Predictions and general chat

[leviramsey]

Yes, I think it's reasonably likely that the Chiefs could do a treble over the Broncos...

[BOF]

'Reasonably likely' suggests it's more likely to happen than to not happen. Even with my Broncos glasses on I don't think it's unreasonable to suggests that's a stretch. It's possible yes, but for me a hat-trick is very unlikely.

[Dante_Lockhart]

Gamepass is ace. Best thing I've purchased this year.

[Tegis]

Gamepass is ace. Best thing I've purchased this year.

Same. No more torrents for late games and no swedes on the mic

[leviramsey]

New DVOA ratings

Overall

1. Broncos

=== +40% DVOA

2. Seahawks

=== +30% DVOA

3. Chiefs

=== +20% DVOA

4. Saints

5. Colts

6. Bears

7. Packers

8. Panthers

9. Bengals

10. 49ers

11. Cowboys

=== +10% DVOA

12. Lions

13. Patriots

14. Bills

15. Eagles

16. Chargers

=== 0% DVOA

17. Cardinals

18. Jets

19. Falcons

20. Titans

21. Steelers

22. Bucs

23. Ravens

=== -10% DVOA

24. Browns

25. Dolphins

26. Rams

27. Vikings

=== -20% DVOA

28. Raiders

29. Texans

30. Redskins

=== -30% DVOA

31. Giants

=== -40% DVOA

=== -50% DVOA

=== -60% DVOA

32. Jaguars

Top 5 offenses

1. Broncos (+46.7%)

2. Eagles (+24.7%)

3. Packers (+23.4%)

4. Chargers (+21.5%)

5. Colts (+18.3%)

Bottom 5 offenses

28. Giants (-18.3%)

29. Bucs (-19.2%)

30. Jets (-19.3%)

31. Ravens (-19.9%)

32. Jaguars (-51.3%)

Top 5 defenses

1. Chiefs (-23.1%)

2. Seahawks (-20.6%)

3. Panthers (-13.8%)

4. Jets (-11.4%)

5. Bucs (-11.3%)

Bottom 5 defenses

28. Dolphins (+10.3%)

29. Jaguars (+13.7%)

30. Eagles (+16.0%)

31. Falcons (+18.4%)

32. Chargers (+20.0%)

Top 3 special teams

1. Broncos (+8.8%)

2. Patriots (+7.2%)

3. Chiefs (+6.8%)

Bottom 3 special teams

30. Giants (-9.4%)

31. Texans (-10.8%)

32. Redskins (-17.6%)

[packoman]

I really wish the Eagles' offense and defense could play good in the same game, it always seems to be one or the other.

Edited October 21, 2013 by packoman

[leviramsey]

There's a great bit on the late Bum Phillips in MMQB.

It struck me on Saturday, reading Twitter, that many of you don’t know much about Bum Phillips, who died Friday night at 90. That’s not surprising. Phillips, the former Houston and New Orleans coach, was at his peak 33 years ago. I discovered how so many of you were lacking in Bum-know-how when I re-Tweeted the front page of Saturday’s Houston Chronicle sports section, headlined with “Luv Ya Bum,’’ and many of you were confused. One of you asked: “Doesn’t the Houston Chronicle have a copy editor?” No, no—the big slogan around the Houston Oilers way back then was, “Luv Ya Blue.” So there’s that.

I was too late to cover Bum Phillips as a coach—his last season was in New Orleans in 1985, my second covering the league—but I got to know him as a retired NFL coach, a Yogi Berra sort of character and father of Wade Phillips, who always loved being daddy’s boy. (Wade’s Twitter account is @sonofbum.) And I visited Bum in 1990 when writing about his son stepping out of his dad’s coaching shadow, which I’ll tell you about in a second. Bum Phillips was 86-80 in 12 years as an NFL head coach, but his best seasons came in a time of immense enthusiasm for the Oilers in Houston (1975-80), the last time the team truly captured the city before the franchise moved to Tennessee in 1997. In 1978 and ’79, Phillips got the Oilers to the AFC title game both seasons, only to find one of the great teams in NFL history in the way of Super Bowl glory. Phillips’ Oilers lost in Super Bowl seasons three and four for Pittsburgh, by 29 and 14 points, and a year later he was fired by owner Bud Adams.

It wasn’t just the winning. It was Bum himself—a Texan who wore Cowboy boots and a huge Texas belt buckle on the sidelines, and a 10-gallon hat when games were outside—who made the Oilers so attractive to the locals. The fans inside the decibel-friendly Astrodome made noise like today’s Seahawk crazies, and they waved these white and baby-blue pompoms so that sometimes when the cameras panned the stands it looked like it was snowing in there. And he said some fun things, after wins and after losses. He loved Don Shula. “He could take his’n and beat your’n, and he could take you’n and beat his’n.” (Pardon the spelling there. I don’t know how to spell “his’n,’’ never mind “your’n.”)

Check the Bum influence on Wade from a 1990 story I did on the rise of Wade as Denver’s defensive coordinator, when I visited the retired coach at his ranch near Houston:

Drive west of Houston for about an hour, until you run plumb out of town. Take a left onto a narrow state farm road across from the only restaurant for miles. Weave through a few miles of ranch road, past herd after herd of grazing cattle. Go over the one-lane wooden bridge and follow the dirt road to the end. Finally, with three ranch dogs nipping at your feet, walk into the metal-roofed arena where the cutting horses are being trained. Now, this is Texas.

Here a portly man wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses sits atop a sorrel horse named Mr. San Powder. He’s watching a rider teach Sport Court, a 3-year-old chestnut, how to isolate a calf from the herd and keep it separate for a few minutes. “You put the horse out here without the other cattle so he learns to succeed,” says the man in the sunglasses. “You don’t want him to fail. You want him to win. So you get him some confidence first.”

Wade’s father, Bum Phillips, 66, pauses to spit tobacco juice. “You know,” he adds, “it’s like working with young players. Get ’em thinking too much, give ’em too much right away, and it confuses ’em. You’ve got to get ’em some confidence. You’ve got to train ’em right, teach ’em right. I’ve always said, You show me a good teacher and I’ll show you a good coach. Coaching is not how much you know. It’s how much you can get players to do.”

[When Bum coached high school football], the Phillips family—Wade was born first and then came five daughters—got a new lesson in Texas geography almost every year. Bum, then a high school and college coach, chased jobs from the Louisiana border to New Mexico. They moved from Beaumont to Nacogdoches to Nederland to College Station to Jacksonville to Amarillo to El Paso to Port Neches to Houston. “You grew up pretty fast in this family,” says Helen, Wade’s mom.

The most abrupt move of all came when Wade was in the ninth grade. The Phillipses were living in Amarillo at the time, and he was going to a junior high school right down the street from his house. He was getting good grades. He was playing all the sports. He had his first girlfriend. One morning, the principal sent for him, and on his way to the office, Wade looked out the window and saw a moving van in the driveway. His father, he soon learned, had quit his position at Amarillo High to take the coaching job at UTEP. Within an hour, Wade was off to El Paso, without even getting a chance to say goodbye to his girl. But he didn’t protest. No tears. No anger.

“When Daddy would ask if we wanted to go to the Dairy Queen, we wouldn’t want to,” says Wade, half in jest. “We’d be afraid if we got in that car he’d move us again.”

And this life lesson, from his father:

“When I was growing up, people thought bitching was coaching,” says Wade. “But players eventually turn off the guys who yell and scream. My father once told me, ‘Don’t coach the way you were coached. Coach the way you are.’ I don’t believe in coaching by fear. I believe in coaching by teaching.”

Think of that: You don’t see the yellers and barkers much anymore on the sidelines—or at least not as much as you used to. After the Texans lost narrowly Sunday, I asked Wade Phillips how he thinks his father should be remembered in football history.

“He was the ultimate players’ coach,’’ Wade Phillips said. “He had a real knack for making every player feel special, like they were so valuable. I never heard him once talk about winning. You play hard because your teammates are like a family. You owe that to your teammates. He always thought the scoreboard would take care of itself.’’

The greatest tribute I saw Sunday? Texans defensive stalwart J.J. Watt sacking Alex Smith and turning to the crowd and tipping an imaginary ten-gallon hat. For Bum.

“Yeah,’’ Wade said, struggling for words. “That was emotional.”

[leviramsey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyGpzdnVMRE

[kkr]

 

Darrelle Revis' usage has Buccaneers fans in an uproar

 

Two games into his Tampa Bay Buccaneers career, cornerback Darrelle Revis was already frustrated by the lack of man-to-man coverage in Greg Schiano's defense. 

 

The coaching staff's use of Revis in zone schemes has been such a hot-button issue in the Tampa area that Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan invited dissatisfied fans to come to the Buccaneers facility and show him how to properly use the shutdown cornerback.

 

 

NFL Media's Jeff Darlington revealed Wednesday on NFL Network's "Around the League Live" that fans took Sheridan up on his offer, only to be turned away at the door Monday morning.

 

Darlington inferred from sources inside the building that the coaching staff doesn't believe Revis' surgically repaired knee is healthy enough to be on "Revis Island" just yet.

 

As a result, Revis has been wasted against lesser receivers in his zone while the opposing team's top threats torch the rest of the secondary.

If Revis isn't healthy enough to shadow receivers, it's news to NFL Media's Kurt Warner, who opined Wednesday that the artist formerly known as a shutdown corner looks "as good as ever" in press-man coverage.

 

"He looks like he's back to form," Warner added. "What's made Darrelle Revis great over the years is that he has the ability to get up into your face, to press you, to use muscle, to take away any separation, and then the instincts to break down and read the routes of receivers. ... I just can't figure out why they don't do that more with him."

 

No coaching staff will be under more scrutiny going forward than Schiano's, especially if they continue to play against Revis' strengths.

 

Even with high-priced acquisitions Revis and Dashon Goldson anchoring the defensive backfield, the Buccaneers have allowed career highs in passer rating to Nick Foles and Matt Ryan the past two weeks.

 

We will find out if that trend continues in Thursday's game against Cam Newton, the only quarterback in the NFL with a passer rating over 136.0 in consecutive games this season.

The latest "Around The League Podcast" recaps every Week 7 game.

 

 

Bill Sheridan who was hounded out of the Giants doing what he does best...

 

[BOF]

I'll be keeping a closer eye on that match so. I'm comfortable that I've gone with the Panthers

[parisvilla]

If you gents could fill out this short survey on US Sports I'd be very grateful.

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q9MRR9B 

 

 

Cheers.

Chee

[BOF]

Pretended to be from UK and 'done'

[Tegis]

Pretended to be from UK and 'done'

 

Very same!

[leviramsey]

Next week's Thursday Night game will be worth watching.

Miami Dolphins cheerleaders + Halloween

[packoman]

Eagles have traded DT Sopoaga and a 6th-round pick to Pats for a 5th-round pick.

[leviramsey]

Jags' Blackmon to be banned for at least the rest of the season for a second substance abuse issue.

0-16 beckons...

[Tegis]

"NFL flexes Week 11 Chiefs-Broncos tilt into 'SNF' slot"

 

Bah

[rjw63]

Jags' Blackmon to be banned for at least the rest of the season for a second substance abuse issue.

0-16 beckons...

Ah shit, just what my Fantasy team didn't need. what a bellend.

[Tegis]

John Fox to undergo heart-surgery asap. Will miss several weeks of the season.

 

Get well soon coach

 

No word on interim coach yet but Jack Del Rio should be the obvious choice.

[BOF]

Oh dear. Hope it's textbook and he's back in no time for his sake. Not sure we'll miss him too much on the field though. If anything they might use his plight as inspiration and play for him.