I hope we don’t suffer any major injuries tomorrow that will prevent some from missing the start of training camp! Pretty sad when that’s all there is left to hope for.

Have a “Mare” drink on me!!!

And if anyone tries to hijack my name on the live chat (as was done to Duke this past week), well, it’s not me.

GB is probably in the teams 11-16, although that loss in TB really is tough to get over. They did beat GB two times Baltimore is probably in that same tier, who they also beat.

Without 2 very fluky final plays (vs SF and vs Balt), this team would be 6-3. I can see them losing against Arizona, Cinn, at Carolina and either vs NYG or at Chicago to end the season. This team won’t finish better than 10-6. Favre will wear down over the course of the season and their schedule is much tougher than the cakewalk they had and looked less than dominating in.

I just wish their fall could start tomorrow.

I believe the Vikings are vulnerable through the air, but only if Allen is contained (double teamed). But they are pretty damn good. And it pains me to say it because of how bad I hate them.

It’s a good thing we don’t have Walt or Hutch anymore because they must have sucked if our line against 3-4 defenses was that bad.

Regarding the Vikings defense, have you seen the QBs they have faced this year:

Brady Quinn
Stafford
Shaun Hill
Aaron Rodgers
Kyle Boller
Joe Flacco
The guy from the Stealers
Rodgers
Stafford

Summary (9 games):
3 don’t start anymore
2 games were against a rookie (Stafford)
Aaron Rodgers – holds the ball for a very long time (2 games)
Flacco and the guy from the Stealers are decent

That;s not exactly a stellar cast of QBs there. If the Colts entire secondary wasn’t on IR they have would have a far better defense than the Vikings.

’04 Run-blocking: Overall 7th, ALY 4.5, RB yds 4.62, power success rank 17th, 10+ yds rank 4th, stuffed rank (3rd or 4th & 1-2) 12th.
’04 Pass-blocking: 34 sacks allowed, sacks rank 11th.

’05 Run-blocking: Overall 6th, ALY 4.43, RB yds 4.92, power success rank 1st, 10+ yds rank 2nd, stuffed rank (3rd or 4th & 1-2) 25th.
’05 Pass-blocking: 27 sacks allowed, sacks rank 12th.

My dad was an instructor at the Merchant Marine Academy during the latter part of WWII and was directed to fail 50% of his classes. I think the army was looking for more recruits at the time. Saying Hawks ’03-’05 OL’s pass blocking was ‘good but not great’ is like my dad failing Harvard grads at the academy for minor errors. Hawks had the best left side in the NFL. Losing Hutch was the worst, but Tobeck’s and Gray’s retirements haven’t even been able to be adequately replaced. Now Walt. Hawks OL is currently able to perform at about 25 to 50% of the performance level of the ’05 Hawks.

The ‘magic’ of zone-blocking is gonna take some time to become evident. Even Alex Gibbs has taken a few years to get HOU’s OL to ZB. Without Gibbs, looks like GB is never gonna learn how to do it properly. I feel better about Hawks OL’s chances of learning it with Solari, but it’s gonna take more time, especially without stability at LT. Get an early LT in the draft and wait 3-4 yrs for Hawks OL to gel.

Of course things can change over the 2nd half of the year.