Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

RRMarshall wrote:]n that most-likely event of the Vikings hosting the Super Bowl, how will the ticket distribution go about as compared to a regular home Vikings game? I’m assuming all season-ticket holders will get automatic dibs. But wouldn’t season-ticket holders of the opposing team all have dibs as well? And then all of those nationwide attending the event no matter who the participants are. I’m sure a share of them won’t even be Vikings-fans. Exactly how much “at-home” would they feel compared to a regular home-game?

And keep this in mind...the AFC champ will technically be the home team meaning they’ll be in the dark unis instead[/i]

Here in NE being a season ticket holder does not mean an automatic Super Bowl ticket. All season ticket holders go into a lottery and the winners get to buy tickets. I assume it works the same for most teams. I also believe the home team gets their choice of jerseys to wear, for example the Cowboys would opt to use their home whites instead of those supposedly jinxed dark jerseys (remember SB V ??)

Reaser wrote:Patriots and Steelers, which was my preseason AFC CG pick, think win pretty easily. Everyone else in the AFC playoffs is there by default, no one else is good and definitely aren't great. Typical of the quality of the league the last decade or so. Average or above average is good enough to be a "playoff team". If anyone but NE or PIT comes out of the AFC or wins the SB it'd be an extremely weak SB winner.

I picked the Bills last week because their defense is basically as good as Jacksonville's (stats don't say it but watching the games does, to me) and the difference was a 4th and goal TD pass. Otherwise it was an even game, with the Bills, with McCoy somewhat slowed down and the main reason Buffalo lost was Taylor playing conservative. Receivers were open for 10 yard gains/first downs left and right -against Jacksonville's 'legendary' secondary- and he wouldn't pull the trigger. Not to mention downfield he had receivers running open (open, for NFL standards) and he either didn't throw it or he missed the throw. Halfway decent passer would have hit at least half of those -at worst- and Buffalo wins without much trouble.

Jaguars defense is good, but not significantly better than and possibly even equal with teams like the Bills and Chargers (who only missed the playoffs because they were messing around at kicker to start the season). Offense isn't good. Bortles isn't good. Fournette has been trending down the last month of the season (the so-called rookie wall?) and was merely solid but not spectacular before that anyway. Only way they beat Pittsburgh is if Brown isn't good to go, Bell gets injured or Roethlisberger gives the game away like their first game.

Which I keep hearing on TV about that game that the Jaguars ran all over Pittsburgh and Ben kept getting sacked/hit/hurried and Jacksonville forced turnovers. That's not really what I remember (though I'll probably watch the game again this week since no other football to watch). I remember Jacksonville not doing anything on offense. The Steelers moving the ball but settling for FG's once they got to the redzone. And Pittsburgh outplaying Jacksonville before taking the lead until inexplicably the 2nd half gameplan became to throw it nearly every play, go away from Bell and Ben forcing it to Brown even more than he usually does. That was what led to most of the interceptions and the two "pick-sixes" were the difference. Which both came on tipped balls falling right into the Jags hands. It wasn't JAX running all over the Steelers or a million sacks/hurries forcing bad throws or even keeping the Steelers from moving the ball. The Jaguars offense consisted of the game for all intents and purposes being over after the 5th int and Fournette breaking a 90 something yard TD run to give them some offensive stats that had no baring on the outcome of a game that was already decided at that point. One "game over" long TD run. That's practically it.

So Jacksonville didn't dominate offensively and really didn't do anything special on defense other than a good play by Ramsey, the rest were deflections that fell right into their hands (of course tipping the ball is making plays but the ball going right to them was fortunate) and the last couple were thrown up for grabs free interceptions in the final 5 or so minutes. Roethlisberger played poor mixed with an unfortunate tipped pass. I'd be pretty surprised if that repeated itself. Not that Roethlisberger can't throw a couple ints, or that Ramsey can't make a great play, but five with two pick-sixes? Extremely doubtful and if it doesn't happen like that then the Steelers are the clearly better team. I don't think it'll even be that close. Maybe not a blowout -though possible- but a comfortable win.

Patriots over Titans is an easy pick.

The NFC games are the interesting ones, in my opinion. Though i still think Patriots/Steelers winner wins the SB.

I'm picking the Falcons and Saints. Falcons D is underrated and Eagles offense is worse without Wentz, obviously.

Saints-Vikings should be the best game, of the 8 playoff teams left I would want the Vikings to win the SB but if there's an upset this week this would be the game for it.

NWebster wrote:I really like this Jags team and they have a shot, but I'll bet that this game has 0 pick sixes and 90 yard runs, which would've made the first game a 9-9 overtime affair.

Rupert Patrick wrote:

7DnBrnc53 wrote:I think the Steelers will win 28-10, but the Pats will struggle. They aren't as good as people think. This is a 9-7 or 8-8 team posing as a 13-3 team. These guys are overrated almost every year.

That being said, they should beat the Titans. I think Pittsburgh will pull off the "upset" the next week, though.

If they're overrated almost every year, how have they won five Super Bowls in 15 years (including two Super Bowl wins, a Super Bowl loss and three losses in the AFC Championship game over the past six seasons), and this is with a constantly changing cast of characters except for the QB and Head Coach. If you look at the 60's Packers, 70's Steelers, 80's 49ers, 90's Cowboys, and all the other top dynasties, you can reel off a list of HOFers who played with each of them, but with the Pats, other than Brady, I can't name too many. There's Vinatieri, who was there from 2001-05, and Junior Seau was there for a couple years chasing a ring, same with Randy Moss. After that, you have Ty Law, who was there from 2001-04 who is a candidate this year, and then you have active guys like Welker and Gronkowski who are way too early to even be talking about Canton. From 2001-16 the Pats have had ten different players lead the team in rushing during the season, and eight different receivers lead the team in catches. There was no true defensive anchor, no Joe Greene or Ray Nitschke or Ronnie Lott. How Belichick does it every year is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in coaching. The Patriots are a lot of things. Overrated is certainly not one of them.

sluggermatt15 wrote:

Rupert Patrick wrote:

7DnBrnc53 wrote:I think the Steelers will win 28-10, but the Pats will struggle. They aren't as good as people think. This is a 9-7 or 8-8 team posing as a 13-3 team. These guys are overrated almost every year.

That being said, they should beat the Titans. I think Pittsburgh will pull off the "upset" the next week, though.

If they're overrated almost every year, how have they won five Super Bowls in 15 years (including two Super Bowl wins, a Super Bowl loss and three losses in the AFC Championship game over the past six seasons), and this is with a constantly changing cast of characters except for the QB and Head Coach. If you look at the 60's Packers, 70's Steelers, 80's 49ers, 90's Cowboys, and all the other top dynasties, you can reel off a list of HOFers who played with each of them, but with the Pats, other than Brady, I can't name too many. There's Vinatieri, who was there from 2001-05, and Junior Seau was there for a couple years chasing a ring, same with Randy Moss. After that, you have Ty Law, who was there from 2001-04 who is a candidate this year, and then you have active guys like Welker and Gronkowski who are way too early to even be talking about Canton. From 2001-16 the Pats have had ten different players lead the team in rushing during the season, and eight different receivers lead the team in catches. There was no true defensive anchor, no Joe Greene or Ray Nitschke or Ronnie Lott. How Belichick does it every year is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in coaching. The Patriots are a lot of things. Overrated is certainly not one of them.

Easy, as was pointed out, the AFC East can arguably be stated as the weakest division in football since the 2002 realignment. If you put New England in the AFC North and remove Cleveland, I doubt they win the division every year and they might struggle to earn a wild card spot. There's a big difference when you have to play Baltimore's defense twice per year instead of once every three years, especially in the years where the Ravens had Haloti Ngata, Ray Lewis, and Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed, et al. In New England's "perfect" regular season, they barely beat the Ravens in the final minute of the game. Same with the NFC East. That division is a dog fight almost every year in and year out.

Also when you get away with videotaping the other team's defensive signals for years and play with under inflated footballs, those can be clear advantages against your opponent. And not surprising that comes from a coach who does whatever to win and stretches the limits of rules to a very fine margin. On Spygate, "Sorry it was a misinterpretation of a rule." Oops.

R Hickok:Hmmm ... let's see ... they've gone 25-9 in the playoffs under Belichick. How many of those games were against teams with a losing record?

Rupert Patrick wrote:I've been trying to figure out this Atlanta Philadelphia game, that the top-seeded Eagles are home underdogs to a number six seed, something we've never seen before. Reading this week's Peter King column, I am inclined to agree that Philly should go with their ground game against the Falcons, play ball control and keep the ball away from Ryan; in short, the same strategy that Bill Parcells did against the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. People seem to overlook the Eagles fourth-ranked defense, who were fourth in the league in turnovers, while Atlanta was 27th in turnovers. My gut says the Eagles should pull this out, but it will be close. 26-20 Eagles.

New England vs. Tennessee is the easiest game to pick this weekend. The Titans are a scrappy team, and I know the Patriots are not going to underestimate them, but it's going to be all New England. Make it 31-10.

The Pats will be hard to beat next weekend.