National Football League

[on3m@n@rmy]

Cleveland Indians 6, Seattle Mariners 3.
No Wait!.... Crap, I'm sorry. This is not MLB.

Cleveland Browns 6, Seattle Seahawks 3. Pffffffft. I agree, Alpe... on Seattle's inept offense.

And congrats also to the other obvious winners who held up my otherwise dismal picks this week (6-6 so far), and congrats even to all 6 teams who won whom I didn't pick to win.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

That Saints-Colts game was ugly. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

I think the Cleveland Indians could have suited up today and the Seahawks probably would have still gotten only 3 points against them.

 

[lancaster]

You do realize that Dallas is a few plays from being unbeaten..

but those few plays are Romo's hobby............... clutch interceptions.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Raves-Jags game was pretty ugly too, but for different reasons. It may not have been the ugliest game of the week, but I think it was the upset game of the week. NOBODY (in my little world) thought the Jags would win this. But hats off to the Jags for getting it done.

Critical comment of this game: the Office-gals, er, I mean the officials are taking some of the beauty of the game away with bad calls of hits to a defenseless player. Not just this game, but others this week too. This is a stiff penalty, and should be if an illegal hit is really made. But in this game, the hit by Pollard to a Jag WR was a clean hit. The Office-gal got it wrong. To make it worse, the penalty was a potential game outcome changer. Problem is, the officials are being overly conservative.
Solution: Make this defenseless player call replay-reviewable. Let the officials review it under the hood if it is at all questionable. I'd rather have a little break and get it right.

 

[lancaster]

they are too worried that they'll miss a horror hit so flag it every time anyone gets lit up.

having them re viewable would be a good idea

alternatively, call them more sparingly on field and punish them more harshly afterwards (ie you might get away with it in game, but will get a one game ban for it)

there also should be a former NFL S/LB on the panel that judges them. last year the were some big fines for borderline hits.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I completely agree. The better team won last night, but the officiating has now gone too far. I'm not siding with James Harrison on this. But a couple of those hits were just plain football, as Gruden said. If the league thinks there's a problem they need to generally let them play more, but review plays later and start fining and suspending guys. Calls that last night were too much.

Jags defense and their coach had the solution to completely shut down Baltimore. Impressive for a 2-4 team.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

My problem with officiating is the inconsistency and what I can only perceive as preferential treatment to the league's most marketable players and largest market teams. You see it with QB hits and pass interference calls all the time. As far as physical and or illegal hits, I agree let them play and fine or suspend later. Throwing a penalty flag on a physical hit unless it's a blatantly obvious head to head type shot is just a waste of time. Let them play and discipline later.

 

[Amsterhammer]

So ****ing typical.

You start the season as a Skins fan with some small degree of optimism that things may finally be going in the right direction, you then get seduced by an entirely unexpected start to the campaign, you even get to spend one week leading the division at 3-1, and then, then the curse strikes again.

Starting QB has a meltdown.

#1 RB Hightower out for the season.

#1 WR S. Moss out for 5-7 weeks.

I now see yet another negative season...........

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

They could find themselves back in the Suck for Luck campaign.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

The Skins are sunk in the suck for Luck campaign. Seattle is only 2-4 and have nearly zero potential to win any more, well maybe vs Arizona or STL. But the Skins are 3-3, so will have a tough time catching Seattle in that race.

I'll tell ya what's weird... Seattle at 2-4 has the same record as the pre-season dream team Eagles. Sorry Philly fans for that comparison.

Now how terrible is this division (take a guess... yeup, you got it... NFC West). I know, so what else is new? The total wins and losses for all NFC West teams is 8-16, and that includes the 5-1 Niners. Drop the Niners record out of the count and remaining NFCW teams are an abismal 3-15!!! So, I don't feel too sorry for Skins.

News Flash: TO works out for... for... uh, nobody. That's right, no NFL teams showed up to watch a workout by Terrell Owens for NFL teams. TO at 37 is coming off an ACL injury. But he looked pretty good. And he spoke well about his comback attempt. I'm not much of a TO fan, but I hope the guy gets a shot to play somewhere in the NFL because he has the heart to.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I was kind of hoping the Eagles would be interested, and thought Miami, Wash o Houston might.

As to the Seahawks, they play at St. Louis on Nov 20, and Wash on the 27th. Then at Arizona on Jan 1st. The rest of the games are against quality teams: Dallas, Cincy, Philly, Baltimore, Chicago, SF. I think that will end up 4-12, and 3-5th pick in the draft. Not likely to get Luck, but could pick Matt Barkley whom Pete Carroll recruited to USC, or Landry Jones who shows leadership and pro skills at OK, though the loss to Texas Tech hurt his team. But Seattle also needs players at so many other positions. Look at their roster and it's filled with a lot of guys you've never heard of or seem like 2nd string from another team. Carrol, Cabel and the staff can only do so much and even if they get Luck, are going to have a tough couple years before they are likely good again.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I pretty much agree with that Hawk uptake. The only thing I'd add is look what the loss of Peyton has meant to the Colts. And what having him on the field means. I knew Peyton was great (duh) but I never would have expected the team to tank like that without him. So, getting a quality QB could transform almost any team. For Seattle, I don't think that would transform them into a playoff team (well, take that back... in the NFC West it might), or a legit playoff contender, but they would more likely end up 8-8-ish. But yeah, they need hep at too many positions.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Manning is like no other QB, irreplaceable. Especially in that system. When Tom Brady missed 15 games a couple years back, Matt Cassel lead the Pats to 11 wins (10 with Matt starting), Sam Bradford has hardly lead the Rams to anything because the OL is so weak in St.L.

Having said that, who thought Andy Dalton would step in the way he has in Cincy? They are 4-2. But also look at Tebow. He is still rough, had a sloppy game last week, but still almost willed the Broncos to victory. Intangibles are so hard to calculate in the NFL.

The only thing I can thus say about Seattle us that neither Jackson nor Whithurst are going to lead them anywhere at the rate they are going. And I see no indication of that changing.

 

[lancaster]

i'm far from convinced that i know the answer but......

i actually think the Indy situation is pretty embarrassing.

manning isn't young, and has been broadly healthy, a big injury was likely at some stage and the Brady injury a couple of years ago should've given them a heads up.

this season the O-line has not been awful but very little rush game or passing game has existed.

they've struggled to contain the run on D (or generate much pressure)

if the cassel success made them too comfortable then shame on them but they've had a long time to think about what would happen if something happened to manning and it would appear that it never crossed their mind.

there's a real shortage of quality composed QBs in the league (maybe 6 total)
but the pats had a system that could cope without theirs and there are plenty of other teams who every year approach a season without real quality at QB and do a more passable job.


also be careful what you wish for. as good as Andrew Luck looks, there are many many draft busts and QBs who were going to be amazing and for every peyton (and lesser extent eli) there's a jamarcus russel (or tim couch, akili smith, alex smith, david carr) who have varied between awful and average at best.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Makes sense to me LAN... Then what you say about draft busts is true. I guess the ideal thing would be to find a Brady-like future Hall of Fame QB for a 6th-round draft pick pricetag. But I think I'd still take Luck if he was available.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Good lord, I had to go halfway down page 2 to find this.

It was only last week that I first heard about 'suck for Luck' in the context of my Skins desperately needing a decent QB.

Imagine my surprise then when I discovered that Stanford - USC was the featured college game on my ESPN channel! Imagine my further surprise as the game developed! Luck is very impressive - and very big. I had absolutely no idea how different college overtime is compared to NFL overtime! An astonishing final score of 56-48 meant that it was a lot of fun to watch.

Can one of you tell me why Stanford are referred to as "Cardinal', in the singular? Strange.

I confidently expect the Skins to get beat today.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Colts at Titans 1:00 PM
Jaguars at Texans 1:00 PM
Cardinals at Ravens 1:00 PM
Dolphins at Giants 1:00 PM
Vikings at Panthers 1:00 PM
Saints at Rams 1:00 PM
Redskins at Bills 4:05 PM
Lions at Broncos 4:05 PM
Browns at 49ers 4:15 PM
Bengals at Seahawks 4:15 PM
Patriots at Steelers 4:15 PM
Cowboys at Eagles 8:20 PM

Mon. Oct. 31

Chargers at Chiefs 8:30 PM

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I had them exactly as you picked except for one... Monday night's Bolts @ Chiefs. KC has a history of taking the thunder out of SD at home and SD has a way of losing should be wins. I still feel confident SD will prevail this time.

Colts at Titans *
Jaguars at Texans *
Cardinals at Ravens
Dolphins at Giants *
Vikings at Panthers *
Saints at Rams
Redskins at Bills *
Lions at Broncos
Browns at 49ers
Bengals at Seahawks
Patriots at Steelers *
Cowboys at Eagles **

Mon. Oct. 31
Chargers at Chiefs

* = Upset potential
** = This pick I squirm on the most. Would not be upset if DAL wins.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

My picks were the same, except I pick Dallas over Philly. I hemmed and hawed on NE and Pittsburgh, but went with NE who looks like they're going to lose. I may change my mind and pick the re-surging KC over SD. I just don't trust the Chargers.

There are quite a few people on Yahoo Pick'Em, who have gotten every single game correct this year. After today's NO loss to St.L I have to wonder if any are left.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Looks like we (Amsterhammer, Alpe, nd me) are about 8-3 before the Sunday night game. Not bad, but it could have been better. My losing picks were MIN (I took CAR), PIT (I took NE), and STL (I took NO).

That said, I'm not too surprised about getting it wrong on MIN and PIT. But New Orleans losing to the Rams???? What happened? I did not see it except for highlights. Steven Jackson I have always liked even tho I'm a Seattle fan. And looks like the Rams pass rush did Brees in. But still, the Saints must have played like AIN'Ts.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Wow, the Cowboys stink. Guess I was wrong on that one. I expected them to challenge Vick to throw the ball deep, and when on offense to run the ball right down their throat. So far, they have done neither. They keep trying to pass on the corners, and stunt or linebacker blitz when on defense with the safeties way deep. They look like the Seahawks.

Speaking of, that loss today was ugly. Rotten, stinking ugly. Whitehurst looked so flat in the first half. And to think they gave up a 2nd and 3rd round pick for him. Then, they put Jackson in who had a couple good passes on one drive, followed by even more ugly throws than Whitehurst from just horrible decisions. And the OL can't be blamed here, they did okay.

 

[rides like a girl]

Thought the Cowboy D was better. Thought they could get pressure on Vick and turn him into a runner. Wrong.

Glad Tebow faced a good defense to show just how much help and learning he needs. Wish TV "experts" were as hard on him as they are on other quarterbacks. Kind of a teflon guy. His QB rating has to be low after his horrible game today. The recap guy on local CBS station mentioned how the receivers and running backs had to help Tebow. No mention of how bad some of his throws were.

Glad my 49ers won another won.

The Saints seemingly can't string together games. They win one then either lose or barely beat teams they should handle.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Tebow was definitely way out of his league. His passer rating of 91 last week against the woeful Dolphins dropped to 56 today. Had it not been for the garbage time TD it would have been about 40. Ouch. I'm glad to see the kid get a chance, but agree with those that say it's going to take something for him to be a franchise QB. If I were the Broncos, and knew this, I would have kept him on the bench except in garbage time, then traded him at the end of the season as they likely could have gotten a good pick for him.

SF just keep winning. Only the Packers have a better record in all of the NFL, and are one OT FG from being unbeaten. They have a very solid defense, and Alex Smith is playing very smart in a system and for a coach that finally works for him. Still at least three tough games for them though. NYG, @ Baltimore, Pittsburgh. But there's no reason to think they couldn't end up about 12-4 with a playoff bye at the rate things are going.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Eagles looked like the Eagles I was expecting to see this season.

SF has good talent. And prolly better coaching. And it is showing.

I would not want to be the Saints next opponent. And it's the Bucs at the Superdome.

Seattle has lots of problems. But, true, the OL is doing better. One thing really bothers me about them is discipline... to many mental mistakes like false starts (at home for God sakes), stupid penalties for personal fouls, penalties for illegals contact by corners well past 5 yards downfield, too many dropped passes that are catchable. To name a few of the top of the ol noggin.

 

[Amsterhammer]

I stopped watching in the third quarter because it was obvious that the Skins wouldn't/couldn't score in a month of Sundays. I think that after yesterday's disaster we really must be in the suck for Luck driving seat - it's just a shame about those three early season wins. Judging by yesterday, I can't see them winning another game. Buffalo had four sacks all season before yesterday - they sacked Beck seven times!

The Ravens left it squeaky late and the poor Fins yet again gave away a lead. Yes, the Pats and Saints sure disappointed us in the prediction stakes and, to a lesser extent, Carolina.