Pats fans at least have a reason to be smug. 3 Super Bowl Titles, one of the all time great quarterbacks, the greatest coach ever, etc. The Jets have...Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan? See the difference?
Fixed that for you. You're treating the word 'smug' like it is synonymous with confident. It isn't. A smug person is generally regarded as being a total asshole, while a confident person isn't necessarily an asshole. The Pats fans have a reason to be confident. There is never an excuse to be a smug asshole, regardless of who you root for.
Sure, because nothing could possibly change between a late-regular season win and another game against the same team in the playoffs. As a Pats fan I bet you know all about that though.
I have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe you'd have a point if the 2008 Superbowl wasn't canceled and then never played due to that weird lockout... And if you're talking about the Ravens game where they had to end it after the lightning strike hit before Ray Rice finished that touchdown run at the beginning of the game. No idea what you're talking about... But the now Bill and Tom have locked on to the Jets, its just not gonna happen. Rex Ryan going off at the mouth saying Tom Brady doesn't study the game, oh boy. This will be a good one. Now, I wish the KC Ravens game was a better game. But if I was a show producer, and I was making TV show about a single dad with 3 daughters, who was a high functioning alcoholic, who was down on his luck and worked as a carpenter in small town Ohio, I'd cast Todd Haley. He just has that look.\ Also, really? Really? Can we really please stop with the cheating accusations. Its pretty obvious with what happened in Denver that camera guy was a total asshole that was a bad influence. (Cop out excuse #1) Also, you can't really think they were the only team that might have done that or tried it. I'm sure a few teams that were historically bad were trying that shit also. Yeah they might have gotten caught, but come on. Let it go. They still went 18-0 under heavy watch.
Are officials making more and more bad calls these days or is it something that is just talked about more because there are 500 instant replay angles?
Fans have always complained about bad calls and that's never going to change. For some reason we tend to think it's forgivable when a player makes a mistake, but it's never allowed to happen with a ref. I think the reason people have been more disappointed in recent seasons is because refs are still blowing calls even after looking at the replay (like Shiancoe's td catch against the packers) and there's been rule changes that are interpreted differently depending on the ref. How many times have we seen a hit on a QB as he releases get ruled roughing the passer in a noon game only to see to same hit be called clean during a 3 o'clock game? The nfl has been releasing video tapes to teams claiming all the confusion comes on the player's side, but it's clear the refs aren't uniformly applying these rules in practice. GO PACKERS. Y'all like this Starks kid? What was that about no running game? Yeah, I know. He probably won't repeat it next week. We just need to stop Ryan from completing 15 passes in a row, or whatever obscene number it was last time these teams played.
My take on the AFC East game is that it's gonna be a slug out. If LT is allowed to run the way he did against Indi, I hate to say it, but the Pats are gonna be in for a close one. Obviously I don't think Sanchez has what it takes to keep them in the game against Brady on a good day, but he doesn't need to. We don't know what will happen and at this point all we have to go on is past games. For all we know LT could could be the deciding factor against the Pats like Kuhn, Hillis and Rice before him. I hope to fuck that doesn't happen, but we'll see. As for the AFC North? What. A. Fucking. Bloodbath.
I am so torn about that AFC East battle. On the one hand, I fucking hate the Patriots. On the other hand, I have a friend that is a completely insufferable Jets fan. Why is she a Jets fan? Because, silly! She is from Lafayette, Indiana and went to Purdue, where Dustin Keller went! She even knows his brother! This makes her a die-hard, life-long (see: since Keller was drafted by the Jets) Jets fan, and fuck the Colts and the Bears! Every other status is either how she wants to have Mark Sanchez's dirty children (sorry, he will always be Mark "Dirty" Sanchez to me) or how Colts/Bears fans are assholes. Fuck, is she annoying recently. Seriously, the only way I'd feel good about this game is if both teams suffered so many injuries that the game was canceled and called a draw, so that whomever won the Steelers/Ravens game just goes right to the Superbowl. However, as I feel the need to pick, I'd say the Pats will beat the Jets, and the Steelers will ultimately beat the Ravens. I just don't trust Flacco in the playoffs, and I don't know why. He had a good game against the Chiefs, but that was the Chiefs. As for the NFC, the Packers winning is just another example of the Bears falling ass-backwards into the best possible situation all season. Now they get the Seahawks, and they should absolutely crush them. Then again, the Saints should've crushed them, but somehow didn't. At least the Bears get a home game, and their defense is much better than the Saints, so they won't be giving up 41 points or letting Lynch run them over like this: The Bears should beat the Seahawks, and, even though all logic says that I am completely wrong, I think the Packers will beat the Falcons. So, to sum up: AFC title game: Steelers v. Patriots NFC title game: Bears v. Packers
So Denver's interviewing John Fox today for an interview. I'm all sorts of excited. He's been my #2 choice behind Jon Gruden for McDaniels' replacement since November, back when I figured that Fox and McDaniels were both set to be fired. I've always liked Fox as a coach, and I don't think Carolina's season this year is indicative of how good he really is. On that note, there are also rumors Denver will abandon the 3-4 and go back to the 4-3. I love it.
Damn that was a fun game, but these close games the last two weeks between the Badgers and Packers are giving me gray hairs. And Starks is just electric when he touches the ball. Glad to see McCarthy stick with him when he realized it was working.
To hypocritically apply what Jets22 said about my Patriots, I'd be worried if I was the Bears. They already lost to the Seahawks in the regular seasons, and its the Playoffs where anything can happen. Coming off beating last years Superbowl team? This game might be closer than everyone wants it to be.
What a whacked out weekend of ball. I watched the Seachickens knock The Saints out. Huh? The Jets are still in. Wha? The Packers, (although they should have fucking blitzed more wtf?did they not see the game last weekend that shut Vick down?) knocked The Eagles out. I had my doubts. I will say, even though they won they (Rodgers specifically) seemed really slow and sluggish, like he didn't feel good or something. Better be shaking that off. God I love football. The playoffs are like the cherry on top. Then it ends. Then I cry in my screwdriver. Sad.
Postseason Win Percentages - Since 2005 W-L Win pct NFC West 9-5 .643 AFC North 10-6 .625 AFC East 8-7 .533 NFC South 6-7 .462 NFC East 9-11 .450 AFC South 7-9 .438 NFC North 4-6 .400 AFC West 4-6 .400 Just sayin'.
Oh yeah dude, the NFC west has been way underrated for some time now. In fact, I'd say the only reason the division winner was 7-9 is because in-division competition is so tough. Let's go super bowl wins by division too. When was the last time an NFC West team won one? People say the NFC west is terrible because it is the worst division in football. They're not talking about 5 years ago when the seahawks were the class of the NFC.
As much as I want the Jets to win this game, I just don't see it happening. The most recent debacle was way more representative of the current state of affairs than what we saw in Week 2, and the Jets just don't have the personnel to control Brady. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they handled Manning without much of a blitz, but Brady and co. are a different animal (4 wins more just as a starting point). I think Rex will squeeze every ounce of sweat out of the team, but a rested Pats team that has been in overdrive for the past who the fuck knows how many weeks is going to be too much to handle. Regardless, very entertaining up and down season for the Jets, and 2 straight trips to at least the division round is a lot more than most teams get. So after I drink a quart of scotch following what I think will be a Jets defeat, I'll feel decent about the body of work Rex has done over the past two years (independent of what he predicted). And I'm going with the Ravens on the road: Pats Ravens Falcons Bears