Tag: Atlanta Falcons

Week 17 Gridiron Tales: The What to Make of This Weird Slate Edition

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Kirk Cousins Fantasy football start/sit advice: What to do with the Vikings QB in Week 14 - DraftKings Nation

Last week: 1-5… woof!

Season: 25-18

Recap: I, like many, thought the Eagles were going to have their will on offense against the Cowboys shaky defense. Late Spoiler: That didn’t happen.

As I said in the title, this slate of games is weird because while seeding and playoff spots are up for grabs, so many notable players are out today:

And Schefter had two more tweets of players out for Sunday!


First Pick: Calvin Ridley O87.5 receiving yards vs TB (-124)

Fact #1: Ridley has four straight games with 100+ receiving yards, including a matchup two weeks ago against the Bucs (14 targets, 10 catches, 163 yards, TD

Fact #2: Ridley is 137 receiving yards behind Stefon Diggs for the receiving title and the Bills will reportedly be doing what’s best for their “team and their players.” So yes, I’m saying there’s a chance…

Fact #3: The Bucs defense has allowed four different receivers to eclipse 88 rec yards over their last five games. In fact, the lowest of those four tallies is 130 yards by Robert Woods.


Second Pick: Kirk Cousins O22.5 completions (-112) vs DET

Fact #1: Cousins has eclipsed 23+ completions in five straight contests

Fact #2: You may look at the first matchup from Week 9 and have some questions about why Cousins only had 13 completions. The reason is Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison combined for 275 yards and 2 scores on 34 carries.

Fact #3: The only real fear is a trilogy of poor defense from the Lions in this one, which is what caused both Ryan Tannehill (21 comps, 273 yds, 3 TD) and Tom Brady (22 comps, 348 yds, 4 TD) to largely sit out the second half of their games.

So based on fact #3, you should also play Kirk Cousins O2.5 pass TDs (+120)

That is what we call a segue “in the biz”

Fact #1: The Lions defense has allowed a whopping 17 pass TDs over the last five weeks (most in NFL) with 0 INT!

Which leads us to the next segue…

Fourth pick is Vikings Team Total O28.5 points (-107)

Fact #1: The Lions have allowed 30+ in five straight contests.


Fifth Pick is Mike Glennon O20.5 completions vs IND (+100)

Fact #1: The Colts have allowed an average of 27.4 completions to QBs over the last five weeks

Fact #2: The only way Mike Glennon doesn’t hit 21 completions is him being benched for Minshew, which better not happen.

Sean Payton Was Mad As Hell On Thursday Night

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CBS Sports – It’s not often that an NFL coach gets called for a pivotal penalty, but that’s exactly what happened to Sean Payton on Thursday. 

With just 65 seconds left in Atlanta’s wild 20-17 win over New Orleans, Payton got called for a controversial unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that gave the Falcons a first down and killed any chance the Saints had of winning the game. 

You could be forgiven if you didn’t stay up until almost midnight for the end of a Thursday Night, NFC South, Color Rush spectacle. But if you did stay up for the end of it, you saw just the latest example of why Bill Belichick is the best coach in the league and why it’s not even close.

Belichick is like the card counter at the blackjack table. It doesn’t mean he is going to win every hand or game, but he’s never going to do something stupid to hurt his chances of winning. Like split 10’s. Or run on to the field like a jerk and get flagged for a 15-yard penalty.

Even if the Saints got the ball back around their 30-yard line with 18 seconds left to play they probably weren’t going to win the game. But if Brees could get lucky on one sideline pass the Saints could have attempted a long-range field goal to tie the game. Assuming they could line up right. Then who knows what happens in overtime. Instead of getting to play one more hand, though, Payton essentially called the dealer an asshole and got bounced from the table.

Thursday Night Football goes to Indianapolis next week when the 3-9 Colts will host the 3-9 Broncos. If that doesn’t excite you right now, just wait. SKY CAM WILL BE BACK!!!

Patriots Dismantle the Steelers On The Way to Their 9th Super Bowl Appearance

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The Patriots are going to their 9th Super Bowl. The most in NFL history. Bill Belichick is going to his 7th Super Bowl as a head coach. The most in NFL history. And Tom Brady is going to his 7th Super Bowl as player. The most in NFL history.

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The Patriots played their best game of the year in all 3 phases of the game and Pittsburgh just had no answer. Tom Brady went 32 for 42 for 384 yards and 3 TD’s in the 36-17 dismantling of Pittsburgh. A handful of those incompletions were drops or intentional throwaways too. And Brady now has 22 TD’s and 0 INTs in his last 7 games against Mike Tomlin and the Steelers.

Sure, LeVeon Bell getting hurt did not help the Steelers (who appeared very LaDanian Tomlinson-esque on the sidelines), but the Pats shut down Deangelo Williams (34 yards and a TD), who in the past has roasted New England. But they also held All-Pro receiver Antonio Brown in check to just 7 catches for 77 yards. Kudos to Malcolm Butler and also to Mark Zuckerberg for setting up shop in Brown’s head with the whole Facebook Live debacle.

Patriots corner Eric Rowe does scare the shit out of me though. The stats say he had a pick and no huge plays given up, but in reality he was getting burned all night and if it wasn’t for 2 or 3 drops by Pittsburgh receivers this could have been a much tighter game. So he should be a blast to watch against the No. 1 offense in the NFL during the Super Bowl.

The Pats running game wasn’t great, save for that pile-carrying run Blount had down to the 1. But it didn’t need to be as Chris Hogan and Julian Edelman lit up the Steelers questionable secondary all night. The two combined for 17 catches, 298 yards and 3 TD’s. Hogan in fact broke the Patriots record for receiving yards in a playoff game with his 9 for 180, which is all you need to know about last night’s game. The Steelers either didn’t respect him or just forgot to cover him because he found holes all night long for big plays and 2 TD’s. He should have had another huge play too, but Brady underthrew him on a deep crossing route.

Tom Brady was brilliant once again. Completing passes to 9 different receivers. I’m sure the entire week of talk radio and ESPN saying how poorly Brady played against the Texans the previous week and how vulnerable they looked was a good boost of extra motivation.

The Patriots have now won 17 of 20 home playoff games with Belichick and Brady. That is bananas.

And, my goodness this ESPN the Magazine cover. Just look at it. You’ve done a lot of terrible, unforgivable things ESPN, but goddamnit will I be purchasing this beauty.

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We’re on to the Super Bowl.

Rating Yahoo’s Rankings of the Best Possible Patriots Super Bowl Matchups

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So I’ll save you the pain of imagining a Texans-Cowboys Super Bowl matchup, which Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner had ranked as the worst possible game. Four of the top 5 and 5 of the top 7 potential matchups are all Patriots games too. Who says people don’t wanna see another Pats SB? To the ratings!

7. Patriots – Giants: “Third time’s gotta be a charm, right Pats fans?”

Rating: A+ // This game would be the granddaddy of them all. I would be living off adrenaline and anxiety for two weeks straight leading up to this game. I need to beat the Giants in a Super Bowl more than I need oxygen. It’s like acid in my mouth. Buuuttt, Playoffs Eli scares the shit out of me for obvious reasons and I don’t think I can emotionally handle a 3rd straight SB loss to the Giants. But there coach has a mustache and looks like he’s on a list somewhere so maybe things are different this time. Tread carefully.

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5. Patriots – Seahawks: “Seattle isn’t what it’s been in the past, but it beat New England in Foxborough this season and Super Bowl 49 was an absolute classic. We’ll gladly roll the dice on another round.”

Rating: B+ // This would be another great matchup, the rematch of arguably the best Super Bowl ever with (not arguable) the greatest ending ever. Part of me worries the Seahawks get their revenge, but the last 5 times the Pats have played Seattle have gone: Loss (2016 reg season), Win (SB XLIX), Loss (2012 reg season), Win (2008 reg season). Soo science says the Patriots win this one.

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4. Patriots – Falcons: “This matchup might not be at the front of everyone’s mind, but it has just as much potential for a great game with the league’s top scoring defense (New England) trying to harness the league’s top scoring offense (Atlanta).”

Rating: C+ // I want to rank this higher, but every angle that the media will play to hype this game seem forced. Thomas Dmitroff left NE, built this Atlanta team and is now going against his former boss Bill Belichick, Former Boston College stud Matt Ryan going up against the Boston pro team etc. However it would be pretty interesting to see the NFL’s No. 1 scoring offense (ATL) vs the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense (NE) and see who takes the title.

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3. Patriots – Packers: “Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers. What more do you need?”

Rating: B- // Yahoo somehow did not mention a SB XXXI rematch?? (Still the best SB logo ever BTW) Belichick was just a young pup in 1996, the assistant coach under Bill Parcells. Think Belichick would love to beat the same franchise his mentor and boss couldn’t? Plus Brady vs Rodgers would indeed be a matchup made in Madden exhibition mode.

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1. Patriots – Cowboys: “Yes, Super Bowl media week would be insane and there’s no way anyone is running out of storylines with Jerry Jones around. But take away the hoopla that would cause TV ratings records to be smashed and we’re still left with a game between two teams that were the best in the NFL from wire to wire this year. If this matchup happens, it’ll be the fourth straight Super Bowl that the No. 1 seeds meet in the Super Bowl.”

Rating: B+ // The two biggest franchises in the NFL. America’s Team vs the Team That Invented America. The parallels are crazy too. A young QB stepping in for the injured veteran, playing so well he keeps the job and leads his team to a Super Bowl title. Shit, no I don’t like the way this is setting up. Luckily the Pats run defense is their strength because Ezekiel Elliot could dominate this game single handedly. In the end though I think Brady and co. make it a track meet and I don’t think Dak Prescott, as well as he’s played, is ready to win that kind of game yet.