NFL 2011 Week 1

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Ah, feels good to be back, doesn't it? Felt like now was a long ways off in the future if it was ever going to happen in the first place. Anyway, as they keep saying on TV these past several weeks, it's back to football. So, no more hemming and hawing about lockouts, labor deals, and the intricacies of contracts and legalese. Nope, the NFL is open for business and we're all the better for it.

Obviously, this would be the portion of the thread where I'd mention the past weeks scores, but obviously since we don't have any, we'll skip that. Also, let's skip the Weekly Soapbox portion since the only issue of note this past off season was the lockout and that's been discussed to death. This week features a full slate of games starting with the Thursday night opener and concluding with a double-header on Monday night. As for the Sunday day games, once again head on over to The506.com for what's airing in your local market.

This is the portion of the program where I point out key match-ups to watch, but this year I'm going to make it a little interesting. You guys are going to pick the winners. Yes, you. I'll give you four games, you give me four winners plus a wildcard game of your choice to prevent ties (hopefully). Scores and winners to be announced in the next thread with an overall winner to be declared at the end of hte regular season. Since one of the games below airs on Thursday night, I'll need picks in for that first one by at least kickoff on Thursday; the rest you have until kickoff of the early games on Sunday to get in. Please mark your picks in bold so I can spot them in the thread on the fly. Anyway, let's get started:

Saints at Packers: The season opener continues the tradition of the current Super Bowl champs playing host to the previous winners, this time with New Orleans hoping to shake off last season's surprise loss to Seattle in the wild card round by paying a visit to Lambeau Field. Can the Saints go marching out of Green Bay with a victory? Can the Packers at least avoid the current NFL trend of having an off year following hoisting the Lombardi Trophy? The current Green Bay team is not only the same team that won it all last year but have a lot of talented players coming back from injury. That and the positive buzz abounding the stadium makes me lean their way. Packers.

Falcons at Bears: A battle of NFC playoff teams from last year, both of whom fell to the eventual Super Bowl winner and looked bad doing it. At least Atlanta's Matt Ryan wasn't dogged by criticism (or the paparazzi) to the extent that Jay Cutler of Chicago was. He also has new weapons at his disposal while his counterpart has a tough hill to climb if he's ever going to get back on the good graces of Da Bears' vocal group of super fans. I'm predicting a shootout for this one. Falcons.

Steelers at Ravens: Here we go again. Hot off the heels of losing the Super Bowl and cameoing in the next Batman movie, Pittsburgh heads into Baltimore in a rematch of the AFC divisional round. Recall that that game was a tale of two halves: the Ravens controlled quarters one and two and proceeded to let the Steelers back in it in three and four. Wasn't pretty and considering how both teams loathe each other openly and, to borrow a line, hit people in the mouth, this'll probably be more of the same. Ravens.

Cowboys at Jets: Can the New Meadowlands hope to contain the auras of hype that constantly surround these two teams? We'll see, though considering New York's playing at home on the night of the tenth anniversary of September 11th, the exuberance and cockiness should be held in check until at least after the national anthem is sung (and they better bring in someone who can blow Whitney Houston's widely-loved rendition out of the water). Dallas...had an off year, at least by America's Team standards while the Jets were once again on the cusp but couldn't quite get over the hump. These are two teams with a lot to prove and for week one a national stage to prove it on. I'm predicting we could be looking at Super Bowl sized ratings share for NBC. Oh wait, you wanted a winner? Fine. Jets.

Enjoy the week, folks.

Packers (though I could see this one going either way)
Falcons (Bears o-line needs some time to gel, plus they still have crap at WR)
Steelers (the Ravens lost a bunch in the passing game in the offseason)
Jets (Tony Romo is not going to survive the season with that line).

My tiebreaker:

Bucs over Lions. I know, I know, shocker, but, last year, the Lions beat Tampa thanks to a shockingly horrible offensive pass interference call on Winslow (it was ridiculous), but they mostly won because Tampa could not stop Megatron. At all. The Lions threw for 252 yards last year, and 152 of it went to CJ. The difference this year is Aqib Talib is playing, and Talib shut Roddy White down for a game and a half last year. He got injured halfway through the second Atlanta game, at which point White took over.

Packers Green Bay is going to make this one look easy.
Falcons The Bears rode an easy schedule and some close wins to a lucky playoff berth, and Atlanta will expose them for the frauds they were. This one should be a blowout.
Steelers Flacco will show that he belongs in the top tier of starting QBs with some receivers who can stretch the field this year, but Pittsburgh wins this one in a close game.
Cowboys Dallas will stretch the field, forcing the Jets into a shootout, and unfortunately one that Sanchez won't be able to keep up with. Dallas in a close one.

Wildcard game: Texans Indy's going to struggle this year even with Manning, and without him in this one they'll look foolish. I expect this one to be over by halftime.

The 506 changed their site setup. You need to use this link for the NFL stuff: http://www.the506.com (for this week) and http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/

As far as my selections:

Packers (unless Rodgers doesn't play)
Falcons (are you kidding me?)
Steelers (Ravens just can't beat em)
Jets (I suppose)

Wildcard: Lions over Bucs. Who was the Lions' QB when they played the Bucs last year, Danimal? Hmmm? Don't get me wrong, Drew Stanton isn't the worst QB in the world, but he's not Stafford. God I hope Stafford stays healthy, I'm banking a lot on that.

By the time they played Detroit last year, both starting DTs, the SLB, the FS, the FS' replacement, and the team's best CB were all on IR (OK the FS was suspended for drug use, but still out). It was a horribly injured team, and they still barely lost. Again, more than 60% of the yardage was to CJ, and yes, I absolutely believe Aqib Talib can cover Calvin Johnson or anybody else. He may be a moron off the field (there's no "may", he's a moron), but he has impressive skills on the field.

Also, I don't care. At all. Why? I just picked up THIRD ROW SEATS ON THE 40 for the week two Tampa-Vikings game here in Minnesota. For about $20/ticket more than face value.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

All too easy.

Packers - AR is too much for the Aints.
Falcons - Matt Ryan tears the Bears D to shreds
Steelers - I miss Kordell Stewart
Cowboys? - I know the Boys look bad, but I still dream of those halcyon days of the '90s.

Wildcard - Texans over Indy. Even if Manning surprises everyone and plays. It's time for my boys to shine!

Packers
Bears
Ravens
Jets

Wildcard - Seahawks over 49ers. It's going to be an exact reenactment of last year's meeting during opening weekend.

Packers
Falcons
Ravens
Jets

Wildcard - New England over Miami.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Again, more than 60% of the yardage was to CJ, and yes, I absolutely believe Aqib Talib can cover Calvin Johnson or anybody else. He may be a moron off the field (there's no "may", he's a moron), but he has impressive skills on the field.

FootballOutsiders only has him giving up 6.7 yds/play that he was involved in (good for 17th among corners). Unfortunately, he only stopped 39% of the plays he was involved in from being successful, which ranks him amongst the worst corners that qualified last year. I think Calvin Johnson will eat Aqib Talib for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if he can't step up the stop rate.

lol @ covering Calvin Johnson

garion333 wrote:

The 506 changed their site setup. You need to use this link for the NFL stuff: http://www.the506.com (for this week) and http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/

Good catch. Hadn't noticed since I don't use it anymore.

Rat Boy wrote:
garion333 wrote:

The 506 changed their site setup. You need to use this link for the NFL stuff: http://www.the506.com (for this week) and http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/

Good catch. Hadn't noticed since I don't use it anymore.

I noticed it since I'm not doing an NFL package this year. I spent $50 on a new antenna instead. Not as fun, but much easier on the wallet. Will miss RedZone.

From another story on the Garrard release:

How it happened became more clear Wednesday, when coach Jack Del Rio said David Garrard’s(notes) three-interception performance in practice Monday— yes, we’re talking ‘bout practice—prompted the switch and Garrard’s stunning release.

Saints
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

Tie Breaker: Chiefs over Bills

Packers
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

Tie Breaker: Chargers over Vikings

Gumbie wrote:

Saints
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

Tie Breaker: Chiefs over Bills

Bills eh? What have you seen to make you think that?

Packers
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

which might be our conference finals?

Suicide pick for me this week is Browns. Not an easy week for matchups + it being the first so anything can happen. In my league you cant pick the same team more than twice so why not get the Browns in there for the first and probably last time. (as I'll lose week 1 or never need/want to take them again)

edit: They play Cincy btw and thats mostly why.

Packers
Falcons
Ravens
Jets

wildcard, Chiefs over bills

That's great, but who are the Chefs?

What?

Ahem...

Edited for a better quality clip.

Great googly moogly.

Saints at Packers

Falcons at Bears

Steelers at Ravens

Cowboys at Jets

Tiebreaker: Panthers at Cardinals. I know, I know. It's easy. But my weekly WC game will be the Panthers, but they're my team and to hell with the rest of y'all.

P.S. Cards-Panthers won't be close. Panthers can't score. Panthers can't stop anyone. Should be fun!

See all of this would be relevant but hold on while I quote my un-edited post

boogle wrote:

Chiefs

P.S.:

IMAGE(http://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/filestorage/sake-emotional-wellbeing-loved-sports-ecard-someecards.jpg)

My picks.. on emotion rather than knowledge

Packers
Falcons
Ravens
J E T S Jets! Jets! Jets!

Tie Break Eagles over Rams

TheGameguru wrote:

My picks.. on emotion rather than knowledge

Packers
Falcons
Ravens
J E T S Jets! Jets! Jets!

Tie Break Eagles over Rams

Knowledge never helps in the beginning of the season.

Packers - their road to Repeatsville starts strong
Falcons - c'mon, it's the Bears for goodness' sake!
Ravens - really close game but homefield advantage proves just a little too...advantagey?
Jets - another close game that the Cowboys lose late in the 4th when Romo throws a pick

Wildcard: Texans over Colts - the Texans become the team they should have been the last couple of years; the Colts' slide back to mediocrity starts

I apologize if people already have made my points, I am doing this without looking at the rest of the thread:

Packers (Since 2004, the kickoff game has been hosted by the defending Super Bowl Champions. SB Champs are (7-0), so the Packers should win)
Falcons (Falcons are going to be a dark horse this year to win the NFC, so I like them against a Bears team with no O-line or TE, Cutler will be on his back this season. A lot.)
Steelers (Roethlisberger is (7-2) vs Baltimore since 2007.)
Jets (Even Mark Sanchez should be able to throw against the Cowboys secondary.)
Wildcard Pick: Kansas City (Kansas City, at home, vs the Buffalo Bills. Nuff said)

Packers
Falcons
Steelers
Jets

Chargers over Vikings

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