac puts a few scalpel slits into the Bills and they bleed to death.

 

[Captante]

It's Vegas. I expect a lapse in focus as they enter the new city and enjoy its "delights" along with having to deal with time zone change. Vegas Golden Knights were especially successful at home in their inaugural year, and I expect the same of the Raiders.

With the way the Rams are reeling and way out of sorts, I'm expecting a close one.

I know you dream of the top 10 pick, but Tua is no beast.

Conventional wisdom is that the BIlls simply suffocate the Pats and Mac gets his first humiliation. But I suspect the hood is thirsty for real vengeance from last year and got his gameplan against Allen all set and ready. And Mac puts a few scalpel slits into the Bills and they bleed to death.

The QB that does the best job handling the pressure from the opponents pass-rush will most likely win Bills/Pats and it could go either way. Allen has quite a bit more experience but the Patriots are on a roll right now.

I would consider taking NE with 3.5-4 points but I still slightly favor the Bills.

 

[MrSquished]

WFT over Raiders - In a close one.

Dolphins over Giants - Giants get killed.

Rams over Jags - This will be a blowout despite the Jags improved D.

Bills over Patriots - Sb a great Monday night matchup! - I believe this game comes down to if the Bills D can get to Mac Jones.


Otherwise I agree with your picks. (WFT vs LV s/b interesting)

I hope Blue loses.

New GM. New coaches. Two top 10 draft picks. Focus on pass rush and o-line. There are no must have QB's, whatever that even means. Just build a better team in the trenches, get better coaching, see what happens next year then plan the next draft on that.

 

[zinfamous]

To be fair bad as "Sexy-Rexy" was for the Bears overall, they DID make it all the way to a Super Bowl with him at QB... quite the accomplishment even though they got beat.

IMO Heinicke is substantially more accurate then Grossman under pressure .... he has the potential to be really good if WFT gives him enough protection.

their entire offense (for TWO seasons!) was a kick returner, so it makes sense. That, and the average score against them was like 5 points. ...only Denny Green did better that year, and still lost. Famously! It's the only reason Rex wasn't run out on the rail sooner.

Holy crap, that guy was effing terrible.

LoL--and they almost beat Good Manning's Colts with a kick returner.

 

[Captante]

their entire offense (for TWO seasons!) was a kick returner, so it makes sense. That, and the average score against them was like 5 points. ...only Denny Green did better that year, and still lost. Famously! It's the only reason Rex wasn't run out on the rail sooner.

Holy crap, that guy was effing terrible.

LoL--and they almost beat Good Manning's Colts with a kick returner.

Still.... NFC champs and made the Super Bowl credit where its due.

I still have a tough time believing it too ... Grossman WAS one of, if not the worst NFL starting QB to ever make the big game.

 

[Torn Mind]

Still.... NFC champs and made the Super Bowl credit where its due.

I still have a tough time believing it too ... Grossman WAS epically bad.

Da Bears tried to pull a 2000 Ravens but failed.

Then Shanahan "the genius's ego" gave Rexy a little extra money. Doesn't help that Donovan McNabb was indeed a old man with an ego as well.

But the meme "FUCK IT, I'M GOING DEEP" will never die.

 

[Captante]

Da Bears tried to pull a 2000 Ravens but failed.

Then Shanahan "the genius's ego" gave Rexy a little extra money. Doesn't help that Donovan McNabb was indeed a old man with an ego as well.

But the meme "FUCK IT, I'M GOING DEEP" will never die.

View attachment 53698

The worst part for Chicago fans is that a competent QB could have won that Super Bowl for the Bears. The Colts were very beatable that year despite Peyton Manning being at or near his physical peak.

 

[Torn Mind]

The worst part for Chicago fans is that a competent QB could have won that Super Bowl for the Bears. The Colts were very beatable that year despite Peyton Manning being at or near his physical peak.

Brother Peyton certainly had less mojo in the playoffs than Eli. Polian had to advocate/whine about stricter enforcement of illegal contact and defensive holding to open up the game for Peyton...which has eventually culminated in the modern NFL passing-centric attack.

 

[rmacd02]

Brother Peyton certainly had less mojo in the playoffs than Eli. Polian had to advocate/whine about stricter enforcement of illegal contact and defensive holding to open up the game for Peyton...which has eventually culminated in the modern NFL passing-centric attack.

I am confused, I thought all those stricter rules have been called "Brady" rules. Now they are "Peyton or Eli" rules?

 

[Torn Mind]

I am confused, I thought all those stricter rules have been called "Brady" rules. Now they are "Peyton or Eli" rules?

Well, Polian did plenty of advocacy for enforcement of those rules...because the Pats D disrupted their timing....

The Rules Are Different, but a Rivalry Remains (Published 2007)

The Patriots A.F.C. championship victory over the Colts three years ago, in which Coach Bill Belichick instructed his players to hit the Colts receivers hard every chance they had, inspired N.F.L. rule changes.

www.nytimes.com

 

[rmacd02]

Paywall, can't read. Can you summarize?

 

[Torn Mind]

Paywall, can't read. Can you summarize?

By Judy Battista
INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 18 — When the Indianapolis Colts stepped into a bitterly cold New England night three years ago, after their last appearance in an American Football Conference championship game, Tony Dungy had words of consolation.

They had endured a difficult defeat, he told his players after a 24-14 loss to the Patriots, but they would be back. He was right about that. The Colts and the Patriots will play another A.F.C. championship game Sunday, the latest installment of one of the N.F.L.’s most compelling rivalries.

What Dungy did not know then was the impact that memorable game would have on the Colts, the Patriots and the N.F.L.

Until that January night in 2004, the Colts’ offense had seemed virtually unstoppable, a ballet in cleats set on fast-forward. They had scored 10 touchdowns in 17 postseason possessions. Their punter, Hunter Smith, had not punted in two playoff games. Almost everyone anticipated the title game would be a chess match, full of move-for-move encounters between Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and Patriots Coach Bill Belichick.

Belichick, celebrated for his cerebral approach to football, took a cruder stance. He wanted a brawl and he instructed his players to hit the Colts’ receivers hard every chance they had. The strategy was called rerouting, and what it meant was that instead of Colts receivers going unimpeded to where Manning expected them to be, the Patriots rerouted them — shoving is a more precise term — until the timing of the pass patterns was so off that the plays were useless.

“This was probably the most simple game plan we had,” cornerback Ty Law, with the Patriots at the time and now with the Kansas City Chiefs, said after that game. “Just beat them up.”

Bill Polian’s face tightened when he recalled the game. Polian, the Colts’ president, was angered by how the Patriots played. No wonder. When it was over, when Marvin Harrison had been jostled out of the game plan, when the Patriots had intercepted Manning four times, the rest of the N.F.L. had its blueprint for stopping the Colts. The Colts also had their reputation for finesse play cemented, the Patriots were on their way to building a dynasty — they went on to win their second of three Super Bowls — and the National Football League had a rules issue on its hands.

“I give the Patriots great credit for what they did,” Polian said in an interview this week. “I won’t go beyond that.”

The National Football League eventually did, with Polian’s prodding. The following off-season, the league issued a point of emphasis edict from the competition committee about how defensive holding and illegal contact would be officiated. Since then, defenders have had to be more careful about touching receivers beyond the first 5 yards of a play.

How important has that rule become? After the Colts defeated the Baltimore Ravens, 15-6, last week in a second-round game notable for an absence of touchdowns, Polian expressed concern on the Colts’ Web site that downfield contact was being overlooked.

Polian insisted he was concerned for the game as a whole — field-goal-heavy games are not viewer friendly — but no team is as threatened by manhandling as the Colts, who rely heavily on downfield threats. Polian might have been subtly sending a reminder to the officials before Sunday’s rematch with the Patriots.

“I wasn’t criticizing the officiating in that game,” Polian said of the victory against the Ravens. “I think it’s clear downfield officiating has been a little bit loose. That worries me for the sake of the game. We can play any style, as we proved last week. I worry about it in terms of the type of game you’d get if this is a trend.”

It would certainly be the type of game that does not favor the Colts. But the Patriots may not be able to duplicate that sort of defensive success even if the officials turn a blind eye Sunday.

 

[rmacd02]

Ah, yes, I remember now. Pats D was very aggressive on the line, and beyond. I agree with that rule change. I thought you were talking about the QB protection rules.

 

[rmacd02]

With all these rule changes, I can't help but remember when the NFL made a rule change, and I think it was Terry Bradshaw said "Maybe we should wear dresses.".

It was a stupid thing to say then, as it is now.

 

[rmacd02]

Oh, damn. I forgot to say " Go Patriots!".

 

[Torn Mind]

Ah, yes, I remember now. Pats D was very aggressive on the line, and beyond. I agree with that rule change. I thought you were talking about the QB protection rules.

That stemmed from Brady's 2008 injury; they went 11-5 but missed the playoffs. It was also the year the Wildcat came into vogue and stole a game and the division against the Pats.

I think headhunters like Burficit led to the defenseless receiver rule.

But illegal contact and defensive holding was the start of the opening up of the passing game.

 

[rmacd02]

I would love to see what Fran Tarkenton or Archie Manning would have done with the current rules. Dan Marino, as well.

 

[KMFJD]

I saw Tebow mentioned and it brought back memories of him beating the Steelers in the playoffs , good times

 

[Torn Mind]

Gridiron Heights

 

[Torn Mind]

New Orleans got another injury. Hill’s hand hit a defender’s arm and he is in the tent.

 

[KMFJD]

I'd like to know what Taysom Hill and his agent have on Sean Payton? how in the hell is this guy worth 10 million a year? (even more if plays QB for x amount of games)

He's 31 years old and has 1400 yards running/receiving for his career along with 1367 yards passing

 

[jpiniero]

Not NFL but Oklahoma State just lost the Big 12 Championship game by less than an inch. Not joking.