NFL Season 2009

[Kelverin]

Great game last night, titans kicker had a bad game which is unusual since he is so reliable. No sure about the defensive strategy at the end for Tennessee, seemed they gave up and used the bend, don't break philosophy which failed. Miss Madden already, not a fan of Cris C.

 

 

Polamalu suffers MCL sprain

In the aftermath of the Steelers' 13-10 overtime win over Tennessee to open the 2009 NFL season, the question that needed answering was how long Troy Polamalu might be lost.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/...ers-mcl-sprain/

 

 

Apparently Madden will still be around.

"John Madden is back in the NFL as an unpaid "special adviser" to commissioner Roger Goodell.

The league announced Thursday that Madden, who retired as a broadcaster earlier this year, would advise Goodell on "matters pertaining to the game, including competitive issues, coaching and personnel development, technological innovations, player safety, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4462108

 

 

 

The rest of my picks

Falcons

Ravens

Eagles

Bengals

Vikings

Texans

Colts

Saints

Cowboys

Cardinals

Giants

Seahawks

Packers

Patriots

Chargers

[Enoch]

Great game last night, titans kicker had a bad game which is unusual since he is so reliable. No sure about the defensive strategy at the end for Tennessee, seemed they gave up and used the bend, don't break philosophy which failed. Miss Madden already, not a fan of Cris C.

It was a great game, although I'll defend Bironas a bit-- getting one blocked isn't his fault, and the one he shanked was off a really terrible snap.

 

I think the lesson at the close of the game is more for Pittsburgh than it is for the Titans. Their run blocking is lousy, and the offense moves the ball much better when they go shotgun 3-wide and just let Ben wing it. Their drives were grinding to a halt when they were wasting downs trying to run the ball.

[Kelverin]

Pitt will figure out the running game, they always do. But will the titans figure out how to rush more than 4 when the games on the line and let the QB pick em apart? If they do I hope it's after they lose to the chargers

Edited September 11, 2009 by Kelverin

[Enoch]

Pitt will figure out the running game, they always do. But will the titans figure out how to rush more than 4 when the games on the line and let the QB pick em apart? If they do I hope it's after they lose to the chargers

They didn't last season-- their 3.7 yards/attempt was 29th in the League. Sure, they'll improve their rushing results from what they accomplished this week (not playing against the Titans defense will help), but they're not a 'run-first' team anymore. And they shouldn't be-- the run is important in two ways in the modern NFL: 1) as a threat to keep the defense from focusing too heavily on the pass, and 2) to eat the clock when you have a lead in the second half. It can be an effective way to get you that lead in the first place, but a good passing game is a far more efficient and effective way to do that than is a good running game.

 

The 'prevent' defense gets a bad rap. Commentators are quick to notice and blame it when it fails, but when it succeeds, they just blame poor offensive execution. Coaches watch a lot more game film a lot more closely than fans, commentators, and sportswriters do, and they keep calling the prevent for a reason. Personally, I think the core problem isn't the scheme that coaches call in those situations-- it's the predictability. Going 'prevent' on the majority of snaps while protecting a lead late in a game is good strategy, but you still should vary it up a little bit from time to time to keep the offense guessing. I'm not expert enough to say whether the Titans were doing that or not (it could've been in their coverage schemes rather than in the number of rushers). It's clear that something didn't work right, but it could easily have been mistakes in coverage or the down linemen (who had previously been getting good pressure without blitzes) tiring out in the face of the no-huddle.

[Kelverin]

Apparently someone did not see the steelers in the playoffs/SB last year

[Enoch]

Apparently someone did not see the steelers in the playoffs/SB last year

??

 

In their 3 playoff games, PIT had 165 rushing yards on 42 carries (3.9 avg), 52 on 28 (1.9 avg.), and 58 on 26 (2.2 avg.). For the rushing offense, that's one OK game against the Chargers (average on a per-play basis, boosted by an unusually large of attempts, mostly in protecting the lead they built up), and two awful games against Baltimore and Arizona. Sure the Baltimore D is really good, but the other two weren't top-10 run defenses or anything.

[Guard Dog]

or the down linemen (who had previously been getting good pressure without blitzes) tiring out in the face of the no-huddle.

 

I think this is the right answer. More to the point, the no huddle prevented substitutions so they could not set the defense they wanted.

[Kelverin]

Apparently someone did not see the steelers in the playoffs/SB last year

??

 

In their 3 playoff games, PIT had 165 rushing yards on 42 carries (3.9 avg), 52 on 28 (1.9 avg.), and 58 on 26 (2.2 avg.). For the rushing offense, that's one OK game against the Chargers (average on a per-play basis, boosted by an unusually large of attempts, mostly in protecting the lead they built up), and two awful games against Baltimore and Arizona. Sure the Baltimore D is really good, but the other two weren't top-10 run defenses or anything.

Lol you and the stats, they won THE SUPER BOWL

[Enoch]

Winning the big one doesn't mean that every aspect of their game was great-- the sum total just turned out to be better than the teams they faced in the playoffs. It doesn't change my point that they had a poor rushing offense in 2008, that it looks like their 2009 rushing offense will be similarly poor, and that they are more effective in a shotgun 3-wide scheme than they are in their base offense.

[Volourn]

Enoch wins.

[Enoch]

Picks:

 

Dolphins @ Falcons

Chiefs @ Ravens

Eagles @ Panthers

Broncos @ Bengals

Vikings @ Browns

Jets @ Texans

Jags @ Colts

Lions @ Saints

Cowboys @ Bucs

49ers @ Cardinals

Redskins @ Giants

Rams @ Seahawks

Bears @ Packers

Bills @ Patriots

Chargers @ Raiders

 

 

Probably not picking enough upsets for Week 1, but it's tough to decide which other ones are most likely.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Enoch

[Kelverin]

Enoch wins.

Maybe, then again it was the first game of the year, against one of if not the primer defense of the league, lets see how it plays out all the stats in the world don't tell the whole story. Watching the games do and winning it all is a sure sign of doing something right, if the line play does not improve it won't matter since they are likely to get their meal ticket (QB) killed.

Edited September 11, 2009 by Kelverin

[Kelverin]

Well that was fast

 

San Diego district attorney closes case against Merriman

 

"SAN DIEGO -- District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis on Friday dismissed reality TV personality Tila Tequila's accusations that San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman choked her and threw her to the ground early Sunday while she was trying to leave his suburban home."

 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8...mp;confirm=true

[Volourn]

Sees suspicious they would close it down so quickly without disucssing details. If he's innocent then shouldn't be charged with firing a false police report? Did he atcually choke her to 'stop' her from leaving his house? Did she exaggerate? Was she actually drunk? Was he drunk? What's up.

 

It seems to clean, and lack of mess to simply say 'not enough evidence to prosecute'. The police have charged people with very little evidence before. In fact, often times people get charged simply because they're accused in 'domestic disturbances' cases. So what's the issue here? What are they hiding?

 

Is it a case of bias of noble football player vs icky reality star?

 

Hmmm....

[Laozi]

Its a case of two fairly gross people who no one should care about. A 'roidrager and his used gym sock

[Kelverin]

Brian Urlacher likely out for the season with wrist injury

 

Brian Urlacher appears to be out for the season after dislocating his right wrist, the linebacker said Monday. The team has not given the official word, but Lovie Smith is expected to address the issue during his afternoon press conference.

 

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune....ist-injury.html

 

 

QB cutler :p :lol:

[Enoch]

Time for Week 2 picks!

 

Carolina @ Atlanta

Minnesota @ Detroit

Cincinnati @ Green Bay

Arizona @ Jacksonville

Oakland @ Kansas City

New England @ NY Jets

New Orleans @ Philadelphia

Houston @ Tennessee

St. Louis @ Washington

Tampa Bay @ Buffalo

Seattle @ San Francisco

Pittsburgh @ Chicago

Cleveland @ Denver

Baltimore @ San Diego

NY Giants @ Dallas

Indianapolis @ Miami

 

 

I'd love to pick my Giants to wipe the smirk off of Jerrah's face in his ego-dome's opening game. I do think that NY has an overall stronger team, but they have just enough nagging injuries on defense (CB Aaron Ross & DT Chris Canty will miss the game, and CB Kevin Dockery & S Kenny Phillips will probably be playing at less than 100%) for me to lean towards Dallas this week. Plus, with their inexperienced WRs and with their 2 big offseason acquisitions (Canty and LB Michael Boley) missing most of training camp with various injuries, I always expected the team to start a bit slowly.

 

Then again, the Dallas D looked absolutely awful against Tampa last week, so this may be an instance where neither defense gets many stops and the last team with the ball ends up winning.

 

Also, I set the over-under on drunken fistfights among the reported 30,000 standing-room-only tickets at 500.

Edited September 18, 2009 by Enoch

[Kelverin]

Atlanta

Minnesota

Green Bay

Jacksonville

Kansas City

New England

Philadelphia

Tennessee

Washington

Buffalo

Seattle

Pittsburgh

Cleveland

San Diego

NY Giants

Miami

[Gfted1]

@Enoch: Can I get you another glass of Haterade?

 

I think it would be cool if they can pull off the attendace record for an NFL game. They're up against a pretty tough record of 103K set in Azteca Stadium in Mexico in 2005.

[Volourn]

Carolina @ Atlanta: ATL

Minnesota @ Detroit: MIN

Cincinnati @ Green Bay: GB

Arizona @ Jacksonville: ARI

Oakland @ Kansas City: OAK

New England @ NY Jets: NE

New Orleans @ Philadelphia: NO

Houston @ Tennessee: TEN

St. Louis @ Washington: WSH

Tampa Bay @ Buffalo: BUF

Seattle @ San Francisco: SEA

Pittsburgh @ Chicago: CHI

Cleveland @ Denver: DEN

Baltimore @ San Diego: BAL

NY Giants @ Dallas: NYG

Indianapolis @ Miami: IND

[Guard Dog]

Okay kiddes after week one here are the rankings:

 

Volo 12-4

Kelverin: 12-4

GD: 11-5

Enoch: 9-6

[Guard Dog]

Carolina @ Atlanta: Yikes, six turnovers last week for the Panthers. Falcons win.

Minnesota @ Detroit: Detroit is about to get it's first win in two years. They are due. Lions win

Cincinnati @ Green Bay: Packers are hot, Bengals are not. Packers win

Arizona @ Jacksonville: Jags gave up almost 400 yards ti Indy last week. Ugh. Cardinals win.

Oakland @ Kansas City: Oakland was not terrible last week but KC will win. Chiefs win.

New England @ NY Jets: Are the Jets for real? No. Patriots win.

New Orleans @ Philadelphia: No Mcnabb? Who dat? Saints win.

Houston @ Tennessee: Old Houston team vs new houston team. Oilers (Titans) win.

St. Louis @ Washington: Rams are terrible. Redskins win.

Tampa Bay @ Buffalo: Bucs do have a good running game. Everything else leaves something to be desired. Bills win.

Seattle @ San Francisco: 49ers came to play last week but Seahawks will win.

Pittsburgh @ Chicago: Cutlers woes continue with Pittsburgh in town. Steelers win.

Cleveland @ Denver: Denver is just ok, Browns don't even know who their QB is gonna be. Broncos win.

Baltimore @ San Diego: I had SD penciled in to be in the AFC Championship. Not so sure after that game last week. Ravens win.

NY Giants @ Dallas: Game of the week. Giants win.

Indianapolis @ Miami: Indy has played poorly in Miami over the years. Dolphins rebound with the win.

Edited September 20, 2009 by Guard Dog

[Enoch]

@Enoch: Can I get you another glass of Haterade?

Absolutely:

 

 

Really, any football fan who doesn't hate Jerry Jones just hasn't been paying attention.

[Volourn]

Jerry Jones is awesome. He loves his team, and tries to do what he can to win and succeed. That's all that should be needed. Kissing up to punks is boring stuff that cowards do.

[Kelverin]

I lost 10 games already, what a terrible week. Now if I can only beat gifted.....Go gmen