2020-2021 NFL Thread

[cordrann]

But why the heck do they have the TB@WAS as primetime match?
I'm more than glad to be wrong, but I'd still be surprised if others than LAR@SEA were going to be close contests.

Because Tom Brady. It's about TV ratings, not what will be the better games, which no one really knows for sure anyways before hand.

[eschatological]

So who wants to go crazy? I'm going crazy. The one Bills' fan here is gonna love me.



I just don't trust the Chiefs, not after the last like 3-4 weeks now. I just feel like they're gonna be victims to a tough game against the Ravens then blink and be down 3 scores at halftime to the Bills.

Though picking them over the Packers in the Super Bowl is mostly just superstition. I think Rodgers has MVP sewn up, and the MVP never wins the Super Bowl. In fact they tend to play laughably bad in it. And we're on a 2-year AFC streak, which means we need one more AFC win to put the usual AFC, NFC, AFC, NFC... pattern on track.


Washington gets to have a cool logo on the playoff chart when they stop being the Football Team.



PS, if GB-NO was played indoors I'd pick the Saints. But it's outdoors, in late january, so I'm going Packers.

Doesn't strike me as too crazy.

Before the season, I'd've said the Bills goal was to win a playoff game, something we haven't done since 1996.

Now, I think if we do any worse than the AFC Championship game, I think people will think it's a let down.

Colts? I love Frank Reich (today is the anniversary of the greatest comeback ever), but Phillip Rivers is shot and they can't outduel us, I hope. My hope is that the Ravens/Titans beat each other up so bad that the victor limps out of there, so even if the Browns somehow upset the Steelers, whoever comes to Buffalo (Pitt or TEN/Ravens) is mismatched against our offense.

KC, in Arrowhead, in January, when the Chiefs have looked pretty average over the past 6 games and we've been whipping people? I'll take my chances.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Doesn't strike me as too crazy.

Before the season, I'd've said the Bills goal was to win a playoff game, something we haven't done since 1996.

Now, I think if we do any worse than the AFC Championship game, I think people will think it's a let down.

Colts? I love Frank Reich (today is the anniversary of the greatest comeback ever), but Phillip Rivers is shot and they can't outduel us, I hope. My hope is that the Ravens/Titans beat each other up so bad that the victor limps out of there, so even if the Browns somehow upset the Steelers, whoever comes to Buffalo (Pitt or TEN/Ravens) is mismatched against our offense.

KC, in Arrowhead, in January, when the Chiefs have looked pretty average over the past 6 games and we've been whipping people? I'll take my chances.

Honestly homefield is huge for the Packers but not for the Chiefs this year.

Chiefs are probably going to have decent weather for their games, Packers will probably have a foot of snow. And as the Titans showed us last week, if you don't know how to play in the snow (like, say, the Saints) it can still mess your running game up because they aren't accustomed to the cleats.

[muto]

Honestly homefield is huge for the Packers but not for the Chiefs this year.

Chiefs are probably going to have decent weather for their games, Packers will probably have a foot of snow. And as the Titans showed us last week, if you don't know how to play in the snow (like, say, the Saints) it can still mess your running game up because they aren't accustomed to the cleats.

That argument doesn’t really work. They’re in the NFL. They’ve all played on all sorts of surfaces and in all the different kinds of weather. Hell they tried to use this argument on Nebraska in 95’ when they played Florida. People were picking Florida because the game was going to be played on real grass, and they said Nebraska couldn’t run on grass. Well, Nebraska ran all over Florida. Also weather is just as bad in K.C.. I live in Omaha, only 3 hours away, and we just got a ton of snow. I’m going with Chiefs vs. Saints for the Super Bowl, and have the Chiefs winning it. Kinda gotta go for them, since they’re 3 hours away. I’ll go for the Bills though if they make it further.

[Ursus]

Doug Pederson: I was "coaching to win" the game.

Also Doug Pederson: "Nate has been here for four years and I felt he deserved an opportunity to get some snaps."


Those two statements can not both be true. There is absolutely no way he thought Nate Sudfeld gave them the best chance of winning the game, unless he did some crack cocaine during halftime.

If he wanted to lose to get a better draft pick, fine, but don't make blatantly contradictory and idiotic statements like that that everyone can see right through. It annoys me because we were robbed off the chance to see a 6 - 10 team make the playoffs. An opportunity like that comes along once in a lifetime.

[chrisnumbers]

So who wants to go crazy? I'm going crazy. The one Bills' fan here is gonna love me.

I almost didn't notice the Charlie Brown logo way down there. I've been using it for so long it just looks normal to me.
I think I might change my avatar after the game next week even if we lose. And after that I'll root for the Bills because we kind of have some things in common.

[draynay]

All ten Chargers fans can rejoice, Lynn is gone.

[Logwyn]

I almost didn't notice the Charlie Brown logo way down there. I've been using it for so long it just looks normal to me.
I think I might change my avatar after the game next week even if we lose. And after that I'll root for the Bills because we kind of have some things in common.

Kinda sucks the Browns beat the Stealers to get in and now have to play them again. Maybe they will do it again.

[dwightyo39]

Well now that I've had some time to (over) think about it, I am getting a sense of dread. Fans and media are swarming to the Bills hype train and I have this overwhelming feeling that heartbreak is near. This is what many years of Bills fandom/heartbreak has conditioned me to, dating back to the late 80s "Bickering Bills". My consolation is that I know my personal insecurities have no bearing on the outcome of games.

With that said, what would bring me the most joy would be smashing the Titans (fuck your music city forward pass) and pummel Tom Brady in the superbowl. Likewise loses to either of those teams will be yet another brick in the wall of depression that is Bills fandom.

[Smash Adams]

Well now that I've had some time to (over) think about it, I am getting a sense of dread. Fans and media are swarming to the Bills hype train and I have this overwhelming feeling that heartbreak is near. This is what many years of Bills fandom/heartbreak has conditioned me to, dating back to the late 80s "Bickering Bills". My consolation is that I know my personal insecurities have no bearing on the outcome of games.

With that said, what would bring me the most joy would be smashing the Titans (fuck your music city forward pass) and pummel Tom Brady in the superbowl. Likewise loses to either of those teams will be yet another brick in the wall of depression that is Bills fandom.

I think the Bills are a good team. But lately there’s been a lot of “this team is beating the Chiefs” talk, especially from the media. Not that they couldn’t potentially give them a game, but people are getting WAY ahead of themselves. I’m not totally sure this team is getting through Indy, let alone Baltimore or Tennessee. The idea that the Bills are now the best team in the AFC is wild to me.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I think the Bills are a good team. But lately there’s been a lot of “this team is beating the Chiefs” talk, especially from the media. Not that they couldn’t potentially give them a game, but people are getting WAY ahead of themselves. I’m not totally sure this team is getting through Indy, let alone Baltimore or Tennessee. The idea that the Bills are now the best team in the AFC is wild to me.

A lot of it comes from just how... average the Chiefs have looked. I remember, I think about Thanksgiving, the Chiefs had a near loss to a bad team (Falcons?) and people wrote it off as "Well they're just the 90s Bulls. They know they're so talented they'll win no matter what. They get bored with bad teams like this."

Then they came out and did it again, and again, and again. At the same time the Ravens and Bills (in the AFC anyway) were peaking into teams that can drop 40 any given week.

Just looking at these teams you're like "It's an even fight between the Chiefs and Bills/Ravens." Which for a team that for about 10/12 months of 2020 looked like the next Patriots is shocking.

[eschatological]

I almost didn't notice the Charlie Brown logo way down there. I've been using it for so long it just looks normal to me.
I think I might change my avatar after the game next week even if we lose. And after that I'll root for the Bills because we kind of have some things in common.

The earliest the Browns and Bills can play is in the AFC Championship, in Buffalo.

I hope it happens.

[draynay]

The earliest the Browns and Bills can play is in the AFC Championship, in Buffalo.

I hope it happens.

That would be pretty sweet, the NFL will make sure it doesn't happen.

[eschatological]

I think the Bills are a good team. But lately there’s been a lot of “this team is beating the Chiefs” talk, especially from the media. Not that they couldn’t potentially give them a game, but people are getting WAY ahead of themselves. I’m not totally sure this team is getting through Indy, let alone Baltimore or Tennessee. The idea that the Bills are now the best team in the AFC is wild to me.

Did you watch the Bills at all over the last month? You should have had some opportunity, they had 4 nationally televised games in a row in December.

We finished 2nd in points per game in the league (ahead of KC), and our defense, after a rough start, has gotten back on form, though not quite at its top-3 level it was last year. And we're hot right now. If not for a fluke Hail Mary by Kyler Murray, we would have ended the season on a 10 game winning streak. We scored 142 points in our last 3 games, while winning them by 29, 29, and 30 points. The last one of those was against a team fighting for its playoff life, who had the #1 scoring defense in the league (IE, least points allowed). We hung 56 points on them. 28 of those points came from our backups, including 2 TDs from an undrafted RB elevated from the practice squad who ripped up the Dolphins right when they needed stops.

I think the Bills are hitting their stride, and I don't think anyone wants to play them.

That being said, the only real weakness they have is run defense. Our strategy for that so far has been to score so many points teams have to abandon the run. But if a team can get a few lucky stops and keep it close/get up on us early, they can play a ball control game against us and win.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Oh yeah apparently the Vikings might be losing their OC... again. Kubiak's thinking of retiring again.

Has any head coach had as bad a run with OCs as Zimmer? Feels like nobody stays more than two years, and that was only because the Browns went Kitchens over Stefanski two years ago.

[Grube]

John Elway is taking the fail upward approach and will be hiring a GM. He wasn't going to be the GM after next year anyway, so I guess it makes sense to transition a little earlier. Hopefully the GM actually has full roster control like Elway said and doesn't do something stupid like bring back Justin Simmons.

Also very likely helps with not having to suffer through Drew Lock for another season.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

John Elway is taking the fail upward approach and will be hiring a GM. He wasn't going to be the GM after next year anyway, so I guess it makes sense to transition a little earlier. Hopefully the GM actually has full roster control like Elway said and doesn't do something stupid like bring back Justin Simmons.

Also very likely helps with not having to suffer through Drew Lock for another season.

Huh didn't think he'd go willingly, upward or out. At least until an actual owner comes in and forces him to.

[draynay]

I liked what Joe Judge had to say about the pathetic excuse for a game played by the Eagles. What a way to ruin a prime time game, I don't want to see them in a prime time slot as long as Pederson is still coaching.

[Grube]

The Chargers requested permission to interview the clapper... I guess it could be worse, Josh McDaniels and Gregggg Williams exists.

Huh didn't think he'd go willingly, upward or out. At least until an actual owner comes in and forces him to.

Nothing he has ever done has shown he would do it before his contract was up. Probably a surprise to everyone.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

The Chargers requested permission to interview the clapper... I guess it could be worse, Josh McDaniels and Gregggg Williams exists.



Nothing he has ever done has shown he would do it before his contract was up. Probably a surprise to everyone.

Eh teams interview a bunch of guys. It's like at least one team has requested to interview... I think it was the Giants DC.

The Giants.