The 2012 NFL thread

[punkologist]

NFL fans:

Next Thursday 18th October at 7pm at the Imperial hotel Melbourne.

Due to the NHL lock out, I will be running "NFL night in Melbourne"

We will be showing Green Bay at Houston from week 6 of the NFL so try to avoid scores where possible.

All welcome

[Pies4shaw]

[punkologist]

[punkologist]

facebook event for NFL night in Melbourne

http://www.facebook.com/events/290871681014042/

[Pies4shaw]

Good luck with the night, punko. Hope it goes well.

[Pies4shaw]

Green Bay, of course, knocked off the Texans last week, with Aaron Rodgers throwing 6 TD passes. That more or less silenced his critics.

He threw another 3 this morning to help the Pack beat the Rams away. In doing so, Rodgers achieved a quite admirable record: he reached 150 career TD passes wiith only 42 interceptions. That broke Dan Marino's NFL record for fewest interceptions at 150 TD passes (69 interceptions for Marino). So, at the same stage of his career, A-Rod is some distance ahead for effectiveness. And, gosh, just another 359 TD passes to go, now, to catch the Great One!

Meanwhile, I watched Josh Freeman throw for Tampa this morning. I haven't really seen him much previously (although I know this is his 4th year) but, at 24, he has the makings of an excellent QB. Tampa, though, needs a defence. 0 sacks, no QB hits on Brees. You simply can't let Drew hold the ball like that and expect to have a chance. But, despite all of that, Freeman put it into the hands of his receivers in the end zone on the last two throws of the game. First time, the receivers' heels were just out and the second time, the receiver was pushed over the end zone and thus became ineligible before coming back into the field of play to catch the pass. With just a little bit of help, Freeman could certainly have taken the game into over-time but, unfortunately, the Tampa running game was almost non-existenet after half-time. The outcome: a 35:28 loss by a whisker in a shoot-out.

[punkologist]

The Raiders had a win! Another game winning field goal from Sebastien Janakowski! (my pick for pro bowl kicker) Lets hope we can make it 2 in a row against the chiefs. We better cause the suck!

[Pies4shaw]

Well, there you go, punko - another big win for the Raiders - 26:16 over the Chiefs, after leading 26:9 before a junk-time TD made the Chiefs' score look respectable. Your boy Janikowski started the scoring with a FG again and hit 4 of 4 (and 2 of 2 extra points).

Meanwhile, I see that the Australian boy Hayden Smith (a 6' 6" Tight End) was elevated to the active roster for the Jets before the game against the Dolphins today. I can't find any report as to whether or not he took the field (although I know from the game stats that he didn't catch a pass or make a run). Does anyone know whether he got onto the ground? Sanchez finished the day with a 12.1 QBR on the back of a 30:9 loss to Miami, so it may not matter much in the scheme of things but it would make a great change from Australians only getting on the field to kick/punt.

For the Green Bay fans, A-Rod led the Pack to a 24:15 win over the Jaguars after the game was in the balance 14:12 at the last change. In other games, Chicago just pipped the Panthers, (23:22), the Browns held on to win 7:6 over the Chargers with the fruits of their first quarter TD, Matt Stafford got Detroit over the Lion against the Seahawks 28:24, the Colts scored the last 2 TDs of the game to edge Tennesee 19:13, the Pats buried the Rams in London 45:7, Atlanta remain the only undefeated team after downing the Eagles 30:17 in Philly (but at least Michael Vick didn't throw an interception and didn't fumble - and he only got sacked three times), the Steelers beat the Redskins 27:12, Eli just held on against Dallas, 29:24, after the Giants at one stage in the 2nd quarter led 23:0 and Peyton's Broncos buried New Orleans 34:14 (although Brees kept up THAT run by throwing 2 TDs in this game). In the "Thursday" game, Josh Freeman's Tampa had a ball, winning 36:17 over the Vikes in Minneapolis (Tampa Bay controlled the possession in this one, really showing how much better Freeman is than Ponder and even 123 rushing yards from the wonderful Adrian Peterson couldn't make a difference).

And in the "Monday" night game, San Francisco will probably beat Arizona by about 20 points. I will be hoping (praying to Vince Lombardi) that Harbaugh's boys go easy on the courageous Kevin Kolb when they get through the Cardinals' line (which they inevitably will, about 20 times).

[Pies4shaw]

I was slightly wrong in two respects about the Monday night game.

First, the 49ers beat the Cardinals by 21 points (24:3), rather then the 20 I predicted.

Secondly, I hadn't caught up with the fact that Kevin Kolb was out of the game with injured ribs. "Lucky for some", is all his replacement Skelton will be saying, after 4 sacks and another 6 hits.

Meanwhile, the Cards rushed for a net total of 7 yards, which was a pretty good effrort, given that their long-gain on rushing was 11 yards.

At the other end, the Alex Smith renaissance continued. 18 of 19 passes completed, including 3 TDs, and a rating of 157.1! I think we can expect to see OEP report in on 49er progess shortly.

[punkologist]

[punkologist]

Bucs RB Doug Martin with 251 rushing Yards and 4 TDs! WOW!

Too bad it was against my Raiders pathetic defence!

[Pies4shaw]

[OEP]

Feel sorry for Vick. If the Eagles Offensive Line can't give him better protection he's not going to last much longer.

On that subject the Atlanta bosses would've had heart attacks when Ryan got hit on the blind side by Demarcus Ware (Dallas). The commentators got it right when they said QB's that take those types of hit rarely survive let alone play out the rest of the game. Credit to Ryan's toughness that he got up (after a little bit of a lay down ) and played out the game.

The Playoffs may be still a while away but the cream is rising to the top and it looks like every NFL fan is going to be in for a real treat come January

Oh yeah and my 49ers are awesome. Our offence still isn't even close to playing its best football, but should be come January, and yet it's still good enough to match it with any defence in the league (except maybe the Bears). Happy days.

[punkologist]

[Pies4shaw]

Just watched the Dolphins v the Bills. Very depressing game. Just about the only way the Dolphins could scrape together a first down for almost the entire match was by defensive penalties - and in the first half, their own defence was incapable of getting off the field. Even then, they had a chance to win the game but managed to shoot themselves in the foot twice with interceptions on their last two possessions.

It must be very hard being a Dolphins fan. The 1972 "perfect season" must seem more like 4,000 years ago watching their current side run around. Tannehill is, apparently, the first QB the Dolphins have drafted with a first-round pick since Dan Marino. I won't be holding my breath waiting for Tannehill to reach 420 TD passes.