Mickey

When he started to fumble was when he was asked if the team was, based on the last two games, overrated and rather than just say "no" and move on, he was trying to find an honest answer that didn't tick anyone off which was impossible given the question. So he ummed and awwwwed and errrrred for a few minutes trying to find the diplomatic answer. Also, I think he wanted to take the reporter out in the alley and beat the crap out of him. I think JP is learning that the honeymoon is over and no matter how hard he has worked, no matter how respectful he is or how generous to the fans he is, the only thing that matters is wins. If he loses, the fans and media will rip him a new one and fast no matter how many trips to the children's hospital he makes during the week. That overrated question was one that he took personally, was JP Losman overrated. I can see why he could ony sputter out a response. That moment in the post game pc may have been the moment the truth about being a QB in the NFL dawned on him. It is a brutal, brutal business.

This assumes that there are things you can do to a running back that you can't do with a QB. I don't think that is the case. You can't hit him after he lets the ball go but if you are already in the air, you don't have to pull up. You can't tackle a running back who doesn't have the ball either. You also can't take a head shot at a running back, WR or anyone else. The only reald difference is in the slide rule where you can't go after him once he has initiated a feet first slide. The particluar issue didn't come up at all yesterday.

Its never fair game to go for the head or to hit late whether it is a RB or a QB so that distinction is meaningless. Just because Vick is more dangerous on the groudn than most other quarterbacks doesn't give us the right to aim for the head or hit him late. My objection to those calls are as to whether we really did hit him late or took a head shot. I haven't seen the tape yet.

I appreciate his efforts at the line but... If that is all we are going to get out of our tight ends, we are in trouble. Tight ends are usually covered by linebackers or the strong safety who also have primary responsibility to stop the run. That is why forcing them to play the TE honest helps open the run game. Atlanta was sneaking their safety, number 24, up to the line playing as a 4th LB for much of the game. We need our TE to be more of a threat. If all Campbell is going to do is block, we might as well play Peters as an extra lineman. Obviously, we need to improve on offense and given the lack of production, the TE's are a logical place to start.

Missing: Race:White Male Age: 29 Weight: 255 lbs. Height: 6' 6" Hair: Dark Skin: Fair Eyes: Brown Answers to: "Mark", "Mr. Campbell", "Tight End", "84". Misc. Information: Known to frequent athletic fields, prone to long absences, seen only three times in the weeks leading up to his disappearance. Last seen in Tampa, Florida briefly in the company of friends before leaving the area. Contact: Persons with information regarding the whereabouts of Mr. Campbell should contact their local authorities or Mike Mularkey at One Bills Drive, Orchard Park, NY or phone 1-800-needoffense.

Time for us all to put the cyanide back on the shelf.

If you get a chance, look at film of Favre when he was with the Falcons. He was so bad that Ryan Leaf would have been an improvement. I saw some of that footage a few weeks ago on some ESPN classic show where they were trying to show that at the time, Atlanta made the right decision in letting him go. As much as those off the mark passes are seared into our minds from yesterday, we should also remember that 19 yard dash on 3rd and 14. Its just too early to bury this kid or this team. By the way, we are 1-2, not 1-3. All that was decided yesterday is that we aren't going to go 15-1.

As unexpected as it is welcome. A kicker with some confidence is a good thing to have.

Totally agree, look at the money Winfield got. Even if Nate doesn't have a single pick all year, he will get a huge contract if he continues to shut down receivers the way he is this year.

Now that those who have no tolerance for stress have already jumped off the nearest bridge, those of us still around need some cheering up. Here are some of the good things that happened on Sunday that, hopefully, bode well for the future, the near future as in next week. Hopefully. 1. Lindell is on fire. 2. Of the 7 third or fourth downs we converted, 5 of them were accomplished by JP. On third and 14 he ran for 19 keeping our first drive alive. He scrambled for 3 on 3rd and 2 on our next drive. Both drives resulted in field goals. He hit Reed for 17 on a 3rd and 6 keeping alive the drive that ended in our only touchdown. He hit Aiken for 12 on a 3rd and 6 setting up another field goal. He also had that QB sneak for a first on 4th and 1 from our own 34 early in the 4th. As "bad" as he played, he still made some plays. All the tools are in the box with this kid. The only question is how long will it take? 3. Willis, 140 yards speaks for itself. Looking inside those numbers, what I really like is what he did on first down. Before that last drive where they were playing pass and we ran Willis a few times and he piled up 30 yards on 3 first down carries, Willis had 13 first down runs for 45 yards, a 3.4 yard average. ON 6 of those, he gained better than 3 yards which I think is the benchmark for being able to dictate to the defense on second down. If you add in the last series, those numbers improve drastically. I'm not including it just to make that point that even if you take out his best series in terms of first down runs, he still had a good day on first down. We managed all this with Mike Williams out. 4. We only had 3 penalties and two of them were namby pamby calls on what were, on replay, perfectly legit hits on Vick. As frustrating as this game was to watch, we really did have some opportunities and the difference in the game was their ability to make red zone plays and our inability to do so. We had two critical blown coverages, one on Jenkin's second TD and another on a play that led to Atlanta's first TD. We had them at 2nd and 14 and Jenkins was somehow totally uncovered on a 2 yard catch and run that went for over 20 yards. Conversely, JP was sacked on a first down roll out for a loss of 12 on our first series. Later we had a 3rd and 4 from the Atlanta 13 and, as is typical, we pulled Willis out and put in Shaud. We then ran some sort of toss sweep to Fast Freddie who managed to fake himself out of his shoes trying to figure out whether to cut inside or outside the WR's block. Frankly, I think the lack of redzone production was more a product of the calls than execution. Really, with the game on the line and needing 3 or 4 yards, why would you have the best player on the team on the sidelines drinking Gatorade? Guys, we aren't that bad. Tampa is 3-0 and Atlanta is going to win their division...again. If we manage to improve here and there, we are going to be a handful even for the best teams.

First Rule of the PPP: Anything reasonable that can be misinterpreted to mean something unreasonable will be.

I believe it was John Ashcroft who said: "To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve." Don't you guys know you are aiding terrorists? I do recall that those of us on the left who expressed concern about this blithe attitude towards surrendering freedoms in exchange for mostly illusory security were treated rather poorly hereabouts.

Gotta be the worst possible source to quote. There is no reason to think this is true at all and if it were, my reaction would be worry for the country first and sympathy for the President and his family second. I would wish most that he quickly recover and finish his Presidency. Further, I would think that anyone who would start calling him a "drunk" or some such slam would be ashamed of themselves. I don't care for the man but he is the President and I think politics are bad eough without that kind of overheated rhetoric.

They do have plans VA but I didn't think you'd bother reading them, you didn't bother looking them to begin with, hence the link to something you would read. If you are really interested though: Plans and more plans Each Parish is supposed to have a plan and an EOC, Emergency Operations Center. They divide between risk and host parishes. Parishes in La. are the equivalent of counties here in NY and most states. Their idea was to move people from the risk, ie "wet" parishes to the host, ie "dry" parishes. They even had extensive plans for transportation, command and control and all of that. If you want to be critical of their execution or the types of plans, fine but don't imply that they had no plan, they did. As it turns out, the water rose faster than their abilities. By the way, all these plans had to be submitted to the feds for approval. The plan La. had didn't depend on FEMA but it did have provisions for the governor to call them in if needed. The whole reason there is a FEMA is because any idiot knows there are disasters which exceed the ability of the local populace to handle especially since they are the ones being flooded, burned out or shook to death in a quake. The federal response was abyssmal and the local response was just as bad. At least they had an excuse, they were under water. The disaster was a disaster and the response at multiple levels was a disaster.

Nothing like a good firearm to speed up the process of natural selection.

La. had a statewide plan and plans for SE and SW La. which is how they decided to split things up. The plans actually focus at the Parish level and the authority to get things done actually starts with Parish Presidents. Mayors of cities, towns and villages are not granted any or very much emergency power under the plans, those go first to Parish Presidents and even their authority is pretty much just within their Parishes. I don't believe that Nagin for example, is a Parish President. A Parish President I believe under the plans would have the authority to commandeer equipment and vehicles, etc. but I am not sure a mayor could. I don't really understand though whether the city itself was the equivalent of a Parish. Louisiana Emergency Plans

Bottom line, he is 24th in the league. As there are some decent QB's behind him, there are also some rotten ones ahead of him. I don't need passer ratings or any other stats or informative "perspective" to know that he played lousy against TB. It's only one game but it was a bad one and there is no denying it or candy coating it.

Brownback and Frist would be just about as bad as Jeb.

Kerry v. Jeb Bush Gawd no.

Good thing, I apparently missed one of your posts, can't let that free wisdom go unheard.

I will say this, as bad as our government is screwed up, look at everyone else's. Ours is the cream of the crop. If that doesn't give you the heebie-jeebies....

Link not working and I suspect I'm better off that way.

Bad as in spoiled milk or bad as in baaaaaaaad? Wait, don't answer.

Naaaah. Because at the same time he'll take what he cuts from them to feed his own pigs a bigger pile of slop. We deserve the leaders we get. The problem is that everyone sees their share of pork as vital and necessary, good for the whole country, noble even. Everyone else's pork is the wasteful kind. Any politician who has ever tried to run against that current has been quickly swept away. Look at the reaction to the base closings. That senator from SD, the guy who beat Daschle, was practically on his hands and knees trying to get their big base restored. All that politicking and pulling out all the stops worked, they got their base back. His constituents wept tears of joy at the news because they were able to save their own ox while someone else's got gored.

Who does that leave, martians? Or at least, they sound like martians to me anyway. Libertarians maybe? I don't know, they seem to have a lot of crazies and to have too many divided factions.