NFL Playoff Hunt

[repoman]

We need a thread on this, even though I have barely paid attention to the NFL this year. I am getting geared up now...

So, let's get started!

on a side note, the Beckham-Norman sideshow was pretty entertaining until it got to the point of head-hunting. Be interesting to hear a breakdown of it from someone who has followed both players and Finnegan as well.

Maybe "Bang it like Beckham" will be a new catchphrase.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I don't know who either of those people are. That should not be taken as an invitation to explain who those people are.

I'm cheering for the Pats this year, mostly because the funnest thing about being a Patriot fan (and, more specifically, a Brady fan) is how much everyone who's not one gets pissed off by their success. It's not so much that I want to see Brady win than it is that I want to see the reactions of all the Brader-haters when he wins. If he could once again win the way that he did last year, that would be even better because it makes it even worse for them than if he'd won through some sort of action of his own.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Pulling for the Patriots obviously. Hard to tell each year in the playoffs. Injuries seem to mean more than anything else come the playoffs. Patriots with a healthy Gronk win more games than they lose in the playoffs. Patriots have the best kicker in the NFL, one of the best QBs in the NFL (ever), and one of the best coaches ever seen in professional sports. But their RB Blount is out. And on any other team, that probably wouldn't mean much, but he fit very well with the Patriot's team plan. He is going to be hard to replace so late in the season.

But I'm not looking forward to playing against either Carolina or Seattle in the Super Bowl, if the Patriots make it that far. Honestly, I don't see anyone being good enough in the AFC to beat New England, other than Pittsburgh. But despite the NFC sucking ass this year, their top two teams are really, really good and can beat the Pats.

 

[TSwizzle]

Coldplay performing at half time, that's the Superbowl fucked for me. I hate that bunch almost as much as Maroon 5.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Looks like the Pats will play Kansas City...

...wait... looks like Cincinnati.

...wait... Kansas City.

Jebus! Oliver Stone direct that Pittsburgh v Cincinnati game? The Angle v McMahon street fight was less violent than that game.

 

[repoman]

Sluggish seattle playing. Not feeling so confident. But Seattle can always turn it up on a dime.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Sluggish seattle playing. Not feeling so confident. But Seattle can always turn it up on a dime.

Patriots completely had the Seahawks shutdown in the Super Bowl, then in a span of 12 seconds, the Seahawks would just drive the length of the field. Quite uncanny!

 

[laughing dog]

Seahawks are now ahead 10-9 with the ball and 2:13 remaining. The key play on their TD drive was a broken play - snap over Wilson's head and he turns it into a 36 yard pass play. Mn has no real offense going at all.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Missed field goal at the end. You couldn't script an ending like that!

Okay, maybe you could.

 

[bleubird]

lucky hawks.Seattle will show up against the cats,but will make too many mistakes.Penalties have been their biggest problem.
Be a good game.Panthers 27 Sea 14.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Looks like the Pats will play Kansas City...

...wait... looks like Cincinnati.

...wait... Kansas City.

Jebus! Oliver Stone direct that Pittsburgh v Cincinnati game? The Angle v McMahon street fight was less violent than that game.

Or maybe Coppola. I was waiting to hear "Antonio Brown sleeps with the fishes." A couple of the Bengals should have been led away in handcuffs, and Marvin Lewis should have been fired in the parking lot.

- - - Updated - - -

Missed field goal at the end. You couldn't script an ending like that!

Okay, maybe you could.

I'm glad I didn't see that. The flashbacks to 2011 would have crippled me.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Or maybe Coppola. I was waiting to hear "Antonio Brown sleeps with the fishes." A couple of the Bengals should have been led away in handcuffs, and Marvin Lewis should have been fired in the parking lot.

I was more thinking about Stone's crap depiction of the NFL (including an eyeball on the turf). The late hit at the end of the game was one of the worst / most frightening hits I've ever seen. Incredible it didn't include an ejection.

Missed field goal at the end. You couldn't script an ending like that!

Okay, maybe you could.

I'm glad I didn't see that. The flashbacks to 2011 would have crippled me.

The New England Patriots back in the day had a kicker Scott Scisson, who's nickname was Missin' Scisson. He missed maybe three or four game tying or winning field goals in the single season he played for the hapless Pats whose record was actually worse than the team really was. But in the playoffs, Patriots have had the best kickers of all-time since '01. So thanks to them and Vinateri's game winning kick back in Super Bowl whatever the fuck it was against the Rams, I will be able to survive such an incident if it occurs to the Patriots in the future.

 

[ronburgundy]

lucky hawks.Seattle will show up against the cats,but will make too many mistakes.Penalties have been their biggest problem.
Be a good game.Panthers 27 Sea 14.

Some great football the last 3 days. Bengals-Pitt was gloriously violent (though 20 years ago, it would have just seemed like another typical game).

At some point, I have to stop being surprised when grown men with so much at stake are unable to control their self-destructive emotions and lose the game for their whole team. OTOH, Burfict's same anger and intent to hurt others is what took out Roethlisberger, which allowed the Bengals back into the game in the first place.

I was rooting for the Vikings as underdogs, but Seattle vs. Panthers will probably be the best game next week.

I was rooting against Alabama last night, but Saban is a genius, great second half play-calling.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

lucky hawks.Seattle will show up against the cats,but will make too many mistakes.Penalties have been their biggest problem.
Be a good game.Panthers 27 Sea 14.

Some great football the last 3 days. Bengals-Pitt was gloriously violent (though 20 years ago, it would have just seemed like another typical game).

Umm... no. Some people seem to mistake the professional football from the 60s with the 90s.

At some point, I have to stop being surprised when grown men with so much at stake are unable to control their self-destructive emotions and lose the game for their whole team. OTOH, Burfict's same anger and intent to hurt others is what took out Roethlisberger, which allowed the Bengals back into the game in the first place.

He hit a player a few seconds after not catching the ball. Even if he didn't touch the guy's head, it was a 15-yd penalty... 20 years ago.

 

[repoman]

it wasn't just the contact. He could have loosened his frame up and made the contact softer. Instead he tensed up and timed the contact to be as powerful as possible.

 

[ronburgundy]

Some great football the last 3 days. Bengals-Pitt was gloriously violent (though 20 years ago, it would have just seemed like another typical game).

Umm... no. Some people seem to mistake the professional football from the 60s with the 90s.

At some point, I have to stop being surprised when grown men with so much at stake are unable to control their self-destructive emotions and lose the game for their whole team. OTOH, Burfict's same anger and intent to hurt others is what took out Roethlisberger, which allowed the Bengals back into the game in the first place.

He hit a player a few seconds after not catching the ball. Even if he didn't touch the guy's head, it was a 15-yd penalty... 20 years ago.

My comment about 20 years ago wasn't referring to that single hit on Brown. The whole game was notable be today's standards for its level of aggression, but that was more the norm prior to relatively recently.

Also, that hit was not close to "a few seconds after". It was less than a second and less than 2 steps. He would likely not have been penalized 20 years ago. He was penalized due to the 2010 rule change about hits to the head of "defenseless" receivers.

 

[ronburgundy]

it wasn't just the contact. He could have loosened his frame up and made the contact softer. Instead he tensed up and timed the contact to be as powerful as possible.

I agree. In fact, he shifts his shoulders to ensure head contact. He clearly hit wit intent to harm, and should have been flagged and ejected by today's rules and that's a good thing. I'm just saying players used to get away with that, and the NFL sold videos of clips of nothing but players doing that and not getting flagged for it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

it wasn't just the contact. He could have loosened his frame up and made the contact softer. Instead he tensed up and timed the contact to be as powerful as possible.

I agree. In fact, he shifts his shoulders to ensure head contact. He clearly hit wit intent to harm, and should have been flagged and ejected by today's rules and that's a good thing. I'm just saying players used to get away with that, and the NFL sold videos of clips of nothing but players doing that and not getting flagged for it.

Care to share some clips?

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

So, Chandler Jones shows up at the local police station half-dressed and disoriented, and is taken to the hospital. Dispatch radio transcripts make reference to finding some kind of narcotic at his home.

Foxborough police chief later denies his dept had any contact with Jones, and the dispatch transcripts are edited to remove reference to the narcotics.

The Long Arm of Belichick strikes again.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So, Chandler Jones shows up at the local police station half-dressed and disoriented, and is taken to the hospital. Dispatch radio transcripts make reference to finding some kind of narcotic at his home.

Foxborough police chief later denies his dept had any contact with Jones, and the dispatch transcripts are edited to remove reference to the narcotics.

The Long Arm of Belichick strikes again.

*sigh*

I remember when the Patriots weren't killers and drug addicts. Odd timing as Belichick has a black eye now.