NFL 2018-2019 Thread (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

The dumpster fire called the Raiders gets even worse today. Man, Gruden sure isn't giving us Raiders fans much hope for a successful rebuild.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/01/04/ryan-grigson-to-raiders-a-done-deal/

Wow, really? Ryan Grigson? This guy messed up the Colts in so many ways it was horrific. Plus he openly bashed the best player he had in Andrew Luck and openly tried to blame his screw-ups on Luck. The primary reason he had the job in Indy was he was a lowlife that got along with the lowlife owner. Grigson is total poison.

All I can think here is that Gruden is building a team of yes men that will back him and blow smoke about everything he does. Mayock was a bad idea, Grigson is basically like setting the building on fire.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, it appears that Houston did not show up to play today. Barring a massive comeback, looks like the first home team to be upset will be the Texans.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, it appears that Houston did not show up to play today. Barring a massive comeback, looks like the first home team to be upset will be the Texans.

Yes, they came out flatter than a pancake and never recovered. They really kind of looked like they did not even want to be there.

I'm happy though as I was rooting for the Colts to win that game because I think that will be the most interesting match-up with the Chiefs. I'll admit I picked against the Colts because I just did not trust them but they look like they are doing good things on both sides of the football so I want to see how they handle Mahomes and that Chiefs offense.

I went 0-2 on my picks as that Cowboys defense did a good job keeping the Seahawks in check.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I went 0-2 with my Saturday picks, too. That bodes well for Eagles and Ravens fans today. I didn't see any of the Colts - Texans game, and only a little of the Cowboys - Seahawks game. Hopefully I will have some time today to watch some playoff football.

 

[Malcolm R]

Joe Flacco is healthy. I don't understand why the Ravens are sticking with Jackson into the second half. He couldn't be playing much worse.

It doesn't appear the Ravens really want to play, either. They're ready to go on vacation for the off-season.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Joe Flacco is healthy. I don't understand why the Ravens are sticking with Jackson into the second half. He couldn't be playing much worse.

It doesn't appear the Ravens really want to play, either. They're ready to go on vacation for the off-season.

Don’t worry, the Voldemorts will turn into a pumpkin before midnight.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Joe Flacco is healthy. I don't understand why the Ravens are sticking with Jackson into the second half. He couldn't be playing much worse.

It doesn't appear the Ravens really want to play, either. They're ready to go on vacation for the off-season.

Lamar Jackson is Tim Tebow 2.0. Jackson is a more elusive runner, but neither of them can throw an NFL forward pass. I laughed in the first half when Jim Nantz said “these are two complete teams”. How can the Ravens be a complete team when they have absolutely no passing game?

Leaving Jackson in the game when down by 17 points in the early 4th quarter tells us that Joe Flacco is done in Baltimore. There is no other explanation why he is not in the game.

 

[Johnny Angell]

17 point lead in the 4th quarter and the Voldemorts managed to make it interesting. I hate to be negative but this is what I’m used to, except that they won.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Eagles lucked out.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, so much for the prognosticators that said all the home teams were favored. Three of four home teams were beaten.

Completely ridiculous games this weekend. Hard to believe these are the best teams the NFL has to offer.

 

[TonyD]

Eagles lucked out.

Maybe but they still had to go down and get 6 against the top rated defense with less then 2 minutes left. And they did.

 

[JohnRice]

Place kickers always seem to be a bit of an afterthought in the NFL. I wonder how the Seahawks and Bears feel about that now.

 

[David Weicker]

Well, as a Bears fan, today sucked.

As far as kickers go, they do have a record setting kicker. Unfortunately, the wrong kind of record (four doinks in a single game, six in a season)

 

[JohnRice]

As far as kickers go, they do have a record setting kicker. Unfortunately, the wrong kind of record (four doinks in a single game, six in a season)

Yeah, but two in one kick. That's impressive.

 

[Malcolm R]

That's gotta be a sign that the universe is against you. You could kick for 100 years and never have that happen again.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Maybe but they still had to go down and get 6 against the top rated defense with less then 2 minutes left. And they did.

I'm just saying they got lucky when that kicker missed that short field goal. How they position themselves to come from behind in the last couple of minutes was a great job on their part, but it always amazes me when teams lose heartbreaking games because of a kicker.

 

[TonyD]

Yes. It was a lucky break but it turns out some player skill was involved as an Eagle got a hand on the ball and deflected it.

So it wasn’t Parkey’s Fault it hit the post.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I will never understand why teams go into a defensive shell in games. The Chargers had completely shutdown Baltimore's offense for 3.5 quarters, and then switch to a soft zone prevent defense and almost blow the game. Lamar Jackson gets one TD pass on a blown coverage, and then lucks out when he throws a wounded duck pass late over the middle that turns into a 40 yard gain when it should have been intercepted and sets up another quick TD.

Heartbreaking loss for the Bears. That kick could just as easily bounced the other way off the crossbar.

BTW, Baltimore's offense reminds me of watching Bo Schembechler's University of Michigan offense in the 1970's with Dennis Franklin or Rick Leach at QB. Neither of them had an NFL arm, either. Funny story about Rick Leach. He went on to play MLB baseball in Detroit and Toronto. When playing for the Tigers, he threw a ball back to the infield, and I heard a guy in the stands say "nice throw, Ricky. Just like one of your passes -- it got there on one hop".

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, so much for the prognosticators that said all the home teams were favored. Three of four home teams were beaten.

Completely ridiculous games this weekend. Hard to believe these are the best teams the NFL has to offer.

Well, I enjoyed 3 of the 4 games. The only game that was not so great was the Colts at Texans game because the Texans offense and Mr. Watson were DOA. They just were never in the game and looked deflated from the start.

What's interesting is all season long the league was about offense but toward the end of the season and now in this first round of playoff games defense is what decided these games.

We ended up getting 4 games that featured defensive struggles. In every game yesterday the defenses outplayed the offenses.

So, what we get next weekend is 4 games where all the top offensive teams will square off against teams that can play some defense. That should make for interesting games.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Joe Flacco is healthy. I don't understand why the Ravens are sticking with Jackson into the second half.

Leaving Jackson in the game when down by 17 points in the early 4th quarter tells us that Joe Flacco is done in Baltimore.

Yes, this is the answer. The Ravens are looking to move Flacco. Jackson is their guy. For the last 3 seasons it has seemed the Ravens have wanted to bring somebody in to challenge Flacco. They finally did and Joe is being shipped out. They just wanted Lamar to play the full game.

For whatever reason, the Ravens have wanted to do this running QB thing for a while. Hue Jackson also wanted to do it with the Browns.

Personally, I think in the NFL the running QB thing is a bad idea. The defenders are big and fast and at some point your running QB is going to take some horrific hits.

I think the running QB thing works for a while because teams rarely have to face that in the NFL but once they have the book on how you intend to "wildcat" then you are up the creek.

Flacco should go to another team like the Jags or Dolphins. Gase is out of Miami and so the ridiculous love affair with Tannehill is over thankfully for Dolphins fans.