Sunday, December 17, 2006

NFL Week 15 Reactions and Analysis:
Bears Indicative of Sorry-Ass NFC

Here are my usual shallow, superficial first-takes on the NFL results today, with the usual encouragement to put your own analysis into the Comments section.

Updated Monday A.M.: My biggest question this morning: How bad is the NFC that the Giants are still in the playoff hunt? WTF?! (Tomlinson adulation is post above.)

The Bears may have clinched full NFC HFA, but take note of the way they let the Bucs back into the game... in Chicago.

So: Which of you FFL GMs with a playoff game today was ballsy enough to start Tim Rattay? (Anyone? Anyone?)

Kyle Boller? Really: Kyle Boller?

It's officially time to start asking what solid playoff position the Titans would be right now if Vince Young had started the entire season?

(Oh, and the Rookie of the Year award is o-v-a-h. Yes, even though his stats today weren't particularly good. Or any good. But the guy keeps winning. Who had Tennessee at .500 after Week 15? Exactly.)

Just when the entire world was fully on the Saints bandwagon, they go and lose at home to a terrible Redskins team.

"Too Little, Too Late" Award: Steelers.

Hell hath no fury like the Pats after their worst offensive performance of the Belichick Era.

(And how ya like the taste of zilch, Miami?)

Wait: With the Jags' loss and the Jets' win, is New York going to ice out Jax for the playoffs? (Not with that head-to-head record.)

Favre passes Marino in something? Yawn.

OK, *now* do you buy that Jay Cutler is a better QB than Matt Leinart? He only proved it head-to-freaking-head. (Oh, I can already hear your qualifier that Cutler has a better team around him. I argue that if they switched places, Cutler would still outperform Leinart.)

Oakland is playing like a team that REALLY wants to get that No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick. Kudos on the motivation!

You know what? The NFC effing sucks. The only redeeming value is that the Wild Card spots should be up for grabs through Week 17 – and may include a team with the dreaded .500 record.

-- D.S.

36 comments:

Mega said...

I can't believe Chicago let Tampa Bay back in this game. Rattay looks like Roger Staubach against us.

Kurt said...

Nice job Bears, you needed OT to beat the 3-11 Bucs.

chipp said...

VY sure was unspectacular, but it looks like they didn't have the ball much. My broadcast switched over on their last possession: it looked like a QB keeper and he decided to throw - BAD DECISION!! However, no turnovers. As long as he and Fisher are in TEN, they're going to win a lot of games.

Christian Thoma said...

Favre played absolutely lousy, but the Packers still win. Thank goodness they were playing the Lions.

However, they're going to need to tighten up for Minnesota Thursday night.

Full Packers Playoff Push Analysis coming after the Eagles-Giants.

Christian Thoma said...

Uh, gmen23, I'd recommend looking at the ESPN Playoff Picture before making silly comments. See who's sitting in 8th in the conference?

Kurt said...

Chrth, don't be a homer for one second and think about it. A Packers playoff push is pretty funny.

Christian Thoma said...

Addendum:
Even though St. Louis owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Packers, a win by them today over the Raiders (putting them at 6-8) would still rank them below the Packers because the Rams lose the divisional tie-breaker to the 49ers.

Christian Thoma said...

Well, of course it's funny. That's the whole point: it's fun working the scenarios. But gmen23's attitude bespoke a lack of knowing what the heck is going on in the league, as well as a lack of participation in the earlier comments sections when we as a group went over it.

Christian Thoma said...

First Kitna gets a 15-yard facemask, now Garcia gets a Taunting penalty. This is why QBs shouldn't be allowed to watch the NBA.

Steve said...

Vince Young is the 31st ranked passer in the league. That makes him worthy of ROY over Colston who is pushing 1000 yards receiving? That would be a traveshamockery of the worst kind. I would vote for Joseph Addai over Vince Young.

Christian Thoma said...

Ok, here's my 'superficial' Packers Playoff Push Analysis:

Two weeks left, two teams to pass.

Packers need to beat the Vikings and Bears (resting hopefully all their starters except Rex Grossman)

Giants needs to lose to New Orleans and Washington. Hopefully the Saints from last week will show up next week rather than the Saints from this week. The Redskins from this week are invited to show up.

Rams need to lose 1 game, or the 49ers need to win 2 games. Seriously.

And the Falcons need to lose 1 game.

Piece o' cake.

Steve said...

I can see every part of that happening chrth except the most important part. The Packers winning both games. I think they lose both games.

Christian Thoma said...

@steve,

Sadly, I do as well. Packers should've won by 28 today. I'm hoping they were just overlooking the Lions because of the short week before the Vikes. Too many opportunities blown.

It's also a sad day for Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila fans, as Cullen Jenkins looks like a better option on the end. KGB has always been one-dimensional as a pass-rusher, but his skills diminishing he was bringing nothing to the table anymore.

Anonymous said...

Remember that Monday night game when the Bears came back to beat the Cardinals and we all thought we'd never again see such an extreme case of a team overcoming an inept offense with defense and special teams?

The Titans may have topped that today. It would be an interesting debate, at least.

TJ said...

(Oh, and the Rookie of the Year award is o-v-a-h.)

Who are you referring to here, Dan? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you weren't referring to VY. Not after today's game. I mean, maybe he's ROY, but you can't use today to decide he deserves it.

LaziestMovieCriticofAllTime said...

A thing to keep in mind about the Bears is that the secondary is banged up, but should be healthy by the time the playoffs come around (sans Mike Brown, of course)

I would say Nathan Vasher would have prevented some of those long TD plays in the second half.

Mega said...

Oh and I don't think the NFC sucks. The NFC just has better competition. The AFC is all great teams and suck ass teams. The NFC has great, so so, and bad teams.

TJ said...

But the guy keeps winning. Who had Tennessee at .500 after Week 15?

Ack. OK, so who had the Pack at 6-8? So... Favre for MVP?

Saying Vince keeps winning when referring to today's game makes as much sense as saying Grossman just keeps winning after the Cardinals game or the 1.3 game. C'mon, Dan.

Jared said...

Vince Young has been one of the worst passers in the league this year. Worse than guys like Favre, Kitna, Frye, and Bruce f'n Gradkowski. Winning isn't just about the QB, as shown by today's game.

Does ANYBODY remember Vick earlier in his career, when he was making exciting plays and winning games and we were all ready to put him in Canton? Only problem is he, like VY, can't throw. And given time, defenses can plan for QBs that can't throw.

Unknown said...

Nick Mangold, NFL ROY

Sure he is a center and not a QB or RB or even a kick returner. However the Jets center replaced a perenial probowler in Kevin Mawae, is playing great and calling the blocking schemes.

OK Vince Young will probably get it since nobody knows who Mangold is but he deserves some mention.

Unknown said...

Maurice "MJD" "MOJO" Jones-Drew is 443 yards from Tim Brown's Rookie All-Purpose yards record. It's not over. He averages 134 a game but it's possible.

Oh yeah, AGENT SIX-ZERO

Anonymous said...

AFC: 4 teams at 8-6 (if CIN loses)
4 teams at 7-7
2 wild cards

The next two weeks are gonna be fun.

Mikepcfl said...

Please get well McNair! I forgot how bad of a feeling it is to worry that Boller is going to fumble the snap, slip in the pocket or overthrow a receiver by 20 yards. Thank God the Browns suck.

nep1293 said...

The ROY has to be Colston. I can't give VY any credit for a win where the defense scores 21 points. Colston was a 7th round pick and Vince was #3. Doesn't Dan always bring up the "exceeding your draft pick expectations" when he's touting the underdogs HE likes????

Jon said...

I'm with the Jones-Drew for ROY with Colston right behind. VY has been more lucky than good.

When do the Giants bench Eli? He's painful to watch. If I'm forced to watch the Giants play, I'd rather see Jared Lorenzen in there.

It's nice to see that Westbrook continues to show that he, not McNabb, is and has been the key to the Eagles offense for the past several seasons.

Christian Thoma said...

While I admit the Pack are far from perfect, they aren't awful. They did beat the 49ers (who can still win the West) last week pretty convincingly.

What I think happened this week is that the playcalling was designed to maximize Brett's TD record attempt. Didn't help that a wide-open TD pass was dropped. But at the same time, 1st and 10 at the Detroit 12 you should NOT be calling Pass-Pass-Pass(INT) (expect TMQ to mention this). The Lions run defense is non-existent, run against it!

Hopefully, now that the record is out of reach for this season (needs 8 in 2 games), the Packers playcalling will be better suited to winning rather than record-making.

CMFost said...

ROY - It will probably go to VY even though it should not, Jones-Drew, Colston and Addai are all probably for me ranked above VY. How can the ROY be the 31st ranked passer out of the 32 starting QB's it tells me it not all him why they are winning. Especially when the team scores what 24 points and the defense and special teams accounted for 21 of it.

The only race that is over if the MVP, LdT is and should be the unamious choice for MVP. Brees ruined his chance with the stinker he put up this week.

CMFost said...

One of the best things in this season is that with all these teams in contention and the Bears being the only team that has really clinched something you do not have to worry about teams resting starts for the FFL championship games most of which take place this coming week.

Christian Thoma said...


Wow, I'm shocked that Dan would minimize an accomplishment of Farve. I suppose if he had attended his wife's favorite school (Florida) then he would get more credit.


Or if he was Jewish.

Anonymous said...

Scoreboard watching is right. Although the Patriots routed the Texans, 230 yards does not equal an impressive offensive performance by any stretch of the imagination.

CMFost said...

Actually the Patriots yardage was more based on field position than anything else. It is hard to rack up alot of yardage when your average starting field postion was the Texans 48 yard line. I was at the game yesterday and I can only remember once they had a long field to work with.

Sheldiz said...

Kyle Boller makes me nervous. He didn't win that game, so much as not lose it. But I will give him credit for getting it done in the end.

CMFost said...

According to what I read this morning McNair will be fine and he will be back starting next week.

Sheldiz said...

yeah, CMFost... i'm happy about that. although, i also think had the game taken a serious turn for the worse yesterday, he may have been back in in the 4th quarter.

but it is good that kyle is taking some snaps... inevitably we'll need him at some point.

Anonymous said...

ROY- now that Colston is getting the Michigan effect (hasn't played) it has to go to Bush or the Bowling Ball in jax...
did i read someone say Mangold for ROY? that's a cavalier statement and I am still scarred from the NFL Gameday story on his sister

Anonymous said...

1) Bears defense is still not completely back

2) Out of the next three games (last one too, actually) the only one that matters is the fourth--a playoff game. They earned this by winning TWELVE of their first fourteen games. Unfortunately, teams that don't do this can't afford to bogey a game. But somehow they're superior to the Bears?

3) Last year, the Colts were praised for their wisdom for effectively throwing their last games, to be ready for the playoffs. I know this isn't the same, but do you really think the Bears are throwing out all the stops in a meaningless game?