NFL 2012

He is a great candidate, but personallyI would give it to Luck just because of how completely awful the colts were last year and how good they are this year. But it is a 3 man race between Wilson, Luck and Griffin and I would not think that any of them getting it would be the wrong choice.

Just to be clear, Andrew Luck has 23 TDs (18 passing, 5 rushing), RG3 has 24 TDs (18 passing, 6 TDs). All 3 are pretty close. I think the deciding factor will be that Wilson is playing on a better team than Luck or RG3 (see Seahawks 4th ranked defense vs the Colts 20th ranked defense, or the Skins 31st ranked defense).

That was one of the worst plays I've seen in a long time. Our offense was working and we had a two score lead - that is not the time to run a trick play. McCarthy outsmarts himself sometimes.

He's in consideration, for sure, but RG3 is having a really good year and although Luck's numbers aren't as good as those two, he's going to get a boost because of how bad the Colts were viewed going in. You can certainly make an argument for all three.

IMO Luck is the worst choice, his performance is not that stellar, at least not as measured by the stats I prefer!

Here's Football Outsiders DYAR stats through 12/11 for all three players:
Here's Wilson: 662 pasing DYAR, 52 Rushing DYAR = 714 DYAR.
Here's RGIII: 669 passing DYAR, 87 Rushing DYAR = 756 total DYAR.
Here's Luck: 159 passing DYAR (!!!), 121 Rushing DYAR = 280 total DYAR

Based on their numbers, RGIII edges out Wilson (who will take the lead after this week's games are incorporated since RGIII didn't play), but Luck should not even be in the conversation. As far as the argument that Luck is bringing the Colts up, FO also sees as massive overachievers; they're 28th in Total DVOA (19th in weighted DVOA; they've been playing better recently). Their projected wins is 4.6 vs. 9 actual. They're ranked #19 in offense and #30 in defense... So basically, their system sees a bad team that's gotten some lucky breaks that has played an easy schedule (26th in the league so far).

In other news, the Seahawks are running up another huge score in Buffalo; 47 points with a quarter and a half left to play. Granted they've been beating up on the scrubs of the NFL, but this is after walloping Chicago. SF should be nervous about coming to Seattle next week!

To be fair, he's lead several last minute comebacks. He's the reason they're winning those close games. RG3 is the most electric, Wilson is the most surprising, and Luck is the most clutch so far. There's no bad choice here. If RG3 played all 16 games it'd be his, but he hasn't proven durable so far.

Next weeks game between Seattle and San Francisco is going to be interesting, even if SF wins tonigh. Seattle's offense is on quite a roll now.

I do not consider a last minute comeback a reason to think highly of a QB; the reason he has to come back at the last minute is because he's not winning the game outright in the first place. Good players play well for all four quarters.

Yeah, Seattle and NE are pretty clearly the hottest teams in the league right now; both are just walloping everything in their path.

REDSKINS WOOOOO

I'm not even drunk!

The Giants are just determined not to win the division, whatever it takes!

haha who fakes a punt when up by 30?

Great time to practice a fake punt, really.

SO MUCH JOY

Way to go, Pittsburgh!

They really do need to end this icing the kicker crap.

This is gonna be a long game.

The Niners defense is ridiculous.

The Niners were the first team in history to rush for 300 yards and pass for 300 yards in the same game. That's the bar for beating up on the Bills. The Seahawks had a nice game, but it's not that impressive considering the opponent.

Meanwhile in Boston, the Patriots are lucky to only be behind 17-3. The Niners could easily have another 10 or 17 points based solely on their own miscues. There wasn't a Patriot defender within 5 yards of Vernon Davis on that overthrown pass. And Tom Brady's best play of the game was a tackle.

Three way tie for first in the NFC East. Washington looks like the best team at this point, and Dallas still has to beat NO to set up the Division showdown game in Week 17. I'm just happy to finally get a frigging break at the end of a game instead of watching another heartbreaking last minute loss. Also, great game by Romo.

Did you anger the Almighty intentionally?

Losing again. Almighty better get Almightier.

So anyway, I'm pretty much ready for the Schwartz era to be done in Detroit. He'll probably get another year, though -- we at least need a new OC. With the talent the Lions have, blearghmehdammit

Oh, and Suh? Trade his ass. While I don't think he's a bad player, I don't think he's worth anywhere NEAR what he's getting paid. And I don't think he actually wants to be in Detroit anyway. Team would be better off without him.

I'm trying to game out the playoff scenarios for the NFC West at this point. How does SF's tie figure in for the various tiebreaker scenarios? Is it effectively a loss?

Suh needs a better coach than Schwartz to get him playing disciplined football. He would be great in San Francisco.

Look at the loss column. As long as the Niners have fewer losses than Seattle, they take the division. It pretty much eliminates all tiebreakers. For Seattle to win the division, they would have to end up with more wins.


PS Fuck you Sweatshirt.

Makes sense, a tie should be better than a loss for tiebreaking. Sadly that almost guarantees SF the division; even if Seattle wins next week SF would have to lose the following week.

Yes, "sadly" ;)

Realistically, Seattle lost the division a while ago. The loss to the 49ers, which put them at 0-3 in the division was probably it. If not it was the loss at Miami.

What was more important tonight was that I think we can pretty much an end to the talk about the Pats, and the AFC in general, being at the same level as the top of the NFC. If the 49ers aren't at the top of all the power rankings this week, something is wrong.

Umm they almost lost a game they were leading 31-3, that doesnt scream best team to me. The falcons just destroyed the reigning super bowl champs. I would put them ahead of the 49ers.

And I'd put Denver Broncos ahead of both those two. I honestly don't get how a narrow victory (in an absolutely awesome, fantastic game) would establish a return to the old NFC dominance of yore. My Saints have played most of the big ones this season and I'd rank them, based on how they looked in those games and others I've seen, like this:

1. Denver
2. 49ers
3. Falcons

Yeah I wouldn't be too hasty in declaring anyone unarguably superior among the top 3 or 4 teams in each conference. And I don't care what happened yesterday, the Giants are still the team I least want to see make the playoffs.

I agree. SF certainly looked good and beating the Pats is huge for them; but they very nearly blew it. Let's not crown 'em yet!

I am sad about their loss; I was looking forward to next week's game being a super-high stakes affair. Now it's sort of humdrum; it's a "nice to win but we don't have to" for both teams.

To be fair, the weather sucked yesterday. Let's see SF and NE go at it in dry conditions and see how that goes.

Maybe we will in February!

Here's a stat: the Patriots are 1-3 against the NFC West this season.

I missed the first half because I was watching The Hobbit. The 2nd half was fun, even if we lost.

The team I fear the most in they playoffs is Denver. The Patriots did not defeat the Denver Broncos. They defeated some other team of doppelgangers.

That was the first time I've seen the Niners play since the Seattle game earlier. Holy shit that defense. They gave up some points in the second half sure, to one of the all-time greatest quarterbacks, but still. Shit.

I like to think that the Giants are simply refueling their "NO ONE BELIEVES IN US" infernal engine for their improbable wild card playoff run. They play better when they're not weighed down by people on the bandwagon.

The problem is that everyone I've heard talk about it still thinks the Giants are going to make the playoffs and make a run. I don't think they can get people to stop believing in them until they're mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Once the Cardinals get a quarterback, and the Rams get more comfortable under Jeff Fisher, the NFC West is going to be a nightmare division.

You make that sound like its an easy thing to fix. They already mortgaged part of their future in getting Kolb, so if they overpay for the next guy where is that going to leave them? They have to go after reclamation projects (i.e. hope they get lucky with another Kurt Warner) or try and identify undervalued guys they can get in later rounds. More importantly, they need someone making the moves who knows what they are doing and the Bidwell's do not have a history of making smart hires.

They're a weird team, they seem to only play up to their potential for a couple months out of the year. Sometimes that's December and January and they win the Super Bowl. Usually it's not, and they are just one of the many mediocre teams that is battling for a playoff berth late in the season. If they could play the way the did in the playoffs for a full sixteen games, they would be in contention for home field advantage. Instead they get shut out and may not even make the playoffs.

Personally, I think they are merely a tool used by God to teach Belichick and Brady a lesson about vainglory. If there's anything that could make losing in the championship game after going undefeated worse, it's for Boston to lose to New York. When things line up for the Patriots to make a Super Bowl run, God pushes the Giants into place to defeat them again.