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2019 NFL Regular Season - Week 1

greyshark

Member
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NFL is back! As a Bears fan I'm still bitter about how last season ended, but possibly not as badly as our head coach. I've learned more about kicking tryouts this offseason than I ever thought I'd care to, and I'm looking forward to the new season. I figured I'd give Week 1 picks a shot, and if they're terrible I won't embarrass myself again (or maybe I will if it's sufficiently entertaining). In addition to picks, any SB predictions? Or a general prediction about the team you follow (for example - I expect all Packers fans to assume their team will go 0-16).

Bears over Packers - This year Chicago gets to open the season at home, returning most of their dominant defense from last year. The Packers are a bit of a wild card with the new coaching staff and roster turnover on D. I may be a homer but I like the Bears chances to avenge last season's opener.

Rams over Panthers - The defending NFC champs get a tough matchup to open the season on the road against Carolina. It's hard for me to pick the Panthers here with Cam's health still in question.

Eagles over Redskins - Philadelphia is shaping up to be a trendy pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl this year - and for good reason. They have talent up and down the roster and the promise of a fully healthy Carson Wentz. Divisional matchups are always tough but I see them picking up where they left off last season.

Jets over Bills - I thought Buffalo had an underrated defense last year that was overshadowed by their terrible offense. The Jets have had a lot of roster turnover (and spent a bunch signing LeVeon Bell). This is a tough one to call - I'll go with the home team here.

Vikings over Falcons - This should be a good game between two strong teams. Both had SB aspirations in 2018, and both disappointed last year with mediocre runs and missed the playoffs entirely. I think they'll both bounce back, and I'll take the home team again.

Ravens over Dolphins - Baltimore's first year in a long time without Flacco at the helm should be interesting, Lamar Jackson showed flashes of brilliance down the stretch last year. Miami looks to be in a rebuilding phase, so I'll take Baltimore.

Chiefs over Jaguars - Can Foles work his magic in Jacksonville? Is their D still as good as their 2017 version which led them to the AFC Championship game? Lots of potential there, but I like the Chiefs to continue their dominance in this one.

Browns over Titans - Tons of young talent, dynamic new QB, some great offseason signings have led the Browns bandwagon to be fuller than it has in years (decades?). A trendy pick to take the AFC North, they have a tough opener in the visiting Titans. I'll hop on the bandwagon for Week 1.

Chargers over Colts - This was supposed to be a fantastic Week 1 matchup, but with the surprise retirement of Andrew Luck the Colts are in a bit of disarray. The Chargers have their own roster issues with Melvin Gordon's holdout, but I expect them to win regardless.

Seahawks over Bengals - New coaching staff for Cincinnati to hopefully shake up this muddling franchise. This is shaping up to be a rebuilding year for them, so this looks like an easy win for the Seahawks.

49ers over Buccaneers - San Francisco was a trendy dark horse pick last year before Garropolo's injury. Meanwhile Tampa Bay is giving Winston yet another chance to disappoint, and I expect he will. Two evenly matched teams, I'll SF.

Cowboys over Giants - The Giants appear to be in full rebuild mode with the trade of Beckham. There's some good young talent there, but who knows what they'll do with Eli this year. The Cowboys have holdout issues with Zeke, but they're clearly the stronger team.

Lions over Cardinals - The Cardinals traded away their 2018 No. 1 pick (which they traded up for) to allow them to select another QB with the top pick this year. New coach, new QB, same depleted roster. The Lions are looking to bounce back from a disappionting 2018 - not many good years left in Stafford. Beating a weak Arizona team is essential in putting 2018 behind them.

Patriots over Steelers - I'm not sure what to make of a Pittsburgh team that's basically gone all in on Rothlisberger. Sure QB is the most important position, but man giving up Bell and Brown has got to hurt. No way I'm picking against the defending champs at home.

Texans over Saints - The Saints were dominant for most of 2018 and return most of their roster from last season. I'm picking the Texans in an upset here - I don't have a strong/defendable reason to say this but I think this is the year we see Brees slow down.

Broncos over Raiders - Denver stole signed Chicago's defensive coordinator to take over head coaching duties and they spent a bunch of money hoping Joe Flacco still has something left in the tank. Their defense should be good if not great under Fangio, but the offense remains a question mark. The Raiders made a big trade for Antonio Brown but still appear to be in rebuilding mode. I like Denver in a close game.

Super Bowl Pick
I'll pick Chicago over Kansas City in the Super Bowl - no reason other than I'm a huge homer.

NFL GAF, are you excited for this season? Who do you think will win it all this year? How far do you think your team will go?
 
my mouth is frothing!


and zeke resigned! very happy i drafted him in FF.

feeling great and ready for this season to begin. lots of potential and storylines :)

LETS GO PANTHERS!
 

JORMBO

Darkness no more
Hype! Glad to see Zeke is back just in time. I drafted him in the first round but was starting to get a little worried.
 
my picks for week 1 (minimal commentary):

Bears over Packers

Rams over Panthers - hurts to root against my team, but Rams are a force to be reckoned with.

Eagles over Redskins

Jets over Bills

Vikings over Falcons

Ravens over Dolphins

Chiefs over Jaguars

Browns over Titans

Chargers over Colts

Seahawks over Bengals

49ers over Buccaneers - home team and niners traveling east

Cowboys over Giants

Lions over Cardinals

Patriots over Steelers

Texans over Saints - Brees is a completely different QB at home. Texans will be the better team this year, but I think i'm going Saints for the opening home game.

Broncos over Raiders - Denvers D will overcome Carr's offense. Denver will plod away running and Flacco dinking and dunking his way to two tds. just gotta keep AB in check really.

Super Bowl Pick
no idea - lots of solid teams this year. Texans, Chiefs, Vikings, Panthers, Rams, Eagles, and of course the Pats because... no explanation needed....
 
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I just hope my Panthers can get off to a nice start. History has not been kind to Super Bowl losers in week one the following year, so we've got that going for us.
 
Packers will steamroll the Bears. The only reason it was close last year was because ARodg was injured. And the only reason the Bears had a good record is because they had the weakest schedule in the league.
 

greyshark

Member
Packers will steamroll the Bears. The only reason it was close last year was because ARodg was injured. And the only reason the Bears had a good record is because they had the weakest schedule in the league.

The Bears had the best defense in the NFL last year. The Packers have a new offense and tons of question marks at the skill positions. I don't see the formula for 30+ points there.
 
Id like to argue the bucs will beat the 49ers, but who am I kidding? we have a division 3 offensive line and a backfield that could of been picked from publix baggers.

I feel bad for you guys sometimes. Such a tough division. One day things will turn your way. Maybe even this year - unlikely, but who knows.
 
The Packers have a new offense and tons of question marks at the skill positions. I don't see the formula for 30+ points there.

The Bears have a new defensive coordinator and have no idea what the Packers are going to run. Mitch Trubisky is an average quarterback at best and #12 has got this. Daggers in Soldier Field.
 

greyshark

Member
Looks like Antonio Brown might get suspended or even released by the Raiders - on the one hand I'm shocked but on the other I guess I"m not that surprised?
 

Jaxx_377

Neo Member
If suspended and let go he would have shot his way out of 2 organizations in less than a year. I could easily see him out of the league at this point. Not a lot of teams have a locker room that can handle that type of disfunction
 

TrainedRage

Banned
These first three games always feel preseason.
I wish they had to play starters for a certain amount of time in preseason games. Even a quarter a game would make these seasons start faster.
I get not wanting to blow it all right off the bat but you should try some shit and not play so passive.
 

greyshark

Member
Pathetic showing from Trubisky - same guy he’s been the last two years. He doesn’t have the excuse of being a rookie anymore, the Bears are in huge trouble if we see the same offense as last year.

Great performance from the D, glad to see not much drop off from them. Here’s hoping they can generate turnovers at the pace they did last season, looks like they’re going to need it.
 

Dthomp

Member
Man, how do you guys sit through a whole game of this? I turned it on at halftime and it felt like there were 100 penalties and shit causing this to take even longer. Also, bleh what a boring season opener
 

greyshark

Member
Great game by our D, Im not kidding when I say thats the first time our D has looked competent sense 2010.

Frankly I’m not sure how much credit you can give the Packers D with how bad Trubisky looked today. They may well be much improved from last year, but this Bears offense looked every bit as bad as the 22nd ranked O they had last season.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
Frankly I’m not sure how much credit you can give the Packers D with how bad Trubisky looked today. They may well be much improved from last year, but this Bears offense looked every bit as bad as the 22nd ranked O they had last season.

Time will tell, but our old defence looked horrible even with bad QB's. We often made bad QB's look good and probably got a few of them paid lol. The biggest thing I saw was decent to good tackling and no super bone headed choices.

That 1st and 40 the Bears had? Yeah our old defence would have got them a first down with a stupid penalty.

Man, how do you guys sit through a whole game of this? I turned it on at halftime and it felt like there were 100 penalties and shit causing this to take even longer. Also, bleh what a boring season opener

When its your favorite team playing, it doesnt matter. If it wasnt the Packers playing I would have been bored of the game. But as it was the packers, my heart rate stayed elevated the whole time.
 
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Pathetic showing from Trubisky - same guy he’s been the last two years. He doesn’t have the excuse of being a rookie anymore, the Bears are in huge trouble if we see the same offense as last year.

Great performance from the D, glad to see not much drop off from them. Here’s hoping they can generate turnovers at the pace they did last season, looks like they’re going to need it.

It's the play calling that was the problem, not Trubisky. The Bears offense is so simplistic it's laughable and so easily predictable.

The packers were just stuffing the box on 1st and 2nd expecting the run and it the bears were getting stuffed at the line which would transfer to 3rd and long situations where Trubisky was throwing into fucking triple coverage.

Helfrich is a fucking hack and should be fired.

LIKE HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GET A NFL OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOB ON A GOOD TEAM WHEN YOU GOT FIRED FROM OREGON.
 
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I swear it's like you don't even have to be qualified to get an actual NFL coaching job. You get fired after Oregon has one of it's worse records in the school's history and then you land a NFL gig.

WTF.

OH and the bears offense was so fucking AWFUL that the only thing the only thing Chris Collinsworth could talk about was Trubisky's improved footwork "BU-BU-BUT LOOK AT MITCH'S IMPROVED FOOTWORK, LET'S ZOOM IN ON THAT"
 
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greyshark

Member
It's the play calling that was the problem, not Trubisky. The Bears offense is so simplistic it's laughable and so easily predictable.

The packers were just stuffing the box on 1st and 2nd expecting the run and it the bears were getting stuffed at the line which would transfer to 3rd and long situations where Trubisky was throwing into fucking triple coverage.

That’s not the game I saw. The Bears had all but abandoned the run in the 2nd half (if not all game). Believe me I’ve lived through decades of terrible Bears offenses behaving as you described, but this game’s play calling was consistent with what we’ve seen from Nagy. He relied heavily on misdirection and the Packers didn’t fall for it. I believe Nagy will have to start playing “straight up” sometimes to keep defenses honest.

Back to this game - why I blame Trubisky:

  • He took a delay of game on 3rd and 5 essentially knocking them out of FG range when they were driving in the 3rd (his 2nd in the game at that point).

  • Both fourth down conversions they tried in the game Trubisky didn’t even get a pass off.

  • His 4th quarter INT was his worst decision of the game at the most crucial moment.

  • He showed consistently in this game (and his career so far) that when he’s pressured his accuracy goes way down. This was most apparent in their final drive.

Sure we could have had better play calling, but Trubisky was by far the biggest reason for our offensive failures yesterday. And the scary thing is I’m not sure these flaws can go away with experience. Time will tell, but I predict Nagy will keep a tight leash on him from here in out.
 
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greyshark

Member
Holy shit - after all he fought for with PIT to just throw it away so quickly. I wonder who will claim him.
 
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