Khyber53

Technically, 11. We may well attempt to do that from the way it looks.

Take a couple of hours off and boom... there's another corner back. Sheeeeeit. Once we were a 4-3 defense. Now seems we're a 3-4, or more like a 5-2. We can, later on, field a 4-1-6??? This is crazy!

If it is going to be done, and I'm not certain it's for the best, you keep Moton at RT and try Christensen at LT. Otherwise you make be having two problems at once. It's easier to shield one problem at a time since you've only got 11 guys to work with.

And it was a happy buzz that still left you functional. Now, it's like being hit by a zoologist's tranq dart.

I don't disagree with you one bit on the problems Sam and DJ had resulting from our O-line being well overmatched. I was just giving the Devil his due in the Diggs efforts that night. We move on and Diggs is now someone else's headache until we see them in the playoffs.

True, but it is very hard to lose a lot of fat in that short period of time without also losing some muscle mass. Even with extremely monitored exercise programs, the weight loss from caloric restriction hits the muscles early and hard. It balances out in the end, hopefully, but there are a lot of issues there wherein the player could get leaner but weaker on a temporary (hopefully) basis.

It's not the sexy answer, but it is probably the right answer. If the potential was really there, they'd have tested it by now.

Personally, on the Deonte side, I think they've been working him to lose the weight (reportedly he's gone down from 364 at the pro day to 330-ish currently). It's hard to lose that much weight that fast without losing some muscle. There were conditioning issues back then obviously, but there may be different ones now caused by that change. Still, some reps on special teams as a blocker could help Deonte get into fighting shape.

I just can't say how I'd rejigger the line right now, simply because I don't know what the coaches know at the moment. I do know what I've seen and it definitely needs to get better. And the coaches have seen that, too. There's no way they've missed it. But they haven't sent Christensen or Brady out there, no matter how much handwringing the fanbase has gone through. There must be a reason. And that might be that they are honestly sending their best five potential blockers out there, sad as that might be.

How'd they leave?

I have yet to figure out why there's a draft or even two different brands anyway. They just wrestle the same pairings over and over again then drag them out again for the PPV which usually ends up being a snoozefest. And it's not just Goldberg, but also Edge, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, the Undertaker and a bunch of guys who'd moved on, but are being lured back for big checks just to put butts in seats. The only thing about these guys are that they offer is the chance to create a belt change without losing heat for one of the current belt holders. Also, it's lazy writing/booking on the part as a whole.

Perhaps the exterior OL also.

This whole team seems to have gotten major gains from the team weights program.

No, there's a difference in being trucked by Zeke and being completely incompetent and unmotivated on the field. Carter isn't Luke (Lord, who is though?) but he sure isn't Whitehead. Carter's out there earning a paycheck and has been decent in previous games. This time, the Dallas run game just had us. Their strength overmatched our quickness. Could Carter be better, though? Yeah, he could, but he has also been doing a lot to make this defense one of the best until we got steamrollered on Sunday. Let's see if he can even it out against the Eagles. And back on subject, sure hope Shaq can make it back quickly. He has been setting the tone out there.

Yeah, WWE is losing this iteration of the wrestling wars. After watching the draft last night, it makes me wonder if Kevin Owens must have re-signed with WWE rather than taking off for AEW as had been rumored when his contract expires in Dec.

I think that was Irving Fryar. The cocaine thing seemed to touch off the whole drug testing thing in the NFL becoming a serious deal. There were actually like 6 Patriots in that game that were implicated I believe.

I would love to see one of those "distance travelled" things done on some of Fran's scrambles. 3,674 career rushing yards for Fran's career measured in the traditional way. 73,421 yards travelled, though.

Diggs had a great day and he's having a heck of a season. Can't take that away from him. Once he left the field, we marched at will. That's something Dallas should be looking at this week. The rest of their coverage is pretty suspect. 26-39, 66% completions, 301 yds, 2 TD, 2 INT for Darnold. Remove the Diggs stats from above: 24-32, 75%, 267, 2 TD and that's while under massive pressure. One guy did their heavy lifting.

CMC will be back soon. Henderson will have had more than a cup of coffee with the defensive coaches. YGM will be back in the rotation. We'll be a lot better coming out of this stretch than you think. 4 out of 5 isn't unlikely, and 5 out of 5 wins is certainly on the table. We're a good team, we're going to get better.

Grogan was the man for a little while there. Or specifically, the only guy that New England had. I was just a kid but danged if I can remember another Patriot besides him from back in the day, except for that guy who pretty much passed out from cocaine after catching the pass in their Super Bowl vs. the Bears.

^This, 100 percent. Take the third quarter away from both teams and it is an entirely different outcome. We're going to beat the bad teams handily this year. We're going to beat the decent teams this year. We're going to flat out challenge the good teams this year and we'll be killed by the best teams. We're not complete yet. But mark my words, no matter how good our opponent is on any given week, if they flinch or sleep on us, they'll get beat. Sometimes a team like we have can do some damage and win further into the post season than anyone has a reason to believe.

You and I only see what's on the field. We aren't privy to what is happening in practice, the film rooms or positional groups work. The coaches have all that information. Christensen and Brown are on the bench, or without a uniform, because they aren't ready yet. It is as simple as that. Rhule isn't just trying to lose games and keep some genius rookies hidden from the league's eyes. If either were good enough, ripe on the vine so to say, they'd have been out there.

Burns was neutralized by holding. Reddick took a beating and was neutralized. Shaq was completely neutralized by a combination of blocking, holding and having to assist in passing routes. Brown was just beat up like a young kid stuck between a group of grown men. Henderson has been here long enough to have a cup of coffee and learn a few teammates names. Bouye's first action of the season and who knows if he understands the defense yet. On the Cowboys side, Zeke Elliott woke up and was the bruising back he usually is. Pollard was running well, too. Dak didn't have the day the stats show, but he found the right man enough times to make it work. Their o-line, when they weren't getting away with holds, was just mauling our guys. And we can't frikkin' cover a skilled TE with this personnel. They had a better game plan than we did and they played hard. Refs were bad and that bounced in Dallas' favor. Still we kept answering the bell and wading back into the fray. Congrats to the winners and good job in defeat by our guys. The Eagles will be facing a wiser group of Panthers now, ones that have taken a hard punch and gotten back up.

Let's make it matter again.

First year in this offense for Darnold as well. That may be affecting processing speed a bit. Truth be told, however, the kid has the "it" factor, though. He's got a winner's mentality. Pair that up with a year in Brady's system and there will be some fireworks. Actually, it might come sooner than that. We're a team that's still learning its way, from QB on down. Yesterday's game might be just what the doctor ordered to bring things around. Bring on the Eagles, we'll see the Cowboys again someday.