Mark Long Beach

The OPs essential point is correct. Look, our OLine settled down after the first few games and became competent. Not great, but decent, and a whole lot better than the start of the season or last year. The problem is that we have no good RT and little to no depth. We got decimated with injuries vs the Vikings. Their front 4 is close to if not the best in the NFL. They were beating our starters and crushed our replacements. We were due for a down game and they helped us by disrupting everything. They were beating on Fitz all game long (after first mauling our OL). No QB looks good on his back. Pro-bowl filled D-Line >>>>>>>>>>>>> than weak replacement O-linemen. If any of us would have known before the game started that we wouldn't have Wood, Hangartner nor Urbik due to injuries we'd all figure that we'd lose the game. Heck I was worried with just Wood MIA.

A little harsh, but not that far off. Leonard was a guy who was easy to root for, but he's undersized and relatively speaking undertalented. However, he's worked hard and has improved significantly. Very much unlike Ko Simpson, who started out better, but never really took a step forward. That's why guys like Leonard stick around for a while. They work hard and overachieve. They are known as journeymen and can fill a role for a year or three.

Or she likes it!

I agree. I don't miss the seemingly endless streams of 3 and out at all. While I felt that our teams have generally played hard too the end, it always seemed to me that under DJ we were playing not to lose. Relying solely on the other teams to make mistakes. Good teams wouldn't make those mistakes and would beat us regularly. Bad teams would make just enough mistakes to allow us a narrow victory. It just never felt like good football. We were simple in schemes and plays for both offense and defense. Scores were artificially low because we wouldn't give up big plays but would allow tons of little plays. Letting the other team methodically march downfield eating up tons of clock, and scoring just enough to win. I don't miss those days at all. Our defense is still bad, but at least they're finally playing together. It sure didn't feel that way in the beginning of the year. Our offense has been impressive. I no longer feel a sense of doom every 3rd down.

Tell him I said "hi"! Loved it!

Thx for the update. I thought he was a standup guy who worked hard and seemed to finally figure out how to maximize what talents he had as a receiver. The problem was that he was essentially too small for the position and got hurt a lot (significant injury every year). With our generally weak TE position, and his marginal blocking this became too much of a liability for us. But I'll always wish hardworking type guys well.

Having watched a fair number of Shanahan games, I can't tell you how relieved that I am that we didn't land him. When he was younger he was a good coach. Now he knows he is, just ask him. The more power he has and has gotten the more poor his coaching has become. As an added bonus his player acquisition skills are _horrible_. Worse, he gives up on middling players too quickly now because he plans on replacing them. But those middling players often need to be put into service because of injury. But they're not well prepared and the coach hasn't put any energy into them unlike when he was a younger coach. IMO. Let him drag some other team into chaos. No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. Or more accurately: thank goodness we didn't get him, thank goodness, thank goodness.

It's the beard that does it.

BTW, Thanks for pointing out the formation, I didn't notice it. Although while Kelsey is listed as a LB, it's still a stretch to call him one. So that leaves us two DLineman, but still both of them would be considered undersized for a 3-4 DLineman. But it sure seemed to work a little better than previous tries.

I wish it were that easy to make 'em stop. A little high current through the internet? But seriously, I just hope that the bitching here will help them be better human beings in real life rather than it being a reflection of a miserable existence. Try not to let it drag YOU down, and ignore 'em in whatever way works best for you.

Also agreed. It was quite refreshing to see competence.

Buffalo Bills - ouch. Cleveland Indians - ouch. my local LA Lakers! - not ouch. I guess they keep me on an even keel when dealing with the Bills and Indians. But talk about extremes... sheesh!

Sadly our good play allowed us to rise to the occasion and... lose a winnable game there for our taking. sigh.

Best summary I've seen. I completely agree. He has talent I don't dispute that. But so did Losman and Edwards. Blech, I wouldn't touch him with a 39 1/2 foot pole.

It is incredible, but he had a good start. The Lakers were already one of the premier teams in the league as one of the powers in the Western Conference. His first draft pick wasn't too bad in Magic Johnson. Hollywood and other advantages work together (with him being a good owner) to help keep them on top. Can't forget about two hall-of-fame coaches during that span either. Current coach is Phil Jackson who has been a head coach for 21 years. He's been to the Championship game 13 of those 21 years (winning 11)! He's had the most dominating coaching run of any coach in any of the major professional sports. Heck he even won 2 championships as a PLAYER. The dude understands what it takes for a team to win. Jerry Bus is a good owner, but there's a lot that goes into the Lakers being successful.

Good Times, Good times.

Yeah, but you run the risk of being the 90s Cincinnati Bengals. David Klingler, Akili Smith... But then again they got Boomer Esiasin and Carson Palmer on either side, unfortunately that's a span of 1984 to 2003 between good QB drafts. That left them 1991-2004 with no winning seasons and SEVEN seasons with 4-12 or worse!

Yup, and he's classified as a bust. Or perhaps a washout at best.

We were among the more active teams in free agency and already had one of the highest player turnover from last year. Granted we were generally going for the value picks, but we reportedly put in offers on some higher level players like Donovan McNabb. But with so few players available, and MUCH fewer high quality players available the competitions was pretty high for them. Since we are in a rebuild mode with a new staff, I agree with the don't overspend until you know what you've got and what you need philosophy. For a perfect fit, I'm still happy to overspend, hopefully they'll feel the same. I suspect we'll be active next year as well, as we have a lot of holes to fill.

Reminds me of what we did with Butler. We moved him inside to play at guard and was a pretty decent one, later on we moved him out to tackle and was a pretty decent one. We would have a much better line if he hadn't retired. Wang is a new puzzle piece, we're just trying to find out where he fits the best. It's not always at his drafted location. Robert Gallery was the number 2 pick as a supposed franchise Left Tackle, where he was not successful... However, he's a pretty good guard and it's the position he plays now. Gallery: http://www.examiner.com/oakland-raiders-in-oakland/oakland-raiders-a-question-of-talent

A probable collection of versatile junk, but they are also probably better than last years junk. We've gotten plenty of looks at Chambers who was versatile, but definitely junk. Meredith has been beaten out by our current junk so that leaves Scott, who I think had a little potential (and is a backup at Pittsburgh IIRC). Close call, but Howard's looked okay, and we've some hope that Wang and Wrotto can be better...right?

Wood played a different line position in college, but he hasn't moved around since he's been here at Buffalo. Changing positions is pretty standard fare as players move up in competition. This is due to both increased competition at each position and different needs of teams at the higher levels. Lots of tackles in college are put there because they are the strongest and fastest lineman the team has, but in the pros their speed and size is typically not large/fast enough to handle the pro players so they get moved into guard. It's also easier to help guards so that position is often a starting point for young players (like tackles) to get some playing time on the field. As they gain experience, strength and technique then they get moved to positions of greater responsibility like tackle (or center). Also very true. Wood hasn't completely come back from his injury and has struggled this season. But has been our best RG.

Yup. It thrives on creating mismatches before the play is even run. This makes it easier for the QB to run the offense because the field is so spread out there is less options for the defense to change coverages/disguise intentions etc. In college ball, how many teams are going to run 4 deep in cover dbs/lbs? Spread formations are used in the pros all the time, but they are just part of a package not a whole system because it leaves the QB too exposed to potential injuries over the long haul. Especially with the much bigger/faster/stronger pro players. Because it can put up huge points in HS & College ball, there are a number of schools that run a whole offensive system based on spreading out the defense. Because it's typically run out of the shotgun and has less formation variations it can be difficult to project how a QB will be able to run all of the different formations he'll have to run as a pro QB. Statistic-wise they'll have stunning numbers, but they may not have the skill set to make the transition to pro an easy one (or at all).

I think that we can stop weak running teams. To some extent they'll stop themselves. Since they've had a half-season of running failures they won't rely on the run as much as they should vs. us. So they'll pass too often and will lose because of it.

I agree. Vick would improve our team tremendously. He's at a minimum a good QB and perhaps a very good QB. This is WAAAAY better than what we have. But the rabid foam-at-the-mouth dog fondlers er lovers can't stand that idea.