NFL 2014-2015 Season: Super Bowl Champion Patriots

[Anacybele]

Also, only four QBs now have won 100 games in their first 150 starts...and two of them are Steelers QBs :D Big Ben and Terry Bradshaw.

I'm wearing my Steeler jersey all week to celebrate that amazing game Ben and his guys just had! (well, except for during Panthers vs Saints on Thursday lol)

[Black Dynamite]

Rex Ryan is going to be gone after this year regardless. The Jets are awful. On a sad note, I didn't start Gronk in my fantasy league this week (I started Julius Thomas at tight end and Maclin at Flex) which shattered my hopes and dreams of winning this week. That was a real kick in the ass.

[Anacybele]

Speaking of the fantasy league, before yesterday, two of NFL.com's recommended sits were...Big Ben and Heath Miller. XD The former wound up having a MONSTROUS day and the latter was left wiiiide open more than once, the first one allowing him to get a long run that almost ended up being a TD (the only reason it wasn't is because Miller is on the slow side) and the latter actually being a TD. Talk about irony. lol

[Black Dynamite]

Yeah, the whole "Start Tannenhill!!!" Bandwagon fucked me up too, if I had started Cutler I would have won. -_- Definitely going with my instincts for the coming weeks. It destroyed me seeing Gronk go off for such a big game when Julius Thomas essentially did nothing. Why did I pick up two good tight ends? Gahhhh.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, the site makes its recommendations based on stats, which isn't a bad idea, but it's just that sometimes the players can wind up surprising. The Steelers certainly gave me the biggest surprise I ever saw from them. And I'm not complaining.

Also, I think the Steelers have found their no. 2 receiver in Martavis Bryant. He's like our very own Kelvin Benjamin with the way he runs and catches and stuff! And three TDs already in just his first two games. Dayum.

Still, something is just really weird about the team. They have a tale of two halves in week 1 against the Browns, get curbstomped by the Ravens in week 2, manhandle the Panthers in week 3, lose to the friggin Bucs in week 4, get curbstomped by the Browns in week 6, stomp the Texans in week 7, and now they beat one of the best teams in the league by putting up 51 points and possibly the best performance of the season. Yeah, I can't wrap my head around all that. Such inconsistency. But they've stacked two wins now, so they're getting more consistent.

Some other factors that caused this though: being heavily penalized earlier in the season, not using Martavis Bryant, and defensive issues.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Anacybele

[Black Dynamite]

I understand your trouble with inconsistency, the Panthers and Ravens have both looked the same way this season. The Panthers went from getting DESTROYED by the Packers to holding the Seahawks to one touchdown. They have had games where their offense looks stellar and their defense looks god awful, and games where the opposite is true. I am hoping that by the end of the season the Panthers are able to finally get some consistency on both sides of the ball. The Ravens have had similar issues, but at least they haven't gotten straight blown out like the Panthers have in 2 weeks now (and we also had a third week where we allowed the Bengals 38 points although it ended in a tie).

[metalsnowman3]

I feel like there are only 3 teams that have been consistent: the Broncos, the Raiders, and the Jaguars. The Broncos have been consistently good while the Raiders and Jaguars have been consistently bad.

On another note, I can't wait for the bears to not have Jay Cutler as their starting QB. He is talented but he has made 0 progress since first coming to the bears. Trestman needs to actually hold him accountable or something because clearly the Jay Cutler keeps improving is a lie. I know not everything is Cutler's fault but he continues to choke in close games and giveaway the ball at the worst times in addition to being too predictable in who his primary receiver is. He has been in the league 8 years and he isn't going to magically become good.

Also, are you fucking serious Lamarr Houston, C'MON MAN! good job getting your first sack when there is 4 minutes left and the defense you are on got destroyed and then celebrate and tear your ACL.

[Anacybele]

I understand your trouble with inconsistency, the Panthers and Ravens have both looked the same way this season. The Panthers went from getting DESTROYED by the Packers to holding the Seahawks to one touchdown. They have had games where their offense looks stellar and their defense looks god awful, and games where the opposite is true. I am hoping that by the end of the season the Panthers are able to finally get some consistency on both sides of the ball. The Ravens have had similar issues, but at least they haven't gotten straight blown out like the Panthers have in 2 weeks now (and we also had a third week where we allowed the Bengals 38 points although it ended in a tie).

Yeah, it's just weird. And the Steelers got blown out twice too (because of defensive issues). Now that they've stacked two wins though, the Steelers might have finally gotten their crap together and can be more consistent. They proved that they're good enough to beat the Colts, so they need to keep playing like that. And hopefully, that huge ass win was a major confidence booster and will let them go into week 9 against the Ravens with fires in their bellies.

As for the Panthers, that o-line just needs to figure something out. Cam Newton kept getting hit, sacked, and little time to get rid of the ball.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Anacybele

[-Cynthia-]

I feel like there are only 3 teams that have been consistent: the Broncos, the Raiders, and the Jaguars. The Broncos have been consistently good while the Raiders and Jaguars have been consistently bad.

On another note, I can't wait for the bears to not have Jay Cutler as their starting QB. He is talented but he has made 0 progress since first coming to the bears. Trestman needs to actually hold him accountable or something because clearly the Jay Cutler keeps improving is a lie. I know not everything is Cutler's fault but he continues to choke in close games and giveaway the ball at the worst times in addition to being too predictable in who his primary receiver is. He has been in the league 8 years and he isn't going to magically become good.

Also, are you fucking serious Lamarr Houston, C'MON MAN! good job getting your first sack when there is 4 minutes left and the defense you are on got destroyed and then celebrate and tear your ACL.

The Jaguars are one of the least consistent teams actually, at least in terms of DVOA. I'm thinking this has to with their defense going from like 38 ppg to 13 ppg.

Not counting the most recent weeks since it's not in the books yet, here are the most consistent/inconsistent teams:

1. Houston

2. Oakland

3. Arizona

4. San Diego

5. Buffalo

(Denver is #6)

28. Atlanta

29. Cincinnati

30. Jacksonville

31. New York Giants

32. Tampa Bay

[Jiac]

OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY. CHARGERS RELEASED OUR SUCKY CB RICHARD MARSHALL. HE SUCKED BALLS.

[Anacybele]

Oh yeah, besides being a really awesome receiver, you know what else I love about Antonio Brown? He's so classy! Just check out some of the clothes this guy wears! A purple suit with a bow tie and matching hat. And he makes it look good. He's like some 50s guy wearing that get up, lol.

[Lord Raven]

psh, even if he isn't as good Torrey Smith was buying a ton of Devon Stills jerseys and handing them out to Bengals fans on Sunday. Though I guess that's two different backgrounds at work, I don't think many players in the NFL have been through the same kind of crap Torrey had been through... even though he's not doing well this season I want him to stay a Raven because he's actually an inspiring guy which you can't say much for most athletes, even the ones with struggles. Of course, I highly doubt he'd be a Raven if he didn't have some sort of troubled upbringing or being generally an underdog.

Gotta give the Jets some props though. Despite a -4 turnover margin at halftime they were only down by 7 points. All 6 turnovers of the game came in their half of the field too. If Vick finishes the season at QB, I could see them going 5-3 in the back half of their schedule. Pound for pound, that guy is one of the toughest players in the NFL.

That I'd have to disagree with. Vick will not last 8 games. He's like 33 and his playing relies entirely on his running, and on top of that he does not know how to protect himself.

Sammy Watkins stat line should have had +6yds +1 TD but he had a "welcome to the league, rookie" moment.

The biggest crime is that you guys don't have a first round pick to spend on a QB. Though, if Derek Carr, Nick Foles, Matt Schaub (back when he was really good), and Russell Wilson are of any indication you may not need it...

The Colts D seemed to not want to cover anybody. There were a bunch of plays where the Steelers receivers were just completely uncovered.

ugh and don't forget that lack of pass rush. Isn't this the kind of thing Pagano specialized in? Exotic pressure packages and blitzes that confuse linemen? I guess the Steelers caught on or the Colts players just played terrible.

Something tells me that Big Ben wont be the only player with two 500yd games for very long.

In fact I'm shocked he's the only one. Peyton Manning has never had a 500+ yard game. I'm surprised that Brees/Stafford haven't had two 500 yard games either. I'm equally surprised Eli Manning has never had two given the number of shootouts the Giants seem to get themselves into sometimes.

Atl v Det. I started watching it in the second half at 21-0 because it started way too early, and i said "Holy shit! The Falcons should move to London!" And then the 2nd half of that game happened... If you didnt see the final 2 possessions of the game, take my word for it. Mike Smith needs to be fired immediately. Atlanta had the ball on 2nd down with 1:50 at mid field after Detroit used their final timeout. Detroit got the ball back with 1:30ish inside their 10 yd line. All Atlanta had to do was take 2 knees and punt the ball back to Detroit and there would have only been 25-30 seconds left on the clock. instead they take a holding penalty on 2nd down and then throw an incomplete pass on 3rd down.

Mike Smith is the most overrated fucking coach in the past 7 years. Their front office has issues too given that the Julio Jones trade basically made them lose a bunch of picks for depth, and they haven't gotten any good depth or talent for that offensive line in a while. On top of that the Falcons seem to do this shit all the time, Does anyone else remember the 2012 playoffs? They were up like 27-7 on the Seahawks shortly after half then the seahawks came back and made it 27-28 to which the Falcons kicked a field goal with time expiring. Same thing against the 49ers; 24-7 at halftime then 49ers come back and make it 24-28. Constantly just doing nonsense like this. I'm surprised he wasn't fired after last season.

is it possible for passer rating to be negative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passer_rating

the NFL formula goes from 0 to 158.3; a perfect passer rating game is kind of comparable to a perfect game in baseball except it doesn't necessarily allow you to win because it's an efficiency metric and not a bulk stat. An 80 is around average, and if you see a player get 100 on the season then that means he had a ridiculously good season.

Rex Ryan is going to be gone after this year regardless. The Jets are awful.

I'd say 1-7 is bad but they are probably the best 1-7 team in NFL history...

I understand your trouble with inconsistency, the Panthers and Ravens have both looked the same way this season. The Panthers went from getting DESTROYED by the Packers to holding the Seahawks to one touchdown. They have had games where their offense looks stellar and their defense looks god awful, and games where the opposite is true. I am hoping that by the end of the season the Panthers are able to finally get some consistency on both sides of the ball. The Ravens have had similar issues, but at least they haven't gotten straight blown out like the Panthers have in 2 weeks now (and we also had a third week where we allowed the Bengals 38 points although it ended in a tie).

Ravens have not been inconsistent contrary to what people want to think.. We're 1-3 in one score games against the stronger teams and we've blown just about everyone else out. That's not inconsistency... Our situation at receiver and corner has been a gigantic clusterfuck though, there was a point in the Bengals game yesterday where we had just Steve Smith, Marlon Brown (~____~), Kyle Jucyzcyk, Jacoby Jones (fucking UGH), Kamar Aiken (...), and Crockett Gillmore (rookie) to throw to. We also only activated 3 corners and had 7 safeties playing or something ridiculous. And one of those corners were injured. I also don't know why Will Hill got only 12 snaps. Maybe they were saving him for Pittsburgh and thinking we didn't need him for Cincy?

idk I'm hoping we pull off some trickery next week, and hometown boy Michael Campanaro can get rested and become our Wes Welker next week... that dude has been doing quite a bit in limited snaps.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

Simply put, Ben's always been kind of underrated as a QB and yesterday, he showed exactly why. He's an elite that's capable of the awesome stuff he did, although he had help from his o-line (finally xP). But he still extended plays, was VERY accurate with his throws (40 of 49, damn it), and threw for more TDs than even Tom Brady did. He was like Peyton Manning out there. He would've had more completions had there not been a couple of dropped passes by his receivers.

Although he did mess up one 4th down and was told to punt for some reason. Those were just a couple of Haley brain farts, though, I think.

[Lord Raven]

Ben is not an Elite QB. Are you saying Flacco is elite now too because he put up 5 a lot faster than anyone else in NFL history (and also in his first 13 attempts, where he had 3 incompletions with all of them being drops)? On top of that he did it with some very middling/scrubby/old receivers, whereas Ben's are always more talented as a whole.

For the record, I do not think Flacco is an elite QB.

Also pooch punting isn't rare but it happens.

Ben's always been rated Top 7 to Top 12. Some seasons he was Bottom 16, other seasons he was in that range. Nobody underrates Ben.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

Ben IS an elite QB. He's underrated because people like to claim that the rest of his offense just makes him look good. Well, the only really talented receivers he's had are Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Mike Wallace, Plaxico Buress, Heath Miller (who is past his prime now), and Antonio Brown (Martavis Bryant might be added to this list though). And he's almost always had a crappy o-line. Despite that, he's avoided many sacks, extended plays, completed his passes, won a lot of games, and got to three Super Bowls. And won two of them. Heck, the first one he got was only two years after he'd been drafted. And he got ORoY in his rookie year.

He was overshadowed by Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers when he was drafted, but he's outperformed both. And now he's put up Tom Brady and Petyon Manning-like numbers. And they've also had great receivers to throw to, like Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker.

Also, top 7 out of 32 sounds elite to me.

[Lord Raven]

No, Ben is not an elite quarterback. The elites the last 6 seasons were Brady, Brees, Rodgers, Manning (save 2011), with Ryan/Rivers on the cusp. Ryan and Brees have fell out of contention while being replaced with Luck and Wilson (respectively). This puts Ben firmly at Top 7. Rivers also basically took Brees' spot whereas Luck took Rivers' #6.

It gets murkier when you hit #7 or #8. You basically have, now, competition between Ben, Ryan, Flacco, Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Matthew Stafford, etc.

Ben has also not outperformed Rivers. Manning is debatable but that's only if you base it off of rings, because Ben's had worse seasons than Manning's worst. Top 7/32 definitely isn't elite. 10-15 is above average. 5-6 is the cusp. 7-10 is good. Ben is in the 7-12 range and has hit below 16 at points of his career. Ben has been a 7 at his best.

Well, the only really talented receivers he's had are Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Mike Wallace, Plaxico Buress, Heath Miller, and Antonio Brown.

That is... a lot to have for a career. Tom Brady's only talented receivers were Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Aaron Hernandez, and Rob Gronkowski in his 14 year career. Three of those dudes were slot receivers. Moss was his only outside receiver ever, everyone else was just there to catch short passes. And he's only had Gronk for all of 58 games, Hernandez for 3 seasons before he decided to murder some dudes, and Moss for two seasons. That leaves him with only Welker and Gronkowski as the only good receivers he's spent more than 3 seasons with.

Brees hasn't had a pro bowl receiver ever aside from Jimmy Graham. Rivers has had... Antonio Gates and like 2 seasons of Ladanian Tomlinson. I guess Vincent Jackson, Malcolm Floyd, Keenan Allen, and whatever too.

And he's almost always had a crappy o-line.

Also not true. 2008, 2012 onwards maybe. But he's definitely had an offensive line at points of his career. Manning's definitely had worse OLs but his quick release is why he rarely gets sacked. Derek Carr right now has a crappy ass OL but doesn't get sacked either. Flacco's OLs have been just about as bad aside from 4 games in 2012 and this season (and even this season it's up and down). And let's not get into Luck or Rodgers... Rivers had a 3 year stretch with one of the worst OLs in the league with one of the most idiot HCs in the league.

Despite that, he's avoided many sacks, extended plays, completed his passes, won a lot of games, and got to three Super Bowls.

Everyone completes passes. Won a lot of games on top of a very very historically good run for a defense, btw... because Flacco's win% is actually higher than Big Ben's yet he's still not an elite QB. On top of that the Steelers have missed the playoffs about as many times under Ben as they've made it...

And many better, smarter, and "more elite" QBs have avoided sacks. You know how they avoid them? Getting rid of the ball quickly. Throwing with a ton of anticipation. Knowing where exactly everyone is on the field at the same time. Also slipping around in the pocket, as opposed to trucking defenders, because Ben has missed games because he's "avoided sacks."

He was overshadowed by Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers when he was drafted, but he's outperformed both. And now he's put up Tom Brady and Petyon Manning-like numbers.

It was only one game. He hasn't had anything close to that performance this season.

I know you're high off of a 500+ yard 6 TD performance but jumping to conclusions from a game like that will only set you up for disappointment lol. You still realize that you're talking to someone whose QB iced the game with 44 minutes left right?

Also, some numbers to compare Ben and Rivers:

Rivers (career): 238 TDs/107 Ints/64.6% completion/96.9 passer rating/4338 attempts

Ben (career): 235 TDs/125 Ints/63.6% completion/93.4 passer rating/4346 attempts

From this you can gather

- Rivers is more efficient

- Rivers turns the ball over less

- Rivers completes more of his passes

And on top of that... Rivers sat behind Brees his first two seasons because the Chargers offered him one of the dumbest contracts I have ever seen. I'm not going too much into it but they expected him to do some very very unlikely and impossible things (like attain Super bowl MVP in 2005).

Edited October 28, 2014 by Lord Raven

[-Cynthia-]

Ben had a good game, but say, Matt Schaub has thrown for 527 yards in a game, led the league in yards, yards per game and completions one season etc. and no one considers him elite.

The distinction of who is 'elite' or not varies though- is it the top 5? Top 10(probably not that's almost a third of the league)? Hard to say, it's a pretty arbitrary designation.

The Jets actually do suck honestly, I don't think they'll win over 4 games this year.

[Anacybele]

I never said that that game is the ONLY reason I consider Ben elite. I meant that it's new evidence towards it. I've thought he was elite long before the game even happened.

On top of that the Steelers have missed the playoffs about as many times under Ben as they've made it...

...And this is all Ben's fault how?

Also, not getting rid of the ball fast enough is the main reason I don't consider Ben to be on the level of say, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning (another reason being that he's on the slow side due to his bulky-ness). He DOES tend to hold onto the ball too much and take too many hits. But he got rid of the ball fast a lot against the Colts. I'm saying that he needs to keep doing this and if he does, he'll definitely prove that he's elite.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Anacybele

[Lord Raven]

So 100/150 wins is all on Ben but missing the playoffs multiple times isn't?

Rodgers also holds onto the ball for a while. But he is much much more mobile and can afford to do it. But Ben is definitely on the level of Cam/Romo/Flacco/Eli Manning/Matt Ryan/Stafford/etc. There is no real order after #7 between those guys.

[Anacybele]

I didn't say that either. But I do believe he contributed a good bit to those wins. He played in all of them, whereas many of the players that he played with did not.

But we'll just have to agree to disagree. And for the record, I've seen others besides myself put Ben in their top 5 QBs (although I put Ben right at no.5 these days after some more analyzing).

[Lord Raven]

what was your analysis...? He also contributed to going 8-8 the last two seasons and missing playoffs other seasons...

EDIT: And what happened to the "fire everyone!" tirade? If Ben played better earlier in the season then you wouldn't even go to that lol

Edited October 28, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

The last couple of seasons were mainly due to him and Todd Haley just not agreeing on anything. They started getting something going last season, albeit a little too late. They did look like a mess a few times this season, but they've still had a much better start (2-2 compared to 0-4 at the first four weeks and they still have not lost more than three games).

When Ben called the plays, things worked out better. That hadn't really been true for Todd Haley until very recently, it seems.

And before Todd Haley came in, you said yourself that Bruce Arians just wasn't working for the team because the players he had to work with didn't fit his system.

As for my analysis, that's learning more about what some QBs have done in the past and in the present and becoming a much heavier follower of the NFL in recent years.

[Lord Raven]

Almost every QB calls their own plays in a no huddle. Ben doesn't purely call plays. Even Peyton listens to his offensive coordinator. All of those guys I listed were much better in a no huddle than listening to their OC at times, but you don't just "call your own plays." That's not how football works. That means Ben has to memorize the verbiage (which is LONG) for every play when he doesn't have the convenient "cheat sheet" with a ton of plays like Todd Haley does. He also has to be able to recall the verbiage off the top of his head, which again is very tough in a WCO.

Arians was a hell of a better OC, despite his flaws (and his propensity to get Ben hurt), than most teams had (let me tell you about a dude named Cam Cameron and the idiot of an HC Norv Turner was during Rivers' career). Today, Arians would not work, but before 2011 he had personnel better suited to his system.

Last couple seasons were because Ben doesn't have the defense he's used to leaning on btw, Haley's system has more complicated verbiage but is in essence much simpler than what Arians used to run.

Show your analysis at any rate, because I've compared careers with respect to someone you claim Ben is better than.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

I know that's not how football works. Of course Ben has to learn and memorize a ton of stuff. Otherwise, it'd be the easiest sport in the world to play. I'm saying that he does this well.

Yeah, but the defense isn't the reason the offense could hardly put up any points in the first few weeks last year.

I can't really show this analysis, since it's comprised of a whole crapload of things from the past several years. But now I believe that Rodgers, Pey-Pey, Brady, and perhaps Brees are the only QBs that are better than Ben. Cam Newton is my #6 QB.

So, on another topic, Pro Bowl ballots have been out for while, so who have you voted for? Obviously, I've voted for a few Steelers (such as Ben, Bell, Antonio Brown, and Polamalu), but I also voted for some players from other teams. Off the top of my head, those include Pey-Pey, Cam Newton, Kelvin Benjamin, Greg Olsen, and...surprise surprise, a Raven named Justin Tucker. Even I have to admit that he's one hell of a kicker and the only one that might be better than Shaun Suisham (who's also pretty damn good and quite accurate. He just doesn't have as strong a leg, I think. He couldn't kick farther than 53 yards since he nailed a 53 yarder, but couldn't quite get a 54 one. I voted him too, btw). I wish I'd added Rob Gronkowski though, he has to be the best TE I've ever seen.

[Lord Raven]

I can't really show this analysis, since it's comprised of a whole crapload of things from the past several years. But now I believe that Rodgers, Pey-Pey, Brady, and perhaps Brees are the only QBs that are better than Ben. Cam Newton is my #6 QB.

This is a pretty bullshit assessment then. I'm convinced there is no analysis and that you are a homer lol which explains why Ben and Cam Newton are better than Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson