Oh good, we're back to the refs taking a mediocre performance by the Vikings and turning it into a disaster. P.S. Fuck Jay Cutler. what a classless ass.
Hah! Russel Wilson's (lack of) height just worked for him: he ducked a tackle and then took off for a 20 yard run. A slightly taller QB would have been leveled!
You see something new every day: Mid-third quarter, Ryan Tannehill rushes for 19 yards. And then ALL THE SPRINKLERS ON THE FIELD TURN ON. What. The. Hell.
indeed, except in the commercial it happens in the middle of the play so the dude can run for a TD. This happened after the play. Showing that not even the Dolphins gardeners can do anything right.
Flipped the ball at a Viking defender after being pushed out of bounds on a scramble where he gained like 6. That was directly after the total fucking bullshit personal foul call on the Vikings safety who pushed a Bears WR off of a Viking he was basically jumping on after the play that sustained the Bears drive. This fucking game is just awful. Man, the Vikings look terrible. Such a Jekyll & Hyde team.
I expected Seattle to mostly walk over the Dolphins. Instead the 'Fins have successfully shut down Marshawn Lynch, and it's only Russel Wilson keeping them in the game. And then only by the skin of their teeth! AAAND FUCK. Right as the Hawks pick Tannehill off in the endzone it gets called back for a helmet to helmet. It's a little ticky-tack, but honestly I think it's the defender's responsibility to avoid that hit no matter what.
What a fucking disastrous series that was. I think Seattle needs to consider going for it; based on how the defense has handled the last two drives I don't see how you can have any faith that they'll stop Miami from driving for a field goal in the next minute and forty-five seconds. Bleh, looks like they'll punt and take their chances. I'm calling it here: MIami FG ftw. edit: aaaaaaand there we go. What'd I tell you? They're in longish FG range now with plenty of time; they'll run it into the line once or twice and then kick the FG attempt. I don't want to claim I was right in hindsight, but I think that outcome really was predictable. The Seahawks offense was obviously done; they'd shown no ability to stop Miami from moving the ball in the previous two drives. The fourth-and-long conversion from midfield had a pretty low outcome of succeeding, but I maintain the odds of success there were better than the odds of stopping Miami.
I don't know whether their home field advantage actually makes them worse, or just disguises how bad they really are. But clearly, without the crowd noise disrupting the opposing offense, they just aren't up to the task of dealing with a team's full playbook. Even a mediocre offense like the Dolphins.
Argh, the fucking Seahawks. I can't tell if they're a bad team or not. They actually have looked pretty good when they play in the Clink. I just wonder how long it'll take the staff to figure out that Leroy Hill is terrible in pass coverage (or to do something about it). He had several screwups again today that extended Miami drives or allowed them to set up scores. The guy may be fast and able to hit like a howitzer, but he's totally AWOL when a quarterback drops back.
Things could be getting a lot worse for the Seahwaks. Adam Schefter just tweeted that Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner could be facing 4 game suspensions for positive PED tests.
That Ray Rice conversion on 4th and 29 against the Chargers to keep the game alive was just comical. I actually feel kind of bad for Rivers, although he often comes across as a jerk. Here's a guy -- and a team, really -- who should have at least made one or two Super Bowls over the last decade, but whose team has continually underachieved year after year. And while I can only assume Norv will finally be gone this year, I wonder if he wasted all of Rivers' best years. And wonder if any of that was going through Rivers' head as he watched Rice scamper his way to that conversion.
Ya, I thought the same. It seemed fitting that a stupid penalty from that knucklehead offset that bad call (and I'm a Bears fan). Oh, and if you're a visual person:
My friend Vince recently wrote an ESPN article based around asking whether or not the Chargers' Super Bowl window has closed. He posted a link to it on Facebook, to which I replied "Yes. Next question?" It sucks for Rivers and I do feel for him; that team has underachieved in a major way. Part of it is that when they really were good there were two absolutely dominant teams in the AFC (Colts and Patriots), with another powerhouse intermittently appearing (Pitt). The Colts (duh) and Patriots obviously have declined, but the Chargers have declined a lot more.
Super Bowl windows can open again, Rivers isn't that old for a QB. Either the Chargers re-build with a new coach and GM or he can go to a different team on its way up.
Between the PED thing and losing to the Dolphins, tomorrow morning on local sports talk radio will be interesting. Seattle did get lucky, though, as all the other NFC wildcard contenders lost as well.
Posting this not to laugh at Alex, this is legit sad to see: Thanks for going 13-3 last season and 7-2-1 this season Alex, now off to Arizona you go
I kind of hope SF implodes a bit after this. I've never been a big Alex Smith fan but I can't help but want this decision to bite them in the ass.
Well, the SF offense scored all of 17 points against the Saints yesterday. That defense though, that is legitimately scary.
He shouldn't get credit for the tie, he left the game down 14-7. By baseball rules that's a no decision. I think what this shows is that stats don't tell the whole story. If you just look at the stats, Alex had a great win/loss record and was the third rated passer in the league. If you watched the games, though, Alex was never very impressive. Even his record-setting one-incompletion performance, while statistically impressive, was actually pretty uninspiring to watch. Several times he took a sack which ended a drive, instead of just throwing the ball away. And in fact, Alex is the worst QB in the league for taking a sack when he gets pressured. Bottom line is, last year's playoff game against the Saints might be the only game of his career where you can say that without him, they wouldn't've won. Pretty much every other win, he just went out and didn't lose it. That's not good enough in the NFL. Kaepernick is proving that winning games with this 49ers team is not some unique talent only Alex possesses. If you want to talk about unique talent, Aldon Smith is on the cusp of passing Reggie fucking White for the most sacks in the first two years of a career. Kaepernick put up very Alex Smith-like numbers (albeit on the high side for Alex this year), but it was Aldon and Brooks and the rest of the defense who not only put up 14 points off interceptions, they also stopped the Saints on fourth down twice to seal the win. It's kind of silly to have all the focus on the QB position when a guy on the other side is literally making history. I wouldn't hold my breath for that. The bar is just not that high. Alex won games this season with less than 150 yards passing. And there aren't any defenses on the rest of the schedule that are better than the Bears. It's quite likely Kaepernick won't be able to take them to a Super Bowl this year, but it's not like Alex is ever going to win a Super Bowl. Kaepernick is already as good as Alex, and he can get better.
I love watching Koeaonomotopoeiapernick, he's an exciting quarterback. Liked Smith too. I kind of like those guys who can roll up an impressive win string without looking that great themselves, and Smith was doing that even back in the college days. If only that douche Harbaugh would save his health and retire so I could go back to kind of liking the niners, man, things would be peachy.
The Giants won by too much. Expect them to slack off the next few weeks, sports media to completely write them off, then go into "NO ONE BELIEVES IN US" beast mode for their playoff run.
Don't get me wrong, I've never been a big Alex Smith fan. I agree that Kaepernick (or however it's spelled) is an upgrade in the long-term. But he's also a rookie, and it's plausible (and perhaps even likely) that rookie growing pains are going to cause him some problems, and potentially cost SF close games. Of course that was much more of a big deal a day ago when Seattle had at least a somewhat credible shot of challenging SF for the division; after the Miami loss and the upcoming suspensions it's probably safe to crown SF the division champs.
Actually, he's a sophomore. He's had a year and a half to learn the offense and get used to the speed of the game. Granted he was on the sidelines up until now, but as far as rookie growing pains, he was drafted one pick after Andy Dalton. I'm sure both the Bears and Saints were using every trick in the book to disguise coverages and try to fool the young QB and it didn't work. Nick Foles and Ryan Lindley are actual rookies, and they're playing like it. If everything plays out normally, his first big test won't come until they play the Falcons in the playoffs. There's nobody else on the schedule who are a complete team. The Patriots are good, but they're more like the Saints and Packers than the Falcons and Texans. Which isn't to say they'll win every game. The next game is going to be a test, because up until now the entire team has played like crap every third game like clockwork. I have no idea what that was about but it was certainly more than just Alex Smith. However, part of the reason Alex lost the job was that he never has a positive impact on a game. When the team gets down, he gets down. Great QBs pick the rest of the team up when they're down, like Peyton did earlier in the season against the Chargers. Hopefully Kaepernick can be that kind of guy. Certainly, he doesn't seem to be a guy who has trouble bouncing back. After he threw his first INT, he came back to start the second half with an 80 yard touchdown drive. If he was stewing about it during halftime, it was in a good way.
Kaepernick is actually a sophomore. He's been sitting and learning for the past year and a half. Either way if he was the QB of the future he was going to have to get into games sometimes. And there would've been growing pains either now, later or a couple of years down the road since you can only learn so much while riding the bench. I love Alex Smith and he may not be a great QB but he's turned into a quality starter. If he was at least a little bit douchy I wouldn't feel bad for him but everything I have read and seen has him as a very nice guy. But the league isn't about who's the nicest, it's about winning games. At least the Niners don't have the problem of choosing between bad and worst as with Sanchez and Tebow.
Has a playoff caliber team ever switched qb midseason for a reason other than injury? Denver was not a playoff team before Tebow last year.
Denver benched Jake Plummer for Jay Cutler in Cutler's rookie year. They bottomed out and missed the playoffs, when at that time they were leading the division, I believe. Cutler matured into a borderline great quarterback before getting shipped to Chicago a few years later.
Tom Brady is the obvious parallel. Although in that case, it was too early in the season to say whether the Patriots were a playoff team. I'm not sure why you said "other than injury" since Alex Smith did get injured. The simple fact is, it's a rare occurrence because teams are almost never playoff caliber if they have sub-par QB play. And even more rare is for a QB with that good of an offensive line to get hurt. Other teams with QB injuries like the Bears, Cardinals, Eagles and Chiefs aren't giving their backup any chance to succeed because they're constantly under pressure. In the Bears game, the 49ers literally pushed both the left guard and left tackle right into Campbell and knocked him down. Meanwhile Kaepernick has mostly been able to stand in the pocket and make his reads. That makes a huge difference. Most teams with good offensive lines like the Patriots, Giants and Broncos, the starting QB doesn't get hurt.
I mean not purely because of injury. Alex Smith appears to have lost his job even though he is now healthy. Usually when a starting QB gets healthy he gets his job back.
OK, enough Alex Smith, let's talk AFC! Here are the standings with 5 weeks left: Hou 10-1 Bal 9-2 NE 8-3 Den 8-3 -------------- Ind 7-4 Pit 6-5 Cin 6-5 Mia 5-6 Four @ 4-7 The division leaders all have 3-game leads, so at this point they're mostly playing for seedings and byes (which is really unusual in the parity-driven NFL). So the main AFC races left are for the wild cards, where realistically it's three teams fighting for two spots: the 7-4 Colts and 6-5 Steelers and Bengals. - The Colts' next four games are against the Lions, Titans, Texans and Chiefs. 3-1 is not impossible, and even if they split, they head into the final week 9-6 against a Texans team without much to play for. At this point, it's just a mathematical reality that the Colts are probably going to win 9 or 10 games and get a wild card. - Pitt and Cincy have similar schedules the rest of the way (each plays Dallas, Baltimore and San Diego), so the game to circle on the calendar is their week 16 rematch. Pittsburgh won the first game, so that game could easily decide the last spot. - As for the rest of The Mediocres -- the 5-6 Dolphins and 4-7 Chargers, Jets, Bills and Titans -- it's hard to imagine any of them making a run. The Dolphins have a rough schedule (@SF and two games with the Pats), and while the 4-7's have easier games, it's hard to see any of them getting their acts together. So that's my take on the AFC. As remarkable as it sounds, there's a terrific chance we might see Peyton Manning playing Andrew Luck and the Colts in the opening weekend of the playoffs. Crazy!
Sure, but usually the starter doesn't get outplayed by his backup. Which goes back to the fact that most teams starting a placeholder while their QB of the Future learns the game don't make the playoffs. If you look at the QB carousel in Arizona, it's similar. The main difference is that nobody can stay healthy behind that OL long enough to stake a claim. But prior to his injury, Kolb had them looking like a wildcard team, and Skelton was named the starter going into the season. The Eagles were pretty much hoping things would work out for them the way they have for the Niners, and were talking about benching Vick before his injury, but again the lack of an OL doomed them. As far as young guys coming in and taking over a team, you have Brady taking the job from Bledsoe and you have Warner stepping in after Trent Green got hurt. It's pretty rare or even unique for it to happen this late in the season, but it's not unprecedented. NFL coaches generally don't get sentimental about starting the guy they think gives them a better chance to win. David Garrard took Byron Leftwich's job, even though Leftwich was drafted to be the franchise QB. Kurt Warner took Matt Leinart's job in Arizona. Lot's of starting QBs lose their job. What's rare is for the rest of the team to be able to win games when the starter passes for less than 150 yards. The injury gave Harbaugh a chance to see what Kaepernick can do. We already know what Alex Smith can do. But it's not like Harbaugh was sitting at 7-2 going into the Ram game and said "I think it's time to make a change." There's an adage in sports, "you can't lose your job due to injury," but it's bullshit. Lots of guys have lost their job while injured. It's just that QB is the most scrutinized position on the team, and it's also one of the only positions where being a backup means not playing at all. Marshawn Lynch got injured, Fred Jackson picked up the slack, and then when he came back they split carries. Eventually the Bills decided to trade Lynch. If Lynch had been straight up benched and didn't play again after his injury, it would've been a bigger story.
