Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
...right?
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DSB Moderator
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"In the best relationships, nobody wears the pants."
Liberal Arts Major
In general terms, the Jets got worse as the season went on while the Patriots started dominating their opponents after donating a win to Cleveland. But, I mean, the Jets followed up their loss to the Pats with a loss to Miami, so it looks like it might just be a cohesion thing with the Jets. So, coming off a win, I'd give the Jets a reasonable shot. Also, I don't think we can put that much stock in the Patriots' games against Jay Cutler and a Rodgers-less GB, which are their only two other eye-opening victories, so who knows what they'll put together in the postseason? Brady's receiving corp is pretty terrible.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Provisional
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LMAO he ain't my lover I'm not into guys -Tengu
Advanced
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I like my women like I like my chicken with just a little bit of fat on the end. Not to much and not to little just enough to make me grin,make me grin,make me grin, SING YOU BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!-Rodney Carrington's chicken song
Provisional
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LMAO he ain't my lover I'm not into guys -Tengu
Liberal Arts Major
haters gonna hate
Heres a tip,FOOTBALL SUCKS ASS PERIOD
I believe what you meant to say was FUCK YEAH, FOOTBALL !!
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
Personally, my opinion is that the Jets are just completely inconsistent. Some games they seem to actually show up in and do well, and then... there are the games where I wonder how they're above .500.
In that sense, I don't think it was so much that the Jets "got worse" towards the end of the season, so much as it was the "bad" games happened against opponents they couldn't get away with it. I mean, earlier in the season, they could kind of evade it by having it happen against teams like the Broncos, Browns, and Lions - and they could still manage to win so people are less quick to call it "bad" - I mean, hey, they won! But towards the end of the season, it started happening against teams like the Patriots and Bears... and uh... those aren't the kind of teams you can typically win against like that.
So, coming off a win, I'd give the Jets a reasonable shot.
Depends which Jets team shows up. If the offense, defense, and special teams all show up for a game, I think they very much can win. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can remember a game where all 3 have. Usually it's 2 at best (and typically it's the offense that decides it's not coming - although at Chicago it was uncharacteristically the defense.)
Also, I don't think we can put that much stock in the Patriots' games against Jay Cutler and a Rodgers-less GB, which are their only two other eye-opening victories, so who knows what they'll put together in the postseason? Brady's receiving corp is pretty terrible.
Oh, yeah, I have no problems - however grudgingly, admitting the Patriots should be viewed as the favorites to win the Super Bowl. But I also don't think they're nearly as good as you'd think if you just looked at the scores of the second game against the Jets, or the Bears and that was all. The Patriots are good, but if you look at those two games, they have to look practically invincible, and I don't believe that for a second.
Also, since the Colts and Eagles are both out, if the Jets lose, I'm going to have to start backing the Seahawks to just dominate the entire playoffs!
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Liberal Arts Major
Well, that may be so, but let's look at their bigger losses/games early and compare them to their losses to NE, Miami, and Chicago:
Baltimore - The offense completely falls apart and the defense has to struggle to hold Baltimore to one touchdown. Baltimore gets three turnovers and all the Jets can do is kick field goals. Meanwhile, they get 14 penalties for 125 yards. This is pretty ugly, but I think it's something of a credit to the defense, which managed to do reasonably well (minus that one PI call on the Ravens touchdown drive) despite a deck stacked against them.
NE - Admittedly, the Jets got a lot of help in the way of turnovers this game, but they also managed to keep down the penalties (6 for 58 yards) and Sanchez threw three TDs with no turnovers of his own.
GB - Some questionable calls muddle the picture, but the Jets offense just piled on the mistakes, from turnovers to penalties (7 for 55 yards), and still their defense managed to hold Rodgers and GB to 156 yards passing and no touchdowns.
NE Again - Penalties (4 for 56 yards) and turnovers are the story again. The offense didn't do anything - do we see a pattern? - and the defense gave up 405 yards. The Jets gave up nearly twice as many yards per rush (3.9 vs. 2.6) or pass (10.5 vs. 6.6) this time around.
Miami - For once, penalties weren't really a big difference-maker, since both teams screwed the pooch. The Jets defense destroyed the Dolphins here: six first downs and 131 total yards, coupled with three fumbles and a shutout in the second half. If it weren't for a fumble, Miami wouldn't have had much of a chance at scoring in this game. Too bad their offense did nothing.
Chicago - The offense actually got going this time around, but that didn't matter much because the defense did about as bad as they did against New England: Chicago had 322 total yards, five touchdowns, and 8.1 yards per pass/4.4 yards per rush.
This is certainly a cursory examination, but assuming the wins over teams like Minnesota count as gimmes of little interest (though those overtime games against the Lions and Browns are perhaps worthy of some inspection), the pattern that emerges is that the offense has been pretty bad against competent teams all season long while the defense started off by posting a bunch of impressive performances against the likes of Flacco and Rodgers then later in the season fell apart when faced with a good passing game. Not to mention apparently the biggest problem they've had all season: penalties (consistently losing more yardage than their opposition) and turnovers. Had the beginning-season defense shown up in the Bears and Patriots games, they would have beaten the Bears and posted a much less humiliating loss against the Patriots.
Depends which Jets team shows up. If the offense, defense, and special teams all show up for a game, I think they very much can win. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can remember a game where all 3 have. Usually it's 2 at best (and typically it's the offense that decides it's not coming - although at Chicago it was uncharacteristically the defense.)
If they play an uncharacteristically clean game and manage to put together a defensive performance like in the Miami or GB games (i.e. making the Patriots offense as bad as the Jets offense), their offense doesn't need to do much more than keep pace to make it a special teams oriented game. Hell, even a great performance by Sanchez might be enough considering how bad the Pats are against the pass.
Oh, yeah, I have no problems - however grudgingly, admitting the Patriots should be viewed as the favorites to win the Super Bowl. But I also don't think they're nearly as good as you'd think if you just looked at the scores of the second game against the Jets, or the Bears and that was all. The Patriots are good, but if you look at those two games, they have to look practically invincible, and I don't believe that for a second.
I don't think their defense can beat a healthy Aaron Rodgers-led GB and I think the Ravens can slow the passing game enough to make it a game. Everyone else, I don't really know what to say. The Pats have only played two bad games all season, and they're not exactly playing with the best offensive tools ever, so it's hard to tell what their weaknesses are offensively, but I think their games against the Ravens and Chargers are typical of what we can expect from them in the playoffs. They're not unbeatable, but they certainly know how to win.
Also, since the Colts and Eagles are both out, if the Jets lose, I'm going to have to start backing the Seahawks to just dominate the entire playoffs!
By the time they would get to the Superbowl, they'd have a winning record. Then nobody can stop them!
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
Oh, absolutely, the story of the Jets' bad games (which includes a few wins too) can typically be summarized as "Offenses, how do they work?"
At Chicago is probably the most notable exception, as you pointed out. That was more of a case of the defense going, "Wait, the offense is actually doing well? If this keeps up, this could look like a real quality win! Something needs to be done!"
Had the beginning-season defense shown up in the Bears and Patriots games, they would have beaten the Bears and posted a much less humiliating loss against the Patriots.
Yeah. At the Patriots was like... neither the offense or defense showed up. The result was... not pretty.
If they play an uncharacteristically clean game and manage to put together a defensive performance like in the Miami or GB games (i.e. making the Patriots offense as bad as the Jets offense), their offense doesn't need to do much more than keep pace to make it a special teams oriented game.
Welcome to the last two seasons with the Jets. That's basically seemed like the plan so far. Play good enough defense that the offense only needs to be not terrible to win the game. Unfortunately, even this sometimes seems to be too difficult a task for the offense.
Hell, even a great performance by Sanchez might be enough considering how bad the Pats are against the pass.
Which is really risky. Sanchez is also inconsistent. The running game needs to be there for there to be a chance of that, IMO. It's possible Sanchez could have a good game without them, but his history when playing at New England (Admittedly only 2 games, but still) is... not good.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Also I don't think the Falcons are going to lose.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
Only the GREAThawks had a chance to stop the winner of that game.
Admittedly, I was hoping for a Eagles v Falcons NFCCG originally, for the hilarity of it, but once the Eagles lost all aboard the Packers v Seahawks train!
(Seriously though, I always thought the Eagles and Packers were the 2 best NFC Teams, regardless of the records.)
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Of course, I didn't imagine the Falcons would be down 21 points, at home, in the middle of the third quarter, either.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
NFC: Eagles > Packers > Saints > Falcons > Bears > GREAThawks
AFC: Jets (if offense, defense, and special teams show) > Colts > Ravens > Patriots > Jets (if only 2 of the 3 show) > Steelers > Chiefs > Jets (if only 1 or none of them show)
Probably some obvious Jets bias in there, but keep in mind I'm still not sure the Jets have put together such a hypothetical "all 3 show" full game yet. Usually it's the "Only 2 show up" variant.
Although, if you go by those rankings, I think I'd have a losing record predicting the playoffs. (You could argue 3-3, but Jets > Colts was NOT the Jets showing up in all 3 phases of the game. At least, not for the whole game. That first half was not good)
Preferences for winning the Super Bowl as of now:
Jets >>> GREAThawks > Packers >>>>>>>>> Bears > Steelers >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Patriots
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
NFC: Packers >= Falcons >= Eagles > Bears ~= Saints > NFC BEST Champion
AFC: Patriots > Ravens > Steelers > Jets > Colts > Chiefs
Bears and Saints both had significant question marks going into the playoffs: the Bears had, well, Jay Cutler, with an offensive line to match, and the Saints were playing, to paraphrase one of the commentators for their Wild Card game, an "8th string running back" (not to mention Drew Brees was starting to give Eli Manning's interception record a run for its money). The Falcons edged the Eagles because I thought over all they were the more consistent team (which apparently meant consistently awful). The Seahawks, of course, sucked all year, so I gave them no preference, and the Packers have Aaron GODgers. As far as the comparison between the Falcons and Packers goes, I figured any game between them would be a shootout and the edge would go to things like home field advantage. Woops!
For the AFC, the Patriots have looked great all year, so I would have put them out front. The Ravens and Steelers was kind of a tossup, but I went with the Ravens because I thought their defense was the most reliably stifling in the AFC (Buffalo and Houston games notwithstanding), even though their offense is terrible in comparison to the Steelers'. The Jets have significant issues when it comes to getting it together, but they're not worse than the Colts, who are falling apart right before our very eyes. The Chiefs on the other hand had lost every relevant game and were apparently having some trouble with their coaching staff, so they were an easy last place.
So far I think I'm 3-3 in picking teams (I, of course, picked Atlanta despite my ranking), but I'm not sure I'd be any better than 1-5 if I were picking based on the spread (Baltimore-KC would have been an easy one). I apparently had a really bad take on a number of these games, Seahawks aside (GB-Atlanta for starters).
My preferences for the Super Bowl involve a lot of green and blue, but other than that, I'm going to go with "please God don't let Tom Brady get another one", and if the Steelers or Patriots lose to the Seahawks, that would be awesome.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Looks like the Jets and Packers are the only ones I'll be happy with winning at this point. The Bears are barely acceptable on the basis of not being the Steelers and especially not being the Patriots.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Just need to keep up now.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Yeah, they messed up big, but that's nothing new for the Seahawks.
I'm not even entirely sure why the Jets let Folk attempt FGs.
He won them the Wild Card round so I guess the philosophy is "maybe he's a leprechaun".
The Bears are barely acceptable on the basis of not being the Steelers and especially not being the Patriots.
Plus, Jay Cutler is the special needs kid of the NFL, so it would totally make his day.
If the Jets can get it together on offense, they're fully capable of beating the Steelers, so if they win here I'd say an all-green Super Bowl is entirely plausible.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
There's always a silver lining!
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
I was nervous the entire second half, but yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
Steelers are definitely a winnable game (I mean, the Jets did beat them at Pittsburgh in Week 15). The only team I'm really afraid of that's left is the Packers. I know the Jets lost to the Bears, but I can't believe the defense would mess up that badly again - kind of like with the Patriots.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu