I really do. It’s a beautiful stadium, there’s not a bad seat in the house, and the facilities are very nice. Unfortunately, it’s just a really bad home field advantage. It’s almost like the sound is designed to go outwards, not inwards. There have been many musical groups that love playing Ford Field because of its acoustics, supposedly. That disgusts me. The Silverdome was a pretty solid home field, but Ford Field? Not so much.
“Whew,” indeed! The Giants are insanely deep at every Front 7 position except MLB, where, behind Pierce, they have typical backup-type players (I think; did Michael Boley play any ILB with the Falcons? No, right?).
Well, MLB, not ILB- he first won a starting job when Ed Hartwell was lost for the season at MLB.
Wow, quite the swing in fortunes in the NFC East today. The Giant’s MLB was is some jeopardy but got a reprieve, while the Eagles MLB, Stewart Bradley, has torn his ACL and is out for the year.
No big loss. What sort of MLB could you possibly be with a name like “Stewart Bradley”? Maybe you could play linebacker in a girl’s water polo league.
I don’t know how he is on the field but I bet he pops one hell of a collar during postgame interviews.
Been keeping tabs on the Bears camp via the Sun-Times and Tribune blogs and its been a pretty mixed bag.
Peanut Tillman injured his back and underwent surgery a week ago. He’s projected to be out 4-10 weeks. The optimists (and the Bears) are saying it’s no big deal and he could be back in time for the Opener, but I’m much more doubtful. I was very, very critical of the Bears offseason attention to the Secondary and many experts echoed that. They were really bad against the pass last season and they did very little to address the issues. The Safety positions are both terrible and they have little depth at the Cornerback positions behind Tillman and Vasher. They have both been fragile and Vasher seems to have really taken a step back. Time will tell if that’s a result of injury solely, but without Tillman at 100% Vasher absolutely must return to Pro Bowl form.
The Bears had intended to try moving one of the backup CBs into the Safety position considering how poor that group was at pass coverage (and the addition of Bullocks certain didn’t help the average any). With Tillman down indefinitely and Vasher suspect both Zach Bowman and Corey Graham could be pressed into use at CB and simply aren’t available to work at FS or SS. Rookie DJ Moore is too small and hasn’t played there before and Manning is pretty much locked into the Nickel role. Our Safeties are a very motley crew, I’m not excited about this at all.
I will say I’m pleased to hear that Bowman has been one of the best players in all of camp so far. Graham was a big surprise last season, so hopefully the depth issue at CB is solved. Of course that makes passing on an elite Safety in the draft in favor of Moore triply inexplicable.
The Offense is a different story. It’s all hugs and cookies on that side of the ball. Of course early season hype tends to be really overblown and full of positive spin but things are looking pretty good for the passing game. Cutler is everything he was expected to be and he and Greg Olsen are flat out clicking. He’s been gunning for Hester downfield frequently and Johnny Knox showed flashes of brilliance in OTAs. The Earl Bennett/Jay Cutler reunion seems to be working as advertised and he should be a reliable possession guy to move chains and allows opportunities for those homerun balls.
The running game has been without Forte who’s being nursed along due to a minor hamstring injury in OTAs and that’s allowed Kevin Jones to get a ton of touches and he’s making the most of them. By all accounts he’s looking like the Kevin Jones of old who was a slashing double threat and the Bears could really use a change of pace guy to make Forte even more effective. I’m not sold on either Wolfe or Peterson as dependable 3rd and 4th backs. They are fine special teams guys but for my money you need to be cultivating future starters in those positions and no one thinks those guys can ever be feature guys, they have reached their ceiling. It’s fine if Jones and Forte stay healthy all season but that’s probably not likely.
I’m going to have to make a trip to Training Camp in the coming weeks and get a first hand look.
While I have a theory regarding offensive lineman’s names, I don’t think it applies to linebackers.
Watch out for the Packers this year…
Their camps seem to be a battle every single scrimmage. One time the D will win, another the O will…This is a sign of each squad making the other better.
SO excited
Or of inconsistency.
Or a sign of them being equally incompetent.
Haters in the house!
I haven’t really been paying attention to football yet. I’m going to have to start watching SportsDesk each morning to see how it’s going up in Albany. Maybe even venture onto the NYG message boards.
I should also take a look at some fantasy materials to get ready for the upcoming drafts.
May I recommend Jenna Jameson in The Buns of Navarrone?
In Browns camp, so far, Anderson is apparently substantially outperforming Quinn. Which is concerning. But at least it sounds like it’s because the Good Anderson is back and not because Quinn is terrible.
Which is freaking the fan base out because they’re all “but I KNOW deep down inside Quinn is the greatest QB ever just waiting to blossom. He’s a first round pick. He’s a local kid. He’s so pretty! How can he be anything but the greatest?!?!?”
God I hate the stupidity surrounding QB controversies. People would rather see the other guy fail and their team suck just so their guy can win.
They’ve been lining up Shaun Rogers and Joe Thomas against each other in 1 on 1 lineman drills. Battle of the Titans. Apparently Thomas is mostly winning.
and with Day 1 of camp, the Panthers lose their #1 run stopper for the season. &#!%&!!$#
So much for my Super Bowl prediction. Kemoeatu is a very good 4-3 run plugger, and your defense is going to suffer a lot.
I’ll probably regret this, but what’s your theory?
When changing defensive systems, in a time in camp (the earliest) where defense normally wins out these battles, it’s a sign of mutual progress.
Crabtree still holding out.
translation:
Crabtree will not make much of an impact this season.
He isn’t much of a route runner in any case, just a freakish natural athlete. I think you’ll see most of his production comes on “run that way and catch the ball” plays rather than precision timing patterns.