Mr.TaterSalad

The site sites you to sift through and filter out early voting numbers by state. The numbers out of Georgia are incredibly encouraging. They are surpassing 2020 presidential year numbers. https://targetearly.targetsmart.com/g2022?state=GA&view_type=state

If Robert E. Lee had Fox News he would have surrendered and then toured the country to declare victory.

I guess that is good news for Democrats to see early voting numbers keep pace in the midterms with 2020 numbers. I do fear that these numbers may be deceiving and that voters are actually coming out to vote for the Heisman Running Back that they view as a God down there.

I'm guessing Vrana has a substance abuse issue he is dealing with? My hope isn't for hockey or the teams performance without him in the lineup at this point. From one human being to another, my hope is that whatever this young man is dealing with he gets the treatment, help, and support he needs to recover and move beyond any potential addiction issues he might be battling. All the best to Jakub Vrana and those closest to him!

It's too bad we can't have snap elections right now because the Tories are a complete mess!

Baring a turn around here over the next 4-5 weeks, Chark is a player who is not showing improvement and is trending in the one and done direction. I hope he turns it up a notch because right now he's averaging about 2 catches and 37 yards a game. No way am I paying a guy like that to come back if he stays on his current pace and has under 40 catches and under 500 yards at season's end.

Yeah, Al Avila (Ah-vi-lah) got fired and Chris Illitch did the unexpected hiring Scott Harris instead of just promoting Sam Menzin like I thought he was going to do. A number of Detroit/Michigan teams lately have been pleasantly surprising me. I really like the Harris hire. I liked the Brad Holmes hire. I like that Harbaugh is finally righting the ship at Michigan. I love Yzerman. Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn are testing my patience, but I am really, earnestly trying to give it the necessary time before I just rag on them, Sheila, and this franchise for being the same old lions.

Look man, Holland was fired, Stafford was traded, Harbaugh has seemingly turned things around. What do I have left?

Look, I hate the incompetent Fords as much as anyone. I'm just really, actively trying to be a more thoughtful, less negative, reactionary fan than I've been in the past. I want to be honest, open, and give Sheila a chance that she can be different than her dad and mom. That she can build a winning franchise. I want to have some hope remaining.

Well William Clay Ford allowed his drinking buddy Russ Thomas to be GM for 30 years. If it weren't for his son stepping in and axing Millen, he'd have allowed Millen to be here as long as Russ Thomas was. So it is a low bar, but given that Sheila fired Quinn and Patricia fairly quickly into her tenure, it does seem like she has more involvement and expects more accountability than her dad ever did.

Lincoln Project has the best attack ads. Here they are slaying Blake Masters and Kari Lake in Arizona. I hope this ad is up on TV or digital in the state.

This is they key question for our offense. Will any of our playmakers actually play this week? If they don't or a majority of them don't it's going to be ugly going up against a good Dallas defense.

So do you all think the NFL Owners vote out Dan Snyder as owner of the Washington Commanders before seasons end?

I did not dive into the crosstabs of the poll and only read the topline numbers. Like you, I would have a hard time believing that any one group would swing +30 towards a particular party or candidate in one month, especially with today's hyper-polarized electorate.

I know he'll likely lose, but Tim Ryan's takedowns of JD Vance have been really strong, political attacks. I'm sure given how few people watch these Senate debates that they won't reach the target voter unless they end up in a TV or digital ad. But still really good stuff.

Tudor Dixon is both dumb and repugnant, which is par for the course with MAGA politicians.

It's a miss based on who they passed on and that the Lions desperately needed a LB (they desperately needed a DT too). JOK was still on the board and they passed on him. JOK looks like a really good NFL player and Levi does not.

I get that Joe Douglas has been there going on 4 years, but their coaching staff has only been in place as long as Campbell has here. On the Giants front, I'm not sold on them either being a long term, successful team. But here we are with them sitting at 5-1. And it isn't like they only beat up on the bottom feeders of the league either. Green Bay, Baltimore, and Tennessee are all quality wins for the Giants. They did it with no Kenny Golladay, no Sterling Shephard for the past 3 games, no Kadarius Toney. They are starting a collection of rookies and borderline practice squad guys at WR, with Daniel Jones still at QB. Yet they are finding ways to win still. I am aware that I am being one of those fans right now that is not showing patience and only reacting to what's in front of me. I know that the season is young and that Holmes and Campbell deserve more patience and time than this. I want to give it to them too. I know we could come out of the bye week, make changes, and improve on defense, as we did last year on offense after the bye. I know we could be the Bengals and go from worst to first with a few changes from one offseason to the next. But right now, getting lost in the weeds of a 1-4 record, the league worst performance of this defense, Dan Campbell's coaching mistakes, and seeing Levi out for then season, it's hard to be patient and optimistic for the future.

I know. Right now as fans, we are stuck in the rut of what we've seen and what we know. It's hard to be disciplined as a fan and tell yourself to just wait for the rest of the season to playout. The next 3 games will be more telling than the last I feel. Coming out of a bye week, they should be able to readjust and reset some things. I don't think anyone expects them to beat Dallas, but we at least want them to look competitive and see this offense rebound to what it was in the first 4 games. If it doesn't and they go and get skunked, even against a really good Dallas defense, then you are really going to start to see fans panic. The other two games, Dolphins and Packers, are now games they should be in the conversation to win. The Dolphins are potentially starting either Teddy Bridgewater or Skylar Thompson at QB when facing us. The Packers just got torched by the Jets and haven't exactly looked dominate thus far this year. If we come out of that 3 game stretch with the defense looking as it has and the offense not rebounding, that means we're in 1-7 territory as a team having gone 0-3 in those games. At that point, you see a coaching staff and a front office spiraling downward and you're just looking for somewhere on the schedule where we will finally get a win. And as I have said all season long, what I want to see more than anything is improvement from this team and coaching staff. Individual player improvement with guys getting better week to week. Unit improvement with entire personnel groups looking better on the whole over the course of the season. And competent coaching with improvement that shows this coaching staff is growing, but learning from their mistakes. If we are 1-7 3 weeks after the bye, I think it will be hard to say we saw marked improvement from this team.

What's frustrating to me is that you have teams in year 1 or 2 of their rebuild and they already have better records, with worse QB situations and worse offenses than the Lions have. The Giants have a brand new GM and a brand new, first time head coach and are 5-1 and second in their division. They are 5-1 with Daniel Jones as a starting QB and no good offensive playmakers outside of Saquon Barkley. The Jets are 4-2 with a second year head coach and a carousel of QBs with both Joe Flacco and Zac Wilson having started and won games for them. Albeit it, this is Joe Douglas' third year as GM but only second with Robert Saleh as the Head Coach. The Seahawks were supposed to be contenders for the #1 pick this year and are now 3-3 and tied for the division lead. They have a career backup starting in Geno Smith and lost their best RB, Rashad Penny to an injury. They lit us up for 48 points with Geno Smith in at starting QB. I always knew this was going to be a 3 year process. But it is still frustrating none-the-less to see teams you though would be worse, Giants, Jets, Seahawks, doing it quicker than we are.

How much criticism does Brad Holmes deserve for not being more aggressive in targeting defensive free agents? I know Marcus Williams was the not name around here and I believe he is now on IR. But when you read some of Holmes' quotes from this past offseason, it really feels like they (mistakenly) trusted the talent they already had on the roster and what they would end up doing in the draft. They stood largely pat in free agency and didn't make any splash moves. SeShaun Elliot was the biggest free agent move they made on defense. They have the statistically worst defense in the NFL this season, well they did pre-bye week. Again, I say all this as a supporter of a lot of what Brad Holmes has done and am not even discussing moving on from Holmes, before someone infers that.