fergie's ire

Since? I would include those Rivers years as well. They may have made the playoffs a couple of times, but almost always underperform. Every year it seems like I hear THIS year the Chargers are going to challenge...but then they don't. I seem to remember one year they had something like a 3 game division lead with 4 to play and lost it. Just the Chargers being Chargery.

Wasn't the same kind of storm taking aim at the Baltimore game last year? Someone has to stop scheduling these late sept/early oct mid atlantic games.

I'll bite your legs off!!

It's always a bit silly to judge the strength of schedule before the season because you just don't know how things are going to change. All the talk this year has been about how much tougher our schedule is this year than last. However, before the season last year all the talk was about how tough the schedule was, particularly the beginning of the season when we played powers like the Rams and Titans. That said, it's equally tough to judge how hard the schedule will be in season. Early in the year the Dolphins looked great but the Jets looked terrible. Then the Jets went on a bit of a run with great defensive play. So, it's also not only who you play but when you play them. The Bengals look terrible right now but they might be great, and desperate, when we play them.

I DO understand the concern based on Monday's performance. It seems eerily similar to problems Josh and the Bills have had throughout his career. It also seemed like things were working in the first half. They didn't score a ton, but against that kind of defense (and lame offense) it's a sound strategy to gain a few yards, play field position, and get touchdowns or field goals when a situation presents itself. Josh just appeared incapable of being patient with that plan. That said, I think it is particularly hard to play a good defense in the first game in this day and age. Practice time is reduced, and playing time in pre-season is greatly reduced. They just aren't used to seeing and reading defenses. If there is one player I think might eventually rival Brady as a reader of defenses/decision maker, it's Joe Brady. He always seems to make the right decision. He threw for what, 80 yards? The first few games of the regular season are the new pre-season so there is hope that Josh will be a better, or at least more consistent, reader of defenses this year.

How so? In 21 regular season there were 3 games in the 40s and 4 games in the teens or lower (including a 6 point game and a 10 point game). In 22 there was one game in the 40s and only two games in the teens or lower (and it was 17 and 19 points). 22 seems more consistent.

As an artificial turf, I would think it'd be okay. Some of those rubber pellets coming up last night but as long as someone didn't do something like run a snow sweeper over it, I would think it'd be largely unaffected.

Took a quick look at a Bears forum. There seems to be some serious buyer's remorse. Here is one example: "Is Edmunds not good in coverage? I'm watching the highlights and he's been out of place NUMEROUS times. Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 0 it doesn't matter. Edmunds takes false steps and gets himself out of position. He also gets turned around. He literally looks completely lost at times. I know one of the knocks on him was that he only had 1 great year. So far, I'm not impressed. He looks lost. This is just one example." Out of position? Looks lost? Whodda thunk it?

It's not the details of their playing styles. To me, Kirk and Rivers both have great stats and great ability...but when you look at their record it's meh. Always seem to win less than they should. Yes, part of that is team and coaching...but there also seems to be something missing that is hard to pinpoint.

He reminds me of Kirk Cousins....or Phillip Rivers.

KinKong?

Agreed. This is how it's done:

Sounds reasonable....until you consider I'm a geezer who's never been on the Twitter. But this is looking very YOLO-esque. Thank you. Now....if we can just get somebody to pin it.

It's no secret that Hackett did NOT call plays in Green Bay. La Fleur said after the 2020 season that he might decide to cede the play calling to Hackett....but he did not.

Do you remember when these "week #" threads would get pinned and there would be a bunch of info like tweets from reporters who were at practice? What happened. I know, I know....no YOLO.

Nothing from the Mike Mularkey era please. Wasn't the stupid backward pass to the back on 3rd or 4th and short cribbed from that staff? I hated their trickery that blew up in the offense's face about 9 out of 10 times.

Yeah, outside of playoffs, no games get players more fired up than Monday night. As you can see, Monday night numbers and rookie numbers are virtually identical. Hard to tell them apart, honestly. Monday Night: Rating 113.9, Pct. 68.3, 18 TDs, 2 Int Rookie: Rating 67.9, Pct. 52.8, 10 TD, 12 Int

I would really, really love for this game to be the equivalent of when we played the Jets week 1 with Mario Williams and we were thinking how great our defense would be and that we were going to make a run at the playoffs....and got immediately smacked down. I am not confident that it WILL happen, but it is certainly a possibility and the ensuing meltdown would be awesome.

I have been thinking about this, since I knew it would come up. I had pretty much decided on that quick slant to Kincaid that we saw a lot in pre-season, and I was only a bit more optimistic than you. I was thinking 8 yard gain. But....since you picked that....I will go with one of my other two choices. One is a fake handoff to Cook, only to set up a middle screen to Cook. I saw them run this at least once in pre-season and it would be a good play to help slow down the interior rush. The other is Kincaid in motion and at the snap he seals the end, allowing Cook to run wide. I think I'm going to go with the middle screen....for 17 yards.

Ya know...when there are two players close to the cut line with the name Anderson, we gotta use first names. I was really confused for a moment.....Sure, Anderson was claimed off waivers, but we decided to keep Anderson.

I seem to remember the Patriots did exactly the same thing two years ago, when Jones was a rookie. They decided to move on from Cam Newton and figured they could probably re-sign Brian Hoyer. Maybe they had an agreement, maybe they didn't. It's really not a bad strategy. Would we have been too upset if we cut Kyle Allen and just left Josh on the roster and then either re-signed Kyle or picked someone else up (like maybe Cunnningham off the waiver wire)? Here's the 2021 "final" Patriots roster before the 21 season: https://www.patspulpit.com/2021/8/31/22648576/new-england-patriots-initial-53-man-roster-after-cutdown-day

It's VERY easy to get him through since he's not subject to waivers. It's why, even though I agree he sucks, I think he might be coming back.

Lots of discussion about Quessenberry in the "non-discussion" cuts thread...and thought I would reply here. There seems to be a lot of concern about the lack of backup Tackles. It could be that there is someone else out there that they are hoping to pick up after cuts, but I also think Quess is a likely candidate to be re-signed once we slide someone like Shakir to IR.

Wouldn't Isabella be subject to waivers? How many years before a player is a veteran who does not need to go through the waiver process? Seems like the move in the past was to cut a vet who they plan to keep and who has agreed to re-sign 48 hours later.

He better get that worked out. I remember Shakir doing exactly the same thing last year and it seemed like it was right after he whiffed on that block that his playing time dwindled. Unlike many I think McDermott WILL play rookies, but he has a very quick hook with them when they make mistakes. Hopefully, he will see that Kincaids abilities greatly outweigh his deficits and will keep him on the field.