(Non-Patriots) Divisional Round Discussion and Game Thread
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Just heard on TSH that there is a possibility of KC/Pit being moved to Sunday night due to the ice storm coming through KC. NFL will make an official announcement this afternoon.
confirmed
Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter now14 seconds ago
Due to a forecasted storm for Kansas City, Steelers-Chiefs Divisional Playoff game has been moved to 8:20 p.m. ET.
for those who factor in weather to the line/outcome, I just heard (WFAN-Francesa) the NFL moved the Pitt @ KCt game from 1pm to primetime. (presumably 830 SNF time)
Ratings don't matter my ass!
Ratings don't matter my ass!
Turns out, Houston is starting Brock Osweiler, who had a pretty stellar season, if stellar means historically bad. So it's not like Connor Cook is eons away from the Brock. Yeah, he looked OK(at best) against Oakland's horrible defense, at home.
No concern.
That Pitt/KC line is like stealing money. Same line at the new night slot? That time change just made it harder for Pittsburgh's offense to audible.
I think I got in like 5 minutes before the change (or before I heard about it at least). Could use some good luck after last week, even if I hadn't learned my lesson on teasers.
Even in California, where I believe there are fewer factors entering into predicting weather than most parts of the country, storms can move +/- a half day or more. How do they know they're not shooting themselves in the foot by delaying the KC game?
Football has always been played in all sorts of weather, The Ice Bowl, The Freezer Game in Cincy, The Snow Game.
The cynic in me says this is to boost the ratings by moving it to primetime..
I'm in Florida and walked by a TV thing playing the season Seattle atlanta game and I thought it was Saturdays game for some reason. Just a complete failure to understand what was going on in my life.
They were probably looking for any excuse to move it to Sunday night, the most watched TV night of the week.
You gotta make it a little easier for me, here... I tried squeezing out a couple puns, but had to abort.
Delayed until Sunday night.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/01/13/nfl-makes-steelers-chiefs-a-night-game-due-to-ice-storm-warning/
Edit: It seems some in this thread are aware of this, but I wasn't, and I hadn't seen it posted yet.
I guess, but couldn't they have just put it there to start with if that's what they had wanted?
It improves the viewing potential for quite a few people, since Monday is a holiday.
Speculation on WEEI is that Roger Goodell controls the weather.
I kid, I kid....I think.
Don't know the possible logistic hurdles, but wish they could have moved Dal/GB to 3:00 pm EST start, and bumped KC/PITT to 6:30 pm EST. Can't these selfish bastards ever think of my drinking convenience?
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Then why not schedule it for night at the very beginning?
Moving an NFL game for weather sounds amateurish. It's supposed to be played in all kinds of weather. And the other team is used to bad weather. It's not like it's the Chargers or Jags
Yep. Guessing the folks who keep saying it's about ratings have never been in an ice storm. You can drive in snow. Freezing rain? Nope.
Agreed. When New Hampshire had that Ice storm a number of years ago it was crippled. Millions lost power and many lost power for over a week.
There's no way that game should have been played tomorrow at 1 if it's as bad as they're expecting. The NFL actually made the right decision for once.
Exactly. How quickly people forget the chaos that was created by the big ice storm we had in DFW the year the Super Bowl was played here. The entire area was essentially a solid block of ice for a week. Had conditions not improved over the weekend, the day of the game would have been a disaster.
Did the chance to grab some more ratings make the decision easier? Yeah, I'm sure they considered that a nice unintended benefit but these opinions are being colored by hatred for all things NFL leadership.
My above comment was strictly a tongue in cheek "complaint" about having to stay up later than I thought I would tomorrow night. Ice storms are horrendous, and completely paralyzing if bad enough. They absolutely did the right thing by moving the game. I'm as down on the league office as anyone, but they got this one right.
I'm assuming that the reason they don't do a Sunday Night Football game to begin with is that it would be perceived that the winning team would be disadvantaged in the next round. For example, imagine that the #1 seed wins Saturday, and they are home for seven full days practicing, watching tape, game planning and getting therapeutic massages. Meanwhile the road team wins Sunday night, flies out of town on a questionably de-iced plane at 3AM and then has only three full days at home before flying out of town Saturday. Not fair!
I always thought it was stupid that the teams within the conference dont play on the same days.
That's so outrageous it might actually work. It is pretty stupid they don't do it. The winner of Seattle/Atlanta gets a full day of extra rest.
Am I the only one who thinks Atlanta is a paper tiger and Seattle will win fairly easily? Yes, no Earl Thomas, but Wilson is playing much better (health) than in their first match-up. Atlanta has exactly 1 win against a team that made the playoffs, against 3 or 4 losses. While a dome, Atlanta's home field advantage is hardly Denver or KC or Seattle. Atlanta's defense doesn't seem like it can stop anyone. I could easily see Atlanta being unable to run and then Bennett teeing off on Ryan all day. I'll hang up and listen.
I think you are underselling the loss of Erl Thomas.
I heard it on the Ringer NFL podcast yesterday and losing Earl Thomas hurts. In the 6 games played since Thomas went out Seattle has given up the same amount of deep plays as they did in the 12 games he played and opposing QB rating went from something like 40 to 100+.
Yeah I thought Atlanta beat Oakland and GB and lost to Seattle and KC (all games except the Oakland one were close).
Yup, my bad, beat Raiders and GB, lost to Seattle and KC
But now in looking through their schedule, it was pretty damn soft (yeah yeah, can only beat who you play) so let me rephrase- Atlanta seems unproven to me.
No doubt Earl Thomas is huge loss, but it's not like rest of Seattle D is garbage.
I dunno, maybe I'm just letting recent memory of the past few seasons color my thinking, but I'm just not that convinced Atlanta is real. They won a pretty weak division and managed to lose games to the Bucs, Chargers, and Eagles. Hardly world-beaters, and I think Seattle is at least a tested team, sometimes that counts for something.
Edit: to add, one could make the same arguments about Seattle's season -- bad losses in there -- so to me it is a wash.
This sounds like you haven't seen much of these teams this season and are putting far too much weight on previous seasons. Atlanta's offense is legit. Ryan just had the best season of his career, the offensive line is much improved from past seasons, and he has a ton of weapons at the skill positions. They scored 30+ points eleven times this season. For comparison's sake, New England did so eight times. Of the five games where Atlanta scored less than 30, three of them came in the first six weeks of the season. They can score on anyone. Everyone talks about Julio Jones, and rightfully so, but they have multiple weapons both in the passing game and the running game. Devonta Freeman may be the best running back that nobody really talks about.
As has been pointed out, Seattle's defense hasn't been the same since Thomas went down. Perhaps more importantly, their offense hasn't really been close to the level they've been at the past few years. They've consistently been a top ten offense in DVOA since 2012, even finishing first last season. This year they were middle of the pack (17th). Some of that was due to injuries but Wilson still doesn't seem fully healthy to me. They're certainly capable of putting up big numbers, especially against a poor Atlanta defense, but they've very much been a Jekyll and Hyde unit. And their best games have almost all come at home. The only road games where they've scored over 20 points came @ Jets, @ New England, and @ San Fran. Four times they've been held to 10 points or less (which is crazy when you think about how good this offense has been the past few years) and they all happened on the road. Atlanta doesn't have a great home field advantage (5-3 at home this season) but that's mitigated by the fact Seattle has really not played well on the road (7-1 at home, 3-4-1 on the road).
Seattle could definitely win this game but I would be pretty surprised if they win fairly easily. I guess Ryan could have a meltdown or something but he's been great this season. I think it's probably a close game with Atlanta pulling away late. If the game ends with a 10+ margin of victory, I think it's far more likely Atlanta is the team on the winning side.
In the game in Seattle, Atlanta put up 21 points in the 3rd quarter. And that was with Earl Thomas. I think this is a high scoring game, maybe last possession wins.
Definitely true, which is why I ask. Only game of either that I watched closely was Seattle against the Pats. Perhaps I'm also just inherently doubtful of some teams with high powered offenses in the playoffs, due to watching many Manning-led Colts teams flame out early. Of course, this game is in a dome.
In addition to playoff teams they also went into DEN and won. Paper tigers don't do that.
Atlanta played the 16th hardest schedule by DVOA. (Seattle's was the 27th hardest.)
Interesting strategy tidbit on ESPN this morning: I think it was Charles Woodson noting that Atlanta watching film noticed how much of the time Russell Wilson holds the ball in one hand. Said Falcons D had been told to go for the strip at every opportunity
I don't get it. When does a quarterback that runs around as much as Wilson does hold the ball in two hands? When does anyone with the ball hold it in two hands unless they're going for maximum ball security at the end of a run, or a it's a QB sneak, or a guy intercepting a pass that is not used to carrying the ball, things like that? Maybe Charles meant Wilson holds the ball too far from his body a lot?
Wait, so they moved the Pitt - KC game to happen AFTER the storm comes through? Won't the city / roads be a disaster after? Not sure how that improves the logistics around this game.
They have a second preshow ready in another room, like the non-contenders in the GOP debates