The 2014 NFL thread
Users browsing this topic:0 Registered, 0 Hidden and 0 Guests
Registered Users: None |
 |
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Pies4shaw 
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: |  |
|
In the other results so far, the NFC West has opened up a little for the 49ers and Seattle in their attempts to catch the Cardinals - Cards 3 lost to Seattle 19 and the 49ers got over Washington 17:13. The Pats did the right thing by Green Bay, beating Detroit 34 to 9 and Green Bay did the right thing by themselves (just) against the Vikes, winning 24:21. Philly got back to winning ways, 43:24 over the Titans, Indy eventually wore down the Jags to win 23:3, Chicago beat Tampa Bay 21:13, Cincinnati got over Houston 22:13 and the Chargers just got over the Rams 27:24.
Cowboys v Giants starts shortly.
FWIW, I don't give my Packers much chance against New England next week - the New England defence was good enough to stop Stafford, so I expect it will trouble the Pack and the Green Bay defence struggled to contain the Vikings, so I don't see it stopping Brady. |
|
|
|
 |
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| blackmissionary wrote: | Watched most of the Browns-Falcons game. Good drive by Hoyer at the death, but some of his decision making earlier on was atrocious. Horrible clock management by both sides though, especially the Falcons at the end, not sure what they were thinking calling that timeout before their field goal.
Browns finally look like they have the nucleus of a good attacking set up both for the run offense and the receivers, but until they get a reliable quarterback they will always have problems. It's hard to know how good they've really been this season - they've had a relatively easy schedule playing against some weak divisions, but they're also in the toughest division themselves, which has been part of the reason it's been so hard for them since re-entering the league. On the other hand, it's the first time they've won consecutive road games - maybe a good finish to the season here will start the process of attracting some talent. |
And if they can keep winning, they are still a very real chance to win their division or take one of the wildcard spots. |
|
|
|
|
blackmissionary 
Lurker King
Joined: 26 Jul 2002
|
| Post subject: | |
|
Browns' run home is interesting, no easy games but also no teams with really strong records so far either.
Bills (A)
Colts (H)
Bengals (H)
Panthers (A)
Ravens (A)
That loss against the Jags may really come back to bite them. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Giants leading Cowboys 14:3, early in the second quarter. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| blackmissionary wrote: | Browns' run home is interesting, no easy games but also no teams with really strong records so far either.
Bills (A)
Colts (H)
Bengals (H)
Panthers (A)
Ravens (A)
That loss against the Jags may really come back to bite them. |
They probably need to be playing the Bengals (who are presently half a game ahead of them) but I suspect they'd rather not be playing three out their last 5 away. To put that run in context, when I was doing my predictions a few weeks ago, I had them losing 4 of those 5. Not that my predictions are particularly sensible or well-informed but it (sort of) indicates that they'll have to perform very well if they're not going to fall away at the business end. Now, I think they're a bit more of a chance against the Panthers and the Bengals than I thought at that time but I still think they'll lose to at least the Colts and the Ravens. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Just as the Giants seemed to be marching to the end zone to put the game out of Dallas' reach, the Cowboys intercepted Eli and took the lead on the ensuing TD. Now Dallas 24, New York Giants 21, a little under 10 minutes to go in the last. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| But the Giants take the lead with a TD, 28:24, three minutes to go. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Pies4shaw wrote: | | blackmissionary wrote: | Watched most of the Browns-Falcons game. Good drive by Hoyer at the death, but some of his decision making earlier on was atrocious. Horrible clock management by both sides though, especially the Falcons at the end, not sure what they were thinking calling that timeout before their field goal.
Browns finally look like they have the nucleus of a good attacking set up both for the run offense and the receivers, but until they get a reliable quarterback they will always have problems. It's hard to know how good they've really been this season - they've had a relatively easy schedule playing against some weak divisions, but they're also in the toughest division themselves, which has been part of the reason it's been so hard for them since re-entering the league. On the other hand, it's the first time they've won consecutive road games - maybe a good finish to the season here will start the process of attracting some talent. |
And if they can keep winning, they are still a very real chance to win their division or take one of the wildcard spots. |
I got to watch that game this morning. I have now ruled a line through both teams for the season. The last 5 minutes was like watching the Keystone Cops - two interceptions from Hoyer and then that ridiculous time-out by the Falcons, without which there just wouldn't have been time for Hoyer to pull his frying pan out of the fire. Horrible stuff. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| The "early" Monday night game, Jets v Bills is halfway at Detroit. The Bills lead 14:3 - Vick 6 of 15 for 42 yards v Orton 17 of 22 for 152 tells the story of the game, so far. The Bills will have the ball again straight after half-time. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
Bills now lead 31:3. Jets awful. Harvin has one reception for 2 yards (plus a couple of kick returns, one of which he fumbled but recovered).
In the other game, New Orleans and the Ravens are tied at 7. The Ravens have the ball on first and goal at the New Orleans 8. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
And after a fumble at the New Orleans 1-yard line cost the Ravens points on that drive, they've forced New Orleans to punt and Flacco has them back inside the red zone.
No, correction, Flacco has marched the Ravens for another touchdown. 13 (shortly to be 14) to 7. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| The Ravens/ New Orleans game is a see-sawing affair. The Ravens have just taken the lead 24:17, after intercepting Brees and returning the ball for a TD. Just a whisker under 5 minutes to play in the third. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
So the Bills won their game 38:3 and the Ravens hung on to keep New Orleans out 34:27.
Thus, in the NFC South, we have the ludicrous position that New Orleans and the Falcons are vying for fourth playoff position on 4 wins and 7 losses. Meanwhile, as things presently stand, one of the Seahawks and the 49ers would miss the playoffs, despite being massively better-performed than any of the poor teams in the NFC South. Let's hope that sorts itself out over the remaining weeks.
The big NFC tussles are: Dallas and Philly locked on 8 wins each in the NFC East; Green Bay and Detroit in the NFC North - although Green Bay (8:3) is a game ahead of Detroit (7:4), that probably just means they haven't taken their Patriots medicine, yet (that comes next week); in the NFC South, any of the teams can make it but, really, who cares? - they'll just be making up the numbers; in the NFC West, Arizona (9:2) is still 2 wins ahead of the Seahawks and 49ers (each 7:4) but things can change there very quickly, as the Cardinals have to play both Seattle and San Francisco again - and, over the next three weeks, Seattle and the 49ers play each other twice. If they split the points, that will help the Cardinals' cause massively but if Seattle or San Francisco takes both of those games, Arizona may get knocked out of top position, both in the NFC West and in the NFC, generally.
In the AFC, the East looks settled (although Miami have been good, they are 3 wins behind New England). New England will win at least 4 of their last 5 (and probably will also beat Green Bay to finish with the top seed position for the playoffs). In the AFC South, Indy is two games clear of Houston. Houston has the easier draw of the two but a lot may depend upon their December 14 match up. In the North, the Bengals are back on "top", at least temporarily but, in the strongest division in the AFC (and maybe the NFL), I still think three of the 4 teams can make the playoffs (as to which 3, it is still too close to call). In the AFC West, Denver and the Chiefs are still close, although Denver's position (8:3) was unexpectedly improved by the Chiefs' (7:4) surprise loss.
The other interest will be to see whether there is any fallout from the Jets' limp effort. As Rex Ryan said after the game "That was a horrible performance..... We didn't block, we didn't tackle, we didn't do anything." See http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=400607990 |
|
|
|
|
blackmissionary
Lurker King
Joined: 26 Jul 2002
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| We get the usual run of Thanksgiving games on FTA on Friday our time as well, which is good to see. Bears at Lions, Philly at Dallas, Seahawks at 49ers. |
|
|
|
|
Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| blackmissionary wrote: | | We get the usual run of Thanksgiving games on FTA on Friday our time as well, which is good to see. Bears at Lions, Philly at Dallas, Seahawks at 49ers. |
Thanks for that, bm - I would have missed this (and probably missed the games!) - So, 2 really important match-ups on Friday - Dallas playing Philly (8.30 am) for leadership of the NFC East and Seattle playing San Francisco (12.30 pm) to see who stays in the hunt to catch Arizona in the NFC West. And for those who enjoy watching great quarterbacks: well, at least you can watch Stafford beat the Bears in the early game (4.30 am - note the half-hour earlier than usual listing time).
And, on Monday, the FTA games are San Diego at Baltimore (5am), then the Big One - the "Superbowl preview" (there, now it's certain Green Bay can't make it), New England at Green Bay (8.30 am) (No 2 visiting No 1 in the likely MVP rankings, or, if you prefer, the best team visiting the second-best team, as things stand on form) and, at 12.30 pm, another cracker - Denver at Kansas City.
My picks for these 6 games are Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, Baltimore, New England and the Chiefs. Let's see how wrong I can be.  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
|
|
The Rules
FAQ
Usergroups
Calendar
Search
Log in
Register
