Sports

[sunshine45]

LOL @Spurt

well for our sakes i hope that BOTH of our teams come alive next week. i bet the ravens coaches are going to be running a tight ship this week during practice.

congrats on the win.......of course, they are one of my top three teams. it is nice to have a team to fall back on that is in a different league.

[gardenman]

@sunshine45

Teams make their own travel arrangements. The Ravens could have gone right from last week's game to London if they'd chosen to do so. For example, the Eagles play back to back games out west in December with the Seahawks and Rams, so the Eagles are flying out west early for the Seahawks' game and then staying there and practicing out west for the week before the Rams game rather than fly back and forth twice. 

@Spurt

Where did that Redskins team come from? I kind of suspect Kirk Cousins was a tad motivated playing against the second highest paid QB in the league to use the game as a measuring stick in his future contract negotiations. Vernon Davis is a beast. The Redskins need to use him more.

This was one of those weird weeks in the NFL. The Giants hadn't scored more than 20 points in their last nine (I think?) games. The Eagles held them scoreless through the first three quarters then largely fell apart and gave up 24 points in the fourth quarter. Mr. Momentum had clearly swung and getting it back was a challenge, but the Eagles pulled it out with an improbable 61 yard field goal at the very end. By the way Jake Elliott, the new kicker says he's kicked a 75 yarder once (wind aided) in practice. The kid has a monster of a leg. He's not overly accurate, but he's got a very strong leg. You have to hope he can fix his accuracy issues though coaching and repetition, but given that leg, he'll get a lot of chances to fix his accuracy.

The Eagles went into yesterday's game beat up with four defensive backs out, then lost defensive tackle Fletcher Cox with a calf injury, Darren Sproles with a broken arm, and our middle linebacker Jordan Hicks with an ankle injury. Having six defensive backups on the field in that fourth quarter likely helped the Giants rally. The Sproles injury will likely be good news for running back Byron Marshall who is now on our practice squad but played very well in the preseason. If we bring up a back, he'll likely get the call.

We could just stick with the three backs we now have and bring back a kid we picked up towards the end of the preseason who was a wide receiver/kick/punt returner. The kid wasn't that good of a wide receiver but was supposed to be a great returner. We never got a chance to see that in the final preseason game, but with Sproles out we could use a dynamic kick/punt returner.

Lots of upsets in yesterday's games. Lots of surprises in yesterday's games. DeShaun Watson going toe to toe with Tom Brady and Brady needing a last minute miracle pass to pull out the win. Sure, I saw that coming. (Not!) What happened to the Patriot defense? They've given up 95 points which is the most in the NFL. The Patriots have the worst statistical defense in the NFL. You never see that. That's not the formula for a winning team. Brady's been bailing them out by scoring a ton, but that Patriot defense has to rally.

The Jags, Rams and Bills are all leading, or tied for the lead, in their divisions. The Jets somehow beat the Dolphins. So much for going 0-16. The Browns, Bengals, Giants, Chargers and Niners are still winless and in competition for that first overall pick next year. (Coincidentally all of them need now, or will soon need, a good young QB.)

The Eagles head out to Los Angeles this coming week to take on the Chargers. I kind of expect there to be more Eagles fans out there than Charger fans. The Chargers have not built a fanbase in LA and the league is reportedly rethinking having two teams in LA. I'm not sure if the Chargers were paying into the new LA stadium they were to share with the Rams, but the league will have to figure out that whole mess. It sounds like the Chargers will be heading back to San Diego in the near future if things can be worked out. There are financial penalties to prevent teams moving too frequently, but the league may try to find a way to waive those fees if things stay as bad as they are for the Chargers in LA for the whole year. A move someplace else wouldn't be out of the question if San Diego falls through.

Tonight we get the Cards and the Cowboys fighting it out. All the talk of the Cards being too old may just rally the Cards into playing well. The Ezekiel Elliott quitting theme will likely have him playing hard tonight and chasing everything all over the field. He may end up trying to do too much and having it backfire. When a player tries too hard, they tend to lose control of the football. If Zeke goes out there fighting to break every tackle and scramble for extra yards, he's likely to lose the ball a time or two. It could be a good game or it could be a blowout for either team. This week just proves that you never know what will happen in the NFL.

[teganslaw]

Cousins probably wanted to prove that he's worth  a long term contract. What happened with the Raiders? They couldn't protect Carr and never did establish a running game. Washington's defense just stuffed the Raiders, which doesn't happen often. If Washington can play like that in every game, the NFC East will get very interesting. 

T.Y. Hilton practically guaranteed that the Colts would win Sunday. He backed up his remarks, though, with a great game. 

I think that Elliott will do better than last week. All the criticism about his running game might motivate him. 

[gardenman]

By the way, kudos to Yahoo for their streaming of the early game yesterday. I don't know how it worked for other users using other devices but I watched it using the Yahoo app on my Fire TV and it was perfect. No buffering, breakup, and a very high quality feed. I wasn't thrilled with the announcers, but the technical part of the broadcast seemed to go perfectly for me. Last year when a game was broadcast over the Internet, it didn't work for me at all. I kept getting dumped and there was lots of buffering, but this year things went smoothly. I don't know if I was lucky this time around and unlucky the first time, but it went well. We'll see how Amazon's live streaming works on Thursday night.

I suspect live streaming will be the way of the future. You can get the highest possible image and sound quality through streaming (assuming you have fast enough Internet access) and advertisers can more precisely target ads to individual viewers or regions.

[redwingsgal]

Once again, the NFL finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for my beloved LIONS.

DETROIT V EVERYBODY

[yellowrose]

Houston - you've got a quarterback.

He just needs to learn clock control.

Too bad Texans didn't come away with the win, but

they gave the Pat's a good run.  My remote got a workout

going back and forth between the Texan game and the

Giants/Eagles.

Two good games.

Don't know what to expect tonight.  The horror of last week is

still stuck on my brain.  Plus we don't have a good winning

record in AZ.  But I believe we will be victorious.

Congrat to this week winners.

GOOOOO COWBOYS

[gardenman]

Dang! In addition to his broken arm Darren Sproles also tore his ACL on that same play. Instead of losing him for 2-8 weeks he's now done for the year and maybe due to retire. (He'd said before this year that this would be his final year.) That helps explain why they were talkng about him getting an MRI today.

Well, that frees up yet another roster spot and we now have two empty spots I believe. Byron Marshall, the running back we have stashed on the practice squad will likely be elevated and maybe a new kick/punt returner will be signed. A lot of our offense is built around Sproles and his versatility. Oh well, the team is getting younger if nothing else. Every player you lose opens the door of opportunity for another guy. You just have to hope there isn't too much of a fall off from one player to the next.

[gardenman]

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@redwingsgal wrote:

Once again, the NFL finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for my beloved LIONS.

DETROIT V EVERYBODY

---

Yeah, Detroit got robbed. I wasn't aware of that time runoff rule before the game, but it really punishes a team after a replay review and cost the Lions a win.

[Spurt]

@gardenman

I was amazed at the good quality of the streaming no buffers at all....I watched from my laptop..........

Yep I have a feeling the streaming will be the wave of the future.....however, there could be a problem with internet speed.  

One of the reasons my sister is moving is due to Spectrum being the only option in her Apartment Complex and with everyone on the same internet it drastically slowed everyone's internet down....so much for Spectrum's commercials tauting their internet speed...I pointed out to her there is a disclaimer in small print in the commercial saying that speeds will vary depending on neighborhood address.  Since she uses her internet for work a lot this was unacceptable.  Even though there is a law in place stating that complexes cant force a monopoly of a cable/internet service they get around it by saying, well they own the property and they can decide which companies can and cannot enter their property to install or deliver or service equipment....Isn't that "lovely" so Spectrum loves to use this loophole.  And another friend in a different complex was told the same thing, and if she didn't sign up for Spectrum her rent was going up $80 a month.....Right now she has Sling TV and pays a fraction of what Spectrum would charge...so she's going to move when her lease comes up..........WHAT A MESS!!!  Im glad our Condo Association agreed to offer us a deal with a maverick cable company instead of Spectrum!!! And of course we are allowed to use any other option we want too...BUT WHAT A MESS!!!---and as more and more go live stream should be as interesting as the NFL.....  

[Spurt]

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@redwingsgal wrote:

Once again, the NFL finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for my beloved LIONS.

DETROIT V EVERYBODY

---

@redwingsgal

What a heartbreaking game for the Lions .....that clock rule is as bad as the tuck rule......both should be done away with.......