The National Football League

Cliffy6745

The Juggler wrote:

2 super bowl appearances post 2005. how many other teams can make that claim? only the steelers and gmen.

they can't be a team for the ages every single year. they're still damn good, year in, year out though. i would kill for the pats kind of success in philadelphia.

I am sure you wouldn't complain too much about the Giants success either

The Juggler

Cliffy6745 wrote:

The Juggler wrote:

2 super bowl appearances post 2005. how many other teams can make that claim? only the steelers and gmen.

they can't be a team for the ages every single year. they're still damn good, year in, year out though. i would kill for the pats kind of success in philadelphia.

I am sure you wouldn't complain too much about the Giants success either

you're right, unfortunately. :x

DewieCox

The Juggler wrote:

2 super bowl appearances post 2005. how many other teams can make that claim? only the steelers and gmen.

Colts

SatansFuton wrote:

I didn't give them the lock or anything, and I'm WELL aware of how awful they are (in spite of how the Dallas media talks them up, like pretending the Rams were some fantastic team), but they look pretty good to win the division this year just based on how awful everybody else looks. NYG have been known to come on late, but they seem to have bigger issues this year than in the past, so I'm skeptical of that happening. I didn't hand Dallas anything, but you have to admit that the way the rest of the division looks, if they can just keep it together and stay above .500 they have a really good shot. Philadelphia is in the middle of a tailspin that goes back several seasons, RG3 isn't 100% and if you listen to Aikman never will be, and NYG have a boatload of issues. As does Dallas still, but since Dallas has already beat NYG once, things are looking pretty bright. Philadelphia loves to play spoiler though, so you never know. Even at their worst, they manage to give Dallas a game.

My point about Dallas was mainly that IF they win the division, people won't be hating them for coming out of a bad division, they'll be "underdogs", as opposed to skating by like people say about the Patriots.

NFC East has been a far better division for the last decade and more than the AFC East.

I don't really hear alot of people saying that the Pats are just skating by in a bad division, but it's certainly warranted.

lukin2006

SatansFuton wrote:

MayDay10 wrote:

the Patriots have benefitted a great deal from playing the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins 6x a season.

Not only is it a free division championship every year, it gets them enough wins where they usually leverage a bye and a home playoff game.

The Patriots have drafted poorly over the past 6-7 years and let too much talent walk. They skate on this due to the inability of the other 3 teams to compete. The Jets almost put in a claim, but were a house of cards.

I still think you have to give them some credit though. Those other teams COULD be good, it's not the Patriots fault they suck. As has been discussed, the NFC East has been the armpit of the league for a while, but nobody (at least that I've seen) gives NYG shit for beating up on them and going deep in the playoffs in past years. Though they don't look like they're going to beat up on anybody this year. But when Dallas likely makes the playoffs this year, other than the few talking heads who will say it just to fill time on ESPN, I doubt people will be up in arms over them winning such a bad division.

I wouldn't be willing to give them the division just yet ... but after 3 games they do look better than the other 3 teams ... and Romo has a tendency to collapse in December.

MayDay10

The strength of Divisions has been cyclical in the 2000s for the most part... except for the AFC East where the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins just cannot figure out how to run a program.

The Pats do deserve credit... but I think they also deserve that disclaimer as well... especially since "post-Spygate"

SatansFuton

lukin2006 wrote:

SatansFuton wrote:

MayDay10 wrote:

the Patriots have benefitted a great deal from playing the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins 6x a season.

Not only is it a free division championship every year, it gets them enough wins where they usually leverage a bye and a home playoff game.

The Patriots have drafted poorly over the past 6-7 years and let too much talent walk. They skate on this due to the inability of the other 3 teams to compete. The Jets almost put in a claim, but were a house of cards.

I still think you have to give them some credit though. Those other teams COULD be good, it's not the Patriots fault they suck. As has been discussed, the NFC East has been the armpit of the league for a while, but nobody (at least that I've seen) gives NYG shit for beating up on them and going deep in the playoffs in past years. Though they don't look like they're going to beat up on anybody this year. But when Dallas likely makes the playoffs this year, other than the few talking heads who will say it just to fill time on ESPN, I doubt people will be up in arms over them winning such a bad division.

I wouldn't be willing to give them the division just yet ... but after 3 games they do look better than the other 3 teams ... and Romo has a tendency to collapse in December.

Yeah, they do kind of look like the same old Cowboys at times. Namely in that KC game. Turnovers, a should have been turnover when Romo threw an interception called back by a phantom holding call, and poor clock management with Dallas looking confused at the end of the game. Not that they had a good shot, but they've done that before where they run some crap play that doesn't do anything to help their case then they shuffle around in confusion as the clock runs out.

gregkitefan

Ponder hurt for the Viks with a case of suckitis.
I really hope they don't win a game this year after they knocked me out of my suicide pool when they lost to the Browns at home.

RW81233

romo played outta his mind for the last half of last year (or Dez did), then folded against washington - a washington team that was up 14 pts on this year's super bowl faves before RG3 was turned into a cautionary tale on the field.

Indifference71

I always get excited for the Thursday night game, but it usually ends up being terrible. Hopefully we get a decent game this week...

The Waiting Trophy Man

Indifference71 wrote:

I always get excited for the Thursday night game, but it usually ends up being terrible. Hopefully we get a decent game this week...

Nope, that was bad lol

Most boring game I've seen this year, easily. At least I picked SF In the pool.

The Waiting Trophy Man

Not crazy about any of the 11:00 games. Might be watching the Red Zone.

Indifference71

The Waiting Trophy Man wrote:

Indifference71 wrote:

I always get excited for the Thursday night game, but it usually ends up being terrible. Hopefully we get a decent game this week...

Nope, that was bad lol

Most boring game I've seen this year, easily. At least I picked SF In the pool.

Yeah, I bet the niners so that part was nice. At least one team played well...usually both teams look like complete shit. Although that first half was pretty brutal.

JK_Livin

I'm taking the Steelers over the Vikings in my suicide pool this week.

SVRDhand13

JK_Livin wrote:

I'm taking the Steelers over the Vikings in my suicide pool this week.

I'd be surprised (but happy) if the Steelers start off 0-4

JK_Livin

SVRDhand13 wrote:

JK_Livin wrote:

I'm taking the Steelers over the Vikings in my suicide pool this week.

I'd be surprised (but happy) if the Steelers start off 0-4

I really don't care either way but Brian Hoyer just lit up the Vikes D. I think Ben should have a big day.

SatansFuton

The Waiting Trophy Man wrote:

Indifference71 wrote:

I always get excited for the Thursday night game, but it usually ends up being terrible. Hopefully we get a decent game this week...

Nope, that was bad lol

Most boring game I've seen this year, easily. At least I picked SF In the pool.

Plus that NFL Network crew is just terrible. Not the commentators, but the panel. Eisen's alright, and can be pretty funny, but he also sometimes comes across as kind of a douche and a little smarmy. Deion is just annoying, he's loud and shouts over everybody. Though it is kind of funny when they give the "gift" of one of Deion's "albums" (or singles) on cassette to the player of the game. Mariucci is just kind of lame. Irvin's just smoked too much crack.

Indifference71

SatansFuton wrote:

Plus that NFL Network crew is just terrible. Not the commentators, but the panel. Eisen's alright, and can be pretty funny, but he also sometimes comes across as kind of a douche and a little smarmy. Deion is just annoying, he's loud and shouts over everybody. Though it is kind of funny when they give the "gift" of one of Deion's "albums" (or singles) on cassette to the player of the game. Mariucci is just kind of lame. Irvin's just smoked too much crack.

Gotta agree with you there. Eisen is good, but the rest of that crew is pretty brutal with Deion, Warren Sapp, and Irvin all screaming.

Nesler and Mayock are a great announcing team...it's too bad they always have a horseshit game to announce on Thursday nights.

SVRDhand13

Indifference71 wrote:

SatansFuton wrote:

Plus that NFL Network crew is just terrible. Not the commentators, but the panel. Eisen's alright, and can be pretty funny, but he also sometimes comes across as kind of a douche and a little smarmy. Deion is just annoying, he's loud and shouts over everybody. Though it is kind of funny when they give the "gift" of one of Deion's "albums" (or singles) on cassette to the player of the game. Mariucci is just kind of lame. Irvin's just smoked too much crack.

Gotta agree with you there. Eisen is good, but the rest of that crew is pretty brutal with Deion, Warren Sapp, and Irvin all screaming.

Nesler and Mayock are a great announcing team...it's too bad they always have a horseshit game to announce on Thursday nights.

I've come to the point where I hate all broadcasters and announcers. I feel like I'm turning into my grandpa .

Indifference71

SVRDhand13 wrote:

I've come to the point where I hate all broadcasters and announcers. I feel like I'm turning into my grandpa .

Ha...I feel like I'm getting the same way. But when you're listening to the same guys for 2-3 hours at a time, eventually they'll start bothering you. There's only a few that I really like...Nesler/Mayock are good and I love Al Michaels. Colinsworth is OK, but Michaels is the best.

MayDay10

Was just brainstorming at my desk making my picks for the week...

I am sick of the alignments in MLB and NFL. Was sick of the NHL and glad to see a change, but I liked the owners' proposal that was shot down last year better. The NFL never likes to move around too much, but it gets stale IMO.
I do think that the recent concussion settlement may result in more support among the owners for expansion (which is great IMO and may save the Bills in Buffalo).

For hypothetical, let's say they expanded to 2 cities, that is 34 teams

AFC
East
Jets
Giants
New England
Baltimore
Washington
Philadelphia
Carolina
London

Central
Bills
Steelers
Browns
Bengals
Colts
Lions
Packers
Bears
Vikings

NFC
South
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
Tennessee
New Orleans
Miami
Jacksonville
Houston
Dallas
St Louis

West
49ers
Oakland
Los Angeles
Seattle
San Diego
Denver
Arizona
Kansas City


You would hear crying from Dallas... but rivalries these days are mainly built situationally.

Treat each Division kind of like a Conference in NCAA. Play each team 1x and rotate the Home and Away every season.