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So with the Bulls losing Ben Gordon does that take Kirk Hinrich off the table for a trade?  I really hope not, he was the one guy I was hoping we would add this year.  Maybe KP knew this was coming and that is why we have heard a lot more rumors about Andre Miller recently and not Captain Kirk.

What does this do for Detroit, were these signings good for them, or does it just muddy thier talent pool with a couple of ball hogs who don't play d?  Are they back to being a Finals contender?

IMHO this reeks of desperation a little bit.  Dumars saw everyone else in the East getting better so he reached out and grabbed the two most hyped FA he could find in hopes to keep up.  I think that both Ben and Charlie are capable scorers, but thats about it.  I sure hope Rip wasn't looking to shoot much next year ;)

Poll

Is Kirk off the table now?

64%

Yep, Chicago was always going to keep at least one of Ben and Kirk

51 votes

35%

No way, go get em KP!

28 votes

79 votes | Poll has closed

He seems to think so.

 

From Woj at Yahoo Sports (here), Kirk is telling friends that he thinks he will be traded to the Blazers to be paired with B-Roy in the backcourt.

 

I for one would be STOKED to see us get Kirk.  Offensively he is a slight upgrade to Blake, but defensively he is a HUGH upgrade to Blake.  And really in the playoffs it was defense that killed us not the offense.

 

GO KP get it done!!!

I was just listening to the Jim Rome Show and he was discussing what the *akers will do with there coaching position.  Whether Phil Jackson will be coming back or not.  He mentioned that if Phil doesn not come back then Kobe's top two choices for coach are Nate McMillan and Jeff Van Gundy. I didn't get to listen for long so I have no idea what his source is, and if this is old news then I guess I can just delete this fanpost, but this was news to me!

Would Nate want to coach the *akers?

Why in the world would Kobe want Jeff Van Gundy?

Who would you all like to see be our next coach if Nate is lured away by the Gold and Purple?

Poll

Would Nate ever coach the *akers?

45%

Yes

186 votes

54%

No

223 votes

409 votes | Poll has closed

Is he still technically an OSU Beaver?  I did a google search on him and it is like he has completely disapeared off the face of the earth after he commited to the beavs.  He sure would be a nice suprise addition to the d-line during fall camp.  I know these guys that don't make it the year the commit almost never do, but I can dream right :)

Seriously though, if anyone has any info on Kuli I would be interested to hear about it.

 

Go BEAVS!

This just in, an advance copy of the uniforms the ducks will be wearing for 2009:

via img.photobucket.com

I know I know my paint skills suck.  Now lets see all of your guys' paint skills.  If you were in charge of duck uniforms at Nike headquarters, what would you be putting out?  It can be ridiculous (like above, although just in case, I have copyrighted that design, so UO will have to pay me when they actually use it :) ), or a for real.  Duck fans you join in the fun as well!

Was the blown Ed Hochuli play.  Ever since then it seems like every refing crew that calls are games feels the need to make up for that one call.  The Officiating in the last few games has be BULL S***.  I don't care if some of you will call me a whiner there have been preponderance of calls that have gone against us, and that have not been in the Character of the given game.  Calls that don;t even make sense and aren't even close.  These are NOT tough close judgment calls these are bordering on flat out and out conspiracy level bad calls.

I know I know Turnovers, bad running game, blah, blah, blah.  Pat Bowlen better be petitioning to Goodell RIGHT NOW!

We may come back and win this game, but that won't negate the fact that the officiating has been complete and utter BS.

 

The title of this post is meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek :)  There were three penalties that I thought really changed the course of the game, and in a way they changed the game more than our turnovers did.  Lets take a look at them:

"Penalties":  Quoted to show the dubiousness of the calls

1.)  Holding on Clady.  This one hurt mostly because it was Clady's first holding call of the year!  Really this just shows how good the Rookie has been.  Yeah it put us at 2nd and 7 instead of 1st and 10, but who is to say what happens in the rest of that drive, so I won't say this stopped us from scoring points or anything, it was just disappointing to see Clady get his first on what should have been a no call.

2.) Illegal Contact on Dre Bly mid way through the thrid quarter.  This was a completely Bogus call.  3rd and a million for the jags, and Reggie Williams pushes Dre bly down to the ground, and that is somehow illegal contact on Bly, just unbelievable.  Now unlike above where we can't assume points on a drive set back by a penalty, we CAN assume a punt by JAC on this play since it was 3rd and long and Garrards scramble came up way short.  So that is seven points given to the Jags by the ref.

3.) Pass interference by Mcree at the end of the fourth quarter.  We all saw it and we all saw it was the completely wrong call, even the announcers we incredulous about it.  Yeah we can't assume we score when we get the ball back, but that call basically ended the game, we certainly didn't get the chance we should have gotten.

As for the turnovers we had three and the Jags had two so two of them cancel out and the other turnover we had was a long interception from cutler on 3rd and long which was better than a punt, so I see the penalties as being a much bigger difference maker than the turnovers.  I would say that these penalties affected this game just as much if not more than Hocules bad call in the SD game, which one will get more attention though :)

Oh well, I guess the response should be that the Broncos should play well enough that these calls shouldn't matter.  Those calls really were terrible though.

 

Poll

Who or what deserves the credit for the JAC loss?

89%

The Offense (Turnovers and badd 3rd down conversion rates)

41 votes

4%

The Defense (Allowed too many point, yards,and big plays)

2 votes

6%

The Refs (Three terrible penalties)

3 votes

46 votes | Poll has closed

If you just look at the final score it looks like the Broncos once again barely squeaked one out, and while it was a hard tough close physical game, I think in the end the broncos proved that they were the better team, and unlike the other close ones this year, really won this game instead of stole it.

Things I loved in this game:

1.) The defense!

This goes without saying, whenever you hold a NFL team to only 13 total points that is pretty good, and especially when the feeling was that this Broncos defense could not stop my grandma and 10 of her bridge club pals.  Three things I really like about what the defense did. 

A.)  They played smart.  With a few minutes left to go in the game the broncos were up by 10.  Tampa Bay got the ball at the 10 yard line, and instead of doing something stupid like blitz every one on 3rd and 5 and give up a long play, they just gave Tampa Bay all of the little stuff, and sure they drove it down the field and scored a touchdown, but that drive is what essentially ended the football game for the Bucs.  The got a score, but they also took way too much time.  The only thing the Broncos could have done at that venture to let the Bucs back into the game was to give up a QUICK score, either a TD or a Field goal, if they had given it up quickly then that lets the bucs right back in it, but they didn't they were patient, bided their time, and made sure short tackles.

B.)  They played VERY active.  This is the first time where it looked like the Broncos defense had another offense confused or worried about them at all, and look what it caused, 3 sacks and a handful of OL penalties.  Speaking from the perspective of a former O-Lineman holds and false starts aren't cause by the crowd or by hard counts or anything like that they are caused by the defensive front 7, pure and simple.  I am not sure what changed from last week to this week, maybe the coaches started reading HoosierTeacher and Styg ;), but the defense was way more active this week, maybe not blitzing a ton, but jumping around, and sending a linebacker here and there, dropping Marcus Thomas a couple times.  Anyways I liked what I saw and I hope for more of it.

C.) Marcus Thomas.  This was the first time in the year and a half he has been with the broncos that I actually noticed him when I wasn't specifically watching for him.  It doesn't show up in the stats (only 2 tackle assists and a INT, lets not talk about the fumble ;) ), but he was getting a great push up the middle today.  He was providing the, and I hesitate to use this word, "dominate" DL that HT and Styg were begging for the last couple of weeks.  I am not sure what got into him, but in my opinion this was his best game as a pro, hopefully we see more of that.  Maybe someone told him that Griese had a doobie in his pocket :)

2.)  Matt Prater!  Any time you can make the opposing coach just smile dumbly and shake his head that is a good thing.  When Prater made that 55 yarder that would have been good from 65 easy, Gruden just shook his head in disbelief.  Also and probably just as important, if my memory doesn't fail me every single one of his Kick offs were unreturnable!  Keep it up Matt!

3.)  The running game.  Yeah we didn't get very many total yards, and once again Shanny and co decided to go pass heavy, but when it counted, when we needed a first down to end the game, the running game and Michael Pittman in particular took over, and even though the Bucs were loading the box trying to stop the run the broncs were still picking up 5 a carry.  Pittman was very impressive IMO, and I hope to see him featured a little bit more.  In fact if I was Shanny I might even give him the next start he just runs so much harder than Young and Hall.

Cutler and the Passing game were pretty good, but not amazing.  I hope that Royal and Schef aren't too badly hurt.  All in all a good gutty win for the Broncs!

Beat the Jags!