I'm curious, how many smoke screens has Zorn used so far?

[Mr. Nostril]

If you play poker against a bad player, it is very difficult at first because you don't know what they are going to do. If you play poker against a good player, you know what they are going to do; although they won't make really stupid moves, and will beat you if you play poorly...you know what to expect- and you can beat them if given the right circumstances and cards. If you play a REALLY good player...you need to be really good, be patient, error free, smart...and a little lucky.

This isn't really true. The unpredictable poker player who makes bad decisions, and the by the book player who's easy to read, would be considered bad poker players.

With good poker players, they combine enough randomness in their game that you don't know what they're going to do, but at the same time don't make dumb mistakes. All the randomness is calculated to affect their table image as a dangerous player. Also they're good at determing what type of hand their opponent has based on betting patterns, and just as good at disguising their own hands with betting patterns.

The type of player you described as good is better than the one you described as bad, because he'll lose his money slower. But he'll still lose money playing against good players.

[kingfish50]

He's pretending like we can't score in the "Red Zone". It's been working so far.

Burn in Hell dall ASS Burn in Hell

[TSO]

I don't think it's necessary to have specific examples from the past to hypothesize that a first year NFL coach may be using a "smoke screen." I think it's fair to assume that a 55 year old man, who has been involved in professional and collegiate team sports for well over 30 years, is more than familiar with the concept of gamesmanship. If he fudged with injury reports too frequently then it wouldn't be effective, because his opponents would know not to take what Zorn says about injuries seriously.

The theorizing about "smoke screens" is simply an acknowledgement that we have the biggest game of our season coming up, and the coach is spending alot of time talking to press about an injury to our biggest star player. It may be completely true, but it doesn't completely pass the eyeball test, and it's involving a head coach who's too new to really have a reputation about these sort of things. Questioning is justified.

Good points, but I still think we'd have at least SOME form of an instance where we can point to and say "Here Zorn said 'it doesn't look good for so and so' and so and so was perfectly fine on Sunday' or vice versa". It doesn't seem like we do have that instance... so I'm wondering where any of us got the idea that he does keep things a bit mystifying until the game?

Maybe it's just all the game-time decisions we always seem to have?? It could definitely be argued that he sometimes claims a player is a game-time decision when in fact the player is well known to be either ready to go or too hurt to play.

[Da Truth]

Yea, I don't think Zorn be bluffin too much..I did earlier in the week but after all this I'm hearing about Portis..I think about events that happened in the past and he's pretty much a straight shot type of dude

[MassSkinsFan]

Has the Patriots ever been fined?

'nuff said.

They lie about their injury reports every week.

They're perhaps the most skilled at that right now. I'm hoping Zorn gives them a run for their money.

[MassSkinsFan]

If you see today's interview with Zorn, you can see he's upbeat about Portis when first asked, then tries to play down his condition. I have a feeling the Portis talk is a smoke screen as well. That of course is my opinion, combined with some optimism.

It would be really sweet if Portis suited up and had his best game of the season so far, but...

OK time to wake up and resume my worrying about the game.

[Rexx1240]

JZ has actually been excessively honest with players' health so far this year

Exactly. But not just players' injuries, about everything concerning the team. Not saying that he reveals his game-plan or anything like that but he is extremely candid with the media. The media really enjoys talking to him bcuz of his openness as opposed to sumbdy like Bellicheck.

After that incident when JZ lost his temper for a sec in a post-game interview, a few of the guys on CSN were sayin how it's really hard, as a reporter, not to wanna inerview him bcuz he is so honest as opposed to othr coaches in the league.

As far as this "smoke-screen" stuff goes, i just dont see it. Even if CP suits up, i still wont believe it was an attempt to throw off the othr team. It will only stamp what i already believe; CP is a warrior.