AKC

Your description of him is exactly what he is- he's a poor run stopper because he plays too high and he's easily managed by one blocker, he simply can not maintain his ground. He should be a positional pass rusher, where his high center of gravity doesn't render him useless, but instead he's pulled out of all of our pass packages. We face far too many good runners this season and the strategy to play us has now been established. I feared it would become clear about week 6, but with it showing up already we're in major trouble. We had at least one opportunity to address the problem of Edwards when Corey Simon was being shopped but we did nothing. We will come to regret it. Looming Doom

My favorite on the "6 Days to Sunday" featuring our linebackers is Takeo saying "The quarterback should never say nothin'" How true is that- and if we could just keep the quarterback obsessed fans from doing the same a real conversation about football might break out!

Welcome to TSW-don't let your Gruden envy show like that! We'll take it out on him for you. Remember we're all with you on the tuck rule ;-) Watching your first game I couldn't help but see how poorly Gibson is in coverage- he seems to have no ability to make a play on a ball even when he's in perfect position- do you have any depth at safety or will the team suffer the season with Gibson on the field?

With Tyrell Davis interrupting him but Woodson insisting "why don't you let me make my pick", Woodson's take was that if JP can get through the 1st quarter without getting dinged up the game is ours. That's a QB-based prediction but I'm willing to entertain it from Rod W who took us down nearly on his own on at least one occasion. If the jailbreak over Gandy doesn't materialize we may fare well against another NFC middleweight. With deference to Lori, Bills 17- Bucs 10

He filled in very well when Speilman retired, if I remember early due to his wife's condition? But it seems like he got hurt soon thereafter- we hardly knew ya' kid. No doubt a sad story.

It's true that Griese has difficulty when forced to think ASAP, and that makes me tend to find this a match that overall favors us because the QB situation is a wash- after all, both teams will field QBs who are likely to play like rookies.

Regardless of the degree of devil's advocacy to anything said in this thread, there may actually be a right side of the discussion- I'd say it goes something like this: "Any caliber gap between London Fletcher and Takeo Spikes is a tiny fraction of that assumed by the average Bill's fan."

You can catch a ride with Bob Lamb. He knows all the local "customs" ;-) We're about an hour north of LA and contrary to the feeling you might get on Mapquest the roads are all paved.

Pascal Mastantuono is an interesting character. His Tasting Room is like some Robin Hood Hunting Lodge and he regularly does Wild Boar Roasts, etc. on his property. I'm a huge Brunello fan but as far as the other sangioveses I've never gotten excited. Anything from the Barossa though and I'm all ears-

I'll have to concede to you naming Carson the superior player, I simply didn't see enough of the Giants over those years to make a judgement- my memory is clouded by the highlight films from the era that of course were ripe with LT clips since he played the Sizzle position. I appreciate your acknowledgement of which of our great LBs a Super Bowl winning D was built around. That's a very good point and I hope you don't mind if I use it again.

I believe he was in their nickle and dime packages that second season while Takeo was playing ILB in the Cincy 3-4 as a starter. The fact that London has more tackle ops at MLB is clear from how many more tackles he gets every year in our system than Takeo. For your question below- yeah, I'd prefer to begin building my D with LF because there's no better bite for the buck on our team, which would then allow me to spend my big money in the interior DLine where I believe all the best contemporary NFL defenses begin- not out at WLB.

Toby is a real piece of work- the best marketing operation in the business AFAIC. Keep your calendar open for my wine festival next year, tickets are on me. Vino

I was tasting last week in Paso Robles at some of the usual suspects (L'Aventure, Summerwood, Linne Calodo, Eberle, etc.) and a friend along for the barrel tastings asked if we could stop at the J Lohr property. I've never formed much of an opinion about their products before this past Satruday but I must say the 10-15 buck varietals they are putting in the Cypress label are suprisingly consistent and very representative of the grapes, especially the Shiraz and Cab offerings. Also they had an Estate Cab from "Hilltop" vineyard that was a full on knockout, but at a lot higher price point. Considering I had no intention of cellaring any wines from J Lohr as I got to Paso, I have a surprising number of them in my possession right now. I would highly recommend picking up some of the Cypress Cabs or Shiraz and you should find very drinkable wines right now that will rival cousins in the 30-40 dollar range for about a third the cost.

I'll hear your argument- you're saying you believe Carson was better than LT. You might start by sharing those stats and observations that support your contention just as those of us who believe the quality levels between London and Takeo are greatly exaggerated have done in this string.

In my eyes the best player ever to wear our uniform. He changed the whole game of pass coverage forever and the CB position evolved as a result of the types of athletes picked to play there because of him.

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.