Due to the news about Peyton Manning's neck surgery today, I'm now changing my pick for the IND-HOU game....Originally Posted by Rutabaga
IND @ HOU WIN
Due to the news about Peyton Manning's neck surgery today, I'm now changing my pick for the IND-HOU game....
IND @ HOU WIN
So, you guys have all been so great, I'm just going to give everybody a point tonight.
Holy cow what a game.
I knew it would be a close game but figured the Packers would win because of the home field edge. The game was a shoot out and was fun to watch.
A fantastic, rousing start to the season. The Packers seem to have picked up exactly where they left off and looked solid all around. If not for Drew Brees's amazing ability to will his team down the field, this might have been a laugher. It seems to me that where the Saints primarily came up short was the matchup between their offensive line and the Packers' defensive line. The Saints could not shift B.J. Raji, and the Packers' rushers consistently had penetration against both the pass and the run. I hated Sean Payton's decision to go for it on fourth down late in the third quarter for exactly that reason. Kick the field goal, cut the deficit to five, and don't give the Packers the momentum of a fourth-down stop.
As epic as that final drive by the Saints was, I think the pass interference penalty that extended it by one play at the end of regulation was a bad call. Clay Matthews indeed was going over the top of Sproles's back, but he was playing the ball all the way and in fact spiked it to the turf before it came close to Sproles's hands. The ref who threw the flag was behind the play and had a terrible angle on it. I feel the officiating was very good otherwise, but I'm glad the game didn't turn on that call.
Wow it's great to have regular season football again. Can't wait for Sunday.
Interestingly enough, even as a Packers fan, I actually felt the pass interference call was probably justified. It looked to me like A.J. Hawk made contact with Darren Sproles shoulder as he was airborne. It's arguable I suppose, but the call itself didn't really upset me, other than it gave New Orleans a chance to extend the game and a shot at tying it up.
This will end up being one of the best games we see all year, IMO. Scary thing is, these two teams could meet again the NFC title game in January.
Sunday, Sep 11
PIT @ BAL (W)
CIN @ CLE (W)
IND @ HOU (W)
DET (W) @ TB
PHI (W) @ STL
ATL @ CHI (W)
BUF @ KC (W)
TEN (W) @ JAX
NYG (W) @ WAS
MIN @ SD (W)
CAR @ ARI (W)
SEA @ SF (W)
DAL (W) @ NYJ
Monday, Sep 12
NE (W) @ MIA
OAK @ DEN (W)
Sunday, Sep 11
PIT (W) @ BAL
CIN @ CLE (W)
IND @ HOU (W)
DET (W) @ TB
PHI (W) @ STL
ATL @ CHI (W)
BUF @ KC (W)
TEN (W) @ JAX
NYG (W) @ WAS
MIN @ SD (W)
CAR @ ARI (W)
SEA @ SF (W)
DAL @ NYJ (W)
Monday, Sep 12
NE (W) @ MIA
OAK @ DEN (W)
Survivor: Denver Broncos
Survivor Pick: TB
Survivor Pick - SF
Thursday, Sep 8
GB WIN -yup.
Sunday, Sep 11
PIT WIN - 7 turnovers? really guys? Crikey.
CLE WIN - worse than I thought, not by much though.
HOU WIN - woooooooooo that was a bombing.
TB WIN - Detroit is better than I expected. Wow Stafford!
PHI WIN -yup.
ATL WIN -!?!?!?!?
KC WIN - 4 touchdowns from Buffalo? Is there a portal to the early 90s?
JAX WIN - Heh.
My thoughts exactly. O_o
Needless to say, at least I did see the light and change my IND-HOU pick to HOU.
And dare I begin to hope that the Niners just might have a decent season this year? *fingers crossed*
Pittsburgh looked like they forgot that a new season was starting today.
There's something very, very wrong with the Chiefs. The loss today to Buffalo might not be an fluke.
Atlanta killed themselves today more than the Bears did. Atlanta is better than they showed today, and the Bears are not as good as they showed today (they still can't protect Cutler.)
The Colts are so incredibly screwed without Peyton Manning. I'm saying 6-10 is their ceiling this year, even if he does come back late November (not happening, BTW. I don't think he suits up at all this season).
Nice first game by Cam Newton. The kid definitely has a lot of potential. However, his stats today are an aberration. He'll come back to earth next week against the Packers.
And now the afternoon games:
NYG WIN - all the bad stuff I've heard just might be true about you guys. Sheesh.
SD WIN - Rivers and Co. does their thing. The Vikings are pretty old.
ARI WIN - these teams are not very good but Arizona was better right now, as I guessed. Kolb is a solid QB. They might win the (very bad) division, although...
SF WIN - Don't expect Ginn to do that every week, but if Alex Smith plays that safe, effective football you guys could be ok in this weak division.
The late games were much easier to pick. I thought several of the early games were total toss-ups. The Steelers and Falcons were massive disappointments, though. Not even close in either case.
I feel like I have to apologize for the Steelers. Wow. I can only hope they've used up their season's allotment of turnovers, missed tackles, and blown coverages. But kudos to the Ravens, they got up for this game and played fantastic all around.
I didn't get to see much at all of any of the afternoon games, so I've had to look at stats sheets to try to figure out how they went. I was surprised to see very pitiful numbers for Donovan McNabb for the Vikings. 7/15 for 39 yards? Really? And here I'd thought from score-watching that I might have underestimated the Vikings this season...
oh god Dolphins, you got bent over by Billy's Brutes. At least Henne didn't look like hot garbage.
Lykaios, you picked the Giants twice, so I'll assume one of those was the Jets. Here's the week 1 tally. Not bad for the first week, really...
Dragon: 12-4
Jedi Master Carr: 11-5
jjwr: 11-5
Kyran O'Hurn: 11-5
Liam Jinn: 10-6
Miranda Tarkin: 10-6
Morgan Evanar: 10-6
Nathanial K'cansce: 10-6
Park Kraken: 10-6
Ryan Pode: 10-6
Yog: 10-6
Aurelias Kazaar: 9-7
Rutabaga: 9-7
Lykaios: 8-8
Figrin D'an: 7-9
For Survivor last year, we ended up saying you can enter again if you miss a week, and the winner is the one who earns the longest streak, with tiebreakers going to streaks that started earlier. We might as well do that again this year, as otherwise we only have two people still alive after Week 1. Or we could just say people can rejoin in Week 2 so we'll have a larger pool and go hardcore the rest of the way. I don't mind either way.
Dragon: ARI
Liam Jinn: SF
Park Kraken: TB
Yog: DEN<strike<strike
Yeah, but if you rejoin, your previous picks aren't reset.
Yep, that's the way we did it last year. That includes picks you missed - so Park can't choose the Buccaneers and Yog can't choose the Broncos from here on out.
Not a big loss there. Clearly, when Broncos can't even beat the Raiders on their own homefield, that tells a lot about how terrible they are.
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