December will make or break these contenders

Good Read Thanks. Its so cool to finally begin reading again about the PHINS playing meaningfull, playoff positioning, games in December. Man I hope they come out this Sunday and put the pedal to the floor and don't let up until we have stomped the Bills. San Fran scares me a little, they seem to be playing more competitive football now that Singletary has taken over. But we can talk about that next week. WE MUST TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS THIS WEEK!!

"mullingan wrote:

Good Read Thanks. Its so cool to finally begin reading again about the PHINS playing meaningfull, playoff positioning, games in December. Man I hope they come out this Sunday and put the pedal to the floor and don't let up until we have stomped the Bills. San Fran scares me a little, they seem to be playing more competitive football now that Singletary has taken over. But we can talk about that next week. WE MUST TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS THIS WEEK!!

iam scared of the niners as well, and the main reason i am is because of our mindset, singletary is gonna be a great head coach imo because he will make his players want to kill the opponent, something that i dont see on this squad. That should be a gret matchup, i cant wait to see how our team plays the physical aspect of the game. We definatly match up with them from a talent standpoint.

I agree. Singletary, if nothing else, has the niners playing physical and intense football. It will be paramount that we come out in that game matching their intensity.

On paper, our last four games look good and winnable, but we have to play a lot better than we have the past three weeks when we squeeked out some wins. We don't want to come up short by one point like we did against the Houston Texans. My heart can't take many more of these close games.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

How are the Chargers in the "wait till next year" category? They are not done in terms of mathematical contention. They need the Broncos to lose out and the Chargers have to win out but they are on life support, not wait till next year.

Bro the Chargers have no motivation or fire this year.

I think once Merriman decided to get that surgery done it was kinda it for them from a morale standpoint.

"Aqua4Ever04 wrote:

How are the Chargers in the "wait till next year" category? They are not done in terms of mathematical contention. They need the Broncos to lose out and the Chargers have to win out but they are on life support, not wait till next year.

The Chargers in my opinion, are a much better team than the Denver Broncos. Recall earlier in the season when these two teams met, and Ed Hochuly pretty much cost San Diego the game on that terrible Jay Cutler fumble that he called incomplete? The Chargers also have lost so many close games this year:

They lost week one to Carolina, 26-24.
They lost week two to Denver, 39-38. (In that garbage game that Ed messed up)
They lost week five to Miami, 17-10. :hi5:
They lost week eight to New Orleans, 37-32.
They lost week eleven to Pittsburgh 11-10.
They lost week twelve to Indianapolis, 23-20.
They lost week thirteen to Atlanta, 22-16.

My point is that they very well could have won most of those ball games. And I know you can say this for every NFL team, but I just am not impressed at all by the Broncos, and the Chargers got robbed when they played in week two.

We "could" have beat the jets in week 1. We were very close to winning.

The fact of the matter is we didn't. The same as the chargers against the broncos.

You could argue Hochuli blew the game with his now infamous call but the fact of the matter is also that there were two plays following that call. It's not as if he gave them the scores as well.

"Fin Fan In Cali wrote:

Bro the Chargers have no motivation or fire this year.

That's very true. However, they have lost the past three weeks by a total of 10 points, so they have had a lot of heart-breaking losses in recent weeks.

"Straz wrote:

The Chargers in my opinion, are a much better team than the Denver Broncos. Recall earlier in the season when these two teams met, and Ed Hochuly pretty much cost San Diego the game on that terrible Jay Cutler fumble that he called incomplete? The Chargers also have lost so many close games this year:

They lost week one to Carolina, 26-24.
They lost week two to Denver, 39-38. (In that garbage game that Ed messed up)
They lost week five to Miami, 17-10. :hi5:
They lost week eight to New Orleans, 37-32.
They lost week eleven to Pittsburgh 11-10.
They lost week twelve to Indianapolis, 23-20.
They lost week thirteen to Atlanta, 22-16.

My point is that they very well could have won most of those ball games. And I know you can say this for every NFL team, but I just am not impressed at all by the Broncos, and the Chargers got robbed when they played in week two.

They're still a soft team that can't close out games, as the statistics show in your post. In my opinion, they're not much better than the Broncos. They're both soft along the lines on both sides of the ball, they are (now) passing teams and they're both struggling in the secondary. The difference in my opinion is that the Broncos have Jay Cutler on their sideline, who in my opinion, is the best Quarterback in the league that's not named Brees, Brady or (Peyton) Manning.

"anlgp wrote:

We "could" have beat the jets in week 1. We were very close to winning.

The fact of the matter is we didn't. The same as the chargers against the broncos.

the Dolphins/Jets game was not the same as the Chargers/Broncos games, no two games ever are. The Chargers absolutely got robbed with that bull **** call by Ed Hochuli or however you spell his last name. The Chargers should have one that game, and I honestly think that they are a better team than the Broncos.

"anlgp wrote:

We "could" have beat the jets in week 1. We were very close to winning.

The fact of the matter is we didn't. The same as the chargers against the broncos.

You could argue Hochuli blew the game with his now infamous call but the fact of the matter is also that there were two plays following that call. It's not as if he gave them the scores as well.

Exactly.

What about the other 48+ (?) plays before the bad call?

"alen1 wrote:

They're still a soft team that can't close out games, as the statistics show in your post. In my opinion, they're not much better than the Broncos. They're both soft along the lines on both sides of the ball, they are (now) passing teams and they're both struggling in the secondary. The difference in my opinion is that the Broncos have Jay Cutler on their sideline, who in my opinion, is the best Quarterback in the league that's not named Brees, Brady or (Peyton) Manning.

Well, I am not as high on Cutler as you are, and I think that the Broncos are one of the most inconssistant teams in football. I mean they get completely dominated by the Raiders one week, and then they come into the Meadowlands and beat the Jets.

Regardless, I think either team the Chargers or Broncos will lose their first playoff game.

"Straz wrote:

That's very true. However, they have lost the past three weeks by a total of 10 points, so they have had a lot of heart-breaking losses in recent weeks.

You are correct bro. They have too much talent on that roster to be playing the way they are and losing those games.:wink2:

"Straz wrote:

Well, I am not as high on Cutler as you are, and I think that the Broncos are one of the most inconssistant teams in football. I mean they get completely dominated by the Raiders one week, and then they come into the Meadowlands and beat the Jets.

Regardless, I think either team the Chargers or Broncos will lose their first playoff game.

Why not so high on Cutler?

The inconsistency is more of a bad matchup for the Broncos. The Broncos are a passing team and the Raiders defend the pass well. The Broncos can't stop the run and the Raiders can run the ball, as a matter of fact, any team can against the Broncos. That defense has a lack of talent and is awful when it comes to read and react skills. Furthermore, the win in the Meadowlands should be no surprise. The Jets struggle in the secondary and the Broncos exploited that with a top-notch Quarterback and two pairs of WR's that have played very well.

I concur that the Chargers or Broncos will lose their first playoff game.

"Fin Fan In Cali wrote:

You are correct bro. They have too much talent on that roster to be playing the way they are and losing those games.:wink2:

Yeah they do have too much talent to be in the position they are in right now, however I still strongly believe that they are a much better football team than Denver.

"alen1 wrote:

Why not so high on Cutler?

The inconsistency is more of a bad matchup for the Broncos. The Broncos are a passing team and the Broncos defend the pass well. The Broncos can't stop the run and the Raiders can run the ball, as a matter of fact, any team can against the Broncos. That defense has a lack of talent and is awful when it comes to read and react skills. Furthermore, the win in the Meadowlands should be no surprise. The Jets struggle in the secondary and the Broncos exploited that with a top-notch Quarterback and two pairs of WR's that have played very well.

I concur that the Chargers or Broncos will lose their first playoff game.

I think that Cutler is a very good Quarterback, but I don't think he is the fourth best quarterback in the league. I agree that you would put Brees, Manning, and Brady ahead of him, but I would also include Favre, Warner, and Romo all ahead of Cutler. That's just my opinion though.

"Straz wrote:

I think that Cutler is a very good Quarterback, but I don't think he is the fourth best quarterback in the league. I agree that you would put Brees, Manning, and Brady ahead of him, but I would also include Favre, Warner, and Romo all ahead of Cutler. That's just my opinion though.

I think he's better than those three that you would put ahead of him. The only guy that I would consider putting in the number four spot, ahead of Cutler, is Carson Palmer. I respect your opinion though and your entitled to it.

If we can finish strong in December, I will be very impressed. The problem is the injuries on offense are piling up and our defense seems to be regressing...we've had no pass rush at all the last few games.