04/20/24
December 08, 2013
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Seems like the stage is being set for Shanahan to leave at the end of the year.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:46 PM on December 08, 2013
Seems like the stage is being set for Shanahan to leave at the end of the year.
I hear he's already scheduled his trip to the golf course for that Monday in keeping with team tradition.
posted by Bonkers at 01:18 PM on December 08, 2013
I guess ESPN Legal probably wouldn't let them get away with the title "Oh Look Another Story About How Dan Snyder Is A Dickhead".
posted by Etrigan at 01:25 PM on December 08, 2013
The Lions and Eagles are currently playing in a blizzard. The Lions have fumbled five times. Two lost, which have both been by Joique Bell.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 01:40 PM on December 08, 2013
I was moaning about the snow in the Dolphins game until I caught some of the Lions-Eagles.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:41 PM on December 08, 2013
The Detroit/Philly football game is being played in CFL weather.
posted by grum@work at 01:43 PM on December 08, 2013
This is seriously the greatest game of the year so far.
posted by Etrigan at 02:00 PM on December 08, 2013
I love that Fox is having to digitally-draw in the yardage numbers.
posted by Bonkers at 02:15 PM on December 08, 2013
Seems like the stage is being set for Shanahan to leave at the end of the year.
Maybe he should leave at halftime seeing how his shitty team is playing.
posted by dyams at 02:18 PM on December 08, 2013
Our snow isn't as epic, but there's this.
Dammit, Troy.
Red Zone only just finished showing Brown's TD and had to cut to a replay of Troy's leap.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 03:28 PM on December 08, 2013
Oh my God.. Pittsburgh and Baltimore games! My brain just broke!
posted by phaedon at 04:24 PM on December 08, 2013
That last play of the Steelers - Dolphins game just gave me nine heart attacks.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:26 PM on December 08, 2013
How the hell did the Pats come back and beat the Browns? I wish somebody would tell me why the onside kick exists.
posted by phaedon at 04:46 PM on December 08, 2013
ESPN's FantasyCast app is going completely batshit crazy on the Miami-Pittsburgh game. Currently, they're calling the game 28-24 Steelers with no first-half scoring, and previous iterations have included a -7 4Q (yes, that's negative seven points) for Miami.
posted by Etrigan at 04:55 PM on December 08, 2013
The real game didn't make a lot more sense than -7 points.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:11 PM on December 08, 2013
Matt Prater just kicked a 64 yard field goal to set a new NFL record.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:46 PM on December 08, 2013
And it would not have been a 65-yard field goal, either.
It kind of surprised me that no one's managed to hit a superlong field goal in Denver before. I mean, isn't that the point of having a football team in Denver, to let Janikowski hammer out a 70-yarder once a year?
posted by Etrigan at 06:00 PM on December 08, 2013
Zach Johnson forgot to turn on his PGA cheat code on his 2nd shot on 18 (putting it in the water), but remembered to turn it on for the next shot (holing it out to force a playoff with Tiger Woods).
posted by grum@work at 06:03 PM on December 08, 2013
It kind of surprised me that no one's managed to hit a superlong field goal in Denver before.
Of the four previous 63-yard field goals, two of them were in Denver (Elam, Janikowski).
posted by grum@work at 06:05 PM on December 08, 2013
Of the four previous 63-yard field goals, two of them were in Denver (Elam, Janikowski).
Ah, that makes sense. The announcers only talked about Dempsey's kick from 1970. I guess they don't care about ties of records.
posted by Etrigan at 06:17 PM on December 08, 2013
There's just too much to talk about today. How about that Gronkowski tackle?
posted by phaedon at 06:27 PM on December 08, 2013
Also, I feel like it shouldn't even be close as far as long FGs in Denver vs. everywhere else. Like, three of the five longest ever were in Denver? It should be the top five all by themselves, then about a five yard gap, then all others.
posted by Etrigan at 06:38 PM on December 08, 2013
How about that Gronkowski tackle?
Ugly. I definitely think anyone would give up concussions/brain damage for knee issues, but rules driving players low are going to be devastating for ligaments.
The Pats (assuming it is an ACL tear) have now lost an incredible amount of their core talent by week 14 - it's tough to be terribly optimistic about a playoff run when Josh Boyce, Michael Hoomanawanui and Austin Collie are playing increased roles.
posted by dfleming at 07:51 PM on December 08, 2013
Just watched the NFL recap of the Pats game - the question in my mind...should Cleveland have gone for 2 when they scored their last TD?
Also, a nice demonstration of the difference between a team that has mastered the hurry-up (14 points in under 3 minutes complete with onside kick recovery) and one that hasn't (the Browns barely got the ball spiked so they could miss the long FG in the final second).
posted by kokaku at 08:20 PM on December 08, 2013
Watching that Steelers touchdown in .gif format above, I have to ask:
Has the rule about scoring a touchdown (the ball breaking the plane of the endzone) always been the same? If so, how come I see at least 10 of these touchdown attempts every year (where the ball crosses the line, but the player might not make it across (either stopped short or pushed out of bounds), but I can't think of maybe more than 1 or 2 cases of it prior to 10 years ago.
It's like suddenly everyone has realized that's the smart play to make, instead of trying to power their entire body across the line.
(A similar thing in the NHL is the blind-reverse-direction pass when a player skates behind the opposing net, and the pass goes back along the path he just skated, fooling the goalie who thinks he's going to do a wrap around. His teammate receives the pass and has a wide open side of the net to shoot at. You NEVER saw that play before maybe the 1999-2000 season, and now it happens all the time.)
posted by grum@work at 08:34 PM on December 08, 2013
Patriots received a nice gift from that god awful pass interference call.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 08:52 AM on December 09, 2013
Totally, but to be fair, the Barnridge TD involved Aqib Talib (the closest player to defend) being bowled by a receiver right over within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. How that wasn't offensive pass interference is beyond me.
posted by dfleming at 09:21 AM on December 09, 2013
Patriots received a nice gift from that god awful pass interference call.
My 6-month old daughter initiates harsher contact on me when I change her diaper. It was a terrible call.
posted by grum@work at 10:44 AM on December 09, 2013
I love that Fox is having to digitally-draw in the yardage numbers.
I didn't even realize that had that kind of technology available. (The scrimmage/first down lines are cool, but still look a little amateurish at times.)
It was so nicely done that it took me a minute or two before I realized that it was digitally added. (Which then forced my brain to wonder "What did I think they did if it wasn't digital? Spread ice melter on just the numbers, but not the lines?")
posted by grum@work at 10:47 AM on December 09, 2013
My 6-month old daughter initiates harsher contact on me when I change her diaper.
I babysat an 8-month old on Saturday night. She wasn't above face-masking during a diaper change.
posted by dfleming at 02:30 PM on December 09, 2013
Patriots received a nice gift from that god awful pass interference call
Pathetic.
Horrible for the Browns who deserved better. Bad also for any AFC team in contention.
Will result in the Patriots getting a bye and perhaps home field advantage in the playoffs.
posted by cixelsyd at 03:59 PM on December 09, 2013
If the Patriots had lost they would have dropped to third because Cincinnati owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over them (both teams have fairly easy schedules the rest of the way and each plays Baltimore). They'd still have homefield in the first round because they're going to win their division unless you have a lot more faith in Miami than they seem to deserve. Of course, that was the one bad call in the whole game and it wasn't like the Patriots got a single bad break.
And we all remember when you rushed to the Patriots defense a couple of weeks ago when Luke Kuechly tackled Gronk in the end zone to end a game. Amazing how it's "the team that played a more complete game won" when the call goes against the Patriots . . .
posted by yerfatma at 04:32 PM on December 09, 2013
It's amazing how different, different things are.
posted by Hugh Janus at 05:34 PM on December 09, 2013
Boom!
posted by rcade at 08:12 PM on December 09, 2013
The World Cup draw was nice, but only the second most important this weekend, as today saw the picks for the FA Cup's third round.
One of the more notable fixtures out of the pot.... Arsenal vs Spurs.
Elsewhere, two mid table sides who'll place importance on the cup were drawn together as Swansea face Manchester United.