NFL 2014 season

[TheHammer]

I wish I knew what happened to all the pro-bowl offensive linemen the Niners used to have... They can neither run nor pass block worth a shit anymore. SF is in the precarious position of having to essentially run the table at this point and they've got precious little time to figure out what the hell has gone wrong with their blocking.

[Thanas]

Steve Young just blasted the niners. Holy shit.

[Havok]

I wouldn't call that a blasting. At least it's some actual on the field observations based on body language and not complete speculation about locker room bullshit like Jerry Rice is giving out.

That said, well, we all had a fucked week. 49ers, Ravens and holy shit what happened to the Chargers?
Do I even need to say the Buccaneers?

[Havok]

I wish I knew what happened to all the pro-bowl offensive linemen the Niners used to have... They can neither run nor pass block worth a shit anymore. SF is in the precarious position of having to essentially run the table at this point and they've got precious little time to figure out what the hell has gone wrong with their blocking.

There are very few lines in history that are excellent at run blocking and excellent at pass blocking at the same time. This line is no exception.

And you have to remember these guys have all been in the league for about 6-9 years all across the board, EXCEPT the one position you want to be a veteran, the center who was a rookie making his first start yesterday. That's a LOT of little bangs, nicks, minor injuries, major injuries, rung bells, and concussions all starting to add up.

That said and back to my first point, this group is not a pass blocking group. This is run blocking group. Honestly, they have never excelled at pure pass blocking. What they EXCEL at is run blocking and play action pass blocking. Now here's the issue as I see it;

In the past, you had a sub standard receiving corp with what was considered a sub standard QB. So what do you do? Run, play action, sweeps, etc., and play to the strength of your "game manager".
Now, what we have is a run blocking offensive line that is being told, "Let plays the spread!" because you have all these shiny receivers that everyone is trying to get on the field. So, instead of Davis going down the middle from the end of the line, you have him going down the middle from a split end position. Now for most people that means "Yeah so?!" for people that understand, that's the difference between a slow as shit line backer trying to cover him and getting the ball to him before the safety and a just as fast nickle back covering him just fine until he gets to the safety. "Hey! Where'd Vernon Davis go?" That's where he went.

Also "Let plays the spread!" when you have a run blocking offensive line and only run the ball 16 fucking times against a pass rushing machines like the Broncos last week and now the Rams, whom just happened to just get out of hibernation, probably because they watched what the fucking Broncos did, makes for a bad day.

It really is a matter of identity at this point to me. Staley, Davis, Iupati, and Boone didn't become All-Pro/Pro Bowlers pass blocking. It's the equivalent of putting Bowman and Willis at the OLB position and putting Brooks and Aldon at ILB. Sure they will be OK for a while, but eventually the cracks are going to show and get taken advantage of.

And this is another something I have noticed; It seems like they are coming out passing to get ahead fast so that they can then run, instead of what they used to do, which was run, play strong D and throw when they needed to.

Also, it's really fucking hard in this league to get to 4 championship games in a row. A lot of this can just be chalked up to the eb and flow of the league.

[Havok]

Also for the record, and after watching it a few more times, I think Kaepernick did get the ball across the line on the last play. Initially I thought he fumbled it from the get go, (center exchange) but now I see that he had his hand under the tip of the 'bottom' of the ball and he definitly got over the goal line with it before losing control. There was just no way you could call anything conclusive with the replays and whatever was called on the field was going to stand.

[Havok]

Oh and the Jets... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAA!

How bad must it suck to wish you had Mark Fucking Sanchez back?

Seriously though, that's what happens to QB's that get defensive minded coaches. I honestly would never hire a defensive coordinator to coach my team UNLESS I already had an established QB.

[Elfdart]

Tell that to Tom Brady. Or Troy Aikman. Or Terry Bradshaw. Or Roger Staubach.

[Thanas]

So we just cut two of our three starting corners who played vs Steelers. Harbaugh's cleaning house.

[Flagg]

Do I even need to say the Buccaneers?

At this point I'd sacrifice Christian babies for a .500 season. Hell I'd suck Rapestbergers herpes encrusted dong and swallow every drop.

[Tsyroc]

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop on the Cardinals.

They have a good record and have had a couple of good wins, but in general they are kind of Meh. I felt more confident about them going into games at the end of last season than I do this year. Plus, it looks like the tougher part of their schedule is still ahead. Still, they are in good shape in the division and in terms of getting into the playoffs. They don't have to play catch up and hope for the best like they were doing at the end of last year.

[Ziggy Stardust]

The Cardinals are definitely a classic regression candidate waiting to happen. Although they are 7-1, they have the point differential of a 5-3 team. They're only loss was by 21 points, while all of their wins have been by less than 11. Further, they have one of the best fumble recovery rates in the league, which indicates that they've had a lot of luck in both preventing and forcing turnovers.

On the other hand, they're defense has been fantastic (especially in the red zone), and a good defense can carry an otherwise mediocre team pretty far.

[Thanas]

Meanwhile, we are missing Ed Reed way more than any other player, even more than Ray Lewis. In "Reed’s 11 seasons, the Ravens only allowed 19 completions of 40 yards or more. In 25 games without him, the Ravens have given up 12 (the most in the NFL during that span)."

[Thanas]

BTW, the refs are fucking bullshit this season.

This is not OPI.

This is OPI.

[Tsyroc]

The Cardinals are definitely a classic regression candidate waiting to happen. Although they are 7-1, they have the point differential of a 5-3 team. They're only loss was by 21 points, while all of their wins have been by less than 11. Further, they have one of the best fumble recovery rates in the league, which indicates that they've had a lot of luck in both preventing and forcing turnovers.

On the other hand, they're defense has been fantastic (especially in the red zone), and a good defense can carry an otherwise mediocre team pretty far.

I felt better about their defense last year.

A couple of the Cardinal's "good wins" have come against teams who were missing some key players just in time for the game with the Cardinals. I'll feel better if they win a few more games in their own division.

[Havok]

Tell that to Tom Brady. Or Troy Aikman. Or Terry Bradshaw. Or Roger Staubach.

Let me get back into my time machine.

And, didn't all those coaches at one time or another, coach offensive positions? Also, three of them, coached at a time when the QB wasn't the be all end all of your existence. You almost could add Belichek in there as the last time the Patriots actually WON a Superbowl, they had a great run game and a monster defense.

However, I could certainly rectify my statement to mean overly defensively minded coaches, like Ryan. Steve Young saw the Jets practice one time and he said he would never want to play for Rex Ryan.

[Havok]

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop on the Cardinals.

They have a good record and have had a couple of good wins, but in general they are kind of Meh. I felt more confident about them going into games at the end of last season than I do this year. Plus, it looks like the tougher part of their schedule is still ahead. Still, they are in good shape in the division and in terms of getting into the playoffs. They don't have to play catch up and hope for the best like they were doing at the end of last year.

The Cardinal are good, but they also strike me as the team everything is breaking right for. We'll see how they do towards the end of the year against a revitalized Niners defense (hopefully whole team) and the Seahawks.

[Havok]

Meanwhile, we are missing Ed Reed way more than any other player, even more than Ray Lewis. In "Reed’s 11 seasons, the Ravens only allowed 19 completions of 40 yards or more. In 25 games without him, the Ravens have given up 12 (the most in the NFL during that span)."

I told you we're going to miss Reed badly. Or did you tell me that? As for Lewis, I think the team misses his intangibles. Look at what Keisel and Harrison are doing for the Steelers defense.

[Thanas]

Tell that to Tom Brady. Or Troy Aikman. Or Terry Bradshaw. Or Roger Staubach.

Let me get back into my time machine.

And, didn't all those coaches at one time or another, coach offensive positions? Also, three of them, coached at a time when the QB wasn't the be all end all of your existence. You almost could add Belichek in there as the last time the Patriots actually WON a Superbowl, they had a great run game and a monster defense.

However, I could certainly rectify my statement to mean overly defensively minded coaches, like Ryan. Steve Young saw the Jets practice one time and he said he would never want to play for Rex Ryan.

Chuck Pagano does well with Andrew Luck and he has been a defensive guy all his career.

[Elfdart]

Tell that to Tom Brady. Or Troy Aikman. Or Terry Bradshaw. Or Roger Staubach.

Let me get back into my time machine.

And, didn't all those coaches at one time or another, coach offensive positions? Also, three of them, coached at a time when the QB wasn't the be all end all of your existence. You almost could add Belichek in there as the last time the Patriots actually WON a Superbowl, they had a great run game and a monster defense.

However, I could certainly rectify my statement to mean overly defensively minded coaches, like Ryan. Steve Young saw the Jets practice one time and he said he would never want to play for Rex Ryan.

Not really. Barry Switzer was an offensive coach in college, but in the pros I doubt he called a single offensive play. The only coach out of the five (Belichick, Johnson, Switzer, Noll, Landry) with any real experience coaching the offense was Tom Landry and even then he was primarily the defensive coach, leaving offensive duties to Jim Myers, Dan Reeves and later, Paul Hackett.

Where Ryan screws the pooch is by playing musical coordinators on offense: three in three years. That will ruin a QB just as fast as a bad team around him. Funny thing is, if Rex gets fired his staff will be kicked out too and that means...

Yet another OC!

[Thanas]

The Ravens' season just ended with news that Jimmy Smith has had season-ending foot surgery. Which means we will not have a secondary at all left. Right now we got 2 healthy cornerbacks (one undrafted rookie moved from our practice squad and one guy who the lions just cut) on the roster, none of which are any good. Hooray.

WIth our front 7 I can see us winning against bad teams, but not against any competent QB. Really, if we lose against any good QB out there that must mean that QB is worse than EJ Manuel.

[Havok]

Man, how bad does Cleveland want that Jacksonville game as a mulligan?

Really though, outside of the NFC West and the AFC North, after 10 weeks everything is shaking out the way I thought it would this season. I figured the West leader would be SF or Seattle and the North leader would be Cincinnati. And outside the NFC West, which is a toss up to me among the whole division, the best coached teams are all in the lead.

[Havok]

The Ravens' season just ended with news that Jimmy Smith has had season-ending foot surgery. Which means we will not have a secondary at all left. Right now we got 2 healthy cornerbacks (one undrafted rookie moved from our practice squad and one guy who the lions just cut) on the roster, none of which are any good. Hooray.

WIth our front 7 I can see us winning against bad teams, but not against any competent QB. Really, if we lose against any good QB out there that must mean that QB is worse than EJ Manuel.

That's rough. Most really good front 7s need just a decent secondary. But they do need a secondary.

[Thanas]

Meanwhile, the Bungles shitting the bed makes me red with rage at the fucking refs again. That was our win, they stole it and the bungles prove themselves unable to do anything with a lead again. Andy Dalton's Interception numbers were higher than his passer rating at one point. LOL.

( 10 of 33 passes for 86 yards, 3 INT, 1.96 QBR).

LOL. Fucking refs.

[Thanas]

The Ravens' season just ended with news that Jimmy Smith has had season-ending foot surgery. Which means we will not have a secondary at all left. Right now we got 2 healthy cornerbacks (one undrafted rookie moved from our practice squad and one guy who the lions just cut) on the roster, none of which are any good. Hooray.

WIth our front 7 I can see us winning against bad teams, but not against any competent QB. Really, if we lose against any good QB out there that must mean that QB is worse than EJ Manuel.

That's rough. Most really good front 7s need just a decent secondary. But they do need a secondary.

Our secondary was far from decent to begin with which is why we are at 5-4. Our safeties are either rookies (Brooks), playing out of position (Elam and Darian "I don't know what his position was supposed to be in the first place" Stewart), just plain suck (Stewart, "Trainwreck" Trawick whose notable achievement so far has been to severely injure our own kickoff returner on a return a year ago) or just came back out from a year long suspension (Will HIll). Our single bright spot has been Jimmy Smith, but now he is gone as well.

What is maddening is that Smith hits FA in 1.5 years as well and so far there is little to really evaluate it because he can't stay healthy. Meanwhile Lardarious Webb is attempting a comeback after tearing two ACLs in a row...

Hooray.

[Havok]

Season saved... this week.
And how about poetic fucking justice for Ahmad Brooks getting the strip sack that got us the win as he was robbed of the strip sack to get us the win last year because Drew Brees is a short little fragile snow flake. Awesome.

And yeah that was a dive, but it was still offensive pass interference you whiny ginger.

However, what the fuck Bolden and Crabtree?! That game is a blow out if you dingleberries don't decide that footballs carry Ebola in the second half of games.

And I'm just going to assume that Vernon Davis is either really hurt or fucked Kaepernick's mom or something at this point.

HAHAHAHA! Fuck you Steelers.