2007 NFL Playoffs

[Brett Favre 0]

I just like Bush, Deuce, Brees, Colston, and I like Fujita's name.

[Sideburnious 0]

It'll be a Bears/Pats Superbowl. Pats will probably win it but I'll be cheering for Bears.

 

With the L.T shit yesturday I almost thought he was actually seeking someone out, and then the other players were holding him back saying "you're better then that". I called the Pats winning yesturday anyway. It seemed like the mature "old guard" team in the Pats against the better, but reckless/ inexpierienced Chargers.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

My terminology of 'blowout' is any game where the Patriots don't have to pray that the opposing team can tie/beat them on their final drive. So, namely by more than 1 TD.

Eight points is a blowout? Is this what being a Patriots fan does to people?

 

All of the wins were by a minimum of 10 points IIRC. Would the terminology of a 30 point win be more to your liking? That doesn't happen often in the playoffs given the quality of the teams competing (usually). Here are the biggest point differentials of all the playoff games in the past 10 seasons... Only one of them was a Championship Game. 4 Seasons saw a high of less than 30 points with 2 other seasons barely surpassing 30 points.

 

2005: 25 points (Patriots over Jaguars) Wildcard Game

2004: 30 points (Falcons over Rams) Divisional Game

2003: 31 points (Colts over Broncos) Wild Card Game

2002: 41 points (Jets over Colts) Wild Card Game

2001: 28 points (Rams over Packers) Divisional Game

2000: 41 points (Giants over Vikings) NFC Championship Game

1999: 55 points (Jaguars over Dolphins) Divisional Game

1998: 35 points (Broncos over Dolphins) Divisional Game

1997: 25 points (Broncos over Jaguars) Wildcard Game

1996: 28 points (Steelers over Colts) Wildcard Game

 

Here are the number of games decided by 2 TDs (14 points) or less...

2005: 6

2004: 7

2003: 9

2002: 3

2001: 7

2000: 5

1999: 7

1998: 7

1997: 9

1996: 6

 

The fact is that given the quality of competition, especially in the Championship/Super Bowl games, it's more likely than not that the winner will not blow out his opponent. Even then, 4 of the 5 games I mentioned were won by at least 2 TDs. Only one, was a win by 10 points... not exactly the bare minimum of 8.

 

Since my terminology was clearly ludicrous in your opinion, what exactly should constitute a blowout given the fact that winning by at least 2 TDs apparently isn't enough?

[snuffbox 0]

Czech, the Saints are a VERY fun team to watch this year (and presumably for a few seasons to come). Beyond the heartwarmed nonsense they also have the old 1999 Rams vibe going for them as well. I'm no Saints fan but I'm not going to moat myself so far away from the emotional end of their success that I also miss out on the entertainment that their system has provided all season.

 

The Bears D is still fun to watch, Rex is entertaining in one way or the other, and that Hester guy should get his own NFL Films dvd. Brees is having an awesome season (and showing why the expert analysis of Troy Smith being 'too small, etc' for the NFL will probably prove to be rubbish), Colston's success after his draft position remains incredible, Joe Horn could be back, and the running back tandem can do practically anything. This should be a great game. I am looking forward to it in spite of, and while ignoring, all of the heartstring shit and the fact that duh Bears are involved.

[Slayer 0]

Packers and Vikings fans can unite this weekend against the Bears so, for one weekend, snuffbox is not a cunt

[The Man in Blak 0]

I can see some people wanting the Bears to lose, just so that we don't have to hear about Rex Grossman for the rest of the season.

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

Associated Press: "Robbie Gould's Foot Counteracts Rex Grossman's Arm"

 

But Rex threw for 292 yards and a touchdown.

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

I've never gotten this "Their not a good team, but they win!" stuff.

 

It's a game. You play to win. It doesn't matter HOW you win, as long as you win.

 

Therefore, if you win, especially in the playoffs where it's over if you lose and everyone understands this, then the team that wins is the BETTER TEAM. I don't care what happens, god himself could nuke a defensive player with a fucking lightning bolt during an interception, as long as one team wins and one loses that's enough. In the end, it's not about statistics, or who had the ball longer, it's about points. It's about who was able to get the job done and put the most points up on the board.

 

The Patriots may not look super well in doing so, but they get the job done. Exactly like how Seattle won half their games this season, when it mattered they scored what they needed to score to get the win. In this case, the Patriots "should" have lost but they didn't. They won. Just like how they do in almost ALL of their major games. Tom Brady is 12-1 in the post season. That is not "lucky", that's fucking SKILL. The Patriots are one of the best teams of the entire NFL, and if they go on to win the Super Bowl, then I'll be one of the first to say their the best team of the decade. The four teams that are left are the best in the NFL. You can't argue that. Why? Because they advanced.

 

So please stop this "But their not a good team" or "This team should have won but the other team got lucky!" It's silly, and inconsequential when only wins and losses matter.

[KingPK 0]

In my opinion, the reason that there are "haters" in the first place is because the blatant Patriot fanboyism and sports media saturation just screams out for a directly proportional backlash. Most of the objective observers of the game have noted that the Chargers let one slip away, but that just doesn't fit under the M.O. of the TSM branch of Patriot Nation, where every skate job becomes an epic victory where the Patriots "showed more grit/poise/moxy" than the other team.

 

That's fine, but if a team lets one "slip away", there has to be another team to catch it. You mean to tell me that it is ENTIRELY the Chargers fault they lost here? That Troy Brown strip, the Brady passes to Caldwell, the Stephen "He'll fold like a cheap tent under pressure because Vinatieri is the only guy that can kick in that situation" Gostkowski FG, those were all because the Chargers "let it slip away"? It takes two to tango. Brady sucked most of the game, but he pulled it out when it counted.

 

The "better" team DID NOT WIN. Hear that, MiB? I'm admitting the Chargers were the better team, but the better team needs to still make the plays and not do boneheaded things to actually get it done in January, which the Patriots did. Like I said, three Patriot turnovers led to ZERO points for SD AND they had a bunch of possessions that started at midfield in the first half and got like one TD out of them, but that's not just because the Charger offense sat on the field with their thumbs up their asses, New England's defense kept them off the scoreboard.

 

You talk about Patriot Fanboyism, I counter with people sick of the Patriots winning without flash and huge stars to fawn over trying to base a SIX YEAR RUN of success on "luck."

 

EDIT: ATH is talking about LT and the postgame stuff. My take: It was a highly emotional game and winning was a giant release for them, so they got a bit (ok, more than a bit) carried away and so did LT. That's all it was.

Edited January 15, 2007 by KingPK

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Just for interest and 'cause I'm bored... Away and Home didn't include the playoffs.

 

Regular Season Point Differentials

- Indianapolis Colts: +67

- New England Patriots: +148

- New Orleans Saints: +91

- Chicago Bears: +172

 

Away Differentials

- New England Patriots: +112 (Wow...)

- New Orleans Saints: +85

 

Home Differentials

- Indianapolis Colts: +89

- Chicago Bears: +98

 

Last 5 Games Away (inc. Playoffs)

- New England Patriots: +37

- New Orleans Saints: +76

 

Last 5 Games Home (inc. Playoffs)

- Indianapolis Colts: +63

- Chicago Bears: -21

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

What did LT do wrong? He's one of football's class acts.

 

Man, poor Rex Grossman. Brady threw three picks before getting the team into field goal position and he's lionized as Captain Comeback and all this shit, whereas Grossman throws one borderline interception on the way to a field goal, and the Bears win in spite of him. Tom Brady should donate his playoff bonus to Troy Brown, because if Patriot Magic didn't prevent the Chargers from keeping a turnover intact, he wouldn't even be in position to win the game at the end.

 

Whatever. It's important to follow the storylines. The Big Story is that Rex Grossman is the worst.

[Hawk 34 0]

New Orleans Vs Chicago

 

As always in all these post-season games, the conversation isn’t about the game. It’s about the hype and stories that each team can provide the susceptible national audience for the next two weeks leading to the game itself. Czech, from time to time in his rant that was hackneyed as Stuart Scott’s play call brought up a couple valid points. ESPN isn’t the only one pushing the Katrina angle nor will they be the only team to do so if New Orleans advances to the next round. It’s not an ESPN created monster. It was fashioned from years of the American Sports Media pushing the feel good story because it’s easier to get people to care about a story built as a soap opera rather then to focus on their playing ability.

 

Does Katrina matter in the context of the team playing good?

Not a bit. Katrina wasn’t last month. The reason the team has been successful is because of the changes the team made from Head Coach, Starting QB and a pair of tremendous rookies along with cutting a lot of dead weight from the team and infusing new blood. That was the catalyst for the improvement and success. Not the rallying cry of those fans. Look at that stadium and the people in it. Those aren’t the ones that got wrecked hardest by Katrina. The ones that really felt the sting of the damage aren’t spending their Sunday afternoons sitting in the comfortable confines of the Super Dome. They are sitting in substandard government issued housing and if they are lucky, they have a television to follow the team and maybe they’ll find that 4 hours sitting there watching the game offers a distraction but let’s not act as if the great hope exists because Reggie Bush can cut for a great run or Drew Brees can throw the fuck out of a pigskin football.

 

It’d be nice if we could just sit back and be entertained by the fact they are a fun team with a good story. That story being the typical rags to riches story. Unlike in Baseball where fans don’t care about the sport outside their market, Football attracts those skeptics to loving those hard luck teams once they do the improbable. People will love the Saints a lot if they make it to the Super Bowl. People might think from time to time about the impact and lost the citizens; the true citizens of New Orleans are feeling but will go right back to their comfortable lives on February 4th. Let’s just enjoy the performance. If Chicago wins, the media will construct some story to produce hype. It’s the Super Bowl tradition that really attracts those extra viewers.

 

I hope the Saints win because I like watching them play. They have a head coach that doesn’t play conservative football and likes to be aggressive. It might not work and they could get exposed for it. They have been quite vulnerable however. I don’t dislike the Chicago Bears, even if I’m as sick of the “REX GROSSMAN IS CANCER!” overreactions. Their defense is suspect given the depleted roster via the injuries but this is more important in gauging the ability of Lovie Smith rather then the questionable and inconsistent performance of their Quarterback. Lovie isn’t a sexy coach. He doesn’t chew out the media like the grumpy old men contingent or give them cutesy quotable sound bites like you know who nor does he have that history to fall back on.

 

This game should be more about Lovie Smith for the locals rather then Rex Grossman. Sean Payton is a rookie coach, he overreached his limit and anything past this level is just simply icing on the cake. He won’t have that pressure like Smith will. Smith was expected to build this team in this season to be playing in Miami. He was expected to win and falling short again despite being what appears to be the best team overall won't help.

 

Not that Smith is getting any of that total negativity just yet but lest we forget the short fused tempers of the fans and the speed of every network (not just ESPN, because ESPN doesn’t own you) to start spreading the smear campaigns. Fuck the worrying about whatever hype and stories will come out of a New Orleans win. Fuck Rex Grossman’s inconsistent play. Let’s enjoy what should be a fun match-up.

[KingPK 0]

Just for interest and 'cause I'm bored... Away and Home didn't include the playoffs.

 

Away Differentials

- New England Patriots: +112 (Wow...)

 

Inflated a bit due to slapping around the Vikings and Packers on the road. They played REALLY well on the road overall, though. Take out those two games and it's still a solid +56.

Edited January 15, 2007 by KingPK

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

If New Orleans has been rebuilt as a chocolate city, the Louisiana Superdome must be the delicious vanilla cream filling. I like sports, but the priority that the Saints and Hornets, especially the Hornets, have been given in this whole rebuilding is ridiculously disproportionate. So what if the best this city will ever be again is Atlantic City South? We've gotta make sure a football team that doesn't want to be here and a basketball team that nobody asked for both stay in a metropolis whose population has been too decimated to sustain pro sports.

[Cartman 0]

When Rex Grossman is part of 3 Championship teams then he can get some slack when he plays poorly too.

[The Man in Blak 0]

The "better" team DID NOT WIN. Hear that, MiB? I'm admitting the Chargers were the better team, but the better team needs to still make the plays and not do boneheaded things to actually get it done in January, which the Patriots did.

Great! Now we're talking!

 

You mean to tell me that it is ENTIRELY the Chargers fault they lost here? That Troy Brown strip,

 

Yes, I'm perfectly comfortable with saying that the Chargers' stupidity directly led to Troy Brown having the opportunity to make a fantastic play on the interception; if McCree realizes that it's fourth down and that his team had an eight point lead with mere minutes left in the game, he probably falls to the ground with the ball or just swats it away for an incompletion. But he made a costly mistake of trying to be a hero with the ball and Troy Brown made him pay for it by forcing a fumble, which (for the third time in this thread) took a fortunate bounce into the arms of a Patriot.

 

If you somehow can't see how improbable that series of events was, then I don't really know what to tell you.

[Slayer 0]

If New Orleans has been rebuilt as a chocolate city, the Louisiana Superdome must be the delicious vanilla cream filling.

This might be one of the greatest statements I've ever seen

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

When Rex Grossman is part of 3 Championship teams then he can get some slack when he plays poorly too.

Well, way to totally miss my point, which is that the media should concentrate on what actually happened rather than the pre-determined Storyline Express. You're one dumb motherfucker as an individual, and as part of a whole, why I only rank Boston sports fans as one notch above cockroaches in likeability and necessity.

[KingPK 0]

Good/great teams wait until their opponents kick themselves in the ass and then stuff those mistakes right back up there. That's been their M.O. the whole time and it works to a tee. Like I've said multiple times, the Patriots kicked themselves in the ass plenty of times yesterday, but the Chargers couldn't find the asshole, I guess (cue Czech replying "That's easy, it's Belichick").

 

That wasn't a "fortunate bounce": Caldwell DOVE on that fucker and held on for dear life.

Edited January 15, 2007 by KingPK

[hyperchord24 0]

I've never gotten this "Their not a good team, but they win!" stuff.

 

It's a game. You play to win. It doesn't matter HOW you win, as long as you win.

 

Therefore, if you win, especially in the playoffs where it's over if you lose and everyone understands this, then the team that wins is the BETTER TEAM. I don't care what happens, god himself could nuke a defensive player with a fucking lightning bolt during an interception, as long as one team wins and one loses that's enough. In the end, it's not about statistics, or who had the ball longer, it's about points. It's about who was able to get the job done and put the most points up on the board.

 

The Patriots may not look super well in doing so, but they get the job done. Exactly like how Seattle won half their games this season, when it mattered they scored what they needed to score to get the win. In this case, the Patriots "should" have lost but they didn't. They won. Just like how they do in almost ALL of their major games. Tom Brady is 12-1 in the post season. That is not "lucky", that's fucking SKILL. The Patriots are one of the best teams of the entire NFL, and if they go on to win the Super Bowl, then I'll be one of the first to say their the best team of the decade. The four teams that are left are the best in the NFL. You can't argue that. Why? Because they advanced.

 

So please stop this "But their not a good team" or "This team should have won but the other team got lucky!" It's silly, and inconsequential when only wins and losses matter.

No one is arguing with you there. A lot of retarded people say that, just not here, I don't think.

[The Man in Blak 0]

That wasn't a "fortunate bounce": Caldwell DOVE on that fucker and held on for dear life.

 

You can say that "Reche dove on that fucker" and explain what happened, but there's no explanation for how it happened, because there is no "how"; though players are always taught a particular thing to do whenever a fumble occurs, there is no discernible skill held by football players that makes them any more pre-disposed to making more fumble recoveries than another given player in any given situation. Statistics bear it out and, really, common sense bears that out - folks just dive onto the ball and pray.

 

Fumble recovery is a matter of random chance, but I can understand how you might be confused, since the Patriots recovered five of them yesterday (two of their own).

[Guest Princess Leena]

Belichick KNEW to specifically teach Caldwell to be INTENSE~ going after fumbles.

 

Which Schottenheimer didn't do in San Diego.

[Cartman 0]

When Rex Grossman is part of 3 Championship teams then he can get some slack when he plays poorly too.

Well, way to totally miss my point, which is that the media should concentrate on what actually happened rather than the pre-determined Storyline Express. You're one dumb motherfucker as an individual, and as part of a whole, why I only rank Boston sports fans as one notch above cockroaches in likeability and necessity.

Always so full of anger and hate for nearly everything, I feel sorry for you.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Lost in all this is the fact Rex Grossman is actually having a better season at the quarterback position than the last guy to lead the Bears to a Super Bowl, Jim McMahon.

[MrRant 0]

When Rex Grossman is part of 3 Championship teams then he can get some slack when he plays poorly too.

Well, way to totally miss my point, which is that the media should concentrate on what actually happened rather than the pre-determined Storyline Express. You're one dumb motherfucker as an individual, and as part of a whole, why I only rank Boston sports fans as one notch above cockroaches in likeability and necessity.

Always so full of anger and hate for nearly everything, I feel sorry for you.

 

[Special K 0]

I can't believe it, but I'm going to be rooting for Peyton Manning next week.

 

Also, I like the Saints, and for once don't begrudge the feel-good story of the week.

 

That said, New Orleans is still enormously fucked. literally 50% of its gross income pre-Katrina was from tourism. My alma mater, one of the richest schools in the US has closed its engineering program completely, and has an incredibly small freshman class.

[nogoodnick 0]

I'm a pretty big Reggie Bush fan and I like Deuce a little bit too so I'm pulling for the Saints to win the Super Bowl. On the other hand I do not want to hear about how great it is for the city of New Orleans and all that shit. Yeah, it is great, but fuck that I want to watch some football. Whichever teams end up there I think we already know the story lines. Will the Bears pull it together and win? Will Peyton finally win the big one? Are the Pats the greatest dynasty ever? I don't mind putting up with it as long as the SB is entertaining this year. I fell asleep at halftime last year but I hear Prince is doing the HT show which excites me.

 

As for the Patriots celebrating at midfield and doing the Merriman dance I say good for them. If San Diego has a problem with it maybe they should've won the fucking game. I watched LT and Luis Castillo talk about how classless they were on Sportscenter. You know whats classless? How about a 4 game suspension for steroids. Or in Castillo's case testing positive for marijuana and watching your draft stock slip 5 rounds(or however far he fell). Or that personal foul on fuckhead for trying to headbutt someone. Fuck you San Diego, win or go home (in this case they were home so win or shut the fuck up).

[Art Sandusky 0]

Who said the Saints don't want to be in New Orleans anymore? Does Tom Benson's wishy-washyness (that of the OWNER, not the players/staff) from last year carry over into this year for some reason? The Hornets I'll allow, but the Saints have been there forever in football time and New Orleans' only professional sports team for most of that time. They also keeps the newly refurbished Superdome fresh in the minds of organizers/conventioneers, which brings more income to the city, and moreso now thanks to a beyond-all-expectations stellar season.

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

Lost in all this is the fact Rex Grossman is actually having a better season at the quarterback position than the last guy to lead the Bears to a Super Bowl, Jim McMahon.

shutupshutupshutupshutupTHERE IS A QUARTERBACK CONTROVERSY IN CHICAGO ONE-POINT-NINE AND A ZERO TOO

 

I've criticized Rex at times, just like everybody else has (and should have), but man, the guy's getting such a raw deal from Fox and the Booyahs. What if that was Brett Favre quarterbacking yesterday? The designated story would be that he led his team through adversity with unflappable grit and that laserbeam touchdown pass right after the opponents scored (how ABOUT that one), and somehow it becomes the Bears winning in spite of Mr. "it was New Year's Eve." Don't tell me that he has to earn positive coverage by winning three rings and having a killer smile. That's no excuse, guys. He should earn positive coverage by having a really good game. Anything less than that is the slapdash journalism that we've grown oh so accustomed to around here.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

The thing is Rex Grossman isn't a bad quarterback, he's just ridicuously inconsistent (which may correlate with bad in some people's books, but that's besides the point). I believe he had more games with a QB rating above 100 than any other quarterback this season. It's not like he's out there playing like the drizzling shits week after week after week. He had several bad games interspersed with a lot of good ones. That's what you get with a young quarterback.