Week 11 Open Discussion Thread

Wow, do I hate the play-by-play guy. Better than Gumbel, I guess, but that's a bit like saying "I got stabbed in the arm instead of the stomach, so I'm having a good day."

I really have to wonder what is up with the Pats' return coverage tonight. It's been so good all season - it's surprisingly bad tonight, even before the Washington TD.

A tipped pass cannot be intentional grounding???

Two bad plays by Gaffney in a row. First, he ducks out of bound 1 yard short of the first down marker. Then he drops the third down pass.

Blecch.

I wonder if the Jets will ever make an adjustment to stop Cassel's 25-yard QB scrambles.

A complete list of Pats' linemen who can block Kris Jenkins 1-on-1:

They do realize they didn't have to stop covering Keller just because it's overtime, right?

Hell of a game by Mayo. Seriously does not suck.

Observations:

Mayo is the best player on the defense.
Sam Aiken moves really well when he actually catches the ball.
Jabar Gaffney on Ty Law is a serious mismatch. How sad is that...
Pierre Woods is better than Mike Vrabel. See above.
Cassel looks much better each week.
Russ Hochshtien is not an NFL center.
Pats WRs dropped a TON of passes. They certainly aren't helping Cassel...although that Moss catch at the end was beautiful.

My oppionion? The Pats played better football, but made much more mistakes. That botched snap, and the Ben Watson "STOP LOOKING AT ME" fumble were killers.

Dear Brad Childress--please keep throwing. Please please please please. Running Adrian Peterson is the easy way out, and if you were a really smart coach, you'd do the unexpected and have Frerotte throw about 50 times.

Do it. You know you want to.

Well, this is shocking - Eagles D playing pretty well but offense very slow so far, gaining only 1 yard so far. I haven't seen this before all season (ok sarcasm over).

Unstoppable force vs Immovable object in the Meadowlands

Immovable object owning so far.

McNabb and Andy Reid are determined to drive Eagles fans crazy in the 1st quarter in recent games; McNabb keeps coming out rusty or cold or some other adjective to describe a QB who can't hit a pass at any depth (either too high, behind the receiver or wide) and Andy insists that the only way to get McNabb out of the slump is to keep him passing the ball - leading to more missed passes. Until, sometime in the 2nd quarter, he warms up and turns into a top 10 QB again.

Also, the Eagles can't run currently, so basically the Eagles offense are now a Hockey team playing 3 periods only.

Refereeing shenanigens followed by an ugly pick form Aaron Rogers.

Phil Simms is a Cretin.

AAIIEEE!!!!!!!! McNabb throws a terrible INT. Ugh!

ETA: And the Bengals convert the turnover for a TD. Ay carumba.

Bucs get a first down on 3rd and forever. I, for a moment, cheered Jerramy Stevens. I feel dirty.

Aikman is advocating putting Grossman in for the remainder of this game on the grounds that Kyle Orton will get killed by the end.

Troy Polamalu had one of the most incredible INTs ever. Just watch the replay- words don't do it justice.

If this game doesn't knock the Eagles down the DVOA standings nothing will

Another home game for the Panthers in which the visiting team possesses a magical ability to not commit penalties. The Detroit Lions for God's sake. The only penalty assessed against them, in Carolina, was a blatant personal foul which, despite being committed after the play right in front of two refs, neither managed to throw a flag. It had to come in from the side judge well after the infraction.

This is why we are so tired of teams like the Patriots who get the benefit of the calls every game, home and away. We can't even get home team calls in Charlotte. Maybe it has something to do with that stupid NFL logo in the middle of our field instead of the team logo like every other stadium.

So after somehow managing to get a tie against an incredibly talented team such as the Cincinnati Bengals I fully expect the Eagles to raise to number 1 in DVOA. How could they do otherwise?

Darren Sproles signals for a fair catch, starts running forward, gets tackled, and the flag of course goes against the Steelers, who will probably also draw a fine this week for daring to tackle someone too hard. I'm bitter at the moment.

Does anybody understand what happened at the end of the Steelers-Chargers game?

The Steelers had an 11-10 and the Chargers tried a wacky play involving a short pass and laterals, one of which was knocked away by a Steeler who then returned the ball for a TD, which seemingly ended the game at 17-10.

And then there was a call of "illegal forward pass" and for some reason the TD was taken off the scoreboard and the final score was 11-10.

I'm wondering how this was received in Vegas, where Pittsburgh was a 4.5 point favorite.

I say this as a Cowboys fan. God, the Cowboys suck.

Update: Still sucking.

Update: And are unable to pass the ball on offense.

Update: I don't know what to make of the Cowboys offense actually working.

What's the record for penalties that negate 3rd down conversions in a season? Are the Cowboys close?

Watching Crayton return punts is just painful. Always has been. Have the Cowboys ever had a punt returner who was a legitimate threat?

MARTELLUS!!!!!!!

What a beast.

And the Cowboys' Playoff Hope Train is back on track!

Other thoughts:

Shaun Alexander is simply terrible now.

Is Jim Zorn Native American? I always get that connection when I see him.

I'd say that Cowboys' <1% Playoff odds will be changing after this week.

The Eagles are putrid.

Will Dallas be the only NFC East team to not be taken into OT by the BENGALS???

It's amazing what a defense can do when they aren't battling both their opponent's offense and their own offense for the entire game (see DAL vs. NYG).

Dallas' Special Teams is the only part of their team that isn't underrated by DVOA.

If the Eagles are even in the top 10 of DVOA after this week, there is something wrong. I'd love to see them next year be the first 0-16 team to finish in the top 5 of DVOA. It's certainly possible based on their rankings this year.

Now that the Cowboys have beaten the supposedly superior Redskins (as I predicted), I now can't wait for them to beat the Giants and Eagles as well. DVOA will be put on its head!

ESPN couldn't just let Lindell try for a game-winnning FG without bringing up Scott Norwood.

And of course, Lindell misses. Wide right.