Official 2010-11 NFL Thread

[zenryan]

when its all said and done, the Bucs will look at the two games that they should have won versus Atlanta and they will know why they missed the playoffs.

 

 

 

 

[Balta1701]

Indy's probably gonna miss the playoffs. Wow.

With everything that they've lost to injury, and picking in the middle of the first round next year, if there is a next season, they've got a shot to be right back on top.

[iamshack]

Do the Bears want TB or ATL to win this game? If ATL wins it could essentially eliminate TB from the playoffs (which is good for the Bears). If TB wins then the Bears are tied atop the NFC at 9-3.

 

Based on the difficulty of the Bears remaining games, I think I want ATL to pull this one out.

It's really all up in the air, to be honest. This was a huge game for the Bucs, but it doesn't necessarily knock them out of anything. The Bucs have a pretty soft schedule remaining with games at Washington, then at home against Detroit and Seattle. Considering Washington is a mess, and Detroit hasn't won a road game in 2 years, and Seattle does not win games on the East Coast, especially in that early time slot, chances are the Bucs can meet the Saints on Jan 2nd for a chance to reach 11 wins.

 

The scary thing is that the Bears have tough games remaining against the Pats and Jets, a much improved Minnesota Vikings team, and of course the Packers in Green Bay. Should the Bears finish with 10 wins and in second place in the NFC North, they could get bumped out of the playoffs by the Bucs because they could potentially lose the tiebreaker against common opponents. Should the Bucs win 2 of 3 or all three games versus Washington/Seattle/Detroit, and finish tied with the Bears at 10-6, the Bucs would win the tiebreaker against us because we lost to Seattle and Washington.

 

So it's probably to the Bears' advantage that Atlanta won today, because they are going to make the playoffs regardless.

 

Still kind of far out to make many predictions at this point though...there are still a bunch of huge matchups that will determine playoff eligibility and seedings, so we really won't know a whole lot other than that the 3rd seed is going to get screwed by being forced to play a team like the Packers/Giants/Bears/Bucs, while the 5th seed will get to play the NFC West winner.

Edited December 6, 2010 by iamshack

[lostfan]

Getting tired of the postgame writeups that are acting like the Bears got "lucky" again because of that call on Suh and then all the dumbass comments that follow.

 

The Bears got the ball with 5:17 remaining, they picked up a couple first downs and ran out the clock. Forte averaged 5 yards per carry. Cutler had a 100+ QB rating. They dominated TOP and the Lions offense got shut down in the second half (3 points came off a fumble recovery where the Bears O-line predictably collapsed again, other than that nothing.)

 

Yeah they are really lucky the refs gave them 7 yards in a non-first down situation on a drive where they were probably going to score anyway.

[Brian]

Nobody can really tell me for sure the Bears wouldn't of scored on that drive, penalty or not.

[bigruss]

A friend of mine who is a Lions fan wont stop complaining about either game vs. the Bears.

 

Stop complaining about the refs and start complaining about how your team can't hold a lead.

[StrangeSox]

Getting tired of the postgame writeups that are acting like the Bears got "lucky" again because of that call on Suh and then all the dumbass comments that follow.

 

The Bears got the ball with 5:17 remaining, they picked up a couple first downs and ran out the clock. Forte averaged 5 yards per carry. Cutler had a 100+ QB rating. They dominated TOP and the Lions offense got shut down in the second half (3 points came off a fumble recovery where the Bears O-line predictably collapsed again, other than that nothing.)

 

Yeah they are really lucky the refs gave them 7 yards in a non-first down situation on a drive where they were probably going to score anyway.

 

The NBC score scroll at the bottom of the screen mentioned the Bears being "helped" by a controversial call again.

 

It was a close call on a bad hit and it didn't change the outcome of any play or drive. It gave the Bears an extra 7 yards. Ridiculous.

[iamshack]

The NBC score scroll at the bottom of the screen mentioned the Bears being "helped" by a controversial call again.

 

It was a close call on a bad hit and it didn't change the outcome of any play or drive. It gave the Bears an extra 7 yards. Ridiculous.

And yet, I didn't see them making any comments when the Cowboys benefitted from numerous bad calls against the Lions two weeks ago, namely one play where they called a horse collar on the Lions for tackling Marion Barber by his hair, which is perfectly legal.

 

Seems like the media simply does not want to give much credit to the Bears.

[Kyyle23]

I don't see how it really helped when the play was on a 1st and 10 on the Detroit 22. It wasn't like we weren't gonna score or something. Plus, when the ball came loose, that wouldn't have been a fumble.

 

ESPN just looking for storylines, as always.

 

Cutler fumbled the ball after Suh hit him? i dont remember that

[iamshack]

Cutler fumbled the ball after Suh hit him? i dont remember that

It came out well after he was down. It was never ruled a fumble on the play.

[lostfan]

Worst case scenario there was probably a field goal to tie the game and the Bears would've probably won in OT (Lions offense didn't do anything in the second half, that team can't close out games, they had 3 points off a fumble recovery when the Bears' O-line collapsed immediately). It would've been 2nd and 2 from the 14. The very next pass was a TD, so there's your first down, and it's 1st and goal from the 7 again (at least). So maybe the drive stalls out and they kick a FG (doubtful, Cutler was 10-10), maybe it just takes another play or two to score (probably) or maybe it's a rushing TD and it means Cutler's QB rating is about 93 instead of 117. Whatever.

[StrangeSox]

Cutler fumbled the ball after Suh hit him? i dont remember that

 

The ball came out when Cutler hit the ground. It looked like a fumble maybe at first look to me but it was clearly not a fumble on review, and was never called one on the field.

[Kyyle23]

i just remember wincing when cutlers face bounced off the turf

[SoxAce]

i just remember wincing when cutlers face bounced off the turf

 

I thought that had concussion written all over it.

[WilliamTell]

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_/id...ars-24-lions-20

 

Watch the recap on the bottom of this post. . . a fan clearly gives "the shocker" right in front of the camera during Manumaleuna's TD catch. Pretty funny.

 

lol good laugh.

[lostfan]

Watching the end of this Steelers-Ravens game... Flacco has a clean pocket, a guy open on 4th down, and just bounces it off the ground. Flacco is a decent QB but I think he's really overrated.

[iamshack]

Watching the end of this Steelers-Ravens game... Flacco has a clean pocket, a guy open on 4th down, and just bounces it off the ground. Flacco is a decent QB but I think he's really overrated.

I dunno if he expected Dixon to come inside instead of outside or what, but yeah, just a weak throw. The Ravens' offense has not lived up to anywhere near the hype this year, considering they added Boldin and Housh...

[lostfan]

I dunno if he expected Dixon to come inside instead of outside or what, but yeah, just a weak throw. The Ravens' offense has not lived up to anywhere near the hype this year, considering they added Boldin and Housh...

Flacco has a decent stat line though and usually he's no worse than above average (except for one awful game he had this year). But he still seems like one level above "pedestrian" to me.

[iamshack]

Flacco has a decent stat line though and usually he's no worse than above average (except for one awful game he had this year). But he still seems like one level above "pedestrian" to me.

I think the early success he experienced led many to believe he would develop into an elite qb. However, it seems to me as though he is probably more in the "above-average" tier than anything.

 

The other thing is that many quarterbacks are products of the systems they are in. I wonder if he would develop more if he was put into a more aggressive offense that didn't have the luxury of relying on the defense and running game as much...

[T R U]

Watching the end of this Steelers-Ravens game... Flacco has a clean pocket, a guy open on 4th down, and just bounces it off the ground. Flacco is a decent QB but I think he's really overrated.

 

Highest QB rating in the league since week 5 going into Sunday nights game.. Ide say better than decent, but overrated maybe a little

[iamshack]

Highest QB rating in the league since week 5 going into Sunday nights game.. Ide say better than decent, but overrated maybe a little

QB rating very much favors a quarterback on a good team though. It penalizes so much for interceptions, which tend to happen a lot more often when you're behind in games, which the Ravens are not very often.

[Kyyle23]

Heath Miller is lucky his neck isnt broken. That hit from Carr was ugly, he bent the wrong way

[LittleHurt05]

when its all said and done, the Bucs will look at the two games that they should have won versus Atlanta and they will know why they missed the playoffs.

 

At least they looked good doing it. Those old school unis are awesome.

[iamshack]

At least they looked good doing it. Those old school unis are awesome.

They are some of my favorites amongst all of the retro unis, right up there with the old Denver Nuggets uniforms and the old Houston Astros uniforms from the 80's.

[Dick Allen]

Lovie Smith has a higher winning pct. as an NFL head coach than Mike Ditka.