Nerd-The AFC WC will be Indy and Cincy.
The key games next week (team needing the win listed 1st)
WASH V. NYG
DAL V. PHI
NO V. ATL
STL V. SF
MIA V. NE
That’s Flacco’s MO. Who’s his receiving leader year in and out? Why, it’s Ray Rice, the RUNNING BACK. I think this fact alone, as it never seems to get brought up, should completely end this “Is Flacco elite?” bullshit. If the Ravens defense can keep it together, the Ravens have a slightly more talented Dilfer to not fuck it up for them. Otherwise, their offense just isn’t very good.
Watch out for those Bengals of mine! Yeah, they’ve beaten three crappy (NY GIANTS?) teams in a row…but schedule is as schedule does, Forrest. 6-5 with 5 games left, three of which are against the Eagles, Cowboys and San Diego. The way they have been playing I like those chances. Plus the Steelers are suddenly weak (another game) and it’s quite possible the Ravens aren’t playing for anything in week 18…resting their starters.
Betta watch out!
Man, I wish someone had smack-talked-back on that one…
Anyone know where I can find a replay of Kyle Williams’ injury in the 49ers/Saints game? He looked like he was in a lot of pain, the way he was grabbing at his knee. Made me feel really bad for him.
Just want to comment on the incredible one handed touchdown by Bengals rookie Mohammed Sanu, what a play. I wonder if the poster who had referred to him as unathletic when he got drafted will return to eat crow.
This game was the third time this year that the Chargers held an opponent scoreless for an entire half. Their record in these games is 0-3.
I agree with this criticism, having always considered the RB and (to a lesser extent) the TE as the cowardly safety-valve outlet. Be a man and throw it to a wide receiver.
Reminds me of this.
Don’t look now, but the Browns have a real chance to win 3 in a row with Oakland and KC coming up. I’m sure they’ll piss away one if not both of those games. I know I should feel great that we beat the Steelers, and I am happy about that, but winning by 6 while forcing 8 turnovers does not inspire confidence.
If the Browns start to go on a win streak here, it’ll make all of the stupidly blown close games early in the season seem even dumber. I’m growing to hate these 6-10 type seasons to be honest. If you’re going to be terrible, just be utterly awful, start again, get a nice draft pick.
Around mid season, it seemed like it was an extremely young team full of rookies in critical positions starting to come together, and then, no… they’re not really coming together, everyone still sucks. I don’t know what to think. They very well could win 3 in a row here, but it’s hard to give a shit.
Edit: I’d rather sweep the Steelers, blowing them out of the wildcard race.
You have a lot of macho identity tied up into football.
Seriously?
The answer to that is 9-2. If he tried to chuck it to a wide receiver then the Ravens lose. How manly is that?
Nah, the Chargers would still have found a way to lose. Maybe they’d have given up two safeties while trying to run out the clock.
The Browns should be there with all the other 6 win teams if they didn’t have a dumbass of a head coach. Shurmur needs to go.
Thanksgiving weekend took a great majority of my time, so I didn’t get a chance to smack talk back, but, if it’s any consolation, I had no confidence the Packers could go into New York and beat the Giants at home with the massive amount of injuries they had been suffering.
I suppose I could have said: “Yeah, the Packers’ will go into New York and not get blown out, take that! We don’t need our top two defensive players, including an ex DPOY and a mulitiple Pro Bowler. We don’t need our first string ILB nor his backup, we’ll go ahead with our third stringer. We don’t need any of our recent first round draft picks at all, including two of our last three Offensive Tackles who were supposed to anchor our O Line against the Giants pass rush! We don’t need our #1 WR, our #1 RB, or our #3 CB! We’ll kick your sorry asses without any of those, just like you would if the Giants were without Victor Cruz, JPP, Ahmad Bradshaw, David Diehl and William Beatty, Kiwanuka, Blackburn, and Antrel Rolle.”
Yeah, you wouldn’t have gotten much good smack talk in return from our walking MASH unit of a team. But hopefully we’ll get another shot when it really matters in the playoffs.
Obviously, Bululaga is a big loss, but I don’t see what difference losing Woodson and Matthews makes. The defense was ranked dead last in 2011 with them, and 17th this season mostly without them.
I’m not talking about that one play. I’m talking about if your top receiver is the running back.
As a Giants fan you get no sympathy from me.
I must admit, you’ve kinda shocked me with this. I just kinda assume that most people think that having great players, rather than mediocre ones, make a difference to a defense. YMMV.
(As an aside, saying the defense was ranked dead last last year is true only if the only thing you think matters to a defense is pass yardage accumulated, rather than something like scoring (19th) or interceptions (1st), or passer rating allowed (top 10). Personally, I don’t think yards allowed per game is the best way to determine which team ranks last.)
Normally, yes, but since the scoring defense is also better this year, it’s clear which losses matter and which don’t.
If the running back is one of the league’s best, most versatile backs, I’m fine with it.
Fans of teams who have established pass oriented offenses may not recognize what it look like for a team to modify it’s style from a conservative, run oriented play style to something more aggressive. That’s what the Ravens decided to do this year and that usually means a losing season before they get it right.
There will be good days (Week 1 v Bengals, week 10 v Raiders), and there will be bad days, but they are learning and they are winning, and that works for me.
Are there games when Joe is asked not to win the game, but rather not to lose it? Yes there are. And he has.
So my answer goes back to 9-2.