dave mcbride

The LA metro area is literally ten times the size as the Buffalo metro area.

Agreed, but if I'm Luck, I'm looking at the owner - who ain't going anywhere - and saying to myself, "if past is prelude, I need to get the hell out of Dodge ASAFP." Guess who was the owner of the Baltimore Colts in the late 70s/early 80s?

I'll believe it when I see it. LA fans are terrible (Christ, SC v. Stanford looked 40 percent empty). This will become more and more obvious over time. Also, the Chargers' presence in LA is the biggest joke in pro sports in a long time. I also think that pro football has more reputational problems in California than anywhere else in the country (CA culture and head injuries is a volatile mix). And let's not forget the flight of the Raiders. Just a bad NFL culture all around.

Not a bad comp ( read to the end -- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Jones ), which may be why Luck allegedly wants out of the Colts org. 'The widely respected scout Ernie Accorsi is quoted as saying that if Bert Jones had played under different circumstances, he probably would have been the greatest player ever. ... On the eve of Super Bowl XLII, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, in discussing his choices for the greatest quarterbacks of all time, described Jones as the best "pure passer" he had ever seen.'

What do you think about the point of trying to avoid a pick, which was a danger if he led him? I don't think it looked like that tough of a catch at all even though it was behind him. I expect $6 million TEs to make it, but i also know that drops happen. It was just bad luck that it resulted in a pick.

Good point.

Great stuff, and thanks. I certainly don't think it was a perfect throw by any means, but it's a catchable ball for a good NFL receiver. It may be the case that he threw it slightly behind to prevent the pick too. In any event, I think you're probably right in calling it an error, but it's a minor one given that a lot of catches that receivers make all of the time aren't 100 percent on target. He also didn't get hit until the ball passed through his hands, or so it appears.

A deeper analysis: https://www.patspulpit.com/2017/9/13/16283498/film-review-new-england-patriots-big-play-issues-kansas-city-chiefs-tyreek-hill-kareem-hunt-nfl. Conclusion: McCourty's fault.

Awesome clip.

Um ... wasn't that particular game the best game in Smith's entire life??

The WR corps is not good. You should be concerned.

Dareus had nearly 30 sacks in his first four seasons - as a DT! He can obviously rush the passer unless he's lost a step.

Cam Newton also rushed for 48 TDs in his first 6 seasons. That is phenomenal. He has also had two great years, not one - his rookie season (4051 yards passing and 14 rushing TDs) and 2015 (good numbers all around and 10 rushing TDs). In his rookie season, Carolina was 5th in points and 7th in yards, but the D was 27th and 28th in those categories. The previous season, the Carolina offense was 32nd in yards and 32nd in points.

I have no idea about that; I'm speaking in general terms about the site, which I firmly believe is better than nfl.com.

What I'm telling you is that PFR is a better site that is far cleaner and far easier to use (nfl.com and espn.com's sites are graphic messes). It also has far deeper historical coverage. Its AV metric (akin to bWAR) is pretty reliable too, and better than anything nfl.com has to offer. Again, I suggest giving it an extensive perusal along with its parent site, www.baseball-reference.com, which really is the granddady of all of these sites. Trust me, baseball people use baseball-reference.com, not mlb.com for stats.

This argument strikes me as a category error. Kirby is judging a player on a 30 game stretch, and you're judging a player on one.

Huh? Brees is great and should never be judged by one game. It has to be done over a long stretch, which is what Kirby is doing. The Vikes may have the best defense in the nfl, btw, although I know Seattle's is good too.

Dude. No offense, but you don't know of what you speak. PFR - which is an offshoot of the legendary www.baseball-reference.com (the best sports stats pretty much ever - e.g., bWAR), is the best football stat site around. Not even close, actually. Nfl.com pales in comparison, and I never consider using it given PFR's existence. I thought this was common knowledge, but apparently not. Do yourself a favor and check out the suite of sites it operates. You can start here for background: http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/features/the-sublime-simplicity-of-baseball-reference-com-20151028 . This too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball-Reference.com . Pfr is run by the same people. Nfl.com is for amateurs, in my opinion . Oh --and pfr has game play-by-play for every game in which such records were kept.

See my edit above about Taylor. The passing numbers are virtually identical!

I think Smith is the better qb now, but it took Smith a long time to get to where he is, and he was bad-to-mediocre for a long time. He's a genuine veteran, and this is only Taylor's third year starting. In Smith's sixth year - his first genuinely good season - his numbers were eerily Taylor-like. He led the NFL in sacks taken with 44 (he also had 7 fumbles), threw for 3144 yards with a 61.3 percent completion pct, had a 7.1 ypa average, and had a 17/5 TD/INT ratio. He only ran for 179 yards and 2 TDs, and although a good runner for a qb, he wasn't in Taylor's league that season. Otherwise, those are Taylor numbers to a tee. He did it in 16 games. In 15 games last season, Taylor threw for 3,023 yards, had a 61.7 percent completion pct, averaged 7.1 ypa, had a 17/6 TD/INT ratio, and was sacked 42 times to lead the NFL. He ran for 538 yards, had 6 rushing TDs, and only fumbled 4 times (one lost) to Smith's 7 fumbles.

Yes they do. I've been saying that for a while. Houston and TN have very good defensive personnel too, so it'll be an interesting race. That division is there for the taking.

If you have a good clip from the backside, it'd be great to see it again. I watched it 3-4 times yesterday, but during the game. I can't find one now. He was indeed hit hard, but it had already gone right through his hands by that point. He never got a hold on it, so the hit was kind of a moot issue (except perhaps for the hearing-footsteps possibility).

I take issue with the whole premise of your post.

I think it would qualify as a solid catch by Clay - not "very good." That sort of catch is made *literally all of the time* by good NFL receivers, and Clay is definitely paid like one. You think Anquan Boldin in his prime drops that? No way. It obviously wasn't a perfect throw but it was still highly catchable - eye-level with the receiver literally facing the QB and with the ball slightly to his left side. You guys have crazy high standards for catchable balls by NFL receivers if you think that constitutes a very good catch. Having said all of this, drops happen on every team, and the Bills weren't really plagued by them yesterday.

The most important thing a coach does is hire staff. Marrone has a record of hiring good defensive staff (Pettine, Schwartz).