NFL - Discussion Thread

Why? Surely not because you picked up four games on us? That could have easily gone the other way and you could now be eight games behind and out the competition. I enjoyed the pressure each week knowing there was two people out there who wanted by the end of the season have predicted more games right than me. Get him to come back Matt I'm missing him already.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Nov 5th 2019 »

I'm not sure whether someone can rejoin. I mean, he could, but his score may begin on 0. I'm not sure how the website works when someone re-joins a competition, or joins it late.

It doesn't matter, we know what his score is up to week 9, just have to do the maths mentally each week. I wonder if he picked the Giants to win Monday night, and in a moment of frustration when he realised Jerry's boys were going to win he deleted himself from the competition. Joke's aside Warrior13 we need you in this competion.

Well, he's just made a thread in GC, yet hasn't posted here. Maybe he's just frustrated of tipping this year.

If he does come back, like you say we can do the maths. I assume he picked Dallas, so it means he's 3 behind. I sometimes post the points tally here anyways, so I can just do that at the end of each week.

Interesting. Cam Newton is out for the season with his current injury. This may be the end of his career too...

Yes Matt, I'm pretty sure Warrior13 would have gone Dallas, it was the logical pick, everything pointed towards a win for them. I didn't realise that Warrior was three behind, you're right, he probably got frustrated with the whole thing and the up and down way the teams where playing this year meant he had to get plus four over us in seven weeks to win. You proved this week it can be done but there needs to be an element of luck thrown in there for the toss up games to achieve it.

I did my picks for Week 10 Monday morning and according to the odds I have two upsets, basically two games I don't agree with the oddsmakers. Some surprising teams coming through this year along with some disappointments. The Raiders are looking like an improved team this year, they have no marque names but Gruden is getting them playing as a team. The running back Jacobs looks like he could be a decent player. Chicago and Cleveland have been busts this year, the Browns probably realise now they made a mistake getting Odell Beckham Jr. and must be concerned with Mayfield who is having a dreadful season for some reason. Chicago looked like championship contenders last year with their defense, this year the offense is not helping them at all and they are dropping games at an alarming rate.


« Last edited by Sanzano on Nov 6th 2019 »

Stat of week 9: In the first half, Chicago totaled 9 yards of offense. That is 9 yards combined, not 9 yards per play.

Cleveland (and Mayfield) are guilty of reading the papers and hearing how good the team was supposed to be this season. The talent that team has should be getting them a wildcard birth at a minimum. I'm not surprised it happened, even though I tipped them to be division winners. In Australia last season we had a team who played in the equivalent of the Conference Championship game one year, then went to finish 17th/18 teams the next year. All because the media hyped them up in a similar way to Cleveland.

I did my tips, and have gone with just the one upset according to the betting odds. But I feel in reality I have selected more upsets, as I have tipped a number of teams who are in dreadful form. Overall, I went with 9 home teams and 4 road teams.

9 total yards of offense! That is terrible.

I don't think Miami are going for Tua anymore, lots of the reports I am reading say they are unlikely to choose a quarterback in the 2020 draft and will instead use their three first round picks on boltering the offensive line and getting an edge runner. The thinking is that there is no point getting a top college quarterback in the draft if the offensive line can't protect him.

Joe Burrow, now that Tua has damaged his ankle is the projected first round pick and the Bengals seem to be locked onto getting him. The Chargers will probably take Tua in the first round if the Dolphins pass, I personally am not sure they will, the fans will not be happy although it's the sensible thing to do.

The sensible move is to build an elite o-line so that the rookie QB can reach their potential. But Miami will surely pick a QB somewhere in the draft. The fans will be outraged if they're put through another season of tanking. If Miami were thinking of avoiding drafting a QB, they would play Rosen to get a gauge on his ability. Instead we are going nowhere playing a 37-year old journeyman, and Rosen is still an unknown product.

I think we have to get used to just us continuing tipping. Warrior has created 2 new GC threads, and I even posted in one of them. I also tagged him into another thread. But no response. He must be cranky. Still, it will be an interesting competition. We seem to always be evenly matched (remember last season we were tied in 2nd place at the time of the Superbowl, but tipped differently).

Cranky about what, I don't understand. All I basically said was I disagreed with him about you being lucky. As far as I am concerned you took calculated risks which came through for you. There was an element of luck but at the end of the day you had the nerve to go with your hunches. You could easily have been eight games down now and out of the competition.

I'm not going to lose any sleep whether I win the competiton or not. I just love the pressure Sunday night when the teams are playing and then looking on Monday morning to see what you and Warrior picked. Basically to see if you have outsmarted me which you did bigtime last week.

I can only assume his reasons for quitting are more than just what you said. He's been annoyed at how unlucky he's been, and how inconsistent teams have been. But that's the way tipping often goes. In AFL in 2018 I had to battle the entire year for 1st place with a guy who knew very little about the sport. He simply tipped braver than me, and hence he got a few upset picks correct and always stayed competitive. He ended up beating me in the grand final match. But I didn't quit, despite that being my 2nd consecutive year in 2nd place. Warrior is q quality NFL tipper who has done well over a number of years. He should be backing himself to make a comeback (I believe if he had continued, he would've reeled us in and won the comp).

I admit I do like winning, but like you say it's more than just that. It makes matchday more exciting, and also makes 50/50 matchups with boring teams more interesting. In my time zone matches start at 2am, so I get the scores when I wake up. Typically Monday mornings are horrible, but it makes them a bit better.

...and he returns! With his old point tally still in tact.

You have both tipped LA Chargers, while I tipped Oakland. Oakland scored a TD with 20 seconds left in the half to lead 17-14 at HT.

Exciting. This game will decide who leads outright.

Chargers clearly the better team. Rivers has three picks. Chargers lose both starting offensive tackles to injury. Chargers give up last minute touchdown to give up lead. Chargers can't even get one yard on final drive when they only need a field goal to win the game.

Sounds. About. Right.

That's the LA Chargers for you.

Oakland screwed up big time by missing a FG that would've given them a 23-14 lead. They handed the game to LA Chargers, but they couldn't take it. And even after Oakland cruised down to score the late TD, they missed the XP to once again hand the game to LA Chargers.

LA Chargers are clearly a better team than Oakland talent-wise, but in the big moments, boy do they fail. The 50/50 matchup favours me once again...

I said:

If the season continues the way it is, the bravest person will win the competition.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Nov 7th 2019 »

Double posting to provide some clarity.

Warrior, you are 4 behind. But you shouldn't panic. History shows that when the teams that should win do so, you are a very good NFL tipper. I remember last season there was one week where you outscored us both by 6 games. You watch the games. I don't, and I don't think Dennis watches a lot.

Using my experience from AFL tipping, it's not bragging on my behalf to say I am the best tipper in that comp. I won in years 1 and 4, but in years 2 and 3 I found myself down by 3 or more games midway through the seasons. And that's in a sport with only 9 games a week, not 16. I didn't win in those years, but I got the lead back at the end of the regular season, because I had faith, and others around me made some questionable picks. Bide your time, Lonely God.

Glad to see Warrior13 back in the competition, I take it that's him listed as Jimo Dashen.

Good call Matt, I just don't learn, I went with the Chargers on the strength of Philip Rivers and what I believed to be the better all round team. I should have gone with the inform home team whose confidence is high at the moment. The Raiders are starting to improve in a big way, when they move to Las Vegas and a new stadium next season that will be a big boost for them, they're basically nomads at the moment. A few more decent players and they'll be contenders again in a couple of years and Jon Gruden will be hailed as a coaching genius.

If I have another lousy week I may resort to flipping a coin next week as watching highlight reels of all the games and studying stats is clearly not working.

I only went with Oakland because they were at home, and they won a shootout at home last week to Detroit. I wasn't confident at all with my pick.

I'm frustrated that Oakland are doing well again. After the way they fired ex-coach Jack del Rio (who took Oakland to a 12-4 record despite Derek Carr suffering a season-ending injury late) and signed the in my opinion overrated Jon Gruden to a 10-year, $100 million deal, I wanted them to fail miserably. Looks like they're on the up again.

I think Miami will follow a similar path to Oakland. Last season Oakland were tanking, before they won a few games near the end to hurt their draft position. They had three 1st round picks, much like what Miami will have this coming draft. The hope is that Miami can become competitive next season with their new roster, and then in the 2021 draft, they can strengthen even further once they know what the new roster's weaknesses are.

Dennis, I know you're probably joking, but don't do that please! In my AFL tipping we had someone decide to be bold and tip upsets in every game. He scored 1/9 that week and was essentially out of the competition.

Matt, I was joking. Like you say, from previous experience the teams that are supposed to win down the stretch to the playoffs tend to come through. I feel reasonably confident with my picks this week. I knew yesterday's game was going to be close, I just chose the wrong team. Hopefully I can stay close in the competition and get some luck in the last few games to put me in front at the end.

I was watching tennis today & on the screen below it scrolls through various US sports. NY Giants @ NY Jets came up, and clearly I wasn't thinking straight when I did my tips. For some reason I tipped NY Giants, even though today I felt without a doubt that NY Jets would have a bounce-back game and would be more likely to win at home. Luckily I avoided making a mistake like you have been guilty of doing in the past.

So I have actually tipped 10 home teams and 3 road teams, with 3 upsets included. My Oakland upset pick (according to betting odds) paid off.

This will be interesting Matt, I'm on the Giants. They've beaten the Jets five out of six of their last meetings and they are playing at home. Jets haven't done much in the last few weeks, even losing to Miami. Jones and Barkley I would have thought will be enough to get past them.

Dennis: Chargers are the better team. They're apparently just having trouble finishing games, like all the other frustrating and downright disappointing teams this years (and there are so many compared to previous years, making the three of us look like horrible pickers compared to how well each of us did last year). The Chargers have lost all of their games by a touchdown or less, which means, if you actually think about it, they could easily be undefeated at this point if they could've put the dagger in all of those games. To think, a lot of people had them winning the AFC West over the Chiefs. Shoot, some people even had them having the best overall record in the AFC. But, of course, they have reverted to the Chargers from 2-3 year ago, starting out pretty darn cold and now having to rely on winning five (or all six) of their remaining games to even make the playoffs. I don't see it happening.

Matt: I was going to pick the Raiders after seeing them defeat the Lions. But after the Chargers defeated the Packers, that basically sealed my pick. lol I have a number of upsets as well this week. I have a weird feeling we might have picked all the same from here on out. If not, we'll have a lot of different picks. Hopefully I can win one if we do so I don't lose even more ground. lol

Also, just so you two know, I never left the competition. I guess there was a glitch on Monday. Probably wasn't the best time to make my picks, change my display name, and upload a display avatar. Next thing I knew, I was forced out of the competition. Once I realized it, which wasn't until yesterday since I've been swamped, I just had to search SC for the group password. I would never just quit, especially something I view as a game. lol Might get frustrated sometimes, but I've said for weeks now that this doesn't feel like my year. I think week after week the world is telling me this. lol But if I win the rest of my games this week, considering the upsets I picked, I will think otherwise. lol

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Nov 8th 2019 »