Playoff Predictions - all games

JMP wrote:Tom Brady needs to announce his retirement today.  What a gutless, despicable performance last night.  He was HORRIBLE.  He threw more bounce passes than a basketball team. Time to move on to the next chapter of his life - he's done.

Todd Bowles seems to think it was all Byron Leftwich's fault - he just fired him.

and speaking of playoff coordinator casualties...

The Chargers have announced that they have “parted ways” with offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. Also out is quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Shane Day.

https://sports.yahoo.com/firing-joe-lombardi-chargers-apparently-155955075.html

hmm, so let's see, how many offensive coaches has Herbert now gotten fired? the entire 2020 staff from Anthony Lynn on down and now the OC and QB coach... but yea media, keep proclaiming him as the hot new offensive wonder boy of the league.

mercury22nathan wrote:hmm, so let's see, how many offensive coaches has Herbert now gotten fired?  the entire 2020 staff from Anthony Lynn on down and now the OC and QB coach...  but yea media, keep proclaiming him as the hot new offensive wonder boy of the league.

HA!!! I LOVE IT!!! MERC OUT HERE DROPPING TRUTH BOMBS!!!

On the other hand it's disturbing me that other first round losers are making changes and this team isn't

Thx for the props on the Giants!

Martindale threw a curve ball - after blitzing something like 50% of the team in the regular season, he dropped back into zone most of the time and blitzed just over 20%.

Additionally, following the 1st quarter they were able to eliminate their best player (Justin Jefferson).

Jones played great, but really it was just the inevitable collapse of a bad Vikings defense.

Eagles will prove much more of a test. I'm not all that afraid of Hurts, as much as I am of that defense.

And I blame three teams for the Iggles resurgence:

- Tennessee gave them AJ Brown. Ridiculous. You don't draft a gifted, prototypical #1 WR only to trade him away. You collect playmakers, not the other way around.

- Arizona let Hassan Reddick go. Very talented pass rusher. Much like the Titans, if you are fortunate enough to draft a player that can affect the opposing QB, do not let him out of the building!

- Giants (Dave Gettleman GM) allowed them to have CB J Bradberry. I know he was released this season, but that is a result of the horrible, horrible salary cap circumstances the new regime was left to clean up. On many contracts they simply had no choice. Bradberry was good last season, and he continues to be good.

In any case, will be rooting for the Giants on Saturday night, and hoping for another great playoff performance.

Wink Martindale has done an absolutely amazing and astonishing job with the Giants defense. I sure hope the Phins can find a DC that can turn around the team this quickly.

And how about Daniel Jones finally looking like a legit NFL QB! I don't know how long it will last, but damn he looked good this weekend. And to be totally transparent, he's a QB that I have hated since day 1...I think he sucks. But I may have to re-evaluate if he keeps playing at this level. Wow!

mercury22nathan wrote:

JMP wrote:Tom Brady needs to announce his retirement today.  What a gutless, despicable performance last night.  He was HORRIBLE.  He threw more bounce passes than a basketball team. Time to move on to the next chapter of his life - he's done.

Todd Bowles seems to think it was all Byron Leftwich's fault - he just fired him.

and speaking of playoff coordinator casualties...

The Chargers have announced that they have “parted ways” with offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. Also out is quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Shane Day.

https://sports.yahoo.com/firing-joe-lombardi-chargers-apparently-155955075.html

hmm, so let's see, how many offensive coaches has Herbert now gotten fired?  the entire 2020 staff from Anthony Lynn on down and now the OC and QB coach...  but yea media, keep proclaiming him as the hot new offensive wonder boy of the league.

Wow, so Leftwich went from "how is nobody hiring this guy as a head coach???" last offseason, to fired this offseason. Damn. Well, Bowles has to have a fall guy, and he certainly can't call out the untouchable Tom Brady.

As for the Chargers, how long till they figure out that Justin Herbert has already reached his ceiling? It's a high ceiling, for sure, especially if you love hollow statistics. But it is a ceiling that Phillip Rivers already reached with the same team. The Chargers didn't win a Super Bowl with Rivers, and my guess is they won't win one with Herbert either. Herbert is not at his best in key situations like 3rd downs, 4th quarter and red zone, and that has been the case since Oregon. I really don't think he's going to get any better after all this time. You look at QBs like Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Hurts, Lawrence and yes, Tua - and you see QBs that improve over time and fix their issues. You look at Herbert and see a QB that is what he is. Maybe some day he'll prove me wrong - but I wouldn't bet on it.

Divisional Playoff Round Predictions

Chiefs 31, Jaguars 24 - A late Trevor Lawrence pick 6 wins it for KC.

Eagles 27, Giants 17 - Giants hang tough, but ultimately come up short.

Bengals 34, Bills 31 - Even the NFL can't save the Bills from Josh Allen's turnovers.

49ers 20, Cowboys 17 - The Cowboys lead most of the game, but CMC and the Niner D prove to be too much.

JMP wrote:Divisional Playoff Round Predictions

Chiefs 31, Jaguars 24 - A late Trevor Lawrence pick 6 wins it for KC.

Eagles 27, Giants 17 - Giants hang tough, but ultimately come up short.

Bengals 34, Bills 31 - Even the NFL can't save the Bills from Josh Allen's turnovers.

49ers 20, Cowboys 17 - The Cowboys lead most of the game, but CMC and the Niner D prove to be too much.

Bills will be ramrodded to another win by the league yet again. Agree with the other predictions though. Look for lots of game rigging for "drama". Gotta keep those viewers invested until the end...

Chiefs 34, Jaguars 17 - A nice run, but the clock strikes 12 on a Florida Cinderella in a frost bitten KC.

Giants 23, Eagles 19 - Love the Eagles talent, but not convinced they're "the" team - and Daboll is as hot as it gets right now.

Bengals 34, Bills 31 - I'll go with JMP's score cause I think the Bengals want to show what would've been had that game been played.

49ers 27, Cowboys 9 - Will the real Dak please stand up? Nope, not against this defense.

Giants got absolutely crushed. That was just a dominating performance by the Eagles.

It'll be interesting to see what the Giants do with free agents Jones and Barkley...

I'm trying not to think about the Bills winning today and then possibly facing Chad Henne in the championship game.

Giants got absolutely crushed. That was just a dominating performance by the Eagles.

It'll be interesting to see what the Giants do with free agents Jones and Barkley...

Totally agree.

As good as the coaching has been, the roster remains very thin, and very light on talent. Hell they don't even HAVE a legit WR that would start on any other team in the league.

I believe Jones is worth the investment. Last night was simply a case of being totally outclassed by an elite opponent. Offensive line, receivers, secondary, LB are their biggest needs. Their defensive line could be very good with continued development from Thibodeaux along side Dexter Lawrence and Williams.

Word around here is that they plan on keeping both players, so we'll see. I think he'd be too expensive, but I wouldn't mind seeing Barkley in Miami.

Bengals up 17-7 at the half!!

Bengals now winning 24-10 heading to the 4th!

Burrow vs Allen has been a No Contest Today. Bills Rushing Defense has Turned in a Big Weakness. Next Question is Allen as Good as the Media makes him out to Be?

finskev wrote:Burrow vs Allen has been a No Contest Today. Bills Rushing Defense has Turned in a Big Weakness. Next Question is Allen as Good as the Media makes him out to Be?

I think he's so overrated. Everyone drools over him constantly, and he's never won anything.

The Bills looked really soft on D and the OL. The Bengals just kicked their ass all day.

If you can stop Allen from running, Diggs is really their only weapon. The pressure on Allen took Diggs out of the game, and Allen just couldn't do anything.

In the end, the Bills and Allen are frauds. All this talk about how great they are, all season long - and nothing to show for it.

JMP wrote:

finskev wrote:Burrow vs Allen has been a No Contest Today. Bills Rushing Defense has Turned in a Big Weakness. Next Question is Allen as Good as the Media makes him out to Be?

I think he's so overrated.  Everyone drools over him constantly, and he's never won anything.

The Bills looked really soft on D and the OL.  The Bengals just kicked their ass all day.

If you can stop Allen from running, Diggs is really their only weapon.  The pressure on Allen took Diggs out of the game, and Allen just couldn't do anything.  

In the end, the Bills and Allen are frauds.  All this talk about how great they are, all season long - and nothing to show for it.

For those who watched, just how badly did the NFL try to keep the Bills in it? Obviously they failed miserably but I just want to know how much and how long they tried.

Starting a new thread about this because I feel very strongly there should be one. This isn't just a team we hate losing in the playoffs, this is a team we hate that the NFL was rigging games and situations for since the offseason.

Cincy dominated from the get-go.  They were robbed of a TD late in the first half and had to settle for three, but it didn't matter.  Bengals kicked their ass so thoroughly there was no way for the outcome to be influenced by a bad call or two.

Buffalo's Achilles heel, the inability to stop the run, was their downfall in the postseason. Cincy just kept running right at them and they couldn't stop it.

HalCHorn wrote:Cincy dominated from the get-go.  They were robbed of a TD late in the first half and had to settle for three, but it didn't matter.  Bengals kicked their ass so thoroughly there was no way for the outcome to be influenced by a bad call or two.

Buffalo's Achilles heel, the inability to stop the run, was their downfall in the postseason.  Cincy just kept running right at them and they couldn't stop it.

So at what point did the Powers That Be collectively throw their hands in the air and say "screw it"? I find it hard to believe they would just give up on their mission (that's exactly what it was) so easily, especially in the age of insane doubling down.

DolFan 316 wrote:

HalCHorn wrote:Cincy dominated from the get-go.  They were robbed of a TD late in the first half and had to settle for three, but it didn't matter.  Bengals kicked their ass so thoroughly there was no way for the outcome to be influenced by a bad call or two.

Buffalo's Achilles heel, the inability to stop the run, was their downfall in the postseason.  Cincy just kept running right at them and they couldn't stop it.

So at what point did the Powers That Be collectively throw their hands in the air and say "screw it"? I find it hard to believe they would just give up on their mission (that's exactly what it was) so easily, especially in the age of insane doubling down.

I'd say that Cincy's march down the field to score a TD after Buffalo settled for three on the first second half drive, followed by a three and out by Buffalo. At that point Cincy held the ball forever yet again, kicked a FG, and it was a three score game.

Seriously, how are the Bills fans going to rationalize THIS?

This was their year--and for the first time in NFL history the league itself had decided that it would be. Rules were changed just for them and for the first time since the merger a home playoff game was even taken away from another team. That's not even getting into what had to be at least dozens of intentionally bad calls against their opponents for most of the season. And now, it turned out all of that was for nothing. We even now know that had the first Bengals-Bills game been allowed to continue, the Bengals would've won, no sane person can dispute that now. The Bills were the THIRD best team in the AFC but getting treated like untouchable football royalty.

Also, I want to thank Burrow's Bunch for sparing all of us the nauseating spectacle of the 1 seed being forced to play the Bills in Atlanta with their backup QB--as if the NFL hadn't already rigged enough things in Barfalo's favor!

HalCHorn wrote:Cincy dominated from the get-go.  They were robbed of a TD late in the first half and had to settle for three, but it didn't matter.  Bengals kicked their ass so thoroughly there was no way for the outcome to be influenced by a bad call or two.

Buffalo's Achilles heel, the inability to stop the run, was their downfall in the postseason.  Cincy just kept running right at them and they couldn't stop it.

Here's the irony of that. The Bengals were NOT a great running team this season. In fact, they were 29th in attempts--with just 9 more than the Fins--and actually ran for LESS yards!

https://stathead.com/tiny/9ULR7

Okay, so the Bills had a horrible run D then, right? Guess again--they allowed just 104.6 yards per game. To extrapolate, even if they'd played 17 games like everyone else that would've only dropped them from the 4th best run D to 7th, just behind the Fins. They did face the fewest opponents' rush attempts (no surprise there) and gave up 4.3 yards per carry but even that was still below the league average of 4.5.

IMO this domination happened for two reasons: 1. The Bengals' coaches saw flaws in the Bills across the board that had been exposed by the Fins in the two most recent games, and unlike the Fins they had the horses to exploit them and 2.) the ludicrous, obvious pro-Bills favoritism by the league ended up backfiring by motivating them big-time. It still makes my blood boil that the league decreed that the Bills did not have to play in KC but the Bengals did have to play in Barfalo

even Joe B realized the NFL was trying to rig it for the Bills. after the game he posted a two word response directed at the NFL...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/joe-burrow-seemed-shot-nfl-123807841.html

Uninvited Guests

The Bengals definitely played like a scorned, pissed off, angry and mean SOBs. They clearly had something to prove, and even with the refs trying to stop them (overturned TD, overturned fumble, etc.) they prevailed because they were motivated and had something to prove. In contrast, Allen and the Bills played like they were entitled brats and expected to just show up and win.

As for the Bills run D, while the overall number was good for the season, in their 19 games they did have 6 games where they allowed 160+ yards - and one game (Packers) where they allowed 200+. Kind of strange - most games they were excellent against the run, but that's a pretty good amount of games where they were just plain bad.

JMP wrote:The Bengals definitely played like a scorned, pissed off, angry and mean SOBs.  They clearly had something to prove, and even with the refs trying to stop them (overturned TD, overturned fumble, etc.) they prevailed because they were motivated and had something to prove.  In contrast, Allen and the Bills played like they were entitled brats and expected to just show up and win.

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking too!!! I suppose it's easy to not care when you know (or at least think) the league will have your back and rig the games for you no matter what you do or don't do. And you can't convince me the Bills players didn't know that was going on.

Just SO refreshing to know that the forces of evil can still be defeated! I've sadly become so used to them winning that when something actually happens the way it's supposed to it blows my mind.