NFL (2024 Season)

[NWI_Irish96]

There are still a few Rams fans around here from when they were in St. Louis. Springfield is kinda a mix when it comes to the two larger MO city's sports teams. I say this because even when the Rams were in St. Louis, Springfield was pretty solidly Chiefs, yet we have always been solidly Cardinals (probably because we have a farm team for them here).

Anyway, what in Cincinnati do y'all think will happen first: Brent Spence Bridge replacement, or a Bengals Super Bowl win?

I think you can count on the Bengals staying in the mix for the foreseeable future so long as Joe Burrow stays healthy. 

That OL needs upgrades, and they have the Chiefs and Bills in their conference, so I wouldn't make them favorites to reach another Super Bowl anytime soon.

If Rodgers retires or goes to Denver, the NFC will be wide open (and given his playoff failures it may be anyway).

[webny99]

FiveThirtyEight has the Rams finishing the season third in Elo rating, behind the Bills and Chiefs. I still believe either the Bills or Chiefs would have beat the Rams. The Bengals beating the Chiefs was probably the single most surprising result of the playoffs, but there was something magical in store for the Bengals this season.

A look at where all 32 teams finished the season...

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2021-nfl-predictions/

[Buck87]

Interesting pattern in the Bengals 3 Super Bowl appearances:

Lost by 5
Lost by 4
Lost by 3

[webny99]

Anyway, what in Cincinnati do y'all think will happen first: Brent Spence Bridge replacement, or a Bengals Super Bowl win?

Great question!!    I'll go with a Bengals Super Bowl win, but not by much.

[Max Rockatansky]

A question that comes my mind now is Matt Stafford now in contention to be possibly be a Hall of Fame Quarterback.  Before this season the answer in my mind was definitely no.  Winning a Super Bowl does make his stats with the Lions look way more impressive.  I kind of think it might be hard to keep him out if he retired with more than 400 Touchdowns and 60,000 passing yards.

[Henry]

I'm so happy for the Rams, especially since they finally won a Super Bowl in their rightful location (not that I have anything against the one championship from their St. Louis years). As for Cincinnati, anything can happen, but as long as Burrow stays healthy, I see a pretty good era for them, but then again, they've been known to mess everything up in the past, hence their derisive Bungles nickname.

[webny99]

A question that comes my mind now is Matt Stafford now in contention to be possibly be a Hall of Fame Quarterback.  Before this season the answer in my mind was definitely no.  Winning a Super Bowl does make his stats with the Lions look way more impressive.  I kind of think it might be hard to keep him out if he retired with more than 400 Touchdowns and 60,000 passing yards.

It's an interesting question now, especially as compared to Philip Rivers and other QB's who had long successful careers but never won a Super Bowl. If he retired today I would lean towards no, but if he goes on to have more successful seasons with the Rams, he could definitely get there.

[ilpt4u]

A question that comes my mind now is Matt Stafford now in contention to be possibly be a Hall of Fame Quarterback.  Before this season the answer in my mind was definitely no.  Winning a Super Bowl does make his stats with the Lions look way more impressive.  I kind of think it might be hard to keep him out if he retired with more than 400 Touchdowns and 60,000 passing yards.

It's an interesting question now, especially as compared to Philip Rivers and other QB's who had long successful careers but never won a Super Bowl. If he retired today I would lean towards no, but if he goes on to have more successful seasons with the Rams, he could definitely get there.

Biggest problem with putting Stafford in the HoF: How could that HoF Offense (remember, Megatron is already in) never win a NFC Central/North Title or even a Playoff game? QB and #1 Wide Out from a team that won, what, should Stafford get in?

[webny99]

A question that comes my mind now is Matt Stafford now in contention to be possibly be a Hall of Fame Quarterback.  Before this season the answer in my mind was definitely no.  Winning a Super Bowl does make his stats with the Lions look way more impressive.  I kind of think it might be hard to keep him out if he retired with more than 400 Touchdowns and 60,000 passing yards.

It's an interesting question now, especially as compared to Philip Rivers and other QB's who had long successful careers but never won a Super Bowl. If he retired today I would lean towards no, but if he goes on to have more successful seasons with the Rams, he could definitely get there.

Biggest problem with putting Stafford in the HoF: How could that HoF Offense (remember, Megatron is already in) never win a NFC Central/North Title or even a Playoff game? QB and #1 Wide Out from a team that won, what, should Stafford get in?

Right, he didn't have any playoff wins with the Lions (although he should have had one against Dallas), so that's why I think his career with the Rams will determine whether he's a HOF'er or not.

[jmacswimmer]

I was hoping to see the Bengals pull it off as the underdog, but not upset about the Rams emerging victorious.  Tyler Boyd will probably be haunted by that crucial drop for a while, and then Kupp & Donald took over the game from there.

As far as commercials...was not prepared for them to be dominated by EV's & cryptocurrency, but that aside I loved the Chevy ad remaking the Sopranos intro.  The attention-to-detail of Meadow whizzing thru the E-ZPass lane versus Tony stopping for a ticket was top-notch (for a roadgeek, anyway), and at least this time Meadow got lucky and was able to nose straight into a parallel spot!

[thspfc]

A question that comes my mind now is Matt Stafford now in contention to be possibly be a Hall of Fame Quarterback.  Before this season the answer in my mind was definitely no.  Winning a Super Bowl does make his stats with the Lions look way more impressive.  I kind of think it might be hard to keep him out if he retired with more than 400 Touchdowns and 60,000 passing yards.

Not if he retired today. He needs at least two more years of top 10 stats.

[triplemultiplex]

One good season does not a hall-of-fame quarterback make.  Sorry Stafford.
Plug in any experienced, slightly-above-average quarterback and the outcome for La Rams is probably the same.

Decent game for the general fan.  Had some slow parts where they were trading three-and-outs, but we got there.

I'm sure all the old people were flummoxed by that halftime show.  

I noticed only one commercial for a vroom-vroom car.  The rest of em were for EVs.
Lot of ads for crypto scams and degenerate gamblers this year.
Another sign of growing 2000s nostaglia with JD and Turk eating potato chips, there.  (Scrubs was a great show, so I get it.)
Trailer for the next Jurassic Park movie made me cringe.  Clearly made by people with no sense of humans' ability to decimate charismatic megafauna without even trying.  I could do a deep dive on why humans would mop the floor with escaped dinosaurs, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.
Zero calorie beer; really Budweiser?  That watery drivel you call beer isn't thin enough for people?  Jesus Christ, that's what liquor is for.
Military flyover: that one plane cost 100 times as much as all of the others combined.
Pretty much got a preview of Peacock's entire catalogue there.  Verdict?  Meh.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Was Jared Goff not that average starting quarterback for the Rams a year ago? 

Also, as a Lions fan I'll even concede some of those Matt Stafford playoff teams weren't "awful."   I don't think anyone serious was under the impression the Lions had the wrong quarterback during Stafford's entire tenure. 

[triplemultiplex]

That's pretty much my hypothesis.  Stafford is a lot more experienced, but other than that, I viewed that trade as like-for-like.  Yeah, there's always something about a change of scenery and getting out from the yoke of a losing organization, but I think you could have plugged any halfway decent arm into that team and gotten the same thing done.  Stafford's a workhorse, not a superstar, I guess is my point and there's a lot of QB's that can effectively manage a game at that level.  If this win hinges on the addition of Stafford, I would put most of it on him being invigorated by coming to a different team in a situation he liked.

Maybe a year from now I'll be eating these words and it turns out Stafford's second act really did launch him into the upper echelons of his position.  But for now, I'm only a little impressed.

[webny99]

I didn't necessarily buy in to the idea that the Bengals' loss was entirely on their O-line and protection issues because they came so close to winning anyways, and if they had won, that would be a non-story. But still, I gotta say... this is pretty stark...

[webny99]

I think Eli Apple is my new favorite player?

Although I'm not sure randomly trolling the Saints on Twitter is the best thing to do when you've got a championship game to prepare for...

You want him to be practicing/studying film 24/7? Burnout is a thing, you know. And football is a very physical and very emotional game. If you're not excited to play, you're not going to play well.

An update: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/eli-apple-twitter-roast-super-bowl

[frankenroad]

Is Columbus, Ohio in the Bengals majority or Browns majority?  Any Bengals fans in Toledo or Akron/Canton maybe?

Columbus is pretty evenly split between the Bengals and the Browns.  A significant amount of Columbus's growth over the last 30-40 years is due to Ohio State grads staying there after graduation; many of them are from either Cincinnati or Cleveland.

There are few Bengals fans in either Toledo or Akron/Canton.

[webny99]

Columbus also seems like more of a college football town because of Ohio State, although I'm sure there are some Browns and Bengals fans there too.

[Alps]

^^ I thought Aaron Donald deserved it more.

So did my coworker who bet on him for MVP. My counter was that they almost never pick defense for MVP. He'd have needed a strip sack or two or INTs to get it.

[webny99]

Interestingly, the last defensive player to win MVP was also on this Rams team. Von Miller became the second player in NFL history to have 2+ sacks in 2+ Super Bowls, and the first to do it with different teams.

[thspfc]

Bengals sign Zac Taylor to a long extension . . . not a good choice. There were many moments all season when Cincy was undisciplined, inconsistent, overconfident, etc. Expectations are now Super Bowl or bust. Burrow, though a much better version of Baker, is about to become the new Baker Mayfield Theory, where he doesn't catch any blame for anything because he "saved the franchise" (which is not entirely true anyways, but much more true in Burrow's case than it is in Baker's). All things considered Cincy is probably 3rd favorites in the AFC to win the conference. They're going to lose some games next year. So when that happens and the fans refuse to blame Burrow for anything, Taylor's seat will get very hot very fast.

[webny99]

Bengals sign Zac Taylor to a long extension . . . not a good choice. There were many moments all season when Cincy was undisciplined, inconsistent, overconfident, etc. Expectations are now Super Bowl or bust.

I'm not sure it's a bad choice, and I don't think anyone can be sure for at least a few more seasons. He's probably not going to be an all-time great coach, but at no point was he a major problem. I actually think he outcoached McVay in the Super Bowl considering how much more talented the Rams are.

Being undisciplined and inconsistent... you could say that about all 32 teams at various points of the season. Being overconfident... huh? They nearly won the Super Bowl! If anything, that confidence helped them. Until the last two minutes of the Super Bowl when the Rams stars took over, the moment was never too big for the Bengals on offense or defense. I think that's a good thing.

And I don't think expectations are going to be Super Bowl or bust like they would for most Super Bowl teams. Everyone knows this was a magical, improbable run to the Super Bowl, they need to improve their o-line to be a long-term contender, and the AFC is stacked, not to mention their own division which is always a slugfest.

[frankenroad]

Columbus also seems like more of a college football town because of Ohio State, although I'm sure there are some Browns and Bengals fans there too.

That's very true; 99% of Columbus is Ohio State fans.  You'll see a lot of people wearing shirts that have some version of "Buckeyes Fan on Saturday, Benglas Fan on Sunday" or "Buckeyes Fan on Saturday, Browns Fan on Sunday"

[Henry]

What about Harrisburg? It seems to me that it would be the dividing line between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, thus to the west it would be all-Steelers fans, and to the east all-Eagles. And they'd probably be Penn State fans/alumni too, since it's the closest major university to the capital.

[webny99]

What about Harrisburg? It seems to me that it would be the dividing line between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, thus to the west it would be all-Steelers fans, and to the east all-Eagles. And they'd probably be Penn State fans/alumni too, since it's the closest major university to the capital.

The crazy thing is that Harrisburg is actually closer to Baltimore than Pittsburgh or Philly, so there's probably some Ravens fans there too.