So many interesting stories this year already...

Broncos
Seattle
Philly
Lions
Colts

Hell even the Bills have made it interesting.

9/22/2015 1:46:11 AM

Classic Foxy if he even keeps the Bears in this game by playing the clock management game

9/27/2015 4:35:54 PM

Several good 1 o'clock games; The afternoon slate was fucking abysmal.

9/27/2015 7:21:43 PM

Bears 10 possessions, 10 punts

Classic Fox

9/27/2015 8:10:42 PM

^^ yeah the 4 PM games were quite boring.

9/27/2015 8:41:39 PM

Ebron with a nice tackle

9/27/2015 9:51:50 PM

The exuberance by the Panthers fan is funny to me. That is going to be a hellaciously disappointed fan base come January. I'm not going to post anything else in the Panthers thread. They might have the NFLs easiest schedule, especially given how fortunate they've gotten with other team's injuries.

All I'm going to say is that they're probably going to make the playoffs despite being pretty fucking bad in a lot of areas, and will subsequently get their shit pushed in in the first round.

9/27/2015 10:50:24 PM

Quote :

"They might have the NFLs easiest schedule"

If you said easiest start of the season, that would be valid. Easiest schedule? It's objectively harder than any other team's schedule in the NFC South, for starters.

And oh no, heaven forbid a fanbase be excited about a 3-0 start

[Edited on September 27, 2015 at 10:57 PM. Reason : .]

9/27/2015 10:56:13 PM

Yeah, maybe I should have said "so far".

9/27/2015 10:58:42 PM

The "2nd quarter" of the schedule is arguably the hardest in the NFL

9/27/2015 11:01:57 PM

@Seattle, Philly at home, Colts at home, Packers at home.

That's hardly a murderous 4 game stretch. Colts and Eagles are both playing pretty horrible football right now.

9/27/2015 11:04:44 PM

I agree that the Colts and Eagles aren't playing like the experts expected, despite both winning today

But Jacksonville and Houston both have wins already this year, so you can't have it both ways

also, who has Arizona played this year? Their opponents combined record is 1-8. Worse than the Panthers' opponents' combined schedule.

[Edited on September 27, 2015 at 11:12 PM. Reason : .]

9/27/2015 11:05:48 PM

Yes, but Arizona is also kicking the shit out of the teams they have played, the Panthers have not. Point differential is a pretty good indicator of the actual quality of a team.

9/27/2015 11:16:34 PM

fwiw http://www.realtimerpi.com/nfl/Men.html (only week 3 game as of the moment is thursday night)

has Arizona as 32nd hardest schedule, Panthers at 23

9/27/2015 11:20:01 PM

Quote :

"Point differential is a pretty good indicator of the actual quality of a team."

So in other words the Panthers are the best team in the South, since they have the highest point differential. Thanks for the kind words and confidence boost.

9/27/2015 11:25:39 PM

Kurtis is just bitter that some scrub named Philly Brown has as many TDs as all Chiefs WRs combined in the last 2 seasons

9/27/2015 11:29:00 PM

Yeah, it's still pretty early for DVOA or teamRPI to be all that useful. As much as I hate to say it, right now you kind of have to use the eyeball test.

I don't think the Panthers are bad, I just don't think they're good either. I think if you ranked them just on how good they look they're probably right in the middle of the pack. I mean, they're clearly not as good as New England, but they're also clearly better than say... Oakland.

I will say this, starting off 3-0 puts them in great shape to make a run to the playoffs and then theoretically anything can happen, but realistically the offense just isn't good enough this year for them to be real contenders.

9/27/2015 11:30:37 PM

Panther Hating already? At Least wait to week 5. Damn lol

9/27/2015 11:36:33 PM

Defense wins championships though. #2 scoring defense so far. I'll take it. Sure we've played bum QBs. But it's not like this defense hasn't been upper echelon the last 3 years. The blueprint of this team, even if KB was healthy, was never to score 35 points a game. Run the ball (struggling at that), play good defense, etc. So far it's working out with the schedule the league gave us.

9/27/2015 11:42:21 PM

Quote :

"Defense wins championships though."

That is widely untrue and statistically inaccurate, more so now than it ever has been to boot. Every once in a while a truly great defense dominates a Super Bowl and wins, but by and large Super Bowl winners are offensively elite and at least defensively competent.

Just google defense wins championships myth.

9/28/2015 12:00:11 AM

How bout you look at the last 10 Super Bowl winners or so and point out the 5+ teams that had elite offenses

I'd argue the Packers, Saints and Colts are the exception, not the rule, and that the Seahawks, Steers (x2), Giants (x2) are the rule.

If anything, you can't claim it's highly slanted towards the offenses, but you can say maybe half the time defense wins championships. Which still means that's a viable formula for a championship

[Edited on September 28, 2015 at 12:16 AM. Reason : .]

9/28/2015 12:08:05 AM

Year Team Defense Rank Offensive Rank CRA QB
2014 Patriots 8 4 6 Tom Brady
2013 Seahawks 1 9 5 Russell Wilson
2012 Ravens 12 10 11 Joe Flacco
2011 Giants 25 9 17 Eli Manning
2010 Packers 2 10 6 Aaron Rodgers
2009 Saints 20 1 10.5 Drew Brees
2008 Steelers 1 20 10.5 Ben Rothlisberger
2007 Giants 17 14 15.5 Eli Manning
2006 Colts 23 2 12.5 Peyton Manning
2005 Steelers 4 9 6.5 Ben Rothlisberger
2004 Patriots 2 4 3 Tom Brady

[Edited on September 28, 2015 at 12:17 AM. Reason : whatever]

9/28/2015 12:16:03 AM

Fuck, can't get the formatting right.

Also, because of the fact that it's one game, it's not all that uncommon that the best team doesn't win. I mean, no one seriously believes that the 2007 Pats weren't better than the Giants. That took some ridiculous anomalies that would even out in say, a 7 game series.

[Edited on September 28, 2015 at 12:22 AM. Reason : asas]

9/28/2015 12:16:53 AM

I'm surprised Seattle had the 9th ranked offense 2 years ago, since calling their offense elite would be laughable. Or look at the Colts. They had the worst run defense in the league in the regular season and the #1 run defense in the post season. Regular season stats don't tell the whole story.

9/28/2015 12:22:52 AM

The 2014 Pats were also not better than the 2014 Seahawks, so that evens out

9/28/2015 12:23:33 AM

Quote :

"Regular season stats don't tell the whole story."

16 > 3 (or 4)

9/28/2015 12:25:52 AM

Agreed, when talking about which team had the best regular season.

9/28/2015 12:27:39 AM

looking too deeply into stats based on a single elimination playoff is silly

too many random things happen for them to be that important

that and it's a much, much smaller sample size

[Edited on September 28, 2015 at 12:35 AM. Reason : .]

9/28/2015 12:35:13 AM

Did you miss the sentence before the one you quoted? Where the Colts went from the worst run defense in the regular season to the best run defense in the post season? Peyton's high power offense wouldn't have won if the defense didn't shut down Larry Johnson, held the Ravens to 6 points, and then yeah, they needed to out-offense the Pats. Would the Bears have even made the Super Bowl if it wasn't for their defense?

If offense was so prominent, I'm sure Peyton and Rodgers would have more than 1 SB apiece. That's why teams like the Lions and Falcons always get hyped, then never do shit.

Again, if anything, you could say both a great offense or a great defense can win a title. Maybe defense wins championships isn't always true, but neither is "offense wins championships"

And to bring it full circle, the Panthers' formula of ball control, great defense, etc, is viable to win

[Edited on September 28, 2015 at 12:43 AM. Reason : .]

9/28/2015 12:40:13 AM

Rodgers is playing chess and shit

9/28/2015 10:00:56 PM

Packers Pats SB looking great on paper

9/28/2015 11:08:02 PM

defensive juggernauts, the both of them.

9/29/2015 12:38:25 AM

on paper doesn't always hold up though!

9/29/2015 12:52:37 AM

lol Josh Scobee

10/1/2015 11:24:12 PM

Fuck this kicker, go by the strategy of that HS coach in Arkansas, no field goals, no extra point kicks. Just let him kick off and that's it.

10/1/2015 11:26:27 PM

that's why you should never play for the FG when up 3, especially with that dude as your kicker

10/1/2015 11:29:47 PM

yep. and he blew 2 chances. ok Tomlin, you give him a shot at 1, and he misses. Don't give him another shot.

[Edited on October 1, 2015 at 11:34 PM. Reason : lol Vick's tiny ass]

10/1/2015 11:30:58 PM

I don't really disagree with going for it there but I would have not had Vick run it when you have Bell and Williams.

10/1/2015 11:35:43 PM

Tomlin looks ill right now.

10/1/2015 11:36:59 PM

Can't wait for the Steelers to get in FG range again...

[Edited on October 1, 2015 at 11:44 PM. Reason : holy shit this is brutal]

10/1/2015 11:40:18 PM

Nantz and Simms have been brutally awful tonight

it's like they haven't watched Scobee kick at all tonight

10/1/2015 11:46:27 PM

Lol I hope the steelers lose now. You gotta kick that.

I'd trust a kicker more than I'd trust Michael fucking Vick throwing it.

10/1/2015 11:46:37 PM

^ have you watched this game?

[Edited on October 1, 2015 at 11:46 PM. Reason : I wouldn't trust him to hit an extra point from last year's distance]

10/1/2015 11:45:53 PM

talk about shitting the bed, that was some shameful playcalling by Tomlin

10/1/2015 11:49:59 PM

Brutal is the right word.

Damn.

10/1/2015 11:50:49 PM

Brutal is the right word.

Damn.

10/1/2015 11:50:49 PM

Yep. This is all on Tomlin. Terrible 4th down decision making.

10/1/2015 11:51:16 PM

if Tomlin going for it on 4th becomes the Hot Take of the Day tomorrow.....

10/1/2015 11:51:36 PM

both coaches were awful tonight. ravens won but had a 3rd and short and ran a hurry up the middle.

why hurry to run up the middle? of course the d would expect that. Use it as a free play to take a shot.

none of that mattered because tomlin was far worse.

10/1/2015 11:59:36 PM

Why would you put one of the least accurate qbs in NFL history in a spot where he has to throw an accurate short pass in order to basically not lose the game? Why not run the ball with one of the best RBs in the game? Or kick a field goal?

10/2/2015 12:08:07 AM