NFL 2015 Season

[Sea Ray]

I feel like this thread title needs changing

That is easily remedied

[Assembly Hall]

Super Bowl picks right here, right now....Arizona vs. Cincinnati

[Sea Ray]

My first change is to modify the half the distance mark off on penalties. I don't know why it vexes me so but I'm always irritated when a 15 yard penalty from the 15 is less punitive than a 5 yard penalty from the 10.

I'd completely eliminate it from the defense and say offenses get the full weight of the penalty up to a certain yardline.(Say the 2 or the 3)
So if you are called for holding on the 8 yard line, the penalty is walked off to the 2 instead of the 4.

I'm with Bucksfan on illegal formation, but with Sea Ray on taunting/excessive celebrations.

I like the extra point rule.
And though it hasn't been mentioned, I like the overtime rule.
Anything that creates strategic fuzziness in what is too often a copycat league I'm for.

I like the half the distance rule but somewhat related to that, I don't think endzone penalties such as def PI should place the ball on the one. I think they should have to work a little harder than that for a TD...at least the 3; 5 yd line would be better

I think the OT is much improved and I prefer it over the college rule but I still don't like how a team can lose and never get a shot at getting the ball. I think even if a team gets a TD, the opposing team should get a chance. Also I'd like to keep playing until there's a winner. No ties

Of course these rule changes would do nothing to lessen the amount of yellow on the field which is what
I'm attempting to accomplish by bringing this up

[Sea Ray]

Super Bowl picks right here, right now....Arizona vs. Cincinnati

You think they're better than GB? I doubt it. I'm not even sure that AZ is better than Seattle

[Kingspoint]

Matthews had a high ankle sprain at the beginning of the season and was healthy by the 4th week of the season. He had no excuses for his poor play at that point. Holmes was replaced by Schrader before the mid-point of the season. If you're referring to Schrader as one of the "two undrafted players", I'm not sure why, unless you're trying to infer that he was inexperienced. He was 26 years old. He'd been around for awhile. After the Starting Guards, Schrader was the team's best lineman last season. Losing Konz was a positive thing, not a negative thing, as Konz was a crappy Center at this point in his career. Hawley looked like he was going to be decent enough, pass-blocking well before he went down, but struggling badly as a run-blocker. Konz' replacement, James Stone struggled mostly, but played well in a third of his 10 games that he started. Both Atlanta Guards played well all season. Baker's loss was a positive, not a negative, as anyone could have replaced him and not done worse. He was terrible in 2013 before he went down to injury a quarter of the way into that season. Hoping his 2014 was going to be as good as his 2012 and not reflective of the beginning of his 2013 was a folly of a hope. He was destined to be a terrible player again in 2014. The only downfall was what I had mentioned. It forced Matthews into playing LT his first season when they were hoping to ease him in at RT his first season before moving him over. And, again, Matthews ankle sprain was fully healed (in football terms) by the 4th week of the season. As I mentioned, he played well the last third of the season in pass-blocking.

I watched how Tice handled Matthews on Hard-Knocks. I thought it was typical Tice...arrogant, over-confident, with no ability to recognize positives and negatives of his players. Matthews may have needed to be humbled a bit, but Tice is so old-school NFL that he reeks of stupidity. I keep a pretty close eye on the Falcons (and most teams, but moreso the Falcons for many, many reasons). You merely disagree with me that Tice contributed positively to the overall development of the Offensive Line. Very little could be done with the talent that was put together on the O-line, I agree with. I was as disappointed at how little the Falcons addressed their needs of improving the O-line (relying on Baker was a huge mistake, while retaining Konz was another...two wasted rotational spots that could have been filled by others more reliable during last year's Free Agency), as I was at the Falcons not addressing the TE position properly. I won't even go into the Secondary and the Coaches. They waited a year too long to replace Mike Smith.

All that is in the past, as they've clearly changed their attitude at the very top. They've put together a nice Management package of GM Thomas Dimitroff, Assistant GM Scott Pioli (though Pioli has failed miserably since he left New England, I believe he's still got the potential to change what problems he had personally after he left Belicek's guidance), and HC Dan Quinn. Not sure about what Kyle Shanahan will bring, as Shanahan hasn't really had a chance to put his stamp on any Offense yet as an OC (Snyder always stepping in while heavy changes were made each year in Washington). And, now they've added Richard Smith as Defensive Coordinator, giving Smith his first chance after years of NFL experience, to see what he can do with more responsibility.

Add to that....Raheem Morris assistant head coach/defensive passing game coordinator, Bobby Turner as running backs coach, and Mike LaFleur as offensive assistant. The club has also retained Special Teams Coordinator Keith Armstrong, Defensive Line coach Bryan Cox, Tight Ends Coach Wade Harman, Wide Receivers Coach Terry Robiskie, and Assistant Special Teams Coach Eric Sutulovich.

Atlanta has, to me, easily been the best at putting together a solid foundation for it's team for the future. With Ryan and Julio as it's main weapons, and a weak division to go up against, there's no reason to not believe that Atlanta will win it's Division next season and several more seasons after that. I believe Ryan is a Top-7 QB in the NFL and will hold that position for the next four to five years.

bigredmechanism, here's an article from Profootballfocus' Brent Rollins on the new-look Falcons, specifically the O-Line:

The Atlanta Falcons are one of this year’s early surprise-teams, coming off only 10 wins over the past two seasons combined. We knew Matt Ryan (+ 8.6) and Julio Jones (+14.4) were really good, and while many felt the defense would be improved given the addition of new coach Dan Quinn, some under-the-radar free agent acquisitions, and No. 8 overall draft pick Vic Beasley, one issue that had yet to be truly addressed was the offensive line.

In 2013, the Falcons’ O-line finished 30th in pass-blocking efficiency and allowed the most pressures in the NFL; 2014 told much of the same story, as the Falcons finished 24th in pass-blocking effenciency with the third-most pressures allowed. It seemed that the Atlanta O-line was headed for another disastrous season, especially after their Week 3 preseason showing in Miami, in which Matt Ryan was pulled early in the game for sheer survival reasons. Then, the following week after their final preseason game, they traded a 2016 sixth-round and 2017 conditional pick for out-of-favor Tennessee Titans G Andy Levitre. Thus, the regular season began with a line consisting of 2014 sixth overall pick LT Jake Matthews, LG Levitre, journeymen free agent additions C Mike Person and RG Chris Chester, and holdover RT Ryan Schraeder—a line that had not taken a snap together before Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

How has it worked out? Through three games, the unit is rated third in run-blocking, paving the way for 106.3 yards per game average (12th in the NFL) in new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s zone-blocking scheme. In addition, the Falcons have the No. 1 graded FB in Patrick DiMarco (+6.4 grade, +5.2 in run-blocking), aiding the surprising ground game resurgence. Where they have excelled most, though, is in the passing game—allowing Matt Ryan and Julio Jones time to craft their record-setting early season pace. The unit is PFF’s No. 1 graded O-line in pass-blocking efficiency and total pressures allowed, giving up only two sacks and 13 total pressures through three games.

Individually, Jake Matthews is playing this season like a healthy, top-10 pick should. After a rookie season in which he played through various injuries in route to being the PFF’s lowest rated tackle (-36.8 grade), health and the new scheme have allowed Matthews to flourish. Through three weeks, he is the fourth-ranked LT (+8.1 grade) and No. 1 tackle in pass-blocking efficiency, allowing only one hurry and no sacks thus far. His teammate on the other side at RT, Ryan Schraeder, has excelled, as well. Schraeder (+3.6 overall) is currently second among RTs in overall grade, and third among all tackles in pass-blocking efficiency, allowing only two total pressures thus far. Chris Chester at RG (+4.5 overall grade, ninth among guards) is also playing very well in the early going. In the end, if this hastily put together unit can keep up their current pace, giving Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman running lanes, and keeping Matt Ryan free to find the beast that is Julio Jones, the Falcons can target more than just an NFC South crown.


Seeing Jake Matthews succeed gives me hope about the Bengals' acquisition of Ogbuehi.

Matthews, Joeckel and Ogbuehi were all added to Texas A&M at the same time as potential LT's for them. Joeckel and Matthews both beat out Ogbuehi, forcing him to RT during his time in College. With Joeckel and Matthews struggling badly through three years (two for Joeckel and one for Matthews), it gave me little hope that Texas A&M knew how to teach LT's how to play LT in the NFL. But, with Matthews' positive run-blocking the second half of last season and his hot start to this season, it gives me some confidence that Texas A&M wasn't just turning out quality College LT's and not guys ready to play in the NFL.

[WrongVerb]

Super Bowl picks right here, right now....Arizona vs. Cincinnati

Carson Palmer vs. his old team and coach has a nice storyline feel to it, that's for sure.

[Tom Servo]

Joe Philbin is so fired.

[Kingspoint]

Joe Philbin is so fired.

Should have just stayed in London and flew his family over for a very long vacation. Heck, stay there until Christmas and really have a good time. It's not like there's going to be any knocks on the door for his services for quite a while.

[Sea Ray]

There are a lot of struggling football teams out there. Here we are in week four and there are only 8 teams with winning records.

[Kingspoint]

There are a lot of struggling football teams out there. Here we are in week four and there are only 8 teams with winning records.

September is the month of hope for everyone.

[Sea Ray]

September is the month of hope for everyone.

As a longtime Bengal fan, Sept was a month of seeing that there was no hope. Dave Shula coached teams were very overmatched in Sept

[Dom Heffner]

There are a lot of struggling football teams out there. Here we are in week four and there are only 8 teams with winning records.

The schedule hasn't been too kind to a lot so far.

I look for the Bengals to lose this weekend, and as far as a Super Bowl goes, it runs through New England, and heck, even a healthy Roethlisberger (you just know he's only going to miss 3 or 4 games, he's like Freddy Krueger) pits the Steelers ahead of the Benagals.

[Chip R]

Joe Philbin is so fired.

It's confirmed.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-sh...151229739.html

I liked the Freudian slip typo in there.

On Sunday, Philbin suck by Coyle. As it turns out, it was Philbin who was fired.

[Tom Servo]

good god

[WrongVerb]

good god

Just...Wow!