Saw a video of that play in the KC/Denver game.
Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.
Didn’t see the early games because we were at the museum but I Tivo’d NE’s defeat Buffalo. Observations:
- If you think Tyrod Taylor is an emerging NFL QB, I'd suggest holding off on that. I stopped writing things down in the 4thQ but here's the entire list of passes through 10 yards downfield until maybe 5 minutes left in the game. 1 for maybe 11 yards, thrown high and intercepted after it bounced off receiver's hands. Almost the entire half later, 1 straight fly pattern, probably not catchable but pass interference as DB fell on to WR's legs. Unintelligible throw into the middle of the field directly to NE safety for INT. I'm now well into the 2nd half. Note that NE is ahead by 21 pts by now. 1 for 14 yards. 1 incomplete for 30 yards - overthrown. 1 32yd TD thrown on the run and almost intercepted - it went through the DB's hands to the WR. That's 6 throws, 2 INT's, 1TD, 2 completions and a pass interference. His stats look completely different: 23-30 with 3TD (and 3 INT) but not only were these short throws but nearly all were first read throws. And more worryingly, he was sacked 8 (or more times) and that happened a lot when he held the ball and tried to work through a progression to a throw. I can't say he froze or anything like that but rather that containing him and making him decide where to go with the ball helped create sacks. He was effective when NE let him complete a bunch of short throws, mostly for very short yardage. While Brady "dinks and dunks", he's extremely dangerous downfield (though not as good a deep thrower as Rodgers or Roethlisberger).
- NE dominated and let the game get away in garbage time. Brady was strip sacked at the end and that was his fault: the DE jumped up, he pulled the ball down and patted it and that gave the D time to reach him. He should have thrown the ball away. Game not as close as the score. I note that Dion Lewis had a bad fumble and wasn't benched, which is something strange because Belichick punishes fumblers. Lewis otherwise had a terrific game.
- I'm seeing more and more that Brady is determining his throws based almost entirely on pre-snap reads and the very instant of coverage after the snap. He trusts his receivers will be where the coverage dictates and their abilities. I have to point out this is weird: it isn't that he's going with the "play call 1st read" but that he's so on top of the game that he reads the D and goes for that throw without hesitation. The time from snap to throw is ridiculously short. He's also unafraid to throw incompletions.
- Rex Ryan needs to clean up his act. I've rarely seen such a poorly disciplined mess of over-hyped players making mistakes. They even got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the bench! And the sad thing is the players play for him and they don't give up.
- Watching the Eagles, I keep wondering why people thought Chip Kelly would turn the NFL on its head. So many of the run plays are designed as though the D can't pursue - which has meant Murray gets tackled for a loss by D pouring through gaps. Have to say that Sam Bradford sucks: he throws the ball directly into a Dallas LB's stomach in the endzone. (And the team makes so many mistakes: just snapped the ball before the team was set for a fumble right after Dallas fumbled ... ) Feel bad for Dallas: that is a definite bad injury to Romo.
You’re writing stuff down during games? Wow. This thread used to be fun. Bye bye 
I just saw a little Dallas Philly in passing. I never root for injury but now that Romo is injured I hope he really does stay out 8 weeks 
Watched Washington/St. Louis. Was surprised that Washington didn’t choke again.
Now watching Packers/Seahawks
I have not seen any good game yet today. I hope this Seahawks/Packers will be a good.
I watched a good college football game last night: California vs Texas.
^^^ I just wish it had ended differently. 
Me too.
Me, three! My parents were at that game. Poor Mom, having to put up with Dad on the way home!
I’m about ready for them to start showing me why they traded our center for Jimmy Graham - they haven’t used him at all
If the games are too boring, we can talk about the killer day my fantasy team had.
Rothlisberger 41
A. Peterson 17
Julio Jones 19.5
Julian Edelman 27.5
Larry Fitzgerald 33
Greg Olsen 10
Gostkowski 19
Watching Seattle/GB:
- Why do they keep annointing Rodgers? He's very good, sometimes extremely good but I keep hearing he may be the best ever. He's #51 on the win list and his road record isn't stellar: he has 37 losses (versus 2x as many total wins) while Manning, for example, has a 2.35 ratio and Brady has an absurd 3.28 ratio. At some times, he's clearly been the best QB for a stretch of weeks but he's not in the conversation for best ever because he doesn't have the stats.
- GB's game plan is, to me, weird: not enough quick passes, too many long developing plays against a team with a good pass rush and a strong secondary. And I note that without Jordy Nelson, they have lost the intelligent route runner who could do something with a secondary mistake. Cobb is talented but he doesn't run those great routes. (As I'm typing this, with the game getting late, GB is finally throwing the quick pass and moving the ball well.)
- I loved the way Seattle changed the game plan for the 2nd half and came out throwing much more and having Wilson carry it more. But I see that Wilson is getting hit more while running, which bodes poorly for his future: one hit is all it takes.
- Is there a law that Clay Matthews must be mentioned on every play? Oh look, there's Clay Matthews somewhere near the ball carrier.
- One thing that has always fascinated me is the difference in the way calls are made. NE had Revis last year and he plays like Sherman: uses his hands all over the receiver despite the rules and gets away with it. Most CB's can't do that.
- I know it's week 2 and weird things happen every week but a lot of results this weekend are weird: TB beats Miami after looking like a bad college team the week before while the team that looked so great against TB loses to Cleveland and the Ravens blow it against Oakland (at least that was out there) and Washington crushes the team that played so well against Seattle, etc.
Ewww… That was ugly. Very ugly.
Rodgers will never be in the running for most wins because he sat for so long to start his career.
Wins are only part of the equation when evaluating qbs, because they only control the offense. Defense/special teams has just as much impact, and that is totally out of the qb’s hands.
Coaching is also something that is out of the qb’s hands. Just look at last year’s GB/Seattle playoff game. Do you think if Belichick is coaching GB they lose that game? I don’t think so.
Would you take Brady in his prime over Rodgers on his prime? I’m not sure I would, and I’m a huge Pats fan.
http://m.channel3000.com/sports/Rodgers-God-was-a-Packer-fan-tonight/35389234
Rodgers takes a subtle jab at Russell Wilson.
Was thrilled to wake up and see the Packers came out with a win. Any way you look at it, that’s an impressive win - they have had to play the Seahawks season game #1 last year and game #2 this year - coming away with a win against the Seahawks is something to celebrate!
With the Seahawks starting 0-2 and the Packers at 2-0 with the head-to-head tiebreaker, they have essentially a 3 game lead on the Seahawks for home field in the playoffs.
One statistic I heard yesterday is that teams that start 0-2 have only a 12% chance of making the playoffs. The Seahawks are in a tough place right now - Lynch is only averaging 3.5 yards per carry and 57 yards per game, Wilson is eventually going to get hurt if he keeps running so much (he has almost as many yards as Marshawn), I wonder how Chancellor’s holdout is really viewed by his teammates - I’d think the resentment is building as the team is hurting. Their schedule is not that easy either, although I expect them to beat the Bears at home next week.
If I were a Seattle fan, I’d be encouraged by losing a game at GB like that. My only negative would be the game plan NE used on offense in the Super Bowl clearly works: GB moved the ball beautifully when they shifted to a quick passing game (which is mostly but not always short). Last year, NE was 2-2 and they won in 2001 after being 1-3. It’s important to remember that most teams which go 0-2 are just not very good teams and that stat can’t account for good teams that happen to lose their first two games. On offense, my worry would be that they are beginning to depend too much on Wilson running as an RB not as a QB scrambling. That has a long NFL history of not ending well.
Rodgers started at age 25. Brady at age 24. Brady lost an entire year to injury. (In his injury year, Rodgers started 9 games while Brady was hurt in the 1stQ of the 1st game.) Peyton started at age 22 and Favre at age 23. So there’s a myth about all this lost time for Rodgers versus Brady and both of them lost a lot of time versus Peyton and Favre. But Rodgers is mostly comparable to Flacco, who has the exact same number of wins for the same years in the NFL. These guys can move up the ladder with time but they aren’t in the same category yet, not when immortals like Kerry Collins and Dave Krieg are ahead of you. And just as they used to say about Montana: 4 Super Bowls and these guys each have 1. I’m not saying Rodgers isn’t excellent. Drew Brees was also excellent - and will still show it sometimes - but in 6 years at age 38 do people think Rodgers will be running around “making plays with his legs”? His game will need to change.
People gush about Rodgers because he has the passing ability (release, arm, accuracy) of Dan Marino and the mobility of Steve Young. He is accurate inside the pocket and on the run, he has a cannon, and he has a good sense of when to tuck and run.
That he also has a super bowl win and has been league MVP cement that, but even if he had neither, he’d still be the most talented QB possibly since Unitas… (or, at least, since Elway/Marino).
Rodgers has only 105 regular season starts compared to Brady’s 209 and Peyton’s 258. Rodgers is 4th among active quarterbacks in win percentage (68.6%), behind Brady (77.5%), Wilson (72.0%), and Peyton Manning (70.2%). By the time Rodgers has 200 starts his win total will be right up there if he stays on the same track. You can’t reasonably argue win totals when players are mid-career. Kerry Collins won only 45% of his starts, Krieg is better at 56%, but he had 175 career starts.
Flacco has 30% more losses (72-42) with the same number of wins as Rodgers (72-33). I think you would be hard-pressed to find anybody who considers Flacco a better qb that Rodgers.