2017 NFL Season

[Ccook]

Week 1 takeaways: Atlanta ran the risk of doing what New England did Thursday night--lose to a team they were supposed to soundly beat. Falcons won, 23-17, but it came down to the very end.

Four TDs for Matthew Stafford. Looks like he wants to prove he's worth that money they're paying him.

[dmaingame]

I'm predicting the Bears won't be as bad as everyone thinks, because of their offense and the possibility of Mitch Trubisky playing if things get bad with Glennon.  Combine this with a last-place schedule and 7-9 or 8-8 isn't as far-fetched as one would seem for the Bears.  Atlanta, on the other hand being the NFC Champions last season have a much tougher schedule that includes road games in New England, Seattle, and Detroit.  They also host the Cowboys and Packers in 2017.  Given this and the potential improvement of the Panthers and Buccaneers within their division, the Falcons could also finish around the .500 mark. 

[Archviler]

I'm a Redskins fan, so today's loss is less of a surprise and more of business as usual. This is the fifth season opener loss in a row, a problem that's plagued the franchise and undercut the entire season over and over. Moreover, the various struggles were apparent in the preseason, to the point that it feels like the team has taken a few steps back.

I suspect it's going to be a long season up in Washington. It's only week 1, but none of the signs here are promising. Hopefully this is just an off week and things rebound against the Rams, but the specter of going 0-2 again looms heavily. Another 0-2 start likely means another lost season, striving but coming up empty handed because 0-2 is a tough lie to recover from.

As a side note, the strip-sack-fumble-touchdown play standing instead of being overturned was flat bad luck and a missed call in my opinion, though the Redskins did more than enough to lose this game without it, so eh.

Also Wentz looks solid and like he has a future in the league, in case last year wasn't enough for you. The Eagles weren't great today, but they were good enough to beat a team that self imploded.

[Superballer]

It probably was an incomplete pass on closer look, although I can understand why the officials likely decided it wasn't conclusive enough evidence to overturn the call.  Washington had likely already killed themselves with too many clear cut turnovers by that point.  There's still a very good team there, although unless they look better in their subsequent divisional games, they're probably not winning the NFC East. 

And yes, Wentz looked quite good, especially on the first, Cunningham-channeling score.  This realistically will probably not be Philadelphia's year--they're not quite at the level to truly contend yet--but I think they are pointed in the right direction, with 2018 or 2019 poised to be the breakout year if all falls properly into place. 

[dmaingame]

Philadelphia's defense came up big in the turnover battle, though their offense will have to put up more points to win against playoff-caliber opponents like the Cowboys and Seahawks.  Washington can't seem to find sustained success unless their head coach is Joe Gibbs, (they've had only 3 double digit win seasons since Mark Rypien, Darrell Green, and Art Monk were on their active roster).  The same goes for the Packers whose offense looked anemic for 3 and a half quarters against an injury plagued Seahawks squad.  With a trip to Atlanta coming next Sunday night, Rodgers and company will need to find sustained continuity and start scoring in the first half. 

[Ccook]

Green Bay and the 3 candy against Atlanta sounds pretty tasty. 

[Ccook]

Atlanta-Green Bay was a war of attrition. They'll need Vic Beasley (hamstring) on defense next week against Detroit. Falcons prevail against the Packers.

[mellongraig]

I don't want to get that political here but there have been a number of players protesting the national anthem by kneeling and in the case of the Seahawks and Titans this week, they refused to come out of the locker rooms until the anthem was over.

[Teddy]

I don't want to get that political here but there have been a number of players protesting the national anthem by kneeling and in the case of the Seahawks and Titans this week, they refused to come out of the locker rooms until the anthem was over.

The Steelers also stayed in their locker room during the anthem.

[PatrickRox80]

The Steelers also stayed in their locker room during the anthem.

All except for one. Not surprising that his jersey sales are skyrocketing.

[Archviler]

Personally, I wish politics could stay out of sports. I watch sports for the escapism and fun, not to get into political protests and arguing. There's a time and place for politics, you know?

Anyway, not sure what happened at Fed Ex field tonight, but I think it was a mix of the Redskins really showing up and the Raiders laying an egg. The Redskins looked like they woke up and played a good game, while the Raiders seemed lost and shut down most of the evening. What a strange game. I'm personally chalking it up as a fluke pending another week or two of play to bear it out or not.

[Ccook]

Wild ending to Atlanta-Detroit. Matt Ryan throws three interceptions (one a pick six) and still wins, thanks to a TD call reversal with 0:08 left and a ten-second runoff.

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

Today's loss against the Un-Patriots was a huge blow to my hometeam, the Houston Texans.

[Ton80]

The Steelers also stayed in their locker room during the anthem.

Apparently, they stayed in their locker room during the game, too.

[dmaingame]

Three weeks into the 2017 season, and only two unbeaten teams left in the Falcons and Chiefs.  Yesterday's finishes rank right up there with the Week 17 playoff scenario the one year in the late 90s/early 2000s when the tiebreaker for the final playoff spot in the NFC came down to net points, resulting in Brett Favre and Kerry Collins throwing deep balls when both the Packers and Panthers were up by 4 TDs on their respective opponents.  First off, the Lions/Falcons finish, the 10 second runoff rule needs to go.  No way should a play that's reviewed end a game, when it was clear that Tate wasn't touched by a Falcons' defender until after he broke the plane.  The overtime finish between the Bears and Steelers, Tom Brady doing what Tom Brady does best, with the controversy surrounding the catch or non-catch on the go-ahead score.  The best finish in my mind was to the Eagles/Giants game.  Manning and the Giants get shutout for more than three quarters, only to tie up the game in a 24 point effort in the fourth quarter.  Looks like we're going to overtime, but wait, not so fast says Jake Elliott. the rookie kicker for the Eagles who nails a 61 yard field goal from across the Delaware in Camden, New Jersey as the last second ticks off the clock.  And we haven't even got to the Packers/Bengals 3pm showdown where Aaron Rodgers and Geronimo Allison connect for seventy-four yards on a pattern that looked like something out of Tecmo Super Bowl to set up the game winning field goal.  Already looking ahead to next Sunday's matchups and hoping for more comebacks and astonishing last-second lead changes.