NFL Playoffs

[pacopete4]

Favre and the Vikes were robbed of a Super Bowl appearance the last time these two teams played. What a joke that game was in terms of how it was reffed.

 

Really hard to blame anyone else for a loss when you have the game in your grasp, are on the edge of FG range for what would be a game winner, have the opportunity to run for a 1st down and make an inexplicably bad rookie throw across the width of the field.

 

After seeing his ankle after that game and hearing about the concussion he was playing through, all due to the way the game was reffed, I still stand by the fact that the Vikes were robbed. The Vikings were a better team and the Saints went out there to knock Favre out of the game. They couldn't do that but they beat him up so badly that they even needed a FG at the end to win. It was a complete sham.

[pacopete4]

Let’s go Jaguars and Saints today. I would like to see Philly vs. Jax just to have two different teams.

[young guns]

Someone should tell Romo this is why everyone thought the game would be a blowout.

[PeaveyFury]

Mike Tomlin might have mis-managed the last drive of that game as bad as I've ever seen. At the very least, it's up there.

[docduany]

That Vikings finish, WOW!!! I've never seen a finish like that. One would've thought the Packers D was on the field.

[homer]

That Vikings finish, WOW!!! I've never seen a finish like that. One would've thought the Packers D was on the field.

 

 

That poor DB. All he had to do was grab his legs and hang on.

[MrTPlush]

Honestly I hope the Vikings lose next week...no team deserves to win like that. To me that was just sad...not amazing. When it comes to the playoffs I like the see teams earn it and in my mind they didn’t really earn that win there at the end.

 

That’s just my opinion though.

[DuWayne Steurer]

That Vikings finish, WOW!!! I've never seen a finish like that. One would've thought the Packers D was on the field.

 

 

That poor DB. All he had to do was grab his legs and hang on.

 

 

Push him out of bounds... hold on to him until help arrives, anything. Instead of dipping his head and trying to chuck him with his shoulder with his eyes (seemingly) closed. Unbelievable. I know these guys are the top of the line pro athletes, but that this is the form of "tackling" we still see at the very top level, literally every week, amazes me.

[jerichoholicninja]

That Vikings finish, WOW!!! I've never seen a finish like that. One would've thought the Packers D was on the field.

 

 

That poor DB. All he had to do was grab his legs and hang on.

 

 

Push him out of bounds... hold on to him until help arrives, anything. Instead of dipping his head and trying to chuck him with his shoulder with his eyes (seemingly) closed. Unbelievable. I know these guys are the top of the line pro athletes, but that this is the form of "tackling" we still see at the very top level, literally every week, amazes me.

 

Ya, I'm amazed at the amount of "tackles" I see every week that is just a defender diving at a ball carrier with his shoulder and arms at his sides. How in the hell do you expect to make a tackle that way?

[GAME05]

It's effectively a Hail Mary--let the guy catch it and all you've got to do is stop him from running into the endzone. Easy for me to say as an armchair DB, though. But I do feel bad the guy is probably going to end up blaming himself for the whole loss.

 

I think I'd rather see the Vikings win the SB then New England. Anyone but New England.

[young guns]

Mike Tomlin might have mis-managed the last drive of that game as bad as I've ever seen. At the very least, it's up there.

I agree. I was shocked at how poorly that was handled. I was ok with going for the rd on first down, but after the intentional grounding you have to either run the fg team out there or at least spike it then kick the fg.

 

I wonder if that db will get the bostick treatment. I don't know where he is in their pecking order and bostick was a back up te and easy to effectively scapegoat. What will be better, embarrassing loss to the eagles, or actually playing the super bowl in your home stadium and losing that. Regardless, I'll be rooting for the jags and eagles next week.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Watching this year's playoffs makes it even more obvious that rodgers' broken collarbone cost the pack another super bowl berth. Yes the packers have obvious flaws, but they would've easily been good enough with Rodgers to beat these teams.

 

Also, can anyone think of an easier road to a title than beating the titans and jaguars at home followed by facing nick foles or case keenum in the super bowl?

 

As for the terrible play by the saints db, the only thing I can think of is that he was trying to make a play where the tackle would've been in bounds, allowing the clock to run out. Where Diggs caught that ball would've been in fg range, so had he caught it and gotten out of bounds the vikes would've had a shot. Whatever defense was called was the wrong one for that game situation, too. It looked like he intentionally avoided hitting Diggs as he made the catch, too - just horrible coverage and an even worse tackle attempt.

[Jimbo]

Four games this weekend which I had zero interest and I saw one play. Never seen anything like it. Bigger than Brandon Bostick. One pet peeve I have is when people say :Prevent defense prevents wins." Today was Exhibit A.

 

My brother moved to JAX six years ago and went down last year to visit and catch the Packer game. Curious to see how they do on Sunday.

[jerichoholicninja]

I've found this year's playoffs to be really exciting as someone without a favorite team in all of the NFL. Lots of good games with some new teams.

 

But I'm sick of listening to Packer fans whine about the Vikings having success this year. I mean this isn't the St. Louis Cardinals that win year in and year out with whatever assortment of barely passable talent they put out there. Minnesota has hardly had more franchise success than the Brewers. I get the whole divisional rival thing and the Rodgers injury but unless you've convinced yourself it was some truly dirty, malicious play just get over it and move on. Same with the Falcons hate. They beat you last year, so what. And unlike 99% of the world outside of Boston, I don't hate Brady and the Patriots. I used to hate them, and then at some point I saw them as the great, model franchise they are and respect everything they've done. So the whole "Brady sucks, fudge the Patriots, etc." is pretty annoying. And just based on some of the things I seen on this forum, seems like Packer fans think Rodger's injury is the only thing that prevented them from winning the Super Bowl. I'm sorry, did you see any of the defense play this year? A full season of a healthy Rodgers probably gets them in the playoffs and maybe even out of the Wild Card round but I see no way that defense (if you want to even call it that) does anything to stop Atlanta, New Orleans, Philly, or Minnesota.

[AKCheesehead]

It's effectively a Hail Mary--let the guy catch it and all you've got to do is stop him from running into the endzone. Easy for me to say as an armchair DB, though. But I do feel bad the guy is probably going to end up blaming himself for the whole loss.

 

I think I'd rather see the Vikings win the SB then New England. Anyone but New England.

 

Not me. It sucked when the cubs finally got their first World Series win in 108 years or whatever it was, and I won't like it if the vikes finally get a SB win either. I enjoy being able to laugh at their zero championships, and I don't want to lose that.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

It's effectively a Hail Mary--let the guy catch it and all you've got to do is stop him from running into the endzone. Easy for me to say as an armchair DB, though. But I do feel bad the guy is probably going to end up blaming himself for the whole loss.

 

I think I'd rather see the Vikings win the SB then New England. Anyone but New England.

 

Not me. It sucked when the cubs finally got their first World Series win in 108 years or whatever it was, and I won't like it if the vikes finally get a SB win either. I enjoy being able to laugh at their zero championships, and I don't want to lose that.

 

Yep, Packers/Vikings has overtaken Packers/Bears for me. The Vikings history of ineptness is the one saving grace the Packers have over them. I too want that to continue. Also, I know all teams have bandwagon fans, but the Vikings are the worst. Paper champions every year.

[pacopete4]

I keep hearing about how exciting these playoffs have been but to me it's been loaded with some pretty lousy football and some really bad coaching moments. Maybe I'm too wrapped up in watching Green Bay each year to notice but stepping back and not having a team in the race really has opened my eyes to the product of the NFL and it really isn't good.

 

Loaded with refs deciding games, poor fundamental football, bad coaching decisions, and TV timeouts galore. It's just not a good product. Mark Cuban was right when he said fat pigs get slaughtered when referencing the NFL.

[PeaveyFury]

Loaded with refs deciding games, poor fundamental football, bad coaching decisions, and TV timeouts galore. It's just not a good product. Mark Cuban was right when he said fat pigs get slaughtered when referencing the NFL.

 

Yeah, it's almost too bad that a couple of solid games (or one yesterday, really) shadows a lot of the flaws.

 

Honestly, I'll admit that as I've aged I watch less non-Packer or at least non-NFC North related football. Watching this weekend reminded me that a lot of the coaches in the NFL aren't real good at their jobs. Heck, for the people calling for McCarthy's head this year and citing things that frustrate the heck ouf of them, I realized this weekend that many if not most of the coaches in the NFL make the same frustrating mistakes. Tomlin's lack of clock management. Payton's silly wastes of challenges, etc. And those are the coaches deep-ish into the playoffs!

 

And the refereeing has been crappy all year. For all of the discussion about what a catch is, maybe the offseason conversation needs to shift to what exactly "indesputable video evidence" is, because I can't understand it.

[homer]

All a head coach really has to do in game is manage the clock at the end of each half. That's it. And really outside of maybe two or three of them they just cannot do it.

[pacopete4]

I'm a little too young to know but were head coaches as bad at clock management 20 years ago?

[Fear The Chorizo]

And just based on some of the things I seen on this forum, seems like Packer fans think Rodger's injury is the only thing that prevented them from winning the Super Bowl. I'm sorry, did you see any of the defense play this year? A full season of a healthy Rodgers probably gets them in the playoffs and maybe even out of the Wild Card round but I see no way that defense (if you want to even call it that) does anything to stop Atlanta, New Orleans, Philly, or Minnesota.

 

Rodgers' injury is the only thing that prevented them from winning their division and having an advantage against any other team in the NFC playoffs, simply because he's the best player in football. GB is a better team with Rodgers than the Vikings, who are a quality team IMO, and there's nothing in this season's results that would change my opinion of that. They went to the NFC title game last year solely because he was playing well, and his 2017 season was off to a great start. Rodgers is that transcendant a player when he's playing well - GB started 4-6 last season because he wasn't playing well and the rest of the roster was exposed at that time, too. Suddenly he got on a roll and they win 8 straight games despite having an arguably worse roster than their 2017 team.

 

The playoffs have mostly been exciting, hard fought games that came down to the wire decided by some fluky plays and terrible fundamental football - in large part because there aren't any teams head & shoulders above their competition in the conference. Yes, GB's defense is bad - but they wouldn't need them to dominate like the Vikings or Philly now do in order to win playoff games had Rodgers been dropping 30+ a game on opponents.

[KeithStone53151]

All a head coach really has to do in game is manage the clock at the end of each half. That's it. And really outside of maybe two or three of them they just cannot do it.

 

I've been saying for years, that every head coach needs a 16 year old kid with 20,000 games of madden under his belt to help manage these types of situations. It really isn't difficult at all.

 

The Pittsburgh game, down 10 you generally go for the field goal once you get to a 40ish yarder(in madden you'd do 55ish, but that kick is also 99% in madden). In that specific case, getting down so close to the end zone on the big play to Bryant, I'd probably try a fade route(or other quick route) or 2 first before kicking it on 3rd down. Those plays don't take long(4 seconds each), and Pittsburgh has some of the best athletes in the NFL. There would have been enough time to have a play or 2 to get into field goal range if they got the miracle onside kick.

 

The other one that literally every single coach gets wrong, is when they score a touchdown when down 18. You always go for 2. If you get it, great you're down 10. If not, you are down 12 and you KNOW you need 2 touchdowns. It avoids being down 11 and then missing the 2 pointer later on...thus needing 4 scores.

 

This type of thing is like breathing to anyone who's played a significant amount of Madden, but almost every coach screws it up. Maybe a run of younger head coaches will help trim down these blatant errors.

[KeithStone53151]

And just based on some of the things I seen on this forum, seems like Packer fans think Rodger's injury is the only thing that prevented them from winning the Super Bowl. I'm sorry, did you see any of the defense play this year? A full season of a healthy Rodgers probably gets them in the playoffs and maybe even out of the Wild Card round but I see no way that defense (if you want to even call it that) does anything to stop Atlanta, New Orleans, Philly, or Minnesota.

 

Rodgers' injury is the only thing that prevented them from winning their division and having an advantage against any other team in the NFC playoffs, simply because he's the best player in football. GB is a better team with Rodgers than the Vikings, who are a quality team IMO, and there's nothing in this season's results that would change my opinion of that. They went to the NFC title game last year solely because he was playing well, and his 2017 season was off to a great start. Rodgers is that transcendant a player when he's playing well - GB started 4-6 last season because he wasn't playing well and the rest of the roster was exposed at that time, too. Suddenly he got on a roll and they win 8 straight games despite having an arguably worse roster than their 2017 team.

 

The playoffs have mostly been exciting, hard fought games that came down to the wire decided by some fluky plays and terrible fundamental football - in large part because there aren't any teams head & shoulders above their competition in the conference. Yes, GB's defense is bad - but they wouldn't need them to dominate like the Vikings or Philly now do in order to win playoff games had Rodgers been dropping 30+ a game on opponents.

 

I think the defense was better this year than the last few, and probably an average defense. It's just hard to defend when the other team has the ball 40-45 minutes of the game because the offense can't sustain drives(which would have been different with Rodgers at qb. Guys clearly wore down, we also had injury issues.

 

I'm not going to try to argue that our defense was a top 10 defense, or better than any of the remaining 4 defenses...it wasn't. But it wasn't as bad as it is being portrayed.

[homer]

I'm a little too young to know but were head coaches as bad at clock management 20 years ago?

 

Yes.

 

It just seems to me that there should be rules you follow to make it easy on yourself. Kinda like going for two - if you're down five you go for two, if you're down six you kick the extra point, etc.

 

The Eagles had two timeouts and the ball with :46 left in the half the other day. They threw a short pass, the dude didn't get out of bounds so clock is running. They decide to have everyone line up so they can run another play. 23 seconds runs off the clock and one of their guys jumps offsides probably because they were rushing to get back to the line. THEN they call a timeout. So dumb...

 

The other thing that I just can't fathom is wasting timeouts mid way through a half because you can't get the play in fast enough. The packers literally do this once a game without fail. I'd be curious if the patriots ever do this. Seems like they always have all three timeouts under two minutes left.

[FVBrewerFan]

The other one that literally every single coach gets wrong, is when they score a touchdown when down 18. You always go for 2. If you get it, great you're down 10. If not, you are down 12 and you KNOW you need 2 touchdowns. It avoids being down 11 and then missing the 2 pointer later on...thus needing 4 scores.

 

I don't agree with that at all. You kick the extra point so you're down 11, needing TD/2pt and a FG rather than needing two TDs. That seems like a no-brainer actually. You always want to avoid dong "more than necessary" until you have to. Otherwise you're always making up for what you failed to do earlier. It's really the same thing as college coaches who start chasing the 2 point conversions way too early in games.