Stillers/Skins

A few notes from pre-season game # 3 against the Skins:

Tailgate:

Awesome time at FedEx Field last night (tailgate portion).� Stillers.com combined a tailgate with the Baltimore Fan Club.� The Baltimore Fan Club has a great Stiller following and are a great bunch of guys and gals.� They extended their hospitality and are a great bunch to hang out with.� Special thanks to Mark for inviting us.� Appreciate some posters like Stiller VA, his buddy steelers21583, MDsteeler, Zabo and others for dropping by.�� We ran into many stillers.com fans that read the site, but don�t post on the boards.� I wonder why?

Stillers.Com will sponsor several tailgates at various stadiums this season.� As always, we�ll provide the beers and look for the banner.� StillDiesel puts them on.� I know for sure he is looking at doing one in San Diego this season.

FedEx Field:

I�ve had the opportunity to see several games all over the USA and I�m hoping I never return to FedEx Field.� This has to be the most fan unfriendly stadium in the history of stadiums.� Finding a simple parking lot turned into a two mile hike with cops and attendants with a 2^nd grade education directing you.� Diesel will undoubtedly have some great stories to tell getting in the parking lot.� Scalpers were hard to find and I made the cardinal sin of buying tickets with out having a stadium map on me and my nose is still bleeding.� The Skins fans, in general, were cool.� It is easy to shut them up by saying �Who do you root for in January?�� I�ve lived in the Dc Metro area for over four years now and the Skins Fans crack me up.� After winning a pre-season game, their first this year, some are already making plans for the Super Bowl.� Three other incidents that pissed me off:

• I like beer.� I don�t like 16 ounces for $7.� I don�t recall ever being gouged that much for a beer, but Snyder makes money.� Many thanks to Diesel who brought seven cases of assorted drinks to off-set the fleecing.
• Some jag-off stole my terrible towel.� I was walking with my son and this idiot grabbed my towel and ran.� I had to make a split second decision, run and kill him or stick with my son.� I chose the latter.
• Mill�s Father in Law, a retired Marine Sergeant Major and Vietnam wounded Veteran, had his wallet picked in the Stadium.� When he called this morning to cancel some credit cards, he already had $8,000 of charges against his cards.

Kids:

I have three boys and my youngest is eight years old.� Out of all three, my youngest is a Stiller fanatic, so I brought him to the game.� This was his first Stiller game in person.� He had a great time and can talk crap and cheer with the veterans.� After the game, we went to the player entrance and were hoping to get some autographs before they boarded the busses.� We caught a glimpse of Bettis and a few other players.� My son was in the front against the fences with his football and autograph pen.� He was getting upset that nobody was signing his ball and a lady said, �I�ll get you an autograph.�� She took my son and yelled �Brian, get over here.�� It was Mrs. St. Pierre and he signed my son�s ball and got rookie LB Rian Wallace to sign it as well.� While the autographs aren�t Manning and JR Seau caliber, I greatly appreciate Mrs. St. Pierre for hooking my kid up.� By the way, Mrs. St. Pierre is hot and a very nice lady.� Mill and I saw Russ Grimm before the game.� I saw the guy and it looked like him and I figured it was just a big guy with a mustache carrying a bag.� Mill yells �Triv, that is Russ Grimm� and I told him he was full of shit.� A guard by us told us it was in fact Grimm.

The Game:

I won�t comment that much on the game, since Mill and others will get more in depth and I was to busy trying to stop my nose bleeds from my great seats.

A few notes though:

• I enjoyed the trick play we used last night.� Throwing a four yard pass to Miller was brilliant.� He now has two receptions for nine yards as a Stiller.� This is excellent utilization of a #1 draft pick.
• Ben is getting eaten alive on the boards, but I�m not that worried yet.� The receiving corps is what has me concerned.� Very few long routes and running short of the first down marker on their patterns.� I don�t pretend to be a football expert and there are some readers on our boards that have forgotten more football than I know, but our offense and Ben is too predictable; you don�t get a decent view of this on TV, but when you are sitting in seats equal to the elevation of Pike�s Peak, your can see it easily.
• A few will say don�t show your cards during pre-season.� To some extent, I agree.� You don�t do an on-sides kick in the 2^nd quarter or a double reverse in the pre-season.� A blitz or receivers running deeper routes is not showing your hand, it is playing football.� I haven�t seen any off that, yet.� Our rushing defense made Portis, Betts and Broughton look like Barry Sanders, Tony D and OJ last night.
• Penalties.� The Stillers have kept mistakes this pre-season to an all-time low.� This is good news.
• Parker is the #1 RB right now if the Bus� calf keeps him out.� Duce won�t return until October.� Parker is exciting and I�m eager to watch him play.� Someone posted, maybe Hesske, that when Gayle Sayers was with the Bears a bunch of folks criticized him for his lack of blocking skills.� Once they saw Gayle run, the Bears said �We�ll find someone else to block.�