NFL vol 4

[BLU-RAY]

Alex Smith, huh?

It appears that way.

[Kalbear]

Imagine how good this 49er team would be with even a decent QB. Not a good one - just a decent one. 6 auto wins from the NFC West and likely a 10-6 record automatically just from the wins at home.

Seriously, Gore, Crabtree, Davis are studs. Their defense is loaded with fairly good players. And then they have Smith literally losing them games.

[Lord O' Bones]

I'm just glad Aaron Rodgers lost today.

I have nothing at all against Aaron Rodgers. Nothing. But when he wins, a part of me dies.

ETA:

Seriously, Gore, Crabtree, Davis are studs. Their defense is loaded with fairly good players. And then they have Smith literally losing them games.

To be fair, Alex Smith didn't force Gore to cough up the ball twice. Smith has some help.

The 49ers. The worst team in football that isn't actually the worst team in football. Probably.

[awesome possum]

Congrats to the Bears for proving that last weeks game against the Giants was not in fact the worst football game possible, they really outdid themselves this week. Makes you appreciate the ridiculous lengths the "protect the QB" rules have gone to in recent years, when you realize what would happen to the general level of play around the league if a few of the high profile QBs were injured at the same time. Cutler has health problems and isn't good to begin with and the Bears still don't have another QB on the roster anywhere close to being able to play at the NFL level.

The NFL may need to start eliminating some of these teams, there really aren't enough QBs to go around.

I can't figure out if you're this or this. Almost surely this though.

[ztemhead]

well the Cardinal's D finally found their nuts. I guess somebody told them that Kurt Warner isn't coming back, so they might as well try and win some games, n'est pas?

Totally shocking victory today though. Vegas must have lost a shit ton of money on that action.

[BLU-RAY]

well the Cardinal's D finally found their nuts. I guess somebody told them that Kurt Warner isn't coming back, so they might as well try and win some games, n'est pas?

Totally shocking victory today though. Vegas must have lost a shit ton of money on that action.

Not really; the Saints were giving 7 points, and I don't think anybody had the faith to bet big on NO after the mediocre games they've played recently.

[Darkostar]

To be fair, Allen won that game for Philly on that botched screen to Gore. Dude had nothin' but daylight. Then Smith had a pressure-forced pick on the next play. Happens.

[Andrik the Unsmiling]

You weren't the only one watching, LOB. My (HIGHLY sophisticated :P ) analysis leads me to conclude these 49ers need 3 things, badly:

1) A QB. Alex is the kind of guy you really root for. He's put up with a lot of shit over the years, and other than Donovan being booed by Eagles fans it's hard for me to think of a first overall pick who was better set up for failure by his fans/organization. From the very start, people expected him to fail. Maybe he still has it in him to be a solid QB someday, but at this point I don't think it will be with the Niners. He's just been too damn inconsistent, unfortunately.

2) A coach. Sing is another guy you root for, but he's really shown me this season that he's in over his head. The Niners have been TOTALLY out-coached in at least two out of five games this year, and it's not like they won the coaching battles in the other three-- they were draws at best. This is the NFL. That can't happen. And for a guy whose specialty is supposed to be motivating players, the Niners came out awfully flat on the road against the Chiefs and Seahawks. Again, this just can't happen at this level. Maybe Sing is the kind of guy who gets it right the second time around, or maybe he's better suited to the role he had before as a top assistant coach/motivator. But this ain't working.

3) Speed. Especially on the edges. Look, it's great that we have Willis and Davis. Gore is a warrior, Crabtree has shown some sparks, and I'm encouraged by Taylor Mays' early play. I even think we're fairly well set in the trenches both offensively and defensively over the long haul. But we need some playmakers outside of the hashmarks. Speedy, playmaking corners. OLBs who get consistent pressure on the QB and have to be accounted for on every play. WRs who can threaten the defense deep. Hell, we probably don't need all those things, but it's pretty shocking that as a team, the Niners basically have NONE of them at this point (unless you count Ted Ginn, and I don't. Doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't be relied upon to make the catch.)

I think SF could've been a very good team with some of these issues, but not all of them. I never thought they'd all absolutely rear up the way they have, but they did, and they're sinking the team. I hope ownership doesn't completely blow things up because I think there are some good players here, but I think changes definitely need to be made. A good start would be to change the central philosophy this team has had for the past 6-7 years-- it's great that the 49ers want to be more physical/talented than other teams, but I think they need to realize that it's ok to outsmart somebody too. Gameplanning and strategy need to take more of a prominent role. That would be a good first step.

ETA: Case in point: How in the hell does it take you until the fourth quarter to realize you have a great TE who can basically get open at will against the Eagles linebackers? All season long it's like they've been ignoring Davis' ability down the middle of the field, and that's where he really excels. I don't get it. It's like this team just refuses to deviate from a pre-drawn blueprint, and that blueprint ignores some of the best materials you have in stock.

(sorry for the really long post... just started to vent and before you know it...)

[Demonblade]

Trying to work part-time and go to university full-time, I have precious few occasions where I have the spare time to watch even one game a week, be it football (NFL or CFL, in my case) or hockey. Having said that, I ended up watching the Cowboys/Titans game today in Thanksgiving dinner today at my Dad's place, and after watching it, I felt a sense of comfort knowing that some things in this turmoil-filled world will always remain the same, like me enjoying watching Dallas make utter arses of themselves. Holy shit Romo sucks.

[davos]

Holy shit Romo sucks.

I've been saying this for years. Dallas may well be the worst team in the NFC east. Dallas doesn't even have the injury card GB does to explain why it has been a disappointment. Not that any team in that league is setting the world on fire. It amuses that the pundits had predicted Dallas as a potential Super-Bowl team and that the East would be the best division in the NFC. there may well be no wild-card from that division.

Of course this has been the oddest start to any season in recent memory.

[Zadok]

I can't figure out if you're this or this. Almost surely this though.

Sorry, I didn't mean to impugn the honor of two teams that couldn't break 100 yards passing combined. Didn't realize that calling the worst passing performance of the modern era a piece of shit game was such a controversial statement.

[Bronn Stone]

I think that if you somehow made Mike Singletary the Defensive Coordinator of Norv Turner's team, most of the suckitudes would cancel each other out and you'd get a pretty good team.

Mike would give the team fire. Norv would give the offense design, but Mike would give them 'the glare' when they put his defense in a bad situation. The defense would lack a little bit of scheme, but they'd make up for it in heart.

Of course, the special teams would probably still give it away. As happened to Norv today.

[dalThor]

Now I realize that it was a battle between last year's worst teams but I found it exceptionally gratifying to see the Lions actually dominate a team on both sides of the ball for a change. They'll still likely win just 4 games this year but if they can actually manage to build on this I can (for once in decades) see some hope for the perpetually hapless Lions.

[awesome possum]

Sorry, I didn't mean to impugn the honor of two teams that couldn't break 100 yards passing combined. Didn't realize that calling the worst passing performance of the modern era a piece of shit game was such a controversial statement.

I didn't say you were trying to be controversial. I said you're a troll. You've been trolling Bears fans and Pats fans the last few weeks (gee, I wonder which two NFL teams have the most fans in this thread?) and it's already old. But thanks for playing.

[Original Ned's Bones]

Now I realize that it was a battle between last year's worst teams but I found it exceptionally gratifying to see the Lions actually dominate a team on both sides of the ball for a change. They'll still likely win just 4 games this year but if they can actually manage to build on this I can (for once in decades) see some hope for the perpetually hapless Lions.

I don't know, if they learn how to not beat themselves, they can win more than 4. This game didn't surprise me unfortunately. The Rams were awful. Hindsight is 20/20 but I thought to open the game with an onside kick was a poor decision. You have a team like the Lions that despite playing good football, found ways to beat themselves in their previous games. You don't give them a chance to have a short field and get off to a quick start. The Rams looked like they took this week off and played flat in every aspect of the game. Detroit came to play, and earned the asskicking they gave the Rams. The loss didn't bother me, because I think Detroit is better than their record this year, but the manner of the loss did. On top of that, the Rams lost their best receiver in the 1st quarter, and he is out for the entire season. In an already mediocre receiver squad, this is devestating.

[Trebla]

Tony Romo does not suck. He has a career 2 to 1 TD ratio. He has multipe come from behind victories. The problem is he keeps being put in impossible situations this year. 2nd and 15 after a false start. Holding, 1st and 20. 80 and 90 yard drives to score because the defense hasn't gotten a turnover in 3 of the 4 games this year. Sacked 5 times in the first half.

This team is CLEARLY overrated. Talent amounts to nothing if there is no discipline.

[ztemhead]

And in other news, the Earth is flat.

It is!!!

[Spring Bass]

I wasn't able to catch the Saints-Cards game, but were the three picks from Brees primarily fuck-ups on his part, the part of his receivers, or good play by the defenders? The ESPN article makes it sound like the turnovers plus weak red zone offense was what doomed them (the latter being understandable, considering they were playing without Reggie Bush or Pierre Thomas).

[Lightning Lord]

And in other news, the Earth is flat.

It is!!!

According to a fella in GC right now, that's a perfectly valid opinion and I must respect it.

[Darkostar]

Donggate worries me much less with Moss on the team now; if and when Favre gets suspended, we'll still compete. Hell, Moss made GUS FREROTTE look competent. We'll make it work.