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Lazuli  2mo ago (text post)   666 thread views

Weekly NFL Thread: Week 2

Let's chat about the National Football League. This week's schedule (all times Eastern):

Thu 8:15PM  Buffalo Bills @ Miami Dolphins
Sun 1:00PM  Cleveland Browns @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Sun 1:00PM  Indianapolis Colts @ Green Bay Packers
Sun 1:00PM  New Orleans Saints @ Dallas Cowboys
Sun 1:00PM  New York Giants @ Washington Commanders
Sun 1:00PM  New York Jets @ Tennessee Titans
Sun 1:00PM  Las Vegas Raiders @ Baltimore Ravens
Sun 1:00PM  Los Angeles Chargers @ Carolina Panthers
Sun 1:00PM  Seattle Seahawks @ New England Patriots
Sun 1:00PM  San Francisco 49ers @ Minnesota Vikings
Sun 1:00PM  Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Detroit Lions
Sun 4:05PM  Los Angeles Rams @ Arizona Cardinals
Sun 4:25PM  Cincinnati Bengals @ Kansas City Chiefs
Sun 4:25PM  Pittsburgh Steelers @ Denver Broncos
Sun 8:20PM  Chicago Bears @ Houston Texans
Mon 8:15PM  Atlanta Falcons @ Philadelphia Eagles
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Mrs. FiveHour and I have tickets for this week's MNF game between the Eagles and Falcons, bird bowl! The weather is supposed to be in the sixties and clear, which will make my wife happy. The last two years we have attended one game each season: Jacksonville in 2022 and Buffalo in 2023, both were excellent games, but at both games it POURED. And she would very much like to go to a game with crisp, fall air. Right now the forecast is looking good. Hope it stays that way.

Gameplay wise, we learned very little about the Eagles last week. Weird game, long flight, bad field, first game of the year between two teams that kept their starters out of the pre-season, I'm not prepared to celebrate their performance, nor am I ready to give in to the anxiety about Hurts' performance or the pass rush without Reddick. There's really not a lot I'm confident saying about the Eagles at this point, they might have a great cornerback or a near-unplayable one, they might have a strong physical defense or a paper-thin secondary backing up an anemic pass rush. We'll see. I'm confident in Saquon playing his first home game in PA, but beyond that...

On the other hand, in terms of their schedule structure, this was a huge win for the Eagles, especially if the Falcons are as beatable as they looked week 1. The next three weeks are Falcons, Saints, Bucs; the only team that might be competent in there is the Bucs, who the Eagles have a minor rivalry against. They could make it to the bye week 5 undefeated. The Packers were one of the toughest teams on their schedule, so winning that game puts them ahead.

The Falcons game 1 was a complete disaster. The Steelers are always tough, but for Kirko to put up 155 yards and look completely incapable of running basic play action concepts, and Bijan to run for just 68 yards, that's not what they wanted to see. I'm excited to see Bijan live, running backs look more exciting live than on TV. I actually hope Kirk isn't as hobbled as he looked, it would be a little dispiriting to see the Formidable Opponent get beat on by the Eagles pass rush to the point where you wonder whether they should leave the poor old man out there.

If Kirk isn't able to get any lateral mobility throughout the season, the Falcons poor decision making is going to come into focus fast. Signing Kirk to a huge and largely guaranteed contract, only to replace him with high-first-round pick Penix Jr. is going to be a disaster either way. If Kirk is good, everyone is going to point to the other players they could have drafted. If he isn't, they're going to to be asking who else they could have signed with that money to support Penix Jr.

Hoping for a good game all around, and an Eagles win.

The next three weeks are Falcons, Saints, Bucs; the only team that might be competent in there is the Bucs

I think this is way underselling the Saints. While they’re certainly not a Super Bowl team, they have a very formidable defense, impressive skill position players (Chris Olave, the very underrated Juwan Johnson, etc.) and a QB who (and I can attest to this as a Chargers fan who had to watch him on the Raiders) is entirely capable of putting up a Pro Bowl level performance at any time. (You just can’t accurately predict when that time will be, and it’s usually bookended by inexplicable stinkers.)

We'll see. Maybe the Eagles will get lucky and Carr will ball out against Dallas before coming back to earth against the iggles. More likely, the Cowboys posterize the Saints, and regardless of the outcome against the Eagles, Philly will still look fraudulent.

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