Khyber53

Al Davis used to say, "Just win, baby!" Do that and the critics quieten down quite a bit and casual fans cheer instead of boo.

Dude is a lockerroom cancer. Teams literally pay him to go elsewhere. NYG did it. Cleveland now doing it. Let's let him just pass by in the night.

Look, I've been the optimist around here for years and years. Just, right now, I'm not feeling it. I just can't believe in the guy, the process and what he's building. There are tons of excuses for why it's not working out, but we're pretty much down to a bare cupboard here. We are honestly looking at sending in a former Temple/semi-pro QB to stand up to a Bill Belichick team. Our starter would make a passable emergency second string QB and Walker couldn't walk on and win a jersey at many Division III college teams. We have no offensive line, just four turnstiles and a hard corner to turn on the right side. We picked up two veteran starters and drafted two folks they called "great prospects" and have actually managed to post a different lineup every damned week for the o-line. None of the eight iterations have worked. At all. Our lead TE this year was the third string TE here for the rest of his tenure in a Panther uniform -- he got the starting gig not because he earned it but because he was the last one of the experienced guys left. We've got a rookie with some promise at TE2 but they don't seem to use him as much as you'd think. Our WRs have the dropsies. Not just one of them, but all of them. Every single one of them. Our star RB/WR pulled a hammy and he's been harder for the coach to get a date with than Katy Perry. We do have a pretty good rookie RB2, but our OC only calls running plays in protest or when the HC threatens to take away his WiFi privileges. Our defense is mighty stout, as long as we have Shaq Thompson out there. If he's not there, then opponents RBs literally run over us again and again. We have 74 DBs on the team. We're on our third kicker since the start of training camp and our third punter. We have one guy on Special Teams that seems to understand the game of football and it's not the ST coach. On the management front, our GM is "in on every deal" but somehow can't manage to actually secure one for positions of need. He will trade away a TE for a DB who may or may not like football anymore, and draft picks for guys who are immediately on the IR. He saw a decent guard from KC head to the Jets and didn't even raise a finger to get him. QB concussed and unable to play with no one to step in? No trades, no pickups of vets sitting at home on their couch... not even a Vinnie Testaverde call. Yeah, it was just a press conference. It reminded me of one held by Dan Quayle. Just a guy who seems to be in over his head and repeating the mantra of how cool it is to be here and how he gets to see some of the great coaches he admires each week. I just can't believe in him anymore.

I have no confidence in Walker, I've seen no reason to. He played the Lions last year and that was the equivalent of playing the pre-Bobby Bouchet Muddogs. In relief of Darnold this year, he looked like we'd sent our punter out there as an emergency QB. Geez, this is the most hopeless, snakebit .500 team in the history of the league. Makes you wonder who it was that pissed off an old gypsy lady to get us cursed like this.

Ever just feel that Rhule's up there knowing that he is out of his league, doesn't know how to solve his problem, and the boat he's on just keeps heading toward the waterfall? I hope I'm wrong, but none of the signs are pointing to this guy turning the franchise around. Only one of our next five opponents has a winning record (New England is at .500 like us). I'm not sure if we lose three of those games that Rhule won't be shown the door, no matter his contract. Maybe if we just lose two of them. It's going to be near impossible for a rookie coach with a broken team to beat Belichick. We won't beat Arizona unless their team bus gets lost on the way to the stadium. Washington, Miami and Atlanta? Wouldn't want to lose to any of them, but any of them could be the Giants in disguise.

He looked pretty good to me and he can obviously hold for Gonzalez well. Honestly, though, I can no longer understand all the IR rules, much less understand how teams are manipulating them.

Such a senseless tragedy. And on the NFL part of this -- who cares, the loss of an innocent life is worth more than this game.

You can tell when a play breaks down, right?

It's hard to tell from looking at Sam, though. He has that look of desperation and Oh poo! in his eyes each time. Of course, that's going to be the look of any QB behind our line and with the plays we call.

I wanted to argue, but you're probably right. OT is still a big need for us.

He could be starting sooner than that if traded. Setting the NFC on fire, probably not. Might make the Redskins competitive (sorry still calling them that until they finally get a real name).

Sadly, that did sink in and as I was looking over trade rumors there was one floated out there that the Broncos might be willing to trade Teddy. A cold chill went up my spine as I considered that we could snag him. Brrrrr

You have absolutely no proof of that.

See above, not sure we've got a good coach or OC or Oline coach or QB coach. Trainer, WRs coach, quality control coach, et al questionable as well.

Sadly, we've still no real proof that Darnold has had a good coach in the NFL yet. His OC hasn't done him any favors, his offensive line coach hasn't done him any favors, and apparently his QB coach eats jelly donuts and makes him watch Ghostbusters II for practice. I mean, there's a good chance Darnold is toast for his career after this, but I'm not sure Joe Montana could have thrived here at this point in time.

Usually I argue with you, but I think Trubisky has a shot in the right system. Not sure Chicago's system works anywhere.

Our most effective play in the red zone this year seems to have been the Sam Darnold, "fug it, nobody is open I'm just gonna run it in myself" play. In other words, NOT doing the play Brady has called. Let that marinate for a bit. Sam Darnold got five touchdowns in four weeks this way. Seems that Teddy had to forget the play and just run it in a few times himself, too last year. Our OC just isn't ready for prime time. He may have saved his job with the team getting a win last week.

Mac Jones will probably be the toughest rookie QB we'll face this year. Heck, he's been steady for Belichick and he doesn't seem like he's struggling to make the move to pro competition. And that's the scary thing. The rest of the Patriots team seems to be devoid of giant name players but they are still well built, under control and able to handle their jobs. Not a lot of flash, but not a lot of mistakes or weaknesses to exploit. Our best shot, regardless of our QB, is to make this a run heavy affair again and keep their offense on the bench. They've got a really good pass defense and probably the best way to disable that is to not throw very much at all. Let's face it, though, as of today, we're really not sure who we will have for personnel at all for this game.

They do, they do, but right now a lot of teams in the NFC look like legit contenders (GB, Tampa, Arizona, Dallas). The way injuries are hitting the league right now, any one of those teams could falter before the playoffs. This is a weird, weird year.

How about we get to like week 14 before we hand out crowns. We were giving the team crowns after week three...

She just happened to be wearing a big piece of nipple jewelry under her shirt that night. Yeah, an accident.

Sometimes you've just got to wear the clothes that fit ya.

I can see where you're coming from, but I think he's got a shot at it. Luvu might even get a shot at it. Still, Shaq runs that defense.

Trade for Garoppolo, have a steady player at QB for two years of contract (well what's left of this and next) with Darnold sitting on the bench and competing in training camp. Use the two years to draft and build our offensive line and put our signing efforts into retaining Burns, Reddick and DJ. Perhaps even go all in on Oline in the draft. Field worldbreaker team.

This is a season that is being greatly defined by injuries. Our last four games were definitely defined by injuries. New Orleans just took a big hit. The same could happen to any of the front runners. We are, crazily, just at the halfway-ish spot in the season, with a lot of football left to play. A couple of injuries here and there for our opponents could see some weird things happen in the play offs. Once there, well, anything can happen. Of course, our concussed QB puts a difficult wrinkle into our plans...