NFL week 8

[HonestAbe]

Wow you guys let this go down to the wire. Ok I'll do it but if someone else wants to start this thread next week that would be fine.

My picks week 8

Dallas over Arizona
Carolina over Minnesota
Pats over Buffalo
Cinicinatti over Green Bay

Notes: Bruschi is back in the lineup for the Pats D. Lets all hope he doesn't croak right on the field.

Julius Jones is still hurt for the Cowboys but they seem to have some depth at RB. The Cowboys could easily be 7-0 at this point but they could just as easily be 1-6. Lots of close games with Parcells' gameplan. Another hard loss at Seattle last week.

Look for Minnesota to get stomped.

Brett Favre is done for good this time as Green Bay will be competing for the #1 lottery pick this next off season. No reason for him to stick around after the current debacle. Cincinatti is young and hungry and the Palmer to Johnson combo will be around for a long time to come. I think getting through the rest of the year will be viewed as a major achievement in GB. Losing to Minnesota, now that hurts!

 

[Joe.t]

football fans on this board are too busy hobbying to have time to make predictions

-oakland over tennessee,
-minnesota over carolina,
-washington over the giants,
-denver over philly,

 

[Joe.t]

dudemtl- congrats on your giants, next time show a little bit of guts and make some predictions like the rest of us.

 

[HonestAbe]

We almost missed this week

I was just saying that we nearly forgot this weeks picks until I posted on Saturday. If someone else would like to start the next thread feel free, I'm certainly not the only NFL fan here.

A good week for me, 4 for 4!

Notes: The situation in Philly is quite shocking. I thought for sure that they were going to come back and at least force an overtime against Denver but their defense is no where near what it was last year which is a huge difference maker against a good offensive team like the Broncos. The offense leaves something to be desired at times as well.

The Giants are a much better team this year despite Eli Manning who relatively speaking was fucking the dog yesterday. 12-31/150 yards?/1 INT had ESPN running a segment titled "Is Eli Manning worth all the hype?" Only the future will tell but giving up that 1st round pick last year to get him didn't help the team and his contract is going to strap them somewhat in the future if they should have to acquire veteran talent. That said, the rest of the team has carried them to 5-2.

That Pats' game was DISGUSTING! Not only did they not deserve to win that game they didn't deserve to be on the field. They kept talking about Bruschi, and how much he was going to help the Pats' D but Willis McGahee gained well over a hundred yards running mostly straight up the gut. Their secondary still absolutely blows and if not for that huge turnover at the end of the game they would be 3-4 right now. Buffalo dominated most of that game.

However as it stands right now the Pats' look like a sure bet to win at least ten games with the easiest schedule in the league for their last nine games other than this coming Monday night when they will be exposed for the dogs that they have become. Indy by 21 unless God himself puts on a Pats' uniform. Its quite funny watching Pats fans turn on their team when they are losing and fall right back into the old mode of "what the fuck, the refs suck!" By the way despite that they "won" that game the fact that Mr. Automatic Adam Vinatieri missed a mid range field goal try when the Pats were losing is very odd indeed and if I were superstitious I might even call it an omen of things to come.

My Cowboys are playing suffocating defense and when the offense clicks they have no problem putting games away. At 5-3 they have a good shot at the playoffs which would likely keep Parcells in Big D for another year since he likes seeing young teams mature into title contenders. After that I think he's done since he isn't one to hang on. A well deserved rest this week for the Boys as they have a bye.

 

[HonestAbe]

Rose colored glasses

""The Giants are a much better team this year despite Eli Manning who relatively speaking was fucking the dog yesterday. 12-31/150 yards?/1 INT had ESPN running a segment titled "Is Eli Manning worth all the hype?" Only the future will tell but giving up that 1st round pick last year to get him didn't help the team and his contract is going to strap them somewhat in the future if they should have to acquire veteran talent. That said, the rest of the team has carried them to 5-2.""


I'have to disagree with you, friend. And I'll tell you why. I watch the Giants week in and week out. They are better this year BECAUSE of Eli. I have not seen such a young QB handle pressure like he does. Take the game vs. the cowboys a couple weeks back as an example. The Giants rushed down the field TWICE in the last 5 or 6 six minutes. They only lost because they didn't get the ball in OT.

Manning did that the following 2 weeks.

And as for the 12/31 for 150 -- Tiki Barber ran for 206 yards. Second most in Giants history. Manning didn't have to do a thing. When he does have to play, he plays.

I watched that Cowboy game as well and if your saying Eli had a good game you are seeing the world through rose colored glasses. He sucked it up for 55 minutes and then as the Cowboys are prone to do they allowed him several long completions in desperation mode at the absolute end of the game which allowed the Giants a chance just to get to overtime. Thats not the way you want your quarterback (or your team) to play.

Ideally you want consistency all game long allowing your team to convert third downs so as to keep your defense off the field and therefore "shorten the game" for the opposing teams offense which will have less time to try and score. There are a lot of desperation comebacks which admittedly are exciting but are not usually the hallmark of great teams. Great teams and quarterbacks dominate most games start to finish. That being said the Giants are better this year than last but thats like comparing a juicy steak to a turd sandwich.

As for Elis' 12/31 performance, its a good thing Tiki had the best game of his career because completing 38.7% of your passes will rarely ever get you in the W column. Sorry to be a downer on your boy but he has a long way to go to prove he was worth what the Giants gave up. He's got potential, lets leave it at that for now.

 

[spin]

HonestAbe,

Nice to meet a fellow Cowboy fan, I think they look pretty good (they could easily be 7-1). We need a quarterback though, don't get me wrong I have always been a fan of Bledsoe, but when Parcells is gone Drew will be too.

I agree with you about the Giants game a few weeks ago, Eli was terrible for most of the game. He is (ELI) starting to make me nervous though - there are times when he looks very very good.

This weeks picks:

Patriots over the Colts
Cincinnati over Baltimore
Detroit over Minnesota
Chicago over New Orleans
Giants over San Fran
Washington over Philly

Miami over Virginia Tech.

 

[HonestAbe]

HonestAbe,

Nice to meet a fellow Cowboy fan, I think they look pretty good (they could easily be 7-1). We need a quarterback though, don't get me wrong I have always been a fan of Bledsoe, but when Parcells is gone Drew will be too.

I agree with you about the Giants game a few weeks ago, Eli was terrible for most of the game. He is (ELI) starting to make me nervous though - there are times when he looks very very good.

This weeks picks:

Patriots over the Colts

Miami over Virginia Tech.

Patriots over Colts???? You really must be a Cowboy fan cause you have to have guts to make that prediction! Go Boys!

 

[spin]

Patriots over Colts???? You really must be a Cowboy fan cause you have to have guts to make that prediction! Go Boys!

Well the Colts and Peyton are (in my opinion) a VERY overrated 7-0, they have only beat 1 team so far that is over .500 (Jacksonville 4-3) and Peyton doesn't like to be cold...

Go Boys!

 

[Nugie]

Eli's still a better leader, overall, then many of the other QBs currently playing in the league.

Big Blue's offense has enough options to pick on the weak link: Put your corner on Shockey and they throw to whoever is in the backfield. Double Burress and they throw crossing routes and ins. Aggressive, blitzing D's will get a big dosage of running.

Keep in mind that even WITHOUT Tiki's two big runs, the Giants still would have had a decent ground game. Washington's D threw the safeties on the receivers and linebackers were pressuring Eli... that led to run holes to take advantage of.

I'm not ready to annoint Eli either, but he's good enough to force defenses to play honest. No one wants to get burned by the big play, but if the line and the running backs are good enough to consistently give you 3rd and short, you're going to see time differentials like you saw in the Washington game.

 

[HonestAbe]

Peyton doesn't like to be cold...

Go Boys!

That is true, Peyton does like climate control. However, I don't think there is a Noreaster in the cards to pull the Pats' fat out of the fire this time. As a matter of fact it has been unseasonably warm here for the past week. I believe the Colts are tired of playing second fiddle to New England and this game will get very ugly, very quick. This will be a statement game for Peyton Manning one way or another, he will either go out this week and take out a careers worth of frustration on the Pats or he will typecast himself and his team as pretenders. From what I have seen over the past several years the Colts were nipping at the Pats heels and if there was ever a time where a dynasty was ripe for the picking it is the Pats right now. The only way the Colts lose this game is if they turn the ball over multiple times deep in their own territory and the Pats capitalize each time.

Consider the Pats are only 4-3, like Jacksonville whom you mentioned before. The Pats defense is decimated and Teddy Bruschi is not going to turn that around by himself. In addition the Colts defense is remarkedly better than previous years. I'm looking at the Colts by 21 and a stunned crowd which will be filing out of Gillette early in the fourth quarter. If I'm right and the Pats get crushed it will signify the end of their run of Championships as they will not recover from such a loss and be able to get a first round bye in the playoffs which means they will likely lose in the second round on the road, perhaps by a similar lopsided margin at Indy.

 

[HonestAbe]

Whoaaa Dude! Jumping the gun just a little bit.

Eli outclasses Warner hands down.

You mean Kurt Warner while with the Giants, right? No comparison with Kurt Warner of the Rams and to be honest it isn't really fair to compare him on the Giants either. Warner was never really bought into in NY despite the fact that he did a fairly good job as far as his performance was concerned(when he wasn't injured), the rest of the team blew quite well. For what they gave up for Eli, Warner was doomed in NY from the start, you just don't give up what the Giants gave up to get Eli and pay him the kind of money they are paying him and then let him sit for any extended period of time.

Kurt Warner was bagging groceries just a year before his break in the NFL and he took the league by absolute storm. That Rams championship team scored more touchdowns than Tiki Barbers' fumbles and Kerry Collins INT's combined, thats a lot of touchdowns. To say you aren't looking at the Cowboys game alone makes me wonder if your talking about college games since Eli has less than one season of starts under his belt, to say he outclasses a former MVP, Super Bowl champion like Kurt Warner "hands down" doesn't pass the laugh test.

I watch the Giants too, because I have no choice, since they play the Cowboys and are the "local" team when the Pats' aren't playing. Once again, I see potential in Eli but his performance thus far has NOT convinced objective NFL fans of any level of "greatness." Give the kid a chance before you put a crown on his head, I know this is hard for Giants fans since for Eli to turn out to be mediocre or never win a championship will mean another decade and a half of Post Parcells' futility. However the only championship you can crown him with at this time is "Hype." Maybe "Selfish prima donna athlete of the year" last year as well.

 

[Nugie]

However the only championship you can crown him with at this time is "Hype." Maybe "Selfish prima donna athlete of the year" last year as well.

I think Kellen Winslow wins the award for "Hype". Or maybe Tim Couch.

I don't think anyone would argue the fact that if Eli had indeed gone to SD, right now, he would still be sitting on the bench. So, while I don't exactly agree with the way he went about things, I do understand where he was coming from.

As far as "Selfish prima donna"... do I *really* need to bring up T.O.?

And, although I don't want to get into a big drug usage thing, there's Mr. "I'd rather smoke pot then fulfill my multimillion dollar obligations that I've contractually agreed to."

Abe, I know you're a Cowboys fan. I respect that. I respect ANYONE that is a fan of the NFC East. There was that one stretch of 11 or 12 years where the 'boys, 'skins, and G-men each won the Super Bowl twice. I'm thrilled about the resurgence of the toughest division in football. Now, stop responding to this bickering about Eli and start your Week 9 thread already!