2012 NFL Week 14 - "Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie will fire Andy Reid and hire former Bucs coach Jon Gruden at halftime."

Denver Broncos @ Oakland Raiders
Baltimore Ravens @ Washington Redskins
Tennessee Titans @ Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs @ Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys @ Cincinnati Bengals
St. Louis Rams @ Buffalo Bills
Philadelphia Eagles @ Tampa Bay Bucs
Chicago Bears @ Minnesota Vikings
Atlanta Falcons @ Carolina Panthers
San Diego Chargers @ Pittsburgh Steelers
New York Jets @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Miami Dolphins @ San Francisco 49ers
Arizona Cardinals @ Seattle Seahawks
New Orleans Saints @ New York Giants
Detroit Lions @ Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots

Ravens v. Redskins, Saints Giants, and Texans v. Pats the best games here. The other ones not so good. Though I find the Rams Bills game intriguing.

i think cowboys/bengals could be kinda interesting

Good point. That could be interesting, mostly cuz of the Bengals.

if it's close i'll be a little disappointed in the bengals.

He is widely considered to be the greatest wide receiver in NFL history and among the greatest NFL players at any position.[1] On November 4, 2010, Rice was chosen by NFL Network's NFL Films production The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players as the greatest player in NFL history. He is also widely considered to be the greatest American football player of all time.

OK WIKIPEDIA, i get it.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/07/500x_slaughters_big_rip_off_poster_01.jpg

I'd imagine Mr. Brown would disagree with that assessment.

3 million dollar bill

saw that movie, Ed McMahon is one actor to keep an eye out for

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/reports-dallas-cowboy-involved-in-a-fatal-car-accident.html/

oh my god

man I am still trying to get used to Washington having an offense

offenses. i remember those are nice.

unfortunately Ravens have one too - Ray Rice

http://gif.mocksession.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/AVANT-CATCH.gif

hm

http://gif.mocksession.com/2012/12/avant-catch/

yeah that's p sick

five touchdowns and probably ten penalties total in this half of football so far

Another classic meaningless late surge by the Chargers.

cam is owning atl

narrative = falcons get playoff wake-up call

best interception off flacco!

london fletcher

skins should be doing more in that game, need to get something from the turnover this time

london fletcher most valuable washington player over the last ten years

all the crap this franchise has been through and Fletcher always shows up and makes plays

cutler time

if there's any AFC team I hate more than Chargers it's the Steelers, so let's go Super Chargers

wow, how good is Washington kicker this year!

man I am still trying to get used to Washington having a decent kicker

mega lols @ steelers

hahahah just saw a replay on that, super lols @ Rofflesburger. even Chargers can't find a way to screw up this much of a lead can they?

NFL officiating is making it hard for me to watch it anymore

Bengals just got totally screwed on a bullshit call for hitting a defenseless receiver

helluva td 'sburgh

chargers fake punt with 17pt lead. norv shaking the playbook empty.

wtf Washington I can't even

rammies take the lead!

wow RGIII took a shot

seems to be walking off though

this game

holy shit, this game

^^^^^

omg cousins

no way skins run/convert that play if balto doesnt call a timeout

love this

someone pick-six Joe the Flacco right now

D Hall that means you

Amaxing dominating no-doubt-about-it performance by the Browns. Great teams are supposed to beat the shit out of bad teams. Looks like Shurmur stays.

OMG

these cowboys are not looking confident about their kicker

come on

that was some weak shit losing that game bengals

Chuckie saying Belechik doesn't get enough credit!!

― Andrew WKRP (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, December 10, 2012 10:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^did this really happen?

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Tuesday, December 11, 2012 8:28 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes! i don't know how much more credit bill b. could possibly get, but it's never enough!

its absolutely hilarious

he was specifically talking about recognizing consistency. as in, 12 consecutive winning seasons (10 division wins - and joint best division record in the other 2) is prob a bigger deal than ppl realize. it was still a dumb thing to day tho, or dumb way to express it at least. he should have said "this guy, bill belichick, gets plenty of credit, but BOY does he earn it out there"

also, i realized that up to this season, brady has gone to the superbowl exactly one half of the seasons he has been a healthy starter. 5 out of 10. and the afc champs game 6 out of 10. that is fucked up.

as a Packer fan the fact that we've only had two losing seasons in the last 20 years is pretty remarkable but I do admit lucking into Rodgers was an incredible stroke of luck. Colts are going to do the same thing and I hate them for it.

Colts getting Luck was and is so gross

I still find it hard to believe that Cleveland missed out on all these guys and wound up with Brandon Weeden

Weeden and Tannehill both should've been second or third round guys (or, as play has revealed, even lower). The same teams keep reaching for qbs and they keep suffering because they won't go for broke in the draft.

i'm pretty sure that is going for broke in the draft

those guys have been pretty decent for rookies anyway... both weeden & tannehill are just inconsistent

i won't really defend the browns tho cuz weeden is just too old to be a first round pick and they had enough ammo to get RG3 and just didn't do it

I don't mean going full-Ditka, but they should be be prepared to trade picks away if a true blue chip qb is there for the taking. John Beck wasn't one. Brady Quinn wasn't one. Colt McCoy wasn't one. Chad Henne wasn't one. Neither Weeden nor Tannehill project to be one. Russell Wilson was there for the taking. Either team could've had him. They either have to go for sure things like a Luck or a Griffin or study qbs more thoroughly like Pete Carroll did.

as far as the rookie QBs go, griffin is historically good & then there's everyone else imo

that's putting a lot of stock in a stretch of great games for russell wilson... i don't think he's a lock to be a blue chip QB or even better than tannehill over the course of his career. pete carroll also traded a third round pick for charlie whitehurst and started tavaris jackson for an entire season so he's not exempt from criticism, he just finally hit a bullseye.

but they should be be prepared to trade picks away if a true blue chip qb is there for the taking.

i think this ignores a lot of context (not that i don't think cleveland will rue the day it didn't push harder for griffin)

it is way too early to write off a rookie qb that has shown any kind of ability, and tannehill has had enough flashes. miami has enough to worry about elsewhere to give tannehill benefit of the doubt thru year 2 and probably beyond however he plays. but i wouldn't be surprised if things started to look like they were coming together next year for them.

basically the only rookie QBs i have completely written off after half a season or so are blaine gabbert and jimmy clausen (in terms of high draft picks at least)

and tim tebow

josh freeman is a good example of someone who is was horrible in his rookie year because the team around him was so terrible but who took a big year in leap two once there was some talent around him.

claus-dog was so incredibly awful

oh hey, browns ppl or anyone who watched the game, was brady quinn any good on sunday or was it just the chiefs are totally hapless?

yes and tim tebow

freeman actually flashed at times in his rookie season - you could tell there was something there

lol I totally forgot Tebow went in the first round

I'd definitely give Tannehill some time, I feel the tools are there but he needs some polishing.

xpost lol whoa did i read that wrong

freeman actually flashed at times in his rookie season - you could tell there was something there

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, December 11, 2012 4:39 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

no doubt... i think both weeden & tannehill have shown flashes this year too, but need talent infusions in the passing game.

i.e. who knows how the andy dalton draft pick looks right now if the bengals don't also have AJ green

gabbert's worst quality is that he plays scared. he seems to be terrified of getting hit. i have never seen anything like it. he must spend a tiny amount of time looking down the field on each dropback.

yeah he was one dude where you could watch him play one quarter and just go "nope. never."

there are some players i think - or maybe hope - they tell themselves they're just going to keep their head down and drop most of that big check in a savings account until they are found out. i would hate to think blaine gabbert has ever once thought his career would have fourth year.

I guess I just haven't seen enough Dolphins games on tv. The ones I've seen have spotlighted Tannehill's lesser qualities, perhaps.

Is Clausen still on anyone's payroll btw?

googles

Oh, he is! In Carolina, even!

excepting the jets game where he got hurt on the first drive, tannehill's qb ratings so far this year have been:

39.0, 91.0, 50.2, 86.5, 92.3, 112.0, 90.9, 42.4, 46.9, 97.1, 66.2, 74.1

he's just been inconsistent which isn't entirely unexpected. the dolphins can't run the ball and are in desperate need of a no. 1 receiver. i think they can win with tannehill at qb (esp considering where the jets & bill are at w/ their qbs) even if the's not as good as bob grif for luck (which he's not).

I think it's a bit early to write off Tannehill and Wheeden. Cleveland's skills players other than getting Richardson this year have been particularly poor the past few seasons. I think all depends on how it goes next year. Miami was looking good earlier in the year but Cleveland looks to be coming around now.

Russell Wilson has the benefit of playing behind a road grater offensive line with an old school pounder running back and his wideouts are pretty decent. Their offense and team is the same type that both Flacco and Big Ben won with a few years ago as rookies.

I'm a big believer that half of the success in the NFL, especially for QBs, if you got a certain amount of skills is ending up with a club that has coaches that know what they are doing, being surrounded by talent and managing to not get hurt.

Terry Bradshaw gets drafted by the Saints, no one would outside the Bayou would know his name.

Trent Green doesn't get hurt, you never know, Kurt Warner might have always been an unknown and Green would have been the QB for the 'greatest show on turf'. Green had the talent with those wideouts - he would have put up killer numbers too.

Jim Plunkett could have been one of those guys on those 'bust' QB lists but somehow got into the right place at the right time with the Raiders and won 2 superbowls.

It's kind of hard to believe in hindsight that SD let Drew Brees go. The guy is going to the Hall of Fame and they had him.

There are a ton of those kind of examples.

I definitely see where you're coming from. That was what was so intriguing to me about the 49ers situation, usually a guy like Kaepernick just wouldn't get a shot, now it looks like there's a chance Kaepernick could become a top 10 once he gets more experience under his belt. Kurt Warner is probably the ultimate example of this because everything about his career seems like such a longshot but I'm sure there are other examples. I still wonder what would have been if Rodgers was drafted #1 and Alex Smith fell to the Pack.

I always wonder what would have happened had Favre not thrown that awful pick in 2007 and the Pack went on to the Super Bowl. Pats probably win then which means they don't have to play that Week 1 game where Brady gets injured and Matt Cassell happens (and of course we don't know what happens to the Chiefs then). Favre probably retires then and doesn't destroy the Jets franchise. Jets probably don't get Sanchez (good for them). Who knows what the hell the Vikings do. Perhaps they end up with Flacco.

Truth is it's really tough to tell whether or not you've got a guy with Brady/Manning/Brees/Rodgers potential or someone like say Mark Sanchez, a guy who should get better but just never gets there. Obviously SD thought Brees would flame out and to be honest I don't think anyone really knew if Rodgers was going to be any good. As I recall his reptuation went from "he gets hurt every game" to "he holds the ball way too long is going to kill himself" to "holy shit this guy could actually be better than Favre" in the span of about two years.

mark sanchez is ass juice and always had been. dude played in a good offense for few years and sucked before getting completely exposed in the last few seasons.

i'm sorry that's not really germane to the convo but i couldn't help myself

anyeay earlnash is right. russell wilson is in a great situation, with good talent around him and a coaching staff that is open to fitting its offense around him

as an example

lol, ass juice

trent green was sort of awesome

Favre probably retires then and doesn't destroy the Jets franchise.

just having fun

also i can only assume by 'destroy' you mean showing his wang 2 every single person in the organization

I don't mean going full-Ditka,

^the way the league is now, if you have a chance to get a Griffin or a Luck, you gotta go Ditka. You gotta offload your whole draft. If you dont have a very good to great QB in this league, you cant compete. The game has changed since Dilfer and B. Johnson got their rings.

Let's not forget how fucking spectacular Russ Wilson was in college. This guy didnt come from nowhere. I would rather have had him than either Tannehill or Weeden in college ANY DAY.

yeah we definitely miss him in Wisconsin

weeden was also incredible in college

to get RG the browns would have to give up Weeden, Richardson, Josh Gordon (all starters) and two future #1 picks. i dunno now that the team is playing pretty good.

They should sign Alex Smith imo

weeden was also incredible in college

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, December 12, 2012 10:00 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He was nowhere near the player Wilson was, imo

I think the simple fact that Russell Wilson is 5-10 is why he wasn't drafted higher and why Wheeden was held higher as a prospect. Not too many QBs under 6 foot do much at all in football. Drew Brees is listed at 6-0 tall, but his height is why he went to Purdue and wasn't a first rounder too. Only QB I can think of that had a long career in recent memory under 6 foot is Doug Flutie and that dude had to take the long way around to even get a second shot as a NFL player and even then clubs kept doubting him.

As good as RGIII has been this year, I think he has benefitted by having a pretty good supporting cast and I think his coaches have been really smart about building an offense that works with what he can do. My fear on him would be can he take the hits, as he has that sprinter frame. McNabb was a bit bigger, but he missed games a few seasons just from that extra pounding that you take running the ball from QB.

earlnash otm re: wilson