LADBABY

Benito Jones will play in the NFL and he was on the board when we picked the punter.

Here is hoping they get it right. Our old uniforms from the early days would do but I don't see that happening.

I thought my identity had been stolen when I saw this thread then i realized it was an oldie. This may well have been a turning point in how he was managing games because he was having a lot of fun up until that point. Somewhere about then he started overworking the notebook.

Any rookie O-lineman is going to make rookie mistakes. You should be more concerned about replacing T. J. Yates than the guard. We are vulnerable if Matt Ryan goes down but he could go down without even being touched. It happens and we are not in a good place.

Joe my memory is bad, was 2011 the year we went out of character left "the process" and made the Julio trade? I always thought that was dictated by Arthur Blank but he said this year he has never injected himself into the draft process. So I must have had It wrong.

That was my thinking when I started this thread because he really tore into those guys relentlessly. However, knowing Smitty and his staff they have been drilling this stuff into these guys from the minute Goddell passes some kind of new rule. I imagine they are equally detailed in explaining the consequences of useless penalties. So if players know what they are doing is not part of the program and do it anyway they are in essence up in Mike Smith's face saying we are going to "do what we do and to h... with you and your team." If you let that go you won't wind up with much. I am going to plead temporary insanity for both sides and move on.

I don't think this incident has anything to do with the Saints rivalry. We had huge early momentum in a game. This could have been anybody it really had nothing to do with the Saints except that is who we were playing. The mood changed and performance went from dominating to being dominated.

I have kind of reached a happy place on it after thrashing it out some in this thread but it is a topic worth some discussion. Momentum was upset more by the sideline dialogue than the penalty as I saw it.

I am a Smitty supporter but you describe what would have been the perfect reaction at that time. The Smitty smile that ain't a smile and a few well chosen words. That thing got going and there was a two way exchange that bothered me. Asante has come in and become a self-appointed leader. People are responding to him and it is important for him to stay on board for the duration. So perhaps I sound like I am advocating giving him special treatment. Nope. Spoon would have gotten the same in those circumstances I imagine. Nothing personal and at this point I hope it is behind us. Smitty is not going to back down on penalties and ultimately his players need to get the message. It is like the guy in Tampa making his guys play the game out. Everybody should know about it by now.

This is what I am talking about. Samuel and Moore played like they were sending Smitty a message. They could not possibly have taken those angles on Ivory unless they were distracted or just mad and out there dogging it. They both looked like third graders on that run.

Well it takes some sensationalism to get a thread going! More importantly did the mood change after that sideline exchange?

Asante Samuel's interception had us in position to blow the New Orleans Saints off the field. Then he and Willie Mo decided to celebrate and pick up a dumb penalty. I thought we were still on our way to a blow out but after Mike Smith's over the top reaction to the dumb penalty the mood changed. Our defense was distracted and not themselves. I haven't noticed this being addressed on the board. I hate a dumb penalty nearly as much as Mike Smith but I think this is one he should have let ride at least to some extent. I am curious to hear what other people think about that.