2012 NFL Season

[jamo]

New England Patriots: 19-0. You heard it here first. (Mostly thanks to their cupcake schedule, but y'know.) :-P Oh, and there's some other teams. Most of week 1 is in the book. Have at it.

[darkhunter139]

Rough start for the Eagles but at least they got the W!

[JetFan1983]

Not sure how the Jets pulled that off today, but I'll take it.

I guess running that vanilla offense all preseason paid off. Now, I wonder what happens now that teams have some film on what they're up to.

I'm happy with today, but since it was the Bills, and since its the Jets, I'm still bracing myself for another tragic end to their season.

[boogielicious]

Preseason should come with the warning, "Past performance is no indicator of future success".

RGIII was a wow yesterday.  Don't bet on Rookie of the Year for Andrew Luck.  The Packers looked sluggish.

[newtogolf]

Thanks to their defense and big lead I don't think they showed as much as you might think.  The wildcat was used sparingly and very conservatively, I expect to see much more of it when they are playing a team that isn't as familiar with it as the Bills are.  I also think they stuck with standard offense because it was working.  No need for trick plays when you're receivers are getting open and your RB's are gaining yards on the ground.

As a Jets fan we know too much about heartbreak, but I'm cautiously optimistic after yesterday.

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Not sure how the Jets pulled that off today, but I'll take it.

I guess running that vanilla offense all preseason paid off. Now, I wonder what happens now that teams have some film on what they're up to.

I'm happy with today, but since it was the Bills, and since its the Jets, I'm still bracing myself for another tragic end to their season.

[tiger187126]

my redskins had a pretty good game. of course RGIII did what he did, but when you look at the scores and stats don't sleep on the defense. we're on a lot of backups in the secondary, but drew brees never got comfortable and played from two scores down the majority of the game. i would have said 7-9 to 8-8 would have been a good year, but now i think you can look at a wild card bid and not be quick to say the redskins are going to be 4th in the NFC East this year.

other things:

-great to see manning back, wonder how indy fans feel. luck will be good for them, but it's gotta be hard to think you could have had another 3 years of manning and possible SB runs.

-cleveland should have given mccoy a better chance to battle in the preseason. weedon doesn't have the typical 3 years to develop because of his age.

-jets might not want to take too much away from this one and get too high on themselves, bills are perennial underachievers and hot and cold. pitt will be looking for revenge.

-if the eagles don't make a switch to the rookie by midseason, i'm not sure they make the playoffs. they might not make it with him, but this whole "vick needs to improve thing" has been kicked around since he came into the league. it's never going to happen. he's going to make wow plays, but he is going to throw dumb picks and misread defenses. he's also going to get injured. reid has to give up on this all pass offense too. he's got mccoy and he's got to let him run.

[newtogolf]

RGIII looked great, helped me win my first game in two fantasy leagues.  I guess colleges running pro style offenses is helping these guys acclimate to the NFL faster.  15 years ago an RGIII would sit on the bench as a backup for 2-3 years before ever getting a chance to start.

Originally Posted by boogielicious

Preseason should come with the warning, "Past performance is no indicator of future success".

RGIII was a wow yesterday.  Don't bet on Rookie of the Year for Andrew Luck.  The Packers looked sluggish.

[jamo]

RGIII looked great, helped me win my first game in two fantasy leagues.  I guess colleges running pro style offenses is helping these guys acclimate to the NFL faster.  15 years ago an RGIII would sit on the bench as a backup for 2-3 years before ever getting a chance to start.

I guess I don't watch enough college football but I didn't realize just how good of an arm Griffin has until yesterday. He was really accurate and can sling it pretty good for such a skinny guy.

[tiger187126]

Originally Posted by jamo

I guess I don't watch enough college football but I didn't realize just how good of an arm Griffin has until yesterday. He was really accurate and can sling it pretty good for such a skinny guy.

he played in a spread at college with some option sprinkled in. his plays were called from the sideline and they didn't huddle much if at all. his arm talent, accuracy, and blazing speed is what makes him deadly in the NFL.

little story about RGIII:

when he was at baylor he tore his ACL. his dad told him that he had to become a more accurate passer and he was never going to make it as a running qb, so he would sit in a chair and throw passes to his dad to work on his accuracy while he was rehabbing his knee. as a side thing he doesn't need to set his feet and put everything into a deep throw, he has that mike vick wrist flick that has a ton of velocity.

he's actually only an 1 1/2" to 2" shorter than luck and only weighs maybe 10 pounds less. he just has a completely different build that comes from his olympic trial hurdle career. i really think that him and guys coming out soon like geno smith are going revolutionize the position as amazingly accurate passers first and world class athletes second.

we saw aaron rodgers yesterday show that even the best passers can be shut down, so having that second ability to run (and rodgers can run) helps immensely.

[Clubchucker]

Originally Posted by tiger187126

we saw aaron rodgers yesterday show that even the best passers can be shut down, so having that second ability to run (and rodgers can run) helps immensely.

Wow....rough crowd.  I didn't know that going 30/44 for 303 yds passing and 2 TD's was getting "shut down".  :)

His one INT was terrible.  Didn't see the linebacker and it was big.  Stuff happens.  What was more concerning to this Packers fan was 1) issues with D were obviously not addressed and will continue to plague them (hey, let's cover Crabtree with a LB all day and let's not cover Randy Moss at all), still zero run game to take some heat off of Rodgers, and of course my favorite Finley still dropping passes.

However, the most troubling thing I saw without question yesterday was GET THE REAL REFS BACK!!!   My God, every game I watched the officiating was beyond terrible.  Absolutely pathetic.

[tiger187126]

Originally Posted by Clubchucker

Wow....rough crowd.  I didn't know that going 30/44 for 303 yds passing and 2 TD's was getting "shut down".  :)

His one INT was terrible.  Didn't see the linebacker and it was big.  Stuff happens.  What was more concerning to this Packers fan was 1) issues with D were obviously not addressed and will continue to plague them (hey, let's cover Crabtree with a LB all day and let's not cover Randy Moss at all), still zero run game to take some heat off of Rodgers, and of course my favorite Finley still dropping passes.

However, the most troubling thing I saw without question yesterday was GET THE REAL REFS BACK!!!   My God, every game I watched the officiating was beyond terrible.  Absolutely pathetic.

7 points scored by the offense until 6:05 was left IN THE GAME is getting shut down, especially if you're the packers. they were one dimensional and even though rodgers may be the best player in the nfl, if you're a one trick pony you can get shut down like that. a QB who can run for yardage on his own (and rodgers can, but not to the extent of the QBs i was referring to as the future) helps your running game and helps keep the defense on their heels.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Clubchucker

Wow....rough crowd.  I didn't know that going 30/44 for 303 yds passing and 2 TD's was getting "shut down".  :)

His one INT was terrible.  Didn't see the linebacker and it was big.  Stuff happens.  What was more concerning to this Packers fan was 1) issues with D were obviously not addressed and will continue to plague them (hey, let's cover Crabtree with a LB all day and let's not cover Randy Moss at all), still zero run game to take some heat off of Rodgers, and of course my favorite Finley still dropping passes.

Originally Posted by tiger187126

7 points scored by the offense until 6:05 was left IN THE GAME is getting shut down, especially if you're the packers. they were one dimensional and even though rodgers may be the best player in the nfl, if you're a one trick pony you can get shut down like that. a QB who can run for yardage on his own (and rodgers can, but not to the extent of the QBs i was referring to as the future) helps your running game and helps keep the defense on their heels.

I think the Packers were playing against the best non-Belichick coached team yesterday, which also contributed quite a bit to their poor showing.

[RonTheSavage]

NINERS!!!

And yes the Pack was shut down for most of the game. The Cobb run back where there was an OBVIOUS block in the back allowed GB to get some momentum to make the game closer. I still cant believe they threw the flag but picked it up!!

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Clubchucker

However, the most troubling thing I saw without question yesterday was GET THE REAL REFS BACK!!!   My God, every game I watched the officiating was beyond terrible.  Absolutely pathetic.

Originally Posted by RonTheSavage

And yes the Pack was shut down for most of the game. The Cobb run back where there was an OBVIOUS block in the back allowed GB to get some momentum to make the game closer. I still cant believe they threw the flag but picked it up!!

I imagine a lot of people griping about the replacement refs today are using this play as an example of why they stink.  I think all of those people have way too selective of a memory and are "romanticizing" (for lack of a better term) their time with the old refs.  None of the calls I saw yesterday, save for the fourth timeout granted to the Seahawks, was out of the realm of what the old refs could do too.

It would be nice to hear a detailed explanation, though, as to why they picked up that flag.  My only hope is that the flag was thrown for the sideways block that they kept showing on the replay and they "correctly" overturned it.  That would mean that they just flat out didn't see the really obvious one.  But the worse alternative is that the back judge had no backbone, called the penalty correctly, but then allowed himself to be overturned by another ref who only saw the good block.

[RonTheSavage]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

I imagine a lot of people griping about the replacement refs today are using this play as an example of why they stink.  I think all of those people have way too selective of a memory and are "romanticizing" (for lack of a better term) their time with the old refs.  None of the calls I saw yesterday, save for the fourth timeout granted to the Seahawks, was out of the realm of what the old refs could do too.

It would be nice to hear a detailed explanation, though, as to why they picked up that flag.  My only hope is that the flag was thrown for the sideways block that they kept showing on the replay and they "correctly" overturned it.  That would mean that they just flat out didn't see the really obvious one.  But the worse alternative is that the back judge had no backbone, called the penalty correctly, but then allowed himself to be overturned by another ref who only saw the good block.

Yeah you may be right because we're not sure which block the flag was thrown for. My only gripe is they kept showing the replay of the REAL block in the back and the ref was actually in the frame, so Im thinking he had to see it. Either way, the right team won, and it was a great game.

[jamo]

New England Patriots: 19-0. You heard it here first. (Mostly thanks to their cupcake schedule, but y'know.) :-P Oh, and there's some other teams. Most of week 1 is in the book. Have at it.

So 18-1 maybe... :-P

[bwdial]

The issues that I have with the replacement referees is that they are going to get someone killed.  During the Ravens v. Eagles game a pass was knocked down, and the back judge is signaling that it's a tipped ball while it's rolling around on the ground and players - in an already chippy game - were trying to kill each other to get it.  Blow the damn whistle.

Oh, and it's like Stevie Wonder is spotting the ball.

[jamo]

The issues that I have with the replacement referees is that they are going to get someone killed.  During the Ravens v. Eagles game a pass was knocked down, and the back judge is signaling that it's a tipped ball while it's rolling around on the ground and players - in an already chippy game - were trying to kill each other to get it.  Blow the damn whistle. Oh, and it's like Stevie Wonder is spotting the ball.

Yep. It's pretty clear the coaches neither respect nor trust the replacements, they're not particularly good at explaining rulings, they seem to be choking on their whistles in an attempt to not pull a Hochuli and whistle plays over before they should be, and they're not as consistent on judgement calls. I don't doubt that it's an extremely tough job, to make all of those snap calls (which really kills their confidence for when they have to talk to the coaches), but they're just not as good. I only really watched the Pats game closely, but they're spotting was atrocious (for/against both teams), and (shameless complaining) they completely botched the holding call on Rob Gronkowski on what would have been a Danny Woodhead game-winning touchdown (back to being rational).