Octopus Overlords

Isgrimnur wrote:Buffalo comes back from 17 down to win by 3, shutting out Baltimore in the second half.

LAR, TEN, and BAL were all shut out in the second half. MIA scored 7. Bills outscoring their opponents 60-7 in the second half of games. And for two of those games, they have been deep into the roster due to injury. Will be curious to see when Tre White can make it back. And their top two DTs.

Another odds maker head scratcher. I think I would take the Rams +2 in Frisco.

Well, the Patriots almost managed to win as a 10 point underdog against the Packers at Lambeau with their third string quarterback, but lost in overtime. The frustrating thing is the Packers punted in overtime and the Patriots (after a good return) started at the GB 49 but went three and out and then punted from the GB 44, which scored high on the "Surrender Index". Rodgers then proceeded to drive ~ 90 yards and GB kicked the game winner.

Oh well. A moral victory, as they say. Just not an actual one.

The Bears totally morally beat GB last week too.


To be fair, GB is getting trounced, morally.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 2:39 pm This week's predictions:

Dolphins at Bengals Win
Vikings at Saints Win
Browns at Falcons Loss
Commanders at Cowboys Win
Seahawks at Lions Loss
Titans at Colts Win
Bears at Giants Loss
Jags at Eagles Win
Jets at Steelers Loss
Bills at Ravens Loss
Chargers at Texans Win
Cards at Panthers Win
Pats at Packers Win
Broncos at Raiders Win - Yay, somebody lost!
Chiefs at Bucs Win - Yay, somebody lost!
Rams at 49ers Loss - I'm officially off the Rams bandwagon

An acceptable 10 - 6. Cumulative 35 - 28

Predictions for week 5:

Colts at Broncos
Giants at Packers
Steelers at Bills
Chargers at Browns Bolts run defense sucks
Bears at Vikings
Lions at Pats NE favored with 3rd string QB?
Seahawks at Saints
Dolphins at Jets
Falcons at Bucs
Titans at Commanders
Texans at Jags
49ers at Panthers
Cowboys at Rams
Eagles at Cards
Bengals at Ravens
Raiders at Chiefs

Jaymann wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 1:02 pm Another odds maker head scratcher. I think I would take the Rams +2 in Frisco.

i wouldn't Other than last year's playoff loss, we've owned the rams the last 7 times

Oh and DEEEBO!!! and our Defense!

Rarely have I been so happy with a bad pick. Incredibly Gino Smith has a better record than Russell Wilson. Buyers remorse in Denver?

Jacoby Brissett throws the worst interception since Russell Wilson. The Chargers follow up with their worst losing drive of the year, followed by the Browns worst winning FG attempt of the year. Better to be lucky than good.

Look, I get that Tom Brady has made the NFL a truckload of money and they want to do everything they can to protect him. It’s asinine, but I do kinda understand it.

But this? This is simply pathetic.

We're seeing a lot of bad football.

Meanwhile, Josh Allen got slammed to the ground, bouncing his head, in the first half and popped right back up.

Heaven Can Wait?

That RTP call in the Bucs game was absurd. That was just an average sack. The defender did nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the Bills defense was given carte blanch to do whatever they wanted to do against Pickett. They hit him late/low twice, and the Steelers were flagged both times!

Frustration: having arguably one of the best players in the NFL, and still being absolutely horrible week to week (and now year to year). :/

McCaffery/Panthers

WYBaugh wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:43 pm

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:26 pm

naednek wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:16 pm

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:33 pm What? Jimmy G joined the Dan Orlovsky club.

hey, he saved us from a pick 6

That's the spirit.

On a side note, if Jacksonville doesn't suck this year, how is Houston supposed to get any wins this year?

Houston always beats us.

I didn't believe you at the time. Now I do.

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 1:00 am

WYBaugh wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:43 pm

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:26 pm

naednek wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:16 pm

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:33 pm What? Jimmy G joined the Dan Orlovsky club.

hey, he saved us from a pick 6

That's the spirit.

On a side note, if Jacksonville doesn't suck this year, how is Houston supposed to get any wins this year?

Houston always beats us.

I didn't believe you at the time. Now I do.

9 straight

The horrible Matt Rhule is out as Panthers’ head coach (yes!)

Owed $40 million.

Poor bastard!

Nice to see the Chiefs look vulnerable. Even better to see the Raiders suffer a demoralizing defeat to go 1-4.

Another terrible roughing the passer call. Wow.

I’ll see the phantom roughing the passer call on Brady and raise you the one on Carr tonight. Unreal. If I were a KC fan, I would have been apoplectic at that point.

Kurth wrote:Another terrible roughing the passer call. Wow.

I’ll see the phantom roughing the passer call on Brady and raise you the one on Carr tonight. Unreal. If I were a KC fan, I would have been apoplectic at that point.

Even knowing the wording of the rule, and allowing for the positioning of the ref that maybe didn’t see Chris Jones put his left arm out to brace his fall and NOT put all of his weight on Carr…I mean COME. ON.

As always, I’m bothered a lot more by inconsistency than I am anything else. The Bills were able to hit Pickett while he was sliding (no call, Steelers flagged for retaliating). Then again towards the end of the game, the DE awkwardly tackled Pickett by one leg after the ball was gone - and no flag. But again the Steelers were flagged for retaliating.

Be consistent. But also stop calling penalties on normal sacks.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 12:58 pm

Kurth wrote:Another terrible roughing the passer call. Wow.

I’ll see the phantom roughing the passer call on Brady and raise you the one on Carr tonight. Unreal. If I were a KC fan, I would have been apoplectic at that point.

Even knowing the wording of the rule, and allowing for the positioning of the ref that maybe didn’t see Chris Jones put his left arm out to brace his fall and NOT put all of his weight on Carr…I mean COME. ON.

As always, I’m bothered a lot more by inconsistency than I am anything else. The Bills were able to hit Pickett while he was sliding (no call, Steelers flagged for retaliating). Then again towards the end of the game, the DE awkwardly tackled Pickett by one leg after the ball was gone - and no flag. But again the Steelers were flagged for retaliating.

Be consistent. But also stop calling penalties on normal sacks.

Agreed 100%. I know there are always issues with the officiating, but this year seems especially bad to me. In addition to the clearly bogus roughing the passer calls, what's with the ubiquitous "ineligible man downfield" that seems to get called a dozen times now every Sunday? I've been watching the NFL for over 30 years now, and I don't think I've ever seen that penalty called so frequently. It's a shame: There's nothing better than seeing a well-executed screen pass or seeing your offensive lineman pulling out and wreaking havoc blocking through the secondary. But all these "ineligible man downfield" penalties make it look to me like the NFL is purposefully trying to chill that offensive attack. Sad.

Several upsets this week, plus the upsets I predicted didn't happen:

Jaymann wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 2:07 pm Predictions for week 5:

Colts at Broncos Loss
Giants at Packers Loss
Steelers at Bills Win
Chargers at Browns Loss (thank goodness)
Bears at Vikings Win
Lions at Pats Loss
Seahawks at Saints Loss
Dolphins at Jets Loss
Falcons at Bucs Win
Titans at Commanders Win
Texans at Jags Loss
49ers at Panthers Win Coach fired afterwards.
Cowboys at Rams Loss
Eagles at Cards Win
Bengals at Ravens Loss
Raiders at Chiefs Win

7-9 Cumulative 42-37

The Seahawks defense continues to be pathetic. Its embarrassing to watch. And they had absolutely no idea what to do about Taysom Hill (what kind of a name is Taysom?). The Hawks just casually managed to hand him the best game he ever played.

The Hawks offense has been fantastic, but Rashad Penny suffered a season ending broken leg. That man has never played a full season due to injuries. He is good at football, but maybe he needs to take this as a sign, because clearly the stars are aligned against him. However, with Penny (penny penny penny), The Hawks offense is likely to drop to middle class, combined that with worst in league defense, and there is little chance for this season.

But I still love Geno, and no matter what else happens, he bested Wilson.

So would Geno Smith be an established star these days if he hadn't been drafted by the Jets?

Years to perfect your craft and get good, but without the spectre of sacks and injury. I Don't know if all QBs would benefit from such a program, but it seemed to work well for Geno. He is making good choices, and accurate throws.

Picks for week 6:

Commanders at Bears
49ers at Falcons
Pats at Browns
Jets at Packers
Jags at Colts
Vikings at Dolphins
Bengals at Saints
Ravens at Giants
Bucs at Sreelers
Panthers at Rams
Cards at Seahawks
Bills at Chiefs
Broncos at Chargers

I would like your prediction for the Bills to be correct, but I am a little skeptical. They certainly can win, I will root for them to win, but this is just a pick ‘em in my eyes.

Any mistake by either team can just unravel things and result in a blowout.

I wonder if Amazon has any opportunity to get a refund from the NFL for the bazillions they paid for the rights to Thursday Night Football. These are some of the worst games in the history of football. And I'm not optimistic next week's Amazon Prime TNF matchup of Saints/Cardinals is going to be much better. I think Al Michaels may just quit. Mid-broadcast. He’s killing me with his derisive comments about the shit football being played on TNF. Also, the fact that the Commodes only scored a TD at the end because the Bears muffed a punt inside the ten is just exquisite. Such horrible, atrocious, terrible football all around.

The only win here is for anyone who enjoys the pain Jeff Bezos and Amazon must be feeling as they see viewer numbers for TNF plummeting.

Well... I am not sure what logic blames the network for the quality of the game itself, so I'm not sure viewership will be based on previous games on TNF really... just football popularity in general /shrug.

Unagi wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:25 am Well... I am not sure what logic blames the network for the quality of the game itself, so I'm not sure viewership will be based on previous games on TNF really... just football popularity in general /shrug.

Not following you. I’m not suggesting anyone would be blaming Amazon for the quality of football.

Amazon should be blaming the NFL and be more than a little pissed that no one is watching all their ads for Prime shows and Audible products and all the other Amazon product placements because most people will have turned these stupid games off at the half - if not before - because the announcers themselves can barely stand to watch them.

I lol’d last night when Herbstreit said “that should have been a TD” and Al responded with “heaven forbid!”

It seems like Herbstreit is getting more comfortable, but it’s probably because these TNF games are closer in quality to bad college games.

I think it’s unrealistic to expect teams to prepare and have a good game in just 3 full days. If they want the games to be good, they need to time them for teams coming out of their bye week. But that would mean you can’t have a Thursday game every week of the season, so they will never go for it.

The problem with these games isn’t lack of preparation, the problem is a gross lack of skill and talent by the participants. Put two good teams on Thursday night, and there will be a good game. Oddly enough, we’ve had Thursday football for like a century, and in my entire life I never heard anyone complaining about the lack of time to prepare for a Thanksgiving matchup.

The problem with TNF has always been that it was a vehicle to put bad teams in a prime time game. We can’t be shocked when they show us why they are bad teams.

Kurth wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:37 am

Unagi wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:25 am Well... I am not sure what logic blames the network for the quality of the game itself, so I'm not sure viewership will be based on previous games on TNF really... just football popularity in general /shrug.

Not following you. I’m not suggesting anyone would be blaming Amazon for the quality of football.

Amazon should be blaming the NFL and be more than a little pissed that no one is watching all their ads for Prime shows and Audible products and all the other Amazon product placements because most people will have turned these stupid games off at the half - if not before - because the announcers themselves can barely stand to watch them.

Big time. It could easily be argued the NFL keeps lining up predictably bad games on the schedule for this slot. It's no mystery why these games are so bad.

Well. Just cause I like football, I’m thrilled there is a Thursday Night game. I’ve watched each lame one this year, and I plan to watch the next one this coming Thursday as well.

I don’t know that the NFL is clairvoyant enough to actually place all the ‘lame’ games on TNF, but it sounds like that’s the running theory here - and that Amazon should be pissed they were given all the lame games. I just don’t know how one could actually know this. I understand there is some concept of ‘great matchups’ that can occasionally be accurately predicted, but even those can turn into duds.

Where does the NFL schedule it’s amazing games ?
Is that SNF?
Is that MNF? Broncos v Chargers / Bears v Patriots

That was a terrible game on many levels, but at least the last couple of weeks have seen promise from Fields. I don't know how long his body will hold up to that much running and that many sacks/pressures, but it sure would be interesting to see what he could do with a competent O-line and receivers (or if he played for a franchise that didn't have a curse on the QB position). Three times within the five yard line and no points and a muffed punt (2nd one in 3 weeks for the rookie!) inside your own 10 - that's generally not good. (Football analysis is my passion.)

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 8:18 am Oddly enough, we’ve had Thursday football for like a century, and in my entire life I never heard anyone complaining about the lack of time to prepare for a Thanksgiving matchup.

The Bears play in T-day games with some regularity (being in division with the Lions), and it does come up. It might not be stressed quite as much because it's a one-off day (and people usually expect at least the Lions will be pretty bad regardless), but it's definitely a topic of conversation locally when the Bears are involved. Heck, people often make note of teams coming off of Monday night games as having a "short week to prepare".

What we need is a divisional match up on Monday night then the same two teams play on Thursday!

The SNF game is flexible, they try to select a good game.

With the way the NFL is moving games around to 50 different streaming services I'm just happy one of them is something I already subscribe to. Used to watch games on my phone on Verizon's NFL mobile but that is now just an ad for NFL Mobile plus. About the only games i watch anymore are TNF and SNF.

I endorse these suggestions.