Nfl 2011

[R_of_G]

That said, 4-1 under Tebow makes me think he's got help from above. What's so wrong about that?

I suppose if God made Sanchez throw that pick-6 then my displeasure is misplaced.

[piebaldpython***]

That said, 4-1 under Tebow makes me think he's got help from above. What's so wrong about that?

Well........what's wrong about that is the "faithful" will take that to mean that God prefers Tebow and the Bronocos over other other QBs and their teams and they will happily voice that opinion. That's SCARY if you ask me.

My take on this is as follows......Tebow has some limitations as a QB. That said, his coaches have devised offensive game plans that magnify his talents and minimize his shortcomings. That's good coaching and Tebow does have a "sense of purpose" out on the field and his teammates respond to that in that they realize they have to make the most out of any opportunity. The Broncos may be a one-trick pony but if that pony gets you into the playoffs.....that's wonderful.

[R_of_G]

Yeah, if Broncos fans are willing to shell out NFL ticket prices to see grown men run a high school offense, with almost no degree of success other than in the final two minutes of every game, then by all means let them.

[Beerman***]

Well........what's wrong about that is the "faithful" will take that to mean that God prefers Tebow and the Bronocos over other other QBs and their teams and they will happily voice that opinion. That's SCARY if you ask me.

My take on this is as follows......Tebow has some limitations as a QB. That said, his coaches have devised offensive game plans that magnify his talents and minimize his shortcomings. That's good coaching and Tebow does have a "sense of purpose" out on the field and his teammates respond to that in that they realize they have to make the most out of any opportunity. The Broncos may be a one-trick pony but if that pony gets you into the playoffs.....that's wonderful.

Well, what I'm getting at (and I'm not a Tebow fan) is that we always see the media attention on the bad boys of sports and in my opinion, it's good that we can get to talk about the good guys. Not that being a religious person makes you good.....plenty of non religious folks are good and decent people but mostly we have to continually watch the thugs in trouble or most recently, the perverts.

[piebaldpython***]

Yeah, if Broncos fans are willing to shell out NFL ticket prices to see grown men run a high school offense, with almost no degree of success other than in the final two minutes of every game, then by all means let them.

lolol Yeah, 3 yards and a cloud of dust....welcome to the Big 10 version of the NFL. lol BORING!!! Winning is winning.....be it pretty (Pats) or Fugly (Broncos). Tebow's success is an added bonus to the owners who hoped maybe he could boost attendance/merchandise sales for a couple of years.

Unlike some other college stars......Tebow comes in with NO baggage. No drive-bys, no drugs, etc.

[NWBasser]

Congrats to PBP and Eric for the Iggles win!

It looked like someone lit a fire under the asses of the defense. What a fine performance!

And my Seahawks nabbed a win over the hapless Rams. The 'hawks didn't look all that bad actually.

Now I'm looking forward to the Turkey Day games. The Lions/Packers game might be fairly fun to watch.

[piebaldpython***]

Yeah, the IGGLES did pretty good on D. Vince Young played effectively. DeSean Jackson drives us nuts with his preening, taunting, etc. He cost us a 60 punt runback because he had to taunt the Giants sideline. But......he turns around and makes a big receiving play. What are we gonna do with him?

Turkey Day football should be fun this year. Lions/Packers and 49ers/Ravens. Don't know who the Cowboys are playing.

[Commodore 64***]

DeSean the Diva. The next TO.

[R_of_G]

Yeah, the IGGLES did pretty good on D. Vince Young played effectively. DeSean Jackson drives us nuts with his preening, taunting, etc. He cost us a 60 punt runback because he had to taunt the Giants sideline. But......he turns around and makes a big receiving play. What are we gonna do with him?

I've never been much of a fan of the taunting or trash-talking either, but I can't really see the problem with what Jackson did the other night if I look at in the context of what goes on in every other game in this league.

Guys make tackles (not even for a loss) and get up and flex their muscles, or pretend to shoot machine guns, or pose like Tim Tebow, or pretend to be a swashbuckler, and on and on and on all with nary a flag thrown.

It's "illegal" for two guys on the same team to fall down on the ground to celebrate a touchdown or do anything that seems "planned" yet it's perfectly fine for the Packers' players to jump into the stands when they score?

What's the difference between that and what Jackson did? Nothing, except that Desean has a reputation and maybe some of the other guys doing this stuff don't so he gets a flag and they don't. It's just more of the same inconsistency that abounds in this league.

I'm significantly more offended when a receiver doesn't make a catch and gets up and starts gesticulating for a flag to be thrown than I am when Desean Jackson acts immaturely for two seconds.

I'm more offended when there's a close play by a sideline or endline and every defensive player is in the face of the officials waving their arms to make him signal incomplete. That's a lot less sportsmanlike than Desean Jackson chucking the ball to Perry Fewell and miming wiping his chest.

I'm more offended that Maurice Jones-Drew, who wasn't even in the playoffs, had the audacity to post a Twitter message during the NFC Championship game about how much of a wimp he thought Jay Cutler was for not coming back in the game, even though he had torn ligaments in his knee.That's not taunting or unsportsmanlike? Why? Because it didn't happen on the field because the player plays for a team so craptacular the playoffs are something he can only watch on television?

The NFL turns into a bigger joke all the time as the rules change not only week to week but seemingly from quarter to quarter and player to player.

[piebaldpython***]

I'm significantly more offended when a receiver doesn't make a catch and gets up and starts gesticulating for a flag to be thrown than I am when Desean Jackson acts immaturely for two seconds.

His taunting drew the attention of the refs and I bet his MOUTH sealed the deal.

[R_of_G]

His taunting drew the attention of the refs and I bet his MOUTH sealed the deal.

No doubt, and in a league where they enforce any kind of taunting or unsportsmanlike conduct I wouldn't have a problem at all with him being flagged for acting like a child on that play. However, in this current NFL, I think it's silly to have rules enforced so inconsistently that there's really no way to determine what the rule even is. Flag 'em all, or don't flag any of them.

[R_of_G]

The Thursday games were interesting but didn't turn out the way I wanted, except with the Dolphins losing.

I was pulling for Detroit but Stafford wasn't having the best of days and losing Suh was a big blow to that defense. I hope Suh can get his temper under control. I wasn't down with the "dirty player" rep he was getting because in a lot of those cases I don't think what he did was dirty, just finishing plays harder than a lot of the other prima donnas in the league do. Thursday though was different. You can't do that. I'd still take him on my team any day. Most dominant defensive tackle since Sapp's heyday.

Not even sure what to expect from today. It's the rare Sunday when both the Jets and Bucs are on tv here, both in games they could and should win, and yet I don't expect either team to do so. I picked both in my weekly pool because I have a long running tradition of never betting against my teams, but I'm also thinking of those as two highly probable losses for this week. The best part about low expectations is that if either/both team(s) win, it's a pleasant surprise.

My other football wish for the day is that I'd like to see San Diego get it together at least for one game because whatever the big stories are to be out of football going into next week, I'd really like "Tim Tebow completes 3 of 9 passes, runs for late touchdown in miraculous 7-3 victory over San Diego" not to be one of them.

[R_of_G]

Had my neighbor (bass player) over to watch the early games today. We flipped back and forth between the Jets and Bucs.

The Jets looked good at times but not great. Sanchez made some mistakes early but got it together when he needed to and found his receivers at the right times. I was glad to see Keller more involved in this game. He's a vastly underused weapon. Greene had a nice game out of the backfield. Joe McKnight will never be LT, but he's come a long way from the rookie who vomited in training camp two years ago because he wasn't in shape for NFL football.

One note as far as honesty goes, as you may recall during the free agency period, I had hoped the Jets would use their leftover money to re-sign Brad Smith instead of Antonio Cromartie (for whom they massively overpaid). Today Smith beat Cromartie on several plays. None cost the Jets anything big so it was enjoyable from a schadenfreude standpoint.

One final note on that game, way to keep it classy Stevie Johnson. That dude has all the talent in the world but makes Desean Jackson look like a choir boy. What a petulant little punk he is. Making fun of the Jets' receivers' "flying" celebration is one thing, but New Yorkers don't take kindly to jokes about plane crashes. Moron.

The Bucs need some serious help on defense, other than Talib and Tanard Jackson who both had very solid games. Josh Freeman needs a new QB coach. He's having a lot of difficulty reading defenses this year. Blount had another 100+ yard game so that was cool.

[piebaldpython***]

One final note on that game, way to keep it classy Stevie Johnson. That dude has all the talent in the world but makes Desean Jackson look like a choir boy. What a petulant little punk he is. Making fun of the Jets' receivers' "flying" celebration is one thing, but New Yorkers don't take kindly to jokes about plane crashes. Moron.

I saw his "dance" and thought he was imitating Plaxico shooting himself in the leg???

Anyway.........DeSean dropped a couple of TD passes he should have caught....he short-armed a couple too over the middle. One "wonders" if this was intentional due to his contract problems?

Andy Reid is HISTORY. The writing is on the wall.....his players don't play for him......they appear poorly coached. Put an apple in his mouth and put him on a spit.

Broncos head coach ought to get Coach of the Year if the Broncos make the playoffs. Say what you want about the One-Dimensional Man, Tebow...but they keep FINDING ways to win. Throwback football to be sure........but they are doing wonders with their scheme. They throw so infrequently that Tebow's passing looks decent because the corners and safeties can't sit on his passes.

[R_of_G]

I saw his "dance" and thought he was imitating Plaxico shooting himself in the leg???

He actually did two. One was mocking Plaxico. I have no problem with that. Plaxico is an idiot who shot himself in the leg and deserves to made fun of for it. The second time he did a little "flying Jet" dance (a la Santonio Holmes) which ended with a mimicked crash. Not cool at all, especially not a for a New York audience.

Broncos head coach ought to get Coach of the Year if the Broncos make the playoffs. Say what you want about the One-Dimensional Man, Tebow...but they keep FINDING ways to win. Throwback football to be sure........but they are doing wonders with their scheme. They throw so infrequently that Tebow's passing looks decent because the corners and safeties can't sit on his passes.

This time more than any of the others I saw a team that won in spite of their QB. Tebow doesn't make McGahee blow throw tackles and find his holes. Tebow doesn't make Von Miller terrorize QBs. He doesn't make his DBs provide skin-tight coverage. He doesn't add yardage to Prater's field-goal kicking range. He runs well and he throws a handful of passes and most of the ones that are completions are completed because of the extra effort given by his receivers, not because he dropped the pass right into their hands a la Aaron Rogers. I've got no problem giving credit to the coaches and defense of the Broncos but Tebow had little to do with yesterday's victory.

[Commodore 64***]

His wind-up to throw is amazingly slow and deliberate. But then Jeff George's release was amazingly quick. And he pretty much sucked too. I think Teblow's got more wins already than Jeff George did in his career. That he keeps winning is freakin' amazing. There's just no other way to explain how he keeps winning other than Divine Intervention.

[Beerman***]

Drew Brees was magical last night. Course I'm very biased but I wish he could play at that level all the time. He is definitely near the top and with his past 3 years and this year, his numbers are astronomical.
Some bad calls again last night. Refs.....LET THEM FREAKIN' PLAY THE GAME!

Eli didn't quit but his high numbers were mostly when the Saints knew they had it won (and also due to the weak defense the Saints showed again at times). I don't envy the Giants as they have a tough schedule left. Seems like Atlanta also has an easy stretch so it'll be fun to see who wins the division.

[R_of_G]

Drew Brees was magical last night. Course I'm very biased but I wish he could play at that level all the time. He is definitely near the top and with his past 3 years and this year, his numbers are astronomical.

From an unbiased fan of another team in the same division, at his highest level of play, I still think Brees is the best in the league. His accuracy is like nothing I've ever seen. Now is the time for him to get rolling so the Saints can make a run at the 49ers for second in the NFC. They may as well try to get as many games in the Super Dome in as they can before they may have to go through Lambeau for an NFC Championship run.

[Beerman***]

Sorry, I can't see us going much past the first playoff game unless it's at home. We all know how the Saints played in Chicago and Green Bay in the winter. One bad thing about the Dome....it spoils you.
However, we have had some games late where we showed it can be done. But, the D is not up to task but improving. SF and GB are tough though I think GB has a problem with their D as well.
At least against Detroit this week, Suh may be suspended and that will definitely help them against the Lions.