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Your weekly, drunken, ass version of a better weekly thread...a day late after going dark...
This dreary December Sunday, I decided to switch off the hard liquor (for now) and go with an old favorite of mine. I came across this one during my Army times, drinking with one of my mates from my last unit...it's a bit nostalgic, you see
You ever find yourself wondering what it might be like to recapture those old days? When you and the boys would head out for a night on the town, full of the usual debauchery, and you all decide you're not quite old enough to say no to a reunion? After all, it's a chance to revisit those halcyon days, wild and free, except you begin to realize that you can't quite tank those jagerbombs the way you used to and saying "yes" to that girl comes with a whole host of other complications, and by the end of the night you find yourselves in the back of a Toyota minivan, heading back to the suburbs, on your way to a one-star review because you smell of piss and vomit, and your mate can't stop wondering aloud if he might need to be tested, and all of you are wondering what might have made it onto social media for your wives to discover. Sitting in a pool of your own disgrace, you are forced to accept that your confidence that you all could tread that old ground like the gigachads you were was sorely misplaced...
And this brings me directly to your New England Patriots and the visiting Kansas City T Swifts...
After embarrassing the Steelers on "national television" last Thursday night, confidence was as high as it had been since Week 1's "moral victory" against the defending Super Bowl losers. Zappemania was starting to catch on among dozens of fans across New England, positive things were said about BB, and even JuJu had earned a good game right here in the very column. But the holes were there, if you looked for them, and while the Chiefs may not be the dominating force of years past, they were still a far more competent opponent than the paper tigers in Pittsburgh. But we believed that maybe, just maybe, it could be possible to upset the new NFL villain, and for a glorious quarter and a half, it seemed another Christmas miracle was on its way to Gillette.
Alas, it was not to be, and we'll get into the myriad....reasons...why. A few drunken observations:
The Zone of Shame: After hearing about JC Jackson's mental health issues and the reportedly last minute change to insert Austin into the lineup, it seems apparent that the secondary scheme we saw was not the one they had practiced all week. By my drunken view, zone blitzes were the order of the day on third and long and Kermit was killing us because Bryant and Dugger were getting turned around in coverage repeatedly, missing coverages on receivers working in their zone of responsibility. Not to bring up a sore subject, but this had a very similar feeling to the Malcolm Butler situation in SB52, where another last minute change took a pretty good man-corner out of the lineup. This time, without JCJ, it looks like the Pats settled into a zone scheme, possibly out of concern for exposing our secondary in man coverage, especially if the plan was to blitz a lot.
Barmore Making Noise: Barmore had a tremendous game, and Kansas City paid for everytime they did not double him up. In fact, on Barmore's first half sack, he used outside leverage to get around the OL and the running back (who I think was supposed to pass protect), took the inside angle. Why? Because Barmore had been doing that almost exclusively prior to the sack. It looked to me like the RB took a gamble at the same time Barmore switched it up and created a one-on-one on his own. Kinda cool. He had a couple of other big plays, a tackle for a loss, and was a wrecking ball on the interior line.
Zappe Hour: What do you get when your QB completes 74.2% of his passes for a 5.8 average a TD and a mind boggling INT? Well, you get the quarterbacking version of having a super hot girl in your bed, but the whiskey is...keeping you down; promise ending in disappointment for everyone involved. Once again, this was a situation of seeing two different versions, with the bad version following the good version, suggesting that teams are likely figuring out the Zappe game plan and there's a lack of ability to adjust. Don't get me wrong, I really, really liked some of the things I saw in the first half. Zappe showed some good instincts on where to throw under pressure, seemed to get a good pre-snap read on the defense, and recognized that the Chiefs were more or less selling out on the screens in the first half, leaving the middle of the field wide open. To wit, Zappe saw the Chiefs cheating on the screen on 4th down, and I called it out to my wife before the play that he'd go over the top to Henry. It was there, Zappe saw it, and executed.
Unfortunately, the batted balls came back, and the Pats narrowly avoided the worst on one of them. Zappe had been very lucky on two throws prior to the balls finally being batted down, and it felt like only a matter of time.
Draft Beer: Carolina's win combined with the loss today is giving us even more hope that maybe, just maybe, that first pick is within reach.
Quick Shots:
Yes, it's fair to say I like this defense. Though there were problems with the last-minute zone coverage adjustment, there were several players that stood out and had some tremendous hustle plays, physicality, and a real nose for the ball. In addition to Barmore, Jennings, Wilson, and Peppers all really stood out today. Wise, Uche, and even Mapu also had some pretty great moments.
Mahomes gets the happy feet under pressure, and the Pats might have been able to better capitalize if they had their man-corner starters out there.
Zappe doesn't have a cannon, but he does, in fact, have an NFL caliber arm...and it's nice to see. Reports of noodle arm (Penningtonitis floatius) are unfounded.
I hate ref blaming/shaming, but it's pretty undeniable that the phantom hold call to negate the fumble and Peppers recovery was a turning point in this game. It was 14-10 and the Pats would have had the ball in great field position. Instead, the Chiefs get the FG, Zappe throws the bonehead INT, and we're on to dreaming of the number 1 pick.
Myles Bryant might be the new Jordan Richards; seems like a great guy, supposedly high football IQ, but an absolute liability in coverage. I actually kinda hate to see it.
Spied a Dolphins fan in the crowd cam today. I remember when random Dolphin fans showed up in the early 90s to our games just because they were cheap tickets and it was a chance to laugh at us
----------------------------------
And there it is ladies and gentlemen; let's hear what you were drinking during and after the game.
Cheers
This dreary December Sunday, I decided to switch off the hard liquor (for now) and go with an old favorite of mine. I came across this one during my Army times, drinking with one of my mates from my last unit...it's a bit nostalgic, you see
You ever find yourself wondering what it might be like to recapture those old days? When you and the boys would head out for a night on the town, full of the usual debauchery, and you all decide you're not quite old enough to say no to a reunion? After all, it's a chance to revisit those halcyon days, wild and free, except you begin to realize that you can't quite tank those jagerbombs the way you used to and saying "yes" to that girl comes with a whole host of other complications, and by the end of the night you find yourselves in the back of a Toyota minivan, heading back to the suburbs, on your way to a one-star review because you smell of piss and vomit, and your mate can't stop wondering aloud if he might need to be tested, and all of you are wondering what might have made it onto social media for your wives to discover. Sitting in a pool of your own disgrace, you are forced to accept that your confidence that you all could tread that old ground like the gigachads you were was sorely misplaced...
And this brings me directly to your New England Patriots and the visiting Kansas City T Swifts...
After embarrassing the Steelers on "national television" last Thursday night, confidence was as high as it had been since Week 1's "moral victory" against the defending Super Bowl losers. Zappemania was starting to catch on among dozens of fans across New England, positive things were said about BB, and even JuJu had earned a good game right here in the very column. But the holes were there, if you looked for them, and while the Chiefs may not be the dominating force of years past, they were still a far more competent opponent than the paper tigers in Pittsburgh. But we believed that maybe, just maybe, it could be possible to upset the new NFL villain, and for a glorious quarter and a half, it seemed another Christmas miracle was on its way to Gillette.
Alas, it was not to be, and we'll get into the myriad....reasons...why. A few drunken observations:
The Zone of Shame: After hearing about JC Jackson's mental health issues and the reportedly last minute change to insert Austin into the lineup, it seems apparent that the secondary scheme we saw was not the one they had practiced all week. By my drunken view, zone blitzes were the order of the day on third and long and Kermit was killing us because Bryant and Dugger were getting turned around in coverage repeatedly, missing coverages on receivers working in their zone of responsibility. Not to bring up a sore subject, but this had a very similar feeling to the Malcolm Butler situation in SB52, where another last minute change took a pretty good man-corner out of the lineup. This time, without JCJ, it looks like the Pats settled into a zone scheme, possibly out of concern for exposing our secondary in man coverage, especially if the plan was to blitz a lot.
Barmore Making Noise: Barmore had a tremendous game, and Kansas City paid for everytime they did not double him up. In fact, on Barmore's first half sack, he used outside leverage to get around the OL and the running back (who I think was supposed to pass protect), took the inside angle. Why? Because Barmore had been doing that almost exclusively prior to the sack. It looked to me like the RB took a gamble at the same time Barmore switched it up and created a one-on-one on his own. Kinda cool. He had a couple of other big plays, a tackle for a loss, and was a wrecking ball on the interior line.
Zappe Hour: What do you get when your QB completes 74.2% of his passes for a 5.8 average a TD and a mind boggling INT? Well, you get the quarterbacking version of having a super hot girl in your bed, but the whiskey is...keeping you down; promise ending in disappointment for everyone involved. Once again, this was a situation of seeing two different versions, with the bad version following the good version, suggesting that teams are likely figuring out the Zappe game plan and there's a lack of ability to adjust. Don't get me wrong, I really, really liked some of the things I saw in the first half. Zappe showed some good instincts on where to throw under pressure, seemed to get a good pre-snap read on the defense, and recognized that the Chiefs were more or less selling out on the screens in the first half, leaving the middle of the field wide open. To wit, Zappe saw the Chiefs cheating on the screen on 4th down, and I called it out to my wife before the play that he'd go over the top to Henry. It was there, Zappe saw it, and executed.
Unfortunately, the batted balls came back, and the Pats narrowly avoided the worst on one of them. Zappe had been very lucky on two throws prior to the balls finally being batted down, and it felt like only a matter of time.
Draft Beer: Carolina's win combined with the loss today is giving us even more hope that maybe, just maybe, that first pick is within reach.
Quick Shots:
Yes, it's fair to say I like this defense. Though there were problems with the last-minute zone coverage adjustment, there were several players that stood out and had some tremendous hustle plays, physicality, and a real nose for the ball. In addition to Barmore, Jennings, Wilson, and Peppers all really stood out today. Wise, Uche, and even Mapu also had some pretty great moments.
Mahomes gets the happy feet under pressure, and the Pats might have been able to better capitalize if they had their man-corner starters out there.
Zappe doesn't have a cannon, but he does, in fact, have an NFL caliber arm...and it's nice to see. Reports of noodle arm (Penningtonitis floatius) are unfounded.
I hate ref blaming/shaming, but it's pretty undeniable that the phantom hold call to negate the fumble and Peppers recovery was a turning point in this game. It was 14-10 and the Pats would have had the ball in great field position. Instead, the Chiefs get the FG, Zappe throws the bonehead INT, and we're on to dreaming of the number 1 pick.
Myles Bryant might be the new Jordan Richards; seems like a great guy, supposedly high football IQ, but an absolute liability in coverage. I actually kinda hate to see it.
Spied a Dolphins fan in the crowd cam today. I remember when random Dolphin fans showed up in the early 90s to our games just because they were cheap tickets and it was a chance to laugh at us
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And there it is ladies and gentlemen; let's hear what you were drinking during and after the game.
Cheers
