DiNucci with a decent game in a road win. He threw another pick in the endzone, but was 21-32 for 266 yards and a TD in the air and 9 for 52 with his feet.

(03-31-2023 08:36 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  DiNucci with a decent game in a road win. He threw another pick in the endzone, but was 21-32 for 266 yards and a TD in the air and 9 for 52 with his feet.

His rushing ability shined this game. I know it’s at the top of his and the coach’s mind but if he could limit turnovers he would be a getting a lot of attention.

Seems like most of his turnovers come in the red zone as well, so it hurts more.

(03-31-2023 10:17 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Seems like most of his turnovers come in the red zone as well, so it hurts more.

Yep! Many of Nooch's picks are in the end zone, a potential 14-point swing in a league not exactly known for high scoring.

The pick against Arlington was all on Nooch. He simply didn't lead his receiver enough. Had he led him properly, that would likely have been six points.

There is a war brewing in the Seadragons' locker room, Nooch vs. Josh Gordon, who Nooch is blaming for some of his picks. According to Nooch and some others, Gordon screws up routes a lot. On one pass against Houston, Nooch threw a long ball to Gordon on a go route, but Gordon just stopped running, leaving an easy pick for Houston. Nooch was heard insisting on open mic that Gordon be benched. Link.... Nooch says bench Gordon

Go to the 12:00 mark of the video to see Gordon stop running the route and Nooch throwing the pick.

(04-01-2023 12:05 AM)Purple Wrote:  

(03-31-2023 10:17 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Seems like most of his turnovers come in the red zone as well, so it hurts more.

Yep! Many of Nooch's picks are in the end zone, a potential 14-point swing in a league not exactly known for high scoring.

The pick against Arlington was all on Nooch. He simply didn't lead his receiver enough. Had he led him properly, that would likely have been six points.

There is a war brewing in the Seadragons' locker room, Nooch vs. Josh Gordon, who Nooch is blaming for some of his picks. According to Nooch and some others, Gordon screws up routes a lot. On one pass against Houston, Nooch threw a long ball to Gordon on a go route, but Gordon just stopped running, leaving an easy pick for Houston. Nooch was heard insisting on open mic that Gordon be benched. Link.... Nooch says bench Gordon

Go to the 12:00 mark of the video to see Gordon stop running the route and Nooch throwing the pick.

In the XFL it’s a potential 18 point swing since they have those weird 1, 2, or 3 point conversions.

(04-01-2023 07:50 AM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  

(04-01-2023 12:05 AM)Purple Wrote:  

(03-31-2023 10:17 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Seems like most of his turnovers come in the red zone as well, so it hurts more.

Yep! Many of Nooch's picks are in the end zone, a potential 14-point swing in a league not exactly known for high scoring.

The pick against Arlington was all on Nooch. He simply didn't lead his receiver enough. Had he led him properly, that would likely have been six points.

There is a war brewing in the Seadragons' locker room, Nooch vs. Josh Gordon, who Nooch is blaming for some of his picks. According to Nooch and some others, Gordon screws up routes a lot. On one pass against Houston, Nooch threw a long ball to Gordon on a go route, but Gordon just stopped running, leaving an easy pick for Houston. Nooch was heard insisting on open mic that Gordon be benched. Link.... Nooch says bench Gordon

Go to the 12:00 mark of the video to see Gordon stop running the route and Nooch throwing the pick.

In the XFL it’s a potential 18 point swing since they have those weird 1, 2, or 3 point conversions.

True enough. Turnovers in the red zone can be deadly. Gotta' tighten that up.

Kevin Kelley with his first MLB appearance and K!

John Daka is the Houston Roughnecks' highest-rated defender and player overall....

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS
Offense: RB Max Borghi (82.8)
Defense: EDGE John Daka (91.5)

The undefeated Roughnecks' top-graded players remain the same from Week 2. No XFL running back has forced more missed tackles than Borghi's 16, and none have managed to match his two rushing scores, either. He forced a whopping eight missed tackles in Week 3 — more than all but three other rushers have accumulated across the entire season.

We touched on Daka's notable college resume in last week's highest-graded players article, and he continues to produce in the XFL. He added four more quarterback pressures in Week 3 to bring his season total to 12 on just 59 pass-rushing snaps. His 29.1% pass-rush win rate ranks first among all XFL defenders.

Profootballnetwork.com considers Mr. Daka the 15th-most-draftable player in the XFL (as of 3/25). (Nooch is considered 12th-most-draftable) Go, Dukes!....

John Daka continues to be a menace on the Roughnecks’ defensive line. While he didn’t register any QB takedowns this week, he did force a fumble and added another four tackles to his season total (14). He’s a tough presence for other teams to manage, and he’s even tougher for opposing linemen to move off the line of scrimmage.

Also of note, the Seattle Seadragons have lost two games this season by a total of six points. They lost to the DC Defenders in DC and play them in Seattle this Sunday. Nooch on one side, Fornadel on the other.

In 7 games Daka has 19 tackles, 3 sacks and 5 tackles for a loss, but also leads the XFL with 3 forced fumbles.

Josh Wells back with the Jags

DiNucci and Seattle hosting Fornadel and DC. Nucc not getting much help, poor effort by receivers, poor playcalling by coach. Just had 3rd and 2, Coach took forever to get play called in and called a deep pass in endzone instead of running for it. Ben tucked and run on 4th to pick up the first and another run to convert again. He’s been stuck dinking and dunking; he needs to quit looking to Gordon, who’s just mailing it in in the XFL. (Seems Ben heard me, he just had Gordon wide open for a first down and wouldn’t throw it to him, instead using him as a decoy/blocker and ran it himself) And they need to quit going for 3 which they do after every TD. They’re like 2-13 on the season; just went for it again and after a PI flag got it from the 1 and were stuffed. Going for 1 or 2, lower risk, lower reward but you’d probably convert more and in the end score more. Being 15 yards out you can’t expect the QB to scramble if nothing opens up, but from 5 or even 10 yards out I could see him tucking, running and converting.

Interesting how the end of the season shakes out as Ben probably has an outside chance at MVP if he finishes strong and minimizes turnovers. If so, it would help his chances of getting back to the NFL.

Speaking of poor coaching and lack of effort or dumb plays from teammates, they had DC stopped on 3rd down and then had a Seattle D-lineman with a dumb late hit on the QB to give them a 1st and goal which they quickly converted to a TD. DC then went for 2, not 3 like Seattle does, and converted that as well. I believe they said DC is 18-26 on 2 point plays for the year while Seattle always goes for 3 and is 2-13. So despite only being down by 1 TD they are down 10 points.

Another damn red zone INT for Ben, thrown across the middle and batted high in the air, easy for a defender to get under. SMH

Dumb plays by teammates, Ben just lifted a nice deep ball that went in for a 56 yard TD, teammate earns a 15 yard flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. Luckily, it did not negate the score, but did get stepped off on the conversion, so of course they go for 3 except now it’s from the 25 yard line. Ben scrambled and lofted it deep, got lucky and Seattle came up with it, converting for 3 and making it a 28-27 ballgame. Then an extremely poor attempt at tackling on a short pass led to a 70 yard TD and DC up 34-27. DC is the better all around team and deserves this W, but still hoping Ben helps lead Seattle to a W instead.

Good finish, Nucc went 9-9 and 70 yards in the 2 minute offense to get the TD and 34-33. Seattle went for 2 and the win and Ben got sacked on a bootleg; they have to know Gregg Williams would be dialing up some blitzes there and snuff it out and it’s exactly what happened. In the huddle before that the coach was dead set on 2 but he asked why don’t they go for 1 and the tie. Goofy XFL rules, instead of an onside kick they get the ball back for a 4th and 15 play from their own 25. Conversion no good, ballgame!

28-42 301 yards 3TDs 1INT and 4-23 on the ground
He had a couple of nice deep balls, but despite those numbers they never seemed to get in a good flow tonight.

That was quite the entertaining game... Ben was Ben!

(04-09-2023 09:08 PM)s2dsayer Wrote:  That was quite the entertaining game... Ben was Ben!

Finger guns engage

I agree that Ben isn't getting enough help from his supporting cast and not enough protection from his line. When he has ample time to throw, good things happen for Seattle. He is way ahead of the pack in pass yardage. McCarron was #2, but he is injured.

I read a blurb today that reported Dallas is interested in bringing Nooch back as the backup and heir apparent to Dak. They are very unhappy with their current roster of backups (as I said they would be) and are looking towards the future.

The XFL is fun as hell to watch. I hope the NFL implements some of their rules.

Not for nothing, but I don't think the problem in Dallas in necessarily the roster, but rather the guy putting it together. That said, Ben played better yesterday than he did in Week 1, but the last couple plays (the two point conversion and the ensuing "onside kick") saw him running for his life and his OL turned into a sieve.

Speaking of the XFL onside kick, I honestly think the 4th and 15 is more exciting than a traditional kick. Would like to see the NFL adopt that.

(04-10-2023 10:23 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  Not for nothing, but I don't think the problem in Dallas in necessarily the roster, but rather the guy putting it together. That said, Ben played better yesterday than he did in Week 1, but the last couple plays (the two point conversion and the ensuing "onside kick") saw him running for his life and his OL turned into a sieve.

Speaking of the XFL onside kick, I honestly think the 4th and 15 is more exciting than a traditional kick. Would like to see the NFL adopt that.

Yeah, me too. I loved the 4th and 15 onside!

And, yeah, the O-line was out to lunch on both plays and many others during the course of the game. If not for Nooch's mobility and ability to turn nothing into something, it would have been ugly. June Jones' playcalling is often bizarre too. He was a genius offensive mind in his prime, but I'm afraid that is far behind him.

There’s a reason most of these “name” coaches in the XFL are no longer in the NFL. Between June and Hazlett you certainly see Ben’s frustrations playing out on the open mic when they’re scurrying to get plays called. His most talented WR Gordon is mailing it in and you’re lucky to get a few bursts out of him, and his best WR Pearson is way too small so countless passes have flown just over his finger tips this season. Ben had a decent game last night considering it was a very heavy rain in cold weather; just want to see him go w/o any more turnovers.

(04-10-2023 08:50 AM)Purple Wrote:  I agree that Ben isn't getting enough help from his supporting cast and not enough protection from his line. When he has ample time to throw, good things happen for Seattle. He is way ahead of the pack in pass yardage. McCarron was #2, but he is injured.

I read a blurb today that reported Dallas is interested in bringing Nooch back as the backup and heir apparent to Dak. They are very unhappy with their current roster of backups (as I said they would be) and are looking towards the future.

The XFL is fun as hell to watch. I hope the NFL implements some of their rules.

Provide a link.

Facts.
Cooper Rush just resigned to a 2 year $6 million contract.
Rush went 4-1 when Dak was out.
Rush beat out Ben.
No major Cowboys beat writer or blogger has reported this.

(04-11-2023 06:16 AM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  

(04-10-2023 08:50 AM)Purple Wrote:  I agree that Ben isn't getting enough help from his supporting cast and not enough protection from his line. When he has ample time to throw, good things happen for Seattle. He is way ahead of the pack in pass yardage. McCarron was #2, but he is injured.

I read a blurb today that reported Dallas is interested in bringing Nooch back as the backup and heir apparent to Dak. They are very unhappy with their current roster of backups (as I said they would be) and are looking towards the future.

The XFL is fun as hell to watch. I hope the NFL implements some of their rules.

Provide a link.

Facts.
Cooper Rush just resigned to a 2 year $6 million contract.
Rush went 4-1 when Dak was out.
Rush beat out Ben.
No major Cowboys beat writer or blogger has reported this.

I'd like to see a link as well. Neither google nor twitter search shows anything from the beat writers or bloggers. The guarantees in Rush's contract mean that he almost certainly couldn't be cut and, based on his performance while Prescott was hurt, it is unlikely they would anyway.

They do seem likely to draft a QB; they have had 4 QBs visit in the run-up to the draft. However, they're unlikely to spend more than a 4th-round pick on the position, and the guarantee contract for a QB in that round is less than what I believe the NFL's rules would require a player with DiNucci's service time to be paid.