2017 NFL season thread

[Erick Estrada]

Let's not overlook that Brady didn't look that great last night. He's 40 and father time can creep up very quickly. He was off on several passes that he normall completes and outside of one really good deep ball in the first half the rest of his deep balls really hung up in the air. I'm not saying for a moment that he's going to regress to junk but in his first game of this season he's already put up a performance worse than his worst performance last season. I'm just not sure that an average Brady is going to be good enough to match last season's success. The Broncos had one of the all time great defenses to carry a declining Manning and while I'm sure this defense will improve it's not close to that Broncos defense of a few years back. Don't discount the loss of Edelman as a lot of people feel he is a better route runner than Welker and some feel maybe the best ever option route runner. If anyone can figure it out I'm sure it's Belichick but he definitely has his work cut out for him this season.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I know. But I'm a conservative person. always punt and kick.

That seems to be the prevalent position to take in the NFL which is one of the reasons I find the game much less entertaining than the college game or even the CFL. Coaches are absolutely adverse to any risk whatsoever and rather than playing to win they plan not to lose. IMHO it's so they can't be hung with the result if it doesn't turn out.

Go for it in 4th and get stopped? Bad decision and shouldn't have gone for it. But punt and have the opponent drive the field and score? Well the defence didn't do their job. Same end result but the coach doesn't look like the goat.

But I see your point and understand why they play this way. I just don't like it.

[Erick Estrada]

I actually really liked them going for it the first time as it was house money with the turnover and a 14 point lead may have crushed the spirits of the Chiefs. Credit the Chiefs there for rising to the occasion. However the 2nd one bothers me as they used the exact same run that got stuffed the first time and stuffed once again. I have to think McDaniel has more than one play in his playbook for 4th and less than a yard. Also it's kind of embarrassing for an OL to get blown up twice in the same game when they only needed to get a football's length for the 1st down. Patriots really sucked in all phases of the game last night.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

That seems to be the prevalent position to take in the NFL which is one of the reasons I find the game much less entertaining than the college game or even the CFL. Coaches are absolutely adverse to any risk whatsoever and rather than playing to win they plan not to lose. IMHO it's so they can't be hung with the result if it doesn't turn out.

Go for it in 4th and get stopped? Bad decision and shouldn't have gone for it. But punt and have the opponent drive the field and score? Well the defence didn't do their job. Same end result but the coach doesn't look like the goat.

But I see your point and understand why they play this way. I just don't like it.

I would be swayed to go for it more in the 2nd half depending on the game situation. I just don't think it's ever necessary in the 1st half.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Being risk averse in the other teams half makes no sense anymore. Game is miles different than it used to be, offensive innovation and the slanting of rules towards offense gives more incentive to take risks because it's so much easier to score points than it used to be. Even with the missed fourth down in the first half the Patriots should have scored 24 points in a half. So it's not like it used to be when you "left points out there", because it's nowhere near as hard to make those points up as it used to be.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Being risk averse in the other teams half makes no sense anymore. Game is miles different than it used to be, offensive innovation and the slanting of rules towards offense gives more incentive to take risks because it's so much easier to score points than it used to be. Even with the missed fourth down in the first half the Patriots should have scored 24 points in a half. So it's not like it used to be when you "left points out there", because it's nowhere near as hard to make those points up as it used to be.

Yeah I'm of the belief that if your team has an upper tier offense and are on the opponents side of the field and have a 4th and 1 or less you should go for it almost every time. I cannot stand the mentality of punting for a net of <30 yards when the odds greatly favor the offense getting the yard it needs.

[Lubicon]

In the so called 'Maroon' Zone (too far to kick a field goal, too close to punt) which is roughly from the 30-35 to about the 45-50 it makes little sense to punt in my opinion if is it 4th and short (say 5 yards or less) for all the reasons listed .

[Displaced Flames fan]

I only watched the first half, but for the Chiefs to go up there and win like that, especially after a terrible start, is mighty impressive. The Raiders should be on notice, the Chiefs aren't going to relinquish that division title without a fight. Huge win for that organization. Should shut the Patrick Mahomes talk too. Which was silly to start with.

Damn...I thought the Broncos had a chance to be right there for the division this year if Siemian plays well. Now, I'm very concerned.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

I only watched the first half, but for the Chiefs to go up there and win like that, especially after a terrible start, is mighty impressive. The Raiders should be on notice, the Chiefs aren't going to relinquish that division title without a fight. Huge win for that organization. Should shut the Patrick Mahomes talk too. Which was silly to start with.

Damn...I thought the Broncos had a chance to be right there for the division this year if Siemian plays well. Now, I'm very concerned.

I think the division still runs through Kansas City even with the Berry injury. Reid is like Huff/DD in CFL in that year after year they always win in the regular season even if they don't in the playoffs.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I think the division still runs through Kansas City even with the Berry injury. Reid is like Huff/DD in CFL in that year after year they always win in the regular season even if they don't in the playoffs.

Reid is a great coach outside of his brutal clock management and the fact that his teams usually have discipline issues. The problem comes when he starts wanting more FO control. The guy is terrible at drafting.

[Sainters7]

Just got off the phone with Shaw...what is this nonsense about Sunday Ticket not being available in Canada anymore?? They really think that DAZN app is going to run that smoothly? I pretty much guarantee it will not. Ugh such disappointing news this morning!

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Just got off the phone with Shaw...what is this nonsense about Sunday Ticket not being available in Canada anymore?? They really think that DAZN app is going to run that smoothly? I pretty much guarantee it will not. Ugh such disappointing news this morning!

I have DAZN...I really like the app. Except for the fact I have no way to get it directly up on my old AppleTV (except for streaming it from another device) it is great.

[devo22]

DAZN is amazing, we've had it for about a year now over here. It certainly had its growing pains in the early stages but to me it's been a complete game-changer.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I think it's ok so far, content wise they still have a long way to go but the NFL is a good start, if they got Sunday Ticket maybe they can get NBA League Pass as well (Rogers obviously not giving up hockey). I'm pretty sure I remember you talking about this last year devo, but that you had things like PL as well which in Canada we don't. So we'll see what the differences ultimately end up being,

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I think it's ok so far, content wise they still have a long way to go but the NFL is a good start, if they got Sunday Ticket maybe they can get NBA League Pass as well (Rogers obviously not giving up hockey). I'm pretty sure I remember you talking about this last year devo, but that you had things like PL as well which in Canada we don't. So we'll see what the differences ultimately end up being,

yeah the focus over here is soccer for sure (Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1 etc). NFL wise it's currently 3 live games every week (Thursday, Monday and the late Sunday game) plus Redzone. Which is pretty great given there are also 2-3 additional games on German/Austrian free TV.

[Sainters7]

Ah, I'm such a tech troglodyte I thought it was new this year. That's a bit reassuring, I just don't like when things go more app-based like that, yeah I'm worried about buffering/picture quality issues and getting it on my TV screen properly. Guess we'll see how it goes..I don't like change!

[Senator Clay Davis]

Browns season starts with a couple penalties and a block punt returned for a touchdown. The more things change...

[troutman]

That's so Cleveland.

Show us something.

First down! Penalty.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Lions-Cards even better start, Palmer throws an INT, Stafford comes right back with a pick six.

[devo22]

Two drives in and Kizer has been sacked twice. Not entirely the OLs fault (definitely held on to the ball too long once), but that's not good.