NFL Week 2

I don’t think ‘awful’ is strong enough but I can’t think of an appropriate term. It was 0-26 at the half and I think Tampa is about to score again (10:13/3rd). The Bears looked pretty good last week but this is getting difficult to watch.

The Bears defense looks like a bunch of drunks at the bar at last call, they’re holding onto anything they can grab. Just sloppy, awful football.

Let’s not put all the blame on the defense. The offense haven’t done a thing except throw ints and drop passes. Howard has 7 yards rushing. SEVEN! It must be hard for the broadcast announcers to not laugh out loud.

The Panthers defense continues to look impressive, but their offense looks putrid. The Bills brought a lot of pressure on Newton today. Still, I’ll take 2-0.

I didn’t watch but, looking at the stats, ouch. 6 sacks and zero touchdowns.

49ers v Seahawks on here now.

Slightly messed up, here. I listen to the radio. The FM station is typically about 3 seconds behind the TV, so I put it on the AM station, which is at least 5 seconds ahead. I hear the play called and finished before the snap. At least I can do other stuff and look up to see the play. And the AM comes in better, except the playcaller has a fuzzy mic.

I have to say that Tony Romo won me over. When I first start watching to the game (he was doing the color commentary on the Patriots-Saints game) I thought he was talking too much and not saying much that was worthwhile. But as the game went on, I started getting impressed. A lot of commentators will tell you what just happened in the previous play; Romo was telling you what to watch for in the upcoming play. And he was doing to quite well. There were several plays where he essentially said “Watch for this” and then it happened just as he predicted.

Cowboys are barely hanging in with the Broncos 7-7 due to a lucky break. Still looks like Denver will pull away for the win, maybe something like 31-20.

Anyone watching the Seahawks game? Was it a safety or not?

Not a safety. TV crew had a couple nice replays to show Hoyer was contacted inside the 1, but well outside of the end zone. A very good call.

You kinda knew that Brady and the Pats were in a bad mood coming into this game against the Saints, and it showed today.

Steelers are looking good right now, and based on Cleveland’s performance today, maybe last week’s game wasn’t so bad. The Browns are still probably a double-digit loser this year but they’ve got some added toughness and can probably hang for 3 quarters with most teams. For their part, the Ravens also look pretty solid right now.

Bakhtiari and Bulaga out to start, then Daniels and Nelson going down in their first respective drives? Can we not play the injury lottery already?

Can somebody explain the new OT rules to me? I thought they played a full ten minute “quarter” but obviously that isn’t the case. How do the new rules differ from the old “each team gets a possession” rules?

Well, at least I will not have to stay up late watching the game.
Uggggg
Brian

It’s weird how losing your top 2,offensive linemen, your #1 WR, and your best defensive player can make it hard to win against the defending NFC Championship team.

Nope, sudden death, with one caveat. If the first team to get the ball only scores a field goal, the other team gets one possession. If they don’t score, they lose. If they score a touchdown, they win. If they score a field goal, it’s back to a tie game, next score, period, wins.

In this case, the first team turned the ball over, so that was their first possession: if the team receiving the kickoff fails to score, it becomes sudden death. If the team receiving the kickoff scores a TD on their first possession, the game is over (TDs are slightly more difficult than FGs).

Now, if the kicking team does an onside on the starting kickoff, gets control of the ball and kicks a FG on their first possession, I believe the game is over.

The OT is a full 15 minutes, and, as I recall, each team gets one timeout.

Kizer sucked this week. Last week was a decent first game for the third youngest rookie QB ever to start - he held the ball too long which is to be expected but he mostly at least threw the ball well. This week he was a mess, throwing behind his receivers repeatedly, still taking sacks, making worse decisions. But I’m not too worried yet. Starting against the Steelers and Ravens is a nightmare scenario for a 21 year old rookie QB who didn’t even get the full starter training reps until week 3 of preseason. If he’s still this bad in 3 or 4 games it’ll be pretty dire, but I expect him to have some success against Indy next week.

Kenny Britt is an asshole. He’s not even trying out there. He clearly just signed here for the paycheck, just like Dwayne Bowe. But the weird thing is that Bowe was 33 just looking for a last paycheck, Britt is only 28. Is he just giving up on his career here? Have some fucking pride, it’s kind of ridiculous.

Corey Coleman looks like he broke his hand, so the Browns #1 receiver next week is probably going to be Higgins, a guy they pulled up from the practice squad this week.

Or Josh Gordon.

Recovering an onside kick is hard to do and the last thing you want is to gift your opponent with great field advantage to start an overtime. I’m sure it’s easier for most teams to just prevent a touchdown and then try to at least get a field goal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team attempt an onside kick to start overtime, though if they did I assume they fear the opponent’s offense and/or have no confidence in their own defense.

Also, if the kicking team manages to get a safety in the opening possession then they win. A safety can quickly end an overtime game but they are probably the rarest way to score.

Well, I’m happy with my Falcons’ win last night, but I don’t think it foretells too much. The ‘backwards pass’ that was returned for a touchdown could easily have been ruled a lateral, in fact I expected it to be. The Packers had a huge number of injuries to their starters. We ran up a big score in the first half and then deflated in the second (which the announcers LOVED to compare to the Super Bowl, of course).

I’m glad we won, but against a healthy team and with a call or two not going our way we don’t win that game. We’ll have to step up if we want to get back to the playoffs.