Vikes won with Peterson pretty much a nonfactor (admittedly, against the 49ers, I grant) and in convincing fashion. I’m at a loss to explain Peterson’s lack of production, but it has to be encouraging to Vikes fans that MN can win handily in a game that is important to the playoff picture without relying on AP. Does anyone really want to play Minnesota in that first round?
The Niners were selling out to stuff Peterson at the line. If he was in the backfield at all, they sent 9 guys at him. It worked well enough to stop AP but it left the Vikings receivers with one-on-one coverage most of the day and T-Jack had a big passing day. The 49ers decided they were going to commit everything to stopping AP and make Tavaris beat them with his arm and he did it. They did show that Peterson can be stopped if you’re willing to completely ignore the pass, but it didn’t really help them on the scoreboard. Jackson has matured just enough as a QB that he can make teams pay for stuffing the box all day.
I think Anthony Johnson might have learned a little lesson about running his mouth today. He was burned by Brady for two long touchdowns and Belichick made a crack after the game about how “inviting” the Steelers safety play was for the Pats.
Barring catastrophic injury, it looks like NE has a clear path to a 16-0 regular season. They could still get caught in the playoffs, I suppose, but I wouldn’t bet a dime on it.
The Giants (the Pats Week 17 opponent) are about as mediocre as a 9-4 team can possibly be, but they might be a tough matchup for New England. You can slow down Brady and his offense if you can get good pressure with your front four (see the NE-IND game), and the Giants are better equipped to do just that than probably any other team. You can also have a lot of success against the Pats’ defense with a good power running game (see the NE-BAL game), and the Giants are one of the best running teams in the league. It’s an away game for the Patriots. And, of course, the game is in Week 17, so who knows how seriously the Patriots will be playing.
Don’t get me wrong, NE is still worlds better then NYG, but you might want to think about picking the Giants to cover the 14.5 point spread.
The ending of the Browns/Jets game was kinda weird. The Browns defense played very well the first half of the game and decided not to play the last 5 minutes (the first part of that statement is more surprising unfortunately), lots of FGs, onside kicks, very weird game at the end there.
It never occured to me to kick an intentionally out of bounds kickoff before attempting an onsides kick. Makes perfect sense. If the other team recovers, they’re still about where they’d be with a normal kickoff, and if the kicking team recovers they’re in great position to score. Why isn’t this done more often? For that matter, why isn’t it done in situations where an onside kick isn’t normally necesary? Onside kick recoveries are almost never returned for any big yardage, so it seems like win/win for the kicking team.
The NFL would probably make rules against it due to the danger of injury on such plays, but there’s no rule now as far as I know.
There was another Jerome Harrison sighting today. Who? you might ask. Probably the best running back on the Browns. The plan with Harrison apparently is to give him the ball 2 or 3 times, watch him rip off impressive runs, then pull him out of the game and make him inactive the next 4 weeks. I can only guess that during his first training camp he didn’t realize that the 4 boxes of donuts on the sideline were Romeo’s, and had a few.
The Browns have the #6 seed alone in the playoffs thanks to Tennessee’s late game collapse, which is appreciated. It’s too bad about last week (or Pittsburgh’s 3-0 Miami win where neither team deserved anything but a 0-0 tie), or there’d be real contention for the AFC North title. Still, the remaining schedule is Buffalo, At Cinci, SF - the first two are fairly tough, but the Browns should probably be a favorite in all of them. I’d appreciate a late season collapse, Pittsburgh, starting with Jacksonville. Thanks.
You’re going to have to explain this a bit. As it reads it makes absolutely no sense to me.
Nitpick: That would actually be Team A -115, Team B -105, assuming -110 style pricing. If the sportsbook was using -105 style pricing, however, they could get a -115/+105 split. (I miss Pinnacle: -104 style on NFL sides, -105 on totals. They pulled out of the U.S. market.)
I’m not sure I get it. Are you referring to the screaming line drive that Nugent (apparently) tried to bounce off the chest of a Cleveland player?
Is the spread really that big already?
One thing that should be factored in about that game is that Giants, in all likelihood, will be locked into the 1st Wildcard spot by that time, with no ability to move either up or down. It will basically be a meaningless game for them and they’ll be resting starters and playing not to get hurt. There’s a good chance the Pats will still have the perfect record to play for, but I doubt they’ll be willing to risk injury to starters for it. I think we’re going to see that Pats starters try to build an early lead and win if they can but I also expect to see both teams playing their B squads in the 2nd half. I would expect that spread to come down just because it will look more like an exhibition game than an earnest tilt. The shot at 16-0 adds more intrigue than week 17 game with no playoff ramifications would normally have, but I still don’t think New England is going to be stupid about it. I think they’ll feel like if they can get it, great, but if the game turns into a meat grinder, we’re going to see both Brady and Eli in baseball caps pretty early.
I didn’t see the specific play you’re talking about… HOWEVER a kickoff that goes out of bounds is a 15 yard penalty on the kicking team. The Receiving team gets the ball on the 35 yard line. There is no rekick. So there’s absolutely no benefit to doing so.
Again, I haven’t seen the play you saw… but it sounds like there was a penalty on the receiving team that moved the ball closer to the end zone and a rekick.
Oh no, no spread yet. That’s just my guess, assuming the Giants continue to be mediocre and the Patriots continue to take the games seriously. It might be a little on the high side.
Good point about the Giants not needing the win, but the whole fan base would really get up for a crack at a 15-0 team; I would hope that would be motivation enough to play it for real (just as I would hope the Patriots would keep going for real so long as there’s a shot at 16-0).
No, the receiving team has the choice of making the team rekick with a 10 yard penalty or they can take the ball at the 40 yardline, or more accurately 30 yards downfield from the spot of the kick.
If a ball is kicked out of bounds and doesn’t travel 10 yards then the kicking team takes a 5 yard penalty and is able to rekick, but since it doesn’t travel 10 yards there’s no chance for the kicking team to legally recover it unless it touches a receiver.
Of course, none of that sheds any light on what SenorBeef is getting at.
Yep, ignore what I said. I was really groggy and had a huuuuuge brain fart. No idea what I was trying to get at.
I don’t get enough sleep living on the pacific time zone - I usually can’t sleep till 5-6am and then I have to get up at like 9am to catch the games.
You’re right, it is the 40… I don’t know what I was thinking. (My SDMB Football Credentials have just taken a hit… Ack! :S) Anyway… I don’t recall EVER seeing a team not take the ball at the 40, I didn’t even know there was an option.
I’ve never seen the 2nd rule you mention ever happen NOT occur on an onside kick, so I didn’t think it applied to the question. Plus the kicking team is moving backwards not forward. Either way… it seemed like he was saying the kicking team would purposely kick it out of bounds on a regular kickoff to somehow move closer towards the opponants sidelines.
Yeah, that’s what I was saying, but obviously it was pretty stupid. I was half awake when I wrote it.
Not me. I don’t give a fuck about some AFC team trying to supplant some other AFC team’s record. I care about the Giants. Assuming the Giants have clinched a playoff berth, I don’t want to see Plaxico or Jacobs even dressed, much less starting. I’d also like to see Shockey, Pierce, and both starting safeties in street clothes for that one.
Here’s my ideal lineup for a week 17 contest if the Giants have already clinched:
Eli for a half, then the Battleship Lorenzen.
Ahmad Bradshaw as the feature back
Droughns as the goalline / short yardage back
Toomer & Moss as the starting wideouts, with Tyree coming in for Toomer in the 2nd half
Boss at TE
Regular rotation at DL
Chase Blackburn in the middle
Torbor and Wilkinson at OLB
Ross and Webster out wide
Dahl and Johnson back deep
Don’t worry, it wasn’t all that stupid based on the way that game ended. It was indeed extremely odd.
I’ll go along with everything Ellis just touched on, with one addition: I also want to see those backups pull out the win. 
Now, to get back to the thread title, I’d just like to share a bit of an e-mail I sent to lno the other day:
Final score: 34-13 – three TDs, on the nose.
<does ridiculous-looking “go me…go me” dance>
Damn, the Lions can’t do anything right. If they win the Packers suddenly have a renewed chance at home field. But nope, somebody must’ve reminded the Lions that they are the Lions and that they don’t win big, important games.
Nice to see a Packers running game that isn’t a complete joke.
I think I got it mixed up with what I was thinking last week - that New England should’ve tried an onside kick at the end of the game after Bart Scott And Friends gave them a kickoff in Baltimore territory.
That, and I was watching at the sports bar and glanced at the Pit/NE game, looked back, and saw the last seconds of a regular kickoff by the Jets after a field goal with little time left. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing, and when it went out of bounds and then there was a rekick (that wasn’t the sound TV, so I didn’t hear the penalty) I guess somehow I thought that was on purpose. Like I said… I was tired and it got all mixed up in my head.
I think the Jets should’ve gone for it on the 4th and 10 in the Browns red zone when down by 5. Seems more likely that you’d convert that (especially when the Browns give up 4th and 10 easily) than successfully recover an onside kick, move down the field again, and then score a touchdown.
What did you guys think of the reverse Pittsburgh called on 4th and goal from the 1 yesterday? I liked that they were going for it on fourth down(teams don’t do this often enough in the NFL despite the stats being heavily in favour of going for it on fourth and short). I also don’t mind a reverse near the goalline, but I think that a gimmick play like that on fourth down is insane.
The worst thing about the call was how obvious it was. When I saw Pittsburgh lined up with 9 on the line, 1 receiver and no running back I was wondering what on earth they were up to. As soon as the receiver went in motion I said “That’s a reverse!” The only other option was a QB sneak, which would be a dubious proposition with a full yard to gain. If you’re going to run a dubious trick play in that situation, throw a fake field goal at them. At least that way you have the element of surprise.
It was completely idiotic. Not because there’s anything inherently wrong with the call, and Hines Ward is usually a reliable option, but in this case it completely played into the strengths of the Pats D. The Steelers have a practically unstoppable option in Najeh Davenport, who already was successful on 4th on 1 once in the game, and they had 2 downs when they could have pounded him inside to gain 1 yard. Not doing so was braindead. Plus, as a alternative the have one of the biggest and most athletic QBs in the league who’s always had success on QB sneaks.
I honestly think the fade call on third down was even worse than the reverse call because it’s a high risk, low probability call to a less than imposing target in Holmes. If you have Moss, TO, Burress or some other 6ft-6 leaper maybe, but not there. I think Harrison got away with interference, but that’s neither here nor there.
Remember that in the previous 3 games, and in most of this game, the Pats have shown a real inability to stop the power running game. Going right at them has been very successful and the Steelers do it as well as anyone. That entire series was fantastically mishandled.