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I agree. As players get bigger, faster, and stronger, every aspect of the game favors defenses. People love to complain about how the rules today "favor the offense", but if they hadn't evolved to this point, we'd be seeing mostly 10-6 games.
Yep.
Edit: Four days ago he said "it truly is a "significant" concussion" and now he's saying it never was. Which is it Mike?
Harvey's did you have breakfast with Bob McGinn this morning?
OL not important anymore
ha. nope.
but the packers and bears are 14-5 between them and their offensive lines are bad.
In re: to offensive line play, seems to me the best teams still got it. To my untrained eye all of the AFC title contenders have very good o-line play.
Year OL DL Top 102012 4 10 1 - 0
2011 8 12 1 - 2
2010 6 9 2 - 3
2009 6 6 3 - 2
Just from eyeballing the first round drafts, might have screwed up some POS abbreviations, not including TEs and I don't know how that translates to the NFL. I'd have to think the salaries are better for DL in general as well. All I could find was Top 10 salaries by position, and using "average salary" (which I'm assuming is AAV, I don't pay attention to football anymore because of Bills):
Average of Top 10 highest salaries:
C $4,870,867OG $6,536,867
OT $9,487,857
DE $12,080,535
DT $9,089,968
So yeah, if you're a huge, athletic guy why wouldn't you be a DL?
If you're capable of playing either line, and you're at all interested in 1) fame, 2) money, you play defense. In the NFL, defensive lines attack, rush the passer, make plays, and generally are the better players. Offensive lines try to defend the QB in the pocket while the skill positions attack the secondary.
With what offense? They don't throw the ball enough to score, particularly vertically.
I haven't really kept up but I think it would be if they settled too late to have a regular season but early enough to have a playoff:
30 team single-elimination playoffs, 7 games each.
Stanley cup winner and best regular season record get byes.
Would be fun, no?
I think of this in connection with the ball-control-and-defense type head coaches ("ground and pound" or whatever the silliness is called) like Rex Ryan. Between the rules changes and the intensified focus on headhunt and protecting the QBs/receivers, the passing game is heavily favored right now, and teams more than ever need to pass early, often, and deep to consistently win. (Admittedly, this thesis is a guess on my part, but I think it's true.)
I'm off the Cowboys' bandwagon. They were under .500 coming in, and then had to struggle to beat the Browns. That is not good.
Not well. But the sides are meeting tonight at 7pm. Which is better than the proposed two week moratorium that Bettman offered a couple days ago. There are rumors that the Flyers' owner is unhappy, and wants this over, which may mean something towards real progress. The players aren't likely to break this time.
We can only assume the Cowboys' resurgence is nigh.
LOL at ever being on it. Their consistency in never living up to the hype is to be applauded.
Do they? They have theoretical talent, but I'm not sure they have actual talent. Romo's a decent QB. I can't remember who they have running for them from week to week. Dez Bryant is the new Randy Moss, but before Chris Carter smacked him around and taught him how to actually play the position in the NFL. Which is to say, what? Andre Rison?
Some. Witten is excellent, Romo is good and Bryant is talented but a head case, after that... Austin isn't the player he was and they have nothing else to throw to, the running backs aren't anything special. Their offensive line is and has been awful, on top of that Wade Phillips and now Jason Garret aren't good head coaches, until this year their secondary was horrible and outside of DeMarcus Ware they have no pass rus. But they're the Dallas Cowboys, so they get a bump by the media.
Since 2010 they are 19-23, similar to the Bengals (18-24), Seahawks and Buccaneers (20-22) and nobody has thought they're Super Bowl material.
Ogletree?
Uh, no. After 8 catches for 114 yards and 2 TD in Week 1, he has 17 catches for 240 yards and 1 TD since then. He has 3 games with 0 catches and two with 1 catch. He is a special teamer who had a really nice game once.
So how good do people think the Patsies are? I know that the uneven scheduling makes point differential problematic generally, but they do lead the NFL in point differential and points scored, and their points allowed seem to be decent.
They've lost 3 games by a combined total of 4 points and they have Brady.
Thoughts?
So long as Gronkowski is back for the playoffs they will be Super Bowl contenders. I think the Broncos are better but that's why they play the games.
I think passer rating only tells you so much, after all Alex Smith is 3rd, but it's another data point that Eli is ridiculously overrated.
I think it's just me, but the Cowboys' season so far has seemed completely random, and my consequent impression is that the NFL is random this year. Perhaps it's just the vagaries of following a mediocre team, but it seems the Cowboys play good teams and bad ones, and most of the time the result is close and might as well be a coin toss. Who's really, really good this year? Houston, possibly. Who's really, really bad, aside from Kansas City, obviously. I have a feeling that the Patriots will play in the Super Bowl against the Giants because class and coaching will tell, but it could be Atlanta/Houston or some arbitrary matchup just because, what the hey.
That said, the Patriots are the Patriots so I think have a very good chance to win the Super Bowl. They have earned the benefit of the doubt.
Smith has played well but Kaepernick has the much higher upside.
The two are mutually exclusive. It has been a weird year, but the Cowboys just aren't good, and haven't been for years.
Passer rating should be renamed "team passing efficiency." It's a better reflection of a team than it is the player. In today's NFL, passer rating vs passer rating allowed is as good a simple statistical indicator as any.
This is funny since Smith is a former overall number one pick, and Kaepernick is well, not.
Kaepernick is a freak athlete. He put a 4.53 forty time and has a rocket arm. He put huge numbers in college. Now, that doesn't mean anything if you can't read defenses. I have been impressed in what little he has played and I have faith that Harbaugh et al. must have saw something in him that makes them think he can read defenses. They used a second round pick on him.
I'm starting to think Alex Smith might get the rest of the season off.
True, but if Kaepernick keeps this up the whole game, I suspect Alex Smith's recovery will take at least one more week.
If he keeps it up he's earned another start, absolutely.
Also, Alex Smith is having a pretty nice year himself.
Absolutely. QB rating isn't the perfect statistic but he's over 100. He's been very good. That said, there's a lot of talent on the offensive side of the football and they are built for a more vertical passing game than they use when he is in the game.
Leads the league in completion percentage and AY/A, so it's not just dink and dunk stuff. It helps to have better talent too in Manningham and Moss. Last year their third leading receiver had 20 catches. Manningham already has 29.
I do actually feel for Smith. He's had absolutely zero stability as a 49ers. He never even had the same coordinator for 2 straight seasons. Last year, he was quarterback for a team that won 13 games and they tried to replace him in the offseason. This year, he has by far the most talented group of receivers he has ever had and now he might have a QB controversy.
Lol.
No argument there. But they've played the Giants even and Baltimore and Atlanta very close, and beat Tampa Bay. That's the weird factor, I guess, that they've had some "any given Sundays" against decent opposition, and then turn around and lose miserably or can barely beat Cleveland.
Thanksgiving should be a fun game, with RG3 returning to Texas for the first time as a pro.
First, the offensive line. I have never seen an OL play so badly in all my years of watching professional football. I understand that San Francisco has a terrific defense; I expected the OL to struggle. But they didn't struggle; they were imitating tissue paper.
J'Marcus Webb was consistently beaten. Gabe Carimi didn't look at all like an NFL lineman. He didn't just get beat; in many cases he barely seemed to even make CONTACT with whomever he was trying to stop. And Chilo Rachal should just be cut right now. Not only is he utterly ineffective; he makes frequent dumb mistakes and doesn't seem to understand that. At least one of the times he got penalized for holding, he had an incredulous look on his face, shook his head and mouthed something like, "that's ########." But the replay showed a clear hold. Does he not know what holding is? And on the fumble in the end zone, he looked like he had no idea what to do.
Second, the defense. It seemed like we couldn't get any pressure on the quarterback, couldn't cover the receivers, and couldn't stop the run. I don't really fault them for the eventual high score, as they were probably exhausted later in the game, but jeez, a backup quarterback (even a talented one) shouldn't be able to come in and just march down the field over and over.
Hang on, I think Kaepernick just threw for another first down.
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of having the defense have a bad game or two. Our offense is poor and it won't be getting better.
Also, can we end the Devin Hester receiver experiment? As near as I can determine, he can't catch a pass without falling down. His value as a receiver is not in the catching -- he has, at best, average hands, and he's too small to go up and grab passes. The theory was that his breakaway speed would be good for yards after the catch and/or deep routes, but there's been zero sign at either. Seems to me it might be worth letting him go back to being a full-time return guy to see if he can get that magic back; at least then he'd provide some real value.
Finally, did it feel to anyone else like the Bears got out-schemed by Harbaugh? I'm not an expert on schemes, and I'm not a Lovie-basher, but if Gruden was correct on even 10% of the things he said, the 49ers' offense seemed to be switching up to continually exploit gaps or flaws in the Bears' defense. (NOTE: I am certainly willing to concede that Gruden wasn't right on anything, but if someone can explain to me how the 49ers manhandled the Bears defense, I'm all ears.)
I don't think I've ever been more in agreement with McCoy than I am right now.
Even if the Bears manage to tread water and make it into the playoffs, they haven't got a prayer of going deep. Last night's game will provide numerous examples on what any team has to do to completely nullify the offense.
Such is Jerry Angelo's legacy. Just prior to the Bears' Super Bowl appearance, John Clayton (yes, yes, I know, insert analogy about stopped clocks or blind pigs or whatever) pointed out that the Bears OL was getting old and needed attention in pretty short order. Angelo went on to more or less ignore this, patching in crappy players as needed. Occasionally a higher draft pick would be spent, but none worked out.
Because of the salary cap, etc., it will take years to fix this. By the time it's fixed (assuming it ever is), the stars of our aging defense could well be retired.
Bah.
You need to watch a quarter of the 2012 Eagles. Tissue paper, you say? Luxury!!!
There were two games last year where the Bears and the Eagles just ran through Sam Baker two games in a row and killed Matt Ryan.
Sure, be stacked from top to bottom with great defensive players.
We'll see how many teams are able to make that plan work.
Fair enough, but even a mediocre defense can manhandle that line and disrupt the Bears' offense. If the defense doesn't get lucky with turnovers, the Bears just can't score many points.
he didn't struggle like this before getting hurt. is it the injury? his lateral movement looks to be nonexistent. guys were just faking him out at the line last night. and this is not the first time where someone feints one way, goes another and gabe is waving at air.
I must confess, I wondered why the Bears refused to use him at LT, but I doubt he could even play at J'Marcus Webb's level now.
Demonstrating that the NFL had some special knowledge about a link between on-field head injuries and health later in life - beyond the obvious that, yes, getting hit in the head a lot isn't a good thing - seems difficult. And even if the NFL had such special knowledge, the players were taking hits since pee wee and high school and in many cases through college.
the packers line is average at best and rodgers is still able to make plays. not saying it won't come back to haunt them against the good defenses but so far the guy has been able to get by.
i am a big fan of line play but across the league offensive lines just stink. it's not fun to watch
That's not really fair. He knows if he falls on it, its a safety; if he doesn't its 6. You can almost see the smoke coming out of his ears. His actual decision: deal with the ball and try to somehow get it out of the endzone is pretty good! In fact it almost worked!
As for the Bears defense. Its clear that they for a quarter and a half they sold out to stop the run and made the backup QB beat them. In fact its what lots of teams do to defense the Niners with Smith at QB. Kaepernick burned them, the LBs and safeties backed off to defend the pass and Gore and Hunter destroyed them.
The Bears under Smith have almost always keyed on stopping the running game while preventing the big play and looking to be opportunistic. The problem is that if they don't force a turnover and the offense can either manage to still run anyway or the offense is able to string together a bunch of passes then the Bears' defense and the entire team in general is going to be in trouble. Smith's teams are almost always beat by teams that can implement their passing attack.
The Bears offense is a horrendous unit that has been masked so far this year by playing bad teams and having the defense take the ball away from opposing offenses a lot. I talked about it last month or so but I'll say it again. Once the Bears play better teams and the turnover dry up and Cutler gets hurt they are going to lose a lot of games. At this point I don't even know if they'll get to 10-6.
As a Canadian, I have to point out that the summit series was in '72.
As a Leafs fan, I have to point out that a toilet is a VERY apt souvenir for the last 40 years of Leafs history.
*sigh*
The purpose of an automatic review is to get things right.
I can understand baseball's desire in 1994 to get a salary cap, and the NHL's desire in 2004, and why that would be potentially worth wiping out a season... but this, this is chump change. This is stupid.
Sadly, no shortage of meatheads defending this as 'rules are rules.' The penalty should be Suh kicking him in the balls.
You really think the Patriots are going to stop at 42?
That's not 12. It's -12.
Playing better teams.
But since there aren't any real standouts left in the NFC, and none in the NFC East, it wouldn't shock me in the least if the Redskins actually made it to the playoffs. The Eagles and the Cowboys are obviously stiffs, and even though the Giants were playing much better (and playing at home) the last time they played the Skins, they barely escaped on the strength of a Manning miracle. Griffin is surreal, Moss seems to have gotten a second life, and unless the Giants can beat the Packers there's a good chance that after next weekend's games the Skins will be tied for first in the NFCE.
And in fact, the only strong Redskins opponent left is the Ravens, whose defense on the road has been erratic as hell. I hate to say it because I hate Snyder, but this team may just be coming into its own.
I'm afraid to ask where these meatheads are. Between here, FO and the NBC postgame show it's about 54-0 in favor of "stupid rule".
That was horrible because (a) not only should the Oilers not have had a touchdown, but (b) the runningback essentially cheated by continuing to run after he was tackled, and then (c) the refs screwed up by not blowing the whistle, and (d) the league screwed up by not having the play reviewable - despite all touchdowns being reviewable - because... the coach made a harmless mistake by throwing the challenge flag? The 15 yard penalty was just pouring it on.
What _is_ the non-frivolous defense of the rules? Because it is worse than just blowing a call. "We think this kind of play is so important that we would review it on our own, but, hey, you threw your flag, so, no."
The Jets simply do not throw the ball down the field. You watch them for a couple of quarters, and watch what the other team is doing, and this smacks you in the face.
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