NFL Divisional Round: Uncharted Territory

[Tajin]

Dallas @ Minnesota

This is more my brother pick than mine, but MIN was more solid overall than the boys, also I cant imagine NO beating ARI after a 33-30 with washington.

[Moss]

Meh... I'm kinda leaning toward a blowout in that game. Chargers jumping out to a lead early and the Sanchize making some turnovers. I'm gonna say 35-13.

[Cleverness]

Did you forget that the Jets made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth after beating 2 teams resting their starters? Congrats to them for beating the Bungals but c'mon. The last time the Jets played a team not resting their starters my mighty Falcons held them to 82 yards rushing. The Jets are just too one-dimensional. If any game was a lock this week, this would be the game imo.

I didn't forget, I was cursing out loud as I saw the Giants chances slip away(Giants fan) while I saw the Jets got 2 free wins pretty much since Colts rested people and Bengals had a combination of that + injuries.

I honestly expected them to get shut down, but since the Bengals offense consisted of throwing to random people not named Ochocinco, who I think only had 1 catch that whole game(or 2), and occasionally doing the smart thing with it and giving it to Benson, who could people walk up to the Jets on the field by himself and still get a first down apparently, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not expecting them to get completely mauled like the Eagles or the Patriots last week, it'll be an interesting game to see at the least.

[Celeras]

Did I say ocho was going to beat Revis?

I might've but I wasn't serious. Vjax is a foot taller than Revis, faster than Ocho and has a good douchey quarterback who doesn't give a fuck.

If Tedd Ginn can burn Revis, Jackson can.

Tedd Ginn is probably the fastest guy in the NFL(CJ maybe?), and got open deep on a bit playaction.

That isn't exactly Jacksons game, so pretty stupid comparison. I'd compare him more to Andre Johnson. How'd he fare?

[Sol-Blackguy]

Tedd Ginn is probably the fastest guy in the NFL(CJ maybe?), and got open deep on a bit playaction.

Pure speed wise, I'm thinking Ginn > Sproles > Johnson. Ginn has pure speed, Sproles has that insane second gear and Johnson is fast, but faster at changing directions and cutting.

[Moss]

Trung Canidate is probably the fastest, or maybe Aveion Cason

[Headspace]

you forgot that Vjax is a foot taller than Revis.

[Cleverness]

You forgot that Revis has shut down almost everyone this season. Seriously, even if the Jets get blown out, it'll be cause Gates goes for like 150+ yards with 3 TD's by himself, with VJax still not producing.

[Carrilei]

Pure speed wise, I'm thinking Ginn > Sproles > Johnson. Ginn has pure speed, Sproles has that insane second gear and Johnson is fast, but faster at changing directions and cutting.

I might put my money on Percy Harvin for straight-line speed.

http://vikings.fandome.com/video/115...off-Return-TD/

[Headspace]

y'all niggas too easy

losing dpoy will do that to you i suppose

[Sol-Blackguy]

I might put my money on Percy Harvin for straight-line speed.

http://vikings.fandome.com/video/115...off-Return-TD/

But Bo Jackson has to be the fastest of all time. His 100m dash record in tryouts still stands. I think Troy Polamalu might have come the closest.

[Tymon]

Arizona @ New Orleans - Man, I hate this pick. Why can't we swap the matchups? If Kurt Warner plays like last week they're winning the Super Bowl but he can't play like that without an awfully bad defensive game from New Orleans, and they're healthier than they have been in quite a while, so.. Sorry, Kurt. Come back next year, for all of us.

Baltimore @ Indianapolis - I can't really pick the colts considering their history in divisional bye games and resting starters. They lose, almost every time. They're going to lose to the Chargers even if they win this, and with the way the Ravens played last week, I don't think they're going to make it that far.

Dallas @ Minnesota: PICK 'EM - This is probably, the best game of the playoffs, it might be the best matchup of the entire playoffs. I can't predict this one and I won't try. I think it goes OT. If this game is a blowout I'm going to be extremely upset.

NYJ @ San Diego Jest got a break last week, Carson Palmer laid an egg and they still probably should have won the game regardless. Can they stop the majority favorite to win it all? Quite the cinderella story if they do, I'll probably pick them all the way if it happens. It won't, though.

I'm going to be getting some ribs from Corky's BBQ for the first time since the NBA Finals last year. Man, I can't wait. It's heating up now.

[Lordender]

Lowest Burn Percentage Among CBs*

Player/Team Percentage
Darrelle Revis, Jets 37.0
Jabari Greer, Saints 37.9
Dwight Lowery, Jets 40.7
Drayton Florence, Bills 45.3
Leon Hall, Bengals 45.3
Lito Sheppard, Jets 45.6

That kinda proves just how valuable Greer is to the Saints defense.

[Headspace]

leon the professional.

[Celeras]

Lowest Burn Percentage Among CBs*

Player/Team Percentage
Darrelle Revis, Jets 37.0
Jabari Greer, Saints 37.9
Dwight Lowery, Jets 40.7
Drayton Florence, Bills 45.3
Leon Hall, Bengals 45.3
Lito Sheppard, Jets 45.6

That kinda proves just how valuable Greer is to the Saints defense.

And that the Jets have the tools to handle Gates.

It'll be Sproles who wins it for them imo, if they're smart they'll dial up the screen game and burn the blitz.

[Tajin]

That is a pro avatar you got there.

[Moss]

Lowest Burn Percentage Among CBs*

Player/Team Percentage
Darrelle Revis, Jets 37.0
Jabari Greer, Saints 37.9
Dwight Lowery, Jets 40.7
Drayton Florence, Bills 45.3
Leon Hall, Bengals 45.3
Lito Sheppard, Jets 45.6

That kinda proves just how valuable Greer is to the Saints defense.

wtf where is Brent Grimes?

[Clyne]

Here's the stat you need to know, because it may be the most important defensive stat you'll read all week regarding this game.

Arizona is 31st in the league in giveaways. The only team that has given the ball away more...Detroit Lions.

In an ironically mirrored stat, New Orleans is 2nd in takeaways. They have the 3rd best turnover ratio in the league.

You do realize that the Packers were better than the Saints in both those categories (#1) and just lost?

I'm not saying those statistics aren't important, because turnovers decide most games. But those numbers for the Cardinals are grossly inflated by the Carolina & SF (Away) games; when they're bad, they're really bad. Arizona is 29-3 when they are positive or even in turnover differential, and 2-19 when they are negative under Whisenhunt; the only game they've ever lost when winning the turnover battle was VY's last second win @ TN.

I'm still going to grimace when someone references yardage and yardage only as to the rank of a particular unit

Totally right...was just trying to make a quick point that the Saints defense is not great. The Jets have a great defense; New Orleans has an opportunistic defense. Arizona is much the same. If we really wanted to dig into it, we'd also consider using modal statistics to analyze the matchup (i.e. Warner & Brees both had 7 games where they threw 0 INTs). But that's not worth my time.

A better gauge on their pass defense would be the 68.6 passer rating against, which obviously is fantastic.

As Moss aluded to, those number get skewed. From the same "article" he quoted, the numbers when you remove the lower end quarterbacks (leaving the top 20 passers leaguewide, all with an 80+ rating) are:

Team Cp Att. Pct. Yards Y/Att. TD INT Rating

Saints 158 270 58.5 2,052 7.6 11 10 80.7

Cardinals 200 317 63.1 2,374 7.5 15 10 88.5


It would be interesting to take out the week 17 numbers for both teams as well, since both those games were essentially meaningless (Moore's rating was 96.6, Rodgers' was 117.1). But ultimately, I'm just trying to show their defenses aren't all that different.

Again, I'm not arguing that Arizona has a better defense in any way, shape, or form...I've watched them be ridiculously inconsistent all year. I'm just not buying the Saints defense being all that good either. Getting Greer back healthy, though, could be a very big factor.

[Tekki]

Its a given who I am rooting for, and its cute hearing "look how the ravens played last game." I think its more of "look how the patriots played last week" then what the ravens did. Sucks im forced to work sat... fucking hate missing playoff games with indy in.

My confidence is going with the Indy game but my excitement is in the vikings game. Really can't wait to see the outcome and I really want to see a Farve/Manning Super Bowl this year...

[Sol-Blackguy]

If it's a Farve/Manning SB, say good bye to the 4:3 and 4:4 defense. They make QB's like Manning, Brees, and Rivers look too clutch.