Captroop

Not getting my hopes up. But we have an outside shot at the second wildcard spot. Especially if we own a good Divisional record.

Oh man, I love the shot of that empty stadium.

This defense is really good. They looked bad the last few weeks just because they had so much time on the field with the offense being so incompetent. When rested, this is champion quality D. The offense has to catch up before we're a playoff contender.

I can't tell if he's just automatic so I never worry when he is called to make a long kick...or if my expectations are just so low that I'm not emotionally invested in the outcome. In either case, really happy with Zane.

Ohhhh! I totally forgot about that. That Nationals were hot garbage. So I lost interest.

Is Atlanta playing in front of an empty stadium? Where's the crowd noise?

This. Not so much "ceremonial" as Hollywood accounting shenanigans. You see this a lot in low budget/indie movies with A-list talent. Basically, films that don't have a large above the line budget can't pay their talent up front, so they give them producer credits, so they can get more money on the back end once the film is released.

Sure. Stick a fragile QB behind THIS line!

I don't think you can count on a "low scoring game" in today's NFL, so that's not a standard any D should be held to in order to be considered elite. I can't think of another squad that could go out and give that much effort when they're on the field for 35 minutes, and just have time to get a breather while the offense goes 3-and-out. His constant attention to and scrutiny of the defense in these pressers is actually pretty telling. It shows that's what he actually cares about, i.e. it's the unit he's actually planning to build around next year. This offense, this scheme, this coordinator, and these personnel are largely going to be swapped out this off-season and he knows it. So what Rhule cares about for the rest of the season is making sure the defense is playoff caliber, so he can focus all his attention to the offense next year.

Cam is done. And I love Cam. If he had anything left, he'd be on a team right now. Why isn't Cam starting instead of Darnold? I don't know. Ask 31 other teams why Cam isn't starting over their QB. And yes, we did him dirty. But not 2 years ago. We did him dirty his entire career by NEVER investing in protecting him. He did him dirty by taking the most dynamic receiver in the franchise's history away from him. We did him dirty by using him up and spitting him out. But that's what he is. Used up. And anyone who thinks he'd be doing better behind THIS line than Teddy or Sam, I counter that I doubt he'd even playing right now. He'd be on the IR at this point.

The free agent QB market was dildos. The QB that everyone was saying we should have drafted is dildos. So what do you propose could have been done better, armchair GM with the benefit of hindsight? It's the same thing with the OL conversation. The free agent offensive lineman were dildos. They're not doing any better. You can't just manifest players because you want them. They have to be available. Or you have to develop them. Or in the case of Stafford, there has to be enough talent in place for them to WANT to play here. And there just isn't. And that's a problem Rhule inherited from the previous 2 GMs, not one of his own doing. It's going to take time considering we're starting the QB and OL pipeline from scratch. And WTF are you talking about with our rookie class. Horn was a stud before his injury and will be a stud. Brady looks promising at LT. Tremble is going to be our starting TE for a decade. And the rest could all emerge as starters. This is still one of the best draft classes in recent memory in terms of short and long term contribution.

I haven't. We don't have the pieces to win. And I'd rather give him time to build a program than start ANOTHER rebuild after 2 years. People need more patience. I remember a quote from John Fox from the Super Bowl season documentary. He was talking to a ref on the sideline and the ref was complimenting the fact that the team had a running game that year. Fox said they added running backs and "upgraded the whole line." The ref added that the defense still looked great. Fox said, "Well we addressed that last year, and this year in the off-season we addressed the offense...Hey, it doesn't happen overnight." And I think that's where we are. We're a season away. We have the punishing defense. We need to "upgrade the line" and need an off-season to "address the offense." Maybe Sam is just our Rodney Peete. We just need to find our Jake in the off-season as well. Point is, we're building something. And I'm not nearly bearish on Rhule yet.

Man we're we spoiled with Cam. This is probably the quality of talent we should expect for a small market team.

I'm getting more enjoyment watching a squirrel in an aggressive standoff with a bluejay on my fence.

Man, I'm on my patio, sipping a pumpkin beer, watching the game on my tablet. The weather is crisp, but not quite hoodie weather yet. The fire pit is crackling. And you know what? I'm so friggin glad I didn't make plans to go watch this game anywhere. And I've got that warm, comfortable feeling of knowing that I no longer need to plan around watching the games the rest of the season. I can check the scores while I'm out or I can have the game on in the background. But I'm done setting aside time for this product.

I'm on the opposite side. Win or lose, I just want to be ENTERTAINED! This is how I'm spending a big part of a beautiful Sunday. And this poo is BORING!

Ring. Arlo. Blink. There's lots of DIY security systems on the market these days that are very affordable. We use one and it's great for peace of mind. I get an alert on my phone in real time anytime there's movement detected around my house and I can check it out with a live camera. All clips are recorded and automatically backed up to the cloud, so if I ever see something suspicious later when I'm viewing the recordings, I can download it and share it (hasn't happened yet, except to document the neighborhood strays). And best of all, the cameras have on-board speakers, so even when I was in Vegas, I was able to harass my wife while she was gardening 2,000 miles away. I don't know why anyone would use a conventional security system anymore. Nothing like getting home from stressful travel and having to sprint to the keypad to enter my code so the cops don't show up.

Sam looks bad because the offensive line is historically bad. Quality quarterbacks don't want to play here because the offensive line is historically bad. It's almost like there's a single, precursor issue we need to resolve if we want to see improved quarterback play.

I predict this is a get right game for us. And Philly fought Tampa Bay til the last so maybe they're not the push overs everyone thought they were. We've got our offensive line starters back. They're not great, but they're not the poo show we saw last Sunday. They don't have to be great. They just need to be mediocre to win. And we've got 3 wins to prove it. The offensive finding their rhythm and sustaining drives means our defense won't be gassed, and I bet they make Cousins' day miserable. I believe we win this on Panthers 27 Vikings 13

That makes sense. He was a dependably deep punter earlier in the season but last week, he just looked like he was playing hurt. Hope he heals up.

You might say it...Jalen Hurts? I'll see myself out.

This. And this cannot be overstated. I would say one of the silver linings in the loss is Chuba coming in and shining should give the coaching staff the confidence that we can effectively spell McCaffrey...but I said that last year when Mike Davis was doing well. And they didn't learn poo. I'm so conflicted on CMC. It's great that we have one of the best players in the league. But I don't want to get too excited about him. Because I know we're gonna grind him down into a fine powder and then watch blow him away in a cloud of dust like the end of The Last Crusade. He's that shiny new toy that you never wanted to play with when you were a kid, because you knew if you broke it, you'd never get another one. Then your stupid fugging cousin came over and started smashing it into the floor.

We played a horrible looking game yesterday. I've never had my ass fall asleep on my own couch watching a game before. BUT I think yesterday's loss was not owing to the team's overall weakness, but due to a convergence of hobbling factors, that in aggregate lost us the game. And while I've got my finger resting weightlessly on the panic button, I do want to point out that if any single one of the following were true yesterday, we would have walked away with the ugly W: CMC plays: I think this really goes without saying. No disrespect to Chuba, who put together an amazing game as a rookie starter. But when you're playing without the best running back in the league, you're already at a disadvantage. And in a game where the offensive line was struggling, having a safety valve who also happens to be your most potent offensive weapon would have been a game-changer. We started out intended offensive line: I know, our starters on the O-Line are mediocre, but the protection yesterday didn't even rise to the level of mediocre. You had guys shifting positions, you started a rookie, and our guards were...woof. If we had even mediocre play from our line, I think Sam makes enough plays, or rather avoids enough mistakes to win. Charlton punted adequately: I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but was Charlton playing injured? He looked like he pulled a hamstring right before the game. His punts were short, and he was so unreliable we actually called a bonkers pooch punt play that horrendously backfired. I also wonder if he was playing at 100% if he would have gotten the blocked punt off fast enough. As a result we lost the field position game, and made it that much harder for our gassed defense to secure the W. If Charlton plays up to his usual ability, I think we get the W. The good news, if there's any to be had, is that these factors are either not permanent, or were inevitable. We're getting CMC back. Charlton's bad day, I'm chalking up to being anomalous. And our O-Line, we've all known we needed to shuffle the line to get our rookies on the field and try the configurations that are going to work in the long term. And the first few starts were going to be ugly. So might as well get them on the field now, and get this line experience so we can hopefully compete down the stretch this season, or set ourselves up for next year.

It's hard to blame Darnold for looking like he did when he played for the Jets when you put him behind a line that's as bad or worse than what he had in New York. We already know how he looks as a Jet. The idea was to evaluate him as a Panther. I'd like to see that too.

Yeah, I think we have to accept the fact that this team ain't going anywhere. The simple fact is we do not have a professional grade offensive line (God I get tired of saying that year after year. Fug you Gettleman). And until we do, there's no amount of scheming we can do to overcome it. And the fact is, there's nothing we can do midseason. No one is trading a quality offensive lineman, and there are no hidden gems sitting in FA. It won't be addressed til the off-season. So let the rookies take their lumps now, and see if any of them can hang in the pro game. I think Sam can be our starter, but not when he's getting sacked 4 times a day and his line is putting him in first and long every digging drive.