The Official 2005 NFL Thread

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I hate you.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

All Manning SuperBowl?
Well the Panthers have Ricky Manning, but the Pats don't have a Manning on their roster, although they do own Peyton.

the pats are still the defending champs, and you need to give them the respect they've earned up until someone knocks them off... but not for nothing, they've looked like shit. they're making a lot of the mistakes that they never made before... i.e. penalties and turnovers.

they still got bill and tom... so they still gotta be one of the favorites... but i dunno. the AFC's tough.

it does help that the team expected to be their toughest in-division rival has as many touchdown passes as a team as Ladanian Tomlinson has by himself... three.

 

[Hewson]

Next Monday night will give us a pretty good indication if the Pats are really that much worse than the past few years and if the Colts are the juggernaut everyone says they are.

If the Colts win in Foxboro, there's no doubt they are the odds on favorite for the Lombardi trophy.
If the Pats win, suddenly a lot of doubt creeps in and there's 3 or 4 AFC teams that may have a shot to get there.

Either way the Pats will win the AFC (L)East, and get at least 1 home playoff game, but they need to beat the Colts to have any shot at a #2 seed and playoff bye, which as we know is extremely important.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Next Monday night will give us a pretty good indication if the Pats are really that much worse than the past few years and if the Colts are the juggernaut everyone says they are.

If the Colts win in Foxboro, there's no doubt they are the odds on favorite for the Lombardi trophy.
If the Pats win, suddenly a lot of doubt creeps in and there's 3 or 4 AFC teams that may have a shot to get there.

Either way the Pats will win the AFC (L)East, and get at least 1 home playoff game, but they need to beat the Colts to have any shot at a #2 seed and playoff bye, which as we know is extremely important.

indeed

 

[phanan]

Next Monday night will give us a pretty good indication if the Pats are really that much worse than the past few years and if the Colts are the juggernaut everyone says they are.

If the Colts win in Foxboro, there's no doubt they are the odds on favorite for the Lombardi trophy.
If the Pats win, suddenly a lot of doubt creeps in and there's 3 or 4 AFC teams that may have a shot to get there.

Either way the Pats will win the AFC (L)East, and get at least 1 home playoff game, but they need to beat the Colts to have any shot at a #2 seed and playoff bye, which as we know is extremely important.

It sure would open up a can of worms if the Patriots beat them again. Indy won't look so invincible, and they still have games coming up against Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and San Diego, all of whom would be very confident going up against them if the Pats knocked them off.

Additionally, there are three excellent teams in the west that will beat up on each other.

With their relatively easy schedule the rest of the way, the Steelers could actually take the number one seed again if New England wins against the Colts and Pittsburgh beat them down the road as well.

 

[phanan]

If the Pats win, suddenly a lot of doubt creeps in and there's 3 or 4 AFC teams that may have a shot to get there.

I'd say it's more like 6 AFC teams that can legitimately take this:

New England
Pittsburgh
Indianapolis
Denver
Kansas City
San Diego

I have my doubts that Cincinnati are for real after their lackluster performance against Green Bay yesterday and the pounding they took against Pittsburgh. They are still a year away. And while Jacksonville has an easy schedule the rest of the way, if they can't win against a severely depleted Rams team, you have to question how good they really are.

Denver, KC, and SD are all contenders, to be sure. The one negative is that they are all in the same division and will surely take wins away from each other. Despite this, it is not inconceivable that all three will make the playoffs.

 

[Hewson]

The Pats schedule is pretty easy after the Indy game, 5 more division games, home tilts againts NO and TB and a trip to KC.

 

[phanan]

Right. Indy and KC are really the only difficult ones, which is why they will easily take the AFC East.

But a look at the Steelers schedule shows that they have an easy route as well. Indy and Cincinnati are their biggest games, and they've already shown they can handle Cincy. Considering that they have one less loss than the Pats, I'd say they would have the better shot at a number one seed.

If both the Pats and Steelers beat the Colts, then I could see the Pats taking number two. The Colts schedule is very difficult the rest of the way.

That would be something if the Colts could only manage a number three seed after starting 7-0.

 

[Hewson]

I'd say it's more like 6 AFC teams that can legitimately take this:

New England
Pittsburgh
Indianapolis
Denver
Kansas City
San Diego

I think that only 2 of the West teams are gonna make it, and Cincy likley be a wildcard. Denver and SD are my guess, KC has 2 division losses already (to SD and Den), I think they may fall off.
But I have my doubts that Denver will do anything in the playoffs just as in recent seasons...one and done. If they win the division and get a home game, they may win, but they have shown a propensity for blowing big leads this season so far, that doesn't bode well.

I still think the only legit Superbowl contenders are Indy, NE, Pitt and possibly SD.
We shall see.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Headache's Not quite Mid-Season but we're talking about it so what the hell AFC Playoff Contender Awards

Favorites until proven otherwise, even though they look like crap: Patriots
The popular pick but will never be the favorites in many people's minds until the beat new england: Colts
The Atlanta Braves Award: Pittsburgh
Sleeper Pick: San Diego
The team that should be good but will ultimately end the season with their head coach sobbing like a little girl: Chefs
The Monica Lewinski Close But No Cigar Award: Bungles
The Tanyon Sturtze "You Can Take The Man out of Tampa Bay, But You Can't Take The Tampa Bay out of the Man" Award: Jake Plummer & the Denver Broncos.
The "People Actually Considered us Super Bowl Contenders and Now We're Nothing More than a Running Punch Line" Award: J-E-T-S-JETS-JETS-JETS

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Headache's Not quite Mid-Season but I did the AFC so I might as well do the NFC Contender Awards

Favorites until proven otherwise, even though they look like crap: Eagles
The popular pick because of their allegedly great QB, even though said QB has a less than 1 to 1 TD to INT ratio: Atlanta
Sleeper Pick: tie- Giants & Panthers
The team that should be good but will ultimately end the season with their head coach sobbing like a little girl: Seattle
The Monica Lewinski Close But No Cigar Award: Dallas
The Cowboy Bob Orton Award: Kyle Orton & The Bears.
The "Most likely to pull a Minnesota and choke away a playoff bid despite a great early season record" Award: Tampa Bay
The "People Actually Considered us Super Bowl Contenders and Now We're Nothing More than a Running Punch Line" Award: The Loooooove Boooaaaat... love, exciting and new

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper will miss the rest of the season and perhaps part of next season because of a severe injury to his right knee.

Culpepper sustained damage to the three major ligaments in the knee: the anterior cruciate, posterior cruciate and medial collateral.

 

[U2Kitten]

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper will miss the rest of the season and perhaps part of next season because of a severe injury to his right knee.

Culpepper sustained damage to the three major ligaments in the knee: the anterior cruciate, posterior cruciate and medial collateral.

That is certainly bad news the Vikings being my second favorite team and Moss having already turned to the dark side. It would be even more tragic if they were having a promising season, which of course they are not. I do worry about his long term prognosis if it's one of those operations where you have to put it back together with cadaver ligaments. Once a player has reconstructive surgery, they never have the POWER they were once capable of, kind of like Darth Vader in the suit could not have been as strong as healthy Anakin was going to be. I wish him the best

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Once a player has reconstructive surgery, they never have the POWER they were once capable of, kind of like Darth Vader in the suit could not have been as strong as healthy Anakin was going to be.

umm... ok then.

 

[phanan]

That is certainly bad news the Vikings being my second favorite team and Moss having already turned to the dark side. It would be even more tragic if they were having a promising season, which of course they are not. I do worry about his long term prognosis if it's one of those operations where you have to put it back together with cadaver ligaments. Once a player has reconstructive surgery, they never have the POWER they were once capable of, kind of like Darth Vader in the suit could not have been as strong as healthy Anakin was going to be. I wish him the best

Excited for the Star Wars DVD tomorrow, right?

 

[randhail]

Blowing out a knee is certainly a major injury, but medicine has come a long way. Edgerrin James, Willis McGahee, and Fred Taylor are just a few guys that have come back from blown out knees. To say that he's not going to be as good as before the injury is jumping the gun a little bit. All of the guys I mentioned are RBs and put much more of a strain on their knees than do QBs. It'll take time but Daunte will be back.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

did those three tear all three ligiments?

 

[Chizip]

did anakin tear all three ligaments?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

indeed

i know mcgahee tore all three... but edge james only tore one of 'em. not sure about fred taylor... but fred taylor has never been the same. the guy's on the IR every other week.

 

[randhail]

McGahee was definitely a blown out knee with all three ligaments torn. The others I mentioned might have just been the ACL. Either way, I think Daunte will be back just as good, it'll just take time.

 

[phanan]

I think Rodney Harrison just blew out all three as well, right?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

yea he did... it's one of the worst injuries you can get... much much worse than just blowing out one of 'em.

you're never the same after tearing all three. doesn't mean you still can't be good... but you never have the same mobility and agility in that knee that you once had, no matter how much rehab you do.

which is a fairly frightneing fact about mcgahee...

 

[randhail]

Yup, Rodney did all three.

 

[phanan]

I can't even imagine what that must feel like.

 

[randhail]

what do you think is a worse injury, rupturing the achilles or blowing out the knee?

I know it's like choosing between the electic chair or lethal injection but I think blowing out the knee isn't quite as bad as taking care of the achilles.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i've sprained my PCL... that doesn't feel very nice. tearing it outright must be rediculous... tearing all three? owie.


i think the only sports injury that could be more painful would be ripping the muscle off the bone... like what nomar did this year and piazza did last year back. that's gotta be a bitch.

 

[randhail]

Yeah, ripping the muscles off the bone probably isn't a goodtime either. Ted Johnson did that in consecutive seasons, once with the right biceps and once with the left biceps. Not fun.

 

[Chizip]

i was going to tell Hewson he should change the name of his fantasy football team because Vitt was turning Jackson into a fantasy stud. then i checked and he already did.

 

[U2Kitten]

did anakin tear all three ligaments?

Yeah he tore them all right, all the way off! When Kellen Winslow got his ligaments torn on TV and they showed it in slow motion it looked like the whole lower part of his leg was gonna come off. If it hadn't been for the skin it might have.

yea he did... it's one of the worst injuries you can get... much much worse than just blowing out one of 'em.

you're never the same after tearing all three. doesn't mean you still can't be good... but you never have the same mobility and agility in that knee that you once had, no matter how much rehab you do.

Yeah I have seen it too many times. Jerry Rice, great as he was, lost his afterburners and became mostly a possession reciever after that. I like Daunte, I'm sorry for him.

 

[Hewson]

i was going to tell Hewson he should change the name of his fantasy football team because Vitt was turning Jackson into a fantasy stud. then i checked and he already did.

Of course then he went and had angioplasty...is the Rams' head coaching job that stressful? It causes Martz and Vitt serious heart problems and made Vermeil cry (then again the wind makes Vermeil cry).