IQ

The moral of the story so far is that our Defense is as good as any and will keep us in any game (although admittedly, it has yet to be tested). Minus their flukey long TD, I had complete confidence in the D to hold the Raiders. I don't think they had any sustained drives. If you take away our turnovers (one of which wasn't a turnover), take six off the board for the Raiders and give us 10ish back and its almost a blowout game. When I reviewed the stats I was shocked to see how dominant we were. Our first test on D will be with vaunted passing game of the Cardinals. Yeah, vaunted...

A lot can change in the remaining 13 weeks but I don't see why playoffs can't be discussed. I mean, if they don't make it, Jauron is probably gone and the TE project probably didn't work out. .500 ball puts at 9-6. We should be playing better than that with our schedule. 7-5 makes us 10-5. 8-4 makes us 11-4 going into week 17. Week 17's are hard to figure out because you never know who is playing hard and who isn't. I like our chances. If we don't make it, then we must have screwed up something big time and would need to be back at the drawing board anyways.

I agree...it was painful watching that non play not happen. I was yelling at the screen for them to snap the ball. I guess the right call prevailed. But what's up with that clear Evans reception that was ruled an INT despite replay? Ridiculous.

Is it just me or are defenses stacked up against ML23 because they don't respect our mid and deeper passing game? I would love to see some more aggresive downfield throws to loosen up the D an make the linebackers a bit more honest. I note that the D's aren't pulling their backer out on 3rd and mediums or 2nd and mediums and as a result Lynch is facing the full front 7. Also the safeties seem to be cheating quite a bit...result is a 3.6 yd avg for a RB that should be in the upper 4's based on his talents. So my question is, is the long ball a learned skill or something that some guys just "have." I hope its a learned skill and with developing cohesion with his receivers, etc so that later in the year teams can no longer stack up against Lynch and we can then use the pass to set up the run.

I am becoming a big fan of TE but to annoint him as SB level QB or HOF (as per a few posts here) is a bit premature. While he has shown great proficiency in the short passing game and check downs and seems to do great against soft cover D's late in the game, it still bothers me that our passing game is accomodating to the defense rather than vice versa. Perhaps as we evolve we will dictate the offense but to be a truly great, you play your game and don't take what the D gives you. Our K Gun came out blazing and it was get out of its way or get rolled. Looking at Dallas or Denver (not a fan of either team btw) I see their offenses dictating to the defenses how they are going to play. We are in their category (record wise at least) and I would like to see our offense step up accordingly.

JP Losman cannot be traded. How many QBs got hurt this weekend? The odds are pretty high that he'll start a few games this year. Last year, something like 64 qbs started in the league (the number may be higher, not sure). So talk of dumping a guy who will inevitably start (based on the odds) is not wise. Playoffs for us will definitely come down to a game or two (we aren't going to go in with a 4 or 5 game buffer) and you want a legit starter in those extra games.

Hi everyone. Long time reader, first time poster so most could probably care less about some new random posters random thoughts, nevertheless, in the spirit of getting pumped for tomorrow, I figured I'd jump into the stadium wall. Some random thoughts on the year: 1. Bills D will be top 7 or 8 in the league and they will win 10 games. 2. Ricky Williams will have 1000 + yards and Ronnie Brown will be a change of pace back only. 3. Dolphins will still win 4 or less games. 4. Brady will have a "down" year with under 30 tds. 5. Moss will lead the league in TDs but have a lot less yards. 6. Favre will pass for more than 3500 yards and Cotchery will emerge as a star receiver and best offensive player on the jets. 7. Cincy offense will be top 3 in the league but they will struggle to go 8-8 due to a putrid defense. 8. Jamal Lewis will run for over 1500 yards if he is healthy. If he gets hurt then the Browns win 7 games max. 9. Kellen Winslow will catch 100+ balls. 10. The Steelers o line will crumble, Big Ben will have another mediocre year, Willie Parker will be outside the top 20 backs, and by week 10 and Mendenhall may start. The Steelers win 7 or 8 games. Talk of Tomlin being fired begins. Talk of the Rooneys staying with the team intensifies. 11. Baltimore wins 5 games. Flacco is benched when Smith comes back who has a better year than Vince Young. Ray Rice starts over McGahee by the end of the year. 12. Vince Young stinks up the joint partly because he's not a passer and partly because he has no one to throw to. 13. Crumpler gets all of Young's catches and returns to 2004 form. 14. Indy overcomes the pundits and wins 13 games and Manning has the best year of any QB with 40+tds. 15. Harrison quietly dominates this year with attention turned to Addai, Clark, and Wayne. 16. JAX keeps winning despite multiple retread wrs. Fast Freddi and MJD continue their top running attack. Their defense weakens slightly. 17. Schaub quietly becomes a top 5 qb but probably gets hurt (or Johnson gets hurt) by week 10. 18. Slaton is the starter in Houston by week 6. 19. Cutler and the Broncos are one of the most overrated teams. 20. Marshall catches 125 passes despite playing 15 games. 21. No one knows who will get the most yards running in Denver. 22. KC gets even worse than last year and LJ is not in the top 20 rushers. 23. Oakland is the mystery team of the AFC. They will win b/w 3 and 8 games and I have no idea how Russell performs. Fargas is cut in the offseason. 24. The Chargers remain an offensive powerhouse if Gates can play healthy and LT puts up yet another dominant season (he has 2 monster and 2 solid seasons left if he doesn't get hurt). 25. Felix Jones becomes the starter in Dallas because he's too good (or some platoon combo). 26. The Giants are boring but win 11 games. 27. McNabb has no one to throw to for the 9th consecutive year. 28. The Redskins are vastly overrated and win 6 games. 29. The Bears put up one of the all time worst offensive seasons. Mike Brown gets injured for the year. 30. The Lions continue to put up good numbers and Kitna has yet another solid year and remains one of the all time underrated qbs in the nfl. Rudi Johnson is cut in the offseason. 31. AP has less yards than last year and him and Taylor try for two backs with 1000 yards each. 32. Travaris Jackson is mediocre but the Vikes D line is top 10 all time in sacks. 33. The Packers win 9 games and the fans cry for Favre with every loss. Rodgers pales in comparison to Favre in stats. 34. Atlanta wins 3 games. 35. The Saints win 12 games and go to the superbowl. Shockey (who I hate) catches 80 balls. Pierre Thomas starts and is the premier back in NO by week 10. 36. Tampa Bay is the most boring team in the NFL. 37. Carolina has an explosive battle for the starting RB each week but Stewart wins and competes for rookie of the year. 38. SJax has a bad year due to no offensive line. Fantasy players wonder why he went top 5. 39. Tim Hightower starts for Arizona by week 13. Warner keeps the job all year and Leinart can be classified as a bust. 40. JTO Sullivan has a solid year. 41. Frank Gore is highly overrated. 42. Patrick Willis leads the NFL in tackles. Paul Posluzny is 2nd. 43. Seattle is the worst team to ever win a division with an 8-8 record.

What may have happened is that your channel guide did not include these channels. You can multiple different sets of channels which are customizable. When NFL season is over, I delete the low 700 channels since they are not in use (and my guide will go from 699 to 750 where mlb starts). If this ever happens again, usually you can just go to the menu and (depending on your receiver) change it to "all channels I get" or just "all channels" and your 700's will pop back up.