OldSchoolSnapper

And if you had said Blake Martinez sucked or was even mediocre last year, your head would be on a stick. That's what I mean. Certain players get revered by fans and to the rest of the league, they are just guys. Kevin King, Morgan Burnett, etc., it's kind of a weird phenomenon as to who gets anointed and who doesn't.

I missed about 90% of today's game, but the defense is better. It's just not a top defense, which I've been saying all year, and yet again, it was picked apart by a top QB. It's a bend but not break defense, and I personally hate playing that way. It probably would have worked again had the offense done ANYTHING. I mean, they bent plenty and gave up 4 FGs. They were still in it. Pettine's honeymoon is waning though. There was so much positive press on him early that it feels like people are still riding it, but really, what has he achieved in GB? Taking the defense from league embarrassment to mediocre? It's time to start playing a lot better. I'm sure he's safe for now, but that seat will be warming up if it's the same defense next year I'd think. They just never seem to have those thoroughly dominant defenses like some recent 49ers or Seahawks they had so much trouble with just a few years ago. Fans also drastically overrate talent. I won't pretend to know how to thoroughly gauge the defensive talent, but there are usually like five guys on every team that nobody would describe as "good" other than the hometown fans. They're probably just not super good.

Hope we get a bobblehead out of it.

Winning three more games isn't asking a lot. It wouldn't TOTALLY surprise me if they did go 10-6 though, because I have felt they're a notch worse than their record all season. I'm seeing 11-5 though.

They'll probably be on the road in the second round and that's about as far as I think they'll get. That was my expectation before one bad game at the Chargers.

Everyone was present in the funeral scene. No CGI. It was allegedly the most expensive scene to film in movie history.

Drew Brees also preferred Miami to New Orleans. He was ready to sign, but on his visit they wouldn't stop asking for reassurance on his shoulder. New Orleans rolled out the red carpet and he changed his mind.

It sounds like you simply miss the old days. Not it doesn't. There's a difference between the Bulls going 6 with the Jazz and Kevin Durant playing with Curry and Thompson and sweeping a team with LeBron. Also, the Yankees are good now, so...? The whole point was that I don't find the Patriots dominating as bad for the league.

The league is boring but I don't think the players have anything to do with it. They've flagged and replayed the excitement out of it. I've personally enjoyed all the sports when there is that one dominant team everyone is gunning for. I've always thought baseball is better when the Yankees are good, and I miss the days of everyone assuming the Bulls couldn't be stopped. There's a limit to that obviously, like the Warriors a couple seasons ago that just sucked all the drama out - but the Patriots still lose Super Bowls, and Brady genuinely isn't that great anymore. He's amazing for 42 and is very effective, but he's really not that great.

The apprehension with the Packers for me stems from the 49ers and Saints both having clearly better defenses to this point. Neither has Rodgers, even if Brees is healthy he's just not Rodgers, so that's somewhat of an equalizer, but still. I've seen plenty of teams shut down Rodgers in the playoffs, defense is usually what it comes down to in the playoffs and both of those units are better right now. I also think Minnnesota's defense is better, but they have the Kirk Cousins problem. And I'm still not sleeping on teams like the Rams, Seahawks, Cowboys...all of whom I'd feel pretty good about facing at home, but still capable of being formidable opponents. And there's Philly, who did beat us. HFA is key if the Packers end up playing the Saints, IMO. I'd feel better going into SF than having to beat the Saints down there.

The 49ers schedule is just brutal. They've got the Packers, Seattle twice, Arizona again, the Rams, Saints and Ravens. That is an absolute gauntlet. Atlanta is the only crappy team left in the second half.

Not to pick on you, as I believe you know why this team is playing well and is among the class of the NFC, but this sort of statement drives me a little nuts. It's a "Packers Twitter" type statement ... a place that is populated with so many "Yeah, but" fans that are just so insufferable at times. the team wins, plays well, and yet all they want to focus on are the perceived negatives like "the tackling was bad" or "they threw all those balls to the RBS, therefore all the WRs are terrible". It's a bunch of broad negative generalizations that, while might have some truth to them, are being blown out of proportion. This team is 7-1 because they are playing well enough to be 7-1. They've beat a bunch of good teams because they are a good team. If they go 13-3, it's because they were good enough to go 13-3. This schedule is no Patriots-like slouch. Idk, sort of agree with it. This team feels a lot like the one in 2007 that was 13-3. That team was good, but it went 6-10 the next year after the QB transition. I had a feeling of "Are we really this good?" the entire season. Of course, a lot of the same guys won the Super Bowl a couple years later. So, I think the Packers are a good team, trending upward as a franchise, but I think this season has been a combination of that and getting lucky in a lot of very key moments, and playing a very favorable schedule that isn't exactly easy, but hasn't been hard, has been timed to their advantage as far as where and when they're playing certain teams. It's hard to pick out games on the schedule I expect them to lose. @Minnesota and @SF are the two, and of course there could be others, but not sure there's one more they really should lose. If they really start pounding teams, even crappy ones, down the stretch, then I'd buy in a bit more. A complete 38-7 drubbing would help with that a bit. But at this point there's no reason to think they can't at least be in the NFCCG this season.

Think you were right. They took it down. Work in progress.

Other guys have remained good pass rushers past 33ish so I'm not convinced he'll fall off a cliff, but he's a great player. I agree with with your main point but Mack is a generational talent. It still really sucks we couldn't get him. But I couldn't care less about the Bears. They're the same team they've been for most of the last 25 years.

It doesn't matter if Mack has a season with 30 sacks. If they are still trotting out Mitch Trubisky types they won't do anything. Their defense is great now and they still suck. It was the most predictable thing ever. He is an absolute stiff. It made much more sense for the Packers to pair a guy like that with the twilight of Rodgers career than for the Bears to get him.

I think he was pissed he wasn't put into the game when Greinke was still up 2-1 and put a guy on base. He could have come in and possibly won the World Series right before FA. I don't have a problem with the hat or comments. All's fair. These orgs don't give a crap about these guys. His teammates are big boys. They can handle it.

Ooof. They stink. They really nerfed these.

Didn't communicate yet that i've seen, but if you visit the Rewards site they launched the 2020 program today.

Magary out this morning. Not really a shocker.

It is Halloween. I think we can hold off on diagnosing the problem with the team.

If Hader isn't traded I'll be convinced doing it wasn't worth it for the Brewers, because woof, these bullpens.

If this holds, the Brewers lost to the champ in '08, 11 and '19. And to the WS loser in '18. That seems kinda crazy.

I don't disagree but they seem to have a better grasp on their niche than Deadspin did for the last couple of years.

Roco that is a good summary. I thought deadspin stopped being funny a long time ago. It almost seemed like it stopped trying to be funny and became another "woke" clickbait site obsessed with "cancelling." I don't think I was alone. If it was getting so much traffic why would ownership insist they stop? Don't get me wrong. The corporate oversight of these places can be cancerous. But I all but stopped reading it. Became one of a million woke political blogs. If it had "stuck to sports" and actually remained funny I probably would still read. Magary was the only guy I read in the last year. He mostly "stuck to sports." I thought Dave Portnoy's take on it was honestly pretty accurate, even if Barstool can be dumb at times.

Ley quit. Basically everybody did.