NFL 2012 Week 1 Thread

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IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/gUm0C.jpg)

We miss you champ, wherever you are!

So, with Rat Boy's seat vacated, apparently I am taking over the weekly thread / pick'em duties. Possibly, if I get less lazy, I will put my own spin on this space as the season goes.

For the uninitiated, here's how the pick'em works: I pick four matchups every week. You tell me who you think is going to win each game. I tally the results and show you the running totals each week.

First game of the season happens Wednesday (tomorrow!). For the rest, check out the506.com to see what games are airing in your area this week.

Pick 'em time:

Cowboys at Giants: Opening acts: Mariah Carey and No Doubt. Rematch of the week 17 battle that sent the Giants into a wildcard berth and on to another Super Bowl run. The quarterbacks define this matchup. Eli Manning made comments a year ago about being elite that got snickered at, then he went out and played like he's elite. Tony Romo, coming off a career season, may be the most maligned career 96+ rated passer in NFL history. Also, Martellus Bennett has switched sides on this rivalry, though it is unlikely anyone will notice. Cowboys. And probably No Doubt by default.

49ers at Packers: Will the real Alex Smith please stand up? A year ago, Smith signed a stop-gap 1-year deal, while the team spent a high 2nd round pick on man-god Colin Kaepernick. A highly efficient 445 pass attempts later, and Smith is the guy that took the 49ers to their first playoff win since 2002, with a new 3-year deal in hand. Yet, that incentive-laden deal is far from an iron-clad commitment on the part of the 49ers, and Kaepernick's preseason performance led the 49ers to cut loose all other viable backup QBs, keeping only assistant-coach-in-a-helmet Scott Tolzien as the teams clipboard holding QB3. Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers doesn't yet have his new contract. You can bet he will be looking to make his extension even more expensive. Packers.

Jaguars at Vikings: Rat Boy is gone, and that means I can pick the Jags game every week if I want! Here's a game with the two best running backs of the past few years, coming into this game with a lot of uncertainty. Adrian Peterson returns from a knee-asplode ACL/MCL injury, and it will be a game-time decision if he even plays at all. Maurice Jones-Drew returns from an ill-advised contract holdout that resulted in gaining absolutely nothing. He will play but as a 3rd down back, to ease him into action. Meanwhile, 2nd year QBs Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert will shoot it out without the benefit of their stud RB security blankets. Gabbert was sharp in preseason, Ponder less so. I don't know if either will blow the roof off the Metrodome this week, but then again, it doesn't take much to bring that roof down. Jaguars. Hmm, this plan of including the Jags every week could be dangerous to my totals.

Redskins at Saints: I am fascinated to see what becomes of the New Orleans Saints this season. After the Wrath of Goodell, the team has been licking their wounds, and figuring out life without Sean Payton. And for the start of the season, they won't even have their interim head coach, Joe Vitt. New Orleans still has their firepower, but you have to wonder how well-oiled the machine will be at this point. The Redskins come to the table with their new toy, RG3, for whom they have visions of a Cam Newton-like rookie year. As is typical of Washington, they went boom-or-bust on Griffin, trading away a king's ransom of draft picks to move up to the #2 spot to land him. He'll need to become a franchise QB and fairly soon to make that move remotely worthwhile. It may happen, but I think he'll start off with an L against a Saints team in disarray but still dangerous. Saints.

Here we go! I am so excited!
This was recently purchased in anticipation and is now sitting on my tv stand much to my wife's dismay.

Cowboys at Giants: Giants
49ers at Packers: Packers
Jaguars at Vikings: Jags
Redskins at Saints: Saints

If you want to channel your inner Rat Boy for football posts, we're gonna need another 5,000 words or so.

Cowboys at Giants: Because they're at home. And the Giants are better.
49ers at Packers: Because they're at home. And the Packers are better.
Jaguars at Vikings Because they're at home. And it's one of the only games the Vikings have a chance to win. Nobody is better here, it's an insult to "better".
Redskins at Saints: Because they're at home. Seriously? Someone would pick the Redskins here?

What? No bonus game, so I can fail to pick the Bucs this week?

First game is tomorrow? Sheesh.

Need to check those fantasy rosters...

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

What? No bonus game, so I can fail to pick the Bucs this week?

Nope, no bonus. This year, we're going to compare how well people do against the Vegas oddsmakers picks and see who's really stacking up as the master picker. No padding records with wildcard gimmes!

Maybe I'll add a 5th game to the weekly pick'ems.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

If you want to channel your inner Rat Boy for football posts, we're gonna need another 5,000 words or so.

And don't worry about this part, it's just because the games haven't started.

Each week there'll be plenty here telling you about how awesome Terrance Knighton was that Sunday.

I hope Ratboy isn't dead... that is not a comment on Legion's posting skills, thanks for starting the thread!

I'll take all home teams this week:

Cowboys at Giants: Giants
49ers at Packers: Packers
Jaguars at Vikings: Vikings
Redskins at Saints: Saints

Giants
Packers
Vikings
Saints

LeapingGnome wrote:

I hope Ratboy isn't dead...

I'm pretty certain he's not, because I see his Google account pop onto Google Chat from time to time. (Most likely just in the Gmail sidebar, as it will do by default if you don't disable that).

Here we go indeed!

Cowboys at Giants: Giants
49ers at Packers: 49ers
Jaguars at Vikings :Jags
Redskins at Saints: Saints

Whoo-hoo! Missed getting in on this last year.

Giants
Packers
Jaguars
Saints

Giants
49ers
Vikings
Saints

Bryant McKinnie's contract disagreement with the Ravens has reportedly resulted in his release from the team.

McKinnie has been slightly disappointing, but if I'm Arizona, I'm blowing up his phone right now.

EDIT: And apparently now they've worked it all out with a new restructuring after all. Well, OK then.

Cowboys at Giants: My hatred of the Cowboys will always remain strong, even when they suck, which I think they still do
49ers at Packers: I'd rather be wrong and stick with my guys than right picking against them.
Jaguars at Vikings: MJD won't be as sharp as he should be
Redskins at Saints: Rookie QB in his first road start? Don't think so...

Football! Oh sweet football has returned, I no longer need to pretend to have another hobby.

Cowboys at Giants: Cowboys aren't good, I don't understand why people think this year will be better then last year.
49ers at Packers: I'm betting on regression with the 49ers while the Packers stay blazing hot
Jaguars at Vikings: It would be neat if the Jaguars would win more then 6 games this season. I don't think they will but it would be neat. Vikings won't get past 6 wins either though.
Redskins at Saints: I'm picking the Saints, I think it would be awesome if RG3 was such a stud that he could beat them in his first game...but then I'd shoot my TV if it ever turned to ESPN and I saw "RG3 Watch" playing 24/7.

Should we do season predictions? Is there a thread of that in the works or should someone create that?

Giants
Packers
Jaguars
Saints

*Legion* wrote:

Bryant McKinnie's contract disagreement with the Ravens has reportedly resulted in his release from the team.

McKinnie has been slightly disappointing, but if I'm Arizona, I'm blowing up his phone right now.

EDIT: And apparently now they've worked it all out with a new restructuring after all. Well, OK then.

McKinnie may not be the best in the league, but that o-line has a lot of question marks this year and losing a veteran LT is not something I'm interested in happening.

This became official
::palm to face::
IMAGE(http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2012/9-4-12-michael-strahan-kelly-ripa/13642260-1-eng-US/9-4-12-Michael-Strahan-Kelly-Ripa_full_600.jpg)

I miss Ratboy.
That is a comment on Legion's thread writing.
EDIT
Can we also get explicit time cut off rules for both initial entry and any entry changes for the pick'em challenge?

Giants
Packers
Jaguars
Saints

I miss RatBoy already.

Cowboys at Giants: Cowboys still seem confused and ineffective to me.
49ers at Packers: Alex Smith is not Aaron Rodgers.
Jaguars at Vikings: More because I want the Jags to start off with a loss.
Redskins at Saints: I was going to with a crazy pick because I think RG3 has a chance to stun a Saints team that has too many off-field distractions going on. Then I thought, "Drew Brees" and remembered how ineptly managed the Skins have been the last few years.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Texans this year. I know a lot of people locally are ready to buy Superbowl tickets, but Houston teams have a history of doing well and then disappointing the next season or two. If we can keep our entire starting lineup off of IR, we should make the playoffs at least.

TempestBlayze wrote:

This became official
::palm to face::
IMAGE(http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2012/9-4-12-michael-strahan-kelly-ripa/13642260-1-eng-US/9-4-12-Michael-Strahan-Kelly-Ripa_full_600.jpg)

Ugh. Well, whatever, not like I watched the show before. Strange, though. Very strange.

garion333 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Bryant McKinnie's contract disagreement with the Ravens has reportedly resulted in his release from the team.

McKinnie has been slightly disappointing, but if I'm Arizona, I'm blowing up his phone right now.

EDIT: And apparently now they've worked it all out with a new restructuring after all. Well, OK then.

McKinnie may not be the best in the league, but that o-line has a lot of question marks this year and losing a veteran LT is not something I'm interested in happening.

Agreed. The disappointment is that he hasn't become a dominant LT like he should have become.

He is still an adequate pass blocker (and there aren't 32 adequate pass blocking left tackles in the league). Run blocking has never been his forte but he really struggled at it last year (not that it slowed Ray Rice down any).

The Ravens are better off with him than whomever they would stick in there as a replacement at the 11th hour, that's for sure.

Packers (tough call but Rodgers is the edge the Pack need)
Jags (for *Legion*)
Skins (for me)
Giants (hating the Cowboys more than hating Eli is a tough call)

I think the Saints/Redskins game boils down to the Skins having a defense but Drew Brees is able to pick them apart. Likewise the Saints having no defense and RGIII having a field day in his NFL debut. Head vs. gut, but I am going to have to go with heart instead.

Woo! Football! With the NHL lockout looming, this is my only hope for sports in the immediate future.

Cowboys at Giants: Giants Anytime it's someone playing against the Cowboys, I pick the other team.
49ers at Packers: 49ers First game I ever watched was the Montana-Rice beatdown of the Broncos. Can't pick against em as a result; some things just stick with ya.
Jaguars at Vikings: Viks I had a cousin play for them before I was born, and occasionally he signs footballs for the family at reunions. Never met him, though.
Redskins at Saints: Redskins Again, no logic to this one either. Hope that doesn't disappoint, but I'm a Ravens fan, and am known to give solidarity to the NOVA Redskins fans.

I do have to say I'm finding this a really hard year to project. The short offseason last year meant defenses were behind even more than usual in the pass-crazy modern-day NFL, and I'm not sure how much of the insane QB numbers last year will translate over after defenses have a full year to sort stuff out. Sure, Cam Newton and Andy Dalton looked great in more limited schemes, but defensive coordinators have (A) tape and (B) time.

Cowboys
Packers
Vikings
Saints

I'm in the opposite of Legion camp. As usual.

Giants
49ers
Vikings
Redskins

Cowboys at Giants: My hatred of the Cowboys will always remain strong, even when they suck, which I think they still do /agreed
49ers at Packers: Go with Rodgers until they lose.
Jaguars at Vikings: If both RBs are rusty and it comes down to the QB...
Redskins at Saints: Go with Brees until they lose.

Giants
Packers
Vikings
Saints

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