Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Bark louder, little dog.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I really should read my own blog.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

This blog will pay for itself.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / NFL Open Thread

NFL Open Thread

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: 

We’re home from our off-the-grid woodsy retreat and once again ensconced in the comforts of modernity, including restroom facilities with hot and cold running water, dog be praised.

Football is kind of dead to me since the abominable experience I had last night: I emerged from the forest to gratefully sink into a divan with a cold beverage, rest my tired feet and scratch chiggers bites while watching the crappy Gators, who failed to produce a single offensive point (the only score was a safety) against the detestable ‘Noles.

So fuck that shit. But here are my crappy picks:  

 Probably missed kickoff, but it’s not like there’s money riding on this — just my reputation as someone who makes crappy picks. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    Needless to say, I hope you are trying your patented reverse-reverse jinx on the Bucs v Colts pick. Still detest their QB Geordy but in self interest needs, have to have a Colts loss.

  3. 3.

    MattF

    Interesting NYT article about ridiculous drug patents. Here’s a teaser:

    One of the patents Mr. Bass and Mr. Spangenberg are challenging is for Propofol, an anesthetic marketed by Fresenius Kabi under the name Diprivan. The other covers Suprenza, a weight-loss drug from Citius Pharmaceuticals.

    Propofol, a 30-year-old therapy used in an estimated 80 percent of operations nationwide, is protected by a patent not on the drug itself but on the rubber stopper used in its container. Patent approval was extended in 2013 for 12 more years.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    And I have to say, that guy doing the Match.com commercials continues to be a creepy AF bully.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    My football following for the week is over, having come to a satisfactory conclusion. After away wins in consecutive weeks over the English Premier League champions of 2013/14 and then of 2014/15, Liverpool come down to Earth a bit against Swansea and scrape a 1-0 win at home. No matter; three points is three points.

  7. 7.

    2liberal

    Pats are gonna win, maybe. With a beat up OL and WR corps facing a very strong pass rushing defense in that thin polluted air. Ugh.

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Corner Stone:

    Currently raging about the VW “Can the test drive be over?” ads. Anyone who has ever worked retail will be driven to homicidal fantasies.

  10. 10.

    Germy

    @Steeplejack (tablet): I’ve worked retail, and the ads enrage me. I know they’re supposed to be comedic, but it just comes off as infuriating.

    The nissan ads are really pissing me off. The commercials glorify and justify aggressive, reckless driving. Father races son’s schoolbus to school. Woman challenges husband to race home. Father (with backseat full of kids) goes off the road and drives on the side of a mountain. Screeching tires, aggressive passing

    We’ve got enough assholes on the road. Speeders, tailgaters, road-ragers. They see these commercials and internalize them.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    MHP had the author of the book “The Jemima Code” on for a bit this AM. The idea is fascinating to me, but after reading a few reviews I am wondering if anyone at BJ has any insight into the book?
    “To discover the true role of black women in the creation of American, and especially southern, cuisine, Toni Tipton-Martin has spent years amassing one of the world’s largest private collections of cookbooks published by African American authors, looking for evidence of their impact on American food, families, and communities and for ways we might use that knowledge to inspire community wellness of every kind.”

  13. 13.

    redshirt

    @2liberal: I’m a big Pats fan but I doubt they can win. Not overwhelming odds against, but still. My prediction: Denver 20, Pats 17

    There’s just too many injuries for the Pats to overcome the best defense in the league, at home.

  16. 16.

    max

    7-4 last week.

    Chiefs over Bills. Dolphins over Jets. Vikings over Falcons. Texans over Saints. Washington over Giants. Fuck it: Raiders over Titans. Jacksonville over Chargers. Bengals over Rams. Bucs over Colts. Cards over 49’ers. Steelers over Seahawks. Pats over Broncos (if the Bills couldn’t get it done, the Broncos won’t either). Browns over Ravens.

    max
    [‘Boomer Sooner.’]

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @redshirt: Nope. This time they lose to a clearly inferior team. Future metaphysical historians will conclude that the loss was due to karmic blowback inadvertently triggered by tipsy Pats fans on an obscure online politics and pets forum who prematurely danced on Peyton Manning’s grave.

  19. 19.

    PurpleGirl

    @Germy: The auto ad that’s making me see red these days is the RAM truck ad which is a co-ad for the Hunger Games movie “Mockingjay II”. I don’t like the intro about backing a leader who is successful, or something like that. It grates on me.

    Otherwise, I’m watching a TV show “The Curse of Tutanhkamun.” It has a good number of scenes at and references to Highclere Castle but no mention has been made that the Castle has been used as the location for Downton Abby. Two long-time passions of mine are Stonehenge and Ancient Egypt. I’ll watch and rewatch anything I can about them.

  20. 20.

    different-church-lady

    @2liberal: Add in 1 to 3 inches of snow, and who the heck knows on this one?

    Thing to watch for: while we were paying attention to the spate of offensive injuries, the Pats defense started to click in a serious way. In a bad-weather game that could be a defining factor.

  22. 22.

    redshirt

    @different-church-lady: The Pat’s D is seriously underrated, and The Dark Lord has a documented history of owning rookie QB’s. That said, it’s in Denver and the Broncos have a solid run game and a stifling, opportunistic defense. They should be able to pressure Brady too. I want the Pats to win, of course, but I think they take their first loss.

    Not that big of a deal since they should be able to win out and finish 15-1 with 1st round bye and home field throughout the playoffs.

  23. 23.

    redshirt

    @Betty Cracker:

    Nope. This time they lose to a clearly inferior team. Future metaphysical historians will conclude that the loss was due to karmic blowback inadvertently triggered by tipsy Pats fans on an obscure online politics and pets forum who prematurely danced on Peyton Manning’s grave.

    LOL.

    Peyton’s dead, Betty. RIP pinkhead. May you live long in commercials till the end of time.

  24. 24.

    ? Martin

    @different-church-lady: The question is really – can the Pats pretty good defense hold off Denver without Peyton more than Denver’s very good defense hold off Brady without much to pass to? I think Pats still have an edge, but it’s a pretty thin one. Gronk isn’t going to lack of people to talk to out on the field, though.

  26. 26.

    redshirt

    @? Martin: Denver is a far better team with Osweiller than Manning. Peyton’s contributed like 33% of the points against Denver due to pick 6’s. He was statistically one of the worst QB’s in the league. If Osweiller does nothing else but not turn the ball over, he’s an upgrade over Pey-Pey.

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    @PurpleGirl: Remember the Hummer commercials using The Who’s Happy Jack? A vehicle named Hummer using a song about masturbation. I can envision the ad execs sitting around (think more Bewitched than Mad Men) joking “You think this will get by them?”

  28. 28.

    p.a.

    @redshirt: If Brady survives. Too many more weeks like last week… AND the Broncos are just the type of D that’s able to hit him as much as Flubalo did. Fortunate DeWare is out.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    More football-related news: The BBC reports that Russian football clubs are now forbidden to sign Turkish players in the coming January transfer window, by order of the sports ministry. Russian FCs have also been told to cancel any plans for winter training camp in Turkey. Yes, this is because of the Russian fighter plane that Turkey shot down. That’ll show’em!

    But Turkish footballers already playing for Russian clubs can stay, Russian track and field athletes can still compete in Turkey, and Turkish companies now building football stadiums in Russia for the 2018 World Cup can keep building.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: Interested to hear Raven’s take. I don’t know what to think. Seems a bit hasty, but then again, they have lots of talent that hasn’t been used to best advantage, that seems clear. Who will they get to replace him?

    @redshirt: Manning IS done, and I was never a Manning fan. That wasn’t the point.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @Betty Cracker:

    Manning IS done, and I was never a Manning fan. That wasn’t the point.

    As Elway seems to have a “win it all right now mentality”, I have no idea why he would have let John Fox go (who had an offensive scheme geared to Peyton), and actually hire Kubiak (who has the exact opposite O scheme you would run if you had PM as QB).
    The Broncos are going to slowly devolve over the next few years. They will not be able to hold that D together with free agency.

  39. 39.

    FlyingToaster

    @p.a.: It depends on how good the kids from the practice squad are. They certainly surprised me last week, so if they can hold it together at 5K feet up (Foxborough is at 289), they can give the Broncos a run for their money.

    HerrDoktor turned off the TV when the Jets picked from his ‘Fins. He’s snoring now.

    Go Chiefs!

  40. 40.

    Felixmoronia

    Betty Betty Betty, no. Brady goes to Denver and gives the “tall kid” a QB master-class. End of story.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Steeplejack (tablet):

    Don’t be mad, but the one that ends with “Don’t you want to meet my family?” makes me laugh every time. Partly because G will do that little drumming thing when he’s frustrated but knows he can’t argue.

    The car ads I found really creepy were (I think) for Toyota where you had a group of old ladies sexually harassing the sales guy. Not okay regardless of everyone’s respective ages.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    MALIA AND SASHA OBAMA AT THE TURKEY PARDONING IS THE BLACKEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED THIS WEEK

    Damon Young, 11/27/15

    The youngest person at my family’s Thanksgiving dinner yesterday was my niece. She is the youngest child of my wife’s sister, and favors her (my wife) so much that people assume they’re mother and daughter when they’re out together. She is also either nine or 10 years old (I forget which), which means for as long as she can remember, the President of the United States of America has been Black.

    While I’m sure she has enough wherewithal and enough of an understanding of history to know exactly how historically abnormal this is, this is all that she has experienced. There’s nothing revolutionary or shocking or mesmerizing to her about seeing the Black president’s Black daughters laugh at his corny jokes during the annual turkey pardoning. This is her normal. Me explaining to her why this is such a big deal is like, I don’t know, a great-grandparent explaining the difference in taste and texture of backyard well water and sink water to me.

    ………………………

    Equally insane is how, to them, the experience of watching little Black girls named Malia and Sasha grow up in the White House — something that has been both the most delightful and even arguably the most radical part of the Obama presidency — is equally mundane. Old hat. All a little Black girl like my niece has known is little Black girls on the White House lawn with their mom and dad. And those little Black girls growing into less little Black teens. There are undoubtedly thousands of little Black girls taking their fashion cues today from what Malia and Sasha were wearing Wednesday. And thousands of little Black boys getting teased by their parents for blushing whenever either Malia and Sasha are on screen, the same way my parents would tease me about Rudy Huxtable and Ashley Banks. And the value of this — of these revolutionary existences existing as mundanities, as literally all that little Black kids like my niece have seen and known — can not be measured.

    http://verysmartbrothas.com/malia-and-sasha-obama-at-the-turkey-pardoning-is-the-blackest-thing-that-ever-happened-this-week/

  46. 46.

    Mike J

    @Davebo: Your love for them shouldn’t influence your prediction of the outcome and their suckitude shouldn’t influence who you cheer for.

  47. 47.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Davebo: Brees looks fatigued, despite coming off a bye week, the Texans defense is T5 against the pass, and the Saints defense has structual issues beyond the Def. Coordinator.

    It’s basically 2012 all over again for NOLA…

  50. 50.

    Gator90

    I think Georgia made a big mistake in dismissing an established, successful head coach. Those don’t grow on trees. Makes about as much sense as Tennessee getting rid of Phil Fulmer, which I imagine UT has long regretted.

    The Gators may be the worst 10-win team in the history of college football. But is that better than being the best 9-win team? (It’s definitely better than being whatever the Dolphins may fairly be described as…)

  53. 53.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Gator90: LSU almost got rid of their established, averaging-10-wins-a-season coach themselves. When you have a Saban in your league, it will make you do crazy things trying to beat him from a coaching standpoint.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steeplejack (tablet): Gyad, yes, that annoying Peter Pan! I keep hoping someone will drown him in the chocolate fountain.

    @BlueDWarrior: Glad LSU kept Miles — it was nuts to consider getting rid of him. Getting rid of Richt is less obviously dumb, but yeah, like you said, established coaches don’t grow on trees. Will they get someone better?

  57. 57.

    Corner Stone

    @Betty Cracker:

    Glad LSU kept Miles — it was nuts to consider getting rid of him.

    Area real estate agents report a significant drop in calls from interested property buyers located in the PHI area code.

  58. 58.

    p.a.

    KC & Alex ‘Anything Over 21 Pts is an EXCELLENT Day*’ Smith put 30 on Sexy Rexy. KC ball 2mins left.

    Wash over Gints. WTF Eli/Coughlin!? Wash leads NFC East.

    * esp if it’s not via 7 field goals.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    They just take the “chained to the job” thing way too far. The guy can’t even get mad and walk out, because he’s apparently stuck at the Huxtables’ Christmas party. Or, even worse, in the other ad, deliberately abandoned in the snowy woods.

    Ha-ha. Yes, I’d love to buy a goddamn Volkswagen, thank you very much.

  60. 60.

    Phylllis

    @Gator90: Yep. And it’s taken the Vols how many years to come out of the wilderness since 86-ing Fulmer for no good reason that I could determine.

  63. 63.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I’m back at work. Again. Seven hours after finishing a 12 hour shift. Oh, and a third guard just quit with no notice, so who knows when the fuck I’ll stop working. I’m not cancelling my trip to Madison next weekend, no matter how badly they need me.

    On a brighter note, I just got a positive review back of Becoming Phoebe from the established author I asked for an endorsement.

  64. 64.

    Corner Stone

    And Atlanta does it again. I am completely confused at what to expect from the Falcons this season. Are they a bad-good team? Over achievers? Placeholders?
    Who knows.

  65. 65.

    Gator90

    @BlueDWarrior: Folks need to realize that whoever they might hire is very unlikely to equal Saban, whose only peer (in my opinion) is at Ohio State. The best an SEC fan can reasonably hope for is a consistent winner like Richt or Miles.

    I wonder if Richt, who played at Miami, will now return there. UM could do a lot worse.

  67. 67.

    Schlemazel

    @Corner Stone:
    They gave the game away to a pretty lame Vikings team, their faces should be as red as their uniforms. I assum they are just not very good but who knows

  70. 70.

    johnnybuck

    @Gator90: It most certainly was a mistake. There is the idea that defensive coordinator Kirby Smart of Alabama will take his place and that will fix everything…

    losing to Florida the past two years (actually, not losing as much as not competing in the games) and thus losing the SEC east was, I suppose, the final straw. He is a good man, and I’m sure there are many schools that would love to have 10 win seasons and high character, clean programs, so he’ll be fine. As for Georgia? We’ll see.

  71. 71.

    FlyingToaster

    Betty’s batting about as well as flipping a coin, now. Which is pretty much how I feel about the NFL, these days.

  72. 72.

    Corner Stone

    Made a couple jars of fridge pickles yesterday. Loaded with peppercorns, dill, garlic, hot peppers and cucumber wedges. Can’t wait to see how that turns out. Probably going to make a version of kimchi this week and some home made mustard.

  75. 75.

    scav

    Travelling to Thanksgiving, I somehow ended up in an ‘L carriage where every available inch of the interior space had been covered with a mosaic of advertising for a brand of jeans. Was about as sophisticated and persuasive as a troll in a thread POSTING EVERY OTHER COMMENT IN ALL CAPS.

  77. 77.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @redshirt: At my main account, which I really like, I sit in an office and monitor alarms from around Minnesota and North Dakota. I deal with them as they come up, and most of the time it’s something innocuous and all I really need to do is document what happened and my response. (We’ve got an facility just north of Duluth that is sending out phantom motion alarms every time the wind picks up, which is getting really annoying.) There are two locations that connect directly to the national energy grid and the DOE audits every alarm that takes place in them and will issues tens of thousands of dollars in fines if we screw up the response or documentation, even if the underlying alarm was not a threat.

    The place I’ve been putting in all the extra hours is at a facility where the client is a disaster. Among other things, they recently took away our ability to rewind the video from the security cameras, so if we think we see something suspicious, we have no way to go back and check it. My relief has been more than an hour late twice in the last ten days. And, unlike my usual post, I can’t use my laptop here and I’m not supposed to be using the computer to surf the internet, like I’m doing right now. But, hey, what’s the worst that could happen? They could refuse to schedule me here anymore.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: “On a brighter note, I just got a positive review back of Becoming Phoebe from the established author I asked for an endorsement.”

    That is truly great news! Do you ever pinch yourself to make sure it’s all real?

  81. 81.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Schlemazel: Thanks. This is the full review I got:

    Becoming Phoebe, like its protagonist, jumps in right away and never quits for even a minute. It’s the story of a young woman who has grown up bounced from foster home to foster home, with the main constant in her life hockey. Some of her foster parents were outstandingly loving, others outstanding in less savory directions. Phoebe feels that she’s living out her dream, playing for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, but as we would expect, that’s the beginning of learning who she is and finding friends and family, not the end of it.

    A love of hockey shines through on every page–and so does a profound caring for young people trying to find their way in the world through difficult life circumstances. Phoebe’s teammates have their own flaws and struggles, which help to illuminate her own conflicts on and off the ice. There are flashbacks to earliest childhood, and time stretches forward far beyond Phoebe’s college days, to the capable adult she becomes.

    A few subplot threads get short weight in the midst of everything else going on, and it’s hard to get into all the reasons a person might be interested in Becoming Phoebe without touching on spoilers. But the major elements of abuse recovery, sexuality, and hockey are all sensitively handled (though the main explicit elements are in the hockey), and a reader with any of those interests will find much to like in this debut.

  83. 83.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @redshirt: The one I like is Great River Energy, which is a regional electricity co-op. I’ll decline to name the place that’s a shit hole.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @scav: “Was about as sophisticated and persuasive as a troll in a thread POSTING EVERY OTHER COMMENT IN ALL CAPS.”

    That’s how I am beginning to feel about all the Star Wars advertisements everywhere for everything. Too much is too much. And I am a Star Wars fan who is looking forward to seeing the movie.

    The very first Star Wars movie was a big deal here, in a special theater, and it was my first date with an old boyfriend. I wonder if his wife would mind if I called him up and talked about the new Star Wars movie and the nice memory?

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    @FlipYrWhig: It doesn’t seem that way, but arguably the NFC Norse is the strongest division right now with MIN at 8-3 and GB at 7-4.
    Other “competitive” divisions are tied at 5-6 or 6-5 between the top two teams.

  87. 87.

    Davebo

    @WaterGirl: It took two years for the original Star Wars movie to come to the tiny theater in my home town but I remember how excited I was to see it.

    (Our theatre still had “self segregated” seating with a balcony for African Americans. I watched Star Wars from the balcony much to the dismay of some of my friends.)

  89. 89.

    Corner Stone

    {announcer voice}
    CSI: Cyber! Don’t miss a new episode tonight after The Good Wife!
    {end}

    Eh, no thank you, CBS. No thank you.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Nice!

    I have to confess to not keeping up with my email these past few months, so this may be in some update from you… but I can’t recall whether I contributed at a level where I will get a hard copy of the book or just the ebook. (Will I be able to read the ebook in iBooks?)

    Also, I have a niece who just turned 13 – would that be a good age for this book, or too young? She likes hockey but she plays soccer pretty seriously, if that helps in your answer.

  96. 96.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @WaterGirl: I have you at the level of an ebook and mention in the acknowledgements. I plan to make it available in as many ebook formats as possible, but I have no idea what it’s like to work with the iBooks platform; Apple has a reputation for making things more difficult than they need to be, but I guess I’ll find out.

    Thirteen might be a bit young, though that certainly won’t be true for all 13-year olds. My advice would be to read it yourself first.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Davebo: Wow, segregated seating in 1977. I started college in 1972 and there were self-segregating lounges in the dorm. The white lounge was filled with people being all quiet and whisper-y, how the hell was a person to study in there? So I hung out in black lounge where they played music and people were more rowdy. Now that’s an environment I can study in!

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @Corner Stone: I can’t believe CSI:Cyber is still on! I was good for an episode and a half, I believe, and then I had to bail. Truly awful and mock worthy. How does that stay on the air and good shows get cancelled???

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @Davebo: Yeah, the black lounge / white lounge wasn’t enforced either, but I think I might have been the only crossover. I still live in the same town, I think I’ll stop by that dorm one of these days and see if the two lounges are mostly segregated.

  108. 108.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @opiejeanne: Not yet. We were targeting Dec 28 as the date for sending it to press, but I wanted a Kirkus review to possibly have a blurb on the cover, and the due date for them getting it back to me is Jan 4. So, throw on a bit of time to finalize the cover, it should go to press by the second week of January, and then available for purchase shortly thereafter. I’ll make sure to let people know when it happens.

  109. 109.

    Heliopause

    For those of you wondering what’s wrong with the Legion of Boom, the answer is nothing. Even Ryan Leaf could complete passes against anybody if he had 8-10 seconds of clean pocket on every dropback.

  117. 117.

    Heliopause

    Here is my Slatey take on Jimmy Graham getting injured, probably for the year from the looks of it; this will help Russell Wilson because it forces him to look at other options.

  119. 119.

    Corner Stone

    @Heliopause:

    this will help Russell Wilson because it forces him to look at other options.

    He was already looking at every option other than JG. But, you’re right, that is a true Slatey take on that hot mess.
    No idea why they wanted JG on the Seahawks. He doesn’t excel at anything they need a TE to do.

  123. 123.

    Heliopause

    @Corner Stone:

    One of the few weaknesses was a lack of a consistent downfield receiving threat. Graham was doing a reasonably good job of providing that, now he’s hurt.

    The team downfalls this year have been elsewhere for the most part.

  124. 124.

    Corner Stone

    @Heliopause: He was brought on to block for red zone run plays (NOPE) and be a receiving threat inside 10 yards of the goal line (YEP if targeted). He had an avg of 12 yds per catch, with 3 games of catches of 30 yds or more. He was not a deep threat for SEA. Or much of a threat in any situation.

  126. 126.

    Suezboo

    Why did no one tell me my beloved Packers lost to the Bears on Friday night? This is dreadful news. I had convinced myself they were invincible and were going to win the Super Bowl. Now I’m no longer so sure; my faith is undermined.

  128. 128.

    Heliopause

    @Corner Stone:

    He was brought in to be a consistent downfield threat, I don’t see how that’s an even arguable statement. You can argue whether he was providing it; 48 receptions for a 12.6 avg through 11 games is a downfield threat by Seahawk standards, I would say, but YMMV.

  130. 130.

    redshirt

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    Just pie him in return. The site was 1000% improved for me once I did that.
    Reply

    I don’t think anyone should pie anyone on a discussion board. Isn’t the entire point of a discussion board to discuss?

  134. 134.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: I am a bit surprised by his insistence. I must have forgotten who was doing battle with CS as well as missing some largish event a couple of weeks ago that someone (Redshirt?) mentored, insisting CS was banned.

  135. 135.

    Corner Stone

    @Heliopause:

    Projected to 16 games his numbers would be comparable to the best year a WR has put up in the Russell Wilson era.

    Ok, I have to admit. I have no idea what you’re arguing WRT JG any longer. Was he a deep threat? A red zone threat? A scoring threat?
    Any of these things for SEA? Because projecting out 12 yds a catch and 2 TDs through 11 games, and then saying that’s the best offensive WR/TE weapon SEA can do under RW. That may be a true statement, I honestly do not know. But compared to JG in a wide open offense?
    And that was my kind of argument. Why did they bring JG in to SEA? They clearly had no plan to unleash him, to capture his offensive outbursts and scoring. He has 2 TDs in 11 games. I have almost caught up to his level of output.

  136. 136.

    Heliopause

    @Corner Stone:

    Ok, I have to admit. I have no idea what you’re arguing WRT JG any longer.

    How about the words I used, is that simple enough?

    “consistent downfield threat.”

    Basically, there are only about three reasons you might acquire a TE.

    1. To block and catch the odd pass or two. Obviously not why they acquired Graham.
    2. To catch 50-100 five yard hitch patterns. Since there are about 50 TEs in the NFL capable of doing that, including several already on the Seahawks’ roster, again, obviously not why they acquired him.
    3. To make some plays downfield. That’s why they brought him in. Inarguably.

    Regarding point 3, was he accomplishing as much? You wondered this up at 124 above. I pointed out that his numbers were comparable to what any receiver has done for the Seahawks for many years. Whether that amounts to a “consistent downfield threat” is a matter of interpretation, I suppose.

    But compared to JG in a wide open offense?

    When was that even a question? You asked why the Seahawks acquired him, and I told you why.

    Why did they bring JG in to SEA? They clearly had no plan to unleash him

    [sigh] Once again, they most certainly did “unleash him” by Seahawk standards. He was on a pace for the most receptions by a TE in Seahawk history, by a mile. His pace would have been the most receptions, period, by any Seahawk in the Carroll era, except Doug Baldwin is now ahead of that pace thanks to his big game today.

    That Graham didn’t live up to your personal expectations is a shame, but irrelevant to the original question.

  137. 137.

    Corner Stone

    @Heliopause: Come the fuck on, friend. Jimmy Graham is a special exemplar of the TE/ersatz WR.
    The SEA had no reasonable expectation nor plan to bring his talents to South Beach…err WAS.
    You are answering an argument that makes no sense. He simply has no business being there. Answer Rodney Harrison’s critique tonight if you can. You can’t. There is simply no reason JG is on this team. Period.

Comments are closed.