Thursday Night Football: The Pacifier Bowl

BoTown said:

Ravens still aren't very good. And now the Steelers don't have any illusions of being good either. Would rather have seen the Ratbirds start 0-4 but there is a silver lining at least. Felt the Steelers were handed the game last Sunday when they called Kenny Britt's catch incomplete despite the ball never touching the ground. So this balances things out. Both teams looked like rubbish today. Based on the schedule, Ravens are probably looking at a 9-7 campaign now, and possibly 8-8 for Steelers.

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The Ravens are one of those teams that don't seem to realize that you're actually allowed to throw the ball in 2 seconds or less.

TommyD4207 said:

Ravens would absolutely have to catch fire to go 9-7.

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L @ DEN
L @ OAK
L CIN
W @ PIT
W CLE
W @ SF
L @ ARZ
W SD
W JAX
W STL
W @ CLE
W @ MIA
L SEA
W @ KC
L PIT
L @ CIN

That would give them 9-7. If they do worse than that, that's fine by me.

BTW I saw this following post on a Steelers forum which goes to show how much real estate the Patriots have in the minds of opponents.

In a way it's better the Ravens won

They need to get a playoff spot or you are basically conceding the AFC to the Patriots.

Harbaugh and count Flaccula are the only coach/QB combo that can even sniff beating the Pats come playoff time

Steelers sure as hell can't do it, HC is just too stupid

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FYI BB was 39 games in until his first 4 game losing streak.
and his first year here started with 4 Ls. Then another in 2002.

BoTown said:

L @ DEN
L @ OAK
L CIN
W @ PIT
W CLE
W @ SF
L @ ARZ
W SD
W JAX
W STL
W @ CLE
W @ MIA
L SEA
W @ KC
L PIT
L @ CIN

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If they keep playing like they have so far this season, there's no way they win all 4 of these that I bolded.

BoTown said:

L @ DEN
L @ OAK
L CIN
W @ PIT
W CLE
W @ SF
L @ ARZ
W SD
W JAX
W STL
W @ CLE
W @ MIA
L SEA
W @ KC
L PIT
L @ CIN

That would give them 9-7. If they do worse than that, that's fine by me.

BTW I saw this following post on a Steelers forum which goes to show how much real estate the Patriots have in the minds of opponents.

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That looks about right. The competition in the AFC is so thin I think 8-8 could get someone in the playoffs.

My early assessment is Buffalo and Ravens get WC spots.

BradyBranch39 said:

If they keep playing like they have so far this season, there's no way they win all 4 of these that I bolded.

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Classic Ravens, they linger around like a stale fart all season then come alive in the playoffs.

We may as well pencil them in as our divisional playoff round opponent now.

Just watch, Ravens get 8th seed with a matchup against Denver or the Bungles in WC round. Of course, they'll beat either of these teams and then play us next.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

Just watch, Ravens get 8th seed with a matchup against Denver or the Bungles in WC round. Of course, they'll beat either of these teams and then play us next.

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good, it will be nice to end baltimore's season once again. brady will shred them with our empty sets. webb/jimmy smith..all garbage.

...btw tomlin sucks. wonder who he'll blame this time???? the headsets??
thank god we have bill as the coach.

Gronkowski123 said:

good, it will be nice to end baltimore's season once again. brady will shred them with our empty sets. webb/jimmy smith..all garbage.

...btw tomlin sucks. wonder who he'll blame this time???? the headsets??
thank god we have bill as the coach.

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It's nuts that people thank Brady for ALL of BB's success yet everything BB does is categorized as "revolutionary", which is it, media/opposing fans? It can't only be because of Brady while everything BB does is successfully reinventing the wheel.

Maybe they've both two of the best ever and it's been the NFL's most successful marriage of talent ever.

We should be glad to have Josh McD as OC, the playcalling was absolutely awful tonight for both teams, Mark Trestman does not belong to this league.

varjao said:

We should be glad to have Josh McD as OC, the playcalling was absolutely awful tonight for both teams, Mark Trestman does not belong to this league.

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In the past I've called JMD overrated, which I still believe he is at times, but for the playoffs and start of 2015 it's hard to call better games than he has and I'm thankful we have him right now.

Our offense has been absolutely brilliant and while the majority of that is al about the players executing, McDaniels has been fantastic in scheming the best ways to get our best players the ball as often as possible.

I still HATE going conservative with a large lead when an aggressive approach has proven to be better at A.) extending the lead, and B.) extending drives which allows more clock to be milked. I'll never understand the logic of running 3 times and punting because the opponent KNOWS you're going to run vs continuing to pass because the opponent has proven incapable of stopping or slowing it and you end the drive with a larger lead.

I don't care about forcing the opponent to drive 90 yards because we had a good punt, I'll take more points over that just about any day of the week. A 16 pt lead is always better than a 13 pt lead even though both are 2 scores.

BoTown said:

L @ DEN
L @ OAK
L CIN
W @ PIT
W CLE
W @ SF
L @ ARZ
W SD
W JAX
W STL
W @ CLE
W @ MIA
L SEA
W @ KC
L PIT
L @ CIN

That would give them 9-7. If they do worse than that, that's fine by me.

BTW I saw this following post on a Steelers forum which goes to show how much real estate the Patriots have in the minds of opponents.

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Winning @KC won't be easy.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

That looks about right. The competition in the AFC is so thin I think 8-8 could get someone in the playoffs.

My early assessment is Buffalo and Ravens get WC spots.

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Yes, I agree that there could very well be at least one team who gets a WC spot at 8-8. Definitely at 9-7.

It's fun to try and write some of these teams off, but the reality is that BAL will likely be 3-3 and right back in the wild card race in a couple of weeks.

I gave the -3 points on the road and pushed, so I'm more than happy to have snatched my 50 bucks back from the jaws of defeat.

At one point, I was down 16 with the spread, so I had basically written it off.

After watching the game last night, I can safely say neither Pittsburgh nor Baltimore are going to sniff the playoffs. Last night's game seemed like both teams were trying to lose.

The Steelers are nothing without the rapist. Vick is awful. Geno Smith awful. They gave him easy throws all night and he still had problems hitting them. Mike Tomlin may be the worst coach to ever get a Super Bowl ring. I mean Barry Switzer is a genius compared to him.

The Ravens were gift wrapped this game all night and they needed to go to overtime to get it done. The Steelers have an awful defense with a mediocre pass rush. Yet they sacked Flacco five times. Flacco needs a deep threat to be remotely effective and his only one had knee surgery yesterday and now he may have lost two more receiving weapons for a while. And Mark Trestman is the worst offensive coordinator in the league. If they can barely beat the Steelers without Roethlisberger, they are going to struggle to get 6-7 wins this season.

I don't see either of these teams sniffing the playoffs. The Steelers might have if Roethlisberger was healthy, but they could have 6-7 losses by the time he gets back in 4-5 weeks. I can't see the Ravens beating any good team. The Bengals may wrap up the division by the end of November.

Watching John Harbaby and Mike Triplin coach that game last night makes me thing that maybe the Pats should forfeit their 1st round pick every year. It just isn't fair the way it stands now.

strngplyr said:

It's nuts that people thank Brady for ALL of BB's success yet everything BB does is categorized as "revolutionary", which is it, media/opposing fans? It can't only be because of Brady while everything BB does is successfully reinventing the wheel.

Maybe they've both two of the best ever and it's been the NFL's most successful marriage of talent ever.

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Whatever the answer is it is a nice "what if" kind of conversation to have.

Imagine a "what if it wasn't wide right?" conversation.

varjao said:

We should be glad to have Josh McD as OC, the playcalling was absolutely awful tonight for both teams, Mark Trestman does not belong to this league.

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It was unbelievable how much they pared down the playbook for Vick last night. The guy is truly dumb. I can't believe that through 3 games and through the entire preseason he still doesn't know **** when it comes to the playbook.

Even more baffling is why the Steelers even signed him in the first place- they are usually a solid, smart organization.

Gronkowski123 said:

good, it will be nice to end baltimore's season once again. brady will shred them with our empty sets. webb/jimmy smith..all garbage.

...btw tomlin sucks. wonder who he'll blame this time???? the headsets??
thank god we have bill as the coach.

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I am beginning to think that there is something to the idea that complaining about the other team undermines your own.

Pretty fun watching both teams trying to give the game away last night. Can't believe the Steelers didn't get rid of their kicker after opening night against us! I wish the Steelers won as they are going no where fast with Vick. Their boards must be exploding this morning with all the dumb decisions by Tomlin. And the Ravens must be feeling all confident even though they stunk up the joint and only won because the other team handed the game to them on a silver platter.