NFL '13 SEASON THREAD

[Kramerica Industries]

Renewed sense of hope for the Chargers. Good for them. At worst, they should be staring 8-8 in the face, which would exceed pre-season expectations. At best, they can squeak into January at 9-7. How about winning games AT both Kansas City and Denver this season? Remarkably impressive.

[JayMac]

Thursday football games sre so dumb. I feel like it further enhances parity. I'll say it again...there is not one great team in this league.

[ninersdd]

At least for Denver they get Houston and Oakland so the division should still be safe. I wonder if Welker wouldve made a difference tonight.

[ADW77]

At least for Denver they get Houston and Oakland so the division should still be safe. I wonder if Welker wouldve made a difference tonight.

All the injuries that have piled up on defense are the real problem.

Losing two of their best interior pass rushers, and their best DT for the season really is hurting an already iffy D.

EDIT: Also without their best safety, Bailey and Del Rio doing who knows what by playing the likes of Lenon & Boldin over Woodyard & Ianacho, is definitely not helping anything at all.

[hbgoo1975]

Not one great team? What about the Packers and Patriots?

[Kramerica Industries]

Thursday football games sre so dumb. I feel like it further enhances parity. I'll say it again...there is not one great team in this league.

This is a point that cannot be preached enough.

Actually, both of them are.

--

I thoroughly expect the Jets to win at Carolina late Sunday afternoon now just to throw giant wrenches in both playoff races*. And, to think, we were thinking that resolution was setting in coming into the week. San Diego changed the tune of that pretty quickly.

*There's no chance the Jets can actually win that game; it's a worst possible matchup. But, hey, exaggeration is fun.

[dbadefense1990]

So let me get this straight:

Denver crapped out tonight, thus giving the Pats an open crevice to go after the AFC's #1 seed. But they don't have Gronk to help them out, thus, their next two games against Miami and Baltimore will be ginormous. All this, the merrier to the Chargers because of two home games left in their schedule with a 10-day layoff coming up, but still outside of the playoff window because of those pesky tiebreakers the teams ahead of them have.

Seriously, there's so many flaws in the AFC side. This has to be Seattle's Super Bowl title season, because at this late of the season, I don't see any viable competition from the other conference.

[IceCap]

This is looking like Seattle's year, but with the way this season's been going they'll loose to the Lions at home and we'll get a Cowboys/Bengals Super Bowl.

[CS85]

This is looking like Seattle's year, but with the way this season's been going they'll loose to the Lions at home and we'll get a Cowboys/Bengals Super Bowl.

Ooh, Ice_Cap dropping the ball with a "loose" typo. Ouch.

[IceCap]

It's late and I'm high off of the thrill of victory

[vicfurth]

Not one great team? What about the Packers and Patriots?

Hehehe.

[See Red]

What makes everyone think Seattle is so great and unbeatable? Because They destroyed a team at home that is historically terrible on the road in big games? They just lost to a 49ers team that we're not even sure is all that good (we're just assuming they are because of last year but, ahem, so was Houston).

Is losing to a Chargers team that I'd contend is better than their record and is playing for their season in a Thursday night game really such a terrible loss? I'd argue that scraping by Houston, St. Louis (when they were playing truly awful football), and going 21 down at home to Tampa Bay is worse.

[Unocal]

Look, there are a lot of flawed teams.

With Denver's lost, before anyone pencils New England for the Super Bowl, they can lose either of their next 2 and we're back to square 1.

Pats defense is barely better- Mike Wallace could torch them on Sunday- and at some point, New England is going to pay for these bad first halves.... unless the football gods are hellbent on getting them to the Super Bowl.

[Lights Out]

Honestly, that win got me hyped up about the Chargers for the first time in years. I've had my doubts about Rivers this year, but he might be officially back. And Keenan Allen should be the offensive rookie of the year.

/in before we lose to Oakland next week

[dfwabel]

What makes everyone think Seattle is so great and unbeatable? Because They destroyed a team at home that is historically terrible on the road in big games? They just lost to a 49ers team that we're not even sure is all that good (we're just assuming they are because of last year but, ahem, so was Houston).

Is losing to a Chargers team that I'd contend is better than their record and is playing for their season in a Thursday night game really such a terrible loss? I'd argue that scraping by Houston, St. Louis (when they were playing truly awful football), and going 21 down at home to Tampa Bay is worse.

Still a home loss dude. NE is unbeaten at Gillette with one game left; service was broken tonight.

It's not that SEA is unbeatable, but they are damn closed to it at home. If they get home field, that's it. Their two losses this year were on tne road and in one score games (6@IND, 2@SF). The Saints could not win there or at NE.

[IceCap]

It's not that SEA is unbeatable, but they are damn closed to it at home. If they get home field, that's it.

For the NFC maybe. They still have to go and play the Super Bowl at a neutral site.

[dfwabel]

It's not that SEA is unbeatable, but they are damn closed to it at home. If they get home field, that's it.

For the NFC maybe. They still have to go and play the Super Bowl at a neutral site.

The point is they play one score games away from home and four guys. That gives them a realistic chance anywhere even when their players are suspended

[See Red]

What makes everyone think Seattle is so great and unbeatable? Because They destroyed a team at home that is historically terrible on the road in big games? They just lost to a 49ers team that we're not even sure is all that good (we're just assuming they are because of last year but, ahem, so was Houston).

Is losing to a Chargers team that I'd contend is better than their record and is playing for their season in a Thursday night game really such a terrible loss? I'd argue that scraping by Houston, St. Louis (when they were playing truly awful football), and going 21 down at home to Tampa Bay is worse.

Still a home loss dude. NE is unbeaten at Gillette with one game left; service was broken tonight.

It's not that SEA is unbeatable, but they are damn closed to it at home. If they get home field, that's it. Their two losses this year were on tne road and in one score games (6@IND, 2@SF). The Saints could not win there or at NE.

To be fair, the Patriots are undefeated at home on the strength of a blatant missed hold call on the winning TD against the Saints, a lucky break on a punt against Denver, and needed an onside kick and some generous officiating against the Browns. They're also now without their best player not named Brady. And this Seattle team that's unbeatable at home was down 21 points at home to a then-winless Bucs team.

Again, the Broncos lost to a deceptively decent team that was in a must-win scenario in a game. Peyton has been resting his arm on days where he ordinarily wouldn't in practice, and the results have been noticeable on his deeper passes in the last few games. It's not unlikely that the short week affected him... the deep passing game seemed pretty non-existant. The part that bothers me is the dumb penalties that kept the defense on the field. The part that worries me is the injuries. The defense isn't particularly great when they're healthy and with all of these injuries it's ugly.

[IceCap]

It's not that SEA is unbeatable, but they are damn closed to it at home. If they get home field, that's it.

For the NFC maybe. They still have to go and play the Super Bowl at a neutral site.

The point is they play one score games away from home and four guys. That gives them a realistic chance anywhere even when their players are suspended

Yes, but they're not nearly as dominant when they're on the road, even when they win. Going into Seattle? The Seawhawks may be unbeatable. Playing them at a neutral site? They're beatable.

[infrared41]

Not one great team? What about the Packers and Patriots?

The Packers? I wish.