I'm happy I'm not a betting man, because I'd be down 2 bets. Indy has been the luckiest team all season, it is about time they had snake eyes. (I realize they've been injured, but so many of their wins have been so bloody lucky.)
double post, but question. When Baltimore wins tomorrow, that means SD goes to Pit and Bal goes to Ten, because of the seeding? (please be so)
This is my first time seeing so many teams in danger of having their games being blacked out. I know that every city has their version of the gallery furniture guy who will bail them out by buying those tickets, but it is still amazing to see. I wanted to see a manning and little manning showdown, oh well.
they have been calling defensive holding much more this year. you can also be called for intentional grounding if there is a receiver close by. they called one on schaub against tennessee when it was obvious that he wasn't trying to throw it to the receiver, just right to the ground. san diego had home field because the nfl does not have a balanced schedule like the nba has. any other questions? i'm just waiting on the cat's rant against the ot rules.
The Colts were one of my super bowl picks, damn you Manning. Well I hope my other pick the Eagles make it.
I was logging on to remind people of that. I'm glad San Diego won, as everyone here knows how I feel about the Colts. But that's an awful, terrible way to end the season for them — on a flip of the coin. The arguments in favor of it are laughable. Madden made two last night: 1.) It's been that way forever. Great thinking, John. Why don't we go back and live the same lives people did a century ago? After all, they have "tradition" and clearly if something's being done, that means it's right. No one ever makes mistakes. 2.) The game's not over — you just have to go out and play defense. This argument would be valid if you could win the game by getting a defensive stop. Unfortunately, you can't. You then have to go down and score, in addition to it. So, one team has to excel on both defense and offense, while the other just on offense. There's something wrong with that equation. Yes, I know the college system has flaws, too. No system will be perfect. But there has to be a better system, after 60 grueling minutes of playoff football, to potentially determining the season of two teams than one that puts enormous weight on a flip of the coin. It's sad. On the more positive side, the Colts are done...
In this Baltimore game, they just picked up a flag for illegal contact (I assume between a defensive back and WR) because the QB was out of the pocket. I've seen this several times in the last month or so, but never really noticed it before. So it is legal for defensive backs to hit WRs if the QB is out of the pocket? Would it be OK, as soon as the QB left the pocket, for all the defensive backs to just tackle all the receivers?
i think tackling would be considered holding and i don't think you can do that at any time unless you're actually tackling the ball carrier.
Good point - I was linking defensive holding and illegal contact. Could they just level receivers with a forearm or just a big shove to knock them to the ground? I guess that might be harder to do than say, but it seems like a tactic that defensive backs would try to use in any kind of QB roll out/scramble situation. On that note, I've never understood why d-backs don't do that at the line of scrimmage on bump and run coverage.
Jim Nantz and Phil Simms have to be the most boring combination of announcers on the planet. I don't know why the don't let Kevin Harlan or even Gus Johnson do big games...they are so much more exciting. Is Greg Gumbel still doing PBP? I don't recall having heard him this season.
that's all the more reason to not get home field advantage. if the team with the better record couldn't even win their division and the team with the worse record did win their division, then we know which is the better division. and since both schedules are imbalanced to where they play their own division more, then the team with the better record is even more deserving of home field.
That might be the case this year, but not always. A division that plays the NFC West and the AFC West in a given year is going to have much better records than a division that had to play the NFC South and the AFC North, for example. The NFC West went 10-30 against the rest of the NFL this year. The NFC South went 28-12 against the rest of the NFL. Not surprisingly, the AFC East - the league that had to play them - had inflated records. New England was 11-5, in part because they went 4-0 vs the NFC West. San Diego was 8-8, including 1-3 against the NFC South. Flip those two, and New England is 8-8 and San Diego is 11-5. So who's really better? Ultimately, the only records you can really compare well against each other is that within the division, because they all play the same schedule with the exception of two teams. So you reward the division winners because you know they were the best of a small group - the wildcards may or may not better than teams from other divisions with worse records. It's also more noticeable this year because the division winners were 8-8 while the wildcards were 12-4 and 11-5. In a situation where the division winner is 10-6 and the wildcard is 11-5, it's much more uncertain.
glad baltimore is gonna win. they're a better match for the titans than san diego. would love to see a baltimore/pittsburgh afc championship match.
I hope the Ravens can take it to the Titans, like they are the Dolphins. I know the Titans won the first meeting, but Flacco has greatly improved and the Titans don't look as strong as they did earlier in season.
