It's On- The NFL is Back

Raider Nation? Really?

I had respect for you.

Once.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.



I still love you, man. And scotch. You a Cardinals fan?

Phoenix native, folks came from Wisconsin.

So, I have the odd distinction of being a Cardinals/Packers fan.

Lucky for me at least ONE of my teams is actually good. Of course, then I get accused of jumping on the bandwagon.

Never mind that my first blanket as a baby was green and gold and had a giant "G" on it.

Badass, I dig the Packers. I'm a lifelong Washington state native, but I've always loved the Raiders, ever since I was a kid. The Seahawks are.....ok, I guess, but they've never captured my imagination, you know?

I feel ya, bro. The Water Chickens leave a lot to be desired.

Tebow sucks! He's maybe an OK game manager, but he's NOT a viable NFL QB!

What the Tebow-worshippers fail to recognize is that with Denver's running game and defense, if they had a real NFL-caliber QB, they wouldn't need to come-from-behind in the final 2 minutes every week...because they'd be ahead by a couple of TDs already!

On a different note...who's looking forward to tonight's Seahawks v Rams matchup on MNF?



Anybody?



I thought not.

I have some work to do on the computer at home, so I'll probably have it on in the background, but I doubt that I'll pay much attention to it. That's actually not an unusual situation for me with MNF, though.

To be fair, Tebow is getting better at being a pocket passer, and he isn't throwing as many of those wounded bird wobbly spirals. He's also been victimized by some brutal dropped passes. Demaryus Thomas dropped an easy touchdown against the Bears, which was one of about 5 or 6 drops on the day. Thomas is a great athlete, but he's got hands like milk jugs.

All 32 NFL Teams as a Batman Character

Celebrity tweets before today's Patriots/Broncos game:

How about the second half of the Bears game?!?!


Hell... how about the second half of the Seahawks season!

Yes, the season isn't over, yes this is probably a little bit optimistic, yes we are in a shitty division, but the fact remains going from 2-6 to 7-7 is damn good improvement.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrybrewer/2017046969_brewer19.html

PLAYOFFS?!?!?!

Best time of the year!

Any calls for the upcoming matchups?

Falcons vs Giants
Lions vs Saints

Bengals vs Texans
Steelers vs Broncos

I'm going to go with the Giants, Saints, Texans and Steelers.

New England, Baltimore, Saints and Giants to win Divisional round.

Baltimore and New Orleans in the Super Bowl, with the Saints coming out on top.

Everyone here owes me $100 if I'm right.

Hmmm, only two scummy teams in it this year.

Of course, that was the case last year too, and it took until the second-last round to weed them both out . . .

Fuck the Broncos.

The Steelers should be able to take the Broncos, but they're too beat up to beat the Patriots. I'd love to see Houston knock off the Ravens (after they beat the Bungles), but I can't see that happening. That means I'll have to hold my nose and root for New England in the AFC championship.

The Falcons and the Saints should win their games. Then I see the Packers beating the Falcons and the Saints beating the 49ers. It'll be a barnburner in the NFC Championship, but I see the Packers coming out on top of that one.

Green Bay over New England in the Super Bowl.

The Packers have no defense. They are dead last in the league as a team when it comes to defense. It's only their great offense that enabled them to do what they did this year.

The Saints have a great offense and a better defense then the Packers.

I think the Packers lose to the Saints in the NFC championship.

The Patriots just steamroll their way into the AFC championship. They too have a crappy defense (only the Packers are worse) but a great offense.

The Saints and the Patriots have a wild west shootout in the Super Bowl with the Saints winning.

The Giants however may be hungry enough to spoil things. The other teams have no shot short of the Saints, Patriots, Packers, and the Giants imploding during a game.

If the Saints weren't a dome team (and a Southern dome team, to boot) I'd give them the edge over the Packers. I'm thinking that Wisconsin in January isn't going to be the kind of place where New Orleans' offense does its thing very well.

The Giants could be a surprise to the Falcons, though. Playing outdoors in their cold home stadium against another dome team, they could beat Atlanta this weekend.

The Lions got crushed, chewed up and spit out, against the Saints.

The Saints must have been toying with the Lions like how a cat toys with a mouse before it kills it because in the second half they scored a touch down every time they had the ball. (except for the last play where they kneeled on the Lions five yard line to end the game)

An interesting fact I learned today and explains why the Lions couldn't hang with the Saints: The Lions had not beaten any team with a winning record the entire season. All their wins are against crap teams and their losses against good teams. And of course it's the good teams in the playoffs. This just shows you can't always look at the win-loss record to determine the strength of a team.

The worst play I saw of the night was a Saints player running for a touchdown and the Lions were running next to him like they were blocking for him instead of knocking his ass out of bounds. Couldn't believe that one.

Bengals vs Houston was okay. Didn't really feel anything for either team.

Steelers vs Broncos -- Steelers drop the steel curtain on Tebow and send the Broncos to the glue factory

Falcons vs Giants -- No matter how high the Falcons fly the Giants will grab them from the sky and crush them.

Falcons crushed.

Steelers? Someone on that team must have pissed God off.

It was an amazing play though and as soon as I saw the guy stiff arm the Steelers player I knew it was over and the stadium would start rocking.

Boy, who saw THAT one coming????

I can't help it that Tebow called in a favor from God.

But seriously that was an upset of the year and it was a great play. Tebow caught them napping and they lost because of it.

I predict that there will be a move to change the OT rules again to make it so that each team has the ball at least once during OT and to win you have to score and then prevent the other team from scoring.

I still say the Superbowl winner will be the Saints.

I could've sworn that the new overtime rules did just that, but I just read them and it only applies if the first team to score only gets a field goal.

Fucking Broncos.

The Steelers are OLD - and gimpy as hell. Their QB was on one leg, taking away what made him special, his ability to extend plays. Their top 2 RBs were out. Their pro bowl Center was out, and they lost their starting LT early in the game. All three of their starting DLs were out by the 2nd quarter, and their FS was out because of a blood disorder.

You can't be overconfident when you are down on personnel, and they were. Tebow is capable of throwing the deep ball, and he killed them, even after his best WR was knocked out of the game.

I think that's it for the Steelers being an elite team, at least for a while. Too many of their guys are on the wrong side of 30, some of them in their late 30s, like Farrior who is 37. They need help on the OL, they need youth on the DL, their LBs are getting up there, they need some more speed in the defensive backfield. I still think they are going to be a winning team, too many good players sprinkled in there, but their days of being a dominant team are over until they find fresh blood.

So we've got the two 'teams of destiny' next week against the #1 seeds. Giants could give the Packers a real run for their money, as the can pressure Rodgers and take advantage of a shaky secondary. That game was down to the wire back when the Giants were playing worse than they are now. Of course, the Packers have the extra week off (which is a big deal) and home field advantage.

You would expect the Pats to destroy the Broncos, but everyone expected the Steelers to do the same. The Patriots defense is not good, they gave up 250 yards rushing against the Broncos last time they met, and their pass defense is historically bad. If the Broncos defense plays well against the Patriots, this might be a closer game than the first time around, and I think that might very well happen. The Broncos have a very good pass rush and some very good cover guys. The Patriots won because of unusual mistakes by Tebow and better schemes. That might be the same this time around, but I've got a hunch it isn't going to play out the same. Of course, having Josh McDaniels join their coaching staff gives them an edge.

Division Week:

Packers bring Giants back to reality
Saints cool down a bit against 49ers, scoring < 40 and only winning by 17

Evil Patriots destroy the Tebowmania
Ravens edge Texans in a surprisingly close, entertaining game

Sounds good to me. Except for the part where the Texans don't get stomped, but I'm not inclined to be picky.

Packers are doing a pretty fair job of beating themselves.

I'll be rooting for whoever comes out of the NFC. The Patriots are only slightly less evil than the Ravens.