as long as Taco Bell exists, Freeman is relevant:jnc
I want Freeman to be relevant again so that this nfl-gaf meme doesnt lose all meaning
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NFL 2013 Divisional |OT| Don't Call It A Comeback
- Thread starter Buckethead
- Start date
I remember making a big deal of Harbs his first year, and I just thought he was very clearly a great coach. It's like Luck as a QB: Just passes the eyeball test the way his players play week in week out. In an era of with a salary cap designed to make teams struggle to be consistently good, in the best division in football, and with no elite QB, he has made it to his third straight conference championship game. Best coach in football. Gonna take a lot of pills and piped in noise for the Chickens to win that game, even at home
DeaconKnowledge
Member
As much as I hate to admit it. Belichick is the best. Taller Harbaugh is a close second.
harbaugh has one of the best defenses in the game and a top 10 offense, belichick has brady and...devin mccourty
belichick is the best coach in football
Belichick is great of course, but he has Brady and gets a bye into a top 2 seed every year b/c of how shitty that division is. It's like the Lakers of the 80s: Very little wear and tear getting to the playoffs. Same with the Pats (and Colts) relative to the Steelers and Ravens
SF and SEA are going to beat the crap out of each other next week, and NE and DEN will play some tickle football that will leave the winner in better physical shape than the NFC champ
Harbaugh needs some jewelry for this statement to come true, I know it sounds stupid but it's kind of true.
The turnaround in SF has been incredible though, I wouldn't take any coach over Harbaugh.
Futurevoid
Member
Yep.
S1, 2 and 4...and then stop. No hyperbole: The final season was one of the most embarrassing and downright insulting seasons of television I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through.
i stopped watching midway through season 5, i don't know how you kept watching. there was nothing interesting about it after john lithgow was gone
"This stat, passed along by director of the Patriots Hall of Fame Bryan Morry, surprised me: Of the eight divisions in the NFL, the AFC East had the third-best record in 2013 against out of division teams and tied for second best against non-division playoff teams. This is the way it broke down:
NFC West: 30-10
AFC West: 25-15
AFC East: 22-18
AFC North: 19-21
NFC South: 19-21
NFC North: 17-23
NFC East: 16-24
AFC South: 12-28
This obviously isnt a foolproof way to measure the strength of divisions, but for those who label the AFC East as weak and one of the main reasons for the Patriots domination this is food for thought. "
DeaconKnowledge
Member
While I agree the Pats have a piss easy schedule, they've also made it to multiple AFC championships and the Super Bowl in the past few years with next to no talent anywhere but on the o-line.
Brady is also finished. Belichick has been protecting him all season and they've flat out crushed teams regardless. Winning regardless of talent is the mark of a great coach, and nobody does it better than Belichick.
Harbaugh has done impressive things with the Niners, but that defense is unquestionably the most talented in football (Seahawks have a better secondary but the Niners front seven is God Tier). What I give Harbaugh nothing but props for is the production he got out of Alex Smith and then Kaepernick. He has talent handling QB's but again having the best talent in the league on D helps.
Futurevoid
Member
I skipped S6. S7 actually wasn't bad so I figured I was already in 6 of the 7..might as well hate watch it to the end. The final episode is almost worth watching to bask in self-misery knowing someone was paid to put fan fiction levels of writing on TV.
No one to blame but myself for finishing it. I own that small bit of stupidity with not much pride I must admit.
i watched the last 20 minutes of the final episode when i was flipping channels one night
i couldnt believe how stupid it was. showtime is an awful network.
This was the year that broke bionic's shitty team SB theory. There were so many shitty teams that there was no way that we weren't going to have a good team win the SB. The AFC was so just totally shit this year. The last wild card was terrible, but was somehow less terrible than the winner of the AFCN. The AFCE feasted on the AFCN and NFCN. The NFCN was the worst division in the NFC, which is saying something given how crappy the NFCE was.
The NFL had SEA, SF, NOLA, CAR, AZ, NE and DEN as good teams. AZ would probably be in the CCG if they were in the AFC
I don't buy this for a second - yes there is a lot of talent on the defense but it is not the best in the league.
Other than Justin Smith who on our D-line is even relatively known? You can make a case for Glenn Dorsey but he was a draft bust and its more of infamy rather than his success.
Our linebackers are second to none, I will give you that.
Our secondary is pretty overrated. Eric Reid is the best player and he's a rookie, Whitner is decent but overrated and don't even get me started on our corners.
Scheme has everything to do with their success and that's all Fangio/Harbaugh.
ActStriker
Member
I was looking back at the Week 1 thread, and saw that the 4 teams left had the 4 best odds to win the SB.
AFC East played the NFC South, not the North. Did play the AFC North tho
AFC East played the NFC South, not the North. Did play the AFC North tho
DeaconKnowledge
Member
Name a better front 7.
are you talking about this year? because the AFC east played against the south divisions this year.
edit: i'm wrong, the pats played the afc north and nfc south
ScottSullivan
Member
Normally I'd agree about the NFC team being beaten up, but there is a bye week, so I don't think that will be a factor, but yea, if these teams had played in the divisionals, the "Winner" would have had a real tough time the next week. It's going to be a slobberknocker
Yeah that was the AFCN that played the NFCN. My mistake. New England still sucks tho and Harbaugh rules!
You can argue; Carolina, Seattle, and even Cincinnati are either better or equal to the SF front seven.
We had two huge components of our dline walk (Sopoaga, Jean-Francois) and while our run defense isn't as dominant as it was it's still great. When Aldon was getting sauced and driving into trees our rookies and veteran role players (Lemonier, Skuta) came in and we didn't miss a beat. When Willis was hobbled Michael Wilhoite stepped in remarkably. This scheme is perfect for the players we have, that's what makes the Niners players look better. We draft players who fit the scheme not the most athletic or splash guys.
belichick is rules
harbaugh is drools
You guys used to take Brooks off the field on passing downs! Like he was just a guy. Now he is a freaking monster. Player development there is absurd. Like Seattle with their DBs
yankeehater
Member
Teams still seem to be wary of Brady for whatever reason. Colts should have been stacking the ox like crazy last week but they didnt and got ran over.
Brooks was a nobody when he came to SF.
Simpletary picked him and asked him to play OLB transitioning from ILB. He didn't do much in Cincy and in his first year here he had six sacks in a small role. Harbaugh promoted him to starter and let him work with Tomsula more and look at the results.
Same with Tarrell Brown, he was trash when Harbaugh got here. He isn't the greatest but he is leaps and bounds better than he was.
And he was the rock in the middle of our defense for two years with amazing results. Scheme.
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
Niners have the best front 7 in the league. Seattle and Carolina have better dlines but no one is close to our LB group
DeaconKnowledge
Member
You're not disproving my argument. great depth is part of great talent. The Steelers and Rats have had monster defenses and maintained them with solid depth and roleplaying. Now both have deteriorated and the shine has left both coaches.
Cincy's front 7 is not more talented, not by a longshot. Carolina's is close and Seattle's I would argue not. Same with AZ and KC.
Point is though (and i'm sure you'd agree) the Niners have a beastly defense and that goes a long way into making any coach look good.
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
I just read this. Arian is a dumbass. Never heard of a condom?
Maybe I'm just being modest?
I agree 100% it makes coaches look great, all I'm saying is that this is the same cast of losers that was here with Sing and Nolan. Harbaugh, Fangio, and Tomsula have developed these guys into great players.
I wasn't too impressed with KC's front seven after week six. AZ can go either way, good to great linebackers and an above average front seven, still give up to many passing yards.
The Lions have as good of a front 7 as any of those teams listed. On top of that we have two of the best defensive tackles in the game, plus young DEs. Statistically we ranked close to the top in every defensive rushing category. Our problem was giving up long runs, and a lot of that can be attributed to secondary failing to make tackles when a play broke open.
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...SHING&conference=ALL&d-447263-s=RUSHING_YARDS
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...SHING&conference=ALL&d-447263-s=RUSHING_YARDS
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
Harbs can't play his style of offense without that defense. But remember our staff is a huge part of why our D turned elite. Brown and bowman were not starters, nor was ray McDonald. Brooks was kind of a bit player that came off the field under Nolan's "awesome" big nickle defense. Harbs drafted and brought up Aldon slowly in his rookie year. He brought in whitner and Rogers.
People say the D was already set when harbs got here but it's like you going out and buying the ingredients for dinner, putting the grocery bags on the table and saying "dinners served!" No, someone has to make dinner and it sure as fuck wasn't singletary or Nolan cooking this delicious feast!
DeaconKnowledge
Member
Niners had a long heritage of shit coaching, and early round drafting. The same players Singletary was shitting the bed with Harbaugh took to the NFC Championship.
Granted. Harbaugh is to be credited for player development surely. My point though is that the talent was there. The chances for making a delicious dinner are much higher when you have the best ingredients.
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
Lol get out of here dude
But Patrick Peterson is elite!
And when you have to pay Kaep his money in the offseason you won't be able to rely on that defense as much because you won't be able to afford all those players.
Check the stats.
You are absolutely delusional.
I don't ever want to remember the Big Nickel, what a disaster.
I said the same thing myself, I agree with this but our coaching staff made them who they are.
I was struck during the games how much Harbaugh and Belichick clowned Rivera and Pagano. Pagano should be catapulted into Cleveland for that punt down 21, or even the two early Vintieri FGs. Rivera just had no control of his players, and the offense wasting all that time on those drives was a joke.
How are those two teams going to win SBs when they have such a stupid coaching to overcome? I have issues with Fisher, but he's not a moron. That's always at least something. Watching Kubiak get outcoached by ham sandwiches makes you appreciate not stupid
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
Who can't we afford?
Pwill, bowman, brooks, the Mac, justin all signed long term. Rogers and brown gone oh well. Reid defensive rookie of my heart. Whitner likely gone. Aldon idk.
This is where great coaching comes in. I think we have the best defensive coaching staff in the league from top to bottom. Obviously starts with lord fangio but you've got tomsula and leavitt who are incredible position coaches as well. I am confident we will make it work.
This is why I told you years ago your team would be mediocre until Schwartz was fired. I hope you find your harbs brother
PhoenixDark
Banned
The Lions need a DE who can consistently pressure a QB. Suh had a great year but had very few sacks, largely because o-lines could hold him off long enough for the QB to get the ball out. Ansah had a good rookie season, but Willie Young is clearly backup material. Maybe a healthy Jason Jones will work next season, but I'd consider drafting either a ILB who can pressure (so we can cut Ashley Palmer) or another DT.
And obviously the secondary needs to get better. Not sold on Bentley. Slay has potential.
And obviously the secondary needs to get better. Not sold on Bentley. Slay has potential.
DeaconKnowledge
Member
I'm not as familiar with the inner working of your team as you, but when did the FO come on, with Harbaugh? I only ask because it's much, much easier to restock than it is to build.
Rivera took a nice step forward this season but he has a ton to learn if he actually wants his team to seriously contend. Pagano is clearly just riding the Luck train for as many stops as it'll take him. To his credit his Defense is playing way above their station, but I think that's his ceiling - a competent DC.
Our starting front 4 going into next year has all the chance in the world of becoming a top of the line group, with Ansah gaining more experience and hopefully a new coach pulling Willie Young's head out of his ass (or better yet Jason Jones, who was injured this entire season, comes back and just replaces Young wholesale). The linebackers, though, don't even come close to what the likes of San Francisco is putting out there. Levy had a good rookie year and was our best playmaking LB this year, but the rest of them all feel like "just guys" to me, nobody that opposing offenses really need to be wary of. This is part of why I've been hoping for the Lions to pick up a top-tier playmaking linebacker in the first or second round of the draft for three years now, and they never have. They're so essential for stopping long running gains and keeping the middle of the field protected in the short to intermediate passes. Outside of getting Levy in his first year as GM, Mayhew hasn't drafted any other young linebacking talent that's panned out and that makes me uncomfortable.
Gully State
Member
Not to mention we have depth/potential waiting in the wings with Lemonier, Dial, Carradine, and the big x factor in Okoye. I really hope Okoye pans out. For his size, dude is a once in a generation athlete.
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
The FO was mostly already there. Our previous GM scot "drunky" mcglouhlan was fired just before the draft and baalke had to fill in on short notice. We then fired singletary at years end and promoted baalke with our only request bring that he land harbaugh and he did just that. But he worked his way up through the organization and that is the right way to do it
Lee Chaolan
Member
Browns are gonna hire Munchak, aren't they =/