NFL 2013

[Paelos]

Holy crap the Minnesota offensive line is the worst in football.

[WayAbvPar]

That entire game was appalling.

[Ingmar]

Starting to feel like maybe they need size/strength caps for these guys so they can't hurt each other as badly.

[Sjofn]

WOO THE GIANTS WON A GAAAAAAAME

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[01101010]

And I shall just put this here for future use... which I assume will get A LOT of future use around here.   

http://www.manningface.com/

[Paelos]

Paelos Week 7 Picks against the Spread:

Jets +4 against the Pats - W
Chargers -8 against the Jags - W
Lions -3 against the Bengals - L
Dolphins -7.5 against the Bills - L
Chicago +1 against the Skins - L
Cowboys +2.5 against the Eagles - W
Rams +6.5 against the Panthers - L
Bucs +7 against the Falcons - L
49ers - 4 against the Titans - W
Chiefs -6.5 against the Texans - L
Cleveland +10 against Green Bay - L
Baltimore +1.5 against the Steelers - L
Denver -7 against the Colts - L
Vikings +3.5 against the Giants - L

Hey that went poorly at the end. 4-10? Glad I don't do this for a living. The worst loss was Tampa by a point, and the Chiefs absolutely struggling with a wretched Texans team. Oh and RG3 scoring late on the Bears. There were a lot of bad choices here.

[Paelos]

Paelos Power Rankings Week 7:

1 - Denver
2 - Seattle
3 - KC
4 - Saints
5 - Patriots
6 - Dallas
7 - Green Bay
8 - Indy
9 - Cincy
10 - Jets

[MrHat]

Peyton's arm looked all waffley.

Looked like the Colts were daring him to throw over the top along the line 15+ yards and he kept under throwing the balls.  Also, no time on that shit O-Line.

[Paelos]

http://msn.foxsports.com/lacesout/this-gif-of-andy-reid-as-the-kool-aid-man-will-make-you-smile/

It does make me smile.

[Malakili]

Paelos Power Rankings Week 7:

1 - Denver
2 - Seattle
3 - KC
4 - Saints
5 - Patriots
6 - Dallas
7 - Green Bay
8 - Indy
9 - Cincy
10 - Jets

What, my giants didn't get bumped up onto this list with their big win over the vikings last night?

[Segoris]

Paelos Power Rankings Week 7:

1 - Denver
2 - Seattle
3 - KC
4 - Saints
5 - Patriots
6 - Dallas
7 - Green Bay
8 - Indy
9 - Cincy
10 - Jets

I think at this point I'd switch the Pats and Indy, otherwise I agree

[HaemishM]

I'm not sure what's going to happen with Finley, but I dropped him. I hope he doesn't play this year after that. It was terrifying.

Bruised spinal column, coach says he's out indefinitely. I don't see him getting back on the field this year and I'm not sure he'll be effective even if he does.

[Paelos]

I think at this point I'd switch the Pats and Indy, otherwise I agree

Indy's position is the toughest for me to place. On the one hand, they have some extremely solid wins. On the other hand, they've looked completely inept in their losses to very average teams. My biggest concern of Indy is that their defense is spotty, and if Luck has an off day they will lose with no defensive safety net.

[Ruvaldt]

But they're somehow worse than Dallas?

I would put Indy at 4 or 5.  They've beaten both your #1 and #2 teams as well as San Francisco, which is oddly missing from your top 10.

[HaemishM]

Dallas is not that good. They aren't in the top 10. They struggled against PHILLY, who has one of the worst pass defenses in the league. Indy is a better team, though with Reggie Wayne out for the year, they ain't as good as they were. It still makes my balls itch to see the Jets in there and not have a convincing argument for not including them in the top 10. But based on the other teams around their record, they somehow deserve it. Also, I'd put the Pats lower than Green Bay. Maybe it's because I'm a homer or because the Pats defense is seriously suspect against the run while Green Bay's run defense is killer.

[Paelos]

Haemish is a GB homer so unless they are top 5 I'm sure he's not happy. 

Indy and SF bug me. Can't put my finger on it, but I'm not buying them as a legit contender for the top spot. San Francisco has fallen off the earth year both passing and defensively against teams with an offensive pulse, but they are going through a stretch before the bye week where they are playing absolute garbage. Kaepernick is having a hard time without his receivers, and in some cases with his health and one of the middle ranked O-lines.

Indy has the best wins, but they struggle with odd things that get bigger late in a season. Their run blocking is outstanding, but their pass protection is iffy. Their pass defense and pass rush is outstanding, but their run defense is on par with Buffalo. Their red zone TD percentage is top 10, but they only get in the red zone about 3 times a game, which is 19th in the league.

Something just doesn't feel right about both teams. I think they are missing something, and I'm waiting to see more.

[HaemishM]

I'll agree with your about SF and Indy. SF's receivers are just iffy beyond Boldin and if Davis isn't in the game, they have no passing game. Luckily, they can still run the ball most of the time and their defense is at least top half of the league. Indy is struggling with inconsistency - if they'd played Denver the way they did against San Diego, Denver would have TATTOOED them with a picture of Peyton's dick.

I don't know what Green Bay deserves a top 5 spot, but they sure as fuck are better than Dallas and probably the Pats.

[Segoris]

Really, I think 1-Den, 2-KC, 3-Sea, 4-NO, 5-7 is a mix of GB/Dal/Indy, 8-10 SF/Cincy/NE but I figured the most glaring thing was that Indy was too low

Dallas is not that good. They aren't in the top 10. They struggled against PHILLY, who has one of the worst pass defenses in the league.

Their losses were by 1 point and 3 points to KC and Den respectively (the #1 and #2 teams arguably), with their 3rd loss being a winnable game against an underrated SD. And I think SD is being underestimated when viewing rankings because they're kind of a patch work team being led by a rejuvenated Rivers and a miraculously still-not-injured Matthews. So I think Dal does have an argument for being in the 5-8 range, right where GB should be as well.

For the Packers, I think with them missing Finley and Cobb, and Jones still being day to day, they aren't above a Wayne-less Indy team just yet. GB has done as expected, except against Bal where I would have expected more from them than a 19-17 win. Though at these rankings it's a crapshoot past #4 imo, but at least clusters are starting to form.

The more I think about it, the more I think NE is a bit too high though. The only game they've won in a way that would be expected of someone in their rank was against TB. They beat the Saints by 3 which gives them some credit to being in the top 10, but losing to Cin 6-13 ( ) and then to the NYJ 27-30, and only beating the bills 23-21 doesn't really sit well to place them above GB, or Indy

[Paelos]

The problem is the Pats will still win their division, get healthy, and then who knows? I don't necessarily believe that GB will win that division. Dallas might, but nobody in the NFC is really making a big case to be taken seriously outside of the Seahawks and Saints. I could legimately take out both Dallas and GB, roll out nothing but AFC teams in the remaining 8 spots, and probably not be that far off either right now.

[Mithas]

Chicago is without Cutler and Lance Briggs for at least 4 weeks. I'd be willing to bet GB still wins that division unless the Lions don't have their yearly meltdown.

[Paelos]

Chicago is without Cutler and Lance Briggs for at least 4 weeks. I'd be willing to bet GB still wins that division unless the Lions don't have their yearly meltdown.

I'd counter that by saying that I think McCown is one of the better backups in the league, and can see them through the stretch as long as Forte is still healthy. Realistically, a loss of Forte would be more damaging to the Bears than Culter, imo. Plus their defense is entirely predicated on turnovers and scoring. And they have the best kick return games in the league.

[Mithas]

I guess we will see. The Bears have a very favorable schedule the rest of the way. Really the only tough games are the divisional teams.

[Segoris]

As much as I dislike the Packers, I don't think you're giving them their due credit (or SF). They've done well with a tougher schedule than what NE has put up with and GB is winning that division, which hurts me to say. 

Also, the Pats aren't going to be much better when they "get healthy," since they're only missing Vareen as he's the only one DFR. Now, if their WRs keep developing then sure, they'll be more dangerous, but as of today and right now GB > NE.

As for Chi, McCown is a good backup to have, definitely. However, their favorable schedule does not start until they face Bal->STL->Min, which is around the time Cutler will be back anyways. It's just a matter of how big of a deficit will GB and Det be able to create in that time span.

[HaemishM]

Chicago is without Cutler and Lance Briggs for at least 4 weeks. I'd be willing to bet GB still wins that division unless the Lions don't have their yearly meltdown.

This. Both Chicago's and the Lions' defenses are pretty crappy against teams that can pass the ball. I suspect Green Bay will sweep their division games or lose 1 at worst. Both the Lions and the Bears are improved over last year but they aren't better than Green Bay. Losing Cutler for at least 3 games and maybe more? They are going to get rung up. Those 3 games after the bye w/o Cutler and Briggs? At Green Bay, home against Detroit and Baltimore. If they win one of those games, I'll be surprised.

[Segoris]

I won't be surprised if Chi wins win one, only because in one of the games they're playing Flacco

I also wouldn't be surprised if Det beats GB. GB beat a Det without Calvin Johnson, which is much easier to do than to beat a Det without Bush. Add to the fact that now GB is without Cobb and Finley and that is not the same matchup as it was a couple weeks ago

[Surlyboi]

And I shall just put this here for future use... which I assume will get A LOT of future use around here.   

http://www.manningface.com/

[Sjofn]

Oh yay, last time I checked manningface hadn't updated for a while.

[taolurker]

[Malakili]

I'm glad I actually watched that game and got to see that sack live.  Given that the rest of the game was garbage, at least I got something out of it.

[Paelos]

Yep that one sack is one of the best sacks of the season.

[sickrubik]

It was hilarious live. It seemed like Eli had an aneurysm and just fell down.

[sickrubik]

Freeman has concussion symptoms; Ponder to start.


In a year that we have the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Vikings are really giving them a run for most terrible hilarity.

[HaemishM]

Browns bench Weedon, Campbell to start against the Chiefs.

I think the Weedon era in Cleveland is over. He's been benched twice in one season, his completion percentage and yards per pass are bottom or almost bottom in the league and he's turned it over more than he's thrown TD's. Campbell may not do much better but he really couldn't do much worse.

[sickrubik]

Campbell will be the 20th quarterback to start a game for the Browns since 1999.

 

[01101010]

Not surprising nor tragic. Hoyer has been the only real glimmer of hope and he went broke himself in the stupidest of ways. I think I am more shocked that the Browns haven't shipped Gordon off yet.