titan_uranus

Ripping week of games. Ripping season generally. Packers-Pats is going to be stunning.

Parity in the NFL is much more of a reality than in the AFL. There are so many teams realistically vying for playoff spots this year. Two of Arizona, Seattle, SF, Detroit, Green Bay, Dallas and Philadelphia are going to miss the playoffs this year. In the AFC, there's Cincy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Miami, Buffalo, KC and San Diego - battling for only 3 playoff spots. Green Bay right now has to be in one of the strongest positions to win the NFC, but right now hasn't got a playoff spot. Pittsburgh can absolutely thrash Indianapolis but lose to Tampa and the Jets. I find it a lot easier to believe in the underdog winning in the NFL than in the AFL. So many amazing games this week. NE v Indianapolis is my favourite, but Arizona v Dallas, Seattle v KC and Green Bay v Philadelphia are huge too.

Great win from the Niners, but essentially every other result went against us - Eagles, Cowboys, Packers, Lions, Cardinals and Seahawks all won. With Palmer going down Arizona might drop a few but that really only opens the door for Seattle rather than us. Meanwhile can Cleveland win the AFC North? Next three are against Houston, Atlanta and Buffalo. Play like they did against Cincy and they could pocket all 3 and be 9-3 with a month to go...what a fairytale that would be! Is Foles' time at Philly over?

His passer rating was 2.0. Lower passer rating than number of interceptions. Ridiculously bad game. But go the Browns! Love seeing the Browns and Bills on the up.

My guess at this point: AFC 1. New England 2. Denver 3. Indianapolis 4. Pittsburgh 5. Kansas City 6. Cincinnati NFC 1. Green Bay 2. Arizona 3. Philadelphia 4. New Orleans 5. Detroit 6. Dallas The season is too even to be picking with any confidence right now. Both Philadelphia and Dallas have soft schedules so either could top the division. Detroit has 4 winnable games (Bears x 2, Bucs and Vikings) which if they bank gives them 10 wins. Not sure Seattle is going to get there, they have a much tougher run and aren't playing well enought to give me confidence. 49ers will get players back on defence but that's not going to help us score points and it'll be too little too late to catch the other contenders for wild cards. As for the AFC, three divisions are sewn up you'd think (West, East, South). I'll put Pittsburgh in for the win but if Big Ben fades from his current form watch out, they're not flawless (e.g. losing to Tampa) and all three of their division opponents are capable of pushing them not just off the top but off a WC spot too. AFC Championship game is shaping up for a boring old NE v Denver match-up. In the NFC it's impossible to call. Green Bay for mine is the stand out but Arizona is playing really solid football and both Dallas and Philly can do the job against anyone. New Orleans is good at home but useless on the road, so write them off unless they finish 1st (which they won't).

I was meaning to say our fast bowlers would thrive here, and I think they will. India's most recent Test series was in England and they were absolutely humiliated against the pace bowling from the English. Their younger batsmen all struggled - Vijay, Pujara and most of all, Kohli. Dhoni was the only one able to score runs. You'd expect them to have worked on it to an extent but they were as bad there as we were in Pakistan. Not sure if Maddinson has the form to warrant selection, but then again Maxwell didn't. If Haddin's not right who takes his spot? Wade? Paine? I'd be going for Paine.

The Austin return was perplexing - guess just excitement more than anything but running sideways in the end zone, seriously? Sometimes I wonder if the players are fully aware of the rules around safeties (e.g. last week Luck was convinced it wasn't a safety when he was tackled but it clearly was). The thing about you is you seem to play much better against the NFC West than anyone else. You played well against us, beat the Seahawks, then had a shocker against KC, then beat us.

You're talking Crabtree's, right? Can you explain why that wasn't a TD? That ball definitely crossed the plane...

For mine Rogers stays. He and Warner at the top is working, and even in the UAE it worked to an extent. Maxwell must go, not just from 3 but from the side. He is everything that is wrong with Australian Test cricket at the moment - doesn't have perseverance, no technique, gets selected based on limited overs form, thinks he's the bees knees without having any points on the board, and of course underperforms. The Shield games to be played prior to the Brisbane Test might give us a stronger indication of who is in form but right now the spot should go to Hughes. I'm not convinced Doolan has what it takes. Watson's not a 3; ideally if he plays he bats at 6 to allow him to bowl. I'm not sold on Marsh but he probably holds his spot for now. As for the bowlers, neither Starc nor Siddle impressed but Siddle at least kept a good line and length. I'd drop Starc for whoever's ready to replace him (Harris? Pattinson? Cummins?) but keep Siddle with Johnson. Remember, of course, that in Australia against India we'll thrive.

First and goal from the Rams' 2 on the final drive of the game. We lost. Only Colin Kaepernick knows how to lose games from that position.

We are a joke. Younis Khan scored 3 centuries in 3 innings, we finally get him out in the fourth (while trailing by 400 or something) and David Warner claps in his face when the LBW is given. We bat Glenn Maxwell at 3 who shouldn't be batting in any side higher than 7 (get him out of the side, not a Test cricketer). We lose 0-4 in India 18 months ago and in the intervening period we've learnt absolutely nothing. If there's no bounce in the pitch we can't bowl, neither pace nor spin. And in the same circumstances, where batting should be easy, we can't score at all because we don't know how to play spin. It won't matter of course because we're about to reverse the roles and play India in Australia where it all goes in our favour instead. But we're still a joke.

If the season ended now neither Seattle nor SF would be in the playoffs. 2 games back in the division just short of halfway through. It's going to be a wild ride to the end but right now I'd put Arizona first for the division and I'd put Detroit/GB ahead of both Seattle and SF in the fight for WC1. Meanwhile Cleveland, last in its division (4-3), has a better record than Carolina (3-3-1) who is first in its division. Who'd have thought NFC South would be this weak this year? Tampa Bay seemed to be the popular choice in the pre-season, and Atlanta started the season very strongly. Coupled with two 2013 playoff sides and it promised so much more than it has delivered so far.

Surely Doolan's not the answer at 3. He's either unable or unwilling to rotate the strike and moves far too slowly. Shaun Marsh got harshly treated in South Africa, and Hughes scored well in the warm-up game. Plus Shane Watson's in the wings. I think we may see one or more of them at some point this summer, I'm not confident Doolan will see it through.

Standard Australian cricket. In Australia/South Africa where bounce and pace is the key, both our pacemen and our spinners take loads of wickets. Dry, spinning pitch and both our pacemen and our spinners are largely ineffectual. We made 300 with the bat which is good enough, but we couldn't keep their first innings down, 450 is huge. I'd say we're a strong chance to lose this one. Already 200 behind with most of 2 days remaining, and I don't know if we can bat out an entire Day 5 on a pitch like this.

How are the Patriots 5-2? Surely they're one of the weakest 5-2 sides of the last few years? I really don't see them as a genuine threat at all. I guess someone's got to win AFC East though. Pumped for SF-Denver, although I think we'll get well beaten.

So we've kicked off the Pakistan series with a loss to Pakistan A. Our two old foes again, spin and reverse swing, ruined us in the second innings. Rogers and Clarke have no form to speak of either, which doesn't help. Looks like a team of Rogers, Warner, Doolan, Clarke, Smith, Marsh, Haddin, Johnson, Siddle, O'Keefe, Lyon is how we're shaping up. Marsh at 6 to provide the third bowler support whilst we run with two spinners in the UAE. No Harris, Pattinson or Watson from our most recent Test side (the one that beat South Africa in South Africa). Marsh has Watson's spot and if he can make the number 6 spot his own with the bat, Watson's going to find it super hard to get back in IMO. Harris was the superstar in South Africa so his loss is huge, but Siddle's a good type of bowler to have in UAE conditions.

Agreed. He's being severely underrated on this board, partly due to his playing for Collingwood, partly due to the fact that to get him we may be trading Trengove.

Ripper season so far. We are our own worst enemy right now. We give away way too many penalties, Kaepernick is still far too inconsistent, and our special teams has slipped from recent years. To be down 21-10 having conceded only 5 first downs to Philly's offence in the first half was rather incredible. If we can clean up the penalties, keep the O-line healthy, run the ball some more, and not be inept on special teams, we can challenge for a wild card. I'm not convinced though. AFC East is surely the weakest division in the NFL right now, right? Patriots are average at best, Bills are losing games they should be winning, Dolphins and Jets are pretty rank.

They're weaker in key position players, but yes, I see a rise for Brisbane coming soon. Game needs it too, so that suits me fine.

Boy do we suck. We're 52-3 in the second half through our three games. And we have the Eagles coming to visit this week. We already had a tough schedule this year, but playing like we are we're continually slipping. Some intrigue in most divisions though. Is AFC South contending with NFC East for worst division in the league now? I'm still not convinced with the Patriots but which of the others is any more convincing? Would absolutely love to see anyone other than New England win that division.Bills need to beat Houston this week to start with.

Surely not just yet? They may be 2-0 but they've only played Oakland and Washington, so nothing to write home about. This week is the Giants, again not exactly stern competition. I'd love to think Miami, the Jets and Buffalo are legitimate AFC East chances but I just can't bring myself to actually believe New England won't win it. I'd have thought San Diego/Denver would sort out the first wild card which leaves Baltimore/Cincinnati and the AFC Easters to battle for the second. 8-8 may well get it done! Our defence is already doing well despite no Aldon Smith and no Bowman either. Smith's not due back until mid-November, Bowman's less clear. Would be great to be still in the game by the time they come back and we go up another notch. Kaepernick can definitely play that badly again, that's the thing about him. His best is good enough to win a Superbowl, his average is more than good enough, but there are still too many mistakes in his game.

Big game, sure, but not a 'season definer' as I'm pretty confident our season's been defined already - we just aren't at the level we need to be to stay competitive in the NFC West. Our schedule is pretty tough and I don't think we're consistent enough on offence to get the job done. Buffalo hasn't made it since 1999. Then there's the Browns and Raiders in 2002, and the Rams in 2004, and the remaining 28 teams have made it at least once since 2007. That's not so bad. 22 of those 28 have made it in the last four seasons. The change-over rate is pretty good, notwithstanding the sustained success of the Patriots, Packers and Steelers over that time.

Loving the early season form of the Bills. Great for football. The Browns have played pretty nicely as well. Also good to see the Saints, Packers, Seahawks and Patriots all get some early losses. Gives everyone a hope that some of those teams won't just roll through the year dominating. Surely Washington has to bite the bullet and play Cousins over RGIII even if he's fit? And surely it's Bortles time in Jacksonville?

I have the suspicion they're showing it this week because it's the kickoff game and technically part of NBC's 'Sunday Night Football', rather than a regular run of the mill 'Thursday Night Football' game. I liked those TNF games, they often involved teams you don't usually see during the year.

But it appears no Thursday night games?