NFL Week 1 (Sept. 5th-9th)

[Cubswin11]

Seems to me the replacement refs weren't completely incompetent in week 1. Some bad calls here and there, but nothing that makes me want to demand the return of the other refs. Probably only gonna get better and better each week going forward. I think the NFL is going to end up getting the better end of these negotiations when all is said and done.

There's no way they don't come out of this better. They already have proven/are showing they are willing to move on with other refs and things, like you said, are going well for the most part. Sure there were some errors this week (the refs holding out would certainly have missed calls this week and probably would have missed or made some of the same calls the replacements did). Also the NFL has these replacement refs in training and review sessions all week to show them what they need to do better or call more/less of. They will only get better. It's not like the old refs were reffing at some gold standard level that is unattainable or not able to be learned.

[UMFan83]

I'm prefacing this by saying I'm sorry if you don't care about my Bill Simmons rants...I choose to make NSBB my place to rant about him. And yes I love reading his articles even if I constantly bitch about him.

 

Anyways, what a terrible week its been for the Sports guy. Just reading his NFL season/week 1 picks column, and I'm seeing a ton of stuff he's probably regretting after only 1 week. I applaud the guy for going against the grain and understanding there is a lot of unpredictability in the NFL, its just that the teams he went bold on were curious to begin win.

 

-The Seahawks are going 12-4, getting the #1 seed, and making it to the Super Bowl

-All based on his drooling over Russell Wilson. Look I like Wilson's story too and I'm not ready to temper expectations based on a mediocre week 1, but come on.

-The Colts will go 9-7 and make the playoffs. I dunno, I guess you could defend it if you truely believe that Luck would come in as a rookie and play like a Pro Bowler right away. Maybe he will end up doing so. I just know the Colts looked really mediocre on both sides of the ball while getting drubbed by the Bears.

-The Colts will beat the Bears 27-23 in week 1. Whoops

-Arizona will go 1-15. Guess they are losing out the rest of the year

-Buffalo will go 10-6 and make the playoffs. I didn't mind the Bills as a sleeper team, but boy did they look awful the first 3 quarters yesterday. I think some week 1 results are more telling than others, and this is one of those cases.

-Denver is a worse team than last year, have a mediocre to poor defense and will go 6-10. Whoops part 2. Denver's D looked pretty good yesterday IIRC.

 

Eh, I guess that's all of the most embarassing in retrospect stuff. Thank you for your time and attention.

[Guest]

To be fair on the last two points, he did pick Buffalo to lose and Denver to win yesterday.

[jersey cubs fan]

http://deadspin.com/5941954/lets-count-how-many-different-metaphors-we-can-make-out-of-brandon-weeden-being-trapped-under-a-giant-american-flag

[Soul]

Hehehe. The Browns just can't seem to get out of that hole.

[Formerly Snayke]

-The Colts will beat the Bears 27-23 in week 1. Whoops

 

I have no idea why people were predicting such foolishness. For all the grief that Lovie catches, the Bears still have a pretty good defense, and I'm convinced that most criticism of Jay Cutler stems from the fact that he looks like a dick. I don't think it has anything to do with his ability; people just see the look on his face and presume that he can't play football and it leads to hilariously bad predictions.

 

Also, where in the [expletive] [expletive] were people getting off thinking the Colts were going to shut down Brandon Marshall? Did they think Luck was going to get out and play corner? The only way someone could have possibly thought Indy wins that game is if Marshall is a non-factor.

[Andy]

Hehehe. The Browns just can't seem to get out of that hole.

You know, I've been looking for a good new euphemism for...never mind.

[jersey cubs fan]

-The Colts will beat the Bears 27-23 in week 1. Whoops

 

I have no idea why people were predicting such foolishness. For all the grief that Lovie catches, the Bears still have a pretty good defense, and I'm convinced that most criticism of Jay Cutler stems from the fact that he looks like a dick. I don't think it has anything to do with his ability; people just see the look on his face and presume that he can't play football and it leads to hilariously bad predictions.

 

Also, where in the [expletive] [expletive] were people getting off thinking the Colts were going to shut down Brandon Marshall? Did they think Luck was going to get out and play corner? The only way someone could have possibly thought Indy wins that game is if Marshall is a non-factor.

 

Or if they were female. I won 2 separate bets against female colts fans and I'm quite happy about their foolish optimism.

[sneakypower]

i can't get enough of this video of Suh's one-arm takedown of Steven Jackson

[jersey cubs fan]

http://deadspin.com/5941952/this-photo-captures-the-moment-a-pissed+off-steelers-fan-threw-her-beer-on-the-photographer-after-tracy-porters-game+ending-int

[minnesotacubsfan]

i can't get enough of this video of Suh's one-arm takedown of Steven Jackson

 

I think you mean horse collar. Suuuch a dirty player

[dew1679666265]

Titans looked absolutely atrocious yesterday. The running game was completely shut down (largely thanks to the offensive line, I didn't see one hole all day for any of the running backs) and the defense looked terrible. For as much as Jerry Gray talked about bringing back a similar style defense to the late 90s/early 2000s Titan teams, this defensive style looks a whole lot more like Chuck Cecil's - corners playing very soft, basically nothing but 4-man rushes, and hoping we don't get beat deep. I'm really starting to like Munchak and Palmer, but I'm quickly losing my faith in Gray and he was one of the hires I initially liked.

 

Locker actually looked pretty good in a very conservative gameplan - he's a really good decision maker out there. If he could just get his accuracy together, he'd be one of the top young QBs in the league. That said, shaky accuracy for a QB is a pretty big deal.

[Formerly Snayke]

Or if they were female. I won 2 separate bets against female colts fans and I'm quite happy about their foolish optimism.

 

Fools, indeed.

[bcl412]

Does Gruden have to call everyone "a football player"? I mean they are, but considering that's obvious, since I'm watching football, he really doesn't need to say it all the time.

[Soul]

Struggling to find things to like about the Bengals

[Guest]

http://i.imgur.com/RLzYh.jpg

Is that lineman downfield illegally when the ball is caught?

[Soul]

Hehehe. The Browns just can't seem to get out of that hole.

You know, I've been looking for a good new euphemism for...never mind.

 

Hah :)

 

Yeah...

[Guest]

It took the Raiders 14 minutes to commit their first penalty of the year. I'm impressed.

[Garwilly]

i can't get enough of this video of Suh's one-arm takedown of Steven Jackson

 

I think you mean horse collar. Suuuch a dirty player

 

You clearly don't know what a horse collar is.

[weis21]

I took the triple u to indicate sarcasm.

 

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[Garwilly]

I took the triple u to indicate sarcasm.

 

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

 

In that case, fair enough.

[DivineBovine]

Wow. How hard is it to snap the ball? It must be much tougher than it looks.

[Cubswin11]

Wow. How hard is it to snap the ball? It must be much tougher than it looks.

Better question is, is how did this guy break camp with them? Is he the best they could do? Seems like something either you can or can't do and they should have figured it out in OTA's/pre-season games.

[DivineBovine]

Stop me if this sounds familiar...

 

“We beat ourselves. They really didn’t beat us,” Jarrett Bush said, via Mike Woods of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “We just have to hunker down and make sure we’re gap sound and get on the same page. Obviously, small things being miscommunicated on the field become big things, so they exploited us and that’s what happened.”

 

As a reminder, here's Clay Matthews last month talking about the playoff loss...

 

“We picked the most inopportune time to play our worst ball,” linebacker Clay Matthews tells Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports. “The fact is, [the Giants] didn’t beat us; we beat ourselves. We need to play our best ball when it counts. This year, I expect us to be right back where we should be.”

 

 

Reminds me of the Bears game a couple years ago when they got flagged for holding on every play because there was no way they could stop the pass rush. Oh wait...they blamed the officials for that game. Not themselves. Never mind.

[Guest]

http://i.imgur.com/RLzYh.jpg

Is that lineman downfield illegally when the ball is caught?

Sure looks like it - that's the first thing I thought when I saw that picture.