NFL 2023-2024: Hail to the Chefs... great googly moogly

[ThePW]

So when is the Draft? CLE picks.... whut? 321st overall pick to start?

Actually the real drama is about the Hood: He might just be forced into NFL retirement if no one will have him...

[17thRecon]

So when is the Draft? CLE picks.... whut? 321st overall pick to start?

Actually the real drama is about the Hood: He might just be forced into NFL retirement if no one will have him...

Not sure on the draft or Cleveland’s pick.

Bill didn’t exactly have a good crop of teams to choose from, honestly. San Diego kept being talked about as a “dream spot”, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in Herbert. Washington and Carolina, no thanks. Atlanta puzzled me, for why he’d interview there, but at least that owner wants to win. The rest I can’t even name off the top of my head, just talking about the open spots, not, say, Dallas firing the coach to get Bill.

One thing Lamar did was catch his own pass for a first down, that was a pretty neat play.

[Øystein]

Saw the highlight reel from Lions - 49ers, very nice running game. Was good to see the 49ers have a good comeback :)

[I am Belch II]

Well, the Cinderella story of the Lions is done.
I guess its ok went way further than anyone thought they would of.
At least they don't have to play against Taylor Swift and a football team.

[Jim1701]

So who's betting against the Chiefs in the SB this year?  I hope everyone is because it just makes him better.

[MarauderD]

Saw the highlight reel from Lions - 49ers, very nice running game. Was good to see the 49ers have a good comeback :)

It is always easy to Monday Morning Quarterback, but in this case, I'll Monday Morning Playcall.  As a 49er fan, it was clear we didn't come ready to stop the run.  Fumble aside, why in the world would the Lions coach call about only 8 running plays in the second half?  Had he run it 3 times every Lions possession, I don't think the Niners would have had enough time to mount the comeback.  I think they would have scored at least twice.  I'm pleased the Niners go to the Super Bowl, and still, totally baffled.

[S2pidiT]

I was hoping the Lions would be heading to the Super Bowl, but alas. I think it will be harder for Detroit to make it to the NFC Championship game next year, let alone the Super Bowl... But hope springs eternal for us Lions fans. I'm happy that we got as far as we did, and hopefully we'll remain a strong part of the NFC North for years to come. I the next couple years, assuming Ben Johnson leaves, will tell us all we need to know.

Congrats, Chiefs and 49ers, good luck in the Super Bowl.

[JadeHellbringer]

The sad thing is that if Baltimore does half- let's just say half!- of the dumb shit they pulled in that game... the bad penalties, the sloppy tackling, the bad ball-handling, the total abandonment of the run game (Gus Bus? Hello?)... they still probably roll the Chiefs up and stuff them in a dumpster without any drama. The refs did them no favors, for sure, Baltimore fans around here today have a point about some of that (what exactly IS pass interference at this point, and why does it seem to vary every other play?), but at the end of the day the Ravens did a thorough and impressive job of kicking themselves in the nuts for sixty minutes. Bra-vo.

As for Detroit... that's going to fly under the radar in terms of epic collapses, but when you have a team like the 49ers down 17 at home like that at the half, and you blow it that spectacularly, it deserves to get mentioned with the all-time great collapses. We still laugh at last year's Chargers, but was this any less spectacular?

[Jim1701]

The Chiefs out coached and out played Baltimore six ways to Sunday on Sunday.  Full stop. 

[17thRecon]

3RD      POSS   PLAYS   YDS   RESULT
15:00   KC 25   1:25   3   7   PUNT
12:13   KC 22   5:08   8   23   PUNT
2:31           KC 7           1:42   3   4   PUNT
4TH      POSS   PLAYS   YDS   RESULT
14:52   KC 20   4:17   7   32   PUNT
6:45           KC 20   1:45   3   7   PUNT
2:34           KC 25   2:34   6   50   GAME

Baltimore’s defense did their job in the second half. But offensively, Baltimore was entirely out coached and outplayed the entire game. Don’t forget KC had a nice 33 yard screen for a TD nullified by penalty, and only managed a FG instead. Baltimore was penalized 8 times to KC’s 3, but they also had 3 turnovers to KC’s 0, which is much more damaging to a teams likelyhood of winning, yet alone combined with the penalties.

Different note, I’m going to put it out there early, feel free to join in: my Super Bowl Pick: Kansas City Chiefs 24 San Francisco 49ers - 13. It’ll be 49ers 13- KC 10 at half before Mahomes gets a good TD drive and the defense scores to put it out of reach. Spag’s Defense thwarted New England’s perfect season and I’ve gotta put my fan side away and be objective, so any other time I’ve gone against the defense wins championships mantra I’ve lost (see Baltimore Ravens vs NY Giants Super Bowl, for example, 😂), so KC’s defense is playing the best right now (very similar to the NY Giant’s Spag’s led defense in 2007) and that’s who I’ll ride with.

[Kit deSummersville]

As for Detroit... that's going to fly under the radar in terms of epic collapses, but when you have a team like the 49ers down 17 at home like that at the half, and you blow it that spectacularly, it deserves to get mentioned with the all-time great collapses. We still laugh at last year's Chargers, but was this any less spectacular?

Dan Campbell seems to be very hard headed during the game. We saw the insistence on the 2-point play against Dallas even when his team was pushed back. I'm more on the analytics side of things with aggressive use of 4th down but in the 3rd quarter I thought he should have taken the field goal. That puts them up two scores again and puts a lot of pressure back on the 49ers offense which hadn't shown a lot at that point. Half of the quarter would have been gone and there would have been no progress for SF.

[17thRecon]

Dan Campbell seems to be very hard headed during the game. We saw the insistence on the 2-point play against Dallas even when his team was pushed back. I'm more on the analytics side of things with aggressive use of 4th down but in the 3rd quarter I thought he should have taken the field goal. That puts them up two scores again and puts a lot of pressure back on the 49ers offense which hadn't shown a lot at that point. Half of the quarter would have been gone and there would have been no progress for SF.

I felt like he was chasing choosing to not go for the TD before halftime and taking the field goal. That seemed to be the “out of character” decision for him; like he really wanted to go for the TD but chose to “take the points/play it safe” and then regretted doing that so he pushed in the second half trying to correct that decision and get back to being “aggressive” again.

[Sartris]

Should be a grand game. If KC can keep the niners under 25 they should win. A big part of their very successful past two months has been outstanding defense and mahomes running a clinic on ball control. It seems if anyone is finally willing to take advantage of San Fransisco’s shaky run defense, it’s Andy Reid.

The niners will have their three headed offensive monster healthy so strap in. Fitting that a game that should depend on the finest of margins is between these two mad scientist head coaches

[ThePW]

Come on, SFO. Hold em, DENY them.

Oh well. Who cares wins?

[Sartris]

FREE FOOTBALL

[ActionButler]

Well shit, even I could have caught that last pass.

EDIT: That game was a lesson in why you can’t let Mahomes find space to run the ball. The Niners had the Chiefs dead to rights on more than a few occasions until they let Patrick get into “fine, I’ll do it my damned self” mode.

[Scotty]

This year the Chiefs took undisputed first place in the AFC West in both division titles and Super Bowl wins, and they did so in the Raiders stadium with the Lombardi handed to them by John Elway.

I'm sorry to fans of both of those franchises but you could not write a more spiteful poetic sequence of events.

[Øystein]

Congratulations to the Chiefs, well fought game. You know it's a good one when it comes down to the last seconds of OT to settle it. :)

[17thRecon]

Great game.

[Scotty]

Congratulations to the Chiefs, well fought game. You know it's a good one when it comes down to the last seconds of OT to settle it. :)

Apparently if time had expired it would have gone into OT2 and the field flipped like at the end of a normal quarter.  They were getting the end of that possession no matter which OT it happened in.

[Øystein]

Apparently if time had expired it would have gone into OT2 and the field flipped like at the end of a normal quarter.  They were getting the end of that possession no matter which OT it happened in.

Learned something new every day. I noticed that (I assume it is all playoff games) there are no OT limits in the Superbowl. Will continue with OT-periods untill a winner is determined.

And here I'd hoped it would end on field goal shootouts (each time have to score from the X yard line, increasing it with 5 yards from each completion).  :D

[JadeHellbringer]

This year the Chiefs took undisputed first place in the AFC West in both division titles and Super Bowl wins, and they did so in the Raiders stadium with the Lombardi handed to them by John Elway.

I'm sorry to fans of both of those franchises but you could not write a more spiteful poetic sequence of events.

Hello from hell.

[Kit deSummersville]

Learned something new every day. I noticed that (I assume it is all playoff games) there are no OT limits in the Superbowl. Will continue with OT-periods untill a winner is determined.

And here I'd hoped it would end on field goal shootouts (each time have to score from the X yard line, increasing it with 5 yards from each completion).  :D

It is the same for all of the playoffs.

[monbvol]

I almost feel like I'm cheating a little waiting this late into pre-season to make my predictions but what ever at this point.

AFC
North: Bengals.  No one else really feels like they can quite topple them yet.
West: Chiefs.  I mean really this is a team that will be difficult to topple for a few years yet.
South: Colts.  Only because I feel like if I go with Titans something will happen to make sure they don't win the division.
East: Dolphins.  I fully expect Rogers to be on IR and Buffalo just cannot seem to get over the last hurdle.
Wildcards: Bills and Jaguars and Titans

NFC
North: Packers.  Lions will make a good showing this year but it's still Detroit, they're not allowed nice things.
West: 49ers.
South: Bucs.  Mostly because someone has to and I don't trust the other teams to be able to avoid the injury bug.
East: WFT.
Wildcards: Seahawks and Eagles and Detroit

Super bowl:
Chiefs over the 49ers.

Wow I did bad with my predictions this year.  And yeah I don't want to take credit for that yellow prediction.  That's just too ooph for me.

[Kit deSummersville]

The NFL just handed Jimmy G a 2 game ban for using performance enhancing drugs. I don't think the NFL watched any Raiders games if they thought anything could enhance his performance.

[JadeHellbringer]

That time already, eh? OK.

AFC:

North: Bengals. With respect to the Ravens, this isn't even a competition. Cincy is SCARY. Cleveland has taken a serious step back from that fun 2021 season, and the Steelers definitely are in build-mode. Unless injuries mount at key positions, the Bengals are going to roll this one early and often. Only team in the division to miss the playoffs... that 'key position' turned out to be 'Burrow died'.


West: Chiefs. I don't get what the Chargers are doing, the Raiders doubly so, and Denver... just makes me drink. This division is all KC until Mahomes retires. Never any doubt. Never is. We'll see the heat-death of the universe before one of the others becomes competent enough to knock them off their pedestal.

South: Jacksonville. A weak division is a feeding ground for a Jags team that made some very good steps forward late last season, particularly with the Titans not looking like they did much to keep up in the offseason (Derrick Henry is a year older, etc.) What an absolutely epic collapse- even at the start of December I thought they had a legit path to an AFC championship game. I still can't figure out how they unraveled that quickly.

East: Bills, with a giant caveat- I really do think that if the Dolphins stay healthy, that offense could make for a tight race to the finish. That's a huge 'if', of course, particularly at QB, but there's potential here to be interesting at least. I'm not sold on the Jets at all, meanwhile. Well, I was right about all that- the Dolphins offense certainly held up to form all year, at least against bad teams. And I was right not to be sold on the Jets- if not quite the way I expected.

Wild Cards: Ravens, Dolphins, Chargers

NFC:

North: Lions. I don't think I've ever been able to type that with a straight face before, but that looks like a pretty great team this year. The Vikings were the most underwhelming 13-win team I can think of in recent memory, and Rodgers left, so... why not Detroit? [/Zoidberg] That opening week defeat of the Chiefs set the tone all year. Detroit looks like they're going to be a danger for a long time to come... perhaps with a little smarter decisions by their coach.

West: 49ers. All that messy QB stuff has kind of overshadowed that if ONE of their many guys was healthy in the second half of that playoff game last winter, SanFran was a juggernaut. I don't see them getting boned like that two years in a row, though I'll be interested to see what they do with Lance now. No one else in this division is even relevant in comparison. I owe the Rams an apology, because that was a good comeback year by them, but other than the heartbreak against the Chiefs that was a dominant season by the 49ers.

South: Er... I have to pick one, don't I? This is a wasteland. Let's say the Saints and move on, I guess. Bucs, and who saw Baker Mayfield having a comeback year like that? Still, what a mess of a division.

East: HELLBIE UPSET SPECIAL Commanders. I know, I know. But no one has won this division twice in a row in almost two decades, so as good as the Eagles are, I'm going to have some fun. I don't really feel like the Giants are a great team, and Dallas still feels like they're missing something hard to put my finger on, so... you know what, Sam Howell impressed the hell out of me the other night. Let's see if the post-Snyder vibes carry them a little. AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA what absinthe did I pour in my coffee for this one? Howell was the  most-sacked QB in the league, half the defense was traded by Thanksgiving, just an absolute train wreck... which isn't all that unexpected as they fix the Snyder damage long-term, but how I thought they were going to be better than the Eagles or Cowboys, I have no explanation beyond 'Hellbe has old head trauma'.

Wild Cards: Eagles, Cowboys, Vikings

Super Bowl: 49ers over Chiefs in a game we'll be talking about for years I was a couple of bad OT play calls away from this one being right...

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

The NFL just handed Jimmy G a 2 game ban for using performance enhancing drugs. I don't think the NFL watched any Raiders games if they thought anything could enhance his performance.

I've heard it was a banned substance contained in pills intended to enhance a... different performance.

[monbvol]

The even sillier part is supposedly it isn't exactly a banned substance either in that there was a form he could have filled out and the NFL would have been fine with it too.

[JadeHellbringer]

The even sillier part is supposedly it isn't exactly a banned substance either in that there was a form he could have filled out and the NFL would have been fine with it too.

At the end of the day, though, that's the job. That's the contract you signed. You agreed to all these rules- and that means that anything you're taking, whether to heal from injuries, to deal with allergies, to... 'enhance' yourself... whatever. You agreed- via the contract, via the union's CBA, via the rules of the league you play for- that you'd disclose all of this, clear it with team doctors, whatever other hoops to jump through. He didn't.

Look, is this as big of a deal as the league is making it into? Probably not, really. Is the league doing the Raiders a solid by giving them a signed and sealed reason to drop Garoppolo without having to pay him? Ohhhhhh yeah. But did he give the league and the team that opportunity? Also yes. It sucks for him (and for the Broncos, who almost certainly will do something stupid very shortly about him as soon as Russ clears the books), but all he had to do was fill out this form and we wouldn't be here.

[monbvol]

At the end of the day, though, that's the job. That's the contract you signed. You agreed to all these rules- and that means that anything you're taking, whether to heal from injuries, to deal with allergies, to... 'enhance' yourself... whatever. You agreed- via the contract, via the union's CBA, via the rules of the league you play for- that you'd disclose all of this, clear it with team doctors, whatever other hoops to jump through. He didn't.

Look, is this as big of a deal as the league is making it into? Probably not, really. Is the league doing the Raiders a solid by giving them a signed and sealed reason to drop Garoppolo without having to pay him? Ohhhhhh yeah. But did he give the league and the team that opportunity? Also yes. It sucks for him (and for the Broncos, who almost certainly will do something stupid very shortly about him as soon as Russ clears the books), but all he had to do was fill out this form and we wouldn't be here.

Oh yes.  No denying at least some, if not most of the sillyness, is on Jimmy G's part for not taking care of his business.