American Sports thread

He can, but the Redskins are choosing not to until they hear something from the NFL. They just wanted to secure his rights so they have him by the time any suspension is over with. It's basically not a move for this season.

 

I hate to say that I "enjoyed" a Cowboys win. I did not, but there are some things that I did like -- namely the crow the media has been served. On the flip side, I am going to have to navigate through a bunch of mindless Cowboys fans talking about Super Bowl and even some media members jumping on the bandwagon.

In the lead up to this game, the national media was disrespecting the Cowboys defense. Basically most of them had the Saints rolling in and doing what they do without even acknowledging that the Cowboys have at the very least, a top 5 defense. In fact, the only people that I saw touting the Cowboys defense prior to this season besides myself was Giff and @Emperor Adriano. This defense was very underrated heading into the season and still hasn't received the respect it deserved prior to this game.

Another thing that I've seen several national media members saying, and even some local ones here like good ol' Grant Paulsen, is that you just need to be able to throw the football a bunch. Yeah, you need to be able to at least pass effectively. You can't be like Jacksonville with a QB like Blake Bortles. Even then, their run game and defense was almost good enough to get them to the Super Bowl last year. But the media has completely written off the age old formula of playing good defense and having an elite run attack. I even saw a tweet in the lead up to the game saying "new NFL vs old NFL." Do you think they came back and pounded their chest saying the new NFL prevailed? That is exactly the narrative they want to push, but it failed. Yeah, it's much easier to pass the football nowadays and you can't get away with an passive QB like before. But you can still win games with a very good run game and defense. And you can even win the Super Bowl if you have those things, even in today's game -- see Seahawks and Broncos. I am not saying that the Cowboys are Super Bowl contenders because I don't trust Jason Garrett, but I'm tired of seeing the media push a narrative that running the ball and playing good defense doesn't win anything and you have to pass the ball 70% of the time.

 

Better hope. You were my pre-season pick, but I still have questions about certain areas of your team -- WRs outside of Thomas and secondary play. I think if you had a legit #2, Dallas would have had a hard time containing you.

 

I knew you guys were getting desperate after signing Brandon Marshall. That's never a good sign. Not saying you can't win it all still, but that's a definite weakness especially with how Dallas D matches up with your offense. Luckily enough, I'm not sure if there's another team other than the Vikings who would match up as well. Cowboys LBs are very athletic and fast to shut down the TEs and RBs. Cowboys have an underrated d-line. They've been good against the run for years now, but they have improved their pass rush the last two seasons. Bryon Jones is finally coming on as a corner. I think they have some good talent at their other CB spots, but those guys can be inconsistent and it's somewhere I would attack, which is why a lack of a legit #2 hurt the Saints tonight. As much as Cowboys fans want to hype up Jeff Heath, I would also look to attack their safeties as well down the field. They are better in the box guys.

I think the Saints D did a good job in the second half. I was a bit disappointed with Marshon Lattimore. I saw him get turned around a few times by Amari.

 

Kareem Hunt gets cut and people still have the Redskins on the mind.

 

1068688039029997570 is not a valid tweet id

We are always an easy target.

 

Big game Kirk rearing its ugly head. Classic underthrow on a deep ball.

 

1069381327168917505 is not a valid tweet id

Lol another Kirk specialty.

 

Kirk Cousins' night: 28-of-39 for 342 yards and 3 TD's. Huge win for the #Vikings in a critical division game on primetime.

Let me know what time we should all meet at the field tomorrow morning to move the goal posts again.

— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) November 26, 2018

Awfully silent tonight compared to last week vs a mediocre Packers team. Other than the rivalry aspect of it, saying it was a big game was overblown.

 

I am waiting for @Emperor Adriano to go off on a Mengao style rant on Cousins and why keeping Case would have been better for the Vikings, despite Kirk having better raw stats.

 

Maybe, maybe not. What Case would have been is a whole lot cheaper and his mobility would make the Vikings o-line look better than they are. Kirk has 9 INTs to Case's 10, but Kirk has fumbled it much more than Case. Honestly, I don't think the Broncos o-line, especially with their injuries are any better, if at all, than the Vikings o-line. The Broncos have been running it better than the Vikings have, but the Vikings have better weapons in the pass game than Denver has. I'd also still give the edge to Minny's D over the Broncos D.

 

If you want to win games with Kirk Cousins, you need to get the ball out of his hands and make sure you don't need to put the ball in his hands with the game on the line. I'm curious to hear what @Emperor Adriano 's take is on DeFillipo, because I definitely think he deserves some blame after the praise he was getting in the offseason. He not running the football enough. You might think since Kirk has stats, that you should be passing, but it's actually the opposite. Allowing him to throw the football 40+ times makes you a middling team. Kirk basically has the same kind of o-line as he did in Washington with all of those injuries last season, better backs, better receiving weapons, and a much better defense, but the end result is basically the same. Even when Kirk had Pierre and DJax in Washington, the results weren't much different (9-7, 8-8, 7-9). I was tired of hearing the excuses for Kirk in Washington. Fans were basically saying you need a stacked team without actually saying it. Now I am hearing excuses for Kirk in Minnesota about the OC and run game. You see the trend? That's exactly why you don't pay him. He doesn't overcome any holes on your team. He needs everything set up around him.

You need to commit to running the football with him at QB. Honestly, he is a bit like Tony Romo in the sense that he fills the stat sheet. The more times you let him throw, the more his stats build up, but he's actually less effective. Tony Romo also struggled in the clutch, but compared to Kirk, he was good. When did Tony Romo finally have a career year where he won games, compiled stats and limited turnovers? When Dallas actually had a run game and committed to it. The same will happen to Cousins to a degree.

 

Yes. With hindsight being 20/20, the ideal scenario would have been to sign him to $20 million/year after 2015 like he wanted, but that was crazy talk at the time seeing he only had 1 good season at that point and his track record was spotty. You can say that good organizations can predict performances of certain players, but I can't blame the Redskins that badly about wanting to see more, knowing what the risk may be. Even if we did sign him to that contract, he'd be in Year 3 at this point and we'd likely be in the same spot as we are currently. He'd have 2 more years to finish his 5 year deal, and we'd be looking for a QB to replace him with. As a fan, I am no longer content with just making the playoffs. For example, if we manage to stumble our way into the playoffs this year, I could care less as I do not see any possible way we would go on a run to make it to the Super Bowl.