That point has already been worked out. We’ve spent enough time covering that. But every time an An NFL game turns into a farce when someone has to turn to a backup QB, or wonder in vain why he didn’t put on a third down, we’re back at it. We hoot and holler as we watch our late game-changing team rough call the passer – or in my case or any other Chicago bears fans case when we can’t get any call Justin Fields. But deep down we know the answer.
The San Francisco 49ers they got where they are because they have top-notch coaching, and they also got lucky when no one in particular wanted to buy Jimmy Garoppolo and he ended up as their backup. Trey Lanceinjury to any other team — and in the honesty that was on the line – probably kneecaps all season. QBs are being run now, and there is inherent risk, and nothing can be done about it, but the league feels the need to reduce risk wherever it can.
Is there a better way? Maybe not every call has to be worth 15 yards. Conceivably they could be on the scale. But then you’d have to trust the judges to know what five- or 10-yard penalty and what was worth a common personal foul. A light hit after a pass may only be five yards, while a headshot 10 seconds after the pass gets a full penalty. But they’re not Cincinnati umpires Bengals-Kansas City The Chiefs game shows the world why it wouldn’t work? You really trust these guys to pass judgment?
Not even the NHL could pull it off. In a perfect world, two or four minutes of high penalties would be a judgment based on recklessness and intent. But the NHL referees couldn’t be trusted to tell the difference, so they have a fairly arbitrary criterion of whether a player is bleeding or not. And NFL referees are somehow lower on the competence totem pole than their NHL counterparts. No, NFL refs need clear rules that are as close to cut and dry as possible, and they’re going to screw it up anyway.
We could say that any team would simply have to rise to the level of planning and tactical genius of the Niners to be ready for the backup or No. 3 download. But if you go through the training rules in training camp and during the season, there really isn’t that much time. And with more and more NFL teams opting out of practice as the season wears on, time is tighter than ever. And that’s okay, because those training rules were collectively agreed upon and probably saved a lot of players from getting injured. It just won’t prepare a backup.
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It’s a game now, although so is complaining about it all.
Vancouver Canucks trade Bo Horvat to Isles
There was a pretty big NHL trade last night, as the Vancouver Canucks finally released Bo Horvat from his BC stint and sent him to Long Island, and the Islanders brought back Anthony Beauvillier, Aata A clothand island dishesfirst pick in the 2023 draft.
Horvat set fire to this season with his “Come and get me!” beacon, with 31 goals, which already reached his career high. It’s not that Horvat is that much of a different player than he’s ever been, he just sees more shots going in because clearly, the gods wanted to get him out of Vancouver to save his soul as well. The Canucks get a reclamation project in Beauvillier, an intriguing prospect in Raty and a first baseman I can totally screw up in June.
What exactly the Islanders are doing can only be guessed at. They are only two points out of a playoff spot, but the teams they are chasing have three games in hand. The forwards are quite old, and Horvat turns 28 in April and doesn’t help that much. And that if he signs again.
Which is another problem for the Islanders, since they really only have $5 million of Semyon Varlamov coming off the books, and they’d have to hand that and a lot more to Horvat after a 40-goal season. And then they would have no flexibility.
The Islanders are not unhappy to be where they are, as they got great goals from both Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin, but another team with Lou Lamoriello as GM is missing a punch going forward. Horvat will help in this, but enough? And where does this team go even if it clears the wildcard spot? It’s not the 90s anymore, and Lou can’t just throw out 12 faceless hitters who simply work hard and maintain good defensive shape to win. But Lamiorello has always been allergic to paying anyone, and has already given $9 million a year to Mathew Barzal. Is he going to do that again to Croatia? And if not, what is the purpose of that trade?
This is why you don’t hire a guy whose major accomplishments were 15-20 years in the rearview mirror, folks.