GRcade

Come on Titans

NFL Playoff Picture:
Patriots
Steelers
Vikings
Eagles

Wildcard Picture:
Jaguars
Titans
Chiefs
Falcons
Rams
Panthers
Saints
Ravens

In the hunt:
Bills
Chargers
Seahawks

If the Seahawks win while the Falcons lose the the Seahawks will go through to the Wildcard.

To no one's surprise, the Cleveland Browns finish at 0-16.

The Browns strawberry floating rule

Ravens out!

Titans, Bills and Falcons got in the playoff.

Titans 22-21 Chiefs.

1 minute 53 seconds left on the clock.

BORbles wrote:Titans 22-21 Chiefs.

1 minute 53 seconds left on the clock.

Titans won 22-21.

BORbles wrote:

BORbles wrote:Titans 22-21 Chiefs.

1 minute 53 seconds left on the clock.

Titans won 22-21.

Sounds like a great comeback for the Titans. Chiefs fans can take solace in the fact that losing a 21-3 lead at halftime didn't happen in the Superbowl at least.

Watching the Falcons now, I think I've probably picked the wrong game of the two to watch.

I fell asleep at half time, can’t believe they turned it round!

Falcons 26-13 Rams.

So, the Falcons will be playing against the Eagles.

Tonight's games:
Panthers @ Saints
Bills @ Jaguars

Divisional Round matches:

Falcons @ Eagles
Titans @ Patriots
Jaguars @ Steelers
Saints @ Vikings

Not a bad weekend of games overall, sets things up nicely for next week. That Mariota TD was an example of why I love the NFL, total unpredictablility.

The Cam Newton situation is not good though, these concussion protcols are far from perfect but they are there and they should be followed. Having a guy stumble to his knees and be helped off the field only to jog right back out there 2 minutes later is not a good look. I cant help but think that it was done because hes Cam Newton and hes the QB, any other position on the filed has guys who can slot in no problem but theres a feeling that if youre the superstar QB youll be allowed ignore the protocol and get on with it.

Have to ask Rax what you make of all the Patriots news over the weekend. Seems quite plausible, the Jimmy G trade already looks bad for the Pats. I get why Kraft did not want to move on from Brady, especially as he looks likely to get the MVP award, but it looks like it could have been a Farve to Rodgers style hand off instead of well nothing

Zartan wrote:Have to ask Rax what you make of all the Patriots news over the weekend. Seems quite plausible, the Jimmy G trade already looks bad for the Pats. I get why Kraft did not want to move on from Brady, especially as he looks likely to get the MVP award, but it looks like it could have been a Farve to Rodgers style hand off instead of well nothing

Theres so much going on I dont know what to make of it all to be honest, the Jimmy G trade never looked good like a good deal but it was simple financials why they got rid of him, his contract is up and it would cost too much to keep him so they traded him instead of losing him for nothing. It was the Brady suspension that caused it more than anything, if Garopollo didnt get those starts then there would not have been the hype ,teams would not have been as interested so he wouldnt have commanded a higher wage and the Pats would have been able to get him on a new contract for much less. Ive seen talk that Kraft traded him without telling Belichick but Kraft is the boss, as much power as Belichick has hes still not the top dog and if hes going to bail just cos one player was traded, even if he really really liked that players prospects, then thats a bit dumb.

Having said that, if I was Belichick and I had the power over personnel and a trade was made without my OK then I wouldnt be best pleased, even if it was the owner who made the decision. If discussions were ongoing about what to do with Jimmy in the offseason and Kraft pulled the trigger on a trade without any warning at all then yeah thats a problem, but if it Belichick was aware of the trade, didnt want to do it, advised against it but Kraft did it anyway then that softens the blow a bit at least. A Favre to Rodgers style handover would have been great but theres also a chance that it would have gone like the Manning to Luck handover, where the QB goes and wins another one while the guy you backed maybe isnt all that after all so I can see both sides of that argument.

Like I said its hard to figure out how much of it actually matters, I doubt Belichick is eyeing up the Giants job, especially since his first major decision will be what to do with an aging quarterback. This weekend will tell a lot, if the Titans are dispatched with no fuss and theres the usual hugs and handshakes from all involved before and after the game, which I expect there will be, then its all in the past and theyve moved on while everyone else is catching up wth the story. Looking through rose tinted glasses Im hoping its all smoke but no fire and the speculation will be used as motivation within the team but realistically I think there is tension there, there has to be, theyve worked together for 18 years, eventually gooseberry fool will build up and erupt. I also think theyre professional and intelligent enough to not let the little gooseberry fool derail what theyve built and theyll all suck it up and get on with it for the good of the team, after all that is what they have always preached.

Oh I do not think anyone is saying Belichick had no say in the trade, it is clear he was the one that sent him to the 49ers because he likes the Shanahans so much (and hates the Browns) It is more he was told to trade him, rather than what is being hinted at that he wanted to go with Jimmy G next season.

I mean even without that it looks like Matt Patricia and Josh Mcdaniels are both favourites to get head coaching jobs so next year will be a transition, maybe someone else will finally win the AFC East (though looking at the other teams, maybe not)

Also I give the Titans 0 chance of beating the Patriots, even with all of the above going on, I will give the Steelers or Jags a chance though. The other Divisional round games look more competitive, so they should all be good

Yeah as good as the Patriots have been, the weak division is defintely a help, any transitional year is always helped by having 6 games against weak opponents. I dont think theres any way McDaniels or Patricia stay, Mc Daniels in particular would be very eager for the top job somewhere to prove to himself he can do it after the disaster in Denver last time around. Belichicks disciples dont have a great track record when moving to head coaching roles though so I dont know if either guy is a great hire for a team to make.

Not great news for the NFL:

Throughout this 2017 NFL season, television ratings have declined and fans, TV pundits, and reporters have speculated as to the biggest cause. On social media, many people railed that players protesting during the national anthem led outraged Americans to boycott.

A new survey from SurveyMonkey and Ozy Media, shared first with Yahoo Finance, finds that 33% of NFL fans boycotted the league this year—but not entirely because they were outraged by the player protests. Nearly equal proportions boycotted in support of Colin Kaepernick or the protests as boycotted in support of President Trump, who vocally opposed the protests.

The survey, conducted from Dec. 8—11 of 2017, polled a national sample of 1,726 adults ages 18 and up. It found that 1,233 of those people identifed as football fans.

The survey then asked the football fans: “Did you purposely stop watching or attending NFL games this season for any reason?” 33% of respondents said yes.

That group, which the survey labeled as “boycotting,” was asked why, and was given multiple options. Note: Respondents were allowed to select multiple answers; they were not asked which was the biggest factor, just which factors contributed.

They answered as follows: 32% said they stopped watching or attending NFL games “in support of Donald Trump”; 22% said “in solidarity with players kneeling”; 13% said “no interest in the teams playing”; 12% said “in support of Colin Kaepernick”; and 11% said “news about traumatic brain injuries among players.” Another 8% said “games are boring.” 46% chose “some other reason.”

The results also show an interesting difference between male and female respondents: more men said they turned away from the NFL in support of Trump (35% to 25%), while more women said they did it in support of the players kneeling (30% to 17%) or in support of Kaepernick (17% to 10%).

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/poll-33- ... 15783.html

A bit of an inflated poll, but viewership is down just shy of 10% in the US.

Im surprised the protests are such a big factor in this, I had always put the decline down to there just being too much of it on TV now, the Thursday night games especially have shown that more is not always a good thing. One interesting thing about all of this is the singing of the anthem before games is a relatively new thing, it was brought in as the NFL were cosying up to the military, looks like its backfiring now as its causing people to switch off. I wonder what they can do anything to bring people back in, I cant see them getting rid of the anthem, that would just enrage the rednecks even more, but they definitely need to try something to get eyeballs in front of TVs again.

I have been following Andrew Brandt (on twitter and podcasts) for awhile he does a lot about the business behind the NFL (He is a former Exec behind player personnel with the Packers, and does a lot of media and teaching work now) His point is that in general all TV viewership is down by around 10% due to "cordcutters" and ultimately all this noise is irrelevant as there is still nothing to go against the NFL, if CBS or Fox do not buy the rights, then another Network will, and they will take all viewership for that time slot, and it will be a huge loss for the Network that lets it get away.

Also the past few years the NFL has been looking at how to capture the cordcutters, which is why last year they had a test with Twitter, and this year it has been with Amazon (and they used Twitch for a couple of the games) So the NFL does seem to be addressing it, I wonder who will be next year.

Final thought about this year is that the high profile injuries have ruined the season, Aaron Rodger, Odell Beckham Jr, and JJ Watt are three of the biggest names in the game, possibly top 5 names in the NFL. and that's not counting the Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson. As for the protests, I have no doubt it angered a lot of people, but I think it is too simple to account for something as massive as a 10% drop, especially when there is an industry wide drop of a similar number