2009 NFL Season Thread

[gingerbreadmann]

Weird quirk from this season, the Jets-Bengals rematch next week will be one of 3 first round playoff games that will be a rematch of the last game of the season.

Cowboys-Eagles

Bengals-Jets

Cardinals-Packers

In the case of the Cards-Packers, and Cowboys-Eagles the next game will be in the same stadium as the first.

How many times has that ever happened in the past?

I was just thinking about that. I don't know. And at least Pats-Ravens is a rematch from the year. And if the Ravens lost, I think the Texans could have gotten in, though I think they would have been the #6 seed, while the Pats would have been #4. Anyway, I'm sure there's some reasonable way that all 4 games could have been rematches from Week 17, which would be massively cool.

[njmeadowlanders]

The Jets were in Oakland Week 17 and Wild Card weekend in January of 2002. That was because they were supposed to be in Oakland Week 2 but 9/11 postponed that game to the week after the end of the scheduled season, with everything pushed back a week. John Hall made a 52 yarder at the gun to put the Jets into the playoffs, only to be demolished in the game the next week on Wild Card Weekend...

I'm sure it's happened a bunch...but 3 separate instances probably hasn't.

[NJTank]

I think its fairly rare, I recall once in the 80s the Browns and Oilers played two weeks in a row, the fact three rematches will occur next week is weird.

[DEAD!]

Well, who would have thought, at the start of the season, that the New York team that would make the playoffs would be the Jets?

[Saintsfan]

The Jets have done well to recover from a mid season wobble to get into the playoffs. Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez, heck the whole organisation deserve a lot of praise for that

[njmeadowlanders]

The Jets have done well to recover from a mid season wobble to get into the playoffs. Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez, heck the whole organisation deserve a lot of praise for that

...and they've done it with (at least at the beginning of the season) arguably their best offensive player (Leon Washington) and defensive player (Kris Jenkins...obviously Revis has risen up though since) both missing the majority of the season on IR...

[crashcarson15]

I've never been prouder of the Falcons. Win 3 straight games to make it back to back winning seasons. The Falcons D came up huge these past three games and our corners don't look so bad now. Owens and Grimes is a pretty good combo when they're both playing well.

Not to take away from the Falcons' secondary, but their opposing QB's the last three weeks were Mark Sanchez, Brian Brohm, and Josh Freeman. They aren't exactly Elway, Montana, and Brady.

But the defense stepped up, and the team made history...that's all I could ask for.

The thing that bothers me the most out of this whole situation is the fact that the Colts got to play playoff gods here.

The Colts played Houston twice trying to win the game, and won both times.

The Colts played Jacksonville twice trying to win the game, and won both times.

The Colts played Denver once trying to win the game, and won.

The Colts played Miami once trying to win the game, and won.

The Colts played the Jets once trying to lose, and lost.

My point is, why did the Colts play to lose against the Jets, letting them into the playoffs but not Jacksonville, Houston, Miami, and Denver.

I'm not attacking the Jets, they're a quality football team, but they're getting into the playoffs by beating a team that played their back-ups in the middle of a close game.

These teams had plenty of other games that they lost....kinda hard to blame the Colts. Especially when you're losing to teams such as Oakland and Kansas City...at home.

Oh yeah I'm not arguing that the Jags should have beaten the Seahawks and the Browns or the Broncos should have beaten the Chiefs and Raiders, it's the fact that had any of those teams played the Colts in Week 16 or 17, they'd have one more win and the Jets would have one more loss.

That said, the Jets are a playoff-caliber team.

[BBTV]

And now McNabb is blaming the "youths" on the team for yesterday's loss, continuing his trend of putting the blame on everyone and everything other than himself.

"We showed our youth," the quarterback said. "We showed our youth in situations where everyone would begin to look around to see who was going to make the play instead of stepping up and making that play. That's something that comes with the territory when you have a young group. I think at this time, having discussed it with the guys, everybody understands it."

How about you step up and make that play? You want to be the star so bad that you drive other stars out of town, yet you complain when you don't have a star making plays to bail you out? Funny how great you were when TO was catching everything you threw even remotely close to him.

Was he the only problem? Of course not. The coach proved once again that he's a horrible game-day coach (in addition to just being a general failure in life), and the line really struggled (to be expected with a new center / guard combo.) McNabb was horrible, just like he's been most of the season (he's been bailed out by his receivers and backs time and time again.) As a leader, he should get up there and protect his teammates and just say that he has to do better. Comments like he made are just part of the reason why every single play, I hope that he tears his knees apart and can't play again (or at least breaks more ribs so he has to miss more time.) I've been ready for the Reid - McNabb era to be over for years, but since the Reid era is destined to continue, I can only hope that McNabb gets broken in half, or is in some kind of accident or something and can't come back.

[IceCap]

How about you step up and make that play? You want to be the star so bad that you drive other stars out of town, yet you complain when you don't have a star making plays to bail you out? Funny how great you were when TO was catching everything you threw even remotely close to him.

TO WAS a team cancer. I think he proved that in Dallas. I think he's trying to reform his ways in Buffalo, but when he was in Philly he was poison. I don't know how you can look at what happened between McNabb and TO and blame McNabb. It didn't happen that way.

Was he the only problem? Of course not. The coach proved once again that he's a horrible game-day coach (in addition to just being a general failure in life),

He's made more cash then anyone here will ever see in a lifetime. He's made a VERY successful living coaching football. Hardly qualifies him as a "general failure in life." Sure, the quality of coach he proved to be is up for debate, but he's not a failure in life, not by a long shot.

I've been ready for the Reid - McNabb era to be over for years, but since the Reid era is destined to continue, I can only hope that McNabb gets broken in half, or is in some kind of accident or something and can't come back.

Harsh, no? You're pissed off at yesterday's loss. I understand that. Still, generally speaking, it's never a classy move to wish harm on anyone. Maybe he McNabb just plays so piss poor in the Wildcard game that it starts the road to him losing the starting position? That would have done well enough.

[BBTV]

How about you step up and make that play? You want to be the star so bad that you drive other stars out of town, yet you complain when you don't have a star making plays to bail you out? Funny how great you were when TO was catching everything you threw even remotely close to him.

TO WAS a team cancer. I think he proved that in Dallas. I think he's trying to reform his ways in Buffalo, but when he was in Philly he was poison. I don't know how you can look at what happened between McNabb and TO and blame McNabb. It didn't happen that way.

Sorry, but you weren't here when TO was here. YOu didn't see and hear everything about this team every day, and you're not in a position to say how something happened. His teammates loved him (other than McNabb), and many of them supported him (Trotter and Dawkins to name two.) Sure he had issues, and did some bad things (parking in the coaches spot for one... which I thought was pretty funny) but ultimately it was McNabb's insecurity that caused a lot of the problems. I'm not saying that the public contract wars were avoidable, but I'm sure that management would have been more willing to at least talk about things privately had McNabb not been essentially a part of the front office, which he has been ever since Reid took over the whole show.

Was he the only problem? Of course not. The coach proved once again that he's a horrible game-day coach (in addition to just being a general failure in life),

He's made more cash then anyone here will ever see in a lifetime. He's made a VERY successful living coaching football. Hardly qualifies him as a "general failure in life." Sure, the quality of coach he proved to be is up for debate, but he's not a failure in life, not by a long shot.

I don't know - you raise two kids who end up in jail, that kind of makes you a failure in my book. When your priorities are on coming up with new wasy to execute a screen pass and not being with your family and trying everything you can do to help your children, that's not right. Just talking about on-field moves, he's been out coached in nearly every big game of his career. He completely abandons the run, doesn't know how to use time outs, and makes very questionable calls on 3rd+1 and 4th+1. His personnel moves have been pretty bad too, and he constantly leaves the team in positions where they're starting rookies who aren't ready, don't have proven returners, or are picking guys off waivers because they have no depth.

I've been ready for the Reid - McNabb era to be over for years, but since the Reid era is destined to continue, I can only hope that McNabb gets broken in half, or is in some kind of accident or something and can't come back.

Harsh, no? You're pissed off at yesterday's loss. I understand that. Still, generally speaking, it's never a classy move to wish harm on anyone. Maybe he McNabb just plays so piss poor in the Wildcard game that it starts the road to him losing the starting position? That would have done well enough.

Not pissed at yesterday's loss. I've been saying this since January 2002. Reid and McNabb are joined at the hip. Reid will NEVER get rid of him, and essentially caters to his every whim (they gave him more money without an extension just to show him that he's their guy.) I'm not sure that Kevin Kolb is the answer, but they used a 2nd round pick on him, and he's looked good when given a chance. Is it nice to wish harm on anyone? Of course not. It's not personal, just business. It's the only way he won't be the QB here, so yeah, I do hope something happens to him. I don't want him to die or anything, or be in a wheelchair, just get hurt enough to where he has to miss at least a full season, or has to retire or something. Maybe a broken femur would do the trick.

[Harmening]

How about you step up and make that play? You want to be the star so bad that you drive other stars out of town, yet you complain when you don't have a star making plays to bail you out? Funny how great you were when TO was catching everything you threw even remotely close to him.

TO WAS a team cancer. I think he proved that in Dallas. I think he's trying to reform his ways in Buffalo, but when he was in Philly he was poison. I don't know how you can look at what happened between McNabb and TO and blame McNabb. It didn't happen that way.

Was he the only problem? Of course not. The coach proved once again that he's a horrible game-day coach (in addition to just being a general failure in life),

He's made more cash then anyone here will ever see in a lifetime. He's made a VERY successful living coaching football. Hardly qualifies him as a "general failure in life." Sure, the quality of coach he proved to be is up for debate, but he's not a failure in life, not by a long shot.

I've been ready for the Reid - McNabb era to be over for years, but since the Reid era is destined to continue, I can only hope that McNabb gets broken in half, or is in some kind of accident or something and can't come back.

Harsh, no? You're pissed off at yesterday's loss. I understand that. Still, generally speaking, it's never a classy move to wish harm on anyone. Maybe he McNabb just plays so piss poor in the Wildcard game that it starts the road to him losing the starting position? That would have done well enough.

So the thing that makes you successful is if you make lotsa money?

I've seen quite a few rich people who I would definitely consider "failures"

[BBTV]

I acknowledge the fact that he's won a lot of games, and had a better career than most head coaches, but when you keep making the same mistakes year after year, it's time for a change. There have been a lot of "good" coaches that have never won Super Bowls, and at least a couple bad ones that have (Barry Switzer?). He's an example of a good coach who doesn't have what it takes to give his team a legitimate chance to win a big game. It wouldn't be such a big deal if he had the players who could put it on their back and win despite the inept coaching, but this team just doesn't have that. They almost did in the Super Bowl when TO came back early from a broken ankle and was 99% of their offense, but then the QB threw up and almost cried, and that was that.

[Chawls]

Even though I bleed black and 5 different shades of gold (smh), I'd like to congradulate the Falcons' fans here for finally having a team competent enough to have back-to-back winning seasons.

Also, congrats to the Texans for acheiving their first ever winning season. If I weren't a member of Who Dat Nation, I'd probably be a fan of theirs.

Btw, I'll be rooting for Philly to beat commit unspeakable acts upon Dallas this weekend. I can't imagine how McNabb will react if the game ends in a tie >.>

[epper]

edit: nevermind.

[Cujo]

Jets 37, Bengals 0.

Great way to close out Giants Stadium!

J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!

[Saintsfan]

Unsurprisingly Jim Zorn has been fired by the Redskins.

[BigEd76]

I wasn't sure if it belonged here or in the mock draft topic or a new one or what, but here's the draft order for the first 20 picks:

01 = St. Louis

02 = Detroit

03 = Tampa Bay

04 = Washington

05 = Kansas City

06 = Seattle

07 = Cleveland

08 = Oakland

09 = Buffalo

10 = coin flip between Jacksonville and Denver (CHI)

11 = coin flip between Jacksonville and Denver (CHI)

12 = Miami

13 = San Francisco

14 = Seattle (from DEN)

15 = N.Y. Giants

16 = coin flip between Tennessee and San Francisco (CAR)

17 = coin flip between Tennessee and San Francisco (CAR)

18 = Pittsburgh

19 = coin flip between Atlanta and Houston

20 = coin flip between Atlanta and Houston

21-24 = wildcard losers (new this year) -- the Philly/Dallas loser is locked into #24

25-28 = divisional losers (new this year)

29-30 = championship game losers (new this year)

31 = SB loser

32 = SB winner

[The_Admiral]

I've never been prouder of the Falcons.

They went to a Super Bowl once

[Sport]

another quirk from this season that I just thought of:

- the Denver Broncos started the season 6-0 and finished 8-8, the Tennessee Titans started the season 0-6 and finished 8-8.

[rams80]

Can someone explain how the Cards are back in the playoffs after losing in Super Bowl XLIII while the Super Bowl Champs Steelers are not in the playoffs?

May I present the NFC West as exhibit A, and the AFC North with 2 playoff teams as exhibit B?