Football (NFL/College)

You can point to the fact that I thought the Rams had no chance tonight and say, "this guy doesn't know ball." But then I'll point to this and say "Ball Knower."

Posted by: @tsi

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Purdy probably deserves to be held in higher regard than Darnold and Mayfield. I think I'd have him 12 now.

1. Mahomes
2. Allen (1B, honestly)
3. Herbert
4. Stafford
5. Jackson
6. Burrow
7. Stroud
8. Smith
9. Prescott
10. Love
11. Goff
12. Purdy

Whatever happened to passing offense over the last few years is crazy. We had multiple guys throw for double-digit passing yards this week. It's disgusting.

Things are starting to fall into place in my head. The only really surprising results were Minnesota over GB and Indy over Pittsburgh.

I guess the Vikings are for real? I don't really understand this drastic improvement.

FWIW my new QB rankings would be:

1. Allen

2. Mahomes

3. Jackson (1C, honestly)

4. Burrow

5. Stafford

6. Herbert

7. Smith

8. Love

9. Stroud

10. Prescott

I'm still a little wary of Playoff Lamar.

I went 3-3 in round one. I'll take:

KC
BUF
DET
PHI

I'm going to flip 100 times between now and Sunday on the Bills. The Ravens are really good. I'll probably pick whoever wins that game in every round from here on out. Only Detroit would give me pause.

So the good thing about having teams you hate still playing is you know who to root against.    The bad thing about having teams you hate still playing is how high the odds are that the team you hate is going to end up winning the championship.

I am now rooting like crazy for a Bills-Lions Super Bowl.  That way a team that's never won it is guaranteed their first.     The other two teams I was rooting for in Round 1 got soundly drummed out of the tournament like they didn't deserve to be there  (Chargers and Vikings)

I'll root like heck for the Texans to beat the Chiefs even though its entirely futile.   I like Demeco Ryans,  I like CJ Stroud... I would love for the Texans to pull the upset -  but they have no chance.   I honestly can't believe they made the Chargers look so utterly bad on Saturday.   

i will be pulling hard for the Bills but I'm not sure they have it in them.   I don't think they can stop the run effectively enough to thwart the Ravens.   I do think they can score on the Ravens defense, and I hope that might be enough, but I am concerned.   At least it's in Buffalo.    

In the NFC I'm still extremely worried about the Lions defense.   They shut down the Vikings in week 18 -  but I don't know if that is meaningful given how that offense looked these last couple of games.      Jaden Daniels is a rookie, so it's possible he does some dumb rookie things,  but he's been pretty good.    The Lions offense is really good though and Washington's defense isn't great so I think Detroit still pulls that out.

I would LOVE to believe the Rams have it in them to bounce the Eagles.   I don't like Philly at all and want them gone.   I'm not a huge fan of the Rams but I do respect McVay (and I don't respect Siriani at all) -  so would much rather see a Detroit-LA rematch of last year's playoffs than see Philly advance.    Unfortunately I don't know that the Rams young defense is up to the task of stopping Saquon.    And I don't know if Stafford will look the same in the cold Philly air as he did in Phoenix (or LA, or Detroit's dome, etc).   

So I'm hoping for a Buffalo/Houston and Detroit/LA   Championship weekend I fear I'm getting a KC/Baltimore   Philly/Detroit  Sunday instead.

Online sports gambling isn't legal in Washington, but if it were, I'd make less than five bets a year. I would only bet on games/props I was certain about.

This year, I would've bet on the NFC South under 30 wins (they had 28) and the Panthers under their win total (it was 5.5 and they wound up at 5). This weekend I'd add the Lions -9.5, adjusted higher if I could. I think Detroit blows Washington out this weekend.

@panthercult The Texans have only one real shot this weekend......rust.   The Chiefs have a bunch of starters who haven't played a game in three weeks.   So their only real shot is that Mahomes and company have a slow start and somehow the Texans can capitalize on that situation.    Otherwise I don't have much hope for them.

The Bills are home underdogs going into the game.   That is a pretty rare situation.  However I get why because the Ravens have done a great job in the second half of the season and going into the playoffs.   The stats are pretty even though.   Their point differential is even.  I forget but I think Balitmore scored 7 more points than Buffalo, but Buffalo allowed 7 less (or something like that).  Then Buffalo had more rushing TDs than Baltimore, but Baltimore had more passing TDs than Buffalo.  

Maybe the only thing really in Buffalo's favour is the weather.  It is going to be cold, and according to the stats I saw it will be the coldest game Lamar Jackson has ever played in.   It also seems funny, if true, that Harbaugh wouldn't practice outdoors because it was too cold.   Again, if true, not exactly the thing you should be broadcasting.   Get out there and get your team some reps in the same kind of cold you'll see in Buffalo.

As a Bills fan I will hope, but I am not going to hold my breath since Josh is 0-2 in Divisional games the last two years.   I need him to win to try and prove otherwise.

In the NFC I will give it to the Lions over Washington because I still think a rookie versus a vet on an as good or better team should still have the edge.   Especially if they were the conference number one seed.

The Rams and Eagles can both bounce for all I care.   However going solely on last week I don't know that the Eagles have "it" right now and the Rams could beat them.  Guess we'll know in a couple days.

So I guess the NFC North wasn't for real? In some ways, it's a relief that Jared Goff and Sam Darnold finally turned back into pumpkins.

I'll take the L on the Commanders. I should've checked their DVOA before I said anything. Apparently they're 10th, which does not match the eye test IMO. I wasn't sold on Dan Quinn or Jayden Daniels, either. Quinn has made real strides since his Atlanta days and Daniels might have it. Between that and too many injuries for the Lions, the team that picked second in last year's draft is a Conference finalist. Crazy.

I knew going into the weekend that I'd pick the winner of Bills/Ravens to beat the Chiefs next week. KC did nothing to change my mind. Maybe they'll unimpressively win their way to a third-straight Super Bowl, but I don't see it.

The Eagles probably lose today's game if it's played in normal conditions. The snow killed the Rams' passing offense in key moments.

The game of the weekend was definitely Ravens/Bills. I couldn't understand the Buffalo gameplan to keep the ball out of Allen's hands (he finished with 127 yards passing), but it worked. Lamar will probably win another MVP this year and he still can't close the deal in January. It's getting a little James Harden-ish. I feel a little bad for Mark Andrews, as well. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the worst day of his life.

My playoff picks are 6-4 now.

I'll take Buffalo and Philly next weekend, but I have no confidence in the Eagles. Washington won't be afraid of them.

Well that was a game.   I have to give credit to the Bills because even as a fan I wasn't expecting much.   Too bad the Bills took a break in the second half because they really had the Ravens on the ropes and could have put them away.  Still a win is a win.

Just as I worried, the Texans had a chance but couldn't capitalize on a KC team that had an average start.   Oh well now I have to hope Josh can shake the playoff curse against Mahomes.

Philly looks like the weakest team left which is weird considering they are the number 2 seed in the NFC.   Barkley had a game, but Hurts is looking more and more banged up as time goes on.   I wouldn't put them out of it, but Daniels put on a show against Detroit and I can see him taking the Eagles to task as well.

Yeah... unfortunately the weather doomed the Rams - but that's why a team like Philly wants to play for home field advantage, it absolutely matters in a game like that.    If that game is in LA and the only thing that's different is the weather I think the Rams probably win.   Philly had 3 long breakaway touchdowns that might have been different with better footing for the defense.    And for sure Stafford and Nacua would have been able to connect better in different conditions.    

In a super weird stat this weekend in every single game the team that racked up the most offensive yards lost the game.   

For Baltimore it was all turnovers.   They kept giving it away and Buffalo never did.   The Ravens only punted like, once in the whole game, so it wasn't like the Bills defense played tremendous.  They made some plays, for sure - but the interception was just a bad overthrow, maybe influenced by pressure, but still a bad throw.   Lamar's fumble was just a slippery ball coming out of his hands as he tried to get away from the defense.    The fumble by Andrews was a phenomenal play by the defender.   To punch it out on the fly like that, and then land on it too.  Crazy.     And even with all that Baltimore had an opportunity to tie it if Andrews doesn't butterfingers the 2 point conversion.     I do think with 91 seconds and two time outs that Josh Allen probably could have got the Bills in field goal range and still got the win... but it didn't matter.   That was a good one.

And the Lions man.    Jared Goff absolutely looked like his worst self out there.   Those were some terrible give aways when the offense was moving the ball.   They were running with impunity but a 3 interception day means its ultimately another season of futility in Detroit.    And I will say Jayden Daniels looked legit out there.   He played great and Washington never looked afraid.     They know Philly and if Hurts is as banged up as he looked in the second half of that game and the Eagles have to be more one dimensional the Commanders have a chance.

Who knew I'd be out here rooting for a rematch of the 1992 Super Bowl man.   But I need it to be Washington-Buffalo.    Another Kansas City-Philadelphia super bowl might make me puke.

That was a strange National Championship experience as an Ohio State fan. I don't feel elation so much as relief. They were expected to win the game and took a huge lead. I was feeling pretty joyous until things got nervy in the middle of the fourth quarter.

From a big-picture perspective, I'm also a huge Ryan Day defender and I knew how bad the game would look if he/the team blew it. Day has his struggles in big games. I think more often than not, he gets way too conservative and relies on his talent to win the game. He did a lot of that again tonight.

He's still one of the two or three best coaches in college football, if not #1. Ohio State fans have talked about firing Day for the Michigan losses, but firing any coach is incredibly stupid if there isn't a better replacement. In the NFL, that's relatively easy to find. In the college game, not so much. I'm glad he got one tonight. He's deserved it for a long time. That Georgia semifinal loss will haunt me until I'm dead. I'm glad he got some amount of redemption tonight. Go Bucks.

Spent the day with my stomach in knots about this game. I usually don’t let sports get to me like that, but daggone it, Ohio State has made it this far and Michigan just won a me last year and I really wanted that victory tonight. Hate that it had to be against Notre Dame. They’re a good team and if they’d been playing against anyone else, I’d have been rooting for them. 

Happy you guys are happy I guess.   For me this was the shittiest icing on a shittty cake.   

Terrible way to end a college football season that I thought was a lot of fun until the playoffs.     I think I don't like the bye format at all -  each team has a break between the end of their season and the bowl games already, they don't need an extra week of rest... that just causes rust.   Literally every team with a bye in the playoffs lost,  so if that isn't an indictment on the format I don't know what would be.     And sure you can argue that Arizona State and Boise State were never better than the teams that beat them... but Oregon and Georgia were good teams and got a shitty draw.      Oregon probably got the worst luck -  they would have been better off against any of the other playoff teams for their first playoff game and would have fared better against Ohio State in the rematch in a later round.     Anyway -   I thoroughly enjoyed the chaotic regular college football season this year and I hated every second of the playoff.    

So,  I know with the conference championship games coming up there's been less discussion here about the coaching carousel and the various hires.

One thing of particular notice was 2024 had the most minority head coaches ever to start and NFL season.   But Robert Salah - fired mid-season,  Jarod Mayo - fired after one season,  Antonio Pierce - fired after only a single full season.     So three of those minority head coaches gone - two after pretty short stays.

Of the various coaching vacancies only one, so far, has gone to a non-white candidate... the Jets went with Aaron Glenn.      Chicago got Ben Johnson, Jacksonville went with Liam Coen, the Patriots brought in a different former linebacker Mike Vraebel,   the Raiders are hiring Pete Carroll.   It appears the Cowboys know who they are going with in Brian Schottenheimer, though they haven't officially hired him yet.

Which leaves New Orleans as the only job left, and I'm sorry but I just don't see that family hiring a black guy either.    

Of course, the good news for me is that Robert Saleh is much more likely now to rejoin the Niners as our Defensive Coordinator.    The Niners made him a big offer -  but he interviewed for the Jacksonville and Las Vegas jobs, so it was wait and see.    Now that those jobs are gone -  does he come back to the team where he had so much success before or does he take a DC job at a new team to try and blaze a new trail?    I'm hoping he comes home and resets our defense and the Niners get back to dominating the NFC.  They have by far - on paper - the easiest schedule imaginable this coming year,  so it should be an attractive spot to land because you can look like you made a difference quickly (probably).   

Anyway -  go Bills and Commanders.

None of the hires really stood out to me. I think the success of an NFL coach is about as hard to predict as a quarterback in the draft. I could see Glenn, Johnson, and Coen being successful. I think Vrabel will be. He's a good coach. I can't see Carroll or Schottenheimer working out. The LV and NO jobs are terrible head coaching positions. Neither team has any roster talent.

Looks like I was a game early in giving up on the Commanders. I can't remember seeing a backup QB come in to see out a conference title game. They looked like a team that picked second in last year's draft.

I find the Eagles exhausting. I know a lot of Eagles fans and they all have a love/hate relationship with the team. I don't know how you could jeer a team that's been to two Super Bowls in three years, but they do.

I also know a lot of Bills fans. I have nothing but love for that franchise and I root for them to get over the hump every year. With every year that passes, it looks like the 13 Seconds Game might've been their best shot at a Super Bowl. I was gutted for them again today. James Cook's TD was one of the greatest efforts I've seen on a football field. I don't like to talk about referees much anymore, but on the turnover on downs that led to KC's go-ahead field goal, I thought Allen clearly picked up the first down on 3rd and 1. Then they were stuffed on 4th down. Mahomes is reaching a Michael Jordan level of getting calls no one else gets.

I guess I'll root for the Chiefs to make history and put Brady's claim as GOAT to rest. I'm getting pretty tired of them, too. Racist-ass chanting especially.

I don't know what I did to piss off the "football gods" but man this year's college football results and now the Super Bowl make this the least exciting, most excruciating end to a football year I can remember.

Honestly it's hard for me to imagine a Super Bowl I'm less interested in than this.   I'm sick to death of the Chiefs.   Mahomes is in his 5th Super Bowl in 7 seasons as a starter.   That's ludicrous and I'm bored of it.   But I find the Eagles entirely odious.   Siriani is one of my very least favorite personalities in all of football.    I don't hate Saquon Barkley entirely, so I guess good for him, but I honestly don't even want to watch this stupid super bowl.

The Commanders did turn back into pumpkins at exactly the wrong time.   And the Bills got jobbed by the officials.   The Refs suggesting they couldn't tell that ball crossed the line to gain for that first down was ludicrous.   It was so stupid bad and disingenuous.   And it's potentially game altering.   We don't know for sure...  but giving the Chiefs those calls every damn time gets really, really old.    

On the potential bright side for me...  Robert Saleh coming back to SF as the Niners DC and them potentially hiring the Jets special teams coordinator increases the odds that my nephew could get a shot to sign with his hometown team next season.    It would be amazing to have him playing here in Santa Clara  -  i would get to go to a bunch of home games, that's for sure.    No guarantees,   but Saleh always liked him,  the Special Teams coach loved him and the Niners safety group is thin and they won't be spending at the top of the market for that position group.

I've been going back and forth on this Super Bowl. I have no feel for who's going to win.

Two years ago, Hurts played a near-perfect game and still lost. I have trouble seeing him doing that again, but with Barkley, he may not have to.

I think the Eagles have a better roster. KC has better coaching. And the better QB.

I generally do a decent job picking playoff games, but I'm horrendous in the Super Bowl.

All things equal, I guess I'll take the Chiefs. I feel like a fool whenever I pick against Mahomes. If I'm going to pick the wrong winner, I'd rather bet on Mahomes and lose than have him prove me wrong again.

E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles! Fly Eagles Fly!  (or if you are the mayor of Philly...E-L-G-S-E-S).

Primarily a Seahawks fan since grade school, but I grew up and live in South Jersey so I have followed the Eagles back to birth essentially. So hoping for a win but not going to be upset if they don't.

@panthercult "But I find the Eagles entirely odious." Noted. Maybe spend the SB playing with your M'Baku figure? (oh...wait...) 😜