Richard Noggin

Hopefully that's mostly just Ravens fans, innit

Someone had to mention Ernie Adams already when I wasn't even online yet huh @Augie

The kind of cold you're concerned about isn't really how this Sunday night will be, from what I'm seeing. Even that NE WC game wasn't all that cold inside the stadium. I'd think that recent Miami x KC playoff game is a better example of what you're suggesting (hypothermia risk). I went skiing last night in EC and it got down to 15ish degrees with some breeze, especially up on the lifts near the end of the night. Constant snow. It will be just a little bit colder than that Sunday night. Not super bad when you're in a bowl full of 70k standing/yelling/anxious people.

To make this assertion is, in fact, to make an argument (argument as in rhetorical claim, rather than contentious disagreement).

One comparison I hope doesn't play out: Bills fans sold A LOT OF TICKETS to Bengals fans for that playoff game. When Tee Higgins caught a pass, the "TEE" call was way too loud. It didn't feel right at all for Orchard Park. There were a fair amount of Broncos fans in attendance last week. More visiting fans than we'd seen this season, to my eyes and ears. And we all know tickets are broadly available again this week. Ravens fans are going to pay premiums to come to Orchard Park and potentially shove the whole MVP thing in our faces. Apparently it's a big, contentious deal among the toxic elements of the fan bases.

Many would argue Antonio Brown was a historically great draft pick. Many would also argue that Vontaze Burfict violently and forever altered the trajectory of Brown's career.

For sure we go there, especially given Pittsburgh's growing legacy of gutless divas. But also, some of these dudes get paid a certain amount (even several million over first few seasons is more than most people earn in a few decades) and then don't have the drive and the nerve to keep grinding and risking injury without the promise of increasingly larger pay days. And instead of being team-first guys and trusting in their talent and work ethic, and respecting the game, they get upset when they encounter ANY barrier to their talents being maximized and best showcased at all times. It's a capitalistic mindset, viewed through that lens. I still hate it, but also we're all just grist for the mills, so not every talented athlete wants to continue to sacrifice and strive if the payoff isn't immediate and immense. **also, I look forward to the inevitable Diontae Johnson v Antonio Brown boxing match.

"Super cold" essentially means it cannot physically be "wet." There will have been no rain or real thaw for some time, and therefore the snow is super dry and particulate. If it snows during the game Sunday, it will not create wet conditions at all. There can be some footing issues until they dial in the right cleats for each guy, but in general, really cold, snowy games don't result in wet or slippery balls or field conditions.

One of the coolest/most candid things I witnessed when on the field for warmups last game, was Babich hyping up a few D-linemen. He was especially psycho with Javon Solomon, who he suddenly mugged from behind while screaming semi-coherent profanities. He lit up a couple others with a touch less vigor and violence, before jump-cutting away as quickly as he'd arrived. It was awesome.

I shared this with a friend who's looking to buy, but he replied by saying he doesn't want to sit in the 300s (slightly pejorative). Honest question: what is the vibe around standing up in your sections? Is it frowned upon except for pivotal defensive 3rd downs and after explosive offensive plays? Is it always frowned upon? Is it never frowned upon?

Might part of the problem Baltimore presents be that stopping Henry and stopping Lamar require two somewhat different approaches? To stop Henry, a defense needs to attack and penetrate and stop his legs before he gets going. To stop Lamar, a defense needs to maintain their lanes while collapsing the pocket with discipline and leverage. This necessarily puts specific defenders in conflict on nearly every snap, whether they know it or not.

If any serious lit/tennis nerds are in the thread tonight, this post above made me think immediately of: Would 2025 be the NFL Year of State Farm Insurance, or was that 2024?

If only there was a way to research this... Guidance from Bills fans on the ground is SUPER helpful (I used this forum just last weekend, in fact), no doubt, but you can more efficiently do some preliminary work and then look for verification or further granular detail here. Edit: looks like McKinley Mall DOES have an NFTA Highmark express service on game days, up to and including last week. You should be good to go with that plan (I'd obviously recommend further research to learn best practices and nuances).

It's not a complete nothing burger for the team, I'll bet, and I definitely prefer these guys when they're the underdogs. So, thanks?

Couple nods to Beach Chairs himself, with a Great Lakes twist: The Seawall The Ice Boom More roster and regionally-inspired: Wall of Shnow The Shnowmen The Shnowplow and so on...

And didn't it feel like that game a) frustrated Allen and the gang in a way they snapped out of just too late (and were too undermanned) to recover from? and b) finally showed management the irrefutable proof that they had a fatal lack of receiver talent/threat with Shakir and c) this brutal defensive inactive list (+ Milano of course): CB Taron Johnson. S Taylor Rapp. WR Khalil Shakir. LB Edefuan Ulofoshio. OT Will Clapp. DT Ed Oliver. DT Austin Johnson.

McD LOVES his defensive timeouts. Madly. There MUST be data on % of teams' timeouts called while on offense vs while on defense. Calling timeouts while on offense at a high frequency might indicate those teams are hurrying up at the ends of halves because they're trailing, maybe, but I'm sure over a long enough timeline the simple data will at least be worth a look. Then when broken down by down and distance, and game clock and script, I'll bet we see some compelling/competing tendencies. Or I'm dumb. Always a non-zero % possibility of that.

Lamar likes the cold LESS than Josh Allen. Dude wears ski masks in 60 degrees. LFG

Nah, Allen's always been the guy who inspires the most pedantic or contrarian or exclusively analytics-reliant NFL online pundits/fans/commentators to plant bold flags against him and his potential. Allen's ascension to consistently ELITE/ALL-PRO performances has hurt the credibility of a lot of NFL voices. I could see a small, stupid contingent of dorks opposing him on the 1st ballot in more scenarios than just the obvious one you propose.

Cannot be correct time slot. But the Sunday prediction is pretty widespread at this point.

That movie is Full Metal Jacket-level quotable.

Such a drought-era BILLSY/SABRESY move.

I actually missed this play as we were walking from the field/tunnel to our seats in 137 (pretty far away). All I saw was Bills defense pitching a shutout lol (thanks of course in part to that doink off the crossbar).