The Official *NFL* thread

[SkinnyPupp]

I understand why NBA fans really hate it, but I'm not into basketball at all, and if NFL gives me the ability to watch more games, I am always going to watch them. They are only around for 18 weeks during the regular season; I am going to watch every single game I can. I may even get up for the Broncos/Bengals game and then see if the Rams eliminate the Seahawks vs the Cardinals. That's right up against an AEW PPV, and I NEVER miss those (so maybe not that second game lol). It will be a Game Time Decision.

I posted that quick tweet about the Steelers, but really this is the best the Chiefs have looked since the week 1 game against the Ravens. Mahomes noodle arm seems to have gained strength back for the first time, and he's hitting some deeper shots to open players instead of relying purely on perfectly timed YAC routes. To guys we never heard of either!

Speaking of which, Kelce can't really get YAC anymore, but he sure can get open and he can still catch anything thrown in his vicinity.

For the first time since week 1, the Chiefs do NOT look like sitting ducks to an upper level team like the Bills or Ravens. And now they get to rest for like a month if they want!

Bills can rest too. Chiefs locked up the #1 seed

After the Ravens game, you can just see all the pressure being lifted off Lamar's shoulders once the game was easily in hand. He was on his feet during the defense, which he rarely does, and just having fun. The whole team looks relieved to have gotten out of the 3 games in 11 days stand having achieved their goal of 3 wins. Chiefs did too, but there was less pressure on them since they had so many games in hand, and frankly they have been there before.

Poor CJ. When I was watching him vs the Chiefs, was marveling at how great he looked in the first half of the game. Perfect footwork, great pocket movement, good timing on throws, extending plays. He looked like the CJ of last year. And then since Tank went down, he hasn't been the same. He constantly buckles under pressure (which happens a lot with a weak O line), with now sloppy footwork (lots of tippy taps) leading to awful accuracy. That continued through to this game. I think the Tank injury is affecting him even more than we can read on his face.

Steelers were the same as always, except they're facing good teams that are executing at a high level instead of randomly fucking up. I still wouldn't want the Ravens to face them in the playoffs, but just about every other team should handle them pretty easily if they can score more than 17. Maybe not the Texans, which sucks if they let them by.

[68style]

Fuck I needed that totally out of character deep bomb by Nix after watching the Canucks punt themselves into oblivion.

[SkinnyPupp]

This is the funnest dumbest game all year

[68style]

Not having a good sports afternoon here!

[SkinnyPupp]

So dumb not going for the win after that miracle 1 minute drive.

Even if you win the coin toss, you have to hope to repeat that, after not really moving the ball much for most of the game

Even though the Bungles tried to bungle it several times, the Broncos just don't have the juice. Good rookie year, but not yet

They still have a chance to make it in if they beat the Chiefs, who may be resting starters for some or most of the game. This would eliminate the Bungles from the playoffs (something the Chiefs would want as much as anyone lol)

[whitev70r]

Just saw the extended highlights of Cincy and Denver, pretty good finish! Both teams moving the ball quite effectively with tight throws and catches. Burrows playing lights out, Bo Nix has a lot of poise and potential, looks like they made the right choice going with him. Both teams fighting for that last playoff spot, good game !!

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

Just saw the extended highlights of Cincy and Denver, pretty good finish! Both teams moving the ball quite effectively with tight throws and catches. Burrows playing lights out, Bo Nix has a lot of poise and potential, looks like they made the right choice going with him. Both teams fighting for that last playoff spot, good game !!

I'm guessing the highlights made both offenses seem better than they actually were lol

[whitev70r]

Burrows was 39 for 49 ... 412 yrds, 3 TD. If Lamar Jackson put up those numbers, someone would find a picture, post it up, and toot his horn ... even if it was against the lowly Giants. Broncos >>> Giants.

[SkinnyPupp]

It was a dumb fun game with two barely competently run teams throwing their shit all over each other's incompetent defenses, until one lost on the 3rd or 4th possession of fucking overtime

It was highly entertaining, but let's calm down with the accolades over stats for a game we didn't see maybe?..

If you only saw the highlights, then yes it probably looked like a back and forth battle and not the shit fest that it was. And that's fine, you can enjoy games through highlights.

Edit just to make it clear while I wait for a show to start.. The basic story for the Bengals was Joe would go off, mostly connecting with Tee Higgins and Mike Gesicki with short passes, picking on Bronco's weakened defense (aside from Surtain), especially Riley Moss. They'd march down the field, and then one of two things would happen: 1) They'd get within FG range and then go for it on 4th, turning it over on downs, or 2) Joe would get sacked, killing a drive (7 times total I believe). Joe had no picks with 49 attempts though, which also helped keep them in it.

On the other side, Broncos couldn't do much at all, but incompetent coaching kept them in it. At one point the Bungles had their RB take a knee at the 1 instead of scoring so they could kill the clock to win the game with a FG - injuring himself in the process - they then decided to score immediately anyway with a QB sneak on the next play. This gave the Broncos a chance at a miracle ~1 minute drive, which they delivered on.

It was a dumb fun game, like the first Ravens/Bengals game where it seemed like neither team wanted to win until it was nearly over. Both defenses were completely inept.

[SkinnyPupp]

He's no Cooper DeJean!

Twitter

[68style]

Yah Moss looked really bad

I can't stand the fact Burrow has frosted tips in 2024 AND that he beat my Broncos

I love that Nix wanted so bad to go for 2 to win the game outright... chickenshit coach was afraid to eat it from reporters after the game if it didn't work out

[SkinnyPupp]

Lots of lopsided victories today, all for the home team except for the Raiders

With the GAINTS winning their first home game while eliminating the Colts from the playoffs, the Patriots now hold the #1 draft pick due to having the weakest strength of schedule of the 3 win teams.

[pastarocket]

Congrats to the Commanders. OT win tonight means against the Falcons that they clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2020.

Daniels as rookie offensive player of the year?

He breaks RG 3’s league record for rushing yards for a rookie QB.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SkinnyPupp]

That was a fun as hell game! Two first round rookie QBs going at it, making it to overtime

I haven't seen enough of Penix Jr to know if he's "the guy" but he does have poise and a cannon of an arm. An issue is he lacks touch, and tends to launch it at guys, when more of a lob would be better. When he tries that, he loses accuracy.

Jayden probably secured the OROTY title with that win. Brock Bowers will get votes too

Sam Darnold continued his amazing year to bring the Vikings within grasp of the #1 seed in the NFC. They will play the Lions for that next week on SNF. The loser I believe will be the #5 seed and will have to go on the road to face the Bucs.

[SkinnyPupp]

I thought it was funny seeing Ravens Tight End speak up for his QB and got absolutely mobbed by idiot Bills fans. Why are people in such a big hurry to embarrass themselves when they see an opportunity to shit on 8

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[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Nice to see Darnold get a chance. He was no worse than Purdy when he stepped in for him, and I think if he'd been the starter instead, they would have gone just as far with him.

Vanity bump, as one of the early Sam Darnold believers! 49ers would have won the Super Bowl with him, and now the Vikings have a chance!

All in for the Purple Bowl!

[quasi]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Vanity bump, as one of the early Sam Darnold believers! 49ers would have won the Super Bowl with him, and now the Vikings have a chance!

All in for the Purple Bowl!

I'd take that, Darnold is doing everything he's asked to do and everyone on the Vikings are buying in. I don't know how it's going to end, huge game next week, a win is so important for both the Vikes and the Lions and honestly I think it's a coin flip.

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop like every year, maybe this is the year they don't fold in the playoffs, I really hope it is.

GreenBay IMO are not that great, they remind me of the Vikings team a few years ago that had a really good record but were really just outpunting their coverage and got bounced by the Giants in the first round. if they could play shit teams every game they'd be impressive just don't match them up with a good team because they'll get exposed. Their wide receivers are pretty garbage and Jordan Love ain't that guy, at least he isn't yet.

[SkinnyPupp]

I think the Vikes are going to roll over the Lions next week and have a great playoff run. Their offense is so well designed, with great blocking and a highly competent QB making full use of JJ's effect on the defense.. Scary team! KOC should be coach of the year

Purple Bowl is a possibility!

But with single elimination, it's just stupid to assume one way or another. Most of these teams have 3 to 5 losses on their records, and if that happens in the playoffs, which is easy to have happen now that all the teams are good, they are just out and that's it until next year.

That's what makes it so exciting, but it also fuels some of the fucking dumbest sports takes you'll ever see.

[whitev70r]

Tell us you're nervous as hell about your team going into the playoffs without telling us you're nervous as hell.

Sounds like someone is prepping a couple of weeks ahead and softening any letdown in case there is an early exit ... again.

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

Tell us you're nervous as hell about your team going into the playoffs without telling us you're nervous as hell.

Sounds like someone is prepping a couple of weeks ahead and softening any letdown in case there is an early exit ... again.

I say the same thing every year, and it applies to every team. I am a realist

And yes, it helps to be aware of reality so you don't get too emotionally distraught when things don't go your way. Not everyone knows what it's like to be a Patriots or a Chiefs fan where it's assumed you'll win, and you are probably right

Edit here's a post I made FIVE YEARS AGO that still applies, because it's the same thing every year. I wrote this right when we were all finding out how fun it was to watch Lamar play.. The questions were still there; this was right before the Patriots game, as people saw that as his first big test of that MVP season.

I'm not sure why we have to ignore every single accomplishment teams and players make, presumably until after the Super Bowl is over. It's so weird to try to dampen fans excitement that way. Seems kind of pointless and a bit dick-ish. I'm not planning a SB parade, I'm just saying Lamar is awesome and the team is really fun to watch (and I watch a lot of football lol)]

Even then I had no assumptions that the best or most exciting quarterback will win the Super Bowl every year. That is such a shitty narrative that the worst fans always try to use to win fallacious arguments. Joe Burrow may not even make it into the playoffs, in a year he has Chase and Higgins and is putting together an MVP tier season. Does that mean he sucks? So tired of it. It's retarded.

[68style]

I am going to enjoy that 38-0 beatdown.. regardless of who was or was not playing

[whitev70r]

Well, final week of NFL, week 18 ... 17 games played. What did we learn this week, not much really. Some teams resting their starters like KC (and getting shutout but no one cares), as a result Denver Broncos get a free pass into the last AFC playoff spot.

The rest of the games were a lot of meaningless games, other than the final game going on now, the seeding for Det and Minnie. I must say that I'm surprised that it is not closer but definitely a flex game between 2 14-2 teams vying for #1 and the other in the wildcard spot.

In the NFC, all the wildcard spots have a better record than 2 div leading teams who are seeded higher and have home field advantage. I propose that you keep the winner of each div as a ticket into playoffs but that just gets you in. Then seed the teams by their win-lose record and give the team with the higher number of wins home field. Tampa and Los Angeles at 10-7 doesn't deserve home field when you have Minnie at 14-3 & Washington at 12-5

Sat game results, as expected.

So let's finally get the playoffs started.

[quasi]

That game really sucked last night, was expecting so much more.

Sam Darnold shrunk under the pressure, he was out there over throwing his guys most the first the half and missed out on two TD's at least. I love KOC as a head coach but last night he did not do Sam any favours, he wasn't ready for the amount of blitzing the Lions did and he didn't have the adjustments to give Sam quick routes to throw the ball. The defense kept them in that game the first half, played really well but eventually they tired out.

The Lions outplayed the Vikings by a large margin all over the place, I think depending on what happens next week in LA will determine if the Vikings move forward with Darnold or go just decide to move forward with the cheaper option of McCarthy with Jones as back-up.

[SkinnyPupp]

Aaron Glenn called a master class defensive game last night, and KOC was in a rare spot where he was out coached by the opponent. I think they should have used max protect just to buy him another half second, because if Jefferson is one on one, he IS going to win.

I blame coaching more than Sam, because you know what you got with Darnold. He's in the same category as Goff, Geno, and Purdy, where if they are protected, they can deliver an accurate ball on time, but if you can get pressure on them, their quality drops dramatically. They are not play extenders, they are not play creators (though Geno and Purdy are a bit better than the first two at this). They're in the tier below Burrow/Mahomes/Allen/And some other QB I can't mention without getting attacked by weird fans.

[whitev70r]

No, you can include LJ in that tier ... but I must say I'm surprised you included Burrow in that grouping, didn't think you thought highly of him .

Truly,
weird fan