2012-13 NFL thread (non-Steelers edition)

[viva la ben]

Those Facebook parodies are rapidly becoming unfunny.

[Rylan]

Yea the first few were great, now they are really meh.

[tifosi77]

I dunno, I still like the insults. Personally found the concept of reaching down someone's throat and yanking them inside out by their spleen to be quite entertaining.

[offsides]

Wow, Tom Brady and the Pats taking The Texans to school.

[Staggy]

Absolute clinic of a first quarter by the Pats.

[offsides]

So is NE this good or is Houston that bad? IMO, the Pats look unstopable.

[Grunthy]

Neither. I just don't think Houston is ready for the big time yet. Pats are really good, but not unstoppable.

[Staggy]

Houston has played really sloppy but the Pats have played great. Their defense is improving rapidly and the offense will be scary good when Gronk comes back.

[Why Not Us]

You'd think it was 35-7 Texans with how much they keep showing JJ Watt on ESPN.

Oooooh, he hit Brady after he threw the ball. Made Woodhead fumble and the Pats scored anyway. So good.

[mikey287]

I'd rather them talk about J.J. Watt than Tom Brady...

[Staggy]

The fact that the Pats have 3 losses by a combined 4 points is really frustrating right now. Need the Colts to knock off the Texans once so we can get the 1 seed, assuming we can beat the 49ers next week.

[legame]

Really? It just had to be Lloyd to recover that fumble...

[offsides]

Say what you want about Bill Belichick, but the Pats are always very competitive, year in and year out.

[Godric]

Say what you want about Bill Belichick, but the Pats are always very competitive, year in and year out.

It helps they have one of the best quarterbacks of all time

[mikey287]

Say what you want about Bill Belichick, but the Pats are always very competitive, year in and year out.

It helps they have one of the best quarterbacks of all time

And have a coach that can make Matt Cassel an 11 game winner...

Luckily, the Pats throwing the football up 35 with less than 3 minutes left has been helpful as the turnover that ensued led to a Houston score to hit the "over" (50). Thanks for that at least...

[Godric]

Say what you want about Bill Belichick, but the Pats are always very competitive, year in and year out.

It helps they have one of the best quarterbacks of all time

And have a coach that can make Matt Cassel an 11 game winner...

Luckily, the Pats throwing the football up 35 with less than 3 minutes left has been helpful as the turnover that ensued led to a Houston score to hit the "over" (50). Thanks for that at least...

Id argue that Randy Moss, Welker, etc made Cassel an 11 game winner more than coaching did... Listen, I'm not discrediting BB at all, arguably the coach of the decade but he is a scumbag

[mikey287]

Total scumbag, but he's what makes this Patriot team run...everything else is a system component it seems. I mean, they had a kid that hadn't picked up a football in 8 years (!) come in and win 11 games and throw for some 3000 or 3500 or whatever it was yards...

The WRs on this team come and go, Deion Branch, Randy Moss (who was jobbed of an MVP in his time in New England), Wes Welker, the tight ends in there...the Pats a few years ago, they were running 5-wide out of the shotgun and not to go deep (Brady is below average in terms of accuracy with the deep ball...his only real great success with it is when he could throw jump balls to Randy Moss) but to run these 2 and 4-yard slants, dinks, dunks, etc. It's the accuracy and consistency of Brady very close to the line of scrimmage that has made him effective. Though, his skills - in terms of just raw ability, no stats, none of that - aren't really anything of great note. Very good, certainly, I don't want to diminish him. He's really improved since his first couple of years in the league a lot. But a lot of these offensive schemes that he's been involved in are pre-packaged, scripted. Pieces of the West Coast Offense - not the Coryell offense (something well-rounded, super-elite passers with a real penchant for accuracy with the deep ball could pull off - Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner, etc.) - 3 and 5-step drops, inside slants, flat patterns, divide and conquer inside zones. Nearly impossible to defend against given the rules of the league currently (very pro-offense, notice a dramatic increase in passing yards per season over the last few years). Most QBs can complete these passes, complex schemes with simpler reads -- easy options, possession players in tight. Thus the success of a replacement-level QB like Matt Cassel in New England and his abject failure outside of New England (USC, Kansas City - each time losing a job to another replacement-level player: Matt Leinart then Brady Quinn).

What happens in New England is coaching-based. Everything is on the script. Competent NFLers can pull it off. The need for elite players is not essential, thus the roster turnover at skill positions and the negligible difference it has made over the years...

[Godric]

Point taken

[Froggy]

Has anyone heard what's going on with Suggs? he was ordered to surrender his guns, like 9 weapons including an AK 47, in relation to a domestic abuse charge.

Rumor has it, he dragged the mother of his children with a car. He was also investigated a few years back for pinning the same woman down and threatening to pour bleach down her throat. I believe she recanted, though.

[the wicked child]

I refuse to believe such an upstanding citizen cold do such a thing.

[Rocco]

Tagliabue has vacated the suspensions of the Saints players in the bounty scandal, essentially realizing what everyone not named Roger Goodell realized- the program was run by management, and the managers should be the ones to get lit up and not the players.

[BurghersAndDogsSports]

Tagliabue has vacated the suspensions of the Saints players in the bounty scandal, essentially realizing what everyone not named Roger Goodell realized- the program was run by management, and the managers should be the ones to get lit up and not the players.

That's not quite what he said. He threw a ton of blame at the players and even said They basically did all that they were accused of, as well as Hargrove lying and covering up. He also sated there was more than enough evidence against Vilma for specific bounties.

He basically said there was also too much grey area and there is so much ill will on both sides that it is time to move on.

[Rocco]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ay-errors/

Wait, I thought replay fixed everything? The image in question, btw:

[mikey287]

Yeah, I was obviously watching this game and was pretty upset about it. Not sure what your link says, but the word was that the booth didn't get that shot in the 60-second timeframe that they have. So -2 for Luck fantasy owners, -7 for Indianapolis fans. -9 for me. Thank goodness we didn't lose that game as a result.

You know, it's funny, the first time we played Tennessee it seemed like the Colts were given a disproportionate amount of benefits of the doubt (including Ballard's spiralling touchdown leap to win it in overtime). Last week, the opposite. Colts won both. #madewhole #chuckstrong

[DudeMan2766]

I just witnessed the most assinine conversation on First Take. They were discussing RG III's "blackness"

Rob Parker (who's presence on the show always seems to bring up a race issue) said he questions whether RGIII is distancing himself from black people because of the way he carries himself, he said he's not out to be the best [i]black[i] anything, just wants to be the best period, he's a republican, he has a white fiance etc. And he said quote "I question whether he's one of us, a brother, or a cornball brother." How is this acceptable?