2008 NFL Season Thread- The Road to Super Bowl XLIII

[Qwerty 42]

And... Minnesota. I'll be honest, I don't know the teams' respective stats on offense and defense and how they "match up" against one another, this one's just a gut call. Minnesota with their fleet-of-foot runners, on turf, give me confidence, I don't care how hot the Eagles are. That was the Cowboys, so it was sort've personal. If anything, are they not throttling down emotionally, after stiff-arming Dallas out of the post-season? I say again: gut call.

The one thing that gives me confidence as an Eagles fan is that Philadelphia has won their most recent match-up against Minnesota. In fact, they've won their most recent games against every team in the NFC playoff. Admittedly, that Minnesota game was a huge statistical quirk, especially once Eagle DE put then-Minnesota starter Kelly Holcomb out with a concussion.

[Dark Flame]

And now I present the short play "Fight in the Browns' Locker Room."
(Scene: The Browns' locker room. Brady Quinn is finishing up a set of preacher curls.)
Quinn: "Oh, yeah. Look at those striations. I'm cut, baby. I'm cut."
(A teammate walks up and punches him in the face. Quinn doesn't even budge.)
Teammate: "What the … ? I just punched you as hard as I could. You didn't even feel it."
Quinn (smirking): "I know. You think a few seconds of applying Vaseline to a boxer's face between rounds helps deflect punches? Just think what 20 years of daily application of facial creams and lotions does."
(Several more teammates punch Quinn.)
Quinn: "Nothing, fellas. Sorry. I'm indestructible. None of you can defeat me."
Teammate: "Bull----. I know someone in this locker room who can drop you in a heartbeat."
Quinn: "Ha! Impossible."
Teammate: "Braylon! Get over here."
(Quinn runs out of the locker room screaming.)
(End scene.)

I don't care that I root for them, this shit is funny!

As for hiring Mangini, fuck that. I'd rather have Shanahan. Hell, I'd really prefer Marty, but it's not up to me. I think a more realistic scenario is getting Pioli as GM and that HC from Iowa.

This week's picks:
Atlanta at Arizona-Ground games work in the playoffs. Cardinals are gonna get curbstomped by a more physical team.
Indianapolis at San Diego-Okay, so they can't run. But I can't go against Peyton in the playoffs.
Baltimore at Miami-I'd like to see Miami do better, but I really think Baltimore's a much better team. They had a harder schedule, and they seem less beat-up.
Philadelphia at Minnesota-Ground game wins again.

[Elfdart]

Tony Romo tried to kill himself ...but the bullet was intercepted.

He's going to be replaced by Jenna Jameson.



You never saw her choke on the big one, did you?

[Yes, it's an old joke and I've used it before but damn it's funny! ]

[Elfdart]

Fucking christ Singletary! Get your ass on the phone with Shannahan for the OC job RIGHT NOW! Well, Bill Walsh said that after about 10 years, you should fold up your tent. He went 14, so this may work out well for Shannahan. Back to Oakland anyone? Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in Detroit, if he doesn't want to take a break.

I wouldn't touch the Detroit job with a 10-foot pole.

I dunno about Martz getting canned. I think he and Singletary would have balanced each other out well.

Supposedly, Singletary wanted to keep him, but ownership said no.

I am happy to see the 22 step drop back passing game go bye bye though. I still think a West Coast system would suit the Niners well.

If you mean the Bill Walsh System, it's not a very good fit right now with everyone playing the Tampa Two defense these days. It's hard to "take what they give you" when they don't give you anything but the deep out.

I also think it may give Alex Smith, whom I still like and want to stay, new life in San Francisco. It would probably benefit Hill as well as, while he throws a decent deep ball, he seems to get indecisive with to much time in the pocket. Not as bad as O'Fumblin' though.

The smart thing to do would be to bring in someone who runs the same general scheme Turner and Martz did. When you switch, you're essentially pissing away at least half a season and probably a full one.

Gonna laugh my ass off if the Browns hire Manginni.

What difference would it make? No matter how much of a wanker Mangini is, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is still the biggest joke Cleveland has to offer.

[Havok]

Interesting on the Martz front. I'm not in off-season mode yet so I don't get all in depth in coaching and personnel and hadn't heard that.
And if we are going to get all technical, it is the Cincinnati System. ...That actually made me throw up in my mouth a little just to type. And I think the BWS is great against the T2 as the Mike drops deep on almost every play leaving the middle shallow crossing routes wide open, because usually the T2 is actually just a Cover 3 these days.

I agree on bringing in someone to run the same system, Air Coryell yes? No matter who comes in though, Singeltary will stare them into submission and force them to run as often as he likes.

Actually, Detroit may not be a bad gig to get into right now. Calvin Johnson is a fucking stud. You have 5 draft picks in the first 85, plus you are gonna suck pretty bad next year too, unless you pull a Falcons/Dolphins, which I doubt, so you will have another year of high quality draft picks to help make a run in your third year. New facility. Pretty damn loyal fan base. (Took them a decade of sucking to finally get a blacked out game) And no Matt Millen to draft you five more receivers instead of a QB or a Line. And if you get even one win you doubled the total from this year!

[Elfdart]

Interesting on the Martz front. I'm not in off-season mode yet so I don't get all in depth in coaching and personnel and hadn't heard that.

Apparently the owner didn't want him there in the first place on the grounds that he's "overqualified" -which I construed as meaning "someone is going to grab him as HC soon".

And if we are going to get all technical, it is the Cincinnati System. ...That actually made me throw up in my mouth a little just to type. And I think the BWS is great against the T2 as the Mike drops deep on almost every play leaving the middle shallow crossing routes wide open, because usually the T2 is actually just a Cover 3 these days.

Funny you bring up the Bengals of the 1970s. They had a great offense (Ken Anderson, Charlie Joiner, Isaac Curtis) until it got caught in the shredder known as the Steel Curtain -an early version of the Tampa Two. It was worse back then because defenders were allowed to beat the shit out of receivers and QBs. It's just very difficult to take what they give you when they don't really give you anything.

I agree on bringing in someone to run the same system, Air Coryell yes? No matter who comes in though, Singeltary will stare them into submission and force them to run as often as he likes.

Maybe your team would want to try Clarence Shelmon or Brian Schottenheimer: same scheme, conservative playcalling. Speaking of Coryell, back when Bill Walsh died they interviewed Dan Fouts (Walsh was OC for the Chargers in 1976) and he said that when Coryell took over in 1978, he told the offensive players that although his scheme was different from what Walsh had done in 1976 (and what Tommy Prothro gave them from 77-78: a total clusterfuck), he would gladly keep anything from the previous offense verbatim if they wanted to. Even though Coryell invented the I-formation, he kept Walsh's split-back sets -as well as the "stick". Compare that to a putz like Chan Gailey, who wrecked the Cowboys offense in 1998 just to install his clownshoes system.

Actually, Detroit may not be a bad gig to get into right now. Calvin Johnson is a fucking stud. You have 5 draft picks in the first 85,

And you have the same collection of fucktards running the team. Matt Millen is gone but his flunkies still pick the players and coaches. Any proven coach would have to have final say on players and staff and Ford won't allow that. As Randy Cross said the other day: "Going by what the Ford family has done with the Lions, I can't wait to see their new SUV that gets 2 mpg."

plus you are gonna suck pretty bad next year too, unless you pull a Falcons/Dolphins, which I doubt, so you will have another year of high quality draft picks to help make a run in your third year. New facility. Pretty damn loyal fan base. (Took them a decade of sucking to finally get a blacked out game) And no Matt Millen to draft you five more receivers instead of a QB or a Line. And if you get even one win you doubled the total from this year!

No, 2 X 0 = 0

You know, drafting those receivers wouldn't have been so bad if more than one of them could play worth a damn. The Falcons and Dolphins have proven experts evaluating talent for them. The Lions still have Millen's cronies. They have two 1st-rounders and I'll bet they take a wideout with one of them.

[Cos Dashit]

IND @ SD
BAL @ MIA
PHI @ MIN
ATL @ ARI

[Qwerty 42]

Before the playoffs start, this was my scenario for how the season would unfold back in July. I never wrote it down here, so I have no means of proving it, so I'm hoping you'll take it at face value.

AFC:

1. Jacksonville
2. Pittsburgh
3. Oakland
4. New York Jets
5. Indianapolis
6. New England

NFC:

1. San Francisco
2. New Orleans
3. Philadelphia
4. Minnesota
5. Washington
6. Dallas

Indianapolis at New York Jets
New England at Oakland
Washington at Minnesota
Dallas at Philadelphia

Oakland at Pittsburgh
New York Jets at Jacksonville
Philadelphia at New Orleans
Minnesota at San Francisco

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville
Philadelphia at San Francisco

Pittsburgh at Philadelphia

[Havok]

Dude, Qwerty. What kind of drugs are you taking. I want some.

[Next of Kin]

Here are my predictions for the wildcard matchups:
Atlanta, Indy, Miami, and Philly

Anyone thinking the Cards, San Diego, Balt, or the Vikings can pull off upsets?

[Elfdart]

SHIT!

Adam Schefter
Tomlinson has groin tear

Posted: Adam Schefter | Adam Schefter | Tags: LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers

Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson has a detached tendon in his groin area that is so bad, doctors recommended that he have surgery this week, a league source said Saturday.

Tomlinson’s mood was especially down all week, according to a team source, and this might help explain why he was so glum. Tomlinson knows he is not well as these playoffs are getting ready to kickoff.

As much as Tomlinson is going to want to play Saturday night, the Chargers might have no choice but to shut him down to prevent him from doing further and more extensive damage to his groin. Tomlinson could try to play because he wants to, and because the specter of last season, when he didn’t finish the AFC Championship Game against New England due to a knee injury, followed him throughout the off-season.

But if he plays tonight, which is looking more and more uncertain, it is expected to be difficult for Tomlinson to be effective.

Looks like it's up to Sproles, Hester and Bennett now.

[Medic]

WELL THE TEAM denied this, of course. *sigh* Who knows? What we do is he is nicked and probably won't be effective. At worst though it could be as that article describes. At least if / whenever the Bolts O-line does open up holes, Sproles is practically guaranteed a 1st-down length run.

Hopefully we commit to the run all the same and / or the Colts put 8 in the box. Here's to the play-action!

edit: ... there's a playoff atmosphere in Arizona.

I suppose stranger things were typed.

edit: wow! A flea flicker.
edit: Arizona came to play. They're stuffing the run, not biting on play-action, have a pic and a sack and on their side of things running the ball well! This prediction's looking... wrong.

[Medic]

Summary of Falcons @ Cardinals to the 5 minutes mark, 17-30 Falcons down but with the ball:

The Cardinals defense have been jumping the snap all night. They've paid for it in penalties but also been rewarded for it in defensive plays: picks, sacks and a defensive touchdown in the 3rd quarter.
They've also played the run superbly. They've stayed in their lanes and gotten penetration and Matt Ryan, under pressure, playing from behind, has made mistakes.

The Falcons just scored with 4:15 to go so it's 24-30. That being said, their 1st 1st down of the half was on this scoring drive! They did not do a damned thing in the 1st quarter or the 3rd quarter but actually took the lead 14-17 by the end of the half. (a lead they promptly gave up and have yet to get back with the blown-up run-play-turned-defensive-touchdown)


odds and ends: the Cardinals return game sucks. When they even field it properly (not let it bounce or hit their ankles) they don't block well, often begin on the wrong side of the 20 yard line and have taken it out of the end zone when that was the result. That's a great mark though for the Cardinals offense, who've ran the ball well in the 1st half and the 4th quarter. (they didn't do much on the ground in the 3rd -- this game has been strange on a quarter-by-quarter basis) It's been a see-saw contest but with the nasty caveat Arizona stuffed the thought-to-be decisive Atlanta ground game.

A good game if not mistake free.

edit: on 3rd and a mile (16 yards), Atlanta's linebackers jumped on a play-action, resulting in a wide-open pass to a tight end and a 1st down at the 2 minute warning. Arizona's got a 6 point lead and is in field goal range. That's probably game if it becomes a 2-score game again with <2 minutes to go.

edit: OOPS! Atlanta didn't have any timeouts left! Game, set, match.

I'm 0 for 1. Congrats to Cardinals fans, whoever few you are. A playoff win after so many suck-ass years. No one can associate you with paragons of suck like the Lions and Browns or pillars of mediocrity like the Texans and Bills, anymore.

[weemadando]

It looks like I'll be watching Ravens v Dolphins in HD live any minute now... At least I hope so - thank god for Australian TV finally picking up it's game and showing more than just the Superbowl on free-to-air this year.

[Havok]

Oh yes I can.

Seriously, congrats to Arizona and Wisenhunt. Solid win, and if they can play like that on the road, they may have a legitimate shot.

[Medic]

It was a tight affair though: a lot of plays Atlanta thought were free plays (someone jumping at the line) ended up being dead-ball penalties and one or two of those were huge ground-gainers for Atlanta, on NON-scoring drives.

Also, one play with 10 Arizona defenders on the field in which a huge hole was opened up on the left side and Turner was home-free, a player on the field sneaked in a timely time-out, saving a touchdown.

[weemadando]

It looks like I'll be watching Ravens v Dolphins in HD live any minute now... At least I hope so - thank god for Australian TV finally picking up it's game and showing more than just the Superbowl on free-to-air this year.

Crap - I just realised I have my time-zones all wonky like. It's probably the Arizona game on delayed telecast we're about to get.

CORRECTION! It is live - it's the Chargers v Colts game. FUCK YES! Let's watch Manning eat more dirt!

[Tsyroc]

I was hoping the Cards would start acting like they did around mid season when they beat Dallas. Now I only hope that they will at least play New York or Carolina as close as they've been able to do earlier this season. It might be asking a bit much though since both teams should be up for the game, it's on the East Coast, and both are outside. If the Cards win against either of those teams I'll be pleasantly shocked.

[Medic]

I was hoping the Cards would start acting like they did around mid season when they beat Dallas. Now I only hope that they will at least play New York or Carolina as close as they've been able to do earlier this season. It might be asking a bit much though since both teams should be up for the game, it's on the East Coast, and both are outside. If the Cards win against either of those teams I'll be pleasantly shocked.

They have got to bring the same run-D discipline next week against either team they showed tonight. If they can't get those teams snap counts down though then they won't have the leg-up they had against Atlanta all-night save the 2nd quarter, when Ryan was able to manipulate the snap count to his favor on 2 scoring drives.

[Medic]

Well, we can't get the ground game going and we've yet to try for a play-action bomb, typical of Turner's play calling this season, but Scifres is booming mortars tonight. Depending on how both respective defenses keep playing, it might be a field-position, turnover contest with the fewer mistake, fewer flagged team winning.

Unfortunately, the ref team on the field called more penalties for more yards than any other team in the league. The Chargers secondary for it's part is the most-flagged for pass interference. We've got one under our belt tonight. Let's hope this game isn't decided by the damn zebras....

edit: down 10-7, with a sputtering drive deep in our own territory, we had to punt. Scifres KICKED PAST the returner, it took a back-spin bounce and the returner (now facing the OTHER direction ) picked it up and returned it about 3 yards and was taken down around the 7 yard line. 67 yard punt. That's a fucking mortar.

Also: Tomlinson's definitely not %100. He has a 5 yard average on 5 carries and a touchdown but thanks to good work by the O-line. He's in obvious pain and is on the bike and stretching between plays.

edit: Colts challenged a play. A loudmouthed fan could quietly but clearly be heard yelling about the challenge. I counted one "F-bomb" to which Al Michaels noted "Apparently there's some ambient crowd noise on the ref's mike."

edit: WOW. There's a night-and-day difference between these punters. In this, a 10-7 contest (our one score was on a drive from which the Colts punted within their own 10 and gave us a short field, after a return) that could be the difference. We just got a punt (from their own 11 or so) that only made it to the 45 or so!

last edit (next one will be a new post): this is why the Chargers are still a legit contender, record be damned. You have to compete in all 3 phases of the game. Not just offense / defense. You have to account for a (should-be) Pro Bowl punter, arguably the best in the game, a reliable place-kicker, Darren Sproles and good coverage units.

[Medic]

Speak of the devil! We scored on another short field, courtesy of 1) our punter booming one from our 30 to their 10 and 2) their punter barely getting it to the 50 yard line (with a bad bounce) from his own 11 or so.

On the ensuing kickoff, we forced a fumble -- the refs called the runner down by contact and with 33 seconds left, it's under up-top review. (we called a timeout to make sure that would happen) It is a close affair, but who was it? Perennial Pro-Bowl special team specialist Kasim Osgood at the point of attack, ripping it out.

I say again: you have to compete with the Chargers in 3 phases of the game. (the challenge didn't stand, bah, Colts ball)

edit: wow, free touchdown for the Colts -- they no-huddled and caught a Chargers substitution and Cromartie staring at the sideline for instructions. Wayne ran right past him and got a gimme.

[Medic]

Looks like it's up to Sproles, Hester and Bennett now.

Wait, THAT Bennet? From Minnesota back in the day? That guys a burner, or was in his younger days in his 02 Pro Bowl season. He got a 1st down run of >10 yards.

[Qwerty 42]

It looks like I'll be watching Ravens v Dolphins in HD live any minute now... At least I hope so - thank god for Australian TV finally picking up it's game and showing more than just the Superbowl on free-to-air this year.

Crap - I just realised I have my time-zones all wonky like. It's probably the Arizona game on delayed telecast we're about to get.

CORRECTION! It is live - it's the Chargers v Colts game. FUCK YES! Let's watch Manning eat more dirt!

Baltimore at Miami and Philadelphia at Minnesota aren't going to be played until tomorrow, unfortunately.

Also, nice choice of music by NBC. "The Final Countdown" indeed.

EDIT: Could a Chargers fan tell me why they're wearing the powder blue tonight? Not that I'm objecting, it's just a surprise.

[Havok]

Whoa boy... getting tight San Diego.

[Medic]

God dam cardiac kids.

We've got a red-zone fumble and a red-zone INT against us; still down 14-17 and now we're forcing them to punt from their 1 yard line with 2 minutes to go.
One day, I'm gonna be too old for this shit. Fucking damnit, either win or lose, but don't leave it to the last 2 minutes!