BRH

We also have 12 Hall of Famers to their (checks notes) three... and one of those three is T.O. who played one year there, and another is Charlie Joiner who I would wager spent more years on our coaching staff than he did as a Bengals WR. 🤣

That's funny, I have a son named Ethan in Cleveland. Well, Oberlin actually.

I was 11 years and I remember this like it was yesterday too. And it was worse because there were no graphics and you had no idea as a TV viewer how much time was left. So when Lou caught that ball I was celebrating. And then... I remember Chuck Knox saying something in his office after the game like "we pay our quarterback X amount of money and he can't even tell time." So it must have been pretty egregious. Notice how neither he nor any of our players argued.

Always reminds me of Bill Hicks' line about meeting a fan after a show in Oklahoma... "He said 'I'd like you to meet my wife and my sister'.... and there was one girl standing next to him."

A friend of mine who teaches high school physics in San Jose polled all 103 of his students in a class quiz yesterday. The question: "Who are the 49ers playing this weekend?" Three students got the answer right. Three. Now, I know it's a physics class, yada yada. But I have to think that in Buffalo, the ratio would almost be reversed.

And there were so many annoying things that happened in the 2nd and 3rd quarters that you were just champing at the bit to restart the game so you could put them out of your mind. Come on, next play, let’s go. Instead we had to wallow in the suckage while the NFL made more money. It was a really painful game to watch. And when you have a wife who expects the game to be over at 4 and you have to keep saying “no honey, the game’s not over, you can’t come inside yet” it can make for some tense times on the home front…. 😈

The excuse the league uses - that the ref looks at the play clock when it hits zero and then looks at the ball - is complete bull####. The clock is situated so the quarterback can see it. It’s not hard to situate an official where he can see both the clock and the snap. Especially if the clock uses a red border like in basketball. Also, when the clock hits zero, it doesn’t mean there’s one more invisible second. If that were the case, they would wait one second to blow the whistle at the 2 minute warning or the end of the half. It’s also a nonreviewable call. Entirely subject to the officials’ judgment. And the league to my knowledge has never demonstrated any interest in getting this right.

Certain games you know you can win without Josh running all over the place. Like the last two. But when it started to get tight last week, you saw him break off a pretty angry run. He’ll run more this week.

I love how people assume that because the Bengals reached midfield on their second drive, they were going to score a touchdown, and then another, and then another, etc. Granted, things were not looking great on defense. Losing Taron Johnson on the first drive was a problem. And then when Damar went down, before we realized how serious it was, I became even more worried. I'm sure the GDT was a hot mess. I've never looked and I don't want to. But Taron is healthy again and the injury list for both teams looks different than it looked 2+ weeks ago. Plus the game is in Buffalo. I think this is what chaps the Bengals the most -- that their best shot against us was in Cincinnati 2+ weeks ago, and the landscape is different this time around. I can't blame them for feeling that way. But I also think that, now that Damar is recovering and they've had some time to think on it, the Bills are chapped that everyone assumes they were going to lose that game. It's going to be a war on Sunday. But I'm 100% confident that our guys will show up and play well, and when they do that, they're hard to stop.

Same here. We should be given the same ability to protect Josh and I think we will be. And hopefully if anyone throws his helmet in frustration, they wait until they get to the sideline.

I don't think we're going to blitz more than a handful of times, if even that. I'd rather show blitz and then flood zones with guys dropping unexpectedly into coverage. With a patchwork line, Burrow is likely to try early to get the ball out quickly on crossing routes. If we can disrupt the timing of those routes, eventually Cincinnati will adjust and that's when you might send the house. Or at least a couple of rooms. I certainly don't expect us to have the same game plan for Burrow that we had for Skyler Thompson.

No, this happens when the league is hyperconscious about protecting quarterbacks -- particularly pocket passers -- above all else. The refs will know that Burrow is behind a patchwork line and they'll probably let a few things slide. We saw all the holding the Miami line did against us. Get ready for another three hours of that. The DL just needs to win its matchups and not assume that holds will be called.+

This is the play I thought of first. I couldn’t believe it was 27 years ago because I can still see it like it was yesterday. Gary Plummer hit Holmes and Lee Woodall returned it.

Perfect, succinct explanation. Even better: he has the arm to hit anybody, anywhere.

He seems like the kind of guy that would be treated like a mascot by some of the players. They all knew a guy like him in high school; he was the statistician or the manager. Marv had a bit of that vibe going on too ("Look it up, Thurman"), but he was different -- besides the fact that he made sense when he spoke, he never pretended to be a big X's and O's genius. His talent was in hiring people who knew what they were doing, and in treating players like men rather than like fungible assets. The entire team would run through a wall for him. He commanded respect. It helped that he was older, too. And Marv would never have worn such a stupid t-shirt.

1. You have to believe that if Josh felt more comfortable with Hodgins than with Gabe or the other guys that we kept, he would still be here. 2. I think you will find that most guys who break out on their second or third teams came from better teams where they were unable to land a spot. 3. I am not impressed by players who are unable (or worse, unwilling) to do what it takes to stick. If you're a back or a receiver, unless you're a really high-round draft pick, you better be able to block and you better be able to play special teams. I come from a baseball background and it's the same thing there: unless you're a stud, you better be able to play multiple positions, move runners over, et cetera. I'm not sure what's so hard about that to understand.

You all realize that Romo can see it on his monitor... right?

I noticed it right away and so did most people. You could just imagine the producers yelling into his ear trying to get his attention.

On a related note, is it too much to ask that the yellow line be accurate? Miami fans got their panties twisted yesterday because the line was at least half a yard past the actual line to gain. Feels like I’ve seen this happen more and more lately.

Burrow did absolutely nothing in the second half.

How is that roughing and not running into?

I know one of them won his game today. The other one still may not.

Hayden Hurst with a critical fumble, that warms my heart.

I hope it was the latter, but McDermott didn’t seem as appreciative as you’d think he would be if it was. The look on his face was more like, “yeah, can you shut up? I have another game next week.”