Week 17 Coin Toss: Let's Talk About Playoffs!

Coughlin's job could be on the line
Sunday night against Dallas. (Getty)

Stally: Let's defy Jim Mora and talk about playoffs!

I'll take the NFC to kick off with the coin toss. The only spot that's still up in there poises to be a great Sunday night matchup between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. But, there's one problem: it's hard to label a winner-take-all game as "great" when the two teams playing are both 8-7.

Theoretically, the AFC West can be won at 8-8, while the NFC East will at least have a team over .500. However, the NFC East is surprisingly bad this year. Can we return the long-lost title of "NFC Least" to this division?

Food for thought: is it getting old seeing these mediocre teams (2010 7-9 Seahawks, 2008 8-8 Chargers) making the playoffs because they won the division? Should there be some change in the system to ensure that, say, the 2008 11-5 Patriots or 2010 10-6 Giants (or Bucs) don't get hosed out of a spot for some team they could stomp all over?

Week 16: Season's Greetings

Sorry for the formatting weirdness. We'll fix it when we can this afternoon.

New Yorkers are guaranteed that one of
their teams will win this weekend. (AP)

It's a busy day for the OXen.  Stally has his Alumni Hockey game, while Austen is going to the Meadowlands yet again for the New York rivarly game.

We want to wish a Merry Christmas to all our readers and a Happy Hanukkah to Cougar, Fisch and any other animal named fraternity brothers we might be forgetting.  Travel safe, be merry and watch football!

Stally (Eight-Point Pick) - @Pittsburgh over St. Louis

Stally: Big Ben not starting kind of hurts the aura of the Steelers, but, let's be real, Charlie Batch won three of four for Pittsburgh as a sub last season.  Plus, the Rams are terrible.  Oh yeah, and the Steelers are at home.  I'm still confident with this pick.

Week 16 Coin Toss: Quarterback Controversies

There are questions about whether Blaine
Gabbert even cares about winning. (Getty)

Stally: This week, we're going to talk about the quarterbacking future in the AFC South.  Fair enough to say that Matt Schaub is the long-term solution in Houston, Matt Hasselbeck is the short-term in Tennessee with the hope that Jake Locker can learn from him and take over at some point.  Entering the year, Indianapolis had one of the better QBs of all-time in Peyton Manning, while the Jacksonville Jaguars had just drafted their quarterback of the future, Blaine Gabbert.

The Jags were so confident in the ability of the 10th overall pick that they cut last year's starter, David Garrard.  Gabbert ascended to the starting position midway through a Week 2 blowout the Jets, but he hasn't ascended anywhere past that since.  His 65.6 QB rating is dead last among the 32 qualifying quarterbacks.  He's even worse the Indy's Curtis Painter (66.6).

He completes 50.6 percent of his passes, averages a measly 148 passing yards per game, has thrown just 11 touchdowns in 12 starts and has been sacked 36 times.  The one bright spot is that he's still managed to throw more TDs than interceptions (10), but I'm really just trying to find a silver lining here.

A Day Late and A Buc Short

Stally's Goal Line Stand

Freeman's stock has taken a big hit. (Getty)

It's a day after the Tampa Bay Bucs lost to the Dallas Cowboys 31-15 to fall to 4-10.  The final score doesn't do the rout justice, as the Cowboys were on a 28-0 romp at halfime and more or less put it in auto-pilot the rest of the way.

The rough Saturday night home loss comes one week after they lost to the then-3-9 Jaguars by an embarrassing score of 41-14.  Not only has Tampa Bay not won many games, but they haven't been in many of them either.

They lost 38-19 two weeks ago to a similarly bad Carolina team, and they've also lost 37-9 to Houston and 48-3 to San Francisco.  Forty-eight to three in the NFL!?  That's almost as bad as Indy's 62-7 loss to New Orleans!

While Austen and many other analysts saw some sort of sparkle with this team, I always identified it as a pyrite (fool's gold).  Sure, they won 10 games last year, but nine of those came against teams with losing records.  (The 10th was a Week 17 win over a New Orleans team that was locked in the NFC's fifth seed.)  They beat the Browns and Bengals by three and the Rams and Redskins by one.  They were far closer to being a 7-9 team than a legitimate playoff team.

Week 15: Margins of Victory

Tebow would waste his time praying
to be better than Brady.  He'll need
to focus on scoring points! (Getty)

After several dissenting opinions last week, in which the OXen basically tore the sandwich down the middle and each ended up half, their on the same page this week.  In fact, if you count out the Bills-Dolphins game that nobody cares about, the biggest argument seems to revolve around how much the Patriots victory over the Broncos will be.

Other than a few good late and/or prime time games, most of them seem to have a decided favorite and no one's really sticking their neck out on a huge upset.  Several of these games might end up lopsided.  Here's the S.O.B. story for Week 15:

Austen (Eight-Point Pick) - @Atlanta over Jacksoville

Austen: Well the Falcons already blew out the Jags so I won't spend too much time on this one. However, the Jags are a complete mess, especially on offense. They simply can't get anything going and as long as Blaine Gabbert is their starting quarterback, it won't get any better this season.

Week 14 Final Score

Other than MJD's four TDs, there
weren't many surprises. (Getty)

It was a good week for the OXen.  Austen got all eight of his draft picks correct, while Stally only missed two.

Tampa Bay's loss to Jacksonville was the only one game that both picked incorrectly, amounting to large pick 'em totals for each, despite several disagreements over the games (Austen won that battle 3-2).  Austen was able to win the week, thanks to Arizona's big upset over San Francisco, but he still suffers chronically in the season draft, where he falls to 3-11.

Week 14

Week 15 Coin Toss: Franchise Decisons

Miami turned the lights off on the coach
that always wore sunglasses. (AP)

Stally: Two coaches were fired this week.

Miami's Tony Sparano was let go after a 26-10 loss at home to Philadelphia. The Dolphins have won four of their last six, but started the season 0-7. Sparano originally got the job in 2008 and led the Dolphins to the playoffs in his first season, thanks in part to the then-revolutionary Wildcat offense that he often ran with RB Ronnie Brown lined up in the shotgun.

Meanwhile, Todd Haley was canned by Kansas City. He was in his third year and the team has dropped five of its last six after starting 4-3. The Chiefs had plenty of injuries to go around and did make the playoffs last year under Haley, but he was just 19-26 in his Kansas City coaching career.

Breaking them down separately, what do you make of the two firings, Austen? Were they justified and would you have made the same decision as the GMs that fired them?

Austen: Let me start with the Dolphins situation. Tony Sparano should have been fired after last season. I am not saying he deserved to be fired, but the Fins went after Jim Harbaugh, failed, and then told Sparano basically, "I guess you are our best option... for now."

Monday Night Misery

Stally's Goal Line Stand

One flop on MNF was more than enough
from the Rams this season! (Getty)

I've managed to get a Goal Line Stand out each week so far, but this weekend it seemed too close to everything else we were putting out to force another article on everyone.  Plus, I have something that really needs to addressed and directly relates to Monday, so I figured I'd roll it out at the appropriate time.

As hypocritical as it might sound after my stand last week that Andy Reid's tenure with the Eagles was about over (I never called for his head, merely conjectured an outcome), I don't usually find it fair to call for someone's job.  Heck, even today, I found a post on the Facebook wall of NH Motor Speedway saying that the organization should investigate the social media person (me).  The guy was mad that the Deal Share people for people to sign up for required an email.  (Um, hello?  That's how we contact you about cheaper tickets!)  I disregarded it, but it's always offensive having someone saying you should be fired.

That said, whomever oversees the Monday Night Football schedule at ESPN, should...be...fired!

The games that this person approved for MNF are routinely some of the worst games of the week.  Even before a team like the Colts or the Chiefs turned out to be far more inferior than expected, we had a terrible slate:

Week 14: Varying Opinions

Ravens look to sack the Colts to leave them at lucky 0-13.

There's a lot disagreement with this week, with the OXen arguing over five different outcomes.  Let's get right to it!

Stally (Eight-Point Pick) - @Baltimore over Indianapolis

Stally: We've both lost our top picks at some point this season.  Something neither of us have lost: picking against Indy.  It seems like the logical choice again this week.

Austen: Ditto. There is nothing to say here. The Ravens could win this game if they started Ray Rice at quarterback.

Austen (Eight-Point Pick) - @Pittsburgh over Cleveland

Austen: Well this game already happened and the Steelers almost fell to the Browns due to an injury to Ben Roethlisberger. Lucky for me, the Browns offense is terrible and the Steelers defense held strong. That's why I took this first overall because there was almost no scenario in which the Browns could have won this game.

Week 14 Coin Toss

I wonder if Ditka could even coach this
decimated Bears team into the playoffs...

Stally: Let's talk about daaaaa Bears!  Each week, we seem to address the impact of injury.  Thankfully for those of you down in Houston, for once, we're not discussing one of your players.  (Although, for the record, I'm very worried about another possible Andre Johnson injury and how it will affect my fantasy team.)

The Bears lost Matt Forte with a sprained MCL, which is expected to keep him out 2-4 weeks.  My honest opinion?  I always find recovery from injuries like this take a little longer than expected.  What do you think, Austen?  As a cornerstone of Chicago's franchise, there's no way he gets rushed back, is there?

Or, is there?  The Bears are precariously perched at 7-5, tied with the Falcons and Lions and just a game in front of the Giants for the two Wild Card spots in the NFC.  The offense looked awful in a 10-3 home loss to Kansas City, in which it mustered just 181 yards.  With Jay Cutler already out, what's the impact of Forte's injury on the Bears' season?  Can they still make the playoffs with Caleb Hanie at QB and Marion Barber at RB, or is it time to fold up the flag on their season?

Also, just out of curiosity while we're on topic: Ditka or God?

Austen: Trick question, Ditka is God.

Moving on from Chris Farley, I really think the Bears are screwed. I would be shocked if Matt Forte was back for the regular season because he is in a contract year and I am sure he will not want to aggravate his injury going into the offseason and allowing teams to low ball him because of it. Because of this, let's take a look at the Bears' remaining schedule and see what they have in store.

Week 13 Final Score

Arizona's upset helped Stally pile on the points. (AP)

For the second time this season, Arizona went to overtime tied 13-13 at home.  And, for the second time, they delighted fans with a long touchdown score.

The game put Austen on the wrong side of the big upset over Dallas and capped off a week in which he saw his seven, five, four, three and two picks all go in the wrong direction.  All in all, it led to a lopsided win for Stally, as he set a SOB record high for points, and opened up a large lead with just four weeks left in the regular season.

At this point, it looks like the race to keep an eye on will be the Pick 'Em race.  Stally closed in two games and Austen now holds a four game lead.

Week 13

Week 13: Rivalry Re-rout-ed

Orlovsky is no Peyton Manning. (Getty)

The Patriots versus the Colts.

Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning.

It's one of the biggest rivalries of the past decade in the NFL.  One that's ironically played out every single season with the exception of 2002 and often flares up in the playoffs.

Except this season.  This year, it's Tom Brady versus Dan Orlovsky.  Brady's the best quarterback of all-time, Orlovsky is appearing in just his 16th game in a seven-year career and has never won a start.

This rivalry definitely won't be the same this year.  It projects to be one of the most uneven matchups of the season and should be a rout.  It's where we start this week's picks.

Austen (Eight-Point Pick) - @New England over Indianapolis

Week 13 Coin Toss

There's plenty of blame to go
around in  San Diego. (Getty)

Stally: I don't follow the draft that closely, especially as we get deeper and deeper into the rounds.  However, I do follow college football some, so I'd obviously heard of University of North Carolina quarterback T.J. Yates, who's now with the Houston Texans.

He played for a perennial bowl contender in the ACC (never finishing in the Top-25) and threw to targets like Hakeem Nicks, Greg Little and Brandon Tate.  His stats in college were good, not great, and he was drafted in the fifth round this past spring (152nd, or 47 spots earlier than Tom Brady was once taken).

The Tennessee Titans are two games (three, when you factor in probable tiebreakers) behind the Texans.  I think we can both agree that Houston should win the AFC South, but what's the prognosis on Yates?

The Flight of an Eagle

Stally's Goal Line Stand

The Eagles are no longer responding to Reid.

There's a simple theory of gravity that states: what goes up must come down.  In sports, there are very few that ever defy the laws of gravity.

Tom Brady, the best quarterback of all-time, led his team to an 18-0 season, but landed with a thunk in a Super Bowl loss to the mediocre Giants.

Wayne Gretzky is the best hockey player to ever play the game, and remembered as such, but he put up some forgettable years as a head coach and, while he avoided any sort of charges, he was loosely affiliated with a (post-career) sports betting ring.

Andy Reid has brought the Philadelphia Eagles to nine playoff appearances in 12 seasons as the Head Coach.  His resume includes five trips to the NFC Championship games (unfortunately, he only won once and then lost to Brady's Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX).  But, he's returning to the ground at an alarming rate.

Week 12 Final Score

Stevie Johnson's drops gave the Jets a win.
Austen was happy; Stally won his pick. (Getty)

The Stubborn OXen are starting to pull the plow evenly this time of year.  Neither one lost a weekly draft pick until getting down to Austen's three-point pick.  His stubborness to accept the holiness of Tim Tebow seems to have him surrendering the Denver win to Stally on a weekly basis.

The two combined to go 23-9 in Pick 'Em, with Austen picking up the win in that category (a usual occurrence).  Meanwhile, Stally won in both the weekly and seasonal draft categories (also a usual occurrence).

Week 12

The Colts are Going 0-16

Austen's Goal Line Stand

The Colts really dropped the ball on finding a decent
backup quarterback for Peyton Manning for 2011.

I do not even know how to put in words how bad this Colts team is this season. The best way for me to describe them is that they are even worse than the Detroit Lions team that went 0-16 a few years ago. With the Patriots, Ravens, Titans, and Texans still left on their schedule, it looks like their only shot at winning a game might be a  road game to Jacksonville in the last week of the season. However, this team has shown no pride all season long and I cannot imagine them putting up a good game the last week of the season on the road just so that they can win one game.

To give you a clue at how bad this team is, they are 30th in scoring offense and 32nd in scoring defense. This totals up to them being outscored by 177 points this season, for an average of losing by over 16 points a game. That goes to show how far away this team is away from winning a game.

Fighting On at USC

Stally's Goal Line Stand

Will Barkley go pro or return to
direct USC again next year? (Getty)

In a 50-0 rout of rival ucla last night, USC QB Matt Barkley set a Pac-12 record for touchdown passes in a season.  If he returns to USC next fall, it will be just one of many records he writes into the books of both the conference and the historic program.  His decision to return or go pro is sure to become a huge debate in the next couples months as he prepares for an announcement on his future.

On one side of the coin, Barkley looks ready for the pros.  The only thing that might keep him from attending the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York next month is an unfair bias against the unfair and biased suspension of USC's program.  His 39 touchdowns are second in the NCAA and his 3,528 yards ranks ninth, as does his 161.2 QB rating.  He threw just seven interceptions and was sacked just eight times.  Sure, the sacks had a lot to do with a very strong offensive line, but you can't overlook a quarterback's pocket presence and his ability to get rid of the ball on-time when you look at high or low sack totals.

Week 12: Stuffed with Football

We know Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez
are always hungry...for football. (Getty)

This is the time of year you just can't get enough football.  It started Thursday when we got our full-slate of games (although none of us got the Family Reunion on NFL Network, of course).  Then, we had two days of college football, including a 50-0 Trojan beat down of ucla!  Sunday, we'll get to wrap up the long weekend with a lot of meaningful games in the  NFL.

At this point, we're done guessing who's going to be good and who's not.  We know exactly what scores we need to watch and what games have the biggest implications.

We hope you haven't gotten full yet, because it's a great weekend to fulfill an appetite for football.

Stally (Eight-Point Pick) - Pittsburgh over @Kansas City

Week 11 Final Score

Tebow's late heroics stood out in a week
that otherwise went as expected. (Getty)

It took a while to get the final score added up, but it was a relatively even week.  Stally, again seemed to have the upper-hand in the weekly draft.  He didn't get a single pick 'em  correct in games that he and Austen differed in opinion, but still wont the weekly draft in one of the most even outcomes of the week.

All in all, despite Austen picking five more games correctly,  Stally managed to sneak out a minscule one-point win.  Needless to say, that bodes better for Stally than Austen.  It's getting late in the season and Austen will need to take a bite out of Stally's lead soon if he plans on winning the Stubborn OXen this season.

Week 11

Week 11 Coin Toss: The Quarterback Situation

Is it fair to start discussing Rodgers
as one of the best QBs ever? (Getty)

Austen: Like no other year in the NFL, 2011 has been dominated by the quarterback position. Quarterbacks have always been the most important position in the NFL, but I do not think there has ever been a season in which there were this many quarterbacks playing at such a high level. There are four or five quarterbacks who have a solid shot at breaking Dan Marino's passing record and overall quarterback ratings are on the up and up.

Young quarterbacks like Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco and Matthew Stafford are making great strides this season. Andy Dalton has been one of the more impressive rookie quarterbacks in recent memory, and three other rookie quarterbacks are starting for their teams. Tim Tebow and rookie Cam Newton are playing the quarterback position like no one has ever seen in the NFL and their play could have a big impact on the league as a whole.

It is for these reasons I have to ask Stally about the best quarterback in the league right now: Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers is on pace to come just shy of Marino's passing record, but he has an astounding passer rating of 128.8 and has scored 33 touchdowns to only four interceptions.

Stop Talking About Tebow, Start Talking About the Broncos Defense

Austen's Goal Line Stand:

Champ Bailey may be getting older, but he is still playing
like he is 20 years old and is still one of the best in the NFL.

I have been trying very hard to stop talking about Tim Tebow, but with so many injuries to high profile players, it is hard not to talk about the Tebow phenomenon. However, after watching the Broncos take a late lead against my beloved Jets, I was less impressed with Tebow and much more impressed with the Broncos' defense, which was one of the worst in the NFL last season.

Yes, Tebow put together a very impressive 95-yard touchdown drive that gave his team the lead and it will always be the offense that gets the majority of the attention, but it was the Broncos' only good offensive drive of the entire game. This is becoming a habit for Tebow, who can put together one or two great drives at the end of the game after playing poorly the rest of the game. It is the Broncos defense that has been keeping this team in games in order for Tebow to have a chance to win it for his team despite playing poorly for over three quarters.

While the Broncos' defense is middle of the pack in most categories, they are playing much better in recent games than they were in the beginning of the season, and even being middle of the pack is still a huge jump for a defense that was dominated by every offense they played last season. They are getting sacks and takeaways in critical situations, which will kill any offense's momentum and rhythm.

Week 11: The Midseason Grind

When the Chiefs injured Tom Brady,
Matt Cassel emerged as a starter.
Unfortunately, Cassel is now out for KC.

It's a pretty ho-hum week in the NFL as we plug along into the later part of the season.  This will be the last week we see any teams on bye and with New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Houston all out, we lost some of the crop of solid teams that make for good games.

For the most part, we'll see either good teams against bad teams or mediocre teams against one another.  That's not to deter anyone from watching, the playoff race is in full swing, so a game like Atlanta and Tennessee could have huge implications, but that's not exactly a matchup any of us are highlighting as "must watch."

Austen (Seven-Point Pick) - @New England over Kansas City

Austen: The Jets may not be as good as we thought they were, and maybe the Patriots are not as good as expected either, but there is no way this Pats team loses to a Matt Cassel-less Chiefs team. I am sure Brady is still pissed about having his home record broken by the Giants, so there will be a little extra motivation on Brady's part.

Upon Further Review

Stally's Goal Line Stand

If spiking the ball is against the rules,
count me out, No Fun League. (Getty)

Upon further review, I think that NFL's officiating needs to have some notions overturned.

I found myself frustrated watching last week's Patriots-Jets game.  Not because the Pats won by 21, that was awesome.  I was more just irritated by some of the calls the refs did or didn't make.   I'm not usually someone to blame a game on the refs, and wouldn't have here, but poor officiating seems to have become an epidemic.  It's time we admitted that and worked on finding a cure.

Recently, we saw our Trojans stripped of a fair chance to win by the Pac-12 and the incompetent officials that Commissioner Larry Scott still stands behind (probably because Stanford was one of his bell cows for a National Championship appearance).  Officials made an unfair judgment call in taking the final second off the clock when USC could have attempted a game-winning field goal.  Then, in double overtime, they spotted the ball eight yards, eight yards, off of where a 10-yard spot foul should have placed the ball.  It was closer to being a 10-inch penalty on Stanford than a 10-yarder!

This same incompetence seems to have made its way up to the NFL.  It especially seemed to affect the performance of Pats' tight end Rob Gronkowski on Sunday.

Week 11 Coin Toss: The Injury Epidemic

Matt Schaub's injury is just one on
a 2011 list that's far too long. (AP)

Stally: In case you haven't heard fantasy owners, Matt Schaub and Matt Cassel are the most recent additions to a list of injured players that could compile a reasonably sized book.  It seems to be an epidemic this year.  This is the first time where I've just seemed to lose excitement in fantasy football and the only reason is because it's deflating watching all your players go out.

I had a phenomenal team in the keeper league Austen and I play in.  However, Andre Johnson has missed most of the season, Jahvid Best hasn't been right with a concussion, Ahmad Bradshaw cracked a bone in his foot, Daniel Thomas has battled a hamstring and my team is very mediocre.  Austen beat me in that league this past week, while I beat him in the one he created.  In that league, he has a crazy list of running backs that have gotten hurt while on his team and I'm sure he'll kick off his response with that group.

Austen, what do you think the issue is right now in the NFL?  Are injuries up this year or is just our perception because the fantasy starts have fallen?  Is this a long-term issue and how can the league fix it?

Week 10 Final Score

At least Stally enjoyed watching
things fall apart in New York. (AP)

Oh, dear!  Just when it looked like Austen was climbing back into the Stubborn OXen battle, he lost his eight-point pick on the week.  Then, he lost his seventh...and his sixth.  And, just for good measure, he attended the Jets-Patriots game in person to not only watch his beloved New York team give up the division, but also watch his three-point pick go to Stally, who was gloating from the New England win.

The result is one of the more lopsided weeks, but a series of weird and unlikely finishes gave Austen some hope as Stally lost a few of his own higher picks as well.

Week 10

Week 10: The Rivalry Continues

Who wins this round of Ryan vs. Belichick? (Getty)

It's a big week for Austen and Stally.  The Jets and the Patriots are playing (and Austen's going).  We're playing each other in two fantasy leagues, including our super-competitive keeper league.   Here in Stubborn OXen, there are a lot of difficult games to prognosticate which could cause a big, unexpected swing in the course of our season.

Austen is hoping that Stally stumbles with some of his picks for the second straight week to turn the blog back into a competition.  Meanwhile, Stally is hoping to recover after last week's debacle to try to start putting it out of reach.

We did promise that Nick Haskell would weigh in with the Las Vegas take, as he's on The Strip this weekend.  However, he never got his analysis to us, so it'll be the standard look this weekend.

Stally (Eight-Point Pick) - @Green Bay over Minnesota

Not Thirsty for Thursday

Stally's Goal Line Stand

NFLN has a lot going on, but
good luck finding it on your TV.

Did you see the Chargers-Raiders game on Thursday night?

No!  Of course not.  Ot was on NFL Network on a Thursday!  Who the heck gets NFLN and who can afford to stay up until midnight on a week night trying to find it?

Look, we all enjoyed our Thursday nights in college.  Heck, I didn't take a Friday class after the fall of my freshman year.  However, most of us aren't in college.  Most of us are too dragged out to stay up that late watching a football game on Thursday.  And, most of us don't get NFLN anyway.

Week 10 Coin Toss: Rivalry Weeks

Can Brady and Belichick figure it out
in time to beat the rival Jets? (Getty)

Our fraternity brother, Nick Haskell, will be traveling to Las Vegas this weekend and will get a close look at how the football betting world works out there. He's offered to share his thoughts from The Strip to help increase the amount of OXen we have being stubborn on this blog. It should provide a different perspective since Austen and I always base our arguments around the bottom line of wins and losses, while Haskell will focus on the betting lines and spreads that generally ignore the importance of a winning or losing the actual game.

Stally: There are no teams on bye this week. With that in mind, Austen, I made it "Rivalry Week" in our fantasy football keeper league, so naturally, I set the schedule to make sure it was the week we played one another. The NFL seemed to have the same kind of thing in mind.

This week, we'll see the four teams in the AFC West and the four in the NFC North going head-to-head. I've always viewed those divisions, like the NFC East, as a group of four that just didn't like anything about the other three. The Patriots and the Jets will also face off on Sunday night.

Week 9 Final Score

Stally would be all for benching Peterson after
his 99-yard punt return killed his week. (Getty)

There were some great endings this week!

The Ravens and Giants both mounted two-minute drills while trailing to score game-winning touchdowns and steal road games against strong opponents.  Meanwhile, the St. Louis Rams had a game-winning field goal blocked and Arizona's Patrick Peterson made a rookie decision to field a punt at the one, before returning it 99 yards for the overtime game-winning TD.

It all made for an exciting weekend.  For everyone but Stally, of course.  He'd draft all three of the hard luck losers in the Weekly Draft and took a humbling return to reality in losing his first Stubborn OXen matchup since Week 2.

Week 9

Quarterback of the Never

Austen's Goal Line Stand

The Cardinals really dropped the ball when
they gave an arm and a leg for Kevin Kolb.

Can we all finally agree that Kevin Kolb is at best a mediocre quarterback? Through seven games, he has tossed as many interceptions as touchdowns and has completed just 56% of his passes for a quarterback rating of 77.8. You can blame the offensive line and the lack of offensive playmakers, but you can only make so many excuses for a quarterback who was supposed to bring this team back to the playoffs. They also gave him a hefty $60 million contract before he ever played a down for their team, which anyone could have told them was a mistake.

Not only has his play been mediocre at best, but also one of the biggest knocks on him was that he was injury prone. Kolb missed last week with turf toe and he looks like he will miss at least another week with his injury. As a Jets fan, I know all too well that an injured quarterback is no good to your team.

Week 9: Madden Curse Hits Hard

The Madden Curse has struck again and
without bruising running back Peyton Hillis,
the Browns don't have much of a chance.

In past years, I have been a strong defender of the reality of the Madden Curse. Last season, Drew Brees was on the cover and while he did not have an awful season, he threw a career high 22 interceptions and lost his Wild Card matchup against the worst team to ever make the playoffs, a 7-9 Seattle Seahawks team.

For whatever reason this year, I jumped off the bandwagon and thought that Peyton Hillis would be able to break through the curse since he was conditioning hard than anyone else I saw in the NFL. I mean the guy was pulling trucks in Arkansas during the offseason. How could you not love a guy who does that?

However, he has been entirely irrelevant and ineffective for his team so far this season, and even more useless on my fantasy rosters. He is clearly struggling physically and mentally, and the fact that the Browns organization already came out saying they will not resign him for the 2012 season, things can only get worse. I had the Browns winning 8 games this season, but without a motivated and productive Hillis, they have no chance of getting anywhere near that number.

 Austen (Seven-Point Pick) - @Houston over Cleveland

Austen: Clearly I am not high on the Browns right now, but there are more problems than just Hillis with this team. Cleveland has one healthy running back left on their roster, and its Chris Ogbonnaya. Considering he has never ran the ball more than 11 times in an entire season before, I think the Texans are going to blitz the heck out of the Browns and there is no way they can keep up with the Texans potent offense.

Stally: With all our talk about who's the best in the AFC, it could well end up being the Texans once Andre Johnson gets healthy.  I think the Browns are more competent than some teams, but not much argument here.

Bad Decisions Lead to Bad Quarterbacking

Stally's Goal Line Stand

The Colts' picture doesn't look good
with Curtis doing the painting. (Getty)

Ok, so Austen was interested in talking about Tim Tebow again and why he shouldn't start at quarterback in the NFL.  Look, his team just lost 45-10 at home and he posted a 56.8 QB rating.  We can all agree at this point that Denver's off on its own planet trying to make him into a star.  Let's move already and take a look at other teams that have made bad quarterback decisions and thus flat-out stink this season!

We'll take a little tour across the country for this one and start in the northwest of Seattle.

Pete Carroll, I love you, man, and I think you did great things at USC!  Heck, one of the great things you did was build some fantastic quarterbacks.  Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart both won Heisman Trophies under your tutelage, Mark Sanchez likely would have won it had he returned for his final year of eligibility and even John David Booty looked like a stud in the cardinal-and-gold.  So, what the heck's going on with the Seahawks, Coach!?

Week 9 Coin Toss: CJ's F and the AFC's Average

Chris Johnson has always looked questionable,
but now his play is questionable. (AP)

Stally: Let's try to make some sense of the AFC East.

So far, the Ravens have mangled the Steelers, grounded the Jets, but lost to Jacksonville and almost Arizona.  Pittsburgh soundly drubbed the Patriots, but lost to the Texans and the Ravens.  The Texans have lost three games.  The Patriots have been good for the most part but didn't really belong on the same field as the Steelers this past weekend.  The AFC West has three teams tied for the division at 4-3, and the Jets and the Titans have shown clear weaknesses, even though they might contend for the playoffs all season.  That's easy, that leaves us with a debate between the 5-2 Bills and 5-2 Bengals...Wait.  What!?

It's way to early and too much of a cluster to start trying to figure out who's going to the playoffs, but please, Austen, can you at least tell me who is the best team in the AFC?  Are they the second best team in the NFL (behind Green Bay) or do we need to go to the NFC for that?  And, when it's all said and done, who's taking home the Lamar Hunt Trophy and heading to the Super Bowl out of this conference?

Austen: If I knew who the best team in the AFC is/who will make it to the Super Bowl, I would be running to Vegas to throw down some bets. However, I am just a man and I can only take a swing at it.

Week 8 Final Score

How did the Saints get
 battered by the Rams!? (AP)

Just when we thought the NFL couldn't get any weirder, NFC-power New Orleans got flattened by winless St. Louis.  Not Sam Bradford's St. Louis Rams mind you, A.J. Feeley's St. Louis Rams as starting QB Bradford is still out with an ankle injury.

That gave Stally the dubious distinction of being the first OX in the eight weeks of the blog to bust on the week's first pick.  Yet, despite taking the seven-point bath, Austen's picks weren't any better and Stally still took the Weekly Draft, as he swept out the week in ugly fashion.  Both guys botched the Pick 'Em and the Season Draft was the most lopsided it's been all season (although, Austen did get the Rams win, even if not much else).

Week 8

Week 8: The Saints Come Marching In

Sean Payton is the only Saint not
operating at 100% right now. (Getty)

So, we spent all weekend hanging out in New York City together and still couldn't manage to finish up the blog until after kickoff.  Oh well, they say it's the city that never sleeps, but we both slept until about 11 a.m. each day and then limped uncomfortably through the cold wet snowy-rain substance all of last night.

We did the weekly draft in person, which was fun and Kelli and Justin (two of our three-and-a-half or so loyal readers) got to witness the draft.  After the Saints shellacked Indy last week and with the Packers on bye, it was back to well for the week's top draft pick.

Stally (Seven-Point Pick) - New Orleans over @St. Louis

Stally: This pick is pretty clear.  The Saints just beat up the Colts by a score of 62-7 and the St. Louis Rams aren't a whole lot better than that.  My only reservation is that it's a road game, but we're getting to a point that the Saints are the second-best team in the NFC (behind Green Bay, of course) and the Rams are probably the worst.

Miami's Feeling Luck-y

Stally's Goal Line Stand

This Matt Moore fumble was the
 last straw in Miami's collapse. (AP)

Over the second half of the season, Austen and I will probably start talking much more about the Andrew Luck sweepstakes and which teams are best positioning themselves (a nice way of saying losing too much) to have the chance to take the star quarterback first overall.

Bill Simmons recently joked about what he called "Tankapalooza" in the NBA, when all the lower tier teams started circling the toilet bowl in hopes of landing Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the draft.  The difference in the NBA is that they have a lottery system, whereas the NFL goes simply by record.

The Miami Dolphins were the first contestant to play the "Suck for Luck" sweepstakes last week as they tanked a 15-point lead.  Say what you want about Tim Tebow's heroics, but the Dolphins got the ball with a first down with 5:50 remaining and a 15-0 lead.  They then went three-and-out, allowed Denver to score a touchdown, recover an onside kick, score another touchdown and gave up the predictable Tim Tebow two-point conversion run to tie the game.  They then got the ball in overtime, got stopped on third-and-one for another three-and-out and fumbled on their following drive to give the Broncos the ball in game-winning field goal range.

Week 8 Opening Coin Toss: AFC Mediocrity

For the Jets to make the playoffs, Mark Sanchez
has to bring home the bread... and the hot dog.

Stally: Talk to me about your New York Jets, Austen.  They should've lost to Dallas and San Diego at home, which would leave them at 2-5.  Instead, they came back to win both and are 4-3 and right in the playoff mix.  What's gone wrong and knocked this team from the elite?  What do they need to fix down the stretch to make the playoffs and build on their postseason success from the last two seasons? And, most importantly, point blank: will they make the playoffs?

Austen: First off, "should've" is a meaningless term in the NFL. A win is a win, no matter how ugly, and the Jets tend to win a lot of ugly games. In Mark Sanchez's first season in the NFL, the team played so bad down the stretch that Rex Ryan came out and said they had no chance to make it to the playoffs. A lot of other teams fell apart and matchups against the Colts and Bengals, who had both already solidified their positions in the playoffs, pulled starters and gave the Jets easy wins.

Week 7 Final Score

Ray Rice and the Ravens took a
step backward losing to the Jags. (AP)

The Jets pulled out a late victory, but it was still another rough week for Austen.  He had another unlucky week with most of his logical picks (Baltimore over Jacksonville, for instance) going against him, while Stally was one Plaxico Burress away from getting all of his picks right.

It's also important to note for those really keeping track, we had a Week 4 scoring gaffe.  Our spreadsheet said both of us were correct in picking Pittsburgh, which lost to Houston, so we've both been deducted one win in Pick 'Em.

Hopefully there aren't any such issues in this week's final scorecard.

Week 7

We Have Learned Nothing About Tebow

Austen's Goal Line Stand

Let's not crown Tim Tebow just yet.

Sorry to keep talking about Tim Tebow, but in a week with some of the worst matchups so far this season, Tebow scoring 18 unanswered points against the Dolphins in the last five minutes of the game and overtime is one of the biggest storylines. While his performance at the end of the game to give the Broncos their second win of the season was impressive, it was a true team performance that got them back in that game. Whether that was a team meshing at the right time or Tebow's leadership skills rallying this team, we will never know, but the Broncos did not win this game because of Tebow's performance on the field.

With 5:23 left on the clock, Tebow was 4/14 for 40 yards. That is a horrible performance for any quarterback with any amount of experience. He was throwing up passes that were so far away from his receivers that there were no defenders around to intercept the ball, which was the only reason he did not turn the ball over during this game. His receivers were getting wide open against an awful Dolphins defense and he still could not complete a pass, even when he had tons of time in the pocket.

Week 7: Rematch Romp

The Super Bowl XLIV rematch
won't be nearly as exciting.

Stally: Austen and I got a little behind this week.  We drafted plenty early, but both had scattered weekends.  I was the only one with the draft results and Austen went to the Jets game early this morning, but I'll get something out and then Austen can respond once he gets home after the game.  Keep in mind that everything I wrote was written before Austen's opinion.

The big game on the schedule at the start of the season was the Super Bowl XLIV rematch between the Saints and Colts in prime time.  Of course, with the Colts as bad as they've been without Peyton Manning, it went from being a great game to another Sunday night sleeper.  So one-sided in fact, that it was the clear top pick for the week.

Austen: Sorry everyone for the late response! I will be unbiased despite a lot of these games being already decided.

Austen (Seven-Point Pick) - @New Orleans over Indianapolis

Week 7 Coin Toss: Niners Heads, NFC East Tails

Austen: The Giants don't need a miracle to
win their division. They just need the rest
of it to keep playing mediocre football.

Stally: Austen, please help me (and everyone) make sense of the jumble we have in the NFC East.  Here's what we got: Giants 4-2, Redskins 3-2, Cowboys 2-3, Eagles 2-4. I feel like all these teams are mediocre to good, but none are great and none are garbage.  They could all finish in a 9-7 to 7-9 window.

Who will win this division and what will the finishing order and records look like?  Also of importance: there aren't too many powerhouses emerging in the NFC.  What do you think it will take to get the Wild Card and what are the chances two of these NFC East teams sneak in?  After Super Bowl predictions for the Cowboys and Eagles in the past two seasons, what expectations would you have for the division in the postseason?

Austen: Plain and simple, the Giants will win this division. If the Giants had not blown the end of the game against the Seahawks, they would be 5-1. While maybe you could say that about a few other teams in this division, but the Giants are playing better football than any other team in this division, which looks worse than it has in years. The Giants have been hit by the injury bug worse than any other team in the NFL, and it is one of the worst rash of injuries I have ever seen. Yet they are shockingly 4-2. Their defense is going to get a lot better once some of their top players come back from injuries, and it will be just in time for the Giants' schedule to toughen up. I look for them to finally finish out a season strong and win 9-10 games, which should be enough to win this surprisingly weak division.

Raided

Stally's Goal Line Stand

The long term implications of the Palmer
trade will sink the Raiders. (AP)

Coincidentally, Austen's stand relates to my comments last week about Tim Tebow and my stand will relate to Austen's last week about Carson Palmer.  Austen suggested that the Bengals should get what they could for Palmer since it clearly wasn't something that was going to work in Cincy.  Well, the Bengals got a lot more than what they should have for him!

A first round pick in 2012 and a second rounder in 2013, are you kidding!?  Shortly after the passing of Al Davis, this move counters the argument that Davis was to blame for poor personnel decisions in Oakland.  This trade makes no sense.

How the heck the Broncos settled for a sixth-round pick for top receiver Brandon Lloyd and the Bengals snagged two prime picks for a quarterback well past his own prime is beyond me.  Then, again, it's the Raiders.

This pick was mind boggling on several levels.

What Are the Broncos Doing?

Austen's Goal Line Stand

The Broncos are going all in on Tim Tebow
being their fearless leader, but why do they
continue to trade away talented players?

I thought the Broncos were crazy when they traded away a disgruntled Jay Cutler for a slew of draft picks, and I still think they were considering they are still looking for a franchise quarterback and have drafted extremely poorly.

I did not like the move to trade away Brandon Marshall because they had no one to replace him and he was by far the most talented player on their team. However, I understood considering they were not going to resign him because of all his personal problems, which turned out to be worse than anyone imagined. Maybe it ended up being a good move for the team, but I am not a fan of bailing on you players when they hit a rough patch because it shows that the organization does not support its players.

After both of these big trades that really did not pan out for the team, considering they have not had a winning season 2006 and look to currently be one of the worst teams in the NFL, I thought their days of trading away their top players was over. I was hoping it was a Josh McDaniels problem that the Broncos solved by firing his arrogant butt. However, that is clearly not the case considering they just traded their best offensive weapon, Brandon Lloyd, for a 6th round pick.

Are you kidding me?

Week 6 Final Score

Vintage Brady didn't flash the stats,
he just won the game. (Getty)

Week 6 was a ho-hum week by most accounts.  The Stubborn OXen each went 10-3 in pick 'em and combined to go 9-4 in the weekly draft.  Three of the four draft busts were the final three picks of the draft, so they had little impact.

Austen took the bath of the week when his five-point pick Saints were excommunicated by Tampa Bay.  But, Stally's been outspoken against the Bucs all season, so there wasn't much chiding from that camp.  In New England, Stally's karma pick for the game he was attending was treated to a vintage Tom Brady game-winning drive to salvage a fourth consecutive week of winning the weekly draft.

Here's a look at the final scorecard.

Week 6

Week 6: Green Bay Greatness

The Packers look to jump all
over the winless Rams.

It's an interesting slate this week that features some preseason favorites like Atlanta and Philadelphia playing what they thought would be easy wins, but will be anything but.

Then, there's the San Francisco at Detroit game which is shockingly (and no joking) the Game of the Week.  It prompted us to add a little coverage known as such where we take a little bit deeper look at the week's biggest game.

Let's get right into it and kick it off in the same cheesy fashion we usually do.

Stally (Seven-Point Pick) - @Green Bay over St. Louis

Stally:  It's simple.  Remember the last time Green Bay lost a game?  Yeah, neither do. 

Austen: The Packers simply don't lose at home. They really don't lose anywhere, but this should be an easy win for them. Sam Bradford is going to take a beating in this game.

Old School Tebow

Stally's Goal Line Stand

Tebow plays the game the
way it was meant. (Getty)

I hate to be his biggest proponent as I always got bugged about the hype just like everyone else, but I've also always respected Tim Tebow.  His game is not orthodox in anyway, but I appreciate the mentality he brings to the game.

He works hard.  He's a team player.  He shows a ton of heart.  He's dedicated to the game.  And, he's an all-around good citizen.

As my dad and I talked about recently, Tebow plays the game the way it's supposed to be played.  He's an old-school football player that just straps on the pads and goes and plays the game.  He's listed as a quarterback, and, entering the draft, everyone wanted to switch him to wide receiver or fullback or tight end or wherever.  The bottom line is that he's a football player.