***Official 2011 NFL Thread***

[WildBobAA]

detroit lions preseason before their 0-16 season: 4-0

draw appropriate conclusions

There's one key difference.

[bikes]

just watched highlights of detriot new england

LOL SUH!

way to punch mankins in the face. you sir are making sure you get everything remotely questionable blown against you and we're not even out of pre season yet

[Roid_Rage]

Defending his teammate, iirc.

[WildBobAA]

Mankins was in the process of dragging Jackson to the ground by his facemask after the play was over when Suh's "punch" landed (not sure you can call it a punch when the person getting hit by it barely seems to feel it)

[ensign_lee]

I agree with Bob (wtf?!??! Did I just say that?!)

I like Suh's play there, and if I were Lions management, would not punish that at all. Suh is a WONDERFUL football player, wow. I'd be proud to be his teammate.

[ensign_lee]

Did we ever make that survivor pool? I'm in for a $20 buying (or higher or lower, whatever). It's usually fun with you guys.

[lolzzz_321]

lukie, how do u like madden?

[Lukie]

it's really good this year.

'11 was the first madden i didn't get in many years, and i hardly played '10 at all and very little of '09.

but, i sense some epic destruction of whoever gets in the way of lukieholla

by the way, not sure wtf i was thinking when i made that name

[Lukie]

we really should make a madden thread because this has very little correlation with actual football, but until then, i'll say that carolina's offensive playbook is pretty slick.. lots of good run sets (strong close, strong normal, weak twins, several i forms, lots of good gun sets and a lot of good sb compression sets that i always want to learn to use but inevitably resort to the 2 back and gun sets blahblahblah)

[Roid_Rage]

Shotgun offense.

Nuff said.

[bikes]

A Football Life Bill Belichick - YouTube

who else is excited to see it? should be pretty cool regardless if you enjoy the pats or not.

[Roid_Rage]

I'm actually looking forward to it.

[Lukie]

A Football Life Bill Belichick - YouTube

who else is excited to see it? should be pretty cool regardless if you enjoy the pats or not.

definitely looking forward to it. my first impression was that i was very surprised that belichick would agree to it, but after further pondering, it kind of confirms my belief that he isn't really anti-media per se, just how the current structure is set up with the media mostly caring about story line type drama stuff and i think he would rather talk about football fundamentals and history and that sort of stuff.

[kingnat]

Oh... hello football.

[WildBobAA]

Peyton Manning out 2-3months and probably for the season.

With the other teams starting Kerry Collins, Luke McCown and Matt Hasselbeck, the Texans have to be like 80% to ship the division.

[bikes]

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOOOTBAAAALLLLLL?!?!?!?

Yes. Yes I am.

[ensign_lee]

WOOOHOOOOOOO FOOTBALLLLL.

Also, TEXAAAAANSSSSSS!

[Lukie]

here's to hoping the browns look respectable through week 12. they close the final 5 weeks with 4 games vs the ravens and steelers. what a retarded schedule.

CHAMPIONSHIP PREDICTIONS

AFC:
#2 New England @ #1 Pittsburgh

Patriots 21-17



NFC:
#3 Dallas @ #1 Green Bay

Packers 28-10



SUPER BOWL XLVI

New England over Green Bay 30-23

[bikes]

fkn pittsburgh and their absurdly soft schedule practically guaranteeing them the #1 seed

[a500lbgorilla]

fkn pittsburgh and their absurdly soft schedule practically guaranteeing them the #1 seed

Yeah... I'm obv happy with the Steelers' position this year and they historically do well with softer schedules but Baltimore plays football too.

[bigred]

omgawdz we're so close to kickoff!!

[a500lbgorilla]

Why is the game on syfy, usa, vs, and the nfl network? This shit is confusing.

[baudib]

predictions:

NFC
Eagles, Packers, Saints, Rams
Wildcards: Lions, Falcons

AFC
Jets
Ravens
Texans
Chargers

Wildcards: Pats, Steelers

[bigred]

Jets winning AFC East?

notsureifserious.gif

[bikes]

no team with dirty sanchez is winning the division

[baudib]

It's more about the Pats declining than the Jets being better, figure they'll go 11-5ish again.

[bigred]

It's more about the Pats declining than the Jets being better, figure they'll go 11-5ish again.

Def trolling

[bikes]

i feel i need to re-emphasis my point

THERE IS NO WAY THE REX RYAN FOOTSISSYS ARE GOING TO WIN THE AFC EAST

[baudib]

sidebet, surely you'll give odds then?

2010 Pats were one of the worst 14-2 teams in history and lost to the Jets twice. More likely to go 9-7 than 13-3.

[bigred]

dirty eagles fans are dirty

[baudib]

don't forget smelly

[bigred]

don't forget



let's see you cheese steak yourself outta this one

[baudib]

I was there. Just be thankful I didn't stab Brady in the eye when I was 2 feet from him.

0 Super Bowl wins since Spygate.

[bigred]

0 super bowls wins since

[baudib]

wait till this year!

[bikes]

cool brees doesnt know how to quit

[baudib]

that thing on his face is getting smaller too

[Lukie]

sidebet, surely you'll give odds then?

2010 Pats were one of the worst 14-2 teams in history and lost to the Jets twice. More likely to go 9-7 than 13-3.

saying 'one of the worst 14-2 teams in history' is pretty funny.. not that i necessarily disagree with you, but going 14-2 in the modern NFL is extremely impressive and you're pulling from such a small sample of very elite teams.

i'll add that last year i really feel the browns of all teams were the only team that truly and soundly outplayed the pats. watching mack consistently dominate wilfork 1 on 1 was very impressive.

with that being said, it's a new year, and i have a sort of vested interest in rooting for the eagles because of the obvious browns, eagles connections. that offensive line is in shambles though.

[baudib]

re: the Pats, they're simply due to decline in a lot of areas.

Start with Brady -- he has two seasons in his career in which he led the league in passing TDs and had less than 10 INTs. Those seasons are probably among the 5 greatest seasons any quarterback has had. The rest of his career is more like 24-28 TDs, 12-14 INTs, i.e. your average Pro Bowl-caliber QB's season, which is obviously great just not greatest-of-all-time great. At age 34 it's more likely he'll play closer to his career norms.

Similarly, the Pats' turnover differential was otherworldly in 2010. Everyone knows there's a huge correlation between turnovers and winning. It is also true that there is a correlation between talent and turnovers. However, being almost two turnovers per game than your opposition is simply nothing at all like a sustainable, repeatable occurrence. Last year the Pats were +28 in turnover differential; in 2009 they were +6. In their Super Bowl seasons, they were never better than +17 (which is fantastic). A gentle regression to the mean is going to cost the Pats at least two wins.

(You would win money pretty much every year if you look at the previous season's turnover differential list and bet on the teams at the top to decline and the teams at the bottom to improve.)
The Pats were also about two wins over their Pythagorean W-L last year and they luckboxed into a couple of backup quarterbacks (most notably Green Bay).

[Roid_Rage]

Packers gonna repeat.

[bikes]

i wanted to see this again

Dan Connolly 300 Pound Patriots Lineman Springs A 71 Yard Kick Off Return 4.6 40 yard dash - YouTube

[Illfavor]

So, can Peyton Manning win the MVP without playing?...maybe the NFL can retroactively give him the MVP for every season this decade.

[ensign_lee]

Wooohooo TEXAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Just got back from the game. Minus the money I lost, was a barrel of fun!

[a500lbgorilla]

Steelers got lolbliterated

[baudib]

Sloppy effort by the Eagles, but overall a decent win on the road. You'd expect the young makeshift offensive line to have problems in a dome, and there were a lot of miscommunications. The defense got gashed on some simple counters by Jackson and Cadillac.

The good news is they got better as the game went on.

Next week will be the Michael Vick clusterfuck party in Atlanta.

[WildBobAA]

lions though

[bigred]

LOL TRIPTANES

[bikes]

fucking footsissys

[Roid_Rage]

Not going to go on a FUCK YEA rampage here, but was a solid win for the Lions at Tampa. Was a really good game, the heat started to really affect the Lions D (and Stafford) towards the end.

Stafford starting slow was *sigh* but he turned it uuuuupp in the 2nd/3rd quarter and the defense didn't let shit happen until they started dropping back to protect against the big play.

FUCK YEA LIONS.

[baudib]

Detroit's a legit 10-win team.

Most surprising game was Chicago IMO. I never thought they were any good last year and the Falcons are tough.

Falcons SHOULD beat the Eagles next week -- they'll be angry, a bit desperate after getting smoked and match up well in some respects.

[Jack Sawyer]

OMGBRIANURLACHER

[bikes]

detriot is not a 10 win team based on what i saw this week. tampa played like shit throughout. give it another 2-3 games and then i'll redecide.


HOLY FUCK TONY ROMO YOU ARE THE NUT WORST

[Roid_Rage]

I don't think 10 wins is a huge stretch of the imagination, but I'm not totally drunk off da Lions Kool-Aid yet.

9 wins is probably a more legit number. More than pleased with 8-8 season, especially if they sweep Minny and split da Bears and Pack.

[baudib]

lol romoments

[bigred]

Oh wtf jets start the season with another "lucky escape" win

[lolzzz_321]

holy shit chiefs look awful + berry is out for year. Texans and Lions in superbowl this year!!!!!!1!!

[bigred]

HE GETS BETTER LOOKING EVERY GAME

[bigred]

Two pretty ldo pass interference calls against the dolphins the refs decided to ignore this first half, CMON MAN

[Lukie]

thoughts on the field goal there? (and 2nd and 3rd down passes)

lukie's plan when down 7 late in the 3rd quarter, given a 1st and goal at the 1:

run
run
run
run

touchdown 85% of the time
opponent gets a turnover on downs and starts at the 1 yard line 15% of the time


ok that might be a little oversimplistic, but i swear the only time some nfl coaches get creative is when they shouldn't

[bigred]

I'm cool with it!

[Lukie]

lol

pats offense looks unstoppable

[Lukie]

gronkowski, hernandez, welker, branch, woodhead, and the back with the weird name that never fumbles, pretty useful actually

[bigred]

We needed to do more than a 3 and out there...

[bigred]

WES WELKER

[Lukie]

i can't believe i'm about to do this

[Lukie]

TOM BRADY

[Shotglass]

Texans and Lions in superbowl this year!!!!!!1!!

anyone taking action on this?

[bikes]

TOM BRADY!

[kmind]

I lost by 0.42 points. I got -2 for a hook and lateral on the last play last night in the Cowboys game.

Cam looked good thankfully but a loss is a loss.

[Lukie]

On a more serious note, I was very impressed with the Patriots young talent. The '10 draft speaks for itself.. McCourty, Gronkowski, Hernandez, even Mesko

From the '11 draft, Solder and Dowling look like the real deal.

[baudib]

I agree re: the Pats' '10 draft. If the Eagles had done as well in that draft, they'd be Super Bowl favorites:

1. If Graham were giving the team what you expect from a guy who trade up to get in a draft deep in pass rushers, they wouldn't have needed Jason Babin.
Or, if they had just done what everyone thought they should do, and take Earl Thomas, they wouldn't have taken
2. Nate Allen. Who has been hurt and never any better than the guy they took in the 7th round last year.

Add on the total reach/disaster that was Teo'Nesheim and Danny Watkins not even good enough to start right away (why else take a 26-year-old in the first round?), there's a lot of inefficiency here.

Money that went to Babin could have been spent on a good O-linemen or a linebacker.

[Roid_Rage]

*Patiently waits for haters to chime in.*

[bikes]

you won 2 games.

[bikes]

i love the pats TEs so much

[Roid_Rage]

God I wish we played the Pats this year.

Ohwait.