dave mcbride

Perception v. Reality -- I know which side I'm on. I also suspect that I know which side you're in, old friend, after two decades of engagement.

Here, here. Great post.

Huh? All of those guys were playing in Bledsoe's best years. It's not arguable. Bledsoe never had a good season after 1997 except for the first half of 2002. He was league average in 1998, to be fair. Basically, the daylight between DB and Jim Everett is really meager, as I say above.

31-6, Buffalo. I don't see how the Jets score TDs with that group.

I *totally* disagree with you about Bledsoe's career. We'll just have to agree to disagree about him. As for QBs taking their teams to the playoffs and SB in those years: Aikman, Young, Elway, and Favre leap immediately to mind. Christ, Mark Brunell was a better QB than Bledsoe by practically every statistical measure (including postseason) except yardage output/games played, and they played in the same era. FWIW and continuing with college players from the state of Washington, Bledsoe never had a season nearly as good as Chris Chandler's 1998 season. (It's also pretty hilarious that PFR includes his nickname - Crystal Chandelier - on his player page: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/ChanCh00.htm). Best comparison to Bledsoe at the end of the day? Jim Everett. The stats are eerily similar.

People shouldn't be so sure about a cut of Dareus. He is a great player when motivated, and this is a good system for him.

Bledsoe never had a HOF form, although he had a couple of good seasons (1996 and 1997). He is arguably the most overrated QB in NFL history. His record against teams with winning records -- and his performance measured in QBR in those games -- was truly awful. His postseason QBR is 54.9, for chrissake! Luck, despite a few flaws, is just a better player Bledsoe. The year the Pats got to the SB (1996), it was all Belichick (who took over the D that year) and Curtis Martin.

Plus scoring 3 TDs on short yardage runs really reduces your ypc, especially when you only have 14 carries. Huh? 4th and less-than-1 plays like that are unique and rare plays. KC literally had 10 men in the box on those two plays. That happens on about 1 out of every 35 plays on average (I'm guessing here, but I suspect I'm not far off). Judge him on normal football plays, not the man-pile plays where success occurs only when you can make it to the line of scrimmage and fall forward.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but Gillislee did not "fail" on those fourth and ones. Kareem Hunt, Blount, and whoever else would have failed on those plays too. They were bad play calls and the key o-linemen lost their battles. They are failed plays, not failed runs.

Overrated as a coach?? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/DungTo0.htm

Yup. Honestly, I hate the "he's dogging it!" criticisms of players who are way out of the play and have absolutely zero chance of getting back into it.

To repeat, Blount wouldn't have gotten first downs on those plays either.

+1000. I'll add again that they were horrible play calls. Marrone-ball if I ever saw it.

They're good, as per usual. They'll likely win 10+ games. Smith is a *much* better regular-season QB than most give him credit for being.

I said controlled the second half. They did, although the Eagles did tie it in the third. And I was wrong - McNabb's final heave with less than 20 seconds left and zero TOs was from the 5 yard line. After the Eagles scored to make it 24-21, the Pats drained the clock and punted to the Eagles at the 5.

Yup.

Come on, Gerry--it wasn't close to being his guy, and he was like 15 yards behind him. Criticize him for other stuff, but not that. That's the definition of a reach.

That SB wasn't as close as that score suggests. The McNabb INT came with hardly any time left, zero Philly TOs, and with the Eagles deep in Pats territory. It was a desperation throw with like 15 seconds left from the Eagles 10 yard line. The Pats controlled the game in the second half.

Blount was terrible in the last third of last season and the playoffs. He's likely running a flat 5.0 40 right now.

I have absolutely zero idea what Gerry is talking about here. This video establishes with 100 percent clarity that Gilmore wasn't dogging int on this play at all.

This is the best one ever, in my opinion. http://deadspin.com/why-your-team-sucks-2017-new-england-patriots-1800674923 "Aaron Hernandez got his conviction voided by killing himself. That was like the Tuck Rule of murder."

Blount would have failed too. On both occasions, the hb was hit hard before getting to the LOS.

Looking at that video again, it looks like Gilmore simply may have guessed wrong -- thinking that the receiver was cutting toward the sideline under the assumption that smith would never throw it deep.

How could it be mccourty's fault solely? Looking at that video above, there was no one else even remotely close to gilmore's zone, which meant he should have stayed with the guy who is actually in it.

The failures on 4th were most definitely NOT his fault. They were terrible, Hackett/Marrone-esque play calls, plain and simple. Running it up the gut with the Hb against a very stout d-line with 10 men in the box is beyond stupid, IMO. It's like McDaniel took stupid pills before those plays.