Rockstar Matt

1 hour ago, Sport said:

 

Mike Florio is a Steelers fan at his core* which means he's both a moron and a bad person. He fabricates with zero evidence and then does this "I'm just sayin..." bullshrt. Like the time he speculated based on nothing that Joe Burrow would try to pull an Eli Manning and force the Bengals not to draft him. Then when everyone rightfully called him a stupid a$$hole for that he went "hold on I only said he could try that. It's an option for him." Dude's a Darren Rovell tier grade-a weenie and also sucks. 

 

*He even waved his terrible Towel on NBC when the Bengals and Steelers played on SNF earlier this season. 

Is he a Steelers fan? I was under the impression he's a Vikings fan. He's openly talked about his love for the Vikings before. I did find a recent YT video from 2021 on NFL on NBC's official account where Florio is talking about how he became a Vikings fan in the 70's as a kid. 

If Mike Florio is reporting anything that isn't collaborated by actual NFL journalists/reporters, it isn't happening. End of story. ProFootballTalk is nothing more than an opinion blog site. 

3 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

They were barely a playoff team, had a terrible second half, and I don't think that even their biggest fans consider them a true contender.  So no - not frauds.  Just a team that had a mediocre season and was on the right side of a couple of tight games.

This is 100% accurate. Their own fans don't even believe they're contenders. They are just happy to be here and to have gone further than anyone would have reasonably expected them to.

1 hour ago, Unocal said:

 

Buffalo last year couldn't win a close game to save their lives and was historically unlucky in tight games.

 

Literally an inverse.

Okay and... ? Don't understand the point you're trying to make here.

4 hours ago, nuordr said:

Why would the Cowboys bring out the red stripe for the playoffs? Did they get permission from the NFL to wear this alternate look?

There's between a zero percent chance and nil percent chance that they wear the red stripe in the playoffs. He must have just accidentally used that image instead of their standard one.

7 hours ago, Brave-Bird 08 said:

Gracious, not only is Dallas silly for wearing a seldom-seen combo tonight

 

Please NFL, please require that teams wear uniforms correctly and that socks (and compression pants) must adhere to style guides. 

 

The NFL looks worse than it ever has

Not that seldom, maybe for the national audience but this is the 3rd time this season the Cowboys have worn this combo. They’ve been wearing it at least once a year since 2017 (they might have skipped a year in 2018 or 2020. Can’t remember).

I do wish that more players wore the proper navy socks with it, vastly improves the look. 
 

Can’t believe I’m saying this considering how much I hated it when they first wore it, but I like the look now. It’s grown on me.

These boys actually did it. They finally beat Tom effing Brady. Easily the best playoff game I've ever seen the Cowboys play in my lifetime. I was expecting the Cowboys to win a close, hard fought battle because I don't trust them, but I was not expecting an absolute blowout. On the road no less too, the first time they've done that since I was barely 1 years old. 

This team can go into San Francisco and win, they're good enough to win, but it'll take a better performance from the special teams and continuing to play mistake free football. 

Going to enjoy this for a bit. 

8 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

Gonna be real fun watching you get beat like you stole something next weekend. Basically the only solace I have at this point. 

I still think the 49ers win next week, but if these Cowboys tonight show up in San Francisco, they have a chance. When the Cowboys play mistake free football they are tough to beat. 
 

EDIT: I really hope Gage is alright. Hate to see this especially just weeks after what happened to Hamlin. 

This is glorious. 

9 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

In all my life, I've never seen a kicker miss four straight XPs. Never once and I've been watching football for a little while.

It’s a record in a playoff game. He had the record with 3 but decided to cement it with another miss. Gotta give him credit there 

Are you effing kidding me Maher? Don’t kick it again with him. This is inexcusable.

4 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

Maybe instead of kicking XPs from the hashmark, he could try kicking it from THE MIDDLE OF THE GODDAMN FOOTBALL FIELD

That’s where he normally kicks it from. I have to think it’s because it’s harder to block it due to the angle. 

Again, he’s been solid all season until today and last week. He’s just in his head currently.

5 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

We letting this one play out or are we calling it before halftime again?

Anyone that counts out Tom Brady is a fool. I don’t trust any lead against him until the game is over. 

What the hell Maher. He’s been rock solid all season but decided today he’s going to start shanking PAT’s?

This is looking like an exact repeat of Week 1 so far. 

3 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

I'm in a better place in life knowing that how my teams perform no longer affects my emotions

That's the key, man. The secret to sports, IMO. Sports have become far more enjoyable now that my emotional state doesn't ride on the outcome of a game. 

51 minutes ago, Unocal said:

The fact that people are calling Minnesota the worst 13 win team because they didn't blowout teams like the 07 Patriots?

 

Do we overemphasis point differential?

They had a negative point differential man. First one ever to win 13+ and to have it be negative. Point differential isn't the end all, be all, stat but it's very useful when determining the overall quality of a team. Good teams tend to win big and if they lose, they're close games.

Minnesota was the exact opposite.

The Vikings were 11-0 in one score games coming into this game. One score games are rather random in terms of who wins, meaning most teams would expect to be somewhere around .500 in those games. The Vikings were really a 8-9 or 9-8 type of team, who just got historically lucky in tight contests. 

That was almost an insane ending right there. Literally bounced off his hands. Next weeks Bengals-Bills is going to be an outstanding game.

Now, I'm officially nervous as hell for tomorrow night. 

2 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

It's likely true that he's hurt more than what anyone's said publicly.  It's also true that the gameplan was designed for him to do the absolute bare minimum, and it was a very vanilla, preseason-like offense.  It's certainly possible that he's just too limited, and in that case, the Giants have a great chance.

The offense was definitely vanilla, which I believe, like you do, was designed to have him do almost nothing, but I was looking more at how he was throwing. The usual zip and power he displayed throughout the year (and his career) was lacking. He just looked like every time he threw it was painful for him. 

Quote

But I'll disagree about the OL.  Having to give a guy help literally changes the offense, since it's based on creating mismatches but now you have to use a TE or RB to help the RT, whereas Lane just did his thing by himself and freed up those resources to do better things.

That's a good point. I still think that if Jalen was 100%, the Eagles are talented enough to overcome that, but you're right in that it'll change their offense since they'll probably not be able to leave Lane on an island. Really not ideal to have these injuries occurring simultaneously and at this point in the season. 

2 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

Believe it or not, Jalen's health isn't the Eagles biggest concern.  RT Lane Johnson is going to try and play with a tear somewhere in his abdomen that requires surgery.  He hasn't given up a sack in more than 2 seasons and the offense fell off considerably once he went down (albeit it coincided with Hurts' injury).

 

The Eagles O-line is what makes everything go.  There's two possible HOFers on it (one for sure, one maybe) and other great young players.  Lane Johnson is the only one without a competent backup, so he has to try and gut it out.

 

Of course the same thing happened in 2017 when Jason Peters was lost for the season, and his previously-terrible backup stepped it up, so we'll see.

I don't know if I agree. I think it totally depends on Jalen. You can cover up/shield a back-up OT, or an injured one in Lane, by sliding the protection to help or with TE's/RB's chipping constantly, but there isn't a whole lot you can do if your QB is struggling to throw. I watched that Eagles-Giants game, and Jalen didn't look good. He looked like a QB playing through a bad injury. He simultaneously had his worst passing performance AND his worst rushing performance of the season. I believe he's more hurt than the Eagles are letting on publicly (and NFL insiders have been saying this since he initially got hurt).

If he can throw like he did pre-injury, I don't think this game is really close and the Eagles win comfortably, though not in a blow out. If he's still in a ton of pain throwing, these Giants won't fear the Eagles at all and are a threat to steal one. Something like 17-16. 

What a game from the Giants and Daniel Jones. Outstanding performance. They'll be a tough opponent for Philly. It all depends on Jalen and his health. If he still cannot throw well because of the injury, the Giants will have a fantastic opportunity to steal one against them. 

This is really impressive from the Giants. 

The Giants have zero fear of Minnesota. They’re playing so well. I’ve been pretty impressed with Danny Dimes, can’t lie. 

Rumors are going strong that Aaron Donald is about to retire. We know he almost retired last year after the Super Bowl so it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if he did this offseason. The Rams would almost certainly be in full rebuild mode if he's gone.

I dunno, the Giants getting rid of their gray pants in favor of these awful white pants is worse. Ruined one of my all-time favorite looks in the NFL.