NFL 2016: Playoffs: Wildcard

I refrained from posting as giants at lambeau felt like a big con sucking me in for the ultimate dick punch.

Lots injuries today and the Giants have been sloppy. Yet Dallas riding two rookies gives me hope.

Montgomery back. Wow.

Well this one was a game for a little while at least.

I'm glad the broadcast is pointing out how silly criticism of Mike McCarthy earlier this season was. Sometimes Packers fans are spoiled a little. The grass doesn't get much greener than the Thompson/McCarthy regime.

It's cold as hell in Green Bay, every creek and lake within 500 miles is frozen solid, yet all the Fox crew can talk about is some damned boat trip. Weird.

I'm trying to recall if this was the worst playoff weekend I've ever seen. Half a good game?

garion333 wrote:

I'm trying to recall if this was the worst playoff weekend I've ever seen. Half a good game?

Im not sure its getting much better.

Houston is +15.5
Big Ben is in a walking boot?
Packers are on a knifes edge of being contending or a house of cards.

Battle of the birds might be good.

Giants were in the game for a bit but GB was the better team today. This one hurts but I hope it's something the Giants can build on. Oh, and Beckham grows up and learns from this...

whispa wrote:

Oh, and Beckham grows up and learns from this...

Not so far, no.

Counterpoint: Joey Porter reportedly arrested at a Pittsburgh bar hours after Steelers' victory.

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Rat Boy wrote:
whispa wrote:

Oh, and Beckham grows up and learns from this...

Not so far, no.

Counterpoint: Joey Porter reportedly arrested at a Pittsburgh bar hours after Steelers' victory.

Your Deadspin link about Joey Porter has a comment from Chris Kluwe that's comedy gold.

Top_Shelf wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
whispa wrote:

Oh, and Beckham grows up and learns from this...

Not so far, no.

Counterpoint: Joey Porter reportedly arrested at a Pittsburgh bar hours after Steelers' victory.

Your Deadspin link about Joey Porter has a comment from Chris Kluwe that's comedy gold.

At this point, I'm thinking the Raylan Rule can be applied to Kluwe.

I hear ya.

garion333 wrote:

I'm trying to recall if this was the worst playoff weekend I've ever seen. Half a good game?


Barnwell heard my cry
:

Wild-card weekend wasn't the least competitive round we've ever seen, but it wasn't far off, either. It was the first opening playoff round since 2001 -- and just the third since the AFL-NFL merger (excluding the bizarre playoff structure of the 1982 strike season) -- to see all four games decided by 10 or more points. You have to go back to the divisional round in 1990 to find a postseason weekend with four favorites winning by 10 or more points.

Oh man, this has gotta hurt:

Most of their games were shown in LA by Fox, as was the case in St. Louis when they were here. And according to Nielsen, which tracks viewership, Fox’s rating for NFL games declined in Los Angeles this season over last season’s figure. That is astounding, as fans usually flock to the local team’s telecasts and provide a big boost to local ratings.

The Rams move to LA and less people in LA watch Fox than the prior.

Not only that, but viewership support, even for bad Rams teams was more than twice as high in St. Louis:

Fox carried 12 Rams games this season in LA, and those averaged an 8.3 rating. In St. Louis the previous season, where the team still was playing, Fox affiliate KTVI (Channel 2) averaged a 19.7 rating for its 12 Rams telecasts.
The team’s last three games while doing business in Missouri averaged a 22.0 rating. The Rams’ last three games this season had a combined rating of 20.7 in Los Angeles (6.9 average).
[Th]e Rams drew a 9.0 rating in Southern California for their “honeymoon” return season .... In contrast, their worst-rated season in St. Louis was 16.2 — in 2009, when they were 1-15 to complete a three-year run at 6-42. For the Rams final season in St. Louis, 2015, the rating here for the season was 17.2.

At the same time, with LA being so much larger than St. Louis, the final St. Louis Rams game last year was seen in 268,400 homes, while the last game of this season, the lowest-rated game of the season, managed to be seen in about 274,000 homes. I guess in that way the owners can still laugh on their way to the bank.

The Rams were 32nd in home attendance last year. They were 2nd this year, and the new stadium isn't there yet to add to the draw.

Nobody in Rams HQ is sweating lower TV ratings in LA. This year proved that an LA football team can get 80,000+ to the stadium every week, even a crappy old temporary stadium with a crappy team, and that is a major vindication for them.

They should be. They sold a crap ton of tickets before he season started in the excitement that the Rams were back. That faded quickly. Not only was the stadium less than half full by the end, with people throwing away their rickets, but the stadium was mostly listing team fans.

The entire point of having a team in LA is for the massive increase in TV viewers, but less people were watching with the Rams in town. Yes, eventually, the team should improve, but there is no reasonable reason to believe that the franchise as it stands now is any more likely to have a winning season than the Browns.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/l0MYP4u9jwCNEucww/source.gif)

And that's who Kroenke is going to be asking to buy PSLs to his new stadium.

Jayhawker wrote:

but there is no reasonable reason to believe that the franchise as it stands now is any more likely to have a winning season than the Brown

You wound me, sir.

IMAGE(http://gif.mocksession.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/MACHO-MAN-BROWNS-FAN.gif)

Hey, at least you guys have fans, But seriously:

IMAGE(http://memecrunch.com/meme/4EAZ/factory-of-sadness/image.jpg)

This was the first time since I've been in Cleveland, so 2012, that people stopped going to Browns games like they did this season. There's bad seasons and then there's the not a chance season the Browns had this year.

All the more crappy is the OG Browns franchise left and won two SB's.

Jacksonville hires Tom Coughlin.

Jacksonville also appears to be leaning strongly to offering the head coaching job to Doug Marrone. As I've mentioned before, I've long suspected Marrone was the head-coach-in-waiting on the Jaguars staff. I have a feeling his hiring as O-line coach with the "assistant head coach" title was forced strongly encouraged by ownership as a backup plan to Gus Bradley, who at that point had just completed his second 12+ loss season. (And I feel Marrone had to have the thought in his head too. My suspicions arose when Marrone decided to stay with the Jaguars in 2016, rather than just using them as a one-year landing spot)

The only part I don't understand is why it took the team so long to cut Bradley loose in 2016, giving Marrone only 2 games of interim head coaching. The move should have been made earlier and given Marrone a more lengthy trial run, especially if ownership had an inkling that he would be the permanent replacement.

I'm undecided on Marrone, but I am bullish on the Jaguars establishing an exec VP of football ops, although they're not the team I cheer for whose ownership desperately needs to establish a football ops exec. This is exactly what Jed needs to do in Santa Clara.

EDIT: And the Marrone hire is official.

Speaking of Marrone, I am always remembering this ESPN.com interview from when he was hired to the Jags staff.

Between hiring Coughlin and picking Marrone (the latter obviously being partly at the behest of the former), it's clear the Jags are angling towards a run-a-tight-ship style rather than Gus Bus's rah rah buddy style.

*Legion* wrote:

I'm undecided on Marrone, but I am bullish on the Jaguars establishing an exec VP of football ops, although they're not the team I cheer for whose ownership desperately needs to establish a football ops exec. This is exactly what Jed needs to do in Santa Clara.

Apparently Paraag Marathe has that job with the Niners already, without the actual power since Jed is da man there, I guess. You would know better than I.

Is it strange the Jags are keeping Caldwell on as GM?

garion333 wrote:

Apparently Paraag Marathe has that job with the Niners already, without the actual power since Jed is da man there, I guess. You would know better than I.

Marathe is purely a financial guy, the team "capologist", not someone who has any football knowledge. He performs the complete opposite function of what Coughlin and other "football ops" guys do. I hadn't realized that "football ops" was a part of his title though, which just makes me roll my eyes harder.

Is it strange the Jags are keeping Caldwell on as GM?

Maybe a little, but by promoting Marrone also, the message is clear: they hold Bradley accountable.

Caldwell's draft and FA acquisition defensive makeover this year helped, as the defense jumped from ranked 24th to 6th. Malik Jackson has earned his money so far, Jalen Ramsey was clearly the right pick, and they got 8 sacks out of their 3rd round pick Yannick Ngakoue.

I can understand why they still have faith in Caldwell's capacity as GM. I also suspect Marrone, as someone who was in the building the last 2 years, was selling the narrative that the personnel wasn't the problem, the coaching was.

Also, nailed it:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/T99SeGS.png)

From @dallascowboys on Twitter:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C11xh6QVQAI07lk.jpg:large)

*Legion* wrote:

From @dallascowboys on Twitter:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C11xh6QVQAI07lk.jpg:large)

IMAGE(https://i.imgflip.com/lsski.gif)

So...

We're all rooting for the Packers right?

Quick 14-0 lead to get the running game in trouble. Maybe a fumble in there. Prescott pick? Tony Romo come back then implosion?

People. A Tony Romo led comeback and most ridiculous capitulation is a real possibility.

jowner wrote:

So...

We're all rooting for the Packers right?

Quick 14-0 lead to get the running game in trouble. Maybe a fumble in there. Prescott pick? Tony Romo come back then implosion?

People. A Tony Romo led comeback and most ridiculous capitulation is a real possibility.

As a Lions fan, I hope there is a tear in the space time continuum allowing both the Packers and Cowboys to lose horribly.

jowner wrote:

So...

We're all rooting for the Packers right?

IMAGE(https://www.getmoresports.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Chiefs-at-Falcons.jpg)

jowner wrote:

So...

We're all rooting for the Packers right?

Yup.