NFL 2015: Week 2

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Chris Berman was terrible doing play-by-play on Monday night. However, hearing him reminded me of how much I miss NFL highlights being narrated over that great NFL Primetime music. So, for each week, I will include one NFL Primetime highlight song here. I encourage you to click play and enjoy it as the soundtrack to the thread. We'll start with probably the most recognizable one ("International Statement"):

Rough week 1. Some heartbreaking losses, and some wins tempered by injuries. Overall mood:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2XO4KF8.gif)

* Nice dueling punt return TDs by Tyler Lockett and Tavon Austin.

* Josh McCown making a Superman leap for the end zone and fumbling on contact and injuring himself is just so Josh McCown. And so Browns.

* Wayne Chrebet is in the Jets ring of honor? I mean, really? His career numbers are basically a slightly inferior version of Dwayne Bowe's production. I get that Chrebet was a fan favorite, and a team's ring of honor isn't the Hall of Fame, but still. I had to look up what his Ring of Honor announcement said, seeing as he never had so much as a whiff of even a 4th alternate for the Pro Bowl. It heaped on praises such as, "tied for third in franchise history with two postseason receiving touchdowns", which brings to mind one of my favorite sports movie references.

* So Seattle finally runs on a critical 4th-and-1... and does so with an inside handoff out of the shotgun. 3 wide receivers, no lead blocker, offensive line with wide pass protecting splits. Michael Brockers and Aaron Donald knife through those wide splits and blow the play up. No one was deceived by the passing formation, so it only served to make things harder for the already-outmatched offensive line. Put them in a power running short yardage formation, linemen shoulder-to-shoulder, and maybe they have a chance.

* Collinsworth finally touched on it at the end of the broadcast, but the big fail of the NYG/DAL game was the throwaway pass Eli Manning made on 3rd-and-goal. Calling a pass play rather than a run wasn't the problem, but with the throw not there, Eli needed to take the sack (or just tuck the ball and become a ballcarrier) and keep the clock moving. The extra ~35 seconds facilitated Dallas's comeback.

* Speaking of that 3rd down play, I wonder what analytics would suggest is the optimal approach to that situation: running on 3rd and 4th down, setting up the Dallas offense at the 1 yard line if you fail, or running on 3rd and kicking the field goal on 4th down, making it a 6 point game and thus requiring Dallas to score a TD. There's so many factors here. Driving to a field goal from the 1 versus driving for a touchdown from the end of a kickoff return (or touchback). How the success rate on a 4th down attempt changes the odds, as well as the odds of a FG block and return. I really don't know the answer, but I'd like to see PFF or FO hash it out.

* Tampa deserves to lose every game that they wear those awful alarm clock uniforms.

* As good as Mariota threw the ball, I have to give my "arm of the week" award to Carson Palmer. In a week where some of the elite QBs didn't have their best outings, Palmer threw the ball like the league's elite usually do.

* Unbearable as SHOUTING TRENT DILFER was, there was one nice anecdote tucked in the middle of his "quarterback camp" bellows. He spoke of hanging out in a group of people at ESPN with Eric Mangini, during Mangini's ESPN employment, and recounted some of Mangini's comments about how much better of a job he would do if he got another chance in the NFL, having learned so much since the last go-around. There was a little bit of a poignant second-chance story there to make, would have liked to have heard more of it instead of KAEPERNICK'S EYES GO LEFT TO RIGHT.

* Speaking of Mangini, Niners Nation has a couple of good GIFs of what the Niners did on defense that tripped up Bridgewater and the Vikings’ protection. You can see how this defense may be moving from being all about the LBs to being about this crew of safeties: Antoine Bethea, Eric Reid and now Jaquiski Tartt, all 3 of whom were brought down into the pass rush Monday, for 2 of the 49ers’ 5 sacks.

* 49ers fans unhappy with the style of the black jerseys have created a mock-up of the black uniforms with gold trim added.

Missed Extra Point Watch: Josh Lambo (SD), Jason Myers (JAX), Randy "Seth" Bullock (HOU), Mike Nugent (CIN, blocked)

PFF QB Performances of the Week: QB Aaron Rodgers (+7.0), QB Ben Roethlisberger (+5.5), QB Tom Brady (+4.5)
PFF Non-QB Offensive Performances of the Week: WR Julio Jones (+5.7), RB Carlos Hyde (+5.4), OT Tyron Smith (+4.5)
PFF JJ Watt Defensive Performance of the Week: DE JJ Watt (+8.3)
PFF Non-JJ Watt Defensive Performances of the Week: DT Aaron Donald (+10.1), OLB DeMarcus Ware (+9.3), DE Justin Tuck (+8.7)
PFF Worst Performance of the Week: OT Ricky Wagner (-10.4)
Dishonorable Mention: QB Jameis Winston (-9.3)
Greg Robinson Watch: OT Greg Robinson (-3.1)

Separating out JJ Watt was supposed to be a joke about how JJ Watt is always at the top of the defensive performance list. But this week, he wouldn't even crack the top 3! Let's see how long that lasts. I was also worried about Greg Robinson stepping up into solid mediocrity and making the Greg Robinson Watch pointless. but after surrendering 1 sack, 2 QB hits, and a hurry, Robinson was in classic form Week 1. So the Watch survives at least one more week.

Pick ‘Ems

New England at Buffalo: Few Week 1 performances were more surprising than Tyrod Taylor. We’ll see if it holds, but he’s already vindicated Rex Ryan’s decision to go with him, as Taylor clearly possesses more upside than Matt Cassel, and managed to show more potential to fulfill that upside in one start than EJ Manual has in of them. Concerns about how Buffalo’s personnel would fit the Rex Ryan defensive scheme have also proven unfounded so far, as he put the talent to good use making a wreck of Indianapolis’s offense. New England so far is who we thought they were, winning a tough-fought game against a good Steelers team. Brady throwing 4 TDs seemed a foregone conclusion, even if done on a more efficient 288 yards than the pissed-off 350+ some of us were expecting (credit to the Steelers defense there). The Patriots passing offense is back to an inside-out approach, with Gronk and Edelman attacking the center of defenses, and no real threat out at the boundaries (particularly with LaFell out). I’ll take New England on the road, but the 1 point betting line separating these two highlights how impressive Buffalo suddenly is.

Tennessee at Cleveland: I had to pick this game, as the 1 point betting line (tied with the above game for the narrowest of the week) almost seems absurd. Yes, Cleveland is at home. Who their QB will be is anybody’s guess. Josh McCown is going through the concussion protocol and has started practicing, but whether or not he gets cleared by gametime is still an open question. That would seem to put Manziel in line to potentially start, but in true Cleveland fashion, Austin Davis, whom the Browns signed literally 10 days ago, took some of the first team snaps in practice this week, cutting into Manziel’s reps. Not the most glowing assessment of JFF in the actions-speak-louder department. On the other side of the field, Marcus Mariota gets another of the NFL’s cellar dwellers to start the season, bringing to mind Oregon starting the season playing teams like Nicholls State. But there are no true cupcakes at the NFL level, and Tennessee deserves a ton of praise for the way they have tailored the offense to incorporate a lot of attacks Mariota is comfortable with from the Oregon days. It brings to mind Carolina’s handling of Cam Newton in his rookie year. Give me Tennessee and I ain’t even mad.

San Diego at Cincinnati: Good start to the season for these two teams. Cincinnati finally found something with TE Tyler Eifert, after a disappointing rookie season and a sophomore year lost to injury. He looked like the big fast matchup nightmare he was drafted to be, and might give the Bengals a second option that they really haven’t had in a long time (occasional Jermaine Gresham mini-breakouts notwithstanding). San Diego reintroduced the world to Keenan Allen, whose crazy 15 catches made him look like a different player than we saw in his weak 2nd year. Stevie Johnson and Ladarius Green got involved too, and a balanced 2-headed attack on the ground between rookie Melvin Gordon and Danny Woodhead took advantage of a defense on its heels. The Chargers will put up more fight than the Raiders did, but give me Cincinnati at home.

Seattle at Green Bay: Seattle got manhandled by the Rams, and it’s a testament to some of their core players that they kept it an even game into OT. The 6 sacks yielded to the Rams was obviously a ton, but even that doesn’t fully illustrate how badly the Rams defensive line tore them up. But the Rams are going to do that to a lot of teams this year. More concerning were the breakdowns in Seattle’s previously untouchable secondary. Kam Chancellor is still a holdout, but the move to put Richard Sherman inside against the slot seemed to limit Sherman’s effectiveness and create a hole on the outside. We’ll see if they stick with that in Green Bay, where the passing game hardly missed a beat, plugging James Jones in place of Jordy Nelson and having him rack up 2 TDs (and nearly a 3rd) after just re-joining the team after being cut from Giants camp. I don’t think Seattle’s offensive line will be as bad this week, but I don’t think they will be able to create enough of a push for their running attack to keep up with Aaron Rodgers attacking their shorthanded secondary. Green Bay

NY Jets at Indianapolis: Indy looks to rebound Monday night after being made to look foolish against Buffalo. Runaway expectations are obviously being downplayed now, but this offense won’t be kept held down. The Jets beat up on the Browns, which wasn’t hard to do, though they did have a moment where they let JFF look like a quarterback. But Fitzpatrick was that good, in-control Fitzpatrick he often is against less challenging teams, which keeps him employed. The defense is going to have to perform a whole lot better this week, and may have to do so without Antonio Cromartie, who sprained his knee, avoiding the dreaded season ending injury but putting his availability for week 2 in question. This is a big bounce-back game for Indianapolis.

Make your Week 2 picks now!

REMINDER: Post your picks in this thread as a precaution against the picks site blowing up, until we’ve at least tested it for another week or so. And please double-check your results for last week:

Week 1 Results
garion333: 5-0
Top_Shelf: 4-1
Neozilla: 4-1
tboon: 4-1
Zaque: 4-1
MilkmanDanimal: 4-1
Psych: 4-1
Oddsmakers: 3-2
oldmanscene24: 3-2
LeapingGnome: 3-2
karmajay: 3-2
*Legion*: 3-2
Gumbie: 3-2
Jayhawker: 3-2
Torq: 3-2
TheGameGuru: 3-2
Peedmyself: 3-2
Stele: 3-2
whispa: 3-2
onewild: 3-2
Rat Boy: 3-2
jonfentyler: 3-2
Mr E.B. Slugworth: 3-2
BEPNewt: 3-2
UpToIsomorphism: 3-2
Cobble: 2-3
iaintgotnopants: 2-3
Bighoppa: 2-3
PorkSmoothie89: 2-3
Bubs14: 2-3
Paleocon: 2-3
Infyrnos: 2-3
Minase: 2-3
Vector: 2-3
Atras: 2-3
Nomad: 2-3
Abu5217: 2-3
Grumpicus: 2-3
EvilDead: 2-3
Certis: 1-4
sr_malo: 1-4
thejustinbot: 1-4
Elliottx: 1-4
kaostheory: 1-4
Jowner: 0-0
AnimeJ: 0-0
troubleshot: 0-0
GioClark: 0-5

NE
Tenn
Cincy
GB
Indy

Copying *Legion*'s picks, I'm sure that will go well.

Jowner: 0-0
AnimeJ: 0-0
troubleshot: 0-0
garion333: 0-0

Garion posted his picks in the Week 1 thread, so I can admin edit his picks in.

The other 3 of you, unless I missed it, signed up but did not list your picks in the forum thread (if you made them).

Please be sure to submit the form and see that your picks are reflected on the screen when it refreshes.

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts

*Legion* wrote:

Certis: 1-4

I guess that means he's out?

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Cincinnati Bengals
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots Was week One for Buffalo a fluke? Pretty sure they don't have that this week.
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Cleveland Browns Because uhm, well, gotta try to make up ground at some point.
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Cincinnati Bengals Always had a weak spot for Tiger Ice Cream, until I ate more than 2 spoons...
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers Go Pack Go!
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts This seems like the biggest no brainer of the week.

Infyrnos wrote:

Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Cleveland Browns Because uhm, well, gotta try to make up ground at some point.

IMAGE(http://cdn.nextimpulsesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/1295539310-sad-cleveland-browns.jpg)

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Cincinnati Bengals
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts

Stele wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Certis: 1-4

I guess that means he's out? :D

Give me until I miss a weekend due to life distracting me.

I just thought you were out if you couldn't beat *Legion*?

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: San Diego Chargers
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts

Stele wrote:

I just thought you were out if you couldn't beat *Legion*?

I didn't even play last year, just ran the game. But with that little challenge thrown out, I am in it to win it.

With "win" being purely defined as beating Certis into submission.

Patriots
Titans
Bolts
Packers
Colts

I'll see about building out the Results page this week. I have an admin "results" page for generating the results to paste into the thread, but I wanted to do some more stats for the site's Results page beyond just wins/losses (like record on underdog picks, record on picks vs. the consensus, etc).

Also going to see about adding "it's Saturday and you haven't made your picks" opt-in email notifications sometime soon.

Open to any other ideas as well.

Legion wrote:

But there are no true cupcakes at the NFL level, and Tennessee deserves a ton of praise for the way they have tailored the offense to incorporate a lot of attacks Mariota is comfortable with from the Oregon days. It brings to mind Carolina’s handling of Cam Newton in his rookie year. Give me Tennessee and I ain’t even mad.

IMAGE(http://cdn.chud.com/0/02/900x900px-LL-0244ee12_larry-david-faint1qqx.gif)

Huh, 5-0. But I lost in the Elimination thread thanks to the Seahawks.

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots - I took Tyrod in most of my DFS rosters to save me some money so I could bulk up at WR and RB. Worked well. Although I think he's stilla good DFS play this week, I still don't think Buffalo has the offensive firepower to overcome New England. NE's secondary is questionable but I just don't see Tyrod airing it out, even after that long-bomb he introduced himself with last week. NE 28-21

Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans Mariota looked great in his debut, mind you, it was against a very, very sh*tty Tampa squad. However, the Browns have a decent secondary and thats really it. Manziel is built like a toddler and the Browns may take a school-yard-ass-kicking in this one....or the Tennessee of the last 4 years shows up and the Browns pull it out. I still say the Titans. TEN 36-20

San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Cincinnati Bengals - Chargers made a big comeback on my Detroit Lions last week. Really hurt to watch. IS this the emergence of Keenan Allen...Maybe, but more likely it was the Lions wilting in the 105 degree San Diego team. CIN has a decent defense, and at home, Dalton should be able to get this one done. I'm unsure about this, but this is a CIN team that consistently makes the playoffs (winning there is another story; I'm a lions fan, I would know). Bengals take it in a tight one. CIN 17-14

Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers - Seattle got whooped upfront last week. The Packers don't have the kind of hootzpah the Rams do on their D-Line, but they've got just about everything else going for them. Plus its at Lambeau. Green Bay will have to avenge the playoff disaster from last year. GB 38-21

New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts - The Jets will not repeat the the Bills dismantling of the Colts. Although I think Chris Ivory is still going to have a monstrous game foir Gang Green, the Colts will take this one with sheer firepower. IND 42-12.

*Legion* wrote:
Jowner: 0-0
AnimeJ: 0-0
troubleshot: 0-0
garion333: 0-0

Garion posted his picks in the Week 1 thread, so I can admin edit his picks in.

The other 3 of you, unless I missed it, signed up but did not list your picks in the forum thread (if you made them).

Please be sure to submit the form and see that your picks are reflected on the screen when it refreshes.

I totally forgot until the 1630 games had started. 0-5 for me it is. Think I would have gone like 2-3 anyway, so it's not a horrible loss.

As for this week:

New England at Buffalo - I don't care much for either team, but I want to see New England get destroyed this year.
Tennessee at Cleveland - It's Cleveland. Their QB dumpster fire will continue on this week.
San Diego at Cincinnati - Has the league told Jones to take a few games off yet for that garbage last week? Needs to happen if not.
Seattle at Green Bay - I'd expect Seattle to tighten it up and bounce back after a rough week 1.
NY Jets at Indianapolis - I flipped a coin to get this.

*Legion* wrote:
Stele wrote:

I just thought you were out if you couldn't beat *Legion*?

I didn't even play last year, just ran the game. But with that little challenge thrown out, I am in it to win it.

With "win" being purely defined as beating Certis into submission.

Nice. We can all start a side pot over/under weeks until Certis throws in the towel.

Let's say... 6?

Legion, should we have received an email reminder to make picks?

EDIT: Nevermind I see your note about reminders above.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Legion, should we have received an email reminder to make picks?

EDIT: Nevermind I see your note about reminders above.

Yeah, it's in the works, but not there yet.

On that topic, I'll open the floor for any opinions on how email reminders should work. Do you guys want email notifications when the new thread goes up? Reminders for picks on a certain day? Should they just fire to people who have not made picks by a certain time?

Only thing I am set on is that they'll be opt-in, so no emails will get sent to you unless you ask for them.

I think Sat at 1pm eastern, 24 hour notice, if picks aren't submitted.

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Cincinnati Bengals
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts

Patriots at Bills
Titans at Browns
Chargers at Bengals
Seahawks at Packers
Jets at Colts

That goal-line series by KC reminds me how happy I am that Andy Reid is no longer the Eagles coach..

Denver offense looking... ehh...

Buffalo
San Diego
Green Bay
Tennessee
NY Jets

Lots of Manning bashing on twitter tonight.

The Chiefs should be controlling this game. They need to stop getting cute.

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Cincinnati Bengals
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts

Bah, forgot last week.

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills: New England Patriots
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns: Tennessee Titans
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: San Diego Chargers
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers: Green Bay Packers
New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts: Indianapolis Colts

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