Be Excellent To Each Other

The Steeler's offense just seems so anemic most of the time.

Their defense is solid tho
And big ben can grind out a result against any team
And they are gonna get the home field advantage - titans have lost it in the last few games

Reasonably close at the moment. Superb TD run by the Titans, although it was nearly ruined by a 'DeShaun Jackson' moment.

/EDIT: Well in the end it wasn't close at all, the Titans stomped on them and on a number of terrible towels.

If I was to pick a contender at the moment I'd go for Carolina (cue them losing tonight to the Giants).

carolina have no passing game
But I spose it does set up the play action to catch teams out.

We'll probably end up with a manning v manning superbowl at this rate!

Great match last night, Carolina, really should have won but the Giants ground game was immense. Proper football weather as well.

The Broncos are throwing the season away quite spectacularly. I'm betting the Chargers beat them in the last game. *sob*

Though to be fair, they're on their 7th choice running back, but that's no excuse for the mockery that passes for their defense.

Yeah I can see the chargers clinching the division, but would either the broncos or the chargers get very far in the playoffs, I really dont think so

The Broncos are the best team ever, you'll see! All they need are a couple of great DTs, a better Mike, maybe a safety or two.... and a RB made of titanium.

Anyway, lets look at the most important thing this weekend. Will the Lions become the first team in NFL history to go 0-16???

Perfect season is going to happen

They just have to believe they can do it. Go Lions! (Spread is currently 11 against the Lions, methinks Vegas is being seasonably charitable to the Lions)

GB 14, Cowardly Lions 7 at the half! The perfect season is on!

NOOOOOOOOOO...14 all in the 3rd. What are you doing Detroit?

The Lions....


LOSE... the first perfect 0-16 season in NFL history!!!!!!!!

haha yay!

Im sure nat and mike on five will be pleased about that later

So we have:

Panthers
Giants
Vikings
Cardinals
Eagles
Falcons

in the NFC, and:

Steelers
Titans
Dolphins
Chargers (booo hisss)
Ravens
Colts

in the AFC.

There's what self belief and a commitment to excellence gets you. GO LIONS!

The Lions are so bad they even lost bye week. I'm calling it 0-17.

1 - I thought the Indy game was on telly now.

2 - WHAT A FRIKKIN' TOUCHDOWN!!!!!

Shock loss for Indy there, against a busted up San Diego team. They really are the Anti-Manning.

Loved the Arizona win. I was always a fan of Kurt Warner and Edge back in the day, so it's nice to see them doing well.

Can't really see either of those teams winning their next game, but I'll be cheering on the Cards.

Woo! and also hoo!

What mental playoffs... I'm cheering on the Crads, and their Second Greatest Show on Turf.

I do think that it's going to be an AFC year, whichever makes it. Both Baltimore and Pittsburgh have enough defence to shutdown the NFC teams' passing game, and contain the run.

I think the phillies have enough to do over the cards (who I'd like to win it)
But the steelers ravens game will probably be a low scoring affair like thet ravens last game with one team winning by 3.

Holy crap!

Cardinals 24, Eagles 6 at the half.

Yo, Eagles. Might wanna try... covering Larry Fitzgerald?

24-13 and Arizona suddenly can't move the football, whilst their defence simultaneously implodes.

HANG ON IN THERE, KURT!

Yo Cardinals - might want to consider having an O-Line or a D-Line. Either one turns up in the second half and you win the game. Apparently though both are sat in the locker room whilst some small girls play.

Cracking game!

Glad the cardinals made it to the superbowl

Would have been good for the ravens to get there, but should be a good match up now

Hopefully warner should be able to break down the steelers defense.

Cant wait for what should be a cracking game

Superbowl tomorrow night!
Cannot wait
Im really hoping the cards can pass their way through the steelers D.

And Springsteen at halftime, gonna be awesome

Oh jeez.

Awesome game thus far... but I have to go to bed.



STUPID STUPID WORK!

Why didn't I book the day off tomorrow.?

Poor old Cardinals, I really thought they had it with less than three minutes to go. Still they did much, much better than I thought they would as I didn't think they had a chance at the beginning of the game and bugger all of a chance at half time.

I'm a bit pissed, but now I know what seahawks fans mean when they sayt that the refs are in steelers pockets. onlt call they gave to cardinals was the safety, which they couldn't not give.

Note to refs: they got rid of incidental facemask. that means you don't throw flags for it. it doesn't mean you throw 15 yard flags for it. Also: since when was roughing the holder illegal???

good game. 'Zona was robbed.

Know what you mean buddy

Every 5 s was a personal foul (mainly cards) but still, ridiculous penalty.


Was a cracking game, really disappointed we lost it right at the death, hopefully kurt stays around another season, cos as soon as fitz got involved things happened, then 2nd half couldnt have come sooner!
I know they were trying to play the ball away from fitz for obvious reasons to establish passing in other areas and the run, but kurt should have tursted fitz alot earlier, and the superbowl would have gone to the cards....

that was kind of exciting wasn't it
(only saw the excellent 8 mins of highlights on nfl.com, which is about as much attention i have for football (nasn has changed to espn america incidentally as of yesterday)..

they should have a site : highlights for those who do not want to know the score, with links to the movies of all psorts., instread of first showing you the score

Great game.

The penalties were incredibly painful for Arizona. Ouch.

I thought Ben Roflburger was robbed on MVP though. He won the game on that last drive, with scrambling that would have made a top form Randall Cunningham jealous. It was like watching Kordell Stewart in there... but not shit!

Not sure you can say the refs decided the game, Pundy. As far as I can see, the most egregious calls on Arizona didn't actually give Pittsburgh any more points. And the incredibly cheap personal foul call on Ike Taylor for some harmless handbags out of bounds pretty much balances the incredibly cheap roughing the passer penalty from earlier in the game.

It was a generally scrappy game, but a great last ten minutes or so. Pittsburgh's defence stopped attacking in the fourth quarter and went to some sort of conservative two-deep safety look that suddenly gave Larry Fitzgerald the space they'd denied him all game. This news just in: if you give Kurt Warner time, he'll find an open receiver.

Also: didn't Troy Polomalu have a terrible game? Total non-factor in the passing game, kept missing tackles against the run.

Polomalu seems to spend more time jumping on his own players than the opposition's.

I'm watching this now.

Crikey. It hasn't even started and it is everything i love america for.

Cheerleaders?

Well, them and the "heroes of flight 1543", the general "representing the servicemen".

All the pomp involved.

Bless.

Journey before the game on sky coverage was pretty ace

You weren't watching Mike Carlson on the BBC? For shame.

Fuck me, end of the 2nd, number 92 can run some, can't he?

Wasn't *shudder* Jake Humphries the anchor for the subberbowl?

*Ahem*

No excessive celebration call on Santonio Holmes on the winning touchdown, should have been 15 yards on the ensuing kick-off. No review on Warner's 'fumble' that was an incomplete pass. Combined with the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when pittsburgh players removed their helmets on the field, It should have been Arizona's ball on the Pittsburgh 34 with 5 seconds left.

Also, the illegal clipping and illegal block in the back by pittsburgh on James Harrison's run back of his interception, which would have both offset Arizona's penalty, and nullified the touchdown.

They booth did review the fumble, the officials just didn't announce it. Mike Pereira confirmed it after the game.

The dodgy blocks on the interception runback are the sort of things that get missed as much as they get called, especially on a long return like that where officials have a hard time keeping up with the ball. If we're nit-picking, you could just as easily say that the Roethlisberger run that was stopped on the three-inch line should have been a touchdown because there wasn't indisputable evidence to overturn the call on the field. Both sides caught breaks to (roughly) the same degree.

Except there was indisputable evidence. They showed it on the telly. A still with Roethlisburger's knee down, and the ball not on the goal line.

Didn't look terribly indisputable from where I was sitting. I don't think I could have argued if it had been called either way.

its one of those things, you have to trust the guys in the booth. If it was called indisputable, then it was. The league has access to the real-time footage of what the ref actually looks at under the hood. Not just the raw footage, but actually what he looks at, and theres all sorts of fancy stuff they can do. Synced composites, and all kinds of crazy stuff.

On the other hand, I didn't think that Harrison got in on his TD, so sometimes shit happens.

Woo hoo! I'm off to see the London game this autumn with some chums. It was a lot more interesting a game before Tampa Bay fired Gruden and most of their good veterans, but even so - live NFL helmetball!

You lucky bastard.