Forget surprise successes - let's guess surprise failures

[Scottemojo]

The Atlanta Falcons. Or the racistskins.

 

[SDHawk]

I'm going to say the Redskins and Ravens.

It's easy to forget that the Redskins were one of the hottest teams in the 2nd half of last season - ending their regular season on a 7 game winning streak. While RGIII's injury may have no physical impact today, I am certain it will have a schematic impact on the Skins i.e. they may reinvent their offense to limit the risk of injury to RGIII. As well, NFC East is a very competitive division, there's not a large margin for error.

As for the Ravens, I think we see a huge regression for the defending Champs. The Raven's know as much and is the reason why they blew up their squad to essentially start over. I could see Cincy being the lone representative of that division come playoff time.

 

[Sac]

The Patriots won't win 10 games or their division this year.

Their secondary is awful and they no longer have the weapons to be effective in a shootout. They're going to get run on, and then thrown over.
Brady is going to get hit. A lot.

 

[Marvin49]

I was taking about Amendola AND Jackson. While neither had a huge season, they were a big part of the tie. Jackson worried me because the 49ers had trouble last year with bigger, bruising RBs. (See Jackson, Steven, Peterson, Adrian, and Lynch, Marshawn).

Yeah, Jackson and Amendola did a good job of holding Kaepernick to less than 7 yards per attempt and 0 TD passes.

Gotta love Whiner fans. :roll:

Seriously? Both Amendola and Jackson were over 100 yards in the first meeting and the only reason you won the second meeting was because Ted Ginn made no effort to recover the pitch. Akers also missed game winners in both games.

Dude...go home and come back when you're relevant.

Now back to todays regularly scheduled programing.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

My picks are the Colts and Redskins, for reasons already discussed. No way the Colts continue to overperform as they did last year, and I have a funny feeling RGIII is not going to be nearly the phenomenon he was last year. Wouldn't be surprised to see a QB controversy erupt in D.C. the last half of the year after Cousins comes in to replace him for injuries.

 

[Scottemojo]

My picks are the Colts and Redskins, for reasons already discussed. No way the Colts continue to overperform as they did last year, and I have a funny feeling RGIII is not going to be nearly the phenomenon he was last year. Wouldn't be surprised to see a QB controversy erupt in D.C. the last half of the year after Cousins comes in to replace him for injuries.

I read an interesting stat on the Falcons. They had a cupcake schedule last year, yet only outgained their opponents by 60 yards on the season. I get the feeling the Saints could rebound this year and there might be only one spot for the NFCS to grab.
The Skins ride the QB, and he gets ridden into the ground by his coach. Who will just hand the ball of to Alfred 400 times and destroy his career too.

I definitely get the Colts, they picked up a shit ton of free agents this year in an effort to speed up the rebuild, but that just never seems to work.

The Ravens I buy as a faller, but out of the playoffs? Maybe Cincy takes the one spot in the North, I guess. Though I have trouble believing in Cincy.

I don't buy for a second that the Pats are cooked. Last time Brady had no one to throw to he passed for over 4000 yards.

 

[AvengerRam]

I was taking about Amendola AND Jackson. While neither had a huge season, they were a big part of the tie. Jackson worried me because the 49ers had trouble last year with bigger, bruising RBs. (See Jackson, Steven, Peterson, Adrian, and Lynch, Marshawn).

Yeah, Jackson and Amendola did a good job of holding Kaepernick to less than 7 yards per attempt and 0 TD passes.

Gotta love Whiner fans. :roll:

Seriously? Both Amendola and Jackson were over 100 yards in the first meeting and the only reason you won the second meeting was because Ted Ginn made no effort to recover the pitch. Akers also missed game winners in both games.

Dude...go home and come back when you're relevant.

Now back to todays regularly scheduled programing.

Just keep making excuses. :141847_bnono:

As for "relevance," don't you love how Whiner fans all take credit for Championships of the past. I'd wager that most Whiner fans today who post on message boards are too young to even remember the last Super Bowl they won.

But, hey... if time does not matter, the Rams have 3 NFL Championships going back to the 50s! Woo-hoo! :th2thumbs:

 

[AvengerRam]

As for surprise failures, I'll go with the Bears. I have a feeling they will fall back this year.

 

[Scottemojo]

As for surprise failures, I'll go with the Bears. I have a feeling they will fall back this year.

Ummm...like last year?

 

[HawksFTW]

The Ravens I buy as a faller, but out of the playoffs? Maybe Cincy takes the one spot in the North, I guess. Though I have trouble believing in Cincy.

For all of the pieces the Ravens lost this year, they replaced them with good young players. A lot of the aging vets (Lewis, Reed, Boldin, etc) played well during the playoffs, but were subpar at best during the season. I could see a similar W-L, even with their harder schedule, due to the youth across the board.

Cincy is an interesting one, because I don't see the Stealers making a huge push, nor the Browns. It really will be between the Bengals and the Ravens, and the Bengals have a boat load of talent on offense, and a pretty nasty defense. I lean Ravens, but would not be surprised to see the Bengals take the division at 10 wins.


My two calls for failure have already been mentioned, but I will throw them in: Colts and Patriots.

 

[AvengerRam]

As for surprise failures, I'll go with the Bears. I have a feeling they will fall back this year.

Ummm...like last year?

They were 10-6 last year. I'm talking 6-10 or worse.

 

[chris98251]

Cowboys, we are getting all the hoopla again about how good things are going to be there again. Feel they fall flat, actually the Giants will as well leaving the upstart Eagles to disrupt the Redskins plans. RGIII is going to be coddled first and then abused second, he will then be replaced by Cousins due to a injury since Shanahan beleives the only good QB is a QB that is beat the hell up.

 

[RichNhansom]

I was taking about Amendola AND Jackson. While neither had a huge season, they were a big part of the tie. Jackson worried me because the 49ers had trouble last year with bigger, bruising RBs. (See Jackson, Steven, Peterson, Adrian, and Lynch, Marshawn).

Yeah, Jackson and Amendola did a good job of holding Kaepernick to less than 7 yards per attempt and 0 TD passes.

Gotta love Whiner fans. :roll:

Did Amendola even play in the Candle stick game? Also wasn't there some mess up with the time outs or something that cost the Rams that second game?

I have to agree with a few here about the Niners. I just don't see how you lose not just your #1 receiver but the guy that statistically dominated compared to the rest of the team plus Walker at the same time who was their #2 threat IIRC. If Gore and Justin Smith stay healthy and as productive as recent years then they might be OK but that is starting to look like a pretty big if and if either drops off it's game over.

I also don't believe you can just plug in a rookie for an allpro. Even if Goldston wasn't the end all be all, he was an enforcer who brought an attitude to the secondary. Same goes for Soap, his mean streak will not easily be replaced.

The Rams drew up a pretty good schematic ( as well as Seattle) of how to beat them so unless they become more dynamic, I would be surprised if we don't see other teams have better success this year. Leaning so heavily on one player like they did with Crabtree is much easier to defend than a QB who spreads the ball around and they don't even have Crabtree to lean on.

Other teams I agree with, Colts come down a little, Ravens also. Steelers will be competing with the Browns for the cellar and the Redskins are going to continue to have injury issues with that field and style of play.

 

[RichNhansom]

Just watched the youtube clip and for all the Niners complaining about missed FG's they sure like to ignore that delay of game penalty that was called on a snap likely less than a half second after zero on a made field goal that would have seen the Rams sweep them last year and dropped them to the #5 seed and put us at the #2 seed.

If that weren't in Candlestick I doubt that call gets made, it was that close. Hell in SBXL the officials didn't call a single delay of game on the Steelers and there were a few times that clock was at zero for multiple seconds.

Absolutely sucks that the season came down to that one call right there. Half a second sooner and we would probably have been in the super bowl.

Game of inches.

 

[Marvin49]

Yeah, Jackson and Amendola did a good job of holding Kaepernick to less than 7 yards per attempt and 0 TD passes.

Gotta love Whiner fans. :roll:

Seriously? Both Amendola and Jackson were over 100 yards in the first meeting and the only reason you won the second meeting was because Ted Ginn made no effort to recover the pitch. Akers also missed game winners in both games.

Dude...go home and come back when you're relevant.

Now back to todays regularly scheduled programing.

Just keep making excuses. :141847_bnono:

As for "relevance," don't you love how Whiner fans all take credit for Championships of the past. I'd wager that most Whiner fans today who post on message boards are too young to even remember the last Super Bowl they won.

But, hey... if time does not matter, the Rams have 3 NFL Championships going back to the 50s! Woo-hoo! :th2thumbs:

The last time football was played in an NFL game that mattered, the 49ers were relevant and the Rams were not. I said absolutely nothing about the distant past. I don't need to look into the past for 49er or Seahawk relevance but the Rams have sucked for the better part of a decade now.

Now pipe down and get back on topic.

 

[Marvin49]

I was taking about Amendola AND Jackson. While neither had a huge season, they were a big part of the tie. Jackson worried me because the 49ers had trouble last year with bigger, bruising RBs. (See Jackson, Steven, Peterson, Adrian, and Lynch, Marshawn).

Yeah, Jackson and Amendola did a good job of holding Kaepernick to less than 7 yards per attempt and 0 TD passes.

Gotta love Whiner fans. :roll:

Did Amendola even play in the Candle stick game? Also wasn't there some mess up with the time outs or something that cost the Rams that second game?

I have to agree with a few here about the Niners. I just don't see how you lose not just your #1 receiver but the guy that statistically dominated compared to the rest of the team plus Walker at the same time who was their #2 threat IIRC. If Gore and Justin Smith stay healthy and as productive as recent years then they might be OK but that is starting to look like a pretty big if and if either drops off it's game over.

I also don't believe you can just plug in a rookie for an allpro. Even if Goldston wasn't the end all be all, he was an enforcer who brought an attitude to the secondary. Same goes for Soap, his mean streak will not easily be replaced.

The Rams drew up a pretty good schematic ( as well as Seattle) of how to beat them so unless they become more dynamic, I would be surprised if we don't see other teams have better success this year. Leaning so heavily on one player like they did with Crabtree is much easier to defend than a QB who spreads the ball around and they don't even have Crabtree to lean on.

Other teams I agree with, Colts come down a little, Ravens also. Steelers will be competing with the Browns for the cellar and the Redskins are going to continue to have injury issues with that field and style of play.

Amendola played and had over 100 yards.

Akers wasn't the only reason they lost, but he was a big one. Alex Smith was hurt in that game and Kaep wasn't yet the Kaep he would become. Rams played well that day (Jackson and Amendola in particular...and that's why I'm glad they are gone).

In the second matchup the Rams could do NOTHING on offense, the refs messed up on a safety call (threw the ball out of bounds but refs incorrectly said it didn't go past the LOS. It did...tho 10 yard out of bounds which still counts) and Kaep messed up on a pitch that Ted Ginn made no attempt to recover (and is a big reason he is now a Panther). Kaeps "rookie" issues were evident in that game. Essentially, Kaep accounted for almost all of the Rams points. Despite that tho, he still threw the game winning TD that Delaniw Walker promptly dropped in the endzone. Sigh.

As for your "game of inches" comment in regards to a delay of game....and I really don't want to get into it....but lets just say Fail Mary and leave it at that.

As for your logic about why the 49ers might fall back...I can see how you get there. They lose a couple big pieces and replace them with rookies and an aging player. Logically it makes sense to say that they won't be as good. I just don't think its that simple. I think Kaep will be FAR, FAR better than he was early on and that will offset some of the other losses. I also thin some of those rookies have the potential to be BETTER than the guy they are replacing (McDonald in particular). They will also get Crabtree back around the same time Seattle gets Harvin back.

Finally, I believe in this coaching staff. The 2012 49ers were far different than the 2011 49ers. Everyone predicted a falloff in 2012 as well and they advanced farther.

 

[pehawk]

As long as the likable Harbaugh's in Baltimore, they'll be just fine. I cant believe I even have to type that, dude's just a GREAT coach. They wont fall, may not win another Lombardi, but that entire org is greatness. They're just fine.

I REALLY think KC's taking the West and Denver's going to fall.

Agreed on the Falcon's. Their own division is going to pummel them this year.

Indy's an obvious one.

I'm not sure on Minny. Yeah Ponder's a lost cause, but Frazier's pretty fricking good.

 

[Marvin49]

Just watched the youtube clip and for all the Niners complaining about missed FG's they sure like to ignore that delay of game penalty that was called on a snap likely less than a half second after zero on a made field goal that would have seen the Rams sweep them last year and dropped them to the #5 seed and put us at the #2 seed.

If that weren't in Candlestick I doubt that call gets made, it was that close. Hell in SBXL the officials didn't call a single delay of game on the Steelers and there were a few times that clock was at zero for multiple seconds.

Absolutely sucks that the season came down to that one call right there. Half a second sooner and we would probably have been in the super bowl.

Game of inches.

OK, I just watched the end of regulation and there were 6 seconds left on the play clock when Akers tied the game. What are you talking about?

 

[OrFan]

The Redscums and the Falcons.

The Patriots will win their division by default. There is not another team in that division that has a prayer to get to .500.

 

[kearly]

I want to believe that RG3 is capable of protecting his body, smart enough to learn a more prototypical offense, and coached with more caution after Shanahan got burned in 2012. 10 wins will probably take the NFC East, and that's a pretty easy target for them if RG3 stays upright. The only way Washington has a 5-11 type season is if RG3 gets hurt early and badly. But even in that scenario, would that 6-10 Redskins team really count as a surprise? Seemingly half the NFL fanbase has been writing RG3's epitaph since January. The Redskins are both a 10 win team and a 5 win team, and it's just one factor that decides which. Basically, the Redskins 2013 season is a coinflip.

The Patriots will decline, by a win, two at most. Which just means they'll win the AFC East with only 3-4 games to spare this time. So no, they won't be a suprise team. The AFC East has a shot to be the NFL's weakest division in 2013. Another thing, the Patriots were a lot stronger last year than I think most realize. They were running away with the DVOA lead nearly the entire season until they got overtaken late in the year by Seattle and Denver. At one point, their season DVOA was the best non-2007 score of the Belichick era. A record like 6-10 is unthinkable with a healthy Brady in 2013.

The Bears 2012 season was a lot like the Bengals. Both were carried by a very strong defense, and both teams were led by QBs who looked surprisingly good early in the season before declining sharply in the second half. The Bengals are younger though and are flush with cash. The Bengals also seemed to weather their QB's decline with more grace. And the Bengals have an AFC schedule, which really helps these days.