NFL 2018: Divisional Round

LeapingGnome wrote:

Chargers had to travel across three time zones and play a game at 10am for the second week in a row. Schedule makers set them up to fail and it caught up to them, along with the Pats having an extra week off.

Does anyone know the justification of making a West coast team play the early game while the late game is two eastern teams?

TV ratings I guess. But yeah it's crap.

ccesarano wrote:

The only thing worse than the game is the commentary.

CBS is such trash.

What are you talking about? Romo is one of the most captivating orators of our modern era!

(I am the only person still awake at this party.)

I really like Romo. He’s probably my favorite TV analyst these days.

I want him in a booth working with Kevin Harlan.

Enough with the "Celebrity [Blank]" shows already.

Enough with the Patriots already.

C'mon New Orleans!

Reaper81 wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

The only thing worse than the game is the commentary.

CBS is such trash.

What are you talking about? Romo is one of the most captivating orators of our modern era!

(I am the only person still awake at this party.)

Yeah, not sure what you're talking about, Chris. Course I stopped watching a while ago but trying to talk about interesting things in a blowout is tough. "Ah, Patriots do it again for the 700th game in a row."

"We welcome those of you just joining us from the viewing equivalent of having bricks thrown at your head."

#BigNickEnergy

Thanks gawd this is actually a game. A real game. Worth watching.

garion333 wrote:

Thanks gawd this is actually a game. A real game. Worth watching.

I was cheering for the Saints on that fake punt and subsequent drive solely for this reason.

That might be the worst use of a timeout I've ever seen in a playoff game.

Big Nick Energy's not overcoming the lack of Cox.

Edit: But, seems like the Saints are giving them some help.

Alshon Jeffrey began to turn his head. Bye bye season.

Big Pick Nick.

Not that that one is on him though.

I blame Jim Schwarz for his completely ineffective defense that he somehow expected to magically become effective for, oh... too much of the game.

Whelp, guess I'm rooting for your Chiefs, Jayhawker.

Browns sign Todd Monken as OC, avoiding the Cooter mobile.

ccesarano wrote:

I blame Jim Schwarz for his completely ineffective defense that he somehow expected to magically become effective for, oh... too much of the game.

Whelp, guess I'm rooting for your Chiefs, Jayhawker.

Chiefs vs Saints for me.

The last time the Chiefs were there, they weren't even an NFL team.

Sundown wrote:

I'm feeling better about the Cowboys against the Rams than I was against the Seahawks, somehow. (Famous last words) But the thing about the boys this year, and every year, is that they generally play up to or down to their competition. The defense can hang with high powered offenses like NO, but I also think they snuck up on everyone for that game. That won't happen again. I'm most worried about the patchwork offensive line just not letting Dak get killed.

And there's been a lot of talk here about filling up nearly half that stadium with Cowboys fans; we'll see if that plays out.

Whoa, I didn't know there was another Cowboys fan here. Tough loss, but happy the team made the playoffs in the first place. I don't know that I am 100% sold on Dak, and someone (garrion?) was not wrong in pointing out that Zeke was not that great this year.

Congrats to the Rams, Saints and Chiefs. The NFC title game should be great. And go Chiefs!

Guess that puts to bed the fake 'debate' on if they should start Wentz next year or not. The Eagles really just did not look good in the second half. Lots of mistakes and just bad play, looked like a different team than last week or the first quarter.

Abu5217 wrote:

Whoa, I didn't know there was another Cowboys fan here. Tough loss, but happy the team made the playoffs in the first place. I don't know that I am 100% sold on Dak, and someone (garrion?) was not wrong in pointing out that Zeke was not that great this year.

Congrats to the Rams, Saints and Chiefs. The NFC title game should be great. And go Chiefs!

As frustrating as it was to watch them get just dismantled, I can live with it since they managed to make something of this year. They looked lost for a good chunk of the first half, and then the big run of wins felt mostly like we were snatching victory from the jaws of defeat against a bunch of so-so teams (ATL and NO notwithstanding), but they were finding ways to win games. They're still one of the youngest clubs in the league so that's a good lesson to take forward, and they have. With any luck we can get our OLine back next year, and LVE can have a full year of being the non-injured version of Sean Lee, and we can be dangerous next year.

Plus think how good the defense will be when we plug Earl Thomas into the lineup.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Guess that puts to bed the fake 'debate' on if they should start Wentz next year or not. The Eagles really just did not look good in the second half. Lots of mistakes and just bad play, looked like a different team than last week or the first quarter.

No, they still need to keep Foles and trade Wentz to Jacksonville.

Unless Arizona is going to trade Rosen to Jacksonville. Or if Oakland's gonna trade them Carr.

God damn it I do not want Joe Flacco.

*Legion* wrote:

God damn it I do not want Joe Flacco.

Too bad they didn't just draft Lamar. They'd be in the playoffs and Baltimore would be firing their coach, blaming him instead of flacco.

Going to betray my NFC and jump on the Kansas bandwagon. Just love watching Mahomes play so much. Chiefs Rams would be fun but to be honest anyone but Patriots for the Super bowl please.

troubleshot wrote:

Going to betray my NFC and jump on the Kansas bandwagon. Just love watching Mahomes play so much. Chiefs Rams would be fun but to be honest anyone but Patriots for the Super bowl please.

Yup. I think at this rate people just want a Chiefs vs. Any Super Bowl. Anything but the Patriots.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Guess that puts to bed the fake 'debate' on if they should start Wentz next year or not. The Eagles really just did not look good in the second half. Lots of mistakes and just bad play, looked like a different team than last week or the first quarter.

I mean the Post-Game interviews with Foles were all trying to get a hint at what plans he had for next year, and the NBC Sports Philadelphia guys were pretty sure he was going to be on the phone with his agent to see what he could do. He even dropped a couple lines that suggested he wanted to lead a team rather than be a back-up. So against my earlier statements regarding what Philly will or won't do, it's looking likely Wentz remains starter and Foles goes elsewhere.

Would you like Foles for the Jags, Legion?

I'm also going to say I really like the NBC Sports Philadelphia fellows. One of them noted that Jim Schwartz does not like to blitz, and last time he left his comfort zone was the shut-out against the Saints. As a result, Schwartz decided "blitzes don't work" and stuck more to his comfort zone, which is... well, as the commentators noted, too soft. The Saints receivers all had way too much breathing room and no one bothered to tighten the vice until the end. I've already seen a lot of memes of Alshon Jeffrey missing that catch that became an interception, but the reality is if the defense were doing that job that interception would not have mattered or would have meant a lot less.

As for the offense, I'm not really sure how much blame goes to Foles, how much goes to losing some of our offensive linemen (especially Peters), and how much blame goes to the complete noise pollution brought on by the crowd. For some reason I was worried about having to fight Seattle on their home turf since the volume is supposed to be incredible there. Never occurred to me the Saints would be the same. I can only wonder how things would have gone if they played in Philly instead.

The blame for the loss falls squarely on the offensive side of the ball.. anyone you asked on Saturday if you told them the Eagles defense would hold the Saints at home to 20 points would take that any day. You can't expect to beat a team like that with 14 points. The collapse of the offense and failure to adjust to what the Saints were doing on defense in the second half as well as missing opportunities throughout the game led to the loss.. I don't give Schwartz any of the blame. Sure Alshon should have caught that pass.. but realistically unless they were able to milk the clock and score with less than 20 seconds left do we really think at that point the defense had enough left in them to stop the inevitable game winning FG? Doubtful.

Foles will always be loved in Philly but it's time to give Wentz the reigns without looking over his shoulder and see what he can do. Right now he needs to figure out how to finish a season regardless of playoffs or not. I hope we can figure out what to do with the offense.. get a LT, RB that can be durable and play at a reasonably high level and get a deep threat at WR.

Yeah, tough to give Schwartz and the D too much sh*t when you're talking about Fletcher Cox being in Brees face all game long. Plus, it's tough to blitz from a 43 when your CBs aren't very good as blitzing puts more strain on them.

I'm all for tight man coverage with lots of handsy sh*t going on, but you have to have good CBs for that who can handle it.

Yeah the Philly D performed great overall. Hard to make plays, even with liberal substitution, when you are on the field all the damn time.

The O started strong but the Saints D appeared to adjust and Philly O did not/could not adjust to that. That is ultimately what killed them. The D did their job. They just had to do it too often.

I think the NFC championship game is the de facto Super Bowl for me. The Patriots winning is just boring and, as for the Chiefs, no amount of Mahomes makes up for Tyreek Hill being a massive piece of sh*t and the Braves-level racism surrounding the franchise. So, lets go Rams, I guess.

Michael Lombardi wrote an article today on The Athletic that he thought Murray was just trying to get more money from the A's and that his draft potential isn't actually all that high.

Michael Lombardi is also an idiot so I saw this outcome coming a mile away.