NFL Week 14: Jim Harbaugh's first number

Are you kidding me, Mizzou? It's a showdown possibly for the division championship and definitely with two teams fighting for playoff spots, in the loudest stadium in the league. I don't understand how that isn't a marquee matchup in any week.

 

I love the matchup. I'm a Niners diehard.

I'm just surprised that NBC wanted a game with two west coast teams, even if the division is on the line.

I'm trying to think if there have been a West vs. West Sunday night matchup all season...

 

Didn't they move a 49ers-Rams game to SNF last year, or the year before? Or maybe it was SF-Seattle? The division title was at stake, I thought.

Anyway, RG3 has a grade 1 sprain of the LCL in his right knee. Status is day-to-day. Definitely not ruled out vs. Cleveland.

/exhale

 

If the Niners lose to NE, and Seattle beats Buffalo, Seattle could end up the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

Stupid (or obvious?) prediction: Seahawks aren't losing a playoff game at home, pending the situation with their QBs.

 

What situation?

 

You're thinking of the Rams (7-8) at the Seahawks (6-9) for the NFC West division title in 2010. Seahawks win to make playoffs, and a good time was had by all.

I've never been to that stadium, but I always like watching games from there.

 

This is really what the firing is about. And I think the owner is just weary of debating what Flacco's ceiling is. No one knows, even after five years, if this is as good as he'll ever get. The free agent QB market sucks, the Ravens spend a decade wasting some of the best defenses in NFL history while wandering through the quarterback wilderness, and so they know they'll likely have to pay Flacco. But if they're going to give him $90 million, I think they'd like a better idea of who he really is. So you get a jump start on that, get four games (maybe five if you win a home playoff game) to evaluate him w/o Cameron, then if you still don't feel like you have an answer, you franchise him in 2013, pay him $17 million for the year (or whatever) and you don't make a $50 million mistake that destroys your cap for a decade. I think that's ultimately what it's about. I'm starting to think, though, that Flacco is just good enough to keep losing in the playoffs, which puts you in a really difficult spot.

 

The Packers would have to lose as well. They play Chicago, Tennessee and Minnesota down the stretch. They could lose one, but probably won't. I think Seattle has the same record as the Giants as well. I'm not sure who holds all the tiebreaks.

 

They're in a tough spot with Flacco. He's not an elite QB, but's he's good enough that you can't help but wonder if you can upgrade, but if you get rid of him and draft the wrong guy, you could be fucked. He's pretty clearly better than the other free agent quarterbacks. You're not going to let Flacco walk to sign Alex Smith or Matt Flynn.

I'd probably franchise him and then draft a QB in the first two rounds. Then you get another year to evaluate him and find out if he's worth the $50 million guaranteed that it would probably take to sign him to a long term deal.

 

I like Flacco a lot, and I'd pay him. You're not rolling the dice because he's a guy who's in his prime, with a ton of experience. Why break up Flacco, Rice and Smith? That is a damning trio with a ton of talent around them -- on top of that defense.

The only reason the Ravens didn't play in the Super Bowl last season is because the Patriots' DB made a perfect play to break up a perfect pass in the end zone. That was a moment of moments. That the ball landed on the turf was not Flacco's fault.

He has proven himself. He proved himself all the way up to that moment last season, and had the Ravens made the Super Bowl (and won it) he would be the Great Joe Flacco. But now all of a sudden he stinks because they've lost 2 in a row?

He's a very good QB, bordering on elite, and with him I think the Ravens return to the AFC title game -- and this time the Super Bowl. Guy has 3,220 yards and 18 TDs and is above his career rating.

 

The only problem with drafting anther QB in the first two rounds is they have so many holes in their defense and offensive line, it's tough to use a pick on a QB who probably won't play, and best case scenario, you're flipping the guy for picks in a year or two.

 

I can see the Flacco conundrum. However, if the Ravens are on a 15-month schedule of finding out what his upside is and whether to pay him, I think it's highly unlikely that they are going to find a better solution either in the draft or through free agency in that timeframe. Aside from an unforeseen Peyton Manning situation, it doesn't look like there will be anyone on the market who would come close to matching his current production even if they do think he has reached the ceiling.