NFL 2008 Season Week 17 Picks

Go Week 17!

You should be able to Christmas tree commentary.

Worst in NFL history? Can the title of MBL be revoked at any point?

Damn Vikings

At least the Patriots and Cowboys didn't get in....

no kidding.

This is it? 3 post kickoff comments?

Congrats to Detroit! You fired your best QB and traded your 2nd best WR by mid season in order to complete the perfect 0-16 season. No point in accidentally winning a game at some point and risk ruining your draft position. Plus with Millen gone and 3 picks from the non-playoff bound Cowboys, I'm sure next year will be your year.

Congrats to Green Bay! You finished 6-10 after hosting the NFC Championship game last year. Except 2 of those wins were against the Lions, so really you went 4-10. Best excuse is that it's still a very young team overall and you sacrificed this year for the following 8 year's of Rodgers NFC North dominance. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Congrats to New York, the Jets! You sold a crap load of merchandise this year. And you kept the Patriots out of the playoffs.

Congrats to Minnesota! Or not. Go Eagles!

Because I'm too lazy to find a more appropriate thread, how about those Badgers eh? Bielema, good coach or about to be totally exposed as the last of Alvarez's recruits leave the program? I'm not sure who thought Florida St. v Wisconsin would be a good match up, but I had this one chalked up as a loss months ago.

My friend got me the shirt in blue for Christmas lol :( http://since57.com

A quarterback who washed out and a rash of injuries. Nothing more.

That's what I said, though most of the people who had something to play for had to watch the game from elsewhere.

The Packers only non-division wins were against the Seahawks and the then-struggling Colts, in weeks 6 and 7. Their only road wins were in Detroit and Seattle.

Though it's not an official stat the Vikings, as a franchise, seem to be trying to set the record for "most seconds to tick off the clock" during times of panicked, indecisive, incompetence that defy all human reasoning abilities.

Still, actually won a game that matters, and NFC North, huzzah!

Once again, to say that the Packers are returning virtually everyone is misleading. Their o-line fell apart during the season, they lost their only legimate run stopper to free agency, they lost one fairly decent pass rusher to mediocracy and eventually cut him. Ryan Grant did not perform well this year, their run defense couldn't stop anyone. Rodgers performed very well and in so many games, had his team ahead in the 4th qtr only to have the defense collapse around him. I really don't think they would have done that much better with Favre. Favre can't stop the run, and neither can Rodgers.

Also, the Packers were the youngest team in the league for the 4th straight year. Alex made a good comment that maybe they sacrificed this year for the next 8. Those that are writing the Packers off for future success ought to keep an eye out. Rodgers in the real deal, Jennings in the real deal, Driver is still the real deal.

Dang, if I had picked the Vikings to win, I would have tied for the regular season picks title.

I hope you love pain...

Not only did Favre lose the game and cost his team a playoff birth, he also got his coach fired: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3797442

Edit: Also, how much has Favre been a thorn to the Patriots in his career? Beat them in a Super Bowl, lost to the Giants who then prevented the 19-0 season, and lost this year to keep them out of the playoffs at 11-5.

And indirectly caused the turnaround of the Dolphins, which are who kept the Pats out.

Finally the Vikings have acomplished something they were expected to do, despite doing everything they can to blow it in the final minute. I think they Eagles will be favored next week, but I would rather face them than the Falcons again.

Green bay had a dissapointing season. Im off the "Favre would have led them to the playoffs thing". Rodgers did well but was unable to make everyone around him better. They need to stop depending on the draft only and improve via free agency or trade. I would expect them to be better next year.

Thank you to the Texans for making me not sweat the end of the Vikings game as much as I wouldhave had the Bears been victorius.

Best story of the year is Miami, for imroving from 1-15 to 11-5. I bet Jason Taylor feels good for demanding a trade to a contender. How about those Redskins at 8-8.

Can't believe the Chargers are in at 8-8 and Pats are out at 11-5. Matt Cassel is going to be rich next year. I think the Pats will resign him because Tom Brady is way behind schedule with his rehab.

I think Peyton Manning should be the MVP, i would make a case for Peterson but the fumbles of late may have cost him.

I'd much rather face the Falcons. We owned them, we just had a season's worth of bad breaks, and still almost won.

As for Favre and the Packers, we've talked about it to death, but only a point there, a point here, I've been toying with making one summation post about it, but I don't know, because on one hand we've talked about it a million times, on the other, we're not the only people on the internet. Suffice to say for now the Rodger's rating when the game mattered was like 30 and the defense only averaged giving up like 20 more YPG then last season, so I don't know if we can let the Packers off so easily, just because the Jets fell apart.

As far as Peterson for MVP, you'd have a pretty tough sell, in my opinion, to even argue he's was the top runningback, let alone MVP. In fact you'd have an argument of whether or not he belongs in the top 5, depending on how big a factor fumbles are to you. I think the #3 back is the highest you could make a case for.

Definitely. Matt and I watched the Vikings, Bears, and Packers games simultaneously so we witnessed the ups and downs throughout. Basically the Vikings playoff chances looked ok for most of the day, one way or the other, so it wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been. I think when the kick went through it was about the same time as the Bears were trying to pull off the second two legs of a score, onside kick, score combo.
I think the Vikings can almost claim that they own Eli Manning. Not David Carr though.



I think I'd rather face them too. For that reason and the fact that the Eagles have played a number of games where they've just lit it up if my memory serves. And although they had their low points, I think Westbrook was missing during at least part of that time and he's what makes the offense move.



I hate to get in the way of someone writing bad things about the Packers, but out of principle I have to argue against the Lions wins not counting. I'm not sure how serious you were about that, but I'll proceed anyway.
Sure the Lions were easy wins, so to speak, but that's what seasons are made of. Tough games, easy games, etc. Games against crappy teams are the rule, not an exception. The Patriots got 6 easy wins last year in their division.



Great line.

And his teammates don't like him: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3804004

I saw that on ESPN.com. It's one thing to be upset with a teammates performance. It's another thing to go to a radio station and blast a teammate for something done on the field. Favre clearly did not perform well down the stretch, but it seems kind of back-stabbing to go and express how selfish you think a player is simply for not performing well. Obviously I do not know the whole story or what may or may not have been said to Favre's face, but I have my doubts that Jones expressed this same sentiment to Favre man-to-man.

Just to make this clear, I don't really care one way or another about this story, I just felt like commenting on it.

It's one of those things we talked about way back when in the Packer days. Favre is given endless credit for "gutting it out" when in reality he's often hurting the team more than helping. People will talk about how Favre "even played though a broken thumb on his trowing hand" and never mention that he "empty handed" every 10th pass attempt because of it.

For whatever reason QBs, and perhaps Favre in particular, are never called out on that kind of stuff. The running backs and wide receivers are sat all the time because whoever their backup is is better than the starter at 70%. QB's on the other hand are tossed out there as long as all their limbs are attached.

Favre's start streak is as much about stubbornness, or no one having the chutzpa to tell him to park it, as it is about always being healthy.

While what Jeremy said may be true to an extent, it's not something a teammate should be reporting to a radio station. Writers can make these claims, and that's their job to do so. But it seems sketchy for a teammate to do something like that.

And honestly, how many players ever in the history of the game have sat themselves when being a little banged up? Name one. So in that since, if indeed Favre is responsible for losing the game and the season with his poor play down the stretch, it should probably be the guy who made the decision to keep him in there who takes the blame as much as the guy who played poorly.

I think it's great that someone other than the media finally had the guts to tell it like it is. Refreshing.

But, did Thomas Jones say the same thing to Favre's face? Or did he say it to a radio host? If he didn't say the same thing to Favre's face, then he's somewhat of a coward. These types of things usually stay in the lockerroom.

Players are a gametime decsions all the time. Some of that is based off of an honest self assesment during warmups

Final decisions typically come from the coaches though, that's the main point. One thing that you may not have thought about is someone of Brett's stature- (supposed) skill level, the ability to rightly (as Jeremy says) assess their readiness, and coaching staff's willingness to allow them to make their own calls.

I blame McCarthy for all of it! (kidding)

This isn't a coherent sentence. I think I know where you were going with this, but really, it made no sense.

Hard to keep it in the lockerroom when only one of the two parties involved takes places in lockerroom activites.

Yeah, it's been a rough morning, but that isn't a good excuse. I'd fix it, but I'm not sure I care to.

Plus it wouldn't accomplish anything to "keep it in the locker room." I dont know that there's anything to accomplish here, but in general that would be the purpose of making your case public.