NFL 2018 Season Thread

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, Philcember is off to a great start. 2-0. Chargers hit 10 wins for the first time since they had LT.

Still to come. Chiefs, Ravens, Donkies. Extremely thankful that they have very nearly clinched.

Chargers are in with Fins loss, OR Ravens loss, OR Steelers loss. Steelers still have KC and the Pats coming off a shock loss to the Fins.

[ColdWizard]

I do not get it. How is Rob Gronkowski playing defense on the last play of the game?

I would assume to defend against a hail mary.

[rah]

Yeah, I assume he was so shocked when he discovered that he would actually have to run that he just fell right over.

[pchang]

He took a bad angle to pursue and then compounded it by stumbling. He did play some DE, but clearly not recently enough to help here.

[Demonbinder]

As my nephew said, if Mitch Trubisky had been had been anywhere near competent last night they would have blown out the Rams. But this time, it was the defense that came up big and stopped the running game which shut down their offense. Announcers (and others) keep comparing them to 1985 Bears but I think they are more like the 1984 or 2007 team. Now if they can get some hellp from Seattle tonight....

[rah]

But if they had been up by more they would have resorted to their "prevent" defense that prevents nothing. Think Green Bay and New England. So you never know.

[-Jrabbit]

True dat. As soon as the Bears were up by 9, next series they ran on 3rd-and-7.

[rah]

Yeah, sometimes it amazing to me how a daring coach won't seem to put them away and will revert to true conservative coaching. Do what got you there. Under 2 minutes is something different.

[Demonbinder]

I agree, but it was nice to see them actually use the ground game. According to Matt Forte on the post game show, they also did some different things to get holes and have such good yardage for Howard.

With the Vikings loss "magic number" is down to one.

So glad I went out to my father's place last night to watch the game with him. Our building has been having problems with DirecTV since Saturday with intermittent pauses ranging from one second to five minutes.

Still not fixed so tonight's game was frustrating.

[-Jrabbit]

Thank you, Seattle!

[rah]

Too bad about Callahan

[Demonbinder]

NFC NORTH CHAMPIONS!!!

And they broke the no INT streak on a possible TD pass, to boot.

Knew they would run the fake and the exact play. Only bad call of game. Can't do it unless you had a larger lead. But we love the win.

[-Jrabbit]

Yeah, the fake punt was a bad move by Nagy, but hey, he's a first-year coach. I'll cut him some slack.

They played well enough to put the game out of reach anyway. Solid game plan on offense, decently executed. And the defense was again rock solid.
Great to have the beloved Bears back in the playoffs after all these years in the basement. The future looks bright.

[pchang]

Are the Browns actually good? Was getting rid of Hugh Jackson all it took? Did adding Jackson to the Bengals staff make them suddenly worse?

[-Jrabbit]

Good young team getting better with experience. Getting rid of Hue sure looks like a plus.
Cinci is decimated, missing Dalton/AJ Green along with a host of other starters. And they weren't very good to start with.

[-Jrabbit]

Anyone predicting 12 wins for the Bears at the beginning of the year - even in Chicago, even after the Khalil Mack trade - was basically laughed at.

And yet, here we are.

[SlowwHand]

Raiders have three Round 1 draft picks, which includes the number 4 pick.

[pchang]

JaMarcus Russell

[-Jrabbit]

Raiders don't have Khalil Mack or Amari Cooper. I suspect Chicago and Dallas are more than happy to have a bird in the hand...
Also, I'm told Oakland is pretty bummed that the draft picks from the Bears and Cowboys aren't better. Gruden has already been quoted as saying the the Bears were chosen to receive Mack because theirs would be the higher draft picks, haha.