NFL 2018 Week #8

[gjbassist]

The Chiefs/Broncos game was a little closer than I would have liked, but still a win! I will take it. Broncos always seem to give the Chiefs a tough fight but we pretty much own them with seven straight wins!
Oh and this happened too!
Mahomes ties Brady, Manning as only QBs with 25 TD passes through 8 games

 

[MJ5150]

Le'Veon Bell screwed himself.
Steelers are in first place, and the stats from Conner are better than Bell's through the same amount of games last year

-Mike

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Rams didn't look so great in the first half, but once they got going I can can see why they can be so dangerous. Pack also looked better than I thought they would be, especially on defense. Bonehead move by Montgomery, but poopie sometimes happens when you are trying to make something happen.

Brees, even on a quiet night, is just ridiculously accurate. The Saints' D - like the Pack D - is also better than I remembered even though they gave up a lot of yards to "kissing Cousins". Enjoying the ride this year so far!

Those Raiders, tho...WTH? When you let the Colts rush for over 200 yards, that's like anti defense. Esnefed? Wow.

 

[dwm74]

Gotta give the Cards their due props. Even though it took until the fourth quarter before they realized the game had started, they mounted a comeback that while not historic, it was against a hated division rival. (Down 15-3 with 13:33 in the fourth, coming back and winning 18-15.)

Having put up a whole three points through the first three quarters, I was wishing for the halcyon days of recently-fired OC Mike McCoy. But as I said, they woke up and did what they had to do to eke out their second win of the season, both against the Niners. Too bad they can't play them a couple more times this season.

 

[Funky Ghost]

I want what Adrian Peterson is having.

It's one thing to be an aging QB and still making noise late in their career but an RB who has had devastating knee issues and has as many carries as he has had?

C'mon man!

Get some Adrian!

 

[MJ5150]

Get ready for a Super Bowl in London, once there is an NFL team there.
Goodell said it, not me.

-Mike

 

[Funky Ghost]

Get ready for a Super Bowl in London, once there is an NFL team there.
Goodell said it, not me.

-Mike

Jags to London, Chargers to Mexico City.


Book it.

 

[MJ5150]

Hue Jackson has been let go in Cleveland, along with Haley if you believe what the internet says.

-Mike

 

[Gaolee]

Hue Jackson has been let go in Cleveland, along with Haley if you believe what the internet says.

-Mike

Panic button officially pushed in Cleveland. I'm interested to see what happens now. No head coach and no offensive coordinator for a day or so. Who do they play next? It's going to be ugly.

 

[MJ5150]

Panic button officially pushed in Cleveland. I'm interested to see what happens now. No head coach and no offensive coordinator for a day or so. Who do they play next? It's going to be ugly.

Yep, this one is a headscratcher that smacks to me of incompetence from the front office, specifically ownership.
Where are you going to find a HC and an OC in the middle of the season that can come together and get this team to win games?
I'm sure the guy who owns the Browns is a smart person in some other aspects of life, but he has no business owning an NFL team.
Actually, if I am honest with myself, I don't think the guy who owns the Browns is smart at all. He's also had the federal government investigating him.

-Mike

 

[Gaolee]

Yep, this one is a headscratcher that smacks to me of incompetence from the front office, specifically ownership.
Where are you going to find a HC and an OC in the middle of the season that can come together and get this team to win games?
I'm sure the guy who owns the Browns is a smart person in some other aspects of life, but he has no business owning an NFL team.
Actually, if I am honest with myself, I don't think the guy who owns the Browns is smart at all. He's also had the federal government investigating him.

-Mike

Having lots of money isn't an indicator of having lots of brains. Sometimes really dumb people make a pile of money by being at the right place at the right time or who picked the right parents. I can think of a few of those. The Browns' owners must be in that category.

 

[beaglesandbass]

Le'Veon Bell screwed himself.
Steelers are in first place, and the stats from Conner are better than Bell's through the same amount of games last year

-Mike

Which now begs the question, is Bell that great, or is Tomlin's offense one where a RB can thrive?

 

[MJ5150]

Which now begs the question, is Bell that great, or is Tomlin's offense one where a RB can thrive?

Bell isn't great. He is running behind one of the best offensive lines in football, and is a good RB.
He's good at racking up stats, which makes him a great fantasy football player. Check out these stats for proof:
A year ago, fully healthy and unsuspended, he skipped all of training camp, showed up just before the season began and then produced 236 combined yards from scrimmage in the first three weeks. He finished with a per-carry average of 4.0, which ranked 24th in the league, and a per-catch average of 7.7 yards. His basic fantasy football stats were good — 1,291 rushing yards, nine touchdowns.
Bell produced only three runs of 20 yards or longer and five catches of 20 yards or more last season. Although his ability as a receiver is not overstated, his production was unimpressive. Bell led NFL running backs with 85 receptions, more evidence of his ability to stay on the field through every down. But he averaged only 7.7 yards per catch, largely because an enormous chunk of his receptions did little to advance the Steelers toward the goal line. He had 22 catches that covered 3 or fewer yards, including eight for negative yardage.
He averaged 4.0 yards per carry in 2017, tied for 10th among the league’s top 15 rushers. He carried 321 times, and fully 15 percent of those attempts went for no gain or negative yardage. Add in those that produced fewer than 3 yards — and subtract his three 1-yard touchdowns and six converted first downs — and the share of failed runs rises to 39 percent.
Sources:
Steelers will soon learn Le'Veon Bell's greatest quality is overrated
To return to Super Bowl, Steelers should run from Le'Veon Bell

The most damning stat of them all, how many Super Bowls have the Steelers won or played in with Bell on the roster? How many times have the Steelers beat New England in the playoffs with Bell on the roster?
He is overrated in every sense of the word, unless you want a guy who will stuff the stat sheet.

-Mike

 

[MJ5150]

The Browns owner says they aren't giving up, just rebooting.
Yep, makes complete sense to do that in the middle of the season.
Then you have the GM talking some gibberish about how the focus this week needs to be on winning the next game.
Then the owner sells himself out by admitting they may sidestep the Rooney Rule and hire Williams directly if he wants the job.
Then they come along and announce they are handing over HC duties to Gregg Williams, the same scumbag who ran the bounty programs where he coached defense. Just the kind of guy you want Baker Mayfield learning how to play NFL football from.

Cleveland....why? Why are you doing this to your city and football history?

-Mike

 

[Gaolee]

I hope Williams learned from that episode and cleaned up his act. My take is that Mayfield will do things right, no matter what. He's not Johnny Football, trying to take a shortcut. The main thing is that Cleveland gets him out of this season without permanent injury. The team that seems to have rebooted is the Seahawks, not the Browns. We're going to find out this weekend against the Chargers. I was hopeful for the Browns before last Sunday. Now it's the same old brown stuff.

 

[Pilgrim]

Yup, I'd like to see the Browns go somewhere. It has been too long for them.

 

[Gard]

Then they come along and announce they are handing over HC duties to Gregg Williams, the same scumbag who ran the bounty programs where he coached defense. Just the kind of guy you want Baker Mayfield learning how to play NFL football from.

-Mike

Mike, you KNOW better - there was never a single shred of evidence of a bounty program in NOLA. A lot of noise from the NFL front office, some smoke and mirror crap involving the language used (and YES, Williams is a jackass, the language and imagery he chose to "inspire" his team was garbage - but it was the same garbage almost every other coach was using until that time, and I can prove it), but never a single bit of actual evidence against the Saints players, coaching staff, or front office.

It was a complete hatchet job started by the biggest crybaby in football history (Brad Childress); egged on by a disgruntled ex-Saint employee that was fired for being a lazy derelict (Greg Cerullo - now employed by....get this...the NFL home office); and the NFL itself because it looked good to get "tough on player safety" while being sued for NOT caring a single bit about player safety by ex-players with brain damage.

When the players got hit with suspensions, they were able to push back because they were unionized and COULD. Once the entire thing was sent to arbitration, by ex-commissioner Tagliabue no less, ALL player suspensions were vacated due to lack of evidence (in other words, there was no evidence because the whole thing was a fabrication). Now, why would Tags undo the player suspensions if they were guilty of what they were accused of? He was one of the biggest supporters of the NFL, and he hand-picked Goodell for his gig when he left.

The coaches and front office staff that got suspended had no recourse, they are all "at-will" employees by the rules of the league. In other words, if they bucked Goodell, they could be indefinitely (read: permabanned) suspended. They all took one look at their legal position, and after being assured by the Saints owner, Tom Benson, that they all had jobs when they returned (well, except Williams, who was nuclear waste), decided that taking a chance at losing their jobs permanently was a bad move on multiple levels. How bad was Payton? Well, Benson gave him an 8 million dollar a year contract when he got off suspension, making him at the time the highest paid coach in NFL history. Now, would the owner of the team do that if Payton were crooked? Does anyone think the rest of the ownership would allow that to happen? (and yes, they CAN affect the way coaches are paid)

I'm still sick to death of the stupidity surrounding the whole event. Want to know who DID have a bounty program? The GREEN BAY PACKERS back in the 1990's. Even "squeaky clean" Reggie White participated. But, hey, it was OK then, wasn't it? (can you see the sarcasm dripping off the letters?)

I'm not saying the 90's era Packers were "dirty", just that it actually happened then - and probably did in every NFL locker room at that time. The entire episode was nothing but PR spin by the NFL front office. They took advantage of a bunch of whiny BS from a nebbish that shouldn't have ever been near a football field, a pack of lies from a fired-with-cause-ex-Saints-employee that was lashing out at being fired, and a bit of edited audio that was never heard in context by the general public (the Pamphlion tape).

Toss Williams under the bus for being a dirtbag, but you know Sean personally, and you know that isn't what and who he is.

 

[MJ5150]

@Gard buddy, you'll notice I didn't say anything about the Saints. My comments are about Gregg Williams. Not Sean Payton, the Saints coaching staff or front office, or any Saints players.
Williams has coached other teams as well where this has reportedly happened.
Williams did admit to participating in these bounty programs, and was punished accordingly.

-Mike

 

[Gard]

@Gard buddy, you'll notice I didn't say anything about the Saints. My comments are about Gregg Williams. Not Sean Payton, the Saints coaching staff or front office, or any Saints players.
Williams has coached other teams as well where this has reportedly happened.
Williams did admit to participating in these bounty programs, and was punished accordingly.

-Mike

Apologies, it was the overreaction of a Who Dat in Pamper-land. I am constantly bombarded with the false narrative that my team was "dirty" because it is so facile for these....sigh....narrow minded "fans" of the local team (and rival of my team) are happy to find a reason to think they're "better".

You're right, Williams got what he had coming to him. The rest of it however, was an outrageous overreach.

 

[Gard]

So, as I ended things on the Week 7 thread: "Worst week yet, 6-9, speaking of pathetic! 33-27 for the year...I'm struggling to stay above .500!"

The only reason it didn't truly suck is that Justin Tucker did something he'd never done before:

View attachment 3190783

...player of the week for the New Orleans Saints: Justin Tucker, ladies & gentlemen (hey...there is no such thing as an ugly win... ). I actually feel just a little bad for Justi....wait...no, it passed.

So, on to week 8:

TNF:

Dolphins @ Texans - This one might actually be a prime time game worthy of watching. Maybe. My thinking is that the Texans D is going to be more than the Dolphin offensive line can handle, and it seems that the Texans have figured out how to play a bit of offense now...and it's in Houston, the Phins haven't traveled well this season. Dolphins 20 Texans 31

Yup. W

Sunday RIDICULOUSLY EARLY, and STUPIDLY IN LONDON game:

Eagles @ Jaguars (really, can either team be the "home" team? ) - Two significantly underachieving teams here, but I think that the Bortles issue will be the determining factor. Man, the Jags blew that choice, didn't they? Eagles 27 Duval County Bortles 13

Yup, take 2. W

Sunday Early Games:

Broncos @ Chiefs - Yeah...not gonna be pretty, even though the Broncos defense has looked adequate. Broncos 13 Chiefs 31

Yup, take 3. W

Browns @ Steelers - Not in Cleveland? Not gonna be a tie (not because the Steelers are all that good, just because....). Browns 17 Steelers 24

I'm feeling pretty good so far this week, even getting close on scores so far! W

Redskins @ Giants - Down to one Eli, still won't help them. Redskins 30 Giants 10

Well...not so good on the score, but nailed the outcome just fine. W

Seahawks @ Lions - Good matchup of two meh teams. Homefield 3. Seahawks 17 Lions 20

...and...can't win 'em all, right? Looks like the Seahawks are waking up just a little bit... L

Buccaneers @ Bengals - Bengals bounce back bigtime because Bucs blow. These are words with a "B" this time (those that get the reference, bonus points! ). Bucs 23 Bengals 34

Got one score right but for the wrong team...I'm off the Bengals wagon completely, but the Bucs are indeed who I think they are in the end. W

Jets @ Bears - Off the Jets wagon; Bears will be on fire at home after losing a game that they had a shot at against the Pats last week. Not even close...Jets 13 Bears 31

And, yet again. W

Ravens @ Panthers - Panthers have been getting gifts from sub-par teams (last second win against Giants; 4th quarter comeback against the slumping Eagles). This team is not sub-par, and will rub Cam's nose in his own poop all day with the joke of an offensive line Carolina fields (think 5 sacks/TFL). The Panthers defense is aging out, slowing down, and will get beat up because the Ravens will be able to play ball control football against them (thanks to the lack of a competent offense on the Panthers side of the equation). Reality drops on Panthers fans: your team will be a wildcard at best, and may not make the post season this year - because they aren't good, just slightly above mediocre. Ravens 27 Panthers 18

Really. The Ravens laid an egg here, didn't they? Panthers will show their true colors sooner or later. L

Colts @ Raiders - Who will the Raiders trade away this week? Colts will do just fine on the road here, against the toothless wonder that Chucky has created out in Oakland this season. Colts 34 Raiders 23

Chucky's Comedy Tour continues. W

49ers @ Cardinals - Meh. Why bother? Well, because I need to make a pick, otherwise...meh. Home field 3. 49ers 17 Cardinals 20

Home field 3 indeed, and nice comeback by the Cards. Not that it matters in the big picture. W

Packers @ Rams - A-Rod and the better-than-you-realize Packers defense will make a game of this. And it may be more of a game than the Rams are ready for. Close one, no matter which team ends up on top, but I'm gonna take this one for my upset special. Packers 27 Rams 24 (or flip it )

So close!!!! S'ok, I'd rather the Rams show up in NOLA undefeated and leave with an L next week...heh... L

SNF:

Saints @ Vikings - Yeah, yeah, yeah....Minnesota Miracle, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not this time, I don't see this Saints team spotting a not as-good-as-you-think Vikes team a half of football this time, they're going to actually play all 4 quarters (reference: see first drive against Ravens, this is an ANGRY Saints team).

The Vikes offense can't run the ball, Theilen is good but can be contained, Diggs is fast but can also be contained - especially if the Saints front 7 get after a shaky under pressure Cousins, who is sitting behind a suspect offensive line. The Saints D doesn't need to STOP the Vikes, just slow them down a bit...because...

On the other side, the Saints offense will shred a not so impressive this year Vikings defense (and they weren't so impressive in the 2nd half of the game in January either), it will be a full-frontal assault between Boom & Zoom on the ground and the air attack that may not have big names, but still puts up big yards and points. Too much for the Vikings, they will lose at home, again, and convincingly at that. Saints 42 Vikings 24

So, the Saints didn't drop a 40-burger, but they made the point: if they play 4 full quarters, they're the better of the two teams in this pairing. It wasn't even as close as the 30-20 score would indicate, this was a pretty convincing win for the Saints. W

MNF: Patriots @ Bills - This crap is why I don't really respect the Pats, they start every season with 6 wins. I mean, really, can't anyone in the AFC East put an actual NFL team on the field? This will be a "why bother?" prime time game. Pats 48 Bills 13

It took the Pats half a game to wake up and realize they were actually playing football, but once they did.... W

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By the way, do not get the NFL app on your phone if you're on Verizon. I just got a nasty surprise: it is designed to default to using your data even if you're on wi-fi. They do not make that clear in any way, until you get your first notification that you're running out of data. Very uncool of both Verizon and the NFL.

11-3 this week. Not too shabby. Makes my record 44-30, or 70%, which is not amazing, but at least legitimately "good". And the NFL phone app still sucks.