KennyPowers

To be fair I agree with Michael Owen, Ox should have just walked off. It's also probably the linesman who told the ref which player so harsh to keep going on at Marriner. 

Impressive that a man from such a humble background (his father and both grandfathers MP's, educated at Eton and then PPE at Oxford) could have such a long career in politics. 

Special teams to win it for Seattle. That's my prediction. 

Also have a genuine Giants Shockey jersey, replica Saints Brees jersey, replica Packers Rodgers jersey and replica Favre Jets jersey (that one is odd to say out loud).

I have Montana, Elway and Marino throwback jerseys from these guys: http://www.mitchellandness.com/Departments/NFL/Jerseys.aspx

They are very nice. 

The conference championships scream out to me:

Niners @ Seahawks

Pats @ Broncos

The saddest thing is this. 

Lambert has said he doesn't care about statistics/analytics and doesn't care about possession. He talks mainly in clichés and when he doesn't he says very little of interest.

He appears to be about as far away from a progressive manager as you can get. He likes playing a big target man and concedes territory and possession willingly. It saddens me that so many of us were under the impression he was a progressive manager when we signed him. 

I've never been a fan of Lambert but the idea of sacking him when we are 11th in the league is ridiculous. 

Biggest thing he needs is smarter people around him. This whole business of talking/mumbling shit, generally looking and sounding quite dumb does not inspire any confidence from the fans and I suspect the players too. 

Bengals 8-0 at home but I just don't trust them. I'll say:

Chiefs

Eagles

Chargers

49ers 

Arizona are the only team with a winning record not to make the playoffs

But Orton reprieves them. Thank you Kyle, thank you

And the Eagles have blown it here

Well, that was a bizarre drive. 

It's a lot easier for Dallas when the refs decide not to call any penalties on them

Eagles suddenly look terrible

Brushing a thigh - 15 yard penalty

Saints aren't so great on the road, but I think the Eagles D is too poor for that to matter too much.

Maybe, I was just thinking they're going to get pretty lucky to avoid the Niners/Packers/Seahawks in the first round(s)

I don't want to go over the top on the Eagles but: 

Home v the Saints 

Away v the Panthers

Isn't too daunting a route to the NFC Championship match. 

3/3 of my NFL bets today. BAM. 

 

Thank you for the £25, Shady. 

I echo your sentiments

Eagles offence looks excellent. Foles' composure reminds me of Brady

Hopefully Romo makes a shock WWE style return in the fourth quarter.....only to choke the game away anyway

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert:

"It's tough to take. There was a lot of endeavour, a lot of hard work, but not much creativity and we were hit with a classic counter-attack."

Well y'know maybe Paul you should have played/bought some creative players rather than bombing the ones you had out the club and not replacing them. 

No. Lambert's going to have to do quite a lot worse to get sacked. 

I think most Villa fans saw this slump coming though. We haven't played well this season bar a couple of games. It's quite surprising we have as many points as we have. 

When we (largely) get our key players back Lambert is going to have to figure out a better way to set the team up or bring in some better players if he is going to stay as manager. Playing largely awful, negative football isn't going to get him a new contract here. 

If that are going to start paying penalties for strikers initiating contact with defenders in the box you are going to start getting scorelines like 28-25 and no players left on the pitch.

It was a shit decision but Bacuna has to defend smarter than that (or just not play full back). He was in position on Sidwell and Kacaniklic today to usher them away from the goal and they ended up with 2 goals from it. 

Also, reading the thread has reminded me, Westwood's set pieces!

Has somebody told him to drill it over everyone's head? What exactly is the thinking? It doesn't surprise me at all their penalty came directly from our corner. That's what happens when you insist on drilling the ball everyone's head, they end up on a counter attack. 

Give someone else a go FFS. Bacuna/Delph/anyone. 

Can't blame Lambert for the injuries in the defence but today we had:

Bacuna out of position (he is just not a right back, push him further forward)

Baker out of position (I like Baker but he is wasted/useless at left back)

Herd out of position (he is at best a defensive midfielder)

Now someone was always going to have to play out of position but I'll never understand the thinking behind that defence. 

Then we had the bizarre decision to have Herd mark Berbatov for most of the game. Herd gives up about 6 inches on Berbatov, why in the world is Herd marking him? This will be the only game Berbatov has all season when he dominates in the air because every other game he will get marked by a centre back. Herd almost killed himself trying to challenge Berbatov all game so credit to him but why he was given that job I have no clue. 

What the hell has Lowton done to Lambert anyway?