Khyber53

So, let's hope we follow the trend with a bounce back game. Lord knows we need one bad about now.

His most important remark is that this is what we made in the offseason and now we're stuck with it. Four out of five are replacement grade and that's what we were able to scrap together or lure here. I think that he's exactly right. There aren't guys out there waiting to be picked up or traded for now, this is what we have. What's available isn't better. And our young guys, they aren't ready for primetime yet, one might be and one might not even be replacement grade. This team desperately needs to look at who is scouting and assessing OL prospects, fire the guy(s) and hire people with a better track record. Someone told us these guys could do the job and they were obviously wrong. Probably the same guys that have been doing it for near on a decade now. That kind of problem is how you end up with a team like the Lions or the Jags.

I didn't mention TMJ because he's doing his job and as a rookie, he's still learning. Honestly, he's above where he should be expected to be. I pointed to Zylstra and Erickson simply to point out that there are warm bodies waiting for an opportunity. Old Sideshow Rob needs to work harder and yell at coaches less. He can be replaced by two dudes who don't have much to show, understand? And Shi? Who knows what he can offer out there? Hope he does great but until he hits the field no one can really say. Getting higher marks than Robby right now wouldn't be that hard.

This won't play out pretty. Gruden was a big target and it feels like he was picked out and thrown to the lions because they knew it was there. And there's a real good chance that how he was later hired by the Raiders (with nothing but token minority interviews) led to these e-mails being dragged out of the troves received by Redskins management/ownership. If they open up the rest of those communiques Redskins ownership had with other owners, etc... there's going to be some very bad news. Gruden wasn't just one lone rogue in the chapel. I think someone spiked Gruden with this, perhaps someone still upset with his brother and his time with the Redskins. That person, though, has opened a Pandora's box in attempting to get one guy. And I think it behooves the NFL to go ahead and bring it out into daylight and fix it, rather than to go through an embarrassing attempt to publicly close that box.

I agree, but I see most of the evidence pointing to comic sales being fairly stable with some bumps coming from special covers/cardstock fronts in Superman/Action Comics. I don't think "woke" has anything to do with it and that might be attempting to put in a narrative that just doesn't exist. Truth be told, the big name comics roll along steadily in sales year after year, then publishers see a need to goose the sales a bit so a new writing/art team is brought in to jostle the story, reactivate some readers that were fading and generally spruce things up a bit. That's been happening since the days of the 1970s when this became a big business. Sometimes writers want to make a big splash and you end up with a Death of Superman event, or a new Spider-Man title, etc. Sometimes you get big events than span multiple comics (the preferred for maximum impact) like Crisis on Infinite Earths. All of these have been done to death, so they're just looking for something to do. Characters coming out has happened before (going way back to the early days of Alpha Flight) when it was a real shocker that got even a minor character a bunch of real news coverage. In today's market, getting Supes to come out is about the only way to use that angle and move the news coverage needle. And so, there it goes. It is what it is, it's all fiction and maybe it'll make for an interesting story. People get so worked up over fictional characters.

I remember the uproar when they killed Superman back in the 1990s. Made tons of money for them, brought the character back to some level of relevance and made headlines. It was a good business move and in the end that's really what matters to DC or any other publishing company. Get ears to hear the news and you'll get wallets to pay for the comics. Same thing just for a different audience. Shake it up and wake it up.

Well, even he said he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Would have hit Robby right in the hands had he come back just two to three feet. Robby was turned back into the throw, squared up and flat-footed ready to make the catch. He either didn't see the defender coming (but claims he knew he was going to do that) or he saw the guy and didn't make the move to contest it at all, even if to just break it up. If it's the second situation, then it's just another lack of effort play by Robby. If it's the first one, it's just a receiver saying it wasn't his fault, which is a pretty common thing for a receiver to say. Me, I'd like to say it's fat paycheck syndrome, but honestly, Robby completely disappeared after week 5 last season and that was before he got the big contract. And at that time it wasn't because he was completely blanketed in coverage, since both DJ and Samuel were lighting it up out there and drawing coverage as well. I hope Robby gets his act together and starts putting in the effort to fight for the ball and to actually get open once in a while... his speed and hands are legit weapons. Sadly, the knock on him has been that he fades fast and it seems that he's just about become a ghost here. He's having his statistically worst year ever when it comes to catch percentage (46%). We could be sending out Zylstra and Erickson for that kind of production. And when Shi comes back, could he actually push for Robby's spot in the starting lineup? Probably not with that making two rookies in the WR starting group, but who knows? That Temple pedigree can only protect lackluster performance for so long.

This is our get back on track game. Panthers 24 Vikings 17

If his effort in doing his assigned routes matched his rant, he'd be unbeatable. And if he knew the guy was sitting on the route, he could have made more effort to contest it. Instead he just stood there looking as surprised as anyone.

It's Henning, hands down. Sometimes the best choice isn't the shiniest one.

Here's the thing, bad teams at this point in the season may have already packed it in, but they don't want to get rid of good or decent O-linemen so that they have them in place for next season's rebuild. Really good teams at this point in the season aren't messing with anything and are keeping their back-up linemen on hand in case of injuries. Decent teams that are still figuring out if they have a shot or not aren't going to take a chance at losing an offensive linemen right now and mess up whatever chances they have of pulling out a decent season and potentially keeping coaching jobs. Literally no one is willing to give up on a lineman of the quality that would actually improve our play right now and probably not one before the trade deadline either. We're going to have to get better at coaching, scheming and developing. We might not want to say it, but the answer has to be on our roster because it's not out there in the wilderness.

Actually, he's quite good and was performing at their level this season. He would have been last season, too, but was having to cover for Whitehead's inability and with an incredibly young and understaffed defense. Shaq is one of the best LBs in the league right now.

Oh no, we've been polarized for a decade or so. We should probably be on medication for it.

Thanks OP for the hard work in going through all those plays. Sure hope someone on the coaching staff did at least that much work on dissecting the O-line. I really didn't want to see us loading up two rookies on the right hand side of our line, but I think Christensen and Brown are going to have to make a go of it. Hopefully they can learn as they go. It may have to be run right and roll out for passes to the left for a bit. Daley, there's a sunk cost thing here and it's time we realize that he's just not going to be a starter there. Bench and ST for him. Elflein comes back, put him at LG, or slide Erving in there. Paradis. Dang, I'm sorry but I don't see him either holding his own or helping out with protection calls at all. Might be time to shuffle him out and see if Tecklenburg can handle it. At this point, I'm about ready to say reserve our first three picks in the draft for O-linemen, with a center being top priority.

Let's just nickname them The Matadors.

I'd also have to pick more winners each week. That's where the crinkle in my game plan is.

I'm picking, but I don't seem to be really improving my score. And this is why Vegas and I won't ever be a thing.

There's always the chance that if Robby could just get open on the routes they've assigned him, he'd be given more and different routes to experiment with. The dude has been half-assing it since the middle of last season to the point where he not only rarely gets open, he doesn't even serve as a decoy. 2/30 on seven targets man. Eleven targets for 5/46 the week before. Two targets for one reception and eight yards against Houston. Three receptions on six targets for 38 yards against NO. One reception on three targets in his revenge game vs the Jets for his lone touchdown and 57 yards. Dude, catch more than half your targeted passes before ranting. Get open more to get more targets. The world ain't just go routes.

Most teams, good and bad, lose two in a row at least once a season. We're 3-2, along with two other teams and only five teams in the league have a better record than us right now. And there are 12 games to go. It's a long journey to the end of the season, and we haven't gone very far, let's not turn around and go back home yet. Enjoy the ride. We're a better team than we were and there's a lot yet to happen.

Yanno, when I thought it was just the one comment in one e-mail, I thought the guy deserved some chance at redemption. Now more of it is coming out, troves of stuff, and I think that I was judging the iceberg by just the tip of it. There's a lot of problems there, this wasn't a one off "wish I had just reread it before I sent it" situation. So, yeah, he deserved to be canned. He fell on his sword instead. In the end, I hope he does fix these problems in himself or at the very least someone else can learn from his massive, repeated mistakes.

Send them Sideshow Rob and a 5th.

Three things will determine this game: 1) Offensive line play for the Panthers. Can we provide even a modicum of protection, give Darnold just 1.5 seconds more to react? 2) Can our D-line get to Cousins early and often? 3) And probably most importantly, will CMC be available? If so, there are benefits he gives to #1 and #2 on the list. (He changes defensive attack schemes massively, and he can extend drives giving our D time to catch their breath). When we win, we dominate time of possession and the three things above are big, big parts of that.

I agree wholeheartedly.

This 100%. This isn't LSU picking on the Louisiana Tech Muddawgs. Joe Brady needs to remember to look at the part of the playbook that actually has directions for the linemen besides "Y'all stand there and block people." And, he needs to oversee development of linemen. It's not just that these guys have been bad, but that they often look like they have no idea how to handle even the simplest stunts or movements by the d-line. And let's look at the running game. That's some pretty straight-up college BS stuff there with run it up the middle, variants as to left or right of the center. Pitchouts, maybe an RPO once in a frikkin blue moon (Darnold was becoming a threat to run), how about a full back dash if you are trying to go up the middle? Chuba succeeded yesterday because of will over planning. How about a rolling pocket? How about more bootlegs (Darnold was safest during a naked bootleg yesterday of all things)? Quicker developing routes? Benching Anderson for someone who will try to get open? How about just sending Anderson on go route after go route until he tires out some DBs? Anything. Please.