Fadingpain

Quite possibly, yes.

I'm told it smells like lavender, blended with the peppery, nutmeg scent of burnt wood, evocative of a panoramic and complex fragrance, redolent with the rich scents of the English Midlands, in all their ruggedness and mystery. Why do you ask?

I don't care about any of that in a pre-season game, and I don't think the coaching staff does either. Having said that, McD made a steady stream of typical football coaching errors in games last year; it's a weak spot in his game. Let's hope he improves in that regard this season.

I think they had rooms full of computers for the moon missions, and their combined computing power was equivalent to what was found in a 1985 Casio black plastic digital watch costing $24.95 at the time, or something like that. Shows what is possible with intelligent thinking. The Romans were doing the same thing a long time ago. The Pantheon in Rome was built around 100AD and no one on the planet built a larger enclosed dome structure for 1,400 years after it. Around the same time, Rome was delivering more gallons of clean drinking water to the city, per citizen, than was capable until the early 20th century. They did lots of hand calculations too, and in fact, didn't even have a "zero" in their mathematical system, which is quite a drawback. Still got the job done. Invented hydraulic cement (sets underwater while wet, it's why Roman bridges still exist; they have solid pilings), did crude brain surgery, and lots of other stuff. I can go on and on.

I'll...uh...thirded that!?

Which usually translates to "I only date my right hand."

I think what he meant to say was that other than the fact that he's easily the best TE the game has ever seen, Gronk sucks.

I would like to propose that Phoebe play QB for tonight's game.

From the article: Only a few other squads are in the conversation as the league's worst. Cleveland finished 0-16 last season yet made significant changes throughout the roster. The Arizona Cardinals have a veteran quarterback in Sam Bradford to lean on (until Josh Rosen is ready or needed). The Tampa Bay Buccaneers added Jason Pierre-Paul and Vita Vea after finishing dead last in total defense a year ago. Ryan Tannehill returns to the Miami Dolphins, while the franchise underwent a locker room cleansing. A year later, the non-tanking Jets still have some issues, but they're far more settled at quarterback than Buffalo, even if a fellow rookie starts.

You don't have to figure this out in the next 10 minutes. Watch the games and try to enjoy them. We'll all find out soon enough if these predictions were accurate or not.

Soon that singing will turn into crying. Never heard of "Yellow Submarine" but has heard of "The Beatles." Keep up the good work, Einstein.

Well, that's the conventional wisdom but I'm not sure it applies this year to this team. We don't really have a starter. They should both play tomorrow (Nate & Josh, that is).

Very rarely does Brady make a big throw that requires a lot of arm. And in the last couple of years, when he does, the ball is often under thrown or weakly thrown. Most throws in this league are not long and they don't need to be. Nate's style of quick releasing accurate throws for a gain of 6 yards reminds me a ton of Brady. If he can consistently do that in real games, we're in business.

Allen should play Week 1 and the line shouldn't matter. That's always been the case and it's no different now. Only way that would not be correct is if Allen was clearly a train wreck incapable of playing, but he's not.

Well in theory they came to that number because it is the dividing line where half of gamblers think the answer is "under" and half think the answer is "over" such that it doesn't matter what happens for the house to win. That's how all of gambling works. What this says is that widespread opinion is that Allen will start Game 1 and basically play all year. Which is entirely possible.

No you don't! Anyway, how much longer until Carl Nassib is implicated in this as well? He gave himself away on Hard Knocks with his investment seminars and "rule of 7s".

Well, the show made it pretty clear that Munchhausen Mom was taking the fall for all of the murders. I suspect the father did not go to jail, crying boy was exonerated, and the girlfriend, who was never under investigation anyway, was free as well. All that stuff proved to be camouflage to take the pressure off the real perp, Amma. Good question about Camille's alcoholism. Overall, I think the events depicted in the show had a therapeutic effect on Camille and presumably she will heal as a result of understanding her mother better. She seemed on the road to recovery but then in the last scene she finds the teeth in the doll house coupled with her little sister's confession, so who knows! Maybe she went straight back to the bottle!

The scene where Jimmy asks Mike if he wants in on the Hummel burglary is interesting. Mike refuses to take part in it, even though he probably would have pulled it off quite easily. Was that based on a sense of morality, or a simple, cold calculation that the risk was not worth the reward?

This is now the 13th thread discussing who will start Game 1. It should be Allen. Not sure the coaching staff will do that though.

A third rounder buys Teddy? Wish we would have bought him!

That's more to what I speaking about in the post above. I.E., for a guy who is a bit rattled, going through the process longer without actually playing could be very useful. "Rattled" may be too strong a term, but if a guy is a bit overwhelmed, just going through preparations during the week, suiting up on game day, experiencing a huge crowd, the whole thing...the more you get used to that, the better you'll be. But Allen seems to have adjusted well that aspect of the game already. He's a step beyond that now. He needs playing time. That's my theory at least.

I think it is highly unlikely that a QB can improve by watching. He will learn by doing. There is one caveat to this: I do think a certain individual could be overwhelmed by the entire process, and literally need more practice time just to get the basics under his belt. Calling plays, being familiar with the playbook, controlling the huddle, etc. I do think time, practice, and watching could help calm a player like that down and make him improve in those aspects of the game. However, Allen does not appear to suffer in these areas! He seems very poised and calm, he has had control of the huddle, and he has even shown a feel for the clock and game conditions while playing. He's not the type who will benefit by sitting. The areas where he needs improvement will only come from playing in real games. He needs to deal with real pressure, real defenses, and develop habits for reading those defenses and going through his progressions, while focusing on his footwork, to deliver the ball accurately. That is a repetitive exercise type of activity and you don't engage in it by watching. It's like saying you will learn to run 6 minute miles for that upcoming marathon by reading extensively on the topic of long distance running. bull ****. You will learn to run 6 minute miles by running 6 minute miles, or trying to at least. And nothing else.

Then I guess our steady string of 7,8, and 9 win seasons shouldn't be a big surprise. To the organization's defense, they are largely adopting that approach all the time b/c they do not have access to the great passer. In the same breath, they should be criticized for not pursuing one aggressively, historically speaking. I'm not talking about the current regime; they did go after their guy and got him. That's the right approach; I just think they took the wrong guy. But that remains to be seen. This is why I want him to play all the time. Find out what he is so we can move on to the next one if we have to. Until we have that guy, we don't have much.

Quint, why don't you pay Zay a little visit and knock some sense into that boy. Teach him how to tie some complex knots to keep him out of trouble.

Augie lives in Atlanta. I'm sure he'll get you hooked up with some good ideas.