Ouch. Bucs defense really shit the sheets on that one.
Wow, Tampa really doesn’t want to win. Dumb penalty costs them the game.
Offensive line play is generally pretty tough to evaluate live, but Oniel Cousins had about the worst day of any offensive lineman I’ve ever seen. I think that was 3 holding penalties and 2 false starts I saw from him, not counting any other penalties I didn’t see because blood had filled my eyes. Just awful.
Travis Benjamin and Greg Little played pretty lousy today too.
Nice to see the Bears with an offensive line that’s not total crap. It’s a step in the right direction.
It’s a conspiracy. I’m the only guy that had them in the Survivor league. They had to screw me. Now I’m probably the only guy with a strike in that league. 
spittake
Wait, how’d the Lions win?
I see Jennings had 3 catches for 33 yards. Who’s overrated now, Greg? 
Reggie Bush had a monster game. 2 TDS, 90 yards rushing, 101 receiving. Why yes, he is on my fantasy team. 
Well, for every Viking who is Adrian Peterson, there are 54 Vikings who aren’t.
Thoughts on Jets/Bucs:
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Geno Smith looked pretty shitty, but no worse than a typical performance from the Jets’ highly drafted 4-year veteran. What the fuck were they doing with Sanchez for so long? Jeez.
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The stadium looked to be about 60% empty for the start of the Jets’ game-winning drive. The fans at the new Meadowlands stadium just suck. Or it could be Jets fans in particular, I don’t know.
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That was a stupid penalty on the Bucs to cost them the game, and I recognize that that’s a pretty automatic call these days.
However, I do want to say this: Geno Smith hadn’t actually stepped out of bounds when he received the shove that sent him flying, and since he should be pretty desperate to pick up an extra 7 or so yards there in order to get into FG range, treating him like a real threat and making sure he’s out of bounds isn’t totally unreasonable. Not sure what the letter of the law says, but I’m not sure that particular roughness is terribly unnecessary.
Pittsburg gets no more rank from me this year. They suck. TB safety was difference in the game. Between these two my 14 and a 12 shot to hell.
Also, a quick plug for the NFL wagering thread. It’s extremely low-workload, if you want it to be. Since we’re just measuring success by total money won/lost, a person could easily win the competition by making one big bet every other week, for instance.
Regardless, it’s a good place to keep track of your theoretical results, and to talk about the point spreads and such. Latecomers welcome.
And even Peterson’s performance was deceptive. After his initial run of 78 yards, he had 15 yards on 17 attempts.
Replay shows he had. If he had still been inbounds, it wouldn’t have been a penalty and we’d have another officiating controversy on our hands.
Just watched the replay again: his foot was certainly over the line, but it hadn’t actually touched down when the defender made contact (you can see it most clearly from the camera angle looking down the sideline, facing Smith).
He was still in mid-air when he crossed the line and contact was made, however it was impossible for him to do anything but continue out of bounds. It’s one of those judgment call penalties, and that was arguably a borderline case, but as the rule is written it was a justified flag.
I really hate to see defenders screwed on those calls. When a QB starts to slide but then takes another 2 steps - if he had started sliding, the defense would’ve been called on a penalty, but because he didn’t, they gave up an extra 2 yards. If the guy on the sideline would’ve managed to catch his balance and run another 2 steps instead of walking out. The defense should always be given the benefit of the doubt on those sorts of things - the guy wasn’t trying to be dirty, he was just trying to make sure the guy was out. I hate those sorts of calls.
Dumbass Packers. Fumble, penalty, and a missed tackle to gift the 49ers a TD.
Cheapest shot I remember Matthews taking, out of bounds and to the neck and head. Does he want to grt Rodgers hurt?
The problem is that you can’t give the defense the benefit of the doubt on a dangerous play like the Geno Smith call, because then everyone will just take a shot on it and someone (probably not even a player) will get hurt. That Clay Matthews play shows how dangerous (and needless) those hits can be. I would agree with the call on Geno Smith either way, but Matthews should have been ejected.