ATBNG
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Posts posted by ATBNG
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And as it's looking, Belichick leaving after the 2007 season is a very distinct possibility. The Giants kept Coughlin, against the desires of their players and fans, for the upcoming season. Belichick can void the final year of his Pats contract (2008). Hmmmmm.
You just posted the news item which said that Belichick currently has a contract with a team option for 2008. Belichick can't void his contract in 2008 if that is an accurate report; the team can. Here's Belichick's own words, when asked about how he felt about the organization last week after the Indy loss.
"I like the people I'm working with, I like the situation I'm in," Belichick said. "First of all, it starts at the top. Mr. Kraft and his family have been tremendously supportive, giving us great support and facilities and everything that they can give to make a team competitive. I don't sit here and say, 'If we had this or had that, it would make a difference.' We pretty much have everything we need, the ability to use resources. That's No. 1 right there.When you have those things, it's hard not to feel good about what you're doing, and it's not hard to keep doing it. I love football and I love the area. The players, the organization, the support we get. I have a great relationship with the two [people]most important to me, Mr. Kraft and [vice president of player personnel] Scott Pioli. I think all the way around, all three of us have a good relationship with each other, very workable, respectfully and complementary. It starts there."
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Keep on fantasizing that things will remain as they are, Prognastic. We've heard it a million times. Hell, we were guilty of it in the early-mid 90's.
"All is well!"
You've been fantasizing about their decline for at least half the six year run. There are, of course, never any substantive reasons given by you when it comes to your (mis)analyzing the Pats.
All is well in Patriot land besides the bitter fact that they're not playing today. They're 30 million under the cap. They probably have the most talented defensive line in the league and they're all under 30. They have a young but effective offensive line that they're not spending umpteen dollars on. They have two first round picks next year. Their best two players are under contract through the rest of the decade.
You just throw out stuff like "it's all got to end sometime." It really doesn't. If you manage your finances well, draft and acquire good players for your system and coach and game plan effectively, you can be competitive every year. It isn't random like a roulette wheel.
The Dallas comparison is not very good either. The architect of Dallas's rise (Johnson) left the team; Belichick is still in place. They also implemented the salary cap during Dallas's run, which prevented them from keeping a lot of their players. The Patriots (Belichick) have shown that they understand how to manage a budget in the salary cap era as well as any team, and the rules aren't changing anytime soon.
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Indy -6.5 - I'd be thrilled to be giving only 6.5. Old school blowout coming. Chicago can't cover the receivers.
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Eli Manning, 57.7% completions, 24 TD, 18 INT, by all accounts had a terrible year.
Vince Young, 51.5% completions, 12 TD, 13 INT, by all accounts had a great year.
Funny game.
Young was a rookie. Manning is in his third year. Most rookie QB's don't even play their first season - never mind win 8 games. Leinart hardly won a pro game despite playing for a program that is as close to the pro level as exists in college. Who's the last rookie QB to win 8 games in a season?
Young went 8-5, Manning went 8-8.
Young played in the better conference.
Young won the head to head battle, for what it's worth.
Young had 552 yards rushing and 7 rushing touchdowns. Eli had 21 yards rushing all season and no TD's.
Manning by most accounts had better talent around him, especially at the offensive skill positions.
Fisher had enough confidence to throw Young into the fire; I don't think Coughlin would trust Eli to park his car.
Give me VY any day over Eli. I don't understand why people are so hellbent on downgrading Young's accomplishments. He's a new kind of player who wins without fitting into the classic NFL QB mold. To quote Tony the Tiger, I think it's not just good for the game - it's great.
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Just goes to show how weak the QB position was in the AC.
Baltimore - McNair was very average
Buffalo - JP improved and had a decent year
Cincinnati - Palmer, came on strong later in the season
Cleveland - Nothing to see here people
Denver - Changed QB's during the season
Houston - Carr, very disappointing season
Indy - Manning, probably the best Qb in the league
Jax - QB position a mess
KC - Injury to Green, Huard played well
Miami - A mess (LOL)
NE - Brady had a good year
NYJ - Pennington had a good year, but no arm strength
Oakland - Another mess
Pitt - Big Ben had a down year, played better towards the end of the season
SD - Rivers had a good year
Tenn - VY had an average year for a rookie
That being said, Manning, Palmer, & Rivers voted in the 2007 PB. Rivers is hurt, so Brady is a good fill in. After that, who do you go with?
Pennington is deserving. Arm strength aside, he and his team had a terrific year because he reads defenses so well and executes on third down.
Young is also deserving; it's undeniable that he turned that team around. Passer rating is a very flawed measure of performance. With that said, Young's 4th quarter passer rating during Tennessee's streak was well over 100.
Both belong there much more than the guys in the NFC after Brees.
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jester, what you witnessed was the genius of belichick. he kept the ball out of gates' hands for the most part via double coverage, and targeted LT. the sad thing is, while the targeting of LT was a complete failure, the chargers decided to put the ball in the hands of rivers and the WRs - not gates and tomlinson to the extent they should have had the ball - and the results were depressing: more poor plays by WRs than you're ever likely to see in an NFL game of any importance.
I think that his plan for defending LT was very similar to his plan defending Thomas in Super Bowl XXV. Try to funnel him inside and get the strength of his defense to get some shots on him and wear him down, but he was always going to get his 100+ yards because of his ability and because the Pats outside linebackers are less than stout against the run to put it charitably (Banta-Cain especially). They'll have a lot of trouble next week with that stretch play.
They don't teach safeties/corners to knock passes down on fourth down on the first day of training camp. I think it's the first day of Pop Warner that they do that. McCree's play was inexcusable. And Troy Brown is one hell of a football player.
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Neither Freeney or Schobel should have made it. Pro Bowl voters overrate sacks ridiculously. Warren, Burgess and Henderson all had better years (you can stick Seymour outside and put Henderson on the team). Schobel's a nice player, but this is a big time stretch.
Freeney is about to become the most overpaid player in the history of the NFL. Drew Bledsoe, move on over!
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C'mon Skins - one more stop + TD.
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They have a lot to play for and will play full speed. If they win, they will have at the least a first-round bye and open the playoffs at home. They could also, with a win and a Chargers loss, lock up homefield throughout the playoffs. If they lose, the Pats get the bye and the Ravens are playing next week. All the Baltimore players have come out and said they really need the bye. It will be a brawl.
Pats can't get the bye, but Indy can with an Indy win and Buffalo win. Pats are locked in at 3/4, which is why Tom Brady should be sitting if your fantasy Super Bowl is tomorrow.
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Yeah but the Pats will offer him a lowball contract and he'll go elsewhere. Count on it.
They're going to do what they do with every player; assess what his worth is and make an offer on that basis. They did pay linebacker Rosie Colvin quite well back in 2003 when he signed. I think that part of how they do business is the understanding that they need quality experienced linebackers to run their defense effectively; the beginning of last year when they had Chad Brown (veteran, but no longer quality) and Monty Beisel (neither veteran nor quality) playing much of the game in the middle was as bad as their defense has been in six years.
I would agree that he is more likely to get a higher offer from a different team, since of course there are 31 other teams that might outbid New England for his services and there is a lot of money floating around out there for this free agent class. They don't "lowball" players though as you suggest; if they truly did, then they'd be a bad team. They manage their money effectively by not overpaying marginal or injury prone guys; that's why they are successful.
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Young's passer rating in the fourth quarter during this winning streak has been absurd.
I also think that he's a better runner than Vick. He's not faster than Vick, but Young's downfield vision is as good as I've ever seen for a QB. He's not going to take the kill shots that Vick has because of that and his size advantage.
He reminds me more of Brady than Vick. I expect him to solve all the knocks on his arm and reach his maximum potential. There are some pretty impressive pelts on the wall during this winning streak for a rookie. Put me in the "real deal" club.
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I'd expect the Pats to make a serious run at him. Belichick singles Fletcher out before pretty much every game on his TV show; he's an obvious fan of his game. The Pats also need linebacking depth and the strategy all along since Belichick + Pioli since they've come in is to acquire veterans at this particular position.
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I'm going to enjoy Washington thrashing the Giants tonight thoroughly. I hope we see Gilbride's greatest hits, complete with Coughlin moaning on the sidelines all night.
I think my dream scenario is the Giants up ten with 11 minutes left in the fourth with the ball, and him calling three straight passing plays to go three and out, followed by a four point loss.
Eli hasn't developed particularly well under Gilbride in my opinion. He seems to have had a bell curve like career track so far. I think it is very fair to say there has been a clear regression this year where there should have been improvement. You can't blame it all on losing Toomer and a few linemen; every team has injuries.
If the Pats can't win it, then I'd like to see the Chargers do it for no other reason that I like how they used the trade of two overrated college prospects to build a team and acquire perhaps the best player in the NFL in the process.
(I know, I know, Rico. Martyball. January. Probably ain't happening.)
Go Redskins!
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His Pittsburgh play this week is very interesting. I think based on what has transpired so far this season that Baltimore should be about a 4.5 point favorite. The fact that it has dropped to three means one of two things.
1. Smart money is pushing the line fervently towards Pittsburgh
2. Public money is still hammering the overrated Super Bowl champs.
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I actually like Miami today, even though I usually grab home dogs. AFC teams are really starting to dominate NFC competition in the last few weeks and this is a light number. Also like Tampa (Dallas should be flat) and KC, with KC being my play of the day.
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This is a gambling thread.
A trained puppy could have told us to pick Indy to win straight up.
Why in the other thread did you say you're "about even" as a gambler if you're picking games straight up? Either you're picking games against the spread or you're being dishonest about gambling. You can't have it both ways.
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bellicek hates mangini cuz he knows he's good
it's really that simple. at 36 he thought he had mangini as a top coordinator for at least a few years. something he desperately needed after losing weis to ND and the other guy to cleveland. bellichek is losing it without help. he was outcoached today and last week against colts too. and he's not getting any help from kraft who keeps losing top performers to free agency etc. this could be the beginning of the end for kraft and bellicheck
I had under 2.5 in the pool on how many different ways you'd misspell Belichick.
There were some reports this week that Belichick feels Mangini tampered with acquiring some coaches/staff under contract with New England when he left. There are also some unconfirmed rumors that one of those employees was the team chef.
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Sure thing bro. Here are my picks
Baltimore over TENN
INDI over Buffalo
ATLANTA over Cleveland
Greenbay over MINNESOTA
JACKSONVILLE over Houston
Kansis City over MIAMI
NEW ENGLAND over Jets
Chargers over CINCI
New Orleans OVER Pittsburgh
Thats all Im willing to bet on. Home team is in CAPS.
4-4? What world are you living in?
First three lost.
GB won.
Next three lost.
San Diego won.
2-6.
Late game not off to such a hot start either.
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Dolphins E, Titans +7, Giants -2.
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I bet a few games here and there for small money. I bet the NFL only. I gravitate towards home underdogs and try to identify games where the public is strongly overrating a favorite (which may eventually be christened "the daquixers theory"). Like BuffOrange, I'm having a very good year after having an atrocious year last season. I think if you were going to become a professional gambler you'd gravitate towards another sport (college hoops, hoops, maybe baseball) which allows for more opportunitites for letdowns, travel plays, etc. If you're going to have some fun, the NFL is where it is at. It's once a week and I never miss the games anyway unless some life changing event is going on.
I don't recommend betting for anything more than fun money. If losing makes you much unhappier than winning makes you happy, that's when you know it is time to quit. If you're betting income that is not disposable, that will happen very quickly.
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Grossman, Rex CHI QB
Week Pts Opponent Status
1------20 at Packers--NS
2------41 vs Lions-----NS
3------16 at Vikings-----S
4------24 vs Seahawks-S
5------21 vs Bills-------NS
6-----(-5) at Cardinals--S
7------Bye--------------NS
8------31 vs 49ers-----NS
9------9 vs Dolphins-----S
10 at Giants
11 at Jets
12 at Patriots
13 vs Vikings
14 at Rams
15 vs Buccaneers
16 at Lions
17 vs Packers
Notice the bold type are the weeks I started Rex.
A friend of mine had a seven point lead going into that game in week 6. He had Grossman still to play. His opponent had no one left. He ended up losing by two.
Your first concert
in Off the Wall Archives
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My first concert was Sinatra at the opening of the Worcester Centrum.
My first rock concert was Meatloaf in Worcester. I'm lucky I didn't give up on concerts right there. He was hideous.
I think the best show I've ever seen is U2 in Hartford during the Elevation tour, but the Pixies reunion show in Montreal is a very close second and the Foo Fighters at the Palladium in Worcester is a very close third.