Phins4life
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Posts posted by Phins4life
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Playing one of my several connected careers seasons, trying to get geared up for M25.
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I'm in a sort of "crawl before you walk" phase. I'm trying to get into screenwriting, but between work obligations and difficulty committing to one of the several thin premises rolling around in my headed, I think right now I should just focus on studying the movies I watch from a story-telling perspective as opposed to an audience one. I've made a handful of attempts before but impatience and lack of outlining made them fall apart.
I've been watching a lot of short films trying to come up with an idea or two that I could commit to and submit to some contests. I have a co-worker who would be happy to work on the film-making aspect of it, but it would be super low budget.
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Yu no nuthin, jun snu...
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I completely forgot about Davone Bess. Don't think anyone has mentioned him yet. He's quietly been a very solid slot guy for the Dolphins for a good 5 years and now he is in Cleveland. If Josh Gordon breaks out, Weeden has some pretty good weapons to work with on offense.
This. When conversations about the most reliable slot receivers in the game come up, his name isn't mentioned enough. Even worse, he's barely had the chance to play his most natural position.
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Jaguar - Incredibly resilient and powerful for its size, even capable of killing a caiman or anaconda. My favorite of the big cats.
Grey Wolf - Among the elite when it comes to coordinated killing. I also love the disciplined social order they adhere to within their packs.
Bonobo - I'm always fascinated by the Great Apes, and I love this one the most.
Saltwater Crocodile - Impressive and scary-as-shit remnant of a bygone age.
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It seems I hold success to a way higher standard than you and hold higher expectations of the word.
Not sure if you meant for this comment to come off as snobbish, but I guess that's either here nor there. I hold success to a high standard, but I also place it within a perspective relative to the team in question. Kind of an "expectations - results" dynamic. If the Browns went to back-to-back Wild Cards and lost, it would still be viewed as a successful pair of seasons when looking at the last decade they have suffered through, because the expectations of success are still pretty low to most fans. The Pats suddenly not making the playoffs a couple years in a row would likely be viewed as a failure in more than a few people's eyes. Those fans are very used to winning, giving them a justifiably shorter fuse when they start to see a negative trend.
Because of the recent up-tick in playoff appearances, sure it's possible that more Cincy fans are becoming used to the winning culture, but I doubt it's still considered an expectation for most at this point in time. But I don't have my finger on the pulse of that fan base, so this is just speculation and I could be completely off base.
You consider 3 consecutive play off appearances as historic regardless if they lose or not. It might be statistically but losing in the first round all three times is far from praiseworthy; especially considering the fact that they have a team that is good enough to win some games.Because for the Bengals as a franchise, it would be. Again, I'm using perspective by looking at his whole body of work and observing how much better his team has become in recent years. I'm not saying a loss in the playoffs this year wouldn't be worthy of a call for more pressure on Lewis next year. It would be. I just don't think it wouldn't warrant a firing.
I think you pretty much countered your own second paragraph with what's in bold. You can't hold teams to exceptions when it comes to winning games. Underdogs come out on top all the time. The team with the better game plan and executes better wins the game. All you have to do is be better than the other team on that day. Any team can beat any other team on any given day in the NFL. Making team exceptions is lame. Just find a way to win. That's what the good coaches do.Hardly.
2005 - Loss to the eventual SB champs (at home)
2009 - Loss to the eventual AFC runner-up (at home)
2011 - Loss to Texans (on the road)
2012 - Loss to Texans (on the road)
The point I was trying to make, while acknowledging the "any given Sunday" mantra, was that the Bengals haven't seen a cake walk in their match-ups, and responsibility for their losses shouldn't be completely placed at the coach's lap. Regardless of the fact that it can happen, doesn't make it a frequent occurrence. Out of 52 WC games since 2000, only 19 away teams won... roughly 3:1 odds against, and nowhere near "all the time". Lame or not, the numbers show that it's an uphill battle for road teams. The first 2 losses, while at home, were to teams that pushed deep into the post-season, also a detail that should be put into perspective.
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Good post and I can respect that. But consistency with no progress is just not good enough. Remember, you're talking to an Eagles fan that went through 4 devastating NFC Championship losses (three in a row) and then a Superbowl loss. We had a coach for 14 years that was pretty consistent at winning for a while at a high level but could never quite break through the barrier and people were calling for his head. Then you turn around to a Marvin Lewis that has been the Head Coach for 10 years and hasn't had not one bit of success and that's acceptable?
We both agree that the Bengals do have a good team; probably the best well rounded team that he's ever had. They've been good enough to win (at least one play off game) for two years now. So if he fails again he should get a pass because he's consistent in getting to the play offs but not winning? The players ages and their expiring contracts won't wait for him to get better. You think the fans and owner wants to hear that the only reason they are losing is because the Texans are a rising team? (and they've been shown up) That just doesn't cut it. You can't make exceptions for teams in the play offs for the reason why you're not winning football games. It comes to a point in time when anything less then winning just isn't good enough. After 10 years and no play off wins, I think it's just about that time if he doesn't do anything significant this year.
I'm just saying that when you look at the broad scope of his achievements as the Bengals coach, we've seen pretty linear progress...3 appearances in 4 years...in a division that regularly contributes more than one playoff team. Like I said, 3 consecutive playoff appearances (win or lose) would be historic for this franchise. I hardly think it's justified to remove him. I understand the length of his tenure, but when looking at the overall amount of talent he's had to work with, I think we can both agree the majority of it has been accumulated in the latter half. So that is probably where the majority of focus and criticism should lie.
And yes, I think the fact that their recent losses have been to Houston should reduce the negative weight of those losses. That's some rough shit for a team nearly on the cusp of success, but not necessarily quite there. Houston is, in my opinion, not all that far ahead of Cincy on the "winning potential" curve in the big scheme of things, but that additional skill is all it really takes in crunch time. I'm aware it can be argued that bigger underdogs have overcome bigger odds, but take my points for what they're worth.
Rex Ryan watched consecutive Super Bowl appearances slip through his grasp, and since then they have done nothing but unravel. We haven't really seen the same effect in Cincy...yet. Ryan fits the profile better...previously successful coach suddenly stops seeing that level of success, and is subsequently fired. Although usually involving former SB winners/runner-ups(Reid, Smith, Fox, etc.). Lewis hasn't really stopped seeing success just yet, in my opinion, until it can be definitively proven that progress has halted and Wild Card births and losses are all they can muster, especially in this "carpe diem" scenario that we see in the AFCN.
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Lewis has had some pretty good teams. Teams good enough to warrant at least one play off win. Carson Palmer was on fire in 05. In 09, their defense was out of this world and went undefeated in the AFC North. The Bengals have been good for two years now; a good enough team to win some play off games and they have yet to deliver that. Faith and leadership doesn't warrant for anything if you're not winning games. Marvin is 0-4 in the play offs. They have a team that is talented enough to win some ball games. They also did a good job in the draft and I think that makes them a better football team (in my opinion). If he doesn't get them far into the play offs, I think they need a regime change. One win may not even be enough. If he can't win with that talented football team, the Bengals need to find someone that can.
Unfortunately for Palmer, he was also dealing with stronger (and younger) Steelers and Ravens teams (well, not in 2005 in the Ravens case). You and I can both agree that even the best passing game can be meaningless without support in other areas. I don't think there were enough pieces on that team to warrant accusations of falling short. It had been their first appearance in over a decade. They were relatively unfamiliar with the winning mentality at that time.
Agreed on the 2009 defense, but again I see this as an example of one side being stronger than the other and not enough to balance the discrepancies. Either way, the loss to the Jets was somewhat unexpected and disappointing. And considering their last 2 playoff losses have been to a rising power in the Texans, I think everything needs to be taken in stride. They've had their share of bad luck in their playoff match-ups, and Lewis still deserves credit in being the first guy to take this team to the playoffs since 1990...not once, but 4 times.
I think they are finally finding a niche with improving young talent, and with the Steelers aging and the Ravens having so many question marks, I agree that this may indeed be the year to claim the AFCN and win at least one playoff game to indicate progress. But if they make the playoffs yet again and lose, I still don't think that warrants an exit. If they did make it, it would mark the first time in team history they had been to 3 consecutive playoffs. If consistency is one of the important gauges, then it would indicate that Lewis was finally finding some. Wrong time to drop the axe in that case.
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First and foremost, I'm still hot that it took so long for Cris Carter to get into the Hall of Fame. That was beyond bullshit.
Amen
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Other then consistency? Consistency is important isn't it? He has a .497 winning percentage out of 160 games. That's not good. Regardless of it being a tough division, it's either you get the job done or you don't. He's had about a decade to do it. He has a good team and if he can't do anything with it, he needs to go. Every coach runs its course. He's catching up to Andy Reid type years and hasn't had no where near as much success*.
But within that decade he's only just recently begun to have a good team to work with(or at least one I would qualify as having real winning potential). I think if anything he and Kubiak share that commonality...leadership having enough faith to stick it out with them and the fans finally seeing some fruit from that labor.
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I went with Ryan in a toss up between him and Lewis. Basically it boiled down to which I consider more fatal...talking trash year after year and never delivering, or needing to up the ante from the success of recent years. I went with the former. I think Lewis has a solid team to work with this year. He certainly needs to deliver something. Ryan honestly shouldn't even be in the conversation at this point because he should have been fired last year.
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Great opening episode. Usually it isn't until about halfway through the season that someone mentally disarms him with the knowledge of who he is. Now we get twice as long to see how he deals with it. I'm also very curious how Hannah plays out this year.
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Gonzalez is a lock as is Brady, Peyton Manning. Champ Bailey is probably the only active CB I could see going at this point, unless I'm forgetting someone.
Charles Woodson? I mean, his fluctuating between safety and corner might be an argument against it (unless you were considering him as a safety in the first place), but he's just had too good a of a career.
How about Revis? Assuming he actually does return to form post-injury. Up to his injury no one argues that he was regarded as the most well-rounded corner of this generation.
And what do you think of Winfield? Too much of an outside shot? He doesn't stack up as well in the INT department, but he's racked up a decent number of tackles in his career.
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I really think this is CJ Spiller's year to take over the Bills offense. He's done nothing but learn and improve through his time in the league, and last I heard he had all but solidified himself in the starting gig. Outside of Steve Johnson, how many other legit weapons do the Bills have?
If I were going sleeper pick, I'd also double it up with the homer pick and go with Lamar Miller. Although, the coincidence that I'm a Dolphins fan has little to do with my faith in his rushing ability if his limited touches last year are any indication of his potential.
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- Tannehill throws for 4K and Miller hits 1K rushing
- Lesean McCoy leads the Eagles in receiving yards under Chip's new offense.
- Cameron Wake finishes as the runner-up in sacks.
- AP becomes the first player to rush for 2,000 in consecutive seasons (maybe not so bold)
- Megatron breaks 2K receiving in the final 2 minutes of the regular season.
- Mark Sanchez learns that the turf is not a valid receiver.
- Tom Brady does not finish with the highest QBR in the AFCE.
- CJ Spiller gains 2,000 AP yards.
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Gonna throw out a sleeper pick with the Colts, although if I were picking logically I think I'm going with the Broncos or the Falcons.
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Far from inclusive, because I haven't been on my football study A-game lately...
Charles Clay - I think Razor summed it up pretty well. There were a couple of times he caught the ball deeper than I thought he was good for, so I'm interested to see what his role will be in a (supposedly) revamped pass attack.
Lamar Miller - This kid was exciting the few times he got to play, and his average is, IMO, a subtle testament to how reliable he may become with an increased role. Several players and personnel have commented on his improved pass protection as well, so needless to say I'm very intrigued by what could be an electric skill set.
David Wilson - After his early woes I think he recovered himself nicely, making the most of his special teams play on more than one occasion and posting a respectable average by season's end with his limited touches.
Andrew Hawkins - I think he's extremely dangerous in open field with the ball, and he showed on numerous occasions he can make people miss in moderate traffic as well. He strikes me as the perfect underneath compliment to the Green deep threat and I expect his season numbers to continue to rise.
Dwayne Allen - Not sure if you can call it a breakout year after posting over 500 yards and a 10 yard average in the rookie year, but I certainly think his role will be increased, as well as the RZ targets and, subsequently, TDs.
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There was this one group called the Mujahideen that we helped a while back. Maybe there's something to this deja vu thing...
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Hey I'll take any Football at this point. This is no different.
I'm down.Wait...so we're in the HoF game this year? Kind of cool.
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Welcome aboard.
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The Heat are not tough, or even remotely physical. They're hardly composed on the court.
In their defense, several of those clutch post-season wins would say otherwise.
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I hate the Heat probably more than anyone here and it isn't because of LeBron or the big 3, but because they are in state rivals of the Magic and I've always hated them, long before they got LeBron. But I give credit where credit is due and the Heat FO has done an amazing job building a championship roster and that team plays great team ball for having so many stars and former stars. The one weakness they have is against teams with good frontcourts, but their small ball is going to give big teams problems as well. That is why the Pacers were able to challenge but not beat the Heat. Same for the Spurs in a way as well.
I really liked what I saw from Indiana against the Heat. Really physical. I think consistency, or lack thereof, was all that kept them from beating Miami up more than they did. They relied way too heavily on George at times, even during his cold spells. It would have been interesting to see how Granger might have changed the dynamic of that series. I don't normally follow basketball, but all in all I was pretty entertained when I tuned in.
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Arian Foster gets it done in the playoffs.
Postseason career: 4 games played, 105 carries for 505 yards. 4.8 a carry. 5 rushing touchdowns. 1 receiving touchdown. 1 Fumble.
Just mentioning it. I like guys who show up in the postseason.
Pretty monstrous numbers. I like that 4.8 the most.
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Shocker to see Miami that high. As much as the FO has claimed they'd take a hard-nosed stance toward bringing in trouble makers, the numbers do the talking. I blame it on being in South Beach. I mean, think of all the trouble they can get into. Dexter could attest to that...sheesh.
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