NFL - Discussion Thread

Honestly, I think Dallas has the best chance of pulling an upset due to their defense. I do not believe the Colts can keep up with the Chiefs offense. Brady is 9-0 against Rivers all time. And the Saints murdered the Eagles already.

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Jan 9th 2019 »

Dennis, those matches were close, but their most recent away game with starters playing was a 0-23 loss @ Indy. But like Warrior says, it will come down to whether Dallas make stops. All I know is that Dallas will be totally unpredictable away from home.

Lol, NY Jets hired Adam Gase as their head coach. It's not a terrible move, but there were several better options.

Who's a better option at this point for head coach? lol

Mike McCarthy is bleh. Miami and Cincinnati are the only two head coaching jobs left. We need a Harbaugh.

I'm a big fan of rookie coaches. By rookie I mean having no NFL-level coaching experience. I feel like pairing a young team with a young coach is the way to go at New York. That franchise needs a fresh start.

I also feel the same with Miami. I don't want to see a coach who has experience get hired. Theres's a reason they are out of work in the first place. The first 6 teams rushed into getting head coaches. I wouldn't mind Miami waiting a little bit longer to see what happens. I mean, what is the rush? Like you said, there weren't many appealing coaches anyway.

What I have noticed over the years is that the best coaches tend to be the offensive or defensive co-ordinators from a top ranked college team that is doing well. A couple I can name of the top of my head were Bill Walsh from Stanford and Joe Gibbs from San Francisco. Both entered the NFL with ideas which once implimented created championship winning teams. Bill Walsh was the west coast offense with Joe Montana and Joe Gibbs was the one back offense with John Riggins.

I don't think the ex-player head coach works that well. Being a great player doesn't necessarily mean that they will be a great coach.

The only game that interests me this week is the Dallas one, like Warrior13 says if the Cowboys come to play and their defense are on form it could get interesting. Especially if Elliot has room to run as it will open up the passing game for Prescott.

I'm with you on college coaches. That's basically what I meant when I said rookie coaches. They clearly have coaching experience, but unlike other choices, they haven't been sacked at NFL level. They bring in a fresh approach.

One thing I know for sure is that reputation means very little in sport. I'm following English soccer very closely lately, and I see time and time again that clubs sign washed up managers or managers with past success. And more times than not, they get sacked by their new club and end up getting hired by a different one, where they'll surely be sacked in due time. That was the pattern my club Swansea followed, and eventually their time ran out and they got relegated. So they decided to hire a manager from Swedish soccer, who had 7 years experience and took a 4th tier club right up to the 1st tier and into the Europa League. So far he's done a great job despite having a lightweight squad.

It seems like a no-brainer to look outside the box for coaches. The fact that no-one came calling for him tells me that there are plenty more like him out there. I'd much rather Miami go after a college coach, or even take a huge punt and go look for a CFL coach. I want Miami to stop the coaching cycle.

Harbaugh. Me want Harbaugh.

Nope. It's basically official that once NE are eliminated/once the SB ends, Miami will be hiring Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores. I have to say, I have absolutely no confidence in this move. When Miami hired Gase I thought maybe they were going to get it right. But no. So this hiring could definitely go down the same route.

This type of coach was what I didn't want. As Dennis says, HCs from college teams are definitely more appealing. Who knows whether this Flores guy even has what it takes to be a head coach.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 11th 2019 »

Heard. Do not like the move. If you did not already know, I wanted Harbaugh.

I knew ;)

Miami must've looked at it and thought "Here's a guy who made the Patriots defense worse. He'll definitely be able to help fix our D, for the sole reason that he worked at NE"

I'm now understanding the pain and suffering you've been going through for all these years Warrior. I'm frustrated with 3/4 of the seasons I've followed being mediocre at best. You've had to deal with probably 15+ of them...

In other news, Kansas City thrashed Indy 31-13, showing no symptoms of their past playoff chokes.

And LA Rams easily accounted for Dallas 30-22. It had the potential to get close, but Dallas were punished on a missed 4th and 1 at LAR 35 while trailing 15-23. 6 scores to 3 is the real indicator.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 12th 2019 »

The interesting games are tonight, the two last night were pretty straight forward to predict. Didn?t realise Gurley was back for the Rams, all of a sudden they have to be clear favourites to win the Super Bowl with their rushing attack back to full strength. They ran over the Dallas 5th ranked rushing defense without any problems and their own rushing defense stuffed the NFL?s top rusher in Elliot for 2.4 yards a carry.

A Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl has the makings of an epic game. It was great when the met in the regular season.

I don?t think if I was a Miami fan I?d be happy with the new selection of head coach, surely it?s better to take a chance with a proven college head coach who has won championships at the college level than an offensive or defensive co-ordinator of a rival NFLteam. There must be a reason...

Dennis, there is no reason other than the fact that Flores has worked at NE for 14 years. Detroit used the same logic last off-season, and they went from narrowly missing out on playoffs to being a terrible 6-10 team. The Miami organisation uses no logic. They are totally inept. Looking back now, it was silly to fire Gase. Yes he hasn't set the world on fire, but his 23-25 record was respectable and he is clearly a better option than Flores.

CJ Anderson makes the LAR rushing game look unstoppable, but in general LA weren't very impressive. Their only hope is for Philly to pull off an upset tomorrow and to give LA Rams a hope championship game.

I'm so, so tempted to pick LA Chargers. I actually think they have a much better squad than NE. I'll stick with NE due to their 8-0 home record and me being pessimistic, but on paper this is an easy Chargers win.

I. Am. Loving. These. Blowouts.

Seriously.

Bring. On. The. Philadelphia. Slaughter.

How on earth can you love it when NE win, let alone dominate another team?

And on that 'slaughter', it actually isn't one. Well, it partially is. After trailing 0-14 at QT, New Orleans are leading 20-14 right now and waltzing through this Philly D.

...NO. New Orleans missed a 52-yard FG that didn't need to be setup that far out! Had they kicked that, a 23-14 lead would've needed 2 Philly scores.

...and now after a clutch 16-yard completion by Philly, New Orleans concede a 15-yard penalty!

...never mind. Lol. Foles just got picked off.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 13th 2019 »

Even with being a Dolphins Fans, I can realize the greatness of the Patriots. That, and I also love Tom Brady. Watch Ted 2. You'll love him too if you do. ;)

Well, sources have said the Dolphins are looking to do a rebuild, hoping to find a QB in the 2020 Draft. This clearly means we'll be trying to trade Tannehill, as these sources told that the Dolphins will do their absolute best to tank. Horrible to hear, but I think it has come to this since we do have a lot of older players on our roster and Tannehill is clearly not the answer. I guess the best case scenario would be to draft the best available player; that, or hope to high heaven that one of the better QBs drop to us in the upcoming draft so we can trade back and possibly pick up another 2020 1st Round Pick (if we can drop back far enough). :/

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Jan 13th 2019 »

It will take time, but a rebuild is the best option. No point taking a punt on a QB in the 1st round. There are bigger holes in the team. We're the 2nd worst team when it comes to sacks.

It's an out-there option, but if I were Miami I would draft smartly this season while avoiding QBs, and trade for Nick Mullens from SF. The way I see it is that he probably isn't good enough to be a full time starter, but they mayaswell take a chance on him. If he falls through Miami can move on and draft their QB in 2020. If he ends up being good enough, they can keep him. Either way Miami will have a competent starting QB in 2020. There's no point grabbing a Flacco/Bradford/Taylor, since they will get us 5-7 wins, a bad draft pick, and will leave instantly.

Are the Patriots cheating somehow? How can they beat the system for so many years, it's remarkable really. What is it now? 8 straight AFC Championship games. Sony Michel is turning into a good find, every team had a chance to draft him.

Is the Mahommes led Chiefs good enough to derail the Patriots or will the legendary Super Bowl reputation of the Patriots cause Kansas to choke?

I doubt it. It's merely the fact that they have taken full advantage of a horrible division featuring Miami (joke of a franchise), NY Jets (joke of a franchise) and Buffalo (joke of a franchise). Every season NE do well in divisional games, meaning they only need to win a moderate amount of remaining games in order to get a 1st week bye. After all, their divisional records have been 5-1, 5-1, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2, 4-2, 6-0, and 5-1 in those 8 years. The key here is the fact that this season their non-divisional record is 6-4. That includes horrible losses to Detroit (lol), Tennessee (10-34), Jacksonville (Bortles torches them), and Pittsburgh (no James Connor).

What is scary is that Mahomes scored 0TDs against Indy, yet they dominated 31-13 in a home playoff game. Like how I said with Dallas, New England are a very different team on the road (3-5) compared to at home (9-0). The KC defense is stepping up, and surprisingly have the 6th best scoring D at home. Factoring this in, and the fact that when these 2 met at Foxborough it was a 40-43 KC loss, I can see Kansas City advancing to the Superbowl.

The key deciding factor like you say will be whether Mahomes chokes. I've seen him not do so at all this season. Rivers stunk the joint up, along with the entire offense, as they fell behind 7-38 early in the second half. Mahomes should be able to extend drives, especially against a NE defense that underperforms away from home.

I had a look at the tipping. All of our places have been locked in essentially. Technically you still have a chance Dennis, but you'll probably need me to go 0/3 while you go 3/3. That missed LA Chargers tip of yours hurt, because perfect tipping rounds come with a bonus point (which me and Warrior earned).

I have Chiefs and New Orleans winning at the moment. Might change to the Pats. Struggling.

Using logic, I have Kansas City and New Orleans. Using pessimism, I have New England.