Captain_Jack wrote:

Mr. Crackerz wrote:geez, Bolts can't finish this game. Mannings had 5 almost INTS, all these penalties, giving these good drives to the chargers. Yet these stupid fumbles from the Chargers are killing their opportunites. I blame the incompetent Turner. I'm rooting for the colts, but cmon chargers, u should be winning, and big.

He made Sproles drop the ball in the endzone and made Rivers overthrow his receiver?

yes and no. Sure those TO's are on the players, but as we've seen with the chargers, AJ Smith, their GM, and their own (Spanos) stresses with their coaches overconfidence. The Chargers for years now, are an overconfident bunch, which sometimes their players think their superman. Therefore, they take so many gambles, when sometimes, playing it safe, or settling for 5 yards rather than fumbling for 6 wont occur too often. Rivers is overconfident, Sproles, Cromartie too. Look how Manning manages games. He's cool and calm. Brady too (as i hate to admit). I blame coaching for not calming these players. and the gm for hiring these guys.

Ref. Ron Winter's message from the NFL last night.... "give a Mea Culpa to the Chagers"... nothing but phantom calls... and there goes my ipod money

Mr. Crackerz wrote:Ref. Ron Winter's message from the NFL last night.... "give a Mea Culpa to the Chagers"... nothing but phantom calls... and there goes my ipod money

Word, that last drive was absolutely ridiculous...someone paid a lot of money to see the Chargers win.

Mr. Crackerz wrote:

Captain_Jack wrote:

Mr. Crackerz wrote:geez, Bolts can't finish this game. Mannings had 5 almost INTS, all these penalties, giving these good drives to the chargers. Yet these stupid fumbles from the Chargers are killing their opportunites. I blame the incompetent Turner. I'm rooting for the colts, but cmon chargers, u should be winning, and big.

He made Sproles drop the ball in the endzone and made Rivers overthrow his receiver?

yes and no. Sure those TO's are on the players, but as we've seen with the chargers, AJ Smith, their GM, and their own (Spanos) stresses with their coaches overconfidence. The Chargers for years now, are an overconfident bunch, which sometimes their players think their superman. Therefore, they take so many gambles, when sometimes, playing it safe, or settling for 5 yards rather than fumbling for 6 wont occur too often. Rivers is overconfident, Sproles, Cromartie too. Look how Manning manages games. He's cool and calm. Brady too (as i hate to admit). I blame coaching for not calming these players. and the gm for hiring these guys.

I don't think Norv's problem is overconfidence. If he was confident he would have gone for the win at the end of regulation instead of being a ***** and spiking the ball on first down with almost a minute left. He was playing for the tie, not the win...that is NOT confident football.

baltimore has played well... despite flacco being absolutely effective, and the running game, being mediocre at best. Defense wins championships.

Edit: right on cue.... mediocre running claim... and then McGahee tears up a huge run.

Baltimore at Miami was the easiest game to predict of the whole weekend. Miami did enough just by making the playoffs with that roster, but they can't compete against a top D like the Ravens.

TMC wrote:Baltimore at Miami was the easiest game to predict of the whole weekend. Miami did enough just by making the playoffs with that roster, but they can't compete against a top D like the Ravens.

agreed... this was the only game of the 4 i felt was the closest to a shoe in... the other three games, were tied IMO of equal uncertainty.

Philly/Minny should be a good one.

It'll be an interesting match up next week for all teams. The Ravens/Titans is a match up of defense. It's just a matter of which offense can get rolling. I like both teams, both coaches as well... so I'm undecided on who to pick.

Chargers/Steelers... if Sproles and/or LT can run the ball, they have a chance. But the Steelers D is tough to run against. And if you can't run, they won't respect it, therefore, the passing game gets wiped out.

Eagles/Giants is an intriguing one. Both know each other well, and Philly has been playing like an army tank that can't be stopped.

Cardinals/Panthers is probably the best match up since both teams have equal talent. But the Panthers do have the better defense and run game. It's going to take the Cards to run the ball like they did against the Falcons and a solid run D to stop DeAngelo.

xbay wrote:The Ravens/Titans is a match up of defense. It's just a matter of which offense can get rolling. I like both teams, both coaches as well... so I'm undecided on who to pick.

I'm just not confident the Titans have enough offense to beat the Ravens D. If they lose the ball too much, the Ravens will have a big chance to make it to the conference final.

xbay wrote:Chargers/Steelers... if Sproles and/or LT can run the ball, they have a chance. But the Steelers D is tough to run against. And if you can't run, they won't respect it, therefore, the passing game gets wiped out.

LT is pretty banged up, and the Chargers are going to need him at his best to share carries with Sproles. I still think the Steelers D will be too much for them.

Also, I'm rooting for a Ravens at Steelers conference final game. That would quite amazing to watch.

xbay wrote:Eagles/Giants is an intriguing one. Both know each other well, and Philly has been playing like an army tank that can't be stopped.

If Philly can stop the running game, they have a chance. A big one, in fact.

xbay wrote:Cardinals/Panthers is probably the best match up since both teams have equal talent. But the Panthers do have the better defense and run game. It's going to take the Cards to run the ball like they did against the Falcons and a solid run D to stop DeAngelo.

Actually, I think the opposite. When these two teams faced each other on week 8, the Cards were playing their best and almost were able to beat Carolina on the road, but the Panthers have improved a lot since then (as much as it pains me to say this).

The Cards will have to score first and have a lead to force Carolina to try to beat them on the air, because if not, DeAngelo might have a field day against them.

TMC wrote:

xbay wrote:The Ravens/Titans is a match up of defense. It's just a matter of which offense can get rolling. I like both teams, both coaches as well... so I'm undecided on who to pick.

I'm just not confident the Titans have enough offense to beat the Ravens D. If they lose the ball too much, the Ravens will have a big chance to make it to the conference final.

Me too. It's just that you never know with the Titans offense. One week, Collins will be tossing touchdowns towards his WRs with Johnson and White running for scores. Next, the only points come from Bironas. I just think the Ravens D is too physical. We all saw what they did to Miami. All week before the game, they practiced on a TON of hitting hard and stripping the ball drills... concentrating more on the Fins run game and having Pennington win it by throwing it. And what happened? 5 turnovers.

TMC wrote:

xbay wrote:Chargers/Steelers... if Sproles and/or LT can run the ball, they have a chance. But the Steelers D is tough to run against. And if you can't run, they won't respect it, therefore, the passing game gets wiped out.

LT is pretty banged up, and the Chargers are going to need him at his best to share carries with Sproles. I still think the Steelers D will be too much for them.

Also, I'm rooting for a Ravens at Steelers conference final game. That would quite amazing to watch.

Yeah, but that Steelers o-line needs to hold up for Ben. He's been banged up all season because of the lack of protection. Ron Rivera's play calling and game plan was able to keep the Colts offense in check, so the Steelers won't have it so easy offensively.

TMC wrote:

xbay wrote:Eagles/Giants is an intriguing one. Both know each other well, and Philly has been playing like an army tank that can't be stopped.

If Philly can stop the running game, they have a chance. A big one, in fact.

I think if anything has been proven, it's that Eli cannot pass the ball as well without Plaxico. So, if Philly can stop "Earth, Wind, and Fire," they'll be good. Make Eli throw the ball.

TMC wrote:

xbay wrote:Cardinals/Panthers is probably the best match up since both teams have equal talent. But the Panthers do have the better defense and run game. It's going to take the Cards to run the ball like they did against the Falcons and a solid run D to stop DeAngelo.

Actually, I think the opposite. When these two teams faced each other on week 8, the Cards were playing their best and almost were able to beat Carolina on the road, but the Panthers have improved a lot since then (as much as it pains me to say this).

The Cards will have to score first and have a lead to force Carolina to try to beat them on the air, because if not, DeAngelo might have a field day against them.

The passing game is there for the Cards, it's just a matter of whether they can contain Peppers and that Panthers pass rush to give Warner time to throw. I just really believe Hightower and James need a big day to win it.

As for the Panthers, I think they'll be fine, even in the passing game. Steve Smith is just that good, IMO. For the Cards to beat 'em with their pass D, they'll have to make guys like Muhammed and Jarrett make plays catching the ball. Plus, containing DeAngelo is essential like I said. All year long, teams had trouble keeping him from getting to the end zone.

Didnt take long for the Man Genius to get a job... Welcome to the dog pound, Eric.

Mr. Crackerz wrote:Didnt take long for the Man Genius to get a job... Welcome to the dog pound, Eric.

Good for him. He should of never been fired, to be honest. He's a good coach, and it wasn't him who lost the important game for the Jets. It was Farve.

I agree that he is a good coach however I disagree somewhat about that he should not have got fired.

Supposedly a lot of players HATED him and the locker room was a mess. He had lost the repect of most of the players. I think he needed to go.

I think he is a very good defensive mind but it is yet to be determined whether he has the charisma to be an effective leader.

xbay wrote:

Mr. Crackerz wrote:Didnt take long for the Man Genius to get a job... Welcome to the dog pound, Eric.

Good for him. He should of never been fired, to be honest. He's a good coach, and it wasn't him who lost the important game for the Jets. It was Farve.

Still, the Jets should have won their division easily, and Mangini was responsible for keeping Favre in the game.

I probably wouldn't have fired him, but he also has to share some of the blame.


I'm not a big fan of signing a coach before you even have a GM, tho. Hopefully the Browns know what they're doing, because it seems to me they're just trying to copy the Pats blueprint.

TMC wrote:

xbay wrote:

Mr. Crackerz wrote:Didnt take long for the Man Genius to get a job... Welcome to the dog pound, Eric.

Good for him. He should of never been fired, to be honest. He's a good coach, and it wasn't him who lost the important game for the Jets. It was Farve.

Still, the Jets should have won their division easily, and Mangini was responsible for keeping Favre in the game.

I probably wouldn't have fired him, but he also has to share some of the blame.


I'm not a big fan of signing a coach before you even have a GM, tho. Hopefully the Browns know what they're doing, because it seems to me they're just trying to copy the Pats blueprint.

Yeah, that's true. The Jets are going to be in a hole at QB next season. Farve's probably going to retire. I mean, why would he want to come back? Will his teammates want him back after everything that happened and was said about him? Kellen Clemens is their next hope, and that should be hard to swallow for Jets fans.