Official NFL 2022-2023 Thread

[KenElevenShadows]

On 12/18/2022 at 8:55 PM, Dave Bryce said:

 

I dunno. How ‘bout the end of the Pats/Raiders game? 😲😎

 

 

I don't even know what to say about that. That's one of the weirdest ends to an NFL game I've ever seen.

[ProfD]

The NFC South division is so weak the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get into the playoffs with a sub .500 record.🤣

 

The NFC is a mess.  IMO, the Eagles, 49ers and Cowbums are the strongest NFC teams. 

 

I know the Vikes clinched their division but they got blown out by the Cowbums and almost lost to the Colts.

 

The highest seeded NFC teams have winning records but they are not dominant. 

 

IOW, I can see any one of the NFC division winners easily losing to a wild card team.  Not just from a any given Sunday perspective. 

 

So, I have no idea of which NFC team will face the Chiefs or Bills in the Super Bowl. 

 

See what I just did there. 😁😎

[Stokely]

I've followed the Viking since their 2nd superbowl (though I remember very little of this first of many crushing disappointments, being 6 or 7) and this year's team is one of the weirdest I've ever seen.  I don't follow any sports like I once did (other than maybe soccer) but I have no idea how such a mediocre team ended up with that record.  Having a couple of the best (when healthy) players in the league helps, Jefferson is pretty close to un-coverable if Cousins has time (which he often doesn't).   Assuming they get one, they'll *maybe* win their home playoff game.  They shouldn't be favored.   If they have to play the Niners or Eagles (or Cowboys again) they'll lose badly IMO.  But then as I say this team is so weird that anything can happen.  They simply have a middling o-line and a bad defense, and that is not a recipe for success.

I definitely take back my Titans talk, and replace them with the Bengals.  Nobody wants to play them, nor the Niners even with Mr. Irrelevant at the helm.

[timwat]

14 hours ago, KenElevenShadows said:

 

I don't even know what to say about that. That's one of the weirdest ends to an NFL game I've ever seen.

 

All that play needed was the Stanford Band to invade the end zone.

[KenElevenShadows]

2 hours ago, timwat said:

 

All that play needed was the Stanford Band to invade the end zone.

 

Hahahaha! That would have been so perfect!!!

[jazzpiano88]

6 hours ago, Stokely said:

I've followed the Viking since their 2nd superbowl (though I remember very little of this first of many crushing disappointments, being 6 or 7) and this year's team is one of the weirdest I've ever seen.

 

I live three hours from MPLS and collected trading cards of Fran Tarkenton from Sunaco gas stations growing up. 

Over the years, I like to see them win, but have relegated them to perennial losers, esp their self destruction over my adult years.

 

So when the Vikings were down 33-0 versus Baltimore at halftime, I said to myself, "Yep, Vikes are self destructing as usual again and the Niners are on their way to the #1 seed once the next three games play out and the Eagles regress towards the mean".   

 

Really, though, I attribute Baltimore's comeback to the Ref's intervention for ratings money.   Almost makes NFL unwatchable emotionally.

[ProfD]

2 hours ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

So when the Vikings were down 33-0 versus Baltimore...

The Colts are in Indianapolis now. 😁

 

2 hours ago, JazzPiano88 said:

Really, though, I attribute Baltimore's comeback to the Ref's intervention for ratings money. 

Don't get me started on how I'm beginning to think games are being...decided. 🤣😎

[bill5]

2 hours ago, JazzPiano88 said:

So when the Vikings were down 33-0 versus Baltimore at halftime

Yeah I can't believe how Johnny Unitas took it to them  

 

Re. the refs, I know they have a tough job and I don't think anyone expects them to get it right all the time, but more and more it seems they are making glaringly bad, obvious wrong calls. I'm not saying it's true, but I would not be at all surprised if at least some of them were on the take. 

[jazzpiano88]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

The Colts are in Indianapolis now. 😁

I know, but I don’t respect that.   
When a team moves they need to change their mascot. 
Conversely, when they change their mascot, they need to move.  

[jazzpiano88]

2 hours ago, ProfD said:

Don't get me started on how I'm beginning to think games are being...decided. 🤣😎

With the money that’s involved, and now that the NFL and Broadcasters have gone all-in promoting and embracing sports betting and gambling, they are going to need to address it.   
 

Another fundamental problem with officiating is its schizophrenic rules that make no sense.  Offensive holding is illegal when the whole point of the game is to put the QB in the hospital?   Come on!  Holding is the police equivalent to ticketing a wide turn into the far lane.  It’s become a pretext to put their thumb on the scale.  

 

The writing is on the wall, though.   Concussions will eventually be the end of the sport. 

[Geoff Grace]

1 hour ago, JazzPiano88 said:

I know, but I don’t respect that.   
When a team moves they need to change their mascot. 
Conversely, when they change their mascot, they need to move.  

 

Does that mean, when you refer to Chicago, you might be discussing the Cardinals instead of the Bears; or if you bring up Cleveland, you might be talking about the Rams instead of the Browns? It sounds a little confusing to me.

 

Don't get me wrong, I also prefer for teams to change names when they change cities. I'm glad that Cleveland got to keep the Browns name, for instance, while the former Browns became the Ravens in Baltimore. The most ridiculous example I can think of for a team not changing its name after a move is the Utah Jazz (of the NBA). It's hard to imagine a state less important to the jazz scene than Utah.

 

I'm not happy that the Colts moved to Indianapolis or that the Cardinals moved to Arizona; and I was especially upset when my then favorite team, the Rams, moved to St. Louis. However, we part ways in that I (begrudgingly) respect the league's right to choose its teams' names.

 

What I get to control is the teams I root for; and when the Rams left LA, I picked as my favorite team the one that is the least likely to be uprooted from its hometown: the Green Bay Packers.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[RichieP_MechE]

Sad day in Pittsburgh - Franco Harris has passed away, just a few days shy of the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. RIP Franco!
https://apnews.com/article/pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-college-football-sports-efc7c3e417ad04594ae32a3fbc0a693a

[Geoff Grace]

5 hours ago, RichieP_MechE said:

Sad day in Pittsburgh - Franco Harris has passed away, just a few days shy of the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. RIP Franco!
https://apnews.com/article/pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-college-football-sports-efc7c3e417ad04594ae32a3fbc0a693a

 

So sorry to hear this news, Richie. My condolences to Franco Harris's family and friends and, of course, to Steelers fans. He was one of the greats!

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Stokely]

Personally, while there could be refs on the take, I'd favor Hanlon's Razor:  "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

In this case, not stupidity but human inadequacy.   Remember that we the viewers have access to HD views that we never used to.  I reckon that most of us, if asked to watch a game from the 70s in original resolution on a 70s set, would complain that it's unwatchable.  Even watching some replays of college games from the 90s is pretty jarring (also because of the humongous shoulder pads!).   I'm actually pretty continually amazed that the refs get so many calls right (say on out of bounds), in real time that seems incredible.  

I didn't watch the whole Vikes/Colts game but the bad call that stuck out on the highlights was the fumble that was called down on the field--this favored the Colts, so I'm not sure how that fit into a conspiracy for the Vikings to make a comeback?   

I think I said in the World Cup thread, but soccer has a great advantage in that it's very simple.  Fouls, hand ball and offsides...that's about it.  Compare that to the dozens of penalties and variations in American football, many of which could be called on every single play.  I think that is where a lot of fan frustration comes in, that the picking and choosing of when to call these things seems...arbitrary.

[bill5]

6 hours ago, RichieP_MechE said:

Sad day in Pittsburgh - Franco Harris has passed away, just a few days shy of the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. RIP Franco!
https://apnews.com/article/pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-college-football-sports-efc7c3e417ad04594ae32a3fbc0a693a

One of the greatest RBs ever and a total stand-up class act. RIP

[bill5]

4 hours ago, Stokely said:

Personally, while there could be refs on the take, I'd favor Hanlon's Razor:  "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

In this case, not stupidity but human inadequacy.   Remember that we the viewers have access to HD views that we never used to.  I reckon that most of us, if asked to watch a game from the 70s in original resolution on a 70s set, would complain that it's unwatchable.  Even watching some replays of college games from the 90s is pretty jarring (also because of the humongous shoulder pads!).   I'm actually pretty continually amazed that the refs get so many calls right (say on out of bounds), in real time that seems incredible.  

TVs from the 70s would not be unwatchable, though of course inferior and we wouldn't like it because we're so spoiled with better ones now. But you're mistaking copies of videos from way back then as being the same quality as the original broadcast, which much (most?) of the time isn't so. Those copies were obtained from tapes which even when taken care of don't hold up well over time.

 

But really it's a moot point; nobody expects refs to be perfect and it's understandable to miss an occasional close call. But more and more I think we're seeing glaring, obvious goofs which were even obvious to us at the time it happened, not in hindsight with replay, and remember no matter how good our TVs are, we're watching from a relatively tiny, distant standpoint. They're right there, the play is right in front of them. 

[ProfD]

15 hours ago, bill5 said:

But really it's a moot point; nobody expects refs to be perfect and it's understandable to miss an occasional close call. 

Correct.

 

Nowadays, there are refs in the booth.  They can make a call down to the field on obvious missed calls. 

 

I wouldn't expect the booth ref to flag every instance of holding that could be called on every play. 😁

 

However, the booth ref should step up if the missed call is pass interference or some other penalty that could affect the outcome of the game.😎

[bill5]

Every call could affect the outcome of the game and a ref in the booth still getting it wrong is inexcusable...

[GovernorSilver]

Ronnie Hillman dead at 31 from cancer

 

Played on 2 Manning-led Broncos Super Bowl teams, and was SDSU Aztecs star RB before that.

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, GovernorSilver said:

Ronnie Hillman dead at 31 from cancer

 

Played on 2 Manning-led Broncos Super Bowl teams, and was SDSU Aztecs star RB before that.

Ronnie Hillman had just gone into hospice yesterday.  May he rest in peace.😎

[jazzpiano88]

11 hours ago, ProfD said:

Nowadays, there are refs in the booth.  They can make a call down to the field on obvious missed calls.

 

I've wondered if they use the booth for spotting ball placement.   You often see the ref on the field get the spot wrong, but then the ball ends up correctly placed w.r.t the slow mo replay. 

 

But don't get me started on ball placement....  the uncertainty error on ball placement is totally sloppy compared to the down markers, not to mention the initial placement of the down marker, but the measurement is down to the centimeter.   The down measurements should have an uncertainty of ~+/- 6 inches to the upfield marker.  Like a confidence interval.  Then go ahead and make the millimeter call on the tip of the ball versus the upper end of the confidence interval.

[ProfD]

50 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

I've wondered if they use the booth for spotting ball placement. 

Technology has gotten to the point that the field should have digital markers. A transmitter can be placed in the football.

 

Then, ball placement would be based on certainty instead of a confidence interval. 😁

 

Of course, more technology would put folks out of work. Someone has to hold the down markers and measuring sticks.😎

[Geoff Grace]

6 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

Ronnie Hillman dead at 31 from cancer

 

Played on 2 Manning-led Broncos Super Bowl teams, and was SDSU Aztecs star RB before that.

 

Cancer is cruel. So sad to see Hillman die at such a young age.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[bill5]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

Technology has gotten to the point that the field should have digital markers. A transmitter can be placed in the football.

 

Then, ball placement would be based on certainty instead of a confidence interval. 😁

 

Of course, more technology would put folks out of work. Someone has to hold the down markers and measuring sticks.😎

Also it would take some drama and human element out of it and take away a chance for fans to b*tch. Bag that noise. 

 

[bill5]

The Jags could actually win the AFC South title lol. 

[KenElevenShadows]

Seems like the Jets have a few decisions to make about their QB play.

[bill5]

18 minutes ago, KenElevenShadows said:

Seems like the Jets have a few decisions to make about their QB play.

Yeah like who not named Zach Wilson is their starter. 

[MAJUSCULE]

That’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers legend Chris Streveler to you.

[surfergirl]

This drives me crazy, trying to draw a team offside then wasting a timeout when the 5 yards won't make a difference. GB did it today inside the 10, or close to it, then kicked a FG. Seams to me that timeout could be a lot more than the 5 yards. 

[bill5]

And yet they won. I remarked to a friend as the game began "I can't believe Miami is only 8-6." Then they showed me why. 

 

What a cluster the NFC is! A lot of seriously half-ass teams in the hunt for the playoffs lol