NFL 2012 Week 4 Thread

A couple weeks ago, one of the commentators pointed out that the statistics don't support "freezing" the kicker. I don't remember the actual number but it's clearly not worth doing. It seems to me that, more often than not, the kicker shanks the first kick and nails the second one making the coach look like an idiot.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

A couple weeks ago, one of the commentators pointed out that the statistics don't support "freezing" the kicker. I don't remember the actual number but it's clearly not worth doing. It seems to me that, more often than not, the kicker shanks the first kick and nails the second one making the coach look like an idiot.

I'd love to see "metrics" on that. Seems like most professional kickers would love the "practice".

Yeah. It was the difference between the old "ice the kicker" and the more recent (last 6-8 years maybe?) trend of calling a timeout right as the ball is snapped, and the kicker actually practicing the kick. There have been several of those more recent kicks where the kick has been blocked or missed, but the timeout granted, and then the next one made. Or just made and made again. Very rarely do they make and then miss or get blocked.

But the old ice still has to mess with the head. Let them get out there, maybe even to the point where the kicker starts his routine, lining up, taking a few steps back to the left, then bam, timeout. Break his routine and make him start over. But don't let him practice.

I'm still shell-shocked by the debacle in St. Louis. Of all the Seahawk away games this year, this was the one I was counting on winning in order to have any shot at the playoffs. *sigh* Some thoughts on the game:

1. The Seattle defense is legit, not allowing a TD the entire game. The only Rams TD was on special teams - a fake FG that the refs didn't notice Pete Carroll running out on the field to call timeout to avoid. OMG INCOMPETENT REFS CAN'T MAKE THE CALLS AND SCREWED MY TEAM OVER... oh. Right. Can't say that with the real refs back.

2. Speaking of the officials, the game was much smoother. It was obvious that they were not going to tolerate some of the after-play shenanigans as SEA was flagged for 3 personal foul penalties.

3. St. Louis hit the jackpot with that kicker. Without his monster leg they lose.

4. Nice game plan by the Rams. They learned a lot from last game's film and hit the Seahawks hard on their weak points - namely, the turnstile situation at right tackle and the inability to cover the middle of the field, especially that damn post route that Sherman keeps getting burned on. I miss the old, incompetent pre-Fisher Rams coaching. Why did he have to come to the NFC West?

5. The Seattle passing offense needs to pick it up, specifically the lines and the receivers.

6. Seattle's offensive coaching was horrible. The playcalling is still poor and predictable and clock management issues gave the Rams an extra shot at 3 points that proved critical to the outcome of the game.

7. I feel bad for Russell Wilson - only one of his 3 interceptions was arguably his fault, the other two are completely on his receivers. Baldwin's little hot-potato toss to the CB and McCoy's slip that ended up with the ball going right to the DB's hands were emblematic of this game. I'll have to wait for the All-22 film to be up on NFL Rewind to be sure, but I think Wilson wasn't the problem and played well enough to win.

ukickmydog wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I think folks who are taking the Redskins must not be keeping up with the injury reports.

Just throwing this out there :)

Okay. I might have to reluctantly agree that RG3 is the real deal.

Wow.

I dunno... say what you want.. I can't stand that we are back to every little bit of contact is some sort of DB interference.

TheGameguru wrote:

I dunno... say what you want. I can't stand that we are back to every little bit of contact is some sort of DB interference.

That is annoying, though the games I watched weren't that bad. The tradeoff is the games were much, much smoother. It made watching them eminently easier, though I didn't watch the GB game.

Thought the Giants really screwed their play calling down the stretch. They were sitting at around a 53 yard fg with 1 minute left and just refused to run the ball to shave off some quick yards. Also that would of set them up for maybe an easier first down conversion to spike the ball potentially.

Is it just me or does it amaze you sometimes how long it takes teams to setup their offense/line that they just automode go into passing plays. Instead of ringing off a short run and then setting up quick for maybe a slant they get into a predictable 1vs1 passing sets.

edit: Also to put this into perspective Tynes is fairly accurate but doesn't have distance. Just under 82% for his career but hardly any attempts past 50 where his career high is 53 and is 9/18.

I am still in a bit a shock after that game. I'm getting sick of the Giants losing to the Eagles.

A couple positives first:
David Wilson did an awesome job at returning the ball. He gave te Giants multiple chanced to score.
Dominik Hixon played great against great DB's. Finally he gets time to shine again after his injuries.
JPP continues to be awesome and all over the field.

Now the bad:
The offensive line was having so much trouble with the 5 man rush. Eli was scrambling all game.
Osi was just a mess. I can't tell you how many times I had to scream "contain!" Hello! You're playing against Vick! Stay outside!
Gave up too many running yards.
The running game was not that great this time around.

Anyway, can't say I agree with the idea of the Giants go for one more play at the end. It was really a big risk of having the ball stay inbounds. You know the Eagles were going to do anything they could to make that happen.

Now it's Bardens turn to be in the Coughlines "dog house" rather than David Wilson.

I think the Eagles could be the worst 3-1 team in history.. but I look forward to them continuing to make opposing teams and their fans go "WTF just happened?? How did we lose to that dreck??"

TheGameguru wrote:

I think the Eagles could be the worst 3-1 team in history.. but I look forward to them continuing to make opposing teams and their fans go "WTF just happened?? How did we lose to that dreck??"

If the Eagles are the worst 3-1 team, what does that make the 4-0 Cardinals?

ukickmydog wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

I think the Eagles could be the worst 3-1 team in history.. but I look forward to them continuing to make opposing teams and their fans go "WTF just happened?? How did we lose to that dreck??"

If the Eagles are the worst 3-1 team, what does that make the 4-0 Cardinals?

Very, very lucky.

Better than the 3-1 Eagles?

I think part of the answer in the playcalling was something Coughlin was seeing in the Philly defense. On that last TD drive of the Giants, they were nailing mid and long range passing down the right hand side with the defense completely unable to contain the receiver.

Paleocon wrote:

Okay. I might have to reluctantly agree that RG3 is the real deal.

Wow.

No kidding. I watched a good chunk of the Bengals game last week and some of the DC-Bucs (sorry, MMD) this week and, yeah, the kid can play. He can also take a shot, but I'm worried he might not make it through the season at this rate.

Also, too: Matt Ryan. Guy is having an MVP season.

Damned double post. Our Internet connection at work has totally gone to sh!t.

I've made it a point to watch a bunch of the Redskins games (including, tragically, yesterday's), and RG3 is impressive as hell. That being said, I'm not convinced the kid will finish this season, or ever play a full 16-game season. He is getting the crap kicked out of him. There was one play yesterday when Mark Barron (who hits like a truck) just utterly leveled him; he bounced back up, but he's taken a bunch of those so far. He's so incredibly fast and fluid, but he lands wrong once, he's got a hand or shoulder issue, and night-night for a while.

RG3 had his helmet radio out for the final drive. He was the one calling the plays. It showed in the way they were called, but it also showed something about the boy.

Miashara wrote:

RG3 had his helmet radio out for the final drive. He was the one calling the plays. It showed in the way they were called, but it also showed something about the boy.

It tells me he's better than Josh Freeman.

One of the big blunders of the Dallas game last weekend was Josh's helmet mic going out on 3rd and 9 in the 4th quarter, when he had to make a play call himself... and chose a run.

Stele wrote:
Miashara wrote:

RG3 had his helmet radio out for the final drive. He was the one calling the plays. It showed in the way they were called, but it also showed something about the boy.

It tells me he's better than Josh Freeman.

One of the big blunders of the Dallas game last weekend was Josh's helmet mic going out on 3rd and 9 in the 4th quarter, when he had to make a play call himself... and chose a run. :?

Freeman's really good when he's given a chance to throw hard and improvise. Problem is, the new offense Mike Sullivan is trying to implement appears to be a horizontal passing game, where you have to get the ball in there with lovely touch. That's not the ball he throws, and I don't think it ever will be. Later in the game, he was throwing go routes, slants, outs, balls where he could wing the hell out of it. Those are the throws he makes. So far, it looks like they're running the kind of offense Andy Dalton would love, where you can use timing and short accuracy to scheme your way down the field. It's at the moment a bad mix of player and plan.

Man crush alert! Post about said man crush was only tangentially related to topic at hand! Alert! Alert!

*Legion* wrote:

Huh?

I was referring to Dan's post. They were talking about mics going out and QBs calling plays, but Dan just straight went off about his man crush and nary a word was said about him calling a crap play on 3rd and 9.

garion333 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Huh?

I was referring to Dan's post. They were talking about mics going out and QBs calling plays, but Dan just straight went off about his man crush and nary a word was said about him calling a crap play on 3rd and 9.

I think my image must not be showing up. Let me edit in another one...

garion333 wrote:

Man crush alert! Post about said man crush was only tangentially related to topic at hand! Alert! Alert! ;)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/rvR23.jpg)

Huh?

Ah, gotcha. I can do this too!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/S8Nrd.jpg)

Oh, I readily admit to it being a man-crush moment, though the man-crush ain't what it used to be. Tampa has now lost three straight games that they could have won, and Freeman has made crappy decisions in all of them. Besides, I was responding to Stele, who is apparently joining the global man-crush on RG3, even though the kid's played four games. Lots of people have had one really impressive season (Freeman, Bradford, at the moment Cam Newton) in recent years. Give the guy more than a quarter-season before anointing him.

I haven't watched every minute of Carolina's games, but I don't think Newton is slumping as much as the media is making it out to be. Yeah, he had a crap game last week and hung his head, but he played pretty well this week. Teams have tons of tape on him now, coming back down to earth for him already happened at the end of last season. He had his ups and downs last year and that's happening again.

Saying 'RG3 did something good,' is anointing him? He's a talented rookie. He handled pressure well, did a good but not-perfect job of calling his own plays, and has lead his team surprisingly well in the first four games. The kid's got potential, and he's played well enough to deserve to be where he is: starting QB of a 2-2 team(which is great for DC).

Really, the way he's been playing has said more about DC than him. They're still weak in kicking and in the offensive line. Condiff has the body-language of a beaten man, and RG3 is getting hit and pressured lots. Defense is neither exceptionally good or bad. They're meh. As a whole, the team is right where it deserves to be, .500.

Edit: I'm excited because we're 2-2. These are the 'Skins under D Snyder. A non-losing season is a rare treat.

garion333 wrote:

I haven't watched every minute of Carolina's games, but I don't think Newton is slumping as much as the media is making it out to be. Yeah, he had a crap game last week and hung his head, but he played pretty well this week. Teams have tons of tape on him now, coming back down to earth for him already happened at the end of last season. He had his ups and downs last year and that's happening again.

That's pretty much right. Newton still had 300 yards of total offense Sunday, and Carolina should have won.

The defense and (to a slightly lesser extent) special teams are still having the same issues they had last year. Carolina still hasn't figured out how to consistently score the 30+ points they need every week to have a shot at winning.

Miashara wrote:

Edit: I'm excited because we're 2-2. These are the 'Skins under D Snyder. A non-losing season is a rare treat.

Skins started out 3-1 last year... that didn't end so well

I think it is a lot of us that were skeptical of RG3 (and the skins fans were hopeful but just know something is going to go horribly wrong), and now we are thinking that he is showing a lot of promise.

We know it isn't going to propel us into the NFL elite. We just want something/anything positive to happen with our team. I don't think that is unreasonable or inflated based on the past 4 games.

The Skins are 2-2 and really are only a hair split from being 4-0 or 1-3. But the record doesn't matter right now. What matters is the competitiveness of the team.