NFL 2013 Season Thread

[Ben Kenobi]

Who cares about Week 2?

I wasn't the one who brought up the Houston game.

[Al B. Sure!]

I wasn't the one who brought up the Houston game.

You miss the point. Houston's record after 2 weeks and the perception of them as a team are irrelevant. They were a 2-14 team in 2013.

What is relevant is that your supposedly second best team in the NFL Chargers lost to some of the league's worst teams.

[Ben Kenobi]

You miss the point. Houston's record after 2 weeks and the perception of them as a team are irrelevant. They were a 2-14 team in 2013.

What is relevant is that your supposedly second best team in the NFL Chargers lost to some of the league's worst teams.

Why is overall record important? The Chargers only got to play the week 2 Texans, not the week 14 Texans. Sure they were a bad team, but they were actually pretty good in week 2.

If the Chargers were truly a weak team this would be reflected in their overall strength of victory. It's not. So that means we have to try to explain these losses. Houston in week 2 is easily explained as the team was much better week 2 than they are now.

[Al B. Sure!]

Shut up, Ben.

Here's Richard Sherman in a Canucks jersey:

[Ben Kenobi]

So your argument is that Canuck fans aren't psychotic douchebags?

[Al B. Sure!]

So your argument is that Canuck fans aren't psychotic douchebags?

You disprove that argument

[Ben Kenobi]

You disprove that argument

So does Sherman.

[Ben Kenobi]

Chargers were down 14-0 at the half, unlike the Pats; Chargers didn't even start scoring until the fourth quarter; they didn't have an injury-riddled team like the Pats;

Umm, the Chargers were missing Ryan Mathews. Patriots were missing Blount but it's not like he was injured. He went for like 5 yards. Last I checked when your gameplan is to play ball control, losing your starting RB makes it rather difficult.

Pats just sucked all around. Once the Chargers finally switched up the gameplan, they took it to Denver. Just ran out of time.

[Ben Kenobi]

What about the Redskins and the Raiders then, oh masterful one - what are your excuses there...!?

Raiders only ones to actually shut down Chargers offense all year. Every loss the Chargers had, the offense did poorly. The lowest performance of the Offense in a win was the last game of the season vs KC, and against the Bengals, when the Chargers had one of their better defensive turnouts.

Cincy suffered the effect of basically losing one of your star performers during a critical (knockout) game - worse really, when a player chokes to the extent of 3 turnovers



Also the chargers had the highest strength of victory, which their playoff win over Cincy reinforced. Dalton choked, plain and simple. I said at the time I was worried that might happen and to me that was the difference between Cincy winning or losing. Again, Cincy suffered the effect of basically losing one of your star performers during a critical (knockout) game - worse really,
when a player chokes to the extent of 3 turnovers...

I remember that fumble. Dalton was in 3 and like 18 or something and dove to try to get the first. Can't give the Chargers any credit for forcing the 3rd and 18?

Chargers got lucky at the end of the season and their luck finally ran out at Denver...

Regular season they were slightly under their projection. So they had neutral luck throughout the season despite earning the highest Strength of Victory in the entire NFL.

[Ben Kenobi]

Williams retired with a 5-9 record as Redskins starter (8-9, counting playoffs) and a 38-42-1 record as a regular season starter

In the superbowl season he started just 2 games during the regular season and lost both games he started.

No wonder I've never heard of him before or since.

I believe he's the only superbowl champion QB for which this is the case, so there's your trivial pursuit question. He's also probably the only superbowl winning QB who had fewer wins than 2 other QBs on the same team...

[-Jrabbit]

Strength of victory?
Under their projection?

Seriously, Ben, either cite actual published statistics or STFU.

Those of us who watched didn't see the Chargers run out of time; we saw them beaten pretty soundly. Heck, they needed to recover an onside kick to even have a chance of getting within seven. After that stroke of luck and subsequent score, we observed Peyton Manning taking control of the game and running out the clock, including two key 3rd down conversions.

Other than about a 12-minute stretch in the 4th quarter, San Diego got schooled all afternoon.

[Ben Kenobi]

Seriously, Ben, either cite actual published statistics or STFU.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/sdg/2013.htm

Pro football reference has their Expected wins at 9.2-6.8 meaning they were on the unlucky side of neutral in 2013. Or neutral(-) luck, as opposed to neutral(+) luck that would be if they were say 8.8 or so.

As for having the league highest strength of victory?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/standings/_/type/playoffs/sort/strengthOfVictory

There you go. Very unusual in a playoff team to be over .500

Those of us who watched didn't see the Chargers run out of time; we saw them beaten pretty soundly. Heck, they needed to recover an onside kick to even have a chance of getting within seven. After that stroke of luck and subsequent score, we observed Peyton Manning taking control of the game and running out the clock, including two key 3rd down conversions.

Yes, and? How does that differ from the Patriot's game where he took a knee in the red zone?

[Al B. Sure!]

Ben seriously never heard of Doug Williams? WTF? Everytime a Black QB is in the Super Bowl (like right now) the press starts talking about Doug Williams. The Redskins scored 35 unanswered points in a quarter.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben seriously never heard of Doug Williams? WTF? Everytime a Black QB is in the Super Bowl (like right now) the press starts talking about Doug Williams.

How many of them mention the fact he was 0-2 starting that year, ranking third on the team? The fact that he wasn't even a .500 QB, let alone a good one, let alone even the best one on that Gibbs Redskins team?

Doug Williams is a trivial pursuit question. Warren Moon, OTOH, is a legend.

[Ben Kenobi]

The Redskins scored 35 unanswered points in a quarter.

Career record of 5-9 for the Skins. I guess he's somewhat relevant in being in the top 100 for total offense. Right up there with Doug Flutie.