NFL Pick'em Challenge

[DarthFed]

Indeed Cali. I will admit I was a bit wrong about Pittsburgh. They are a dangerous team, still tough to see past either Denver or New England reaching the Super Bowl but I think Pitt is the most likely to upset the apple cart.

I also was unaware of this until today; if GB wins next week they are the 2 seed even if Dallas wins. I thought if there was a 3 way tie between GB, Dallas and Seattle that GB would be the 3 seed. So that is a pleasant surprise. If Detroit wins I think they would be the 1 seed, whoever loses is the 6th seed and will play @ Dallas in round 1. A lot on the line to say the least.

EDIt: I hear that Seattle wins the #1 seed if there is a 3 way tie even if it is with Detroit and Dallas. I thought it goes to division record and since Detroit would be 6-0 if they beat GB I thought they'd get the 1 seed.

Seattle getting home-field or not getting home-field is hugely important. But that defense can shut anyone down anywhere with how good the secondary is, so much speed and athleticism.

The Steelers are dangerous because of Roethlisberger and the way that Bryant has opened up the offense. But their secondary is very vulnerable and their linebackers are average aside from Harrison.

Agreed. Even if Seattle was going to Green Bay in the NFC Title game I wouldn't be surprised if the Packers lost. It'd be close to 50-50 with slight edge to Green Bay IMO. I would be absolutely shocked if GB goes into Seattle and wins though. That's why I mentioned that we will probably look back on the Bills game as the reason GB didn't make the Super Bowl. I do think that debacle is what will end up costing them their season. Seattle is definitely beating any AFC team again and if GB makes it I'd favor them slightly over New England or Denver as well.

 

[calitennis127]

Well Darth, the usual Peyton Manning end-of-season meltdown apparently began a couple weeks earlier than usual last night. It's amazing how so many football gurus and statheads talk him up at the start of every season as the greatest thing and then each year they are "shocked" by what happens to him at the end of the season.

Mobility is an asset for a quarterback and improvising is important. It's not all pre-snap reads and robotically making a quick pass to a spot. I don't know when people are going to finally realize that.

 

[DarthFed]

I'm not a fan of Peyton but I have mad respect for what he has done since coming back from the neck surgeries. It's nothing short of remarkable to come back as a 35 year old on a new team after a full year away with what is obviously a serious situation. And he has been great overall the 3 seasons with Denver. He probably isn't the 2nd best qb this year but in this 3 year span he has been 2nd easily, arguably 1st since Rodgers missed half of last year.

But I get your point. Peyton has almost always underperformed in the playoffs, no sugarcoating it. The problem now is double, he is old and has lost a lot of arm strength after the neck surgeries. Old Qb's do not perform well in the cold, period. I saw the same thing with Favre the last 5+ years of his career in GB. He was once something like 35-0 in games under 40 degrees and by the end of his career you could tell he wanted no part of bad weather and he was just awful in it. It just affects the old QB's more. Brady has been poor in December and January for awhile now too. And with Manning it's worse due to having very poor arm strength. The Broncos and Pats might benefit from their homefield advantage in the playoffs this year but not sure Brady and Manning benefit individually and that makes them beatable. If Pitt wins they get the 3 seed and would face Denver in the 2nd round. I could definitely see an upset there.

 

[I.Haychew]

Week 17:

Carolina at Atlanta: Atlanta
Cleveland at Baltimore: Baltimore
Detroit at Green Bay: Green Bay
Jacksonville at Houston: Houston
San Diego at Kansas City: San Diego
Jets at Miami: Miami
Chicago at Minnesota: Minnesota
Buphphalo at New England: New England
Filadelfia at Giants: Giants
New Orleans at Tampa Bay: New Orleans
Indianapolis at Tennessee: Indianapolis
Dallas at R-Words: Dallas
Oakland at Denver: Denver
Arizona at San Phrancisco: San Phrancisco
Hands Up. Don't Shoots at SEAHAWKS: SEAHAWKS
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh

 

[the AntiPusher]

I'm not a fan of Peyton but I have mad respect for what he has done since coming back from the neck surgeries. It's nothing short of remarkable to come back as a 35 year old on a new team after a full year away with what is obviously a serious situation. And he has been great overall the 3 seasons with Denver. He probably isn't the 2nd best qb this year but in this 3 year span he has been 2nd easily, arguably 1st since Rodgers missed half of last year.

But I get your point. Peyton has almost always underperformed in the playoffs, no sugarcoating it. The problem now is double, he is old and has lost a lot of arm strength after the neck surgeries. Old Qb's do not perform well in the cold, period. I saw the same thing with Favre the last 5+ years of his career in GB. He was once something like 35-0 in games under 40 degrees and by the end of his career you could tell he wanted no part of bad weather and he was just awful in it. It just affects the old QB's more. Brady has been poor in December and January for awhile now too. And with Manning it's worse due to having very poor arm strength. The Broncos and Pats might benefit from their homefield advantage in the playoffs this year but not sure Brady and Manning benefit individually and that makes them beatable. If Pitt wins they get the 3 seed and would face Denver in the 2nd round. I could definitely see an upset there.

Good points about Peyton Question if you take Brady away from the Empire teams of the past 14-15 years, plug Peyton into that position , would he had won 3 Super bowls?

 

[DarthFed]

I'm not a fan of Peyton but I have mad respect for what he has done since coming back from the neck surgeries. It's nothing short of remarkable to come back as a 35 year old on a new team after a full year away with what is obviously a serious situation. And he has been great overall the 3 seasons with Denver. He probably isn't the 2nd best qb this year but in this 3 year span he has been 2nd easily, arguably 1st since Rodgers missed half of last year.

But I get your point. Peyton has almost always underperformed in the playoffs, no sugarcoating it. The problem now is double, he is old and has lost a lot of arm strength after the neck surgeries. Old Qb's do not perform well in the cold, period. I saw the same thing with Favre the last 5+ years of his career in GB. He was once something like 35-0 in games under 40 degrees and by the end of his career you could tell he wanted no part of bad weather and he was just awful in it. It just affects the old QB's more. Brady has been poor in December and January for awhile now too. And with Manning it's worse due to having very poor arm strength. The Broncos and Pats might benefit from their homefield advantage in the playoffs this year but not sure Brady and Manning benefit individually and that makes them beatable. If Pitt wins they get the 3 seed and would face Denver in the 2nd round. I could definitely see an upset there.

Good points about Peyton Question if you take Brady away from the Empire teams of the past 14-15 years, plug Peyton into that position , would he had won 3 Super bowls?

Obviously it's all speculation but yes I think he would have won at least the same amount as Brady. People forget that Brady wasn't always a great QB. His first few years as a starter he was more of a game manager and that's when they happened to win the 3 Super Bowls in 4 years. That was a team mostly built on defense. It was after those Super Bowl runs when the defense fell off that we saw Brady become a tremendous QB but at the same time they haven't won one in the last 10 years...

I think Peyton has always been a better qb than Brady but it's also hard to ignore that Manning has had a fair share of meltdowns in the playoffs. But put him with a much better defense all those years and one of the best coaches ever and then the whole game wouldn't have fallen on his shoulders all the time. Both are two of the all-time greats considering everything. I hope AR passes them up and by a good margin but it won't be easy. Rodgers needs another couple rings to do it...

 

[DarthFed]

Onto week 17:

Browns @ Ravens - Ravens
Cowboys @ Redskins - Going Cowboys but this is almost meaningless for them. The only way they don't finish #3 is if GB ties Detroit or both Seattle and Arizona lose. But given that very slight hope at the higher seed they should play their starters.

Colts @ Titans - Colts. Similar to above the Colts are locked in the 4 spot no matter what now but Titans WANT to lose and will find a way to do that.

Jags @ Texans - Texans
Chargers @ Chiefs - If San Diego wins they are in...Chiefs also still have a slight hope. This is probably the toughest one to call this weekend. Now going with the Chargers

Jets @ Dolphins - Dolphins
Bears @ Vikings - Vikes
Bills @ Patriots - Pats have #1 seed locked up and I doubt the starters go the whole way. Yet this is still New England and Belichick and they will still likely beat Buffalo with mostly backups.

Eagles @ Giants - Giants
Saints @ Bucs - Saints
Panthers @ Falcons - Atlanta is definitely the best team in that terrible division and I think they'll take it.

Lions @ Packers - Tons on the line, the NFC North title and the difference between #2 and #6 and going to Dallas. I don't think Detroit's history here matters too much, they've lost 23 straight and haven't won in Wisconsin in 23 years. What does matter is that the Packers are really tough at home, Detroit plays indoors and doesn't fare great in the cold, and...the Packers are flat out better. That said I expect Detroit to come out like bats out of hell. Many Lions fans are calling this the biggest game in that sorry franchise's history and they're probably not exaggerating. If GB gets off to a good start they win easily. If Detroit gets off to a strong 10-0 type start then it will be a battle but I think GB wins anyways. Both teams pouring a lot into this one and I fully expect the loser of this game to suffer in Dallas the week after. Maybe GB could gather themselves and win but there will likely be a hangover effect.

Raiders @ Broncos - Broncos
Cards @ 49ers - Going with San Fran. This game is played at the same time as the Seahawks game. Lots on the line for the Cards but they basically don't have a QB.

Rams @ Seahawks - Seattle.
Bengals @ Steelers - Pitt is more explosive but Cincy's defense is more steady. I trust Big Ben in the big game a lot more than Dalton. It will be close but I think Steelers take it.

EDIT: Alex Smith, Chiefs QB is out on Sunday. Chase Daniel is the backup. I'm switching to Chargers.

 

[britbox]

Harbaugh will be fired by SF early next week and will be in Oaktown a few days later. You heard it here first.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Harbaugh will be fired by SF early next week and will be in Oaktown a few days later. You heard it here first.

I won't Miss a coach who can't score a TD on 1st and goal on the five yards line in the Super Bowl, good riddances

 

[DarthFed]

BB is optimistic. I think he ends up in Ann Arbor

 

[the AntiPusher]

Browns @ Ravens - Ravens
Cowboys @ Redskins - Romo and the rest of Jerry's
Colts @ Titans - Colts
Jags @ Texans - Texans
Chargers @ Chiefs - Superchargers
Jets @ Dolphins - Fins
Bears @ Vikings - Vikes
Bills @ Patriots - Bills(Pats have it locked up
Eagles @ Giants - Eagles
Saints @ Bucs - Bucs
Panthers @ Falcons -Cam
Lions @ Packers -Lions
Raiders @ Broncos - Broncos
Cards @ 49ers - 49ers
Rams @ Seahawks - Seahawks
Bengals @ Steelers - Mike C will have the Steelers

 

[kskate2]

Final RS week:

Browns @ Ravens - Ravens
Cowboys @ Redskins – the Boys
Colts @ Titans - Indy
Jags @ Texans - Texans
Chargers @ Chiefs - SD
Jets @ Dolphins - Fins
Bears @ Vikings - Vikes
Bills @ Patriots - Pats
Eagles @ Giants - Giants
Saints @ Bucs - Saints
Panthers @ Falcons - Carolina
Lions @ Packers - Pack
Raiders @ Broncos - Broncos
Cards @ 49ers - Cards
Rams @ Seahawks – Seattle
Bengals @ Steelers - Steelers

 

[DarthFed]

Rodgers hurt and brad jones is brad jones. Game over and seAson over if rodgers is out

 

[the AntiPusher]

Rodgers hurt and brad jones is brad jones. Game over and seAson over if rodgers is out

Not so fast , A-Rod is made of true grit ( I picked the lions because I was trying to catch up in this pool, they haven't won in gb since Don Magicman was the QB

 

[DarthFed]

Yeah I was telling my friends at half, when a player is carted out that usually means they are done for the day at the very least. Gutsy for Rodgers, he was gimpy as hell and now he gets 2 weeks off. Even on a bad leg he was gutting a top 2 defense all game, big time win puts them in position for a real hope at a run.

 

[the AntiPusher]

One thing that puzzles me about Him Harbaugh was what was the factors that led him and his team of coaches to take a pass on his ex player from Stanford, Richard Sherman. Everyone knows that is one of the reasons Sherman hates the 49ers team and has become a pure poison pill the 49ers Organization

 

[DarthFed]

^ No doubt the 49ers have missed out on some great players over the years. Drafting Alex Smith instead of Rodgers is the worst. If you had Rodgers with a defense like they had for 4 years that's probably at least 3 SB's. That said almost every team has a situation like that in their team history, where they missed out on a superstar. Packers could have had Barry Sanders...

 

[DarthFed]

Harbaugh to Michigan appears to be a done deal. Aside from that a couple of the certain firings took place in Chicago and New York. One that I thought was up in the air was Atlanta but Mike Smith got the axe there too.

 

[I.Haychew]

NEWS: The Detroit Loins' "In Donkey Kong's Shoe" (aka Ndamukong Suh) has been suspended phor the Loins wildcard game vs. the Cowgirls because he stood on Mr. Rodgers' ankle/shin/calph. The guy (Shoe) is an idiot and a dirty player, he isn't a very good neighbor, and he dephinitely ain't gettin' a State Pharm double-check discount. I hate the Cowgirls, but the Loins are punks, so I hope they (the Loins) lose.

 

[DarthFed]

^ Suh is a piece of garbage yet I will be rooting for Detroit. Much easier matchup for GB is the winner of Carolina vs. Arizona and also the Lions are a team that could matchup decently vs. Seattle. That said I think GB would take care of Dallas and Seattle would also almost certainly take out Detroit as well. But tough as it is I will be rooting for the dirty kitties.