NFL - Discussion Thread

5 minutes left in Q2 and the Falcons are ahead 17-0. The Packers look physically tired, it looks like Atlanta's high powered offense are going to blow Green Bay away. Rogers and his receivers are playing well though, it's the support from the rest of the team that's the problem. This games over unless the Falcons get complacent and the Packers score twice in quick succession. The way the game is going at the moment the score will be something like 35-7.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Jan 22nd 2017 »

Falcons slaying 24-0 at half. Not counting Rodgers out, but their D looks beat up and exhausted.

Atlanta defeated Green Bay 44-21 and advance to the Superbowl!

Remember, they are slight favourites to win according to statistics.

Matt Ryan is surely getting MVP now. He outplayed Rodgers and had no intercepts while Rodgers hasd 1.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 22nd 2017 »

Pats up 17-9 in second half. Looks like a much closer game.

20-9 but Pittsburgh actually scored a touchdown this time. The kick missed meaning a 2-point conversion will be needed. Last championship game a 2-point conversion was needed to tie the game. New England missed it. Could the same happen again, instead with Pittsburgh?

Nope. NE up 27-9. Game over.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 22nd 2017 »

Patriots vs Falcons Super Bowl

Hard to pick who will win that one. Both teams thrashed their respective opponents who were in decent to good form. Atlanta has the amazing offense but lousy defense while New England is a much more all around team. New England have the Superbowl experience but Atlanta will desperately want to win their first ever Superbowl.

If Brady gets MVP over Ryan I think it will fire up him and the entire Atlanta team.

It would be a travesty of justice if Brady gets MVP over Ryan when you consider what he has achieved this year. Brady has the better team around him and what he did this year by his standards was expected and nothing extraordinary while Ryan has led a team that was 50-1 at the start of the season into the Super Bowl. You take Matt Ryan out of the Falcons team and that's a 4-12 team, take Tom Brady out of the New Entland Patriots team and they still make the Playoffs. When is the leagues MVP announced?

New England will probably win the Super Bowl on the strength of their defense, I've lost count on how many times a high powered offensive team has reached the big game only to have their weak defense exposed on the big stage. Atlants's only chance of winning is scoring over 40 points and the defense they have to do it against will probably only give them between 21- 28 points. What are other peoples views?

I see Atlanta scoring below 20 points and being smothered like they were against Philadelphia (season-low 15 points). It will then depend whether New England can outscore them, which seems likely. The Atlanta defense shutout the red-hot Packers in the first half while scoring 24 points in that time.

In the playoffs New England have played Houston and Pittsburgh, beating them by a combined 70-33. Atlanta played Seattle and Green Bay, beating them by a combined 80-41. Atlanta clearly had the tougher schedule yet beat their opponents by 2 points more than New England. Atlanta have had the better preparation for the Superbowl taking out two teams who were in the mix for a Superbowl birth. In their last 3 matches they have outscored their opponents 78-23 in the first half, meaning New England need to shut them down early.

Both teams have had easy runs to the Superbowl in terms of scoreline. Will be interesting whether one team dominates the other.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 23rd 2017 »

This one will be close. I so want Atlanta, but I think Brady will prevail once again.

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Jan 23rd 2017 »

Me too. Last year's was disappointing with Denver (who scraped past two opponents) stopping Carolina (who cruised past two opponents) from winning their first ever Superbowl and adding another to their list. It will probably be the same this time, with New England adding another to their list and Atlanta's list remaining empty.

I want teams who have won heaps to not win and teams who haven't won any to win excluding Miami.

Panthers were smoke and mirrors. Atlanta is for real.

Carolina were 17-1 before the Superbowl. Atlanta are 13-5 before the Superbowl.

Obviously this season Carolina are awful but last season they weren't.

The Atlanta game against Green Bay scoreline is a bit misleading, the Packers looked tired from the opening kick-off. They hadn't recovered from the Dallas game the week before and it showed, living in hotel rooms for over a month playing in different states took its toll on the team, nobody predicted the Packers would be down 24-0 halftime. New England will be physically and mentally prepared for Atlanta, if the Falcons don't score a Touchdown early and the Patriots get a two score lead it could be a long night for Atlanta fans. Out of curiosity does anyone know how many games the Falcons have come from behind to win in Q4? Some teams are great when they are ahead but fall apart when they are behind, this is something I can't see happening with New England but Atlanta are a question mark.

New England have come back from 3QT or 4th quarter deficits to win the game 2 times. In Q4 Arizona had a 21-20 lead before a field goal saved NE. In Q4 New York Jets had a 17-12 lead over NE before they scored 10 points to snatch victory. Atlanta have 1 time. In the last minute against Green Bay in week 8 they were trailing 26-32 before Atlanta scored a touchdown. However Atlanta did score 21 unanswered Q3 points to turn a 3-17 deficit into a 24-17 3QT lead against Seattle in week 6 before losing in the 4th and also turned a 16-27 Q4 deficit into a 28-27 lead against Kansas City before Matt Ryan threw a pick two.

Both teams haven't really done much in terms of 4th-quarter comebacks like Detroit. They both play complete games when they win. Both teams are fast starters. Whoever gets the fast start should run away with it. If no-one gets a fast start it's anyone's game.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 24th 2017 »

It's going to come down to that old addage 'Defense wins championships', it's nice to know that Atlanta don't give up when they fall behind, this if the first Super Bowl since the Giants defeated the Patriots to stop them having a perfect season that I am really looking forward to. Hopefully Ryan has a great day and the Falcons win something like 31-27 in an exciting game.

My Superbowl Prediction: This Season: 156-108-2 (59%) | Last Week: 2-0 | This Week: 1-0

New England 20-17 over Atlanta
The Superbowl experience of New England should be enough to get them over the line. They will be desperate to make it a defensive slog otherwise Atlanta will blow them apart and score too big an amount. Atlanta have the best scoring offense while New England have the best scoring defense. Atlanta have taken some big scalps in recent weeks against the stingy Seattle defense and the red-hot Green Bay offense. Sadly I don't think they will take this scalp. Tom Brady and New England have too much Superbowl experience and should not have much nerves on the big day. Whether or not Atlanta have nerves will shape the outcome.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Feb 6th 2017 »

With that old saying, obviously New England have the defense but recently Atlanta have been improving in that area. This is how they've gone recently:

Week 14: Shutout Los Angeles Rams in the first 3 quarters while putting up 42 points before taking their feet off the gas.
Week 15: Shutout San Francisco in Q1, Q3 and Q4, allowing 13 points in Q2 but put up 41 in the entire game.
Week 16: Kept Carolina to 16 points in the last 3 quarters while putting up 33 themselves in the game.
Week 17: Kept New Orleans to 13 points in the first half while putting up 35 themselves in that particular half. Then took their feet off the gas.
Divisional: Kept Seattle to 20 points while putting up 36 in the final 3 quarters themselves.
Conference: Shutout Green Bay in the first half while putting up 24 in that period. Then scored 20 points to 21 during garbage time.

While these aren't all amazing defensive performances, shutting out the red-hot Green Bay offense before garbage time began is seriously impressive.

Lets hope the Green Bay game wasn't a fluke and the Atlanta defense stifles Tom Brady and the Patriots offense next week so Atlanta win their first ever Super Bowl.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Jan 24th 2017 »

Indeed I will hope. Need to reduce the number of no Superbowl title teams in the NFL. In the AFL down here in Aus only 3/18 teams haven't won a premiership (equivalent of Superbowl), and they came into the competition in 1994, 2011, and 2012 respectively. Luckily both the teams I support in the different sports have had lots of success.

On another note, what happens if the 15 minutes of overtime run out in the Superbowl if they need to go there? Does it keep going or is it called a tie and they come back the next week and do it all over again? In AFL the rule used to be (was changed last year) that at the end of the 4th quarter (no extra time) if scores were tied (extremely unlikely but can happen in matches) then it's called a draw and the next week they do it all again. In 2010 a drawn grand final occurred and the next week it was a thrashing by over 50 points. I can't imagine the heartache that the players would've had to go through to go through all that build up before the game both teams had been aiming for all season long only to have to do it all again. I know how frustrating a draw is (in 2015 my team was given a draw as a result of a cancelled game and in another game drew against a really average team) and so do you from Washington's awful overtime miss this year. It would be even more frustrating to watch a grand final/Superbowl with your team in it and have a tie occur.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jan 24th 2017 »