I was actually going to speculate that both teams were going to pass like crazy and it was going to be a 41-35 type of game, but the wind puts a damper on that.
I hope it becomes the Trent Richardson show, and it just may - last week they started adjusting the blocking scheme to be well, less shitty and mismatched with the line, and the line has been playing a lot better than they were at the start of the year. The running lanes have been there.
The pass blocking has been excellent too. I spent the offseason talking about how good the Browns line would be this year, and then the first few weeks they were fairly mediocre - but they’ve got their shit together fast. 87 or 89 pass attempts in the last 2 games against the Ravens and Giants - two great pass rushing teams - and only 1 sack given up and I think 4 or 5 pressures total.
Joe Thomas started the season injured - he’s still nursing a knee injury but it’s getting better. Scwhartz, the rookie RT, got positively assraped by Babin in week 1, but really got his shit together fast. Mack has always been good and steady and way the fuck better than Maurkice Pouncey and no one gives a shit. Pinkston has been solid. Luvao is the only thing between them and a great line.
Now if they’d just stop passing 68% of the time… if the wind forces them to, I see:
You know I was right about that, right? Every game he had more than 15 carries, he averaged 160 yards per game. It seems like a weird thing to make fun of me over since it’s one of the times I legitimately had a big prediction.
On a completely different subject, there is something that has been bothering me of late: the reporting, or not, of injuries.
It looks like the Redskins may get a hefty fine for their handling of RGIII’s concussion during last week’s game. The NFL is looking into the accuracy and timeliness of their reporting. Instead of saying he had suffered a concussion (which was fairly obvious) and would not be back, they reported he was just “shaken up” and didn’t inform anyone at the NFL in a timely manner (allegedly of course).
Coach’s hiding injuries, misreporting, and outright lying is nothing new in the NFL, but it seems of late that it is happens much more often and much more boldly. With the Patriots putting Tom Brady on the injury report pretty much every week or with this latest Redskins’ Shanahanigans, it seems that coaches don’t much care about NFL rules and, much more annoyingly, they seem to think that they’re fooling someone.
I know it’s just a pet peeve of mine, but I really don’t think coaches gain a competitive advantage by faking or hiding injuries and it’s just their own egos that have convinced them otherwise. Here’s hoping the NFL continues to crack down on this kind of nonsense.
Dude, I wasn’t making fun of you. I was right were with your Jerome Harrison love, and I thought it was just something we joked about, not something I was mocking you for. It’s a “Haha, we all have man crushes” thing and not a “look how silly SenorBeef is” kinda thing. My bad.
I wonder if your memory is flavored by some isolated, limited successes. I mean, you absolutely called his upside long before anyone had heard of him (I sure hadn’t), but what you said in that quote is not only not correct, but seriously skewed.
In games where he had over 15 carries, he averaged 123 yards a game. That’s close enough to give you half credit, but using an average here is overemphasizing his one amazing outlier performance in 2009 (34 for 286 and 3TD against KC).
For instance, even with his crazy outlier game, his average yards per carry in those games where he had over 15 carries was 4.6. I don’t think a 4.6 YpC is good enough in a sample size of seven games to warrant worship. If you accept that his career performance was an anomaly and you remove it from the sample, his YpC drops to 3.8. When he got a lot of carries, he was very average, except for that one time.
I wish he had gotten more of a chance to prove me wrong. I imagine there’s a good story behind that.
Ngata and Lardarius Webb both in the locker room for Baltimore. I think Ngata will be back in the second half, but I’d be surprised if Webb returns to the game. Dallas has been gouging them on the ground with Ngata in - it’s not looking good without him.
I think I’m giving up already. The Lions aren’t even fun to watch this year. I just left the house to go shoe shopping. With my wife instead of watching the rest of that game.
I’m kind of glad I can’t watch the Buccaneers game. Michael Koenen had his punt blocked, picked up the ball, and threw a pass, which was picked off and returned for a touchdown.