Breaking Down the NFC North, 2024

[Magooch]

(Do note I pulled a few numbers as I couldn't find a per-game breakdown for all stats last season. Also worth noting this only includes regular season at this time. I suspect postseason would change things too)

 

[OldSchool101]

oh my gosh. Love how SF49ers came out beating on Detroit. Juan Jennings ran that Detroit DB into the parking lot!! That little Detroit DB got abused

This is more about just being physical imo. SF isn’t taking any idle threats they just set tone big time

 

[Firethorn1001]

Triple edit : I'm not an idiot....

Not sure I'd take much out of the 49ers game. For Detroit its a meaningless game

Can't say I remember a second to last game meaning absolutely nothing for a team, but the last week meaning everything.


Edit: I will say if they are trying and they lose this game and they lose next week to the Vikings.. they might be done in round 1 of the playoffs.

 

[OldSchool101]

Not sure I'd take much out of the 49ers game. For Detroit its a meaningless game

Can't say I remember a second to last game meaning absolutely nothing for a team, but the last week meaning everything.

huh. The calculator says they are in line for a #1 Seed.
Detroit plays Minnesota for the #1 Seed next week. This game is critical

 

[Firethorn1001]

huh. The calculator says they are in line for a #1 Seed.

Ugh. Duh on me.

I was thinking next week was the winner takes #1 regardless of this game. Forgot that if Detroit wins tonight they clinch...

 

[rmontro]

huh. The calculator says they are in line for a #1 Seed.
Detroit plays Minnesota for the #1 Seed next week. This game is critical

But that's the case whether Detroit wins tonight or not, isn't it?

 

[rmontro]

But that's the case whether Detroit wins tonight or not, isn't it?

Oops, never mind.

 

[rmontro]

Oops, never mind.

Wait, isn't it?

 

[Firethorn1001]

But that's the case whether Detroit wins tonight or not, isn't it?

Darn it.. I was right.

 

[Firethorn1001]

Wait, isn't it?

I even got myself twisted.

It does all come down to next week's game regardless of this one. Only way this game matters is if MN-DET tie. So, this game is relatively meaningless.

 

[OldSchool101]

But that's the case whether Detroit wins tonight or not, isn't it?

No my bad I plugged it in Detroit need only win the last game. My fault

I even got myself twisted.

It does all come down to next week's game regardless of this one. Only way this game matters is if MN-DET tie. So, this game is relatively meaningless.

yeah you’re right. I thought they had to Win tonight.

 

[GreenBaySlacker]

Nice stop by 49ers. They're beating the lions at their own game right now.

Detroits defense is really struggling. Or I should say their 2nd string defense is struggling

 

[DoURant]

No my bad I plugged it in Detroit need only win the last game. My fault

yeah you’re right. I thought they had to Win tonight.

Whomever wins next week wins the North. Not sure if the Eagles have a tiebreaker on either team though. If the Lions lose tonight, and beat Vikings next week, plus the Eagles win next week, all 3 teams would be 14-3.

 

[OldSchool101]

Yeah it looks like #1 goes to the Lions or Vikings.

We will likely play Philly. Unless Dallas upsets Washington next week + we beat da Bears then wed go to the Rams

 

[rmontro]

Lions are up right now. I find myself wanting the 49ers to win, even though I hate them too. Honestly, if one of our rivals had to win the Super Bowl, I would prefer it to be the Lions instead of the Vikings. I hate all of them though lol.

 

[DoURant]

Lions are up right now. I find myself wanting the 49ers to win, even though I hate them too. Honestly, if one of our rivals had to win the Super Bowl, I would prefer it to be the Lions instead of the Vikings. I hate all of them though lol.

That last 57 yd FG from Bates hit the netting, and was still halfway up the goalpost... that would have been good from 70.... man that guy has a leg

 

[milani]

Lions are up right now. I find myself wanting the 49ers to win, even though I hate them too. Honestly, if one of our rivals had to win the Super Bowl, I would prefer it to be the Lions instead of the Vikings. I hate all of them though lol.

The one team in the NFC playoffs that I have the least of animosity is Washington. That may be because we do not seem to play them much and won't in the postseason. Winning that 48-47 game way back still puts a smile on my face.

 

[tahoebum]

Jordan Love isn’t Goff or Darnold this season. But he’s very respectable.

12th yards per game passing
6th TD/gm (tied Josh Allen)
13th INT/gm
5th QB rating
13th Passer rating
5th Avg/yds (3 way tie at 8.0)
25th Comp% (10 game min)

He is very respectable, but not a top 10 quarterback. PFF had him ranked 12th for 2023 and 15th so far this season. His play so far in his career will never put him in contention for MVP. Rodgers won MVP 3 times and Favre also won it. We have to adjust to the fact that unless Love improves a lot, he is not an elite QB like we were spoiled with for 30 continuous years. Along with elite coaching, Elite QB play is often the secret sauce that allow teams to get to the big game and win it. 9 of the last 10 were won by Brady, Mahomes, and Stafford. It’s difficult for us fans to be objective when evaluating our own talent but it should be fairly obvious that Love is not(yet) at that level and Rodgers and Favre were. They are both first ballot HOF, Love is not getting to Canton unless he makes a giant leap forward with his play.

 

[milani]

He is very respectable, but not a top 10 quarterback. PFF had him ranked 12th for 2023 and 15th so far this season. His play so far in his career will never put him in contention for MVP. Rodgers won MVP 3 times and Favre also won it. We have to adjust to the fact that unless Love improves a lot, he is not an elite QB like we were spoiled with for 30 continuous years. Along with elite coaching, Elite QB play is often the secret sauce that allow teams to get to the big game and win it. 9 of the last 10 were won by Brady, Mahomes, and Stafford. It’s difficult for us fans to be objective when evaluating our own talent but it should be fairly obvious that Love is not(yet) at that level and Rodgers and Favre were. They are both first ballot HOF, Love is not getting to Canton unless he makes a giant leap forward with his play.

It is his second year as a starter. The next 2 seasons will be the measure if he has a decent team around him. Where were Goff and Darnold or even Stafford at that point in their careers? Favre showed a significant improvement in 1994-95 than he did in 1992-1993 thanks to Holmgren and Wolf building a team around him. But when Favre really displayed his skill was after Sterling Sharpe was forced to retire. Love needs to develop a strong rapport with these young receivers he has had for 2 years so that they are on the same page. Rodgers was spoiled with the weapons he had in his first 5-6 seasons.

 

[tynimiller]

He is very respectable, but not a top 10 quarterback. PFF had him ranked 12th for 2023 and 15th so far this season. His play so far in his career will never put him in contention for MVP. Rodgers won MVP 3 times and Favre also won it. We have to adjust to the fact that unless Love improves a lot, he is not an elite QB like we were spoiled with for 30 continuous years. Along with elite coaching, Elite QB play is often the secret sauce that allow teams to get to the big game and win it. 9 of the last 10 were won by Brady, Mahomes, and Stafford. It’s difficult for us fans to be objective when evaluating our own talent but it should be fairly obvious that Love is not(yet) at that level and Rodgers and Favre were. They are both first ballot HOF, Love is not getting to Canton unless he makes a giant leap forward with his play.

Couple things...first the oddity of bringing up he is not elite and correlating that to MVPs is odd...only Eleven players can say they won the MVP and the Super Bowl in the same season...and since 2000 it has happened one time (Patrick Mahomes 2022). This means all but once in the last two plus decades a non-MVP QB has led their teams to a SB win....so who cares about that, reasonably at least. The crazy thing is folks

Also we've all discussed this but I don't recognize your name so likely haven't seen all the discussions, but so you blindly take PFF grading for overall offense as the supreme ranking mechanism?

If you do this, let's just look at the passing grades...PFF would say that Goff is the 15th ranked QB while Love at 11th, Derek Carr at 4th and Herbert at 3rd everyone with a football brain would say are not having a better year than Goff this year when it comes to passing - dude is ELITE this year.

Love, despite his early season issues while playing injured - sits at 13th for QB Rate rankings and 5th at QBR. This is before we get into advanced statistics which some would also point towards Love being a Top 10 QB this year. Plain and simple second half the year Love has been lights out, and has illustrated to everyone he can easily be a top 10 QB in this league and many would tell you he already is.

If starting a franchise right now I'd bet there is likely very very few people that would rank him outside the Top10 for picking QBs if in a fantasy type redraft of the whole league....Lamar, Mahomes, Burrow and Allen are likely the three clear guys - but after that you have a cluster of younger or older guys that you have to weight the how long vs how much more type discussion - Goff, Herbert, Hurts, Love likely the group - folks may toss in others but still.

 

[tahoebum]

Couple things...first the oddity of bringing up he is not elite and correlating that to MVPs is odd...only Eleven players can say they won the MVP and the Super Bowl in the same season...and since 2000 it has happened one time (Patrick Mahomes 2022). This means all but once in the last two plus decades a non-MVP QB has led their teams to a SB win....so who cares about that, reasonably at least. The crazy thing is folks

Also we've all discussed this but I don't recognize your name so likely haven't seen all the discussions, but so you blindly take PFF grading for overall offense as the supreme ranking mechanism?

If you do this, let's just look at the passing grades...PFF would say that Goff is the 15th ranked QB while Love at 11th, Derek Carr at 4th and Herbert at 3rd everyone with a football brain would say are not having a better year than Goff this year when it comes to passing - dude is ELITE this year.

Love, despite his early season issues while playing injured - sits at 13th for QB Rate rankings and 5th at QBR. This is before we get into advanced statistics which some would also point towards Love being a Top 10 QB this year. Plain and simple second half the year Love has been lights out, and has illustrated to everyone he can easily be a top 10 QB in this league and many would tell you he already is.

If starting a franchise right now I'd bet there is likely very very few people that would rank him outside the Top10 for picking QBs if in a fantasy type redraft of the whole league....Lamar, Mahomes, Burrow and Allen are likely the three clear guys - but after that you have a cluster of younger or older guys that you have to weight the how long vs how much more type discussion - Goff, Herbert, Hurts, Love likely the group - folks may toss in others but still.

My main point is we may need to reset our expectations after enjoying two very elite QBs for three decades. Elite QB’s can make up for a lot of shortcomings on the rest of the team. Stats can deceive but Pro Bowls are another way of looking at what I mean by elite. The Pack had two of the best ever and Love may or may not develop to a Rodgers or Favre level. Right now he has not shown that he should be in the MVP conversation and he has not yet been voted to the Pro Bowl. I‘m not saying he can’t get there.

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[tynimiller]

My main point is we may need to reset our expectations after enjoying two very elite QBs for three decades. Elite QB’s can make up for a lot of shortcomings on the rest of the team. Stats can deceive but Pro Bowls are another way of looking at what I mean by elite. The Pack had two of the best ever and Love may or may not develop to a Rodgers or Favre level.

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Keep widening the goal posts...but still I don't care or need a pro bowler - how many Super Bowls did Moon win? How many did Marino win?

I have yet to see any credible and knowledgeable football person or fan state that Love is the third coming first ballot HOFer...only a fool would declare this to be the case this soon. The man hasn't even been the starter for two complete seasons yet.

 

[tahoebum]

Keep widening the goal posts...but still I don't care or need a pro bowler - how many Super Bowls did Moon win? How many did Marino win?

I have yet to see any credible and knowledgeable football person or fan state that Love is the third coming first ballot HOFer...only a fool would declare this to be the case this soon. The man hasn't even been the starter for two complete seasons yet.

Maybe I’m not high on him because his play was better/more consistent the last half of 2023. Seeing him with only 64 passing yards at the end of the 3rd quarter against the Vikings is frustrating because he showed late in the game that he can play at an elite level after looking confused and a bit rattled earlier int he game. Guys like Josh Allen, Burrow, or even Jayden Daniels make mistakes but don’t look rattled for an entire quarter or half. Love needs to show better consistency for the entire game, IMO. Likely, I’m being to critical of him.

 

[tynimiller]

Maybe I’m not high on him because his play was better/more consistent the last half of 2023. Seeing him with only 64 passing yards at the end of the 3rd quarter against the Vikings is frustrating because he showed late in the game that he can play at an elite level after looking confused and a bit rattled earlier int he game. Guys like Josh Allen, Burrow, or even Jayden Daniels make mistakes but don’t look rattled for an entire quarter or half. Love needs to show better consistency for the entire game, IMO. Likely, I’m being to critical of him.

I take it you haven't watched a lot of Allen and a few games of Daniels.

Shoot just this year alone Allen in week 5 needed essentially the entire game to get more than 69 yards...he ended 9 of 30 and only 131 yards...since you like PFF his grade that day overall was 48.1 which was only helped by his run grade, but his passing grade was worst at 37.7. For note Love had his worse pass grade this year that same week at 40.1 and overall of 44.3.

Check out Burrow's game this year against the Browns...their entire team only had 86 yards TOTAL (run and pass) at the half. He ended the game 15 of 25 for 181 yards.

Allen also was on struggle bus in Week 16 vs New England going 16 of 29 for only 154 yards as well.

Daniels is having IMO one of the cleanest rookie quarterback seasons in a while and I love the young man...but look to their game against the Eagles...by halftime the team only had 114 net yards....they had a last drive of 70 yards to help him push his game figures to 22 of 32 for 191 yards.

Since the yardage production was brought up by you...this might shock you as it shocked me somewhat as well. Games under 200 yards through the air for guys:

Love - 4 games (crazy thing is the Jaguar game where Willis played half the game Love already had 196 and that is one of the four listed)
Allen - 6 games
Daniels - 3 games
Burrow - 2 games



I think it is fair and reasonable to state Love isn't in the upper tier of QBs in the league atm - arguably depending where your tier break is it is also reasonable to state he is. Either way I think you might just be far too critical on him (which you admit is likely) merely because as GB fans we expect ELITE performance because way above the average we have seen it for now nearly three decades is all.

EVEN if Love only ever is what he is, that a QB better than 2/3s of the league he plays in - which the fact we have that is insane for the third time in a row.

 

[OldSchool101]

The one team in the NFC playoffs that I have the least of animosity is Washington. That may be because we do not seem to play them much and won't in the postseason. Winning that 48-47 game way back still puts a smile on my face.

I can truthfully say I watched that game live. It was amazing. I also remember a Rams game around that time that I was literally on my knees praying they’d miss a chip shot FG against us. I mean like a 25 yarder (back in the later 70’s-80’s?) THEY MISSED! We won that game!!

But I’m ok either way with Washington. Other than the wokeness owner that nobody there liked. I moved to VA in 1990 and lived there for 24 years. Always kinda supported the Skins because several friends of our family were Washington fans (also X Military and just humble, good folks) and would come over and watch Packer games with us and support GB.

For a period the Redskins practiced in Richmond VA behind the Science Museum. So I would go and watch them from beyond the fence. Got to watch Cousins and RG3 in action. I once went to a Cowboys vs Redskins game at FedEx with a good friend which is a diehard Cowboys fan. When I showed up at his house to pick him up I was decked in FULL Redskins gear’. You should’ve seen the look of disgust on his face!!
I still have some of that Redskins gear so in a weird way it made me a fan by default. They are my 3rd team! Lol

Plus I LOVE Joe Theisman. That guy is so cool. Love his interviews he’s really good guy.