NFL 2021: The playoffs thread

*Legion* wrote:

Man, if Trey Lance came in and pulled the kind of QB runs at Lambeau that Colin Kaepernick did...

Tad early in the week to already be writing fan fiction.

Just let the Packers ST implode in every way. That's at least plausible.

I really missed out by watching very little football this year — Peyton and Eli are surprisingly entertaining.

Stele wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

I can't wait for all the "What the f*ck is a Moon Knight" reactions at halftime. Of which it'll be three, because non-Moon Knight, non-Rams fans would have tuned out already.

It's Batman, but Marvel.

Did you write that before or after you saw Oscar Isaac pummel a dude Rob Pattinson-style?

garion333 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
Enix wrote:

Black Monday continues: Raiders fire GM Mike Mayock.

I wonder what this means for Rich Bisaccia's chances of becoming head coach.

Nothing good, I would think. But Peter King seems to think the odds are in his favor to stay.

If they think he's the guy, and are committing to him and letting him help pick the GM, that would be a huge vote of confidence.

If they keep him but hire a GM separate from his input, then he's probably a seat warmer until the GM gets established and finds his own candidate.

I assumed his chance of staying was low and now 0% without a GM. The players may like him, but Mark Davis isn't the type to keep a guy because the players like someone. They're gonna try and bring in another hot name, I bet. Maybe Eli and Peyton Manning as GM and HC? Lololol
.

Mark Davis is the kind of guy that would try to hire Snoop as GM.

garion333 wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

What's wrong with Kyler?

Aaron Donald does that to folks.

Kyler hasn't been the same since Hopkins' injury this season.

FTFY

garion333 wrote:
Enix wrote:

Speaking of embarrassing (and assuming the Cards continue to humiliate themselves on national teevee tonight), what's the over/under on Kliff getting fired in the early hours of Tuesday?

I'm hoping that's 100%. He's holding this team back, but so is the OL.

The trick with Kliff Kingsbury is that you have to have a second head coach that takes over by December.

You want to dominate September? Kliff is your man.

That said, as a fan of a divisional opponent, I would be happy to see Kliff go. I'm sure they'd get someone boring in there that wastes Kyler. Hey, Darrell Bevell isn't busy.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Enix wrote:

Speaking of embarrassing (and assuming the Cards continue to humiliate themselves on national teevee tonight), what's the over/under on Kliff getting fired in the early hours of Tuesday?

I'm hoping that's 100%. He's holding this team back, but so is the OL.

The trick with Kliff Kingsbury is that you have to have a second head coach that takes over by December.

You want to dominate September? Kliff is your man.

That said, as a fan of a divisional opponent, I would be happy to see Kliff go. I'm sure they'd get someone boring in there that wastes Kyler. Hey, Darrell Bevell isn't busy.

So they need a call to the bullpen to bring in a closer coach.

The NFL needs to reverse this expanded playoff sh*t. Go back to 6 teams with the top 2 getting a bye and the 4 game Wild Card weekend. Everything about this weekend was garbage.

There was zero reason to have the Eagles and Steelers in the playoffs. It just screwed everything else up and ruined the other games as well.

It did make the last couple weeks of the regular season more exciting, having like 20 teams still chatting spots. But yeah 7 seeds are trash

garion333 wrote:

Kyler hasn't been the same since his injury this season.

Unless it was a head injury, it doesn't explain the pick-six.

TheGameguru wrote:

The NFL needs to reverse this expanded playoff sh*t. Go back to 6 teams with the top 2 getting a bye and the 4 game Wild Card weekend. Everything about this weekend was garbage.

There was zero reason to have the Eagles and Steelers in the playoffs. It just screwed everything else up and ruined the other games as well.

Stele wrote:

It did make the last couple weeks of the regular season more exciting, having like 20 teams still chatting spots. But yeah 7 seeds are trash

If you think the game's bad because of more playoff teams, imagine how trash things are going to get with more teams period. To quote ESPN contributor Monica McNutt when the subject came up on (Debatable), "Where are they going to get quarterbacks?"

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Kyler hasn't been the same since his injury this season.

Unless it was a head injury, it doesn't explain the pick-six.

ukick covered it well:

ukickmydog wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

What's wrong with Kyler?

Aaron Donald does that to folks.

Kyler hasn't been the same since Hopkins' injury this season.

FTFY

Lose your security blanket and you start playing like Jimmy G.

DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF ROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(aka The Best Annual Weekend of Football)

We're down to eight good teams (now that we got rid of all the bedcrappers) and have four very interesting games this weekend. As follows:

SATURDAY

Bengals at Titans, 4:30 p.m. (CBS, Paramount+)
Announcers: Eagle/Davis
Line: Titans -3.5 / Titans -188 / o/u 47.5

Niners at Packers, 8:15 p.m. (Fox)
Announcers: Buck/Aikman
Line: Packers -5.5 / Packers -250 / o/u 47.5

SUNDAY

Rams at Buccaneers, 3 p.m. (NBC, Peacock)
Announcers: Michaels/Collinsworth
Line: Bucs -3 / Bucs -150 / o/u 49

Bills at Chiefs, 6:30 p.m. (CBS, Paramount+)
Announcers: Nantz/Romo
Line: Chiefs -2.5 / Chiefs -133 / o/u 55

(source for odds; there are literally of others out there if you hate these numbers)

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/bPz7Q9beqBevPzyKSc/giphy.gif)

Keep looking, Kliff. You won't see the name "Cardinals" anywhere up there in my post.

Niners the biggest underdogs? Whatever

Stele wrote:

Niners the biggest underdogs? Whatever

Niners weren't supposed to beat the Cowboys, LOL

The 49ers are the lowest-seed team, they're going into a place with a homefield advantage as long as it isn't the NFC Championship Game, playing against a team with a week's rest who's gotten several excellent players back recently, and pretty boy Jimmy G has a wonky shoulder; doesn't 5.5 points seem a little generous?

TheGameguru wrote:

The NFL needs to reverse this expanded playoff sh*t. Go back to 6 teams with the top 2 getting a bye and the 4 game Wild Card weekend. Everything about this weekend was garbage.

There was zero reason to have the Eagles and Steelers in the playoffs. It just screwed everything else up and ruined the other games as well.

I think we had two problems one specific to this year and one more endemic.

1) The wrong teams got in. In the AFC, I would have rather seen an exciting Ravens team, or the Chargers, or even the Dolphins over the Steelers. And in the NFC, The Vikings looked frisky at times, and the Saints would be in if they had a QB.

2) The 2-seed will always play the 7th seed--so the second pest team in the conference (in theory) will always play a team that would have not made the playoffs in the old format. Those games are, unless there is a weird matchup thing, going to heavily favor the two seed.

But that genie i$n't going back in the bottle, for the NFL i$ incentivized to continue to promote more playoff game$, for $ome rea$son.

C$a$n$'t t$h$i$n$k w$h$y?

That is sh*t scheduling on the AFC but I guess it is record related. The two favorites won't have a chance to meet in the conference championship.

Imagine if the Bucs played the Packers this week and either the Rams or the Niners were guaranteed a spot in the championship?

But I guess Tennessee is super awesome this year? (despite nobody talking about them)
Now watch they win it all

fangblackbone wrote:

That is sh*t scheduling on the AFC but I guess it is record related. The two favorites won't have a chance to meet in the conference championship.

Imagine if the Bucs played the Packers this week and either the Rams or the Niners were guaranteed a spot in the championship?

But I guess Tennessee is super awesome this year? (despite nobody talking about them)
Now watch they win it all :P

Well, Tenn did beat Buffalo and KC, so thats why they are the 1-seed.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

The 49ers are the lowest-seed team, they're going into a place with a homefield advantage as long as it isn't the NFC Championship Game, playing against a team with a week's rest who's gotten several excellent players back recently, and pretty boy Jimmy G has a wonky shoulder; doesn't 5.5 points seem a little generous?

Supposedly the 49ers secondary is also pretty terrible.

49ers could very well win. One scenario would be Matt LaFleur coming out and being stubborn and trying to 'establish the run'. My biggest fear is more what the Packers will do to themselves.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

That is sh*t scheduling on the AFC but I guess it is record related. The two favorites won't have a chance to meet in the conference championship.

Imagine if the Bucs played the Packers this week and either the Rams or the Niners were guaranteed a spot in the championship?

But I guess Tennessee is super awesome this year? (despite nobody talking about them)
Now watch they win it all :P

Well, Tenn did beat Buffalo and KC, so thats why they are the 1-seed.

Here's why no one is talking about the Titans: Their five losses included Ls to the Jets, Texans and Steelers. That's almost as weird as the Bills losing at home to the Jags.

I think the Titans are good though?

Enix wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

That is sh*t scheduling on the AFC but I guess it is record related. The two favorites won't have a chance to meet in the conference championship.

Imagine if the Bucs played the Packers this week and either the Rams or the Niners were guaranteed a spot in the championship?

But I guess Tennessee is super awesome this year? (despite nobody talking about them)
Now watch they win it all :P

Well, Tenn did beat Buffalo and KC, so thats why they are the 1-seed.

Here's why no one is talking about the Titans: Their five losses included Ls to the Jets, Texans and Steelers. That's almost as weird as the Bills losing at home to the Jags.

I think the Titans are good though?

Better than most people give them credit for. They also set the record for most players used because of injuries...86 was the last number I saw at the end of November. They're healthy at the right time I just hope the D can step up and keep Joey B uncomfortable other wise it's going to be a long day. I'll be there so a loss will make for a super depressing drive home in a sh*t ton of traffic.

jowner wrote:

Supposedly the 49ers secondary is also pretty terrible.

It was. Emmanuel Moseley was hurt and Josh Norman was terrible. Rookie Ambry Thomas started for Moseley and was awful. But Moseley got healthy and came back, and the rookie has started playing better each week, and finally earned an actual non-injury-replacement starting job and sent Norman to the bench.

The secondary that the 49ers had in November would have been shredded by Stafford and Dak these past two weeks. It's still scary depending so much on a 3rd round rookie that's only started playing well the past 4 games. And these cornerbacks don't elevate the Niners secondary to good, just brings it up from dumpster fire to mediocre.

So the last thing I saw last night was Budda Baker seemingly kill himself. Does anyone know if he is ok?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

So the last thing I saw last night was Budda Baker seemingly kill himself. Does anyone know if he is ok?

He tweeted out that's he's okay, or at least on the mend.

*Legion* wrote:

It turns out that Niners-Cowboys is the only game on wildcard weekend that isn't a repeat matchup from the regular season.

Also weird, but of those repeat matchups, the road teams went 6-1

Remember this?

Well on wildcard weekend, away teams went 1-5, and the one winner was the 49ers, in the non-repeat matchup game.

Thus, with an 0-5 away team record on Sunday, those repeat matchups finish up with a perfectly balanced 6-6 record.

Jaguars "unlikely" to hire BOB.

New PFF mock draft. No QB at #6 for Carolina!

I guess we know where PFF currently expects Jimmy G to land...

*Legion* wrote:

Jaguars "unlikely" to hire BOB.

IMAGE(http://img.picturequotes.com/2/59/58768/so-youre-telling-me-theres-a-chance-quote-1.jpg)

*Legion* wrote:

New PFF mock draft. No QB at #6 for Carolina!

I guess we know where PFF currently expects Jimmy G to land... :D

Carolina has the worst QB and O-line in the league so burning a first-round pick (and its only pick of the first two days of the draft) on a safety would be very on-brand for the Panthers these days.

It could be worse. I saw a mock yesterday that had the Panthers taking the Liberty QB. Blargh.