Happy New Year

[sikax]

Go Raiders

[Gendo]

Someone on Facebook posted something about the "new year". Is this a thing related to the Football season starting? I've just never heard that terminology before.

Go Panthers. And Patriots. And Redskins. And whoever's playing the Cowboys at any given moment. In that order.

[sikax]

Go Panthers. And Patriots. And Redskins. And whoever's playing the Cowboys at any given moment. In that order.

Two of those are OK.

[CashRules]

I might have to actually start liking Tony Romo after that 4th Quarter comeback.

[sikax]

Dallas won because Eli Manning is the worst clock manager of all-time.

[CashRules]

Dallas won because Jason Witten is still one of the premier tight ends in the league even at his age.

Yes.

[sikax]

Hey, I love Witten, but Eli explicitly told Rashad Jennings not to score TWICE. I'm sure it was an order given by a coach, but, come on. They were only up by 3. There's got to be a better balance between running out the clock and actually having enough points to make running out the clock beneficial.

[sikax]

Hey Gendo, don't look now but the Panthers and the Patriots are the two best teams in football.

[Gendo]

I of course knew they were both doing great; and that people have been talking about the Pats like it's 2007 all over again; but are the Panthers considered better than the other 3-0 teams out there?

Either way, it is indeed a great year so far.

[sikax]

No, the Panthers are not as good as the Packers/Broncos or even Bengals/Cardinals, but they are technically the #1 seed in the NFC.

[sikax]

Their only competition in the division is Atlanta, and they don't play each other until late in the season. It will be interesting to see which one declines first. They can't both go undefeated all year. I think Atlanta's much more generally talented, especially on offense, but the Panthers are tricky little fuckers. AND they're winning without Kelvin Benjamin. Very impressive so far.

Edit: OK, I just looked at their schedules. After this coming week against the Bucs, Carolina's got Seattle, Philly, Indy, and Green Bay all in a row. Good luck.

[CashRules]

Bryant and Romo both injured at the same time. This blows.

[sikax]

Haven't you heard? You guys are trading for RG3 and he's going to save your season.

[CashRules]

[Gendo]

Wait is Cash a Cowboys fan?

[CashRules]

Tom Landry is God. Roger Staubach is Jesus.

[sikax]

And Tony Romo is a leper.

[sikax]

Halfway through the regular season, this is the playoff picture:

AFC
1. Broncos
2. Patriots
3. Bengals
4. Colts
5. Raiders ( )
6. Jets

NFC
1. Panthers
2. Packers
3. Cardinals
4. Giants
5. Falcons
6. Vikings


Wow.

[Gendo]

Wooooooooo such a good year so far! It will be better when the Broncos finally lose a game.

[Gendo]

Also, what's the tie breaker that's putting the Broncos at the #1 seed right now? I guess strength of schedule or something? Not that it matters; both teams can't still be undefeated by the end. Though I guess they could theoretically both end 15-0-1.

[sikax]

There's a thing called "strength of victory", which is yeah basically strength of schedule. Take the combined winning percentage of teams that they've beaten. So, Denver's just played teams with slightly better records than the Pats. And both of them slightly more than the Bengals.

[Gendo]

Thought so. Of course in this case, strength of victory is going to be identical to strength of schedule.

[sikax]

Yes.

If the Raiders make the playoffs, there's no telling what will happen to me. The bliss might just consume the whole house.

[sikax]

Playoff standings:

AFC
1. Denver
2. New England
3. Cincinnati
4. Houston
5. Kansas City
6. Pittsburgh

NFC
1. Carolina
2. Arizona
3. Minnesota
4. Washington
5. Packers
6. Seattle

Lame.

Wild Card schedule this week:

Saturday
KC@HOU
PIT@CIN

Sunday
SEA@MIN
GB@WAS




Go Panthers

[Gendo]

Yesterday made me feel better about the Panthers' chances against the Cardinals. But it also made me feel worse about the Patriots. Plus I'm still annoyed about the Panthers' losing the chance at a perfect season last week. The good news is that half of the teams in the NFC playoffs are teams I actually root for.