2019-2020 NFL Thread

[eschatological]

A black cat shows up at Giants stadium, has more moves than the Cowboys.

[Brubear]

The better offense that didn't put up enough points to beat the Browns at home.

The better offense that had two weeks to prepare for the game?

Honestly, the Ravens benefit from a weak schedule ... they had to go to OT to beat the Roethlisberger-less Steelers.

The Ravens would have been favored if the Patriots weren't undefeated ... the Patriots aren't that good on the road (despite their shutouts this season).
They have three games left of the 7 remaining on the road (Eagles, Bengals and Texans).

I hate the Ravens hype train right now because it is not deserved and only matters because the Patriots are A) the defending Champions and B) were undefeated going into the game. Take any of those away, no one would care. The Patriots had terrible loses at the Jags, Lions, etc in prior season where they made it to the Super Bowl.

This is one game and it is like you people don't understand the concept of "Any given Sunday."

They also beat the Seahawks and Chiefs on the road, and just ran all over what statistically had been the best defense in the league that everyone had been giving massive praise for being a historic defense (which is also part of the reason people are saying the Ravens offense is good).

Not once have I said the Pat's defense isn't good or that they won't make it to the playoffs/Super Bowl. I specifically called out everyone who were already crowning the Pat's as one of the best defenses ever while ignoring just how weak of a schedule they'd played to that point (only 1 team with a winning record that has a bad offense and only 2 teams with more than 2 wins) and lost handedly to the first winning team with a half-decent offense.

You can argue the Ravens offense is overrated, but they're easily the best offense the Pat's have played this season and that showed precisely why I've been saying the hype for the Pat's D was premature.

Also, your point about the Pat's having only 3 more road games left (one of which is against the Bengals) lends credence to the argument that Pat's have a laughably weak schedule this year. If they don't make it out of the season with at least the 2nd seed in the AFC, then they I will be amazed if they even make it to the Super Bowl this year.

They have 8 games against teams who have a good shot at ending the season with 4 or less wins, and 6 games against teams that could end eith 2 or less wins. If the Bill's have their yearly collapse as they are known to do and the Steelers continue their average season there's a possibility of only 5 games against teams with a winning record and only 4 playoff teams. I don't see any reason they don't go a 12-4 at the absolute bare minimum, with 13-3/14-2 or better being far more likely with their schedule.

I don't see how their path to a 1st-round bye could be any easier.

[Crissi]

All hail cat, deliverer of Cowboys fortune. Even has his own stats: https://twitter.com/NFLGameDay/statu...41893315776512

[PokeKitty]

Giants should just use all the draft picks next year on pass rushers, the D is embarrasing sigh...

[Darththeo]

They also beat the Seahawks and Chiefs on the road, and just ran all over what statistically had been the best defense in the league that everyone had been giving massive praise for being a historic defense (which is also part of the reason people are saying the Ravens offense is good).

Not once have I said the Pat's defense isn't good or that they won't make it to the playoffs/Super Bowl. I specifically called out everyone who were already crowning the Pat's as one of the best defenses ever while ignoring just how weak of a schedule they'd played to that point (only 1 team with a winning record that has a bad offense and only 2 teams with more than 2 wins) and lost handedly to the first winning team with a half-decent offense.

You can argue the Ravens offense is overrated, but they're easily the best offense the Pat's have played this season and that showed precisely why I've been saying the hype for the Pat's D was premature.

Also, your point about the Pat's having only 3 more road games left (one of which is against the Bengals) lends credence to the argument that Pat's have a laughably weak schedule this year. If they don't make it out of the season with at least the 2nd seed in the AFC, then they I will be amazed if they even make it to the Super Bowl this year.

They have 8 games against teams who have a good shot at ending the season with 4 or less wins, and 6 games against teams that could end eith 2 or less wins. If the Bill's have their yearly collapse as they are known to do and the Steelers continue their average season there's a possibility of only 5 games against teams with a winning record and only 4 playoff teams. I don't see any reason they don't go a 12-4 at the absolute bare minimum, with 13-3/14-2 or better being far more likely with their schedule.

I don't see how their path to a 1st-round bye could be any easier.

Again, the Ravens struggled against a weaker Steelers team than the Patriots played. The Ravens had rest and home field on their side and honestly, I don't feel the Ravens are the best offense that the Patriots have faced this year. They may have been the offense that played the best against the Patriots but that doesn't mean they are the best offense. On paper, the Browns offense should have been better but it wasn't. I would even personally take the Bills offense over the Ravens.

The Patriots had 8 games where their defense was great in games it should have been great in while the Ravens had one game where their looked amazing.

Outside of the Patriots, Ravens, Bills and Chiefs ... the rest of the AFC is okay to terrible. Even the "competitive" AFC South the teams aren't that good. All AFC teams have pretty easy schedules.

The issue I have here is people are using a game as evidence the Patriots defense is overrated or that the Ravens are the top AFC team which is a nonsense argument in a game where the phrase "Any given Sunday" exists.

[Pendulous]

Again, the Ravens struggled against a weaker Steelers team than the Patriots played. The Ravens had rest and home field on their side and honestly, I don't feel the Ravens are the best offense that the Patriots have faced this year. They may have been the offense that played the best against the Patriots but that doesn't mean they are the best offense. On paper, the Browns offense should have been better but it wasn't. I would even personally take the Bills offense over the Ravens.

The Patriots had 8 games where their defense was great in games it should have been great in while the Ravens had one game where their looked amazing.

Outside of the Patriots, Ravens, Bills and Chiefs ... the rest of the AFC is okay to terrible. Even the "competitive" AFC South the teams aren't that good. All AFC teams have pretty easy schedules.

The issue I have here is people are using a game as evidence the Patriots defense is overrated or that the Ravens are the top AFC team which is a nonsense argument in a game where the phrase "Any given Sunday" exists.

Interesting you try to use the excuse "any given Sunday" and call the Ravens' offense worse than Cleveland or Buffalo, when they do it every week. Plus the Browns have a bad offense period. It doesn't matter what they look like on paper, they're 25th in points and mediocre at best in every stat. meanwhile, the Ravens are the top scoring offense, and second in yards. The Bills' offense isn't good either. They win with defense. 22nd in points, 23rd in yards.

[xskarma]

I would even personally take the Bills offense over the Ravens.

I'm a Patriots fan but this is a WILD take. The Bills offense? No disrespect, but the Bills don't come close to the Ravens, even with Josh Allen playing a full game.

[draynay]

So I'm supposed to buy that the Ravens, currently the top scoring team and lead rushing team with 200+ yards a game, only scored 37 points and ran for 200+ yards against the Patriots as a fluke?

[MardestyGSOG]

The better offense that didn't put up enough points to beat the Browns at home.

The better offense that had two weeks to prepare for the game?

Honestly, the Ravens benefit from a weak schedule ... they had to go to OT to beat the Roethlisberger-less Steelers.

The Ravens would have been favored if the Patriots weren't undefeated ... the Patriots aren't that good on the road (despite their shutouts this season).
They have three games left of the 7 remaining on the road (Eagles, Bengals and Texans).

I hate the Ravens hype train right now because it is not deserved and only matters because the Patriots are A) the defending Champions and B) were undefeated going into the game. Take any of those away, no one would care. The Patriots had terrible loses at the Jags, Lions, etc in prior season where they made it to the Super Bowl.

This is one game and it is like you people don't understand the concept of "Any given Sunday."

Ironic that you imply the ravens are weak because of a loss to the browns and then beg for everyone to write off this pats loss as any given Sunday.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Cam Newton's gone to IR, and it's safe to wonder I think if we've seen the last of him on a football field.

https://twitter.com/AroundTheNFL/sta...87207733854208





Also something about the Chargers having an interest in moving to London? IDK. Seems like a clickbait story to me.

[draynay]

I'm sure Cam Newton will be back, but it could be in a different uniform.

[eschatological]

I'm a Bills fan and season ticket holder, and I'd take the Ravens offense over ours.


I think Cam will be back, but he might not be back for the Panthers. He's due 18m next year, and the Panthers would eat 2m in dead cap if they parted with him this offseason which......isn't bad, especially for parting ways with a highly paid QB. I think if the Bears pull the plug on Trubisky, I think Newton in Chicago makes a lot of sense.

[draynay]

I'm a Bills fan and season ticket holder, and I'd take the Ravens offense over ours.


I think Cam will be back, but he might not be back for the Panthers. He's due 18m next year, and the Panthers would eat 2m in dead cap if they parted with him this offseason which......isn't bad, especially for parting ways with a highly paid QB. I think if the Bears pull the plug on Trubisky, I think Newton in Chicago makes a lot of sense.

I'm not sure, you give up on a #2 pick when he still has a year of guaranteed salary left and that blows up your whole front office, which would be a pretty interesting turn of events, since looking it up now, Ryan Pace was named "Executive of the Year" for 2018.

[eschatological]

But Trubisky has looked like trash. Like, real, utter trash. Doesn't help that the other two 1st round QBs taken behind him (Mahomes and Watson) have looked fucking great.

I quiver in disgust that people in Buffalo are *excited* that Josh Allen's 2nd year is mirroring Mitch's 2nd year last year. I didn't think Trubisky looked particularly good last year, and that they got where they were just based on their defense.

[Pendulous]

I'm a Bills fan and season ticket holder, and I'd take the Ravens offense over ours.


I think Cam will be back, but he might not be back for the Panthers. He's due 18m next year, and the Panthers would eat 2m in dead cap if they parted with him this offseason which......isn't bad, especially for parting ways with a highly paid QB. I think if the Bears pull the plug on Trubisky, I think Newton in Chicago makes a lot of sense.

A healthy Cam (if he can be) would be super dangerous on the Bears. Just need Nagy to play to Cam's style, and that might be a contender just based on that.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I'm sure Cam Newton will be back, but it could be in a different uniform.

I dunno this is now the second season he's lost to injury, and he even admitted the games he did play this season he wasn't healthy for.

Feels a lot like the Andrew Luck situation.

[draynay]

I dunno this is now the second season he's lost to injury, and he even admitted the games he did play this season he wasn't healthy for.

Feels a lot like the Andrew Luck situation.

When was the other lost season? And for the record I totally think the Bears should move on from Trubisky, I just don't think they will since they drafted him so high and teams don't usually like to admit that level of error, look at how long the Jaguars tried to make it work with Bortles, for example.

[Darththeo]

Interesting you try to use the excuse "any given Sunday" and call the Ravens' offense worse than Cleveland or Buffalo, when they do it every week. Plus the Browns have a bad offense period. It doesn't matter what they look like on paper, they're 25th in points and mediocre at best in every stat. meanwhile, the Ravens are the top scoring offense, and second in yards. The Bills' offense isn't good either. They win with defense. 22nd in points, 23rd in yards.

The issue is more than just yards and points, I know that is the measure, but a lot of what the Ravens did was in week 1 against the Dolphins. It is easy to look good when you beat up a poor team as badly as they did. The Ravens are far more average than their stats show.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm a Patriots fan but this is a WILD take. The Bills offense? No disrespect, but the Bills don't come close to the Ravens, even with Josh Allen playing a full game.

And up until two weeks ago, most people were stating the Bills were the 2nd Best team in the AFC behind the Patriots ... so ... yeah, the Ravens are overrated, they are closer to the Bills than people are willing to admit.

[draynay]

The issue is more than just yards and points, I know that is the measure, but a lot of what the Ravens did was in week 1 against the Dolphins. It is easy to look good when you beat up a poor team as badly as they did. The Ravens are far more average than their stats show.

Yea, get those pesky facts out of here, yards? points? pfft!

And up until two weeks ago, most people were stating the Bills were the 2nd Best team in the AFC behind the Patriots ... so ... yeah, the Ravens are overrated, they are closer to the Bills than people are willing to admit.

Now that the facts are gone, we can create imaginary people who made imaginary claims, lots of them!

Anyway, its true, the Ravens beat the Dolphins by 49, but the Bills are better? Did the Bills beat the Dolphins by 50? The Ravens won a home game against New England, did the Bills win a home game against New England?

[Darththeo]

Ironic that you imply the ravens are weak because of a loss to the browns and then beg for everyone to write off this pats loss as any given Sunday.

I am pointing out that crowning the Ravens after one win (at home after a Bye) is silly.

Look at the Patriots Ravens game ... even with starting with a 3 and out, Patriots ended the game with 30 less yards than the Ravens and 4 less first downs ... while controlling the ball for an entire quarter less than the Ravens. The Ravens should have completely out performed the Patriots and they really only did in the points category.

They gave up over 500 yards to Cleveland while controlling the ball just as much. I am not judging the Ravens just on the loss to the Browns ... they aren't as good as people think. They have a weak schedule overall and barely beat the Steelers who aren't the Steelers of old. While Ravens are top rushing and top scoring Offense ... they are 20th in passing. I am more worried on a offense that is higher in both stats, rather than being bloated by having a qb that likes to run. Lamar Jackson is literally their rushing leader and accounts for about a third of the rushing yards.

- - - Updated - - -

Yea, get those pesky facts out of here, yards? points? pfft!



Now that the facts are gone, we can create imaginary people who made imaginary claims, lots of them!

Anyway, its true, the Ravens beat the Dolphins by 49, but the Bills are better? Did the Bills beat the Dolphins by 50? The Ravens won a home game against New England, did the Bills win a home game against New England?

Facts are more than just stats. If you are going to hold teams, hold them to the same standards. "The Patriots played no one, therefor their defense is overrated" - ignores stats to make argument. "The Ravens are awesome, they are top scoring offense!" - uses stats, but ignores who they got the stats against.

Stats are only half the picture.