His 3 1/2 sacks against Denver with a national audience occurred just after voting had finished. Nice to see DeMeco back in.
And I’ve been voting my mouse off for him, too.
Wait 'til next year!
Regards,
Shodan
Do they ever show the coach or player voting? I’d be interested in how that broke out.
Ogden and Faneca got in based on reputation. Always happens with o-lines.
But, good recognition for NE’s O-line with 3 selections. . .Light, Mankins, and Koppen.
Fred Taylor, Drew Brees, Colston, Mario Williams probably all suffered from coming on too late in the year.
No Jaguars. . .I think that in one of New England’s superbowl seasons, they had no selections. I don’t know if things like that actually motivate teams, but I bet that “Jack of the River” is loving it as head coach.
Anybody got this week’s betting figures yet? I’m no gambler, but I usually find them interesting.
Home team in CAPS. No line in Baltimore-SEA. Not sure why.
Favored Pit Dal JAC DET IND NO Nyg Gb Cle ARI Tb TEN NE SEA MIN SD
Spread 7.5 10.5 13.0 4.5 7.0 3.0 3.0 8.5 3.0 10.0 6.0 8.5 22.0 Off 6.5 8.5
Underdog STL CAR Oak Kc Hou Phi BUF CHI CIN Atl SF Nyj Mia Bal Was Den
Wrong team favored in Buffalo. Bills are better than the Giants, and at home.
Indy line looks a little low.
That’s all that really jumps out at me. I sort of like teams like Cinci and Atlanta, but who knows if they’re in total meltdown.
KC & DET is a nice battle of teams in total disarry. Look for Jared Allen from KC to have a big game.
No line on Bal-Sea was probably due to Bal’s QB being unknown at the time of those lines being issued.
Agreed that the biggest Pro Bowl snub from the Browns was probably Joe Thomas - agreed that Ogden was reasonably terrible this year, and that Thomas has been unexpectedly great (well, not so much that he wasn’t going to be great eventually, but that he was great RIGHT AWAY). Also agreed that Mario Williams probably should have made it. So I guess you can just put me on in with the crowd.
Forecast for Cinci tomorrow - 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 50. Fortunately Cinci’s running game is inconsistent at best and Cleveland’s has picked up steam lately.
Well that was just great. When Cleveland came bursting out of the gate in their first possession, I felt pretty good. Then we botched the field goal. Okay, no problem, Cincy gave us the ball right back. Stopped on fourth and short.
That’s when I knew we were in trouble. Of course, the Bengals got all fired up after that. They ran the ball for what felt like 15 yards a carry the rest of the game. Derek Anderson threw terrible INTs, though I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in the wind. That one at the beginning of the second half that went off the defender’s helmet was pretty bad luck, although he should have kept it higher for Winslow to go up and grab.
As many miscues as there were today, it all came down to that damned pick at the end of the first half. Not the first one, but the second one. Okay, you just threw an interception and gave up a touchdown. You have no timeouts. There is one minute left in the half. You’re on your own 20. The game is still a pretty reasonable 13-0. You haven’t made any big downfield completions all day. Why wouldn’t you just take a knee? I didn’t even consider it an option to try and score in that situation. Just cut your losses, get off the field and regroup in the locker room.
Now our playoff hopes rest on whether or not the Colts feel like giving a shit next week. This sucks. I have tickets for the Dawg Pound next week, and the game has been rendered meaningless, win or lose. It’s all on Tennessee now. On the plus side, the Colts definitely gave a shit in their meaningless game this week, so why not next week?
This is why I usually approach the Browns with such caution. Every time I start feeling good about anything, my hopes are crushed.
We haven’t seen the “what the FUCK?” Derek Anderson much this year, but he makes a triumphant return.
The weird thing is that I don’t know why. He didn’t seem to be rattled, he was getting good protection, I doubt the Bengals are masters of disguising coverages, and the weather wasn’t THAT bad. So wtf?
I’m not a person to call in the backup QB at the first sign of trouble, but I would’ve started BQ in the second half.
The Browns defense played well in the 2nd half. Forced 2 critical turnovers, forced a lot of punts, pitched a shut out. Considering they were playing without their 2 best defensive lineman on a team completely devoid of quality D-line depth (or did either return in the 2nd half?) it was pretty impressive.
And still at the end we should’ve won it. They were late to show the replay on the pass interference and it was a bad angle, but I didn’t see anything there that deserved a flag. Set us back 50 yards with around 1:30 to play. With 1:30 and the ball at, what was it, the Cinci 40 vs the Cleveland 10. Disgusting to have it end that way, not that they played well today.
It sucks having your hands in the fate of another team. Especially when that team is 3-11. It was painful watching the Jets blow opportunity after opportunity.
Now it comes down to the Colts, a team that may or may not give a shit. They didn’t give a shit and still crushed a division rival this week, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. It’s time for Jim Sorgi’s breakout game!
Looks like that’s the flex schedule week. So we won’t know until the last game of the regular season. Good drama.
I’d probably start Quinn this week. It doesn’t matter, so evaluate him. Big decisions have to be made in the offseason about the future of the Browns at QB. Perfect opportunity.
Except that… if Quinn goes out there and performs very well, and Derek Anderson single-handedly blew the last game he played, it might cause controversy/chemistry issues/etc on the eve of the playoffs. Hmm.
It hasn’t! If the Colts/Titans tie, a win is critical. There, now your game experience will be much more involving 
Upon reconsideration, I hope they play Anderson for a few drives. If he does well, and regains some confidence, sit him and start Quinn.
Well, I’ll get drunk and woof a lot regardless.
Tennessee and Indy is the Sunday Night game next week. Regarding Sorgi, the Colts had no reason to play Manning today, yet they still did. I only caught snippets of their game, but it looks like Sorgi was only in for a few snaps. Addai got banged up today, so I expect him to sit. His backup, Kenton Keith, is pretty good, so that’s not too bad.
Man, this is gonna be excruciating.
On SNF they said that Dungy said Manning would play the first half at the absolute most.
Damn it.
Minnesota’s run game is straight out of the 1970s. No deception, little movement, they seem to have about 5 or 6 run plays that they do over and over. When you manage to have a run game that features Adrian Peterson, Steve Hutchinson, and Bryant McKinney shut down over several weeks, chances are you have some sort of horrible scheming problem. Either that or the offensive line’s talents are so limited that you prove that pure maulers are on the way out.
Oh, and I fell asleep during the game. Did they explain why the SNF commentary stopped? Technical problems? Did the Madden robot have a glitch?
This sums up all the Cleveland teams. Indians? buh bye 3-1 lead. Cavs? Didn’t even show up for the finals. It really is frustrating, I must be some kind of masochist. It’s like waiting for the other shoe to fall. You know it’s coming, but just don’t know when.
I’m 41 and like most fans of Cleveland, have yet to see a champion. Maybe the Buckeyes can ease a bit of my pain this year, but I want a Cleveland champion. (the rioting would probably burn the whole town down)
I have a rules question from the Washington/Minnesota game
The Sequence of Events from the fourth quarter:
Pass to Santana Moss on the sidelines which is judged complete on a very iffy call.
Brad Childress (MN coach) is watching the board to see if he should throw his challenge flag, meanwhile Washington hustles up to quick snap and take away the challenge option. Washington achieves the quicksnap but botches it, fumbling the snap and Minnesota recovers.
Before Minnesota can take an offensive snap- Wash coach Gibbs throws a red flag challenging the play because Minnesota had too many men on the field. Gibbs wins the challenge and Washington retains the ball.
Now my question is this… a play can be challenged until the ball is snapped ont he next play. With Gibb’s challenge of 12 men on the field- and the ensuing penalty against Minnesota: that means the fumbled snap NEVER HAPPENED. Could Childress have then thrown his challenge flag of the Moss catch at that point… since Washington still hadn’t had an offensive snap since that catch? Or does the snap & penalty still count, even though play should have been halted and the penalty enforced.
Some brutal losses this year.
Oakland - Oakland leads by 2 points, seconds left, Phil Dawson lines up for a 43ish yard field goal. He makes it. Browns win. Wait… timeout at the last second. Rekick. Blocked. Browns lose.
Pittsburgh. Cleveland trails by 3 points. Josh Cribbs makes a good return to the Pit 35 or 40 with about 45 seconds left IIRC. Except… refs call an absolutely phantom holding call on the punt return team (they didn’t show it in the game, but the NFL replay covered it). Cleveland starts at their own 30ish instead. Miss a field goal by 2 or 3 yards.
Arizona. Winslow makes a catch in the end zone with no time left on the clock down by 6. Ruled incomplete, arguable forceout.
Cincinatti. Browns complete a 40 yard pass from their 20 to the Cinci 40 with about a minute and a half left, down by 5, in good shape. Except that there was a pass interference call on what looked to be some incidental mutual contact (they didn’t show a good replay and nfl.com isn’t going to put a blunder on their highlight real). Start over at the Cleveland 10 instead of the Cinci 40.
Brutal.
I wonder if the Titans/Colts game being flexed next week will have an affect on Dungy’s decisions on who to start and for how long. I wonder if the NFL would apply some pressure to make the Colts give them a show, instead of turning it into a preseason game for the Colts… Hmmmmmm.
Gah, it’s pathetic to have your destiny in your own hands and then hope to back in.
Then again, it’s sad to go 10-6 and not make the playoffs.
No, the 12-man play did happen. For example, if Wash had run for a touchdown rather than fumbling, they could have declined the penalty.
In the case of a false start or delay of game, there would be no play. I’m not sure if Minn would be able to challenge in that case, although my guess would be that they would.