NFL 2023: No Swifties Allowed

[briantw]

Of all the games that ever happened, that was one of them. 

[Maithanet]

17 hours ago, Jace, Extat said:

The NFC is a class apart.

Is this a joke?  The AFC is by far the better conference this year.  The Niners are 2-2 against the AFC, and the Niners are *ahem* a bit better than the average NFC team. 

[Chad Vader]

I knew the giants would take a huge step back this year.  Skill positions are atrocious and Daniel Jones ceiling is Alex Smith if he's lucky. We don't need a coaching change we need roster revamp

[Tywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Is this a joke?  The AFC is by far the better conference this year.  The Niners are 2-2 against the AFC, and the Niners are *ahem* a bit better than the average NFC team. 

Going into the year, sure, the AFC was deeper on paper, but the truth is almost every team is meh. There are a few good teams, a few bad ones and 25 or so middling ones. 

[Maithanet]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Going into the year, sure, the AFC was deeper on paper, but the truth is almost every team is meh. There are a few good teams, a few bad ones and 25 or so middling ones. 

And yet every game between a middling AFC team and a middling NFC team, the AFC team wins 75% of the time. 

[Tywin et al.]

16 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

And yet every game between a middling AFC team and a middling NFC team, the AFC team wins 75% of the time. 

Sure,, but OTOH I'd favor the Eagles over every AFC team if both sides are healthy. It's a weird year. 

[Rhom]

I tend to agree that the AFC is not the world beaters we assumed early in the year.  

The entire AFC north is in the playoffs last I checked.  (Bengals may have slipped out now, but were trending strong before yesterday.)  Anyone really scared of Baltimore in the playoffs?

It'll be the Chiefs again in the Super Bowl.

For the NFC, its a real toss up right now.  Philly.  SF.  Detroit.  Even Dallas.

[briantw]

Bills are Chargers East.  Change my mind.

[briantw]

39 minutes ago, briantw said:

Bills are Chargers East.  Change my mind.

^^^

[Rhom]

After the way they started the season, I never would have believed the Broncos would be 4-5 at this point.  I honestly thought they were on the way to competing for the number one pick to give to Seattle.

[Tywin et al.]

29 minutes ago, Rhom said:

After the way they started the season, I never would have believed the Broncos would be 4-5 at this point.  I honestly thought they were on the way to competing for the number one pick to give to Seattle.

Like I said, this is a season with a few bad teams, a few good teams and the overwhelming majority are in the middle with not that much difference between them. 

Also, Allen has 14 turnovers in 10 games. Yikes. 

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Like I said, this is a season with a few bad teams, a few good teams and the overwhelming majority are in the middle with not that much difference between them. 

Also, Allen has 14 turnovers in 10 games. Yikes. 

I think it was Chris Canty on ESPN Radio who said before the season as a Hot Take that the Bills wouldn't make the playoffs and I scoffed at it and thought it was ridiculous...

[Maithanet]

The Bills playcaller (I think it's the offensive coordinator) seemed determined to lose the game.  Every drive where they just ran the ball, they scored a touchdown (or in two cases, fumbled it).  But at least half of their drives were just pass, pass, pass until they either punted or threw an interception.  I can't remember ever watching a game where one team was so unable to stop the run, and yet the other team so unwilling to punish them for it. 

[Tywin et al.]

56 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I think it was Chris Canty on ESPN Radio who said before the season as a Hot Take that the Bills wouldn't make the playoffs and I scoffed at it and thought it was ridiculous...

I wouldn't listen to anything that dude says. 

28 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

The Bills playcaller (I think it's the offensive coordinator) seemed determined to lose the game.  Every drive where they just ran the ball, they scored a touchdown (or in two cases, fumbled it).  But at least half of their drives were just pass, pass, pass until they either punted or threw an interception.  I can't remember ever watching a game where one team was so unable to stop the run, and yet the other team so unwilling to punish them for it. 

Teams with elite QBs tend to do this. I still think teams should have a run first mindset unless they're just bad at it. 

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I wouldn't listen to anything that dude says. 

Yeah, he's terrible.  Which is one reason I am disappointed to see him appear to be right about this.

[Mexal]

This is a fairly crazy year of decent teams but no world beaters (minus maybe the Eagles). Think teams in AFC are going to batter each other and where things end up will be unpredictable.

[Maithanet]

I think how well every team is playing right now will have little bearing on who is playing the best in the playoffs, particularly in the AFC.  IMO the Chiefs team we've seen thus far has all the fingerprints of a team that will go one-and-done in the playoffs.  But I don't actually think that will happen to them, because I expect them to be playing better in January than they've shown thus far (particularly on offense).  Mahomes is already at the stage where the regular season just doesn't matter that much  because he knows that a B- game from him is enough to win 13+ games every year. 

[Mexal]

4 hours ago, Maithanet said:

I think how well every team is playing right now will have little bearing on who is playing the best in the playoffs, particularly in the AFC.  IMO the Chiefs team we've seen thus far has all the fingerprints of a team that will go one-and-done in the playoffs.  But I don't actually think that will happen to them, because I expect them to be playing better in January than they've shown thus far (particularly on offense).  Mahomes is already at the stage where the regular season just doesn't matter that much  because he knows that a B- game from him is enough to win 13+ games every year. 

That and their defense is legitimately good.

[dbunting]

22 hours ago, Maithanet said:

The Bills playcaller (I think it's the offensive coordinator) seemed determined to lose the game.  Every drive where they just ran the ball, they scored a touchdown (or in two cases, fumbled it).  But at least half of their drives were just pass, pass, pass until they either punted or threw an interception.  I can't remember ever watching a game where one team was so unable to stop the run, and yet the other team so unwilling to punish them for it. 

I refer you to the Michigan Penn State game from Saturday. Michigan never passed the ball after halfway through the 2nd quarter. Something like 38 straight run plays. It was the opposite of what Buffalo did. Mich couldn't block their edge rushers no matter what, so they said screw it, we are gonna run right past you instead. Sometimes you need to take what they give you.

On 11/14/2023 at 7:23 AM, Tywin et al. said:

Also, Allen has 14 turnovers in 10 games. Yikes. 

Yeah, he has always had a high amount of turnovers but before the def could make up for it and so could the offense. Right now neither can recover from it.

[Tywin et al.]

46 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Yeah, he has always had a high amount of turnovers but before the def could make up for it and so could the offense. Right now neither can recover from it.

Yeah, and looking back year three for him was a bit of a mirage. He got his turnovers down that season, but it was more due to luck than reigning in the recklessness. He threw a lot of passes that season that could have been intercepted.