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Page 88 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
While I will be cheering for the 49ers, I too could see that outcome, simply because the Ravens are on a serious roll, and healthy.

Curious though that you are going so far against the odds, even Vegas odds which have SF favored by 4-5 pts. I have to admit, if I were a betting man I'd put money on Baltimore (and on Alex Smith playing).

As to Ray Lewis, well, what did you expect?! Amani Toomer was saying Lewis was becoming a caricature of himself. Interesting viewpoint. As an aside to this, I wonder if it's going to be a distraction for Baltimore, all this focus on Lewis. While the 49ers simply go about their business. Or is this something that the Ravens will just shrug off? Superbowl lore is filled with side stories like this.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
As to Ray Lewis, well, what did you expect?! Amani Toomer was saying Lewis was becoming a caricature of himself. Interesting viewpoint. As an aside to this, I wonder if it's going to be a distraction for Baltimore, all this focus on Lewis. While the 49ers simply go about their business. Or is this something that the Ravens will just shrug off? Superbowl lore is filled with side stories like this.

Did you see the Ray sketch on SNL? Can be seen by US residents on NBC's SNL page. I thought the climax was hysterical.

You could also look at it another way - that all the Ray ballyhoo keeps the rest of the squad completely out of the wind, enabling them to concentrate on optimum preparation entirely away from the media circus.
 
Alpe d'Huez said:
Curious though that you are going so far against the odds, even Vegas odds which have SF favored by 4-5 pts.

And the computers have the 49ers, 28-21, with a nearly 40% chance of winning by more than 10. Foxxy is definitely a contrarian, and he was right when most of us were wrong in picking the Ravens vs. Denver and NE, but 34 points on the 49ers? That's more than they scored against either the Pats or Indy, which have two of the worst defenses in the NFL. They did score 38 against Denver, 35 in regulation, but one TD was a pick-six, and another basically a Hail Mary.

I wonder if it's going to be a distraction for Baltimore, all this focus on Lewis. While the 49ers simply go about their business.

They have their distractions to deal with, too. How about Culliver saying gay players weren’t welcome on the team? That would be an inflammatory comment anywhere, but you can imagine how it went over in SF. The 49er management basically disowned him, and Harbaugh is clearly very angry with him. It has been suggested he might be released after the season is over. He issued an apology today, but it was one of those statements that is written by someone else, dictating exactly what you will say.

Technically, Culliver doesn't start, but he plays a lot, and is definitely needed. He had a key interception in one of their playoff games. I hope for the sake of harmony in the 49ers secondary that none of the DBs is a closet gay. Even if everyone back there is straight, this is the kind of stuff that causes real problems in the locker room. I'd say the potential for disruption is greater than anything Lewis said, though these guys are professionals and probably their play will not be affected by it.

But if the game turns out the way Foxxy is predicting, a lot of people will blame the 49ers' loss on Culliver. I really can't see Lewis' antics affecting the play of the rest of the team. I can definitely see what Culliver said affecting the play of some of his teammates.

Or Randy Moss claiming he’s the best WR in history. He’s being ridiculed by a lot of former NFL players who played against him and Jerry Rice. Again, it would be taken as an outrageous comment by a majority of fans anywhere, but it couldn’t be worse in SF.

It may take all the pressure off the Ravens player who needs to perform the most, the player whose shoulders the team rides on more than Lewis: Joe Flacco.

I agree that the Ravens' chances seem to hinge on Flacco. The 49ers have a great rushing defense, assuming Justin Smith is fairly healthy again, so the Ravens can't expect a lot of production from Ray Rice. Flacco can't be a game manager, he's going to have to be a playmaker. I see a lot of passing on 1st and 2d down.

Edit: Ravens linebacker Brandon Ayanbadejo, a vocal supporter of gay rights, said he estimated that 50% of the players in the NFL have a view like Culliver's, though he thinks it was much worse, like 95%, not so long ago. I saw a video in which a couple of NFL analysts, to my utter shock, described Culliver's statement as a "bad choice of words", that the 49ers just had to teach him how to express himself better. That is total BS, he was saying exactly how he feels. The same analysts didn't think Culliver's words would affect his teammates' play, but they noted he is the 49ers best deep coverage man, and that Flacco is certain to test him now, to see if his play is affected at all by this.
 
Feb 4, 2012
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Merckx index said:
Or Randy Moss claiming he’s the best WR in history. He’s being ridiculed by a lot of former NFL players who played against him and Jerry Rice. Again, it would be taken as an outrageous comment by a majority of fans anywhere, but it couldn’t be worse in SF.
Thing is Moss could have been the greatest wide receiver of all time had he gone about things the right way. As it is, he's arguably the most physically gifted to play the position. But greatness is defined by much more than physical ability.
 
Well, my logical mind tells me that the 49ers are a better team and will win by something like 31-27. But I also know the Ravens are on a serious roll and peaking at the right time. Look at last year's SB, where the 9-7 Giants peaked at the right time and had the ball bounce their way enough times to win. And the Ravens are better team than that. But last year's (and this year's) Patriots had a lot of weaknesses, some of which the 49ers don't have, and one could argue the 49ers are peaking as well with Kaepernick. Still, a strong sense in my gut sees the Ravens winning. Their defense stopping the 49ers just enough, and Flacco rising to the occasion.

Merckx index said:
49ers...have their distractions to deal with, too. How about Culliver saying gay players weren’t welcome on the team?
I made my post before Culliver made that bone headed statement. But it's definitely a distraction.

I'm reminded of the NFL as a boy and how it was still mostly a white man's sport, with people questioning James Harris playing QB, over a decade before Doug Williams ever took an NFL snap. Of course there are more blacks than gays in society, but the bigotry is the same, my point is the same. There may only be a handful of gays in the NFL, but I'm sure they are there. Society for the most part doesn't care, so having NFL players act like shameful idiots isn't going to just go away with a rehearsed apology.

Randy Moss is Randy Moss. I don't think his statement offers more than a "whatever dude!" chuckle from most players.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Amsterhammer said:
Ok, I know where Alpe and Foxxy stand, but I'm not sure if Mercxk has come off the fence?

Ravens

Foxxy

Amster

Niners

Alpe


Add yourselves, if interested.;)
ME..... Ravens.

Also I'm very happy to see that my fellow countrymen have not disappointed with regards to the reception Roger Goodell has received. Just ask the folks who had some really nice Mardi Gras Floats in his Honor. hahaha "Krewe du Vieux" for the win.

"And floats in the unabashedly lowbrow Krewe du Vieux parade in the French Quarter last weekend displayed larger-than-life likenesses of Goodell in acts that defy polite description."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...s-holds-grudge-against-roger-goodell/1866451/
 
Amsterhammer said:
Ok, I know where Alpe and Foxxy stand, but I'm not sure if Mercxk has come off the fence?

Ravens

Foxxy

Amster

Glenn

thirteen

Niners

Alpe


Add yourselves, if interested.;)
added myself, thank you! and added Glenn, too, for good measure :p

seriously, i was rooting for the Ravens anyways. but that comment by Culliver? f**k me! i want him crushed!!!

i was so pleased with Chris Kluwe on the Colbert Show and then Culliver has to open his mouth :rolleyes:
 
thirteen said:

Ahhh, things are clearing up a little. ;)

images


Edit: Meant with nothing but humor and admiration. :)
 
May 18, 2009
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thirteen said:
added myself, thank you! and added Glenn, too, for good measure :p

seriously, i was rooting for the Ravens anyways. but that comment by Culliver? f**k me! i want him crushed!!!

i was so pleased with Chris Kluwe on the Colbert Show and then Culliver has to open his mouth :rolleyes:

I got the 49ers, cuz I like that feller tell'n it how it is about teh gay in that city of sin San Francisco.
 
I’m taking the 49ers minus the points. I think they will win and easily cover the spread. The main thing they have to worry about is the Ravens’ deep passing game, which could burn them. But I think the Niners' offense will score often against the Birds.

I find it interesting that some of last year’s Giants haters are big Ravens fans. Like the Giants last year, the Ravens have come off an up-and-down season in which they didn’t look at all like a SB contender most of the time, and lost a lot of games in the second half of the schedule. When the Giants went all the way last year, people said they were “lucky”. But as the Ravens keep winning in the postseason this year, many of these same people are saying, “they are on a roll”. Translation: they’re lucky just like the Giants, but I don’t want to admit it, because I’m a fan of them.

Don’t tell me the Ravens are a better team than the Giants were. The Ravens were 9 point underdogs in not one but two of their playoff victories. Never happened before. The Giants were not that big an underdog in any of their playoff games. The only big surprise was the victory over the Packers, and they had played them close a few weeks earlier. The Ravens beat NE in the regular season, but that was early in the schedule. Much later in the season they were beaten very decisively by Denver.

If the Ravens do win the SB, though, I will consider them more deserving than the Giants, because they have been a consistent playoff team the past several years, and as I noted in a previous post, have won at least one postseason game every year under Flacco. They've had seasons, particularly last year, when they would have been a deserving SB team, and didn't make it. Whereas the Giants are more boom and bust, either going all the way or not making the postseason at all.

By the way, this is only the second time in history that the SB has featured two teams that lost the conference final the previous year. The other time was SB30, Dallas and Pittsburgh.

Interesting article on the two QBs, and the role of arm strength. Foxxy ain't gonna like it.

Receiver Michael Crabtree said players would rotate back in line during passing drills to avoid Kaepernick’s turn to throw. Tight end Vernon Davis described Kaepernick as a “freak,” adding, “He’ll take your fingers off if you don’t watch it.”

Despite Flacco’s and Kaepernick’s ability to throw far and fast, however, [Gil] Brandt and others argued that arm strength on its own garnered too much attention. When Brandt worked for the Cowboys, they used a radar gun on potential prospects. One player, whose name he could not recall, registered throws at 60 m.p.h. Phil Simms clocked in at 49.

Guess how that turned out.

Brandt was more interested in quarterbacks who threw accurate passes, who had strong work ethics, who did not linger on mistakes. He ranked arm strength as the eighth- or ninth-most fundamental attribute in a quarterback. For every rifle-armed Elway, there was a Joe Montana, king of the soft touch. Brandt said Rudy Bukich was the hardest thrower he ever saw. Bukich played 14 seasons in the 1950s and ’60s, but he threw more interceptions than touchdowns.

“Arm strength is not as important as you’re often led to believe,” Brandt said.

Dr. Glenn Fleisig, the research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute, a biomechanics research laboratory, has studied and analyzed such matters, mostly in regard to pitchers but also for quarterbacks. In one study, Fleisig’s team looked at both throwing motions to determine whether it was helpful for high school and college athletes to pitch and play quarterback at the same time. They also studied Texas Rangers pitchers, who threw footballs to warm up.

The researchers found the throwing motions largely similar. Quarterbacks held the ball closer to their heads, stood more upright, took shorter strides. The researchers studied what they called “optimal” football mechanics, throws made during drop-backs, not off balance or on the run. They found that both pitchers and quarterbacks planted their feet, rotated their hips and upper trunks, and flipped their shoulders forward, creating a whiplike motion.

“It’s the full body, not just the arm,” Fleisig said. “It’s a kinetic chain, a series of coordinated events. The arm is actually the last part of that chain.”
 
Merckx index said:
I’m taking the 49ers minus the points. I think they will win and easily cover the spread. The main thing they have to worry about is the Ravens’ deep passing game, which could burn them. But I think the Niners' offense will score often against the Birds
This is mostly what I see. I can see Baltimore stuffing the 49ers on some series, but not throughout the game. I see the 49ers able to spread the Ravens pass defense, and run Gore. Not with consistency every down, but enough over the game to make a difference. I also however see the Ravens WR's catching some big passes, providing the 49ers pass rush can't get to Flacco.

As to arm strength, two comments on this. Some of the greatest QBs in history didn't have strong arms, but had great accuracy. Joe Montana comes to mind. Mike Martz was asked what the three most important factors in picking a QB, he listed "1. Accuracy. 2. Accuracy. 3. Accuracy." As I pointed out in other posts, arm strength sure is handy, but only if you're accurate and good decision maker. JaMarcus Russell and Jim Druckenmiller had two of the strongest arms to ever enter the NFL. How did their careers turn out? However, Colt Brennan came into the NFL with a weak, but accurate arm, and never really got very far either. So there's exceptions to every rule. A strong arm is going to help, I'd rather have a QB with a strong arm than a week arm, but it's not everything, not even most important to most experts (like Martz).

As an aside, Andy Dalton came into the league with a below average "arm" but got "stronger" this season. How? Partly by lifting weights, but more so by working on his footwork. Say what? Yep.

“Throwing the football all comes down to footwork,” Dalton said, via Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer...

Dalton actually did a good job of allaying fears about his arm strength last season. He had the best completion percentage in the league on deep balls over the middle, but he struggled throwing the ball down the field toward either sideline. Improved footwork would be one way to address that problem...
 
Jun 22, 2009
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So 13, can you get out for 24 hours and make it up to Sin City? Not sure where you are, but you can get here in just under two hours from the Brussels ring. If not, we could maybe exchange phone numbers by PM and keep in touch by text?

Wadda ya say? Go on? How many extra beers should I get in?:p

GO RAVENS!!

(ok, I've had a few, I'm in training for tomorrow.)
 
May 18, 2009
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thirteen said:
so as it stands right now:


Ravens

Foxxy

Amster

Glenn

thirteen


Niners

Alpe

ChrisE

Merckx

Bwahahahahaha! I am with the best mod on this forum and it's smartest poster. No way I am wrong! You Raven pickers are gonna fall like **** from a tall cow's ***!

ChrisE, have i told you recently that i love you?

No, but I always knew you did.

Can you please send me a picture? I was really hoping the one Alpe posted was you. I have a difficult time returning my love unless I know what somebody looks like, and they are hot.
 
ChrisE said:
Bwahahahahaha! I am with the best mod on this forum and it's smartest poster. No way I am wrong! You Raven pickers are gonna fall like **** from a tall cow's ***!
I'm flattered. And, I was right last year in my pick of the underdog Giants. However, the ex-pat from Clogland who calls this sport "Hand Egg" had a better picking ratio than me this year.

Can you please send me a picture? I was really hoping the one Alpe posted was you.
I think that is her, but you'd need to look this dashing (and be this smart) to entice her.

images


:)
 
Alpe d'Huez said:
I think that is her, but you'd need to look this dashing (and be this smart) to entice her.

images


:)
Alpe, you speak the truth! dashing and smart (with a wicked sense of humour) and, well... trust me, i'm worth it ;)



Amsterhammer said:
So 13, can you get out for 24 hours and make it up to Sin City? Not sure where you are, but you can get here in just under two hours from the Brussels ring. If not, we could maybe exchange phone numbers by PM and keep in touch by text?

Wadda ya say? Go on? How many extra beers should I get in?:p

GO RAVENS!!

(ok, I've had a few, I'm in training for tomorrow.)
Amster, good training!

alas, can't make it to Sin City, sob, because i am getting ready for another trip to the States and that would just f*** me up too much.

will PM my details and hope you drink enough for both of us (insert smiley face that i can't use because of board restrictions, gah! better yet, insert smiley face chugging beer).
 
May 18, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
I'm flattered. And, I was right last year in my pick of the underdog Giants. However, the ex-pat from Clogland who calls this sport "Hand Egg" had a better picking ratio than me this year.


I think that is her, but you'd need to look this dashing (and be this smart) to entice her.

images


:)

Well, don't let it go to your head. Being the best mod in here is setting the bar pretty low; it's like being king of the dip****s.

That was a picture of 13? She has pointed knees so that is a drawback. Plus I'm not black.
 

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