well, the season starts on thursday. dang, this always reminds me of alucard, he was a huge football fan. RIP.
any thoughts? predictions?
for once, i'm optimistic about the vikings. i like the direction our team is headed in. that said, we are in a tough division, so it won't be easy. but i'm excited.
anyway, the season opening game is THIS thursday around 8:30pm and it'll be the steelers vs. patriots
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I am definitely not too pleased with the Falcons cutting Antone Smith. With our shitty season last year, I feel as if we have no choice but to improve within our division. I'm very interested to see how well Jameis Winston will do with the even shittier Bucs though. Drew Brees is still a great QB but he is getting up there in age. Carolina had a fairly good season last year so let's see if they can do better this time around.
Our schedule isn't too bad so I do see my Falcons improving with our new head coach during the regular season but I'm not yet convinced that we will advance far in the playoffs.
More guys watching football means more strippers available to me. :)
I think the Vikings should be pretty good. But Green Bay wil likely win the Division. I'm not a Packers fan, but I think they're going to the Super Bowl from the NFC.
The AFC is going to be interesting. Denver, Pittsburgh, New England and the Colts should all be good.
I think with the Colts' easy schedule they will have home field advantage and be able to beat New England
Colts-Packers Super Bowl
We are a cheesehead household, so hopefully the Packers stay healthy enough thru the season to go all the way. But I'm also secretly a G-man fan, tho their past few seasons have been pretty sad. If it ever came down to a Packer/Giants NFC championship game, I'd be quite torn.
@Lopaw- The Packers and the Giants were in the NFC championship game in 2007 when Brett Favre was still the quarterback. Who did you root for then?
Everyone is counting out the team that made two straight Super Bowls, and should be back to back defending champs if not for the worst call in Super Bowl history. This year I think it will be Seahawks Patriots rematch, they are the two best teams in the league.
Don't sleep on the RAIDERS . Super improved offense and defense. Play off caliber team niw
GACA...I agree totally you guys are improved and I believe you're finally headed in the right direction. But you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you think they're headed to the playoffs. Just look at your division.
I'm a bengal fan originally from Ohio. And if Andy dalton can't win a playoff game this year we need to move on. I'm predicting a Denver-Green bay superbowl. RIP Alucard. when i first joined TUSCL a few years ago that guy kind of got on my nerves. I felt like he was too much of what you folks call a white knight. But he took it on himself to PM me and we talked it out and found out that we had some things in common in out stripper beliefs:)..LOL!
Yes
@ranukam- Oh man that game was crazy. On gameday I had a house full of rabid (and I mean RABID) cheeseheads in full garb. The house was all decked out in green & yellow streamers and everyone really did have on cheeseheads that were ordered from the GB store in Wisconsin. I sat there with my Manning NYG jersey underneath my Favre jersey and pretty much STFU during the game. I held back on the liquor intake too since I didn't want to risk slipping up and accidentally saying something pro-Giant.
Oh the concessions you make in a (secret) 2-team household :)
While I'm rooting for a Pats return (and #5 for Brady) the Ravens worry me in the Playoffs. The Pats continue to benefit from a weak AFC East, the Ravens have been really tough through many personnel changes and always play the Pats tough.
Betting on a 49er turn around this season
Is this Melvin Gordon runner the Chargers got, going to be a phenom or a bust?
Look out for da bears though.
I feel like the Vikings are under rated and the Packers are overrated going into the season. But the NFC north could really beat each other up.
Honestly it wouldn't shock me if the Chargers more or less intentionally tank. Easier to get a 4-12 team out of town than a 10-6 playoff team.
If the Cowboys stay healthy and Chip continues to run his guys into the ground, the NFC East wil be in the NFC championship game. Gotta see if Green Bays 'next man up' luck holds without Jordy Nelson
Hey GoVikings, I guarantee the Vikings will finish better than the Bears. Outside of that? Who knows.
Cowboys? You guys remember Romo is still your QB right?
You'll benefit from Washington being awful. But Dallas is a 9-7 first round playoff loss at best.
Seattle wins the NFC and loses to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. If the Pats are in first place on Nov 1 they win the afc. No team plays better in the second half than the pats.
rockstar666- i agree. in fact, i see the bears being last in our division
JamesSD- Romo isn't the cowboys problem, its their defense.
skibum-- seattle isn't going to go to the superbowl 3 times in a row
my superbowl prediction is packers vs. colts
People that are saying Packers are forgetting they just lost their best receiver for the season with a torn ACL (Jordy Nelson).
if you think jordy Nelson will be a big loss, you're sadly mistaken
^^^It won't be a big loss for a guy that had 100 catches, 1,500 yards, and 13 TD last year. That makes complete sense.
Rodgers makes those guys man....you'll see....
When you have the best QB....the importance of the receivers drops dramatically
Yeah, Rodgers makes the Packers receivers. Nelson isn't like kapernick losing Moss.
I'm afraid that my Steelers are not going to have a good season. Too many losses from an aging defense, a receiver corps that has been unimpressive. Backup QB looks pretty good. Running backs are OK. What's with picking up Michael Vick? Maybe as a receiver or wildcat player, but I don't think he's worth a roster spot.
Unless Tomlin has been hiding his real starters, it's going to be a long season.
Don't worry ATAC. I'm sure the Pats will properly welcome them into the season tomorrow night. ;)
Plunbbbbsssst! I had really hoped that Brady would be out of this one.
@ATAC
I'm hoping the Steelers put up a lot of points. I used my first pick in the the fantasy draft to take Antonio Brown.
Steelers offense will be fine, it's how the defense performs that will dictate the season. Steelers may have to win a lot of games 35-31. You can make a case the Steelers have arguably the best running back (bell), and the best receiver (Brown) in the league. Big Ben is an elite QB (led the league in passing yards last year for those not paying attention). Without a defense tho it could be a long season.
Pats could go 8-8. I'm sure they'll find a way to cheat their way to a better record. But I'm not impressed by their roster.
My money's on Ditka.
Bills over Colts is my week 1 upset
James, you're high. The Pats are going to go well over .500 for the season. Even if the team was as mediocre as you believe - and it is not - the AFC East is not exactly a powerhouse division.
GoVikings' upset prediction is looking pretty good right now. Let's see if the Bills can finish it off.
With Buffalo's D and at home it won't be a suprise. Colts are a soft team who can't stop the run and cant play physical. I'm sure Grigson is contacting the NFL that Bills were playing too rough.
The Bills kinda let up at the end, but managed it anyway.
Pats fans hate the Colts. I've noticed that.
VIKINGS ON MNF! :-)
GoVikings, I lost respect for Indianapolis when they whined to the competition committee back in '08 about how rough the Pats were playing on pass coverage.
Peyton Manning will always be known as an excellent QB, but he has also always been a bit of a prima donna. He has relied heavily on timing routes during his career and he had the benefit of playing all of his home games in a dome when he was in Indy. Indy kept coming into New England in winter conditions during the playoffs and kept getting beat, due in no small part to the Pats physical corners. So instead of growing some balls and getting more physical with the Pats in turn, they went and asked Mommy to protect them instead.
I give the Falcons a B-. We did exceptionally well throughout the first half but the defense got lackadaisical throughout the second half. Falcons got lucky when the Eagles missed the field goal. Otherwise Philly would have won.
I see the Falcons still have a little room for improvement on the defensive side.
Considering they put themselves in position to get a win, I'd give the Falcons at least a B.
The Falcons have been my team since I learned the word "football" so I always root for them. Except when they play the Jags. I have to pull for my home team.
Just and FYI guys/gals......the Jags will win the SB this year
lololol good one seaboardrr
well, obviously not a good performance from the vikings, but its only week 1, so i haven't entered "panic mode" yet.
we couldn't convert on 3rd down to save our lives, so that means we weren't able to sustain drives. our run defense struggled, but that didn't surprise me because that was an issue last season.
bridgewater missed some routine throws that starting NFL QB's cannot miss. peterson was bottled up, but he's never had good games against the 9ers. he's always struggled against them. they have his number
ah well, lions are next up
jaguars and bears superbowl?
solid game for the vikings. i really don't feel like we played great today. it was more of the lions playing poorly. but i'm glad we defended the run MUCH better than we did last week. plus we got peterson going early. good effort from the vikes today
RAIDERS!!!! 1 WIN, 9 LEFT TO GO!!!! PLAYOFFS BABY!!!
Well, GoVikes, you guys may have won the game, but which city has the better clubs and strippers? Motown for the win!
Patriot 2-0. Brady threw for 400 yards today. Good thing that he was playing today. ;)
And now one of our tougher road games was made much easier with Romo out for the next several weeks. It's an embarrassment of riches when one is a Patriots fan. Playoffs here we come!
ATACdawg- lol yeah, although I've never clubbed in Motown, I hear its great.
RickyBoy- don't get ahead of yourself
GoVikings, please. Steelers already beat, Dallas on the road now a non-issue, the Jags next week, four games against the Jets and Miami, a very high winning % at home and only a few tough road games ahead. I would be surprised if we ended the season any worse than 12-4, which is more than enough to win the AFC East and maybe even a top seed heading into the playoffs.
Pretty confident, aren't you Ricky Boy
We play Chargers today, Rivers scares me
What's up with the jets ? They actually won their first two games !
Peterson WOW
Okay, I am convinced that the Falcons are perhaps the best come-from-behind team thus far. Matt Ryan has always been a clutch QB in these types of situations. I give the Falcons an A for their consistent resiliency and not giving up. Now if we could work on the defense just a little more.
I felt that Branden Weeden played pretty well for the most part besides that one interception. Dallas defense just seemingly was out of gas throughout the second half.
RAIDERS!!! 2-1 first time road win since 2013 and first back to back win since 2011
Watch out AFC WEST!!!
I would like to say that Buffalo beat Miami today, but I'd be kidding myself. I think the only way the Bills could have lost that game would have been to not show up.
looks like the Jets returned to form today Miami also, coaching for both was terrible, if something is not working you need to make adjustments, maybe change it up a bit, but it seems neither of these teams has the ability to adjust or compensate. Not a chance of them winning with any regularity till they get some coaching.
i don't feel good about this game against the broncos....but we'll see how it goes
^not looking good for the vikings.
Bye week :-(
It's week 5. Are the Vikings going to lose this week, too? Even though it's a bye week I think they can still find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of purgatory.
Matty Ice did it yet again. It definitely wasn't a pretty game for Atlanta with three turnovers and two missed field goals. Washington overall had a good game until that game winning pick-six for my Falcons from Kirk Cousins. I give the Dirty Birds an A- for the day largely due to the ability to successfully overcome those turnovers and missed field goals.
Devonta Freeman is a straight up beast though. I also would have love to see Roddy White get the ball thrown to him more. He hasn't been much of a factor thus far this season compared to previous years.
Pats 4-0 after stuffing Dallas. This would have been Brady's 4th game out if he had been suspended. Good thing he wasn't. ;)
Fckn Raiders, gave that game away, and this time can't even blame the defense. ..smh
Andy Dalton is finally living up to expectations and the Bengals are on track for a deep run in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we will need some luck to get to the Super Bowl.
Best guess would be Patriots over Packers in the big game.
Lions today....defense not looking good thus far
RAIDERS BEAT THE BOLTS. MY WEEK ISN'T GOING TO GET ANY BETTER :)
Bad weekend for me. My college team(FSU) and NFL team(Steelers) both lost. :(
Typical Falcons win. Came down to the last minute of the last quarter of the game. It was mostly a defensive struggle. Our defense played much better, perhaps the best defensive performance of the year thus far. And Devonta Freeman still beasting on the run game. Overall a B+ for the Dirty Birds.
So, once again, who's going to beat the Pats? Pete Rozelle's vision of parity within the league has been dashed by Brady/ Belichek.
Glad the vikes came back. Given how few good teams the NFL has this year, vikings look like a playoff team.
To gawker I bet somebody beats the Pats they looked a little beat up yesterday, I am not so sure they will get past the second playoff game
Dolphins are hot right now. Toms first loss this thursday. Everybody be sure to tune in!
Dolphins are hot against 2 teams with a combined 3 wins.
My singer is a big Dolphins fan. I think he's going to be very disappointed tonight.
Yeah, Dolohins aren't winning tonight. If it was in Miami, maybe. But not in New England
Just watch. I smell an upset.
It would be fun if the Dolphins are the team to hand the Pats their first loss this year. It would also be fun if the Pats go undefeated like last time and loose to my Giants in the Super Bowl
^Giants making the Superbowl is not happening. Playoffs maybe. Even then, first round exit.
Didn't say they would make the Super Bowl I said it would be fun
I love this thread. Pats now 6-0 and Brady is on a tear.
Don't forget the faggott Colts and Ravens have imploded and look like hot garbage.
This is the game where grown men run around in padding and helmets so they don't get hurt bumping into one another? :-)
No, they wear padding and helmets so they can hurt each other worse.
rockstar666...were up against your Bears today!
so we are now 5-2
honestly, i don't think we are as good as our record indicates, but i'll take it because we are in a position to get a wildcard
^ Vikings could have easily lost if ole boy caught that 3rd down pass. Even if the bears didn't score, it would've extended the drive and we're looking at a completely didn't different game. But the bears suck and arent foing anywhere so the vikings might as well have that one.
The Bears are playing for draft picks and are doing quite well at it, They almost blew it today, but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
RAIDERS. .. I told y'all. Playoffs baby!!!
The Pats are 7-0 now. Not that this is a surprise as nobody expected Miami to beat them, but it is very satisfying to watch them kick every team they play in the teeth after that ridiculous off-season attempt by the other owners to do to the Pats what their teams could not accomplish off the field.
Brady is tearing it up. Does anyone still believe that his performance last year was due to fucking air pressure in the footballs? He's shutting up every whiny little cunt who was looking for any reason other than the real one to explain why their teams lost to the Pats.
Oops, I mean to say "could not accomplish ON the field."
Falcons fucking up. How in the hell did we lose to Tampa Bay?
Nobody said the patriots were winning because of the air pressurein the football(or lack thereof). That's just an excuse the owners and teams use because they're shitty.
Close game right now with Rams
Damn Brady is good and the Patriots got lucky my Giants pushed them to the limit this afternoon if they meet in the Super bowl I can damn well justify putting my money on Big Blue
1st place :-)
Whatever. ..we need to fire our DC this shut is getting ridiculous. ..can't stop any one. Come on RAIDERS
Govikings, just look out for dem bears tho.
Hopefully the Raiders will put the Titans away easily
Hooray those cheating ass Patriots lost! My boy Cam Newton is now the front runner for MVP! Great day of NFL football!
What a travesty of penalty justice. Now I'm not one of those guys who normally complains about penalties against his team because they are usually deserved. But there were two utterly bogus penalties at key moments that changed the game, nevermind the non-calls against Denver all game. This game should be titled "Goodell's Revenge", seriously now. In all my years of watchign football, I have never back to back bogus penalties called like this before, especially when they were calling the game so loose except for those two instances.
Btw, I would be no more happy if bogus penalties had been called against Denver. I want my team to win square or not at all. But this was just atrocious and obvious. If I was a Denver fan, I wouldn't feel very good about this win.
My G-men went down ugly today (despite a last minute rally) and the Packers were real turkeys against Da Bears on Thanksgiving. I aint feelin' it this season.
Great win by the Raiders!!! Fuck the Ponies
Nice to see the Pats back on their game again. Superbowl here we come!
Good half for the Vikings
If we make the playoffs, then I get what I want for Christmas
Carolina wins the Superbowl.
Eh, they're playing the bears. They still have a long way to go even if(when) they win today.
Falcons had a good first half as well but I'm no longer keeping my hopes up...
The MVP race is over, Cam Newton just sealed the MVP.
Look out for my Texans! If only we could get a good coach and a good quarterback.
Goddamn the fucking Giants tease the fuck out of us than they loose anyway
I agree with you chessmaster.
The Bears are just not good this year. They don't make plays when they do everything else right because they have so many walk-ons. And Bridgewater is really coming along. He may be the Vikes QB for a long time. They have a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. As for the Bears, they WILL challenge next year because they (hopefully) will have less injuries, and the coaching staff is really quite good (Fox). They will draft heavy in defense because in spite of only 17 points today, they have the players when they manage to be on the field.
Ken
We're gonna clinch a playoff spot today, one way or the other lol
I can't believe that the Falcons still have a chance at the NFC Wild Card pending whether or not the Falcons win and the Vikings lose today.
The Bills are done, so I'll be a fan of whoever is playing the Patriots. :)
Go Vikings, I want what you want. I hope the Arizona beats the stuffing out of the Packers and that the Vikings dominate at TCF tonight. And I hope this confidence carries back to a hostile Lambaugh field next week, because the Vikes need to atone for their piss poor performance against GB earlier in the season.
Am I the only one who wondered what Follies was like when the Falcons beat the Panthers?
Well Chip Kelly got fired. Good riddance. I told you GoVikings Chip would get fired if the Eagles didn't make the playoffs this year.
^^^Didn't even wait until the end of the season.
He's had 1 bad season out of 3
They over reacted
They were trending downward and his moves were clearly not working. They did the right thing.
Showdown at The House That Favre Built!
Holy shit, the Jets lost to the Bills, so now the Steelers are in the playoffs. The Patriots lost to the Dolphins, so if the Broncos win later today they get the number one seed. My Texans are AFC south champs.
The wild and wacky NFL!
Steelers won't do anything in the playoffs if their defense keeps hemorrhaging yardage and Williams can't play due to the ankle injury he had today. But I love Rex Ryan today for beating the Jets. Saved the Steelers bacon for that abomination in Baltimore last week.
Initially I really thought Chip Kelly was going to do well in the NFL b/c he took Oregon from nobodies to national-contenders – but in hindsight gimmicky type offenses/teams in the end usually can't overcome good physical teams like many of the teams in the NFL are.
I also heard recently that Kelly had the attitude that “culture” was more important than “talent” - this may sound great on paper and perhaps can work in college; but talent is def a requirement and a team full of “good guys that fit the culture” probably won't be as good as a team of very-talented misfits.
Unless Kelly adjusts his system; he'll probably be up-and-down in the NFL.
What happened that Dick Lebau is no-longer the Steelers D-coordinator – under him the steelers usually had top-defenses.
I'm a Cowboys fan and man I have barely standed watching them ever since Jimmy Johnson left – it looks like to me as long as Jerry Jones does not step-aside the Cowboys will keep playing/being-like Cowgirls instead.
And the current coach Jason Garret is just a puppet and seem to get paid to do nothing more than stand in the sidelines since it seems the coordinators are the ones that run the team.
Papi Very few college coaches come into the NFL and do well I cant think of any off the top of my head that were successful
^ yeah -seems to be pretty much the case - off the top of my head I can think of 2:
Papi - the Steelers d had struggled the last few years under LeBeau. They are in the process of retooling the defense in Tomlin's image (he was a d coord at min before coming to Pitt). So far it's a work in progress. It took a couple years for Haley' s offense to take hold so hopefully the D can get turned around soon as well.
^ thanks
Harbaugh I give you he was fairly successful but, JJ was more of a celebrity than a coach i never was a big fan of JJ too much drama for my taste. I'm not sure but Cowher that coached the Steelers might have been from college as well.
JJ took a 1-and-15 team to back-to-back Super Bowl wins; and Dallas has been shit since then for the most-part – yeah; he did have a bit of a “personality” but he was a damn good coach and def a winner.
And Harbaugh took perennial underachievers (49ers) to 3-straight NFC championship games and a Super-Bowl appearance in his first 3-years where the 49ers were not even making the playoffs or even playing 500 b/f that – another damn good coach but also with a bit of a wacky personality.
I don't recall Cowher ever being a college-coach and this seems to be the case per Wikipedia (see the bio-info on the right-side of the Wikipedia page):
Cowher was the defensive coordinator at Kansas City before coming to Pittsburgh. He got the job over Dave Wanstedt. A very good move looking back on things.
Dave Wanstedt was a mediocre head-coach at best that got lucky riding Jimmy Johnson's coattails as an assistant.
to rh48hr & Papi thanks I wasn't sure I guess he wasn't
It was a good day if ur a Steeler fan!
Now we play Cincy next week so I'm hoping Dalton is still out with his injury. If we win we face New England, which makes me crap my pants, they have had our number forever.
The Steelers D sucks b/c they have drafted for shit for years now on that side of the ball. CB Cortez Allen, CB Curtis Brown, LB Jarvis Jones, S Shamarko Thomas among others. The good players got old and there was no one to replace them.
You say you want a leader But you can't seem to make up your mind I think you better close it And let me guide you to the purple reign
PURPLE REIGN, PURPLE REIGN, PURPLE REIGN, PURPLE REIGN If you know what I'm singing about up here C'mon, raise your hand
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