NFL Season 2016: The Shankapotomus Is Real!

[Jace, Extat]

7 minutes ago, SkynJay said:

Larry Fitzgerald continues to be awesome.  There are few players I root for more.

Me too, seems like such a cool dude. Anyone else see the punter say bad snap to Catanazario? 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

14 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Me too, seems like such a cool dude. Anyone else see the punter say bad snap to Catanazario? 

 I thought he said GODDAMN, but I could be wrong.

 

Man, the HD really highlighted Belichick's Herp Lip. Fucking Patriots dodging a bullet.

[Jaime L]

How good are the Pats? Beat a pretty unanimous top 4 team on the road without their clear two best players. Patriots defense and special teams are really good. The offense is very smartly run and will only get better as they get Brady, Gronk and Lewis back. 

[l2 0 5 5]

22 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Me too, seems like such a cool dude. Anyone else see the punter say bad snap to Catanazario? 

Yeah he definitely did. Who am I to question the decisions of Belichick, but why did he wait so long to call the last timeout? About 20 secs burned off there before he called it. If the FG is good, he has under 40 secs to get upfield when he could've had close to a minute. A moot point but seemed like an unusual mistake for him to make.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

^^^^^

Really good, and in a way that seemingly no other team is. Not to take credit away  from any of their players, but that is the best system/culture in the NFL, and it's not even close.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

Wasn't it about this time last year that I argued that AJ Green was a top 5 receiver? I thought he was then, I think he made it obvious today.

[Altherion]

Yes, they're really good. I'm not sure why the betting odds were so strongly in Arizona's favor -- Darth Hoodie has played and won without Brady before.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

The Pats got a little lucky, and the Cardinals were probably a little better. But that the pulled that off missing they're two most important players is pretty impressive.

[lancerman]

Patriots defense likely saved them. They held off the Cards all game and only gave up TD's after bad turnovers. Aside from that they shut them out. Jimmy got some good drives in, but he was kept on enough of a leash to not get too worked up about it. He proved he can be trusted and can make some big time throws when he needs to (basically Brady circa 2001). Whether he develops into what Brady became is up in the air. If Belichick roles with him, he's in the best place for his development.

 

Anyways... this was far and away the most satisfying Patriots win that wasn't a Super Bowl victory for me. After over a year of dreading this possible suspension, this was the game that everybody looked at and said "they'll at best go 3-1 because of the Arizona game". Now we come out of the first big test with a win on a day when the rest of the division lost (giving us a buffer for the rest of the suspension imo) and we now have either an heir apparent or some trade leverage with another team. Best possible outcome.

I think a lot of people who always hoped that the Patriots would come back down to Earth without Brady had some of their worst fears realized tonight. The entire AFC East has to view this as a missed opportunity.

 

 

[Nictarion]

3 hours ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Wasn't it about this time last year that I argued that AJ Green was a top 5 receiver? I thought he was then, I think he made it obvious today.

I wouldn't trade him for anyone. That's a damn good defense he torched. 

[Jace, Extat]

6 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

Yeah he definitely did. Who am I to question the decisions of Belichick, but why did he wait so long to call the last timeout? About 20 secs burned off there before he called it. If the FG is good, he has under 40 secs to get upfield when he could've had close to a minute. A moot point but seemed like an unusual mistake for him to make.

I figure he wanted to make the kicking team run out there without the benefit of a timeout, but then thought better of it. Against a lesser team I think that would have been a good call. On 4th down Carson and the offense didn't seem to know if they were going for it for a few seconds, any other team in the AFC East would have fucked up that simple job of running out the kicker.

[Joe Pesci]

8 hours ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Wasn't it about this time last year that I argued that AJ Green was a top 5 receiver? I thought he was then, I think he made it obvious today.

Not sure who would've argued against that, he's top 3 in my book and has the stats to back it up.

[Rockroi]

 

Quote

How good are the Pats? Beat a pretty unanimous top 4 team on the road without their clear two best players. Patriots defense and special teams are really good. The offense is very smartly run and will only get better as they get Brady, Gronk and Lewis back. 

Pats were without: Starting QB (Brady); starting RB (Lewis), starting TE (Gronk), starting Left Tackle (Solder), starting Right Tackle (Vollmer), and starting DE (Ninkovitch).  

And they beat a consensus NFC finalist and top-5 team, on the road in p[rime-time with their inexperienced QB, patch-work O-line and fat RB. The Pats were able to, generally, keep a clean pocket; they got enough push at the line to make some runs, used Jimmy G's speed and kept up with targets all over the field.  22 points seemed like the LEAST they should have done.  

I thought, though, that the real secret to this game was the way the Pats D played.  Collins and Hightower were all over the place; yeah, sometimes they failed to make plays (esp on Johnson), but they generally were able to discombobulate Palmer (until the 4th Q) and gave Johnson space but took everything else away.  I thought Butler and Logan played really well, and as always, McCourty looked like an al-Pro.  

But the fumbles almost killed them, resulting in 14 points.  Palmer found Fitz in the second half and the Cards D figured out The Jimmy G Experience (TM pending).  THe Pats were the beneficiary of some questionable penalties (roughing the passer) and terrible Special Teams play by the Cards.  I mean... your kicker can't hit anything over 51 yards... that means anything from 45 to 51 is a crap-shoot.  And that came back to haunt the Cards

Now... understand everything going on here in Boston.  The radio is buzzing with yahoos saying that the Pats should push Brady out and keep Garapollo (whose name I still refuse to learn to spell); that the Pats should trade Brady or just cut him at the end of the season (I. Am. Not. Making. This. Up).  Let's put that off to the side so I don't kill myself in the middle of this post.

The Pats are now 1-0 having won, outright, its toughest game until week 7 at Pittsburgh.  Jimmy G is probably not going to do any worse than 2-2 and right now, it seems like 4-0 is more likely than 3-1 with 3 straight home games.  Then Brady comes back.  By then the Pats will get back Nink, Solder and Gronk.  After the BYE week the Pats will get back Lewis and Vollmer.  

So who will the Pats play in the AFC Championship?  

Its not going to be any other AFC East Team.  They all suck.  They suck out-loud.  

-The Jets sacked Andy Dalton 803 times and still fucked that whole game up and lost.  The Bengals looked... pretty terrible.  Its one game, I get all that and the Bengals can fuck up the Pats when they play in week 6.  But neither of those teams seem... good.

-The Miami Dolphins are fucking putrid.  I said this last night to friends of mine: look at the way Jimmy G played in that game- his first pro start, his first time going against a real NFL team and he played one of the best D's in football and on the road.  Now... contrast that to Ryan Tannahill who, after being in the league 5 seasons, can't do a two-minute drill.  He looks just as shitty now as he did 3 seasons ago. 

Also, the Seahawks looked terrible.  I know that Wilson was hurt, 

-I think the Bills will be moved to the NCAA by the end of the season.  

-I am pretty sure the Colts won't make it to the playoffs.  Detroit came in and wrecked them in a game that looked like it was an arena-league game.  JIm Caldwell came into Indy and screwed the Colts AGAIN!  This time on purpose.  Andy Luck looked great but the problem was the rest of the team - the D was terrible, giving up 5+ yards a carry to Riddick and Abdullah and letting Stafford throw all over the place.

-Its gotta be the Broncos, right?   

-And HUGE HUGE HUGE props to Jack del Rio (who I actually think is a bad coach) for playing to win the game ("HELLO!  YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!!"). He could have played it safe and Mike McCarthy'ed the place up and go for the Pat, but no.  Fuck it- Go for 2 on the road and make it a win and deny the Saints any hope.  Fucking nails call.  Great job.  Loved it.  

-Alleged Rapists went 1-0 at QB, with TBs win over the Falcons.  Jameis Winston- who, just for the record, is only ALLEGEDLY a raping rapist who rapes - looked amazing, hitting 4 different receivers for TDs.  The Falcons continue to look like a dying seagull.  

-Chiefs showed up huge when it mattered most; great comeback.  And I'm pretty sure the Chargers will win 2 games this season.

-The Texans played a corpse.  So, yeah, they looked good.  Watt is not right, that's pretty clear.  So, they're screwed for a while.  

Obviously, I'm being silly; the Pats can still crumble; it happens. Brady could blow; there could be a QB controversy; Belichick could decide to on-sides the KO again like he did against the Eagles.  There are no guarantees on AFC Championships (just ask the 2010 Pats).  

But I did NOT expect a win without Brady, 40% of the O-line, and without Gronk.  You could make the case that the Pats were without their two best players and were missing 5 of their 10 best players.  They still won.  On the road.  Against a crack NFC power.  

I recall an argument I had with somebody back when Manning was out for a season and the Colts put in (I swear) Curtis Painter and I said that Painter was an indictment of the entire Colts system- that they were terrible organization BECAUSE they allowed such a shitty BU as Painter to take the reins of a Super-Bowl caliber team.   I was told that I was being stupid; that BU QBs were bad across the league.  I watched as Painter went to poop and never started for another NFL team.  I said that the Pats would NEVER allow that to happen.

Once again... I was right. 

Last season, Tom Brady, Brian Hoyer, Matt Cassell and Ryan Mallet all started for NFL franchises.  The Pats seem to know what they are doing at that position.  

If Jimmy G continues like this, the Pats would be crazy NOT to trade him after the season and get a bag of picks.  That seems like the way this is going.  But for right now its great watching this team seem to do so many things right.  

 

 

 

[dbunting]

Well, Dallas is who I thought they were. The defense is just horrible. I think NY was avg like 10 yards per rush up the middle, sickening.

On the flip side, if it wasn't for a brain fart by Williams not going out of bounds Dallas would have won that game.

Dak looked poised and really good. He didn't put up the preseason stats since he was facing a real NFL defense but damn he looked poised.

[DanteGabriel]

I always try to avoid making judgments about the season based on Week 1, but that was a very big and very encouraging win for the Pats last night. It took some luck, no question about that, but a nice debut from Garoppolo, the defense held the fort, and the backup tackles didn't get their QB killed (though Marcus Cannon was still bad).

[Mexal]

Hated the way the OL played, didn't love the way the defense played at times, but appreciated the fight the Bengals showed in NY on 9/11. Good win for the Bengals. I never wish harm on any player but I'm almost at the point where I hope Bodine gets hurt just so Dalton will survive the season.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

1 hour ago, Joe Pesci said:

Not sure who would've argued against that, he's top 3 in my book and has the stats to back it up.

Well, a bunch argued against it here. Later when I have time I will find the thread for you. 

 

[Jaime L]

This vine never stops being funny: 

 

[Maithanet]

9 minutes ago, dbunting said:

On the flip side, if it wasn't for a brain fart by Williams not going out of bounds Dallas would have won that game.

Would have won the game?  Williams could have run out of bounds at approximately the Giants 45 and had between 6 and 8 seconds left on the clock, setting up 4th and 1.  They probably have time to attempt one more sideline play, but the GIants will assuredly be ready for it, and completing such a pass is challenging.  Alternatively they could send Bailey out for a 62 yarder straight away, but his career long is 56 yards. Neither the Successful 6 yard sideline route + 56 yard field goal or the 62 yard field goal to win are anything like sure things.  Even if we charitably assume Williams could have gotten out at the 44 yard line for a first down with 8 seconds left, I would still give the Cowboys less than 50% to win. 

[Joe Pesci]

1 hour ago, Michael Seswatha Jordan said:

Well, a bunch argued against it here. Later when I have time I will find the thread for you. 

 

Don't sweat it man, not that big a deal. I agree with you.