NFL 2012: AFC/NFC Championships and beyond

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Zach Klein ‏@ZachKleinWSB

NFL Source: "Even if #Falcons won, I seriously doubt Matt Ryan could have played in Super Bowl" (injured left shoulder)
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Hah, Belichick dumped the post-game CBS interview off onto Devin McCourty

"hey asshole, you get burned, you do the media"
 
DRay9911 said:
welker is already getting heat for this one too.
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I'm pretty torn about what to do about Welker next season.

On the one hand, he knows Brady and the offense well, and he gets open in tight spaces.

On the other hand, he has some pretty obvious limitations, and $10 million is a lot of money.
 
Haha, media types are now pissy that Belichick denied the CBS interview. Your interests don't necessarily = the fan's interests.

It's a weak move, but whatever.

Poor Steve Tasker!
 
The Ravens absolutely punished the Patriots in that second half. They were hitting better, tackling better, and holding on to the ball better. Probably the worst half of football by the Patriots all season. They definitely deserve to move on.
 
phanan said:
The Ravens absolutely punished the Patriots in that second half. They were hitting better, tackling better, and holding on to the ball better. Probably the worst half of football by the Patriots all season. They definitely deserve to move on.
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First half of the SF game was pretty awful as well (though certainly weather-aided). Possibly first half of the Arizona game, too. These things happen.
 
STORYLINES

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Colin promised to win one for Sammy, his pet 115 pound tortoise.
 
What a freaking awesome weekend so far. Scored a free Disney ticket on Saturday. Got to the local Niners bar at 8 am and watched the NFC Championship game. It was incredible. Kaepernick picked a great game to discover Vernon Davis. What impressed me was the fact that even with Atlanta stopping his rushing game, Kaepernick ran the passing offense so very well. The Niners rush game looked great. Love to see Gore and James run.

And now we have a Harbowl.
 
Well, all I can say is the Ravens kicked the ever loving crap out of the Pats in the 2nd half of that game. They earned their trip to N'awlins.

One player shouldn't be that vital, but once Talib went out, you could sense a whole shift in the way the defense was performing.

Ravens were just more physical.

And somebody needs to clue Mike Smith in to the fact that football games have 2 halves, not just one, Falcons pulled the same Jeckyll and Hyde act 2 weeks in a row, no miracle finish this time...their lack of urgency on their last drive (hook and lateral notwithstanding) was atrocious, had they run a hurry up, might have got to 4th down with 3+ minutes left, kick a FG and play D and try to get the ball back down 1 with 2 minutes to go...extremely poor execution...and they should have put McKown in to heave a hail mary on the last play (doubt Ryan could have reached the end zone with the obvious separation), a hook and lateral has far less chance to succeed than a hail mary.

2 weeks of Harbaugh and Ray Lewis hype.
 
That was great. The Patriots.com video is 7 minutes long, and Belichick barely says 50 words.

*silent 30 second long off-mike question from a reporter*

Yeah, we made too many mistakes.

pause

*next question*

Yup.
 
bono_212 said:
I don't hate the 49ers or anything, I just hate what they did to Alex Smith. A lot. That was wrong on a lot of levels and I wish it hadn't paid off like it did. It sends so many wrong messages and it's really frustrating to me.

That being said, I like the 49ers. Obviously they're not my favorite team, but I think football is more interesting when they're good. Of course I'm bitter about them beating my team. Regardless of that, I'm cool with them winning the Super Bowl, means we lost to the best once again.
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Coach's job is to do what's best for the team.

Don't feel sorry for Alex Smith, dude has been paid over $50M to date, he'll be ok !
 
"So, with that all in mind, you should take two things away from this silly exercise. First, what a quarterback does in the playoffs at the beginning of his career isn't any more meaningful than what he does in the middle or at the end of his career. You don't win an extra half Super Bowl if you do it before you turn 25. Second, you don't "know" what a quarterback is going to do in the playoffs because of how he's previously performed in the playoffs. We have 15 games over seven seasons saying that Tom Brady's a playoff flop, and that information means absolutely nothing in determining how Tom Brady would play in the future. Looking at the games under the proper chronological order says just as much: We had nine games suggesting that Tom Brady was unstoppable in the playoffs, and afterward, we've had 15 games implying that he's actually just like any other good quarterback in the postseason. That he's "been there before" means nothing, just like it did in 2001, when Brady made it to the Super Bowl and won it without having been there before. He's still capable of screwing up and making mistakes, as Sunday showed. He's also still capable of being great and winning a Super Bowl. The truth isn't quite as satisfying as a one-word label like "clutch" or "unclutch," but football's a lot more complicated than one-word labels. It deserves better, and just as the likes of Manning and Ryan are demeaned with overly simplistic stories about their playoff performance, so is Brady."
 
No spoken words said:
"So, with that all in mind, you should take two things away from this silly exercise. First, what a quarterback does in the playoffs at the beginning of his career isn't any more meaningful than what he does in the middle or at the end of his career. You don't win an extra half Super Bowl if you do it before you turn 25. Second, you don't "know" what a quarterback is going to do in the playoffs because of how he's previously performed in the playoffs. We have 15 games over seven seasons saying that Tom Brady's a playoff flop, and that information means absolutely nothing in determining how Tom Brady would play in the future. Looking at the games under the proper chronological order says just as much: We had nine games suggesting that Tom Brady was unstoppable in the playoffs, and afterward, we've had 15 games implying that he's actually just like any other good quarterback in the postseason. That he's "been there before" means nothing, just like it did in 2001, when Brady made it to the Super Bowl and won it without having been there before. He's still capable of screwing up and making mistakes, as Sunday showed. He's also still capable of being great and winning a Super Bowl. The truth isn't quite as satisfying as a one-word label like "clutch" or "unclutch," but football's a lot more complicated than one-word labels. It deserves better, and just as the likes of Manning and Ryan are demeaned with overly simplistic stories about their playoff performance, so is Brady."
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I think it really shows as well that football truly is a team game. When you look at the last 5 Super Bowls, all won by great quarterbacks, it was their team's defenses that were the difference makers. Both Giants teams in '07 and '11 had awesome pass rushing attacks, the Packers and Steelers both had elite defenses front to back in their championship years. New Orleans may be the only exception, but even they were getting huge turnovers in key moments all year, especially in the playoffs. This year, we will again see a team with an elite defense win the Super Bowl, though much of the attention will go to the QB.

Looking at Tom Brady's Super Bowl teams, his team won 3 times. Each of those teams had a better defense than the opposition. Both losses were due to the opposing team having a stronger defense.
 
i heard that pitbull song twice while i was out and about today. that's only noteworthy because i had NEVER heard the actual song, just the bud light version.

Brady_Dale.gif
 
mikal said:
I think it really shows as well that football truly is a team game. When you look at the last 5 Super Bowls, all won by great quarterbacks, it was their team's defenses that were the difference makers. Both Giants teams in '07 and '11 had awesome pass rushing attacks, the Packers and Steelers both had elite defenses front to back in their championship years. New Orleans may be the only exception, but even they were getting huge turnovers in key moments all year, especially in the playoffs. This year, we will again see a team with an elite defense win the Super Bowl, though much of the attention will go to the QB.

Looking at Tom Brady's Super Bowl teams, his team won 3 times. Each of those teams had a better defense than the opposition. Both losses were due to the opposing team having a stronger defense.
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Given the restrictions of the salary cap, it's very plausible that Brady is best off with a good offensive line, inexpensive offensive weapons and a strong defense. E.g. the skill-position talent around him was a disaster in 2006, and his numbers sucked, but they still won 12 games that year, had the 4th strongest offense in the league according to DVOA and came thisclose to another Super Bowl appearance in which they would have been significant favorites.
 
speedracer said:
Given the restrictions of the salary cap, it's very plausible that Brady is best off with a good offensive line, inexpensive offensive weapons and a strong defense. E.g. the skill-position talent around him was a disaster in 2006, and his numbers sucked, but they still won 12 games that year, had the 4th strongest offense in the league according to DVOA and came thisclose to another Super Bowl appearance in which they would have been significant favorites.
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Yep, agreed. I think a good example is Deion Branch, who was pretty awesome in New England but underwhelmed in Seattle. Guys like Troy Brown, David Givens and David Patton were not guys that would scare opposing defenses on either team, but Brady still made them into something.
 
I certainly think he'd be better than Michael Vick and Nick Foles. He's quick enough to keep defenses honest and is a better passer and decision maker than Vick.
 
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