Getting to be time for some Football?

S Clark · « **Reply #440 on:** 25 Dec 2012, 05:44 pm »

Clearly the Hawks have been the best team around for a couple of weeks. If they keep this up, they are going to be hard to beat in the playoffs. Da Boys are hanging tough, and finally have developed some mental toughness, but they are trying to play D with smoke and mirrors. Still, Dez gets about a 1/4K yards with a broken finger. He may not be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he's a tough sonofagun.
Merry Christmas to all, Bears, Eagles, Packers, Giants, ..... even $*@# Eagles fans.

Rclark · « **Reply #441 on:** 25 Dec 2012, 08:07 pm »

Century Link Field was designed to be as loud as possible, think it's the loudest stadium in the whole NFL. It's cool being downtown when you can hear the cheers from a distance. I took a guy with a Rice tatoo on his arm, from Texas, big Texas snob, and he was hugely impressed by the stadium and the whole vibe there. Said it reminded him of home.

On of my friends is a suite manager there.

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #442 on:** 30 Dec 2012, 02:16 am »

Houston is starting to look to me like they are very beatable. More exciting to watch right now are Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. The playoffs DO look interesting even with the likes of Dallas making it which I couldn't see three games ago for love nor money. I still can't buy Romo as a leader and wonder how strongly his teammates do. He'll prove me right I bet even if it isn't this Sunday. Oh, well, let the games begin. Hot dang!!

Somebody pick some. Any of em.

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #443 on:** 30 Dec 2012, 05:26 pm »

Some wildness about to happen for week 17 of the NFL season. With the NFL setting up divisional opponents for the end of the season, almost everyone has something to play for except Atlanta, and Smith says he's not resting his starters, yeah right. They'll have to wake up and dress for the game, maybe play a series or two like a preseason game, I'm thinking the Bucs on this one. Even games like Pgh-Clev matter in some fashion as divisional opponents never give up all of their passion when playing each other. But on to the games that matter.

Blowouts predicted for Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, New England, and N.Y. Giants. I see no reason to disagree.

Baltimore at Cincinnati. Each team has only minor seeding adjustments on the line, and with the game a near pick'em when you take homefield out of it, we give the Bengals the nod only because of homefield and because they've been playing better overall than the psycho Ravens.

Houston at Indianapolis is another game with only seeding on the line, although it's possible for Houston to lose homefield for the playoffs. Interesting dynamic with the head coach coming back for Indy, can Luck overcome his teammates deficiencies and beat the on paper much, much better Texans? Predictors and oddsmakers agree that it's Houston by 7 or 8 points, Houston hasn't been playing that well on offense when you man up on their receivers, so while I would take the points, I think Houston will win outright by 3 or 4.

Chicago at Detroit, I don't think the Lions have a prayer here. Chitown is still in it and although the line is 3, predictors have the Bears by 7, give the points the Bears will cover.

Green Bay at Minnesota, this should be a barn burner. AP looking for 208 yards, can Ponder stay away from the turnovers, what will the up and down Packers come out with? GB is playing for homefield advantage and the Vikings are playing for their playoff lives. Oddsmakers have it GB by 3.5 points, but it could be much closer with predictors only giving 1.5 to GB. The Packers by a fieldgoal at the end.

And the best for last again the week, Dallas at Washington SNF. Despite all the talk about RGIII's health, Romo choaking in big games, Des Bryant's resurgence, it may come down to which team's running back plays best. Of course this is directly tied in to which O-line plays best. That nod would go to the Skins for me, but they don't inspire much more confidence than the woeful Dallas line. Oddsmakers have it 3.5 points for Washington, predictors agree at 4 points, and I just want Washington to win over the morally bankrupt Cowgirls, Go Skins!

Rclark · « **Reply #444 on:** 30 Dec 2012, 05:54 pm »

Go Hawks! Get it boys!

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #445 on:** 30 Dec 2012, 06:29 pm »

Well, Robin isn't with us for awhile it seems

, so I'll sub for him . .

Ride-um Cowboys! Playoffs or bust!!

But, I think their run is dun tonite. Houston looks pretty sorry at half time and Indianapolis looks pretty inspired jus like the pundits said they would. Happy fans, I would say. Say what? The Giants might still be in the running

??

SteveFord · « **Reply #446 on:** 30 Dec 2012, 09:15 pm »

My Giants woke up but too late.
As soon as I heard that the Lions would have to win I knew they were sunk!

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #447 on:** 30 Dec 2012, 09:37 pm »

Yeah, the Giants rocked today, but too late. Houston looks like they will drop to the third seed. They got whupped fair and square but what a shocker for fans . . third seed. They haven't looked like super bowl stuff for three weeks now. Anyways, I'm happy for the Colts and their fans. Congrats, Jackman, on the Bears win. Gotta give it up for Cincinnati, too. And, there is old Jerry Jones and his flakey QB. Gotta lot of respect for Des Bryant, tho. I believe it's about time for Romo to wet his britches.

Rclark · « **Reply #448 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 01:58 am »

......

.....

Wwoooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Woo!

Mag · « **Reply #449 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 02:51 am »

Quote from: Rclark on 24 Dec 2012, 04:44 am

Hot damn! The Seahawks just absolutely destroyed the 49ers and nearly made another 50 point game

Looking good!

The Seahawks opened a can of Whoop Ass on the 49ers. Considering who they beat, perhaps the strongest defense this season. You've got to consider them a serious contenda in the playoffs.

S Clark · « **Reply #450 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 04:32 am »

Got to hand it to the Redskins, they've got a heckuva running game, and the Cowboys were just missing too many key players to be able to stop it. Good luck to the Skins in the playoffs- certainly fun to watch.

Rclark · « **Reply #451 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 04:36 am »

OOh damn. We get them next then. Wilson vs RGIII. Nice.

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #452 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 06:09 am »

I gotta admit, I almost hated to see the Pokes lose they've played so well these last few games. Not perfect, but impressive. Besides we go way back. I don't feel so bad, however, when I remind myself who owns them.

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #453 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 12:07 pm »

Wow, an almost perfect day considering initial conditions. Cowgirls lose in embarrassing fashion to the Skins with Romo showing his true colors once again, Bears are out of the playoffs so we don't have to hear about how they got robbed out of this or mistreated by that anymore, the Eagles lose so move up the draft pick queue, and the Steelers win gaining some small measure of respect by not having a losing season. I couldn't be happier with the outcome, come on 2013!

jackman · « **Reply #454 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 03:54 pm »

Letitroll,

I will miss all of your WRONG picks every week. I've never seen a person make more bad picks every week. I commend your persistence and consistency (constistantly wrong). Most people who know so little about football would have stopped making bad predictions by now. Here's hoping you get at least one pick correct in the upcoming season.

Lastly, way to find a ray of sunshine on that pathetic Eagle season. At least they fired that fat pile of worthless goo, Andy Ried. Too bad they did it five years too late.

Cheers

Jack

PS - thank you Vikings! Your victory over the Pack just got the Bears' POS coach Lovie Smith whacked. If the Bears made the playoffs, this year's team would have gotten bounced in the first round and we would have Lovie for another year. Hopefully, the Bears will learn from their mistake.

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #455 on:** 31 Dec 2012, 05:12 pm »

You funny, Jackman.

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #456 on:** 1 Jan 2013, 07:49 am »

I think Andy's being woo'd for the Bears job.

Seriously tho, I think those two guys, Andy and Lovey, are good people in situations that just didn't work out for them. For whatever reason, or reasons, neither got their team to where they needed to be to keep their jobs. The people and situations are always more complex than it looks from the outside, but the owners gave them both time and support, they both had successes, but neither got over the hump and won Superbowls. I hope they both land on their feet in good positions. Just not here.

Although both of us agree that the two coach's time was up, I think we both run the risk of looking back on the good ol' days when we had winning seasons. There's no guarantee we'll be getting better coaches that will have greater success. The NFL is coaches hitching their wagons to superstar QB's and it don't look all that great for either Chicago or Philly to be picking up star QB's in the near furture no matter who's coaching. My Steelers look at least hopeful anyway, and they're my #1 team.

And I'll be picking for the playoffs as well, so you won't be missing me, unlike the Bears, Eagles, or Steelers who will be missing from the playoffs. I call em like I see em and have an excellent winning percentage overall, my record was 13-3 last week, how did you do? Remember I don't post all of my picks here, just the interesting games, which are often tougher to predict. My record for this year's regular season is 172 and 84, and yes, I can prove it. We had a thread where we posted our picks each week, but it died for lack of interest, or courage.

JLM · « **Reply #457 on:** 1 Jan 2013, 01:20 pm »

Switch gears: college bowl games.

12/30/12 the real bowls have started. (Previous had mostly unranked, barely winning teams playing in empty stadiums.) Great game between LSU and Clemson last night (Tigers vs. Tigers). Clemson won with a field goal as time expired at the Georgia Dome.

IMO you should have at least 8 wins in a power conference or 10 wins otherwise to go to a bowl.

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #458 on:** 1 Jan 2013, 04:21 pm »

Yeah, the bowl selection process is a joke with the BCS intruding in, but not solving, the college bowl scene. They broke something that didn't need fixing and can't be ever really "fixed", all the revisions did was make more money for TV, amateur programs run as professional minor leagues, and some bowl committees.

All the major bowls were on Jan 1, we had a nice dinner and sat around the TV with our families either deciding which games to watch or switching back and forth, there were two polls, writers and coaches, and the championship was imaginary. Now we have the major bowls spread out over a week, the "Championship" is on a Tuesday night were many people have to work early the next day and can't stay up to see it.

The only reason we need to "officially" crown a champion is so other people that I don't know or care about can make a lot of money. It's amateur sports, these are boys, there are a zillion schools playing in multiple conferences and any real playoff system is totally impractical. There are real championships in every conference, we don't need more than that. The bowl games were intended as after the season rewards for those teams that played well enough to get invited, not as a national champion selection process. The whole thing is a cluster f@$# that has spiraled out of control driven by a money grab having only a trickle down benefit to the student athlete.

Now that my rant is over, yes, last night's game was great. Two well matched teams hammering at each other with a nail biter finish. And I didn't even really care who won, and was still excited. I think the Rose Bowl is the game I'll be most interested in today. And ref. my rant has stayed truest to the bowl tradition. I don't have a favorite, but it would be nice to see Stanford win after so many years of being out of it.

JLM · « **Reply #459 on:** 1 Jan 2013, 05:52 pm »

My other gripe about college football is starting the national rankings before they even play their first games. With 1/3rd to 1/2 of all starters changing, how can anyone make an intelligent selection that early? Then the problem perpetuates as the pollsters have to justify not moving the top ranked down for totally lackluster wins over horrible teams before the conference games (or moving them down slightly for early season losses).

Norte Dame is a prime example this year: only played four ranked teams, two overtime wins (Stanford/Pitt), only three blowouts (Navy/Miami-Fla/Wake Forest), 75th in passing yards gained, 29th rushing yards gained, and 76th in points scored. I'm not a fan of Norte Dame or Alabama, but I hope Bama humiliates the golden domers and the pollsters.