jellydonut's NFL MEGA POST

[jellydonut25]

There have been a LOT of poorly scheduled Monday night games too.

San Diego had two this year. TWO. For a team that everyone predicted would be bad AND has difficulty selling out.


Jets-Falcons...? Who scheduled that one?
How about the upcoming Dolphins-Buccaneers? Really?

out of conference games should NEVER be on MNF, unless it's like New England-New Orleans or something that's obviously a marquee matchup like that.

But in the grand scheme of things, non-conference games mean so little that when you schedule Jets-Falcons or Miami-Tampa, not only do you risk having a bad game, but there are no important implications on the line.

Instead of Jets-Falcons we could have had:
Ravens-Dolphins, Saints-Bears, Patriots-Bengals, Lions-Packers...hell even Texans-49ers pre-season looked like a better matchup.

And instead of Miami-Tampa, wouldn't you rather see:
Bengals-Ravens, Lions-Bears, (pre-season) Seahawks-Falcons, Cowboys-Saints, or Broncos-Chargers?

I mean, it doesn't take an idiot to figure out which games have more potential each week....unless you're the NFL and you for some unknown reason give a total of three Monday Night games to two teams who struggle to sell tickets.

[Russzilla]

[Russzilla]

These new OT rules suck. If a team scores a FG, the other team has a chance to score a FG to make it sudden death. But if a team scores a TD, the game is over, and the other team doesn't get a chance to score a TD themselves. That just ain't right.

[jellydonut25]

[Russzilla]

[jellydonut25]

I'm in a big money fantasy football league and really thought I'd be poised to make a run at the championship this year:
QB
Aaron Rodgers
RB
Matt Forte
(2nd Running Back situation is a bit of a mess)
WR
TY Hilton
Cecil Shorts
Danny Amendola or Roddy White
TE
Jimmy Graham
K
Mason Crosby
D
Arizona

That's a team that could win, with Forte and Graham and Rodgers being 3 of the top 12 people in all of my fantasy football league.

Now, I think Rodgers might be done, and my season with him. The worst part is, I've had the second-most points scored against thus far, so even though I've got a good team, I haven't been winning much and need to win 3 of my next 4 games to make the playoffs (where your money gets made back).

[Russzilla]

[jellydonut25]

[Russzilla]

[Russzilla]

[jellydonut25]

I could have told you at the beginning of the season that a game between Miami and Tampa Bay would be worthless.

Tampa Bay plays in a division with Atlanta and New Orleans, and Carolina looked to be more on the rise than the Bucs, especially since everybody knew before the season started that Josh Freeman was on his last legs in Tampa.

Miami looked like the second-best team in the AFC East, but we all thought the AFC East would be one of the weaker divisions...and besides which, if Miami is #2 in the AFC East, then you'd want to schedule them for Monday Night in a game that had potential to actually MATTER; they've got the Chargers next week, that will have MUCH bigger implications.

A non-conference game between two middling teams is a TERRIBLE idea for a prime-time game. Whoever scheduled this game and the Jets-Falcons game should be fired. I know the Jets-Falcons game turned out decent, but that's a matchup that nobody cared about or wanted to see.

Who schedules Dolphins-Bucs on a week when Cincy plays Baltimore and the Lions play the Bears?

[jellydonut25]

Might as well just keep this here, because there aren't really enough sports fans to warrant a college football thread on its own but,

HUGE night for College Football....HUGE.

I'm a Florida State fan, so let's go Stanford. And Baylor can win. I'd be fine with that.

Oh, and my alma mater, SUNY University at Buffalo, won huge on ESPN2 on Tuesday. They're a nothing school in terms of football, but this year, they are 7-2 and their only losses are to Baylor and Ohio State. That's pretty freakin' awesome for them. 3 more wins will find them in the MAC Championship game, and a win there would likely find them in a semi-significant bowl game and in the top 25 for the first time in like 50 years.

[Russzilla]

[jellydonut25]

I'm a little more sold on Oregon after beating UCLA last week, but I still think Florida State has the better signature win on the year. Walking into Death Valley and slapping Clemson around like fools is extremely impressive to me. Especially if that winds up being Clemson's only loss.

And yeah, 'Bama will probably win the BCS title, but nobody thought Ole Miss would beat LSU...

[jellydonut25]

Well, if you were curious about bama/oregon, just picture a bigger blowout version of tonight's game

[Russzilla]

[Russzilla]

[jellydonut25]

[Russzilla]

Well, Alabama gets another step closer to the BCS title game by beating LSU. They have one more hurdle to get over when they play at Auburn in 3 weeks in the annual Iron Bowl.

[Hybrid Gojira]

My Bengals played terrible this weekend. They are incredibly inconsistent except on defense. Losing a few key players really hurts.

I sort of figured the Miami game and this week's game would be losses. I like Dalton, but if you've seen any of the long passes he's had to AJ Green you will see that usually AJ has made adjustments to catch the ball in the air. Also, I find this Bengals team to be really undisciplined. They get penalties in bad spots and I think that starts with Marvin Lewis. I can't tell you how many times we had 1 or 2 time outs in the second half of a close game when we needed to manage the clock..not so much this week but in the previous weeks. Overall, I'd say we are a middle of the pack team with the ability to win some games but not enough discipline to go deep in the playoffs...and that's been true since the past few seasons. I simply cannot trust this team to win against bad teams. The usually play to the level of their competition.

[Russzilla]

[Hybrid Gojira]

Side note - Russ I was just down in London, KY for my wife's baby shower. A bunch of her college roommates were kind enough to throw us one... Then the Bengals stunk up the joint :/

[Russzilla]

[jellydonut25]

Week 10 has come and gone and the NFL is probably a little easier to read now than it was a few weeks ago:

1.) Denver Broncos - Sorry Chiefs fans, but you've done little to impress while this team continues to do so.
2.) Seattle Seahawks - Gotta give these guys credit for bearing down during a rough patch and coming out strong. They are nearly unbeatable at home and staring down the barrel at homefield in the playoffs.
3.) Kansas City Chiefs - A win in either of their upcoming games against Denver (assuming they also beat San Diego and Washington) makes them the unquestionable number one.
4.) New Orleans Saints - They win the games that matter most. Their two losses are non-conference, they could make a run at homefield.
5.) New England Patriots - They stomped a mudhole in Pittsburgh. Good teams do that to bad teams.
6.) Carolina Panthers - Those early season losses seem a bit confusing in retrospect, don't they? This is a good team whose bye came at an unfortunate time. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite them.
7.) Detroit Lions - Unlike the Lions of old, these guys seem ready, willing, and able to turn the corner and take control when the opportunity presents itself. They could take a stranglehold on the NFC North in the coming weeks.
8.) San Francisco 49ers - If the Packers and Bears were healthier, I'd be convinced this team won't make the playoffs, as I had predicted in preseason. They still have a major chance though, with Rodgers and Cutler down.
9.) Indianapolis Colts - I'm convinced that the team who lost to San Diego and St. Louis is a little closer to this team's identity than the one that beat Denver and Seattle. The AFC South sucks though, so they'll have a home playoff game.
10.) Cincinnati Bengals - So much for all that "second-best in the AFC" talk, huh? I'm hesitant to even have them in my top 10, but that D is still legit and AJ Green is a game-changer. That's more than some teams have right now.
11.) Chicago Bears - They need to hope McCown can continue playing at a sufficient level or they'll find themselves out of a playoff race due to a bad decision by the coach to play Cutler last week.
12.) Baltimore Ravens - They refuse to go quietly into the night. Give them credit for that.
13.) Green Bay Packers - This team's season is over unless Tolzien pulls out two wins before Rodgers comes back.
14.) Dallas Cowboys - They're still a playoff team, I think, and their schedule gets easier the rest of the way.
15.) Arizona Cardinals - Sniffing around the playoff mix...watch out San Fran, Chicago, Green Bay, etc...this team could make a push. That D is legit and Ellington provides a spark.
16.) Philadelphia Eagles - Nick Foles could turn heads if he can stay healthy for once.
17.) San Diego Chargers - Rivers's play makes me believe this is our 6th AFC Playoff team.
18.) Cleveland Browns - I like what Jason Campbell brings to the table over Wheeden, but I think this team is doing too little too late.
19.) St. Louis Rams - This team won't quit. They won't win much, but they will not quit.
20.) New York Jets - With the rest of the AFC imploding upon itself, they could sneak into the playoffs. Isn't that disgusting?
21.) Tennessee Titans - I've seen Ryan Fitzpatrick play too many games over the years to think this team still has a chance to do anything other than disappoint its fanbase.
22.) Buffalo Bills - The loss to the Chiefs was bad, they dominated and found a way to lose. The loss to the Steelers was leagues worse. They got dominated by a bad team. For the first time this season, they looked every bit as bad as (or worse than) their record. Let's hope it was a bit of an anomaly, or spirits for next season will be lower than ever.
23.) Pittsburgh Steelers - Le'Veon Bell gives them something they haven't had in years, but they lack in too many areas to give them much respect.
24.) New York Giants - Things might be starting to come together for them a bit but they won't make an impact. Andre Brown is clearly leaps and bounds better than anything else they have had at RB all year.
25.) Oakland Raiders - A win over the Giants could have kept their season alive, at least for those who hope in vain. Now, they're done.
26.) Minnesota Vikings - I think we all feel sorry for AP.
27.) Washington Redskins - RGIII is coming back to life, but the wins aren't appearing. They are miraculously not out of it yet...
28.) Houston Texans - The world is crumbling down around them. Matt Schaub was the problem all along....but wait, Case Keenum is playing lights-out and the wins still aren't happening? What happened to that defense? How awful is this coaching staff? Did they really just cut Ed Reed while keeping Randy Bullock? This team is in full-on implosion mode.
29.) Atlanta Falcons - Roddy White will hopefully be HEALTHY this week and we'll see this team start doing something...but they're bad.
30.) Miami Dolphins - With the media firestorm, locker-room controversy, front office calamities and mediocre talent, they may not win another game all year.
31.) Jacksonville Jaguars - Their win was going to happen eventually, now that I think about it. MJD was never gonna quit, and they still had Houston on their schedule TWICE.
32.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Lucked out by playing Miami. They won't win another one.

[The Top Crusader]

Hey... Bengal fans exist on the internet? I thought I was the only one.

It's all well and good to make the playoffs 3 out of the last 4 years and most likely on the way again, but, yeah, so inconsistent, and you pretty much know they aren't going to win a playoff game. But hey... MAYBE THIS IS THE YEAR!!!

But yeah, Dalton was looking so great there for a few games, then such a collapse in Miami and Baltimore. Sure, a tied game and losing in overtime is better than losing in a blowout, but wow, so many times the games should've been won, and sloppy mistakes. If the Browns beat them twice in one season... I dunno, I might just go back to watching Ohio State and ignoring the NFL. >_>