ballpeen

Maybe expand practice squads by a few. They have enough players. The roster is at 53, but only 48 are on the active gameday roster. Maybe expand the gameday roster to 50 players.

Good times for sure.

I think Stefanski coached one of his better games. He knew it was going to be a close game and coached accordingly. Somewhere I read, or maybe it was in a PC that earlier in the week AVP handed DTR a play sheet and told him to memorize those plays. DTR did. I think those plays were the plays we ran at games end. Pitt was afraid of a pass interference call late and played zone, something they didn't do much of prior to that last drive. When you talk about scripting plays, it is usually the opening drive. I think we scripted that final drive feeling it would be a close game and they would probably go to a zone, and might need as FG to win or tie the game with time running out. We used the script when we needed it most. Pretty brilliant.

I suppose it is possible some hairline fracture started to form. If so, ask your friend if it is easy to not detect such a fracture. Also, is it possible the bone wasn't even showing signs of a fracture but could somehow be weakened just the point it could fracture but hadn't?

I think we will be OK. We can win 4-5 games down the stretch. When in the playoffs, D usually rules the day. We have the D to go all the way.

I understand. That is why I said interred, not knowing if he was buried, placed in a wall, sitting on the mantel, or ashes spread out somewhere.

Stefanski isn't going anywhere, but if he did, I'd just promote Schwartz to HC.

I go up to most games and have often thought about paying my respect. Lay some flowers, maybe a baseball. Does anybody know where Stan is interred, if he is?

Maybe it's me, but that looks a bit like WSSteve.

Pretty much the usual spot.

I won't be tailgating. Plan on taking teh train out of brookpark around 9:30 and going in to the stadium when it opens. Great weather for a Nov game.

DPJ was a dime a dozen WR. He had some nice moments, but he is just a guy. We probably have 2-3 guys on the practice squad who can fill his shoes. We got a 2025 6th round pick for the guy. Low compensation for a guy not in high standing around the league. Good deal IMO. We got something for nothing. The Lions got a punt catcher.

I don't know. He strikes it pretty true. Something York struggled with though he will probably figure it out. For him, I hope he does. I don't hope for people to fail. That isn't to say DH isn't going to miss some kicks. All kickers do, even some shorter ones. All are going to make a bad strike. All are going to get a less than ideal holds and all are going to face some unpredictable wind conditions. To me kickers are like golfers who only have one club. Their distance is their distance. They can't pull out a 3 iron when all they have is a 4 iron. Even Ben Hogan, Jack, Tiger and Phil could hit bad shots, be it a bad strike, bad lie, or a screwy wind.

Two things on Hopkins. First: The knock on him was he had limited distance. Who the heck said that?. They were wrong unless they expect a kicker to nail 65-70 yard kicks. That 58 yard kick he made would have been good from 62-63 yards. No distance my ass. Second: My only question about DH is why was he even available?? He can kick for any team in the league.

Never been, but I always use google maps to check out areas before I go. I see mostly 1 and 2 star hotels near the stadium . Some going for $69 a night. My general impression is it pretty much a crappy area. Do what you want, but $69 a night pretty much borders on a flop house rate. I wouldn't stay anywhere near there. For that matter, i wouldn't go to LA for any reason.

When you look at it, the make it or break it number is probably pretty close to what it is for any position. The problem kickers face is that there is no back-up position for a kicker. You can't be kind of, sort of good. You need to be good.

I think it was late December, 63...was a very special time for me...Oh what a night

At least that is all I can figure since it is pretty common with all teams and all officiating crews.

I like those. They only pop on the local ad slots. The national buys still show up. With 2 teams, which local ads should they show, and those ads don't pay enough to get national exposure. I don't want to see some local Baltimore ad selling gutter guards. Going with the Zen is better than showing an old Indian head or lighthouse test pattern. Some of you older folks know what I am talking about. For you younger folks, TV stations signed off at 1AM or so. If you turned on the TV, all you saw was a test pattern or just static fuzz. They would usually sign back in at 6AM...some sort of farm report was usually on the air. Corn is up. Pork Bellies down

Just a general reply. People give Hunt way too much cred.

No doubt. If anything we will try to add picks like we have. We may try to move up some on draft day, but it won't be for a 1st rounder. Maybe try to move back in to the 3rd, or something like that. On draft day we may move up some

Exactly. You can't do it all in a day. It' a process that extends over several years, and you have to move from position to position. A coach and fans think about this year. A GM has to project out 2-3 years. You don't replace Bitiono when his contract expires, or he retires. You have to move on that a year or two before that happens. Being a day late usually doesn't work.

I know we just signed a back from Indy, another player, i can't remember the position. At this time of year you are mostly looking to update the practice squad and bottom end of the roster with future in mind.. Building a roster from the bottom up might not be sexy, but it is just as important as building from the top down. If you can replace your weakest players and improve, you just got better. Roster building isn't just about bringing star quality player.

Chubb is a great player, but Depo isn't a goofball. Come on man, you are a smart guy.

I don't. I want to draft York when we did, and we did. I still think he will be a good kicker in the league, but he wasn't ready for whatever reason, and he still might not. Like any position, there are no sure things. Kickers face more internal pressure than anything, and if that becomes a problem, sometimes those are hard to shake. I played golf to a 2 handicap when I was in my mid 20's through mid 40's, but there were a couple of holes on a couple of local courses that i took some high numbers, and never could get that out of my head and no matter what I did, I just couldn't play them to par. Bogey was a win, and I usually doubled them...or worse. Once that gets in to your head, it's hard to shake. That said, Hopkins is exactly what we need. The ball comes off true. He's going to miss some kicks but if he does I am to the point you just shrug and know its going to happen to the best of them. The added bonus is he came in advertised as having a somewhat limited leg, but he has hit a few in the 53 or so yard range. Sure, if a guy can hit a 62 yard FG, that's great, but you don't really expect that. If your kicker hits it solid and it comes up a yard short from 55, then he gave it the best chance he could. That is all you can ask. It's not like a kicker can turn his leg from a 4 iron to a 3 iron to get some added distance. Just strike the ball true and you get what you get. Coaches know the average true kick distance and the gray area distance his kicker might be able to make.