Beck Water

Fair enough. Regardless, I think yesterday showed that Boy Genius (McVay) really is a solid, solid coach. He must have been able to quickly pull out of Mayfield what concepts he's most comfortable with, mapped them onto plays the Rams already had installed, and built a game plan around them. Then Baker held up his end by doing whatever he had to do to memorize the verbiage. I did appreciate Baker's reaction to Fitz asking him what's up with the #17 and teasing him "it looks good on you". He didn't like that At All.

I think the players have a good bit of input. For one thing, as "he I shall not name" once said, "it's the players choice to take a pain injection or not". The NFLPA has come out against the use of Toradol for "anticipated pain" and against Toradol injections vs. the pill form, so the players do have the union behind them if the team tries to push them into it. For another thing, they go through physical ability evaluations with the head trainer, sometimes pre-game, and they can influence what they show based on their personal pain tolerance and grit and how much adrenaline they have going on about wanting to play. Sometimes I think it works against them and against the team - Milano played a game when he couldn't lift his arm to tackle partway through. I'm sure he managed to show the head trainer a lifted arm pre-game but he probably only had so many arm lifts he could manage with that partially torn pec. For a third thing, several here have told stories about doing some work in a player's house, or being invited to a gathering as the friend of a friend, and seeing a player who was just injured NOT doing common sense things to take care of a known injury. I think in one anecdote, the guy was playing video games and it wasn't until his wife came home that she brought him a bag of ice and a footstool to elevate his ankle. So how seriously and carefully the player follows what they're told to do by the trainers and physicians probably has a big influence as well. I know we got my daughter recovered from a Grade II ankle sprain and able to play volleyball in under a week though she lost some height on her blocks for more like 2-3. The trainers said they'd never seen a sprain clear so fast, but it was really Hell for her - cold bath for 20 minutes once an hour is uncomfortable and eventually painful to the skin, the rest of the stuff like elevation, compression, arnica massage disrupted her preferred routine. It wasn't a Fun Time at all for her to stick to that routine for 48 hrs post injury. But it clearly made a difference to recovery vs. another player who might not have stuck it out.

That brings me to the question "how much did Stefanski actually take from Kubiak?" Far as I know, Kubiak went to the Vikes in 2019 Stefanski left the Vikes to take on the HC gig with the Browns in 2020 So they overlapped 1 year, during which Stefanski was promoted from QB coach to OC and Kubiak was "assistant to the HC" or some such I would think Stefanski installed the offense he was already working with; it's not like Stefanski was a Kubiak disciple What makes Stefanski a "Kubiak guy"? As far as I can tell, Stefanski and Kubiak worked together for 1 year. Stefanski was newly promoted from QB coach to OC. Kubiak was brought in as "assistant to the KC and offensive advisor" Stefanski left the next season It would kind of be like calling Ken Dorsey a "Joe Brady guy" because they've worked together on offense this year. I'm sure Brady has input, but I'm also sure the terminology and structure of the offense are from Dorsey.

When was Stefanski a Shanahan guy? Thought he spent his (coaching) life with the Vikes* until the Browns hired him. *which is actually pretty impressive considering he stuck on the staff through 3 different HCs

This. Same for the 49ers

Amazing game by Mayfield on 2 days, but Man! Did the Raiders play stupid on D and give them chance after chance. Isn’t that sort of the story of Mayfield, though? Can play brilliantly, then somehow can’t play within a system? It’ll be interesting to see what McVay gets out of him for the next 4 weeks

Someone will take a chance on him Robert Foster got 3 years and 2 teams ”Can’t Coach Speed”

Do you think McDaniels has actually performed and hired coordinators who have performed in a way that’s earned him the cred to strip down the roster and throw Carr out of town?

Wow, just for kicks - I listened to Chris Simms and Mike Florio predict Raiders at Rams Link Gives a different perspective on their predictive abilities LOL Essentially thought it was idiocy to have Mayfield play after 2 days, and were predicting a Rams meltdown on the sidelines Thought the Carr-Adams connection was humming and the Raiders were cruising to victory

Lol Baker sounded like he couldn’t wait to take that number off.

LOL Thursday nite crew understandably critical of Las Vegas Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham Fitz: “Their defensive coordinator went to Yale” (Pretty standard Harvard guy dunk) I looked it up. Patrick Graham did, in fact, attend Yale University. I’m actually pretty impressed that Fitz knew that (or looked it up quickly) Richard Sherman was pretty animated about the coverage LV played at the end of the game

I wanna give Baker his propers, and that was for reals an exciting finish - but Man, the Raiders choked

Baker didn’t sound thrilled with that #17 jersey Fitz: “What’s with the #17 jersey? It looks good on you” Baker” “Don’t Say That”

Facts

Considering they gift-wrapped a couple first downs to the Rams at key times with penalties

Baker does always seem to get fired up and play his best when he feels most dissed off Hard to be more dissed off than being 3rd string and cut off a bad team

I wonder how the fans down in Carolina are gonna be taking this ”Hi, we just released our 3rd string useless QB…Oh”

OMG for the Raiders with the penalties OMG for the Raiders with giving up those two catches OMG for Amazon for getting an exciting finish Way to pull a good game Rabbit out of a crap game Hat

Needs to build up some timing and chemistry, but I’m actually pretty amazed that they got him as ready to play as he looks. Baker musta been Mo-Ti-Va-Ted I don’t think it affects the number. I find it quite amusing that’s the number Baker chose though. How Things Have Changed

That was a hellaciously weak-sauce personal foul penalty IMO Way to put your defense in a spot, #65

Von Jefferson could have come back for that one, I think. Didn’t track the ball well. Whoever just caught it tracked well and went down for it. I agree, missed face mask on that Baker did well to avoid 2 sacks in a row

I didn’t post that - you did. Just to be clear. Look, Milano missed 1 game this year. We lost. Would we have had a better defense if he’d played? Sure. But anyone who watched that game knows that despite being without Milano, the game came down to a bad read or decision by Allen that led to a 2nd down INT on the Buff 22 yd line and gave the Jets a TD 4 plays later. No one would disagree that Milano is playing lights out this year, but likewise no one football knowledgeable would deny that when the score ends 17-20 and 7 of those 20 points came on an INT thrown deep in Bills territory, the Bills had a real chance to win that Jets game Milano missed. If you don’t intend a statement of fact about actual results of games maybe you shouldn’t phrase it that way I guess according to you the Bills ought to just forfeit this one if Milano isn’t playing.

LOL it apparently doesn’t matter

Raiders Jeopardy Carr: I’ll take “stupid Quarterback decisions on the 10 yd line for $1000” I can’t believe they didn’t call DPI on that last throw by Baker. Receiver was literally tackled before the ball got there

Well, if they continue to play well on both sides tonight, it should encourage them