AKC

Thanks for bringing in those stats that really show London's superiority- Takeo started right out of the chute and actually played in the tackle-friendly environment at ILB in a 3-4 scheme, a benfit London has never had. London also played almost nothing but ST in his first season and was situational in his second, not starting in either season as far as I remember. This menas for all intents and purposes it has taken Takeo two NFL seasons more to accrue a number of tackles similar to London. And the sack stat may be even more revealing- most experts would give the WLB spot a far, far greater opportunity for building up fat sack stats than coming from the middle.

If your measure is the outcome versus the act I'd think it would only be fair to consider plays which turn the ball over to the offense, whether they be INTs, FRs or tackles on third resulting in a kick and tackles that stop a 4th down attempt and maybe even first down stuffs that force the opponent into passing situations, effectively cutting the playbook in half. I'd guess those numbers would heavily favor London.

You've failed to follow your analogy through properly. What we're talking about is a team who averages 140 points a night, not 80. You're attempting to diminish stats like "average points per game in the NBA" or "average tackles per season in the NFL" while others may choose those as some of the best measures of talent. Clearly most fans of the NFL are highlight films and quarterback sluts and you can quantify this by the jerseys on their backs at any game or sports bar. FFS has chosen ways other than "number of times you're shown on NFL Primetime" as his measure for "greatest" player. I second his logic.

I'd have difficulty picking Takeo OVER London- my answer is I don't believe Takeo is measurably superior to London because the fundamental purpose of a defender is to tackle the guy with the ball. London does that a lot more than Takeo (and a lot more than anyone except maybe Ray Lewis in the league), granted in Takeo's case it's by design, but his numbers still don't lie. The raw data is there- and it says London Fletcher. And my eyes tell me the same thing. Consequently I can't say Takeo is a "better football player"- I have no doubt he'd be a far better gymnast or pole vaulter than London, but I would disgree with others who have made some point about picking a guy to fight on your side- I wouldn't hesitate first from our roster to pick London as my partner in a bar brawl because as much as I like watching Takeo play football- I always know where London is going to be when the pile gets sorted out ;-)

Steak or Sizzle? Like FFS, I lprefer football players in the middle of the second line and Fletcher is all football player, much like Chris Speilman before him. It's easy to argue the Sizzle guy because Takeo has so much range and great instincts, but the mere fact that you might even find some ground to compare them throws the weight of the argument in my mind to London considering his job isn't designed for the highlight reels. And Speilman- just the thought is enough to make you want to pull on some clothes the little lady had buried in some drawer that usually only gets opened when the house needs painting and rustle up the old gang in Meadowbrook Court for a full contact afternoon. Football- there's something for all of us!

A couple of places you can look to see the pattern of poor run blocking he offered Sunday: In the first quarter with 6:33 left we are running our 2TE set with Campbell on the SS and Neufeld the WS. The play is over the tackle on Neufeld's side and his job is to seal his man inside while Gandy kicks out for the outside block. We run this all the time to Cambell's side very effectively, but Neufeld ends up in the middle of the running lane tied up with his man. Willis is tackled for no gain. There's a similar outcome to his getting tied up in the running lane again on the second half red zone play I mentioned in the orginal post; not just stopping Willis but stopping a running score. If either TTeague or RNeufeld gets leverage on their man Willis runs this in easily for a TD. Also in the 4th with 5:39 you'll see the Texan OLB give him a pop that knocks him completely to the wrong side of his block- allowing the OLB to advance unimpeded into the running lane. In this case the inside block on the opposite side of the hole is so good Willis can fire past Neufeld's assignment for a good gain. On another note there's a play late in the first quarter where Neufeld is running a drag route from the SS. The play breaks down and JP scrambles out of bounds on the sidleline in front of Neufeld. Granted the network coverage isn't perfect on this shot but it seems that a Texan OLineman is clearly letting up to avoid hitting anyone out of bounds when Neufeld punks him. They flag a Texan for hitting JP IIRC, if they weren't focused on that it would not have been surprising to see a flag going against 88.

Did you catch the fake reverse/screen last night? McNabb is harldy the kind of guy to deliver it fluidly yet it still went for 25 IIRC. My "best new play design from week 1 of the 2005 season".

When I'm saying exposing his head to the safeties I'm referring to running head first downfield with no intention of sliding. A QB's helmet is an awful tempting target to some fringe-of-the-whistle player like Rodney Harrison. It's reckless to offer yourself up like that before the whistle stops the play when a simple slide offers you so much protection. JP did have at least two awful passes I recall, both of which could have been picked easily. One was to Antwan Peek and the other was downfield into double coverage, if I recall correctly Lee Evans broke up a pick on the deep pass. I never formed an opinion on Cieslak in the pre-season, I don't recall him getting anything in the way of quality reps against first teamers. I wouldn't be surprised though for the team to start looking at ways to help the running game by getting stronger at the position.

That's great, the thing though that lingers is the stuff on film and if JP does the same thing 10 or 15 times a season I can tell you that I won't be the only one cringing when it comes. That leadership thing includes giving it out privately in most circumstances. The kid's a gamer, I'm not trying to take the wind out of his passion, I'm just hoping that the maturity at his spot comes sooner rather than later.

It's Happy Hour somewhere. And I understand he likes to be referred to as Travis McGahee.

Just had a chance to run through the second half. If I hadn't ever seen the first half I'd probably be in fear for our offensive lives- not real pretty or very effective, in fact for the most part out of synch on most fronts. 34-78-83 mentioned Big Ben making a couple of good plays on Willis runs- I do have him sealing the interior on a 11 or 12 yarder very effectively but I believe the other good run over that side was Big Mike's work. On the reverse that gets stuffed it appears Duke misplays the Texan's line shift and leaves Big Mike out to dry by blocking up instead of the down player. It's hardly a worry, more like a simple rookie misread. He was less effective in gaining position though than I first gave him credit for. An understandable work in progress gaining huge experience in a win. I'm coming to agree with others who have speculated he'll close out this season as a starter. Edwards was lucky enough to have finished his game in the third quarter due to Denney getting the reps in pass packages. Big Sam on the other hand remains our every down lineman as he started 2004. Edwards will apparently be taking the PWilliams role from last season and seeing maybe 40 percent of the snaps on that side of the game. Teague and Neufeld cost Willis a TD from the Texan 5 by losing their position and allowing their assignments into the excellent short yardage hole created by their teammates. I thought Neufeld stunk my first viewing. I think even less of him now that I see how many times he gets knocked off his center or simply glances defenders run blocking. "Stunk" was a little too mannerly. Reed seems to back down after JP points out the route on the missed pass. I'm not crazy about QBs who too frequently make a big deal gesturing after a missed pass- it gets old real quick for everyone. Hopefully JP controls his obvious demonstrativeness in the near future better than he controls his willingness to get on his butt and slide (that is if he'd like to play this season out on the field). If Losman insists on exposing his head to safeties we should consider sitting him in favor of KHolcomb when the game is getting away from our opponent.

Maybe within the context that Gandy has been almost a highlight guy for us as far as consistent play so far this year. He looks a lot more like a guy who simply didn't fit another system right now than Anderson does. Granted Anderson got his assignment locked up in the run and pass games at times yesterday, but he also seemed to have no idea at all how to contribute on others. Gandy seems to have a clear vision of his role and I don't expect to see him moved/seated while there remains an "issue" to his right.

While power is being restored elsewhere- Beverly Hills is still down, now going I believe on 2.5 hours.

Might be a bit premature to read too much into the Texan game. Benny Anderson looked at times in the first half as if he wasn't sure he was even supposed to be on the field- and this was after the ball was snapped. On first view I'd say Teague and Gandy were consistent (and playing well), MWilliams was effective on most downs and Villarial was hampered by his ankle enough to have to give way to Preston who played well under the circumstances. It was disappointing to see Cambell whiff some blocks that cost us, I've been a big fan of his improved play until yesterday. Shelton isn't the most consistent player in a Bill's uni either- he runs right past targets at times without any contact. And if I see 88 playing in one more running set I'm going to edit the film of his inept blocking myself and send it to OBD. He's just nowhere near strong enough to be playing at this level. The best thing we could probably hear on this front is "Ryan Nuefeld was suspended after the league discovered signs of steriod use....." I need to go back and watch that bad stretch of offense (otherwise known as the second half) when Houston put an end to us moving the ball consistently. Our drives for the Bill's second half read something like 5 punts and a field goal, with maybe four of those drives ending with only one first down. That ain't power running or the sign of great offensive line work- if fact it makes it far easier to support the argument we WEREN'T effective rushing when we should have been able to.

Beverly Hills is down, traffic lights are out. We're live in Santa Monica though. It'll be interesting to see how Jesse Jackson tries to glom onto this one ;-)

On first viewing Sapp is the last Raider on their defense I'd be dressing down after this game.

I was blown away by how awful their 2002(?) first round pick Gibson plays in coverage- zero leg burst in "impending pass likelihood". A Raider fan in the bar tonight said "he has no instincts" but my own feeling was that he simply has no burst- he seemed to be in solid position on the early critical plays in the game yet he couldn't close them down.

Best thing about the link is it illustrates that while the average football fan is busy obsessing about one position, on the team level equal attention is paid to all the opposing players since you don't get far as an organization if you buy into the fallacy that QB is the "most important" position in football.

Indecision might be worse- for those of us holding tickets to the original game in the Superdome, we'd be far more likely to rework everything to go to another location IF details were ready NOW. The bottom line is do SOMETHING.

Looking for the silver lining- it's a possible indication that the intentisty of practice this week is picking up for the opener.

I'm hosting the little ladies parents for a tour of the Paso Robles wine region Friday and Saturday before rising early with a red wine hangover on Sunday to join a doting matron who will be watching her kid make his first regular season start in the league.

I completely agree with you- the QB should be representative of the team's fans. For instance Buffalo is represented by guys like Kelly and Losman, blue collar men who any Bill's fan would be proud to invite over for a barbeque with their family. I'm convinced from the Pat's fans I know they feel the same way about Brady! The "climate" in your area is much different, for instance while no one would show up for this in Buffalo you'd have "fondling room only" for it in New England: Labor Day Fest New England Style- "Join His Eminence Bernard Francis Cardinal Law and his good friend Tom Brady at the Boston YMCA for a picnic packed with sausages and weenies! Don't forget to bring the boys!"

It's quite entertaining observing the level of embarassment Patsy fans harbor realizing that their QB is a rope smoker, and the incredible lengths they go to hide that embarassment such as suggesting that a breeder like Losman suffers the same chromosomal confusion as Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Had we been blessed in the immediate past with a LT who might on occasion show up 20 yards downfield run blocking for his running backs I might find some common ground on you with the play being flagged, but since Jonas was hardly one to help downfield in the running game I'll still hold some delight in seeing Gandy still wheeling that deep into a play.

Was it on "Unwrapped"?