HiAndTight

Is this a controversial point? He was outstanding all pre-season, regularly booming kicks with 5+ hang time. He was good last year, he's better this year. Definitely worth a 5th round pick to get a guy who can flip the field.

Yeah....that was a floater that just landed in his stomach. BUT...it's the second quarter, he's been healthy and he's played really well so far. Bulaga is doing a job on Mack/Floyd...just gotta keep Rodgers clean. The only thing I'd like to see change right now is I want to see Jenkins playing guard. I don't care which one...if they think Turner is so good, then put him at LG. He's clearly one of their top 5 OL.

Every day keeping Capers around looks worse and worse. Give Capers these players and the defense would be playing well also. Capers was absolutely NEVER the problem. When he had talent, he had success.

It wasn't great, but that was what we were saying about this receiving core, right? Rodgers needs to throw the ball UP a bit more. I'm still not a fan of the TD throw, but I do like him being a bit more aggressive.

No, it definitely doesn't matter if you're not on a 40 man roster. I know it's a big difference in the NFL. Regardless, very few people get pensions. You're Wife is extremely fortunate. It's down to like 5-6 pct of people in this country still earn pensions. Protected against bankruptcy, protected against lawsuit, they can't take it under any circumstance, correct? I mean...unless someone is embezzling from the company and steals the pension fund which has caused some enormous scandals. Anyway...loved Bill Hall. 35 bombs as our SS....he always seemed like a good dude.

I haven't looked at the list, but I guess Taylor played tackle last year, so if you have two tackles go down, it's Turner and Taylor at tackle and Jenkins/Linsley/Patrick inside? That'd change the offense quite a bit. Lewis would have to be out there every play helping out vs Mack. Seems a bit questionable.

Season Predictions -10-6 The first half is a brutal schedule, but at least they're mostly home games. 4-4 would be solid. Packers start out very slowly offensively, nothing new there, but their defense keeps them afloat. Strong finish like McCarthy's first year, but a more talented team so they win 10 games and the division. -Packers double their Picks from last year. -Breakout player Offense; I'd go with Aaron Jones, but he had nearly 1,000 yards last year, and has averaged 5.5 YPC, so I'll go with Tonyan. 50 catches, 700 yards 5 TD's. -Breakout player Defense; Raven Greene. He'll play near the LOS and get 8+sacks/INT's/FF/FR for the year. ROY-Jenkins...too good not to take over the second someone hobbles off the field and he won't relinquish the job. 2nd-Gary- The guy is extremely athletic and plays hard. But he won't end up with 10 sacks so people will call him a disappointment. -Defense doubles their total number of picks from last year. -Packers are in the top 3 in turnover differential. Kenny Clark becomes a All-Pro for the first time. Bakh becomes one for the...I don't know, 3rd/4th depending on which team you're talking about. Bulaga stays healthy and Rodgers gets sacks less than 40 times. Packers get 8 into the Pro Bowl. Bakh, Clark, Rodgers, Linsley, Alexander, Adams, Bulaga...and a DB to be named later.

Or maybe teams report injuries differently. Bryan Bulaga is on the INJURY report for "veterans rest." Jimmy Graham for a finger. Martinez...who said he was fine and has played is on there for his back. The "back" injury that he said was just a bit tight, wouldn't be a problem the regular season," 3 weeks ago? And then there are the Pats who almost played a joke on the NFL until last year by putting Tom Brady on the report virtually every single week with injuries that were almost certainly manufactured. The Packers probably have the best medical staffs and facilities in the NFL. Maybe Pro Sports. Not likely it's on them.

I'm fairly meh on Cobb, but the rest of those will be classic jerseys of star caliber players. Favre, Woodson, and maybe Nelson will make the HOF if they haven't already. I don't track that, but I have to assume Favre is in. Nice set of jerseys. My only jersey is an oversized AJ Hawk...the only use for that will be to throw over all my winter gear if/when I attend the late December games. Don't see Nelson coming all that close to getting in. Butler's the guy who should be in who's not even getting consideration. Why John Lynch is in, but not Butler is baffling. Oh, and Sharpe. Anyway, I have a couple of Jersey's. I have the Blue throwbacks Woodson's. Got it for standing up in a wedding, but I actually do like those. I know everyone else thinks they're ugly. I had a Favre, but my Mom thought it was funny to cross it out and write something on it...something not even remotely clever....my mistake for leaving clothing at my parents. And I have a White, Rodgers and a Nitschke. And I've never worn a single one anywhere but to a Packers game. Also, to whoever said no adult should wear a BB Jersey, you could not be more right.

That's what I was thinking....then I listened to what Steve Yount had to say. He moved me a bit with his comments as he's pretty persuasive. You're talking about how you support him, he left an organization who he felt didn't support him(and Big Ben made some pointless comments that were either vaguely or directly aimed at him) so he already feels a bit resentful and then they fine him? I don't know, Young's point was that Mayock traded for him and is now trying to be a tough guy. He knew AB was a diva and Young basically said Superstars deserved to be treated differently. Something he learned under Walsh who apparently did this regularly(though the Pats never do this according to Gronk). I mean...I'm glad we didn't sign him as well, but it does seem like that organization is just in straight-up clown mode and it's really easy to picture Mayock being the "tough guy." It just seemed like everything was over...he was getting ready for the first game, back healthy, got the helmet figured out..and Mayock fines him and then apparently insults him to his face. It's more about expectations. I expect Brown to act like a Diva...and I expect him to be a great player. I don't expect the GM to unnecessarily provoke the situation just as it settled down. But I appreciate how very few will agree with me. Hell, I didn't even agree with me until I heard Steve Young give his opinion and a few others share theirs.

I think it's actually comical how confident Bears fans are. Reading their comments, they're talking about how we have no experience on offense a whole new defense. I'm tring to think who's going to play on offense tonight that doesn't have experience? Jenkins..and if so, I think that's an upgrade, and Billy Turner I guess? Defensively, yeah, it is a "new" defense in terms of personnel, but that's a good thing...that goes firmly in the "plus" column for us. I just don't see how either side could really be confident. We have no idea what this offense looks like yet. My guess is that the Packers struggle on offense for a while this year, but their defense plays well. As far as our defense vs their offense, they think they've got this All Pro QB in Trubisky. He's talented and he might be the answer, but it's hardly a given at this point. I'm guessing it'll be ~21-17...either way.

He's not just a product of that offensive line. Remember, Tyron Smith was injured last year with the back so he wasn't at 100 pct and Frederick didn't play. Collins missed the year before. They have a good line, but Zekes a great back. And the option was to not pay him and since they built their team around him, watch the whole thing kinda fall apart, Dak is much worse when he doesn't play, or pay him and continue trying to win now. Dallas also structures almost all of their big contracts like this. Long term, big guaranteed money. It's their MO. The Packers tend to go 4 years, Dallas will go 5-7 years to minimize the cap hits. If he played long enough to be worth it...that's a always a risk with any big-time contract, but as far as RB's go, this deal runs through the 2016 season. He'll be finishing his age 31 season. That seems like a pretty fair bet. Maybe they cut him with a year or two left on the deal, but the Cap might have gone up 70-80 million by that point. Next up will be Barkley....a more talented player. Gotta imagine he'll be beating that mark. At least in AAV.

[sarcasm]So if Greinke is getting paid 3/104 this year through 2022....Lyles is worth at least 3/110.[/sarcasm] Lots of FA pitchers who will be getting a lot of attention in this FA market. I like what he's done, but no real reason to rush it IMO. He has been great though. He's helped keep the Brewers hanging around in the WC race. Or at least still in spitting distance.

Keeanu Benton might be the most physically impressive and imposing true freshman I've ever seen. Legit 6'4", 315, and it's in the legs, upper body, and arms, not a big gut. A true freshman, and he's already a dude. He is enormous. Jim Leonard had some really good things to say about him after the South Florida game. They really need some help on that D Line. Hope he keeps it up. It's great to see some DL depth on this team. Benton would have been counted on to be the guy last year since they started a OL and a walk on for stretches. But now Rand is healthy, a guy who should play on Sundays, Loudermilk is back and is a massive presence and Williams. I think people tend to forget how big of a recruit Rand was. One of the best the Badgers have gotten on the DL 247 era(4th) and behind only Mertz, Brown and maybe JVL in overall ranking. So we go from scratching to put big bodies out there to being able to rotate a 2nd unit that was better than the guys who started much of last year.

That is what I kinda thought. Matthews and Korver are probable enough. I just don't want to see Johnson on Philly's bench. Meh, I'd be a bit more open to someone like JR Smith who's a bit more proven and younger. But I don't see how much of an upgrade Johnson would be. I'd rather take the flier on Bender and hope we can unlock some of that potential than Joe Johnson right now.

No, I most definitely did not. I slated them at 8-4 with a wiggle room of one game either way most likely. Someone did say (not sure if they flat out predicted it) they could miss a bowl game...or having a losing record. I did outline how that could happen. I did not predict it though. Not sure how bullish I will get after the first week. The Badgers played a terrible team. It was a team that lost 7 in a row to end the year in 2018 and were hyped up on some offensive genius from D2 taking over the offense. Became obvious real quick the hype did not match results. Blowing them out was still a good sign because they should destroy teams like that...but it isn’t like they dominated someone super relevant. How much to consider the struggles of other teams? Well...Nebraska was big in my eyes because they are a team that was getting hyped on potential...they sure didn’t show that. It was a stellar first week for the Badgers overall season prospects. Not sure you could ask for better results than what they got. They hired a well respected offensive coach. That "terrible team," finished 10-2 and in the top 20 the year before last year and was ranked high again last year when they started off 7-0 before being killed by injuries. But where was this coach getting all this hype? Honestly, how much had anyone on here really heard about their offensive coordinator before the previews for the game this past week? And do you think maybe it had nothing to do with the coaching and maybe the Badgers edge rushers destroying their tackles? Also, it didn't become really apparent really fast to me. To me, it looked like the coach had a pretty good scheme to get some guys open for some big plays. They just happened to miss with a drop and an overthrow. Similar to a couple of shots the Badgers took. But the Badgers were able to fight through that. Yeah, or again, maybe it was because they'd been a really good team before injuries derailed their season last year and they were bringing in some highly regarded recruits? They talked about the Offensive Coordinator during the game. You're drastically overstating the impact a D-2 coach had on Vegas and the amount of hype a team that had recently gone 10-2 without him was getting.

Keeanu Benton might be the most physically impressive and imposing true freshman I've ever seen. Legit 6'4", 315, and it's in the legs, upper body, and arms, not a big gut. A true freshman, and he's already a dude. He's gotten quite a bit bigger in just the last few months. Added about 15-20 pounds, probably 4 or 5 of solid muscle. I agree I don't know that I remember a True Freshmen looking as physical and athletic as he does.

Are they a bad team because they're actually bad, or because a good Badger team dismantled them? Afterall, Vegas thought enough of USF to make the line close-ish, and there were posters here that had this one as a possible loss. I guess we won't know for several weeks, but is it not possible that USF looked like a bad team as a result of how well the Badgers played against them? Well they have to be bad if the Badgers beat them that badly. There's a lot of talent USF. Strong had won 17 of his first 19 games until they got hit by injuries last year(A lot of injuries) and folded down the stretch. They get a lot of top recruits who transfer from other Florida schools for whatever reason. I have this feeling that had Ohio State or another team beat them as badly as we did, some would be saying, "look what they did to a good USF team." You can't really say if they're good or bad right now. To do either is just trying to fit a preconstructed narrative.

He is, but MLB'er and RB are the two easiest positions to play early on. And he's probably only going to be out there for a small number of plays this week vs the Bears. I don't remember Nagy using a FB. I know Burton can move around like an H-back. But Pettine will probably play Greene next to Martinez as he doesn't use that Will backer very often unless the other team has two backs on the field. Thrilled to see they were able to retain some of the more high priority guys to the practice squad. We're likely going to need a couple.

I'd definitely bet money that multiple teams are interested in both, but especially Jeffress. He was never as good as his numbers said last year, but he's certainly capable of being a solid reliever and if he can just rest for 6 weeks, then start working on that shoulder, I have zero doubt he'll be a solid pitcher again next year.

I'm very surprised that there are still people thinking that the Brewers have a shot yet this year. Very little has gone their way and their big producers haven't been producing consistently. I'm all for being positive, do you honestly believe that this team realistically has it in them? Yeah, it's not an opinion, it's a fact. They're 4 games out. Last year they went several weeks without losing and had a historic Sept. It wouldn't take nearly that much for them to get in. That said, I didn't once say I believed they would and I literally stopped reading IGT's because of your posts...you seem to be searching for people who have optimism so you can argue. And I don't even have that, I just started a fact. They have a chance. 4 games in the WC on Sept 1st=chance.

More to the point, there's a very real possibility that the painkillers prescribed by the doctor do deal with the pain for the surgery was sufficient for Skaggs to become addicted. Besides prescriptions being for far too many pills, the instructions will say a maximum frequency whereas other medicines, like antibiotics, say the schedule you need to take them. If you take the opioids at the schedule on the bottle, there is a good chance of becoming addicted. You also can absolutely get fentanyl patches if you've had multiple surgeries and you've built up a tolerance to regular opiates. The very last surgery I had was for a broken wrist..and it was embarrassing, I broke it slipping while playing tennis trying to break my fall. But my chart had all my history and the doctor said to me Vicodin may not work and actually discussed a fentanyl patch. I passed and since it wasn't a bad break, I didn't really need anything, but that's not the point. The point is, it's prescribed for more than people think. I could have taken some and sold them. So it can be a reckless doctor, it can be a doctor legitimately trying to treat his pain...but I do find those a bit unlikely now given the emphasis on them, but it's not all just coming from a cartel and a shady guy on the corner.

I'd say it makes you a person who shows very little empathy, who thinks it's more important to feel righteous when someone ELSE dies and to offer platitudes or stupid, childlike cliches like, "actions have consequences." It also suggests to me that you're entirely ignorant about addiction and you very much like being holier than thou. I tried to ignore you, but please, in the future, just write, "he got what he deserved," when talking about someone who died of an accidental overdose. That's pretty much what you're saying and it's pretty disgusting.

As OSS said, reactions are different for everyone. I had TJ surgery a long long time ago (not in a galaxy far far away) and had vicodin prescribed for me. Once I decided I wasn't in pain enough to need the meds and tried to stop taking them, that was a monkey that was harder to kick than I expected. After a while, your body just expects it. I take anti-seizure meds now, and at one point my doctor tried to lower my dosage because it was messing with my ability to do my job properly, and after 3 days of a lower dosage, I was getting the shakes, I was sweating, my heart was pounding, and all this was from a non-narcotic, non opioid med. Someone else might not have this problem at all. Someone else might have it worse. I think this is all stuff that people academically are aware of, but I just think it bears repeating. Addiction is weird, and sometimes it creeps up on you. Yes, taking drugs is a personal choice, even necessary, prescribed drugs are a choice, but addiction is insidious. It happens before you're aware of it. It's like weight gain. You can suddenly step on a scale and be like "whoa, when did this happen?" And people say "well just don't eat, how did you not know you were gaining weight?" Instead of demonizing people and saying "just don't do drugs" I think it helps to understand the mechanics of how addiction happens. You're absolutely right. I had a dozen or so surgeries in about a 4 year span. Most weren't major, torn acl, torn rotator cuff, had my hip cleaned out...etc...etc.. When I was done with sports I had a couple bigger surgeries. A complete reconstructive shoulder surgery, hip replacement(at 25). For the shoulder surgery, that was extremely painful. And it was right around the time Oxy's were coming out. I'd never had a problem with my meds. The first few days after the surgery I needed them, then I'd forget and only take them when it was hurting. For the shoulder surgery, they sent me home with a nerve blocker and fentanyl patches. This was the most painful surgery I'd had. They butcher it to, but another story. They had to cadaver ligaments to replace the ACL and rotator cuff in the shoulder, they....well, they did a bunch of stuff. But when I went to the doctor 5 days after the surgery, I was feeling better. I told him the pain was getting better. Still in pain, but nothing too bad. He wrote a script for 80MG Oxy Contins, twice a day...and put 5 refills on there. This was when Purdue pharma was in it's heyday and I'd never heard of an Oxy before. I went down to Florida after about 2 weeks. I'd forgotten my pills at home. I got so sick...and I was so clueless as to why, I went to a hospital. They told me I was in withdrawal. I was....well, I was pissed. I got the rundown about how in one 80 MG Oxy, that's equal to 16 percocets and they were supposed to be used for burn victims, cancer patients....etc... I stayed in the hospital for a day and a half...got back to the hotel, spent the rest of the time in my room and when I got home, I got rid of the rest of them and then literally called my pharmacy and told them to cancel that. I was so lucky that I didn't know about pain pills at THAT TIME and that I'd gone on vacation and forgotten them, forcing me to stop taking them before it got too bad, otherwise, I don't know if I ever would have stopped. At the time, I didn't think I was that messed up, but I remember my family saying how bad I looked and how I'd lost a lot of weight. But....it was a doctor writing the script. Went on to have another 9-10 surgeries since then. I'll still take oxycodone or something that's not too strong, but I'm hypervigilant now. I was probably a week or two away from being a full-blown addict and then 5 months(the refills) away from even knowing it. A lot of this started with the pharmaceutical company pushing legislation, one bill actually forced the Doctor to give pain medication to someone who said they were in pain, even if the Doctors could not find any cause for the pain. And they famously argued that only 1 pct of people who are prescribed opiates become addicted, inaccurately citing the New England Journal of Medicine. I've known a lot of people who've died from my HS or community since Oxy Contins became big in the early 2000's. It really is a shame.

This was widely known weeks ago. Stearns gave interviews stating they were looking at mid-September at earliest. Brewers need to be careful with their ace. Yes, I said to '92 that there was a good chance he wouldn't pitch again for the Brewers this season. The timeline they gave was a near best-case scenario. There's absolutely no reason to throw a guy out there with a core injury that hasn't healed yet. That's almost the ideal way to make a guy start to alter his delivery and rotate less, put more pressure on his shoulder and then we'd have people saying that not only should the Manager go for letting him pitch, but everyone should go for ruining our young stud.