lightsout

Did NOT see that coming...

There is one that a certain group of fans around section 550 do, but I'm never sure really what it is. It's a first down thing.

This thread needs to be circulated to everybody, everywhere. Think about it. These guys make millions. They work REALLY hard. They put in a LOT of hours to be masters at their craft. And sure, their craft is a game, but it's a game that absolutely drains them physically, mentally, and emotionally. It's a job. It's a career. Something all contributing members of society have. Something we can all relate to, in that basic way. So many of us get caught up in our careers. Some of us don't have families of our own, some do. These are guys that make family time, even after working. Before they take off the uniform. Before they get home and shower. They're engaged with children. Their own as well as other parents' kids. I know a lot of parents who act like it's some requirement to get home, shower, eat, and unwind before they can have family time. Don't let the important moments in a child's life be thrown aside because of your own life. Beautiful photos.

I generally only huddle at work.

I played sports starting at 5 years old. I didn't get a participation trophy until middle school. I hated it. My mom still has all my trophies in a box somewhere, I'm sure, but I know that that one participation trophy isn't in there. It got chucked as soon as I left the banquet. We won 2 games all year. I'm a firm believer in teaching the importance of losing. Sure, don't make them feel like their effort is for nothing whenever they lose, but emphasize the importance of overcoming adversity, of bouncing back, of training harder, of maintaining better focus, etc. And, a tactic that always resonated with me (particularly in high school, as my high school football coach was amazing), be the first person you place blame on. Don't guilt the kids with it, but say something to the effect of "well, guys, we gotta do better. I didn't do enough to prepare you before this game, and I'm going to do better with that. I'm going to do my best to put you in a position to win." Leading by example. Some kids won't get it, but some will. Seeing their adult leader admitting their failure, even if they didn't, will fuel certain kids to strive for success just a bit harder on top of making them look at themselves and their own failures and accepting them. This is important for adult life, as most of us should know by now. Subtlety is the key to teaching sometimes. I say trophies are stupid outside of the big prize, like a championship or superlative trophy. I DO think something should be done for participating. Have a big pizza party with games and stuff. Do something that isn't about the competition, but the fraternity for being an athlete. Reward the participation with something like that.

Let's look at just Brandon LaFell, as an isolated example. His rookie season, he looked really, really bad. Didn't break 500 yards receiving, only 1 TD. Was expected to make much more of an impact than he did. Cam is drafted the next year...and he suddenly becomes a pretty good option. 200 more yards than his rookie season, 3 times as many plays of 20+ yards, and a few TDs. He played fewer games the following year...had better numbers. Comparatively, he had more yards last year with NE...but his avg per catch was actually no better than the last season here with us. In all actuality, he really wasn't that much more productive in NE. In a system with arguably the greatest QB of our generation. He was targeted more in NE. That's it. He is not that great. Cam made him look like a solid enough receiver that NE looked at him and said "we want him". He got more targets thrown at him, but he was no more consistent or productive than he ever was here.

So what you're saying is Cam makes his guys look good enough for them to go get signed with good teams (Smith, Lafell), while receivers from Atlanta aren't desired by good teams and struggle with bad teams? Good talk. Also don't ignore that Olsen only looked "good" in Chicago. He is at least a top 3 TE in most people's minds since he has come to play with Cam. Cam makes receivers...no, the whole team better. His teammates have said as much (Olsen I believe directly stated something to the effect of "Cam makes us all better. He's so gutsy and so motivated, even when things are bad. He lifts us up and makes plays for us when we let him down" (not directly quoting). So...stfu.

Cam made Lafell look good enough to get him flat-out paid (even though Lafell dropped more than a few passes that were on the money and would have been BIG plays). Cam made Ginn look good enough to get him signed elsewhere when formerly, Ginn looked mediocre at best. Cam made Corey Brown look like a pretty damn good receiver a few times last season...and it's not like Brown was a high draft pick or anything.... Cam made Brenton Bersin look competent as well...same story as Brown. Cam was on the money enough with Smitty when he was here, but Smitty in his last season here looked like he had lost his passion and concentration. Dropping passes, soft running some routes, not able to make the big play as often. His issues with the FO here lead to him tearing it up last season in Baltimore. Cam made Kelvin look like he's just a step away from being a top 10 receiver in the league, when most assumed he would struggle coming into the league. Cam has reinvigorated Olsen's career here. So when you tell me that Ryan elevates his guys, presumably implying that Cam doesn't, I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.

When your top 2 targets go down, next man up will put up numbers just because he's the next best. If he doesn't put up numbers, then it's time to reevaluate that guy. Cam threw 2/3's of his yardage to his TE and a rookie WR because they were the only consistently good options he had. And even then, Kelvin Benjamin dropped a few TD passes. While missing games and then playing injured for the entire season. Culminating in Atlanta being curb stomped by Cam to end the season.

I remember when I was an angry 15 year old who thought cussing every 4th word made me cool.

The Washington Disappointments. It embodies Washington D.C. sports completely. The Redskins have a strong fanbase that gets let down plenty, the Nats at one point swore they had the best pitcher in the game, and he hasn't helped them get over the hump much, and the Caps always find a way to come up just short of being an actual contender for a Stanley Cup.

Cam when he has time and a somewhat open receiver is a thing of beauty 85% of the time I'd say. As good as anybody in the league. A lot of people look at stuff like completion percentage and don't take into account not only drops, but pressure/hit while throwing, receiver not making a great play, etc. If you think guys with great completion percentage/better than Cam's percentage got there without receivers pulling down enough balls they had no business catching and having better protection than Cam, then I can safely say that your opinion doesn't matter because you don't understand what all goes into a QB "looking" good on paper. I'd take Cam over any QB in the league and that's not just my homerism talking. He's not the best passer in the league, but I'd say he's unquestionably the most versatile and dangerous when the team around him does their respective jobs. Give the guy a good OL and hope that Funchess and Brown both emerge big so he has 3 solid receivers to go alongside Olsen....Cam is breaking at least one record this season. In some way.

Our BIGGEST weakness all of last year, the thing that truly held us back, was shooting. We needed a pure shooter. We needed somebody who could go out and put up 25+ with ease, particularly with perimeter shots. What do we do? Dump our project big man in Vonleh and pick up a new project big man. And one who doesn't want us. While there were GREAT shooters in front of us. Seriously?

​Sweet. I'm going to be on after the gym and dinner. I'll add you, just hit me up if you want to run PoE or even just a strike playlist or crucible.

​ I traded a couple games in and picked Destiny back up. Just picked up my level 24 warlock from September, and I had already purchased the season pass back then as well, so I had two expansions to play with. Still wrapping up Crota (working on that damn urn) and I've already beat HoW. Love some of the weapons I got in such a short time. Took me a month to get decent gear back in the beginning. Took me a week to work up from level 24 to 29. I'm about 500 vanguard rep from level 2, which means my blue armor is about to get swapped for legendaries, which makes me happy. Got Obsidian Mind off of Xur this past weekend, so that is nice. Loving everything about the game again. Maybe I just bailed too soon on the game at the end of last year. I'm PS4 too, so most of you I can't even play with. :/

​ No no, Cam bought a stolen laptop. Possession of stolen property =/= larceny. Rape and shoplifting on Winston's part is worse I'd say. Withstanding those two things, he's not a Panther, so screw him. Hope he chokes on crab legs next time he's on a "date".

Benjifun

Just saw it. Loved it. Great action, good pacing, great humor, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. The Infinity Wars and Civil War are the big Marvel arcs. This movie just pushes it more towards that and sets the stage a bit. It's a great movie, IMO. Sure, "character development" can be griped about, but I'm not sure how much. The main Avengers group has been established. All other characters are secondary and just not that important to get origin stories. They're there to add more good guys and up the scale of the action, as well as contributing a bit to the dynamic of the whole group in dialogue and whatnot. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were developed enough. You got the abbreviated origin story and you saw their motives pretty clearly. You're not as attached to them as the others, sure, but with this being a "group" movie, the attachment to "The Avengers" is what is important, not the individual characters necessarily. I've heard people gripe about The Vision, but I really don't see why outside of them not understanding the point of his character even existing. His purpose to this movie directly is to add another level for Infinity Wars and to provide the "glue" that kept the group together as it started splitting at the seams, as well as providing another hero. Interesting dynamic once he introduced himself to the team. The Avengers sort of took the place of the people of Earth, and the Vision became the Avengers. Cap asking "are you with us?" made that point clear. Solid movie all around. Winter Soldier set a high bar, and to me, it wasn't as good a movie, but it was equally enjoyable.

But we could always trade a player, 5th, and 7th to somebody in the late third who doesn't see anybody they like. Again, long shot, and I don't necessarily believe it's something we'll do, but it's just a possibility. Even if we don't, we've had two solid picks. I'm not mad at all.

Devin Funchess is faster than his 40 time indicates. His game speed is impressive for his size, really. Guy runs good routes, from all I've seen. Adjusts to the ball well. Catches the ball well in traffic. Is somewhat elusive, for his size. And then there is the fact of his size. Another 6'5" option for Cam. Philly and Ginn can take the top off the defense. Kelvin and Funchess can still get open deep with good route running and play design and offensive alignment. How can anybody be mad about the pick? Gettleman made an aggressive move trading our third pick, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us trade back up into the third. Maybe late third, but it's still possible. Relax, people.

@ JAC - W vs HOU - W vs NO - W @ TB - W BYE @ SEA - L vs PHI - W vs IND - W vs GB - W @ TEN - W vs WAS - W @ DAL - L @ NO - W vs ATL - W @ NYG - L @ ATL - W vs TB - W 13-3. I think there are some toss ups. Namely, Seattle, Green Bay, and Dallas. Those could go either way in my mind. The rest should be wins. I think we are tired against NY and they beat us handily though. Gives us the chip on our shoulder to demolish Atlanta in their dome again and embarrass TB, as usual.

To anybody saying "Shula can't be too bad, we had two 1,000 yard receivers". One is one of the best receiving TEs in the league. And, the only constant target Cam has had every seasons since he was drafted. He's expected to get damn near 1,000 every year. And we utilize the TE a lot, by design. The other is a good rookie. OK, I should just be happy, I know, but a LOT of rookies come on strong their first year, put up numbers...and now teams know what to expect. KB could have had closer to 1300 yards and a few more TDs had he not dropped so many, but my point still stands. He has a year of game film going against him now. Teams will start adjusting coverage more, even more than they did already. If he's as great as we all hope he is, he'll at least be as productive next season. However, a lesser receiver doesn't get the stats he got last season in this system. Just doesn't happen. KB MADE a lot of plays possible just by being freakishly large and having the ability to make those big time catches. Not every receiver has that. Yes, Cam DOES spread the ball around a lot. He doesn't just lock in on one or two guys and feed them the ball all game. But we still shouldn't have 2/3 of our receiving numbers coming from 2 guys alone. We need one, maybe two other guys who can take the load off of them, while not stealing their numbers completely. Our offensive system does NOT get guys open. Every QB misses open receivers from time to time. You can't always say "Cam isn't finding the open guy". Most people here (I think) understand that fact and know that when Cam holds the ball forever, more times than not, it's because nobody is open and he's just waiting for somebody to get open. Or waiting on those constant deep ass routes to develop enough to risk the throw if he has to. Look at Seattle. Look at Denver. Look at NE. Look at NO. All of these systems are DESIGNED to get guys open. Specifically one. And that design expands to include 2nd and 3rd options, depending on the coverage, that WILL be open or open enough to try a throw and see what happens if they try to take away the primary receiver. We have some plays like that...but they're not the norm. Shula has terrible play design, terrible vision, terrible situational awareness, and terrible foresight in his play-calling. This has been demonstrated countless times. Sure, he has a good series or two in some games....but that doesn't make up for the, on average, 6 or so terrible drives he calls in those same games. And a lot of times, even the bad drives can be salvaged with just a LITTLE awareness of situation. 3rd and 2? fug it, everybody go vertical. If this happened rarely, I wouldn't be too mad. This happens AT LEAST once every. Single. Game. Shula is our hindrance. No great FA offensive player is going to want to come here to be placed in a system where they're not going to have plays designed to get them open. Or placed in a system where they're going to do the exact opposite of what successful offenses do. We'll be mediocre-to-good next season, largely in part to the defense and Cam being incredible (and hopefully a stout running game), and Shula will have his job saved, again, until somebody in the organization wakes up and realizes how truly deadly we could be with a competent OC.

I think Cook is going to be looking to get a big number, but if push comes to shove, I don't see Cam being the type to let his agent screw him or the team over here. Cam will take a lower number if he has to for the sake of the team. Just a gut feeling.

Nobody can say you skipped leg day by the end of this.