2019 Opponents
 

Home:
Titans, Jaguars, Colts, Falcons, Panthers, Broncos, Raiders, Patriots

Away:
Titans, Jaguars, Colts, Bucs, Saints, Chargers, Chiefs, Ravens

Cool. Pats at home next year for a change.

Eh, but Mahomes, Brees, Rivers, Luck and the new darling of the NFL (and mayor of Baltimore) Lamar Jackson on the road.....

I want to see Lamar Jackson after an offseason for the league to adjust to a QB that runs 20Xs a game. He can't throw it and teams will scheme a way to make him. Not to mention he is basically 2017 Blake Bortles winning 17-13 games with the league's top defense.

Right. I'm going to worry about Lamar Jackson once he's shown me that he is an NFL QB. As much as I like watching him play, he doesn't concern me at all.

What interests me, though, is whether the Chargers and the Saints can continue this year's success next year. The Chiefs are going to be really good for a while, but of course their coach is Andy Reid and he is more than adept at finding ways to screw things up.

First blush, that looks like 10-6 (potential losses to NE, IND, KC, NO, SD, BAL). Of course, they'll win a few upsets but they'll also screw up a few easy opponents too). All this presumes Watson and Hopkins stay healthy and we get some studs for the OL.

There's a good chance that we will have one away game in an international location. Five teams (Jacksonville, Oakland, Tampa Bay, Chargers and Rams) have agreed to host an international game (i.e. London or Mexico City) in 2019 and the Texans have three (Jaguars, Chargers, Buccaneers) on their road schedule. The Raiders are on the home docket so they won't be a candidate.

Of course we all remember the Texans debacle in Mexico City a few years ago where the refs were fed tequila until they couldn't see straight. And didn't one of the Texans get robbed off the field too?

Well, you now have a passport after all these years, Buford, so maybe you can go to one of these international games and see the Texans play in person for once, after all these years, Buford.

Feliz ano, by the way.

Feliz nuevo ano to you too. I have no desire to fly to Londonabad and little reason to fly to Mexico City. Seeing a game against the Saints in New Orleans sounds interesting though. Good cajun food is always a plus.

We could always set up a Deshaun Watson Annual Bus Trip to J-ville. That would be a great promotion.

That's a damn good idea! You know, I've been to Skynyrdville to see games many times, and although it is not the liveliest of the NFL cities (nor is it the least lively...), it's not a horrible place to weekend. There are always tons of Texans fans at the game (if you care about that), and since they overhauled the stadium I have to say that it is a perfectly enjoyable facility.

If the Chargers are still playing in that soccer stadium next year that might be a trip worth taking. I'd kind of like to see an NFL game in a high school sized venue.

That's it, I knew the Chuckster would step up on this and with his Learjet (or Gulfstream, I forget what he's flying these days, he trades them nearly every year you know), but the IntheBullseye crowd could go into that rinky-dink stadium and take over as if we owned it.

The Ravens scored 2 points per game more with Jackson then they did with the terrible Joe Flacco. Their defense was just hot and they won games that Jackson started. It always amazes me that mediocre QB play on a winning team is cheered but mediocre defense on a good team is mocked. Nobody says the Chiefs defense is great and "winners" for winning games 42-38, but QBs get credit for 17-13 wins. Jackson beat 1 playoff team this year and it was when his defense held the chargers to 10 points in week 16. Today that defense gave up 23 and they lost. The offense was about the same in each game.

So yes, I agree, I fear the Ravens defense like I fear the Jags, and I fear Jackson about like I feared Bortles when they made the AFC championship game.

That's a pretty apt comparison, Bortles and the Jags in their 'heyday.' Although I always knew that Bortles was showing us his ceiling. I would like to think Jackson can and will improve because I like him as a guy and I'd like to see him play well. But who knows, maybe we're seeing his ceiling now too.

Oh, nunu, you're invited to fly with me any time. I get some of the boys to put a hose on her and she cleans up real nice:

http://www.askthepilot.com/wp-conten...ak40atROB1.jpg

The flight attendants that come with the charter can be a little abusive, sadly, and I do hope you enjoy potted meat and hot mustard.

I think Jackson obviously has a much higher ceiling, but at this point he is a guy who can run who they are willing to use up physically. Bortles' NFL QB traits stopped at looking good in shorts. Jackson has obvious athleticism, a solid arm, and a good deep ball. But right now he is a guy who is dangerous in low scoring games but is worthless when a team falls behind early (like the Ravens did yesterday). Next year will bring adjustments to Jackson (like this year brought to Wentz and Watson), and Jackson will need to show something more than occupying the backside end to allow Baltimore to rush for 200 yards a game. He will need to show he can throw the ball. He never showed that in college where he hit deep balls on bad teams and got crushed by any decent defense.

Apparently Buford gets his wish, Texans at Jags in London.

Eight miles high.....

Not *MY* wish. I hate 8 a.m. kickoffs. Interesting how a lot of churches in Hawaii switched to evening services because morning services conflicted with NFL coverage. ;)

Mormons are flexible. We've seen that down through the years.

Saw this comment on the thread about the conference championship officiating debacles:

"The NFL tried once to have an all-female officiating crew but they had to scrap the idea because the women kept throwing flags over plays that happened years ago."

Even I can admit that that's kind of funny. Maybe because I'm married.

I used to think that the NFL was by far the best officiated major sports league. And I'm pretty sure it was. How things change. The MLB umpiring brotherhood is full of entitled dickheads who get a laughable number of close plays wrong never mind their consistently terrible strike zones never mind complete flustercucks like Joe West a couple of months ago. There is no accountability and no real appetite to bring more technology to the way the game is umpired, and that I think is a mistake.

The NBA is flat out rigged. How anyone can watch it is beyond me.

The NFL, well, yesterday we saw the best of the league in terms of the excitement of the games (reminding me why I love that weekend so much), and we saw the worst of the officiating. I don't know how you fix this. Do you give teams the ability to challenge every fking thing? Maybe. I don't know. The problem is, half the time when it gets looked at New York makes the wrong call anyway. The officiating is having a serious, negative impact on my enjoyment of the games, and I am certain I'm not alone in this. But again, I don't know how you solve this.

My eyes were opened the year the media went on this meme about Jerome Bettis retiring with a Super Bowl ring in his hometown of Detroit then the Steelers received the most one-sided officiating in the Super Bowl I've ever seen in my life. I'm no Seahawks fan but they were so totally shafted that day even the referee for that game later admitted that "it seemed" Pittsburgh had an unfair advantage.

The last straw was when Hasselback was picked off then ran over and made the tackle so the refs flew the flag at Hasselback for going low to make the tackle. First and only time I have EVER seen such a call.

Oh, well. You may enjoy this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPxrUBCX3nI

Meaningless Browns game where the Cleveland back fumbles and pops right up with the football, holds it high in the air and the refs, including the First Female ref, dig into the pile and decide it is Washington's ball.

That's hilarious not so much for the officiating blunder but for what it says about the Browns' organizational ineptitude writ large. Or, maybe, writ small.

Let me get this straight. Your guy is standing there with the ball in his hand, his teammates pointing at him, the referees giving the ball to the other team, and you guys do what? Nothing? Challenge? No? Want to save those time outs? Good. Nice one.

Didya see the play where it looked like Edelman muffed the punt? Watching it live, I thought "muff". I thought it hit his hands and nicked his bicep. Yet, when replay showed the different angles, there was nothing conclusive with the ball hitting his hands. The announcers (and I don't think New York) really didn't pursue the bicep angle, though...

It was like a magic trick - sleight of hand, an illusion..... Sometimes there are exceptions....

What can be done about missed calls? JJ Watt should get holding calls at least a few times per game....