What’s that, Lassie? I haven’t posted anything substantive in a long time?!
Apr 3, 2008 2008 Draft, 2008 Season, Bad Idea Jeans, Blasphemy, Corky Johnson, Dancing With the 'Tards, Houston Chronicle, Megan Manfull is retarded, Please let the season start soon, Rules, Super Mario, The Fred
As if you hadn’t noticed, I have REALLY been slacking off over here of late. I don’t have an excuse for it other than actual work at work is cutting into my sweet, sweet blogging time. I am contemplating lighting the place on fire just so I can get a vacation.
In any event, I’ll try to be better about it leading up to the draft. For now, allow me to bust out the old bulleted list.
- ***I have been fairly open about my hope that the Texans take a defensive tackle (read: Kentwan Balmer) at 18, followed by a DE in the third. Not to rehash old arguments, but my reasoning basically goes that a space-eating NT would make life easier for Amobi and Mario, thus making life easier on the secondary, AND I think Earl Cochran might have enough talent to become a rotational DE. All that said, I just took a peak at Anthony Weaver’s stats for the last two years and I am starting to think that the “Draft a DE first” crowd is on to something. One fucking sack in two years? Seriously?!? I mean, I knew the dude had been more or less invisible, but jesus titty fucking christ, even I could get one sack in two years. Hell, with Mario opposite him, Weaver should be able to vulture one or two sacks per year just by way of falling on QBs who are scrambling away from our good DE. And he’s the highest-paid Texans? Fantastic. I am getting angry…better move on.
- ***As first mention by new-BRBer, SOLIS, the Texans re-signed C.C. Brown. I’m of two minds about this. First, C.C. has basically been asstastic for most of his Texans tenure, so one wonders just why the team would throw dollars at him. On the other hand, though, his biggest problem (and the primary cause of his asstasticness) is not a lack of talent but a complete lack of understanding how to position himself. This being the case, C.C. might fall under the same “Ray Rhodes project” label as Jacques Reeves. In any event, I guess I like the idea of giving him a year under a good teacher before kicking him to the proverbial curb.
- ***Ray Rhodes cannot fix Petey Faggins. Jesus himself could not fix Petey Faggins. If Jesus and Durga had a baby and that baby married the current Dali Lama, the spawn of that relationship could not fix Petey Faggins.
- ***Someone emailed me this article from 2001 about Megan Manfull. Pretty boring shit, really; it’s the kind of stuff you would imagine in a fluff piece about “oooh, look, girls can write about sports, too!” What did stand out, however, was one quote from Manfull herself.
‘My mother taught me so much, Megan said. ‘I got started in seventh grade on our junior high newspaper. I thought it was fun, and I’d come home at night and she’d give me her lessons from her high school classes. I learned to put questions together and do interviews. I was the only junior high reporter turning in stories with quotes and sources in them.’
See, kids, this what we call irony. Manfull’s memory of starting in print media was that she was the only one citing sources and using actual quotes and now she is part of a paper where such tactics are again missing. This isn’t so much “funny ha ha” as “funny sad,” I guess.
- ***Finally, in generic NFL news, the league approved a number of rule changes for next year. A couple are common sense stuff–FGs are now reviewable, teams can defer after winning a coin toss–but three could have some actual impact. First, one defensive player is allowed to have a radio in his helmet (aka The Spygate Rule). SOLIS already covered this one. Second, force outs have been eliminated, meaning that player has to land in-bounds for a ball to be complete, regardless of whether he was pushed out by the DB or not. This could be huge–larger, more physical corners will become more valuable; smaller, lighter WRs will be at a disadvantage along the sideline; and jump balls along the sides or in the endzone will become even less likely to be completed. Finally, the five-yard facemask penalty has been removed, meaning that incidental contact is ok, but that any twisting or turning of the head will be 15 yards if flagged. Other than Corky Johnson, our team plays pretty clean and smart on defense, so I think I like this change and that it will–if anything–benefit the guys in Battle Red.
If Anna-Megan could read, she’d rip us off, too.
Feb 25, 2008 2008 Draft, Bloggerating, Dancing With the 'Tards, Fuck the Cowboys, Houston Chronicle, I really dig my readers, Megan Manfull is retarded, Pancakes McTard, Roster, Secondary issues are primary, Teams that aren't the Texans, The Future
Now, I know that at least once before, I wrote a post about the Chron ripping off something that happened here and passing it off as original. I was subsequently accused of being overreaching, paranoid, and narcissistic (none of which I can dispute). Whatever. Let’s ride that horse again.
I got an email from Jersey Bill tonight, pointing out a little similarity between a comment he made and a column written by Megan Manfull. Bill writes:
I honestly believe it is a testament to Al Gore’s Internet that this could happen. Notice the post date and time [of this Megan Manfull column]. I put up the same thing about 3 hours before she did in BFD’s CB post. Now, I’m not claiming that I had inside knowledge and this an exclusive. I’m saying that a goof who likes to read a blog about the Texans throws out the same question, and on a nothing doing day, it ends up in a major media website. This pretty much takes another stomp at the dead horse, but how lazy could these writers be? I wouldn’t mind that much, but all these smarmy writers takes shots at fan sites and blogs whenever they get a chance.
Interesting. Let’s investigate. First, Jersey Bill’s comment on BFD’s post about CBs.
Jersey Bill replies at 24th February 2008, 3:42 pm :
Brian Kelly (Bucs CB) opted out of his contract and Michael Huff is available via trade. Wouldn’t it be nice to grab those two with one fell swoop? Certainly would change the draft board.
Now, for Megan’s missive.
How does safety Michael Huff sound for Texans?
There are reports around Oakland that former Longhorns safety Michael Huff is on the trading block. With the draft full of offensive tackles and cornerbacks, the Texans will be looking for safeties in free agency. Anyone want to see Huff become a Texan?Posted by Megan Manfull at February 24, 2008 07:25 PM
Is it completely plausible that Manfull heard the rumor elsewhere and thought it would provide thought-provoking fodder for her blog. I realize that. At the same time, it is awful convenient (as Bill points out) that on a day when next to nothing is happening other than the combine, Manfull writes a blog entry about something that was posted here three hours prior. (This is where I would say “verrrrry interesting” and stroke my long white beard if I were an evil mastermind.)
It’s ok, Megan. There is no shame in reading DGDB&D. Well, other than some of the stuff BFD writes, that is. All we ask is that you give a little nod or hat tip or some kind of Lilith Fair fish taco wave or whatever.
***
In other, related news, I hope to have some sort of rundown of Combine results tomorrow or Tuesday. My wife and this damned fetus are in “well, it could fall out at any point” mode, so I promise nothing. Actually, that’s not true–I promise a Romo-Simpson wedding post at some point real soon. And if Pancakes does the fake conversation before I do, I will kill a puppy.
An Open Letter (from bigfatdrunk) to John McClain
Nov 21, 2007 Dancing With the 'Tards, Houston Chronicle, McTard, Megan Manfull is retarded, Open Letters, Richard Justice is a talentless hack., Suck it bitchez
Ed. note: It’s no secret that I have an active dislike for the Houston Chronicle and, even more specifically, for the trite drivel spewed by most of their sportswriters. Lest ye think I am alone in my disdain, I present the following letter from BFD to John McClain, as first posted at BRB.
Dear Mr. McClain,
As I intimated recently, the Jurassic media, such as the Houston Comicle, jumped the shark many years ago. As if to prove my point with a flourish, you publish this absolute turd of an article.
Forgetting such basic math concepts such as prior performance is no guarantee of future performance or that as variables (aka players, coaches, your BAC) change, the outcome will change, I will again pound on a theme that has become blatantly obvious to any reader with an education level north of Richard Justice, or about the 4th grade.
You, Mr. McClain, hate the Texans. Whether it’s the unrequited love syndrome that so affects Justice due to his man-crush on Vince Young, or whether you seem to enjoy inflicting Solomon-esque pain, I am not quite sure. Perhaps, it’s a little of both? Or am I missing something?
Now, I’m sure your defense will be, “But I mentioned they are .500! Don’t you read? Or do you just read what you want to read?” To answer your questions, yes I read. And, yes, I read what I want to read. You, dear sir, do not fall into the “want to read” category. As for yet another back-handed compliment, we’ll just place that one in the Mario file.
If you are the General, you are the modern-day equivalent of Ambrose Burnside. And with a leader like you, who needs the bleach?
The overall lack of objectivity toward the Texans is incredibly reprehensible, but even when given the opportunity to play a bit of a hometown fan-boy, you showed your true colors. How could, and why should, anyone consider the Houston Chronicle sports section a reliable source of information when you and your cohorts have exhibited such unmitigated and non-negotiable hatred of the Houston Texans?
Your BFF,
XOXOXOXOX,
bigfatdrunk
PS: I’m sure you’ll take full credit for being incredibly right, all the time, once the bandwagon starts chugging.
Next, Manfull explains how the ocean is "wet at times"
Oct 9, 2007 Demarcus Faggins sucks, Houston Chronicle, Megan Manfull is retarded, Stats, Super Mario
I was reading Megan Manfull’s chat transcript from yesterday to see if she had any news on Johnson’s knee. There was nothing that we don’t already know. She did have this nugget of “wisdom,” however.
Megan_Manfull: It’s always good when he walks away with a sack. He also had three tackles and a quarterback hurry. So he was effective at times in there.
He was “effective at times?” Now, maybe she just misspoke (er, mistyped), but it sure sounds like Mario Williams needs to get a sack, hurry, or tackle on every play to be “effective.”
This is exactly the type of thinking that lets people continue to make the “should taken ___” statements that we all find so ridiculous (it is also the flip-side of the “well, Faggins didn’t let ___ score,” but that’s a story for a different day).
Fact of the matter is, Mario is playing extremely well right now. While his numbers are good on their own (his three sacks have him tied for 21st in the league), just looking at his numbers doesn’t come close to telling the whole story.
I’ve said multiple times that Mario is obviously double-teamed on three of Amobi’s four sacks. As commenter grungedave correctly points out, “[t]ry triple-teamed, and often blatantly held when he makes his first move. Mario is a beast, and opposing coaches are aware of it.” Exactly.
Mario is one of our two consistent pass rushers and he’s a huge reason that the other (Okoye) is winning awards for his play. Williams is also dominant in the run defense, as evidenced by the fact that teams are choosing to run away from him as much as possible. Saying that he is “effective at times” is dumb (at best) and has no place in a chat answer by an “insider” who is supposed to understand football.
This post fulfills DGDB&D’s weekly quota of “posts attacking things said or done by Chron writers.” At least until Anna-Megan opens her yap again.
