IT'S THE 2012-13 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS THREAD

Baltimore at New England
San Francisco at Atlanta

I'm taking Pats and Niners, and think upsets are unlikely (though still possible).

have to think the 9ers are taking this all the way; feels like the stars are aligning for another Patriots Super Bowl loss

In my ideal world the Niners go all the way to the Superbowl and lose
But I'm mean.

I dunno if I really have a pick for either game tbh

Pats over Niners

baltimore against new england seems like the closest game in football right now. the afc game last year and the regular season game this year, both at gillette, were really as close as you can get without finishing tied. baltimore should've leveled the first game, pats should've won the second. but it does feel like a lot water has gone under the bridge since those games, and new england seems to have got better and baltimore worse. the big question is, what will new england do to stop flacco throwing the ball over their defense?

the nfc game is a lot easier to call. i can't find an angle that makes it look like an atlanta win. niners will score 30 and keep atlanta below 20.

Matt Ryan is such a robot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trHNRK7NfUc

Falcons beat Niners. I like the Ravens, so I would hope they dont play the Falcons in the SB so i can root against the Pats.

the whole "it's about who finishes" narrative is kinda getting turned on its ear. the best 2nd half teams were the Broncos, Packers, Seahawks, and Redskins, all eliminated. all four teams left are ones that seemed to have some open questions going into the playoffs (outside of the Pats I guess)

Packers? Because they sort of caught up a little bit when the win was out of reach?

I mean second half of the season. Skins won 7 straight to close out the season. Broncos won 11 straight. Seahawks were arguably the best team from Week 9 on. Packers started 2-3 and then went 9-2 the rest of the way. Meanwhile the Ravens looked super vulnerable to close things out, people were having doubt about the 49ers defense, and the Falcons are just dumped one to the Panthers.

Falcons had wrapped up home field by that time and had just nuked the giants. That game meant nothing.

what will new england do to stop flacco throwing the ball over their defense?

― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, January 14, 2013 2:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im not sure why teams are having trouble w this, i mean just cover the deep routes and make him beat you w/consistant short passing, hint he wont be able to do it

playing deep coverage and stopping deep passes are not necessarily the same thing. examples: baltimore's TD at the end of regular time vs denver; new england's secondary for the last 6 years

flacco makes it easy tho because he has such trouble w accuracy, usually you theres some sort tension between letting teams killing w the short game a guarding against the long bomb, and denvers fuck up isnt really instructive as it was just a mistake rather than something produced by the inherent difficulty of guarding against flacco going deep to the right sideline

just stick a safety 30 yards downfield on the right sideline and everything will be cool, i am a defensive genius

my special defense to counter the flac-attack: 4-man front, 3 deep zone, the other four disguised with each down between 0-2 blitzing and 2-4 in underneath zones, mixing it up. get some pressure (pats struggle w/this vs flacco) and some cheap interception opportunities, and at least discourage the long pass.

usually you theres some sort tension between letting teams killing w the short game a guarding against the long bomb

this is the most beautiful sentence ever written by a human person

it is tough just to flip a switch when you have been composing spam emails all day right?

haha

agree that scheming baltimore is a pretty simple exercise, what makes their thing work is that boldin is simply outstanding at catching balls in traffic and smith is showing some of that skill too. patriots will need to show some srs ball skills to match up.

i am not 100% sold on dennard although he is certainly showing promise, but i think NE goes into this game with 1 guy at CB and 1 guy at safety who are reliable against the pass in their given position. in the game earlier this season there was basically 0 at each. mccourty's switch to free safety has been really amazing for him - he totally benefits from not having to line up opposite a receiver at the line

cool just put both those guys on the right side, yr move flacco

curious to see if they stick talib on boldin all game, that will be an absolute slugfest

curious to see if they can goad flacco into an or two int deep down the right sideline

curious guys itt

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/nfl/players/full/11252.png&w=350&h=254

i almost guarantee that they will sic talib on boldin, with dennard on smith and mccourty shading over the top or vs 3rd receiver depending on field positon.

the right side thing is so bizarre, i don't even know. i am sure it makes sense somehow but smh anyway.

its the one pass he throws good, its a very difficult pass, and he throws it very good

five yard slant, the receiver will most like at least make contact w/the ball w/some part of his body

thing is, if he hits free agency, which is a legit possibility with baltimore's cap situation, he would get paid so much money he'd be able to send everyone in the US a 5 dollar bill stapled to a postcard that says 'fuck you'.

really flacco is a hot property, im dubious, ill take the money tho, i mean five dollars is five dollars

the right side thing is so bizarre, i don't even know. i am sure it makes sense somehow but smh anyway.

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, January 15, 2013 3:00 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya its weird, like youd think he could just turn his body a lil toward the left sideline and throw the same pass, its like how nba players shoot better from different spots on the floor of the same distance from the basket

i was listening to something recently where they were talking about being impressed with kaepernick because in his first couple starts he was already throwing left a lot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Zce-QT7MGSE

haha I was just coming here to post that

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8849439/how-terminology-erhardt-perkins-system-helped-maintain-dominance-tom-brady-patriots

this is pretty interesting, i would've liked it if he'd gone into it a bit further

awesome piece. if you haven't seen it, read the greg bedard story recently posted in the eagles thread for how the pats use terminology with no-huddle/chip kelly concepts

interesting!

ghost tosser

has the dan (le) batard piece on jason taylor been posted yet?

probably, but it is quite something

that's pretty horrendous. i think it's a cultural competitive thing, rather than anything inherent to football though, which is to say it could be some way remediable if the will was really there. it seems like things are creeping in that direction, i hope so.

yeah i'm kinda hoping that culture changes in a big way, but it's kind of hard to foresee when you got guys like Alex Smith get a concussion and then lose their jobs

it may be a cultural competitive thing, but i don't think too many other sports make such demands

i mean god bless jason taylor and his competitive will, but wtf

yeah also Jason Taylor comes off as being kind of an idiot here, that just really seems inhuman

surely some of those games were like, late in a losing season too

whatever, dudes

you know as well as i do that there is a concrete manifest culture in the nfl that you play through anything. which is reinforced by the lack of guaranteed contracts and the supply of releasable cannon-fodder available to replace you.

jason taylor was a star, relatively speaking, and at least made some cash. no one else gets writeups in major newspapers.

btw here is franco harris hoping that blueberries and crosswords stave off dementia. he's had a better run than most and a statue, at least

i'm thinking more like, why did no part of his brain kick in to say "I should really sit out a week because my career could be over otherwise"?

I think people w/ very active that part of the brains generally don't end up as professional athletes

definitely

my god jason taylor, sit down for a min big guy u have a catheter in you doin stuff

barefoot + jeans, Billy Jack-style

See you there, Bill.

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Friday, January 25, 2013 4:41 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Look forward to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBaYVo89mmY

What if you guys fall in love

Hungry4Magill babbies omg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qhjprz1TNjI

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs3/1980742_o.gif

http://www.deviantart.com/download/261062717/make_love__not_war__by_ccc7ccc-d4bfha5.jpg

loll @ lets get the gleam

after 47 years, the atlanta falcons will have their moment of relevance

looking forward to two dudes fighting over who's the bigger la clippers fan

looking forward to two dudes fighting over who's the bigger la clippers fan

YOU ARE! NO, YOU ARE

http://bossip.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/lamar-odom-clippers-e1341029187386.jpg?w=525&h=498

kinda sad, mostly lol

http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/hug.jpg?w=500&h=462

kinda want to write a play about this moment

maybe throw some pottery too

i'm gonna throw a pot about this moment

i will garnish it with pussy juice

oh if they break their hands and can't post for a month, dear Jesus

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/01/23/NFLscans_441x301.jpeg

L-R: control, Hungry4Ass, Bill Magill

in b4 bill chickens out

i can't watch this

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Zw32-oDZ0kQ?feature=player_detailpage"; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw32-oDZ0kQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qknoN-mZAFE

should we be taking bets on who's gonna win?

who got the gleam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVAC2bUjruo

obviously none of us care at all how or if this went down because we are super mature

I suspect it was less violent than the time j0n threw a karate kick at me in his kitchen and i took him to the floor

was he defending Obama?

hmm

the silence is deafening

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta

shoulda been charity PPV event, no lie

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/guyspeed.com/files/2012/01/51244195.jpg

who's gonna be first to break radio silence and post the pics of them getting shitfaced at a bar

they better cover themselves in fake blood first or I'm gonna come down there and kick their asses myself

you don't think maybe...

http://gifs.gifbin.com/3934yu85yu4.gif

hahahahah

hillbillies: chickenshit, y/n?

oh man, what a twist

tyler d. had occurred to me, but i don't see h4a having a non-trivial knowledge of hockey?

hahaha

hungry4ass . . . lives

i did some investigating, but cannot reveal my findings

trying to find bill magill's mug shot, brb

http://i.imgur.com/usld1yd.gif

been two weeks. this is becoming key ilx lore.
hope everybody is well out there.

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