NFL 2018 V: The Packers Win With A Loss While The Cowboys Lose With A Win

[briantw]

 

[Jace, Extat]

8 minutes ago, briantw said:

 

One might say a bounty of victories? 

[dbunting]

2 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

To be fair, while that's a tendency of his sometimes I think on that one only like five guys would have had a chance to bounce off the hit and Tommy Brady couldn't have gotten the ball out that fast.

True, but it seemed like Peppers was right in his line of sight the whole ten yards in.  I was shocked to see Peppers not playing 25 yards down field like he use to!

[briantw]

49 minutes ago, dbunting said:

True, but it seemed like Peppers was right in his line of sight the whole ten yards in.  I was shocked to see Peppers not playing 25 yards down field like he use to!

They basically wasted his entire rookie season playing him out of position like that.  

[KingintheNorth4]

I know the Bears are favored this week and they're coming off a huge statement win over the Rams, also add in the fact that they're looking to avenge their week 1 collapse to Green Bay and the Packers haven't won a game on the road this season.

And yet I have a nervous feeling about this game. And that's because of Aaron Rodgers. Even though he hasn't played at an MVP level this season, you can never count out Rodgers. He's just burned us Bears fans too many times over the years. I just hope that I'm being nervous for nothing.

[Nictarion]

Raiders are REALLY bad. Bengals missing #1 QB, #1 & 2 WR, #1 & 2 TE, Jeff Driskel was atrocious...and we still won. 

Joe Mixon really is a hell of a RB though. What he’s done this year behind a terrible OL is incredible. 

[Red Tiger]

https://twitter.com/B1ackSchefter/status/1074408309967478790

 

[KingintheNorth4]

Oh, what sweet sweet redemption this was. Not only did the Bears clinch the division, they clinched it against Green Bay, knocking them out of playoff contention. The only complaint I have is that Nagy shouldn't try to be so cute sometimes. I already ordered my NFC North champs apparel. BEAR DOWN!!!!!!

[Nictarion]

Ffs Tom why

[Cas Stark]

Well.  That was not good.  

[DMC]

Fucking niners won again.  Apparently Kyle Shanahan doesn't start coaching until after Halloween, where he's 9-5.  Pissed off they're almost certainly gonna miss out on Bosa now.  But damn, Mullens has almost 1500 yards in six games.  Buckner looks like a beast.  Breida, Pettis, and Celek all look like long term contributors.  Definitely been some progress this season.

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Fucking niners won again.  Apparently Kyle Shanahan doesn't start coaching until after Halloween, where he's 9-5.  Pissed off they're almost certainly gonna miss out on Bosa now.  But damn, Mullens has almost 1500 yards in six games.  Buckner looks like a beast.  Breida, Pettis, and Celek all look like long term contributors.  Definitely been some progress this season.

I am all in on Josh Allen.  I didn’t figure we’d get Bosa anyways.

That Seachickens streak needed to end.

[DMC]

29 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I am all in on Josh Allen.  I didn’t figure we’d get Bosa anyways.

After Bosa the rest of the top ten seems very fluid.  Or at least there's a lot of different players on the different mocks I've read.  Sure the big board will change a bunch from now til April.  Still, it's good to see there seems to be quite a few other edge rush options out there.  Haven't looked into it much, but I'll obviously start now.

[Jace, Extat]

CUT WENTZ

GOD FAVORS FOLES

[Iskaral Pust]

Liverpool, Bears and Seahawks were all playing their historic rivals today.  Two of them won so I cannot be too upset about the Seahawks, but the slips and missed tackles by the defense to allow 49ers big plays and scores made me wince.  

Bears made some stupid decisions to let the Packers get close, but wised up to close the game out. 

Well done Vikings and Colts today.  Those were big wins against teams chasing play-off spots of their own.

Looks like the Bears will get the Seahawks or the Vikings in their first play-off game, although Washington aren’t out of it yet.  Seahawks have a tough game against KC, but a very winnable game against Arizona.  Seahawks head-to-head tie-breaker over the Vikings is unlikely to matter because the Vikings have a half-game in their record. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Nice to see what a functioning run game looks like…

[Rockroi]

So, Pats lost another one this week.  Last week, I could handle it a little- Miami found the horse-shoe and didn't choke on it as they have in the past.  The Pats were the better team so I could sort of get over it.

But this week against the Steelers the Pats did not deserve to win.  They were utterly dominated a the line of scrimmage; the Pats O-line was so discombobulated and dominated that they were holding and false-starting starting to the tune of 14 penalties- the most for a Pats team in years.  Brady... was... probably bad.  His line looked decent 25-36, 279 YDS, 1 TD, but a killer INT at the end of the 4th quarter that set up the Steelers final score (Brady's first red-zone INT in 2 years) and that last drive, Brady missed an open James White in the flat.  Also, why wasn't Gordon on the field on that last play?  Reasons?

So, this is what the decline looks like?  

The D was bad at times, but kept the Steelers from scoring which is their traditional MO; the Pats O could not do anything.  And penalties, penalties, penalties.  

The bottom line is that the Pats have to win on the road and the Pats cannot win on the road.  They will host a division playoff game and may actually lose, but even if they win?  How in the world are they going to win on the road when they have not done that all season?  Fuck, they lost to the LIONS for God's sake!  

I feel that the Pats are going to wrap up the meaningless division next week, a final meaningless game, then play at home Wildcard week-end against the Ravens, probably win and then get slaughtered by whomever they face in the Division round.  Fun times.  

I have been seeing this coming all season and now I am just here to take it square in the jaw.  MAYBE the Pats get something on track next year, but this year seemed destined for futility from the start; actually from BEFORE the start- the off season was mealiness for the Pats with no big signings.  That lead to a panic move by trading a 5th for Gordon (which seems like the right move).  Edelman has been good; the loss of Amendola has been much bigger than we thought, and Gronk looks mentally and physically cooked.  The running game is hot or cold; the D utterly pedestrian.  

And Brady seems old.  He seems like a guy who is seeing ghosts back there; he makes bad throws, is a hair off on his timing and is not gunning it the way he used to with the confidence we had come to expect.  MAYBE the Pats throw something together next season for one last hurrah, but right now it seems like that sound we heard was that window, finally, closing.  

[Maithanet]

This is an unusual year in that all the strongest teams look like they're regressing.  The Patriots, Chiefs, Saints and Rams ran out to strong midseason records based almost entirely on offensive performances capable of masking defensive shortcomings.  But of late, their offenses have slowed down and the defenses aren't getting better (possible exception of the Saints). 

In the place of those contenders is several challengers that are more balanced, but clearly less explosive, like LAC, HOU, BAL, IND, DAL, CHI, and SEA.  But even most of those teams have at least one terrible loss in the past three weeks (exceptions being LAC who squeaked out a nasty win vs Cincy and HOU who lost at home to Indy). 

Now I know that the idea of "playing well" in December is meaningless, that you should look at who played well the entire season, not just the final five games.  I get it, Philly in 2017 and Baltimore in 2012 looked terrible in December, and then suddenly dominated the playoffs.  But this feels like a weird year in that the best teams aren't just losing, they're losing ugly, often getting completely outplayed.  It makes me think that this year, more than most, the playoffs is a crap shoot, and you could easily see a team from the Wild Card round run the table to a championship. 

[Bronn Stone]

15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

<trimmed> the Seahawks, but the slips and missed tackles by the defense to allow 49ers big plays and scores made me wince. 

The condition of that field, in a relatively new stadium, is an abomination.  That was not an NFL quality facility yesterday.

[Jace, Extat]

3 hours ago, Bronn Stone said:

The condition of that field, in a relatively new stadium, is an abomination.  That was not an NFL quality facility yesterday.

Have you seen FedEx field? The NFL has no quality regarding playing surface.