Worst team to meet in the playoffs?

[KJJ]

Megatron:"How quickly you forget me."

I think Julio Jones is better than Megatron. Megatron caught a lot of jump balls and had a lot of garbage yards but Julio is more fluid and better overall in my opinion.

 

[StarBoyz83]

I think Seattle is the toughest.

 

[windjc]

The only team in the NFL that can beat us is Dallas. If we play ANY game without turning the ball over or without critical penalties, we will win. Any game. Under those conditions I am not scared of any team.

 

[endersdragon]

I would say the Falcons, they have been struggling as of late but they have so many weapons on offense that we will have a really hard time covering effectively. I don't like our chances in a shootout.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

I don't fear any team.

My concern goes right to super bowl opponent.

I don't like that raiders are so good... and that the Broncos defense is keeping their team in the upper eschelon.

 

[School]

Stafford has finally become an elite QB. It took him roughly 8 years to settle himself down, but here got there.

I see some parallels with Stafford and Favre. Favre didn't start winning his 3 MVPs until AFTER Sterling Sharpe had his career ending injury and he learned to spread the ball around. Stafford is playing like a MVP now, only after Calving Johnson retired early due to injuries.

I agree that Stafford has become an elite qb. He has actually been playing at this level since Jim Bob Cooter (yes that's his real name) took over as OC around mid-way through last season. Since then, Stafford has been lights out.

His stats have gone down some lately because they've moved to a more ball control style offense, but obviously it's paying off in the win column. Fortunately Detroit can't run the ball, so they are a little one dimensional.

 

[KJJ]

I would say the Falcons, they have been struggling as of late but they have so many weapons on offense that we will have a really hard time covering effectively. I don't like our chances in a shootout.

It's likely to take a shootout to beat them. They've been putting up points all season and lost 29-28 yesterday to the Chiefs. It's been who can out last who all season against them. Last season we couldn't protect three 14 point leads against them and we have the same defensive issues this season but a much better offense. Julio Jones who's having huge season would be a nightmare trying to defend. They're the highest scoring team averaging 32 points a game.

 

[endersdragon]

It's likely to take a shootout to beat them. They've been putting up points all season and lost 29-28 yesterday to the Chiefs. It's been who can out last who all season against them. Last season we couldn't protect three 14 point leads against them and we have the same defensive issues this season but a much better offense. Julio Jones who's having huge season would be a nightmare trying to defend. They're the highest scoring team averaging 32 points a game.

Yea, I think we take care of teams like the Seahawks and Tampa easily... it's the teams that can put up points like the Falcons that scare me. I really don't want to see either the Pats or Raiders in the SB but I think that will most likely happen too because I don't know how we would try to stop Brady, and I think Crabtree and Cooper would eat our secondary like they have been all year. (well... I take that back slightly... if Romo somehow starts again for whatever reason I want to see Romo beat Brady in his last game before retiring, which he would retire if that happened).

 

[Maxmadden]

I would say Cleveland but it could be the 49'ers.

This entire thread is a testament to how bad reading comprehension has become in our society.

I totally agree.

It seems so simple, it must be Cleveland. But the more I thought about it , I could see where someone might consider the 49'ers to be the worst.

 

[ringmaster]

Yea, I think we take care of teams like the Seahawks and Tampa easily... it's the teams that can put up points like the Falcons that scare me. I really don't want to see either the Pats or Raiders in the SB but I think that will most likely happen too because I don't know how we would try to stop Brady, and I think Crabtree and Cooper would eat our secondary like they have been all year. (well... I take that back slightly... if Romo somehow starts again for whatever reason I want to see Romo beat Brady in his last game before retiring, which he would retire if that happened).

Well @endersdragon in these playoffs those are the teams that they will have to face like the Falcons, Raiders, or the Patriots whether you want to see them or not and as for me with this team I fear no team and those high powered offenses displayed by all of those teams have defenses that wouldn't be able to stop Dallas' offense either so bring them all on if this team can make it that far in the playoffs.

 

[KJJ]

Yea, I think we take care of teams like the Seahawks and Tampa easily... it's the teams that can put up points like the Falcons that scare me. I really don't want to see either the Pats or Raiders in the SB but I think that will most likely happen too because I don't know how we would try to stop Brady, and I think Crabtree and Cooper would eat our secondary like they have been all year. (well... I take that back slightly... if Romo somehow starts again for whatever reason I want to see Romo beat Brady in his last game before retiring, which he would retire if that happened).

It will be far from "easy" against Seattle they put up 40 last night on Carolina and Jimmy Graham has come on for them this season. The Seahawks are a huge threat with their playoff/SB experience and they always seem to peak for the playoffs. As for Tampa, can't disregard them with Winston at QB. He beat us last season in the closing seconds and we have the same defensive issues we had last season. Our offense has been so good at chewing up the clock and scoring points we've been able to overcome some of our defensive problems but those problems could catch up with us in the playoffs. Not going to worry about AFC teams until the time hopefully comes when we're preparing for the SB.

 

[LocimusPrime]

Atlanta, Greenbay, Seattle will give us the most trouble. Then the redskns, Giants, and Detroit are also formidable. Tampa bay could give us a rough time as well

 

[LocimusPrime]

The Seahawks are like the Vikings but with an offense and running game

 

[endersdragon]

It will be far from "easy" against Seattle they put up 40 last night on Carolina and Jimmy Graham has come on for them this season. The Seahawks are a huge threat with their playoff/SB experience and they always seem to peak for the playoffs. As for Tampa, can't disregard them with Winston at QB. He beat us last season in the closing seconds and we have the same defensive issues we had last season. Our offense has been so good at chewing up the clock and scoring points we've been able to overcome some of our defensive problems but those problems could catch up with us in the playoffs. Not going to worry about AFC teams until the time hopefully comes when we're preparing for the SB.

Seattle is a different team at home. They just put up 5 points on the Bucs, 3 of them from their offense. I don't see them putting 40 points on us in Dallas. Tampa just doesn't scare me at all, plus we were a far different team last year.

 

[mrmojo]

Except for Seattle, the Boys would have played every team that has a chance to go to the playoffs?

 

[KJJ]

Seattle is a different team at home. They just put up 5 points on the Bucs, 3 of them from their offense. I don't see them putting 40 points on us in Dallas. Tampa just doesn't scare me at all, plus we were a far different team last year.

I don't see them putting up 40 on us either but last season they won a tight, low scoring game against us at home because we couldn't stop them late in the 4th quarter. Granted we're a much better team this season because of our offense/QB/RB but our defense ranks worse this season than last season. Last season we ranked 17th in total defense compared to 18th this season but our pass defense ranked 5th last season compared to 28th this season. It's pretty alarming how far our pass defense has dropped from last season when you consider how we've been able to protect the defense more this season by being the #1 team in the league at chewing up the clock.

We had more of a pass rush last season with Hardy and DLaw. This year without Hardy, DLaw only has one sack in the 8 games he's played. I've said it many times and will continue to repeat it, if we don't find a consistent pass rush by the playoffs it's going to come back to bite us. If our offense gets slowed down in the playoffs due to our own doing with penalties/mistakes or someone is able to slow us down, our defense has got to step up and give us a 4th quarter pass rush or this season won't end well for us.

 

[endersdragon]

I don't see them putting up 40 on us either but last season they won a tight, low scoring game against us at home because we couldn't stop them late in the 4th quarter. Granted we're a much better team this season because of our offense/QB/RB but our defense ranks worse this season than last season. Last season we ranked 17th in total defense compared to 18th this season but our pass defense ranked 5th last season compared to 28th this season. It's pretty alarming how far our pass defense has dropped from last season when you consider how we've been able to protect the defense more this season by being the #1 team in the league at chewing up the clock.

We had more of a pass rush last season with Hardy and DLaw. This year without Hardy, DLaw only has one sack in the 8 games he's played. I've said it many times and will continue to repeat it, if we don't find a consistent pass rush by the playoffs it's going to come back to bite us. If our offense gets slowed down in the playoffs due to our own doing with penalties/mistakes or someone is able to slow us down, our defense has got to step up and give us a 4th quarter pass rush or this season won't end well for us.

Teams are also passing on us a lot more though because they are down a lot more. Several games last year teams just coasted to easy victories because we didn't have an offense, that isn't happening this year at all. I think we saw the second fewest pass attempts last year, this year we are near the top of the league.

 

[bigdnlaca]

The matchup that scares me is the Giants.

Before the weekend, I would say the Falcons but after the KC game, I think Dallas would win as long as Dallas dont turn the ball over.

Also, KC played a bend but dont break defense like Dallas. The only difference is that their secondary gets picks while we bat the ball down. ATL cant run the ball when they are in the redzone and Julio Jones isnt that big of a threat in the redzone which is surprising.

On defense, they lost Trufant and Clayborn. The secondary got torched by Alex Smith. Imagine what Dak can do with Dez and the other receivers.

 

[KJJ]

Teams are also passing on us a lot more though because they are down a lot more. Several games last year teams just coasted to easy victories because we didn't have an offense, that isn't happening this year at all. I think we saw the second fewest pass attempts last year, this year we are near the top of the league.

Getting behind last season in a number of games had teams running the ball more on us. Our offense not being able to sustain drives left the defense on the field a lot causing us to wear down in some games. We had several close games last season where we did enough offensively to win and had the lead late in the 4th quarter but our defense couldn't make a stop. We lost two OT games vs Philly and NO in which our offense never saw the field because our defense gave up first possession TD's. We had Seattle down late but couldn't stop them from getting into FG range to nip us by a point in the closing seconds. We had Tampa down late in the game and our defense couldn't keep them out of the endzone in the closing seconds. Atlanta overcame three 14 point deficits to beat us.

Had we had a good QB situation we would have won a number of games but we couldn't score enough and our defense was on the field too much and couldn't protect the leads we had. This season we're strong offensively averaging just over 27 points a game which is tied for 4th in the league and the opposition has been having to put up a lot of points to have any chance of beating us. The concern is if we start to tail off some or slump offensively similar to what happened late in 07 we'll be in trouble if our defense can't save a game for us. If we miss a beat offensively we could end up in trouble. We're not getting enough pressure or enough turnovers and that's concerning. Defense wins championships, it's won it for Seattle a few years ago and Denver last season.

Defense is what won the SB for NE two years ago with the jumped route that saved the game for them. We have to hope in the coming weeks we start getting more pressure and some turnovers or I have a bad feeling it's going to come back and bite us in the playoffs. We've been putting a lot of pressure on Dak and our offense. All of our championship teams in the 70s and 90s had great defenses that got after the QB and forced turnovers. We had a fierce pass rush in the playoffs those years that terrorized and harassed QBs resulting in a number of sacks and turnovers. Love our offense but our defense worries me.

 

[DTown214]

Honestly the Giants. We're definitely the better team but weird things happen when we play them. Sometimes in our benefit but a lot of the time it's in their's. After them it'd probably be the Packers. It woulda been the Seahawks but losing Earl Thomas was HUGE.