I just found out it costs $50 to park at Giants Stadium.
I hope people realize I was joking in part: you’re fans for whatever reason. I think the Jets deserve to stink but then the Colts deserve it just as bad. Can’t think of a more ***** team in the history of football: complaining their poor baby receivers were getting knocked around and then complaining that the ball was soft. I think you can fill in the blank.
I hope I don’t regret taking Romo as my QB in my fantasy league.
My favorite Geno Smith joke is that they want to send him to Syria to overthrow Assad!
With the loss of Murray and the switch to rb-by-committee with a bunch of nobodies, I would expect the Cowboys to be passing more, which will up Romo’s yardage. He’s got the line to protect him and keep him upright, which should limit turnovers. I think he’ll be ok. Not top 5 fantasy-wise, but I think he’ll be top-10.
I’m wishing @xiggi was here to tell us how he feels about Christine Michael. I hope they run him against Seattle. He can always carry the ball in the wrong hand, never follow his lead blocker, not pass block and telegraph the play for Dallas. Good times.
Ball security is not his thing
Since we are talking about the Jets, and given the other news of the day:
[Patriots Never Bothered to Steal Jets’ Playbook](Patriots Never Bothered to Steal Jets’ Playbook | The New Yorker)
musicprnt:
real gases behave close to ideally unless the pressure is extremely high, or if the temp is very low (close to absolute zero)–under those two conditions, the intermolecular forces (van der Waals, among others) become significant
. The math does work–the pressure in a ball is NOT 12.5 psi, for example, it’s 12.5 PLUS 14.7 (average atmospheric pressure. If internal pressure was 12.5 psi, the ball would would cave in due to external pressure. You also have to convert the temperatures to an absolute scale (Kelvin or Rankine). Believe me, the science works.
Try playing basketball outside when the temp is in the single digits–getting the ball to bounce back is almost impossible. As a kid growing up in the northeast, I’ve tried it many times!!
Given a choice between putting my faith in science vs. Roger Goodell and his minions, I choose science.
In general, what so many fans don’t bother to learn is that every team’s offense and defense is known and belongs to one of the basic families developed over time. The Patriots, for example, use a route tree offense that’s developed out the Erhardt-Perkins offense. It isn’t so much a timing offense, like traditional West Coast or Coryell, but is based more in route concepts determined by pre-snap reads - i.e., this is the defensive set-up and you as a receiver have to read that as the QB does and know from that read what your route and thus your timing is. And then it adjusts, of course, because the QB’s read progression also depends on his pre-snap read. (As this suggests, when the announcers or writers blame the receiver or the QB they often don’t realize that you can’t agree on all reads and can’t agree on the timing every play so it’s really no one’s fault much of the time. The problem is when a receiver is consistently wrong.) Note that Detroit has switched to a “spacing offense” that has a more specific read progression so I expect the people who cover them will point to open receivers, missed plays, etc. without knowing where in the progression Stafford was. That’s always been a huge flaw in reporting: the open guy the QB doesn’t see is often the guy who was maybe last in the route progression (or first and then came open after the QB moved to the next read). If you read West Coast manuals, the original had a very specific process: given the defensive setup and your receiver spread, you looked here on the 1st step back, here on the 2nd, here on the 3rd, with a different progression for a longer dropback.
Belichick has often described the Jets offense as “it’s the Jets. They run the Jets offense.” That’s changed somewhat - it became “Rex’s offense” or his coordinator’s offense and now it will change again. Chan Gailey was in Pittsburgh, which mostly used an offensive similar in general style to NE, and then in Buffalo where it became more a spread, West Coast offense.
The NE offense has changed a lot. Not only “turbo” speed but they’ve adopted more seam throws, which is a common feature of all systems, more power runs instead of inside draws, etc. A big difference is that TB has been in charge for an extremely long time so he has a very specific understanding of how to attack each defensive scheme - and they review so much film and work on the game plan for absurd amounts of time. Most QB’s don’t have that level of familiarity (or skill) so they have to work with simpler route concepts and pre-snap reads. This allows a defense to attack them differently. The writers say Belichick confuses QB’s but it’s frankly more the advantage of knowing the other team’s offense and its tendencies plus a reading of how deeply attuned the QB and the receivers are to that system. It’s often less that he “confuses the QB” as they induce the receivers to run the wrong routes for that coverage because they aren’t as deeply set into the offense as TB. When the writers say TB wants the receivers to run the routes exactly a certain way, that means he wants them to recognize the same pre-snap read and then to execute the route properly, not that he needs the person to be in a specific spot. So if there is an LB at the line at snap and then dropping into coverage, the receiver must see that and not run the route to a position where he looks open to the QB but where the LB is interception/defense position. It’s often not that the QB - on any team - “didn’t see that guy” but rather that the receiver ran a route that mislead the QB into making a covered throw. I’d also say it’s less that TB has a “binkie” like Welker - meaning his main guy - but rather that the pre-snap reads consistently generated a throw to him, either right away or in the progression because Welker read the defense and executed the routes. In 2007, it took a long time for teams to realize they only had to neutralize Welker and Moss - safety over on Randy, press Welker and pin him with a CB and LB - because NE’s other guys - Stallworth and Gaffney - were good enough against ordinary teams but not against good teams. It became a classic case of “let their 3rd or 4th guy beat us”.
The same knowledge is true of defense. They all know what the other teams do. NE did so well against Seattle in the Super Bowl not merely because they knew exactly what Seattle’s defense was going to do, just as Seattle knew what NE was going to do but because they executed well. Seattle stuck with its defense partly because they’re so good at what they do and because they knew NE understood Seattle’s defense and that the game boiled down to execution. Defense has simpler calls, despite all the talk about “disguising coverages” and the like. Seriously: you can run anything from Cover 1 to Cover 4 or so, do a simple variation like Tampa 2 (which is a basic cover 2 variation), etc. Defense is more about technique and execution, as in keeping spacing in the interior to minimize rushing lanes, “setting the edge” by not being driven to the outside or upfield. I read today (I think) about Seattle’s DB technique requiring “patience”. What they actually do is try to stay behind the receiver so they can close on him and/or the ball. (NE ate that up but Peyton couldn’t do it because his system is much more timing driven and Seattle could - fairly easily it turned out because they have the talent - sit where the routes would time and thus force them.) The article contrasted that kind of coverage with “bump & run” but, seriously, haven’t they heard about the illegal contact rule? This isn’t the 70’s. The changes in coverage rules means it usually makes more sense to keep the ball in front of you, if you can execute that properly. Bump & run has largely been replaced by line jams. Those work sometimes: try to jam a fast guy to keep him off a deep route and he beats you and there’s a 60 yard pass. Or jam a TE and he gets by that and is open down the seam. Jams work best if there’s over coverage, a safety back or the like, but they often fail miserably because, bluntly, if you can’t get into your route in the NFL after a jam you won’t be in the league for long.
Offense is somewhat different. A pet peeve is the way they cover sacks and tackles of RB’s etc. which are “great plays!!!” except what happened is the offensive line either made the wrong blocking call or, more often, one lineman took the wrong guy, meaning he failed to execute the play properly. When the ball is snapped and 2 guys move at you and maybe one other drops off, you have a part of a moment to decide who to block and sometimes you pick the wrong guy and that leaves someone unblocked. As Belichick says, we never draw up a play and leave someone unblocked but it happens.
A neat thing for me about the beginning of the year is the way teams change - or as Belichick says, the new wrinkles on offense and defense - and the way new players’ capabilities shape what a team can and can’t do. And then how the competition adjusts. The real benefit of NE is they are one of the few true “game plan” teams; nearly all teams do essentially the same thing each game on both offense and defense, while NE varies its approach more. Since most coaches believe that what matters most is execution, they have a hard time facing a team that does more to maximize its match-up advantage and also executes well despite substantial week-to-week change. Many of the changes are subtle - and annoy NE writers and fans to no end. As in, guy has a great week rushing the passer and the next week he never even attempts to rush but has a very different responsibility.
As you can tell, I love the game but I think the bullbleep side of it is out of hand.
And my leg is killing me so I’m sitting here typing.
^^^ you said at 11 a.m. that that hopefully would be your last post on it!!! =))
@hayden:
With the Jets, you always expect it to get worse, that is the nature of being a fan lol. My son alas has inherited by love/hate for the team, and when he and I would be watching the Jets, my wife couldn’t believe that we were be roaring with every screw up and fouled up play the Jets seem to love to do, that we could take joy in incompetence. It is known as self preservation, it is how Jets fans survive.
You do have to be crazy to be a Jets fan, the other year I saw a listing where a Jets fan wanted to sell his season tickets, and the poor SOB basically was selling the tickets for the face value, plus the remainder he had of the PSL on the seats to pay off, like 7k (ie personal seat license). When they came up with that scheme, the Giants and Jets claimed that those having to pay the PSL (for the seats in question, the original cost of the PSL for 2 seats was 30k), and fans have taken a bath on them, I have yet to see tickets where they are able to get back what they paid for the PSL, talk about a scam. And yeah, the face value on parking, if you aren’t a season ticket holder, is 50 bucks (you can get parking passes for a lot less on stub hub and so forth), and I won’t talk about the cost of concessions.
To paraphrase the late, great Studs Terkel (who was talking about corruption in Chicago, not sports) “The Jets aren’t the most incompetent team in the NFL, but they are the most theatrically incompetent franchise in the NFL”.
I’m happy to talk football. Not silly stuff like several AFC teams had their locker room swept for listening devices - and we’re supposed to go “oooh” except the next line is “Nothing was found.” Or the Ravens whining. But football? Actual football? I love to talk about that.
For example, I’m really curious about how the new D coordinator changes the Pittsburgh defense. That’s a “wrinkle”. I don’t place a lot of weight on early season games - and the way people get excited or worried about their teams in September into October - and that means this time of year is less stressful as a fan, more about what you see than worry about the result.
I can’t imagine having to play QB in the NFL. It’s hard enough at the high school level finding the windows in a 20 zone and then fitting the ball into one before a safety or corner – with blistering 4.8/40 speed – can knock it down.
In the NFL the secondaries often shift during the play, so what you saw pre-snap is not what’s out there once your drop is complete and you pivot to throw. Shotgun can be better because you see more earlier in the play, but you’re also a sitting duck back there, so there’s likely less time for the receivers to complete their routes if the D has a decent pass rush. At least under center they have to defend against runs other than a draw.
Is there any way that both teams can lose on Thursday? 
@maddad:
Yes, of course, what you are measuring with pressure is a differential, and yes, the calculations need to be done in either @c or kelvin. I will add that yes, playing basketball in single digit temperatures if you blow the ball up inside, will be pretty flat, but there is also a relatively large temperature differential there, going from room temp (let’s say 68F/20c) to let’s say 10 F (-12c), as versus what happened in the game in question, from room temp (20c) to game temperature, which was in the upper 40’s-low 50’s on the field (10c), you are talking a differential of almost 3 times in the two scenarios (put it this way, if the game in question had been the ice bowl or the Green Bay/NY Giants playoff game where it was below 0 F, then maybe…and physicists actually tested out the scenario, and said that the difference in temperature wouldn’t account for the discrepancy alone.
I would argue that the bigger factor is in how the pressure is measured, both initially and later on, there could be significant variance there unless it is done right, pressure gauges they are using are probably not all that much more accurate than ones you use on car tires.
I think the whole thing was overblown, it was a lot of stupid theater, but the reality I think is that Goodell decided to punish Brady and NE because in the past the other owners felt like he covered up NE bending or breaking the rules. which was just stupid.
"According to the report, the Patriots soundly defeated the Jets multiple times without access to any inside information about the New York team’s offense or defense.
In the aftermath of the report, the Jets’ owner, Woody Johnson, blasted the Patriots’ coach, Bill Belichick, and called his lack of interest in the Jets’ playbook “an insult to this organization and our fans.”
When the original spygate happened, my son and I were laughing our butts off that NE would bother spying on the Jets at all; we could see a good team, like Pittsburgh, but the Jets? The real penalty NE probably suffered was embarrassment, that they even bothered to spy on such a crappy team.
Interesting article in the WSJ about how terribly unprepared QB’s are when they come in from college. [url=<a href=“http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-nfl-has-a-quarterback-crisis-1441819454%5DHere.%5B/url”>http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-nfl-has-a-quarterback-crisis-1441819454]Here.[/url] My reaction: I’m not surprised that a) the QB’s don’t bother to study pro reference materials because, bluntly, they’re high school/college stars who think they’re hot bleep and b) more importantly, I’m totally unsurprised the coaches don’t take any responsibility for educating their potential professional players in the main points that will help them in their career. That’s a massive failure at the training level and I think it’s typical of the ethics of college football.
Note this: "according to separate interviews with dozens of NFL coaches and executives, something disturbing happened in these pre-draft quiz sessions. When asked the same basic questions, many quarterback prospects responded with something NFL insiders said they have never seen before: blank stares.
Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said the new crop of college quarterbacks were flummoxed by a simple question about an “under” front, one of the most common defensive alignments. “Whoa, no one’s ever told me ‘front’ before,” he remembers one prospect saying. “No one’s ever talked to me about reading these defenses.”
Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley said he had the same results when he asked prospects a question about defenses shifting from a common scheme called “cover 2” to an equally mundane tactic called “cover 3.” Hue Jackson, the offensive coordinator from the Bengals, said he had to dumb down his questions, while Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton said some QBs failed to grasp things as basic as understanding a common play call. “You have to teach these kids the absolute basics,” he said.
The knowledge base was so low, Buffalo’s Whaley said, that it left him feeling “a little nervous about the long-term future of this game.” My comment: even a fan knows Cover 2 and 3 and “under” and “over” fronts are the basic ways the D-line in a 4-3 sets.
The article quotes Baylor QB Bryce Petty - now of the NYJets of course - as saying ““As crazy as it sounds, at Baylor, we did not point out the ‘mike’ linebacker,” Petty said. Petty was unfamiliar with making adjustments to the play or the formation before the snap.” Me again, you can hear NFL QB’s yelling out, “Number x is the Mike” all the time so how can you not know this? (Answer see my 1 above.)
As to defense, the article quotes Rex Ryan as saying: “They don’t coach anything.”
About the NE/Pitt game, but of course first about the only story anyone will likely hear: that the Pitt coaches headsets were bleeding sports radio, causing intermittent obstruction. Same thing was happening to the Patriots. Belichick said they had to switch headsets more than once, that it was annoying. (It was, btw, a grounding issue, like with your stereo! And the NFL runs the communications systems.) Difference: NE didn’t go running to the press to complain though they had the same problem. If anyone cares, I put part of NFL.com’s story below.
- Pitt: Antonio Brown is remarkable. It's rare to see a guy with that speed, that body control, those hands AND amazing route running plus extreme competitiveness. Take this play, his big gainer of the night: he ran a brilliant route in which he induced DB Butler to glance into the backfield and broke downfield as Butler shifted his head and he combined the move by accelerating so he suddenly had 2 steps. It was beautiful work. Second, Roethlisberger's deep passing is laser accurate. The long play on the right sideline to Heyward-Bey was absolutely perfect, as were other deep balls. He is much less accurate up close when he's not reacting but that kind of deep accuracy can be impossible to stop. I'm saying that Pitt should win games based on offensive production: defense can't stop every play and they can't stop perfect pass routes and perfect passes. (BTW, Roethlisberger was wrong when he complained about the illegal procedure penalty at the NE 1: he said the defense can't shift but the defense can't induce an offensive lineman to move, which they do by false lunging toward the line, not by shifting sideways.)
- NE: Brady is insanely good in the short to mid passing game. I almost don't have more to say. I saw a few new formations and was impressed two rookies in the middle of the line held up, but the quality of line play in the first weeks of the season varies a lot week to week as each opponent changes up based on film and maximizes its personnel. BTW, though Antonio Brown is so good, I thought Malcolm Butler showed a ton of skill going up against a genuinely great receiver in his first game as a starter.
This game reminds us how actual NFL games turn on a few athletic and mental acts on the field: 2 missed field goals and a receiver who simply concentrated so much on catching the ball that he touched the sideline in the end zone. You can never say “if not for …” because the rest of the game would have changed in response, but you can look at those 3 simple athletic/mental failures and see 13 points lost. That’s much of the attraction of the NFL: the average game is decided by less than one score.
Here’s part of NFL.com’s story:
“We had a lot of problems,” Belichick said. “We had to switch microphones a couple times. Our communication system was not very good.” Belichick said it was a problem all night and the officials told him they were on the verge of shutting the communication system down.
After the game, NFL spokesman Michael Signora issued a statement on the behalf of the league, explaining that the equipment is handled by the league. “In the first quarter of tonight’s game, the Pittsburgh coaches experienced interference in their headsets caused by a stadium power infrastructure issue, which was exacerbated by the inclement weather,” Signora said. “The coaches’ communications equipment, including the headsets, is provided by the NFL for both clubs use on game day. Once the power issue was addressed, the equipment functioned properly with no additional issues.”
^^Lergnom:
Someone will find a way to blame the Patriots for that too, even though it affected both teams. 
Butler showed amazing maturity & skill for a rookie. 