***** OFFICIAL Week 16 Game Thread, Sponsored By The Lions Injury Bug *****

[Millennial_Messiah]

HEADLINE:

It's up to Jared Goff to be a one-man wrecking crew on offense for Detroit to get to the promised land, as most of their defensive starters are out-injured for the remainder of the season and playoffs, as well as bell-cow running back David Montgomery.

This could be the 2017 Eagles all over again........ but more than likely it will be something like the 2014 Arizona Cardinals, or something of that nature. The world-champion Eagles squad were the exception, not the rule.

It's a damn shame, as this couldn't have happened to a team with a more deserving fan base at a taste of victory. When will the injury gods finally take monkeyball maniac Trash Allen, that is the question?


This poor guy... tasked with carrying the entire team on his back. He should be MVP, or Saquon Barkley, with an honorable dark-horse mention to Sam Darnold. We'll se who wins the ultra-stacked three headed monster that is the NFC North.

[Millennial_Messiah]

NFL TV Schedule and Maps: Week 16, 2024

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All listings are unofficial and subject to change. Check back often for updates.

NATIONAL BROADCASTS

Thursday Night: Denver @ LA Chargers (Amazon)



Saturday 1:00 ET: Houston @ Kansas City (NBC; Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge)



Saturday 4:30 ET: Pittsburgh @ Baltimore (FOX; Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady)



Sunday Night: Tampa Bay @ Dallas (NBC)



Monday Night: New Orleans @ Green Bay (ESPN/ABC)



DEN-LAC will be simulcast on KMGH (ABC/7) Denver and KTTV (FOX/11) Los Angeles.

December 22, 2024

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CBS EARLY
█ Alaska
█ Hawaii

█
LA Rams @ NY Jets
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green

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Cleveland @ Cincinnati
Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta

█
Tennessee @ Indianapolis
Tom McCarthy, Ross Tucker, Jay Feely

█
NO GAME
Home teams enforcing blackout

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CBS LATE
█ Alaska
█ Hawaii

█
San Francisco @ Miami
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo

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New England @ Buffalo
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis

█
Jacksonville @ Las Vegas
Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Jason McCourty

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FOX SINGLE
█ Alaska
█ Hawaii

█
Philadelphia @ Washington
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen

█
Detroit @ Chicago
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma

█
NY Giants @ Atlanta
Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston

█
Arizona @ Carolina
Chris Myers, Mark Schlereth

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Minnesota @ Seattle (LATE)
Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez

[Millennial_Messiah]

I don't nut-hug Allen, I just call how I see it (how it is, tbh). Josh is pretty easily the 2nd best QB in the league, I have nothing against Burrow, just calling out how people overrate him because Mahomes gifted him a trip to the superbowl that one time.

As a Mahomes fan, I know more than anyone that Allen played better in any of those playoffs losses to the Chiefs than Burrow in that Bengals win.

not true,

If you want to go by QB purism, stricting rating them by their passing performance, then Allen (and Jackson and a few others) are way down there. Buffalo would be -3 wins at this point this season (and other seasons) without the monkeyballing.

Burrow has a bottom-five offensive line in pass protection in the NFL, he's a pocket passer and yet with his arm alone he's put his team in position to win all but one, maybe two games. It's not his fault his horrid general management refuses to invest resources in offensive line and they've neglected the defense badly as well, too. He's basically 2011, 2012, 2013 Tony Romo but better.

Allen has a top 3 offensive line in the NFL and you could make the case for #1 overall, I believe PFF backs that up as well. Their run game is amazing, Allen gets infinite time to throw every dropback, and their defense has been very much elite up until the last 2 weeks when they've regressed pretty badly. The Chiefs meanwhile have arguably the worst OT situation in the league and it's been that way since the year they lost the super bowl to Tampa Tom Brady's Bucs. Their interior is fine so they can move the ball with inside runs but Mahomes has been running for his life all season long, as has Burrow, while Allen has been baking cakes back there in the most pristine drop back pockets you'll see this side of the early-mid 1990s Cowboys.

If you want to count both passing and monkeyballing, then you have to put Jackson over Allen even for this season. Jackson's stats are insane, (both his TD/INT ratio are 2013 Nick Foles-level insanely good and he's the best running QB in the league when he's healthy and it isn't close) even if the defense has regressed and his team has an unusually high number of losses this year.

[Millennial_Messiah]

It's pretty simple. When you have a top 5 or so franchise QB you push back cap money as far as necessary like the Saints did with Brees to keep said franchise QB protected and stocked with talent (look at the Eagles) and keep enough pieces on defense to maintain at least an above average defense as well as long as possible. You don't semi rebuild, because when you do that you lose games and you lose rapport with said franchise QB, and you NEVER neglect offensive line because the moment your franchise QB suffers a serious injury is the moment you might not have a franchise QB anymore and might score yourself that one way ticket to the cellar.

Give credit to Philly, Buffalo, the Saints in the past, to some extent KC for being willing to compromise their long term salary cap and pay the bills when your guy finally retires and you're in rebuild mode with tons of rookie and low wage contracts. KC just needs to find 2 NFL-caliber offensive tackles for a change and keep them. Their offense simply hasn't been very explosive since Fisher and Schwartz suffered career ending injuries in 2020.

What you DON'T do is pay a QB $50m/year and then go light elsewhere on the roster because muh cap room, the muh cap room is for fringe teams with cheaper QB contracts with a solid overall team and a chance to sneak in by default like Minnesota this year. Dallas for example has absolutely butchered their situation, though not as bad as a few teams like the Browns have. What you do is pay guys market value and push back money into dead cap years in the future and keep pushing that money back further and further until the end of your franchise QB's career like the Saints did. You pay the bill when your guy retires and eat a few tanking/rebuilding seasons at that time.

[DAF86]

not true,

If you want to go by QB purism, stricting rating them by their passing performance, then Allen (and Jackson and a few others) are way down there. Buffalo would be -3 wins at this point this season (and other seasons) without the monkeyballing.

Burrow has a bottom-five offensive line in pass protection in the NFL, he's a pocket passer and yet with his arm alone he's put his team in position to win all but one, maybe two games. It's not his fault his horrid general management refuses to invest resources in offensive line and they've neglected the defense badly as well, too. He's basically 2011, 2012, 2013 Tony Romo but better.

Allen has a top 3 offensive line in the NFL and you could make the case for #1 overall, I believe PFF backs that up as well. Their run game is amazing, Allen gets infinite time to throw every dropback, and their defense has been very much elite up until the last 2 weeks when they've regressed pretty badly. The Chiefs meanwhile have arguably the worst OT situation in the league and it's been that way since the year they lost the super bowl to Tampa Tom Brady's Bucs. Their interior is fine so they can move the ball with inside runs but Mahomes has been running for his life all season long, as has Burrow, while Allen has been baking cakes back there in the most pristine drop back pockets you'll see this side of the early-mid 1990s Cowboys.

If you want to count both passing and monkeyballing, then you have to put Jackson over Allen even for this season. Jackson's stats are insane, (both his TD/INT ratio are 2013 Nick Foles-level insanely good and he's the best running QB in the league when he's healthy and it isn't close) even if the defense has regressed and his team has an unusually high number of losses this year.

Jackson is the only guy that has a case over Allen, because of his 2 MVPs, but I can't put Lamar there untill he proves something on the playoffs. Allen is a beast in the regular season and plays even better in the postseason, they just happen to go against a dynasty right now.

Burrow needs to start winning more than barely over half his games to get to into the Allen and Lamar discussion, tbh.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Jackson is the only guy that has a case over Allen, because of his 2 MVPs, but I can't put Lamar there untill he proves something on the playoffs. Allen is a beast in the regular season and plays even better in the postseason, they just happen to go against a dynasty right now.

Burrow needs to start winning more than barely over half his games to get to into the Allen and Lamar discussion, tbh.

Saquon for MVP. Last game didn't really help his case, or maybe it did because the Steelers sold out to stop the run and left guys like AJ Brown and Devonta Smith single covered all game. If the defense is playing eight or nine men in the box base defense then you know your running back is something special.

[Millennial_Messiah]

I'm not giving Jackson a third MVP until he wins a Super Bowl, tbh, I don't care how great his TD/INT ratio is, five losses and second place in your own division isn't MVP material, no other way to cut it.

[GAustex]

Not so much how you start
But more how you finish

[DAF86]

Huge W for the Chiefs.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Huge W for the Chiefs.

Their magic number is 0.5, but still they must win or tie either of the last two which are both difficult road games vs teams fighting for playoff position (and in Denver's case, fighting for outright survival, especially if they lose the Cincinnati game) while Buffalo has three absolute cupcake games vs teams that are tanking, two of which are the Patriots. Now Aaron Rodgers isn't the type of guy to tank but the Jets are outmatched on the road at Buffalo this time of year.

Whoever gets that #1 seed and the bye will almost certainly be in the Super Bowl. I think Cincinnati has a strong, maybe coin flip shot to win at Buffalo in the playoffs if they make the #7 seed, they've done it before and they've got the firepower, it will be a shootout and come down to which team has the ball last and which team has 1 up like a fumble or blocked punt since neither team has a formidable defense.

[Millennial_Messiah]

I love that KC just keeps winning and haters keep hating. The casual fan hatred of the Chiefs is literally nothing but generic dynasty hate, but they're not an unlikable team at all, they're nothing like say the early 00s Lakers or the early 10s Heatles for instance. Or the Cheatriots who blatantly cheated at every opportunity, from the tuck rule to the spygate to deflating footballs.

Marquise Hollywood Brown is finally back. Hopkins is back to being an alpha receiver and they are loaded at running back. Hopefully they get Rashee Rice (and vet tackle DJ Humphries) back by playoffs too. They are absolutely loaded offensively (every position except Jawaan Taylor, gaaahh) and their defense is more than good enough to get critical stops vs anybody. I don't see them being beat.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Jackson

Struggle

[Millennial_Messiah]

Barkley for MVP, Henry runner up IMO. sick and tired of QB bias when it isn't justified.

[GAustex]

Plenty of room on that GB bandwagon

[FrostKing]

Booga