Pariah Posted November 20, 2023 Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 Mother of Hades. Don't get me wrong, I'll take the win. But when you have to kick four or five field goals every week to stay in the game, you're living on borrowed time. Next week: a Cleveland Browns team who beat Pittsburgh today. How they did it,.I have no clue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 When you're 2 of 12 on 3rd down, you're living on borrowed time. When you only manage 13 first downs, you're living on borrowed time. When you can't run the ball at all, you're living on borrowed time. When you're passing 70% of the time, you're living on borrowed time...unless your passing game is really good at distributing the ball, to different receivers and different zones of the field. Denver's isn't. This game, in some ways, might be an exemplar for the entire season so far. Mostly bad play, the team that makes the least costly mistakes overall squeaks by. Browns win because Pickett was disastrously bad again. In the Steelers' 4 losses, Pickett's yards per attempt is 5.0 or less. His adjusted yards per attempt in 3 of the 4, is significantly under 4 yards per attempt. Of the 31 QBs where ESPN gives a QBR (I presume sample size), he's 28th. The Steelers are 31st in passing yards per game. To me, the better question is how they've managed to be 6-4. On the other side, the Browns are 4th in sacks per game; Baltimore's WELL out in front at 4, Bills 3.5, Chargers 3.4, Browns and Cowboys 3.3....difference between Chargers and Browns/Cowboys is 1 sack. Browns' defense leads the league, only giving up 243 yards / game; Cowboys are 2nd at 266, so it's not a small gap. Browns have the best 3rd down defense...by another wide margin. Conversion rate against them, 25.4%. Cowboys are 2nd...at 32.8. This stat doesn't usually have that kind of spread...5 teams are at 35.x, another 4 are at 38.x. There's 13 teams between 34.4 and 38.6. The game's basically a pick'em, the lines 1.5. O/U is, as you might guess, low at 36.5. These may have been before the game tonight, tho. I wouldn't be too surprised if the O/U drops down a bit; with both teams, the defense is significantly better than the offense. Might be fun to make a prop bet on there being a defensive touchdown. Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted November 20, 2023 Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 Cleveland's defense is awesome. However, their offense is missing their starting QB and RB. Their receivers are pretty meh outside of Cooper and they're rolling with a 5th round rookie at QB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted November 20, 2023 Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 ow that hurt Old Man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 And losing to Mr. P....makes it twice as bad.... O/U on Bros vs. Bros did slip a bit. 35.5. Not surprising, Jets sit Zach Wilson. 2nd worst QBR; only Bryce Young is lower. 37 points total in the last 4 games, only 2 TDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted November 20, 2023 Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 Draymond Green gets five games of an 82-game season for putting a guy in a headlock. Kareem Jackson gets four games of a seventeen game season for a questionable hit on a quarterback. Interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted November 21, 2023 Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 I know there's talk (as there always is) of an NFL team in London. Bad idea to expand to Europe, but if they do -- wouldn't Frankfurt be a better choice? Better facilities, more knowledgeable fanbase with a Gridiron tradition from the old NFL Europe, and so on. The big thing is that the Jaguars are finally turning things around, and Jacksonville had better embrace this team or they will lose it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 1 hour ago, Pariah said: Draymond Green gets five games of an 82-game season for putting a guy in a headlock. Kareem Jackson gets four games of a seventeen game season for a questionable hit on a quarterback. Interesting. Oh come ON. He should be suspended for the SEASON...and 2024. From Wikipedia: Quote ackson received a $14,819 fine for an illegal hit on Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver, Jakobi Meyers, in the Week 1 game.[47] In the Week 2 loss to the Washington Commanders, he was ejected after an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit against tight end Logan Thomas resulting in the latter getting a concussion.[48] His hit on Thomas resulted in a $19,669 fine.[49] Jackson received a third fine for $11,473 for unnecessary roughness in the Week 3 loss to the Miami Dolphins.[50] The league issued him a fine for $43,709, Jackson's fourth for the season, for unnecessary roughness based on a late hit he did on the Thursday Night Football loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.[51] Following his second game ejection in Week 7 for a hit on a defenseless receiver on Green Bay Packers tight end Luke Musgrave, the NFL suspended Jackson for four games.[52] The league reduced the suspension to two games after Jackson appealed. And the NEXT FREAKING GAME, HE DOES IT AGAIN. Questionable??? Heck no!!! EGREGIOUS lead with the helmet. OK...the broadcast angle doesn't show it, but this does. It's at the time; advanced to 45 seconds, then slow the replay speed down, and paused right here. Now you put this together with the fact that he does it almost EVERY GAME this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted November 21, 2023 Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 The new Vontaze Burfict... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 I will grant as well, that NBA disciplinary actions are ridiculously too low. Green's action is completely outside any game action, or even any pretext of in-game action. He's got just as bad an overall record, over the years...but nowhere NEAR has been done. So a season-long suspension can't be dropped, even tho I think it should be. No, I don't give a damn about any negative impact on the Warriors. It's NOT!!!! acceptable. The NBA is held hostage to its players, and has been for a very long time now. The NFL can plausibly be described as held hostage to...SOME players. The QBs. But also, they've been crushed in court due to injuries related to hits like this. Over, and over, and over again, they try to sell us that the game's safer. Hits like this impugn the message. Heck, there was a section of the NYT newsletter, about youth contact sports. There was a study of, IIRC, about 160 teen suicides. 40% of them showed evidence of CTE. And now you've got a player with 6 separate incidents in about half a season on the field? Pariah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted November 21, 2023 Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 12 hours ago, unclevlad said: I will grant as well, that NBA disciplinary actions are ridiculously too low. Green's action is completely outside any game action, or even any pretext of in-game action. He's got just as bad an overall record, over the years...but nowhere NEAR has been done. So a season-long suspension can't be dropped, even tho I think it should be. No, I don't give a damn about any negative impact on the Warriors. It's NOT!!!! acceptable. The NBA is held hostage to its players, and has been for a very long time now. The NFL can plausibly be described as held hostage to...SOME players. The QBs. But also, they've been crushed in court due to injuries related to hits like this. Over, and over, and over again, they try to sell us that the game's safer. Hits like this impugn the message. Heck, there was a section of the NYT newsletter, about youth contact sports. There was a study of, IIRC, about 160 teen suicides. 40% of them showed evidence of CTE. And now you've got a player with 6 separate incidents in about half a season on the field? These situations aren't really comparable in scale though. I agree with you that Draymond Green has a history of sketchy conduct, but this latest suspension does take that history into account. He was given 5 games for what was essentially him breaking up a fight, not fighting himself. He didn't do something likely to injure Gobert. Yes, he put Gobert in a headlock, but all he did after that was shove him away from the scrum. He didn't throw any punches or try to tighten his grip or bring Gobert down with pressure. If he hadn't held it so long, and he did hold on to him an excessive length of time, he would have gotten a technical but probably not an ejection. Most other players would be facing a one game suspension, but his prior history led Silver to send a message. Jackson, on the other hand, is doing dangerous things. He's making illegal hits to the head and neck area and while he might not intend to injure, he's placing other players (and himself) in danger with his overly aggressive and reckless tackling. The NFL made those rules changes for player safety, covers them every tear with every team in training camp, and makes them a point of emphasis for the referees. Jackson has more serious incidents in one season than any other player that I can remember, even Burflict. He has two incidents after being suspended once. He's clearly not learning, but the NFL may not be able to give him a year-long suspension until his next strike. Four games might be light here, but it may be the maximum the collective bargaining agreement allows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 I agree Jackson's is worse, but Draymond also has a long history, and the choke hold was, IIRC, called out in Joe Dumars' explanatory letter to Green, as dangerous. And, see, ANY player should've received at least a 2-3 game suspension for it, IMO. 1 game out of 82...that's nothing. It's involuntary rest, if you will. ESPECIALLY in this era of "load management." The loss of salary isn't even all that severe...yeah, on the scale of us peasants, it's like....OWWW. But instead of making $8M, they only make $7.9M. Eek. The root of the problem is how the NBA has chosen to promote itself for the last 30 or so years. In the NFL...no player is bigger than the league. In the NBA, the players ARE the league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted November 21, 2023 Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 UNLV Hires NFL Great Randall Cunningham As Coach—But Not for Football His daughter Grace is currently at UNLV, so he will get to be her coach. Pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted November 21, 2023 Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, unclevlad said: I agree Jackson's is worse, but Draymond also has a long history, and the choke hold was, IIRC, called out in Joe Dumars' explanatory letter to Green, as dangerous. And, see, ANY player should've received at least a 2-3 game suspension for it, IMO. 1 game out of 82...that's nothing. It's involuntary rest, if you will. ESPECIALLY in this era of "load management." The loss of salary isn't even all that severe...yeah, on the scale of us peasants, it's like....OWWW. But instead of making $8M, they only make $7.9M. Eek. The root of the problem is how the NBA has chosen to promote itself for the last 30 or so years. In the NFL...no player is bigger than the league. In the NBA, the players ARE the league. If any other player would get only a 2-3 game suspension, then Draymond's suspension is 2x the average of that and I've said before that suspension will hit him for 1.3 million. The NBA players union has a great deal more power than the NFL player union. That's partly due to just being better organized and more to the nature of the sport itself. In the NBA, having 3 true and complimentary stars will make a team a contender or it can be done with 2 stars and a superlative support cast. That naturally makes those stars more valuable and gives them more power. And the league has to promote by its stars. All sports leagues do this though. You don't see a teaser for an NFL game featuring an offensive lineman and a kicker, you see quarterbacks, skill position players and dominant defenders. Baseball leads with the stars for each team. So does soccer and even hockey. Stars are the rising tide for the boats. The reasons the NFL players union's relative powerlessness are lack of unity and roster size. One player can be a star, but he can't consistently elevate a roster that's truly lacking in talent. So, when negotiations for a labor contract come up, the owners exploit the rift that's there when between the top stars and the rest of the team. As long as the stars get paid, they won't hold the line strongly enough to let the NFL union exert any lasting power. Edited November 21, 2023 by Grailknight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2023 And Daymond's suspension is twice as long because he has an extensive history. My comment about the suspension not hurting financially was for a *one game* suspension...and even at 5 games, aw gee...so Draymond is only gonna make, what, $18-$19M? I have no sympathy...and he did this to himself. I agree the NBPA has more power...TOO MUCH power. The inmates control the asylum. The league did this to themselves. The NFLPA's lack of power is because the only critical position in football is QB...and even QB is a dependent position. It's not roster size per se, it's the nature of roster use. 11 players at a time, versus 5; 2 entirely separate squads, offense and defense, versus being on the court for both sides. Injury risk being implicit and high, versus being dreaded and low. So, yes, individual players in basketball have more impact than in any other sport. That explains why they get so grossly coddled, but doesn't make it right. Elsewhere, in the NFL entirely....not even a little surprising that the Steelers fire Matt Canada as OC. Canada was made OC in early '21; the Steelers were 21st in offense...then 26th last year...and 28th this year. Yeah, that gets you fired all right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted November 22, 2023 Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 2 hours ago, unclevlad said: Elsewhere, in the NFL entirely....not even a little surprising that the Steelers fire Matt Canada as OC. Canada was made OC in early '21; the Steelers were 21st in offense...then 26th last year...and 28th this year. Yeah, that gets you fired all right. Incidentally it's been pointed out that the Steelers do not fire coaches midseason. Ever. That's how disastrous Canada was. Heinz Field has been ringing with fan chants of "Blame Canada" all season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 Not quite ever. They did it back in 1941. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted November 22, 2023 Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 Firing yourself doesn't count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 https://people.com/tom-brady-calls-out-mediocrity-in-nfl-play-right-now-8405533 Or even better, this one https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/tom-brady-speaks-truths-about-state-of-nfl-football/ This one includes a major critique of the Social Media Problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted November 22, 2023 Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 I guess the good news for Matt Canada is that Iowa is going to be looking for a new offensive coordinator at the end of the season.... Grailknight 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 Speaking of good news, the Chargers could use some. 4-6, largely desperation mode...and Joey Bosa goes on IR for his foot issue. Min 4 games to be missed. And hey, I'd say it was better news for Brian Ferentz, cuz now the Steeler OC job will be open for interviews. He's a strong candidate to move up, right??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted November 23, 2023 Report Share Posted November 23, 2023 Pariah, Old Man, Grailknight and 1 other 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted November 23, 2023 Report Share Posted November 23, 2023 Cygnia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted November 23, 2023 Report Share Posted November 23, 2023 The Packers have an early lead against the Lions in the morning game. A little surprising. Detroit is wearing their no frills throwbacks, which is cool. It would be equally cool if Green Bay wore their green and yellow throwbacks. What a beautiful game that would be. I've already seen plenty of John Madden tribute stuff. It's still hard to get used to the idea of a Thanksgiving Day game without him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted November 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2023 Some questionable calls, but mostly the turnovers. Packers hold on. Now the Eagles have a 2 game advantage in the loss column over the Cowboys, Lions, and Niners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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