NFL 2022: The Week 9 thread

*Legion* wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Illuminate me how this league gets better with more teams? Doesn’t feel like there’s talent enough to go around now.

It's all relative.

If the league was only 16 teams, you'd be telling us how bad the #15 and #16 teams are, and how expanding to 24 teams would ruin everything.

Watch some old videos of bad '80s teams. Bad '80s quarterbacking. The level of talent now is SO much higher across the board, even on sh*tty teams like the Jags.

You're right it's relative and I think that's what GG is saying.

Of course today's athletes are more accomplished and can run faster, make decisions quicker and do things the athlete of 40 years ago cannot.

But I feel like the argument for contraction, while completely fanciful because capitalism, is relevant from an inflationary standpoint.

Take the Olympics. No country can send more than 2 athletes per event to swimming. That's it and it's never been different. So the relative competition remains insanely high. When you get to the finals, those are, by far, the 8 best swimmers in the world. And there are inequities (if I can use that word) with a system like that. Surely the T8 swimmers would have more than 2 US or AUS swimmers. And often the T3 podium placers are way beyond 4th or 5th. But the standardization means we don't have 15 mediocre (by Olympic standards) swimmers in the final heats. The product in the pool every 4 years is immensely compelling (and profitable).

I would submit that if we had fewer teams in the NFL, the overall product could be just as profitable, if not more profitable because the games would be so good. And it's not just the QBs. All the truly elite skill position players that are stuck on teams with a 28th-ranked QB (or 25th-good coaching regime, or 29th-ranked run game or whatever) could instead be on teams like SF with Deebo and CMC. Jimmy G might not fare well in that league but WOW would those 20 teams (or whatever) be insane. And if we paired fewer teams with larger rosters to account for injuries in what is essentially a combat sport, the product could be really good all season.

But that's just one piece of the "football as an entertainment product" conversation.

The consumer is changing, the economy is changing, the whole culture is changing and the NFL may not be well-suited to stay #1 forever.

Kind of speaks to how bad things are today that Top_Shelf can take the time to write a post that long in the middle of the early window.

I'm engrossed in Bills @ Jets. Y'all are silly

Sure it’s relative to a certain degree but the reality is if it’s 16 teams we might have 3-4 stinkers a week. With 36 teams it’s basically double the chance you get sh*tty games with just bad football.

Real truth though as stated. Money talks and nothing else matters.

Top_Shelf wrote:

The consumer is changing, the economy is changing, the whole culture is changing and the NFL may not be well-suited to stay #1 forever.

Well, the big news story yesterday was how it is expected that the Washington franchise will sell for a value that will absolutely obliterate the record for highest priced sports team sale. In fact, it's expected to be more than the current #2 (Nets) and #3 (Chelsea FC) biggest sports teams sales combined.

I don't see much evidence of a consumer shift away from the NFL.

Witching Hour is having a post-Halloween hangover.

The last name of the kicker for the Chargers is Dicker?

Packers had back to back fumbles that went out of bounds. Still alive somehow

And the Jets beat the Buffalo Milfs!

Jags manage to not choke a 4th quarter lead!

Stele wrote:

Packers had back to back fumbles that went out of bounds. Still alive somehow

The second one, the Lions had the recovery but Okudah jumped on it as well and pushed it out of bounds. Then, somehow, they hold on to beat the Packers.

Packers current in the lead for Most Disappointing Team, but Bucs-Rams "winner" could challenge that.

Wait, the Jags WON?!?!?

Prederick wrote:

Wait, the Jags WON?!?!?

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fg6Qq6IaYAEw2TZ?format=jpg&name=medium)

I feel like I could use that plane crash gif to represent what's happened to Byron Leftwich's head coaching chances; it's 3rd and 2 from the 3 yard line. You have a historically bad rushing game and Fournette has been terrible. What do you do? You run Fournette over LG, right into Aaron Donald.

DIDN'T WORK SHOCKINGLY.

Edit: The best part of the whole thing? The Rams had so little respect for the Bucs' run game, they played two deep safeties. ON THE THREE YARD LINE.

The Detroit loss dropped the Packers from 17% to make the playoffs to 6% on the the five thirty eight projection.

Perfect.

Lose to the Cowboys at home. Sit Rodgers start Love. Get more losses. Get a top 10 pick.

Works for me.

(They will screw this up some how and play Rodgers)

Pink Stripes wrote:

And the Jets beat the Buffalo Milfs!

I was so happy to see that.

... Sponge Madison?

The Bengals really took it to the panthers. I guess losing to the Browns really focused the mind.

Mike Evans is dropping Brady's passes like 2013 Aaron Dobson.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I found some footage of PJ Walker today against the Bengals.

IMAGE(https://u.cubeupload.com/MilkmanDanimal/planecrash.gif)

Uh, that's actual archival footage of the Former Head Coach's NFL coaching career.

Here are PJ's first-half, um, highlights:

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/1hMhlrWWfXU77iYnBB/giphy.gif)

Another angle:

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/aF41K6PvfJ5za/giphy.gif)

Here's Panther Fan reacting to the fact that the Panthers have yet another QB controversy*

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/xT0xeGWDzEfcsd8QzC/giphy.gif)

* HEYDARNOLD could be added back to the active roster this week.

Edit: Something I thought y'all would appreciate (emphasis mine). Via The Athletic:

Walker was benched in the second half after tying a dubious Panthers record, joining Randy Fasani as the only quarterbacks in team history with a 0.0 passer rating (also known as the “Blutarski”). Walker completed 3 of 10 passes for 9 yards and threw two interceptions, prompting Wilks to go with Baker Mayfield in the second half.

If the Jets beat the Bills aka best team in football and the Patriots beat the Jets that makes the Patriots the best team in football (again)

TheGameguru wrote:

If the Jets beat the Bills aka best team in football and the Patriots beat the Jets that makes the Patriots the best team in football (again)

Good thing that the Patsies didn't lose to both da Bears and the Packers.

RIP P.J. Walker Era

October 9, 2022 - November 6, 2022

Hm Titans.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fg6ZYn8aUAA7H_v?format=jpg&name=medium)

The old art history student in me is loving today.

Wrong thread.

Go Titans

I'm not even half paying attention but there seems to be a lot of slobbering all over a guy that's 3 of 7.

The Titans, to me, are eternally a team that is good but not good. Does that make sense?

Prederick wrote:

The Titans, to me, are eternally a team that is good but not good. Does that make sense?

Jeff Fisher coached them so long his DNA is permanently imprinted on the franchise.

Edit: His career record as HC is
180–179–1 (.501)

Today, my daughter went to a "birthday party" and came back home with this. Should I be concerned?

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1G3Lwfq.jpg)