NFL thread! What are you thinking?

[rkj427]

 

[Lefty11]

The Lions looked impressive the other night. As a lifelong fan, I feel optimistic for a change. I genuinely believe they have the right pieces in place to make some noise.  

[RetiredBoomer]

3 hours ago, Lefty11 said:

The Lions looked impressive the other night. As a lifelong fan, I feel optimistic for a change. I genuinely believe they have the right pieces in place to make some noise.  

If Doak Walker, Bobby Layne, and Yale Larry all have good years,
the Lions will be hard to beat. 

[chisag]

7 hours ago, Lefty11 said:

The Lions looked impressive the other night. As a lifelong fan, I feel optimistic for a change. I genuinely believe they have the right pieces in place to make some noise.  

 

... While I can't just openly support the Lions as a lifelong Bears fan, it's impossible to not be impressed by the team and especially Coach Campbell. If the Bears are gonna lose to a NFC North team, I would want it to be the Lions. 

[Louis_Posture]

On 10/1/2024 at 5:39 AM, cnosil said:

So you are saying a coach should have ended his career?   

Yes, integrity is a part of being a competent head coach.

 

On 10/1/2024 at 5:39 AM, cnosil said:

   Why didn’t doctors who assess medical conditions tell him he can’t play football anymore?   Why didn’t doctors report to the NFL that he is incapable of safely playing the game?      

If one looks hard enough he can find a doctor to say and, or prescribe just about anything; remember Michael Jackson.

 

On 10/1/2024 at 5:39 AM, cnosil said:

 Where does Tua’s opinion fit into all of this?   

Two years ago following Tua's second concussion of the 2022 season he had collected to that point $20 million, which was not enough money to satisfy him or his family. Now two years and two more concussions later he has collected an additional $50 million, so he's banked a total of $70 million, but it's still not enough to satisfy him. My take is that Tua's top priority is money. If him and his lawyers can now extract a $100 million plus buyout from the Dolphins I expect he will take that money, move back to Hawaii, and play golf everyday.

[Louis_Posture]

On 10/1/2024 at 7:04 AM, bens197 said:

Strong disagree.  As a Bills fan, I’ve admired McDaniel’s approach and the offensive scheme he’s brought to Miami.  

He went all-in on a Tua / Ticky Tack quick paced offense that works only when all pieces are healthy.

When it was working, they were a legit good football team.  Now that pieces are breaking it’s easy to call him a failure.

No, McD's quick strike offense has never been successful against the better teams, or  in meaningful games, and the Dolphins have had back-to-back late season collapses. McDaniel does not prepare the team nearly well enough for games; during games he is lost about what's happening and seems incapable of making adjustments.

[chisag]

On 10/1/2024 at 5:39 AM, cnosil said:

So you are saying a coach should have ended his career?  

 

... There is a collective bargaining agreement that prevents a coach from making those kinds of judgments. There is also an owner that paid 50 million dollars that could and would fire a coach for benching a Qb that is cleared by medical and wants to play. And there is Tua himself and he of course is the only one that can make that call. 

... I think most of us would probably agree that CTE affects players later in life with catastrophic consequences including suicide, so it would be best for Tua to retire at this point. But it isn't our call. Anymore than it is our call to tell someone they can't be a logger, fireman, policeman or join the military. 

[GaryF]

I didn’t watch the game but looking at the stats, etc, Cousins and the Falcons had a great game.

[bens197]

1 hour ago, GaryF said:

I didn’t watch the game but looking at the stats, etc, Cousins and the Falcons had a great game.

Best game of the season thus far. Great offenses on both sides of the ball. NFC South is competitive again!

[chisag]

1 minute ago, bens197 said:

Best game of the season thus far. Great offenses on both sides of the ball. NFC South is competitive again!

 

... I can't argue but I had Tampa in a pool so I was disappointed in the ending. Of course that's what happens when you don't play to win but play to not lose. After being aggressive all game long the Bucs decided to go ultra conservative and run the ball with the box stacked to prevent running for a 1st down. Mayfield had thrown the ball well all night and they should have continued to be aggressive passing and trying to score or get in FG range, not just run the clock down. Brutal ending to what was a great game to that point. 

[bens197]

43 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... I can't argue but I had Tampa in a pool so I was disappointed in the ending. Of course that's what happens when you don't play to win but play to not lose. After being aggressive all game long the Bucs decided to go ultra conservative and run the ball with the box stacked to prevent running for a 1st down. Mayfield had thrown the ball well all night and they should have continued to be aggressive passing and trying to score or get in FG range, not just run the clock down. Brutal ending to what was a great game to that point. 

Tampa couldn’t get a run game going all night. Blows my mind how coaches struggle to adapt because they think they have to get the ball on the ground. 

[GaryF]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

Best game of the season thus far. Great offenses on both sides of the ball. NFC South is competitive again!

It may be the division for the Falcons to lose as they have a pretty decent schedule. 

[CFreddie]

Love seeing Falcons talk here

But seriously, homerism aside, that was definitely the game of the season (so far). I’m hopeful Kirk is turning a corner with this offense and it wasn’t just a one-time blip. If so, we could be a sneaky good team in the NFC. 

Hats off to Tampa though - they are def better than the sum of their parts and could be a battle with them (and possibly NO) for the South this season. 
 

Regardless, this was me last night

[chisag]

2 minutes ago, CFreddie said:

I’m hopeful Kirk is turning a corner with this offense and it wasn’t just a one-time blip.

 

... After watching him for years, you never know which version of Kirk will show up. The T Brady/Cousins or the J Winston/Cousins and they can show up in the same game. I have seen him look like a HOF QB and a 1st Round Bust. Hopefully you don't have to ride that roller coaster. 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

@chisag credit where credit is due, the Bears DISMANTLED the Panthers yesterday. What a complete performance, and one of the better total game performances I can recall in recent memory for them. Williams looked much more the part of the QB that was hyped up all offseason as well. Down field accuracy was vastly improved from the first few games of the season.

[chisag]

4 hours ago, GolfSpy_KFT said:

@chisag credit where credit is due, the Bears DISMANTLED the Panthers yesterday. What a complete performance, and one of the better total game performances I can recall in recent memory for them. Williams looked much more the part of the QB that was hyped up all offseason as well. Down field accuracy was vastly improved from the first few games of the season.

 

... Gracias amigo. Williams has made faster strides than I expected in just 5 weeks. He looked stressed and overwhelmed his first two games going from preseason vanilla defenses to heavy blitzing with players changing pre to post snap. He looked completely poised and that basically flat footed 45yd TD pass to DJ Moore was a thing of beauty form making the correct read, trusting his pocket and making an accurate throw. I think this is the Bears future for a change:  

... I expect the chemistry between Wiliams, Moore, Allen, Odunze and Kmet to continue to improve. The defense picked up right where it left off and the only fly in the ointment is the Oline that is dealing with multiple injuries and so far unable to find the cohesion needed with the same 5 getting reps together in practice let alone games. I also think it is amazingly fortuitous for the Bears that they don't face a division opponent til week 11. Then the real fun begins with the last 6 out of 8 games against the teams in the toughest division in the NFL. Let's hope the final game of the season and the oldest rivalry in the NFL is relevant! 

[chisag]

... OK NFL fans one more week of games before the biggest event of the NFL season. It certainly won't be the Commanders playing the Bears.  It will be Caleb Williams the #1 pick vs Jayden Danials the #2 pick!!!  Obviously the rest of the teams are just there for moral support and won't actually be playing. Defense, Olines and schemes are irrelevant.   Just those two playing against each other. Although since they both play offense it's hard to see how that is the case but I imagine the media will have a field day before, during and after the game.

... My guess is knowing how they have both performed and with their personalities, they don't care anything about the "match up" and just want a team win. 

[Shankster]

Feel bad for Hutch and the Lions.  Hopefully his leg heals quickly and properly.  They needed him for any chance at making the playoffs I believe.  The team did rise to the occasion with several INT’s after he left making Dak look lost out there.  Who knows.

[chisag]

21 minutes ago, Shankster said:

Feel bad for Hutch and the Lions.  Hopefully his leg heals quickly and properly.  They needed him for any chance at making the playoffs I believe.  The team did rise to the occasion with several INT’s after he left making Dak look lost out there.  Who knows.

 

... Pretty crazy that I really hated DE's when I played. Then my son became a DE and I learned to love the position as well as having a better understanding of the difficulties they face and the pressure to ... well ... pressure. I was sick to my stomach when Hutchinson went down. Such a remarkable talent, a really good kid and while I hate to see any player get injured, seeing him go down was even worse than normal. 

[yungkory]

The NFC North is looking to be very competitive this season and Hutch going down worries me. We were still getting to Dak after the injury, but now it's definitely easier for teams to block us. No one else on our line really commands a double block. Maybe we'll steal Crosby from the Raiders? Heard he likes Dan Campbell

 

edit: lol, cowboys

Edited October 14 by yungkory
LOL COWBOYS

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Definitely stinks to see Hutchinson go down. It was absolutely fantastic, however to watch the Lions THRASH the Cowboys, with the defense abusing Dak similarly to the whooping the Packers handed them in the playoffs last season.

I think it is easily safe to say the NFC North is the best top to bottom division in football to this point in the season, and all 4 teams have a stake to claim the division crown as 99% of division matchups haven't been played yet.

Jordan Love looks as though he's found his stride in a very complete performance against the Cardinals yesterday. Also great to see Romeo Doubs snag two TDs. I think the whole "skipping practice over targets" story was fabricated last week, which annoys me to no end as the media will do anything to "break" a story. Sounds more to me like he had some personal/home struggles going on. He's always an even keeled looking player, never showing much emotion. But after that first TD catch and the entire receivers room coming over to embrace him in celebration, it tells me it was MUCH more than football related. 

Hope the Pack can keep the momentum rolling, because it's going to be weekly battles and a ton of fun once the North games begin.

[rkj427]

For the rest of the Lion's fans here.............................

[GolfSpy_KFT]

1 hour ago, rkj427 said:

For the rest of the Lion's fans here.............................

What I love the most about Dan Campbell is that he is truly a players coach. He is there for HIS guys, loves the heck out of everyone in that room, and gets all that love and respect back from his players. When a coach can take that kind of approach, particularly with grown men who's egos are not always small, and get that type of respect, you see the result. 

MLF has that connection with players in Green Bay and it shows. The NFC North is in such a good place right now and I absolutely love to see it.

[Chux13]

14 hours ago, chisag said:

... OK NFL fans one more week of games before the biggest event of the NFL season. It certainly won't be the Commanders playing the Bears.  It will be Caleb Williams the #1 pick vs Jayden Danials the #2 pick!!!  Obviously the rest of the teams are just there for moral support and won't actually be playing. Defense, Olines and schemes are irrelevant.   Just those two playing against each other. Although since they both play offense it's hard to see how that is the case but I imagine the media will have a field day before, during and after the game.

... My guess is knowing how they have both performed and with their personalities, they don't care anything about the "match up" and just want a team win. 

After watching my Commies somewhat hold their own against the beast that is the Ravens, I am stoked to see the Bears matchup. My fear at this point is still facing the Panthers this week. Call it Ashburn Syndrome, but it is still hard to imagine Washington not dumping all over their selves against a team they just cannot seem to beat the past few years and SHOULD beat this time around. So many years of pain and torture, this year has been something not seen since RG3's rookie campaign and it just feels like this is legit for once. 

[chisag]

 

9 minutes ago, GolfSpy_KFT said:

What I love the most about Dan Campbell is that he is truly a players coach. He is there for HIS guys, loves the heck out of everyone in that room, and gets all that love and respect back from his players. When a coach can take that kind of approach, particularly with grown men who's egos are not always small, and get that type of respect, you see the result. 

 

... Amen! I have said this before but after starting playing football in the 2nd grade, as well as many other team sports through high school and college there are basically two kinds of coaches. The coaches that think the team is there for them and coaches that think they are there for the team. And even then, there are differences of course to the degree of their commitment. Cambell should be the Wikipedia example of a coach there for his players. 

...  A great example of a coach that thinks the players are there for them is Mike Martz. He tried to make Cutler and the Bears fit into his Greatest Show On Earth philosophy that worked so well with the Rams and failed miserably. To his credit, he later apologized to Cutler saying Jay was the best QB he ever coached but he didn't have the OLine OR receivers to make his system work. Calling for deep routes with an Oline that could protect him, Cutler was constantly pressured, sacked and beat up. 

... It's really simple. Build the team around the talent you have. Good coaches adjust their philosophy around their players and bad coaches adjust their players around their philosophy. My Head Coach my senior year in high school was an idiot. We always ran a sweep out of a shift to an I formation. Playing the game to make it to the Conference Championship, we would shift to an I formation and the 2 MLB's would shift to the outside.  

... We were down 10 points in the 4th and I told my RB to carry through with a sweep because I was gonna fake a toss to him, then bootleg to the right side while our guard pulled and everyone blocked left for the sweep. One safety on the backside saw what I did and I just had to beat him, which I did and scored. You'd think he would be happy but Coach was furious.  "We never worked on that at practice and I didn't call that play you prima donna!"  He benched me for the rest of the game (we lost) and the first qt of the next game to teach me a lesson. Some of the players said it took guts to go against the Coach and said they had my back. Sooooooo many bad coaches out there. 


 

 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

 

... Amen! I have said this before but after starting playing football in the 2nd grade, as well as many other team sports through high school and college there are basically two kinds of coaches. The coaches that think the team is there for them and coaches that think they are there for the team. And even then, there are differences of course to the degree of their commitment. Cambell should be the Wikipedia example of a coach there for his players. 

...  A great example of a coach that thinks the players are there for them is Mike Martz. He tried to make Cutler and the Bears fit into his Greatest Show On Earth philosophy that worked so well with the Rams and failed miserably. To his credit, he later apologized to Cutler saying Jay was the best QB he ever coached but he didn't have the OLine OR receivers to make his system work. Calling for deep routes with an Oline that could protect him, Cutler was constantly pressured, sacked and beat up. 

... It's really simple. Build the team around the talent you have. Good coaches adjust their philosophy around their players and bad coaches adjust their players around their philosophy. My Head Coach my senior year in high school was an idiot. We always ran a sweep out of a shift to an I formation. Playing the game to make it to the Conference Championship, we would shift to an I formation and the 2 MLB's would shift to the outside.  

... We were down 10 points in the 4th and I told my RB to carry through with a sweep because I was gonna fake a toss to him, then bootleg to the right side while our guard pulled and everyone blocked left for the sweep. One safety on the backside saw what I did and I just had to beat him, which I did and scored. You'd think he would be happy but Coach was furious.  "We never worked on that at practice and I didn't call that play you prima donna!"  He benched me for the rest of the game (we lost) and the first qt of the next game to teach me a lesson. Some of the players said it took guts to go against the Coach and said they had my back. Sooooooo many bad coaches out there. 


 

 

As the former assistant varsity basketball coach at our high school here, I always, ALWAYS, made it a point to connect with players and make sure they knew I was there for them and not myself. That started when they walked into the gym as freshman and stayed that way throughout their senior year. The head coach I worked under didn't do well in that regard. He had a system we were going to run, he asked for our input as assistants but often wouldn't take it, and did not take anything players would bring to the table. I had gotten it to a point where I was free to make substitutions and help with sets, and then we had a contentious moment in a regional final where we had the ball with 10 seconds left in a tie game, he refused to call a time out and our worst shooter ended up taking the game winning shot (not our unanimous first team all-conference point guard). We ended up losing in OT in a game we should have won as a lower seeded team. I flew off the handle, which was not an appropriate reaction now but at the time was inevitable, and our relationship was never the same after that. 

I felt as though it was my duty to make sure I made that connection because if you don't have it, the kids flat out will not want to play. If you don't make it a point to make sure they know you care, what's the point?

[bens197]

20 hours ago, GolfSpy_KFT said:

What I love the most about Dan Campbell is that he is truly a players coach. He is there for HIS guys, loves the heck out of everyone in that room, and gets all that love and respect back from his players. When a coach can take that kind of approach, particularly with grown men who's egos are not always small, and get that type of respect, you see the result. 

MLF has that connection with players in Green Bay and it shows. The NFC North is in such a good place right now and I absolutely love to see it.

I love Dan Campbell.  That's it.  That's the post.

[bens197]

Anyone who suffered through last night's MNF flag fest, how are you doing this AM?

Even though the Bills won, I haven't felt this lamenting indifference since Dick Jauron coached this team.  That was a win that felt like a loss.

Buffalo has a LOT of work to do.  Fortunately, they're the big brother in a terrible Division.

[Berg Ryman]

Jets trade for Devante Adams and go full LA Lakers. This is shameless and sad for a franchise that has been a laughing stock for years. A new low even for them.

Edited October 15 by Berg Ryman

[KC Golf]

The Jets Vs Bills game was surprisingly entertaining last night.  I was figuring that Buffalo would blow the Jets out.  The missed kicks were crazy.

i think this year, the protecting the QB rules is getting out of hand. It’s like the QB is off limits like it should be two hand tag.