Thanks!

Quote
alyoshamucci
We made it out alive!!! Some close calls waiting for the freaking busses afterwards, but Sun Tzu and I are alive and well.

It was Saturday and Tuesday cross country travel days for me, hence the late post. It was both of our first trips to Sofi.

We have a very interesting end of the year we're heading into and that's kind of exciting given the newness of our team and the fact that we should have two extra wins (Bengals and Steelers) that didn't break the right way for us. I see the Vikings, Packers, Seahawks and us fighting for the two spots after Dallas.
We have a game we should by all means lose this weekend, then 3 "should" wins, then a questionable game against the 9ers where they could sit their starters.
Packers have the easiest schedule from what I've seen.


The Great

1) Meaningful games in December with a young team. they played hard, were underdogs, and have bonded to be part of the conversation. Their effort and passion turned into wins. That is invaluable experience.

2) Seeing a 70 yard TD live ... on the play Puka crossed 1000 yards. If you were there you know how thrilling that was.

3) Demarcus Robinson making a lot of his opportunities.

4) KT with 5.5 sacks as a rookie interior lineman?

5) Game ending on a safety where we basically bullied the entire line and Flacco off the field like in American Gladiatiors.

6) AJ? No sacks from Myles Garrett? I did not have that on my bingo card.


The Good

7) JJ3s pick against his former team. Also, seeing that live was a rollercoaster. First thing we said was "Oh God, no." because the dude was running alone behind our secondary. Which happened more than once.

8) Witherspoon was solid again ...

9) Kyren bringing the energy. That big cutback was crazy.

10) Jet sweeps to Puka.

11) That he recovered from his rib issues ... that looked like he was in a ton of pain. Everyone was screaming Puka for that injury timeout.

12) Rolling punt to the 2. I like our punter.

13) I know it's just his job, but seeing Jones rack up 15 tackles is meaningful.

14) Byron Young had some high impacts hits. Even if Kareem Hunt or whoever fell forward, they were energizing.

15) Crowd decibel levels got over 105.


The Bad

16) FGs are still an issue.

17) While the decibels were 105 on the field, the volume of the loud speaker (we were equal height to it) was not doable. We were holding our hands over our ears every 3rd down. My ears are still ringing. That's too loud. I was in a band, I listen to things loud and never wear earplugs (even shooting guns, unless it's mandatory) ... I literally would have worn earplugs.

18) I don't know how they got so wide open and often deep against our defense but they seemed to have cracked some code.

19) Kupp is not okay. I'm going to address this in the draft section.

20) TD to Bryant blown coverage.

21) Conversion of a 3rd and 16 leading to that first score. If Amari Cooper doesn't get hurt this could be a very different game.


The Ugly

21) Opening blown coverage TD to Ford.


College

22) So ... glad they're going to go to a larger format, but I'm not sad FSU and UGA are out. Let them play each other. If one destroys the other, they make a case for being left out erroneously. Prove it.

23) Guys entering the portal can't play in their bowl games, right? That makes a real mess.

24) Riley Leonard transferring. He's my highest rated "definitely going back to school."

25) My focus has moved to WR. Not just because Kupp is not dominating, but because we are looking to be drafting out of the top 10 (Where the big 3 OTs go) and the prospects this year are truly dominant.
I'm at a loss knowing that guys like Tre Harris are coming out and are not even being mentioned yet. Brian Thomas Jr. also. This class will likely beat the 2020 class. By a lot.
Could we take an edge round 1 and go WR in a deep class round 2? Yes ... but having a shot at Odunze or maybe even Coleman? It's hard to pass up.
Just for my grading ...
MHJ (but not by much) All around
Nabers ... Toughest most pro ready ... might actually be a better prospect than MHJ. He does more with less.
Coleman ... Best explosive player and red zone target (MOre than the top 2)
Odunze ... (Best WR jedi, body control and back shoulder awareness
Egbuka ... Best finding soft spots in zones.
These guys could all be top ten talents.

26) I'm more on OC and less on OT now ... with that said I am surprised there isn't more buzz about Rueben Foster on A and M.

27) I'm digging into the teams I haven't seen yet and wondering why some players are not being talked about. I'll likely have time to do a "All unknown team" this year.

Thanks again for reading ...

Questions and comments welcome.