NFL 2017 Conference Championship Thread

jowner wrote:

I think the most painful thing about the Jags losing to the Pats on Sunday is that its a good matchup so we're talking ourselves into it.

Come on. I don't know the script but we're going to get a dash of the refs helping out, a sprinkle of injuries to key jag guys and a whole whopping pile of wtf are the coaches thinking.

#reversejinx

I’m getting myself mentally ready for a record amount of roughing the QB penalties and a crucial “what is a catch” call that will inevitably turn the game to the Patriots favor.

This week's NFL Turning Point is ... eh, nothing all that exciting.

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/...

ITS GANG WARFARE OUT THERE!! Eagles fans are basically MS13 gang members in Eagles gear.

Enix wrote:

This week's NFL Turning Point is ... eh, nothing all that exciting.

A heads up: I know you were having trouble locating alternate streams for these. NFL.com hosts the turning point videos as well for those that want to avoid facebook.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-turnin...

TheGameguru wrote:

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/...

ITS GANG WARFARE OUT THERE!! Eagles fans are basically MS13 gang members in Eagles gear.

Only with D cell batteries.

I realize it's Bleacher Report (ugh) but this was somewhat humorous.

(Edit: It's an article titled "Jaguars vs. Vikings: The Super Bowl We Don't Want but Probably Deserve" Take from that what you will.)

EvilDead wrote:
Enix wrote:

This week's NFL Turning Point is ... eh, nothing all that exciting.

A heads up: I know you were having trouble locating alternate streams for these. NFL.com hosts the turning point videos as well for those that want to avoid facebook.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-turnin...

Direct link, after some hunting.

Actually, the video I like best is a video the Vikings put together with a bunch of fan reactions mixed in . Don't see a way to embed, it's on Deadspin. There's a great bit where the sound drops out right as Keenum throws it, and then the expected freakouts.

Tom Brady's hand is totally fine, we promise, but he's not practicing again today.

Obviously he is going to play, and maybe it really is nothing, but these are also the kind of injuries where it comes out after the fact, "oh he was actually playing with a partial ligament tear", or a bone bruise or something.

*Legion* wrote:

Tom Brady's hand is totally fine, we promise, but he's not practicing again today.

Obviously he is going to play, and maybe it really is nothing, but these are also the kind of injuries where it comes out after the fact, "oh he was actually playing with a partial ligament tear", or a bone bruise or something.

He probably got a top secret CIA super bionic hand and they are keeping it under wraps!! Literally he will have a glove on Luke Skywalker style on Sunday and throw the ball with laser precision.

Seems like classic Belichick misdirection to me where he exaggerates an injury leading up to a game just to make the other team have to spend time thinking about it. It has happened multiple times before.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Seems like classic Belichick misdirection to me where he exaggerates an injury leading up to a game just to make the other team have to spend time thinking about it. It has happened multiple times before.

Where that idea falls flat is that the Jaguars are obviously going to prepare for Tom Brady no matter what, and not spend one moment worrying about defending Brian Hoyer.

If Brady died, they'd still prepare for zombie Brady. You don't have to game plan to stop Brian Hoyer, he mostly does it himself.

Posting here, because the Madden thread is dead, and this is funny as hell.

ESPN has a championship game preview up, and it says you can expect the Jaguars to have Johnathan Cyprien covering Gronk.

Cyprien is now a Tennessee Titan so that will be quite the trick.

CNN: Stormy Daniels: Ben Roethlisberger Took Me to My Room During Donald Trump Affair

Daniels discussed spending time with Trump at a hotel party, which Roethlisberger also attended.

She said Trump left the party after telling Roethlisberger to take care of Daniels, which led to Big Ben walking her to her hotel room at the end of the night.

Because, of course he did. Just so weird.

#PhillyPhilly

Titans hire Mike Vrabel for their head coach. (Assuming they don't change their mind tomorrow)

Which probably means Josh McDaniels is going to take the Colts job.

Vrabel is yet another young guy with limited coordinator experience (just 1 year), but of course he's a coach with some connection to Belichick so he's a head coach now.

I'm skeptical of the hire, but I get it. Everyone is trying to grab a young coach on their way up. But at the same time, that's how you get Gus Bradley.

*Legion* wrote:

Titans hire Mike Vrabel for their head coach. (Assuming they don't change their mind tomorrow)

Which probably means Josh McDaniels is going to take the Colts job.

Vrabel is yet another young guy with limited coordinator experience (just 1 year), but of course he's a coach with some connection to Belichick so he's a head coach now.

I'm skeptical of the hire, but I get it. Everyone is trying to grab a young coach on their way up. But at the same time, that's how you get Gus Bradley.

To be fair, the problem wasn't getting Gus Bradley; it was keeping Gus Bradley. Based on the way the Seattle defenses had performed, he was an absolutely logical and solid choice for a head coaching job.

Keeping him for four years? Not so much of a good idea.

You're not wrong.

My point though is that I think we're going to look back at this period of hiring guys with incredibly limited experience in the upper ranks of assistant coaching and re-question what teams were thinking, as some of them end up being painfully unprepared for the gig.

Gus at least had 4 years as a coordinator.

A head coach is more about management than anything else, and hiring people for upper management that do not have any middle management experience rarely turns out well.

This teaser is pretty intense.

https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status...

*Legion* wrote:

You're not wrong.

My point though is that I think we're going to look back at this period of hiring guys with incredibly limited experience in the upper ranks of assistant coaching and re-question what teams were thinking, as some of them end up being painfully unprepared for the gig.

Gus at least had 4 years as a coordinator.

I'm guessing nobody's worked out how many years as a coordinator coaches have before getting hired; IIRC, Mike Tomlin only had one year as the Vikings' DC before Pittsburgh hired him, so it's not like it's brand new. Similarly, the reason the Bucs hired Raheem "Teenage Dream" Morris back in 2010 was trying to recapture the Tomlin magic; Tomlin went from Bucs DB coach to a year as Vikings DC to HC, and Morris went from Bucs DB coach to literally like one offseason day as Bucs DC to HC. I feel like figuring out the kinds of experience coaches have prior to that first head coaching gig would be the kind of fascinating statistical exercise somebody else should do so I can look at the data.

Also, given a choice between taking a flyer on guys like Vrabel or Nagy or spinning the Wheel of Retread and hiring Dick Jauron or Jim Fassel, might as well take that flyer.

Jags and Vikes in the Super Bowl. Either way, one downtrodden fan base will have a bad year.

It's just the type of world we live in.

Jim Nantz just have a Blake Bortles Facts on National TV.

"Blake Bortles has the highest playoff win percentage of any QB in this game."

Holy wow

The weather warmed up for Bortles.

Let's do this.

#EndTheDynasty

So far looks like the Patriots are doing a good job isolating the Jags' LBs and avoiding Ramsey, etc.

Aaaaand Fowler earns his paycheck.

SACK

Dante Fowler!

Take your field goal.

Feels like on the last Jags drive Bortles threw what for him were good passes on 2nd and 3rd down, but both were just a little behind the WR, allowing the Patriots to knock the passes down.

Every time the TV cameras show Coughlin, I'm unsure if he is always taking meticulous notes, or doing a crossword puzzle.