nfl 2023-2024

[Keyrock]

How about dem Cowboys?

10-3. I still think the Iggles will win the division because they have an easy schedule. It feels good, though.

[Keyrock]

How about dem Cowboys?

10-3. I still think the Iggles will win the division because they have an easy schedule. It feels good, though.

[Bartimaeus]

6 hours ago, Keyrock said:

10-3. I still think the Iggles will win the division because they have an easy schedule. It feels good, though.

Cowboys like to beat on bad teams and then get beat on by good teams. Does this mean the Cowboys aren't doing that anymore, or does it just mean the Eagles were bad all along?

It's a pretty crap year for MVP, going to be either Tua, Dak, Hurts, or Purdy without it being very clear whom yet: none of them have a particularly good case, and there isn't even a running back having a fantastic year like Adrian Peterson or Derrick Henry of yesteryears. I'm kind of just assuming that whoever ends up the #1 seed in the NFC is probably going to get it, unless they all look weak down the stretch and Tua closes out the year really well. Dak Prescott possibly winning an MVP just seems wacko to me, but them's the breaks in a bad offense year.

Packers may make the playoffs, which seems unthinkable after such a horrid mid-season stretch. We'll see. I would say that the NFC seems top-heavy, and yet I don't really believe in anyone besides the 49ers, who will probably be the ones that get the #1 seed.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

If Tyreek Hill doesn't win MVP this year then they might as well rename the award Best QB. No QB really stand out above all the others, Dak is as good a choice as any QB right now. Meanwhile, Tyreek Hill is having a historic season at WR.

[Bartimaeus]

That really depends on what you consider the MVP to be. It's never been "most outstanding player" (which is more fulfilled by Offensive Player of the Year, and which I would bet is won either by Hill or maybe Christian McCaffrey), and I don't really see how a WR could ever be more valuable than the QB throwing to him. But "most valuable" is not really the criteria used to award it either, clearly, as that's just about impossible to figure out given that you can't realistically evaluate a QB or RB without their surrounding talent heavily factoring into it. Heck, even a WR is dependent on the QB throwing to them, who is dependent on their line keeping them upright to throw it to them, and having other WRs and RBs that can draw defensive attention so they're not just constantly blanketed sure makes their job easier as well. I don't know what a WR would need to do in order to win MVP, but I don't think Hill will have done it this season, and I wouldn't be able to call him more valuable than at least a handful of QBs myself.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

I would propose that a WR that is constantly getting wide open, or at least getting significant separation from the DB, is a lot easier to throw to than one that has a DB draped on him constantly. You pretty much always have to have over the top safety help against Tyreek because he is capable of burning your CB at any given moment and if there's no safety help, well, that's 6 points. Tyreek Hill changes the way defenses have to defend the field and STILL constantly finds ways to get open.

[Bartimaeus]

30 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

I would propose that a WR that is constantly getting wide open, or at least getting significant separation from the DB, is a lot easier to throw to than one that has a DB draped on him constantly. You pretty much always have to have over the top safety help against Tyreek because he is capable of burning your CB at any given moment and if there's no safety help, well, that's 6 points. Tyreek Hill changes the way defenses have to defend the field and STILL constantly finds ways to get open.

I'm not seeing how that makes him more valuable than the quarterback throwing to him. No quarterback, no catches, which are tough circumstances to win an award called the "most valuable player". Again, it's not the most outstanding player award: an offense can run through a QB or a RB (or at least it used to be able to in the past for the latter), but it can't really for a WR or TE outside of some truly outstanding circumstances that don't really feel possible in the modern game, so I'm not seeing how either of them could ever win an MVP. It's the (current) nature of the game that makes QBs inherently more valuable. Don Hutson won it back-to-back in '41 and '42, but he was half his QB's entire production in both years and he was considered one of the league's best safeties on defense as well, so that makes a little more sense.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

I would propose that Tyreek has had a profound effect on Tua's success (and Mahomes' for that matter). It's not a fair comparison because you have to go back to last season for it, given that Tyreek has been healthy, but Tua's stats when he has Tyreek to throw to and when he doesn't are night and day different. Look at Mahomes ever since they traded away Tyreek. They're still winning games, but the Chiefs are far more leaning on their D these days. I've seen Mahomes struggle to score and come up short more times this year alone than I watched him pretty much the entire time they had Tyreek on the Chiefs. This is just speculation on my part, but I think that if you take Tyreek out of the game and replace him with average WR that would have a greater negative effect on the Fins' fortunes than taking Tua out of the game and replacing him with average QB. For me, that's the measurement for MVP, what if you replaced said player with an average player of the same position, how much impact would that have on the game?

As far as the Iggles suddenly being a bad team because muh Boys beat 'em up, I don't buy that. They lost to the 49ers and the Cowboys in back to back weeks, 2 of the league's best teams. It's not like they got punched in the mouth by the Cardinals or anything...

The Iggles will be fine, they're not last season's Vikings who we all knew would crumble as soon as the playoffs started. I don't think they're as good as last year's Iggles, but they're still a contender even after we just put the boots to them. Now, if they lose again next week to the C-Hox (and the C-Hox will be playing for their playoff lives) then a) I will be happy b) we can have the are the Iggles in trouble talk then.  

Edited December 11, 2023 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

and this is why you don't talk about playoffs before you're actually in them

[Keyrock]

My favorite non-Cowboys thing that happened this week was also the most on-brand play of the week. It was Kadarius Toney erasing an awesome play that involved an impromptu lateral and costing his team the win by lining up damn near a yard off-side. The best part was Mahomes crying about it after the game when my man was so off-side that under normal circumstances that's how an artist would have drawn someone off-side to exaggerate for comedic effect.

@BartimaeusEven with that terrible loss to Shinebox Tommy and the Giants, the Packers are still in decent position to make the playoffs. The more important piece of this is figuring out whether Jordan Love is the guy at QB. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

*fart noise* - That was the complete, unabridged description of muh Boys performance this previous Sunday.

Also, that thing I wrote about the Packers still being in good position to make the playoffs following their loss to the Giants... Forget I wrote anything.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

On 12/11/2023 at 10:57 AM, Keyrock said:

Now, if they lose again next week to the C-Hox (and the C-Hox will be playing for their playoff lives) then a) I will be happy b) we can have the are the Iggles in trouble talk then.  

Okay, we can have the are the Iggles in trouble talk now. Unfortunately, we can also have the Cowboys are frauds talk too.

[Bartimaeus]

Some seasons, it can kind of feel like everyone are frauds. Luckily, the playoffs usually sort all that out and everyone forgets by the start of the next one.

[Keyrock]

We did it, muh Boys beat Goff. It wasn't pretty, downright ugly at times. You know, sometimes you don't have the means to properly lubricate the situation, to make everything work smoothly, but you just have to grit your teeth, knuckle down; it might get a little rough, you might even see some blood, but you don't stop, you keep beating Goff until the finish, and that's what muh Boys did.

Side-note: I've been waiting all season since I saw the schedule for this game, hoping Jared would be healthy, just so that I could make that childish, immature joke. Worth.

[Keyrock]

Holy ****, this just keeps getting better. First muh Boys win, granted not without controversy (and also because Mike McCarthy is incapable of managing the clock), but a win is a win. I got to make a beating Goff joke and it was for an important game as an extra bonus. And now the Iggles slipped on a banana peel and lost to the Cards, putting muh Boys in prime position to win the NFC East, all we have to do is beat the Commies next week. I didn't even have to use my AK, I gotta say it was a good day.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

@BartimaeusLooks like our teams are meeting in the wild card round. I'll never hear the end of it when muh Boys $#!+ the bed like we always do next weekend.

[Bartimaeus]

I don't expect the Packers to win, our defense is still very bad regardless of how backup QBs like Justin Fields and Nick Mullens have made it look the past two weeks, but the Packers have inexplicably beat the Cowboys in the playoffs with a terrible defense before, so I certainly won't be making any predictions.

Edited January 8 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

I'd like to thank the Jets for being the only team apparently interested in taking Aaron Rodgers off the Packers' hands. While his talent and skill cannot be overstated, and while the return perhaps should've been better regardless of the man going on to immediately tear his heel, I just...am appreciative of how stress and controversy-free the Green Bay Packers in the year of our lord 2023, and now 2024, are in comparison to what could have been if the Packers hadn't been able to move on. I don't know if Jordan Love is the guy yet, still much too early to know for sure, but it's a whole new damned team and I'm feeling awfully thankful about it right now, so here's to the future. Hopefully Jordan Love won't go to the Jets in like 2040 - it seems to unfortunately portend grim tidings.

Edited January 9 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

Kind of an ***hole move by the NFL to put the Fins vs Chiefs game only on The Peaschlong. If only there was some other way to watch the game, one that could easily be found with a simple web search, possibly even the top result, if the right very obvious search phrase were to be used. If only such a thing were possible. But alas...

 

[Keyrock]

I'm really surprised at how the Houston Strouds are lighting up Cleveland. The Browns have arguably the best defense in the league.

Edit: Unsurprisingly, the Chiefs easily won the Deep Freeze Bowl in KC. So far we're 0 for 2 as far as competitive games go. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Edited January 14 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

Well, the time has come. Muh Boys had a great season, but it's time for our annual playoff collapse, and, fittingly, at the hands of the Packers.

Edit: And, there it is, we're already down 14-0, as expected. Good luck in the playoffs going forward @Bartimaeus

Edited January 14 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

20 points isn't insurmountable! But yeah, yikes. Looking like "welcome to Dallas, Coach Belichick" if they don't turn things around.

Edited January 14 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

I mean, if this means McCarthy gets fired then at least there's a silver lining. Given our recent track record with coaches, there's no guarantee the next coach will be any better, but our ceiling with McCarthy is divisional round at best, soooooo...

Side-note: I stopped watching less than halfway through the second quarter. I just looked at the score and it seems I made the right choice deciding to play Morrowind instead.

Side-side-note: Did the Green Bay Packers make some kind of deal with Satan? Y'all had back to back long-tenured hall of fame franchise QBs and now... It's too early to call Jordan Love a franchise QB, but he's certainly at the very least a good legitimate starter. What the ****? Y'all can't even go 1 ****ing season with a $#!+ QB? Since Aikman, I had to suffer through Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde, and the desiccated corpse of Drew Bledsoe before we got to Romo, and Romo was good, but he would also savagely murder our team 3 times a year by throwing back-breaking interceptions.

Edited January 14 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

It could be God and not Satan, you know. Just saying, it could be holy instead of unholy, .

Edited January 15 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

27 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It could be God and not Satan, you know.

It's definitely Satan.

Edited January 15 by Keyrock