2017 NFL Season Thread

[Scott Taylor]

Most people give that to Coughlin, not Eli. This season might really tell us, since Tom C. is working for Jacksonville.

I agree, and Eli benefited from the system for certain. As has Brady all these years. Which makes those two Super Bowls all the more interesting to analyze.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So I watched Houston 1993 (NFL Life) special and a lot of former players and coaches discussed the debacle of the year and crazy situation. Anyhow if people think Cleveland in 1995 was crazy ....well Houston UPPED THAT to 100%.


- It begins with the colossal collapse against Buffalo in the playoffs and how they lost. And how Bud Adams was not happy.

- Adams as Pardee is doing his local TV show hires Buddy Ryan without telling Pardee his own head coach. This began the insane situation as Pardee tried to act like it was something he agreed with. But you could sense his frustration at not knowing Buddy was coming in. Also the fact Ryan was controversial and claimed he didn't really answer to Jack Pardee.

- Adams in camp comes in and tells the players unless they win this year , everything will change next year. The Oilers PR guy was standing there and did a WTF , Bud reaction . Not only was this terrible to do to players but now he was telling them they better win or else this season. The players weren't happy as Warren Moon felt even more pressure now.


- Moon was 36 and whispers about his age came in. Plus he was a black man and people weren't kind then. His then wife said Moon was mentally exhausted it seemed that season as he battled over how he could still play and now talk of him not being back next season. Also fans yelling some bad things when Houston struggled. Moon was benched at times which didn't help.


- Players were fighting each other that season as well. In camp Buddy Ryan would push his defense to fight and some offensive players claim in practice guys started taking cheap shots. Moon claims he knew things were getting crazy when long time friends and team mates Ray Childress & Mike Munchak were fighting in practice. Buddy would call blitz packages against Kevin Gillbride"s offense and was told to run normal defense . So he did it so many times and finally Pardee ended practice .


- Gillbride tried to be civil and do his job. As he and others on offense detailed they had the #1 offense in the NFL for a long time and Buddy mocking it as chuck n duck irked them. As Jeffiries claims he told Ryan , concentrate on the defense and do your job. Our offense is great . But the offensive guys weren't happy with Ryan.


- The team divide was big as offense and defense were told to room apart. Defense had one area of camp to sleep in and the offense had theirs. Which as one player claims , furthered the divide.


- Spencer Tillman ended up near fighting Jeff Alm in a practice and claims he took a cheap shot during a practice in the season. Tillman told Alm (and he claims he regrets this now) how being a terrible person you get paid back. Alm a week or two later would lose control of his car speeding and his best friend he knew since he was a boy died. Alm had been drinking and in grief took a gun and took his own life.


- Killbride gets punched on the sideline by Buddy Ryan nearly (the punch barely hit Gillbride as Dishman had stepped in). Gillbride claims he was told they had a minute and half and were ahead 20-0 in the game and to do a drive to add more points. This pissed off Ryan and the defense who wanted to run the clock and go to the half. Now they had to do one more series.

The Oilers PR guy told Ryan he'd better get the hell outta there once the game ended because Kevin's gonna be looking for him. As he said , Buddy in no way could logically fight Kevin Gillbride. The guy was taller , younger and would likely beat him up. Buddy disappeared as Gillbride claims with some defensive players post game as he was told to not do anything the next day. He didn't as Ryan mocked that Gillbride would be bagging groceries in a year or two.



- Babygate happened and one of the players was expecting a child. His 1st child. Anyhow some of the players didn't understand why this guy would want to miss a game for the birth of his child. Moon claims he should have been there and once delivered came to fly to the game. But as its shown the player tried to fly out but the delivery took longer than expected and he couldn't make a flight.

Anyhow what made this worse was the Oilers docked the guy a game check and Bud Adams ripped the guy in the press for missing the game. People weren't happy at all with Adams and in the new CBA rules would later be put in where players who did have children could actually not worry about this. Players commented now people clearly understand , hey its a guys kid being born , miss the game ...that is important. Then it was a different era.


- The playoff collapse in Kansas City spelled the END of the Oilers. They had a 10-0 lead against KC at halftime. But as Tillman claims , we were so sure we could beat Kansas City. But we forgot one thing....we beat them 30-0 earlier that season. But that was without ...Joe Montana. And they watched as Joe Montana worked his magic. They just couldn't stop him and Marcus Allen.



- After the game players hugged and Munchak and Childress as well. They realized the team would be broken up after 6-7 years. As Munchak claimed a lot of them were in their 30's and the team were in rebuild mode. Also the fact as ex-Oilers GM Floyd Reese claims , they were way over the cap for 1994. They hadn't done good to get guys under the cap and would need to let a lot of guys go then. It was sad , but he knew Moon and others would be shown the door due to cap and age.


- Adams lost support of fans finally as they didn't show up for 2 seasons. Adams was finally forced to move the team to Tennessee and end the Oilers run there. As some have said , had they beat KC and won in the playoffs ...that move doesn't happen. Fans support the team and the Titans get awarded an expansion team in 2002. Not the Texans.

[MarvelMaster616]

Tonight's game is bigger than the records may imply. It's always pretty heated when Dallas plays Washington, regardless of the record. But this game does have some significant stakes in play. Whoever loses can pretty much kiss their playoff hopes goodbye. Whoever wins will have momentum going into the stretch. Both teams really don't have that tough a schedule down the stretch. If they win this game, the prospect of running the tables is not that outrageous. The Redskins have done it before. The Cowboys, not so much, but that can change quickly.

Right now, though, Dak Prescott hasn't shown that he can put the team on his back and win games without Zeke carrying the load. Kirk Cousins, on the other hand, has shown that he can. He managed to take an injury-ravaged team into Seattle and win. He managed to hang 30 points on the New Orleans Saints before the defense let him down. Cousins can win games when he has to shoulder the burden. If he does that tonight, then he just made it even more expensive for the Redskins to sign him to a long-term deal. If he doesn't, then there's a very real chance that he could be playing for another team next year. Even without the playoffs being a factor here, this game could have a ripple effect beyond this season.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Short and sweet, if Dallas loses tonight, the Eagles will clinch NFC East. That said, as much as I loathe the Cowgirls, I want them to win so my Birds won't fly into Seattle fat and happy, not that I think it would happen, but I want my squad to remain hungry and to keep on winning as home field for the playoffs is still at stake with Minnesota, the Rams and New Orleans not far behind.

By the way, I may have already mentioned this, but none of the current division leaders in the NFC (East-Eagles, North-Vikings, South-Saints, West-Rams) made the playoffs a year ago. Parity, yo!

[Gray Lensman]

I agree, and Eli benefited from the system for certain. As has Brady all these years. Which makes those two Super Bowls all the more interesting to analyze.

The crazy catch I noticed is really that helmet grab by Tyree - he never played another down for the team after that game. But Edelman had what may have been an even crazier catch against Atlanta - whose defense was completely out of gas by the end of the game. Conditioning is a larger part of that win than people tend to give credit for.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

As I posted a news piece weeks ago , Washington wants to see Cousins improve in the redzone. He's ranking at the bottom and want him to show he can score when it matters. Cousins is gonna at least command $28-35 million next year. They wanna see if he's worth it long term.

[MarvelMaster616]

As I posted a news piece weeks ago , Washington wants to see Cousins improve in the redzone. He's ranking at the bottom and want him to show he can score when it matters. Cousins is gonna at least command $28-35 million next year. They wanna see if he's worth it long term.

I can understand that, to a degree. But I don't see how Cousins could do much more than he already has to prove his worth. If the Redskins let him walk, who out there is better or even on the same level? I suspect that if Cousins is allowed to hit free agency and signs with another team, then it will go down in history as one of the biggest personnel blunders in NFL history, right up there with the Eagles letting Reggie White walk.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

As I posted a news piece weeks ago , Washington wants to see Cousins improve in the redzone. He's ranking at the bottom and want him to show he can score when it matters. Cousins is gonna at least command $28-35 million next year. They wanna see if he's worth it long term.

YIKES!! That's some seriously high rent territory, and I just don't see Cousins being worth THAT much. Now, since Washington is a division rival, I'd love it if they crippled themselves financially by devoting potentially as much as a quarter of their cap to just ONE player, so I'm rooting for the Deadskins to be foolish (hardly a stretch with Daniel Snyder as their owner) and spend all those millions.

[Surf]

This is the time of year where picking the games get tight. Wash @ Cowgirls... I gotta take Washington in a close one, Cousins can actually get the ball to his weapons and the Skins D is better than the Dallas D. I think the losing streak continues.

@Miami vs. Denver...ahmahron, a rock and a hard place. I feel the Phins make take this one by more than a TD

"MY MAN GENO SMITH" led New York Football Giants at the Las Vegas Raiders. The how the mighty have fallen bowl. Vegas Baby. Bob MaCado out to be cleaning out his offices for Black Monday.

Philly @ Seattle and Panthers @ Saints are the games of the week here. Not sure which way to go on either. We're getting down to it.

[Scott Taylor]

Predictions:

Washington over Dallas - Redskins are hungrier and better
Jets over Chiefs - Leading to a two way tie in the AFC west
Patriots over Bills - No real competition here
Broncos over Dolphins - WHAT A SNOOZER. Going to watch this one if I need a Sunday nap
49ers over Bears - Win for Jimmy G
Ravens over Lions - Ravens seem to be getting their act together on defense
Vikings over Falcons - Mainly because the Vikings can probably neutralize Julio Jones
Packers over Buccaneers
Titans over Texans
Jaguars over Colts
Browns over Chargers - Wishful thinking on my part. But the Browns did beat them last year!
Rams over Cardinals
Raiders over Giants - I predict 5 interceptions for Geno
Saints over Panthers - Depends on which Cam shows up. I know which Brees is going to be there.
Eagles over Seahawks
Bengals over Steelers - More wishful thinking! But its a tough road game and the Bengals are sneaky bastards sometimes

[The Whovian]

Short and sweet, if Dallas loses tonight, the Eagles will clinch NFC East. That said, as much as I loathe the Cowgirls, I want them to win so my Birds won't fly into Seattle fat and happy, not that I think it would happen, but I want my squad to remain hungry and to keep on winning as home field for the playoffs is still at stake with Minnesota, the Rams and New Orleans not far behind.

I'm a Cowboys fan and I want them to lose. Just put me out of my misery. They're clearly not going anywhere this year and I want their season over tonight so Jerry will have to make some changes in the coaches.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm a Cowboys fan and I want them to lose. Just put me out of my misery. They're clearly not going anywhere this year and I want their season over tonight so Jerry will have to make some changes in the coaches.

Would you agree with the assessment that if Elliott had swallowed his medicine and served his suspension at the start of the season instead of fighting City Hall until City Hall won three weeks ago, your squad might be in better shape, record-wise?

[Surf]

I want my squad to remain hungry and to keep on winning as home field for the playoffs is still at stake with Minnesota, the Rams and New Orleans not far behind.

NFC down the stretch and the playoffs is gonna be appt. TV.

The AFC can miss me until Super Bowl LII

[WestPhillyPunisher]

NFC down the stretch and the playoffs is gonna be appt. TV.

The AFC can miss me until Super Bowl LII

Steelers-Patriots in week 15 should be interesting as that game will probably decide who gets home field in the AFC.

[MarvelMaster616]

Steelers-Patriots in week 15 should be interesting as that game will probably decide who gets home field in the AFC.

Agreed. That might end up being the most important regular season game of the year. Whoever wins that game will immediately become the favorite to win the Super Bowl.