"NFL Football is Back!" 2011 Season Thread

[rah]

Yep quite amusing.

[Al B. Sure!]

The man loses one game this year and there's already talk of Brady Quinn starting this week? How many games did Kyle Orton lose before John Fox made a change?

Gee, maybe Tebow losing has something to do with the 7 sacks given up (13 sacks in the past 2 games), the fact that the Broncos shipped out their top WR (who does he have to throw to? Royal and Thomas have combined for 10 catches all year, Eric Decker would be a #3 WR on any other team at this point, and his TE's are cast-offs Rosario and Fells), or the fact that their defense gave up 31 offensive points.

The hate is ridiculous, especially from what's coming out of the Detroit locker-room:

“Can you believe ‘15’?” one Detroit Lions defender told Yahoo Sports’ Michael Silver. “Come on -- that’s embarrassing. I mean, it’s a joke. We knew all week that if we brought any kind of defensive pressure, he couldn’t do anything. In the second half it got boring out there. We were like, ‘Come on -- that’s your quarterback? Seriously?’”

Who says that about their defeated opponent? Really?

[Guynemer]

Dude: EVERYONE is saying that about Tebow.

He is the opposite of good. He sucks. Many of those sacks were directly on him; holding on to the ball for so long, "eff it, I'm chucking it deep," waiting for someone to get open, not realizing that he can't throw for ****.

He is AWFUL. That was the single worst game by an NFL quarterback that I can ever recall watching, and bear in mind that I've watched Lions quarterbacks for the past 33 years.

[OzzyKP]

Those things can be improved upon. Just need some good coaching to straighten him out. They probably should have sat him longer before starting him.

[Al B. Sure!]

5th career start against a team with the best defensive line in football and an offense that scores at will... he struggles and immediately he's getting crucified? Really?

[-Jrabbit]

I think it's it's more about moderating the insane manlove the media gave him for the Miami "3 minutes of winning" handjob the previous week -- when he also mostly sucked.

[Al B. Sure!]

He's 2-3 as a starter (Kyle Orton was 4-14 as a starter since last season, for comparison).

Yes, his completion percentage is only 48.1%, but he's thrown 9TDs to 4INTs (TD% of 5.7 and INT% of 2.5, which are pretty solid metrics [Josh Freeman currently stands at 4.1% and 3.3% for his career; Stafford? 4.9% and 3.2%]). Granted, he doesn't throw anywhere near as much as those guys and his sample is only 5 games but, on a per play throw basis, Tebow is more likely to throw a TD and less likely to throw an INT than Freeman or Stafford. His 6.7 yards per attempt is low but Sam Bradford has averaged only 5.5. And a QB rating of 78.7 is not bad at all for a guy who's only started 5 games.

But more importantly, he has 386 yards and 7 scores. In his starts (excluding his limited work in other games), he's averaging 64.2 yards rushing and 0.6 rushing TDs per game, numbers you'd be happy with for any runningback (that's 1027 yards, 10 TD over 16 games).

[Al B. Sure!]

And I realize Jrabbit is going to criticize me for cherry-picking statistics but I don't think it's appreciated that Tebow really has not been unproductive, especially not from the perspective of a 5-start QB.

As bizarre as his throwing motion is and as unorthodox as his entire play is, he absolutely DOES give the Broncos their best chance to win. He has that important leg-up on Orton definitely, and, given his time in Cleveland, Brady Quinn, as well. That much can not be denied, as evidenced by the simple fact that he's 2-3 and Orton's been 4-14 over the past season and a half.

[Al B. Sure!]

Anyway, with regards to Dez Bryant. Interesting read

It's impossible to say if the erratic behavior of Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant is a problem. Or will be. Or if what I see means he's a few batteries short of a power cell. I do know this: Based on some of his sideline antics during Sunday night's game against Philadelphia, Bryant is headed down a path the Cowboys should not want to see. Bryant's curious, constant and borderline bizarre behavior that began in the first quarter never subsided. Strange is one word to describe it. Troubling is possibly another.

He constantly stormed up and down the sideline. He grabbed teammates by their shoulder pads, pleaded for the ball, had his pleas ignored by Tony Romo, caused teammates to walk away from him, tossed his helmet (twice), screamed at a game official over a pass interference non-call and overall displayed the temperament and anger management of a two-year-old.

One Cowboys player told me this is a constant with Bryant, and his sideline antics don't always go over well with some in the locker room.

The last time I saw anything remotely like Bryant's behavior against Philadelphia was Terrell Owens during his Eagles tenure and the infamous sideline meltdown with Donovan McNabb several years ago. We know what happened with Owens.

This isn't to say Bryant is bad guy, but the behavior he displayed -- and I'm told by people I trust this happens every week -- isn't the kind of behavior you want in a player. Fiery is one thing but erratic is another.

Case in point: Late in the game, after some sort of outburst (again) on the sideline, the Cowboys were in Philadelphia's red zone. Bryant came in from the sideline seemingly agitated at something. He lined up wide left but clearly missed an audible from Romo.

The ball was snapped and the entire Dallas offense moved except ... Bryant. He stood in his two-point stance motionless for several seconds as everyone else moved. The play was for Bryant, but since he screwed up the snap count, the play was thrown off. Romo threw for Bryant and it went to a spot where Bryant was supposed to be but wasn't.

Watching Bryant on the sideline was more entertaining (and concerning) than the blowout itself. Bryant felt he was being held for much of the night by Eagles defensive backs. Early in the game, he demonstrated how they were holding him by forcefully grabbing the shoulder pads of a teammate while standing in front of Romo. Romo looked at Bryant, said nothing, then went back to looking at some still shots of the coverage the Eagles were playing.

In another instance, Bryant paced up and down the sideline directly in front of Romo. The quarterback looked once at Bryant and then ignored him.

In the second quarter, Bryant tried to speak with Romo, but Romo looked up, said, "OK, OK," and then looked away. Each time Bryant addressed Romo, Romo said little or nothing. Romo stayed cool the entire time. He did that with Bryant in his face for much of the evening.

In the final moments, Bryant totally lost his cool after he was clearly held by the Eagles. There was no question about the hold, but Bryant's behavior came close to drawing a flag. He screamed at a game official getting close to the official's face and, again, offered a demonstration of the pass interference call on a teammate. The official didn't look amused and I think Bryant was seconds away from a flag.

Again, this isn't about passion. I saw several Cowboys players display passion and frustration with the loss. Bryant's strange behavior is different. Very strange behavior. At some point this behavior is going to burn the Cowboys.

After the game, Bryant spent a solid three or four minutes looking for one player in particular: Mike Vick. He grabbed Vick and gave him a huge hug.

It was one of the few times on the night that Bryant showed restraint. Sort of.

[Boris Godunov]

Al, Tebow is a bad QB. Bad. There's no way around that right now. If it were any other rookie player who had turned in the same performances he's done so far, you'd be calling him a bad player, too. Three good minutes--against MIAMI--does not help to counteract the atrocious sucking of the rest of his playing. You can't blame everyone else on the Broncos except Tebow for his sucking, either. Nobody on his team is responsible for his insanely long throwing motion, his horrific inaccuracy, his failure to lead his receivers, his obvious indication of where he's throwing, etc. The things he sucks at are things that are hard to see him improving with time and experience, unless he basically unlearns and relearns how to pass.

[Sparrowhawk]

Any predictions of what will happen tonight? It seems like the last couple of Monday's have been duds for games, not sure what to expect tonight. KC / SD seems to be typically a good matchup, at the start of the season I wouldn't have thought so, but KC seems improved, and SD is faltering, so I am expecting a fairly even matchup and a decent game as a result. Anyone else have thoughts/expectations or does anyone even care about either of these teams (except for Ben who is banned and doesn't count).

/me

[Berzerker]

I'm a KC fan and all that but every chance for a Halloween game MUST be played in Oakland

[Al B. Sure!]

Philip Rivers is sucking it up again.

He's thrown more than twice as many interceptions as Eli Manning this season.

[Tuberski]

I'm a KC fan and all that but every chance for a Halloween game MUST be played in Oakland

Or New Orleans.

ACK!

[Boris Godunov]

I still can't believe that fumble. WTF? KC now has their own "Miracle in the Meadowlands" moment, I guess.