Comments for Bye Week Blues at http://www.18to88.com , comment 1 to 32 out of 20 comments http://www.18to88.com Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:47:19 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1895 Denver looks like this year's surprise 13 win team. The Colts might be playing the starters in Buffalo, the first week of January to get that 14th win. - DemondSanders Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:29:05 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1894 DZ and I actually rooted for the Chargers, when it came down to brass tacks. The Broncos looked pretty good, but it is tough to beat a team when you give up 14 points on kick returns. The Denver D-line was impressive, though. - DemondSanders Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:26:14 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1893 In Boston, that's when an old lady holds out a $5 and asks if you have change, then you knock her down, step on her throat, take her purse, and tell the cops it was self-defense. You were just protecting your 42-point lead. Guys, I know the party line was to root for the Broncos, and I did and ALWAYS love watching Phil Rivers lose and get tattooed in the process, but those Broncos look real. Beautiful pressure, nice close-out, two ST TDs. Their run game is weak but they keep at it... like someone else I know and admire. Not a big Marshall fan, but as a team, there's a lot to like (and be concerned about). SD's toast. Too injured to make up the deficit. Because of their porous D and aging LDT, I can see Rivers putting up 40 this year, simply because he has to (and because--gritting teeth now--he's good). It's hard to argue that Brady09 will resemble Brady05 more than Brady07 because of his supporting cast. With Moss and Welker he is no longer a 24-25 TD guy. Like Orton no longer bites now that he has a competent team around him. I don't think Brady (or Orton) has changed much for the better or worse, but given the external factors (Wes and Randy), a reasonable argument could be made that 40 TD passes is within reach. And JC made that argument above. Well, a prediction, really. The thing that I am leaving out above, however, is the frustration that Colt fans all felt in 05/05/07... and that is the opposing Ds all play a diferent game now that they know what they might be facing. We pulled out our hair in those years because we expected at least 36 maybe 40 TDs a year. Why the hell not, really. He was still great and the team was still winning. The answer was that after 2004, Manning routinely faced 9-10 man defenses--one or two safeties were so far back you couldn't see them on TV. (Probably assisted in an aging Edge racking up 1,500 yards in his final year with us.) They took away the deep throws from a smart and non-desperate QB. (If you're down 14 pts with 5 minutes to go, all bets are off, but 18 was always smart and rarely desperate.) So Manning evolved into the "death by a thousand cuts" QB in 05/06/06/08. How many times did you hear that phrase on Colts TV broadcasts? This year, things have opened up a little for whatever reason--maybe the youngster WRs cause opposing DCs to underestimate 18 all over again. Maybe lack of film on Garcon and Collie has taken them by surprise. Brady is very likely to face that all over--what was he without Welker earlier this season? Not much. How many games this year has Moss been held well in check? Enough. Expect more of it. So JC, based on history of how the NFL reacted to Manning04, I don't think Brady gets to 40. I have not looked at their sked and the D's they face, however. A few more games against the South Nashville High Titans could change that prediction. And a two-game injury to Wes or Randy and 40 isn't even a remote possibility. - Bob M Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:49:32 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1892 The Colts are great for fantasy, and thanks for the compliment, but the Texans are the ultimate fantasy team. Andre is the best fantasy WR. Schaub is extremely underrated as a fantasy QB, Slaton is a great all-purpose RB for fantasy and Owen Daniels is a top-5 fantasy TE. - dmstorm22 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:29:50 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1891 And our side, other than Josh in Denver, everyone who left Bill sucks too. Also, and I don't mean this in ANY sarcastic way at all. This is genuine. Colts are the best fantasy football guys to have. They always get touches, Peyton spreads the ball around, and every single guy on that offensive team seems to put up start-worthy points on a week to week basis. - J.C. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:08:31 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1890 another guy who left Ray Lewis and was a bust. The list is growing: Jamie Sharper, Peter Boulware, Ed Hartwell, Adalius and soon-to-be Bart Scott. - dmstorm22 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:43:01 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1889 Adalius sucks. He had 10 tackles going into yesterday's games, something Mayo did in two starts. I'm glad they benched his ass. And Galloway too. Word on the street is Brady told coach he wasn't going to waste his time with someone who didn't know the playbook. - J.C. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:14:47 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1888 We have 10 games left. He has 12 TD's. By my math, he needs to average 2.8 TD's per game for the rest of the season, something I'm fully confident he'll do. We'll see. - J.C. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:11:39 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1887 It's hard to know what to expect from the Pats. 40 scores seems high, even for Brees or Peyton. I don't want to kill JC's enthusiasm though. It's not any fun unless he has high expectations. - DemondSanders Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:49:56 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1886 I think you're going to see slightly better than average production from Brady as long as he's got a motivated and healthy Randy Moss to throw to. Nothing even in the same ballpark as his 2007 campaign though, just like Peyton hasn't ever come close to his 2004 campaign. The difference is that with Peyton, you say "He averages 30 TDs a season" and that seems about right, because he's within 4 either way every year except 04, and exceeds that 4 times. Now, you say "Tom Brady averages 28 TDs a season", and depending on how you count them, you're either wrong or really wrong. Brady has a pair of seasons in which he didn't throw a single touchdown pass, which I excluded because it throws off the numbers. Manning has none. Moreover, Brady has exceeded 28 TDs exactly once, in 2007. He's hit exactly 28 twice, and everything else is below. I think realistic production from Brady from this point forward looks more like 26-28 TDs. 40 TDs though? Not unless they end up in a lot of shootouts in domes, which probably isn't happening. - Monkey Business Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:39:29 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1885 Yeah, Galloway sucks and Fred Taylor got hurt! Who saw that coming? - DZ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:38:47 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1884 This cracked me up from ESPN.com: "The New England Patriots already have one relatively useless veteran on their roster in Joey Galloway, who was signed this offseason to be the team's No. 3 wideout, but was ineffective in action before being a healthy scratch the past three weeks. But on Sunday, Adalius Thomas was also listed as an inactive in spite of being healthy. This has prompted Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal to reason that perhaps Pats coach Bill Belichick is not happy with the production he's getting out of Thomas. On the other hand, in his post-game comments, Belichick addressed the Thomas scratch as just a shift in strategy: 'We just went with the players we thought would have a bigger role in the game.' Thomas was not available for comment after the game, but we'll have more on this situation as it develops this week." - DemondSanders Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:36:47 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1883 Cincy's Odom is out for the year. That stings. But a good example of why it is way too early to get excited about the Pats, Colts, Saints and whoever else. Injuries decide a lot down the stretch. Just ask the 2007 and 2008 Colts. - DemondSanders Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:21:26 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1882 but anybody get Greatest Show on Turf memories when watching New Orleans. The Colts have been the best consistently great offensive team of the decade, but to me there is some unexplainable difference between the Colts and the Greatest Show on Turf Rams. The best way to explain it is 11 guys totally in sync, and when you get to a point where anybody puts up numbers together. When you watch the Colts, you feel like Peyton is willing the team to great offensive production. That was an awful explanation but, for a guy who loved (and still loves) the Greatest Show on Turf era (other than the part where the helped lead to the mythical hero that is Tom Brady), I feel the 2009 Saints are the closest thing. BTW, for just sheer awe, go to pro-football-reference and look up the stats for the 2000 Rams offense. This was the year that their defense was atrocious and lost in the first round, and Warner got hurt for a while. Those eary season stats look made up. - dmstorm22 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:02:52 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1881 I agree with your points on Brady. He laid a beatdown on a garbage team not only playing w/o their starting corners, but two rookies in their place who have never had to cover moss or welker, nor play in the snow against them. Ouch. Not to mention no Shwartz or Haynesworth, Collins had his "as good as I once was" season and now is back to sucking something awful, have no receivers, and their one good player Chris Johnson can only do so much. I think the "running up the score" talk is a little much seeing as the Titans turned the ball over to them nearly every position. The Pats are pricks and like to run it up, but this time the Titans essentially told them to. Pathetic ol' Tennessee. What is interesting is that, despite all this, people are celebrating "BRADY'S BACK!!!" after his 6 tds (2 of which were completely meaningless, unneccessary ones inside the 5). To reiterate everything I said above, it's the worst team in football without their starting secondary in the snow on a road game with no will to win. That's like saying "TYSON'S BACK!!!!" after he beats the crap out of a 100lb 16 year old who just learned to box. He'll go off again next week against a just as pathetic Tampa team who has a knack for firing Super Bowl winning coaches, but then he'll revert back to normalcy, like you said DZ, with his 28-34 TD season and above average, but not great, stats. I say they finish 11-5 or 12-4 (barring injuries) but exit the playoffs early. They are still not better than teams like us, New Orleans (that is weird to say), Denver (WAY weirder to say), and maybe teams like Miami, NY Giants, Minn., and maybe a few others. No way they lose to the Jets again, though. - npb1985 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:34:01 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1880 Sure, but not the only one. Manning played great in the Colts last three playoff losses. The rest of the team...not so much. That's why QBs can't lose games, just teams. No one ever talks about the 'W/L record' for a WR. This isn't baseball and QBs aren't pitchers. If W/L are bad indicators of a pitcher's value, they are that much worse for QBs. But we've been down that road before... Roethlisberger has been better than anyone other than Marino through the first five years. The only question with him is if he will get better or actually get worse as he gets older. His style of play is so intensely physical that I wouldn't be surprised to see him turn into Culpepper as the years go by. He also gets graded down by some for playing perhaps the single worst Super Bowl by a player not named Grossman. His team won, but not because of anything he did. - DZ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:17:07 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1879 Do you mean Ben Roethlisberger? Who has suddenly become an air-it-out machine. Honestly, and JC will probably kill me if he met me after what I am about to say, Roethlisberger's career through five plus years, is every bit as good as Bradys from 2001-2006. Then, Brady was coupled with a motivated Moss, who turned Daunte Culpepper into an all-pro and Jeff George into a legitimate QB, and he had a mirage 2007. - dmstorm22 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:04:15 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1877 And QB's are the most important components of teams. Like it or not. - J.C. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:03:01 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1876 Ah, see there's your problem. QBs can't go out in the first round. Only teams. QBs on the hand can miss deep throws. Big difference. - DZ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:00:41 +0100 http://www.18to88.com/2009-archives/october/bye-week-blues.html#comment-1875 Go ahead and mention him. I'm sure he'll go out in the first round yet again. 'It's who he is' - J.C. Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:58:12 +0100