The Frankish Reich

And yet they say there isn’t enough of a local audience for Phish to play Buffalo.

Moss had 88 rushing yards for the Colts yesterday.

I knew he’d be rusty when he finally got back on the field last year. But this year? What happened? Looks like he aged 10 years during that time off. Bigger, slower, less decisive. In other words, crap.

If Ronnie talks long enough, sooner or later he’ll say something I agree with. Come on, Fetterman. Get up, sh**, shave (yeah, that too) and shower, out on some dress pants, a button shirt, and learn how to tie a tie. Dork.

Second week in a row that the Bills draw the Broncos' opponent from the week before. And since the Broncos dominate my local market I watched the Raiders pretty closely last week and the Commanders pretty closely this week. The Commanders are your classic mediocre team. Actually, with a good QB (I'm not talking Josh; maybe a Kirk Cousins or something) they'd actually be pretty good. - Hard to say how much real improvement there was in Sam Howell at QB as opposed to a failing Broncos' D. What I can say is he did appear confident, didn't get rattled, and hung in there to make some nice throws. I very much doubt he's their QB of the future, but suffice to say he's no Zach Wilson or Skylar Thompson. He's a perfectly decent backup quality QB right now who can surprise you, and he may very well get significantly better. - I'm not very impressed with their skill position players. McLaurin is still good. Logan Thomas (remember him?) made a nice TD catch and then got clocked in a dirty helmet-to-helmet play that brought a concussion, so he may be out. Brian Robinson is playing well at RB, and is a receiving threat out of the backfield. He's probably the only one who I could see having a big game against the Bills. There's just not a bunch of scary offensive threats on that team right now, which makes it kind of amazing that they put up 30+ points. Again, I attribute that at least equally to an underperforming Broncos D - The Broncos pass rush did bother Howell in the first half. Randy Gregory emerged from his disappearing act to chase Howell around a few times. This tells me that our pass rush may do very well against the Commanders. I expect Rousseau, Floyd, even Epenesa to disrupt things a lot from the edge. - Defensively, they were pretty awful in the first half, and Russell Wilson (yes, Russell Wilson) picked them apart pretty easily. The second half? Seems like the Broncos offense just fell apart, their line broke down, and Wilson wilted under pressure. The D line is supposed to be really good, but again, the successes seemed more a result of Broncos' ineptitude than any great work on their part. Any Given Sunday and all that, but we are a much better team, and even on the road I'm not too concerned about this one. EDIT: I should add that Eric Bieniemy is finally calling plays, and it looked like he really knew what he was doing. Some nice adjustments to what the Broncos did in the first half. Hey, he got 35 points out of Sam Howell against a defense that is (on paper) pretty decent. I think this move is gonna work out for him.

I don't deny that it is difficult for some people, particularly on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Those without savings but with credit card debt, etc. And they would be the people who would answer the survey questions consistently: "My personal economic situation is bad; the country's economy is bad." I'm talking about the people who say I'm doing just fine (or even really, really well) but the economy as a whole stinks. I could understand a more nuanced answer like "but unfortunately there's a bunch of people who aren't sharing in the wealth who are struggling," but that's different than saying the economy overall is trash. I still believe it is is constant drumbeat of negativity from social media and the new commentariat that causes people to say this without taking some time to reflect on what a bad economic picture overall really is.

The constant harangue of social media is the only explanation I have for this: https://www.axios.com/2023/08/18/americans-economy-bad-personal-finances-good By the numbers: In the telephone survey of 1,818 adults Aug. 10-14, 71% of Americans described the economy as either not so good or poor. And 51% said it's getting worse. But 60% said their financial situation is good or excellent. Typically if you ask someone how his/her personal financial situation is and how the country's economy is doing, the answers will be the same. This is a new phenomenon, and it's one I see echoed on this board all the time: I'm doing fine. I am going to London to watch the Bills game. I have a sparkling new EV that's the best thing since sliced bread. I am sailing from Florida to Maine. I am retiring in some kind of idyllic community where the weather is warm and the beer is cold. I am living the dream. Even if I'm working I'm working at home most of the time. Or if I'm not working at home I'm charging exorbitant rates to fix your water heater on a weekend! Oh, but this country as a whole is going to hell! The economy is the worst ever.

I guess we must be in the minority here. We faced a very dangerous new public health menace in America and the world in 2020. It looked for a time as if people would be staged in trailers outside hospitals (note: THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED in NYC), probably to die without ventilators to keep them alive. The economy faced collapse. The NBA and NHL held "bubble" tournaments. MLB was almost completely canceled. NFL games in empty stadiums. Schools went online. Overkill? Who knows for sure. Restrictions were too tight in some areas, and surely went on too long. But this was kind of a new thing. A couple years later, it was essentially over. The economy hadn't collapsed. Huge market interventions probably saved us from that. Amazing rapid development of vaccines and therapeutics. The response certainly wasn't perfect. But even so ... we made it out the other side just fine! Surely there's something to celebrate here instead of miserably groaning like angry old men (umm, maybe that's what the are) about how the world has gone to hell in a hand basket. Lighten up! Get a little perspective. The world survived, indeed, in many ways thrived. There are challenges. We will meet them.

Why are our new-style conservatives so miserable these days? Who is it that "hates America" these days? The people with absolutely nothing positive to say, ever. You really mean NOTHING is better now than it was in September 2020? Because I remember September 2020 and I don't want to go back there.

I'm really excited about this. Phillips, of course, only plays well when he's in a Bills uniform, so he's been an impact guy too. Now if they can stay healthy and then Von comes back ....

Hey, Cook played really well! Congrats to him. As for Singletary: have you looked at the Texans' run game this year? 2.5 YPC thru 2 games. Ouch. I stand by my comment that Cook is best positioned to be something other than the lead RB. And I think that's where we're headed anyway, with a RB by Committee. He's more CJ Spiller than LeSean McCoy. I don't have the inclination to look carry-by-carry, but he strikes me as the guy who has a really good YPC (like, 5.0) because a typical 10 carries go for 3, 1, 10, -1, 2, 16, 0, 4, 2, 23. 60 yards in 10 carries, but 6 of those carries were generally unproductive. That was Spiller's run profile - 6 yards per carry in his best year! That's a really valuable player, but it's not conducive to sustaining lengthy run-heavy drives when you want to do that. Sometimes you need a Fred Jackson or Singletary. Or maybe Harris/Murray can fill that role. AND I LIKED CJ SPILLER! Not his fault he was drafted too high and then misused/wore out as soon as Hackett threatened to run him till he pukes.

Wilson was far from the main problem, last week or this week. He played a fantastic first half yesterday. Payton had the running game working, Russ hit on a bunch of short timing passes, and that created an opportunity for a couple of really well thrown bombs. Then the Broncs defense let Wash back in the game. And Payton weirdly abandoned the running game. As usual, he found other people to blame after the game including Wilson, suggesting that he didn't have the playbook down and should wear a wristband. Funny, because Wilson had to use a couple timeouts in the first half because Payton was late sending in substitutions and presumably the play. It's weird. He has them playing better on offense than Hackett did all last year. They're depleted of receivers but the timing looks decent and Russ has actually been pretty good. But the defense allowed 300 yards passing to ... Sam Howell. And the week before they made the Raiders (exposed by us yesterday) look pretty functional too. It'll take the Broncos at least another year to become truly competitive (they are competitive now if you mean "lose one score games"), but I have a feeling Payton will start wearing out his welcome long before that. "Blowhard know it all" seems to fit the bill so far.

Yeah, that whole "it's an issue for the voters of each state, and Roe v. Wade usurped the rights of each state's voters" thing lasted approximately a week after the Dobbs decision.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-will-no-longer-enforce-dress-code-senators So famous slob Fetterman can adorn the Senate floor in his gym shorts? I know I’m hopelessly old fashioned. But is it too much to at least require something resembling business casual?

We just saw earlier in the game that they overturned a call that a player got out of bounds. So the clock had stopped. Review showed he was down by contact in bounds. Clock should have been running. Solution? By rule, clock runs down 10 seconds. Problem solved

If you’re gonna do it this way, why even make a call on the field? Just say “whether or not it’s a first down is under video review.” There’s no deference to the call on the field anyway.

Exactly. Offense runs 3 plays. Ref spots the ball where he sticks his right foot after each play. Probably a measurement error of at least a couple inches each time. Then on 4th down they bring out the sticks and say he’s an inch short.

Yes, IF the standard is “make your best guess based on the replays.” But that’s not supposed to be the standard! You need clear video evidence to overturn. Which there wasn’t.

WTF! NFL is all legalistic - “clear and convincing video evidence to the contrary” and all that - and then they overturn a call on the field based on some ambiguous video. Happens half a dozen times a week.

Let ‘em have it!!

Well played. Sneaky.

Holy crap, Mac can tie it!

Impatient Tua makes a mistake!

It will take them a full 60 minutes to put up 34 points. Success!

I know Tua is no Josh. but can we admit that he throws a really pretty ball that allows those great receivers to make difficult completions look routine?