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RFL
It may not seem like much, but if I am right, it will mark a sea change in the team culture.
We will be ready for Game 1 and will compete! I dunno if we'll win, but we will be ready for the speed and toughness of Game 1.
I think Fisher managed that once in 5 years, if my leaky memory isn't letting me down again. And then he couldn't follow up.
Man, it always infuriated me when Fish had months of training camp ans PS games ... and he couldn't prepare the team for real competition.
I predict that changes this year. Hope I'm right.
It was 3 times. They didn't win all 3 but they were competitive in game 1 against Detroit (2012) (where they lost a close one on the road), Arizona (2013), and Seattle (2015). They won 2 of those but did play the LIons tough.
The 2 famous "not ready" times come with heavy extenuating circumstances. In 2014, they looked lost against the Vikes, but that was with an OL that had not practiced together as a unit all summer, and with the shock of losing their starting qb 2 weeks before. In 2016, it was after moving---and several people (including Farr, Demoff, Curley, VB, and Gonzalez) have said that the move visibly undercut them and they are far more focussed this year .
IMO the real complaint against Fisher is not that he mostly had teams unprepared for game 1. That was just not the case. It's that twice, he didn't find a way to get the team to overcome huge distractions by the opening game.
BUT having said that it is also true, I think, that they will be ready for the 2017 opener. Also, this time it may not represent the challenge some other opening games did, since there's a chance Luck won't be ready for that game. Which I btw take as a good thing...it would be nice to get the McVay era off on the right foot, especially in a home opener.
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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2017 10:55AM by zn.
