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GoldAppleCorps

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Everything posted by GoldAppleCorps

  1. Georgia isn't #5 for nothing. They're a legit contender that eliminates variables by controlling the LOS. No single facet of their game is devastating, but put together, they keep the chains moving. When you slow the run, they throw play action to a TE that previously was sealing the edge, but now leaked out into the seam for 15 yards. Do you tell your pass rusher to ignore him again and have it happen again, or do you tell him to carry coverage? Next thing you know, they've put up 24 points and you don't have that many. Texas won the Sugar Bowl by not playing UGA's game. They played like a power SEC team. Texas played like an unpredictable Big 12 team. Over the course of the season, that introduces a ton of unnecessary risk, but when faced with a superior opponent, helps balance the odds for one game.
  2. Only thing Napier could tell him is, "It's simple! There's a hole on the left side of the Center. Just stunt your guys and blitz that gap every down. The LG will jump out of the way. Profit!". The silver lining to having completely inept OL play for the first 8 games is that there's limited tape on how to defend our offense if the "send the blitz" play doesn't work.
  3. Yep. <warning_nerditry_follows> They're also a computing company that basically set the gold standard for extracting and encoding video media. Today, running an app that lets you stream live video is common. Back in the Pentium days, when TV streams were analog signals sent over the round black 75-ohm coax cables, watching TV on a computer was instant nerd cred. It took a speedy (for the time) processor and specialized hardware. Hauppauge parlayed their proficiency at designing math co-processors (386 and 486 computers didn't natively know how to process mathematics) into extracting a video stream and encoding into a software file or playing it on the desktop. At any respectable nerd's house, the home network will include a NAS (Network Attached Storage - a minifridge or so sized box of hard drives that provides crap-tons of local storage) and a dedicated media server computing machine. The NAS will hold movies, music, what-have-you collected from various sources. The media server will be accessible to watch those movies either at home and, through a properly configured firewall and gateway (likely running pfsense) anywhere else he has a network connection. Our esteemed administrator proposes to set up a Hauppauge extractor to take the video signal from source like an antenna, forward the resulting stream to a video program, and stream it with a media server application. He's chosen an open-source (meaning not owned by a for-profit company) program as the media server, so that anyone who wants to can download a completely free app, connect to the stream he's providing, and view the game. As a bonus, that open source app natively supports Chromecast, so if you have the ability to connect your device (like a phone or computer) to a Google Chromecast item, you can watch the game on whatever TV you've chosen.
  4. This may be the first time I've heard "Hauppauge" since 1996.
  5. Thomas Harley to get 8 years at 10.6 million per. https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/46762588/dallas-stars-d-thomas-harley-nets-8-year-extension Front office showing a lot of faith here.
  6. I saw them pick up a couple of stunts and twist, the kind that previously had them chasing rushers into the backfield helplessly. On one 3rd and 2, Wisner couldn't get through a gap, but that was ok because the line has displaced the LOS by 3 yards to earn the 1st down. Neither of these things were happening consistently before yesterday. The OL wasn't a full on asset. They stopped being a liability, and that was huge progress in one week. It's 1 week sample, but I might allow myself optimism that we've got the right mix in the stew.
  7. I remember how shocking it was to learn that Adrian Peterson made a miraculous comeback from his ankle injury. Through sheer will and personal awesomeness, he healed his leg! Then I watched him take pitch after pitch and casually jog out of bounds for a quarter and a half. He couldn't cut upfield if you gave him a moped.
  8. On paper, these are very complementary lines. Sam Steel is a perfect guy to dig pucks out of piles, back check an attempted breakout, and just generally do the grind work between Roope and Mikko. If you wanted all offense, you might swap Robo or Wyatt for him, but rolling in a game, you'd like Sam to set up his line mates for pretty play. Alternatively, he can collect the garbage when the opposition sends all their guys in panic mode to Mikko and Roope. I'm personally interested in the development of Lian Bischel this season. I think, at the end of last season, he was starting to get comfortable with the level of physicality a player his size should exhibit at the NHL level.
  9. There's a billion nuances to OL play that I don't understand. There's targeting shoulders with hand placement, reading slants, passing loopers off to teammates, etc, etc. It's a highly technical arena. However, it starts with being connected to the playing surface. The ground. Building a strong, solid base with your feet, keeping your body mass positioned over that base, and firing your power up from the Earth, through your legs, torso, arms and into your opponent. An OL who's off his feet is just a projectile. He's less than useless, because he's going to trip his own team. If you were going to draw the best OL player ever, you'd draw Conor Stroh. Massive. The right height. Strong. Everything ready to dominate! But he won't get his butt down! He plays high, standing straight up and down. He leans over his feet. With his body mass now high in the air and away from his base, a grandma could pull him over. He's beaten by physics. None of the other techniques or attributes are worth mentioning, because he won't stay connected to the ground. This is killing me to say, because all the potential in the world is right there. Maybe get him paired with a Sumo master for a week or two. Get the feel for what a strong base is and how to use it when an opponent tries to disrupt it. Learn it, and let me see what all that power can do. Otherwise, he's unplayable.
  10. All us oldsters wanna know why he's calling Pizza Hut
  11. Roster building is a thing. If you got to spring camp and had to spend all your money on a transfer QB because your room didn't have any usable parts in it, that's on you. Football is a physical game, and players get hurt frequently. You know the season won't stop until they heal, so just picking 22 starters and deciding that'll get you through the season isn't smart.
  12. I got to see the game live from my perch high above the North endzone with the rest of the poor but faithful. I wanted to take a win as a given, and to try and watch critically. I was happy to see us put the defense out on the field first, and of course, the defense did exactly what we've come to expect. When Texas got the ball, my stomach sank as Arch promptly did what we're used to from him. His feet were happy. He jittered around. He tossed passes at odd arm angles. One hit the OL and was lucky to be incomplete instead of a short-field INT. The OL put the offense behind the sticks with penalties. The usual. Arch then started with baby steps. His passes hit stationary receivers in the knees. They were able to grab them for 1st downs. Then, he was hitting receivers in the hands on curl routes. Small flats. Easy outs. He tried one deep out (right hash to far left boundary) and sailed it 3 feet wide. Came back and hit the same out perfectly. Moved on to crossers. Hit moving targets in front in the hands. Slants on time and in rhythm. He was largely moving through the WR passing tree. Coming out of halftime, was the 9 route to Wingo. A little uncertain, but took the correctly necessary crow-hop to fling a ball that went directly over 1's shoulder into the basket (Wingo's gotta start grabbing passes with hands and not body them). Directly after, he relied on instinct to smash a quick slant fastball to Wingo as pressure got home. Touchdown. Yeah, it's a sample size of one, against one of the weakest teams in FBS. However, the opponent didn't cause the struggles over the last 2 games. Arch can clearly do the job when he stays out of his own head.
  13. It's like 6 notes in an ascending / descending 3rd progression. Pretty sure it's an etude for learning your horn in the 5th grade.
  14. Baylor's offense should be physical and salty. They have a variety of ways to advance the ball, but little home-run power. Baylor could starve Auburn's offense by holding on to the ball all game. On the other hand, I have zero confidence in Baylor's ability to defend a pass. If he's unbothered, I believe Arnold is still good enough to hit open receivers. A couple of "hey, I thought you had that guy!" defensive miscues could be enough to swamp the game.
  15. (visions of Winfred Tubbs playing with both hands casted up to the elbow)
  16. Crowd noise could affect a new OL playing together for the first time - particularly one with a new C. A few false start penalties won't surprise me, and are the home crowd's reward for a job well done. Crowd noise won't affect a competent QB. They're already used to playing silently with signals. Get the play call over the headset or from the sidelines, identify your key reads on defense (using motion to tip coverages if applicable), signal your hot reads, the snap on a count. Verify your read was correct (otherwise adjust) and let the ball rip on time and on target. The longer a play goes on, the more the chance of an open receiver approaches 100%. Texas ruined the reputation of some stellar DBs when the DL couldn't ever get to the QB. I do not expect that to be a problem this season. Our DBs will be told to stay in the hip pocket of the receiver until the QB is on the ground. It shouldn't be a long wait. Now swagger is unmatched. Gawd help us if the swagger is unleashed.
  17. I wanted to tie his shoulder pads to his knee pads. He wanted to juke like a scatback when his job was to smash through whatever was in his way. There's a reason he made a lot of money as a DT.
  18. Think about playing defense against Texas last season. When the QB and RB mesh, there's only two outcomes. Option one was an outside zone run by the RB. Option two was "play action". The QB kept it and prepared to throw. If you're a LB, you don't have to track an inside run or a QB keep. It just wasn't going to come up. Like most OCs, Sark's offense is designed to make the defense wrong in the passing game. That's why having Arch work 2 years with him is so important. It isn't reliant on outrageous QB physical gifts so much as seeing pre-snap what the defense is dictating, confirming the cues after the snap, and delivering an accurate ball to the correct area. The QB doesn't deliberately attack the secondary. If the Safety(ies) get pulled either to run support or middle zone coverage, then the ball goes deep to whichever shoulder the defender isn't covering. Texas, obviously, plays a rich share of top notch athletes. It's only wise, then, that the opposing defense would cheat to cover Texas' strengths while risking limitations. Not playing the QB keep and betting the deep ball would be late (enabling Safety recovery) or inaccurate was their best hope. I'm not needing anything approaching VY level heroics from Arch. I need him to take the 5-10 yards donated when the defense ignores him. I need him to punish the "defender on an island" coverage. Just drawing the defenders out and making them play honest will allow the rest of the offense to win their 1 on 1 battles.
  19. We'll see how Texas' reloaded OL goes. That's certainly an unknown going into this game. I've seen Simmons, Moore, and Hill play football before. They're not unknown. If any one of them were on the field, the opposing coach would have to scheme against them. They're each individually capable of beating their man one on one and putting the QB on the ground without benefit of blitz or overload. They can all 3 be on the field at once. There's plenty of talent on the tOSU offense. This just isn't the defense to practice on.
  20. Most of PK's early tenure was spent trying to stanch the bleeding caused by having not enough starters at every level. Let's say times have changed. I'm sure he's got coverage schemes being practiced. Opposing QBs will spend time in the film room seeking tendencies, reading helmets, and seeing footwork. They'll audible, call hot routes, and practice eye discipline. None of that will matter because, after the snap, the QB will be on the ground in under 3 seconds. The pass defense will be, to paraphrase Bobby Clarke "Take the shortest path to the QB. Arrive in ill humor.".
  21. Apropos of nothing, I understand Disney World is a very popular place for dads to walk out on their families. Mid way through the day, they head to the bathroom, walk to the front gate, and keep on going.
  22. This arrived yesterday: Looks like the picture. Color correct. Polyester like you'd expect for a 60's bowling shirt. The cursive stitched "Austin, TX" on the sleeve is a nice touch. Took them all summer to get in any size other than S
  23. There's a reason why it's traditional not to talk to kickers. Never was a kicker, but was a goaltender. Same thing. In short, you don't know shit about my position. You can't tell me what to look for, what to adjust, or how to help. It's specialized by design. I've got a goalkeeping coach, and he might have a tip or two. Everyone else is wasting my time. Re: confidence: Kickers / 'keepers don't think about missing (at least, the good ones don't). It isn't in their head. A kicker who remembers the last miss will quickly be an ex-kicker. They go to sleep dreaming about drilling it betwixt the uprights from 70+ in a snow-driven cross wind. Sure, call your times-out since you can't take it with you (Brother Bill, Brother John), but you're not icing shit. It'll either be a good kick or it won't. It's an awkward repetitive body movement, like a golf swing. Do it consistently, and you're a millionaire since so few can. Was Bert better than that and had a bad year? Was he regressing to the mean? Who knows, and who cares. Others do what he does, so if he's not hitting kicks in the era of transfer, we'll find someone who can.
  24. From the 1932 horror classic "Freaks", from which The Ramones got "Gabba Gabba we accept you, one of us!" for the punk anthem "Pinhead".
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