NFL playoffs running thread (with poll)

Everything was better in the good old days.

 

Well, that's true. There is just a lot of parity right now.

 

You sound like a commercial, though I agree with your overall point.

I had never watched Red Zone for more than a few minutes before Sunday. I prefer sticking with one game and perhaps flipping around during time-outs, but we were at my brother-in-law's and he had Red Zone on. Yes, it was great to get back to Packers-Bears in time for the touchdown pass to Cobb, but overall I found it annoying.

 

Love Red Zone for the no commercials and the ability to watch games you can't see if you just had your network broadcasts. Usually, especially as the season rolls on, they will focus on more interesting or important games while still showing all the scores from other games. Sunday was an example of why it was perfect. We didn't have the San Diego game here and got to see every second of important plays live because of it. Even better, the Packers winning TD came mere seconds after the crazy non-fumble in the San Diego game. We had the Packers-Bears on network TV here, but by watching Red Zone got to see the climatic moments, of both games, while they happened without needing to change the channel. It was awesome. It was especially great to have on a day with so many games having playoff implications.

If there is a game that is on network TV that I am interested in I'll often still just watch that and focus on it and flip to Red Zone during the commercials. But if the game turns lousy it is a fantastic channel to have. I've had it for three full years now and I look forward to Sundays even more because of it. To each his own, but I love it.

 

I think it was a great year for the NFL, with Peyton, the Chiefs' resurrection, Russell Wilson proving to not be a one-year wonder ... my only complaint was that it seemed like there was at least one awful call every week that swung a game in one direction or another. Is NFL officiating that much worse, or has replay technology improved to the point where we just see more of the mistakes?

 

I know Roethlisberger won a Super Bowl as a second-year QB. Anyone else that anyone's aware of? Would Russell Wilson be the second if he were to do so?

 

Which makes Dallas the most consistent team in the NFC East the past three seasons.

 

There was a guy named Tom Brady. Second year in the league, first year playing.

 

Cincy over San Diego
Kansas City over Indy

San Francisco over Green Bay
Philadelphia over New Orleans

Denver over Kansas City
Cincinnati over New England

Seattle over San Francisco (toughest call-NFL Championship game, this is the NFC championship game in my opinion)
Carolina over Philadelphia

Denver over Cincinnati
Seattle over Carolina

Denver over Seattle (going with heart over head on that one)

 

before they outlawed defense.

 

So with a lot of practice squad types signing reserve/futures contracts for the off-season, it made me wonder - do they get paid in the off-season? Figure they are expected to work out and attend mini-camps with the team, or do they have to hold down other jobs to make ends meat until a season starts and perhaps they make some money.

 

Peyton Manning's passing yardage record? Yeah, maybe not. The NFL's stat geeks are looking at first-half pass that may or may not have been a lateral. If it's corrected to a lateral, Manning would finish six yards behind Brees' record.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10217919/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-lose-passing-yards-record