Running NFL Week XVI thread

Thing is, it seems most NFL games -- even the ones that look good on paper -- are duds. Just how it happens. There are usually two or three good games each week, but the rest ... eh.

All I know is, I can't wait to hit the Steelers bar tomorrow with the fiancee and relax on a rare Sunday away from work.

 

buckweaver, I thought someone broke it all down one time. The Bill James chapter in Moneyball is ringing some bells. Oh well. I think it's a great piece of wisdom.

 

I agree an 18-game schedule would be just awful. But I still disagree that 9-7 and 91-71 are one and the same. Again, if a 9-win team was as good as a 91-win team in baseball, we'd see a lot more 9-7 Super Bowl teams. As it is, no 9-7 team has ever won the Super Bowl.

There have been 11 World Series champions with 92 or fewer regular season wins since 1978 (discounting strike seasons), when the NFL expanded to 16 games. In that time frame, only one 9-win team has made the Super Bowl (the afore-mentioned Rams) and only seven teams with nine or fewer wins have made it as far as the conference title game:

1996 Jaguars
1995 Colts
1989 Browns (9-6-1)
1987 Vikings (8-7)
1984 Steelers
1983 Seahawks
1979 Rams

I feel pretty secure in guaranteeing none of the 9- or 8-win NFC teams is going to break the streak this year. I wouldn't be shocked if the Bengals, Broncos or, gasp, even the Steelers, Titans or Bills made noise as a 9-win team in the AFC.

 

The NFL's playoff bye doesn't give a 9-7 team much of a chance (and justly so) against a rested power in a conference championship game. Baseball doesn't work that way. Nor should it.

As a matter of opinion, I think a 91-71 baseball club usually is as structurally flawed as a 9-7 playoff qualifier is. But the 91-71 team isn't quite facing a stacked deck the way a 9-7 team is.

Most of the teams you cited recorded huge (even implausible) upsets on the road in the playoffs to reach the conference title games. They had nothing left in the tank by the time they got there, although the 1995 Colts came pretty damned close.

 

About as close as you can come to the Super Bowl without making it. Poor Floyd Bailey.

And boy, do I feel old: The man that threw that pass is now coaching Stanford. Cripes.

 

Yeah. I'm old too or something. Neil "Australopithicus" O'Donnell is celebrating Christmas somewhere in quasi-retirement.

I know how fond you are of him.

 

What an insufferable dick that guy was. Loved how he always managed to refer to himself in the third person. Dude, you have to not suck to do that. If not for David Woodley (RIP), I really believe Neil would be the worst QB to ever reach the Super Bowl. At the time, I couldn't believe how quickly Erric Pegram and others threw him under the bus after Super Bowl XXX. Then he got to NY and it was obvious his teammates realized he couldn't lead a pig to shit. He'd rather take a sack--lots and lots of sacks--than risk the INT that could harm his status as the least mistake-prone QB in history. [/worthless stat]

That he's now in the media makes him only slightly less hypocritical than Sterling Sharpe.

 

When Neil O'Donnell was with Cincinnati he had the "habit" of doing a quick dump-off to a fullback or running back if no one was open quickly (to avoid a sack or INT). One time against Jacksonville, he came in for one play because Jeff Blake got hurt and had to come out, per the rules. O'Donnell threw a dump-off to the fullback. The press box roared with laughter. The Jacksonville media members all looked around wondering what the hell was so funny.

 

For those not watching Titans-Bills, Vince Young just finished a spectacular half with a spectacular long touchdown run. He is ridiculous.

 

Coughlin should be fired and banned from ever holding a coaching job, in any sport at any level

 

141 rushing yards and 2 TDs on 29 carries for Ron Dayne. He hasn't looked this good since his college days.

Way to go Colts defense. :

 

Giants just had back-to-back unneccesary roughness penalties, on offensive linemen.Coughlin needs to be fired at the next commercial. Then the fucking loser scum sucking bitchass giants give up a TD on a punt return, over turned on appeal, but they still suck shit

If it weren't for the fact that Michael Vick is as piss poor a QB as Eli Manning, the ginats would be out of it by now. But vick's vaginitis is acting up and thus, he can't score