Khyber53

Just being friendly. We've got to keep being friendly.

Let's see. We might be surprised. We certainly won't be surprised with Sherman's performance at this stage.

A running back can be injured on any play. Simple as that. It can be the first touch of the ball they have (Biakabutuka anyone), or it can be that he never misses games like Jim Brown (he still got hurt, though). In the NFL, that's true for any player -- some have been injured in practice or on the sidelines doing nothing and welp, that's the career. All NFL players wear down over their careers. It's not the coaches faults, it's not the players, it's just the nature of a competitive full-contact game. Even frikkin kickers generally see their careers end from one injury or another. So, let's get some perspective. The dude pulled a hammy. It's not the end of the world. It will get better, most likely sooner than later. He'll get back into the lineup and we'll see him out there on 90% of the offensive snaps. And we'll all cheer. No one is going to keep a healthy CMC on the bench and off the field. You don't try to save up star players like they have a limited number of charges before they are useless. You keep running them until they can't answer the bell. Then you thank them, get the next young guy and begin the wait for the HoF committee to call or not call. That's the game we watch and cheer for. And that's the fame that goes with the fortune.

I'm not sure if this team needs Sherman. There's a lot of baggage that comes with him on the good days and I'm not so sure there's not going to be some disciplinary stuff coming down the road based on his mental breakdown/domestic violence issue this summer. Right now, our long term is better served by sticking with who we have, moving guys up and putting some younger players on the practice squad to fill spots that open up. We're building depth every day and this continues that process. This is a low drama, high potential, developing professionalism type of team. That is currently undefeated. No reason to mess with that. Plus, in this pass happy NFL, if you are a name CB/S and you aren't on a team right now with the high demand and larger rosters, then it's time to hang up the cleats. Literally.

Honestly, I've thought Ian Thomas was a lost cause here for years. I may be wrong now, though. He's contributing, particularly on blocking and he's been out there making the efforts in the passing game. He's not tearing up the league, but he's doing his part. And with the number of two TE sets we've been running, he's obviously got a place in the team's plans. He's not been doing anything spectacular, but something tells me there's going to be a spot he'll be utilized beyond what we're thinking. Now Dan Arnold... he's not living up to the hype yet, but we've only had three games. Any time now, any time...

We're gonna be fine. No need to bring anyone in except for maybe an RB for the practice squad just in case. Won't get anywhere chasing yesterday's stars.

He's getting better with experience. The guy has got the magical playbook, but he's still learning how and when to use it. There are going to be some mistakes along the way, or more of them, but you can just see that the foundation is there. Sending CMC up the middle four plays in a row inside the 5 just wasn't working and it seemed that he wasn't ready to give up the concept yet. The short-term injury to CMC should force him to open up the book a bit more (a la the Tremble end around).

Anything to beat the Cowboys.

You could make an easier case that years of running and making quick cuts and stops in cleats possibly created a bunch of microfractures in Jaycee's feet. It was just a matter of time before these took enough stress to give out. It's not exciting but it happens to a lot of top tier athletes. It even hit Michael Jordan and may have led to the end of his career (and probably Greg Olsen's too). Hopefully Horn will heal quickly and completely. On CMC, you've got a case where a guy's work out gains have been massive in recent years and even though he is as physically fit as you can imagine a human to be, the muscles might have exceeded the tendon loads. Basically, the guy fell victim to his own swoleness. Luckily, it doesn't seem that severe right now, so some rest and rehab should get him back out there. A guy CMC's size wasn't built to have Earl Campbell thighs. And yet there he was, killing it.

Never hurts to have more depth. Even if they are on the extended practice squad, our offensive plans rely heavily on running backs.

It's never smart to start yelling about conspiracies and whatnot. Really we should all know that after the last couple of years. Now incompetency, there's a much more believable answer for the referee work last night. Flat out missed call after call to the point that they quit asking Mike Pereira what his opinion of each call was. That crew was blowing calls left and right. And the calls did seem to favor Houston greatly, making me think there was some accidental bias. Badly called game, through and through.

We're going to be fine. We're three wins ahead of where we were when we started the season. For the moment, no one else is in the league. (That'll probably change Sunday, but we're still in the top of the heap). It's a long season ahead and we have nine days until our next match-up with the Cowboys. They're over-rated and who knows if they'll fall apart this Sunday. We've got an easy schedule ahead and our injured guys are coming back. We're going to be fine, maybe even better. Just let it all play out.

Yeah, it works like that. And we get two chances at the end of the season to give them a reason to put us over Brady. Until then, let's just stay under the radar.

We have a lot of good, good players on the field. And Sam Darnold is looking the part of a top class point guard. He knows who has the hot hand, he keeps things moving and he's instilling confidence in those around him. Dang, Sam, never thought you'd work out like this, but man keep going!

This is one of those turning point games. And you could see it when he got pushed, pulled and squished into the endzone. That wide-eyed look Darnold had as he went through the compactor and came out the winner and alive.

I said before the season began that Robby faded fast last year and kinda quit trying. The idea that he could have big check-itis isn't that hard to rationalize. But, let's give it a couple more weeks. Teams will be rolling their coverage to DJ with CMC out, so Robby may find him some room. That being said, we've had some big plays run through Tremble, Zylstra and Erickson (!?!?!?!) the last couple of games, so there may be some motivation/separation problems Robby is having that the coaches noticed.

Something like this and the fact that it was a non-contact injury makes me wonder if there weren't some tiny microfractures picked up over years of playing before.

That's just what I was thinking. Good running backs tend to be that way. Still needs some work on helping in pass protection, but rarely do RBs come into the NFL with that high on their skill set.

I'm with you. The pass rush and sacks are getting all of the attention but we've been completely shutting down run games.

Everything is going to be fine. Breathe. CMC's injury could possibly be short term. And this is a very long season, there's time for him to heal and come back. And Jaycee, there's even time for him. It's early, he can be back potentially and be fully rested and coached up for that murderer's row they set up for us in the final four games. We're going to be okay. We're going to be okay.

This, as much as anything, is what will get you long-term employment as a QB in the NFL, either as a starter or back up. Stanford QBs in the NFL tend to be tougher than expected with good processor speeds.

I honestly really didn't know him from Adam when we snagged him. Was like, yadda yadda yadda, another vet that's gonna Gerald McCoy himself to some fat paychecks and ride off into the sunset after not even getting his uniform dirty. Well, I sure was wrong about that. Amazing pick-up for the offseason and amazing impact on the field. The guy apparently was just what we were needing. Wow!

I was going to braise some beef short ribs, but man it is such a pretty day, I think it's going to be burgers and dogs on the grill. Hooray for autumn!!!

28-14 Panthers. 2 TD CMC, 1 Anderson, 1 Darnold rushing. Davis Mills actually comes out and performs well for Houston, staying calm even under extreme pressure and makes good use of the veteran resources around him.

I read that one, too. It's college data, though, and that can be pretty skewed depending on the teams used. That 36% conversion rate for 3rd and 7/8 just seems really high compared to the pro game. Somewhere out there, someone's gotta have that data, though.