NFL Vol. I

[davos]

Its time for a new thread. Which is kind of fitting given that the first regular season game is only less than 3 days away and the first Sunday of football is in less than a week.

Carry on.

[Slyfinger]

Let's go.

[Slyfinger]

Beat to the punch, delete my topic please, and Pittsburgh wins the AFC North. Polamalu being healthy means more to the Steelers than Ben.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Beat to the punch, delete my topic please, and Pittsburgh wins the AFC North. Polamalu being healthy means more to the Steelers than Ben.

I just merged the two. :)

[Starkess]

I am going to be home on Saturday, just in time for FOOTBALL!! I am so excited. Corona and homemade guacamole (I make the best frigging guac ever, I know no humility in this arena), and cuddling on the couch while watching the games. CANNOT WAIT! Only thing that would make it better is if hubs wasn't a Ravens fan. :ack: (Although their first game is against the Jets, so we will be happily united on Monday night!)

[Swordfish]

Sorry, I'm still not convinced. Both players have gigantic egos. They maybe friends off the field but if one or the other aren't seeing a lot of balls come their way or if the team hits a rough stretch I'm not so sure there won't be issues. I'm also not sure of the wisdom of having two star quality wide-outs wih such similar styles on the same team. Its not like one is a deep route specialist and one is a possesion receiver so they would compliment each other rather than compete for catches. I would like to be wrong. Cinci fans have gone through years of heart ache and I would like to see their team have some real success.

Agreed. It makes no difference if they are friends off the field. In fact, it probably makes it worse. Carson Palmer doesn't stand a chance against the combined might of those two egos. Whether they fight with each other isn't even really relevant.

[TheBigTEA]

I just hope the Packers live up to all the hype they are getting. Rogers looks to be just awesome and so does the offense...but the D is a little worrying. We shall see I guess, but who else thinks Sept - Oct is just the greatest 2 months of the year? Best weather and the best two sports on at the same time? Yes please!

Oh and the keyboard on my new laptop sucks ass!

[grozeng]

Jets re-signed Tony Richardson. Makes me very happy. Between that and Revis things look like they are going in the right direction. Which means Sanchez will probably tear his achilles in week 1 (or for you non-Sanchez fans - he won't tear his achilles).

[Mexal]

Agreed. It makes no difference if they are friends off the field. In fact, it probably makes it worse. Carson Palmer doesn't stand a chance against the combined might of those two egos. Whether they fight with each other isn't even really relevant.

I honestly don't believe this and I don't know how anyone else could. Palmer has had to deal with Chad for 7 years and despite one bad incident where Chad tried to get out of Cinci several years ago, he has been nothing but been a team player.

TO was on the worst team he's ever been on last year and he was perfectly fine. He has NEVER once caused problems his first year. All of this talk that he'll be vitriolic and fight with Chad is overblown and completely false.

I think their only chance is if The Bengal's offense is really strong with Ocho back to his old form and TO also getting a lot of production and the team winning a lot more than it loses. In that scenario I would see the whole dynamic working out. Assuming that this will not happen, they'll likely be an average team, and both of them will be unsatisfied, and complain that they're open on every play that they don't get thrown to, it should be a fun implosion to watch.

It's true that TO kept the drama to a minimum last year, but I kinda feel like he was a largely forgotten media story which may have helped that. He'll be much more in the spotlight this year.

Yes, it'll help if the offense stays strong. If it doesn't, it doesn't really matter if TO/Chad go crazy cause we'll already be losing. With our schedule, we can't afford a run of losses. I think they'll have a lot more problems than TO/Chad.

And we're forgetting that this team is made up of players like this and even last year, when we had a run of major tragedies and losses, there was still no problems. Sometimes, you guys read way too much into the media talk.

[Jaxom 1974]

I'd think the key to Cincinnati's season would be a healthy Carson Palmer. If he's able to sling the ball to TO and Ochocinco, that'll keep them happy. If he goes down, who's going to really get the ball to them? A healthy Carson is the key to happy wide receiver divas. If that happens, then Cincinnati could be a force.

[Space Bandito]

Everyone is all excited about predicting the entire frigging season ;). Can we do this at least one week at a time. :laugh:

Minnesota at New Orleans - New Orleans, but it will be close.

Detroit at Chicago - Chicago, it will be interesting to see Detroit's defense pick off Cutler.

Oakland at Tennessee - Oakland, Time to see what this offense can do?

Indianapolis at Houston - Indianapolis, this will be a good game. Can't pick against Indy.

Miami at Buffalo - Miami, I know some poor fantasy football players that will have to watch a few players in this game.

Cincinnati at New England - New England, hopefully the defense can stop a few drives. All depends on that young defense.

Carolina at NY Giants - NY Giants, They get to pick on a developing QB.

Atlanta at Pittsburgh - Atlanta, this is a tough one. I think Atlanta will try to run and grind this one out.

Cleveland at Tampa Bay - Cleveland, Jake Delhomme comes out ready to kick ass. Too bad this will be his best game of the year.

Denver at Jacksonville - Denver, another tough game. Both teams are filled with injuries and questions. I think Denver surprises with some defense.

San Francisco at Seattle - San Fran, while everyone questions their offense, everyone is impressed with the potential of their Defense.

Arizona at St. Louis - St. Louis, The Arizona defense has gone through a few changes over the summer, mostly ignored while people focused on who would replace Warner. This game is probably 70/30, but I'm going with the rookie.

Green Bay at Philadelphia - Green Bay, A high scoring game but right now you can't pick against the Jolly Green Giant that is Aaron Rodgers.

Dallas at Washington - Dallas, sorry Washington but Dallas was just sucking during the preseason. They will be fine (at least until December).

Baltimore at NY Jets - Baltimore, offense vs defense. What is Baltimore going to do? Run or pass with their new wr's? This is a tough game to call. I think it comes down to the Baltimore defense and turnovers and the Jets have had a little problem with turnovers lately.

San Diego at Kansas City - San Diego, they will finally start the season off well.

[The Wedge]

The Bears will finish 13-3 or 3-13. There is no in between.

[Mexal]

Everyone is all excited about predicting the entire frigging season ;). Can we do this at least one week at a time. :laugh:

Ok. I'll bite.

Minnesota at New Orleans - I think they have the better team. I don't think Minnesota's offense will be as solid without Rice.

Detroit at Chicago - Their defense is better than Detroits and I think that is the difference.

Oakland at Tennessee - Oakland isn't bad but I think Tennessee is better, especially at home.

Indianapolis at Houston - Houston will have a hard time stopping Manning without Cushing. It'll be close though.

Miami at Buffalo - Buffalo is just a terrible team with a terrible offense. Miami should beat them soundly.

Cincinnati at New England - The New England defense just doesn't look good. Their secondary is extremely young though talented and they have very few pass rushers. With Cinci's 3 WR sets and Gresham, I think the defense has a hard time stopping them.

Carolina at NY Giants - Panthers have looked decent in preseason but I think Giants get after Moore and force him into a few mistakes.

Atlanta at Pittsburgh - Pitt's defense will keep them in this game but ultimately, they won't be able to score enough points with Dixon at QB to win.

Cleveland at Tampa Bay - TB offense will be awful, especially if Freeman can't play. I think Cleveland is improved and will be competitive. They should take this one.

Denver at Jacksonville - Low scoring game. I'll give it to Jacksonville because of MJD.

San Francisco at Seattle - No WRs and a RBBC with meh RBs means Seattle will have a hard time scoring against a really good SF defense. They'll score enough behind Gore to take this one.

Arizona at St. Louis - I almost picked STL. I think Cardinals will get beat by most teams but they're better than STL at this point.

Green Bay at Philadelphia - I like Philly at home here. Kolb hasn't looked great but I think he does enough to win here. GB's offense is hard to stop but Philly has a fantastic defense. It'll be close and I wouldn't even be a little bit surprised if GB won.

Dallas at Washington - Dallas is the better team. Have to go with them in this one.

Baltimore at NY Jets - Unfortunately, have to go with Ravens. They have more offensive weapons than NYJ does and while the secondary is suspect, I can't see Sanchez taking advantage of it.

San Diego at Kansas City - KC is just no good. I could see Charles making it interesting but still think Rivers and co take it with a solid game from Matthews.

[Rhom]

Everyone keeps talking about the Ravens and their revamped receiving corps... But ever since the move from Cleveland, they've been a team built around defense/running backs. Even when they had a coach touted as an offensive genius who kept trying to upgrade the passing by bringing in guys like Elvis Grbac; they still never got much more than a token passing game going. I'll believe the Ravens are a passing team when I see the end of season stats.

[Darkostar]

Can't believe that people are calling the Minny/NO game to be close.

New Orleans runs out of a 4 receiver set quite often?

Guess how many healthy corners Minny has on the roster?

3.

Oh, and our starting safety (a 2nd year guy) has a shaky ankle injury.

[Mexal]

Everyone keeps talking about the Ravens and their revamped receiving corps... But ever since the move from Cleveland, they've been a team built around defense/running backs. Even when they had a coach touted as an offensive genius who kept trying to upgrade the passing by bringing in guys like Elvis Grbac; they still never got much more than a token passing game going. I'll believe the Ravens are a passing team when I see the end of season stats.

To be fair to them, they've never really had true weapons before. Boldin is a weapon. Rice is a weapon. The problem they'll run into is that they have no one to stretch the field. Housh, Boldin and Mason are all possession receivers. They might have success early but might run into problems later in the year after lots of game tape becomes available.

[Daeric]

I'm happy that UK viewers without Sky will be getting Sunday night football again, however its on channel 4 and not 5 this year.

[Kalbear]

Having no one to stretch the field is a bit of a stretch; Boldin isn't a burner but he runs great routes. More to the point, Baltimore would do fine running a Pats-style offense where they simply eat up 5-8 yards every pass. Having that supplement their running game would make them quite good, and help their defense quite a bit as well.

[Mexal]

I'm happy that UK viewers without Sky will be getting Sunday night football again, however its on channel 4 and not 5 this year.

By Sunday night football, do you mean the 1pm games or the 8:30pm est game that would show at 1:30am? As a UK viewer, I just bought the NFL Gamepass. I need to see my Bengals play.

Having no one to stretch the field is a bit of a stretch; Boldin isn't a burner but he runs great routes. More to the point, Baltimore would do fine running a Pats-style offense where they simply eat up 5-8 yards every pass. Having that supplement their running game would make them quite good, and help their defense quite a bit as well.

All their receivers run good routes. It'll have to be pre-Moss Pat's but yes, I can see that style work, especially with Rice. They just need to figure out their RT.

[Daeric]

Its the games that get shown at 1am Uk time, for the other you do need your NFL game pass or Sky.

Article about it

NFLUK is generally where I get things like that from.