Fear The Chorizo

The personnel grouping of Watson/golden/Doubs plus Kraft and then either Jacobs or Wilson in the backfield is a problem for defenses...Hopefully health holds and allows for that personnel to play alot together

He got cleated/stepped on

Best TE in the NFL....Tucker Kraft At least until Gadsen figures things out more for the Chargers

Watson, Kraft, and Love having themselves a night

These blitzes are leaving wide open outlets if Love finds them quick enough

Lets march down and drop 8 points this drive

The RB is right there (even though there was zero intent to complete it)

Because the running back trying to block a lineman was right in his lap, by rule it is...but that rule sucks

I get that by rule thats an incomplete pass....but that rule should be changed so that type of play becomes intentional grounding.

Horrific tackling on that swing pass

I think the days are long gone for when juggernaut teams just destroy everyone right from Week 1 in the NFL and ride that wave all season long - and a big part of that is how the game is played and 17 weeks of the season. Now it's about how you are playing in December and health - theres a blob of about 10 teams that could either peak at the right time or wind up 10-7 and get bounced in the 1st playoff round. I'd say the Packers are in the upper echelon of that blob and have plenty of room for improvement. They could also fall on their face instead of improve, too. I dont like anyone's odds beating the Lions at Ford field in the playoffs - but I'd say the same thing about the Packers, Tampa, San Fran, or a focused Philly team at home in January right now, too.

Getting Watson and Reed into the mix makes the Packers offense alot more explosive with a decent line, too. I think the Lions are really good, but as has been pointed out twice on the road on grass fields, their offense can be held in check. At home that team is a different animal.

I believe that was when Robbie Gould was automatic inside 45 yards, but couldn't kick anything close to 50

Looked like in the hurry they did to get the kick off that he kicked the ground first, not the ball

That says alot about how comfortable the vikes have been letting McCarthy practically grow a new ankle the past 5 games watching Wentz continue to suck.

I also think they fell victim to assuming their every other year cycle of an inflated record then crashing back down to earth the next year wasnt going to continue. Their line permanently sucks and their defense is gimmicky and overly blitz-happy because their personnel isnt good enough to hold up without tricking good offenses.

How long has Darrisaw been back playing after his knee injury? He looks like a turnstyle so far tonight

Yeah, a reduction in service time/arbitration that includes restricted free agency is a good idea

When the two of them get rolling, even Dante himself doesn't have enough circles to pull a thread out of the doom loop. Any salary cap in MLB would need to have healthy revenue sharing plus a salary floor that forces the shared revenues into player salaries, and id be a proponent of also having it be a cap for teams' Opening Day 40 man rosters - which would allow for teams to take on extra veteran salary via in-season trades or adjustments for guys who begin the season on IL coming back and avoiding that team having to make a trade/cut elsewhere just to get them on the active roster. Those things would allow for some flexibility in-season, but at least put a limit on what huge market teams can do to stockpile/load up their roster in the offseason and even the free agent playing field a bit.

The Dodgers are printing money - word has it they've recouped the entirety of Ohtani's $700M contract in roughly 1 year exploiting the Asian market. Think of that - in a year the Dodgers had to pay Ohtani $2M in actual dollars, their direct partnerships with Japanese company sponsorships, merch sales, and ticket revenue netted them $700+M...and I believe that doesn't include their share of leaguewide broadcast and national-level sponsorships revenue from Japanese markets that is split across MLB.

>not a hard cap, again, use a "Bird Rule," because the Yankees never should have lost Derek Jeter because they were up against the cap Well, with a hard cap, the Yankees wouldn't have faced that decision, either some of those years if they didn't want it - they just would have not been able to add as much additional salary as they did from other teams via free agency or trade as the seasons ebbed and flowed (i.e., Sabathia, Clemens, Giambi, Matsui, Mussina, ARod, Randy Johnson, Damon, etc). I would add that a hard cap would also include full broadcast revenue sharing - meaning that the financial playing field, while not totally equal due to markets sizes, would be much more level and allow for all ballclubs to retain their homegrown stars longterm if they want them, in addition to shelling out money in free agency much more consistently. Huge market clubs still would have built in advantages if they are well run (similar to how many big market clubs were routinely playing for titles before MLB adopted free agency) - but the game would be much healthier and generate much more fan interest if the whole league had reasonable windows where their local team could win it all or could sign a marquee free agent from time to time. The NBA has a better financial model going than MLB along with more varaibility on who's playing for NBA titles from each conference, which is a black eye on MLB.

Well, they wouldn't wind up on the Dodgers then, would they? I also find it hard to believe that a Japanese player would turn down generational wealth from any organization in baseball due to "culture shock" in today's MLB just because they don't play half their games in a city on the west coast. The argument about not having enough chance to win has more to do with the system I'm advocating be changed, too. The player still would have a right to negotiate with any team eligible to sign them over that 45 day period - it isn't that difficult for even large market teams to get under the luxury tax threshold consistently enough, either. Maybe once over previous 5 years is too long a period for a team to be excluded from bidding on a posted Japanese/professional player....because using 2024-2020 seasons that list would be 14 teams. let's go with being over the luxury tax at least 3 of the previous 5 seasons....that same period would then only include the Yankees, Phillies, Braves, Dodgers, Astros, and Giants. Even with the massive spending the Mets and Yankees have recently committed to, I think the only MLB team that finds itself in perpetual luxury tax hell with existing contracts on the books is the Dodgers (meaning they'd need to gut their current roster to get under that threshold due to longterm contracts and deferrals). They are by far and away playing by a different set of rules than anyone else in MLB - which should be obvious considering the fact they can be penciled in as a WS participant for the NL at the start of every season, and nobody in their right mind would bet against that. That HAS to change somehow for the good of the league.

The Cards only needing 10+ yards in a 3-4 down scenario to ice the game against a leaky defense after a failed 4th down and roughly 30 yards + a game winning FG in a tie game are also two very different sets of circumstances, too. When your kicker just made one from 61 earlier in the game and the offense has had a propensity to dial up very strange playcalls on 4th and shorts...at the time I thought taking my chances kicking it for the points to tie made more sense than doing what they did. I'd assume the probabilities were about a coinflip in that moment as to which option gave the team less of a chance to lose...probably going for it gave the Packers a slightly better chance to win...just glad the Packers came out on top and not going to get overly worked up about it.

100% this. IF there isn't a legit salary cap and/or full revenue sharing across MLB as part of this next CBA, I think the bare minimum change that needs to happen is to set up some sort of guardrails on Asian professional league poaching for teams who exceed MLB's luxury tax at least once over the prior 5-year period. I'm sure there would be ways for the Dodgers and other big market bullies to game the system somehow (i.e., colluding with premier Japanese players and their Japanese teams to wait to post them until they're eligible to bid on them), but something needs to be done. Right now Japan is the equivalent of a Dodger AAA team on top of their own farm system that gets to draft and sign US/international amateur players at the same rate as everyone else. It's absurd.

With one timeout and the 2 minute warning left, opting to go for it down 3 in that spot gave the Packers 1 chance to win or tie the game, not 2....glad they made the play (even though I still think Kraft's catch could've been overturned with what I saw as a slight bobble as he was getting feet down). Had they not converted, the Cards would've needed 1 first down to ice the game (not 25-35 yards to try and win it with a long FG), and even if they didn't get that 1st down, you'd get the ball back with less than a minute left still down 3 and no timeouts deep in your own territory. Kick the FG to tie it there, then even if the 1st play the Cardinals make results in a 1st down, you can stop the clock twice more and wind up leaving yourself enough time for a last ditch drive to tie it up again assuming your defense doesn't force a 3 and out/gives up FG range. Miss the FG and you can still force a 3 and out/get the ball back with enough time to get another FG shot. I get the logic, but how the game was flowing I thought it was the wrong decision even though they converted. Glad to be wrong in that instance. I would've been more comfortable going for it if the Packers still had 3 timeouts - and would be really curious what they would've opted to do if the were in more of a 'gimme' FG range with similar time left on the clock.