…ok, look at the blue bumper sticker on the wall behind Chris Long.

Great win for Detroit.  If they had to lose, well….ya know.

Not sure the best team won, though.  I think the Rams are right-there with the Lions.

Hope the Lions can upset the 49ers down the road.

Stafford is awesome.  Cant say enough about the Rams this year.

Just need a player here, a player there, and some luck, and they would be right there with the elite teams.   A pass rusher.  A good corner.

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I am picking the lions because I’m too frightened of getting my hopes up

by picking the Rams.

Lions 30

Rams 24

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zn wrote:

, but then neither DV nor McV excelled when in the same bad circumstances–ie. not having both a good veteran starter at qb and a relatively healthy OL at the same time (that covers 98 and 2022). The bottom of the barrel guys are–in alphabetical and so actually no particular order–Brooks, Knox 2, Linehan, and Spa..

Well, DV had Kurt.  Do you consider him a veteran in 99?

But to the larger point about Fisher, yeah, he was kilt by injuries.  Fisher could have been Robinson-level I think, without the bad-luck.

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Saw on a vid, that Belichex had “15 top-five defenses” over the years.  9 with the Pats, 4 with the Giants and 1 with the Browns.

Its notable because he is linked with Brady so often.   But Brady had nuthin to do with the great defenses.

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One thing you have to respect about Goff is the way he handled the 3-13 year.  2021.   Rams win Super Bowl with Stafford.

What a kick in the gut.

And he just keeps working.

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Zooey wrote:

No, you don’t. And I think that’s kind of strange. That is the way I ran my theatre. I did it that way because it seemed practical. Like… when you see leaders or bosses who don’t acknowledge their mistakes and weaknesses, but try to hold their team accountable for mistakes and weaknesses… the only people they are fooling are themselves. The fact that you swagger around being the boss doesn’t conceal your errors from your team. May as well own up to it, and create a climate where people can own up to their own mistakes, and grow from it. That’s the difference between a leader and a boss. And it just seems so obvious to me that I don’t know why people let their egos make the wrong leadership decision in this regard. It’s self-defeating, ultimately. Viva Leadership. Down with Bosses!

Well, but according to coach alliser thorne, you cant ever question yourself.   So, i dunno.

zn wrote:

This was in another thread but I wondered if it would make a topic thread in its own right. My personal take is that this is very nuanced. Vermeil’s accomplishment is that he rebuilt the team he inherited in 97. Rebuilt it from the ground up, including finding a franchise qb in Warner. And it was all him doing that. Later, when Armey and Martz were in charge of personnel, they began the long decline that led to years of a championship team unravelling. Vermeil also made collossal errors like sticking with Banks and Philips too long. Plus, as Zooey points out, he left. But then at the same time the team he built was solid in every aspect–offense, defense, and special teams. McVay inherited a ready to go team in 2017 that just needed a few pieces, most notably a left OT and some receivers. He brought a great culture (so did Vermeil) and he won a super bowl with bold moves like trading for Stafford. I don’t put 2023 all on McVay though–if anything, the more McV delegates personnel acquisition the better the Rams are at it. And it’s not just Snead as a “maestro GM” type. More than that, Snead is an organizer. He organized college scouting and pro-personnel departments that pretty much supplied all the newcomers they found for the 2023 season. For example, are the 2023 Rams a wild card team without Williams? I don’t think that McVay is the guy who found Williams. I think guys like Williams are the result of the personnel acquisition depts. Snead built. Now having said that, much of 2023 was McV changing his approach on offense and also making a long list of great coaching hires (including Ryan Wendell). McV also made collossal errors like coming up with the league’s worst special teams in 2023. I don’t count trading Goff for Stafford as an error, but I do count McV’s glaring impatience with Goff in 2019/2020 as a coaching flaw (though one he may have learned from). McVay/Snead were also responsible for a long series of problematical free agent extensions, from Gurley to Noteboom. I would say that between the Vermeil regime and the McV/Snead regimes, it’s a pick-em–I personally pretty much rate them a tie. Though having said that, I also expect the McV/Snead future teams to stay in it and be top competitive teams for as long as they are in charge. I can absolutely see why someone else would rate one over the other, though I think McV is probably the more popular choice. In terms of the others, I rate the 70s version of Knox over Robinson and Robinson over Martz. All 3 have their strengths but both McV and DV are above those 3.

Agree.

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Zooey wrote:

wv wrote:

Anybody remember their pre-season prediction for this season ? I cant remember what i predicted. Pretty sure i didnt predict 10 wins, though. w v

That’s some 7-9 bullshit right there.

=

We were more pessimistic than i remembered.

So many things emerged or came-together.   But mainly the OLine, i guess.   Always seems to start there.

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Zooey wrote:

wv wrote:

Anybody remember their pre-season prediction for this season ? I cant remember what i predicted. Pretty sure i didnt predict 10 wins, though. 

We were more pessimistic than i remembered.   So many things emerged or came-together.   The Oline, mainly, i guess.   Always seems to start there.

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Zooey wrote:

Update: On the way home this evening, the SF flagship station agreed that the one thing you don’t want to face in the playoffs is a wizard QB, and the wizard QB in the NFC is Matthew Stafford. The other thing they talked about was the accusation that Purdy is a “game manager” which is supposed to be a slight, but that’s literally the qb’s job, and all 9er fans have been watching him every week for over a year and a half, and…whatever…he does everything he’s supposed to do {sound familiar?}. …

I sometimes think any QB without a Gun of an arm, gets called a ‘game manager’ until, he reaches, something close to the Montana stage.

I dont ever recall a QB with a big-arm being called a game manager.

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Anybody remember their pre-season prediction for this season ?     I cant remember what i predicted.    Pretty sure i didnt predict 10 wins, though.

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