smokinandjokin

Members of suicide pools are not thanking God that the Bears won (unless you were dumb enough to pick against the home team on MNF.) In the pool I'm in, about 75 people out of 600 would've gotten burnt by the Bears last night. Damn you Rackers!!!!

Injured or not injured? Injured: Kearse and Freeney Not injured: Seymour, Peppers, Alex Brown, Suggs, Umeniyora....You want some more?

You and me both! It's true, only time will tell. Leinart is an interesting paradox because like you mentioned, he comes in with polish and the mental ability after having played three years in a pro offense at USC, but also has a more limited athletic arsenal than many other less-polished QB's. It's almost a case study of brain vs. braun. It will be interesting to watch and compare Leinart and Cutler down the road. They will be linked together for their careers because of their draft placement. Will Leinart's savvy and big-game experience help him excel, or will a QB who played on a college loser but has all the tools end up as the better pick? It will be fun to watch. A HUGE difference for Leinart will be getting used to playing without Reggie Bush. You can see it this year if you watch USC's offense. For the past three years, they had a guy on their team who could line up anywhere, and he averaged 8 yards PER TOUCH! Hand it to him, it's 2nd and 2. No problem. Leinart, like USC's offensive coordinator, will find himself in many situations that have been non-existent for the last three years.

Read my post brother man. I specifically asked for people not to take it the wrong way. I'm certainly not expecting Schobel to be Bruce Smith. We all know he isn't. But he's paid very well and fancies himself as one of the top DE's in the league. I expect a guy like that to show up when it matters. I expect a guy like that to dominate a weakened OLine. He disappears for long, long stretches of games. I'm not going to say he gets garbage time sacks, because they all count the same. But there are those plays, BIG plays in the fourth quarter where you KNOW the other team is passing and needs a 1st down, and you beg for a sack. Schobel hasn't gotten that sack this year. And I think in his effort to pad his sacks, he constantly rushes upfield and leaves the entire right side of the defense with a gashing hole to run through. I don't need to get a grip, cause I'm not flipping out about this. Schobel, after the New England game, has been a major disappointment to me. I'm sure teams focus on him more than any of the other lineman. That's a compliment, not a reason to disappear in games.

A sack on the first play, and a deflected pass that fell incomplete. Other than that, in 3.5 quarters, he didn't make a play that mattered. It's highly possible that McGee wouldn't feel like such a chump the last two weeks if our d-line felt like playing. There was only one Bruce, so don't read this the wrong way-- but what made Bruce so great was that he got that sack in the 4th quarter on 3rd and 8. He made huge, game changing plays. He stopped drives. Schobel's sack numbers are there, no doubt about it. The numbers don't lie. But the guy is invisible for 90% of the game and he's not there when the defense needs a big play. His first quarter sack and then disappearance is evidence of that. His 4th quarter sack of Greise last week prevented it from being 48-0. Thanks for showing up, Aaron. I don't question his effort at all. I don't question his intensity. But he gets paid very well to make plays. Plays that help win games. So far, after the New England game, he's been a non-factor.

I have seen him many, many times in person and on television throw great deep balls. He didn't lob rainbows any more or any less than other QBs. I have seen him, with my own eyes, throwing 20-yard outs on the money. Obviously, his body of work is against college competition. Time will tell how he does in the pros, but my hunch is that he'll be fine. A few got away from him up high last night, where he could've done some damage to the receivers. It's hard to say if that will be a problem for him in the future or not. He did have the luxury of throwing up high to Mike Williams and Jarrett at USC. I assume Boldin and Fitzgerald will share their feelings about that if it becomes a habit in the NFL. He will never be mobile, but he can move OK. Brady has a piano on his back when he runs, but he's very slippery in the pocket. That's a feel that only a few guys have, and Leinart has at least shown that he understands the concept of sliding in the pocket. A point which helps your argument, which could be telling, is that Tennesee picked 3rd and chose Vince, even though Leinart's former USC coordinator Norm Chow is running the Titans' offense. I heard the Tennessee's owner really wanted Young, but that struck me as strange. You'd think Chow would really lobby for Leinart if he thought he was a 10-year franchise guy.

Dreamland. Schobel, playing against three backup Olinemen, was his usual high-motor yet invisible self. The Bills were lucky to even have a sniff in that game. They played horribly.

I love the 'Leinart has no arm' posts. Says who? What type of arm is he supposed to have? He has shown through three years in college and several games as a pro that he can make all the throws. I'm certainly not saying he has the best arm in the league, but he is far from the worst. People latch onto something around draft day and just accept it as truth. "He'd never be able to play in Buffalo in December" is just retarded. The wind will flutter and completely knock down Leinart's throws, but the another QB will have no problem zipping lasers through the wind? Genius. All I know is, the guy was 37-2 in college and lost those two games by a combined six points. He has played well in his brief appearances thus far in the NFL. I think he will be a very successful QB in the NFL for a long time. He just has a solid grasp of the position. He played well last night and lost. It won't be the last time that happens. I am a USC alum and a big Leinart fan. I am GLAD the Bills didn't draft him. The holes on this team are so numerous, I'm not sure the QB makes a huge difference at the moment. We traded up and bought JP, let's find out if we get our money's worth or not. Fill in weaknesses via the draft and free agency, and let JP step up and run with the job, or let him fail. Remember folks, you don't have to look far to see what 2-3 years experience gets you. Not everyone is going to come into the league and have great success, a la Brady and Ben. Drew Brees ring a bell, anyone?

I understand why people may have been horrified, but I thought that whole fight was AWESOME! I vote no sanctions! Miami is pretty pathetic this year, and it just proves how sad they are that they thought FIU was worth fighting. The classy UMiami teams would've laughed off Florida International and saved their best stomps, punches, and helmet hammers for the Seminoles or Gators.

Ok...so....I think I got it: Peters is the hot freshman pledge Fowler transferred from another school, they're still trying to figure out if she's cool or not Reyes got into the sorority because her older sister pledged Gandy is a senior and is just lazy and wants to leave Villarial is the girl who was hot in college, but then came back for Homecoming and was fat, slugging beers, belching, and had ketchup and BBQ sauce on her Delta Gamma sweatshirt And Mouse McNally is the shady psychology teacher who makes sexual passes at all of them and they end up blowing him for good grades on the final Yep, I've seen it a hundred times...

That was a catch in my opinion. I can't believe that ref called it incomplete in the first place. There was no way to change a call based on the replays they showed, though. They would've stuck with the call on the field no matter what it was. The bogus part is, that drive ended with three points which ended up making the difference. I know, I know, we shouldn't need a charity call to beat the 0-5 Lions. Well why not? The Bills are that good? Hell yeah we needed to get a call when our safety makes a diving pick in the end zone. Oh well, nice try Whitner.

I don't think there's any doubt that there are clearly some lapses in sportsmanship, especially in Coral Gables, FL. But I think any bench clearing brawl is absolutely AWESOME!!! I love that schit. That one dude who was swinging his helmet around was a maniac. My helmet would not have left my head if I was in that maylay.

Clements has 2 picks in his last 24 games. "The Playmaker" I would've liked to have seen Youboty actually play a down before they ship Clements off, but what can you do. Nasty Nate is as good as gone after the season, they might as well get something for him. I almost would prefer a draft pick (I dunno, 3rd or 4th rounder?) for Nate, rather than some other team's riff raff. Remember the LJ Shelton for Travis Henry trade that Donahoe was an idiot for not making? While Clements hasn't been doing much, he still has value. We shouldn't take another team's washout just because.

I expected 2-4 after 6 games (of course, those two wins were pegged for NYJ and Detroit.) I had them at 6-10 for the season. Here's the team I expected: Talent at the skill positions, an erratic QB who shows the entire spectrum (horrible to amazing and everything in between) each game, weak lines on both sides of the ball, one young safety, and a less-than-dominant Takeo. Here's the team we have: Willis, Evans, Parrish, Losman have all had their moments, JP has been great and he has been awful, the DLine is terrible and the OLine is average at best, we start TWO rookie safeties, and Takeo has played one game. So, am I disappointed? Yes. But I'm not shocked.

I'm 100% positive it's Philly at Buffalo on Versus Tues night, at least in the Buffalo market. I'm not sure if they show different games in different markets. If they only show one nationally, it definitely will be the Sabres.

I think he'd rather prove that he isn't injury prone by playing and getting paid in the NFL. Most RB's, if they have any chance at all to leave early, will do so. They take 40 solid shots per game- there's just too many opportunities to get hurt. There's a slight chance he makes it back in time to light it up in a bowl game, too. Two-and-a-half months for a broken collarbone to heal is fairly realistic. He'll be labelled as gritty and courageous if he comes back and runs for 150 in a bowl game.

Faked to the backhand- Dom must've seen him score on the backhand in Carolina and bit on it- and then brought it back to the forehand and slid it past Dom's pad.

Much funnier. Chef, take notes.

Ahh yes, winter....The time of year when everyone who moved out of Buffalo pats themselves on the back and thinks they're that much better than everyone who's still there. Sweet post.

It's easy to avoid threads you don't care about.

I'm in Amherst now and it has been coming down pretty good for about an hour...Not much seems to be accumulating though...A dusting on the grass, cars are covered, but roads seem bare.

It's snowing HARD in Amherst, NY right now

Hard to argue that. All three are owned by the al-Maktoum family. They have spent a REDICULOUS amount of money in this year's yearling sales as well- they are looking to take over American horse racing and dominate the major races. Hard to leave Lava Man out of that group, but hard to replace any one of those three. Looking at speed numbers, Lava Man has certainly been slower than Bernarini this year, but he's still 7-for-7 against mostly Grade I talent. He has torched the California competition, but his performances have not been exceptional outside of Cali. Nonetheless, he has found a way to win. I expect they ship him to Churchill well before the BC to make sure he's acclimated. Lava Man will have to run an amazing race to beat Bernardini (and Invasor for that matter) but I'll be pulling for him.

Everyone in Boston sweats Bill Simmons (ESPN's 'The Sports Guy') and he constantly bashes Losman as a dud. It's hard to expect that they would dig any deeper than their fellow Boston pal who writes nationally. Side note, from today's Buffalo News, Fairchild was not happy with the results Sunday, but overall, he liked the way Losman carried himself against Chicago.

If he was really so damn smart, they would take care of business on 1st and 2nd down.