Sharky's NFL 2018 play-o-the-weak

**seriousplayer** · 10-14-2018, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by Three

You sound like an Eagles fan.

Hell NO!!!!! I am not an Eagles Fan. I never have been and never will be a Eagles Fan. You know the Eagles and Eagles Fans are very bad winners and losers. They are Fu**ken A**holes!! I am not that type of person. I don't pick fights and don't bully. That is exactly what Eagles fans do.

"They have a SB champs schedule so it won't be easy for them."

Oh, so they playing three year old teams last year that is how they got to the Superbowl. Ok understood!!! I don't know how to play football that well but I will be #1 football player against three year olds.

**Three** · 10-14-2018, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by seriousplayer

Oh, so they playing three year old teams last year that is how they got to the Superbowl. Ok understood!!! I don't know how to play football that well but I will be #1 football player against three year olds.

My point is your strength of schedule before the season starts is determined by how you placed the year before. If the Eagles went from worst to first then schedule may have been a factor. But I don't think that was the case. Last year the Eagles won the SB so they would have tried to give the Eagles the toughest schedule. In this sage of parody in the NFL and the rate of injury what they end up playing may be nothing like what the NFL tried to give them.

**seriousplayer** · 10-14-2018, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by Three

My point is your strength of schedule before the season starts is determined by how you placed the year before. If the Eagles went from worst to first then schedule may have been a factor. But I don't think that was the case. Last year the Eagles won the SB so they would have tried to give the Eagles the toughest schedule. In this sage of parody in the NFL and the rate of injury what they end up playing may be nothing like what the NFL tried to give them.

Why does it matter what schedule you play? If Eagles are the real deal than they can beat any schedule. They blow out easy teams and lose to championship teams??? That's a red flag for me and something is not adding up.

**Three** · 10-14-2018, 09:55 PM

You make me laugh. The NFL season is a marathon of attrition. Each team must struggle to keep healthy while putting the best team they can on the field each week. Often putting injured players out there to soon results in serious injury. These players are usually the team stars because they have no problem sitting mediocre players so they can heal properly. It all comes down to who makes the post season, and more importantly who is the best team when they get to the post season. Many years it is shown in the post season that the team with the worst record or one of the worst records is the best team at during the post season. The Eagles look like they have a tough uphill battle, but few thought they had a chance when Went went down last year and Foles was handed the ball for the post season. But without Foles the Eagles might not have won the SB. They might not even have made it to the SB. NFL post season history is replete with Cinderella stories of teams that barely made the playoffs but dominated the entire post season. The Eagles are tasked with making a winning team without Jay Ajayi, their number 1 RB. They have been missing their number two RB, Sproles, for most of the season.

People call me a Patriots hater. Truth is I hate those that are great that feel the need to cheat despite seemingly being able to win without cheating. With that said the thing that always impressed me about the Patriots is how good a team they are. Most people probably don't understand what I mean by that. Year after year they have a lot of adversity to overcome. First finishing highly ranked every year means your players want to get paid and you are low in the draft order. That causes salary cap issues. They deal with salary cap dance as well as any team. That means they have a great management staff. Then many years they have numerous injuries to key players. You figure they will suffer for it but the next man up always delivers what is necessary to keep the team solid. All an opponent needs in football is one weak team member on your team to exploit and your team is vulnerable. So the Patriots are a great team because of their entire organization not the two dozen or so that take the field every weekend.

Too bad the Pats feel such a need to cheat or they might be my favorite team. With all the cheating I have to question if they really earned any of the Brady era SB wins or if they got there only because they cheated. I just can't get behind a team that feels the need to cheat, especially if they are good enough that they shouldn't need to cheat to win. That makes me think they may not be that good and the only reason they seem that good is because they are cheating. If they were really that good they wouldn't need to cheat. If that is true the fact that they do cheat makes them reprehensible to me.

**seriousplayer** · 10-14-2018, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by Three

People call me a Patriots hater. Truth is I hate those that are great that feel the need to cheat despite seemingly being able to win without cheating. With that said the thing that always impressed me about the Patriots is how good a team they are. Most people probably don't understand what I mean by that. Year after year they have a lot of adversity to overcome. First finishing highly ranked every year means your players want to get paid and you are low in the draft order. That causes salary cap issues. They deal with salary cap dance as well as any team. That means they have a great management staff. Then many years they have numerous injuries to key players. You figure they will suffer for it but the next man up always delivers what is necessary to keep the team solid. All an opponent needs in football is one weak team member on your team to exploit and your team is vulnerable. So the Patriots are a great team because of their entire organization not the two dozen or so that take the field every weekend.

Too bad the Pats feel such a need to cheat or they might be my favorite team. With all the cheating I have to question if they really earned any of the Brady era SB wins or if they got there only because they cheated. I just can't get behind a team that feels the need to cheat, especially if they are good enough that they shouldn't need to cheat to win. That makes me think they may not be that good and the only reason they seem that good is because they are cheating. If they were really that good they wouldn't need to cheat. If that is true the fact that they do cheat makes them reprehensible to me.

Let me ask you this why are you only picking on the Patriots when other teams also cheat, why don't you hate them???? I ask the same question to people I work with and they can't get me an answer. For me if the Patriots cheat and other teams also cheat it "cancels out" for me regardless if they are caught cheating or not.

**Three** · 10-15-2018, 05:44 AM

Originally Posted by seriousplayer

Let me ask you this why are you only picking on the Patriots when other teams also cheat, why don't you hate them???? I ask the same question to people I work with and they can't get me an answer. For me if the Patriots cheat and other teams also cheat it "cancels out" for me regardless if they are caught cheating or not.

Who says I don't hate any other teams. But this is why I hate the Patriots most. Because if you need to cheat to win I can understand it, although I don't agree with it. If you don't need to cheat to win your greatness is totally tarnished by your cheating. Now we have 5 SB victories that are tarnished where other teams that deserved to win where cheated out of their chance to get a SB victory. In my book there are 5 SB wins that need an asterisk after them to indicate they were not won legitimately. That not only tarnishes the Patriots but puts a stain on the entire NFL.

**Sharky** · 10-15-2018, 06:13 AM

'Chucky' Gruden sure packed it in...and is, obviously, shooting for the #1 pick....the refs GAVE them their LONE WIN against the Browns a couple weeks ago....by far the worst team in the league!

The Steelers should ship Late Veon to them if/when he shows...prob is they don't have any good players left to trade

**seriousplayer** · 10-15-2018, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by drunk

what do you guys think of the Rams?
they're undefeated
will they stay strong or fade?

my guess is fade - although because they started so strong they'll definitely make the playoffs

Since they are 6-0 right now I think they might clinch the division in 10 days. I don't like to think that a team is going due to loss because that is a gambler's mindset.

**Three** · 10-15-2018, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Sharky

'Chucky' Gruden sure packed it in...and is, obviously, shooting for the #1 pick....the refs GAVE them their LONE WIN against the Browns a couple weeks ago....by far the worst team in the league!

I was assessing the worst teams in the league for my survival pool. I had it as the Raiders closely followed by the NYG. There were a handful of teams not far behind them but these two seem to be the worst with the Raiders sucking on both offense and defense. The Titans would suck too except their defense is so strong they might eek out some more wins. The others with a bland offense and a crap defense or a crap offense and a bland defense might match up well enough against the right team. But a defense that gives up lots of scores and a blah to poor offense will find it hard to find a good matchup.

Originally Posted by Sharky

The Steelers should ship Late Veon to them if/when he shows...prob is they don't have any good players left to trade

The rumor is Bell will show up for Pittsburgh's bye week in week 7. If I was running Pittsburgh I would make sure he doesn't put up good numbers when he returns. With Conner they don't need to use Bell much. He wasn't a team player for the Steelers. Why should they help him increase his market value for next year. As it stands now he has shown he is not a team player and might not even play for you after you give him a big salary for the year. I guess some team will sign him but I wouldn't. He is too much a distraction from team cohesiveness. Having a team gel as a unit is most of the battle to being a winning team. Most coaches and staff don't tolerate the prima donnas that feel they are more important than the team. We have seen it a few times at wide receiver and at least once at QB. In this age of the devaluing of the true running back for the receiving running back or wide receivers there will be less tolerance for that at RB. Bell has been acceptable as a receiving RB. That said it is thought the Steelers won't add Bell to the roster as long as Conners is healthy and just keep him sidelined in order to reduce Bell's pay. This little soap opera could is about to get interesting.

**DoubleDownSoft21** · 10-15-2018, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by drunk

what do you guys think of the Rams?
they're undefeated
will they stay strong or fade?

my guess is fade - although because they started so strong they'll definitely make the playoffs

The Rams are the best team in the NFL. The team to fade is Kansas City; their defensive performance on 3rd down (high leverage) is much better than their overall defensive performance. That isn't sustainable, and their 3rd down rate likely will eventually fall into line with their dismal defensive efficiency rating. They also are a purely offensive team, which appeals to square bettors, putting value on the other side.

**Sharky** · 10-15-2018, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Three

... The Titans would suck too except their defense is so strong they might eek out some more wins.....

YIKES...i would tread lightly w/ the Titans, they beat the AFC Championship (losing) Jags in JAX and reining Superbowl champion Eagles at home this year ....they are not even close the worst team in the league, imo

**DoubleDownSoft21** · 10-15-2018, 12:27 PM

Tennessee was dreadful yesterday. They were in a great spot with Baltimore in its 3rd straight road game, after playing two divisional rivals (Pitt & Cleve) the previous two weeks, and yet allowed 11 QB sacks and were shut out. They did beat Philly, but that was arguably a deceptive result. Philly was only 1 of 4 in the red zone while Tenn was 3 of 4. Toss in a big edge in penalty yards in that game and that was the chaos that enabled Tenn to win. They aren't the worst team, but in my opinion, they are in the bottom 10.

**Three** · 10-15-2018, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by Sharky

YIKES...i would tread lightly w/ the Titans, they beat the AFC Championship (losing) Jags in JAX and reining Superbowl champion Eagles at home this year ....they are not even close the worst team in the league, imo

Isn't that what I said. I said they would suck except their defense is so good... In other words they will struggle against another great defense that has a productive offense but matchup better with the great offenses with little defense. A great defense can shut down the best offense. They could be a team similar to the Ravens team that won the SB by having the best defense and special teams. I think the Ravens went 6 weeks without scoring a TD that year. They won through that stretch by winning the field position battle and kicking field goals. The Titans don't look to be that team though. At least not yet. Now the Ravens this year haven't given up a second half TD all year. If you are looking for a good bet you might consider the Ravens in the second half. Starting at the first week the Ravens in the second half:
Week 1(Buf): 21-3
Week 2(Cin): 9-6
Week 3(Den): 7-0
Week 4 (Pit): 12-0
Week 5 (Cle): 6-3
Week 6 (Ten): 7-0