A few things I learned on Sunday...

I have to agree on Smith. This situation continues to remind me of Royal – team drafts a player, fans don’t understand why, coach/GM must be inadequate, foolish or mentally incompetent, player tears up the field, no one jumps to suggest that they were off-base (McG was incredibly gracious and I applaud him). Smith is simply a heck of a football player – he stopped the runner, fought for passes and played well in special teams. Other than that….lol

Great stuff about Stokely/Orton.

Weird how that aspect of being positive seems to work out better than the alternative.

An inspired defense makes things happen. Whether it’s Mr. Dawkins, Mr. Nolan, a healthy Champ, or playing at Cincy that did it, our D just looked alive and ready to play 60 minutes. Some sloppiness, sure, but not like last 3 year’s general malaise/giving up/chronic inability to stop the long run or the deep pass.

Maybe we can get back to the days of not groaning when the D comes on the field.

Is there a formula you used, or did you find that stat somewhere?

On the whole, I was really happy with the defensive performace yesterday. I am still concerned with the end of half/end of game scenarios though. We have seen it regularly the last few years where our D gives up drives at the end of the half or game. It makes me nervous moving forward and hopefully the staff will get it sorted out.

At any rate, doesn’t get more exciting than that yesterday and 1-0 is 1-0!

I like this: “He might just be an NFL football player.” I hope so too!

I enjoyed seeing Dawkins and Champ on the field, and I think they enjoyed playing together. You could see there was some trust and comraderie.

my professor asked who had a worse weekend: Serena Williams, Kanye West or Jay Cutler.

I had to break out in laughter because I was rocking my Broncos hat and he was gearing the question at me. Luckily he’s a Bronco fan too (rare in Massachusetts). It was quite a fun afternoon in English!

Cutler’s reaction vs Orton’s, and the outcomes of yesterday’s games, show karmic justice.

I heard Stokeley’s interview, when he quoted Orton after Stoke’s missed 3rd down reception: “I’ll be coming back to you”… you could hear the camaraderie crystallizing from just that one act of cool-headedness. Stokeley’s a grown man and, being treated like one, saved the day.

I agree with you. Orton’s approach is a much better way. And when Orton over or under throws Stokely Stokely can say, ’We’ll get ‘em next time.’ They can go to meetings and practice with the feeling that, hey, we’re in this together; we both want to win equally bad which leads to being synched up when the pressure is on because they’re comfortable in each others presence when there is no pressure.

I can’t remember were I heard it but one thing that impressed McD about Orton was that he was able to get his teammates behind him.

I disagree that Orton got a 75.5. If you’re going to play “what if” by taking away that last play, then you have to add in all the dropped passes. There were nine drops! The game—and Orton’s passer rating—might have been different if six or seven of those passes had been caught.