VIDEO
Week 7 Thoughts
* Man, was this a boring week. I guess let’s get these out of the way:
* BORTLESMANIA! A WIN! While me and the rest of the west coast were still sleeping!
* Kaepernick’s mechanics are awful again.
* Greg Robinson posted a nice big numbered grade this week (take a guess on if that number has a minus in front of it or not?)
* fatjoshfreeman.jpg
* I have a rant/whine that I put off last week in favor of the chunky Buccaneer QB one. It turns out that Pro Football Focus is no longer selling access to their Premium Stats to normal end users. Instead, it is being sold a la Stats Inc to “exclusive partners" (other media outlets, etc). For end users, it is being replaced with a much less awesome service of player grades. Basically, all of the advanced metrics that provide any insight to those grades will soon be made unavailable to subscribers like myself, after our existing subscriptions lapse. This f*cking sucks . The grades are only a small piece of the value of PFF, and without the context of the stats, they are of significantly less value. The idea of no longer having access to even simple (but hard to find otherwise) stats like sacks/hits/hurries yielded by offensive linemen absolutely pisses me off .
* So between that and a bad/uninteresting week of football, I don’t have much to talk about. Re-read the fat QB rant if you want more.
Pick ‘Ems
If anyone made use of the email notifications, please let me know what your experiences were.
A few of you got emails with your picks in them, these were actually supposed to route to my inbox and serve as a “paper trail” in the event any picks somehow disappear after being submitted again. I pushed an update which should correctly route these emails to me and not to your inbox.
So, it finally happened. Certis kicked my ass this week, picking up a 2 game differential and closing us to even. As if I needed more to be upset about! Aren’t you supposed to get bored of this by now? It’s week 8! Doesn’t hockey replace football entirely in Canadian media by this point?
This f*cken guy.
Minnesota at Chicago : Both of these teams come in having played the Detroit Lions on the road in their previous game (the Bears had their bye last week). Minnesota went in and won convincingly, while the Bears were edged out by the Lions in overtime. Both offenses moved the ball, with the big difference in the game being Minnesota’s ability to slow down Stafford and the Lions offense, compared to Chicago’s failure to do the same. The Vikes offense is leaning on Bridgewater more than ever, particularly as Adrian Peterson has been pedestrian at best. Newly anointed go-to receiver Stefon Diggs has not disappointed. Chicago’s own offense is looking somewhat similar, as Jay Cutler has gotten hot again with the return of Alshon Jeffery, while Matt Forte hasn’t lived up to his previous levels of play. Interestingly, despite Chicago’s terrible showing against Detroit, they’re actually 6th in the league in terms of fewest pass yards yielded per game. I’m going to take Chicago in a sneaky upset pick.
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh : One of the most interesting stories this year has been waiting for the “same old Bengals” to show up. They’ve won some close games, passed some early tests, but now they go on the road to Pittsburgh, who expects to have Ben Roethlisberger back in the lineup. Provided Ben does in fact play, and plays to his usual standard, this will be a big “are you for real” test of the Bengals. Cincinnati’s offense so far has been able to outrun their average-performing defense. Pittsburgh survived Roethlisberger’s injury, going 2-2 in the games he missed, but find themselves in quite a hole to dig out of if they want to chase the AFC North title. Winning this game would be a huge step. Alas, I’m not betting on a Cincinnati collapse just yet.
Green Bay at Denver : Hoo boy. Two undefeateds going head to head. Denver ranks #1 in total defense and #32 in total offense, as has been pointed out by many this week. Last game, Denver just barely edged out Cleveland in overtime. Green Bay is kind of a mini Denver right now, with their usually-formidable offense missing some teeth (23rd overall) while their defense is picking up some of the slack (11th overall). Aaron Rodgers has been good but not godlike, due in no small part to missing Fresno State’s own Davante Adams as well as Ty Montgomery, on top of already being without Jordy Nelson for the year. Adams comes back this week, but Montgomery is questionable. I’m taking Green Bay on the road, but it’s a scary matchup.
New York Giants at New Orleans : Though the Giants beat Dallas last week, the offense really struggled. Defensive and special teams touchdowns tipped the scale to the Giants in a week where Eli and the ground game were stalled. New Orleans beat up on a Colts team that can’t seem to do anything right, mostly on the back of Mark Ingram’s performance. The Giants couldn’t stop Darren McFadden, so Ingram will likely be an issue. But seriously, these are the Giants. You get 250 yards of offense out of them one week, and 500 the next. The have consistently generated turnovers this year (+10 differential), which is a big part of their being 4-3 and 1st place in the East. New Orleans has been equally effective at making turnovers as they have at getting them (0 differential), but their defense has generated 8 turnovers in the past 3 games after having only 3 in the first 4, so the trend is positive there. I’ll take New Orleans .
Indianapolis at Carolina : You have to think Indy gets on track at some point, right? They always seem to be teetering on the edge of an offensive explosion, and then find a way to shoot themselves in the foot and call the whole thing off. Luck’s was pretty dreadful before his injury, but he has been sharper since coming back (6 TDs to 2 INTs), but still not all the way there (completed only 52% against New Orleans last week). Carolina keeps finding ways to win, even when hurting themselves (3 INTs by Newton last week slowed them down). But hey, who is this healthy running back taking all these carries? It looks like Jonathan Stewart but that can’t be right. I’m going to give Enix a chance to rub it in my face when I’m wrong, but I’m taking Indianapolis in an upset this week. Hey, Carolina’s not going to go undefeated or anything, right? There’s going to be a trap game here or there, and Indy is a wounded animal who is going to drop a bomb on someone in a trap game at some point soon.
Make your Week 8 picks now!
Week 7 Results
Gumbie: 4-1
Elliottx: 4-1
cube: 4-1
Infyrnos: 4-1
Rat Boy: 4-1
Certis: 4-1
PorkSmoothie89: 4-1
Torq: 4-1
karmajay: 4-1
MilkmanDanimal: 4-1Oddsmakers: 4-1
GioClark: 3-2
Jowner: 3-2
thejustinbot: 3-2
Peedmyself: 3-2
Mr E.B. Slugworth: 3-2
iaintgotnopants: 3-2
Zaque: 3-2
sr_malo: 3-2
Jayhawker: 3-2
tboon: 3-2
Vector: 3-2
garion333: 3-2
Bighoppa: 3-2
Stele: 3-2
*Legion*: 2-3
Abu5217: 2-3
Minase: 2-3
EvilDead: 2-3
onewild: 2-3
Bubs14: 2-3
jonfentyler: 2-3
UpToIsomorphism: 2-3
Cobble: 2-3
TheGameGuru: 2-3
oldmanscene24: 2-3
Atras: 2-3
Top_Shelf: 1-4
Kush15: 0-0
kaostheory: 0-0
troubleshot: 0-0
Nomad: 0-0
Tempest Blayze: 0-0
Psych: 0-0
Paleocon: 0-0
Flintheart Glomgold: 0-0
AnimeJ: 0-0
Grumpicus: 0-0
Neozilla: 0-0
whispa: 0-0
BEPNewt: 0-0
LeapingGnome: 0-0
Season to Date
PorkSmoothie89: 25-10
karmajay: 24-11
garion333: 24-11
tboon: 23-12
Stele: 23-12
jonfentyler: 23-12
MilkmanDanimal: 22-13
oldmanscene24: 22-13
Peedmyself: 22-13
Zaque: 22-13Oddsmakers: 22-13
thejustinbot: 21-14
Mr E.B. Slugworth: 21-14
Infyrnos: 21-14
LeapingGnome: 21-9
iaintgotnopants: 20-15
Jowner: 20-10
Certis: 20-15
*Legion*: 20-15
TheGameGuru: 20-15
Elliottx: 19-16
Vector: 19-16
onewild: 19-16
Rat Boy: 19-16
Atras: 18-12
UpToIsomorphism: 18-17
EvilDead: 17-18
Torq: 17-13
Abu5217: 16-19
Bubs14: 16-19
Cobble: 16-14
sr_malo: 16-14
GioClark: 15-15
Bighoppa: 15-20
Jayhawker: 14-16
Gumbie: 13-17
Top_Shelf: 13-17
cube: 12-8
BEPNewt: 10-15
Minase: 10-10
Tempest Blayze: 10-5
kaostheory: 8-7
Psych: 8-7
Nomad: 6-9
Flintheart Glomgold: 6-4
AnimeJ: 6-9
Kush15: 5-5
Paleocon: 4-6
Neozilla: 4-1
whispa: 3-2
Grumpicus: 3-7
troubleshot: 0-0
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