National Football League

[Alpe d'Huez]

Atlanta looked stellar last night stopping the Broncos. Though they weren't consistent on offense, they did put together two great drives, where Ryan looked like the real deal. Last year in the playoffs they were blown off the line playing in NY's cold against the Giants. Can they get further than that this year?

The NFC West is no longer the whipping boy division of the NFL. Between SF who looks for real, Arizona's defense, Seattle smacking Dallas, and even StL beating Washington, it's amazing what one year does (so far!).

Lots of talk on ESPN about the replacement refs and how deplorable they are. I won't list the blown calls, if you saw any game this week, you'll know why, last night's game was especially bad. Steve Young really hammered the NFL front office, saying they still think of the referees as little more useful than cheerleaders, and are trying to break the union. Cris Carter was equally livid, calling it a debacle. McCoy of Philly said it's like having fans on the field. And sure enough, it turned out two refs are known fans of teams! Some of them apparently into fantasy football! Crazy! Another ESPN analyst said he expects no progress this week, and that the NFL is so stubborn it may take a couple completely blown games before they change their hard stance. What a shame.

Tim Hassleback listed his top five QB's so far this year, and had Eli Manning at the top. Really? They lost the first game, and while he threw for 500 yards last week it's because they couldn't run, plus he threw 3 picks. I'd say Matt Ryan and Alex Smith are at the top so far as I see it. Maybe Rivers, RGIII or even Matt Schaub. The media has always liked Eli and despised Rivers, so no surprise there.

Power Rankings out today. Will post later.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Pretty impresive picks Alpe.
Ok, here we go: Saints are done, said by me when the Bounty-Scandal broke lose and Payton was banned and Brees was thrown all the millions up his ar§e. For the 1 millionth time: A QB is 1/11 of an offense. His worth is a little higher since he is the field "general". But if you have no money left for the players around you, you are rightfully doomed. Shame on you pfvcking greedy Brees.
When will an NFL team sign me? I would play moneyball like the guy with the A´s did...
Little Siz surprises me every year. In the 1st half he plays like i expect a little siz to play (throwing Int´s), then he throws for 500+.
RG3: I fell in love with his arm. I watched a little half drunk (just before i went lights out) the NO-WAS game last week. Wow, even 5-yard passes come out of his hand with ease. High speed killer darts on the numbers. Last seen by Davey in the NFL europe. Not even Vick has this arm strength. Amazing...
I am not yet NFL ready, but i think SF is a hot pick for the SB. Didn´t know until last week they signed Manningham & Moss. Now they have it all (passing O, and a killer D)...
What §hi..tty game is the NFL playing, again? Replacement refs b/c they don´t wanna pay the real refs? As always said: NFL is rotten to the core, but the game is beautiful...

So i´ll be back.

Hey you sound like a drunk Cowboys fan.

Saints will have a rough year. WOW it does not take a Mensa to understand what that team is up against considering who is NOT either coaching or playing.

ATL might win the division but they will lose in the first round or game of the playoffs. as usual.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Week 2 NFL Power Rankings:

1. San Francisco 49ers
2. Houston Texans
3. Atlanta Falcons
4. Green Bay Packers
5. Philadelphia Eagles
6. Baltimore Ravens
7. New England Patriots
8. Denver Broncos
9t. New York Giants
9t. Pittsburgh Steelers

QB Passer rankings:
1. Ryan
2. Smith
3. Bradford
4. RG3
5. Rivers
12. Brady
16. Eli
17. Rogers
18. Peyton
26. Luck
29. Vick

Weeden a 5.1 in week one, but a 114.9 in week two!

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

ATL did look pretty good, really good in stretches where Ryan just shredded the Broncos pass D. I thought Denver just might pull it out, but no go. The refs were bad in that game too, prompting comment by Gruden on how they are slowing/messing up the flow of the game. As if the amount of reviews we have normally now is not enough, the replacements are screwing with it more. Reminds me of this.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGTWmrnPdgk

SF still too high. I'll keep saying that just cuz. But at this point they actually deserve it. Finally a team with killer defense to go along with potent offense.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Interesting article today in USA Today about how ripe the replacement officials are to bribery and corruption. A real recipe for disaster. I don't have the link, but it's well worth reading.

Meanwhile, Jerry Jones says the NFL should eliminate the kneel down. He says it takes away a play from the fans. I have a better idea, let's eliminate spiking the ball. That's a total non-play and should be considered intentional grounding. The NFL started looking the other way on it back in the 70s, before that the QB had to toss a quick pass out of bounds near a receiver.

I'll give my weekly picks later, but tomorrow we have NYG at Carolina, which should be interesting.

 

[Amsterhammer]

I missed the Atlanta game, not a very good pick tally at all this week. I have immediately lost my blind faith in Peyton

Seriously though, the ref-ing situation is shocking, even without revelations of potential bribery, etc. The only people with enough clout to lean on the NFL are the owners, who will have to get their collective butts in gear before we reach a point that a blatantly wrong decision leads to an actual riot on the field.

Jesus Alpe, how many more surprising things are we gonna find out about you? You're apparently not only a mountain climber of some small distinction, but the man who interviewed Joe Papp! Next, we'll hear that you used to be a SEAL after the astronaut training, and before you won that Pulitzer.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

You left out the fact that I'm a rocket surgeon.

Seriously, anyone can make a phone call, meet someone open to meeting and interview them. And I'm no (former) climber of any distinction. Many people did far more than I ever attempted. I just did what I thought was "actual" climbing, instead of just signing up to be guided/hauled up mountains by others, and was fortunate enough to go to some interesting places with cool people in the process.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Week 3. Some tough games to pick this week. I tried to put my thinking cap on after a dismal round last week. Here goes nothing...

Thursday:
NYG at Carolina - Should be close though

Sunday:
TB at Dallas
JAX at Indy
Buf at Cle - Maybe
NYJ at Miami
Stl at Chi
Det at Tenn - Could be close
SF at Minn - Lock of the week
KC at NO - Two teams in a hole
Cinn at Wash - Too many Skins hurt
Phi at Ari - Game of the week?
Atl at SD - Tough call
Hou at Den - PM may be very motivated, at home
Pitt at Oak

Sunday night:
NE at Balt - Ravens the better team, right now.

Monday
GB at Sea

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Interesting article today in USA Today about how ripe the replacement officials are to bribery and corruption. A real recipe for disaster. I don't have the link, but it's well worth reading.

Meanwhile, Jerry Jones says the NFL should eliminate the kneel down. He says it takes away a play from the fans. I have a better idea, let's eliminate spiking the ball. That's a total non-play and should be considered intentional grounding. The NFL started looking the other way on it back in the 70s, before that the QB had to toss a quick pass out of bounds near a receiver.

I did not see the USAT article, but found this one (LINK) that portrays the degenerating sentiment of NFL players and coaches toward the replacement refs. Here are a few quotes I found interesting:

Opening sentence of the article:

Chippy play. Cheap shots. Illegal hits. Non-calls. Apparently, NFL now stands for No Flag League, or (Almost) Nothing's Forbidden, Linemen.

Washington Redskins linebacker Chris Wilson... predicted Monday the discontent with the officiating might reach a boiling point soon.

"I think the frustration has grown," said Wilson, now playing in his fifth NFL season. "If it escalates, you're talking about fistfights."

Ray Lewis, who implies using replacement refs is like throwing gasoline on a fire:

"Get the regular referees in here and let the games play themselves out," Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said Sunday. "We already have controversy enough with the regular refs calling the plays."

Mike Shanahan, when answering a question Monday about whether he was submitting videotape of any plays he believed were botched by officials in an attempt to make sure they get the calls right the next time, answered:

"I don't even do that," Shanahan said. "There's too many."

Jones Idea
Jerry Jones' idea to eliminate the kneel down will not help. Teams will find another way to accomplish the same thing, like hand off to a running back who just falls over. Jones says kneel downs takes away a play from the fans, which may be true, but by then being able to run one or two more plays will not add much to a game's entertainment value. Further, it might only add entertainment value if the losing team was within one score of taking the lead. How about blowout games, or any game where the losing team was more than one score behind? Further yet, the reason kneel downs are effective is because the other team has no time outs left. So let's say instead of a kneel down, a team has to run a play. Then the other team has to get their offense on the field in time, while the clock is still running, to run a play. In the end it is a matter of personal preference, and I don't mind the kneel down.

Spiking It
I have never really liked spiking the ball to stop the clock. If the NFL got rid of spiking it would force coaches to be a bit more judicious about when they call their time outs, and more importantly it would force them to do a better job of clock management. If eliminating spiking resulted in teams doing a better job of clock management, that alone would be an improvement worthy of greater entertainment value than eliminating kneel downs.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Here's the USAT NFL replacement official bribery article (Link). Sweet b-Jesus, just look at this:

Officiating on a game-by-game basis as the referee lockout continues, replacements have more incentive to throw a game for cash, says NFL handicapper R.J. Bell of pregame.com.

"One hundred thousand dollars to fix a game is a lot of money to the regular officials, but if you compare that to their potential career earnings it's a very small amount of money," says Bell. "With the replacements, even $20,000 to fix a game is more than they stand to make from the NFL in their entire lives.

Point being, the NFL replacement officials will be more easily tempted to take bribes.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

My picks in bold, without any bias OFC . I left Alpe's picks bounded by "*".

Thursday:
NYG at *CAR*

Sunday:
TB at *DAL*
JAX at *IND*
*BUF* at CLE
*NYJ* at MIA
STL at *CHI*
*DET* at TEN
*SF* at MIN
KC at *NO*
*CIN* at WAS – other than Garcon, WAS injured are not that great
*PHI* at ARI – PHI offense rules this one
ATL at *SD* – ATL injuries may bite them and SD “D” > ATL “D”
HOU at *DEN * – HOU > DEN in “O” and “D”
*PIT* at OAK

Sunday night:
NE at *BAL* – what? NE “Transformers D” stats >> BAL “D” stats?

Monday:
*GB* at SEA - just can't help myself

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Jordan Bernstine, Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker, three starting defenders for the Skins, are all out, probably for the season. Nick Lundberg is also still out. The good news for the Skins is the Bengals defense has dropped considerably from last season...so far.

Meanwhile, Vince Young is broke, and out football. Interesting story (if not that surprising) on how he's blown over $30m. Yes, thirty million. Even by stupid athlete spending money stories, that's a lot of cash.

Chris Kluwe has a pretty entertaining blog about punting, and invading Russia from last week. Short and worth reading. Funny stuff.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Orakpo & Carriker I knew of. Orakpo... that'll hurt the Skins. Carriker... meh, I'm not sold on him.

Don't normally comment on ESPN Polls, but this one was really hard to decide:
Which is the biggest problem with the NFL's replacement referees?
45% said Referees getting calls wrong
24% said Players not respecting referees
31% said Referees taking a long time to get calls right

I was in the 45% group, but all 3 are problems. Well, maybe 2 of the 3 are problems (wrong calls, and too long to decide).

 

[Amsterhammer]

Jordan Bernstine, Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker, three starting defenders for the Skins, are all out, probably for the season. Nick Lundberg is also still out. The good news for the Skins is the Bengals defense has dropped considerably from last season...so far.

All three were already out last weekend, maybe that's at least part of the reason why our defense sucked so bad. But never fear, we'll just outscore the b astards!

(Skins lead NFL with 68 pts, who would have thought?)

Fred Davis is fit again, and I reckon there's a reasonable chance of Garcon seeing some playing time.

RG3 wasn't thrilled with the officials either -

“I don’t want to tip-toe the lines of anything that’s happened with bounties or anything like that, but they were definitely going after me,” Griffin said. “They made it a point, obviously, all week to hit me. Some of the shots were cheap of that nature. But it’s nothing I can control. Teams are going to try to hit me because they don’t think I can take a hit. I think I’ve proved over my career that I can.”

It’s something the Redskins have to watch as they prepare for this week’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The replacement officials are getting a reputation for letting players get away with more.

“You have to have people take control,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “And there wasn’t any control in that game. Hopefully officials next week will take control. That’s what you have to do as an official.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...992f2a-0306-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_story.html

Will post picks before game time tonight.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Here are the results from the Amsterdam jury.

NYG at Carolina - Going for the NYFG but fully prepared to see it go the other way

Sunday:
TB at Dallas - They can't lose this one, shirley?
JAX at Indy - Colts on a roll of Luck?
Buf at Cle - Can the Bills stay hot?
NYJ at Miami - Just for the hell of it
Stl at Chi - Rams ain't getting lucky twice
Det at Tenn - Titans disappointed badly
SF at Minn - Hard to imagine any other outcome
KC at NO - Saints to turn the tide
Cinn at Wash - We'll just outscore them
Phi at Ari - God, I hate the Eagles
Atl at SD - Could be real tough, but I'll back the Bolts
Hou at Den - No more picks, no more picks, etc
Pitt at Oak - Hard to see this one any other way

Sunday night:
NE at Balt - Ravens should be 2-0, gotta go for the purple

Monday
GB at Sea - Not sure if Seattle is that good

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Absolutely terrible game going on between NYG and Carolina right now. Still 3 minutes to go in the first half; NYG RB has 97 yards rushing; NYG WR has over 100 receiving; NYG has scored on every possession so far; Carolina can't tackle, can't pass defend, can't get any pressure on Eli. I'm outta there.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

What a rotten game. NY played solid, but Carolina looked inept. Five turnovers, 3 picks tossed by Newton. To fumble the 2nd half kickoff away like that was almost comedic. The Giants BACKUP players were playing better than the Carolina starters.

Meanwhile, Pete Carroll agrees with TB coach Greg Schiano on attacking the kneel down, especially when the game is on the line and not over. I like what Marc Sessler said in reference to Pete's comments: "I can't understand how the Giants -- like 31 other teams -- talk about playing 60 minutes of football, then ask the opponent to play 59."

I may change my pick in the NE-Baltimore game. I like the way the Patriots admitted defeat after the Arizona loss, saying they have work to do. Wilfork said they must play the perfect game in order to beat the Ravens. Over the last five or so years the big games the Pats lost were when they played without urgency, or had a sense of entitlement. Should be a great game.

From the "Time to Cowboy Up" Department. I love RGIII, but even more I love Steven Jackson's comment after Griffin's claim that the Rams hitting him as being unprofessional and late (neither really true on replay). Said Jackson, "It's not the Big-12".

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Well, I'll say this, that eliminating the kneel down sure won't hurt anything.

Yes, you should change your NE-BAL pick. Bellichick's gonna feed em gravel for breakfast. Translation... mean n nasty.

Oh my. Tell the Redskins to Cowboy Up. That's good! And I'm not even a Cowboy fan.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Hey, I'm 6-9 again in my predictions! But in this topsy-turvy season, I know I'm in good company. So many unpredictable outcomes. Just a sampling:

Did Carson Palmer really lead the Raiders to a win over Pittsburgh?

Arizona crushes Philly to go 3-0 behind a fierce defense and...Kevin Kolb?

Minnesota puts up 24 in beating SF???

NO is 0-3 after losing at home to KC?

New England is 1-2? So are Pitt and Denver.

Only three teams remain unbeaten at 3-0: Houston, Atlanta, and Arizona?

There is no doubt the officials altered the outcome of the NE-Balt game, but I don't know that means NE should have won, not at all. But some very questionable calls in the 2nd half for and against both teams. It's making the games sometimes hard to watch.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

It was a great weekend of NFL football. So great I ended up 5-10 before Monday night's game... bwahahaha.

Lots of messed up officiating in that NE-Balt game. At one point I thought it might get chippy enough that some ejections would have to follow. The game was out of control, they let some penalties go (e.g. PI, holding) without throwing the flag. That's just what we saw, which is not everything.

The NFLPA sent a letter to the owners stating the health and safety of the game is being compromised. The letter says that the league has made rule changes and enforced penalties and fines in the name of safety and player health, but is ignoring the first line of defense (the officiating) for protecting player safety and health. The game is tough as it is, and there are many injuries regular refs can't prevent. It is the out of control, flagrant, penalties (e.g. retaliatory cheap shots, head shots) the refs can prevent. The way I see some of the games getting out of control, I would not be surprised if someone doesn't get hurt as a result. So the NFLPA has a valid point. But I don't see the letter changing much in the negotiations.
(LINK-1,
Full-Letter)

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Looking at the ESPN expert picks, several of them are 5-10. Hoge was 4-11. Accuscore was 4-11 as well. The "best" experts are 7-8 so far. But there's still hope, if Seattle beats GB, most of these picks will chalk up another loss! With the way this week has gone....

Meanwhile, talks last night between the NFL and officials broke off with little progress, and no plan to meet again. I can't believe the league is allowing this to happen for a total cost of what amounts to what Mark Sanchez earns in a month. It's just madness, and it's only a matter of time before a key game is blown, someone gets seriously hurt, an official gets physically attacked, or a bribery scandal breaks out. How can the league, after resolving the players lockout last year so well, botch this so badly?

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I hope it does not come to this, but NFL players should strike to back up the regular refs. That might get the owners attention!

 

[User Guide]

I hope it does not come to this, but NFL players should strike to back up the regular refs. That might get the owners attention!

Or the refs could understand that 98K in todays reality isnt too shabby.


Having stayed awake to watch the game being a NE fan(dont shoot me AFC were pants when i started watching as a kid thought picking underdog)
Although the ref's probably had a large part in us losing the game(wont list too many);in reality we put ourselves in a position too be unlucky.Everytime it "blew up" we lost focus.Our defense couldnt stop diddly when it was meaningful AGAIN.Couldnt make a simple play on the ball like last two SB's (and thus letting miracle catches etc have some impact and making Eli look good)

 

[Amsterhammer]

Or the refs could understand that 98K in todays reality isnt too shabby.


Having stayed awake to watch the game being a NE fan(dont shoot me AFC were pants when i started watching as a kid thought picking underdog)
Although the ref's probably had a large part in us losing the game(wont list too many);in reality we put ourselves in a position too be unlucky.Everytime it "blew up" we lost focus.Our defense couldnt stop diddly when it was meaningful AGAIN.Couldnt make a simple play on the ball like last two SB's (and thus letting miracle catches etc have some impact and making Eli look good)

Eli? I guess you mean Joe Flacco? I think the refs treated both sides pretty much equally badly. I certainly don't think that they cost NE the game. I stayed up all night too, right down to that last second FG that just about saved my day from total disaster after the Skins, Nats, and O's had all lost.

@ Alpe & 3man - I guess I didn't do too badly then with six!? Jeez, what a bunch of unbelievable results again. It looks like we're going to see major upsets every week now.

AS for the Skins, I can report that RG3 played another excellent game and more than held his own, despite taking a lot of heavy hits, something I don't think he'll be able to stand for a whole season.

There's been an about turn from last season, when the defense kept the Skins in games while the offense consistently failed to deliver. This season, the offense is not bad at all; calling the defense 'awful' is almost too kind. They suck, big time.

The Cincinnati Bengals were more than good Sunday, but they didn’t ruin Robert Griffin III’s home debut for the Washington Redskins. No. This was an inside job, perpetrated by the very people who were supposed to have their rookie quarterback’s back, committed by the one unit Mike Shanahan “thought was going to be the strength of our football team.”

“You can’t go out and ask a rookie quarterback to put up 40 points every week,” Lorenzo Alexander said early Sunday evening after his teammates had cleared out of the locker room. “Thirty-plus points the last three games — we’re not going to win too many games that way. We got to do something.”

For the first time since 2005, the Redskins have scored 99 points in three consecutive games combined. But when you give up 101, that still leaves you with a losing record.

A week after surrendering 452 yards to the Rams, the Redskins gave up 478 yards to the Bengals.

The Bengals had six plays of 25 yards or more: three long touchdowns, including a 73-yarder to Green on the first play from scrimmage that dampened the festive spirit before the game was a minute old. That the touchdown came on a trick play — on a pass from reserve wideout Mohammed Sanu — just seemed to rub salt in the wound.

For the eighth straight game dating from last season, Washington gave up more than 31 points and more than 350 yards. That’s got to really irk the loyalists who waited so long and patiently for an offense to emerge: Now that it has, the holes that need to be patched are on the other side of the ball.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...4c06f2-05bd-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html

 

[User Guide]

Eli? I guess you mean Joe Flacco? I think the refs treated both sides pretty much equally badly. I certainly don't think that they cost NE the game. I stayed up all night too, right down to that last second FG that just about saved my day from total disaster after the Skins, Nats, and O's had all lost.

@ Alpe & 3man - I guess I didn't do too badly then with six!? Jeez, what a bunch of unbelievable results again. It looks like we're going to see major upsets every week now.

AS for the Skins, I can report that RG3 played another excellent game and more than held his own, despite taking a lot of heavy hits, something I don't think he'll be able to stand for a whole season.

There's been an about turn from last season, when the defense kept the Skins in games while the offense consistently failed to deliver. This season, the offense is not bad at all; calling the defense 'awful' is almost too kind. They suck, big time.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...4c06f2-05bd-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html

Is irrelevant as I said,our own fault, although i respectfully disagree but maybe I had team coulred glasses on
Eli as was reffering back to the last two superbowls and the defences lack of making simple plays/or stopping anyone.