Okay, so the millionaires fighting amongst each other finally decided how to divvy up their ridiculous earnings amongst themselves in time so that we wouldn't be bored on Sundays come the turn of autumn. Feel free to talk anything about the league. Further, we will also be running
THE OFFICIAL TK FOOTBALL POOL in this thread once the regular season gets underway. This year we will keep score. Winner gets a pat on the back and a signature banner.
Let us look forward to the season!
OFFICIAL TK NFL POOL PARTICIPANTSDiverWeek 1 - 9/16
Week 2 - 9/16
Week 3 - 12/16
Week 4 - 9/16
Week 5 - 9/13
Week 6 - 7/13
Week 7 - 8/13
Week 8 - 9/13
FamiliarWeek 1 - 1/16
Week 2 - 10/16
Week 3 - 6/16
Week 4 - 8/16
Week 5 - 5/13
Week 6 - 6/13
Week 7 - 7/13
Week 8 - 7/13
Week 9 - 0/14
RoctodWeek 1 - 0/16
Week 2 - 10/16
Week 3 - 11/16
Week 4 - 13/16
Week 5 - 8/13
Week 6 - 8/13
Week 7 - 7/13
Week 8 - 10/13
SojaWeek 1 - 8/16
Week 2 - 12/16
Week 3 - 11/16
Week 4 - 11/16
Week 5 - 7/13
Week 6 - 9/13
Week 7 - 5/13
Week 8 - 9/13
The TurtleWeek 1 - 7/16
Week 2 - 9/16
Week 3 - 7/16
Week 4 - 11/16
Week 5 - 7/13
Week 6 - 7/13
Week 7 - 4/13
Week 8 - 9/13
Week 9 - 0/14
Thursday, November 24th
Green Bay @ Detroit
Miami @ Dallas
San Francisco @ Baltimore
Sunday, November 27th
Minnesota @ Atlanta
Carolina @ Indianapolis
Cleveland @ Cincinnati
Buffalo @ New York Jets
Houston @ Jacksonville
Tampa Bay @ Tennessee
Arizona @ St. Louis
Washington @ Seattle
Chicago @ Oakland
New England @ Philadelphia
Denver @ San Diego
Pittsburgh @ Kansas City
Monday, November 28th
New York Giants @ New Orleans
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Week 1 Summary - It was a highly unpredictable opening weekend. We saw a handful of upsets that were not just upsets but blowouts. While Indy's routing at the horns of Houston was foreseeable, most prolific among these was Buffalo @ Kansas City, where the Bills traveled halfway across the country and handed last year's AFC West Champions an unprecedented beatdown in their own house. The Patriots put up ridiculous numbers, the Titans show the world what happens when everyone on the team has only been playing together for a few weeks, Rex Grossman is suddenly a pro-bowl level QB, and Tony Romo chokes away a game in the fourth quarter. We're in for one long 2011 season, folks.
Week 2 Summary - Though the matchups were generally more predictable than they were last week, there was still plenty of craziness to be had. The Colts are off to their worst NFL start in over a decade, insomuch that even Tony Dungy has no hope for this season; Rex Grossman and Cam Newton continued putting up ridiculous numbers, and not least of all the Titans pulled off a massive and convincing upset against Baltimore. Tony Romo also played with the heart of a champion, leading the Cowboys to an overtime win against the 49ers, and he did so
with a punctured lung. Love or hate there has to be some respect for his toughness there. Both Romo and Michael Vick, who suffered a concussion against Atlanta, could be out for a considerable amount of time with their injuries, which shakes things up quite a bit in the NFC. Oh, and Tim Tebow is now playing WR for the Broncos.
Week 3 Summary - Oh the ugliness. As many teams now are plagued by injuries, some of the games were downright brutal. The season continues to be stranger than fiction, as several high-level upsets occurred. Not the least among these is the end of the Patriots' 15 game winning streak over the Bills, who managed to overcome a 21 point deficit to defeat the Pats with a last minute field goal. Grit was the word of the week as the Raiders repeatedly victimized poor play decisions by the Jets and capitalized with their increasingly serious running game, and as Tony Romo on Monday Night Football singlehandedly carried the Cowboys' offense to victory. Among the surprises of the week, the Steelers and the Redskins played poorly against their respective opponents despite the Steelers winning their game. Kerry Collins is likely out for a while due to a concussion, which ushers in the much dreaded Curtis Painter era of Colts football. The Titans are likely out of playoff contention with Kenny Britt done for the season, and Michael Vick could see a possible return in the coming week or two since his hand is not broken but rather bruised.
Week 4 Summary - Overall it was a fairly unremarkable week, unless you're a Chiefs fan—they got their first win of the season! There is a whole marquee of potential game changer injuries, however: Eric Foster (Indy), Andre Johnson (Houston), Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh), and Chad Henne (Miami) are the big names among dozens others. Eric Foster's injury was particularly gruesome and I'm sure the hopes and prayers of the football community are with him. Another tragedy of particular note was the death of Mike Heimerdinger, former offensive coordinator of the Jets and, most lately, the Titans. He died from his affliction with cancer this past Friday. We will keep his family in our thoughts as well as we go forward this season.
Week 5 Summary - There is a saying in the NFL—"Any given week." What this means is that anything can happen, any week, even to those who are least expecting it. Being a bye week, there were significantly fewer games than usual, but those that were went unexpectedly. Green Bay seemed out of sorts in the first half of its game against Atlanta as they went into the half trailing for the first time in the season. However, they managed to come back, which was not the case for the Bills or the "youngry" Bucs, the latter whom were destroyed by San Francisco in a 3-48 routing. Speaking of routs, one happened to the Titans at Heinz Field. The offense completely fell apart and it was like Tennessee never had a secondary. TEN @ PIT was a particularly bizarre game in a bizarre week. Overall, it has not been a good time for the AFC South, as no one from that division won this week. Detroit on the other hand performed magnificently in their first Monday Night showing for years, and for the first time in half a century the Lions are 5-0 on the season. To put it into perspective,
my own mother was just learning to crawl the last time that happened.
Week 6 Summary - The bleeding didn't stop for some teams this week. About this time of year is when some of the fast starts start to fizzle out. Particularly of note, however, is how imbalanced the win/loss ratio between teams is. According to one of my colleagues, there are no less than eight teams in the league right now that have one win or less. That means that a full one-fourth of the league has one or zero wins. It shows, as some of the divisions are snorefests these days.
Week 7 Summary - TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW
Week 8 Summary - TEBOW TEBOW TEB--ow?
Week 9 Summary - bluhhh
Week 10 Summary - First Thursday night game since the opener showed the ugly truth about the Chargers—they are a bad team, whereas the Raiders are being driven by the ghost of Al Davis or something. Whatever the case, they have demonstrated depth to their roster and will likely take the AFC West title easily. Speaking of playoff runs, Baltimore continues to ruin their playoff chances by once again handing the AFC North lead to Pittsburgh by losing to a terrible team, as they do year after year, and the Colts are now headlining the Suck For Luck campaign full-time. The question is... will they make a run at perfection, but of a different sort? Or will Coach Caldwell blow it yet again and possibly miss out on the hottest prospect out of college since, well, Peyton Manning himself?
