The 700 Level - Home of the Ginger Jesus.

[nick87]

Rooting hard for the Rams tomorrow
Ill be extremely confident going into a game at home against the Rams

Darnold and the Vikings are a bit of a different sort of task and a defence good enough to make use play left handed. They dont really give up explosives in the run game and they have a good varied blitz package. I still like our chances regardless but of the two, i think the Rams are food and the Vikings is a game that could look a lot like today

 

[nick87]

Also didnt touch on it before but the Nakobe Dean injury appears pretty serious. I'd say we're going the rest of the way without him. Oren Burks is a solid special teamer but he was pretty horrendous in spot duty for Dean today, missed tackles and picked on in the pass game

Play off football is so much about identifying the one weak spot in a team and just hammering that until they quit or get it fixed. Burks is our weak spot now... very curious to see if Trott Jr gets some snaps in practice this week because i think he's the horse to bet on for a Dean replacement. Trott Jr has looked pretty good in limited minutes, and critically he's a flow and fill LB who will give us similar to what Dean did in the run game. He's gonna be a bit iffy in the pass game but it's not as if Burks is a stud there, so we're going to have to live with someone there.

 

[Valheru]

Well listening to the American news cycle this morning, it's what we expected. Flowers given to the defence but the offence is getting hammered. Not one analyst has pointed out it was the number 1 defence v the number 5 defence so not sure why they were expecting a shoot out.

Another point that's been missed is the Packers, outside of last week when Love left the game have only lost to the lions, Vikings and eagles (twice each). Further, this was their biggest defeat of the season with the only other double digit loss against the lions and we should have won by 20 with the Saquon knee and missed PAT.

This was an elite victory anyway you look at it and the offence will have a better time of it against the other NFC teams.

 

[nick87]

Best scenario for me is
Eagles, Rams and Commies

Would set up Eagles vs Rams and #1 vs Commies
Would probably eliminate our chances at a home NFCCG, but id really like our chances against the Rams.

Letsgooooooooooo
Rams coming to Philly. It's the play offs and all caveats about any given sunday, and the rams being a good team are all in play... shit could happen and we could lose, maybe Stafford plays out of his mind, our defence stacks injuries, Hurts goes out... a million things can happen and the Rams could win

All things being relatively normal, i really like our chances with the Rams

 

[Haffa]

Not one analyst has pointed out it was the number 1 defence v the number 5 defence so not sure why they were expecting a shoot out.

Dan Orlovsky was the only balanced reporter on it.

 

[Haffa]

Letsgooooooooooo

 

[Valheru]

Letsgooooooooooo
Rams coming to Philly. It's the play offs and all caveats about any given sunday, and the rams being a good team are all in play... shit could happen and we could lose, maybe Stafford plays out of his mind, our defence stacks injuries, Hurts goes out... a million things can happen and the Rams could win

All things being relatively normal, i really like our chances with the Rams

Yeah look on the surface it seems the better match up but they did beat down the Vikings who it seemed completely hit the wall.

Our defence will have a harder time of things no doubt but the rams are far from GB defensively. We should be able to win 35-32 if necessary. I don't think this D is conceding more than 20 though.

 

[Haffa]

Burks concerns me a little. They’ll target him and any Maddox any time he comes into the game.

 

[nick87]

Burks concerns me a little. They’ll target him and any Maddox any time he comes into the game.

Burks is going to have a giant target on his back, but i note Fangio has already been talking about Trott Jr getting snaps, which i think is the right move. He'll also be targetted but i think he can hold up a little more

We're going to be worse off defensively without Nakobe, but that's football. We're still going in with 20-21 of 22 starters (Dean and BG being the two outs pending on whether you view BG as a starter, he wasnt starting but he did play starter snaps) and if our D falls apart because of one injury, then it wasnt as good as we thought it was. I expect Burks to start and play, i expect him to get picked on a little and i expect by Qtr 4, Trott will be playing most snaps in his place.

I am very confident we'll hold the Rams to under 23 and im very confident we're going to be able to score 26+
That confidence could come back to bite me, it's play offs football but we should win this game.

That all being said, heres my bold prediction
Trott Jr is going to sack Stafford and when he hits the axe man celly afterwards it's going to send the Linc into an absolute fever pitched frenzy.

 

[Valheru]

How are you guys seeing the other 3 games?

HOU or WAS any chance? I give Houston next to 0 chance, KC haven't been at their best this year but they ain't losing in the playoffs to that mob. I give Washington a punchers chance because JD is on a roll and that defence is compromised. I think Detroit could win 45-38 if they need to though.

BAL/BUF the obvious match of the weekend. I think it will be far more competitive than the 35-10 Ravens blow out earlier in the season. Bills were my pick to get to the SB against us before the playoffs so I'm stocking with them.

 

[Haffa]

Houston will keep it close but won't ever really feel like they're a chance. Daniels is special and is going to be a thorn in our side for a long time, I give the commies every chance to pull off the upset.

The BAL/BUF game is going to be a fun watch. I have no idea who will win that.

 

[nick87]

I think its pretty straight forward

Ravens, Lions, Chiefs... and Eagles... the 4 best teams left standing. But thats pretty chalk and some weird shit is probably bound to happen.
I think the Ravens are going to handle the Bills. I am scary confident about our game against the rams. Again, like if Lamar/Hurts go out with an injury or there is some weird shit where they have 3-4 really weird turn overs, of course they can lose but i think these two teams are the best,

So that just leaves the Texans or Commies and no way i can talk myself into either of those. Gun to my head, Commies might get the right side of Dan Campbell's 4th down variance, and maybe a weird turn over... but i dont really see it.

Ideally, the Commies do pull something special off, and we get Commies @ Eagles and Texans @ Ravens/Bills in which case we're going to win the SB. But i think it's Ravens @ KC and Eagles @ Lions

FWIW, i think if we think we'll beat the Lions too if we can win this week

 

[Valheru]

Well that changes things...

Playing to host the NFCC game now.

Realistically, the way things have fallen, I don't see us getting a better chance to lift a 2nd Lombardi in the near future than this one. Absolutely anything could happen in the AFC between KC/BUF/BAL.

Don't f**k this up.

 

[nick87]

Holy f**k....

We HAVE to win tomorrow, this has opened up so nicely for us... beat the Rams and get to host an admittedly risky and live Commanders team but as far as NFCCGs go, and the nature of one and done... Eagles vs Commies is a great match up for us.

Gotta get the job done tomorrow. Have to. Can not let this chance slip

 

[nick87]

Jesus... that was f**ked, but we survived. On to the NFCCG in philly against the commanders

Saquon Barkley is unreal

 

[Haffa]

I just aged about 20 years.

 

[Valheru]

Thank f**k for Saquon, Jalen Carter and Zach Baun

Will provide a run down later but that last period after the Saquon TD shouldn't have been like that. Jake Elliot needs to fix the PAT stuff although he did kick two clutch FGs in terrible conditions. Our last drive after they made it 28-22 was over thought. Make them use their timeouts whilst Barkley hammers the rock, if they stop them so be it but hurts holding the ball and getting sacked gave them a chance.

Anyways, hosting the championship game against the commies now. I do think we will be able to move the ball far more effectively against them than our two opponents so far but they also have the ability to make it a shoot out. This won't be easy

 

[Haffa]

Some win by the Birds. It started out good but once the snow came i really thought it affected the team. Hurts played good enough to win....at this point thats all i need. Hurts took sacks but I can live with that over forcing throws into bad spots...live to fight another down. I think snow affected things for both teams but it affected the Birds more than the rams in the beginning and then it shifted. So far the difference in these playoff games have been turnovers.

Hurts was 15-20 for 128 yards and 40+ rushing TD to open the game. I dont think Hurts will ever be the passer people want him to be but if your winning games and not make costly mistakes. I dont care how you play.

Saquon the savior...the football gods son strikes again

Jalen Carter
5 tackles
2 sacks
1 forced fumble
2 TFLs
3 QB hits

 

[nick87]

Jalen Carter is one of the best 3-4 defensive players in football
Shows up every week making massive plays

Good immediate news coming out of the locker room, Mitchell seems to think he should be fine to play next week
Which is huge, we're going to need him with that Commanders passing attack, cant be relying on Rodgers to make plays

I thought Slay was awesome today too btw. As well as Baun and Nolan Smith. I cant say i noticed too much about what Trotter Jr and Oren Burks were doing, Burks actually made a few key stops so one game without Dean and these guys didnt kill us, which is all you can hope for

Offensively, i thought this was a bad Jalen Hurts game but i appreciate now that a bad Hurts game just means he turns down too many open throws in the guise of ball security and safety. He's not letting games be lost on turn overs. Can he do that all the way to a SB win? I dont think so, i think if we're going to win this thing, one of these next two games is going to have to be on Hurts throwing arm. We'll see though

I tend to agree that the snow actually probably didnt help us as much as it did the Rams. They were able to get into quick game passing and our DL didnt have time to get to Stafford, and the DBs were at a disadvantage. Which helped spur their almost comeback.

All that being said, it's the play offs, i dont really care how ugly it looks. If we win, it's all good. Get on to the next round. And try and win again.

Saquon... cant say enough about him and the OL. Incredible shit
Saquon chasing Dickerson for most rushing yards in a season was a huge deal. Like everyone was talking about it and tracking it.

However he's currently 140 odd yards behind Terrell Davis's record for most rushing yards in a season including post season and no one even cares
Shouldnt that record be just as important, if not more so than Dickerson's?
IDK some of this record stuff is weird. If we make it to the SB, its very likely that no one in football history will have run for more yards in an entire season than Saquon. That's special stuff

 

[Valheru]

I think offensively, you guys hit the nail on the head, we are trying to win this thing by winning the turn over battle and at times that's going to lead to conservative plays and sacks. I'm ok with that because the stats show if we win the turn over battle we are almost unbeatable. The time may come against Mahomes/Allen/Daniels when we need his arm to win the game but let's cross that bridge when we come to it. I think definitely against the commies we are going to find more success in the passing game.

The defence was very good again with one glaring issue. It is very difficult to criticise Fangio but he has a habit of moving to soft coverage when the other team is driving to tie or win the game in the last two minutes and it just doesn't work. It cost us against the Falcons and the Commies and nearly cost us today and against the Browns and Jags. I'm not saying to be reckless but go with what's worked all game, at least if they blow it out with a big play we have time to answer.

Overall, given the injury to Mitchell and the injury to Hurts I'm very happy with this win. After the safety you could forgive them for getting beat from there but Carter and Saquon said no way and they found a way to win. Hurts will play next week whether he is 100 percent or not and Sirriani and Moore need to find a way to get the ball in to the play makers hands because this commies defence ain't the quality of the Packers or rams.