Thursday
DAL @ CHI
Sunday early
PIT @ CIN
IND @ CLE
TB @ DET
HOU @ JAX
BAL @ MIA
NYJ @ MIN
CAR @ NO
NYG @ TEN
STL @ WASH
Sunday late
KC @ ARI
BUF @ DEN
SF @ OAK
SEA @ PHI
Sunday night
NE @ SD
Monday night
ATL @ GB
Haloti Ngata has been suspended for the rest of the regular season for violating the substance abuse policy.
Thursday:
DAL @ CHI +4 / 51
Sunday early:
PIT @ CIN -3 / 47
STL @ WAS +3 / 44.5
NYG @ TEN +0 / 46
CAR @ NO -10 / 49.5
NYJ @ MIN -6 / 40
BAL @ MIA -2.5 / 45
IND @ CLE +3.5 / 50
TB @ DET -10 / 41.5
HOU @ JAX +6 / 42
Sunday late:
BUF @ DEN -10 / 47.5
KC @ ARI +0 / 40.5
SEA @ PHI -1 / 48
SF @ OAK +9 / 41
SNF:
NE @ SD +3.5 / 51
ATL @ GB -13 / 56
It’s stupid that Josh Cribbs is playing for the Colts. The Browns have the league-worst, and possible decade-worst situation at PR this year. Everyone they put back there doesn’t even try to return, only calls for the fair catch, and they fuck that up about 1/3rd of the time with a fumble or some other awful play. Travis Benjamin was the league’s best PR last year until his knee got destroyed, and now he’s utterly terrified to play football. Jim Leonard is some 44 year old white midget who’s supposed to be the safe guy because he can fair catch, but he botches it fairly regularly. The fact that we have Justin Gilbert, one of the better PRs in college, on the team but never taking a snap is pretty ridiculous at this point.
People brought up the idea of bringing Cribbs out of retirement, but everyone I heard said he’s done - too old and out of game shape. But the Colts signed him, and he’s apparently done fine. So if he was in NFL game shape, the Browns should’ve signed him, not only because of the extensive good-will he has from the fanbase, but because their returning situation is a fucking dumpster fire, and how the fuck do you pass up on one of the best returners there ever was if he’s still good enough to play in the NFL?
I can only guess there was bad blood between him and the front office when he left, but the front office that cut him is mostly gone.
Watch for Josh to run up 200 yards in kick returns this week with 2 touchdowns, and Trent Richardson comes to town, has the only day where he justifies his draft status, and puts up another 150 yards and 2 TDs.
Hoyer is starting the game despite getting yanked last game for being awful. I want to like Hoyer - home town guy playing out his dream, career journeyman getting his chance, leader, guy the locker room loves, clutch, smart, good guy - it’s a great story - but he’s just played like ass ever since Alex Mack went down, the running game got derailed, and the offense became far more obvious and reliant on passes.
I think he’s on an exceptionally short leash, and since he’s typically a slow starter, we’re probably going to see Johnny take over at some point during the game and probably not give it back.
Chicago goes to Forte 3 of every 4 fucking downs. WTF?!? Dallas does it with Murray because all they have is Dez but Chicago has Marshall, Jeffrey and Bennett yet still can’t connect with any of them.
And yeah Marshalls catch was nice but way too rare and lucky for what we are spending on this receiving corps.
So when all is said and done, how much impact with the Seattle/Philadelphia and Arizona/Kansas City games have on the final playoff picture?
The only way SD is going to make the playoffs is if KC sits down on the job. Fortunately Oakland started that process when they beat them, but KS is a strong team, they can easily get back into it. Rivers isn’t himself this year. The Chargers have a chance but that chance depends on KC finishing the season with several losses.
The Bears are not a good football team. That makes me smile. Because I’m a dick.
Cutler’s in trouble with the press for that pass.
Rivers has played well for most of the season; he was an MVP candidate for the first six weeks or so. Then there were some bad games, particularly the Miami one, and recently he’s played better again. Considering things like the fact that they’re on their 5th starting center, he’s done very well.
Anyway, considering just KC vs. SD making the playoffs, the big game is obviously their game in the last week. If SD wins that, then they’d only need to win one of their other 3 remaining games to finish ahead of KC, even if KC wins all 3 of theirs. SD does have a very tough schedule, though.
Anybody in the DC area want to check out a game on Sunday? Apparently Redskins tickets can be had dirt cheap.
Is it worse to be a Redskins fan or a Jets fan these days? OK, throw the Raiders in there too, they’ve been pretty hopeless for a long time. I mean, it sucks to be a Bears fan right now, but damn…
Browns secondary is totally shutting down the Colts passing game. It’s been an amazing transition from their awful play early in the year and their possibly best in the league play the last few games. I hope this means it clicked and this is how it’ll be going forward.
The 49ers seem to find a way to play down to the level of their opponents. Favored by 9, I’m expecting them to win by 3 or 4. Maybe even needing a late TD or FG. We’ll see. Heck, they might even lose, except that Oakland may be racing to the bottom for that #1 draft choice.
I don’t know why teams stick by bad kickers. The unit is almost entirely divorced from anything else, there’s not much to learn in terms of scheme or anything like that. You could pick an undrafted college guy or some free agent vent and have them kicking field goals the next day. Cundiff is 6 for his last 11, including a bunch of pretty easy ones.
Manziel should start the second half. The defense is playing out of their mind, the game is totally winnable, and Hoyer just isn’t doing anything.
Is it just me, or has Hoyer’s accuracy gotten worse as the season has progressed? I mean, he’s never had much on his deep throws, but he always had some mustard on the middle and underneath stuff. He had Benjamin on a little 5 yard drag route with all kinds of open field in front of him, and threw it behind him.
ETA: Just had Gabriel wide open deep and overthrew him by 10 yards.
Lions being stupid again.
Hoyer has thrown behind the receivers during the quick hitting routes quite a bit early in the season. The receivers overachieved out of their mind, and he’d make it up with crazy broken coverage plays where he just chucked a ball to a receiver open by 10 yards several times a game. He was definitely more accurate early in the season, but he’s been inconsistent the whole time, and a lot of his success was schematic (and predicated on a run game that mostly hasn’t been there since Mack went down) and surrpisingly great play from one of the least talented receiving corps in the league.
Gordon has actually caused him to regress somewhat. He’d force the ball to Gordon a lot and Gordon would be out of position on a fairly regular basis. That sort of shit needs a few weeks to be worked out. Hoyer took the blame, though, as the QB usually does when he throws to a spot he expects the receiver to be, but the receiver did something else.
Gordons taken the blame publicly, said that terminology has changed and he hasn’t learned it all yet.
Because you don’t know they’re bad until it’s too late. It’s not like any other position where you can look at tape and see he’s lost a step. Any great kicker in history has had bad stretches, and you don’t want to drop a guy just becuase the law of averages has caught up.
Often, you don’t have any evidence that he’s actually lost the skill, until the bad skid lasts a couple months and he’s missed, say, 5 of 11.
Holy shit the Browns defense absolutely owned the Colts #1 in the league offense today. If Hoyer was even playing at an average level the game would probably be 28-3 or better.
Browns are just getting a little bad Luck.