This and That (Into the Homestretch ...)

[shmessy]

I appreciate the input. Not sure I can drop Fat Rex - I've been calling him that for so long that I'm not sure I even remember his real name anymore. With a fresh read this morning, the FiveHead stuff does seem a bit forced.

Mostly, I wanted to thank you for taking the toime to read it and to make the thoughtful suggestions. I'm not a writer and haven't written anything but business coresspondence since high school (a very long time ago). I'm finding this to be fun and hope to make it better over time.

You're pretty damn good.

Almost Patsfanken good!

Keep 'em coming!

 

[ctpatsfan77]

2. The Browns, Bengals and sad sack Colts will have a big say in determining the AFC play-off seedings. The Browns play the Steelers (twice) and the Ravens, while the Bengals play the Ravens and Texans, both of whom have bye weeks (i.e., games with the Colts) remaining. It's hard to hold out much hope for any outside help here for the Patriots. The Browns are - as ever - the Browns, the Bengals are fading fast and the Colts would be underdogs to Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (more on this later). Since the Colts are one of the few "football" teams in North America that is not NCAA bowl eligible, they will be spared this particular indignity (playing Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, that is) .

The Pats won't get much help from those teams (although you never know ), but, OTOH, those teams won't get much help in the SOV tiebreaker from playing the Bungles, etc.

 

[borg]

I've never put a picture up before... let's see if this works.

Cool. It worked.
On your left you have the Pats Defensive stats week by week (bye skipped).
On your right, the Pats Offensive stats.
In both, the blue line is yards per game (read on the left y-axis), and the red is points
per game (read on the right y-axis).

I have adjusted the points per game by not counting things like safeties and pick-6s
against the defense as they weren't on the field when those points were scored.

"The Funk" is easily seen in the middle of the Offensive ppg line where they scored well
below their usual 30-or-so points.

Negative points??

 

[shmessy]

They call Sanchez Sancheez because he likes cheese and they call Rothlisberger Rapistburger because he likes to......... well, you know.

These messageboard things are voluntary you know. If your delicate sensibilities are so offended by the average football fan than maybe you should join a book club or some such ****.

Calm yourself.

If you read Fnord's original post here, he obviously liked the OP's work very much and said so clearly. He simply made an observation.

No need to go Internet Tough Guy on him.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

They call Sanchez Sancheez because he likes cheese and they call Rothlisberger Rapistburger because he likes to......... well, you know.

These messageboard things are voluntary you know. If your delicate sensibilities are so offended by the average football fan than maybe you should join a book club or some such ****.

Calm yourself.

If you read Fnord's original post here, he obviously liked the OP's work very much and said so clearly. He simply made an observation.

No need to go Internet Tough Guy on him.

You're telling somebody whose opening sentence was "They call Sanchez Sancheez because he likes cheese." to calm himself.

Do you think maybe, just maybe it wasn't the most serious post to begin with? I would have thought that the opening sentence would be a dead giveaway but clearly it wasn't.

 

[patfanken]

Really good post, Zeus. I more than most appreciate a well written post that takes more than 5 minutes to read.

HOWEVER..... I will take exception to one item. Your characterization of Marty Shottenheimer was unwarranted. Marty was a better than average HC in the NFL. In fact that is kind of an understatement. A lot is made about his failures in the post season, but the reality is that it wasn't Shottenheimer who fumbled the ball on the GL in Cleveland, and it wasn't Shottenheimer who fumbled the punt return against the Pats.

So while he wasn't a "great" HC, he certainly was better than 75% of the rest of his peers and SD is STILL suffering the bone head move that AJ Smith made in firing him in a clash of egos.

As for his son, I kind of wonder if he is getting a bad wrap. He gets hammered because it is viewed that he is limiting Sanchez. I wonder if he isn't the reason that Sanchez is as effective as he is. Isn't he getting the most out of an inconsistent, largely inaccurate passer. Doesn't he gear his offense to his assets (pocket mobility, play action passes, and late game execution).........Or it could be that he sucks, but his "suckatude" should have no reflection on his father.

Just sayin'..

 

[shmessy]

You're telling somebody whose opening sentence was "They call Sanchez Sancheez because he likes cheese." to calm himself.

Do you think maybe, just maybe it wasn't the most serious post to begin with? I would have thought that the opening sentence would be a dead giveaway but clearly it wasn't.

"These messageboard things are voluntary you know. If your delicate sensibilities are so offended by the average football fan than maybe you should join a book club or some such ****."

-Sorry, I missed your obvious humor.

 

[Zeus]

Really good post, Zeus. I more than most appreciate a well written post that takes more than 5 minutes to read.

HOWEVER..... I will take exception to one item. Your characterization of Marty Shottenheimer was unwarranted. Marty was a better than average HC in the NFL. In fact that is kind of an understatement. A lot is made about his failures in the post season, but the reality is that it wasn't Shottenheimer who fumbled the ball on the GL in Cleveland, and it wasn't Shottenheimer who fumbled the punt return against the Pats.

So while he wasn't a "great" HC, he certainly was better than 75% of the rest of his peers and SD is STILL suffering the bone head move that AJ Smith made in firing him in a clash of egos.

As for his son, I kind of wonder if he is getting a bad wrap. He gets hammered because it is viewed that he is limiting Sanchez. I wonder if he isn't the reason that Sanchez is as effective as he is. Isn't he getting the most out of an inconsistent, largely inaccurate passer. Doesn't he gear his offense to his assets (pocket mobility, play action passes, and late game execution).........Or it could be that he sucks, but his "suckatude" should have no reflection on his father.

Just sayin'..

My bad on Schottenheimer and a good observation by you, Ken. Some innocent facts were sacrificed in the interests of humor. I hope this does nothing to jeopardize my status as a rank amateur.

Marty was 200-126-1 over 21 seasons as a head coach. That's pretty good. He does get a lot of criticism for his teams underperforming (5-13) in the playoffs. Too bad for the Bolts that he couldn't get Quentin Jammer to cover Reche Caldwell. And I guess we shouldn't forget that he did play for the Boston Patriots for a couple of years (late 60s, early 70s).

His son Brian shoulders a lot of the blame for the jets' offensive shortcomings - such is the life of an NFL coordinator. Of course, Brian does have the blight of his association with the jets to deal with. This makes him guilty until proven innocent. This may be unfair, but I cannot change the way the world works ...

 

[fnordcircle]

I appreciate the input. Not sure I can drop Fat Rex - I've been calling him that for so long that I'm not sure I even remember his real name anymore. With a fresh read this morning, the FiveHead stuff does seem a bit forced.

Mostly, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to read it and to make the thoughtful suggestions. I'm not a writer and haven't written anything other than business correspondence since high school (a very long time ago). I'm finding this to be fun and hope to make it better over time.

The biggest message that I want you to take home is that I was impressed with your writing enough to care. I could be wrong on the names stuff - it's just an opinion thing.

But there's a great energy and 'fun' to your writing and I'd love to see you go somewhere with it.

 

[TB146]

Negative points??

There are no negative points. The scale goes negative so I could put both lines on the same graph without them overlapping, but I assure you... there are no negative points.

 

[Boston Boxer]

Really nice post. I'd drop the silly names (Fat Rex, Fivehead, etc) though. They're passe and really only serve to lower my perception of the quality of your writing. You're clearly gifted and smart enough to entertain without reducing yourself to written barbs that are better suited to youtube comments and poorly-punctuated twitter posts.

Otherwise it was top notch stuff as worthy of print as anything I've read coming from a columnist.



I think it's pretty transparent that the goal here was to garner interest not enlighten readers. And he accomplished that because every sports forum I go to has someone annoyed about that article. It's how Dan Shaugnessy made his career, that and inane books about curses.

I dont care who you are...but fivehead is funny