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znModeratorNate Tice@Nate_Tice
My dad diving into some of the potential issues with Offensive Line timing that may crop up this season with certain run schemes.
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Geoff Schwartz@geoffschwartz
Veteran offensive lines/man will have a huge advantage this season. These young guys have barely any practice and zero preseason game reps to get ready==
August 16, 2020 at 2:55 pm in reply to: Trump admits (today) that he’s trying to sabotage vote-by-mail. #119421znModeratorSo. Mail sorting machines are being removed.
Here's a map that overlays the places where mail sorting machines are being removed with places where Clinton had a lead in the 2016 election.
Have a good evening. pic.twitter.com/3xFlzpo6qh
— Xydexx Unicorn 🦄💕 (@XydexxUnicorn) August 14, 2020
August 16, 2020 at 2:46 pm in reply to: Trump admits (today) that he’s trying to sabotage vote-by-mail. #119420znModeratorfrom Facebook
Steve Buhler
The United States Postal Service is under direct threat, along with the many communities and institutions that it serves, due to the partisan and financially self-serving actions of its current Postmaster General. The USPS Board of Governors has the authority to remove the Postmaster General; Americans have the responsibility to ask the Board to protect the USPS.
A dear friend has done not only that but also gathered the Governors’ email addresses and shared her statement. I have used this information and model in sending my own messages and I encourage everyone who has not already communicated with the Board to do the same.
Here are the email addresses: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com; barger.jm@gmail.com; ron.bloom@brookfield.com; roman@rmiv.com; lee.moak@moakgroup.com; DirectorAccessMailbox@cigna.com.
This is based on what my friend wrote:
Dear USPS Governor,
As your fellow citizen, I implore you to remove the partisan Postmaster General from office. The United States Postal Service is an independent agency, like the military, and as such is obligated to run regardless of financial profit. As a result of the current Postmaster General’s irresponsible directives, veterans and others in need are not receiving their medication on time and bills paid on time are not being received on time. Americans’ precious right to vote is vulnerable to interference and interruption. No administration’s agenda is more important than our right to vote, which is fundamental to our country’s existence as a democratic republic. The proper functioning of the USPS is not a partisan issue; it is an issue of national interest and well-being.
I ask that you follow your conscience, act upon your personal integrity, and enable ALL Americans to participate fully in the American system with the infrastructural support and service of the non-partisan United States Postal Service.
You have a heroic role to play: saving lives with delivered medicines, saving hope with letters between generations who can’t be together now, protecting commerce during an economic crisis, saving free and fair elections. Please do the right thing and remove an administrator who has demonstrated callous and selfish disregard toward these vital functions and benefits of the USPS.znModerator
znModeratorfrom continuity scores: Ranking NFL teams from 1 to 32
https://theathletic.com/1988791/2020/08/14/introducing-continuity-scores-ranking-nfl-teams-from-1-to-32/How can we measure which teams have the most continuity and which have the least? Below are three key factors.
Coaching: Is the team bringing back the same head coach, offensive play-caller and defensive play-caller?
Quarterback: Does the team have the same starter as last season?
Expected returning snaps: Using The Athletic’s team-by-team 53-man roster projections, we can look at which players are expected back. We can then determine the percentage of expected returning snaps — both on offense and defense — from last season.17. Los Angeles Rams (78.2)
Their biggest changes are on defense where Sean McVay parted ways with coordinator Wade Phillips. Personnel-wise, the Rams lost linebacker Cory Littleton, safety Eric Weddle, edge rushers Dante Fowler and Clay Matthews, and slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman. They return just 52.3 percent of their defensive snaps, which ranks 28th. Offensively, Los Angeles is counting on improved offensive line play and better injury luck to fix its problems. They let Todd Gurley go and traded Brandin Cooks but are otherwise running it back. The Rams produced an average offense last year but return 87.1 percent of their snaps — third highest.znModeratorAustralian man a ‘hero’ after punching a large shark to release his wife
https://news.yahoo.com/australian-man-hero-punching-large-045348467.html
An Australian man has been hailed a hero after repeatedly punching a shark until it released his wife’s leg.
Police said the couple were surfing at Shelly Beach in Port Macquarie – four hours north of Sydney in the state of New South Wales – on Saturday morning when she was bitten twice and injured on her right leg.
“Her companion was forced to punch the fish until it let go,” police said.
Paramedics treated Chantelle Doyle, 35, at the beach before she was airlifted to hospital for surgery, where it is understood she remains in a stable condition.
One witness who was surfing nearby when the attack occurred called her husband a hero for taking on what appeared to be a great white shark up to 3m (10 feet) long.
“He started laying into the shark because it wouldn’t let go,” Jed Toohey told Australia’s Daily Telegraph.
“He saved her life… He was really incredible.”
The woman’s husband, Mark Rapley, played down his efforts, telling the newspaper he “did what anyone would have done in that moment”.
The Sydney Morning Herald said he jumped off his surfboard and onto a “juvenile great white” when it refused to release his wife.
Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce was quoted as saying: “This fella paddled over and jumped off his board onto the shark and hit it to get it to release her and then assisted her back into the beach.
“Pretty full on, really heroic.”
August 16, 2020 at 10:28 am in reply to: on Staley & the NUMBER ONE RATED defense … VERY updated #119409znModeratorGreg Beacham@gregbeacham
Rams S John Johnson on what to expect from the new defense and new defensive coordinator: “Coach Staley came from Denver and Chicago. I think we have better guys than he did at those places, so just picture what he did (there), but with better guys.”==
Johnson may have a point.
The Rams feature the NFL’s best defensive player in Donald, no less than at least a minor upgrade to Mack along the defensive line. The Bears top corner in 2018 was Kyle Fuller, who had seven interceptions, but what can Staley expect to do with Jalen Ramsey as his top corner instead?
LA’s safety tandem of John Johnson and Taylor Rapp is no less than comparable to Chicago’s Eddie Jackson and Adrian Amos, at least as compared to what Jackson and Amos were known as prior to the 2018 season. Even today, Jackson and Johnson could be of equal value, and maybe Staley can develop Rapp in the same way that Bears coaches developed Amos, now a safety for the Packers.
If not, he also has third round safety Terrell Burgess to work with.
Mack, Jackson, and Fuller were first team all-pros in 2018, which we know is possible for Donald and Ramsey and could be possible with Johnson. A fourth Pro Bowl player on that defensive was defensive end Akiem Hicks, who at that point was going to the Pro Bowl for the first time at age 29. What could Staley do with 29-year-old Michael Brockers at this point in his career?
A first time Pro Bowl nod type season is hardly out of the question.
Thus far I am having a hard time finding the lie in what Johnson said. But Chicago did have rookie inside linebacker Roquan Smith in 2018 and he posted 121 tackles, five sacks, and one interception that year. Danny Trevathan and Floyd rounded out the group. Staley instead has Floyd, Samson Ebukam, Micah Kiser, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, and others battling it out for four positions at linebacker. If we account for the fact that Donald is making up for what the Rams don’t have with Mack at linebacker, that eases the difference somewhat.
I also believe that Kiser or Floyd or someone will be able to produce 100+ tackles and four or five sacks, just as Cory Littleton did the past two seasons.
Opposite of Ramsey is Troy Hill, a comparable number two corner to Prince Amukamara. The nickel position is a training camp battle and some of the questions won’t be answered until the season is over or much closer to it. Stars will emerge. Others won’t ever come to be. But not only does Staley likely have more talent as a defensive coordinator than what he had as an assistant with the Broncos last season (Miller, Justin Simmons, Chris Harris, Derek Wolfe as the standouts), he could potentially match the very talented number one defense (first in DVOA, first in pass defense DVOA, second in rush defense DVOA) of the 2018 Chicago Bears.
And if you don’t believe it, at least some of the players do
znModeratorThis is challenging stuff. A difficult and necessary conversation.
znModeratorNuff said!! 😂😂😂@RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/DlU3EONMvS
— 𝒥𝒾𝓂 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓉 (@Jim_Everett) August 15, 2020
znModeratorCanadian jokes. (From a Canadian born.)
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Canada could have had it all: American industry, British Culture, and French Cuisine. Instead, they got French Industry, American culture, and British cuisine.
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You live in Canada if you know that the four seasons mean: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road work.
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znModerator
znModeratorWell i suspect there are a significant number of conservatives out there in the heartlands. Not a ‘lot’ but I’m guessing maybe five percent of the Reps. Somethin like that. Enough to swing a close election.
w
vCould be. But I am not sure it’s a close election. Right now it looks like a pending shift back to glory and splendor of a world run by right-centrist mainstream dems.
znModeratorI saw this comment on the net: “We’re too weak up front on both sides of the ball and weak in the middle on D. That doesn’t equate into a playoff team IMO…”
That’s a common view. The remark is nothing special and it doesn’t matter who made it. But I just use it here as a jumping off point to offer the more optimistic view.
So. It may turn out to be that way…that they are weak in the front 7 and the OL. I mean, it’s possible. But there’s no way to know that now. Because the real condition with the front 7 and OL is that they have unknowns. Unknowns can just as easily, near as we can tell now, go the other way too.
Granted they have to get over the covid-19 limitations that make this season different, but all teams have to do that, so it’s an even playing field when it comes to that.
Does having a new D coordinator put them at a disadvantage? I dunno, having a new O coordinator in 99 didn’t. Not of course that that’s a guarantee but…it’s not unheard of for a new coordinator to do well right out of the gate. So we’ll see…but the D seems especially responsive to Staley. Unusually so, actually.
Does having unknowns at ILB put them at a disadvantage? It might. But then Fletcher worked out okay in 99, his first year starting, so it’s not like it’s inevitable that they will play poorly or be weak. It might go that way…but then they have a very interesting stock of candidates. They are lower picks and UDFAs, but then the 99 LB corps included 2 UDFAs so…it’s not automatic that they will play poorly.
Have Fangio’s recent defenses relied on high picks and “name brand known to fans” type ILBs? No. Looking at Fangio’s Chicago defenses from 2015-2018, they were ranked 14th, 15th, 10th, and 3rd.The Chicago D in 2014, before Fangio, was ranked 30th…in contrast, last year’s Rams D ranked 13th and that’s with all their issues, so they have a head start on what the Bears were in 2014. In the process of upgrading the Chicago D, their ILBs included a 2012 1st rounder who did okay (nothing special) who left after a year, but also included across 4 years 2 UDFAs and a 6th rounder (they added Roquan Smith in the first round in 2018.)
Plus of course they will be in nickel and dime packages more than in the base 3/4 anyway.
The OLBs? Also unknowns, though less so than the ILBs. The Fangio Chicago D, before getting Mack, had 35 sacks, then 37, then 42. In those 3 years before Mack only 3 Bears OLBs had more than 5 sacks–McPhee (5th rounder) had 6 in 2015, Floyd had 7 in 2016, Young (7th rounder) had 7 in 2016. So they had solid production on defense without stand-out pass rushing OLBs. The Rams have AT LEAST the potential to replicate that, and have the potential to be better than that.
Is the Rams DL “weak”? No. Listen to Farr praise Brockers for being an every down type big guy who does the dirty work. Joseph-Day is not a pass rusher but he is solid on the nose and of course Gaines is developing. You put Donald in that mix and they look solid, and that’s before Robinson comes back.
The OL. It’s obvious why guys are worried about that OL, but it’s not an automatic write-off. It includes 3 2nd rounders (ie. originally 2nd rounders not Rams 2nd round picks except 1 of them). They have 7 additions starting in 2018 (Noteboom, Allen, Demby, Evans, Edwards, Corbett, Ancrhum)…and 2 of those look like steals (Edwards and Anchrum). Only one of them looks bad (Demby). The others are developing and have experience (with the caveat that Noteboom does not look suited to play guard, but then they have 4 guys ahead of him at guard…and he does look suited to play LOT). Their coach has a long record of developing low round picks and cast offs (Kromer’s 2009 Saints superbowl OL consisted of one 2nd rounder, 2 4ths, and 2 5ths.) The starting LOT for the Bears is a 7th rounder Kromer drafted and developed in 2014 (he was a 2018 pro bowler). Kromer is also the guy who took a fading Incognito in his 11th year, after being out of football, and had him playing the best of his career (with the Bills in 2015 and 2016). He’s not a coach you write off.
So I would not write them off. Besides, they only have to be solid as a unit. Kromer’s OLs going back to the Saints and including the Bears and Bills were always solid or better (his 2009 Saints OL was one of the best in football).
So “unknown” does not automatically mean “weak.” At this point, before we actually see them, “unknown” can mean ANYTHING.
And it’s especially unlikely that 5 unknowns (D coordinator, ILBs, OLBs, DL, OL) will ALL not pan out in the same year. I mean I suppose that could happen, theoretically, but I don’t see it as being at all likely.
They have a D built around 2 stars who complement one another, a very good secondary (best I have seen for the Rams since I started following them), and an OL with a top OL coach and a lot of promising candidates with experience.
Hard to predict but I just see it on the optimistic side. There’s good reasons for that.
It takes all kinds to have a good discussion, and with unknowns like the Rams have it’s just going to lead to discussions where the optimistic and pessimistic views are both pretty prevalent.
August 15, 2020 at 10:47 pm in reply to: Rams camp, 2020 … including “At Camp Live” vids w/ Long, Farr, & MJ-D #119391znModeratorznModeratorAre we agreed, this mail thing is a NEW level of domestic Republican nefariousness?
I mean….just…how…ignorant can the electorate be. This evil evil plan can only work if the american electorate has reached abysmal lows. Every conservative in america should be up in arms about this.
w
There are protests. In terms of conservatives being up in arms, near as I can tell, they are in complete bot-governed partisan mode. So to them–there really is voter fraud and the post office really is losing money, so Trump’s actions are just the right thing to do, silly liberal conspiracy theories aside. There may be no such thing as “conservatives” anymore…just right-wing partisans who live in the right-wing media bubble and echo it.
znModeratorfrom Facebook
Scott Nelson
Good advice for people who feel unsafe about voting in person but now fear the USPS will be unable to deliver a “mail-in” ballot in a timely fashion.
There is a way around it:
1. Request a mail-in ballot.
2. Do not mail it.
3. Google your supervisor of elections to see where you can drop off your mail-in ballot. Its usually NOT THE POLLING PLACE. All states allow this!Here is what you’re accomplishing by doing this:
1. You’re not relying on the USPS to get your ballot in on time, so no matter what, your ballot gets in on time.
2. You don’t have to worry about standing in long lines and risking infection. You’re just stopping by to drop it off.
3. You still voted! Hooray!
Also, when you drop it off find out how to track it online to make sure it is verified. California, Oregon, Washington Colorado have systems that can track your ballot just like tracking a package from Amazon.znModeratorStuJackson@StuJRams
Rams OC Kevin O’Connell said he and QB Jared Goff have “worked a lot” on Goff’s fundamentals – “his base, having a more athletic stance and posture throughout the sequence of a snap.”“To me, what that’s translating to is his natural accuracy is truly something really special.”
znModeratorD-LINE, LET’S WORK! 😤@AaronDonald97@MichaelBrockers@SJD_51@AyyyeeeMoFox @GregGaines99 @Coach_Henny pic.twitter.com/XJlRz6sGrX
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) August 15, 2020
znModeratorJames Palmer@JamesPalmerTV
“He’s a competitive prick” – Eric Bieniemy on Patrick Mahomes and the mindset he has out at practice.He actually said it twice. It was simply amazing.
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Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy on Patrick Mahomes: "You guys have been around him, you know him. He’s a competitive prick, OK. He’s a great kid, but he’s a competitive prick. … He wants to be the best at whatever he can do. "https://t.co/3CBbugTHRV pic.twitter.com/HFc6jfknm8
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) August 15, 2020
znModerator
August 15, 2020 at 1:15 pm in reply to: the virus & the education industry (ie. what should schools do) #119363znModerator
August 15, 2020 at 1:11 pm in reply to: Trump admits (today) that he’s trying to sabotage vote-by-mail. #119361znModeratorPhoto taken in Wisconsin. This is happening right before our eyes. They are sabotaging USPS to sabotage vote by mail. This is massive voter suppression and part of their plan to steal the election. pic.twitter.com/QXLWGIHTrz
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) August 15, 2020
August 15, 2020 at 1:09 pm in reply to: Trump admits (today) that he’s trying to sabotage vote-by-mail. #119357znModeratorLouis DeJoy's official rationale for the changes he has implemented at the Postal Service is itself indefensible. https://t.co/jjviNG3T3z pic.twitter.com/j0eZ7rrbJK
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) August 15, 2020
August 15, 2020 at 1:08 pm in reply to: Trump admits (today) that he’s trying to sabotage vote-by-mail. #119356znModeratorIf journalists don’t keep the volume cranked up high on threats to the Postal Service, they will be abdicating their duty. My column https://t.co/wnLYDriPTn
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) August 15, 2020
August 15, 2020 at 12:56 pm in reply to: Trump admits (today) that he’s trying to sabotage vote-by-mail. #119354znModerator
August 15, 2020 at 11:47 am in reply to: Goff talk … June to Sept. (a lot of great stuff here) #119351znModeratorHigbee on Goff.
(On what gives him confidence that QB Jared Goff can take the next step this season)
“(He’s) probably in the best shape of his life right now. Seeing him just moving around, throwing the rock around, his mobility is better. I know he’s changed his diet a little bit to help improve that. But, he’s in the best shape of his life. I think his leadership skills have even taken another step and being one of the sole guys in there commanding the offense. He’s just getting better every year. I don’t see anything else but him taking that next step this year.”(On what to expect from Offensive Coordinator Kevin O’Connell)
“He’s a great dude. I know he’s been working with Jared (Goff) a lot. I can see that he’s helping Jared with some of the stuff that he has questions on and things like that, the quarterback stuff. I think he’s going to help elevate his quarterback play and this offense and we’re just glad to have him.”znModerator.@TG3II shares why he choose to sign with the @Falcons this offseason.
For Todd's full appearance: https://t.co/dyKbOgxdqi pic.twitter.com/P37JlmJmPg
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) August 15, 2020
August 15, 2020 at 11:36 am in reply to: JB Long w/ coaches Dickerson & Barry, + Blythe & Akers (several vids) #119349znModeratorAwesome conversation with asst head coach Joe Barry on the latest @RamsNFL Revealed:
🔹Who’s starting at inside LB?
🔹Brandon Staley’s impact.
🔹Why he passed on a dream job at USC to stay with the Rams.Podcast: https://t.co/dBGWMm7iq4 pic.twitter.com/oOhdHO3CWv
— J.B. Long (@JB_Long) August 15, 2020
znModerator
znModeratorFixed it: “I have done more to demean women” https://t.co/DwfeWoXeb7
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) August 14, 2020
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