Official 2011-12 NFL thread

First things first: Pick 'em, if you're interested. One of these years we need to set up an .Org fantasy league. To play, click "Join Private Pool".

Username: totalwar
Password: totalwar

Okay, I'm cutting this one a little close but we're still in time for the usual Thursday kick-off game, which means after a really long and boring summer and a (thankfully) averted lockout, pro football is once again upon us! Just in time, too - I don't know what I would have done with myself this fall otherwise. Here's my usual predictions, etc.:

NFC East: The "Eagles as Miami Heat" talk is kind of annoying, since I think most (sane) Philly fans such as myself realize that our team is still flawed. Vick, while spectacular when healthy, is injury-prone and our offensive line, to put it mildly, stinks. Instead, and it absolutely pains me to do this, I like Dallas to win this division. They turned around last year after Jason Garrett took over as head coach, and keep in mind this was with Tony Romo injured. Now that they have a legitimate coach and QB, all of those weapons scare me. Fear not though, for the Eagles will grab the top wild-card and demolish whatever crappy team comes out of the NFC West in the first round of the playoffs. As for the other teams in the division, I think the Giants took a step back with all of their personnel losses from last year. They'll be treading water. Lastly are the Redskins, which are apparently a team.

Cowboys
Eagles (wild card)
Giants
Redskins

NFC North: The Packers convincingly won the Super Bowl last season and they're going to be a very tough team to knock out, as pretty much everybody is back for another go-round. Rodgers is a beast, fantasy and otherwise, and the only real regression I could see is if Charles Woodson and the rest of the secondary finally starts remembering their age. The Bears, a year after losing in the NFC Championship game, are going to regress, because I'm still not sure how they were able to get to the playoffs last year. Instead, that vacuum will be filled by the Detroit Lions, who continue to make progress with some excellent players on both sides of the ball but are a year away from contending. The Vikings had their fun a couple of years back but right now I think are in the bottoming-out process.

Packers
Lions
Bears
Vikings

NFC South: This division is ridiculous and is going to be a dogfight between the Falcons and Saints. Since conventional wisdom has it that no team ever repeats in this division, I'm going to say that the Saints take it with the Falcons grabbing the Wild Card. Both teams are simply too loaded to fail right now. The Bucs surprised everybody last year with a 10-6 record and Josh Freeman is a legitimately awesome QB, but right now I just think that they simply don't have enough to contend with the other two teams in this division yet. Lastly, we have the Panthers, who will be better than 2-14, but will still easily lose this division.

Saints
Falcons (wild card)
Buccaneers
Panthers

NFC West: This division sucks.

Rams
Cardinals
Seahawks
49ers

AFC East: The Patriots went 14-2 in a "rebuilding year" in 2010. Yikes! They won't win as many games this year, but they will go farther in the playoffs. The Jets, I think, lost some talent over the offseason, which will come back to bite them when everybody realizes that Mark Sanchez isn't going to get much better than he already is. New York misses out on the wild card, finally causing Rex Ryan to shut up. The Bills will either continue climbing and get near the .500 mark or go 1-15 and get the first overall pick in the draft next year, something tells me it's going to be the former. The Dolphins will realize that they have no real talent on either side of the ball and everybody will be fired at the end of the season.

Patriots
Jets
Bills
Dolphins

AFC North: Steelers-Ravens XXVII continues as both teams are stacked and once again ready to beat the tar out of each other. My roommate, a die-hard Ravens fan and Steelers hater, insists that the Steelers have some kind of hex over his team, so I'm going to go with the professional opinion and say Pittsburgh has the edge, although the Ravens will still make the playoffs, because that's what they do. Moving onto Ohio, what the Browns do will depend on whether Colt McCoy is the real deal or not. The Browns *were* scrappy last year, with a ridiculous schedule yet still beating some good teams. Cincinnati has a rookie quarterback who's not very highly-touted and basically no offensive weapons with a nondescript defense. They will get the #1 overall pick in the draft next year.

Steelers
Ravens (wild card)
Browns
Bengals

AFC South: I had stopped believing that Houston would ever make the playoffs after seemingly four years in a row of them being bridesmaids, but then Peyton Manning had to go and have his neck complications, making his status questionable at best for the first part of the season and murdering my fantasy team in the process. Since that team is pretty much built around the fact that Peyton is godly at QB, I guess I have to give the division to Houston by default. The Colts, however, will still challenge for a wild card. Tennessee is clearly on a lower tier than the other two teams in this division, but they still have talent and Matt Hasselbeck knows enough to be able to pull a win or two out of his butt. Jacksonville just cut their starting QB and their best player is a runner with creaky knees.

Texans
Colts
Titans
Jaguars

AFC West: I have a soft spot in my heart for the Chiefs for a variety of reasons (most of them having to do with Jamaal Charles) but if San Diego actually realizes that September/October isn't the preseason and don't roll over and die on special teams, then this is going to be a very good year for them. They have a ridiculous QB in Rivers, a #1 receiver who isn't doing a stupid holdout anymore in Jackson, and then a nice pair of RBs in Mathews and Tolbert the Tank. Keep in mind that their D was also rated #1 overall last year. SD is going places. The Raiders went 8-8 last year and won all six games in their division, something which will not be repeated since they lost a lot of talent over the offseason. The Broncos will stabilize after a year and a half under McDaniels, but are still a ways away from contending.

Chargers
Chiefs (wild card)
Broncos
Raiders

Final predictions:
NFC: Saints over Eagles
AFC: Chargers over Patriots
Super Bowl: Chargers over Saints

Good luck to all and let's have a great season! :medievalcheers:

Your conference standing predictions are almost identical to mine. I'd say the Eagles beat out the Cowboys (wild card) for the NFC East, drop the Colts to 3rd (Peyton is going to be out for a long time) in the AFC South, and I don't think the Raiders will be last in the AFC West.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceC16yRDFOA

Sad face. It might be a long season with Peyton out. Not doing much in the way of divisional analysis or the like, but this is how I'm calling it:


AFC North- Ravens
AFC West- Chargers
AFC South- Colts
AFC East- Patriots

NFC North- Lions
NFC West- Rams
NFC South- Buccaneers
NFC East- Eagles

Super Bowl- Eagles over Ravens.

GO DENVER BRONCOS!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceC16yRDFOA

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And a year later, a few weeks after winning his second consecutive Super Bowl, that man was canned by Satan Jones. Hence why I put Dallas second in the division.

Very sad about Manning, he was the most fun player to watch in the league.

The Bengals aren't that different from the 10-6 playoff team...but they aren't that different from the 4-12 team either :no:

Dalton is at least as good as Sanchez, and when we won it was by running. Our offense this year is basically an "if andre smith improves the o-line, if the new OC is better, if AJ green is good*, if Dalton can play well enough".

The only loss on defense is Joseph, otherwise our front 7 is better.

*yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmO9dMp9F64

(not shown: the two other plays where green was wide open by Dalton didn't throw it quite right)

I'm surprised by the Dallas over Jets picks. I personally don't think the Eagles are going to be as great as a lot of people expect. They'll still be good no doubt. I think Dallas and the Eagles will be close for the first spot in the NFC East. I agree with pretty much all of GH's picks, but I think the Patriots and Green Bay go to the Super Bowl. The Patriots will win it though in the end.

Great first game.

That was awesome.

What a last play too; that poor Saint trying to make it to the endzone as Packers seemed to cascade over the line at him.

CR

Ug. Ugly, horrible game.

On the plus side, Cam Newton officially hauled as my Manning replacement for fantasy. :beam:

Packers defense made it a little too interesting at the end there for me to be comfortable, but it's good to see the offense is ready to pick up where they left off.

Good sports day. Bengals beat browns, in your face dumb espn people. Stosur beats Serena "brat princess" Williams in straight sets. Redskins win an entertaining game vs giants, and then the jets pull through for me in pickem...well I was rooting for dallas but oh well.

Colts getting crushed was the least surprising result. Chiefs losing that badly was surprising. Newton passing for 422!?

Ravens pwnt the Steelers!

Which team finished bottom last year? I'll support them since I don't have a team. Unless you guys would like to convince me?...

Strategos, the Carolina Panthers finished worst in the league last year at 2-14, and they actually looked good yesterday despite losing.

Also, Matt Stafford :sweetheart:

also the Eagles didn't look too bad themselves

Raiders take it all this year. guaranteed.

Cool that's my team! Go Panthers! Let's improve the 2-14! I'll try follow as much as I can, then get into the banter on here :thumbsup:

Tom Brady close to breaking the single-game passing record. He's at 511 right now I think, record is 554. Crazy. :dizzy2:

What you guys think of the Denver Broncos?

LETS GO LIONS LETS GO!

Why did I only see this thread now?

So, new bet: How many times this season will we hear: "The Panthers actually looked good last night, despite losing"?

Well, we're already at two. I'm going to use the formula "number of games Cam Newton plays -3".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

Well, we're already at two. I'm going to use the formula "number of games Cam Newton plays -3".

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That's why I asked. So will they actually get three wins or will Newton deliver three bad games?

Anyway, since I'm not a US resident my fandom to US American Sports is pretty videogame related and I'v loved Philadelphia since I played the Flyers on NHL 97, so I picked Philadelphia in the poll, though I'm not really sure they'll make it.
I like the Steelers a lot too, so I have my AFC candidate as well. Don't really know enough to make an educated guess who'll actually win it all..

I'd say it's a combination of wins, bad games, and Newton getting hurt. Just seems like it's going to happen.

Quote:

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Anyway, since I'm not a US resident my fandom to US American Sports is pretty videogame related and I'v loved Philadelphia since I played the Flyers on NHL 97, so I picked Philadelphia in the poll

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I knew I liked you. ~:pat:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

Well, we're already at two. I'm going to use the formula "number of games Cam Newton plays -3".

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3 Ints and 1 TD but still a good game for Cam Newton. I guess yards is all that matters:shrug:

It's a shame all I get to watch over here is one game a week. Going to be Packers - Bears next sunday. I predict the Bears doing better than everyone would think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name

Raiders take it all this year. guaranteed.

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:thumbsup:

Just because I root for no other team in football. Oakland Raiders for super bowl, each year, every year.

AlsoPot bellied import can kick like a mule. This guy is my hero.

Redskins haven't looked this good in quite a while, and it was certainly a nice change of pace to see their usual forth quarter resurgence actually result in a win. They've got some newcomers who're impressing.
Can't wait 'til week six.

I haven't seen their game last week but I was impressed with Grossmann in their opening game against the Giants.