Dibs

You just gave me mental images of 'The Waterboy'..... Henry Winkler..."Water Sux. It really, really Sux."

My reaction was...."They'd never do it because......um.....well.....actually that's a very good idea."

Strewth is used as an exclamation(as most Aussie terms are)....it's pretty interchangeable with crickey, bloody hell, Jesus, God, !@#$(in the expletive sense)....and many more. e.g. Did you see the size of those jugs! Strewth. e.g. Strewth mate, you didn't have to kill it. Keep in mind that most Aussies only talk like that when there are Americans around....usually we speak like the upper crust English.

You didn't drink extra water.....or perhaps less salt in the foods you might normally eat while drinking? Hangovers are typically due to the dehydration effects caused by the consumption of alcohol.....at least so I'm told. Therefore a large glass(or 4) of water before you go to sleep often staves off the hangover.

ssshhhh.....they might be listening.

IIRC there was a directive to the refs this season to only overturn a call if it is absolutely definitive that the original call was wrong. Any doubt at all....any doubts....& the call is suppose to stay as called. I personally think this is exactly how it should be.

Crikey, strewth, core blimey, bloody hell cobber what are ya yabbering about ya drongo? er....G'day.....um.......a dingo's got my baby.....um......hi.

Oh...I agree with the trepidation on your part. With such a small number of teams employing the cover 2, it would be easy for one teams success to give a totally misleading result. Basically the sample group is nowhere near large enough. The encouraging thing is that there has been two successes which cuts down the chances of 'the single fluke'. Also.....even if 90% of teams had success doing something.....we could always end up in the 10% that didn't. I get the impression that since the cover 2 has a different philosophy to the traditional wide body in the middle....safety as your least useful position....it is hard to simply trust something new/different. Truth be told I don't trust it at all.....I don't assume it will fail either though. I figure that it has worked....and worked well....and worked well for our coaches before....so they have my patients for a few more seasons to see if we can succeed with it. If not.....I'm also hopeful the Offence is going to be star-studded(go JP...go Evens) enough...with superb special teams play......that it won't make too much difference.

Mathematically you are incorrect in the way you are looking at the numbers here. To perhaps show you more clearly I will just use numbers....not football. System 1 is used by 90 teams System 2 is used by 10 teams In a ten year span(with 1 winner a year) you would expect....all things being equal that system 2 teams should have only 1 winner. If they ended with 3 winners, that would show that even though there were less wins(7 wins by system 1 teams)....system 2 would be a more successful system since 30% of their teams won as opposed to 8% of system 1 teams. You are basically saying that since 7 of 10 were won by system 1 then it must be a better system. That mentality is wrong since 9 of 10 teams actually use system 1. Do you understand the maths here? Teams that employ the Cover 2 defence have had a far, far, far greater statistical success over any other form of defensive system in recent times. In regards to the Bear & Colts.....Colts are unsuccessful because their cover 2 defence sux.....Bears are successful since their cover 2 defence is the best defence in the league & if not for Grossmans collapse, they were easy favourites for this years superbowl. Again.....2 of the 3 teams that have extensively used the cover 2 defence in the last decade have achieved DOMINATING defences. 1 of them won it.....1 of them still might....the 3rd might as well but is a failure re: the cover 2. Of the other 29 defences, only 5(ish) have achieved a DOMINATING defence. That is..... 67% of cover 2 teams achieving DOMINATING defences 17% of other defences achieving DOMINATING defences.

I also feel the Colts have too much of their $$$ tied up in the offence & not enough in the defence.....how many decent/good LBs have they let go in the last 6 years?....with another one(2?) next off-season....not to mention Tripplett. The Colts IMO have not committed to having a first class D & their cover 2 suffers because of it.

Not exactly. Logically you would ask to find which percent of O & D systems achieved Superbowl attendee status. For simplicity, let's say there are 3 types of Defence. A, B & C. Over the last 10 years say.... Type A was used by 15 teams Type B was used by 15 teams Type C was used by 2 teams In ten superbowls..... Type A won 4 Type B won 5 Type C won 1 Which defence statistically is the most successful? Type C is. Even though type B won 50% of the Superbowls....only 33% of the teams employing that Defence won the superbowl in ten years. 50% of type C won in the ten year span. The percentages are much greater when comparing each Defence to all the other Defences. In real life terms.....the Cover 2 Defence(per capita) has had by far more success than any other Defensive scheme in the last decade. Only the Bucs, Bears & Colts have used it extensively with the Bucs winning the lot & the Bears now the #1 defence(& consistent QB play away from potentially winning this year). That's 2 great Defences formed out of 3.....rather than looking at the rest of the league of about 5 great defences out of 29. It's simple mathematics......though it does not guarantee we will succeed(we could end up with the Colts D)....statistically, it shows a far greater chance of success(assuming the status quo).

But Lori, my first point was that the 'whisper' was not a whisper. It was obscenely out of place. There is absolutely no logical reason at all why that one sentence statement would be included in this weeks(or any weeks) 'PFW whispers'. Examples of whispers from this week..... "Our sources tell us Saints WR Joe Horn’s aching groin may not be the only reason the former...." "We hear that CB Fred Smoot’s demotion in favor of rookie Cedric Griffin was a result of...." "Our sources at Rams Park have become more impressed with first-round pick Tye Hill...." "The two positions the Cowboys are most concerned about heading down the stretch are...." It is NOT a whisper....or anything like a whisper. As for the rest of your post.....to say TD deserves credit for 16 of 24 starters is akin to saying that I deserve credit for not crashing my car on the way to work this morning.....it is pretty much expected. He took over a salary capped laden team that was not very good.....therefore he had to replace most of the players. After 5 years, it is no surprise that close to all of the starters were acquired by him. What is a surprise is that a full 1/3 have been replaced in just one year. We are starting our 1st, 4th, 5th & 7th round picks. We brought in no BIG name FAs & have 4 starting. I personally believe that a lot of our TD starters are potentially 'great' players.....that has nothing to do with the statement "....Tom Donahoe deserves credit for acquiring 16 of the team’s 24 starters." It is a ludicrous statement placed in an absolutely inappropriate place.

My biggest fear is hearing about other's biggest fears.

Actually.....considering only a few teams have used the cover 2 exclusively in the last decade, the percentages for the teams using it winning superbowls is vastly higher than the other 28(ish) teams. Throw in the Bears & the chances of having a dominant D with the cover 2 look even better. Bucs, Bears, Colts.....and now Rams, Bills....any others?....Lions??? We are in the first year of having the defence......sure we may end up like the Colts & never get it right(I think due to too much cap money spent on the offence).....but the Bucs & Bears(being the longest running cover 2 teams) have both achieved success with it. I like the odds.....also the fact that we have the coach who brought it to Chicago.

There's a moral there somewhere I think.

Perhaps that is the best way to describe him.....one of the better pass rushers in the league.....but below average against the run.

Oh....I get it.....JP has a bad day and he will never make it to average? I'll let you in on a little secret.....There were not 12 QBs with better performances than JPs this week.....and that is with JP having a 'bad' day. The truth is that there are not many good QBs left in this league....and every week some of the good ones will have bad days. There is a bunch of potentially good young ones.....but legitimate 'good' or 'great' QBs???? Not many at all. McNair(last legs) Palmer Rivers(is he really this good?) Brady Vick(????) P.Manning Bulger(?) Brees Favre(last legs) Green(or KC QB) Roethlisburger(????) Romo(?) Hasslebeck Delhomme(?) McNabb(out for season) The fact that once JP was 'cut lose' he has had 2 come from behind victories & a third late TD drive shows him minimally in the 'average' bracket. ....but there is really no point in responding to you is there?

Blalock now has my vote.

Is there no OG choice? All I read is that Blaylock is an OT....IMO we are now OK(possible good/great) at OT. Peters is looking first class & Pennington seems to be regularly improving. It's the interior of the line which needs help. What's the point of having 3 decent(or better) OTs & no decent OGs?

PFW Whispers Firstly.....how is that comment a whisper? For years I've enjoyed going to PFW whispers to hear little tid bits of rumour/information. This is the first time I recall seeing a 'whisper' being an opinion/statement.....what next? "We understand Tom Brady is a really good QB and many people like him a lot." Secondly.....TD was in charge for 5 years. How many starters is it possible to replace in 1 off-season? 7 draftees(standard) and....how many FA starters was Marv. & Co suppose to bring in? Not to mention the copious backups that were replaced. The last three year or so my respect for PFW has gone from 'best publication(top internet site)' to 'hardly worth the effort to look'.

It's how it's gonna be.

I agree with you....it's a bit like hoping we lose games to get a better pick, the momentum from winning.....or in this case the experience of continuing to strive for victory regardless of the odds, is far more important IMO.

Sven did the worst thread ever.

Tissue time? I notice you don't espouse NC as much lately, I guess that's because you don't need to.....it must be a nice feeling having him vindicate your faith in him so definitively. I'm hoping we re-sign him ASAP......each week he is becoming more & more expensive.