NFL 2016: Week 7

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* The debate has begun on whether or not the Cowboys QB job belongs to Dak Prescott or not. What we do know is that he will still start at least one game after the bye, as Romo apparently won’t quite be ready to go. I don’t really have an opinion at this time. I recognize that Prescott has played well, and I also recognize that Prescott has not been called upon to routinely make the kind of game-changing throws Romo is capable of. Prescott has played very good play-from-ahead football on a team built to play from ahead, and he’s done it against a soft schedule. But at the same time, playing within limits does not automatically mean Prescott can only succeed within those limits. Romo has played plenty of conservative game-manager games when that’s what the situation has called for. It’s up to the Cowboys offensive staff to put Prescott’s capabilities in perspective.

* Speaking of QB controversies, there’s a tiny one brewing in Chicago. Jay Cutler should be returning from thumb injury soon, but Brian Hoyer has done that Brian Hoyer thing where he plays a stretch of good football and muddles up the QB picture. Cutler, of course, hasn’t exactly been a strong enough starter to ward off this kind of challenge, especially without the hand of Adam Gase framing him into a more successful version of himself. His 2 starts this year were not great, while Hoyer has been on a relatively hot streak (6 TDs, 0 INTs, 100 passer rating).

* See Garion, it's not that BORTLESMANIA only tears it up in garbage time, he simply starts up in the 4th quarter no matter what the score is. It’s just that most Jaguar games are out of reach by then.

* Prince Amukamara has allowed only a 35% catch rate, lowest in the league.

* What a day for Eddie Lacy. First a report that he’s ballooned up to 255-265 pounds, and then the announcement that he's going on IR for ankle surgery. With James Starks out from knee surgery, the Packers RB depth chart is now Knile Davis (fresh from trade with Kansas City) and wide receivers Ty Montgomery and Randall Cobb. Reportedly, Montgomery is going to get the lion’s share of RB duties this week.

* Julio Jones getting away with a little head slap at the start of the play doesn’t erase the egregiousness of the non-call against Richard Sherman.

* Joe Thomas still does not want to be traded away from Cleveland. In case you were wondering. Because apparently this was a minor story again this week. I guess the media is just going to ask Thomas every time Cleveland loses 5 more games and print each denial.

* There’s a long list of teams that should want to trade for Joe Thomas if he became available, though.

Pick ‘Ems

NY Giants at Los Angeles (in London): After starting 3-1, the Rams have sunk to 3-3, which puts them on pace to be right in striking distance of 7-9. Interestingly, Case Keenum continues to be not-a-disaster, keeping Jared Goff on the bench. Keenum had his best game of the season this past week, although it still included an INT on the final drive that sealed the one-score game. The Giants also had their best offensive game of the season, in which OBJ, recently left for dead in these very threads, exploded for 222 yards and 2 TDs, including the game winner. I have more faith in the Giants.

Oakland at Jacksonville: Oakland comes to town to face off against a red hot Jacksonville team, riding high on its 2 game win streak. Only the third 2-game win streak of the Gus Bradley era. Vegas has caught BORTLESMANIA, as the Jaguars are actually favored by an entire 1 point. Jacksonville has a ton of key players that may miss the game, though, including both starting tackles and a starting guard, both starting safeties, and a starting cornerback. That’s not good news because DEREK CARR FRESNO STATE DEREK CARR Oakland.

Baltimore at NY Jets: The Geno Smith era begins… again. And yet, Baltimore has struggled so much that the Jets are favored by a point. Remember, in a draft class that has seen rookie QBs getting on the field early and having success, the Jets targeted Christian Hackenberg with their 2nd round pick. Hackenberg apparently is nowhere close to the starting job, firmly locked in at 4th on a terrible 4-man QB depth chart. In Baltimore’s first game since firing abandon-the-run OC Marc Trestman, they ran the ball 26 times but for only 98 yards. Of course, they were missing Marshal Yanda, who remains doubtful for this game. This seems like the kind of game Baltimore could easily drop, but I can’t possibly pick Geno.

Tampa Bay at San Francisco: Aww yeah, let’s do this. San Francisco got an OK game out of a rusty Colin Kaepernick. Nothing special, but it was a run defense that was destroyed which set that game out of reach. Tampa, however, comes to town without Doug Martin, who suffered a “setback” in his recovery, and with Charles Sims on IR, so it’s still Jacquizz Rodgers time, who juuuust crossed the 100 yard mark against Carolina after being fed the ball 30 times. And with Tampa’s D-line still MIA, this is a good week for the 49ers to roll hard with Carlos Hyde. I’m predicting a 17-13 win for San Francisco (with Tampa's 13 coming from 2 TDs but a missed XP).

Houston at Denver: The revenge of Brock Lobster! Vegas has no faith, putting the Texans as 7.5 point underdogs… and of course they’re right. Osweiler managed to rally the Texans late to beat the Colts, but he was ineffective for most of the game up to that point (something wholly unprecedented among AFC South quarterbacks). Lamar Miller, of course, played a huge role, including dodging nearly the entire Colts defense on the TD that turned the contest back into a game. Denver is coming in off a loss in which they couldn’t do anything offensively, but it was a Thursday game, you gotta throw those out. Denver wins and shows the local fans why they didn’t spend that money on Osweiler.

Make your Week 7 picks now!

Week 6 Results
Jayhawker: 5-0
MilkmanDanimal: 5-0
LeapingGnome: 4-1
garion333: 4-1
TheGameGuru: 4-1
Bubs14: 4-1
PorkSmoothie89: 4-1
Running Man: 4-1
UpToIsomorphism: 4-1
Certis: 4-1
Oddsmakers: 4-1
cube: 3-2
oldmanscene24: 3-2
Abu5217: 3-2
ballnchained: 3-2
Infyrnos: 3-2
Paleocon: 3-2
iaintgotnopants: 3-2
EvilDead: 3-2
tboon: 3-2
jonfentyler: 3-2
Kush15: 3-2
MoonDragon: 3-2
Rat Boy: 3-2
onewild: 3-2
Zaque: 3-2
Torq: 3-2
Bighoppa: 2-3
*Legion*: 2-3
karmajay: 2-3
Vector: 1-4

Season to Date
ballnchained: 21-9
Bubs14: 21-9
Bighoppa: 20-10
onewild: 20-10
Jayhawker: 20-10
Torq: 20-10
Abu5217: 20-10
Certis: 20-10
*Legion*: 18-12 IMAGE(http://i.giphy.com/NH3mWjNZ2FXtm.gif)
jonfentyler: 18-12
MoonDragon: 18-12
TheGameGuru: 18-12
UpToIsomorphism: 17-13
garion333: 17-13
PorkSmoothie89: 17-13
MilkmanDanimal: 17-13
iaintgotnopants: 17-13
Oddsmakers: 17-13
Zaque: 16-14
Rat Boy: 16-14
tboon: 16-14
EvilDead: 15-15
Infyrnos: 15-15
Paleocon: 15-10
Kush15: 15-15
oldmanscene24: 14-16
LeapingGnome: 14-16
cube: 13-17
karmajay: 13-17
Top_Shelf: 12-13
Minase: 11-14
Vector: 11-19
Stele: 10-15
Running Man: 7-3
Jowner: 4-1
Gumbie: 3-2
Nomad: 2-3
Docjoe: 2-3

Oh, OMG GIF, you never fail to please.

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MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Oh, OMG GIF, you never fail to please.

Indeed.

Also my mood right now after the Panthers' 1-5 start:

IMAGE(http://i.giphy.com/NH3mWjNZ2FXtm.gif)IMAGE(http://i.giphy.com/NH3mWjNZ2FXtm.gif)IMAGE(http://i.giphy.com/NH3mWjNZ2FXtm.gif)

MoonDragon wrote:

We're sorry, but something went wrong.

If you are the application owner check the logs for more information.

--Edit--
It helps if you log in first. :oops:

I intend to re-write the site over the offseason as a simple project for learning a new technology stack, so I haven't bothered replacing the default exception page with nice helpful error messages or anything. It's still mostly the bare-bones Rails app that I whipped up a couple days before last season started.

* Julio Jones getting away with a little head slap at the start of the play doesn’t erase the egregiousness of the non-call against Richard Sherman.

Meh. On to Arizona!

And with Tampa’s D-line still MIA, this is a good week for the 49ers to roll hard with Carlos Hyde.

All Hyde is going to be rolling hard on is the bench. He hasn't practiced this week and it looks like he won't play.

Minase wrote:

All Hyde is going to be rolling hard on is the bench. He hasn't practiced this week and it looks like he won't play.

I noticed this earlier today and snapped up Mike Davis in a bunch of fantasy leagues, but forgot to update the post. Ah well, still sticking with 17-13.

I hate these weeks when it feels like mostly the road teams will win. You know they win all five. But which ones do you pick?

I thought I forgot to pick last week. Damn

Pick the Rams at home! They've got the 12th man at Twickenham Stadium.

...I think Miller Lite stole *Legion*'s idea about re-using old commercials.

That was... weird.

Missed PAT leaves the door slightly ajar. But this one's probably over.

These bears will find a way to lose. Like life.

If Legion and I worked in the same office, I'd be Terry Tate this week.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/O2UUf1d.gif)

I need a dislike button.

Hoyer with a broken arm? No QB controversy in Chicago now.

NFL once again has completely failed on Domestic Abuse in regards to Josh Brown.. what a joke.

http://deadspin.com/the-nfl-always-h...

If you think you've been doing bad in Pick Ems this year, well...

Tough year for picking. Or good, if you've been lucky enough to be on the right side of straight up guessing. Guessing is Awesome.

* See Garion, it's not that BORTLESMANIA only tears it up in garbage time, he simply starts up in the 4th quarter no matter what the score is. It’s just that most Jaguar games are out of reach by then.

I've been wondering all week how to frame yet another win for the Jags. I was left perplexed because FO thinks Bortles wasn't very good while PFF thought he was quite good. I'll be in the wait and see mode with Bortlesmania before bringing the Garbage Man tag back out.

///

NY Giants at Los Angeles (in London): When in London all bets are off. I mean, this is where the real Bortles stands up every year, so it's time for Gurley to show he can beat 11 men in the box like a stud RB is supposed to. Feeling really good about my Dynasty pick of Amari Cooper over Todd Gurley at this point. Rams.

Oakland at Jacksonville: Legion listed a bazillion injuries for Jacksonville, so I'm going with Oakland cause I like them better anyway.

Baltimore at NY Jets: Until Baltimore's OL woes go away, I'm betting against them. Jets.

Tampa Bay at San Francisco: I don't care. Does either team have an identity at this point? Home team. 49ers.

Houston at Denver: Oz isn't very good. Denver.

Sure glad I'm not picking so badly I'm getting beaten by Certis.

*checks standings*

Uh . . .

New York Giants at Los Angeles Rams: Case Keenum is bad at football, and I am convinced every thing he does that's good is purely accidental.

Oakland Raiders at Jacksonville Jaguars: Vegas-to-be are showing unpleasantly Pittsburgh-esque abilities to play down to the level of their competition, but, hey, it's Jacksonville. They're not going to play THAT far down. Also, is it wrong to begin actively rooting against Fresno State in every college athletic contest? Asking for a friend.

Baltimore Ravens at New York Jets: Who knew having four bad QBs on a roster (Fitzpatrick, Geno, Bryce Petty, Christian Crapperburg) wouldn't be a good idea? Apparently not the New York Jets.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at San Francisco 49ers: Does having only three bad QBs on the roster make the 49ers smarter than the Jets, or just less ambitious?

Houston Texans at Denver Broncos: I'm certainly not convinced Trevor Semen is good, but, the thing is, I think he's not convinced he's good yet. He's one of those guys who appears to be smart enough to play within his limitations and not push his luck too much, so he's definitely got a chance to grow and maybe be decent after a while. Brock Osweiler appears to maybe not be aware he sucks. But, hey, Jadveon Clowney is playing well, and the division sucks, so what the heck, Houston, you could still sneak into the playoffs and get destroyed again.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Brock Osweiler appears to maybe not be aware he sucks.

Oh gawd, so true. You just put words to my feelings, man.

garion333 wrote:

If you think you've been doing bad in Pick Ems this year, well...

Tough year for picking. Or good, if you've been lucky enough to be on the right side of straight up guessing. Guessing is Awesome. ;)

I would love to see us switch to a point spread when picking. I mean Legion would have to program it to scrape the point spread at time of posting and lock it in. But hey how busy can he be?

I went with NYG over LAR just because of the lesser time zone differential.

Anyone else annoyed Burfict got away with a fine?

Running Man wrote:

I went with NYG over LAR just because of the lesser time zone differential.

Yeah. Me too. Having flow to Europe from the east coast and the west coast... there is a difference.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Anyone else annoyed Burfict got away with a fine?

Yes. He should be suspended indefinitely. He has a long history of trying to injure people.

Yes, but it was against the Pats, so the commish doesn't care.

Isn't there some other country in Europe we can inflict games like this on? Like Denmark, maybe?

Given Brexit I feel like this is appropriate punishment for the Brits. Let them know life's not all smiles and sunshine.

TheGameguru wrote:

Given Brexit I feel like this is appropriate punishment for the Brits. Let them know life's not all smiles and sunshine.

They are so unabashedly cheerful and friendly. Really need to take them down a notch.

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