NFL 2013-14 Playoff thread
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woody39
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To be fair they have been under constant pressure all game, offense has not helped them at all its been up to the Defense to keep the Chargers in the game.
Plus they lost Manti Teo for the second half and we all know how great he is......
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On a serious note, how is Ken Wisenhunt so sought after as an offensive coordinator, after this anemic performance on offense who would want him. I know Denver are a good team but bloody hell making them look brilliant.
Now a long completion to Allen, why didn't they take some risks downfield earlier before it was too late, open up the run game earlier!
Plus they lost Manti Teo for the second half and we all know how great he is......
.On a serious note, how is Ken Wisenhunt so sought after as an offensive coordinator, after this anemic performance on offense who would want him. I know Denver are a good team but bloody hell making them look brilliant.
Now a long completion to Allen, why didn't they take some risks downfield earlier before it was too late, open up the run game earlier!
MetalHed
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At least we know NE can beat Denver.
well, at least in the AFC championship game there will be 5 White receivers, 4 of them starters. I wonder when the last time that happened. Welker should have about 29 more yards with that Pi but oh well, actually both sides have been playing dirty. Mugging Welker and Decker, and on the other side they have been roughing up Woodhead, started well before that facemask grab.
As far as Weddle, I think I have heard his name said about 30 times today, mostly for plays that he had nothing to do with, then the other safety messes up on a key play and they just say "the safety missed that one". They have had Weddle lined up on the outside, sometimes covering Julius Thomas and in those situations he pretty much held him in check and the announcers were confused like "I thought we were going to see more out of Julius Thomas today because they like to move him around to see how the defenses react"
Old Scratch
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Denver has Peyton Manning, Eric Decker and Wes Welker. Does it really matter that much from a caste perspective that they don't have an all white offensive line?
woody39
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Hopefully we can again, Amendola and Edelman should have a ball against their linebackers if they can find holes in the coverage. Fingers crossed!!
dwfs won't notice, so I don't have a problem. Its not like they will see it and go "we need a bunch of sumos". Now if a White runningback were to put up big numbers behind a mostly sumo line, then they would take notice, because the line would be getting the credit.
all of the White wrs will get downplayed somehow, w NE its some sort of magical system, w Denver its "all Manning", but that didn't stop Wayne and Harrison from getting credit all of those years, even when Harrison dissapeared in pretty much every postseason game, except for 1, a wildcard against Denver where he got his only tds (2) in 16 postseason games and his only 100 yard game. A White guy with his skillset and size (6 ft 175) would have been lucky to play in the slot.
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The Hock
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Well well well. Might we have a new football game here?
davidholly
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No, I just thought all the European CFers were posted primarily in soccer.
woody39
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3rd and 17 if they stop here reckon they will score and send into overtime!
o spoke too soon Julius Thomas with the first down!
foobar75
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Wilson is not a prick like Kaepernick or sCam from what I've been able to gather. He doesn't do any silly antics or celebrations on the field like the other 2. Apparently, he's also pretty low-key off the field, arrives at the facility at 6am before anyone else and does volunteer work in the community.
But ultimately he's an above average QB being hyped as elite, which isn't even close. He also plays for a team whose coach, fans, and a good chunk of its players are the most loathsome in the league.
You know it's truly sad when we're left with trying to decide the lesser of two evils between Seattle and SF. At this point, we should analyze which team would be a better match-up for either DEN or NE at the SB.
if Woodhead is out then I really don't care about them coming back.
woody39
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A few of us lurking around here in the Football section i think bud.
Getting carried away wanting the chargers to come back when really from a caste perspective guess should be wanting Denver to win. From a selfish Pats fan perspective would rather face the Chargers next week lol!
Probably SF, Seattle's dbs hold and interfere too much and rarely get called for it, against White receivers I am sure it will be called even less.
There was an article about this, Seattle's secondary playing the odds, knowing that the refs are only going to call so many penalties for the same thing so they continue to do it and it might result in 5 or 6 calls at the most.
Both ESPN analyst Trent Dilferand an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal pointed out this week that Seattle pushes the envelope as far as possible when it comes to interfering with receivers -- playing the odds that officials won't throw an abundance of flags.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-have-perfected-the-art-of-pass-interference/
So what’s the secret of the Seattle Seahawks?
They cheat.
Not in a Spygate way or with any other secret methods. As explained by Kevin Clark and Jonathan Clegg of the Wall Street Journal, the Seahawks engage in blatant pass interference on a regular basis, accepting that a penalty will be called from time to time but realizing that the officials won’t call it every time.
“If you think they’re going to be called and expect that to be the solution to the problem, you’re going to be sadly mistaken,” former Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride told Clark and Clegg. “They’ve perfected the art.”
Gilbride added that the Seahawks engage in pass interference on nearly every passing play.
“They just seem to not care about the rules,” Giants receiver Louis Murphy said.
They surely care, but the Seahawks understand that the officials aren’t inclined to slow the pace of the game to a crawl by throwing flag after flag for interference or defensive holding.
“They look at it and say, ‘We may get called for one but not 10,’” FOX’s Mike Pereira, a former V.P. of officiating, told Clark and Clegg.
The Seahawks' success is widely attributed to the outstanding play of quarterback Russell Wilson and the earsplitting din of CenturyLink Field, their home stadium. Seattle's backbone remains its defense, which led the NFL this season in points allowed and yards allowed (the latter by far). The strategic idea behind that defense is uncommonly aggressive pass coverage.
The Seahawks had the most pass-interference penalties in the league this season—13, or nearly one per game. Defensive pass interference, a spot foul that comes with an automatic first down, is called when a defender impedes a receiver while the ball is in the air. If the ball isn't airborne, grabbing a receiver more than five yards downfield merits a defensive-holding penalty. The Seahawks have 10 of those this season.
There is a certain brilliance to this approach: Since 2001, nine teams have committed 20 or more of these penalties (including this season's Seahawks). None of them had a losing record, and most of them won big.
So many pass-interference plays meant that many more of them went uncalled, choking the life out of opposing offenses in a pass-dependent league—a big advantage for Seattle's physical brand of defense, led by hulking cornerbacks such as 6-foot-3 star Richard Sherman.
The Seahawks didn't respond to requests for comment, but defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said earlier this season that the Seattle coaches educate their players on what type of interference plays are being called around the league.
"We challenge and we play at the line and we like that style," he said.
Expect the no-calls to get worse in the playoffs. This season, NFL officials called 12.2 penalties a game, but in last week's wild-card round, they called 7.8. There has been a 41% drop in postseason penalties since the 2008 playoffs, while in the regular season, penalties are up 8.9% in that time.
Pereira said aggressive pass-coverage teams like Seattle "test" referees early in the game with a few potentially obvious pass-interference infractions. "They want to see what kind of tone the officials are going to set," he said, adding that he expects to see a couple of penalties called but also the usual brand of Seahawks grabbing.
Game-film analysis reveals plenty of instances in which more penalties could have been called. Facing a third-and-10 on the first possession of their Week 5 matchup with Seattle, the Indianapolis Colts called for a pass to star receiver Reggie Wayne. As soon as the ball was snapped, Wayne was engulfed in a bear hug by Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner, who proceeded to grab the Colts receiver by his shoulder pads, spin him around and force Andrew Luck's pass to fall incomplete.
The Seahawks' defense adopted a similar strategy early in a Week 8 victory over the St. Louis Rams. On their opening drive, the Rams faced a third-and-6 from their own 38. Rams receiver Tavon Austin ran a short curl route and was immediately clobbered by Seahawks safety Earl Thomas. There was only one problem: The ball hadn't even left the quarterback's hand. Kellen Clemens threw the pass anyway, Austin's arms were pinned to his sides and the Rams were forced to punt.
Former Seahawks quarterback Brock Huard, now a radio host for ESPN Radio in Seattle, said the contact between receivers and the Seahawks' defensive backs forces offenses to change their entire game plan. For instance, basic routes like the skinny post, on which a receiver bounces slightly toward the middle of the field (in the direction of the goal post), must be scrapped because receivers can't accelerate fast enough after contact.
Even if the receivers do get to full speed, the long arms of defensive backs such as Sherman simply poke the ball away if a pass is anywhere near them. That goes for "vertical" routes, too, the straight-ahead patterns that are a favorite of the Saints, the Seahawks' opponent Saturday.
Former Seahawks quarterback Warren Moon said the only way to combat the grabby defensive backs is by running plenty of slant-and-go routes and other patterns that involve receivers making cuts. The idea is to get the defense's big cornerbacks on the move and hamper their ability to get their hands on a receiver.
Waiting for the officials to save you isn't a strategy. "If you think they're going to be called and expect that to be the solution to the problem, you're going to be sadly mistaken," said former Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, who said the Seahawks' persistent interference happens on nearly every play. "They've perfected the art."
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Hip hip hooray for the Broncos! :rockon:
woody39
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Yeah Wilson seems like a decent bloke unlike Kaepernick and Newton and seems to have some talent, would much rather face Kaepernick by far in the superbowl as a Pats fan, think he could blow up under pressure, think Wilson could hold his team together and Lynch and the defense are annoyingly dangerous.
Old Scratch
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I'm rooting for Peyton to get another ring, this time with another team, and for Welker to win his first Super Bowl. It would be great to see Peyton cap off his historic season with the Lombardi trophy and to cement his legacy as the greatest QB of all time.
I wouldn't be upset if the Patriots win the Super Bowl though, of course.
I wouldn't be upset if the Patriots win the Super Bowl though, of course.
It does matter that they only have 4 white starters.
foobar75
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It's rare, but I think we have the top 4 teams left. It seems each year a lower seeded team gets hot all the way to the SB, but not this year. SF is a #5 seed, but in reality they're the 2nd best team in the NFC behind Seattle.
It should be an epic AFC title game in Denver.
It should be an epic AFC title game in Denver.
I think the Super Bowl is going to be epic from a cast perspective.
It will be old style QB - smart, pocket passer - Manning or Brady; vs. the much hyped new style QB - mobile, 'athletic', and black (or at least half black) - Kapernick or Wilson.
From a caste perspective it could be horrendous watershed moment if the Broncos or Patriots lose.
Regardless of how well or how poorly any of the QBs play, if the old style QB loses, the new style QB will be celebrated and a 'new era' will officially be proclaimed.
A very dangerous and epic Super Bowl awaits us.
It will be old style QB - smart, pocket passer - Manning or Brady; vs. the much hyped new style QB - mobile, 'athletic', and black (or at least half black) - Kapernick or Wilson.
From a caste perspective it could be horrendous watershed moment if the Broncos or Patriots lose.
Regardless of how well or how poorly any of the QBs play, if the old style QB loses, the new style QB will be celebrated and a 'new era' will officially be proclaimed.
A very dangerous and epic Super Bowl awaits us.
While the NFC was a complete train wreck, the AFC couldn't have concluded any better, even if the white players weren't the featured performers of the wildcard or divisional games.
woody39
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Got to be Brady over Manning for all time greatest surely, guess we will find out next Sunday, see if Brady goes to his 6th Superbowl. Got to be no.12!!
Old Scratch
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So what? Two of them are prominent receivers and one of them is arguably the greatest QB ever. Patriots only really trump them with their OLine, and the two defensive players (Fletcher didn't see much action despite starting and Chris Jones is an octoroon). Gronk is out, Collie is not used, and they have exclusively black RBs too.
Old Scratch
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How, Super Bowl appearances and wins? Does the fact that Brady has had by far much better defenses his whole career not play a factor? Manning was handicapped with Tampa 2 defenses and mannequins on the sideline when he was a Colt.
woody39
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To be fair as a Pats fan i'm always gonna say Brady, I don't think there is much in it, Manning's regular season record is second to none and the way he has come back from his neck injury the past two years has been amazing. They are both brilliant quarterbacks.