4-3 vs spread last week, 11-12-1 for the year. . .
Even as bad as the 49ers and Colin Halfernigger were last week, they still weren't as AWFUL as the Miami Dolphins and their goofy-looking and now-beleaguered head coach Joe Philbin. Everyone knew the 49ers were going to be shit, and everybody could see Halfernigger had regressed. . .but this was supposed to be the Dolphins year. . .they added Donkeykong Suh to a decent defense, and gave Ryan Tannehill a slew of new receivers. . .it was Playoffs-or-Bust for Philbin, and after last week's humiliating home beat-down at the hands of division rival Buffalo, it's pretty clear this year is going to be a bust. There's already finger-pointing--though coach Philbin doesn't seem to know in which direction to point:
Most of the fingerpointing, though, seems directed at Donkeykong, who got about $60 million guaranteed dollars, and hasn't had a sack or done much to help the Dolphins horrible run defense. . .and at least one jealous teammate has already sold him out to the media.
Anyway, maybe coach Philbin can figure this mess out. Hey, coach, what's the problem down there in Miami:
Uh. . .
OK, might as well start the Nick Saban-back-to-Miami rumors. . .
Oakland -2.5 at Chicago: Wow, how bad has it got for the Bears?!?! The Raiders are 3-22 in their last 25 road games, and they're the favorite in Chicago! That's the Jimmy Clausen factor. And the *Fire Sale* factor, as the Bears have seemingly already tossed in the towel on the 2015 season, trading away Jared Allen and Jonathan Bostic. The Raiders, who finally have a real head coach in Jack Del Rio, are a team on the rise, with the best young QB in the League, Derek Carr, a dangerous rookie receiver, Amari Cooper, a big, fast young running back, Latavius Murray, and a second year terrorist linebacker Khalil Mack. Better days are already here for Oakland. As for the Bears, well, they've got plenty of time to decide between Joey Bosa or Robert Nkemdiche with the first pick in the 2016 draft. Oakland.
Houston +6.5 at Atlanta: You can have all the J.J. Watts you want, but if Ryan Mallet is your QB, you ain't got a chance. Atlanta.
Minnesota +7 at Denver: Somehow, and I have no idea how, the Vikings got their ass kicked in week 1 by the 49ers, but they've played like the team I thought they'd be the last two weeks, knocking the shit out of Matthew Stafford and Phillip Rivers. . .and now they are drawing a bead on turkey neck Peyton Manning. . .get the stretcher ready, boys! The Broncos are 3-0 for probably the millionth time, and once again, I ain't impressed. They can't run the ball, and Manning can't throw it deep. The defense is fairly solid, but can be run on, and now they have to face #28, who seems to be rounding into pre-suspension form. Minnesota.
Detroit +10 at Seattle: Last year Jim Caldwell went 11-5 in his first year in Dee-troit, and his playoff loss to Dallas could be explained way due to a bum call by a Cowboy-friendly zebra, so he never really went through the Same Old Lions experience. He was sure he was on his way to personal fulfillment through football, overcoming institutional racism, etc., etc. and claiming his God-ordained championship. . .he even believed winning the championship in a crappy negro town like Detroit was part of his life's *mission*. . .but now after 3 weeks of Lion football, he's learning a hard Bible lesson: every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts. God has brought Jim Caldwell to learn a lesson he has stubbornly refused to learn in a lifetime of *overcoming:* There is NO overcoming. Everything is loss. And no better way to learn that than through Detroit Lions football. But anyways, as for on the field issues, hey Caldwell, can you tell me why stumblebum running back Joique Bell, who averages an astonishingly minuscule 1.1 yards per carry, has as many carries as Ameer Abdullah? How can that be even remotely justified??? The Lions, of course, have ZERO chance of even keeping this game semi-close. Seattle.
Agree with all the picks.
ReplyDeleteThe thing the Falcons are doing really well is running. Even that second string RB ripped off some nice runs. The Falcons finally learned their blockers aren't great pass blockers but still know how to push guys out of the way. And they've gotten their fullback involved by cutting a path through lines.
A decent receiver has emerged in Hackleman. Roddy White seems done. He looks ten years older than last year. Jones is incredible but is nursing some nagging injuries.
The defense is alright. The run game makes it better so it looks actually good in the second half.
Deeeetroit. Any chance the Lions look to part ways with Stafford? It almost seems like he can't succeed there.
Yeah, Freeman ate up the Cowboys, that surprised me, I'm not a Freeman fan, I seen him in a couple games and he never showed a lot, but if the line blocks well enough, any ham-and-egger can stagger forward for 4 or 5 yards a carry. Houston has a running back kinda like Freeman, Alfred Blue, so Sunday's game will be a battle to see who is the best stumblebum RB.
ReplyDeleteAs for Stafford, he has 2 yrs left on his contract, but all the guaranteed money will have been paid after this year. . .but I don't know what that means if they wanted to trade him. If the Lions bring him back, he gets 17 million. If there was a way to dump him and it didn't fuck up all that salary cap bullshit, I'd do it. Right now there isn't too much blame being placed on him, because the O-line is so bad, but as the losses mount, I'm sure dumping Stafford will become a topic, as will dumping Calvin Johnson.
The majority of America thinks the Steelers are going to win with Vick?
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be ugly. Ravens are going to kill the Steelers. Steelers will be lucky to win one game with Vick.
If the Ravens can't beat Vick, who can they beat?
ReplyDeleteThe Lions.
ReplyDeleteI think I just heard John Harbaugh say:
ReplyDelete'Bring on the Lions.'
Well, there goes my prediction career
ReplyDeleteBell really makes guys have to tackle him
ReplyDeleteNot a good pass by Vick on 4th down
ReplyDeleteVick actually had a nice game. The kicker lost that game.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see all of the game, but from what I did see, it looked like Tomlin and his O-cooordinator were afraid to let Vick thrown the ball downfield, all I saw was baby tosses. . .
ReplyDeleteI didn't see anything real long from Vick. Pitt was realistic. In that, Vick had a nice game. He didn't turn it over.
ReplyDeleteI expected 2 ints and 3 fumbles, two lost.
Not exactly a high bar
The real goat was Tomlin, with his dumb *strategy.*
ReplyDeleteGee, it's just so gosh darn hard to be a millionaire professional quarterback. . .
ReplyDeletehttp://thebiglead.com/2015/10/02/matthew-stafford-kelly-stafford-detroit-fans/
Stafford's wife just threw blood in the water.
ReplyDeleteTexans are getting their asses kicked.
ReplyDeleteFalcons can put in their 2nd string in now. Third quarter, 5 minutes in. Texans are getting pasted.
ReplyDeleteHouston may as well put in their second string, too.
Mallett is a disaster. Horrible accuracy, shit judgment, not cool.
Damn, another fucked up Sunday at the jail. Have seen zero minutes of football. Just now checking the scores. Falcons rolled Houston, huh? Mallet is not a professional. Does not work at his craft, relies strictly on his arm.
ReplyDeleteJones had a quiet game--did he get hurt or something?
ReplyDeleteMatt Hasselbeck played for Indy? Ain't he about 50 years old?
ReplyDeleteJulio wasn't needed. He was fine but Hackerman got some good catches and the run game was awesome. The run block.is great.
ReplyDeleteHouston got bitch slapped. Wilfork isn't doing his job and Clowney will never be premiere after that injury. Teams can triple team Watt and it don't matter.
Mallett got pulled for Hoyer. Hoyer looked good against the second stringers but he does roll out and pass more accurately than Mallett. Hoyer will.certainly be the starter next week. O'Brien is fucking up with his bouncing around and erred in naming Hoyer at the beginning.
Why? Hoyer does not give up. He keeps.working, even if backing up. Mallett gives up. If he were named starter at the beginning, he would have either stepped up done shitty. Either way, he would have made the effort. If he fucked up, Hoyer will be there, as ready as he can be ready. And Mallett didn't get slighted at the beginning and may remain hungry.
Mallett now? He'll give up. Expect him sleeping late or dui or something with him projecting his disappointment in self destructive ways in the next week.
Hasselback, or as you called him, "Lazurus", is that quintessential wise backup. Solid backup.
Looks like I can start playing Gurley now in the fantasy league. . .he gave the Rams a real boost today.
ReplyDeleteGurley was incredible. The Rams are a real threat to every team out there now because of Gurley. That defense has to love it.
ReplyDeleteHa. . .Suh getting dogged by the *experts* on the half-time show on the Sunday Night game.
ReplyDeleteHe has to talk to the media, apparently. It's strange. Suh obviously was upset but wanted to keep in control. But the media wants him to be outrageous so they can dog that.
ReplyDeleteThey should rip his shitty play. Miami is awful. Philbin may be gone tomorrow with no obvious successor.
Who wants that job? They're a mess.
Man, I'm looking at the Falcons schedule. . .I'm not kidding, if they can win at Carolina, they can go 16-0.
ReplyDeleteThe Birds are looking really good. It was clear last year what the problems were - o line injuries killed that campaign. The secondary was actually excellent last year. Trufant is one of the best right now.
ReplyDeleteBut the huge one is the o line. It's healthy. And it's great at run blocking. They're average at pass blocking but the run game helps the merely above average Ryan tremendously. He looks a lot better with a run game.
The run game has a chance at being the best in the NFL and it's nothing fancy. They're using a FB a lot and he just clears holes for whomever is running. I'll never understand why the NFL went away from fullbacks in favor of single back sets. Never.
Tell you who looked.good running. Trent Richardson. He lost some weight and got some explosiveness. Really had some solid runs last night.
The Dolphins might have a bigger problem than HC. Apparently their QB is a pussy who can't stand up to hard practices:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nfl/miami-dolphins/article37897542.html
The Lions offense has no chance to score against Seattle. Any points will come from defense or special teams.
ReplyDeleteSeattle TD. Game over. That's all the points they'll need.
ReplyDeleteThere's the Lions D with a score. . .3 down, but still seems like a million.
ReplyDelete2nd and 5 at the 15, how will the Lions fuck this up?
ReplyDeleteJohnson fumbles game away. . .
ReplyDeleteDeeeeeeetroit
ReplyDeleteWill join the pantheon of great Dee-troit losses. . .
ReplyDelete@@@@
ReplyDeleteFormer NFL referee Gerry Austin says it should have been an illegal bat by KJ Wright in the end zone. Ball should have went back to Detroit.
@@@@
Of course. . .