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2019-2020 NFL Season (1 Viewer)

What team will be a surprise success this season?

  • Cleveland Browns

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Indianapolis Colts

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Baltimore Ravens

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Oakland Raiders

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .

Jeffrey D

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The Browns are on a 15 game winless streak in season openers (they tied the Steelers in last year’s opener).

The Patriots won’t lose in Miami next week- strange how the Brady Bunch play horribly there.
The Dolphins will be playing to a half-full stadium for the foreseeable future- they don’t draw well unless they win.
 

Scott Merryfield

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That was a massive disappointment. I think they’ve now lost 12 straight season openers, but this one really hurts. The lineman who got ejected for kicking a player- the coach had better eliminate that garbage immediately
(I have my doubts if Kitchens can).
Cleveland's offensive line was awful. Mayfield was getting pummeled out there. If that doesn't improve, it will be another long season for the Brownies.

The Steelers played like crap last night. I went to bed at halftime. They always seem to struggle against the Pats.
 

Scott Merryfield

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They had a 24-6 lead in the 4th quarter, then got lucky to leave with a tie (a Cardinals DB flat out dropped an INT at the end of overtime). I said it from day one- the Patricia hire was a lousy decision.
The Lions have been making bad hiring decisions for the past 60+ years, so why should this one have been any different?
 

Winston T. Boogie

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Some general thoughts on Week 1...

First, let's start with the teams that looked excellent and had a great first week of football.

1. Patriots - So, this really was the most impressive performance because it came against what should have been a good opponent and it was technically a preseason game for New England as their starters basically took the entire preseason off. The Patriots destroyed the Steelers in what was the "Antonio Brown Bowl" as never has a player's shadow hung so heavy over a game. The Steelers were playing their first game in the "post Antonio Brown era" and the Patriots were playing their last game before their Antonio Brown era begins. Two things happened, first the Steelers look like their offense is not at all the same without Brown on the field and the Patriots demonstrated with an exclamation mark that they don't really need Antonio Brown. This makes what is about to go on with Brown even more intriguing. The Steelers need to solve the riddle of who is their number 2 WR as Donte Moncrief failed miserably in that role last night. When they had Antonio and Juju this worked wonderfully now Juju is the 1 and there is basically no 2 so, when the Pats took away Juju...well...all Ben had to look at was a mess. The Patriots welcome Brown into their midst with him being just one more option in their Swiss Army Knife attack...and one that has to learn the offense and find his way into the "Brady circle of trust" which is not easy for any player even one as talented as Mr. Big Chest is. So, Brown will walk in at 4th on the WR depth chart and will need to "earn" his way in...not at all something this guy is used to. I'm sure they will attempt to work him in with some plays as quickly as possible and against Miami should be a perfect place to start as that will be about as easy a match-up as Brown and the Patriots are going to get this season. Interesting note, when the Patriots called the Steelers to try to trade for Mr. Big Chest, the offer included a first round draft choice...obviously a lower one as that's where the Pats draft...and the Steelers still said no. This should tell you how much the Steelers did not want Brown on the Patriots as they traded him to the Raiders for a 3rd and 5th round choice...and the Patriots still ended up with him giving up nothing. So, not only did the Patriots spank the Steelers on the field but they gave them a big old spanking off it as well. Last night probably was the most humiliating defeat of the Tomlin era for the team and the front office.

2. Cowboys - Yes, this comes with a bit of an asterisk as the win came against a bad Giants team but now I know why some experts are picking the Cowboys to go to the Super Bowl this year...they appear to be fielding their best team in years and they have great continuity. This is a really well built team now and these players are all playing together well right from the start of the season. I would love to see the Eagles give them a challenge for the division, and they may, but I really do think the Cowboys own the NFC East this season. The pieces are in place in Dallas and you have to take them very serious this year as a Super Bowl contender. They can play on both sides of the ball and should get better as the season goes. The team is a traditionally built "playoff contender" that is a bit old school in their balanced offensive attack and stout defense but this should allow them to control games and keep them close. The drama seems tamped down and if this team stays focused on football they will be a challenge for every team they face. How 'bout them Cowboys, indeed.

3. Vikings - The Vikings quietly and very efficiently stomped a talented Atlanta team, particularly on offense, and like the Cowboys seem to be sporting an old school attack with a strong running game working to create a balanced and controlling offense, coupled with a solid defense. They look to be a complete team that should be able to dictate how games go so that, I believe, makes them a good bet to win their division. The Bears and Packers seem to have a lot of things they need to work out and solve...the Vikings don't. Not to say they will run away with the NFC North, the Bears can take over a game with their defense and when Rodgers gets hot he can bring you back against just about anybody. So, tough division but the Vikings are built to play in it.

4. Ravens - Well, the two big challengers to the Ravens, who keep in mind won their division last year, totally tanked. Yes, this is a huge asterisk game because the Ravens played the Dolphins, who clearly may have performed the most epic tear down of an NFL franchise in the history of the league. Wow, the Dolphins have NOTHING. I know the goal was to start from scratch but they need help everywhere and I think trading away a great young offensive lineman that would have been a building block for the team was a mistake. Everything else they have done was fine but good god do they have a long road to get back to being even a .500 team now. The best line of the day was probably from Phil Simms who compared the Dolphins to playing against air...that may have been right on the money. Still, when you play a game and your young QB throws 5 TD passes and gets pulled in the 3rd quarter because the game is over already...well...you have to give the Ravens at least some credit. Jackson did look like a totally different player and he was a passer not a runner in the game. He displayed excellent arm strength and accuracy...which counts even against air, as Phil said. The Ravens do have the best coach in their division and that counts for something too. Temper expectations here and we'll need to wait until week 3, a huge weekend for the AFC North, before we see these Ravens get a challenge (they visit the Chiefs) because they play another tomato can in week 2 in the Cardinals but right now...the Ravens look to be the class of their division while the Steelers and Browns have a whole lot of stuff to figure out.

5. Dolphins - Well, their goal according to their off-season moves was to stink and collect high draft choices. They executed perfectly in week one. So far, mission accomplished.

Bonus team...

6. Titans - Now, who knows how to take this game but the Titans didn't just beat the hype machine Browns, they shoved them all over the field and embarrassed them. Big time. They were the biggest bully on the block yesterday. So, anybody that wanted to see somebody make the Browns eat their words owes Mike Vrabel and his team a thank you card. Wow, was that just an old fashioned beat down. The other things that happened were the Jaguars lost their starting QB for the season and the Jacoby Brissett era began in Indy. We'll see how the Texans do tonight against a good Saints team but at the moment the Titans put themselves in the conversation in the AFC South with that win yesterday. Brissett looks good, not Andrew Luck good, but not the Colts plummet to last place bad either.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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If you are a fan of any of the six teams I listed above, you had a great first week of football. I think only three teams totally crashed and burned in week 1, doesn't mean they can't recover but they are staring at week 2 from a very difficult place.

1. Browns - While you could have predicted they might struggle, after all this has been a horrible team for years, not sure many people thought they would get utterly smashed by the Titans in week 1. This is not what this Browns team needed. Sure, some say it was a good thing they got put in their place because now they know talk is worthless if you can't back it up. And they looked like they can't. Problem is two key people that have to pull a team like this out of a tail spin are the Head Coach and QB...and neither looks nor sounds capable of doing so at the moment. They get the Jets next, a very winnable game as I think Adam Gase is just a horrible head coach, but the Jets are a lot like the Browns in that they too have a bunch of young talent and could pull out a win against the Browns...if Gase pulls his head out of his rear end and realizes that his RB Bell looks like he could be the key to that team winning games. Bell looked like the most lively thing on the Jets offense and boy does he look fresh and ready to play after a year off. Of course Gase, a moron, started his tenure as Jets HC by declaring he did not even want Bell on the team and the Jets nearly traded him. DUMB. We'll see what happens but it looks like Adam wants to try to put the pressure of winning games on his young QB Darnold rather than using Bell to help take the pressure off of Darnold. Kitchens sounded lost after yesterday's Brown's loss and Mayfield looked like he wanted to hide under the covers for the rest of the season. Will the Browns have it figured out by week 3 when they play the Rams? I seriously doubt it...which could mean they enter their bye week at 1-5 or 0-6 and come out of the bye to face the Patriots in Foxboro. Kitchens needs to figure this out fast and he has never had to do this before. Mayfield needs to play way better than he did week one.This could be really ugly. The big worry here is in terms of coaching...well...they look horribly coached. In terms of QB play, Mayfield seems like the type of player that will get frustrated and try to do too much. Not writing anybody off after week one but you gotta admit this is a recipe for disaster.

2. Steelers - I will tell you up front what the worst aspect of last nights loss was, at one point during the third quarter, I believe, Chris Collinsworth said "One thing the Steelers never do is quit." and wow, they did just that in the third quarter. They looked like they just gave up on both sides of the ball. Now, you could just write that off as they were gassed because they were playing their first full game and nobody was in game shape yet. Yes, you could say that and the Patriots offense did go uptempo at times with the specific purpose of exhausting the Steelers defense...but the truth is this team seems to have slipped away from Mike Tomlin a long time ago. He was known as a players coach, a guy players wanted to come and play for and now...well...I think he has just lost this team. Yes, Ben has been bringing up retirement, he is a walking icebag all season now...but he still can sling it and is one of the top tier QBs in the league. I just think his motivation factor is way down and now the Steelers have suffered through a talent drain and players other than just Bell and Brown saying the team is a mess and they don't much want to play there anymore...particularly for Tomlin. Frankly, I thought when they came out for the second half and they asked Tomlin what kind of adjustments they were going to make and he said "None, we just need to play better." well, that showed exactly why the Steelers ALWAYS lose to the Patriots. Tomlin has always counted on talent over coaching and strategy and Belichick just eats him alive every time. Why do the Patriots always look like they know exactly what the Steelers are going to do? Because they do. Tomlin just keeps doing the same damn things again and again and again. The Steelers get to try to get better against the Seahawks in week 2. The Seahawks were a bit disappointing against the Bengals yesterday but they look like they should have a solid team this season and usually get better as they go. I expect this Steelers team to get off to an 0-2 start. I don't believe Tomlin has a fix for this team and I think they are probably exactly what they were last season which is a .500 team that will be up and down all season...maybe this season more down than up.

3. Jaguars - This one is easy, when you lose your starting QB you just paid a whole lot of money for in week 1, that's a bad start to the season. The good news was though, even their rookie 6th round draft pick QB played better than Blake Bortles. Probably the worst news was that the Jaguars defense, one predicted by the experts to be maybe the best in the league or at least one of the best, got shredded. Yes, shredded by Patrick Mahomes who, news flash, still appears to be awesome.
 
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Robert Crawford

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Their mistake was trading for him in the first place. I don’t think there was any way they were going to make that punk happy. The Raiders did the right thing to void his guaranteed money for cause after he got out of line with the GM. Why did Gruden say he’s a good guy who’s misunderstood after they released him? That statement is an insult to everyone’s intelligence- he should have just stopped at saying things weren’t going to work out.
Man, the Raiders got played by the Steelers, AB and in the end, the Patriots.
 

Scott Merryfield

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That was a wild finish to the Houston - New Orleans game last night. The most relieved person in the stadium after Lutz's game ending 58 yard field goal had to be the Saints player who was called for roughing the kicker on the Houston missed PAT just before.
 

sleroi

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That was a wild finish to the Houston - New Orleans game last night. The most relieved person in the stadium after Lutz's game ending 58 yard field goal had to be the Saints player who was called for roughing the kicker on the Houston missed PAT just before.

I think Sean Payton has to be the most relieved. The Saints second to last drive should have ended with either a touchdown, to go up by two scores, or by running out the clock. Running on 3rd and 11 with so much time left, (I dont care how good Kamara was playing), was bad coaching and time management.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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IMO, the Raiders are still a dumpster fire on how they handled this AB situation. A bunch of freaking amateurs are running that team.

There was some really good reporting yesterday on how the entire Brown thing happened. Brown was playing Mayock and did force his way off the Raiders. It came out that Mr. Big Chest also hired some sort of social media guru to help him sour his relationship with Oakland. This would explain why there were camera men following Brown around through the whole process. Basically, it all comes down to Big Chest wanted to be on a better team and was not happy when he was traded to Oakland. According to reporting there were several teams that really wanted him, the Seahawks being the first ones that called and that were apparently very aggressive in going after him. The 49ers also wanted him but my bet is Brown was only interested in going to a team that has a superstar QB. It is a pretty damn good bet that Antonio will be a Seahawk in 2020. For the Patriots he is strictly a one year rental.

However, Brown knew that the Patriots offered a first round pick for him to the Steelers and apparently was in love with the idea of playing with Brady...who offered to allow Antonio to live at his house until he gets settled in Massachusetts. So, Brown wanted his one season with the Patriots...and now he's got it.

It probably also gave the Patriots the upper hand in having him this season that not only did Brown badly want to be a Patriot but his agent Drew Rosenhaus is close friends with Bill Belichick...so even though the Seahawks were first in line, Drew knew to wait for his buddy to call.

Where Mayock messed up with Brown was not in trading for him with the Steelers, he got Big Chest at bargain price so that part was fine. The screw-up came in how he handled Antonio's idiotic shenanigans. We all know Gruden is running the team, so this could be his fault but somebody, Mayock or Gruden, were not familiar with the rules. Brown's behavior should have ended in an immediate 4 game suspension by the Raiders, not the NFL, for conduct detrimental to the team. This would have voided all of Brown's money, plus allowed the Raiders to trade him for some compensation, even if it was just getting back a 3rd round pick. Which the Seahawks would have given them in a heartbeat. Brown would have been helpless and would have had to sit waiting for a trade. They could have made him sit 4 games taking money out of his pocket and they could have traded him to the highest bidder.

That's where the Raiders blew it. So, they are responsible for letting Brown play them and win.

The Steelers look like the biggest bunglers in this whole thing because they did not want Brown to be a Patriot, passed on a 1st round draft choice because of this, got little for him in the trade with the Raiders, then Brown ends up a Patriot anyway costing the Patriots only some cash...which they have no issue with.

Where the Steelers ended up being right is they will likely not have to face Brown in the playoffs because Pittsburgh is not looking much like a playoff team at the moment. The Ravens and Bengals might be the top two teams in the division this season.

All the Patriots did, as they seem to do all the time, is watch as other teams do absolutely stupid things and then take advantage of the situation.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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I hope this blows up in the Patriots face because of that contract they gave him.

The contract details came out yesterday and are not bad at all. Brown gets a $1 million base salary, then he gets a $9 million dollar bonus split into two parts, $5 million up front, then $4 million at the end of the season. The rest of the money is all in incentives. He gets $500,000 for each game he is on the active roster, then if he catches 16 TDs this season he gets a $1.5 million bonus, if he catches 105 passes he gets a bonus, if he gets to 1290 receiving yards he gets a bonus. Those are not likely totals he gets to so he likely does not see that money.

So, if he misbehaves, which we will assume is highly likely, his pay decreases. In the Patriot offense the ball is going to be spread around so the Patriots if they get him to play every game won't pay him $15 million. If he screws up you can bet the Patriots will suspend him, likely voiding the bonus money and leaving them only on the hook for the $1 million base salary.

It makes him an easy risk for them.
 

Scott Merryfield

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I think Sean Payton has to be the most relieved. The Saints second to last drive should have ended with either a touchdown, to go up by two scores, or by running out the clock. Running on 3rd and 11 with so much time left, (I dont care how good Kamara was playing), was bad coaching and time management.
I was fine with how the Saints managed the clock on that drive. They ran the ball to use more clock, kicked the field goal to go up by 6 with under a minute to play and left Houston with no timeouts. I'm sure Payton expected his defense to put up a better effort than allowing the Texans to go the length of the field in two plays totaling 14 seconds -- which ironically left just enough time for Brees to get the Saints into desperation field goal range, and Lutz converted.
 

JohnRice

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Well, it's only one game, but the Broncos might suck even more than I feared. It's possible this was an awakening for them, but I at least expected a strong defense and passable special teams, but even those bombed. You can't win games kicking field goals.
 

Jeffrey D

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I think Sean Payton has to be the most relieved. The Saints second to last drive should have ended with either a touchdown, to go up by two scores, or by running out the clock. Running on 3rd and 11 with so much time left, (I dont care how good Kamara was playing), was bad coaching and time management.
Payton is no genius with clock management- he definitely contributed to the NFC championship game (letting the Rams keep their timeouts late in the 4th quarter).
 

Jeffrey D

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It’s a lock that Bill won’t let any problems that Brown creates linger and cause problems in the locker room. What I’m hoping for is that fool posts something on social media that he shouldn’t, and Bill cuts his ass immediately.
 

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