10 at Tennessee probably hit the re-set button in this thread. I just hope we can can keep the 2 seed and a week off in January. Which as a practical matter may require 5-1 after the Bye, including a home win v Minnesota and a road win @ Miami. Yes, I’m assuming a loss @ Pittsburgh, which would mean we’ll need two Pittsburgh losses to close this regular season out.
They have played five road games. The defense has played like absolute trash in four of them (all except Buffalo) and the offense has played like absolute trash in four of them (all except Chicago). I would not mark down wins at NYJ and at MIA in ink, much less Pittsburgh.
As bad as the Pats have looked on the road, I have a lot of trouble seeing them lose to the Jets on the 25th.
Yes, that’s our side.
I wonder if the Jags have any fight left in them. This week could be their "one last shot" sort of game. I'm not expecting it, mind you, but after the fubar in Indy they might be ticked off enough to take it out on the next opponent.
Has any team ever win 2 SBs DURING a single regular season?
Like I said, I don't expect it. But I could see Pitt have a bit of trouble in Jax.
Or Denver. Or hosting LAC.
I was pissed yesterday. I’m not now. You and another poster or two have grounded me.
I’m not sold on the defense of the Rams, Chiefs or Saints. On paper I thought the Rams D would be great, but they’re giving up a ton of points. It looks like none of those teams will have to play a cold weather playoff game, but I wonder if they have the defenses to get through January.
I was thinking the other day about what happens if the Saints d-back doesn't screw up the final play against the Vikings. Playing against Drew Brees, rather than Case Keenum, would the Eagles defense do enough to offset mediocre Nick Foles?
This was one aspect of the Steelers the last few years with Bell. When he was hurt the Steelers' offense lost a lot of dimension and was a lot less effective. Moving forward we'll see if the Steelers can establish an effective backup to Conners, they have a tendency to overuse their primary back and not be well prepared if that guy goes down. Same situation to a lesser extent with AB, the Steelers for some reason have been very good at drafting and developing receivers.
Yes, but we are not talking about any old team. The exception to this has been... The Pats, but this year seems different.
Sure, any team can be upended by injuries. But it's a matter of degree. When the 2016 Pats lost Gronk for the season, they were able to get just enough out of Bennett to weather the storm. Same with Amendola filling in for Edelman last year. This year feels thinner to me— unless Dawson or Hollister suddenly emerges, there's almost zero redundancy at any offensive skill position. A bit of overlap between White and Michel, but that's about it.
yes but not well. The 2014-2017 drafts have not panned out. The next man up is a much sharper drop-off than prior years.
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Totally agree.
Not to mention that the last team to win a super bowl with a regular season tie was the Steelers in Super Bowl IX back in the 1974-5 season. Coincidence?
Is trading for someone like Josh Gordon consistent with it? It was hard to see him as a long-term asset when they got him.
Well that’s 2018, and the Gordon acquisition is about having an adequate receiving corps this year. The price paid for him obviously is way below the first rounder surrendered for Cooks.
I agree the Cooks move was out of character, and I still don't totally understand what they were trying to do there, but I don't see it as necessarily GFIN-y.
IMO, "loading up" (or GFIN) implies an effort to get players now that screws up the roster and cap for sometime beyond. The Patriots never seem to intentionally mess with the cap down the road.
And I think they are in an unusual position with respect to that this year. The three biggest cap hits on the team are Brady, Gronkowski, and McCourty. All three are free agents after 2019, and they have big hits next year. They are also all close enough to the end of the line that there is risk extending them beyond 2019 to lower the 2018 / 2019 cap hit. They are also still such key players that the team could not jettison them prior to this year. So it made sense for 2018 to stand pat on all three, even though that didn't provide the same space for like a Gilmore signing. This coming offseason will be very interesting with respect to those three. The Patriots have only $24-something MM in cap space with only 44 players under contract.
Looking at the schedule, KC has the Rams which is the game that NE needed KC to lose if the seeding came down to tie-breakers. KC should be able to handle everyone else, but on any given Sunday, you never know. Unfortunately for NE, the "any given Sunday" thing took place last week with the Titans so two games off the pace might as well be fifteen with KC playing as well as they have.
You’re on to something.
