eSJayDee

Doesn't the guy guiding the plane in look a bit like Marrone? LOL.

Remember, a blocked kick is not only worth (saved) points, but I'd think it's also worth yardage as well. A KO specialist is used perhaps 5x/game on avg & is worth I'd say at most 5 yds/kick, or 25 yds/game, prolly closer to 15. You'll have approximately 2 successful FGs (ignore XP) / game. If you can manage to block, say 20-25%... If an avg FG attempt is roughly 40 yds (ie try from 30), that means that if a blocked FG is brought back to the spot, that's roughly 8 yds relative to a successful try (assume an avg drive start after a KO of the 22. (Further, I would contend that on avg, blocked kicks result in an avg drive start beyond the point of try (or even a potential return for TD.) So improving your kick blocking is worth roughly 4 yds/game, in addition to the 1.5 pts. Again, I just don't think it's very doable, w/o modifying the rules to how they were before. Mario Williams is a very good rusher & is very tall (for that matter I'd bet he prolly has close to a 3' vertical); I don't think you'd find anyone much more (theoretically) capable of blocking kicks than him.

If there was someone out there that could do it much better than it's being done, I'd think an attempt would be made to find them. They could just amend the rules back to how they were allowing you to climb on your teammates. Granted, kickers are MUCH better than they used to be, but I recall Sherman White blocked numerous, maybe like 8 kicks, one yr. Ted Hendricks was very successful at it, too.

Problem seems to be resolved. Thank you.

I'm unable to save the "turn off beeps" feature from the Shoutbox. (I'm okay w/ it, my dog is NOT). Changing the theme appears to fix the problem.

Yes, he's very good, but so are many/most other kickers nowadays. Hitting 90%, which is roughly what he does, is the norm. Coupled w/ the fact that he doesn't KO & no, sorry, not worthy of Pro Bowl recognition.

The decline in yds/drive & plays/drive might be partially due to our improved Dee & ST. Which of course, makes the lack of improvement in scoring all the more damning.

We don't need to draft a RB. We've got 3 decent ones (Jackson, Dixon, Brown). Teams have productive run games w/ inferior talent. Our problem is we don't open holes. Our blockers, interior in particular, just don't cut it. Whether or not an improvement in "scheme" would help, IDK, but regardless, I seriously doubt the improvement would be substantial. When you need to run, it all comes down to your guy beating their guy & our guys don't seem to be able to do that as it's most obvious in short yardage situations.

He might suck, but at least he has poise. Well, I guess technically that's two things.

http://www.nfl.com/flexible-schedules I suppose we might still make it, but I still think Cincy vs Pitt is more likely as that game may be a de facto playoff game for one or both teams (ie win & you're in, lose & you're out).

I thought I read there WILL be a game flexed in week 17. I also saw that the announcement must be made at least 12 days in advance. Further, since I believe that regardless of outcomes in week 16, Cincy & Pitt will have playoff implications, that would seem like a far more prudent candidate for switching.

Looking a bit further, you're somewhat correct. If SD beats BAL, I believe we move ahead of BAL (WRT tie breakers). Likewise, if NYJ beats MIA, we move ahead of MIA (outright). Regardless of the outcomes, we'd still be behind SD & KC (& I believe PIT) WRT tie-breakers, so we'd be sitting at best 4th in line for Wildcards & we still need to overtake 2 more. I'll also mention 11-5 would still put us in position to win the division, but that, of course would require NE to lose 2 other games in addition to losing to us, one of which wpu;d have to be a division game.

Right now we sit 11th in the AFC. If we beat CLE, we move past them, at least into 10th. 4 division winners means that there's still 5 teams we'd need to displace that I believe at least now, we lose tie-breakers to all of them. Haven't worked out the scenarios yet (I do know BAL plays SD this week, so one of them is bound to get a loss), but I personally think it's quite possible that we'd miss at 11-5 & downright doubtful that we'd be able to overtake them rest of the teams ahead of us to get in at 10-6. IF we win this week, maybe I'll start to investigate various permutations. Calculations become exponentially easier each week.

Sadly, I think it's a matter of pandering to the popular fan. They don't care how the D-line had a stunt to free up a rusher, or a TE sealed a LB on an outside run. They're watching for the rah-rah excitement of the game, of which, the inane celebrations contribute significantly to.

I think it comes down to a #s thing. Who you gonna sit in his stead? Watkins? If healthy, hell no. Woods? Maybe, though I personally like him. Hogan? Can't ask much more from him on offense plus he's a major contributor on ST, tres important w/ Easley out. Goodwin? Again, maybe, but he was now our kick returner. Plus, as I understand it, he's our designated "stretch the field" guy, which apparently is something we need/want.

Surprised (& very disappointed) that we're stuck w/ the Jests here in ALB.

The one screen play that I recall, it looked like he purposely threw the ball, let's call it "uncatchable", cuz the play was covered. Do you know if this was the poorly thrown pass to which you refer?

So let me get this straight - the penalty for an (illegal) absence from school is more (forced) absences?

FWIW, the only time I noticed Williams on the field was on a punt return. Guess w/ the injuries, he was forced into svc. As we found out last week (when Watkins was seldom thrown to), plays have a designated 1st read, then a progression. Orton sez he goes through his progression & throws it to the 1st one that's open. If the primary rcvr is usually open, he doesn't need to find (another) open rcvr. So it would appear that their lack of use is more attributable to the play caller (Hackett) rather than Orton (who's just doing as he's instructed).

Pretty lame article. No insight. Appears that they only based it on the televised version, ie didn't even use the All-22.

Based on his performance on KOs last yr, Carpenter isn't a beast; I'd say he's actually below avg. He may have been a strong kicker when he came into the league, but the skill of kicking (much like punting) has improved over the last few yrs. And I'll also add that the ability to kick long placekicks is not the same as KOs; it's quite different.

Actually, that's a quite poor ROI. But, as has been said before, you don't buy an NFL franchise as an investment.

Other than their PK going 0-3, how did our ST outplay theirs? I'd say their punter was at least as good as ours, the had better punt returns & all KOs were touchbacks.

Bye, bye, Miss American π. For that matter, I'm thinking there's a Police song w/ like all the vowels in the chorus. So i & e.

Just ran across this: http://thechive.com/2014/09/26/stevie-johnson-drafted-you-to-his-fantasy-team-and-its-hilarious-15-photos/