The Mighty American Football Thread
 

My beloved Texans are 10-1, and can clinch a playoff spot with a win this Sunday.

So exciting! After a decade of mediocre to terrible teams, this year's team is fulfilling the promise of last year's playoff team.

Go Texans!

as a chargers fan, i've stopped watching long ago. but congrats to you rob!

The Chargers are indeed a sad bunch o dudes.

why are Saint Doug teams always so weaknut? Is it because the weather is too nice for them to focus on practice?

Go Falcons or go home! By the way Rob, you're welcome ;)

I give thanks to Hot-Lanta for Matty Schaub!!!

While Schaub is unarguably a top-tier QB, he clearly wasn't clicking well with the Falcons and so since we used that trade to help get Matt Ryan we must mutually tip our hats in y'all direction.

By the way, Falcons are my NFC team, I hedge my bets in two leagues and so my AFC team...




is the Ravens. See y'all in the play-offs ;)

san diego teams are just cursed. the curse of the whale's vagina i suppose. ive accepted it. its our way to keep away bandwagoners and glory

haha! definitely no bandwagoneers there ;)


PS.. I used to be a sick Raider fan too

Jerry Rice picks the Houston motherfucking Texans to meet against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.


That would be a hard hitting Super Bowl!

Sorry, Rob I'd say there is only room for one Cinderella at this upcoming dance, and the Texans ain't quite it yet. Enjoy this head-busting year, y'all have arrived towards the top-tier, especially as the other AFC powerhouses creep towards decline. I dare say teams like Texans and Bengals are the future of the AFC, just like Falcons and Niners are the future of the NFC.

My Bowl prediction?

Ninerz-Broncos (and I HATE Peyton but for real, those dudes almost got there under Tim Tebow, let alone the way they've been playing lately, and the Niners, well shit, they just discovered they have TWO fantastic QBs)

AFC Conference game = Broncos-Ravens
NFC Conference game = Ninerz - Packers

With only our THIRD win against the Saints in the past 5 seasons.. we needed it! Those Saints are getting to rambunctious, in the past 45 years Atlanta leads over New Orleans by ten games, and we've dominated them every decade except since Drew Brees came to town.. Now they think their hot shit calling us their little brother? Meh ..

I know. Its one thing for dudes on the Chiefs to have been killing their season at 1-10, but its another entirely for a dude on the Chiefs to kill his girlfriend and then self. Lord have His mercy!

What the fuck? I'm struggling to understand this graphic. Admittedly, I'm not a pro football fan, as I said, but this appears to be either a ninja turtle or a Predator- Based "Raider" being grinned at by either a Plastic Man or (possibly) Alien-based "Charger." Can someone clear this up for me, because I am actually finding it quite an unsettling image with no context to help me process it.

Why isn't the Raider a Pirate? What in the hell does Predator (or a ninja turtle?) have to do with the Raiders?

After tonight I am a bit more shaky about my Ravens, but looking at the overall season, as well as the past two or three, and yes, I think Ravens can do it. If anything, getting a third or fourth seed might help because it will put them against Colts or Bengals but at Baltimore. A win could have really helped and it was almost expected, but hey, that is Ravens football. I still think Ninerz-Broncos are looking better and better for the Superbowl, but my Conference matchups might be evolving.. Texans are good, but Broncos almost made it there without Petyon Manning putting up career numbers for them so I hate to admit but, but Denver I think is best in AFC. Further, the Ninerz are the most rounded NFC team, so they could easily beat my Falcons, the Packers, the Bears, or the Giants.

Are the Dolphins any good, now? They've been my default NFL team since the 80s, when they first started showing it on tv here but they seem to have been on a downward spiral ever since.

My beloved and Mighty Texans are 11-1. Incredible

Even the run n shoot Oilers under hall of famer Warren Moon never got that good!

That was a straight up asswhuppin of the Titans.

The 49ers lost. ha! The Ravens lost! ha! MNF next week against the Patriots! Gonna show the nation what an asswhuppin looks like!

Careful there Rob. Remember when my Falcons were 12-1 and finished 13-3 as a favored upset for the Superbowl? What happened? Oh right, the Packers. Speaking of Packers, what were they last yea? Oh right, 15-1. What happened? Yeah, the Giants. So this year be careful. The best teams in the season are NOT the teams that go on to win it all in the post-season.

suchfriends, don't try and confuse me with your liberal biblicisms

;)

Bill Simmons had me laughing my ass off at my dream Superbowl if it both my teams, the Falcons and Ravens were to meet. He called it the indecisive Superbowl


It really could last several days of back and forth moments of sheer brilliance blended with overall mediocrity. Sounds like Atlanta or Baltimore football to me ;)

RG3 is this year's Lin Tebow

Nonsense. Texans are still solidly contending for the second if not first seed in the AFC. In truth Atlanta has more of that feeling, but even for my Falcons, we got a solid chance at the first seed. Texans are climbing the ladder at a steady pace, and their year will come soon enough. I sense a regime change in the coming seasons where the 2008 class will begin to mature towards the Superbowl.

But that is the NFL. Mid-November through December is when the REAL season begins. Teams with a soft schedule start facing more difficult opponents, and those teams which were slumping to get into rhythm in the beginning really pick up steam and even can steamroll over other really good teams. For example the Broncos and Colts are exploding, at a time when the Ravens and Falcons are slipping. In September it was the opposite, Ravens and Falcons were eating good teams for breakfast and Broncos had noodle arm version of Peyton instead of this TD scoring beast in orange playing now. The real season is in December, and the real post-season is at the Conference games.

My prediction still stands..

I would have had Broncos-Niners until Harbaugh dissed a more veteran Alex Smith for a flavor of the month which I predict will be disastrous come the play-offs. I now say its is Broncos- *sigh* Packers

NFC Conference will be

Giants-Packers

AFC Conference will be

Broncos-Patriots

The Patriots will have again beat Baltimore and the Broncos will vanquish the over-achieving Texans, and the Packers will crush the cocky Ninerz while the Giants will throw miracle pass after miracle pass to dish out the Falcon's first loss in the Conference Game after getting their first win in the Smith-Ryan era in the Divisional series...

Rob. After a weird mid-season Nick Cage John Travolta Face Off kind of switch, the Texans and Ravens are looking back like their old selves. Baltimore was slipping so bad they looked like they might not make the play-offs, and Houston was rising so fast they looked like they could win it all. Now that reality has set back in, I stand by my original post-season predictions:

Ravens will play the Texans, and will win that game. Ravens will then go on to lose to the Broncos in the AFC Conference Game. Broncos will go to the Superbowl. As to the NFC, I originally had the Ninerz as a Superbowl contender, but that was with Alex Smith's methodical, small pass with great running Westcoast offense. With Kaepernick making such riskier plays and his inexperience at playing in high-level games, Ninerz will choke in the Divisional Game against the Falcons and interestingly, I hate to even jinx it, but it looks like Atlanta could seriously dance their way to the Superbowl this year.

I have then two scenarios for the NFC, but my AFC predictions remain firm.

AFC=

Houston-Baltimore for the Divisional.
New England-Denver for the Divisional.

Baltimore-Denver for the AFC Championship

Broncos to the Superbowl.

NFC:

Ninerz-Falcons in the Divisional.
Packers-Seattle in the Divisional.

Falcons-Packers in the NFC Championship.

Falcons to the Superbowl to meet the Broncos in New Orleans.

The real question is, who the fuck wins it all?

If there is any readjustment to this list, I'd say that Falcons could lose to the Packers at the NFC game and it could be Packers-Broncos. Either way, *sigh* I think Peyton is a sure bet to get that far. After all, the Broncos ALMOST made it that way with Tim Tebow, I can only imagine what they can do with a truly elite QB. Further, Falcons really had our chances, our consolation prize is that all of our Smith-Ryan era play-off loses have been to the teams that won it all, so its not like ANYONE beat the Packers or the Giants in the play-offs, and the year we loss to the Cards was Ryan's rookie year and Arizona made it the Bowl so they also almost went undefeated. I think this can be our year now that the offense trusts Matty Ice with the ball to throw it deep when it counts.

that was a great game. Bengals defense established them as an AFC North team of the future with both Steelers and Ravens declining, and Houston gets to advance for the second consecutive season. Everybody wins. Even if Vikings lose tonight, they were 3 win team last season, just making the playoffs is good enough. Hope my Ravens can do it tomorrow. As to Falcons, we're looking like we got to face the Seahawks. Damn. Who the fuck wants to play them? Their like the Memphis Grizzlies of football!

Oh, its not the Colts I'm worried about, its the Patriots or Broncos or whoever in the NFC we'd have to face even if we made it to the Superbowl ;)

Seattle scares me for my Falcons sake. As to the Bengals defense, they shutdown Houston to only 19 points, kept is as a 1 possession game, and managed to choke out Texans to a lot of field goals and punts, I'd say their defense came through fantastically.

im trying to watch the racistnames/seahawks game and all i get is a bunch of commercials-- fuck! nonstop bullshit. SHOW MORE GAME FUCKERS. anyway, go *cough* red *cough* skins *cough* !

Football is a drinking and hanging out with people kind of sport. Lots of commercial breaks so you can kick it, and lots of great replay coverage so that you can pay in and out of attention to the game without missing anything. Redskins and Colts are tied for this years' Cinderella story, but I am hoping that Washington can do it, because to be honest, as a Falcons fan I am very scared of facing Seattle next week. They are a perfect team, sick offense that can score 50-plus and yet shut-out, smashmouth defense that don't take no shit even on the road. Falcons defense can contain Seattle, but their D will kill our offense. As to Redskins, we can take em.



The highlight for today will always be Ray Lewis' final dance in Baltimore. Truly the end of an era, I've been watching Ray Lewis eat up NFL offenses since I was in middle school yo! Wow. And he STILL had 13 bad ass tackles in his first game back in 10 games with what is usually a season ending injury (tricep tear).. Ravens may not be the best team in football, but we are the dagger which breaks the play-off hearts of many Cinderellas of the past decade, which is a consolation prize enough for Ravens fans. Full disclosure: I follow two teams in NFL, the Ravens in the AFC and the Falcons in the NFC.

I rushed home from Mass to see this game, and I was not disappointed in any way. It was the first 10Am/1pm game I've seen all season. Ray said it best, I would have changed nothing, both in this game, and in his career. Houston, we would definitely rather see you than Patriots, it will be a pleasure.

As to the Seahawks, they earned it this season, so for my Falcons, now we got to earn ourz next week.

yeah, i was trying to catch a break from work and it fucked me up.

plus, the skins lost. bah!

I am very excited. Great slate of games this past weekend. Wild card and the first divisional round (next week) are my favorite football weekends of the year.

Did you see the JOY in Arian Foster's face when he got that last first down to ice the game against the Bengals? awesome to see. 140 yards against a tough tough D. The Bengals are gonna be very good for years to come. The Bulls on parade messed up the Bengals Offense though. If it wasn't for that pick-6 by Schaub (who worries me as he looks like he may be injured and they are not telling us. he is missing the ooomph on his throws he had a month ago,) the game would have been a blow out. The Texans SHOULD have won that game like 32-6.

The Pack did what the Pack does. Aaron Rodgers is a great QB. Jennthebenn roots for Minnesota I think, so she must have been upset.

Yesterday's games were great too. I hate the Colts, so fuck them and good one to the Ravens. (andrew luck is the real deal though)
I have always liked the Ravens and Ed Reed is one of my all-time fave players. It was great to watch ray Lewis go to town.

The Redskins looked like they had the game in hand early, but the Seahawks adjust on defense better than almost anyone. Monster game for the hawks. Their rook QB is a FREAk, did you see him haul ass sprinting to go and make blocks for Marshawn "The Monster" Lynch? I always like the chaotic way Lynch runs the ball. he hurts defenders.

RGIII getting hurt again really cost the skins. If he or the skins are not careful RGIII may not last more than one or two more seasons.

Now, the real test begins. Tom Brady and Bill "win by all means, including cheating" Bellicheck have had 2 weeks to prepare for the Texans. Field Goals are not gonna do it against the Pats. I yelled at Kubiak to go for it on 4th down a couple of times. You gotta play to win. You see the Pack , go for it early, while ahead, on 4th down and just drive a stake through the hearts of Minnesota? That is ho you play to win KUBIAK!!!!!

RG3 has to learn the Dwyane Wade rule. If you are going to be an athletic freak of nature and jump and leap around all crazy throwing your body around at every singly play for the ball, inevitably you will get hurt. Michael Vick learned it. Derrick Rose learned it.

Its time for my Falcons to man up this weekend. We can beat Seattle, but they won't make it easy at all for us. Ravens, we can take Denver, but we really really really have to stay focused and play perfect football. If we lose, we can still be happy, because we got so banged up this season that it was almost a total loss. Bengals can be happy even with a loss, they have two consecutive play-off berths since 1981 and with the 6th best overall defense and Pittsburgh and Baltimore inching into decline, Bengals can be the new sleeper in the AFC. Colts and Vikings can also be ecstatic about their season, they went from 2 and 3 wins last season to the play-offs with swagger. Just when the AFC thought that Colts would stop being a threat, poor Rob. Same thing with Redskins, they haven't been in playoffs for a long time, their franchise is thoroughly revived. Overall, its been a great year for the NFL, so much so that we've all forgotten about those shitty lock-out refz (well everybody but GreenBay ;) )

U think your ravens can do it? Great game so far

Classic game! CLASSIC!!!!!!! Way to go Ravens!!! If Houston can beat the Patriots the AFC Championship will be in Houston!!!!!

I did, and we did ;)

It was one of the best Raven's games I have ever seen, we had to play our best to get over our Peyton demons, and surprisingly we did. I admit, I spent the whole week depressed and trying to relive the glory of big Ray's comeback last week, but I thought up until thursday that we were doomed. Then I looked back that the statistics, and I suddenly found a gut feeling optimism. We won it. I have a similar gut feeling about Atlanta.

Don't fuck with Colin Kapernick.

I'm glad you agree, I feel its up there for me. Harbaugh in the locker room said it was the best Ravens' game since 2000. So many up and down emotions, such intensity and yet great fucking football. For Euros who don't understand NFL, watch that game. I was literally going out of my mind for several hours!

Quote:

I believe Seattle will beat Atlanta by 17 points......

That is a strong possibility, but my gut tells me that we can turn it around.


This increasingly appears to be true.

Go Texans!!!!!

FUCK Yeah! That moment when we made the miraculous kick and the split screen caught Pete Carroll throwing his headset on the ground saying, "Fuck it!" made this the best Falcons game since Vick ran up and handed Greenbay their first play-off home game loss ever ten years ago! Mike Smith is just too blundering, I can't count how many blown opportunities Falcons have had under his watch the past five years but results are results, behind John Harbaugh's 61 wins, Mike Smith's 55 makes him the second most winning coach over the past ten years! Like the late and great Al Davis said, "Just win baby!"


What a crazy weekend, it was air it out in the Divisionals. First Flacco with the Baltimore Bomb which may just catch fame like the Hail Mary or the Immaculate Reception, then Kaepernuck exploded in the air against Packers, and not Matty Ice calmly walks on the field and throws two bombers down the field in the final 31 seconds to get in perfect field goal range. This uber-passing NFL is insane!

By the way, this is my best NFL play-offs ever, BOTH my teams advanced to the Conference games for the first time ever, and even a team I am bandwagoning did it again too! If 49erz beat my Falcons we can accept that, and if Ravens make it to Superbowl against 49erz my fantasy picks from last year will finally materialize. Either way, this was the shit!

You couldn't imagine how insane it has been for me for BOTH my teams to have clinched the NFL equivalent of the buzzer-beater! Mother of God that was beautiful football. I am glad Ravens had to grit to grind it out with confidence as if Bo Jackson was on the field. I am pumped that Falcons overcame their jitters and coaching blunders (Mike Smith, seriously, dude, WTF?!?!) and came from behind. That is our specialty. Hanging in there, driving in the final seconds, we do that. Tonight, the whole country and especially ESPN's Mike Sando are all eating a dick. Baltimore won it out the love of football, Atlanta because they are sincerely great guys who overcame all of America's hate. Most underrated 1st seed team ever. Denver had the second softest schedule and everybody praised their every move and strongly favored them for the Superbowl, even as Petyon Manning now ties Brett Farve with NFL record most playoff losses. Atlanta has an admittedly soft but still gritty schedule and everybody, I mean EVERYBODY had so much things to say about it.