dpberr

I think it's hilarious that Tampa Bay selects the word "defense" for the part of the team that's on the field when Tom Brady is on the bench resting. I literally laughed out loud when I caught some of the game and saw Suh drop back in coverage and lumber after the KC speed. That was a Kansas City track meet yesterday. Bruce Arians is a lot like Sean McDermott and arguably most of the coaches in the league. Even when matching up against a great tactician like Andy Reid who knows where you're going to be, they still believe in *their* scripts of plays and will dutifully execute them. They then wonder aloud on Monday on what went wrong - it must be the players! I don't think the TB version of Bruce Arians is the engaged Indy-era or early AZ Bruce Arians. He looks like a guy just collecting a paycheck ever since the health problems.

If the Saints choose to ride or die with Hill at QB, they will die in their first playoff game. Defenses will shut off the run and make him pass....a lot. I don't understand why every team doesn't keep a QB and perhaps a kicker in isolation. Seems like a shrewd move, especially for playoff teams. Having the Broncos situation happen to you in the playoffs is a job termination-level offense IMO.

Brown makes that offense hum. When he's not on the field, it never hits that next gear.

The only time period in recent memory where I remember the Lions being somewhat consistently "good" was all the way back in the Wayne Fontes era where they got close to the SB in 1991. Jim Caldwell is the only Lions coach since Joe Schmidt in 1972 to have a winning record, and it's barely a winning record at .503. The Fords (husband and wife) never hired the right people. I expect now that ownership is in the hands of Sheila Ford Hamp, there's a chance things will be different there because although a Ford, she's cut from a different cloth than her parents and even her brother, Bill. I don't think she will keep Quinn and Patricia - they are as good as gone.

ESPN, Headline News and even MTV were the canaries in the coal mine. Cable news is at nearing the juncture where you'll start to see more frequent layoffs of established talent, retrenching of live programming and more less expensive pre-recorded slop at all the major networks. I think Disney will pull the plug on ESPN cable when the existing contracts expire.

Overall, the Bills should always draft football players who have a high intelligence for the game who are great athletes. Not great athletes that happen to play football. Sometimes they work out like JPP, sometimes they are CJ Spiller. Tight End. The Bills haven't invested in a blue chip prospect TE in decades. I find the current cast to be very average. Linebacker. You can't have too many linebackers. Safety. The Bills will need a new era of Poyer/Hyde soon.

CB was the AFC Defensive Player of the Year *twice* and the SEC Player of the Year in 1986. He's only one of 7 defensive players all time, and only the second defensive player since 1970, to win the Player of the Year in the SEC. It's always offense that wins that award. Besides the 5 Pro Bowls, 5 Super Bowl appearances, 3 time 1st Team All Pro selections, and starting 204 out of the 206 games he played, he had quite the average career.

Only if Daisy discovers the assassination plot aimed at Governor Morris on her first day at school. The show begins at the 3pm bell, the day before the California Presidential Primary.

No flu shot.

Hill probably knows the playbook better. Still a raw deal if you're Winston. Plus, they need to see what they've got in him since the Drew Brees era is ending in the near future.

Interesting topic. I've long believed the key to NFL/NBA/MLB longevity is league contraction, not expansion. If I were the NFL, I'd also be aiming to make the league better by getting rid of some crap ownership. Jaguars: Khan routinely threatens to move his team from one nonviable market in Jacksonville to another in London. Titans: The owners have absolutely no desire to remain in Nashville long term and will leave that city hanging while extorting another. This would also permit the Texans to once again become the Oilers.

Reminded me of the 2015 Aaron Rodgers to Richard Rodgers TD. Had enough juice on the ball and the Lions defenders went to catch it instead of treating the football like a volleyball and smacking the ball 3 blocks east of the end zone.

I hope he rolls out Daft Punk as part of the show and instead of making it woke which is so 2020, we make it *very* *very* weird.

Trade: Cornelius Bennett. I don't think the Bills get to the Super Bowls without him. He should be on the Wall of Fame. Free Agent: Mario Williams. Lots of excellent choices to choose from but this deal was a rare win-win for both team and player. The Bills went out on a limb and aggressively pursued him despite the league collectively joking it'd never happen, paid top dollar, and he rewarded them with exactly what the Bills signed him for - pass rush and sacks. I fault Rex Ryan more for how his career ended in Buffalo than I do him as a player.

It is amazing that the Jets have just one coach in franchise history with a win percentage of .500 or better - Bill Parcells. (Al Groh technically counts, but he coached just one season.) IMO, the Johnson brothers listen too much to the football "consultant" industry that's greased by the agents for coaches and management. Luis Castillo has the best agent of all time in the NFL. However, Adam Gase is not a good football coach, but his agent rivals Castillo's Rasputin-like ability to get him jobs he shouldn't have any business in getting.

For as much as I admire Mr. Wilson, towards the end, he was hiring just loyalists and friends. I think the Donahoe/Williams era really made him very bitter. If winning happened, great, but it wasn't the top objective in filling positions. Excellent question, btw.

In the churn of election news, ESPN announced it would lay off 300 employees and not fill 200 empty positions. https://apnews.com/article/espn-300-layoffs-amid-virus-8db87b34e7c74585b8920c584b282773 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/sports/espn-layoffs.html

He's ok but as a player, he hasn't evolved much. There is talent there but I don't know how coachable his personality is. I think his decline in production is due in part to that once the league saw what he he could do, he didn't add much to it. That being said, that doesn't mean it's all on him. The Falcons have whiffed on a lot of players recently, and part of that whiff is the organization failing to grow raw talent into skill.

You really see the quality of the player after opposing defenses have a library of film to study. That's why you can light up the league freshman year, slump substantially the next. By the time the BIlls play the Dolphins again, there will be several games to study.

I've long been a critic of the coaching taking their foot off the gas and the predictable game plans against the better coaches in the NFL. Today they kept that foot on the pedal and the defense was buzzing. I was happy to see it. I'm not sure if they simplified the plan or threw in new plays or a bit of both, but the defense looked fast, and the entire team played with purpose.

I'm confident they can get over the playoff hump this year. That'd accomplish an important mission.

Thought "The Hunt for Red October" was his best post-Bond work. I recall a lot of people thought that movie was going to bomb at the box office. It was expensive, Alec Baldwin was an unknown, they had Sean Connery with a beard speaking Russian, and they didn't think audiences would enjoy a cerebral "naval" movie with the US Navy in the news with the Gulf shenanigans at the time.

Speculation of course, but I think there are growing pains with Edmunds being the "caller" on the defense after Alexander's retirement. I think this year is his first year doing it. He's got the speaker in the helmet, and it's not just running what is communicated from the sideline like a robot because the call will dictate the sides, gaps and alignment specifications but the linebacker has to make a split second decision to change the play if he sees something from the offense. I don't think that particular part is going very well. McDermott had Trotter in Philly, Keuchly and Davis in Carolina. Experienced pros with a high aptitude for the game. I'm not saying Edmunds lacks the aptitude, but he's being asked to do a job he certainly didn't do in college or his first couple years as a Bill. It's new for him, with no camp or preseason. He's not a 10-year vet out there who's seen it all and can bark out a blitz or align the corners differently if he sees something. You won't hear coaches discuss this part either because that's the nuts and bolts of the strategy and coaches just feed vanilla to the press. Lorenzo Alexander was a good football player, but he has an elite football intelligence, from the years of playing and natural aptitude for the game. That can't be readily replaced even under ideal circumstances.

I'd agree. Quality talent. My guess is the team is selling before the injury grenade goes off in the enclosed space. He's had biceps and pectoral tears, and already one completely torn ACL. My guess - he's got knee pain in the other one or the repaired one. I think over conditioning, or doing the wrong kind of conditioning in the spring where all these guys were working out in home gyms or whatever, has led to a lot of the knee issues you're seeing around the league.

Happy the Bills are winning games they should against inferior opponents. McDermott, however, doesn't inspire confidence and comfort from this fan's perspective. I do think a lot of the issues are coaching related - going back to the wild card game last year. The coaching staff has no desire to blow teams out, and they are too confident in their collective genius. This makes games far more competitive than they should be. Have to play nasty and keep the foot on the gas.