2nd consecutive year for a team to play the Super Bowl in their home stadium, and just the 2nd time ever. Crazy.
Still, I’d make that trade for the Lions any day.
The playoffs have actually been more enjoyable without my favorite team being in it. I was able to enjoy these great games without the stress of caring who won. While each game had a team that I was rooting for, it wasn’t a strong interest. As a Giants fan the only outcome I really wanted was the Cowboys losing. After that it didn’t really matter.
I’m 99% joking. They had to make it. And it overall isn’t a bad place to look for a QB with talent(which Detroit has no ability to judge) and isn’t going to have the huge “MUST START NOW” pressure. Although I haven’t payed enough attention to know who might be in that range.
But enough of a high-jack. There will be months to go over that later.
And speaking of that, really, if the phrase “most valuable player” has any meaning besides that it must be a QB chosen (lol?), I believe that you could make a very strong case for Burrow instead of Aaron.
No, really.
It will amuse me slightly if the Bengals win the superbowl that the Browns swept the Superbowl Champs this year.
I could never really work up real animosity towards the Bengals like I did the other AFC North teams. They’re kind of like our retarded little brother.
I think you’ve misplaced the diminutive there.
Not really. As bad as the Browns have been, the Bengals are often as bad or worse. And their origin was basically as an off-shoot of us. Even the color scheme was based on us. They’re been a dysfunctional franchise most of the time. Even when one team is good, the other always plays it really hard and has unique games. At worst they have parity, but given the historical factors and the fact that they’re almost kentucky I feel comfortable considering them the lesser franchise.
Obviously the current year really is good for them and makes the comparison look bad (even though, as I mentioned, the Browns swept them this year). And I suspect they’ll be better than the Browns for years to come now, too. But that just means they’re all grown up and their … strength.
They’ve been to 3 Super Bowls. Since 2000 they are 24th in wins…the Browns are 32nd with 8 playoff appearances to your 2. At no point since you’ve been alive has that been true.
Literally the only context in which the Bengals are the little brother is when you look at the team’s origins.
Fair enough, and I didn’t realize they’d been to the playoffs 8 times in the last 20 years, I was thinking it was fewer. I do remember that until this year, it has been 30 years since they’d had a playoff win, and I think that gave me the memory that they’d not made it as much as they did.
That’s fine. Sports fandom doesn’t have to be logical. People like or dislike teams for all sorts of random reasons. I can’t hate the Bengals because they’re not intimidating, they’re another Ohio team, they were founded by Paul Brown, they came from us, we usually have fun and unusual games against them.
The fucking yinzer hilljacks I want to grind into the dirt for historical reasons and because they’ve beat the shit out of the Browns more than anyone else, but I respect them. They’re a great franchise and deserve their success. Unlike the other team in the division, which deserves no respect by anyone and is a mark of shame on the league for even existing.
Which ironically came from you too.
We’re very fertile.
I was thinking you were shedding.
Most of my Browns fan friends were happy for the Bengals. Not me. I know plenty of Bengals fans and I just can’t deal with their success right now. Sports fandom is supposed to be petty that way.
Andy Dalton very consistently got Cincinnati to the playoffs year after year but never won a single playoff game. It became very predictable. He was the definition of “mediocre QB” for a while.
This came up in one of the other playoff threads but good to bring back up:
It is indeed true that the team that wins the coin toss in OT is not much better than 50% to win the game in the regular season.
That changes significantly in the postseason, where the current record stands at 10-2 (with the second of those losses just this last weekend).
Winning the coin toss confers a real advantage, at least in the postseason. Presumably the higher stakes and higher average level of play are factors. That’s why a lot of fans want to see those rules changed.
I believe that they do the voting for the various league awards at the end of the regular season; if that’s true, then playoff performance doesn’t factor in.
Is this true though? I’ve seen Brady and Rodgers make their share of questionable throws. I’ve watched Stafford over 12 seasons fight to pull his team over the hump of mediocrity, make some amazing comebacks, and never give up trying to win. I’ve said more than once when Stafford was a Lion, if he and Brady had switched places, Stafford would have several rings and Brady would be “who”? (nothing against Brady, just a ‘for example’). And here Stafford is now, taking the Rams to the Super Bowl.
Every QB takes a gamble now and then, and they make mistakes. The really great ones don’t do it often. But none of them are perfect. And sometimes taking a risk is the right thing to do.
Brady would have struggled in Detroit, as would Mahomes, or Brady, or Rodgers. Nobody can succeed in that environment.
In New England, working with Belichick, he probably would have won some rings. I don’t think he would have been as successful as Brady, but Brady is the GOAT, so that’s no knock against Stafford.
What did the Bengals coach tell his guys at halftime? It looked like two different teams out there in the second half.