The Official 2012 Football Season Thread

[haunted]

Oh I forgot I said something like that in here too. I did it in IRC on game day or the day of or something... calling unc>vatech and ncstate>fsu.

UNC, even as a whole, looks so much better when we have gio bernard in the game. he was out for wake and louisville, our only 2 losses that were 1 possession games. but since then they've obtained decisive  wins over ecu, idaho, and va tech. he's a catalyst to the offense, enhances everyone... and our defense is looking good.

unc v. ncstate should be good, I have tickets to it.

[|iR|Focalor]

Atlanta... FIVE AND ZERO.

Then again, Georgia was 5-0 for their first 5 games too, and then got buttfucked royally in one of the biggest SEC matchups of the year. HORRIBLE performance Saturday night. HORRIBLE! That's the laziest I've seen the Dawgs offensive line play in years. No protection at all. Murray had barely any completions because he was too busy getting the shit beat out of him to have time to hit anyone with the ball. The single biggest most important game of the regular season, and they play like they're just ready to lose and go home. Well they fucking WILL now. Pretty much nothing to play for anymore. Damn near no hope at making the SEC Championship game this year unless Florida and South Carolina start losing like crazy. No hope of a major bowl berth. No hope at all at making it to the BCS title game. Way to give a shit, Georgia.

Drew Brees passes the record of most consecutive games with a touchdown pass set by the legendary Johnny Unitas over 50 years ago. Thing is... I don't see Drew's streak ending any time soon either. So who the fuck knows what the final record number will be. could end up being 60 or 70 games or more. New Orleans should be awfully proud of this guy. By the time he retires, he's easily gonna be remembered as one of the top 5 greatest quarterbacks of all time.

[adz1La]

1-4!!! 

[Sgt. Dick]

Drew Brees passes the record of most consecutive games with a touchdown pass set by the legendary Johnny Unitas over 50 years ago. Thing is... I don't see Drew's streak ending any time soon either. So who the fuck knows what the final record number will be. could end up being 60 or 70 games or more. New Orleans should be awfully proud of this guy. By the time he retires, he's easily gonna be remembered as one of the top 5 greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Coming out of college many teams passed on him because they said he was to short and did not have the arm strength.  Atlanta picked Michael Vick with the first pick of the draft and Brees was not picked until the second round 

Brees holds the NFL single-season record for most passing yards in a season by a quarterback, with 5,476 yards.  Brees also set NFL records for highest completion percentage in a season – 71.2%, most 300+ yard passing games in a season – 13, and most completions in a season – 468. Brees has the highest career completion percentage among all quarterbacks in NFL history with at least 2,500+ attempts – 65.94%.  He also has the highest career post-season completion percentage – 66.8%.  Brees is the fastest player in NFL history to reach 40,000 yards passing.  He is also the all-time NFL leader in career passing yards per game, and he could have been a Falcon 

[Krlll Mule]

It's a sign of a good sport when you give opposing team members credit. Thank you |iR|Focalor and Sgt. Dick. Drew Brees is still too short and still doesn't have the arm strength of many NFL QB's. He DOES have that "intangible" ability to make players around him better. I think it's because of his humble, unselfish personality. After he broke Johnny Unitas' touchdown streak the other night, he paid respect to J.U. and his family, and then emphasized that it was a TEAM record - something he could never have accomplished by himself. Team mates and coaches and fans appreciate that about him. Frankly, the rule changes that favor offense and the style of play popular in the NFL today helped him break the record.  Unitas was in a class all by himself for a long time. My hat's off to both of them...

[|iR|Focalor]

Eh, he may not have the largest set of pythons on the field, but he gets plenty of range out of his passing, definitely enough to make cornerbacks and safeties pay attention to wideouts a little more. What I've always noticed about his play is just how he plays the position. If you ever see closeups of his face when he drops back in the pocket, he's got a crazy wild-man look in his eyes. You can just tell he's thinking 1000 miles a minute. He isn't relaxed at all, he's moving fast and playing almost angry, which is what you have to do to in order to be able to bounce your eyes around the field and find the receiver with the best chance of bringing in a pass. That lightning quick reflex also gives him a bit of an advantage over defensive linemen and helps him dodge them with minimal movement after they've already winded the piss out of themselves by fighting through offensive linemen.

As far as Atlanta having the chance to draft him... I guess it would've been nice. But then again, at that point in time, anyone else who would've had the chance to draft Michael Vick would've done it too. Vick was a pretty good QB in college, and the fact that he could run every bit as fast as most runningbacks and wide receivers made him the most attractive pick of the draft that year. As far as I know, that's usually how it goes. It's usually the QB's who aren't top 5 picks who end up becoming the great ones at the NFL level. But what team is gonna give up the more attractive pick with better stats to gamble on some 3rd or 5th round QB that doesn't have the more impressive college and combine resume? When Atlanta signed Vick, everyone was completely ECSTATIC. At first, he looked pretty good. But as time went on, everyone saw he wasn't getting any better and how hot and cold his performance tended to be. This is precisely why Atlanta had no problem at all letting him go after the whole dogfighting thing. They had enough experience with him to know he wasn't worth what they were gonna have to pay him.

[Sgt. Dick]

Texans linebacker Brian Cushing out for the season with torn ACL.

I thought the hit was cheap and now he is gone for the year.

What do you guys think.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd5jR7UUMB0

[|iR|Focalor]

Nah. It's routine. Unfortunate though, sometimes that type of block catches the knee just right.

[Krlll Mule]

Texans linebacker Brian Cushing out for the season with torn ACL.

I thought the hit was cheap and now he is gone for the year.

What do you guys think.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd5jR7UUMB0

My problem with that block is it appears that Cushing was hit from behind.  Now, that happens accidentally during some plays and sometimes it's just a cheap shot.  We can't know the Jets players intent.  I hate it for the guy, but it's an unfortunate part of "the game".

P.S. I demand a bounty investigation.

[Sgt. Dick]

I am looking forward to some of the games today.

Tex/Okla at noon - I don't think either team is a elite team this year but it should be a good game because of the rivalry.

Stan/ND at 3:30 - I doubt it will happen because I don't think Stanford is that good, but I would love to see ND lose.  I have always hated ND for all of the special treatment they get.  ND is televised every week even when my local team is not    I'm sure they use that when recruiting, come to ND and you will play on national TV every week.

SC/LSU at 8:00 - SC dominted GA last week in SC.  LSU's defense is 10 times better than GA.  If SC goes into LSU and comes out with a win, then I will say they are a top 5 team.

[adz1La]

then they are lucky enough to play florida...

[Sgt. Dick]

I hope LSU ruffed up SC like they did FL.  FL may have beat LSU but they had quite a few starters get dinged up and they did not play against Vandy. 
FL had two starters on defense and two starters on the offensive line that did not play yesterday. 
The missing offensive line players hurt the most, FL was not able to control the game running the ball like they have been.
Vandy controlled the time of poss - 33min - 27min., this exposed the defense in the 4th quarter, especially when they had starters out also.

Stanford/ND - The Stanford running back DID score on the overtime play    ND always get the breaks, I don't know how many times other teams have got screwed on these types of calls and the commentators just say "its the luck of the Irish".  I really hope Okla does to ND what they did to Tex when they play them in a couple of weeks.

[haunted]

So UNC is like, 28th or 29th in the AP about. They play duke next which won't be enough to get us ranked/crack the top 25, but if we win the following game against NC State then maybe/probably so? I guess we'll have to see.

UNC is now favored to take the ACC coastal division but is ineligible to play in a championship game.

[|iR|Focalor]

Atlanta is still undefeated. My thoughts are... this is a do or die year for Atlanta. They've got to win it all THIS YEAR, or probably forget about it. #88 TE Tony Gonzalez is supposedly retiring after this year. The guy's a guaranteed Hall of Famer, and even after 16 years in the league, he's still playing better than anyone else at his position. Atlanta will never be able to fill his shoes the same way once he's gone. After this year, they should still have QB Matt Ryan and WR's Roddy White, Julio Jones, and Harry Douglas (who is VERY underrated), so they'll still have a competitive passing offense, but it's virtually impossible for another TE to have the same elite talent and catching skills that Gonzalez brings to the table. He doesn't catch every last single pass, but he does catch most of them. Doesn't matter if he's got 2 defenders swinging from his nuts, he still secures it, and a lot of times still drags them along a few yards AFTER the catch. Without his unique ability to catch anything near him and Matt Ryan having him as a passing option, I don't see Atlanta having the same success on offense anymore.

Like last weeks game for example. If you play fantasy football and have Tony Gonzalez on your roster, last week you made out very well. Seemed like Washington had a good plan for covering White and Jones, but couldn't seem to clamp Gonzalez down, and he basically single-handedly screwed the Redskins to death. He had more yards receiving than most WR's did that week as well as 1 TD.

I cringe at thoughts of what might happen to the roster after this season. I've seen so many teams slowly trade away their talent in the past 3 or 4 years until they've completely fucked themselves. Atlanta letting WR Michael Jenkins go to Minnesota, as well as MLB Curtis Lofton to New Orleans, a few others. I was also pretty bummed that no one talked WR Brian Finneran out of retiring after only 10 years in the league. Dude was still making plays and highly underrated. I'm not sure the management really realize what an asset it is to have underrated slot receivers on the roster. Opponents are mainly going to formulate game plans for defense around the 2 main WR's. Having a nice selection of 2 or 3 slot receivers in the arsenal can sometimes completely derail the opponents defensive strategy. Unfortunately this year CB Brent Grimes is out on IR, and they would sometimes stick him in on offense for 4 and 5 receiver passing plays, so the offense has lost one more possible weapon. But on the positive side, it forced Atlanta to have to bring another CB on board, and they got a really good one with Asante Samuel. I remember watching him play with New England for years before he went to Philly, and he's getting a little older now, but he actually seems to have improved since his so-so days with Philadelphia.

[Sgt. Dick]

This may be Atlanta's year, they were out-played today but they still came away with the win.  They have a large lead in the division with only 6 games played.  My Tampa Bay Yucks will never catch Atlanta, so I will be pulling for Atlanta.