NFL 2017 Divisional Round Thread

Damnit! Lions are going with Patricia, my first choice for Giants coach. Looks like it's Shumur now though so hopefully he does well. Wilks, D coordinator for Carolina was also very intriguing but needs more experience as a coordinator first.

TheGameguru wrote:

I will give the Patriots credit for one thing.. they managed to get a room full of Eagles fans to not only root for the Giants once but twice! As well as forever hold the Manning family in high praise.

You had me up until this point. No self-respecting Eagles fan would ever root for the giants to beat anyone, with the possible exception of Dallas.

It's like Christmas for Legion, every day.

Ken Norton Jr. expected to become Seahawks defensive coordinator.

I remember watching this one live

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

It's like Christmas for Legion, every day.

Ken Norton Jr. expected to become Seahawks defensive coordinator.

Seriously. Tennessee sadly came to their senses, but Seattle is just doubling down with their hires.

Sorry Ken, I like you and you can obviously coach linebackers, but nothing in 3 years of coordinating the Raiders defense suggests it's where you belong.

Whew I'm glad they didn't manage to lure Gus Bradley back.

Jayhawker wrote:
cube wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

It doesn't require a thick skin. It requires the understanding that sports don't actually matter. We just enjoy pretending they do in our free time.

All of this.

But seriously, the Cardinals are the worst.

What? You don't find the Best Fans in Baseball™ proselytizing about the The Cardinal Way inspiring?

Does being inspired to update password policies count?

LeapingGnome wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:
cube wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

It doesn't require a thick skin. It requires the understanding that sports don't actually matter. We just enjoy pretending they do in our free time.

All of this.

But seriously, the Cardinals are the worst.

What? You don't find the Best Fans in Baseball™ proselytizing about the The Cardinal Way inspiring?

Does being inspired to update password policies count?

To be fair, that only worked because the Astros GM stole the Cardinals proprietary scouting software. It was like they were begging to get hacked. It's not the Cardinal's fault the GM used the same passwords as when he was with the St. Louis, including his email.

https://deadspin.com/feds-cardinals-...

After the Houston Chronicle did a story about Ground Control, the Astros reset everyone’s passwords. Correa got around that by accessing Victim A’s email account, without authorization, and “he found the emails that contained Ground Controls new URL and the newly reset password.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston sent out their news release about the charges, and it had a few new details about what happened. According to the news release, Correa got one ex-Astros’ employee’s password because: “When he left the Cardinals organization, the employee had to turn over his Cardinals-owned laptop to Correa—along with the laptop’s password.”

So, if you sell an old laptop to the the Cardinals, yeah, you better update your passwords.

JeremyK wrote:

Also, it was especially fun watching Tomlin and the Steelers crash and burn as they had been looking ahead to the AFC championship game against the Pats for about 6 weeks now. I hear the Jag's really appreciated that.

I don't think anyone was looking ahead to the Pats game except maybe Mike Mitchell. What happens is everyone and their mother is constantly asked by reporters to comment on the Pats, and eventually a sound bite shows up.

Also, I think it's Haley screwing things up more than Tomlin though.

All I have to look forward to now is the Jeff Fisher bowl. Need Case Keenum (#7) to play against Nick Foles (#9) in a grudge match of ex-Jeff Fisher QBs on 7-9 teams now that Jared Goff is no longer with us.

Titans are interviewing Matt LaFleur for their head coaching spot.

If that name seems unfamiliar, he was OC for the Rams this year. He broke into the league in 2008 as a quality control assistant on Kyle Shanahan's offensive staff in Houston, and baby Shanny took him to Washington and Atlanta as his QB coach.

The league is obsessed with the young under-40 offensive coach as a first time head coach. It's the hot new thing to get, especially after McVay and Shanahan. But both those guys were raised in the NFL. Shanny had 9 years as a coordinator, and McVay had 3 even though he's only 31.

Now Matt Nagy is a head coach with 2 years of coordinator experience, and Matt LaFleur is a serious candidate after only 1.

Well, people have complained for years about coaching retread hires, and Gruden aside, the league is clearly looking at the opposite extreme now.

That whole copycat thing in effect. "Look at what McVay did!" Except McVay had a small track record of success at the NFL level while has mostly been around success. McVay was still calling the shots for the Rams, LaFleur is more like the OC assistant.

Not sure what would make him a head coaching candidate unless they expect him to be OC too, which is a Josh McDaniels + Tebow recipe for disaster.

jdzappa wrote:

FWIW the good thing about this forum is it helps me escape the "Cult of 12" bubble that for the past near decade has taken over the greater Seattle area. I always try to be a good-natured fan who takes things in stride but I'll admit that in the past I got caught up in the hype and at times took things too seriously. I have to wonder if it's even worse in Patriot land given their runaway success.

Honestly it's really only the townies which are bad who, unfortunately, are usually the ones that comment on sports websites. Most of the radio personalities are pretty level headed and make fun of the nonsense that comes out of Bill, Brady, and the townies. The TB12 crap is pretty much the butt of every joke now.

*Legion* wrote:

Well, people have complained for years about coaching retread hires, and Gruden aside, the league is clearly looking at the opposite extreme now.

Now all they need to do is be willing to hire black coaches as coordinators and promote them with little experience.

OK, I think I can get down with this (ital'd for emphasis):

The Draw Play wrote:

This is such a lovable Jags team and they are essentially this season’s Agent of Chaos, which means you should all be 100% on the Bortles Bandwagon. Support The Bort. One more win and he has more playoff victories than Tony Romo. Bortles shall be our savior. More Bortles success means more Bortles memes, jokes, and face. Everyone should want this.

(link)

Confirmed: Blake Bortles will join Sunday Night Football in 2025.

FO putting a cherry on top of Steffon Diggs' game winning TD catch:

According to EdjFootball, this was the largest GWC increase for a play this season, topping Andy Dalton's touchdown pass on fourth-and-12 against Baltimore in Week 17. This is also the largest GWC swing in the last four postseasons, topping the Blair Walsh missed field goal for the Vikings against Seattle in 2015 (93.0 percent GWC), and Malcolm Butler's interception at the 1-yard line against the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX (73.3 percent GWC)

Also there's this I came up with:

Mike Zimmer, as Head Coach: 1 playoff win in 4 years (2 chances)
Marvin Lewis, as Head Coach: 0 playoff wins in 15 years (7 chances)

I'm going to blame this on the Patriots because BELICHEAT.

The Pats coach probably wasn't actually driving in Florida. But can you prove he didn't hack into electronic road signs and cause the first car to slam on brakes and trigger a chain reaction? Huh? CAN YOU?

Also, if I'm Jalen Ramsey, I'm not eating or drinking anything this week. Not sayin'; just sayin'.

Enix wrote:

I'm going to blame this on the Patriots because BELICHEAT.

The Pats coach probably wasn't actually driving in Florida. But can you prove he didn't hack into electronic road signs and cause the first car to slam on brakes and trigger a chain reaction? Huh? CAN YOU?

But hes not injured and Bill gets mad when his hacks don't work.

IMAGE(https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/beli.gif)

Oh, and speaking of NFL employees mistreating their portable computers, this guy (no, not Cam) ...

IMAGE(http://giant.gfycat.com/EarlyHospitableBellsnake.gif)

... has a new girlfriend.

Spoiler:

It's former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, if you hate clicking on links. Also, she's a Bears fan.

Why does Matt Patricia always have a pencil in his ear? His playsheet is laminated and the reviews are on tablets. What exactly is he writing on?

EvilDead wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

FWIW the good thing about this forum is it helps me escape the "Cult of 12" bubble that for the past near decade has taken over the greater Seattle area. I always try to be a good-natured fan who takes things in stride but I'll admit that in the past I got caught up in the hype and at times took things too seriously. I have to wonder if it's even worse in Patriot land given their runaway success.

Honestly it's really only the townies which are bad who, unfortunately, are usually the ones that comment on sports websites. Most of the radio personalities are pretty level headed and make fun of the nonsense that comes out of Bill, Brady, and the townies. The TB12 crap is pretty much the butt of every joke now.

I dunno. Cult of 12 is bad but not that bad? Maybe that's because I don't live close enough to the suburbs where the cars are just covered in blue/green. Seattle itself is perfectly fine.

Did some informal tracking to see how much us smaller market places have "won" vs the big boys over my lifetime (40yrs):

LA = 19
Lakers = 10
USC football = 2
Raiders = 1
Kings = 2
Angels = 1
Dodgers = 2
UCLA basketball = 1

Dallas = 6
Mavs = 1
Cowboys = 4
Stars = 1

Chicago = 12
Bulls = 6
Bears = 1
Cubs = 1
White Sox = 1
Blackhawks = 3

Boston = 13
Celtics = 4
Pats = 5
Red Sox = 3
Bruins = 1

New York = 16
Giants = 4
Yankees = 6
Mets = 1
Islanders = 4
Rangers = 1

garion333 wrote:

This is also the largest GWC swing in the last four postseasons, topping the Blair Walsh missed field goal for the Vikings against Seattle in 2015 (93.0 percent GWC),

So they won this playoff game more than they blew the last one?

That's nice.

Enix wrote:

Oh, and speaking of NFL employees mistreating their portable computers, this guy (no, not Cam) ...

IMAGE(http://giant.gfycat.com/EarlyHospitableBellsnake.gif)

... has a new girlfriend.

Spoiler:

It's former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, if you hate clicking on links. Also, she's a Bears fan.

Hope she doesn't mind his overly attentive BFF, Clay Matthews.

LA is actually at 20 if you count the Ducks (since you count the Angels and those f*ckers don't play in LA despite what their dumb name says).

Big markets are going to win more across multiple sports just because smaller cities can only support a few professional sports teams and are going to have a lower collective budget. From the lower budget is a need for rebuilds in order to acquire cheap talent that has a 3 year peak and then is sold off to rebuild again 5 years down the line.