dave mcbride

Yet with no evidence.

Does that include the throwaways that go out of the EZ? I'm less concerned with the completion percentage (although it's certainly a decent proxy) than with the accuracy percentage. One of those throws was to Sanders in the Pitt game and accurate, although the defender (Pierre) was in position to make a play on it immediately (and did). The lofted throws to McKenzie and Diggs were both accurate, although they resulted in incompletions because they shouldn't have been lofted. But yeah, a bunch of off-target throws so far. On a few, the coverage has been good enough to cause an incomletion.

I've long said that Darnold was a lot better than the Jets situation made him look. He has real talent. He's a classic example of a bad organization ruining a player's ability to perform at a high level. It didn't seem to ruin his potential, though, and the Panthers are the beneficiaries.

The lofted pass to McKenzie was bad, but I wonder if that was the product of the bullet that sailed badly over the head of an open Singletary earlier in the game. That would have been a 25-30 yard gain. Point is, he seems to lack confidence in his velocity. The 3rd and 1 play last week that was lofted and defensed should have been on a rope, but it came shortly after the low-arc bomb that sailed over Sanders. Might that earlier miss caused him to lose faith in his deep-rope accuracy? A couple of nice things to see, however: the short TD pass to Diggs yesterday was peak Allen--a really strong throw on a busted play--and the late bomb to Diggs was something I've been militating for for a while: a bomb with air under it that gives the player the time needed to adjust to it and make a play. The early deep throw to Sanders was great, although that's one of those throws that he's bound to occasionally complete due to the law of averages. That was a pretty typical deep throw by Allen, and he misses a lot of those. Anyway, there were some good things with the bad yesterday. To me, the main issue has been consistency with regard to accuracy and velocity/arc choice as well as platform mechanics. I suspect he'll get it sorted out before too long. We all know he's capable of being a consistently elite producer.

Yup. Just look at Tom Brady's ypc lifetime! Granted, he's hardly a runner, but he's better than 1.6 ypc lifetime! I bet you half of those 637 carries of his are kneel-downs.

Brissett got them into FG range a number of times but they always went for it or turned it over on downs.

The thing that most impressed me on the run was that he didn't fumble. The Dolphins DB made a textbook-perfect strip attempt right before he crossed the goal line.

I thought Brissett played pretty well except for the pick. The number of drops of good passes was ungodly.

They had a ton of players go down yesterday. Factor that in.

They did go 12-3 in 2016 before Carr got hurt. In their playoff game vs. Houston, they didn't have a functional QB and got steamrolled.

Indeed he was. Just discovered this story, which is fascinating: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24259653/the-play-pushed-bill-belichick-football-temporarily-new-england-patriots

You are preaching to the choir. (But at least it’s an ethos!) Btw, re: the uniforms, you know that Hugo Boss was a designer of them, right? A real ad:

An uncomfortable but true thing.

Seriously, read it. It’s very interesting.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/09/18/bill-belichick-offers-1500-word-discourse-on-long-snappers-off-the-top-of-his-head/

Good point about Epenesa. I do think it’s way too early to tell with him. A lot of pass rushers who turn out to be good players need time; there’s so much technique and expertise that goes into the position. It’s kinda the opposite of RB. Except for a handful of freaks of nature and the Watt brothers (and JJ is a freak), the best years tend to start at year 3 or maybe 4. Melvin Ingram, Zedarius Smith, Haasan Reddick, DeForest Buckner, and Shaq Barrett are good examples: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/I/IngrMe00.htm; https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BarrSh00.htm; https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitZa00.htm; https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BuckDe00.htm; https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/ReddHa00.htm. Just look at Reddick. It took him a while, but he blew up last year and had 1.5 sacks in game one last week. It’s kind of a mid-career to even late-ish-career position in terms of peak. Indeed, Bruce’s technique and conditioning by 1995-1996 were outstanding, making him virtually unstoppable. I know you disagree, but I believe his best, most complete football was played in those seasons because he was an absolute demon against the run by then too.

Allen’s rating vs Pitt over the past three seasons: 2019: 65.2 2020: 77.5 2021: 79.7 He clearly struggles against what they throw at him. Confusion is certainly part of it, as is talent on the other side of the ball.

Waddle is scary. Most video-game-ish player I've seen since Tyreek Hill.

The Bills also missed 2 FGs and Gabe Davis dropped what should have been a sure TD. They settled for three on that. That's 10 points lost. Finally, they ground out the clock after they went up 17-3 and Jackson went down.

You might want to read the original post a little more closely.

Searching my memory banks … when he was ST coach of the Pats, did Judge express outrage over the Offside penalty called on Dee Ford (in which he lined up in the neutral zone and didn’t jump) that cost the Chiefs a trip to the SB? Believe it or not, I don’t recall that he did. Anyway, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

He's a tough, punishing runner who breaks tackles and has good vision. He played well in the second half of last season, averaging 4.7 ypc from week 7 onward. That's actually good, and significantly more than "three yards and a cloud of dust." He's hardly a Mike Tolbert-like player.

I could see them going 8-9 or 7-10 this season. Looking more and more like a lost year, although Harbaugh is a fantastic coach and might able to pull a rabbit out of his hat. It's just too many injuries, though.

Mostly agree, but on that third and three run by Brieda right before the fourth down disaster, Moss is likely getting that first. He doesn't go down easy, and Brieda went down easy there. I realize it's just one play.

For years, KC and Pitt have been playoff teams who always had to assume they'd face NE in the postseason (and probably lose). It focuses the mind.