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National Football League

Page 571 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Tough games for Miami and Bucs tomorrow. Ravens has had Miami’s number for awhile with Miami finally winning last year. Hopefully their offense scheme is still creative in how they get their speedy receivers open. Bucs are probably going to be bullied by Saints, wouldn’t surprise me if they run more 2 TE packages to help chip defenders with TE and RB, and running the ball. They’ve had a muffed kickoff, pick six’s, not in the same page for routes, drops, and backbreaking penalties. But I think both can pull out a grinding win.
 
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Yes, but not every 12-4 record (or any record) is the same. Because the reason you are winning, could become the reason you lose. The things that are happening that don’t lead to bad outcomes (the Chiefs almost turnovers the previous seasons before 2021) could start becoming bad outcomes. Teams become complacent and don’t know what to do sometimes when their bread and butter doesn’t work. That’s how the Chiefs looked last season, and that’s why with Hill (who was a huge piece of their offense) being gone would leave quite a few wondering if they can change and adapt. Because adapting is not Reid’s strong suite. You know what is? Preparing for a team with weeks of availability. Let’s see how the season and next few weeks turn out, because as said by many the Cardinals don’t look good with their missing pieces.
Of course not every 12-4 record is the same but it's enough to get a team into playoffs & that's what most owners are only concerned about. They really could care less if it's a bad or good 12-4 - it's irrelevant from the owners point of view. And "adapting is not Reid's strong suit?" Lol...please, Reid is a SB winning coach. And last season he took the team to it's 4th consecutive AFC championship with, according to you, an offense that totally sucked & a lame duck QB who pathetically only finished 7th in final QB rating stats. Lol. Reid becomes an elite coach with his name carved in with all the other elite SB winning coaches. I think he knows a thing or two about coaching a winning franchise. To reiterate, it's all about W's & playoffs when it comes to HCs in the league. Owners aren't interested in excuses - "what if" I had a better QB, a better kicker, less injuries, better training staff, etc.

Look at some of the coaches that got axed last year: Brian Flores after just 3 seasons. A combined 24-25 with even a 10-6 season. But no playoffs - done & he's back to coordinating.

Our very own Vic Fangio here in Denver. Axed after 3 seasons with a pathetic 19-30 record with no better than a 7 win season.

And sometimes playoffs aren't even enough. Nagy got his walking papers after 4 seasons with 2 playoff appearances (2018 & 2020) and a winning combined record of 34-31. Not good enough from the owner's perspective when he had the #2 OA QB to work with. He couldn't deliver in the Windy City. Probably a championship appearance would have saved his job.
 
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And further, the goal of each team is to win the Super Bowl. This is just a quick recap of recent 12-4, and one that should have been, teams that should be great, which had a great record, but consistently showed a weakness in their games that would come back to bite them and end their season prematurely when at the start they were heavy favorites to win the whole thing.

2021 Chiefs 12-4, constantly showed the offense being flat, unable to score, move the ball and turnovers. Finished the season coming out flat and playing terrible from the last drive before the half to Mahomes throwing three balls to Bengals before it was finally intercepted (two of which would have been pick 6).

2021 Packers 13-4, constantly showed Rodgers not trusting other targets besides Jones and Adams. Finished the season with Rodgers hyper focusing on the pair while leaving his other options wide open. Leading to Rodgers incompleting passes, tacking a sack, or throwing the ball away when he had receivers wide open.

2020 Steelers 12-4, constantly showed Ben couldn’t throw the ball deep and was relying on short passing, run game, and defense. At one point was 11-0 and considered one of the weakest 11 team of all time. Finished the season with the Browns forcing Ben to throw deep while stopping the run and short passes. Leading to short drives and the defense they were relying on tiring out.

2019 Patriots 12-4, constantly showed their offense couldn’t get open, run the correct routes or be on the same page with Brady, and dropping the ball which lead to incompletions or interceptions. All of which they ranked dead last in of all the teams. At one point this team was 8-0 or 9-0(I forget which). Finished the seasons with the receivers unable to get separation, dropping balls that would have led to first downs, and the ball coming off the receivers hands to be a pick 6.

2018 Chiefs 12-4, constantly showed the offense could come out flat for a quarter to half leading to no or few points, scored too fast putting their defense back on the field sooner which tired them out, and defense couldn’t stop teams leading to long drives and teams attempting to run the clock down on them. Finished the season with the offense coming out flat, NE consistently scoring points with long drives, KC scoring too fast, and which lead to the defense being gassed due to being on the field for so long.

2017 and 2016 Chiefs 10-6 and 12-4, constantly showed they couldn’t go med-deep because Smith wouldn’t risk it.
2017, For the first 6 games Smith looked like the run away MVP and they even destroyed the Patriots in the opener (who like the cardinals were severely injured and than had their only productive receiver get injured). Finished the season unable to go deep or sustain drives with the Titans slowly killing their defense.

2016 had the same issues without Smith looking like an early MVP. Finished the season losing to Steelers who only kicked field goals because they took away the run and short passes. Smith’s bread and butter and he couldn’t go deep.

2017 Patriots, constantly showed their defense would be the reason games were close with blown coverages and poor tackling. It was so bad that for the first 4 weeks the defense had to play very basic coverage because of injuries and the defenders didn’t know the other, plays, or signals. The first week lose to the Chiefs they had defenders playing with the other for the FIRST time. Not the first real game, the first time ever with no practice or preseason together. Finished the season with each playoff game the opponent going up and the offense having to comeback until they couldn’t anymore in the Super Bowl.
Right...all those teams you used as an example already have SB winning QBs. With the exception of the 2021 Chiefs, those teams did lose out in the 1st rd of the playoffs in those respective seasons. And remember Big Ben had the elbow reconstruction in 2019 and was never the same when he came back. He held out for 2 seasons & did the best he could finally coming to realization that it was time to retire. Every NFL QB has an expiration date (well...except Brady. Lol).

The bigger question for Pittsburgh moving forward is can they find a QB to lead them back to the gloried days of going to the SB? Is Trubisky the guy that can live up to that challenge? Didn't work out very well in the Windy City - can he win at Pittsburgh & salvage his name from being another top 1st rd bust?
 
Of course not every 12-4 record is the same but it's enough to get a team into playoffs & that's what most owners are only concerned about. They really could care less if it's a bad or good 12-4 - it's irrelevant from the owners point of view. And "adapting is not Reid's strong suit?" Lol...please, Reid is a SB winning coach. And last season he took the team to it's 4th consecutive AFC championship with, according to you, an offense that totally sucked & a lame duck QB who pathetically only finished 7th in final QB rating stats. Lol. Reid becomes an elite coach with his name carved in with all the other elite SB winning coaches. I think he knows a thing or two about coaching a winning franchise. To reiterate, it's all about W's & playoffs when it comes to HCs in the league. Owners aren't interested in excuses - "what if" I had a better QB, a better kicker, less injuries, better training staff, etc.

Look at some of the coaches that got axed last year: Brian Flores after just 3 seasons. A combined 24-25 with even a 10-6 season. But no playoffs - done & he's back to coordinating.

Our very own Vic Fangio here in Denver. Axed after 3 seasons with a pathetic 19-30 record with no better than a 7 win season.

And sometimes playoffs aren't even enough. Nagy got his walking papers after 4 seasons with 2 playoff appearances (2018 & 2020) and a winning combined record of 34-31. Not good enough from the owner's perspective when he had the #2 OA QB to work with. He couldn't deliver in the Windy City. Probably a championship appearance would have saved his job.
Owners want Super Bowl wins, especially when they’ve already won one or multiple. Yes, the owner can care less about how a team got their record but if the reason why they lost in the playoffs is something they consistently showed during the season than they could get irritated. Especially if the coach and owner don’t have a good relationship, though in Chiefs case it is reported they have a great one (which Reid has always had).

Yes, Reid is bad at adapting. It has been well documented. Reid has consistently struggled each season with how to use his timeouts, clock management, and always wanting the big play. Reid is amazing at drawing up trick plays and routes and all his players love him. But if you go back to his loses they follow the same format of him not taking what the defense gives him and trying to force his style of play, which is the big play. People put majority of the blame for their poor performance against Bucs in the Super Bowl on the offensive line. Ignoring that instead of adapting his team to help the offensive line with run or short passes, or even having the TE or RB help block and game planning for that before the game. That’s why people question if the Chiefs can grind the ball down the field because they want the big play and fall back into it. Which costs them the game sometimes, and a lot of the time it helps them come back when they’re losing.

Yes, if you watched the games the offense played poorly in a majority of their games. They weren’t clicking, Mahomes had mishaps, come out flat, receivers dropped the ball, and the defense was playing very well. The first 2 games Chiefs and the last two of the season and first playoff games the offense was playing very well and at their normal. They started like that against the Bengals, and then turned into how they were the rest of the season.That is why they lost to the Bengals. They regressed back to what they consistently showed they were. This year they started off very well against Cardinals and bad-decent against the Chargers with having the one amazing play on their long touchdown to Watson. Otherwise they struggled to move the ball with Mahomes throwing multiple balls to the defender, with three being caught but refs went the other way on two of them and offsetting penalties on the third.


None of those teams have had recent Super Bowl success besides Broncos in 2015, with a completely different team and staff.

Right...all those teams you used as an example already have SB winning QBs. With the exception of the 2021 Chiefs, those teams did lose out in the 1st rd of the playoffs in those respective seasons. And remember Big Ben had the elbow reconstruction in 2019 and was never the same when he came back. He held out for 2 seasons & did the best he could finally coming to realization that it was time to retire. Every NFL QB has an expiration date (well...except Brady. Lol).

The bigger question for Pittsburgh moving forward is can they find a QB to lead them back to the gloried days of going to the SB? Is Trubisky the guy that can live up to that challenge? Didn't work out very well in the Windy City - can he win at Pittsburgh & salvage his name from being another top 1st rd bust?
And all of those teams with Super Bowl winning quarterbacks ended up with their season ending early because of the struggles they constantly showed during the regular season. That was the point. They all looked great on the offensive rankings stats overall, had great records, but ALL showed a consistent weakness that ended up costing them the game.

How we get asked if the chicken or the egg came first, our kids will have if Brady retired because he reached his expiration date or his wife.


Maybe, time will tell. Winston is looking better with the Saints then the Bucs. Sometimes you just need a change of scenery.
 
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When I saw that headline this morning I had two thoughts: I hope gets better quickly, but it won't if he gets hit, and I rarely hear it phrased as "fractured" cartilage. Hyaline cartilage is pretty elastic so "fracture" isn't really what it does.
Sounds like he might not be out long. Brees played with a more serious injury to his ribs although he did look uncomfortable at times.
 
TB finally gets the victory over the Saints in the regular season and did it playing like how they played in the past against Saints. The first three quarters the Saints looked like they’d win from Tampa making their same mistakes with turnovers, penalties, dropped passes, and falling when thrown the ball. Tampa just kept the Saints from scoring despite them moving down the field on the first drive. Both teams had costly fumbles in the redzone. Then a full bench brawl happened that got Evans and Lattimore ejected, from Lattimore first shoving Fournette and Evans coming in to shove Lattimore. TB would score without Lattimore there and the Saints turned into how the Bucs would play against them turning the ball over repeatedly and penalties that allowed TB to go up 20-3 with 20 unanswered points. At this point four minutes are left and my fiancé said well the games over, there’s no way NO can comeback. And I told her it’s not over till the clock is at zero and by god the Saints almost did. They scored a much needed touchdown and followed it up with TB going three and out, throwing on third down which stoped the clock and allowed the Saints to keep a timeout and the two minute warning. The moment of the game would occur on Saints first play of the drive with Winston going deep to a wide open receiver with space to run all the way to the end zone, that catches the ball, trips over himself, and fumbles the ball without being touched by a TB defender. That was the play of the game right there and if NO scores, I honestly think they win the game because they’d still have two ways to stop the clock.

Miami and Baltimore turned into a shootout with Miami showing off their speed on offense. Baltimore had two touchdowns drives overturned, one of which they fumbled on the next play and scored on the other. Miami exploded in the second half scoring 35 points. Going into halftime down 28-7, usually you’d close the game out for Miami but they fought back hard. Tua had multiple deep throws to Hill, Waddle, and Gesicki. Hill and Waddle had 11 receptions for 190 and 171 yards and two touchdowns.

Dallas with a huge win over Bengals and with Copper Rush!

Jets won against the Browns when they were down 30-17 with 1:55 left to play.
 
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I don't know what the biggest story of the week is for me:
-Maybe Lance's broken ankle
-JG looking like he never left the field.
-Flacco winning
-Jets Winning
-Jets and Flacco winning together
-Tua going off
-Cooper rush 1-0, Dak 0-1
-JAX zipping IND
-SEA offense not scoring!!!!

The end of the AZ vs. LV game was entertaining.
 
I don't know what the biggest story of the week is for me:
-Maybe Lance's broken ankle
-JG looking like he never left the field.
-Flacco winning
-Jets Winning
-Jets and Flacco winning together
-Tua going off
-Cooper rush 1-0, Dak 0-1
-JAX zipping IND
-SEA offense not scoring!!!!

The end of the AZ vs. LV game was entertaining.
I thought the Raiders game was over. Shocked to hear they lost. What's happened to the Colts ? Miami looking good.Falcons gave the Rams a scare. Detroit won. Chicago resume normal business ! Shocked by the Colts result. Not a good start to the season for the Bengals,
 
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I think the biggest story this week has to be Jimmy G coming out and playing like he did.

Crazy the way the Cards beat the Raiders. So many conversions, so many blown plays by the Raiders when it mattered. Great playing by Murray.

Giants 2-0 for the first time in years I think.

Browns collapse against the Jets may have been worse. They had them dead and buried with 2 minutes to go.

Days after saying the Cowboys were finished, I eat crow. Their OL just dominated the Bengals. A whopping 5.7 yards per play, with Cooper Rush at QB!

I thought the Colts were a little overhyped this season, worried Ryan was getting to the end of his career, but they looked terrible. Good win for Jags, who are now in 1st place!

Fins beating Ravens was like a playoff game. MVP performance by Jackson, but how the Raven D let Hill get behind them not once, but twice just killed them.

Steelers have a very tough schedule coming up. @CLE, NYJ, @BUF, TB, @MIA, @PHI, NO, CIN. When do they bench the career ineffective Trubisky, and go with Pickett?

19 teams are 1-1, including all teams in the NFC West, and three in the AFC North.

And Aaron Rodgers apparently still owns the Bears.
 
SEA: It was a REALLY BAD coaching decision to go for a halfback pass when the offense had finally started to figure things out.

Waldron out. Pete is probably like, well, “I am just here so I won’t get fined.” The have the Falcons next. Winnable game, even with so many changes. I think the second quarter where they should have scored really halted any momentum and set the rest of the game up. This probably what most of their games will be like this season. 5-6 games won. Anything more than that will be a big success. If they play like they did for most of the game today, then maybe not even 5.
 

Evans gets suspended for blind siding Lattimore, Lattimore gets no further punishment after instigating the fight and starting it. TB is about to be running the football as much as they can against Green Bay.
 
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The way the Bills blew out the Titans was something. It wasn't like Tennessee was playing bad, but the Bills are just a force. Their OL is so solid, and Allen can quickly get the ball accurately anywhere on the entire field. 16 series to start the season before they even punted. Buffalo has some tough games coming up that should be a test for them, and whomever they play. @MIA, @Bal, PIT, @KC, GB. Right now I wouldn't bet against them in any of those games, even though that's a stacked schedule.

Maybe Jalen Hurts best game as an Eagle. Their D looks very solid across the board too, stopping a new Viking offense. But Hurts looked mature, the leader of the offense without question. Though the second half looked dull, no points. Let's see if he can keep it up. They have a fairly soft schedule: @WAS, JAX, @Ari, DAL, bye, PIT, @HOU, WAS, @IND. At the rate they are playing, they could be 8-2? 9-1 at that point?

If you're curious about the Jagwires, they have a mixed schedule: @LAC, @PHI, HOU, @IND, NYG, DEN, LVR, @KC, bye. Is 5-5 too much to expect?
 
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Waldron out. Pete is probably like, well, “I am just here so I won’t get fined.” The have the Falcons next. Winnable game, even with so many changes. I think the second quarter where they should have scored really halted any momentum and set the rest of the game up. This probably what most of their games will be like this season. 5-6 games won. Anything more than that will be a big success. If they play like they did for most of the game today, then maybe not even 5.
It was systematically unbalanced play calling. The running game looked like the 49ers new every play scheme and the OC was quick to abandon it for badly cued short passes that provided no rhythm or relief from the 9ers defense. Seattle made them look better than they were.
Then SEAs defense played shut down ball until a few iffy PI calls to keep Garapolo in it. I know Jimmy looked good at times but nothing like a serious start IMO. It was pretty much a sh*t game in the greater NFL level of play and neither team should feel really good about it. Especially SF paying a cartload for Jimmy and now probably scrambling for a backup QB.
Made for a sad day only countered by the PAC 12 embarrassing every East Coast pundit.
Who'd a guessed UW as in top 20 after 3 weeks? Where are the Cougs?
 
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It was systematically unbalanced play calling. The running game looked like the 49ers new every play scheme and the OC was quick to abandon it for badly cued short passes that provided no rhythm or relief from the 9ers defense. Seattle made them look better than they were.
Then SEAs defense played shut down ball until a few iffy PI calls to keep Garapolo in it. I know Jimmy looked good at times but nothing like a serious start IMO. It was pretty much a sh*t game in the greater NFL level of play and neither team should feel really good about it. Especially SF paying a cartload for Jimmy and now probably scrambling for a backup QB.
Made for a sad day only countered by the PAC 12 embarrassing every East Coast pundit.
Who'd a guessed UW as in top 20 after 3 weeks? Where are the Cougs?

I mean the 49ers are not a great team. They’re not bad, but they’re not that great either. The Seahawks made them look great. Seahawks have owned the 49ers the last 10-11 years or so. This is the worst team Seattle has had since 2011 though.
 
I mean the 49ers are not a great team. They’re not bad, but they’re not that great either. The Seahawks made them look great. Seahawks have owned the 49ers the last 10-11 years or so. This is the worst team Seattle has had since 2011 though.
10-1 in penalties didn't help. Jimmy did well considering he was a late addition to the team and hardly practiced at all with the offense. Looks like the Hawks will be rebuilding. The rest of the NFC West has already been though that. Wonder how much longer Pete will last ? The Seattle run defense wasn't too good either.
 
Bills looking very, very good.
Bills have set the standard so far but you will go bankrupt betting on the Vikings. They are a week to week proposition. The Titans are similar. So far its just as much about decent teams playing badly as much as average teams playing better. The Rams got blown out and looked shaky in their second game. Raiders messed up but no surprise to see Miami doing better with the improved roster on offense and new play caller. The Giants should be happy with their start to the season.
 
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