NFL playoffs

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:03 pm

Orioles wrote:I am glad St. Louis didn't get stuck with the bill, but the point is the NFL allowed Kroenke to extort the city. Teams do this all the time to their cities without significant intentions on leaving. The NFL is making it easy for owners to do it since they apparently have no problem ignoring all their own by-laws to push an agenda. So that list of cities I posted above? Next time your owner comes to your city saying "Buy us a mega stadium or we're leaving.", the city won't have much of a choice if they want to keep the team.

Only partly true. The team needs to have a viable alternative for a destination. As a Pats fan, there are very few markets where Bob Kraft could go and make more money. That's why he ultimately ponied up his own money to build his own stadium in Foxboro, rather than move into a publicly funded stadium in Connecticut. That all four major sports in Boston play in privately built venues is something I've always been pretty pleased with.
Kroenke didn't extort St Louis. He left it. He left because staying was not good business.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:05 pm

Padres wrote:
Orioles wrote:Here's a list of markets smaller than St. Louis with teams:
Baltimore, Denver, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Nashville, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Buffalo

Do not get your point...
What metric are you using to say Denver is a smaller market than St Louis? Denver has a population of 800k+, St Louis is 300k+. Denver is the #17 media market according to Nielsen, St Louis is #21.

Many of those cities would be at serious risk of losing their teams if they had stadium issues (Hell, several of them have already had that problem). Some of them have the advantage of being prosperous cities that are growing at a healthy or better rate (Denver and Nashville are both prosperous with strong economic growth). Others are in the same boat as St Louis and are not (Cincinnati, Cleveland and Indianapolis spring to mind) but they have venues that are new enough or have better leases.

Metro size

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:12 pm

The Rams sold out every game from 2000-2006, yet Stan admitted he's been planning this since 2002. He knew more money could be made in LA so he ran his team into the shitter for 10+ years to make a situation to allow a move. Stan can burn in hell and Roger Goodell can follow him there while his lips are still around Stan's 2 inch wrinkly dick.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:48 pm

Orioles wrote:The Rams sold out every game from 2000-2006, yet Stan admitted he's been planning this since 2002. He knew more money could be made in LA so he ran his team into the shitter for 10+ years to make a situation to allow a move. Stan can burn in hell and Roger Goodell can follow him there while his lips are still around Stan's 2 inch wrinkly dick.

The "ran the team into the shitter" comment is shortsighted. For one, Kroenke didn't need to make the team stink. Kroenke got out of the lease because St Louis hasn't been maintaining the stadium. It has been one of the worst places in the NFL to play for years. Second, in the NFL, even bad teams still regularly sell out their games (Jacksonville is far worse as a team and regularly outsells the Rams). St Louis is a small city that is extremely baseball-first. Make all the excuses you want, but the only ones who screwed over St Louis on this are the folks of St Louis.

Metropolitan area doesn't mean much. It basically reaches out as far as the city says they want it to. Nielsen Media markets are a much better gauge to look at. But if you want to play that particular game, then Denver metro has likely already passed St Louis metro in population assuming the 2010-2014 growth trends continued through 2015. The only top 20 Metro area growing more slowly than St Louis is Detroit. In fact, 2015 numbers may show St Louis dropping out of the top 20.

By the way, you can probably add Detroit to the list of cities that could lose their team without a publicly funded stadium. If that city doesn't turn things around, I'd bet money on the team leaving when their lease is up no matter how much public money is put into the next one.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:42 pm

It's a shame you aren't this active during the season and we have to mull over kicking you out repeatedly

Giants · Post by **Giants** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 1:32 am

As long as the Ford's own the team they aren't leaving Detroit.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 4:28 pm

Cardinals wrote:It's a shame you aren't this active during the season and we have to mull over kicking you out repeatedly

If I was this active during the season you'd be whining to get me kicked for talking trash by early May.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 4:45 pm

The Pats look like a completely different team on that first drive than they have lately.
That's not Landry Jones out there.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 5:38 pm

That hit by Amendola was just baffling. So stupid and dirty. Just embarrassing.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:39 pm

Great day of football...

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 12:55 pm

Padres wrote:Weekend Picks:
NE over KC - I'd be worried about this game except for two things. One, Alex Smith is the KC QB. Two, Andy Reid is the KC coach. Nobody knows how to blow a game (preferably through clock mismanagement) like Andy Reid. Okay, three things, KC hasn't played against a good QB since Bridgewater in week 6, after which their 'hot' streak coincidentally started.
Seattle over Carolina - Newton gets the MVP, but goes one and done in the playoffs after completing just over 50% of his passes while Wilson gives a clinic on how to be a running QB, rather than a passing RB.
Arizona over GB - My heart says Green Bay, but they're a wreck. This is probably my lock of the week, it won't be pretty.
Denver over Pitt - This is the toughest pick for me. How hurt is Big Ben? If he's reasonably healthy, Pitt pulls this off owing to Kubiak waiting too long to pull the shambling corpse of a trainwreck that is Peyton Manning. If he's not healthy, Manning's nigh disastrous arm won't be enough to cost Denver the game.

NE v. KC - Brady, Edelman, Gronkowski and Andy Reid all came through like clockwork.
Seattle v. Carolina - I blew this one, although Carolina almost did as well.
Arizona v. GB - This game stunk up until the 4th quarter. Craziness.
Denver v. Pitt - I don't know how hurt Big Ben was, but even facing a superior defense with no #1 WR or RD he still looked better than Manning (who had a full two weeks to rest).
So I got 3/4, not bad.

NE over Denver - Coffin, meet the nail. This season, Peyton Manning has thrown 1 TD and 8 INTs at Mile High; Brady on the other hand has 3 TDs and 0 INT at Mile High... without Edelman or Amendola. I know I should worry about this game, but I just can't. Denver has the best defense, but New England's is pretty darn good as well and Denver's offense just can't compare to New England's.

Arizona over Carolina - This was literally a coin flip for me but I have no trouble rooting against a prancing, preening, prima donna like Newton.

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Tue Jan 19, 2016 1:02 pm

Pirates wrote:Patriots over Chiefs - This game is probably closer than I'd like it to be, but Edelman, Vollmer, Hightower and Jones being back makes all the difference in the world.
Broncos over Steelers - A compromised Roethlisberger who can't throw downfield isn't going to do a whole lot.
Panthers over Seahawks - Carolina is the better team this year, but it won't shock me if Seattle eeks this out.
Packers over Cardinals - Upset special.

3 out of 4 for me as well. I almost had the upset... almost.

This week, I'll roll with:

Patriots over Broncos - Chris Harris being hurt is probably a bigger deal than Peyton Manning being crappy at this point. I don't think Denver will be able to score enough touchdowns to keep up.

Panthers over Cardinals - I don't have a good feeling about Carson Palmer. He probably should've been picked off a couple more times on Saturday, and an (almost) west-coast dome team traveling to the east coast to play a road game in the cold... no thanks. Panthers win.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 6:41 pm

Quick recap:

Peyton Manning is 4-1 in AFC title games and has went to the Super Bowl with 4 different head coaches.

Peyton Manning is 3-2 in the playoffs vs Tom Brady

Tom Brady has not beat Peyton Manning in the playoffs since 2004.

The Patriots haven't won a road playoff game in 10 years.

Tom Brady played like shit today and if you pressure him he's a mediocre quarterback.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That is all

Rockies · Post by **Rockies** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 6:55 pm

Cue the Peyton Manning shit talk from the Pats crowd..

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 7:02 pm

Cardinals wrote:Quick recap:

Peyton Manning is 4-1 in AFC title games and has went to the Super Bowl with 4 different head coaches.

Peyton Manning is 3-2 in the playoffs vs Tom Brady

Tom Brady has not beat Peyton Manning in the playoffs since 2004.

The Patriots haven't won a road playoff game in 10 years.

Tom Brady played like shit today and if you pressure him he's a mediocre quarterback.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That is all

I knew we'd hear from Aaron after the game. He didn't say anything beforehand because he had no faith in Manning before the game. He talks a big game after the fact and, as usual, with nothing intelligent to say to boot. Singing Manning's praises after a 17/32 effort with 176 yards against the #10 defense in the NFL... Yeah, Manning REALLY showed something...

Last I looked the Superbowl hasn't been played in Foxboro and I think the Pats won that last year.

As for the Pats game... Ugly, ugly game. Lots of really baffling run calls. It felt like McDaniels was throwing away downs. More than that, it felt like what I saw him do a lot as the Denver HC which was try to prove he was the smartest coach around, rather than trying to actually win the game. Might be time to move on there.
This was also one of the most boring Championship games I've seen. My father in law (a Broncos fan and former Penn state TE) went in the other room to watch golf halfway through. I considered taking a nap during the third quarter. Not a good or exciting game by either team.

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 7:03 pm

Oh, one last recap:
4 rings.
With more to come.

Yankees · Post by **Yankees** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 7:23 pm

Then you better hope that Garroppolo (sp?) is the next Brady, because it was abundantly clear that Brady isn't a full season QB anymore. He looked sluggish, indecisive, and his throws lacked some zip. The rush seemed to really fluster him and make him more indecisive...which is the complete opposite of what a QB needs to be.

Looks like it might be time for Belichick to give a phone call to Popovich for some advice.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 7:35 pm

I prefer not to run my mouth like a jackass until the results are on the board. But I notice that 2 terrible interceptions by Brady (and there were quite a few more that could've been) weren't mentioned by you and that you blamed everyone else. Did Peyton do anything to cost his team the game? Nope. Did Brady? Yep. I did think it was justice that the kicking game finally let Brady down in the playoffs, because the beginning of his postseason heroics were built on barely getting into field goal range, letting Vinatieri do the dirty work and getting all the praise.

Pirates · Post by **Pirates** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 9:20 pm

No offense Z and I am probably the biggest Brady hater than of them all, but...it's hard to say Brady still isn't a top QB. The offensive line was atrocious, Brady rarely gets hit and when you do 20 times (the most by anyone this year) it's hard not to be rattled.

Bottom line - Denver defense looked stellar, manning is sadly hanging on by a thread and was the slightly better team today.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 9:53 pm

All I hear is lots of butthurt

Yankees · Post by **Yankees** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 10:24 pm

Astros wrote:No offense Z and I am probably the biggest Brady hater than of them all, but...it's hard to say Brady still isn't a top QB. The offensive line was atrocious, Brady rarely gets hit and when you do 20 times (the most by anyone this year) it's hard not to be rattled.

Bottom line - Denver defense looked stellar, manning is sadly hanging on by a thread and was the slightly better team today.

Who said Brady wasn't a top QB? I sure as shit didn't. I said I don't think he's a 5-month QB anymore. Big difference. Thought my post was pretty straightforward.

Pirates · Post by **Pirates** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 10:35 pm

You're implying he's not longer a top QB. Someone who "breaks down" at the end of the year is not a top tier player.

Nationals wrote:Then you better hope that Garroppolo (sp?) is the next Brady, because it was abundantly clear that Brady isn't a full season QB anymore.

Yankees · Post by **Yankees** » Sun Jan 24, 2016 10:51 pm

Im saying his time should be managed better, a la a lot of older players. Duncan needs his rest, but when he plays he's still pretty damn efficient.

Brady's still one of the best QB's in the league...he just looked beat up today. Finding Jimmy G 2-4 starts next year would be good for Brady and the Pats.

I think it's pretty common knowledge I'm pretty opinionated. If I thought Brady was shit I'd just say it. Not sure how saying a guy needs a break is code for he's bad. Seems like a bit of an overreach.

Giants · Post by **Giants** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 12:38 am

I believe the issue had to do with Marcus Cannon not being fast enough to stop Von Miller moreso than anything to do with Brady. That Pats O-Line was useless, which shouldn't be surprising given how far down the depth chart they were.

Pirates · Post by **Pirates** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 6:53 am

Seems really bizarre to me to give Brady rest in favor of a guy who has never played a snap in a meaningful game. It's not the NBA where you have the luxury of 82 games and a system that can thrive without some of your better players. As you can see from this game, losing the last game of the year be Miami and home field advantage probably cost them a spot in the SB. Too much is at stake in each game to give players rest