Opening night

Hazys

Hmm, not as high quality game as i would thought it would be.

Very little offense but it wasnt because of top class defense, defense was good, but this performance wont strike fear into the Saints and Vikings opponents for next week

eagle eye

Vikings wrote: »

That's a complete pass to me - I understand the second ruling on the field jumps ahead ofthe first ruling but there was no evidence there to show it was incomplete. Thems the breaks though. It's up to us now to put up 6

Its was a rough one alright. The rule is that there must be undisputable evidence to overturn the call on the field and there was time where the ball was not visible. Very unfortunate, I think it was a catch myself.

Vikings

That's the game barring a major surprise. Adrian ran the ball hard, a depleted defense put up a brave performance against one of the best offenses in the league. Just had no spark on offense, Brett didn't look to be on form hope it's not a sign for the rest of the season!

Oat23

Where's Jared Allen at? Roping cattle?

Royal Seahawk

Not a great game by any stretch of the imagination.
Good night.

Oat23

Ah, there's Jared. Finally got to touch Drew Brees when he was shaking his hand.

DonkeyPokerTour

Is it just me or is Bradlee Van Plet a complete pain in the a$$. Cant stand him. Please please please sky get rid of him!!!

Peyton Manning

DonkeyPokerTour wrote: »

Is it just me or is Bradlee Van Plet a complete pain in the a$$. Cant stand him. Please please please sky get rid of him!!!

Didn't think he was too bad, me and a mate were laughing our arses off everytime he turned to look at Nick. His turns are more of a real dramatic swoop. Maybe it was the joy of the NFL returning putting in a good mood though

Syferus

DonkeyPokerTour wrote: »

Is it just me or is Bradlee Van Plet a complete pain in the a$$. Cant stand him. Please please please sky get rid of him!!!

When the standard bearers are a basketball coach turned anchor, a NASCAR anchor turned american football analyst and a volleyball commentator turned football analyst, I think van Pelt at least has a deep background in the game - his father was a five-time pro bowl linebacker, even if he himself wasn't up to much in his NFL career.

What was most interesting was when the discussion turned ot Jay Culter for a second - van Pelt pretty much said what everyone suspected anyways, that he has a perchant for dropping his head and generally not being a particularly positive force on the team. I wish Kevin or Nick would have been sharper and pushed it a little further given van Pelt spent two years side-by-side with Cutler at the Broncos.

cooker3

DonkeyPokerTour wrote: »

Is it just me or is Bradlee Van Plet a complete pain in the a$$. Cant stand him. Please please please sky get rid of him!!!

I thought he was pretty decent.

Delighted with the result as a Packers fan. I wasn't impressed with the Vikings at all. Rices injury looks like it's a big blow as the WR were very poor throughout.

fisgon

DonkeyPokerTour wrote: »

Is it just me or is Bradlee Van Plet a complete pain in the a$$. Cant stand him. Please please please sky get rid of him!!!

I thought he was ok, beats Johnnie Mitchell any day! Though saddest shot of the night was when they showed him playing for that Leicester team, there were two men and a dog on the sideline, it looked like it was played in some public park, after him being an NFL QB, quite a comedown.

Game itself was a strange one..... 14-9 was an unusual score, what happened to the predicted shootout? Vikings Offense was v. mediocre, and I wouldn't be too scared of the Saints this year either. One good drive and the Vikes would have won that game, bad as they were.

Peyton Manning

I'd say the bookies made a killing on the overs, especially in running after it only took the Saints just over 2 minutes to get the first score.

Mr. Guappa

DonkeyPokerTour wrote: »

Is it just me or is Bradlee Van Plet a complete pain in the a$$. Cant stand him. Please please please sky get rid of him!!!

I thought he was decent.. far better than some of the others that Sky wheel out!

On the game itself, I thought that the Saints deserved their victory.. Hartley missed two handy FGs that would have put a more comfortable look on the result.

From the Vikings point of view: Favre looked good I thought, the timing was off with his receivers but that will come with more practice and game time. I'd be more worried about how the Saints were able to gain 5/6 yards a play every time they ran it down the middle in the 4th quarter.

DonkeyPokerTour

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

On the game itself, I thought that the Saints deserved their victory.. Hartley missed two handy FGs that would have put a more comfortable look on the result.

While I agree that the Saints deserved their victory, its total BS that "Hartley missed two handy FGs". 32yards, at an NFL level this should be a 90% plus kick and is quite a bad miss, but 46yards in any league and at any standard is no gimme. The FG percentage for most kickers outside of 40yards goes way down. Adam Vinatieri is 89.9% inside of 40yards, he's only 65.9% outside of 40. Nate Kaeding is 96.3% inside of 40yards, he's only 71.4% outside of 40yards. Even someone like Janikowski who would be considered to have a "Big Leg" drops off. Sebas is 92.6% inside of 40, 63.6% outside the 40, now I know the raiders trot him out for 76yard field goals that will mess up his average slightly but he's only 70.2% between 40 and 49 still a big drop. Kaeding is 72% between 40 and 49, while Vinatieri is 70.8% So as you can see their is a big drop off once u go outside of 40yards. A 96% kicker drop's to a 71% kicker.

As for Hartley himself its pretty difficult to read anything into his stats, as this is only his 3rd year in the league and in the previous two he has only played 13games combined. His stats going into this season were 22/24 in Field Goals made that's pretty damn impressive but its not a big enough sample to know his true average. So missing the 32yarder is poor but missing from 46yards is not uncommon even for the best kickers in the League.

Remember Kickers are people too!!!

Chucky the tree

DonkeyPokerTour wrote: »

While I agree that the Saints deserved their victory, its total BS that "Hartley missed two handy FGs". 32yards, at an NFL level this should be a 90% plus kick and is quite a bad miss, but 46yards in any league and at any standard is no gimme. The FG percentage for most kickers outside of 40yards goes way down. Adam Vinatieri is 89.9% inside of 40yards, he's only 65.9% outside of 40. Nate Kaeding is 96.3% inside of 40yards, he's only 71.4% outside of 40yards. Even someone like Janikowski who would be considered to have a "Big Leg" drops off. Sebas is 92.6% inside of 40, 63.6% outside the 40, now I know the raiders trot him out for 76yard field goals that will mess up his average slightly but he's only 70.2% between 40 and 49 still a big drop. Kaeding is 72% between 40 and 49, while Vinatieri is 70.8% So as you can see their is a big drop off once u go outside of 40yards. A 96% kicker drop's to a 71% kicker.

As for Hartley himself its pretty difficult to read anything into his stats, as this is only his 3rd year in the league and in the previous two he has only played 13games combined. His stats going into this season were 22/24 in Field Goals made that's pretty damn impressive but its not a big enough sample to know his true average. So missing the 32yarder is poor but missing from 46yards is not uncommon even for the best kickers in the League.

Remember Kickers are people too!!!

What are their percentages from 40-49? I'd say there a lot higher then 70% and the reason the stats drop off is because of attempts from 50+ yards. 46 yards indoors should be a fairly easy kick for an nfl kicker. Janokowski was 90% from 40-49 last year, Vinetari was 100%, Keading was 75%. Last season 19 out of the listed 36 kickers were 80% or more from 40-49 yards.