NFL 2014-2015 Season: Super Bowl Champion Patriots

[Anacybele]

Aaaand, the special teams lets Jacoby Jones run a punt in for a TD. -_-

But as long as the offense keeps producing like they are, that shouldn't matter. Gotta stay hot, Big Ben and crew!

[Dijon Mustard]

Tomlin missed the tackle on Jacoby Jones there #jokes

[Anacybele]

Funny. xP

Martavis Bryant for another TD! This guy's gonna go far. He's as good as Kelvin Benjamin, imo. GG Ravens. You guys got too pissed, I think. I don't blame you though, I'd have been mad too. I mean...week 2.

[Lord Raven]

Rough stretch of games. No excuse for what we did out there. Some calls didn't go our way but doesn't excuse what looks like it'll be anywhere from a 13 to 20 point loss. At least we blew them out earlier.

At least we're done with the toughest stretch of our schedule. 5 divisional games with two straight away divisional games. I only see us decisively losing against NO from this point out unless we get completely fired up. Thankfully, we have TEN, bye, @NO, JAX, @HOU, @MIA, SD, and finally CLE.

EDIT: I'm getting a 2009 vibe from the AFCN except with a viable Browns team. Steelers were 6-2 by this point, Ravens were 4-4, Bengals were also 6-2. (Browns were like 1-7 though). We got swept by the Bengals, swept the Browns, 1-1 against Steelers (same with Steelers except against us). Bengals swept the division. Steelers and Ravens went 9-7 but we made playoffs.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

WOOOO!! Way to sock it to the Ravens and give 'em what they were asking for after the week 2 crap! And at the same time, we welcomed them to the AFC North basement. ^^

First step was beating the Colts, now the Steelers have completed step 2 and taken care of the Ravens. Step 3 is gonna be the toughest: sweep the Bengals for the division title (as well as win enough of their other remaining games). But these guys can do it, with how this offense has been performing lately! They had a bad start, but still came up big once again. And Ben has set another NFL record of 12 TD passes in two straight games! And after taking some hard hits too.

This is the main reason I love Ben so much, he's got the toughness I always wished I had. I need to think of him next time I'm in a situation where I need to be more tough like that (mentally in my case though. Gotta be more thick-skinned and not go on the defensive so much. I just gotta take it like Big Ben takes a hard hit. Let it go and brush it off).

EDIT: Also, Football Baby is 4-0 yet again. That's one hell of a baby. :P And another thing I just noticed, the Steelers and Pats once again got the exact same amount of points. o.o

Edited November 3, 2014 by Anacybele

[Jedi]

So my team is 7-1 I've been oddly absent from this thread this season despite following my Cardinals closely this year.

Easily the best season we've had in a long time. Also that 3 Point block for a near TD :P our defense is really good this year, and while Palmer may not be the best QB he is a reliable one.

This season has been legendary for us.. sorry for the gushing but I do have to say it.

[-Cynthia-]

Cardinals have a real shot of being able to have a home Super Bowl /if/ they can get homefield advantage. Luckily, the Niners seem to be collapsing and their tougher non-division games (Chiefs and Lions) are at home.

Steelers could probably still win the division if they split with the Bengals to be fair- the Steelers have a relatively easy schedule coming up. Outside of the Bengals, it's @ATL, @TEN, @NYJ, KC, NO. Bengals have CLE, @CLE, @HOU, @NO, @TB, DEN which is a little tougher.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, I forgot about the Cards. They're really good this season too. It'd be funny if the Super Bowl wound up being them against the Steelers again. Although I don't exactly feel comfortable with the idea of my team having to play that game on their opponents' own turf. xP

EDIT: Well, I am glad that the game against the Saints is in Pittsburgh...

Edited November 3, 2014 by Anacybele

[Lord Raven]

I could see Bengals getting a full sweep.

I've been an avid believer of the fact that the team that wins the most close games and gets the most turnovers is most likely to win a Super Bowl.

The 2007/2011 Giants have won some very close games with some amazing comebacks, 2008 Steelers definitely didn't make it easy on themselves, 2009 Saints had a very bad ending stretch but managed to get some wins out of their ass (with a lot of opportunistic turnovers). 2010 Packers were a 6 seed and the 2012 Ravens were 6-3 in very very close games that needed something resembling a miracle, got some good turnovers, and had two 3 point games in the playoffs. Last year's Seahawks were no exception; lots of turnovers, very close wins and very close losses.

Broncos last year just blew everyone out and had a bunch of late wins with very few comebacks. Basically cruised their way into the 1 seed and the Super Bowl. 2012 Broncos were similar. 2011 Packers are another good example, and the 2009 Colts also seem to come to mind with this. In closer games you're on your toes and have to make a lot of adjustments, but if you're never in that situation you're not prepared for that kind of thing.

As it stands right now, it seems like the Cardinals, Colts, Bengals, and Broncos are going that way too (you can get blown out once or twice and still be OK). Cardinals have been pulling some wins out of their ass and making the gutsiest play calls I have seen in years. Literally, Todd Bowles and Arians have been calling deep passes and blitzes out the ass. They've powered through injuries and made it through some tough teams - their only blowout was because their third string QB was forced onto the field. They survived the toughest stretch of their schedule without their very solid starting QB. They are about to hit the rough second half of their schedule too - this team has had no breaks fall their way outside of the field and they are just troopers. I can't imagine just how fucking scary this team would be if they were healthy. They are one of the most injured teams in the league as it stands.

At any rate, I hope we get some WRs and CBs next year. Ugh. Webb is our best CB right now and he's not playing anywhere near as well as he used to... and our WRs have been laughable. Our best WR corps was in 2010 - you know who we had?

Anquan Boldin (age 30)

Derrick Mason (age 36)

Donte Stallworth (age 30)

TJ Houshmanzadeh (age 33)

Todd Heap (age 30)

Willis McGahee (age 30)

Ray Rice (age 23)

People talk about elite QBs making receivers look great - every "elite" QB has had one or two playmakers they could throw to and would make a big play. We've never had any of that. Ever. It's annoying. Receivers were covered all game, many can't run routes, and you can't rely on Steve Smith Sr. when he's the only guy who can bust out a big one when the other guys can't catch a damn ball or get open. I think Flacco has been able to inflate the value of Boldin, make Torrey Smith look good, make Jacoby Jones look passable at times, and right now make Owen Daniels look like a stud when he's 34 years old. He might just be the reason why people don't rank our receiver corps in the bottom 10 every year. Some old, over the hill guys. And we can't draft them either - the only times we've drafted WRs in the first three rounds were Torrey Smith and Mark Clayton. Mark Clayton was a bust in every sense of the word. Couldn't stay healthy, couldn't hold onto the ball.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

Er, the Bengals look like they've been struggling lately. :/ Yeah, they beat the Ravens last week, but barely. And the week before that, they got SHUT OUT by the Colts. Also, this week, they let the Jags, a really bad team, put up 23 points.

The Steelers will annihilate them at this point.

[-Cynthia-]

Not make a knee jerk reaction here, but I think the Broncos may have been slightly overrated by some due to how their schedule was set up. They played 5 of their first 7 games at home. In their 3 road games, they've lost to the Seahawks, beat the Jets, and got blown out by the Patriots. They may be a significantly weaker team on the road(as a number of teams are).

[Anacybele]

Oh yeah, despite that my Steelers are red hot right now and are doing well on BOTH sides of the ball (though more so on offense for sure), I still have concern for our defense. The main reason our D has been doing as well as it has lately are the old guys like Harrison and Kiesel. This may be partly because Shazier keeps getting hurt and Jarvis Jones still hasn't come back, but we can only rely on these older work horses for so long. James Harrison may just go back into retirement after this season, and Kiesel is also 36. He might retire too. And even Polamalu only has like three years or so left (and he's kind of past his prime now unless he can start playing like he did last season. He led the league in forced fumbles and got some picks. He looked like he found the fountain of youth or something lol).

But other defense guys have factored in as well, like Brice McCain getting a pick against the Jags and Mike Mitchell forcing a fumble against the Texans. This defense is actually the youngest it's been in awhile though, so I hope that all that these guys need is time to grow and get better.

[Lord Raven]

Not make a knee jerk reaction here, but I think the Broncos may have been slightly overrated by some due to how their schedule was set up. They played 5 of their first 7 games at home. In their 3 road games, they've lost to the Seahawks, beat the Jets, and got blown out by the Patriots. They may be a significantly weaker team on the road(as a number of teams are).

Did you see that Seahawks game though? Plenty of late game heroics by Manning to tie that game, defense broke down in OT. Still a loss but it wasn't very decisive. Great game to watch if you ever come across it though.

The Seahawks and Patriots also have very very physical secondaries which disrupt the timing associated with the Denver offense. The Super Bowl was full of massive corners that mugged receivers at the LOS all day long (legally mugged by the way, heavy press coverage). Fact is that the Patriots took Browner - who only excels in that kind of coverage because he can't cover very well - and signed Revis on top of having one of the best FS' in the game in Devin McCourty. Would be a much closer ball game if they met @DEN in the playoffs.

I think the Broncos can win out, they may struggle against the Chargers and MAYBE the Chiefs, but they got TNF over with so they won't have any short weeks. Their defense is still pretty good, not as good as I was expected (ie 2012) but still a solid unit.

[-Cynthia-]

I saw how the Broncos managed 3 points in the first 3 quarters yeah :p It was a nice comeback attempt, but that was really more of a Seahawks collapse than anything IMO.

Are the Broncos still a good team? Yes, but I don't think I'd pick them to beat other playoff teams on the road and they might be questionable picks @Chargers, Chiefs, Bengals this year. If it were anyone@DEN I'd pick the Broncos though.

[Lord Raven]

Did you see the game though? Manning made some passes that I didn't think he was capable of at his age.

The special teams pinned Wilson inside his own 2 and the defense pulled off a safety, so it became 17-5. Broncos offense managed to get down the field pretty quickly to cut the lead to 17-12, Seahawks offense managed to almost put the game out of reach with a field goal with around a minute remaining (20-12). Manning then managed a glorious comeback, and he made some very very tight throws to Sanders and Tamme that I didn't think he was capable of at his age (and it's the kind of throws you need to beat this Seahawks defense). I would not call it a collapse when there was pretty tight coverage on them - Seahawks played prevent correctly but Denver managed to actually kill it.

Von Miller, Demarcus Ware, and Terrance Knighton basically made life a living hell for Wilson, and they were completely stomping on the run as they had been doing the entire game. Talib and Chris Harris Jr didn't make it easy on them either.

The Seahawks offense was actually struggling quite a lot in that game. The Seahawks defense held tough though, because there were two picks in the fourth - one on Wilson (which didn't turn into points because the Broncos turned it over on downs, so the Seahawks defense was furious) and one on Manning (sent like a 6 man blitz to Manning who released it to his outlet in Welker, but the Seahawks saw that coming a mile away and Kam Chancellor jumped on it and took it pretty far, setting up a field goal). Seahawks D definitely did not collapse.

EDIT: Full play by play: http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/playbyplay?gameId=400554276&period=4 - PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PART NOT THE PARAGRAPHS ABOVE

Effectively, Seahawks scored twice in 5 minutes or so. 3 and out by Denver offense causes defense to be on the field and effectively the Seahawks did a 2 minute drill to end the half with a TD.

Fourth quarter: Colquitt punts to the Seattle 8. Wilson sacked at the 1 (bound to happen - pressure was on Wilson all day, Denver defense was stout outside of two TD drives), then Lynch is handed the ball and the Broncos' stout run D tackles him in the endzone for a safety. 17-5 Seahawks.

Fourth quarter: Wilson gets intercepted (which was bound to happen - pressure all day and Broncos corners are great) and it's returned to the red zone. Broncos manage to score. 17-12 Seahawks.

Broncos force a punt after the Seahawks chew 3 minutes off the clock. Punt to the Denver 19. Broncos get the ball, drive down to the Seattle 24 in four minutes (so Denver is basically going through hell because Manning is sacked, receivers get a few first downs but nothing more - and the receivers were fighting for it if I recall right). 3rd and 11 on the Seattle 24 (so Seattle D is still stout), they blitz Manning with around 6, so Manning goes to Welker who is his outlet receiver in a Blitz. Chancellor jumps it, returns the ball to the Denver 11 with 2 minutes left in the game. 17-12 Seahawks still.

Seahawks burn a minute off the clock and take the field goal to end any hopes of a Denver comeback. 20-12 Seahawks.

Denver has no timeouts and 59 seconds with the greatest QB in NFL History. Throws it to Sanders who doesn't go out of bounds - great play by Sanders and great throw by Manning, but Seattle doesn't let him go out of bounds so it doesn't matter, as long as the redzone D holds tight. That was on second down after an incompletion.

Gets the ball to Demaryius Thomas who powers his way out of bounds on third down (28 seconds left). Then throws to Jacob Tamme who BARELY has his man beat - this was a tight throw to a receiver that wasn't wide open, and it was throw with a lot of anticipation. 20-18 Seattle.

2 point conversion attempt was ridiculous. All receivers were very VERY tightly covered. Manning lobs it up for Thomas, who jumps up with his 6'3" frame and catches it with the very VERY tip of his feet in bounds. Very very very tight throw by Manning and a very very very impressive, beautiful, remarkable - any word you can use to describe - catch by Demaryius Thomas. It didn't even look like he was in bounds. 20-20.

Broncos fell apart in OT because they allowed a long drive and Seattle kept converting third downs. But the O and D have definitely proven that this team is leagues above last year.

As for New England, I don't quite know what happened, but New England is firing on all cylinders. Brandon LaFell turned out to be a steal for the Patriots. I'd have to check the injuries though, but the Patriots have somehow turned themselves around into an incredible team.

My main theory is that the Patriots' receivers are a matchup nightmare (because, for instance, Edelman and Vereen are smaller and shiftier than Seattle receivers) for Denver corners (who are larger press guys, which is hard to do against smaller receivers). Also, Gronkowski is an issue for just about anything covering him (save like Pollard or something). Brady is an expert at knowing where pressure comes from so he can set the protections the exact way he wants it, and can navigate the pocket however because his pocket presence is second to none in the NFL.

Meanwhile, Belichick blitzed the holy living fuck out of Manning (and Pats secondary could get enough coverage so Manning would need to hold the ball some more).

Chargers, Chiefs, and Rams don't have the secondary talent to do something like this. @SD and @KC could be a problem for them but KC's offense is not nearly as good as NE's.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Lord Raven

[-Cynthia-]

I saw it- prevent defenses often allow the other team to get back in the game eventually. When Seattle's D was playing normally, they dominated the Broncos pretty hard.

A last-minute comeback makes for a good story, but all the game before that point is generally more telling story IMO.

[Lord Raven]

That's a pretty big misconception about prevent defenses. Prevent when executed poorly does exactly that. You see many examples of prevent in late game situations like that which often succeed, but you only ever hear about it when it doesn't work. I have no idea why, it's such a simple defense and if you stay true to your zones, you don't allow receivers to break off based on YAC and there's barely any room to throw it downfield. (It's why the Rahim Moore play was so egregious in the playoffs two years back, because Rahim Moore spent his time looking at the intermediate guys that he didn't bother paying attention to Jacoby Jones who was behind him - the intermediate zone guys would've stopped them after a first down and you kill around 40 seconds of clock).

Brian Billick talks about it in better detail than I ever could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6QQ4ZkKIeo

Someone crunched the numbers and if KC went prevent earlier in the playoffs last year then Indy wouldn't score nearly as fast and the comeback doesn't happen.

In general, that game was Denver trying to establish the run to no effect (they've been passing much more early in games as a result), and then it was a field position battle. Denver's receivers were barely open because of the mismatches, so Manning threw it incomplete on passing downs - they started on their 20 and 29, but generally the Seahawks special teams pinned them to their own 7. Denver punts it, defense allows a TD drive on a (10 yard-)shorter field.

Denver D gets stiff and the Broncos manage to score off of better field position while shutting down the Hawks the rest of the way, backing them up considerably and either capitalizing on it or getting picked off. That was generally how the game went.

Denver D plays better against New England and we'd see a closer game. Both team defenses were mismatches, but Denver didn't get as much pressure on Brady as they did on Wilson (still managed to do well against the run). I doubt the same will be the case against San Diego and the Chiefs, especially since their corners match up. Yeah it's a road game, but I don't think the Patriots game especially can indicate what this team can do to the rest of the league on the road (save maybe Arizona, because if that were a road game and Palmer were healthy it would be closer).

85 Bears were one of the best teams in history and they still lost horribly to the Dan Marino Dolphins because they matched up horribly to a spread offense (back when the league was focused on I-formations and running the ball). Patriots struggled against that 2007 Ravens team which wasn't any good.

And effectively, when you have a game like Seattle/Denver where Seattle's corners were a mismatch for Denver's receivers, it comes down to how Denver's Defense/Special Teams do. If they hold, then you have a field position-type game where if you can't score, you pin them deep so the other team doesn't score and the odds are in your favor. If the Denver D doesn't work out (ie against New England or Seattle) then you find yourself in a hole, relying on a passing game that is doomed to fail due to the matchups. What we get out of this is that Denver better hope it's not @NE in the playoffs.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

Big Ben is the highest fantasy scorer for the second time in a row thanks to another 6 TD game.

I spy another FedEx Air Player of the Week honor for him.

It was honestly a lot like the Colts game, except the Ravens have a slightly better D. I think that might have been the o-line's main problem. The Ravens' front seven was brutal on them for awhile, the poor guys.

Terrell Suggs can go suck on a Raven egg though, he's a dirtbag. He's lucky he didn't pop out LeGarrette Blount's knees. He needs fined for that.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Anacybele

[Randa]

honestly if i were a broncos fan id be a bit concerned when they head into st.louis week 11. what with manning struggling under pressure and the rams putting up 8 sacks, which watching the recording this morning had the best ending of the day.

[Anacybele]

Updated thread title, peeps! I know I said I was going to put someone other than Big Ben there this time, but he put up a great performance yet again! I didn't think he'd play badly or anything, but I didn't expect him to throw another set of 6 TD passes or anything so soon and against the Ravens' D, holy smokes. :P

And, technically, I did put another name up there anyway. lol

[-Cynthia-]

honestly if i were a broncos fan id be a bit concerned when they head into st.louis week 11. what with manning struggling under pressure and the rams putting up 8 sacks, which watching the recording this morning had the best ending of the day.

Meh, this was the first time the Rams defense did anything like that this season, they had the fewest sacks in the league coming in I believe. Maybe they've turned the corner or maybe the Niners just have a terrible offensive line.

[Randa]

Meh, this was the first time the Rams defense did anything like that this season, they had the fewest sacks in the league coming in I believe. Maybe they've turned the corner or maybe the Niners just have a terrible offensive line.

personally i say its a mix. the o-line was horrible, but robert quinn still looked like he did last year when he terrorized qbs.

[Jedi]

Cards face the Rams next week speaking of which. I don't forsee too many difficulties but with this new surge of defense they have it may be more difficult. Although our O-Line is a bit more solid than the 49s I'd say lol.

I'm just hoping Palmer stays healthy for the rest of the season. We don't need more injuries, if I were the Rams I'd want to make some really good hits though to try to cripple us further.

[Lord Raven]

honestly if i were a broncos fan id be a bit concerned when they head into st.louis week 11. what with manning struggling under pressure and the rams putting up 8 sacks, which watching the recording this morning had the best ending of the day.

The quality of the pass rush is neutralized when the secondary can't hold their coverage. Rams offense isn't great either

Divisional games are just a different animal in general. You tend to see a lot of weird stuff happen.

EDIT: apparently three wins as a rookie QB is a Minnesota Vikings record... Which Bridgewater now has. Jeeez

EDIT 2: I'm having a shitty week, can we have an OP that doesn't change the thread up depending on what her team does? I was feeling like shit going into the game and the game definitely didn't help my mood.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Anacybele]

I'm not insulting the game, Lord Raven. The Ravens put up a decent fight against a really strong Steeler offense. You guys even managed to prevent them from scoring at all for two quarters (the first and third). Suggs got rightfully penalized for a cheap, dangerous hit and is likely getting fined for it. And Ben surprised again with a monster day. I didn't think I'd be leaving him in the thread title. I honestly didn't.

But if you're really that upset, I'll change it. I don't know what to just yet, but I'll change it.