For Redskins, same problem; RGIII...

[Beta]

Read this today and thought of this thread. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nfl-teams-improve-2014/

There appears to be some sort of ritual in the D.C. area to insist that Cousins — who is on pace to throw something like 30 interceptions over the course of a full season through his career’s first 203 pass attempts — is a viable professional football quarterback. I won’t claim to understand it. I am sure Cousins is a nice guy. More than anywhere else, it seems like Washington has an endless stream of former players who love nothing more but to give their opinion on who should start for the team in 2014. There’s going to be a day when the Washington Post just devotes an entire day’s paper to asking the likes of Fred Smoot, Heath Shuler, and James Thrash whether Washington should start the guy who was really good but can’t stay healthy or the guy who has never been good but isn’t the guy who can’t stay healthy.

They also picked the Skins to win the NFC East (but said the preseason made that questionable).

 

[Larry Gude]

Read this today and...

...now I have even more doubts about this kid.

But he said as he enters the regular season, he has nothing to prove.

“Nothing,” He said. “I do this for my teammates. I do this for my family; for this organization. We don’t have anything to prove to anybody else out there. We just have to go out there and be the team we know we can be. I guess you can say we have a lot to prove to ourselves in this building, and it’s about all of us going out there and being successful. I’ve said this offseason many times, ‘They go as I go. If I play well, they play well. If I don’t play well, they don’t play well.’ I understand hat. They understand that, and I’m going to do my best, and I promise I’ll play well for them.”

 

[Larry Gude]

Go Bucs!

What's up with them??? I was near a radio most of the day today, from 5 am to now and a BUNCH of people are picking them to win the South and/or saying they will have a really good season.

What up?

 

[Chris0nllyn]

What's up with them??? I was near a radio most of the day today, from 5 am to now and a BUNCH of people are picking them to win the South and/or saying they will have a really good season.

What up?

New coaching staff, new QB, revamped team (12 free agency hires along with mostly offensive draft pickups) ,VERY good defensive players like Lavonte David, Gerald McCoy, Alterraun Verner, Dashon Goldson, etc.

On paper, the team is STACKED with both young and old talent (especially on defense). The biggest downside coming out of preseason was the dreadful o-line. The just traded Tim Wright to the Pats for multi-pro bowl O-lineman Logan Mankins.

Maybe it's all hype, but with Lovie Smith coaching, Jeff Tedford as OC and Leslie Frazier as DC, I think we have a chance to at least compete this year. Maybe not go all the way (Saints are the #1 contender for the NFC south), but anything is better than the Schiano era that bombed to a 4-12 record last year.

 

[Beta]

I think the Bucs still have a ways to go. 8-8 would be a successful season. Atlanta, New Orleans, and Panthers are all in the same division. The Panthers will probably take a step back but the Falcons should be back this year. I'm not the least bit sold on McCown and they may not have a TE since they traded away Tim Wright (their new starter is a project that they're hoping pans out). Their 2nd starting WR is a rookie. He looks good, but usually rookies struggle their first year, so that's risky. It's a good thing they got Mankins because their guards were a DISASTER. The defense should be decent, but we'll see.

Good coaching can go a long way, but I think Tampa still needs a talent infusion if they want to compete in that division. It doesn't help matters that they're playing the NFC and AFC North divisions this year, BUT at least they avoid cold games. Pitt, Balt, and Cinci are all going to be good, then Detroit, Green Bay, and Chicago are all going to be tough games. They play the Skins @ FedEx on November 16th too...could be a fun game.

All of that being said, they could surprise, but I wouldn't count on anything more than 8 Ws.

 

[Larry Gude]

All of that being said, they could surprise, but I wouldn't count on anything more than 8 Ws.

It's an amazing thing, the NFL. The worst to first teams, the first to worst, trying to get a reasonable prediction on anything past the Patriots, all the team by team analysis, like what you just did.

I would enjoy it if, say, Mike and Mike, played the show from 365 days ago and then discussed how all their predictions turn out and why to see if there is really anything to any of this...besides the Pats.

I mean, a lot of people swore the Seahawks weren't even likely to make the playoffs.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Another fine redskins performance.

 

[GregV814]

Another fine redskins performance.

Racist...!!! Actually when the "team from waRshington" came on the field before a pre-season game and saluted that punkazz thug shot by the policcccceeeee, to honor HIM, I lost what little respect I had for them. Birds of a feather, apple does not fall from the tree....yadda yadda.

 

[b23hqb]

New coaching staff, new QB, revamped team (12 free agency hires along with mostly offensive draft pickups) ,VERY good defensive players like Lavonte David, Gerald McCoy, Alterraun Verner, Dashon Goldson, etc.

On paper, the team is STACKED with both young and old talent (especially on defense). The biggest downside coming out of preseason was the dreadful o-line. The just traded Tim Wright to the Pats for multi-pro bowl O-lineman Logan Mankins.

Maybe it's all hype, but with Lovie Smith coaching, Jeff Tedford as OC and Leslie Frazier as DC, I think we have a chance to at least compete this year. Maybe not go all the way (Saints are the #1 contender for the NFC south), but anything is better than the Schiano era that bombed to a 4-12 record last year.

Bucs have no real chance. As an original season ticket holder to this day, yesterday began my/our 39th season in an all too familiar fashion. Josh McGown is nothing but a journeyman QB, mostly a backup. He displayed that yesterday. Our defense is improved, but still cannot get the other team off the field on third down (third and long for the opponent - they have the Bucs just where they want to be). Goldson dropping a sure INT deep in Carolina territory late in the game that very well should have been a pick six or at the least very close FG range to tie the game. Then a fumble by Rainey on the Bucs final possession - well, just plain old Bucs ball.

After attending nearly every one of the 300 regular season games, plus playoff games at home, the Bucs will do well to finish at .500. Losing to Carolina yesterday in the pathetic fashion they did for 3.5 quarters is unfortunately an all too familiar formula.

Lovie Smith is a good coach, but he isn't a miracle worker.

It was hot yesterday, and the heat has already turned up on this team and staff, facing St. Louis this week and their very stout defense. If the boos rain down, so be it. I'm nearly four decades used to it.

 

[Beta]

It's an amazing thing, the NFL. The worst to first teams, the first to worst, trying to get a reasonable prediction on anything past the Patriots, all the team by team analysis, like what you just did.

I would enjoy it if, say, Mike and Mike, played the show from 365 days ago and then discussed how all their predictions turn out and why to see if there is really anything to any of this...besides the Pats.

I mean, a lot of people swore the Seahawks weren't even likely to make the playoffs.

There are plenty of predictions that are crap, but a lot of that is because the national talking heads don't pay attention to the day to day workings of most teams and usually make predictions based on the previous season. You always know there will be some surprise teams (both good and bad).

I'm not sure who you follow, but the Seahawks were supposed to challenge the 49ers for NFC West supremacy last year. :shrug:

And the Patriots look like they might be coming back to the pack this year, so maybe even that prediction becomes more difficult


BTW Larry -- did you watch the game?? I didn't. RGIII's stats look good (96.7 QB rating), good completion percentage, decent yardage, Morris seemed to run well...so my question is, how did they only score once??? Were the incomplete passes mostly on 3rd down? Was it the two turnovers? Bad penalties (7 for 70yds)? Passes thrown short of the sticks with little to no YAC? I have a hard time seeing a team get 20 first downs, 372 yards, and 6 points

All I know is it's pretty apparent the Skins Special Teams blew the game. 2 blocked kicks? Awful, even if you're playing JJ Watt. That's an 8 point swing. At 10-7 you just need a FG to tie instead of needing 2 touchdowns.

Bucs have no real chance. As an original season ticket holder to this day, yesterday began my/our 39th season in an all too familiar fashion. Josh McGown is nothing but a journeyman QB, mostly a backup. He displayed that yesterday. Our defense is improved, but still cannot get the other team off the field on third down (third and long for the opponent - they have the Bucs just where they want to be). Goldson dropping a sure INT deep in Carolina territory late in the game that very well should have been a pick six or at the least very close FG range to tie the game. Then a fumble by Rainey on the Bucs final possession - well, just plain old Bucs ball.

After attending nearly every one of the 300 regular season games, plus playoff games at home, the Bucs will do well to finish at .500. Losing to Carolina yesterday in the pathetic fashion they did for 3.5 quarters is unfortunately an all too familiar formula.

Lovie Smith is a good coach, but he isn't a miracle worker.

It was hot yesterday, and the heat has already turned up on this team and staff, facing St. Louis this week and their very stout defense. If the boos rain down, so be it. I'm nearly four decades used to it.

BINGO! Sorry to hear about your troubles as a Bucs fan. At least 2002 treated you well.

Mind you, that "improved" defense was playing a backup QB and an offense that was expected to be pretty bad even with Newton at the helm. So we'll see how improved it really is.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Bucs have no real chance. As an original season ticket holder to this day, yesterday began my/our 39th season in an all too familiar fashion. Josh McGown is nothing but a journeyman QB, mostly a backup. He displayed that yesterday. Our defense is improved, but still cannot get the other team off the field on third down (third and long for the opponent - they have the Bucs just where they want to be). Goldson dropping a sure INT deep in Carolina territory late in the game that very well should have been a pick six or at the least very close FG range to tie the game. Then a fumble by Rainey on the Bucs final possession - well, just plain old Bucs ball.

After attending nearly every one of the 300 regular season games, plus playoff games at home, the Bucs will do well to finish at .500. Losing to Carolina yesterday in the pathetic fashion they did for 3.5 quarters is unfortunately an all too familiar formula.

Lovie Smith is a good coach, but he isn't a miracle worker.

It was hot yesterday, and the heat has already turned up on this team and staff, facing St. Louis this week and their very stout defense. If the boos rain down, so be it. I'm nearly four decades used to it.

It was tough watching the game yesterday. Not sure if it was the jitters, or first game, or what, but McCLOWN looked like a rookie out there. (How the hell do you fumble AND throw an INT in the same play!?).

Of course it didn't help that Mankins, Martin, and Jenkins got hurt.

They did show some signs of life in the last 1/5th of the game, and Goldson should have picked that last ball for the walk-in pick 6. It wouldn't have been pretty, but they could have won. Or blame Rainey for the last fumble, whatever.

Each year I find myself wondering when I'll change teams.

BINGO! Sorry to hear about your troubles as a Bucs fan. At least 2002 treated you well.

Mind you, that "improved" defense was playing a backup QB and an offense that was expected to be pretty bad even with Newton at the helm. So we'll see how improved it really is.

To Anderson's defense, he looked good. Not spectacular, but he didn't need to be. He just needed to make the right decisions, and he did.

Defense needed to create turnovers and it didn't. Glad to see McCoy get sack #1, but the D-line never really put too much pressure on Anderson. Secondary stunk up the join constantly blowing coverages on Greg Olsen.

 

[b23hqb]

There are plenty of predictions that are crap, but a lot of that is because the national talking heads don't pay attention to the day to day workings of most teams and usually make predictions based on the previous season. You always know there will be some surprise teams (both good and bad).

I'm not sure who you follow, but the Seahawks were supposed to challenge the 49ers for NFC West supremacy last year. :shrug:

And the Patriots look like they might be coming back to the pack this year, so maybe even that prediction becomes more difficult


BTW Larry -- did you watch the game?? I didn't. RGIII's stats look good (96.7 QB rating), good completion percentage, decent yardage, Morris seemed to run well...so my question is, how did they only score once??? Were the incomplete passes mostly on 3rd down? Was it the two turnovers? Bad penalties (7 for 70yds)? Passes thrown short of the sticks with little to no YAC? I have a hard time seeing a team get 20 first downs, 372 yards, and 6 points

All I know is it's pretty apparent the Skins Special Teams blew the game. 2 blocked kicks? Awful, even if you're playing JJ Watt. That's an 8 point swing. At 10-7 you just need a FG to tie instead of needing 2 touchdowns.



BINGO! Sorry to hear about your troubles as a Bucs fan. At least 2002 treated you well.

Mind you, that "improved" defense was playing a backup QB and an offense that was expected to be pretty bad even with Newton at the helm. So we'll see how improved it really is.

I'm giving them this year and next to make 40 years sitting in the seats. I'll be 62 then, and I will really press the Bucs for a few years of them paying MY way to the games as a sign of appreciation. If things don't turn around, they just may take me up on that just to keep butts in the seats. I was given two free tickets as a long time supporter, and took them for a niece and her hubby, who enjoyed the game. I've already petitioned my customer rep for more of the same.

It does get to be a chore for most 1:00 games, leaving church at noon and usually getting to my parking spot across the street, but we always make it inside the stadium by the SBB or the usual fly-over.

BUC-CAN-EERS! GO BUCS!

 

[Chris0nllyn]

I'm giving them this year and next to make 40 years sitting in the seats. I'll be 62 then, and I will really press the Bucs for a few years of them paying MY way to the games as a sign of appreciation. If things don't turn around, they just may take me up on that just to keep butts in the seats. I was given two free tickets as a long time supporter, and took them for a niece and her hubby, who enjoyed the game. I've already petitioned my customer rep for more of the same.

It does get to be a chore for most 1:00 games, leaving church at noon and usually getting to my parking spot across the street, but we always make it inside the stadium by the SBB or the usual fly-over.

BUC-CAN-EERS! GO BUCS!

Did you end up going to the fan appreciation day, or whatever it was when they sampled the new concessions?

 

[Larry Gude]

Each year I find myself wondering when I'll change teams.

.

You can't do that. At least, not if you are a real 'fan', IE, 'fanatic', IE 'irrationally, immaturely, absurdly attracted to something beyond all reason and/or explanation'.

 

[Beta]

To Anderson's defense, he looked good. Not spectacular, but he didn't need to be. He just needed to make the right decisions, and he did.

Defense needed to create turnovers and it didn't. Glad to see McCoy get sack #1, but the D-line never really put too much pressure on Anderson. Secondary stunk up the join constantly blowing coverages on Greg Olsen.

True, but everyone was questioning what weapons the QB had other than Olsen. So the question is why couldn't their defense cover anyone else? My suspicion is that the rest of the defense looked promising because they only had to cover half of the field the last couple seasons (thank you, Revis) and now that Revis is gone they're realizing just how much he helped the rest of the secondary.

McCoy is a BEAST! I watched him manhandle a Dolphins guard time and time again during their preseason game. He's impressive to watch. That game actually changed the Dolphins starting lineup at guard

I'm giving them this year and next to make 40 years sitting in the seats. I'll be 62 then, and I will really press the Bucs for a few years of them paying MY way to the games as a sign of appreciation. If things don't turn around, they just may take me up on that just to keep butts in the seats. I was given two free tickets as a long time supporter, and took them for a niece and her hubby, who enjoyed the game. I've already petitioned my customer rep for more of the same.

It does get to be a chore for most 1:00 games, leaving church at noon and usually getting to my parking spot across the street, but we always make it inside the stadium by the SBB or the usual fly-over.

BUC-CAN-EERS! GO BUCS!

very cool. I hope they keep treating you well. I like that stadium...when I got to go I sat by the Pirate ship

 

[Chris0nllyn]

True, but everyone was questioning what weapons the QB had other than Olsen. So the question is why couldn't their defense cover anyone else? My suspicion is that the rest of the defense looked promising because they only had to cover half of the field the last couple seasons (thank you, Revis) and now that Revis is gone they're realizing just how much he helped the rest of the secondary.

McCoy is a BEAST! I watched him manhandle a Dolphins guard time and time again during their preseason game. He's impressive to watch. That game actually changed the Dolphins starting lineup at guard



very cool. I hope they keep treating you well. I like that stadium...when I got to go I sat by the Pirate ship

Verner (Revis' replacement) shut down his half of the field, and PFF graded him the highest Corner on Sunday. He was only thrown toward 1 time and the receiver got a 4 yard gain (on a 3rd and 16) . Considering he didn't play at all during the preseason, he did a damn good job. Jenkins on the other hand....

Breakdown: The man added to replace Revis, Verner matched a successful first outing in coverage with a strong showing in run support, notching one tackle for a loss and two more for short gains. Looking like he’ll fit in well.

Signature stat: Verner currently tops our CB overall rankings, sitting just above his former Tennessee teammate Jason McCourty.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/09/08/refo-panthers-buccaneers-week-1/

Can't say enough about McCoy. IMO, #1 DT in the league. Michal Johnson needs to step up if teams are going to throw double and triple teams a McCoy.

then you've got Lavonte David. Dude should have went to the pro-bowl last year, but was named All-Pro. He's an absolute ball hawk with tremendous tackling skills. He constantly gives close to 10 points per game on my fantasy team. Last year he had, 145 combined tackles, 7 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 5 interceptions, 10 passes defended, and a safety.

Just don't let the ship scare you like Cam Newton. You know it's coming after a field goal or touchdown, but the random ones will get you.

http://www.businessinsider.com/cam-...t-well-to-the-bucs-cannon-being-fired-2013-10

 

[Monello]

Damn Bucs' fans intercepted RGRGRG's thread

 

[Larry Gude]

Damn Bucs' fans intercepted RGRGRG's thread

Not a heck of a lot more to say about 'ol Bobby Trey...

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Well that didnt take long

 

[Larry Gude]

Well that didnt take long

Dislocated ankle, maybe torn ligs. Plenty of time to come back and get hurt again.