BuffOrange

Yes I would take that for sure. I'm playing Ivory out of necessity this week but he's your 4th or 5th RB at best in a normal week. Granted there is more of an urgency to win the next game when you're 2-5; but 108yds on 34carries vs a Pats D that was missing Wilfork & Mayo doesn't inspire confidence @Cincy for me. I'm not sure FJax + DAW/Rodgers will be worse for this week anyway & Gordon helps immediately.

Yes that or having a team that massively underachieved the previous year are the easiest ways to win it; which is kinda why the award is a joke. I think Ryan deserves the props he's getting here for all the reasons mentioned. Although they are two very lucky plays from 2-5. I think Jim Harbaugh is probably the best gameday coach and they've had a lot of injuries too - Crabtree was a major loss given what a beast he was at the end of last yr. His team is almost in the "Bellichick, team is too established" category to ever actually win it though.

No, gotta look at body of work man. Especially when the Head-to-head game is a narrow win for the home team. Good luck compiling a 1-32 list where nobody has lost to anyone below them.

Which is all the more evidence that RB talent isn't that important. Look at the AFC starting RB's from the early 2000's: Martin, Bettis, George, Lewis, Dillon, Holmes, Alexander, Taylor, Edge, LT2... Antowain is way at the bottom if you're just ranking the peak of their careers.

Dude seriously, why bother asking for advice? If you want to roll with Ryan then go for it. It's your team. Maybe Harry Douglas - who was barely competent in a supporting role - will continue his 1week Dez Bryant impersonation against #1 CB's. I'd still bet on Romo + replacement level bye week guy outscoring him in weeks 7-16 even with the 14pt deficit.

Me too. Or at least I was the most optimistic about him of any of our lousy QB's during this dark era. The fact that we drafted him in the 3rd round after JP's decent '06 season made me think our FO really thought they had a steal. Then he looked cool in his first start vs the Jets & he never looked confused. The deep passes weren't always there, but I thought that would come with time. Not unlike EJ this year I suppose; except it was less common at the time for a rookie to not look like a deer in headlights so I guess it was more impressive then. Now you have 3rd string nobodies on the Texans playing well vs the best defense in the league on the road. Meh.

When was this? He was always pass happy & frankly was ahead of his time in that respect.

Denver/Seattle/SF/NO/GB .... Giants/Bucs/Raiders Vikings/Jags You can almost draw 6-27 out of a hat. I might just bet the underdog in every game.

Pleasantly surprised the first two went to the correct guys. Toss-up between Mario & FJax to me. Strip sack obv. huge. I still think we lose if FJax doesn't pick up that 3rd&4.

I'll agree that the 1st & 3rd takeaways are about as good/unlucky as it gets for a defense. There is still something to be said for takeaways and their lack of sustainability, as a lot of us tried pointing out in 2011 (and were mocked for it). Team interceptions vary a lot from year to year; often with similar personnel and coaching on defense. What is sustainable is good offense - which we don't have now or have ever had this year. We should stop pretending otherwise. The above mentioned rookie QB, practice squad QB, rookie OC, injured RB's, playing tough defenses, etc. may very well be valid excuses/reasons for that. But whatever the reasons are the offense is not good & you don't need to be a miserable scrooge to see that.

And it started with a fumble return to get over 14.

The pitch to FJax on 3rd&4 north of the 2min warning was the most ridiculous call of the season to date. That's Dick Jauron ball 2.0. FJax bailed them out with an awesome run.

He is a dink & dunk extrodinaire right now. Other than the last play last week I don't think he's thrown an accurate ball farther than 12yards downfield this year.

Monte Ball over Gio. Oops. Almost timed out. Could not decide. Fail. Otherwise don't think team sucking is my fault. Won't bore you with details but let's just say I was relieved this morning to see that my Brandon Jacobs waiver claim was successful - probably not a good sign. OP Dez in 3rd round - wtf? He was like the unanimous #2wr.

This is where I'm at. I trust Vegas probably more than anybody on this board but I believe the "post Manuel injury" Bills are a serious value team right now. +3.5 vs Ravens, +4 @Browns...Both looked about right to me. +7.5 vs Bengals, +9.5 @Dolphins...WTF. Maybe a big drop-off in QB play will be evident soon but the two games Thad has played in the league are about as good or better than any game EJ has so far.

It's better for you because for any SB winning team to dis-prove your theory, they'd have to win how many 38-35 shoot-outs within the tiny 3 or 4 game sample-size that is the postseason - 2? 3? (heck the Ravens won 2 last year which is 1 more than the Rams did in '99). Not only that but they would've had to have not had a lead in most of their games to pad their rushing stats (with their sometimes crappy running games). I mean, that's great. Not sure how it's any different than saying "SB winners score more than their opponents in the postseason". But to answer your ?, of course SB's are not a good way to rate QB's. But it's mostly because there is a crap-ton of luck in a single elimination format.

Pretty sure Mike Tice did it in New Orleans when he was on his way out the door in Minny. I think it's pretty rare that an NFL team is appreciably less than 50% to win a game in OT though; unless they're lightyears inferior and benefited from a series of miracles in regulation (a blocked punt, a fumble return for TD, etc). Again the time to go for 2 is when you're down 8.

I would not bother seeking out a trade unless you've got embarrassing depth elsewhere. You're lucky to have Romo as a back-up and Kaepernick on the wire (WTF?). I'd probably just play the matchups with those two and drop Ryan. Honestly before last year Ryan and Romo were considered very close and Ryan's #'s last year were so much of an outlier for his career...now he's missing his 2 studs... Romo > Ryan for the rest of the year is not even close imo.

Good posting here in response to token nose in the air "I'm a real football fan who cares about wins" guy. It's funny how obvious it is that this thread started on the main board. I don't think anyone needs to preface anything by saying Brady is better than Thad freaking Lewis, but just in case we do lets go ahead and do that... Strictly in the "clutch, help your team win" category for Oct. 13th - two 4th Qtr TD drives to force OT vs an elite defense are somehow less impressive than a miraculously given 3rd chance (which was so unlikely that the building cleared out after the 1st failed chance) with 2min's left after a turnover on downs and int. Umm sure ok. Of course to be fair Brady had to put up with scrub rookies with all the injuries while Lewis was throwing to perennial Pro Bowl Vet Marquis Goodwin.

Not to be that guy but I swear I see Logan Mankins do this every other game when anyone breathes on Brady. He of course never gets called.

Correct - I mentioned this a dozen times between Sunday night & Monday afternoon. I think Mike Schopp was reading my posts. Moreover I think every coach will tell you 4th&goal from the 1-2 is essentially the same play as a 2pt conversion (which makes sense) so it's doubtful they would've gotten the 2 and got to OT considering how the 4th down went.

Rivers' two years of being terrible is one of the more inexplicable things I've ever seen. Both him and Manning will be done in 3yrs though so who knows how good the division will be then.

I can think of one offhand not long ago - Dallas@Washington opening night, McNabb's first game in Wash. That was the most popular team losing on Nat'l TV and there wasn't even much controversy because it was so blatant. There's probably a bunch of others that nobody remembers because the penalties were declined after not being completed for TD's. This hold was even more blatant. It's the sort of hold that the color announcer laughs at the replay and invariably says "haha that'll draw the laundry every time!". Except when it doesn't in which case they pretend it didn't happen and if questioned about it, mumble something about letting the players decide it. Your point holds more water in basketball imo where refs are afraid of a marginal foul deciding a game. Big penalties in football that extend drives and/or decide games happen all the time (more often Roughing the Passer or PI than holding but whatever).. Edit: Here is the Dallas game - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv_0CHDkGe4 Pretty blatant but comparatively speaking, at least this guy only got 1 arm around the neck and let go.

No. The time to go for 2 was after the Chandler TD. That's another thing no coach ever does though.

It was a good call because the math says so. I hate hindsight analysis but as long as people want to do it, we still lose with a FG (because the Chandler TD doesn't happen) and we win with a TD. Meanwhile people in Baltimore are apparently assuming GB would've taken a knee in FG range to run out the clock, losing by 1pt. That's even better.