So, what have we learned? - NFL Week 3

Joe Public

Joe Public

Gabibbo's Finest
Ah, Teaser Killer Week, how I've missed you.

And when I say I've missed you what I really mean is GO FUCKING DIE IN A FUCKING FIRE, TEASER KILLER WEEK.

What did I learn in the NFL today ... Well, I did what I never try to do and that's bet against one of my own teams. I try not to do this because when I do exactly what happened today tends to happen.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the Cleveland Football Browns got their first win of the season. And I'm glad that they may have a QB, but it's kind of impossible to really tell that. They put in a third string guy who teams have no tape of and he spends the day throwing up the ball and letting Josh Gordon & Jordan Cameron run under it. Does that make him any good? Who the hell knows.

It does make him better than Brandon Weeden and he sure does look like the second coming of Kelly Holcomb, but Minnesota's secondary was embarrassing today. It was also nice as a Browns fan to watch the game and think, 'Man, our passing game looks great, now if only we had a running—oh, right.'

What I learned about the Vikings. God they are a mess. And they have talent. They just, well, suck. You can't let a third string QB come into your house, when you're 0-2, and put up 30 on you. No way.

After really watching Ponder, I'm not crazy about him either. Which is something I'm sure you all will tell me I'm a year and a half late on, but whatever. I think you can give a guy some time to find his sea legs. Watching him now I'm not sure he'll ever get there. He seems like a really good backup. You know, like Kelly Holcomb.

Oh, I forgot, I could have started this with Thursday night.

1. The Eagles' defense is awful. They'll have games where they figure it out, get like six sacks and let the offense put up 30+. But mostly, as unrepresentative of how teams really play as I think Thursday night games are, I think Thursday night is about what you should expect from them. Everybody not named the Jacksonville Jaguars should really put up 24 on the Eagles.

2. When they don't turn the ball over, the Eagles' offense should be good for 20+ a game.

3. This was really the first time I saw Kansas City for a whole game and I like their speed. Really across the board, I was impressed by it. That's going to be underestimated, I think. That and Smith looks like a pretty solid system QB. Though Andy has a good track record of making guys look like good system QBs.

I don't care that GB lost, I still like 'em. I didn't see how it ended, but I did see how they lost the lead. That isn't going to happen every week. There were eight combined turnovers in that game. No way to cap that.

Give a ton of credit to Cincy, though. They're now 2-1 and back on the track everybody wanted to put them on out of the gate. And you have to love their rookie RB. Love him, I say.

In Washington, can we now officially say the Skins' defense is awful? Nobody has scored less on them so far than the Lions—and the Lions put 27 on them in DC.

Granted, I only saw little bits of this game, but I feel like it played out about as expected. Reading about it, it essentially looks like the Redskins basically shot themselves in the foot with their chances to win. Which is fitting considering that Detroit hasn't been able to beat Washington in DC since the War of 1812.

In NE, I'm still not sold on the Pats, but I feel like the only reason Tampa's season didn't just end today is because there are so many 1-2 teams in the conference. They're now three back on NO, with a head to head loss to them. It's nice that they come home for Arizona, but I wouldn't be surprised if they came out of their bye and went into a tailspin.

Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if the Lambchops do the same at about the same time. St. Louis gets SF (at home on Thurs.) and then they mercifully get Jax, but then they go to Houston and go to Carolina before playing Seattle. Good luck with that.

Good job by Dallas taking care of business against a bad team today. The box score seems to back up everything we've been complaining about in this forum with regard to them for two seasons now. DeMarco Murray runs the ball 26 times, gets 175 yards and they win by 20+. Run the football, Dallas, you'll win more games.

Or you could just play the Rams every week. But the NFL has rules against that shit.

Two teams that I'm putting in the same bucket are the Steez and the Giants. Now, the Steelers may not be as bad as the Giants, but it's time for both these teams to admit they're rebuilding this year. No shame in it, the Browns have been rebuilding since 1999.

I hate to say this, because it will mean everything I thought I learned in Week One about this team is wrong, but is Miami good?

I mean, not great, but like 9-7, 10-6 good? This was a tough spot for Atlanta on the road with all those injuries last week, but, um, Miami is 3-0. Help?

Speaking of bad spots, Houston had been threatening to lose for two weeks, so today makes sense really no matter who they played. But it makes more sense if you look at the fact that the Ravens ran back a punt and an INT for TDs. Take those away and Balty probably still wins, but the score is probably more indicative of the game.

Going forward, I still have more faith in Houston than I do in Baltimore.

That I didn't bet the over in NY today on principle was just a failure on my part. I said I'd bet overs with Buffalo almost blind and didn't. Ugh. But for both the Jets and the Panthers this was one of those nice spots. Banged up teams with big holes coming into your house. I still think Buffalo is good for these.

I have no words for Indy/SF. I only saw the first quarter, but, um ... WTF?

Couldn't Indy have done this last week? Whatever.

Seattle's good, Jax isn't.

New Orleans is average, Carson Palmer is below average and owes me a good 20+ points he didn't bring with him on the plane to the big easy.

Tennessee is flying under the radar. They feel like KC to me. Maybe the bubble pops, but they seem like they're playing harder and better than anybody wants to talk about since they're not SF, GB, etc.

All that, and the Bears are beating the Steez. Like you figured.

But tell me what else you figured, Joe lost most of his bets today so he needs all the help he can get.

=)
 
Going forward, I still have more faith in Houston than I do in Baltimore

Good post as always Joe. But I don't know about Houston. They haven't come close to playing a solid game of football yet. They well and truly should be 0-3. Seattle and San Fran next? Good thing they got those wins.
 
I learned Sea found the blueprint to stopping the niners. Without Crabtree, they have no deep threats. This team is in trouble. Also learned Aldon Smith is a clown.

Congrats to Rex Ryan for taking that team to 2 - 1. Excellent coaching job.

Does Minny go to Cassell?
 
Looking at some of these running stats this week, there is either a lack of talent, or the game has completely morphed into a passing league.
 
Also learned Aldon Smith is a clown.

This is something that drives me nuts about the NFL. It's the perfect example of how the rules are different for guys who make millions.

The guy blows a .15 at 7AM and his boss is like, 'Fuck that shit, this guy's a starter.' Nice message, asshole.

If he'd have hit someone would he just have had to sit out the first series?

Also, how drunk were you if you're still blowing a .15 at 7AM? What were you at 5AM when you were still drinking? But, of course this is the NFL so we just pretend like it never happened.
 
But I don't know about Houston. They haven't come close to playing a solid game of football yet. They well and truly should be 0-3. Seattle and San Fran next? Good thing they got those wins.

Thanks, Cap. And this is a good point. Their schedule is a killer.

That said, they're talented and relatively healthy. Even if they drop a couple of these games, so long as they stay healthy I like them long-term mostly because they're really talented and that talent knows how to play with each other.

Which is different than playing with themselves.
 
the sf faggy whiners are overrated, please see my post in what we learned from week 2...nfc west winner determined already
 
Joe Public said:
Also learned Aldon Smith is a clown.

This is something that drives me nuts about the NFL. It's the perfect example of how the rules are different for guys who make millions.

The guy blows a .15 at 7AM and his boss is like, 'Fuck that shit, this guy's a starter.' Nice message, asshole.

If he'd have hit someone would he just have had to sit out the first series?

Also, how drunk were you if you're still blowing a .15 at 7AM? What were you at 5AM when you were still drinking? But, of course this is the NFL so we just pretend like it never happened.
Click to expand...

When I was younger Bunch of my buddies took me out for my bday. At the end of the night at about 3:30 am, we stop and talk to one of my good friends who was an on duty cop. He was laughing his balls off how drunk I was. One of the top 5 drunkest nights of my life. He wanted to see how drunk I was, so he gave me a breathalyzer. I was certain I would blow at least a .25.

1.7

Point is, that was one of the drunkest Ive ever been (as an experienced drinker) and this guy blows a .15 at 7 am. He musta been a puddle at 3 am.
 
no love for Titans Joe?

Only because I didn't see anything but the highlight of the Locker run and the Locker throw. I think that they're in that class right now with KC of a team that's better than people think, but nobody is talking about.

You could argue their competition hasn't been that great, or that they caught them in good spots, but guess what, they get the Jets at home next weekend and really should be 3-1 come next Monday. So people can say whatever they want, meanwhile Jake Locker will be two games over .500 with games against St. Louis, Arizona, Oakland and two vs. Jax still on the schedule. At this point you could argue this team could get to seven wins without even trying hard. So ... #recognize
 
Point is, that was one of the drunkest Ive ever been (as an experienced drinker) and this guy blows a .15 at 7 am. He musta been a puddle at 3 am.

Right. Either that or he's an alcoholic. Either way it's bad. I feel like I read that he was asleep in his car when they found him. Though that may be wrong. But I mean, .15 is no .341 but it's significant.
 
Something else to remember would be that some of the same perspective applied during the first two weeks should still apply.

I just heard someone on NFLN talking about how the Niners now have to deal with their first "crisis" of the Harbaugh era. Really? A crisis? They're 1-2 with one of those loses being expected in Seattle.

This isn't to say it's all good for SF, or that big_units doesn't have a point, just that the TV machine's job isn't to help any of us become better handicappers.

It reminded me of how last year the Cardinals started 4-0 and ESPN was penciling them into the NFC Championship again. You know, right before they lost two straight, then lost Kolb, then lost seven more in a row on their way to going 5-11 and trading for Carson Palmer in the offseason. So, you know, perspective is a good thing.
 
Harbaugh hasn't been under .500 since 08.....he's a great coach but he's also insufferable prick...during adversity your tree colors tend to rise to the surface..they are without aldon smith, Michael Crabtree, and Vernon Davis very signicant pieces....Patrick Willis was also helped off late...they are going on the road vs a team they went 0-1-1 against last year and are already two games behind a team that is gonna win 12 games....Also on a short week on the road.....not sure if it's a crisis, but it's certainly a big couple days for a team that was favored to win the Super Bowl...
 
Not really a what have we learned observation, but Bengals -5 @ Cleveland next week ... was sort of expecting a 3 or 3-1/2 ... but I suck at predicting lines.
 
Joe Public said:
no love for Titans Joe?

Only because I didn't see anything but the highlight of the Locker run and the Locker throw. I think that they're in that class right now with KC of a team that's better than people think, but nobody is talking about.

You could argue their competition hasn't been that great, or that they caught them in good spots, but guess what, they get the Jets at home next weekend and really should be 3-1 come next Monday. So people can say whatever they want, meanwhile Jake Locker will be two games over .500 with games against St. Louis, Arizona, Oakland and two vs. Jax still on the schedule. At this point you could argue this team could get to seven wins without even trying hard. So ... #recognize
Click to expand...

Went to the game yesterday. Titans were on the wrong end of a few questionable calls, and still won the game. Impressed by Locker. Obviously has some athletic ability and he made some nice throws that were dropped yesterday. Philip Rivers is still a punk on the field.
 
JumpOnBoard said:
Harbaugh hasn't been under .500 since 08.....he's a great coach but he's also insufferable prick...during adversity your tree colors tend to rise to the surface..they are without aldon smith, Michael Crabtree, and Vernon Davis very signicant pieces....Patrick Willis was also helped off late...they are going on the road vs a team they went 0-1-1 against last year and are already two games behind a team that is gonna win 12 games....Also on a short week on the road.....not sure if it's a crisis, but it's certainly a big couple days for a team that was favored to win the Super Bowl...
Click to expand...

+1.
 
the Giants are the most confusing team in the NFL. Why do we always get so much Primetime love for this team? They fucking suck
 
I’ll start with the Washington game because that’s the one I watched early – Lots of talk about the defense, and sure, they aren’t good –but they played a Philly offense debuting the Chip Kelly quick draw and got torched, got lit up by Aaron Rodgers, and got beaten by Det. So as bad as their defense is – they are only part of the problem. These teams are going to score points against most defenses.

The Skins offense scored a TD in the first half with 3 minutes left when Morris ran it in from 30 yards out. So the only points they had scored on offense prior to that had been in the second half of games where their opponent was up by 3 or more TD’s. Pathetic. Rgii has 8 turnovers in 3 weeks. Those three games were against some of the more mediocre defenses in the NFL in Phi, GB, and DET. And two of those games were at home. Their offense is just as much, if not more of a concern than the defense at this point.

I suppose he’ll get one more week, but at some point you have to look at what they are doing and say – it’s time to try Cousins. Maybe Griffin isn’t healthy, maybe he is –at this point it’s irrelevant. He’s not right, and while the glass half full people are saying “Sure, but we’re only in week three” …… After next week’s road trip to Oakland 25% of the season will be in the books and the best they can hope for is to be 1-4.

I don’t know what happened in Frisco. I saw a line of +10 for an Indy team that I know is good and who only got better with the addition of Richardson and said “Indy is the sucker side, books are begging you to take the Colts.” Oh there was a sucker side alright. …..

Didn’t see the game but looking at the box score – is it time to say Geno Smith is a pretty good QB, and that maybe just maybe Rex is going to have this team going in the right direction? Talk to me here…

Another game I want to hear about is Miami. I bet them and they covered, but not in the way I would have guessed. I expected to see ATL come out and shit the bed offensively, turn the ball over a ton, and have Miami win an ugly 16-13 game, with lots of FG’s. Instead, looking at the box score ATL ran for nearly 150 and held the ball for almost 40 minutes and somehow lost? Is Miami just getting lucky as piss? If so, next week might be a good time to pay to see them wake up. They could very well be a public dog against a Saints team that is sort of getting it done under the radar right now….

Also think next week Texans are undervalued at home vs.Sea. Not sure I’ll be playing it but Sea playing in the 1 pm slot again away from home, against a team who should be able to keep Lynch fairly honest.
 
Chicago Bears - The people of Montreal called and they want their favorite coach back.

Also, many of these lines are set on a teams past reputation not their present performance. Blind cap games and forget the names. (Ex. Indy +11 against SF. Giants vs anyone)

GL
 
Offensively not too worried about Washington or RGIII. They just essentially finished their preseason with him. The coach obviously was willing to potentially sacrifice the 1st 3gms to get RGIII ready and they did. Offensively they'll be fine.

Now defensively, that's a whole nother world. The youngsters in the secondary are learning on the job, playing a lot of snaps & getting beat. Teams are picking on London Fletcher & having great success. But the biggest issue is Haslett. His schemes have been diagnosed early & effectively. He's been unable to mask deficiencies and utilize strengths. I suspect he may be fired during the bye.

If there's no improvement soon Dallas is going to blow them out after the bye
 
@ESPNStatsInfo: Last year's NFC playoff teams are 6-12 (1 over .500). Last year's AFC playoff teams are 13-4 (all over .500). AFC: 11-3 vs NFC this season.
 
Wiretowire said:
Also, many of these lines are set on a teams past reputation not their present performance. Blind cap games and forget the names.

GL
Click to expand...
This is absolutely spot on,people say not to over react to 1 game,2 games,3 games.....theres over reacting and being proactive and above the curve before eveyone gets on the train
 
@pastapadre: Somehow Aaron Rodgers still has the "Clutch" trait in Madden. 0-20 in 4Q comeback situations (trailing by 7 or less) against .500+ teams.
 
@AlbertBreer: Going back to last December's nail-biting win in Foxboro, Niners' points against in their last 9 games: 34, 42, 13, 31, 24, 34, 28, 29, 27.
 
Great points on the Niners, Jump.

Excellent stuff on your Skins, Doggy.

These two statements also really jumped out at me as really significant:
Also, many of these lines are set on a teams past reputation not their present performance. Blind cap games and forget the names.

@AlbertBreer: Going back to last December's nail-biting win in Foxboro, Niners' points against in their last 9 games: 34, 42, 13, 31, 24, 34, 28, 29, 27.
 
One other thing on Aldon Smith. The story I heard last night is that he came to the team last week and said he wanted to get help—probably the smartest thing to do when you're caught dead to rights.

At any rate, the team then felt they wanted to help the guy and were worried that throwing him out of the building to make a statement to the public would send him a mixed message and might make things worse for him. Meaning, 'Hey, you're part of the family and we totally want to support you. Now hang on a minute while we go bury you to the media to make us look better & you look like a lowlife degenerate addict.' So they played him and immediately checked him into rehab.

Now, a lot of that feels like PR spin to me, because if he were a practice squad player I think we know he'd be out on the street. That said, maybe he really was/is fucked up and that's impossible to know from the outside. Either way, at least he's going into rehab. That's something.
 
Watched a little more film:

Sounds ridiculous right now, but we are always taught to never overreact to one game. I still am not a huge proponent of the Colts. They played very very well today. They cannot execute much better than they did today. With that said, now that teams have adjusted to the Niner offense and CK has to be a pocket passer, I think it's more SF has major problems on both sides of the ball. That's my takeaway. Kudos to Indy, but much more concern about Niners long term.

St Louis supposedly was a dark horse contender this year. And after all the crap I read, KC's win over Dallas was no biggie because Dallas "sucks". Dallas does not suck and showed it again yesterday. I don't see anyone else winning that division. Very interesting matchup with the Bolts coming up.

Speaking of the Bolts, if anyone has a clue about this team and what the hell they are made of, do tell. Can't figure them out yet.
 
I hope you are right about the Skins offense Silk, but even if you give RG the benefit of the doubt and say he's rusty from not playing and these games were just preseason for him, he looks nowhere near ready for the regular season from everything I've watched. That INT he threw in the first half was just awful in every sense of the word.

Capaholic - One man's take on SD -they are still a middle of the road team. Not sure I trust them to cover big numbers at home against bad teams, but Rivers is still good enough to back them as a large dog. Aside from that I couldn't lay money on them between the sevens.

Teams I'm having trouble getting a read on:

Jets - TB gave them week one, they hung around vs. NE, and played well yesterday. Where does that leave us?

SF - Not sure what to do with them at this point. Still need to wait and see. I'm not ready to throw them in the trash yet.

Baltimore - Their defense played pretty good today, and I didn't see this score happening - especially without the services of Ray Rice.

Are the Saints still a cover at home, lose on the road team?

Who are the Dolphins?
 
we learned that losing can put a strain on any relationship...

Rodgers-confrontation.gif
 
How terrible is Jonathan Baldwin? He cant crack the niners wr group right now. Greg Roman was crowned a genius last season and even after game one when he shocked the world and made kap a pocket passer as everyone expected read options and such, he needs to reevaluate big time. The first quarter the niners run game dominated and they immediately got away from it. I think the niners are in trouble with that WR crew especially if the staff doesn't change/adapt quickly.

Also GB's defense is horrible beyond words as well.
 
If you are the jags what would you take from the niners for Cecil shorts right now? Could you steak a second for him? Would you take a third? Theoretically blackmon is your number one of the future....and let's be honest they need bodies and draft picks.....maybe more then one pick for him? 3 & 4? Just spit balling so may this may seem and be ridiculous.
 
Arod is a bitch. No wonder none of his teammates like him. He has so much scar tissue built up ever since his juco days.
 
Retburj13 said:
we learned that losing can put a strain on any relationship...

Rodgers-confrontation.gif
Click to expand...


as I recall this occurred relatively early in the game at a time when GB was ahead.....it bugged me then and i thought said a lot (something?) about potential problems in GB. Not unlike, I thought, Brady yelling at young receivers 2 weeks ago.

My view may be kinda old fashion, but some of these guys start getting heads the size of their press clippings and forgot what got them to the place they are...hard work, talent and some humility. Its good to be 'competitive', but being a jerk/prima donna in a team sport and when you are the leader of the team is a bad idea? Flows downhill and soon enough you have a dysfunctional squad?

I have "?s" because these are thoughts/ideas, not definitive answers.

Still, why is Rogers this upset at head coach that early in the game? Even if he is, why 'show it' on the side line?
 
Joe Public said:
What did I learn in the NFL today ...



Kansas City for a whole game and I like their speed. Really across the board, I was impressed by it. [check]

Give a ton of credit to Cincy, though. [check]

In NE, I'm still not sold on the Pats [check]

Good job by Dallas taking care of business against a bad team today. Run the football, Dallas, you'll win more games. [check]

I hate to say this, because it will mean everything I thought I learned in Week One about this team is wrong, but is Miami good? I mean, not great, but like 9-7, 10-6 good? Help? ['yes'; did you see their last drive? that was not a fluke]

Seattle's good, Jax isn't. [check]

Carson Palmer is below average [ check]

But tell me what else you figured [see above]

=)
Click to expand...

Loved your comments and printed them out as a reminder for next week.

I have "checked" those I particularly agree with and gave my answer to one question you posed.:shake:
 
scdoggy said:
Jets - TB gave them week one, they hung around vs. NE, and played well yesterday. Where does that leave us?
Click to expand...


I think it was a little more the Bills playing horrible than it was Jets played great. They were so boneheaded making idiotic defensive penalties that any team that could have executed would have beat them. Just so happens the Bills were inept yesterday. I do think the Jets D line is one of the best in the game, but any team that can protect enough to throw downfield on them will exploit the secondary....


Speaking of exploited secondaries, the Bills is depleted and could be in some serious trouble vs the Ravens. Justin Rogers showed once again he is the worst corner in football. I would have left his ass in Newark. McKelvin, who many wanted gone before the season, has turned into the best player in the secondary for Buffalo- the second he left the game the Bills D plummeted, and the Jets wisely spent the whole rest of the day throwing at Rogers. Searcy is raw and Leonard is too old and slow, he couldn't even provide any help. The secondary won't resemble decent until Byrd can get back in there. Whoever signs him next year is going to be happy... While I'm at it the defense as a whole is suspect as hell. They haven't improved in run D, and the loss of Alex Carrington for the season doesn't help that much.

The Bills offense as a whole played terrible, from the Offensive line (Colin Brown got owned all day), to Spiller (he just isn't an every down back), to the whole wr core that took three steps backwards. EJ made some horrid sideline throws that landed 2 yards out of bounds, but a majority of the time the wrs couldn't get any separation. That surprised me the most given how open the Patriots wrs were getting (and dropping the ball). Woods has a ton of potential, but showed nothing yesterday. Chandler gets open exactly twice per game- I can't understand for the life of me how Easley can't get in the wr rotation. Stevie was the only one that I really can't knock. Spiller just isn't playing as good as he can, seems like he can't get out of his own way. Perhaps the most perplexing thing to me is you are facing a d line that is owning, they are bringing pressure early and instead of rolling EJ out or setting up screens to 2 great backs in open space, you are running up the middle. Idiotic. I have serious concerns about the play calling, but in the end it's a rookie qb who I think will show the occasional brilliance but mostly just blow on the road.
 
The Redskins are a mess because they went from the 4-3 to the 3-4. Nobody can figure oput where to play and who to cover, As soon as they replace the defensive coach who 'sold his defensive idea' to Sherman they will start winning again.

As far as RG3, he is still solid. The problem isnt him, its the coaching idiots that are running the defense or lack of it.

Go Denver
 
Been hearing the same thing from all my fellow SKins fans about RGiii being fine. Agree defense is a mess, but my bigger concern is my QB now can't outrun guys on the D line and he's given the other team the ball 8 times in 3 weeks.....
 
The Niners can't win running a pro style pistol formation. It's the worst of 2 styles. They can't setup PA out of it and they aren't running read option. The offense that took the 9ers to the super bowl has not been called on the field in an effort to save their franchise QB. I expect them to go back to their strength and run it all the time soon. It will open everything up. At least until they get more weapons back. This is a team without Davis, Crabtree, Manningham, and James and more losses on defense and they are playing away from their strength which is Kaeps legs and Gores running. Their schedule also from here on out is a joke.
 
scdoggy said:
Been hearing the same thing from all my fellow SKins fans about RGiii being fine. Agree defense is a mess, but my bigger concern is my QB now can't outrun guys on the D line and he's given the other team the ball 8 times in 3 weeks.....
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Yeah, I haven't watched the Skins games too much other than Red Zone, but you can't turn it over and win. Who does he think he is, Brian Hoyer?
 
crawdads said:
ROFLMAO at Pac Man being arrested again.
Click to expand...
Wasn't arrested but he's still an idiot...DUI checkpoint and went nuts when wasn't driving...always thinks he's profiled..

@greggrosenthal: Adam Jones of Bengals was cited for disorderly conduct Monday. He was not arrested.
 
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