The NFL 2013 Thread

[Keyrock]

Rejoice!  It's that wonderful time again, football season is upon us!

 

Kickoff is tonight, Ravens at Broncos, which is weird, since the champs usually get to play at home for the opener.

 

I'm a Cowboys fan myself, so I'm already bracing for yet another season of heartbreak and disappointment.

[Guard Dog]

I'm a Bucs fan. This is going to be a very important year for us. It's now the second season of Schianos rebuilding effort and it's Josh Freemans last chance to put up or shut up as QB.

[Keyrock]

I'm a Bucs fan. This is going to be a very important year for us. It's now the second season of Schianos rebuilding effort and it's Josh Freemans last chance to put up or shut up as QB.

I like Freeman, but he was bitterly disappointing last year.  He seemed to regress.

 

So much of the blame for the Cowboys being stuck in perpetual mediocrity gets put on Tony Romo.  Sure, he deserves some of it, but the 'Boys have much bigger problems, the biggest of which is the GM (unfortunately, also the owner).

Edited September 5, 2013 by Keyrock

[ManifestedISO]

I honestly hope Manti Te'o destroys the field for the Chargers and silences that unfortunate breach in wisdom for good.  

 

New coach, new GM, and some new player prospects ... if Rivers can control his turnovers, and if anyone shows up to defend the pass rush, *facepalm* SD could challenge Denver for the AFC West. But because I want that to happen ... it won't.  

[Guard Dog]

The real problem with the Cowboys is Jerry Jones being unwilling to rebuild the team. In the NFL it is just necessary to blow it up and rebuild every 6-8 seasons. Usually the turnaround is quick. Romo is not the real problem, there are no better QBs to replace him with in any given free agency period and the Boys are always just good enough to not have a shot at the high draft picks. So they try to improve piecemeal and the problem with that is as you improve one position, another is going down in quality. Sometimes it just has to be like pulling off a Band-Aid, better to just yank it off an be done with it.

[Inyourprime]

Cowboy fan, huh? Well I feel obliged to say -- Welcome to Jerry World!

 

Over the years I've leaned towards Baseball, honestly. I don't know if I'll even watch the game... maybe I'll just catch the highlights tonight. But for the sake of keeping on topic -- if I had to pull for a team, it'd be the Texans. No way in hell I'm putting up with Jerry's nonsense for another season. I like Kubiak and what he's doing with that team.

[Keyrock]

I know, it's maddening.  We're stuck with Jerry for the foreseeable future.  I wish he would just swallow his pride and hire a real GM...  and actually let him do his job, rather than pull the strings from the background.

 

*sigh*

[ShadySands]

A Cowboys fan?!?! 

 

Watching fireworks over Mile High right now

 

(not pictured: Fireworks)

[ManifestedISO]

Wow, a ton of history made in that game. 

 

I take it all back, Denver is gonna wipe the AFC with Peyton's pinkie finger. Chargers will be second in the West, maybe, should be, I hope. 

[Volourn]

But, Peyton is too old, too crippled, and it was all his Indy receivers to still be a top QB. L0L

 

I like when people claimed his career was finished. L0LZ

[ShadySands]

I'm sure we will blow it in the playoffs again

 

It's kind of our thing

[Nepenthe]

While I enjoy (American) football, I've been unable to justify the current cost of 250 euros for the season in my current depleted finances. Probably start watching a bit later when the price goes down or something.

 

(Edit: oh, looks like it's down to 210.)

Edited September 6, 2013 by Nepenthe

[Keyrock]

Pey Pey and the Broncos took the defending champs out to the woodshed last night.  Man, that was a beatdown.  Still, it's opening game of the season, so I'm not reading more into it than 1 win and 1 loss and that the Ravens have a really shaky secondary, which we already knew.

[babaganoosh13]

I'm a Bills fan. My expectations have been low for years. Even if we have a good start, they will collapse. Our best players will get injured a lot. We will be too good to get a top pick, and too bad to make the playoffs. I can't remember if I've been to a game that they've won since Doug Flutie was the quarterback. I may have been to one that they won when Bledsoe was the QB, but I was also at the game when all they had to do was beat the Steelers 2nd and 3rd stringers and they would have been in since the Jets lost in Denver, but they managed to lose that one.

 

The last game I was at before my first son was born was against a really crappy 9ers team. We had JP Loseman as our QB. They were down to some guy from Tulane as their QB. My friends and I were 12 rows from the field on the 20 yard line. I remember screaming at him that he was from Tulane State, then Tulane Community College.

 

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=281130002

 

I was very, very drunk because that was the first game that I went to in about 8 years that I hadn't had to drive to myself with everyone so I took full advantage of it. Apparently Shaun Hill never went to Tulane. Also, Trent Edwards started the game. I probably booed when Loserman was put in the game. That guy never showed any flashes of brilliance. Not in the NFL anyways.

 

Hopefully EJ works out for us. Pre-season knee surgery is never a good sign though. I was never high on Kolb, but dang; Jeff Tuel had a 4-22 record at Washington State. I'd feel better with Matt Leinart in there as backup. At least he has managed to accomplish something in his career.

[kgambit]

Saints top Falcons 23-17 

 

4th and goal interception by Roman Harper with 0:58 to play stops Falcons final drive.

Edited September 8, 2013 by kgambit

[Inyourprime]

Ohhh, 13-3 Boys ahead of the G-men. They may have something here, Keyrock. 

[Keyrock]

Cowboys won tonight...  No that's not right.  They lost less than the Giants.  Good Gawd that was an ugly game.  As usual, the Cowboys couldn't close a game out in the 4th quarter, it's just that the Giants wanted the loss more.

 

As an aside, why do defensive coordinators continue to run the prevent defense?  It literally fails every time.  Every ****ing time!

[Volourn]

"As usual, the Cowboys couldn't close a game out in the 4th quarter"
 

What game were you watching? They came into the 4th with the lead and ended it with the lead. That is the definition of closing. It doesn't matter if the other team did poor. Dallas was better on this night and I say that as a Giants fan. Don't make stuff up. Lying is rude.

[Inyourprime]

Both teams played poorly, the Giants were the worse of the two though. Poor play from their RBs didn't help and I had no idea they were this severely depleted, so there's that to consider.

 

Cowboys should have blown that game wide open - six turnovers and the Giants still had a chance to win.

[HoonDing]

Could a NFL team beat a English Premiership Rugby team?

Edited September 9, 2013 by Drudanae

[Walsingham]

Could a NFL team beat a English Premiership Rugby team?

 

I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. The whole way those chaps play is based on the assumption that they'll be wearing a load of body armour, and so is the guy they're playing against. So I'd expect the tackles to be totally inappropriate in both directions.

[Keyrock]

"As usual, the Cowboys couldn't close a game out in the 4th quarter"

 

What game were you watching? They came into the 4th with the lead and ended it with the lead. That is the definition of closing. It doesn't matter if the other team did poor. Dallas was better on this night and I say that as a Giants fan. Don't make stuff up. Lying is rude.

They had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to grind out a drive and ice the game and they failed every time.  The only reason they won is because Manning threw yet another pick.  They didn't close out anything, the G-Men handed them that win, even after the Cowboys tried to hand it back again and again and again.  There is a difference between closing a game out and having a game handed to you.  I've been watching the Cowboys for decades.  In the last several years it's been the same story again and again.  They get a lead and head into the 4th.  At this point a good team would grind out a 6 or 7 minute capped off by a score which would kill the clock and ice the game.  The Cowboys regularly fail to do this and more often than not lose because of it.  The Giants simply tried to lose harder than the Cowboys this time around.

[ShadySands]

Could a NFL team beat a English Premiership Rugby team?

 

At rugby, probably not

 

At football, most likely

 

At some third sport that neither spends most of their life practicing, who knows

[Keyrock]

Could a NFL team beat a English Premiership Rugby team?

English?  Sure.  They'd get slaughtered by New Zealanders, though. 

 

/hides

[ManifestedISO]

Cautiously optimistic about tonight versus Houston. After all the wild shenanigans this weekend, there is every chance the Texans will give us some good false hope for the year. Or they will crush the Chargers and I'll go back to licking batteries to feel excited about the season.  

Edited September 10, 2013 by ManifestedISO