NFL divisional weekend thread

[Chef2]

Cin
GB
TB
KC

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

With TB the issue is going to be health and most notably an ankle sprain to RT Tristan Wirfs. When Wirfs left the game Ryan Kerrigan, who had zero sacks all year, looked like mid 2010s Ryan Kerrigan with two sacks. Von Miller might get five sacks if Wirfs isn't playing. My guess is the Bucs would shift Alex Cappa from RG to RT and try their luck at guard, but that leaves issues with Aaron Donald on the interior.

It's a hell of a matchup with the Bucs lacking offensive skill depth. Jalen Ramsey is going to go heads up with Mike Evans, so Brady is going to have to trust guys like Tyler Johnson and Cyril Grayson and Breshard Perriman to make players.

 

[playthrough]

One of the more impressive things I've seen was when the Patriots played the Saints in the Superdome a couple of years ago.
Pats were driving in the last two minutes of the half and they completed a pass in the middle of the field with 13 seconds left and no timeouts, and I think it was fourth down so they couldn't spike it.
Not only did they get the offense off the field and the field goal team on, they snapped the ball with plenty of time to spare (2 or 3 seconds). And of course the field goal was good.

It was like a perfect microcosm of why they're so damn good and you're not. Like you, I can't see the Cowboys pulling that off.

Edit to Add: Found the video of the play. It's peak Patriots, just from the situational awareness and execution of it. And I remembered it being a pass, but it was actually a Brady run and remarkably similar to the Cowboys play. The Patriots had a couple more seconds than the Cowboys did (I think Dak was tackled with about 10 seconds left), but they also had a lot more moving parts than the Cowboys did.

Something like that shouldn't be so remarkable; a well-organized high school team should be able to shuttle one unit on and another off and be ready to go in 10-12 seconds. But at some point on their way to the top, a whole lot of NFL coaches stopped perfecting the little things.

 

[heyabbott]

Something like that shouldn't be so remarkable; a well-organized high school team should be able to shuttle one unit on and another off and be ready to go in 10-12 seconds. But at some point on their way to the top, a whole lot of NFL coaches stopped perfecting the little things.

That’s why they have quality control coaches, to fire when then actual coaches fail.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

With TB the issue is going to be health and most notably an ankle sprain to RT Tristan Wirfs. When Wirfs left the game Ryan Kerrigan, who had zero sacks all year, looked like mid 2010s Ryan Kerrigan with two sacks. Von Miller might get five sacks if Wirfs isn't playing. My guess is the Bucs would shift Alex Cappa from RG to RT and try their luck at guard, but that leaves issues with Aaron Donald on the interior.

It's a hell of a matchup with the Bucs lacking offensive skill depth. Jalen Ramsey is going to go heads up with Mike Evans, so Brady is going to have to trust guys like Tyler Johnson and Cyril Grayson and Breshard Perriman to make players.

Gronk might get 20 targets. We all, even Brady, tend to revert to our comfort zone as our first adaptation to a challenge.

 

[Neutral Corner]

He'll hit Gronk until they stop him, for certain.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

It was 20 years ago today:

 

[poindexter]

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

Saw this fella on the walk this morning at the corner of La Cienega and Sawyer and am now changing my pick for the Cards to beat the Rams.


View attachment 12385

Have you found a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan Uber driver this week?

 

[poindexter]

Btw, that Cards fan was about four fewer than I saw at Sofi on Monday night.
Every game I went to this season (Rams and a Charger game) I saw scores of opposing fans. Tailgating, in the stands. I mean, even for ****ty teams. Jags, Lions, Broncos.

There were almost no Cardinals fans in the stands monday night.

 

[I Should Coco]

Btw, that Cards fan was about four fewer than I saw at Sofi on Monday night.
Every game I went to this season (Rams and a Charger game) I saw scores of opposing fans. Tailgating, in the stands. I mean, even for ****ty teams. Jags, Lions, Broncos.

There were almost no Cardinals fans in the stands monday night.

The Cardinals know the feeling, especially with so many Midwestern transplants in the Phoenix area. Not much of a home field advantage for them either.

 

[outofplace]

Gronk might get 20 targets. We all, even Brady, tend to revert to our comfort zone as our first adaptation to a challenge.

I wonder if Tom Brady can figure out how to function with unknowns getting significant playing time at receiver, but quality tight ends and a running back who can make plays as a receiver out of the backfield. Have we ever seen that before?

 

[Batman]

Something like that shouldn't be so remarkable; a well-organized high school team should be able to shuttle one unit on and another off and be ready to go in 10-12 seconds. But at some point on their way to the top, a whole lot of NFL coaches stopped perfecting the little things.

Honestly, the way every team from high school to pro is able to orchestrate this insanely simple yet ridiculously complex ballet always amazes me. Calling and running a play is the most basic act in football. But when you think of everything that goes into it, there is a hell of a lot that goes into just getting the ball snapped.
The terminology needs to be clear and concise. The coach has to process down and distance and situation, and decide what they want to run in 5 seconds or less, communicate that to the quarterback in another 5 seconds or less, and then the QB has to relay that to the rest of the team. They need to sub players in and out and make sure the right guys are out there for the play you've called. They need to get everyone in the right alignment, make a round or two of adjustments based on how the defense is lined up, and then get everyone aligned again.
After all of that, they snap the ball and run an off tackle play for four yards on second-and-8 from your own 40-yard line with 8:15 left in the second quarter. And then they do it all over again, and again, and again, every 35 seconds without fail.
I know it becomes routine, they practice it, etc. But it is a little incredible that teams at every level can do this without getting a delay of game penalty every five or six plays. And when they do screw it up, it's usually because of a delay in the decision making process and not any of the other 37 steps that have to happen just to get the damn ball snapped.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Bill Parcells has said that delay of game is the only penalty in football which is 100 percent the coaches' fault.

 

[Songbird]

Haven't found an Uber Buc in L.A. with the game getting nigh.

But I did get a sign while being Uber'd in Paris a few weeks ago.

 

[qtlaw]

He'll hit Gronk until they stop him, for certain.

Here’s my frustration with zone defenses, knowing it’s Gronk and Evans , why not bracket both and go M2M on others instead of having guys “zone” dead areas?

 

[Justin_Rice]

Honestly, the way every team from high school to pro is able to orchestrate this insanely simple yet ridiculously complex ballet always amazes me. Calling and running a play is the most basic act in football. But when you think of everything that goes into it, there is a hell of a lot that goes into just getting the ball snapped.
The terminology needs to be clear and concise. The coach has to process down and distance and situation, and decide what they want to run in 5 seconds or less, communicate that to the quarterback in another 5 seconds or less, and then the QB has to relay that to the rest of the team. They need to sub players in and out and make sure the right guys are out there for the play you've called. They need to get everyone in the right alignment, make a round or two of adjustments based on how the defense is lined up, and then get everyone aligned again.
After all of that, they snap the ball and run an off tackle play for four yards on second-and-8 from your own 40-yard line with 8:15 left in the second quarter. And then they do it all over again, and again, and again, every 35 seconds without fail.
I know it becomes routine, they practice it, etc. But it is a little incredible that teams at every level can do this without getting a delay of game penalty every five or six plays. And when they do screw it up, it's usually because of a delay in the decision making process and not any of the other 37 steps that have to happen just to get the damn ball snapped.

Well said. Getting plays snapped in time is hard with adults.

It's really interesting with kids!

 

[Batman]

Well said. Getting plays snapped in time is hard with adults.

It's really interesting with kids!

I did a deep dive on it for our football preview magazine a couple of years ago, with our local high school coaches as the focus. It was really interesting to see their reaction. For them, of course, it's second nature after playing and coaching most of their lives, so they'd never really given it much thought until they started talking about it. Then they got pretty fired up about going into the nuances of it.

 

[heyabbott]

So instead of writing Stafford finally has a playoff win, how about Stafford and Dak have the same career post season records?

 

[Justin_Rice]

I did a deep dive on it for our football preview magazine a couple of years ago, with our local high school coaches as the focus. It was really interesting to see their reaction. For them, of course, it's second nature after playing and coaching most of their lives, so they'd never really given it much thought until they started talking about it. Then they got pretty fired up about going into the nuances of it.

I wish moms and dads who bring their kids to preseason football practices in haphazard fashion would think about this more.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

So instead of writing Stafford finally has a playoff win, how about Stafford and Dak have the same career post season records?

The Cowboys have the same amount of postseason wins since 1995 as the Jaguars.