The NFL Thread (with added College Football)

[BIG MAN LEON]

No i think from what i heard i think Tennessee pipped them to the post despite the Browns winning.

[VillaZogmariner]

Bollox

[OCD]

No they're not. Losing last week proved too costly.

Oh well, my team made it to the playoffs.  \/

[UK Redsox]

AFC

WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, Jan. 5

5. Jacksonville Jaguars (11-5) at 4. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6), 8 p.m. ET (NBC)

Sunday, Jan. 6

6. Tennessee Titans (10-6) at 3. San Diego Chargers (11-5), 4:30 p.m. ET (CBS)

1. New England Patriots (16-0) and 2. Indianapolis Colts (13-2) have first-round byes.

DIVISIONAL ROUND

Jan. 12-13

San Diego, Pittsburgh or Jacksonville at Indianapolis

Pittsburgh, Jacksonville or Tennessee at New England

NFC

WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, Jan. 5

6. Washington Redskins (9-7) at 3. Seattle Seahawks (10-6), 4:30 p.m. ET (NBC)

Sunday, Jan. 6

5. New York Giants (10-6) at 4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7), 1 p.m. ET (Fox)

1. Dallas Cowboys (13-3) and 2. Green Bay Packers (13-3) have first-round byes.

DIVISIONAL ROUND

Jan. 12-13

Tampa Bay or New York or Washington at Dallas

Seattle, Tampa Bay or New York at Green Bay

AFC, NFC championships: Sunday, Jan. 20

Super Bowl XLII: Sunday, Feb. 3, 6 p.m., University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Ariz.)

ESPN article on the Cleveland Villans failing to make the playoffs

[Villa'Zawg]

Well? Are we in the Play offs or not?

Not

...and last night's game between Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans was the worst possible advert for NFL football.

The Titans beat the Colts by 6 points and they go through ahead of the Browns. It couldn't have been tighter. Both teams won 10 out of their 16 regular season games. The titans go through on their record against the teams that both they and Cleveland played against this season.

 Due to the fact that the Colts had already secured their place in the play-offs they had nothing to gain from winning last nights game. Even though they were playing one of their big rivals (one of only three teams they play twice every year), they put nothing into the game at all.

One interesting little cameo in the game was the fact that one of the Colts players, Reggie Wayne, needed x receptions/yards to be classed as the "best in the league" for the season. The Colts put out their first team for as long as was needed for the player to get his record, all of their play was targetted at getting the ball to him for the requisite receptions/yards. Once that was done it was the end of the game as far as they were concerned. They even refused a time-out towards the end of the game that would have given them one last chance to win.

When the Colts took Peyton Manning off, one of the best quarter backs in the League, they replaced him with a player that was completely and totally out of his depth. I've never seen a worse performance.

I've watched a lot of the Browns this season and they've been terrific, its just a shame that the season had to end on such a bum note. From what I saw of the Titans last night they are not a patch on the Browns team and did not deserve to be gifted a place in the play-offs.

[UK Redsox]

I know eff all about American Football. Indianapolis let the Browns down badly with their "effort".

In the NFL, once a team's qualified for the playoffs they tend to rest key players.

The Colts did the right thing in resting Manning and looking after their own best interests.

The one exception is where a record or records in involved. If the Pats hadn't have been going for 16-0, Brady going for the TD record and Moss for the TD reception record there's no way they'd have seen more than a half of action against the Giants.

With regard to the standard of the Colts' reserve QB. When a team has a high quality (and also a durable one) like Manning or Brady its difficult to justify having a top notch reserve. The salary cap money can be better spent elsewhere. Also, what QB is going to want to go to team where they have one of the league's top players who's also young and not injury prone.

[CT]

Felt really sorry for the Browns but they blew their chance last week. Sorry Ian - I blame myself for saying they were already in!!

The Cowboys have really limped home - I knew last night's game wouldn't be good but didn't expect them to be quite so bad. It seemed like Wade Phillips was daring Tony Romo to get injured! It got so bad I ended up watching the Chuck Liddell Wanderlei Silva fight instead.

[usav]

The time taken - Over three hours for the match!! Ridiculous, nothing can justfy that. A large part of the game is clock management, which includes timeouts and other stopages.  The TV companies love it.

The Sky anchor man - he seemed pretty clued up (the English one) - who was he?  Someone else will have to answer that.

Why so few games a season? I've heard different theories ranging from, maximum income, by charging ridiculous prices as there are so few games - through to the physical nature of the game doesn't allow for any more games than they have currently.

How many home games a season?  8 (regular season)

Why the need for any other than 5-6 players to be super fit? Everyone is 'fit' - but you have varying degrees of size, speed and mobility depending on the role they have in the team, like rugby.   You will have your big blokes up front (linemen) and then your wide recievers who will be a more average size.

Why the need for a HUGE roster, as I believe it's called? You have an offence, a defence and a special teams unit which each consist of 11 players - add to that reserves and backups, your soon in the 40+ range.

And finally, one from my wife, that I loved and so will you too - how many quarters do they play?  ](*,)

[OCD]

And finally, one from my wife, that I loved and so will you too - how many quarters do they play?  :smt003

Classic. Although are you sure it was the Mrs who asked that?  :smt002

[usav]

The stoppages were so annoying though, usav

I agree and it's almost worse when you are at a game.  It is what it is, though.

[freddie Rincon]

The british presenter is Nick Halling, think he's been covering American sport for decades, so he does know his stuff.

[VillaZogmariner]

So which teams have qualified for the Play offs then?

[usav]

So which teams have qualified for the Play offs then?

This page will tell you everything you need to know:

NFL Playoffs

[UK Redsox]

Why so few games a season? I've heard different theories ranging from, maximum income, by charging ridiculous prices as there are so few games - through to the physical nature of the game doesn't allow for any more games than they have currently.

There's been some talk of expanding the season by two games by getting rid of a couple of the pre-season matches.

The reasons I've heard for having so few games are many.

1) Tradition - the sport's historical heartland is the Upper Mid-West and the North East. Therefore a short autumn season fitted in best with the end of the baseball season and the onset of winter.

2) Economics - Basic supply & demand theory. Having so few games means that almost every one is important and has playoff implications. This keeps the interest high and just about guarantees every game is sold out no matter who's playing.

3) Player attrition - Have you seen some of the hits ?!?!

4) Its the USA. Do you really expect it to make sense ?

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Go Packers!