NFL PICKS: Super Bowl Sunday

[Lootifer]

Also why do you guys not have a couple of games on Friday and Saturday nights? Is that reserved for College or something? Seems odd. Our big sports games tend to be 7:30pm Fri/Sat (internationals usually on Sat)...

[Frigidus]

Also why do you guys not have a couple of games on Friday and Saturday nights? Is that reserved for College or something? Seems odd. Our big sports games tend to be 7:30pm Fri/Sat (internationals usually on Sat)...

College football does tend to be played on Saturday, yes. As it is now, there's something of a fan backlash against Thursday night football. People look at what often are sloppy Thursday games and they blame it on the smaller amount of prep time. It isn't going to change any time soon as there's a decent amount of money invested in the exclusive broadcast rights to football on Thursday, but there would definitely be a certain amount of fan resistance if they tried to expand into the rest of the week.

[Crazyirishman]

Also why do you guys not have a couple of games on Friday and Saturday nights? Is that reserved for College or something? Seems odd. Our big sports games tend to be 7:30pm Fri/Sat (internationals usually on Sat)...

It goes back to like 1967 or something which gave the NFL an exemption on some anti-trust laws if I remember correctly. The agreement is that the NFL can be monopolous as long as they don't broadcast on Fridays and Saturdays while high school and college teams usually play. Once those seasons are over they can broadcast on Saturdays.

[Army of GOD]

Thursday night games are for the most part awful.

Also, going along with Irishman, you see Saturday games in the first two weeks of playoffs. They'll have two games on Sat and Sun and at different times.

[oVo]

Pro sports make an effort to not step on each other's toes
or even other events. They want their biggest audience.

In the USA Friday nights tend to be High School Football,
Saturday is College and Sunday is the NFL... with just a
few exceptions.

Week 3

KC @ PHI ...Andy Reid looks good in Red and the Chiefs are 3-0
HOU @ BAL ...
NYG @ CAR ...not just a win, Panthers stomp the G-Men
DET @ WAS ...Lions were fortunate to steal this win in the end
SD @ TEN...Chargers gave this one away at the finish
ARZ @ NO
TB @ NE...Pats are figuring it out, but Bucs can't pass or catch
GB @ CIN...Pack turns over win to Bengals late in this one.
STL @ DAL ...now leads the NFC Least
CLE @ MIN ... a stunner
ATL @ MIA ...the Fish are 3-0
BUF @ NYJ ...absurd amount of penalty yards & the Jets eek it out
IND @ SF ... don't think Harbaugh has ever lost 2 in a row in San Francisco
JAC @ SEA... Scariest place to visit in the NFL right now?
CHI @ PIT ... Cutler and that scoring D look for real
OAK @ DEN

8-8 (30-18)

[strike wolf]

I'll give Miami's defense a lot of credit in that game. In a lot of ways, Atlanta's offense had their way with them for most of the field but really after that first touchdown, they really did well to keep The Falcons out of the end zone and only give them field goals (The only other touchdown came after a pass interference call putting ATL on the 2, which while a good call would have been a difficult catch with or without the defender's interference). Either way, I like Atlanta and I think their a good team but their 2nd half play particularly on offense has me a bit worried.

[Frigidus]

KC @ PHI
HOU @ BAL
NYG @ CAR Yes, I'm picking Carolina for a third time. Giants look awful so far. No, seriously, Giants look awful.
DET @ WAS
SD @ TEN
ARZ @ NO
TB @ NE New England continues to play bumslayer.
GB @ CIN
STL @ DAL
CLE @ MIN Cleveland playing themselves out of the Bridgewater lottery.
ATL @ MIA
BUF @ NYJ
IND @ SF I'm starting to wonder if Kaepernick is overhyped.
JAC @ SEA
CHI @ PIT And no 4th Quarter comeback this time, I don't want to pull my hair out for three hours.
OAK @ DEN Mmmm...yeah, I'm chalking this up as a win.

9-7 this week and 28-20 overall. A couple of shockers this week, so not too bad.

I have no idea what im doing

You seem to be doing pretty well for somebody without a clue, heheh.

[Frigidus]

I'll give Miami's defense a lot of credit in that game. In a lot of ways, Atlanta's offense had their way with them for most of the field but really after that first touchdown, they really did well to keep The Falcons out of the end zone and only give them field goals (The only other touchdown came after a pass interference call putting ATL on the 2, which while a good call would have been a difficult catch with or without the defender's interference). Either way, I like Atlanta and I think their a good team but their 2nd half play particularly on offense has me a bit worried.

Miami is a legitimate team this year, I wouldn't be surprised if they won their division. There's no shame in losing a close one to a good team.

[thegreekdog]

Coming in to this season, I was pretty sure the NFC was vastly superior to the AFC. Now I'm not so sure. The Packers slipped a lot. The 49ers looked pretty bad yesterday. And the Falcons dropped the ball. Nevermind the horrendous NFC East. I kind of wonder whether the Packers, Niners, and Falcons will course correct at all. I tend to think the Niners can. The Packers offense is ridiculous (usually), but their defense doesn't look too good. I'm betting the Falcons are done, despite the talent on offense.

Everyone is talking about how bad the Steelers are too and Collinsworth criticized Roethlisberger a lot last night; I think his criticism was misplaced (and I like Collinsworth). The Steelers offensive line was absurdly bad. Big Ben had a guy on him 2 to 3 seconds after the snap on almost every play.

[strike wolf]

What may be more surprising than the teams who were bad last year doing well may be the teams that are contenders every year (recently at least) struggling.

Atlanta: 1-2 0-2 on the road. There one win was a close one against STL, having trouble sustaining leads. I'll echo that I think they'll be fine in the long run.
Pittsburgh: 0-3
Houston: 2-1 but played close against two iffy teams (Tennessee may not be iffy, we'll see as the season progresses). And lost big against Baltimore.
Giants: 0-3. Lost two understandable games against a division rival (Division rivals usually mean more difficult match ups anyways) and Denver who may be the class of the AFC. But got blown out and shut out by the Panthers who hadn't even won a game before that.
Green Bay: 1-2. However it seems that it may become a yearly tradition for Green Bay to have a rough start to the season and then fight their way back into the playoffs.
San Francisco: 1-2. One loss came to Seattle who are admittedly better than I thought they would be (I know that they were a team that was predicted to do well but I hadn't quite bought into the hype.) but both losses were big with the offense not doing much in either case. Their one win came against the also struggling Packers in a close game.

So now all the 0-3 teams: color coded for who I thought would be there and who I didn't.

Giants
Washington-I didn't expect Washington to come out of the gates running but I thought they would have won one game.
Minnessota
Tampa Bay
Pittsburgh-again wasn't expecting big things but wasn't expecting this either.
Jacksonville-No offense to my friend who's a Jacksonville but I would have been more surprised if they had won a game.

3-0 teams:

New England-Some of their wins weren't overly impressive but they are a year to year team.
Denver
Miami-They keep it up and keep improving they will do well.
Seattle-Simply because I thought San Fran would have beaten them.
Kansas City
New Orleans-Was rooting for the Falcons to win but admittedly, I didn't have much confidence of it when they were playing in New Orleans.
Chicago-Frigid must be ecstatic.

Admittedly some of the teams I may be surprised with was probably as much to do with the fact I didn't really follow the off-season deals and analysis. Kind of avoided football with The Braves doing well and most talk echoing the Hernandez case.

As far as college on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays. It's a deal that's worked out reasonably well for both. Colleges don't have to worry about NFL teams taking their tv spots and ticket sales and NFL doesn't have to worry about College dividing their ticket sales (maybe tv spots too but i'm pretty sure the pros would get the benefit of the doubt on that).

Fast posted by Frigidus: I'm not overly worried about the Falcons in the long run as far as getting to the playoffs and Miami is a good team. So is New Orleans and even St. Louis isn't that bad this year. I also realize that some of the issues come from Jackson being injured for the last two games. I expect us to get better and I expect us to make a showing in the play-offs but I can't help but be a little worried about our late game efficiency and the problem we've had each game of getting up early (led Miami 10-0, ended 27-23 Mia; led STL 21-0, ended 31-24 ATL; Led NO 10-0; ended 23-17 NO) and then struggling to keep the other team behind us late. We have out scored teams a total of 34-0 in the first quarter but have been outscored a total of 40-74 the rest of the game.

[Timminz]

The Packers offense is ridiculous (usually), but their defense doesn't look too good.

I was discussing thi8s yesterday, and how the trend had seemed to reverse for most of this week's game. The offense couldn't get anything going, but the defense played quite well (for most of the game).

[thegreekdog]

The Packers offense is ridiculous (usually), but their defense doesn't look too good.

I was discussing thi8s yesterday, and how the trend had seemed to reverse for most of this week's game. The offense couldn't get anything going, but the defense played quite well (for most of the game).

That also tends to be a product of the offense they are playing (obviously) and I admittedly did not watch most of the Packers-Bengals game.

It's funny, when I was watching the Packers-Niners game last year I was struck by how woefully unprepared the Packers defense was for the read option and thought that it was pretty dumb to be so unprepared. And then we have the Niners-Packers game this year where the Packers were woefully unprepared for the passing game. That seems to me to be evidence of a bad defensive coordinator (with good players). Who knows? All that being said, I dropped the Packers defense and picked up the Kansas City defense in all fantasy leagues last week so that means the Packers defense will be a lot better going forward (if luck holds).

[oVo]

I admittedly did not watch most of the Packers-Bengals game.

The Pack scored the first TD with a Bengals fumble returned about 30 yards and the Bengals finished the scoring with a Packer fumble returned from midfield for a TD.

[thegreekdog]

I admittedly did not watch most of the Packers-Bengals game.

The Pack scored the first TD with a Bengals fumble returned about 30 yards and the Bengals finished the scoring with a Packer fumble returned from midfield for a TD.

I saw the last TD. It was awesome. I really love football.

[Frigidus]

Chicago-Frigid must be ecstatic.

I'm definitely happy, but I'm trying to temper my excitement. We started 7-1 last year and missed the playoffs. If we finally manage to put the boots to Green Bay I'll be going full Super Fan.

[Timminz]

I admittedly did not watch most of the Packers-Bengals game.

The Pack scored the first TD with a Bengals fumble returned about 30 yards and the Bengals finished the scoring with a Packer fumble returned from midfield for a TD.

...and the second Cinnci TD came from a fumbled kick return. and the packers' D forced four straight turnovers.

[Army of GOD]

10-6 this week, 21-11 overall. SUCK ON THAT IRISHMAN
KC @ PHI
HOU @ BAL Don't trust either team
NYG @ CAR Giants drop to 0-3
DET @ WAS
SD @ TEN
ARZ @ NO
TB @ NE
GB @ CIN
STL @ DAL
CLE @ MIN
ATL @ MIA
BUF @ NYJ
IND @ SF
JAC @ SEA lock of the weekend
CHI @ PIT Cutler is gonna throw like 9 picks
OAK @ BRONCOS

12-4 this week, 33-15 overall.

Also, biggest story in my opinion is the all-of-a-sudden bad-offensed 9ers. If they have trouble scoring against the Colts they're really going to struggle in their own division.

[oVo]

Looking at your picks and the way the games went
last weekend, you probably should have bought a
lottery ticket.

[Army of GOD]

Looking at your picks and the way the games went
last weekend, you probably should have bought a
lottery ticket.

Or I should've put money on my picks...

[strike wolf]

So a glance at the stats shows that Peyton Manning is close to the top if not at the top in every statistical passing category. Most completions (89 out of 122 attempts is 1 more completion than Sam Bradford (141 attempts) and RG III (139)). Highest completion percentage (73.0). Yards (1143). Yards/attempt (9.37). Touch downs (12). INTs (0). Rating (134.7). QBR (89.7). Yards/game (381). 3rd among starting QBs in least amount of sacks* (4. Jay Cutler has 3 and Matthew Stafford has been sacked twice). and 2nd in longest pass (78 vs Matt Ryan's 81 yarder). Some of those categories are more important than others and I left out those that had no real significant statistical meaning. So the question is. Does he keep up this pace? For how long?

Obviously the Broncos are 1st in Passing offense but did you know they are 1st in rushing defense? Of course they're also 30th in passing defense. I wonder how much getting to early leads has padded those stats with opponents abandoning the run for the pass to catch up.


*4th if you count Brian Hoyer but it appears he has only started one game this season.

[Army of GOD]

So a glance at the stats shows that Peyton Manning is close to the top if not at the top in every statistical passing category. Most completions (89 out of 122 attempts is 1 more completion than Sam Bradford (141 attempts) and RG III (139)). Highest completion percentage (73.0). Yards (1143). Yards/attempt (9.37). Touch downs (12). INTs (0). Rating (134.7). QBR (89.7). Yards/game (381). 3rd among starting QBs in least amount of sacks* (4. Jay Cutler has 3 and Matthew Stafford has been sacked twice). and 2nd in longest pass (78 vs Matt Ryan's 81 yarder). Some of those categories are more important than others and I left out those that had no real significant statistical meaning. So the question is. Does he keep up this pace? For how long?

Obviously the Broncos are 1st in Passing offense but did you know they are 1st in rushing defense? Of course they're also 30th in passing defense. I wonder how much getting to early leads has padded those stats with opponents abandoning the run for the pass to catch up.


*4th if you count Brian Hoyer but it appears he has only started one game this season.

Manning looks amazing and this is, in my opinion, the best supporting cast he's ever had. Best receivers and best o-line for sure.

[Timminz]

KC @ PHI
HOU @ BAL
NYG @ CAR
DET @ WAS
SD @ TEN
ARZ @ NO
TB @ NE
GB @ CIN
STL @ DAL
CLE @ MIN
ATL @ MIA
BUF @ NYJ
IND @ SF
JAC @ SEA
CHI @ PIT
OAK @ DEN

9-7

Not bad for a first try.

[oVo]

It's hard to imagine the Steelers, Giants, Redskins, Vikings
and Buccaneers all at 0-4, but it's certainly possible.
Week 4 is gracious host weekend
Niners @ Rams ...San Fran ends skid at 2
Ravens @ Bills ... no Stiller? No dice.
Bengals @ Browns ...Cleveland may be better than they look with -17 net points games
Bears @ Lions...Chicago D is the charter member of the take-a-way club
Seahawks @ Texans Houston hasn't been the team I expected, so far.
Colts @ Jaguars ... no luck for the Jags, or maybe too much Luck
Giants @ Chiefs ...didn't these guys just play?
Steelers @ Vikings ...this is an upset pick, I think.
Cards @ Bucs ...if Palmer remembers to look for Fitzgerald
Jets @ Titans Tennessee doesn't give away games in the final minutes.
Eagles @ Broncos ... Peyton continues to soar a mile high
Redskins @ Raiders ...RG3 will enjoy the left coast and get off the snide
Cowboys @ Bolts ...Romo isn't likely to enjoy the left coast as much as RG3, but I'm a optimist.
Pats @ Falcons ... thinking the Dirty Birds finally show up
Dolphins @ Saints ... someone leaves town with their first loss

[thegreekdog]

I'm going to play starting this week. Assume we're not picking against the spread.

Week 4
Niners @ Rams - Will be a close game.
Ravens @ Bills
Bengals @ Browns - Cleveland looked decent last week and I'm not buying into the Bengals yet.
Bears @ Lions - Reggie Bush is going to play and I'm not buying into Chicago yet. Still way too lucky.
Seahawks @ Texans - This is going to be a blowout.
Colts @ Jaguars
Giants @ Chiefs - Will be a close game. Giants aren't that bad. Chiefs aren't that good.
Steelers @ Vikings - The Vikings are not a good team.
Cardinals @ Bucs - Schiano is going to take the Texas job... maybe gets fired this week?
Jets @ Titans - Jets have had bad breaks, Titans have had good ones. Switches this week.
Eagles @ Broncos
Redskins @ Oakland
Cowboys @ Chargers - Let down game for the Cowboys
Patriots @ Falcons - Falcons will be fired up; Patriots are not that good anymore (famous last words).
Dolphins @ Saints - Should be a good game. Top offense vs. top defense

[strike wolf]

Week 4
Niners @ Rams - Rams played SF well last year, I think that continuess and I think SF continues to struggle.
Ravens @ Bills
Bengals @ Browns - not buying either team but would put Bengals ahead
Bears @ Lions - This was a close one. Went for the home field advantage.
Seahawks @ Texans- This is my upset pick.
Colts @ Jaguars
Giants @ Chiefs - I was tempted to put this as another upset pick but the Giants struggles haven't just been a fluke. If Eli wakes up for this game, they'll win but I am not betting on it.
Steelers @ Vikings - Steelers have looked bad. I don't expect that to change.
Cardinals @ Bucs-I think Bucs are due for a win.
Jets @ Titans
Eagles @ Broncos-Don't see any reason for Peyton to slow down this week.
Redskins @ Oakland-RG III should get better week to week. This will be a fairly soft game to help him get some confidence back.
Cowboys @ Chargers
Patriots @ Falcons - Patriots haven't been that great and Falcons are always good on the road.
Dolphins @ Saints - Technically Seattle has the top ranked defense currently in both total yards against and points scored. I want to say Miami will win. They look good but it's hard to bet against the Saints in New Orleans.