gehringer_2

transfer portal QBs will become the next competitive advantage. Snag a good one you don't mind living with and then you are free to throw all the 5 start recruits at him you can land. If one can't beat him out, fine, they can walk. If one does, even better. When he's out of eligibility go out and find another Soph xfer to set up the process again.

For the Vikes this was like the Ravens game was for the Lions. The idea this Lions offense would go 75 in 1:50 with no time outs was probably as hard to take seriously as the chance of someone hitting a 66yd FG.

The advantage Oliva probably has over Allen with voters is that he played on some good teams in MInn when he was productive. Allen's teams in Philly and Chicago were crappy. Maybe that shouldn't matter but I think there are almost subliminal ideas that are always there in the background for some voters that a good player should elevate his team and likewise that on a good team a good player is seeing the opposition's best in a way that a player on a bad team may not. Sure a player can never go the WS/playoffs and make the Hall, but I think it's always a slightly higher bar for them. Allen was on one Phillies playoff team at the end but he was not a big contributor by then and didn't do much in that playoff

we saw both good and terrible Goff in multiple turns in the course of one game today, so who knows how much who is calling the plays has to do with whatever make him tick or lose time.

If you want some fun around this in literary form: "Labyrinths" a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges. Borges was probably more read by other writers than the public. Umberto Eco named his antagonist librarian in "The Name of the Rose" after Borges.

LOL - do you want me to recap the last 10,000 posts from this and the old forum? Rejection of science, cultural celebration of ignorance , the shift from the popularity of rational/enlightenment Christianity (old school Protestantism) to anti-scientific biblical fundamentalism (this is a huge movement - by far the most important), movement away from demanding critical thinking from the leadership on both the right and left, the increasing cultural objectification of women even in the ironic face of the explicit rhetoric against it, the re-emergence of the US white nationalism, the explicit admission by the political elites that democratic principles are now strictly transactional ( this one is significant because even when principles were ignored in the past, they were not admitted to be ignored, so social pressure could be brought bear to bring things back toward compliance. When the elites are explicit in their rejection of principle, that leverage now lost - you will never shame Mitch McConnell or Donald Trump, to live up to a higher principle than the win - and yes I could probably come with someone on the other side just as bad but not as close to mind if I wanted to spend more time than I do.). That's all I got in 5 min.....

I remember Oliva as a really high profile player in his day, so at least from the 'fame' part I have no complaint. It's tough to look back at the guys from the pitcher era and decide who 'deserves' it given the statistical compression between the good and great players of that era. But he didn't play long enough to do anything on the counting stat end so I don't know by what logic he goes in and Freehan is still out.

LOL. For a Buckeye, KH has been OK in my book over the years. He did get way out in front of his skis on the Les Miles thing. He did an interview later where he admitted that as an analyst he needed to stay out of the news end. I think someone he thought he could trust used him there. Needs to start watching his weight though - looking a little portly in his last commercial!

well, that was my quick paraphrase so don't dump on KH for that.

as noted above, there were some motivations for them, but they were not playing for the chance to stay in the playoff. There is no bigger motivation than win or go home and all the teams but Georgia had it. It was valid point. But since there is a good chance (sadly) they are going to get a rematch in the title game, we'll probably get to see if Ga plays any better with all the chips on the table or not. Not that I wouldn't be perfectly happy not to see it happen....

at any given point a football game can evolve down a hundred different possible scenarios. Almost any decision can be good or bad in some number of those futures. Of course only one outcome happens, but which will is never more than a guess. There may be more or less statistical support for some choices but there is never any guarantee the particular game is going to take the 'average' path and validate the best 'average' answer. Campbell took a chance his team could do something if they got the ball back. It was a bet that ended up paying off even if it didn't have the best odds. I'm not going to fry him for that. how he uses his QB? That is a different matter. Depending on what is clearly the least reliable cog in your offense when you need a foot on 4th down - *that* makes no sense. My biggest beef with Campbell is that he seems committed to the idea that Goff can play at a higher level than he has shown any inclination to do since he's been here.

only problem was that JL's advice was filtered through a pre-analytics mindset about what made a productive position player and he didn't know jack about pitch physics. But he was a good leader, and he was willing to protect young arms when that was needed.

He's very unusual case - a guy who came back from Tommy John throwing over 2 mph harder with better command than he ever had in his career -- and ends up with a sore arm after 100 innings. Is the new velo more than the rest of his arm can take - or did he just overdue it a little coming back from the long lay off? High risk, high reward player.

right , very different players and Goff overall looks pretty irredeemable, but it just goes to show no-one gets to the NFL without some talent. Being consistent with it is the bigger battle for the Goff type.

It's like we've seen this movie before. Remember how a young Stafford would sputter and stumble and then run a great 2 min drill when he no longer had time to think about anything? We just saw sort of a painfully familiar thing with Goff.

think back to all the drives the Lions could have kept alive if Goff could throw a catchable checkdown! The Vikings were ripe for this to be an easy Lion's win and it was all they could do to pull it out.

Ha!

Of course, Goff is so phenomenally bad it's hard to even evaluate what the rest of the O and Campbell are trying to do. If Boyle and Bough are really worse they should both have been cut.

two more shots

Not much they are doing makes sense. The incredible counterproductivity of the O is obscuring that they are starting to learn what they are doing on defense.

A sane but cynical person might come to the conclusion that Campbell is using Goff as a way to guarantee the top pick.

why waste a TO there? Either go or don't go.

Gawd - another terrible short throw.

The D keeps getting the ball back for them.

yeah - 3rd checkdown throw he has missed in 5 min -- and then a sack.