OFFICIAL Saturday 1/4/2014 Wild Card games thread

[Joker]

I believe that Manning and his Broncos probably have a very good chance of representing the AFC in the Super Bowl, even if that doesn't come close to guaranteeing them a definite victory. I think we have a chance, but my concern is that we may come up a bit short due to the unfortunate circumstances that the team has had to try and overcome this season.

This all said, do you honestly and seriously believe that the NFL is fixed on some level? It seems like you are insinuating that in so many words.

Again, I'm not insinuating a "fix!!!!": like some netherwordly mafia/Vegas conspiracy. THAT is exactly what Goodell and his cohorts WANT. I am stating a1s FACT that Harbaugh Bowl was trademarked in February a FULL YEAR before the actual Harbaugh Bowl occurred. This is F-A-C-T. I am asserting that a referee crew ranked at the bottom of the league in officiating all season was suddenly re-evaluated , elevated to the top and given the Super Bowl to officiate. THAT is F-A-C-T. I am saying I and others who took the time , evalauted the post game video of the Super Bowl and discerned over forty clear defensive penalties in the backfield with only ONE CALL all game. I am stating as an eyewitness that Torrey Smith grabbed the SF defender's arms from behind and pulled them back right in front of an official with three minutes left in the half, with no call. 100% clear offensive pass interference giving the Niners field position and at least three points. I am stating as observed FACT that there was clear pass interference that even a two year old coulde see at the end of the game in the end zone. No call. That crew made ONE call all game in the defensive backfields, and that one against SF.

So yes, I believe there is mounting evidence that the NFL is steering matchups toward favorable outcomes. I believe that the constant cry of "can't be!!! takes too many to fix games!!!" is a deliberate canard foisted on the public to hide the fact that the league, the advertisers and the networks are in collusion with the ultimate aim of constructing revenue streams that DWARF any kind of classical "fix" scheme by a QUANTUM factor.

You fix a game you make what, at most a few hundred million? You steer matchups to reap the highest possible return through all the ancillary revenue streams both today and for years down the road? You're talking billions and billions of recurring dollars downstream.

Ray Lewis..goes out a winner...immediately takes his seat in the corporation post game. The story.."Ultimate Salvation!!!"..."The Ray Lewis Redemption!"...buy your Ray Lewis jersey today...only $200...EVERYONE wants one! Flacco sure was a HUGE story last season...all season....they got their use out of him. This year it's Peytie Pope...he wins...the corporation gets richer. Next week's "classic" will showcase the valiant young gunslinger and future face of the league versus the royalty that is Peyton Manning. Manning will get this one...just like Ray Ray got that one. Luck's shot comes next season and the years following...I'm saying it now, just like I said it this afternoon. I'm an old dog and I know a scam when I see one. We, the fans, are nothing but sheep to be fleeced by these corporate oligarchs. The NFL as we knew it ended in 2001.

 

[Joker]

"incidental contact"....

 

[supafly]

Again, I'm not insinuating a "fix!!!!": like some netherwordly mafia/Vegas conspiracy. THAT is exactly what Goodell and his cohorts WANT. I am stating a1s FACT that Harbaugh Bowl was trademarked in February a FULL YEAR before the actual Harbaugh Bowl occurred. This is F-A-C-T. I am asserting that a referee crew ranked at the bottom of the league in officiating all season was suddenly re-evaluated , elevated to the top and given the Super Bowl to officiate. THAT is F-A-C-T. I am saying I and others who took the time , evalauted the post game video of the Super Bowl and discerned over forty clear defensive penalties in the backfield with only ONE CALL all game. I am stating as an eyewitness that Torrey Smith grabbed the SF defender's arms from behind and pulled them back right in front of an official with three minutes left in the half, with no call. 100% clear offensive pass interference giving the Niners field position and at least three points. I am stating as observed FACT that there was clear pass interference that even a two year old coulde see at the end of the game in the end zone. No call. That crew made ONE call all game in the defensive backfields, and that one against SF.

So yes, I believe there is mounting evidence that the NFL is steering matchups toward favorable outcomes. I believe that the constant cry of "can't be!!! takes too many to fix games!!!" is a deliberate canard foisted on the public to hide the fact that the league, the advertisers and the networks are in collusion with the ultimate aim of constructing revenue streams that DWARF any kind of classical "fix" scheme by a QUANTUM factor.

You fix a game you make what, at most a few hundred million? You steer matchups to reap the highest possible return through all the ancillary revenue streams both today and for years down the road? You're talking billions and billions of recurring dollars downstream.

Ray Lewis..goes out a winner...immediately takes his seat in the corporation post game. The story.."Ultimate Salvation!!!"..."The Ray Lewis Redemption!"...buy your Ray Lewis jersey today...only $200...EVERYONE wants one! Flacco sure was a HUGE story last season...all season....they got their use out of him. This year it's Peytie Pope...he wins...the corporation gets richer. Next week's "classic" will showcase the valiant young gunslinger and future face of the league versus the royalty that is Peyton Manning. Manning will get this one...just like Ray Ray got that one. Luck's shot comes next season and the years following...I'm saying it now, just like I said it this afternoon. I'm an old dog and I know a scam when I see one. We, the fans, are nothing but sheep to be fleeced by these corporate oligarchs. The NFL as we knew it ended in 2001.

Just for the record, I'm not meaning to poke a bear, disrespect you, or piss you off in any way by asking.

I'm not 100% certain that I necessarily agree with everything you've said, but you definitely make some very reasonable points at times, and that's just what I was interested in hearing more of. Certainly food for thought. Thanks.

 

[Joker]

Just for the record, I'm not meaning to poke a bear, disrespect you, or piss you off in any way by asking.

I'm not 100% certain that I necessarily agree with everything you've said, but you definitely make some very reasonable points at times, and that's just what I was interested in hearing more of. Certainly food for thought. Thanks.

Look, I realize Im a lonely voice in the wilderness.....no one, and I mean NO ONE wants to believe our sport has been co-opted for ANY reason. All I'm saying is EVERY facet of American society has been corrupted at some point...every institution across the board...and the corrupter is usually money. Woodward and Bernstein were considered flakes for running down the Watergate story...until the whole sordid corrupt underbelly was ripped open and brought out into the light.

 

[supafly]

Look, I realize Im a lonely voice in the wilderness.....no one, and I mean NO ONE wants to believe our sport has been co-opted for ANY reason. All I'm saying is EVERY facet of American society has been corrupted at some point...every institution across the board...and the corrupter is usually money. Woodward and Bernstein were considered flakes for running down the Watergate story...until the whole sordid corrupt underbelly was ripped open and brought out into the light.

I'm not being sarcastic in the least.

I honestly believe that you made some very good points worth pondering, and there's certainly some things that make sense about it.

I haven't given it too much thought due to some of the reasoning in your opening sentence or two about no one wanting to believe it, but it's something that I'm going to think about a bit more moving forward.

 

[Bhelmet]

The NFL as we knew it ended in 2001.

I have my questions and doubts about ALL sports, not just the NFL - although it seems to be making quicker and quicker strides in that direction. This year was an absolute joke - so tweak here and tweak there - the sheep will be happy. Decrease the amount of bad calls and it looks like it is getting better - who cares about the timing, situation, or affect beyond the outcome of that particular game. 2013 will then be called an anomaly.

Anyway, why do you say 2001? I am just curious not debating.

 

[doesntmatter1]

Joker isn't crazy whatsoever. I want to believe everything is on the up and up, but the league does have its favorites and sometimes the inconsistency of the refs have to make you wonder. I try to ignore it myself(ignorance truly is bliss), but I will always feel screwed when it comes to the 06 afccg.

Now about the games on Saturday. I feel bad for Chiefs fans. Yes they lost people but they just played ridiculously dumb defense(Hilton isnt Megatron) and still had a chance to win if Bowe gets his left foot inbounds. Saints and Eagles were very even but I felt that the Saints deserved the win. If the Saints didn't lose cb Keenan Lewis, Desean Jackson would have remained shutout and the score would have reflected that.

Overall, I enjoyed both games and am hoping for more of the same from the upcoming ones. Go Pats.

 

[mosi]

Joker isn't crazy whatsoever.

Now about the games on Saturday. I feel bad for Chiefs fans. Yes they lost people but they just played ridiculously dumb defense(Hilton isnt Megatron) and still had a chance to win if Bowe gets his left foot inbounds.

Yup. KC played terrible defense with terrible coaching. At the end, Harrison was just pissed as hell that any team would play defense like that. The big criticism of Reid in Philly was his poor clock management and his inability to make adjustments. You saw that in spades last night.

 

[Nunchucks]

Yup. KC played terrible defense with terrible coaching. At the end, Harrison was just pissed as hell that any team would play defense like that. The big criticism of Reid in Philly was his poor clock management and his inability to make adjustments. You saw that in spades last night.

The game turned when flowers went out. That was exactly when their defense turned to crap. Lose your best corner and it is hard to compete

 

[Triumph]

The game turned when flowers went out. That was exactly when their defense turned to crap. Lose your best corner and it is hard to compete

All the more reason for KC to run the ball and burn clock. Dont put your defense back out there by limiting its exposure.

Reid is so fixated on looking at his "Dennys menu" that he doesnt see the big picture and fails to manage the whole game.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Love Andrew Luck's game, his attitude. If he stays healthy that kid will be in Canton. KC was losing too many players and it was really starting to impact them on the field. BTW raise your hand if you can find the hit - on the 1st play - that took Jamaal Charles out of the entire game?? Not good when TV commentators are saying the same thing. Still looking for that hit...
KC may need to add some toughness along with more defense next season.
Saw less of the Philly/NO game. Glad NO won. Have always liked Brees and Payton. The NO/Seattle game is going to be very very interesting. Seattle has the D but NO has a QB with a lot of experience and one who is playing at a much higher level than Seattle's QB right now. And let's not forget who coaches the C-Hawks.

 

[Rob0729]

Look it's one game. I'm not ready to put Luck in the HOF. He's got a long way to go and many playoff games to win before he earns membership into the Brady-Manning-Montana group...a LONG way to go. But what is up with the clear rationalizing about this game and Luck?? What just happened was a fantastic accomplishment by Luck, no asterisk, parenthesis, small print needed. I don't care if the Chiefs had all their second stringers in (which they didn't). To be down 38 to 10 in the third quarter, in a playoff game, to then score 5 straight touchdowns through the air in the playoffs against an 11 win team including a must have last 5 minutes of the game TD (doing it with arguably a relatively weak receiving group and so-so OL)?? That certainly earns Luck extremely high praise, period.

Of course KC had something to do with the loss. Anytime a team is up that much in the second half and loses, they had a hand in their own loss. You should NEVER lose when you are up 4 TDs in the third quarter and total 44 points in scoring. Denver losing to the Patriots a few weeks ago is another example. Denver had a hand in their own demise too but that doesn't take away from what Brady/Patriots did or justify any Denver fans whining about the Patriots simply getting fortunate. There's a reason why comebacks of this magnitude are rare and almost always done by teams with top line QB's.

I'm not saying that to be an Ahole to you, I don't have any problem with you, I'm just telling you you look like a poor sport (for lack of a better phrase) when you can't just tip your cap to someone (even if you don't like them) when they lead their team to a near all time record playoff comeback (even when it was aided by factors outside of Luck's own efforts such as injuries).

If I look like a poor sport, I was in good company last night. Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, and Dan Patrick all blamed the Chiefs more for the Colts' comeback win than giving Luck and the Colts credit. They said that the Chiefs lost not because of Luck, but because they played like it was a tied game with a 28 point lead by passing the ball and not trying to run down the clock and letting TY Hilton run free with no one covering him when he is most of the Colts' offense.

I saw this more of a Chiefs' collapse than a Colts' insurgence. And I am not alone. The entire NBC crew (and Dungy is a Colts homer) agreed with me.

Luck is a great QB and played great in the second half, but not recognizing the Chiefs' obvious collapse. The Chiefs scored on every one of their six drives for 41 points and only scored three on their last six drives. During the last six drives by the Chiefs, they only had one drive last more than six plays or take longer than three minutes (and that drive was just under 5 minutes). None of that has to do with Luck and played a huge factor in the comeback because the Chiefs' offense kept giving Luck opportunities.

 

[letekro]

I think tonight it was the Chiefs dropping like flies factor more than luck. Luck didn't do much after the first drive until Flowers went out.

Flowers got hurt on the play that the Colts got to 38-24. The comeback was already well underway and Luck already had 242 passing yards at that point--halfway thru the 3rd. Brandon Flowers is a nice player, but we're not talking about the 2009 Darrelle Revis out there. Luck was going over 400 with or without him. I just think Luck deserves a little more credit than you are begrudging him.

 

[Triumph]

Andy Luck looks like hes Amish. Give him a rake and straw hat and he would blend right in.

I swear that I saw Andy Reid tethered down so the wind wouldnt blow him away in someone front yard this past Holiday season.

The Colts are going anywhere but back home after the next game. KC hung over 500 yards of offense on that porous defense without Jamal Charles. For KC, Rex Ryans defense didnt look that good to me. KC was a fraud anyway. The only team that they beat with a winning record was Philly. They lost to every good QB: Manning x 2, Rivers x 2, Luck x 2.

Is there any player that Mike Mayock just doesnt drool over? Mayocks man love is like Jon Grudens on steroids.

 

[Rob0729]

Flowers got hurt on the play that the Colts got to 38-24. The comeback was already well underway and Luck already had 242 passing yards at that point--halfway thru the 3rd. Brandon Flowers is a nice player, but we're not talking about the 2009 Darrelle Revis out there. Luck was going over 400 with or without him. I just think Luck deserves a little more credit than you are begrudging him.

Maybe I am wrong about Flowers, but injuries played a huge part on the comeback especially to Jamaal Charles. The Chiefs' offense couldn't stay on the field in the second half when they needed to just run out the clock.

As I said in my last post, they had only one drive where they were on the field for more than 3 minutes of clock time. Luck couldn't have made a comeback if the Chiefs could have mounted several 5-7 minute drives even if they didn't lead to points.

 

[letekro]

Maybe I am wrong about Flowers, but injuries played a huge part on the comeback especially to Jamaal Charles. The Chiefs' offense couldn't stay on the field in the second half when they needed to just run out the clock.

As I said in my last post, they had only one drive where they were on the field for more than 3 minutes of clock time. Luck couldn't have made a comeback if the Chiefs could have mounted several 5-7 minute drives even if they didn't lead to points.

Fair enough. Maybe the Colts wouldn't have been able to come back if Charles were healthy, but he wasn't, the Chiefs still put up 44, and Luck made all the plays necessary to come back from 28 IN THE SECOND HALF and win by 1. Saying Luck didn't do much is like saying Frank Reich didn't do much against the Oilers in his great comeback, the Oilers just imploded.

 

[Rob0729]

Fair enough. Maybe the Colts wouldn't have been able to come back if Charles were healthy, but he wasn't, the Chiefs still put up 44, and Luck made all the plays necessary to come back from 28 IN THE SECOND HALF and win by 1. Saying Luck didn't do much is like saying Frank Reich didn't do much against the Oilers in his great comeback, the Oilers just imploded.

I said Luck played incredibly in the second half, but there is more to the comeback than he just turned it on. I still think if you want to say which is more responsible it is the Chiefs imploding. You talk about the 28 points in the second half by Lick, but you seem to ignore that KC scored 38 points the first 32 minutes of the game and only 6 the last 28 minutes.

 

[letekro]

I said Luck played incredibly in the second half, but there is more to the comeback than he just turned it on. I still think if you want to say which is more responsible it is the Chiefs imploding. You talk about the 28 points in the second half by Lick, but you seem to ignore that KC scored 38 points the first 32 minutes of the game and only 6 the last 28 minutes.

OK, but in your world, (presumably, unless Brady is involved), no comeback is ever impressive. If you are down 28 and the other team keeps scoring, you will never come back. Huge comebacks can only happen because the team way behind scores a lot and the team way ahead scores none or very little.

 

[Rob0729]

OK, but in your world, (presumably, unless Brady is involved), no comeback is ever impressive. If you are down 28 and the other team keeps scoring, you will never come back. Huge comebacks can only happen because the team way behind scores a lot and the team way ahead scores none or very little.

Never said that. I am saying you can't put all the comeback on Luck. If you want to give credit to the Colts' defense, fine (although I thought they aren't very good). But a QB cannot erase a 28 point deficit like that alone.

I say if you give the reasons why the Colts came back and won, the Chiefs' implosion was more the reason than Luck. You are talking about a team in the Chiefs that scored on every drive in the first half and the first drive in the second half for 38 points and then only scored two more time (two field goals) the entire game. I can't see that being all the Colts stepping up.

The Colts had to score the points to get the win. That is impressive. That isn't my point.

My point is that they could let Alex Smith without Jamaal Charles look like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning and amass a 28 point lead makes me not fear the Colts. If the Pats got a 28 point lead in the second half, they would be feeding the Colts a heavy dose of Ridley and Blount and mounting 5-7 minute drives to keep the ball out of Luck's hands so he couldn't mount a comeback. The Chiefs didn't have Charles and decided to keep passing which stalled drives quickly.