QCity

Here come the tears!

Losing to the Dolphins next week clearly would be a DOUBLE blessing!

Through hindsight we now know the reason Moss was scratched - because the gameplan had us running empty for ~45% of the snaps. Also through hindsight we now know that this was a terrible gameplan, one that Pittsburgh clearly spent weeks planning for and rendered those empty sets ineffective to the tune of ~4.3yds per play.

Rams are 38-0 when leading at halftime with Sean McVay

I stand corrected, that game was wildly entertaining. I did not think the Dallas offense could do that to a defense that just shut down Mahomes. Dak was on a pace last year for 6,700 yards. If he stays healthy, with a 17 game schedule he's a shoe-in for 6K and may challenge 7K. Crazy.

So you're saying you're not buying a jersey? I'd like to see Dallas get blown out and completely embarrassed. A 6-10 team shouldn't be playing in the opening game.

So the clear star of this season was Stefon Diggs' nephew.

Steelers' T.J. Watt: Could hold out

Who cares what Peter King thinks? He's not even a real analyst. This guy is constantly wrong. I'm not even going to give him any clicks. Wait

If you told me last Spring that the team would sustain no major injuries to key players this offseason and the biggest controversy about the 53-man roster is that we cut our 3rd string TE, I would have said you're dreaming and your expectations are set way too high.

So devious. Never play cards with this Ertz fellow.

Football stadiums do not foster economic growth in their surrounding areas, and in some cases they may actually hinder it. Look no further than the current stadium built 50 years ago -- there's been nothing in the area for 5 decades save for a few bars, gas stations, and a 7-11. For some reason many fans think building a stadium downtown will transform the area into this year-round hub of entertainment, but that's not the reality of the situation -- it's misplaced wishful thinking. Now a baseball stadium, a facility that is open 6-7 months of the year with 80-90 sporting events is a completely different animal, and I think that may mislead some people. So if you want to quantify a baseline economic impact with hard figures, it isn't difficult. There's a ~$180M player payroll and the majority of those guys are in the high tax brackets. That's not counting coaches, front office, marketing, administration, and all of the other staff that come together to make this operation work. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that $1.4B was paid for in organizational income taxes alone over a 40 year period. But good luck selling that to NYS taxpayers, and I don't blame them. The optics of the Pegulas building a mega-yacht sure doesn't help.

I've always said the model for a stadium here should be the Seahawks' partially covered open-air stadium, although 60,000 seems a bit low to me.

Nobody is trading for a 34 yr old DE with an $8M cap hit. This is Addison's last year here and although he'll be listed as a starter, he will likely play ~55% of the snaps like he did last season. Not unfathomable to think this could be Hughes' last year as well. The young bucks need to step up.

Dak and Zeke have all the personality of a bag of wet hair.

Who says fans overreact to preseason games?

https://theathletic.com/2773179/2021/08/20/nfl-100-at-no-20-the-relentless-bruce-smith-dominated-blockers-to-record-levels-of-production/

Yup. Sold some jerseys. Give it 3 years and he'll be trying out for kicker.

If it's a huge get together like 4th of July I'll typically pee in my friend's pool 2 or 3 times, and that's before I get in the water.

Jerry repeating the same speech he's been giving for years - that he would do anything, anything to win another Superbowl. I wish some reporter had the guts to ask him, "Jerry, would you ever consider removing yourself and all of your family members from their high organizational positions and bring in experienced, qualified people to run the team?" No? They you clearly wouldn't do anything to win.

You'll get no argument from me on those points. The team employs a soft perimeter game and doesn't play with any passion or fire. But it starts with goaltending. Here's a crazy stat from last season that has been getting some mention on the internet and local radio. Last season when Ullmark was in net the team was playing at a ~90 point pace over a full season. Now think about that for a second. After that trainwreck of a season when our best player (Eichel) was hurt, our best stay-at-home defenseman (McCabe) was lost, Hall checking out, the 4th line Skinner controversy, Covid shutting the team down for 2 weeks, and being coached by Ralph Freaking Krueger, the team was on a ~90 point pace with Ullmark. Hard to believe. Now, 90 points won't get you into the playoffs -- but that's what they call a bubble team, not a dumpster fire. Franchise players usually aren't desperately trying to leave town when you have a chance. The flip side is that when Ullmark wasn't in net, they played at some ridiculously low win rate (worse than tank team point totals IIRC). Remember that 18 game losing streak that cemented us as the laughingstock of the league? It started 1 game before Ullmark was injured, and it ended 2 games after he came back. And I don't even think the guy is a top-10 goalie, probably around #13-15 IMO. I know FA isn't over and there are deals to be made, but right now our goaltending is actually worse than last year. It's not fair to the new kids coming up, the coach, or the fans.

That's a very good price, their patience paid off.

I know everyone budgets their money differently, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find people that think $1.00 a month is greedy. Right now Fairburn and Buscaglia are writing ~2,000 word reports on every day of training camp, which I think is worth a buck. I cancelled my sub last summer during the pandemic and after about a month they hit me with the "please come back" email and $1/month deal, I bet you get an email right before the season starts.

It's not culture, it's goaltending. They need goaltending. They haven't had a top flight netminder since Miller was shipped out. They only player close to above average in net was the last 2 years of Ullmark, but he got hurt twice. It's really not that different from the nearly 2 decades of mediocrity the Bills went through, as the problem with the Bills was always about the QB but they just couldn't get it right. They were always trying to win without a QB, and the Sabres have been trying to win without goaltending for the past 8 years. Based on their recent front office decisions, it looks like they will continue with that strategy. It's maddening.