NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Exactly.I agree.

BUT, I am talking about IF they lose this game, and that it'd be the 3rd loss in a row regardless who the opponent is.

 

At this point, what difference does it make?

 

I know it would be three in a row - I'm actually still capable of counting that high without using my fingers.

I'm saying the Cowboys have issues already, regardless of what happens against the Jets. A 34-10 win isn't going to white-wash what happened against Green Bay.

 

It's all we have to go by at this point.

 

The thing is...the quality of the opponent doesn't rule out saying your team played poorly. Nor does saying they played poorly remove credit from the winning team.

If the Bears played the Patriots on Sunday (An obviously superior opponent) and they lost that wouldn't mean I couldn't say they played poorly if in fact they did.

Depends on what you say and how you say it.

If you say the refs got a call wrong or missed a call....then you're factually accurate. They did. And saying that wouldn't make you a bad sport.

If you say that's the only reason the Saints lost...you're wrong.

If you say the NFL cheated...you're a sore loser.

 

There's a difference between saying your team played poorly....and whining.

 

Good for you but the number doesn't matter...3, 4, 6....I said it was regardless who the opponent is.

What if the sequence of opponents were different, and Dallas lost to the Saints and Packers first and then beat the soso Giants and winless Redskins and Dolphins? Would you still look back on the most recent 3 as still having issues? Someone said Aaron Rodgers is unbeaten in AT&T, maybe there's something to that...or not.

 

It doesn't matter what the number is - if you've play poorly, you've played poorly. Doesn't matter if it's against the Patriots or the Dolphins. You might get away with a poor performance against Miami, but it still doesn't cover-up the fact you didn't play well.

Doesn't matter one iota to me what order the games fell. A bad performance is a bad performance. I'd STILL need to wait and see if they were able to fix issues and avoid poor play against a better opponent.

And I don't care that Aaron Rodgers is unbeaten in AT&T. He's not UNBEATABLE, and - for once - he wasn't the reason Dallas lost to the Pack.

 

I try very hard (and sometimes I fail) to boil things down to objective (measurable) data.

• Did a team win or lose?
• How many points did they score vs how many did they allow?
• Did they give the ball away on offense or did they take it away on defense?

Obviously, all three of those things can be (and are) influenced by the "quality" of their opponents. The farther into a season we go, the more objective data there is by which to draw a conclusion.

 

Why even complain about the performance in the first place. Other than a tie, only one team is going to win.
When the Saints lost 13-10 to Dallas did I ever say the Saints played a poor performance? Did I even talk about performance at all? No. I gave credit to Dallas for playing the better game, and I detest them almost as much as I do the Bears. Heck I remember one game years ago that the Saints racked up 600 yards on the Bengals and still got routed.

Agreed.

If my team was beaten by a quality team, and I resorted to pointing to poor performance by my team, I would say I'm whining, in comparison to elsewise saying the other team played a better game.

 

Because we are fans and that is what fans do.

No idea. You and I didn't hang out that day. Or any day before or after that.

So....you've a fan of the Saints since 19xx....insert the year I know it's been a long time.

Are you gonna tell me that not once in your lifetime you've ever complained about the Saints playing poorly? Not once?

The Bears lost to an inferior opponent this past Sunday.

I have a laundry list of complaints from that game. From the play of the O-line to the poor effort made by the defense to some bad decisions made by the QB. None of that is whining...it's pointing out what actually happened and complaining about it. That's what fans do.

Did the Raiders play a better game? Yes. They weren't perfect either and made some massive mistakes but overall they definitely played better. But saying that doesn't disallow me from saying the Bears played poorly. Both can be true because both are true.

 

If my team had lost to a quality opponent and played well, I wouldn't say a word other than to tip my hat to the team that beat mine.

If my team lost to a quality opponent and played poorly in the process, I have no problem stating my team crapped the bed. It's not whining - it's pointing out a fact.

Green Bay played well; Dallas played poorly. Not sure what you're missing here.

 

You missed the Clinton pun

 

Obviously I didn't see the Dallas/Saints game the same way as you did. I saw high insensity on both sides, either could win. There was good defense on both sides of the ball. Ted got 2 TDs against Seattle and 4 against Tampa but zero against the Cowboys. On the other side, Dak was denied getting a TD at all also.
Which would I weigh heavier, the win or the performance. It was a good game. Last year's game was a good game.

Same thing with Dallas over Miami, Miami looked good in the first half, not so much afterward. But which would you weigh heavier on..your win or the performance?

 

Simply that Green Bay had something to do with that, and played the better game.

 

Here's an example:

Virtually everyone on the planet says the Patriots are the best team in the NFL. They very well could be, but, the data doesn't support that.

• They're tied for the best winning percentage (with the 49ers).
• They're tied for the best Turnover Differential (with the Packers).
• And they have the best Scoring Differential per game in the NFL (+24.2)

The problem is - their opponents winning percentage (in games not involving the Patriots) is a paltry 0.278. Dead last in the league!

 

I'm referring more to the Green Bay game than the Saints game, although Dallas' offensive line played poorly against New Orleans.

Re: win v performance - I'm happy to take a win, I'm never happy with a loss, but I ALWAYS look at my team's performance. Did they play poorly and get a fortunate bounce? Did they play poorly and get away with it because they played a significantly inferior opponent? Then I have concerns and I'll voice them, despite the win.

 

"Something" being the operative word. Still doesn't take away from the fact Dallas played poorly the first 40+ minutes of the game.

 

I keep harping on the phrase; "On Any Given Sunday", because all the stats, data and such can and a lot of times does, go out the window. That's why they play the games!

There are many measuring sticks and standards to compare teams to and stats can and most of the time are manipulated in an attempt to prove a certain point, sometimes based on a personal opinion... Power Rankings are a prime example.

Never the less, I believe a fan can make an assumption that a team played poorly, based solely on what was witnessed, regardless of the final outcome on the scoreboard or the stats column.

 

Handshakegate will come to a close.