dave mcbride

I believe that soccer is highly unlikely to ever succeed in the US as a major spectator sport because the simple fact of the matter is that Americans don’t want to watch an inferior product. Professional soccer in the US is played at a lower level than Turkish professional soccer. That is all you need to know. If an American player is any good, he ain’t gonna play here.

I can’t think of a more unfair playoff loss than Caldwell’s loss to Dallas. I try not to blame the refs, but they were outrageous and essentially cost the Lions the game.

Patricia is a dead man walking. https://www.espn.com/blog/detroit-lions/post/_/id/37111/after-another-embarrassing-loss-its-time-for-detroit-lions-coach-matt-patricia-to-go

He evolved dramatically in a positive direction regarding offense in Philly itself. The Eagles oscillated between top ten and top five in offense every year from 2006-2011.

Actually, two of the best offensive minds ever — Andy Reid and Sean Payton — both saw him as one of the greatest prospects to come along in years and were quite confident in their opinion. The fact that the Todd McShays of the world had doubts about him is utterly meaningless given what Reid and Payton thought (I can’t stand it when people say that there was no consensus about him and that he was an unknown quantity.) The Chiefs traded up to 10 because they knew the Saints would take him. ‘And the Saints, particularly Payton, were high on Mahomes' potential. They graded him higher than any quarterback they'd evaluated in recent drafts. So much so that they would seriously consider taking him with the No. 11 overall pick. It was the first time the Saints had come close to taking a quarterback so high in the draft during Payton's coaching tenure.’ https://www.nola.com/sports/saints/article_654a281d-df32-5e39-a000-164211140b18.html One final note: the worst “important” team ever when it comes to evaluating QBs -- the Chicago Bears — has far more to answer for than the Bills.

Probably should have [posted my response from the Morse thread] in this thread:

Re Allen’s rushing yds/game, factor in that he’s credited with playing 16 games last year but only “played” in 15, really. He was in for 7 plays vs. the Jets in the meaningless finale and there was never a chance that the Bills were going to let him run it. Every play was a handoff or a very short pass attempt. He also missed a quarter vs. NE. Basically, he averaged 34.6 rushing yards per game last season (over 14.75 games), which is 24 percent higher than this season. He also gained 57 yards in game one vs. the Jets, and has averaged 24.7 ypg since. Recency bias might also be shaping your view that he is running less (and he has run a lot less since thst first game), but it’s also the case that he’s gaining fewer rushing yards per game by a not-insignificant percentage! Another stat to consider: Allen has 13 kneel downs through 10 games this season, and last year through 10 games had only 6 kneel downs. He only had 11 kneel downs total last season. Anyway, that has an artificial upwards effect on rushes per game and an artificial downwards effect on both ypc and rushing ypg.

Interesting to see that the stats this year for Allen and Herbert are pretty close to identical. Herbert has a slightly higher passer rating and Allen has a slightly higher total qbr rating (largely because of his rushing/receiving TDs; he has 6 to Herbert’s 3). Anyway, Herbert is having one of the best rookie seasons for a qb that I have ever seen. Not that I’m any sort of qb prognosticator myself, but the critics of him in the draft were WAY off. I chalk that up at least in part to bias against the Pac-12. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HerbJu00.htm https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AlleJo02.htm

Not really, but not worth arguing about. A throw on a rope is a hard, medium-deep throw with more or less no arc on it. The position or movement of the receiver is immaterial.

It was a throw on a rope. It’s why he’s great. But he has to fix his deep game (again).

That wasn’t a deep throw and not what Scottlaw and I are talking about. The throws on a rope have been great. But the deep loft throws have really gotten worse.

3 in the AZ game alone. Seriously.

Yes, 7 or so off the top of my head. All have been bad overthrows. He has gone back to having no loft on his throws (because he can throw it a mile), but the lack of air under them means that receivers simply don’t have time to adjust— especially when the throws are inaccurate (as these throws have been).

Or Josh Allen of the last three games.

1 for his last 17 on throws of over 20 yards.

Enh, no. Much stronger arm.

No, Goff is actually very good. He’s no Mahomes, but that’s not a fair standard. Lewis Riddick is terrific. More of him, please. pS - his brother is rob riddick!

A lot of announcers are bad.

I bet you he misses BB. Arians is a sloppy, uncareful coach.

This is a bad NFL game. Neither team can run the ball and they barely even try. It’s like watching a mediocre basketball game.

Love your last point, but allen could probably throw a 50-yard deep out on a rope!

Not the 2018 to 2019 jump with this guy? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/T/TannRy00.htm

The thing about that 1991 season is that the Bills' QBs collectively threw for 4,140 yards and 39 TDs. Reich had 6 TD passes himself that year.

Exactly. Couldn’t step into the throw. He was wide open! It was a good call. Unfortunately for Murray, the pressure was there, making him unable to step into his throw.

Yeah, he's a much better natural passer than Jackson. People forget he was drafted #10 overall by the A's to play center field. You have to have a great arm AND be highly mobile to play CF in MLB. The best athletes in MLB are SS, 2B, and CF.