NFL 2013-2014

[McMetal]

Let's light this candle. 

Peyton Manning is pretty good.

Wes Welker should not be back there catching punts. (Good hands or not, in jury risk is too great)

You would not know Baltimore even had 2 starting safeties based on the # of times their names were called last night. Elam was practically invisible out there. They miss Ed Reed.

A lot of FF owners are putting in waiver claims for Julius Thomas this morning. Myself included.

Yay! Football is back!

[JediJman]

Denver put on a pretty incredible show in the second half.  Count me among those who thought Manning would be good, but not great this year.  7 TDs?  If Manning averages just 2.5 TDs per game the rest of the year he'll reach 45 touchdowns.  That's amazing.  Agree with you on Welker - I don't know why they're risking him that way.  Hell, put Decker back there and maybe he can do something productive.

[Jesse James]

AFC north lol

[Diddly]

Congrats to the Dallas Cowboys for FINALLY defeating the Giants at their new stadium. Only took four years.

[JediJman]

Lots of great games yesterday with crummy outcomes.  Packers lost to the 49ers - no surprise, but the incorrect replay of 3rd down mistake by the officals could have been a difference maker.  Bucs and Seahawks looked terrible on offense.  The Bears and Lions actually looked good and are tied for first now - unbelievable. The Sunday night game was the worst, with D. Wilson not only stuffed, but losing the rock twice and getting benched.  What an ugly week 1.

[McMetal]

Seriously, that Cowboys/Giants game was one of the most atrocious displays of football I have ever seen. I've watched preseason games that looked crisper. And please stop with the sideline shots of mopey puppy David Wilson. Waah.

What was with all the safeties? They were like 5 in the early games.

So glad I drafted CJ Spiller with my first pick in Fantasy Draft this year...NOT.

Clay Matthews needs to check himself when it comes to read-option QB's. Dude runs his mouth before the game of course they're going to throw the flag. That was egregious. Just play defense and quit obsessing over roughing up the QB every play. Hope he figures that out before next week. Some O-lineman is going to kill him.

[Scott]

I've noticed some teams including the Packers and Ravens seem to be hitting players on the ground or as they are going to the ground...sure that is being agressive but I think they are taking advantage of the fact to get a few more hits on the ball carrier

[Jeff]

I've noticed some teams including the Packers and Ravens seem to be hitting players on the ground or as they are going to the ground...sure that is being agressive but I think they are taking advantage of the fact to get a few more hits on the ball carrier

So you're saying there's a chance that the Pack will do us a favor and take out Ponder?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not cheering for a potential career ending injury... but maybe a nice sprained finger or something that knocks him out just long enough for Cassel to win the starting job for the rest of the year would be nice.

[JediJman]

I've noticed some teams including the Packers and Ravens seem to be hitting players on the ground or as they are going to the ground...sure that is being agressive but I think they are taking advantage of the fact to get a few more hits on the ball carrier

Yeah, the Packers play dirty and pretty much every hit or touch is illegal.  Meanwhile, I can't help but notice that the Viking players are being extra gentle with their opponents this year.   

[Scott]

I'm not alone Justin, it was brought up in the telecast of both of their games...in fact they showed 49ers Harbaugh talking to refs about it before the game.

[JediJman]

I'm not alone Justin, it was brought up in the telecast of both of their games...in fact they showed 49ers Harbaugh talking to refs about it before the game.

Scott, you are easily the most biased anti-Packer basher I have ever met.  What do you mean by "both games?"  They've only played one so far.  I absolutely thought that the dumb Clay Matthews late hit on Kaepernick was dirty, but that's the only example I recall seeing in the game.  Harbaugh referred to it happening before the game?  Is he psychic?  Lord knows Harbaugh is a total saint who rarely complains or whines about anything.     I watch the Packers pretty closely and haven't seen anyone hitting players on the ground or getting extra hits on ball carriers.

I did, however, see Rey Maualuga drag a Bears player down by his facemask on Sunday, costing the Bengals the game.  I also saw Lavonte David smack Geno Smith out of bounds, also drawing the flag and costing his team the game. I even saw Ndamukong Suh dive for Sulivan's knees, which he will hopefully be fined like all hell for.  But none of those guys are on the Packers, or the Ravens for that matter.  The point is, it's dishonest and biased to infer the Packers are placing dirty hits just because you don't like them. 

[P-Siddy]

Maybe the Packers are playing dirty because at the end of the game, their uniforms are, you know, dirty.

[Jeff]

Harbaugh referred to it happening before the game?  Is he psychic? 

I don't think he needed to be psychic because the Packers were pretty vocal about wanting to take advantage of the rules changes last week.  Leading up to the game, Clay Matthews said "When these quarterbacks carry out the fakes, they lose their right as a quarterback, a pocket-passing quarterback, the protection of a quarterback,” Matthews, in his radio interview, said he was told. “So you want to put hits as early and often on the quarterback and make them uncomfortable.".

It was pretty obvious that their gameplan was to hit Kaepernick as much as they could under the new rules.  I don't think it was all dirty, but like Scott said I think they (and the Ravens) took advantage of the rule change to get in more hits on the QBs when they could.

I even saw Ndamukong Suh dive for Sulivan's knees, which he will hopefully be fined like all hell for. 

Looks like $100k.

[Scott]

I'm not alone Justin, it was brought up in the telecast of both of their games...in fact they showed 49ers Harbaugh talking to refs about it before the game.

Scott, you are easily the most biased anti-Packer basher I have ever met.  What do you mean by "both games?" 

I watched the Ravens/Broncos and Packers/49ers besides the Vikes/Lions and I was referring to those two  as "both games".  Granted I saw the Suh hit but I didn't see either team blatently hitting players on the ground or going to the ground as the Packers and Ravens did.

[JediJman]

It was pretty obvious that their gameplan was to hit Kaepernick as much as they could under the new rules.  I don't think it was all dirty, but like Scott said I think they (and the Ravens) took advantage of the rule change to get in more hits on the QBs when they could.

I guess I don't see anything wrong with the Matthews quote.  Every defense in the league is gunning to hit their opponent's QB if the opportunity presents itself.  Running QBs are more at risk for taking hits now and Matthews is just vocalizing that.  I think there's a world of difference between wanting to lay more hits on the QB and "hitting players on the ground or as they are going to the ground."  I watched the Broncos and Packers games and it sure didn't stand out to me.  I would think if it was realy that obvious there would be some flags thrown or at least some net chatter about it - I can't find a single mention of it in google. 

Nice to see Suh fined heavily, but I'm not convinced that's enough to matter to him.  Doesn't he make like $12M per year?  That's the equivalent of about $800 for someone with a $100k salary...still doesn't seem like enough.  I'd like to see game suspensions for these repeat offenders with no pay.