NFL 2012 Season Week 2 Picks

There are ALOT of teams that won't win if they played like they did last week. I mean it was only week 1

Yea, but if you saw the Packers game, they looked beyond horrible.

AP in the discussion for best RB ever? He's not even on this totally random list I don't understand http://www.rankopedia.com/Best-NFL-Running-Back-Ever/Step1/743/.htm

Fantasy football has made the otherwise totally reliable yahoo answers impossible to search for anything about an NFL player besides "Who should you draft/trade/start for your team?".

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/rb2007
The simple version: DYAR means a running back with more total value. DVOA means a running back with more value per play.
Year DYAR DVOA
2007 4th 7th
2008 17th 22nd
2009 10th 23rd
2010 6th 7th
2011 9th 11th

They have stats back to 1991, Emmitt Smith was first in DYAR in 92, 93, 94, 95, second in 91

I know I'm going to miss the Thursday night game pick at least once this year. Football is for weekends.

You know what I'm doing during tonights Packer game? Learning about childbirth. That's right. Night 2 of 2 of our childbirth class is tonight. So while Rodgers is scrambling for first downs and Matthews is sacking Cutler, I'll be learning about pain tolerance, and breathing, and amniotic sac ruptures. I have the game set to DVR, but I'm not sure if I want to sneak a constant look at my phone to see how it plays out, or if I play the earmuffs game and wait in ignorance until I get home and watch the recorded game with no prior knowledge. The second options takes a lot of will power, of which I have very little.

Also, maybe ESPN/NFL Network is still sour about the whole "It's modern-day slavery" thing.

Now I'm the ScottTime (truely, the only meaningful time period in all of history) leader in wins

So instead of picking my game last night I just made this comment about forgetting to pick games...

Jeremy:
"I'm going to fill this spot of two teams, and a rivalry, that get talked entirely too much about with this: I get where the Vikings stand nationally. I understand they won't be the headliner on most, if any, weeks, especially when paired with the Jaguars. That said, in a week where the best running back that the league has seen, possibly ever, returns from a devastating knee injury in essentially record time to run roughshod over another team, squared against perhaps the second best back, recently off a nationally discussed hold out. In a week where the two teams combine to produce, easily, the most dramatic game. In a week where, the very first example of a new, and big, rule change effecting a game plays out. I shouldn't have to watch the NFL Network/ESPN for an hour and a half before you would even know the Vikings or Jaguars were NFL franchises, let alone what played out. There are only 16 games."

if only I could vote a steamy turd for this comment. Turd this post if you agree.

A few thoughts.

1) I made it the entire night without finding out anything about the game until I got home. So at about 10:00 I started watching the DVR'd game and finished up around 11:30. Not too shabby, although the drama of the fake field goal was ruined by the fact that the DVR didn't respond to me hitting "play" right away, so I saw for a brief moment the Packers running down the field.

2) Tramon Williams had a rough year last year after battling a pinched nerve early on. He never really recovered and played soft the entire season. At least last night, Tramon all but shut down and dominated Brandon Marshall. Hopefully that's a trend.

3) That was one of the best defensive performances I've seen from the Packers in over a year. I know the Bears have some issues with their offensive line, but that doesn't take away from a defense that sacked the QB 7 times, picked off 4 passes, and if it wasn't for a few guys with bricks for hands, they could have had about 3 more ints.

4) There may be some bias to this test since he is 1-7 against the Packers, but I don't think I've noticed more lame duck floater passes thrown by any other QB than Jay Cutler. I swear he lofts 4 or 5 wobblers a game that look they came off the hand of a peewee QB. I'm sure he has a strong arm and all, but there are times where he puts absolutely nothing into a throw and ends up with some of the ugliest looking passes.

5) after two weeks, the Packers are better than the Bears (and by association better than the Colts), but not as good as the 49ers.

6) I changed my pick in the Vikings-Colts game. My initial thought was "both teams aren't that good, and the Vikings barely won at home to the Jaguars". The Colts, however, got pummeled by the Bears who then looked like a high school offense compared to the Packers defense. So the Colts defense must be absolutely terrible if they allowed 42 points to the Bears. Vikings by 14.

That's all for now.

what "rule change" was jeremy referring to?

Overtime

Ah, I just looked up last week's game. Although it would have been more fitting if the vikings kicked the field goal and then lost on an ensuing touchdown, since of course it would be the vikings who would be the first team to get screwed by the "it's not sudden death if the first possession ends in a field goal" rule. But alas, it didn't play out that way.

He played well but they also pretty much double covered Marshall on every play.


After last seasons complete lack of pass rush this was good to see. Particularly when got pressure rushing only 4 or 3.


Kind of like James Jones, Cutler doesn't have 100% focus on every play. The long interception towards Marshall into double coverage basically seemed like Culter said to himself, "meh, @#$# it, I don't care anymore". Meanwhile Rodgers blows a gasket after his interception when they were up by 3 scores with 8 minutes left. That focus and never taking a play off is what separates the talented from the best.

My only other thought is this could have been a much closer game. Marshall should have had caught that ball in the end zone. The Bears had some dumb penalties. So as much as last week was no time to hit the panic button, let's not get too excited about 1 win either.

One funny comment I heard listening to the Scott Van Pelt show on my way home from work yesterday (before the game): he was talking about the Bears offense and if they would match up against the Packers: Sure Cutler's got some nice weapons, but he doesn't have actual weapons. He's not out their wiedling swords (emphasis on the W).

To Alex's very last comment, I agree. The offense, for what ever reason, is not fully in sync. Receivers are dropping what appear to be nicely thrown balls, Rodgers isn't hitting guys perfectly the way he seemed to last year, and so far the offensive line has been shoddy. Particularly the left side of the line, particulary Marshall Newhouse. He got blown up a couple of times last night, and not just ran over. Julius Peppers ran right around him on one play that resulted in a sack and Newhouse barely got a hand on him. I, like Alex (I'm assuming anyway), am withholding judgement thus far. Like I said, all we know right now is the Packers are probably better than the Bears but not quite as good as the 49ers

That list has a guy in a Mets uniform and He Hate Me on it...so.....

I'm not going to lie, I assumed that the Vikings were a little better than that. My assumption (although the transitive property doesn't always work too well in football) was that since the Colts gave up 42 points to the Bears, who then got totally shut down by the Packers, the Vikings should have been able to put up some points against what must obviously be an extremely terrible defense. I apparently underestimated the Vikings suckitude. Although I didn't watch the game so I have no idea how the game played out other than the final score.