enigmatics
Go get me a juice box!
Hey there fellow Fin Fan chums. Got back into Scottsdale, AZ from Ohio at 2am and without trying to sound too much like Peter King, let me tell you 12 hours is too d*mn long to spend in airports in one day. My airline tickets were buddy passes so my friend and I spent the majority of the time waiting to see if we could get on certain flights, got to the Cleveland airport at 2:30pm, didn't get on a flight til 8:15pm, that flight stopped in Las Vegas for a 3 hour layover.............and trust me, my friend and I were itchin' to hit the strip! hahah.
Anyways............ I had a blast. We stayed in downtown Cleveland at the Mariott in Public Square. Couldn't have asked for better accomadations given the last minute planning of the trip. The drive was extremely easy, just 45 minutes south on I-77. It was within walking distance from all the nice restaurants and the bars over in the Flats and the Warehouse District. Now I don't know if the Dolphins stayed at my hotel or not, but when my buddy and I left our room on Saturday night, we saw some Dolphin players stepping out of a black van and into the hotel. One I instantly recognized was Manny Wright. I immediately called his name out and told him I was a big fan of the team and was lookin' forward to them having a great year. Let me tell you, Wright is a shmuck. He just looked down at me and basically half-assed shook my hand like he wanted nothin' to do with me. What a jerkoff. That's the quickest way to get on my "I wish they were cut" list. Sometimes it's hard to believe in these players and sports when they act like that.
Sunday afternoon in Canton was a blast, but friggin' sweltering hot!! I don't know about the rest of you who attended, but I was sweating my balls off not to mention I was the idiot who forget the sunblock. After the first 45 minutes I was praying to God things would hurry up and that's when Chris Berman announced, ".....so sit tight everybody and enjoy the next couple of hours!" :rofl3: Ok Steve Young's dad rambled for hours. Somebody should've proof-read his speech and had him consolidate a little. I liked Young's comments about his mother and how she chased down a kid who illegally tackled Young when he was playing pop warner. Young laughily commented that's why she never got any front row seats to any of his pro games.
What can I say, seeing Danny up there at the podium was amazing. Seeing him throw a pass to Mark Clayton one more time was amazing. Hearing the crowd roar with "Danny, Danny!" chants was amazing. I can't believe it's already been 5 years since his retirement. His son Daniel gave a pretty good speech, not to mention the kid looks just like his dad. The whole place was flooded with Dolphins fans. We certainly backed Dan up when he requested we alll overrun Canton for his enshrinement. I wonder if we broke attendence records for one player's enshrinement. Chris Berman couldn't help but crack jokes like, "Dan, seems like you've got some friends here!" or "It seems we're at a Dolphins home game." lol
The game was alright. I wasn't expecting all that much given all the new faces, both player and coach-wise. When the first team offenses and defenses were on the field, it appeared the Bears had invested a little more strategy into the game. More specifically, their defense was playing balls-out, blitzing especially heavy for a pre-season game.
I can't believe Feeley hurt his butt again - you just have to laugh at that. Now our O-line was not looking good at all, but I'm with some of you that Feeley is just way too jumpy for me. He rarely steps into the pocket and throws off-balance or while backing up quite a bit. Arm strength is not his problem either, but locking onto recievers sure is and that doesn't translate over well into his feel for the rush. On one particular play where Ogunleye was harrassing him, there was a ton of pressure and he was reluctant to get rid of the ball and took the sack backed up near our own endzone.
I have to say Frerotte left me feeling more comfortable whenever he dropped back to pass. His mechanics are just more sound than Feeley's. Sage looked good against backups - the usual hahah.
Derrius Thompson dropped a somewhat high, but easily catchable ball and I just laughed to myself.
My boy David Boston was back in effect in the 2nd quarter. I haven't seen the man in person since his Cardinals days, but he is a beaaaaaaaaaast! I'm serious, those arms are ridiculous - I feel bad for any DB trying to jam him. His first catch was a quick out to the left side which he burned upfield for a long gain and first down, exactly the type of play I expect out of him for the rest of the year. After that the Bears paid quite a bit of attention to him, at one point pulling a safety closer to his side.
I liked what I saw out of Donnie Spragan and Channing Crowder. Both seemed to be moving around alot, especially Spragan and where he was lined up.
I saw Matt Roth get a sack on a busted play where Chad Hutchinson ran around for what seemed like years. Now Roth didn't look good, but he didn't look bad either. He had a nice bull rush and power to get inside, but he hasn't figured out how to finish it off. He struggles sometimes when he gets pushed wide outside as well.
Booker looked great. Can't wait to see more of him. Not much to report on Chambers. I swear though, everytime I watch him run I am just waiting to see him take off into the air. His strides are just so long - he's just so long in general. Honestly, I'm starting to believe that his game is all about beating DB's with speed and his amazing athleticism. He's just average when it comes to his route running.
Our secondary looks putrid! Sam Madison was up to his old tricks on one or two plays where he was called for a P.I. ...... Tebuckey Jones doesn't look like that athletic freak people have referred to him as. Travis Daniels spends a little too much time pushing recievers around and taking little cheap shots. He looked great one play then would look terrible the next. The life of a rookie DB I guess.
The D-line was awesome except for one bad play where we overpersued Thomas Jones on a sweep to the left. We didn't get to the QB as much as as I'd like, but still very strong showing when the starters were in. Kevin Carter is just stout. I saw us use the 5-2 alightment and then JT fall back into coverage. It was just weird to watch after all those years of Bates schemes. If I'm not mistaken I saw a defensive tackle or two fall back into coverage a time or two. I thought it to be strange that Zgonina started alongside Traylor with Carter starting at LE.
Gilmore played exceptionall well. That Diamond kid was hustling all over the place. I like his enthusiasm and effort out there.
The running game was something to forget about, except for Travis Minor in the 3rd quarter. Against those backups, Minor was slice'in and dice'in ......he looked so shifty in there. It was funny to hear Ricky get boo'ed when he got in the game. I boo'ed him as well I will freely admit. I had people around me crackin' up when I yelled for him to go back to Asia and get off my team. Tank Johnson's family, he's a DT for the Bears, was sitting right in front of me and I they got a kick out of it. Speaking of which, I had to endure trash talking from Johnson's little 4 and 5 year old nephew and niece. They were talkin' so much head, I was just waiting for us to take the lead so I could say something hahah. Finally we jumped out 17-7, his niece looked back, stuck her tongue out at me and I just laughed and nodded - scoreboard! hahah Wouldn't last long though as we lost the game.
All in all just a fun weekend. We had great seats to everything. At the Enshrinement we sat in section 7, just to the left of the stage about 30 rows up. The tickets for the game rocked. We sat in Section 3 about 15 rows up from the 30 yard line. Unfortunately we were behind the Bears bench which my friend loved because he's a Bears diehard.
I'm gonna post a few fun pictures on the next reply.........
Anyways............ I had a blast. We stayed in downtown Cleveland at the Mariott in Public Square. Couldn't have asked for better accomadations given the last minute planning of the trip. The drive was extremely easy, just 45 minutes south on I-77. It was within walking distance from all the nice restaurants and the bars over in the Flats and the Warehouse District. Now I don't know if the Dolphins stayed at my hotel or not, but when my buddy and I left our room on Saturday night, we saw some Dolphin players stepping out of a black van and into the hotel. One I instantly recognized was Manny Wright. I immediately called his name out and told him I was a big fan of the team and was lookin' forward to them having a great year. Let me tell you, Wright is a shmuck. He just looked down at me and basically half-assed shook my hand like he wanted nothin' to do with me. What a jerkoff. That's the quickest way to get on my "I wish they were cut" list. Sometimes it's hard to believe in these players and sports when they act like that.
Sunday afternoon in Canton was a blast, but friggin' sweltering hot!! I don't know about the rest of you who attended, but I was sweating my balls off not to mention I was the idiot who forget the sunblock. After the first 45 minutes I was praying to God things would hurry up and that's when Chris Berman announced, ".....so sit tight everybody and enjoy the next couple of hours!" :rofl3: Ok Steve Young's dad rambled for hours. Somebody should've proof-read his speech and had him consolidate a little. I liked Young's comments about his mother and how she chased down a kid who illegally tackled Young when he was playing pop warner. Young laughily commented that's why she never got any front row seats to any of his pro games.
What can I say, seeing Danny up there at the podium was amazing. Seeing him throw a pass to Mark Clayton one more time was amazing. Hearing the crowd roar with "Danny, Danny!" chants was amazing. I can't believe it's already been 5 years since his retirement. His son Daniel gave a pretty good speech, not to mention the kid looks just like his dad. The whole place was flooded with Dolphins fans. We certainly backed Dan up when he requested we alll overrun Canton for his enshrinement. I wonder if we broke attendence records for one player's enshrinement. Chris Berman couldn't help but crack jokes like, "Dan, seems like you've got some friends here!" or "It seems we're at a Dolphins home game." lol
The game was alright. I wasn't expecting all that much given all the new faces, both player and coach-wise. When the first team offenses and defenses were on the field, it appeared the Bears had invested a little more strategy into the game. More specifically, their defense was playing balls-out, blitzing especially heavy for a pre-season game.
I can't believe Feeley hurt his butt again - you just have to laugh at that. Now our O-line was not looking good at all, but I'm with some of you that Feeley is just way too jumpy for me. He rarely steps into the pocket and throws off-balance or while backing up quite a bit. Arm strength is not his problem either, but locking onto recievers sure is and that doesn't translate over well into his feel for the rush. On one particular play where Ogunleye was harrassing him, there was a ton of pressure and he was reluctant to get rid of the ball and took the sack backed up near our own endzone.
I have to say Frerotte left me feeling more comfortable whenever he dropped back to pass. His mechanics are just more sound than Feeley's. Sage looked good against backups - the usual hahah.
Derrius Thompson dropped a somewhat high, but easily catchable ball and I just laughed to myself.
My boy David Boston was back in effect in the 2nd quarter. I haven't seen the man in person since his Cardinals days, but he is a beaaaaaaaaaast! I'm serious, those arms are ridiculous - I feel bad for any DB trying to jam him. His first catch was a quick out to the left side which he burned upfield for a long gain and first down, exactly the type of play I expect out of him for the rest of the year. After that the Bears paid quite a bit of attention to him, at one point pulling a safety closer to his side.
I liked what I saw out of Donnie Spragan and Channing Crowder. Both seemed to be moving around alot, especially Spragan and where he was lined up.
I saw Matt Roth get a sack on a busted play where Chad Hutchinson ran around for what seemed like years. Now Roth didn't look good, but he didn't look bad either. He had a nice bull rush and power to get inside, but he hasn't figured out how to finish it off. He struggles sometimes when he gets pushed wide outside as well.
Booker looked great. Can't wait to see more of him. Not much to report on Chambers. I swear though, everytime I watch him run I am just waiting to see him take off into the air. His strides are just so long - he's just so long in general. Honestly, I'm starting to believe that his game is all about beating DB's with speed and his amazing athleticism. He's just average when it comes to his route running.
Our secondary looks putrid! Sam Madison was up to his old tricks on one or two plays where he was called for a P.I. ...... Tebuckey Jones doesn't look like that athletic freak people have referred to him as. Travis Daniels spends a little too much time pushing recievers around and taking little cheap shots. He looked great one play then would look terrible the next. The life of a rookie DB I guess.
The D-line was awesome except for one bad play where we overpersued Thomas Jones on a sweep to the left. We didn't get to the QB as much as as I'd like, but still very strong showing when the starters were in. Kevin Carter is just stout. I saw us use the 5-2 alightment and then JT fall back into coverage. It was just weird to watch after all those years of Bates schemes. If I'm not mistaken I saw a defensive tackle or two fall back into coverage a time or two. I thought it to be strange that Zgonina started alongside Traylor with Carter starting at LE.
Gilmore played exceptionall well. That Diamond kid was hustling all over the place. I like his enthusiasm and effort out there.
The running game was something to forget about, except for Travis Minor in the 3rd quarter. Against those backups, Minor was slice'in and dice'in ......he looked so shifty in there. It was funny to hear Ricky get boo'ed when he got in the game. I boo'ed him as well I will freely admit. I had people around me crackin' up when I yelled for him to go back to Asia and get off my team. Tank Johnson's family, he's a DT for the Bears, was sitting right in front of me and I they got a kick out of it. Speaking of which, I had to endure trash talking from Johnson's little 4 and 5 year old nephew and niece. They were talkin' so much head, I was just waiting for us to take the lead so I could say something hahah. Finally we jumped out 17-7, his niece looked back, stuck her tongue out at me and I just laughed and nodded - scoreboard! hahah Wouldn't last long though as we lost the game.
All in all just a fun weekend. We had great seats to everything. At the Enshrinement we sat in section 7, just to the left of the stage about 30 rows up. The tickets for the game rocked. We sat in Section 3 about 15 rows up from the 30 yard line. Unfortunately we were behind the Bears bench which my friend loved because he's a Bears diehard.
I'm gonna post a few fun pictures on the next reply.........
...nice report
