I think the Colts are catchable. People forget they start 12-0 seemingly every damn season and yet always finish with at least three losses. They always tank during the last three.
You call a loss to the Raiders a “good” loss? :eek: :smack:
Elite might not be the right word, but they’ve only had 4 losing seasons in the past 20 years.
No, I’d forgotten that one - but in their defense, the Raiders are a totally different team with Gradkowski at quarterback. With Russell back there, opposing defenses were outscoring them; with Gradkowski, they’re merely inept.
The Bears will be starting a revamped Offensive Line once again. Pace is out with an “injury” and Chris Williams will finally move to his natural position at Left Tackle. Time to find out if this guy is going to be a bust or if he’s got potential there. Clearly on the right side he’s mediocre at best. Kevin Shaffer will get the nod at Right Tackle in Williams place, which is probably the ideal scenario since Shaffer was a Right Tackle for the past 3 years before getting FA contract in the offseason. Frankly I think Shaffer belonged at RT all season long and the experiment with him at LT when Pace went out was pretty marginal.
The Rams won’t pose a ton of resistance but it’ll be telling to see how both of these guys shape up now that they are playing their most natural positions. It’s difficult to know just how much of a difference there is between a LT and a RT in this particular system, but hopefully Shaffer will have more success going forward on the Right versus going backwards on the Left and vice versa.
Watching Pace try to block Jared Allen made Lovie’s eyes hurt. 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they sit their starters the last couple of years in order to coast into the playoffs? I mean, they’re weren’t really trying to win the last couple of games, just rest up for the playoffs.
Not that it worked, of course, but saying they collapsed at the end of the regular season isn’t terribly accurate.
The NFL rewards teams that suck. They give them the top draft choices and the easiest schedule. The league is after parity. But bad management is resistant. It can succeed at failure no matter what you try to do to help them. There are 7 teams that have 3 victories or less this season.
When the league started this stuff, I envisioned a season of every team with a .500 record or close to it. It never happens. There is a team like the Lions that can suck through the entire lives of some of their fans. How badly does a team have to be managed to achieve a milestone like that.
Just for some perspective: Since 1984, the Bengals have won 159 games and lost 239. That’s a winning percentage of 39%, or an average of about 6 wins a season.
Since 1986, the Vikings are 215-164, for a winning percentage of 56.7%, or about 9 wins a season.
The Bengals have had a reputation for being better in recent years (at least, better than they were under Wyche, Shula, and Coslet) - yet Marvin Lewis still has a losing record, only one playoff appearance, and that was a one-and-done (although I think that was the game where Carson Palmer got injured very early in the game - wasn’t it like the first offensive play of the game?. The Bengals’ recent history might have looked considerably different if that injury doesn’t happen).
Playoffs:
Vikings (10-1) play Arizona this week. It sounds like Warner and Hightower are both a bit banged up. If they don’t play, or only play part of the game, I think the Vikings will win. That leaves the Bengals game and outdoors-in-December away game at Chicago as the critical games on the schedule. As lousy as 'da Bears are, that could be a tough game.
I think the Vikings beat Arizona, lose to the Bengals, beat Carolina, beat Chicago, and lose to the Giants to go 13-3. No way are the Saints going 2-3 over the last five games - not with Washington, Tampa Bay, and Carolina on the schedule. So I think the Saints are a lead-pipe lock for #1 seed and HFA. Vikings are the #2 seed.
Arizona (7-4) has a cream-puff schedule after Minnesota: A very beatable San Francisco, Detroit, St Louis, and then Green Bay. 11-5 seems in the cards here, #3 seed.
Dallas (8-3) has a tough schedule: At the Giants, San Diego, at New Orleans, Philadelpha, plus at Washington, who they barely beat 7-6 a few weeks ago. They’re lucky to be 8-3; I put them down as 10-6 and #4 seed.
Green Bay (7-4) has it only slightly easier - Baltimore, Pittsburgh, but also Chicaco and Seattle, plus last game vs Arizona, which wil come down to which team needs to win to get in. I see 9-7 here; key game is the last game vs Arizona.
Philadelpha (7-4) has a rough schedule: at Atlanta, at NY Giants, Denver, Dallas, with those four games sandwhiched around San Francisco. I can see a 2-3 finish here, with the at-home game vs Denver being the key game. Say 9-7, key game is the away game at NY.
Giants (6-5) have a neutral schedule - still have Dallas and Philadelphia, but also Washington and Carolina, plus Minnesota, but in the last game of the season, when the Vikings might be resting most of their starters. But the Giants have been far too inconsistant; this seems like an 8-8 team to me. Key game to get into the playoffs would be the Philadelphia game
Falcons (6-5) have a rough couple of games of Philadelphia and the Saints, but both at home - plus a pancake-easy schedule to close out the season - Jets, Buffalo, and Tampa Bay. 9-7 seems more realistic here, but if they can beat the Eagles this week, they have a good chance at 10-6.
Putting it together, my NFC playoffs look like this:
#1: Saints
#2: Vikings
#3 Cardinals
#4: Cowboys
#5: Eagles
#6: Packers
Yes, but they usually start losing before that. I’m not saying it’s a flaw, or anything - as we’ve seen, it’s virtually impossible to keep an undefeated streak going in the modern NFL for even one season. To start 10-0 for three or four seasons in a row is an astonishing feat in itself.
Could you post the standings for the entire league if you wouldn’t mind? I’d like to see where everyone stands. Thanks! 
Is it midnight? Is Favre turning into a pumpkin?
Johnathon Joseph and Leon Hall are going to have a field day if the Bengals defense can generate this kind of pressure Arizona is putting on Favre. He looks pretty rattled.
Viking defense goes to crap + running game goes to crap + offensive line falls apart = Favre goes back to his old ways of trying to force things to happen.
Dad, a 16-0 season is as rare as an 0-16 season. They’re notable for very similar things, just on the other side of the spectrum.
We Lions fans are partial to silver linings on clouds.
:D:D:D
That sums it up nicely. This game showed an accumulation of problems. The line hasn’t been playing well at all lately. It’s been pretty rare that there is an actual hole for Peterson to run through, as opposed to just a big pile of players. The line looked like they were just plain old tired all game. I couldn’t believe it in the 4th quarter when the Cardinals rushed 3 and got a sack. And it wasn’t a coverage sack. It was just a plain old ‘rush the quarterback so fast he can’t get the ball off’ sack.
On the defensive side, the Vikings safeties have always been the weak link. Losing Winfield exasperated the problem, but to date they haven’t played against a strong enough QB and receiving corp to exploit that. Although Boldin’s TD was just a great play by him, the other TD’s all came on safety breakdowns.
Overall, I think the Cardinals just matched up really well against the Vikings. I think it puts a damper on the Viking’s SuperBowl hopes, as the I think the Saint’s offense matches up favorably as well, and the Viking’s will have to go through one or the other to get to the big game.
Exacerbated. Unless you’re trying to say losing Winfield made the problem itself frustrated.
Weird season. Oakland has won only four games all year - but three of those came against (possible) playoff teams (Eagles, Bengals, and Steelers). Washington has a lousy record, yet in the last three weeks they’ve lost to three playoff teams - Dallas, Philadelphia, and the Saints - by a *combined *7 points.
A bit too busy right now to run the numbers - but you can check out this Excel file (right click / save) on my blog for historical data on all active NFL teams. I haven’t included playoff data or head-to-head data, but all that is located at the same place where I got the Excel data: The Pro Football Reference site. This is seriously a gold mine of information for data geeks like myself. Some fascinating stuff. For example:
- Did you know that the Jets have never beaten Philadelphia (0-7)?
- Minnesota has a winning record against all the other teams in the current (and former) North Division…except Green Bay, with Green Bay holding a two win edge (47-49-1)
Nah, in a league where the Saints were lucky to beat the Redskins, and the Colts should have lost to the Patriots (who got beat by Miami), an away loss to the Cardinals isn’t that big of deal for me. As a long-time Minnesota sports fan I’m basically always waiting for the other shoe to drop - but I don’t think last night was it. It’s a long season, and every team has days when they come out flat; last night was the Vikings’ turn.
However, no way the Vikings can overtake the Saints now; the focus is on keeping the first-round bye slot. Next week’s game against the Bengals is a bit of a concern: my thinking had been that the Vikings would come out strong against the Cardinals (NFC matchup and possible playoff opponent) and mentally ‘rest’ a bit vs the Bengals, a non-conference game. Now they’ll have to beat the Bengals or risk going to only one game ahead in the No. 2 playoff spot.
The Detroit Lions are 44-123 in the last 10 years or so. They are well below league average. They have shown incredible incompetence and mismanagement. They have shown an uncanny ability to draft poorly. They have maintained that ability in selecting coaches too. Yet Ford bought the team for 35 mill and they are worth 800 million now. They have allowed the tax payers to build them two brand spankin new stadiums. Thank you sir ,I’ll have another.