Are you psyched for football this weekend?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is, in general, the best football weekend of the year.

4 games, no overlap. You always know the top 2 teams in each conference will be playing.

Historically, the games sometimes are disappointments, with home teams (bye teams) going 45-11 since 1990, and they are usually pretty good against the spread too.

This year, specifically, is great, IMHO. Look at what you got out there for stars. . .

QBs: Vick, McNabb, Culpepper, Brady, Manning are all superstars. Bulger, Rothlisberger, and Pennington all interesting in their own right.

RBs: Ed. James, Curtis Martin, Corey Dillon, Jerome Bettis, Faulk, Stephen Jackson!

WRs: Harrison, Holt, Wayne, Moss, Bruce.

And, some guys of other interest. . .Warrick Dunn & Tj Duckett from ATL, Hines Ward from Pitt.

Is Plaxico playing?

With Farrior and Poleamalu (sp), and Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi, and this kid Vilma on the jets, you have some super defensive players.

The AFC games are the marquee matchups, but dang, one likes watching Vick play. And even though I hate their brand of football, I’m infinitely entertained by Saint Louis. . .Martz with his terrible challenges, terrible play calling, terrible personnel moves, terrible time management, and yet they still make it work somehow.

Probably PHI-MINN is least interesting to me, but still ought to be pretty good.

What and who are you looking forward to?

2

Well, you did happen to forget a certain Dwight Freeney, who folks are saying led the league in sacks…:wink:

[sub]Colts fan until my death.[/sub]

3

I’m surprised I forgot him. I really do like him, and I “key” on him a lot, especially on passing downs.

He had an awesome game against the Ravens and Jonathon Ogden this year, which the ESPN announcers were relentless in pointing out.

4

I definitely want to see the Colts game. That’s the only one that is really interesting to me and likely the only one I’ll sit down to watch (as opposed to tuning in and out as time permits with the others).

But the Philly-Minn match-up has me in quite a quandry. Does a Cowboys fan (shut up!), who would ordinarily root for the demise of the Eagles any chance he could, actually want to see Randy Moss and his disgraceful antics for one more week? There is just no good solution to that situation…at least not one that I can really admit to wishing for.

5

Colts-Patriots. That field is going to be for shit. I imagine that it’ll be so fun to play in.

What game is Tony Siragusa doing? I will watch them with the sound off.

6

It’s nice they saved Colts-Pats for last. No matter what, you’ll have it to look forward to all weekend.

Don’t know what the Goose will be doing.

7

I’m excited. The Rams are going all the way. I said *all the way, baby! * You heard it here first.

8

With the Chargers out, that’d be a resounding :shrug: :frowning:

9

Cowboys fan here, too, and yes, I can see how it’s a tough one. Normally I’d say that the desire for the Eagles to lose must override all else, although part of me would find it more satisfying for them to win this one and then keep true to their pattern and lose next week in the Conference Championship game – which they are becoming known for.

But if they lose to Minnesota, I’ll take it. As long as they don’t make it to the Super Bowl. :wink:

And yes, that Colts/Pats game should be a good one. The Pats have had Indy’s number in the last several meetings, but I think the Colts are much better now than last year in the playoffs. Indy could take this one.

I also found it interesting (and a bit unusual) that in the first round, 3 of the home teams lost. The one that surprised me the most was San Diego – the Chargers seemed so much more solid coming in.

10

Until that last phrase, I had two suggestions, albeit not entirely kind ones. It is possible that Moss will injur himself so severely that he will be unable to play the following game should Minn win, but it is also possible that he will give a giant, defiant FU to the league and do something so outlandishly unacceptable that he is suspended for the NFC Championship game.

11

Oh yeah! I’ve got the firewood stocked, the snacks bought, the beverages are a chillin! I’m looking forward to watching the Vick and the Falcs run all over the Lambs. Too bad they didn’t ressurrect the "Dirty Bird just to rub it in a bit.

Looking forward to the Colts/Pats game, as a die-hard Raider fan (sush, we’ll be back in a couple years) N.E. really needs to go down. (yeah, we hold grudges)!

The rest … hmm, not sure if Philly can pull it off, and pretty sure the steelers will move on.

12

The only game I really care about is the Pats. I hope it’s bad weather, cause that’s what NE thrives in! We won last year, and by gum we’ll win this year, too!

13

Looking forward to what rules changes we’ll get this offseason to help out the passing game after the Pats shut down Manning again :slight_smile:

14

Recall they played in week 1 this year, when the refs were supposedly super-tuned to the infractions.

Also, recall indy was gunning for a game-winning TD and had a game-tying field goal in the bag until Manning got sacked (was it by Seymour?)

Anyway, the Colts ‘D’ has been a bit better over the last 7 weeks or so.

I can’t pick a winner in that game at all, call it 50-50 with a slight nod to the pats ONLY because they had the bye week.

Other than that, I like all the “bye” teams.

15

Man, I’m so excited. First, because I’ve been a Falcons fan since birth; second, because I hate the Rams almost as much as I love the Falcons. This is of course due to both teams having been in the NFC West for so long, thus forcing me to watch the Falcons lose to the Rams over and over and over again in the 70s and 80s. Atlanta’s all-time record vs. the Rams (LA and STL): 23-45-2. It’s major payback time.

I just hope it’s a good game. In this situation, “good game” means something like Falcons 98, Rams 0.

Only 28 hours to wait…

!!!

16

I used to be a big football fan, but in recent years I just can’t get excited in general. “Parity” has really dampened my enthusiasm for the league.

That being said, I am very excited this weekend, because for the first time in Og knows how long, I really thing the Steelers have a chance to go all the way.

Should they lose at any point along the way, I probably won’t tune in at all after that.

17

That’s funny.

It was either Vrabel or Bruschi after the game who said almost that exactly, something like, “I wonder what rules they’re going to try to change next year.”

What a show by the Pats.

Sorry Indy fans, but that was embarassing. You were EXPOSED as a sissified “dome team”: dropping balls in the cold, not getting open, getting separated from the ball on hard hits, getting the ball stripped right from your arms.

We know all is right in football when you lose a game looking like that.

Ought to be interesting in Pitt next weekend. They’re underdogs at home after finishing 15-1 and already beating the Pats there. Wow.

18

Well, the weather wasn’t as bad as it should have been, but they still dropped two grand pianos and a pool table on the Colts.

19

IMveryHO, the real story of the Patriots/Colts game was the Colts’ utter lack of defense. Had they been able to stop those long Patriot drives, then perhaps the (rightly) vaunted offense would have a shot at, I dunno, scoring a touchdown or something. The Colts need to grow a defense between now and August.