Yes, everybody, by now you have noticed that you have to refresh the page after you post. This is a problem that arose after our hosting company upgraded software (PHP, for you techies). It is causing one of our caching plug-ins to, well, burp.
They are looking into the problem and I am trying to search Knowledgebases to see if it has been reported. We are going to move the site this weekend to a high-CPU server which should help performance.
I have two options - leave it as is and force you guys to refresh (yes, annoying) or disable the plug-in and occasionally receive the dreaded CPU Threshold Exceeded message. I’ll let you know what I find out when I get any news…
Again, sorry for the degradation of your Cowboys blogging experience…
Congratulations to our two winners of the lithographs: y and Swidge! I will be contacting you to get mailing information so that you can enjoy your new prize!
Rafael and I would once again like to thank everyone who parted with their hard-earned money to help us provide you with top-notch, ”real” reporting from training camp. With that and other ventures we have going on to enhance our blogging experience, any help we get is duely appreciated.
Since Rafael is back from training camp we felt it was time to give away the two lithgraphs of the Triplets that were generously donated by our frields at the Hamster. These lithographs, as you can see, would fit nicely on any Cowboy fan’s wall.
We are going to go until Monday to allow for any last minute “stragglers” who want to get into the drawing. All you have to do is donate what you can to offset expenses we incurred on the week-long 2006 Cowboys training camp reporting. Anyone who has donated is already entered.
The link for donations is at the bottom of the left-hand column — do NOT confuse that link with the one for the Fantasy league! If you use the fantasy league link your name will not be entered into the drawing.
Once again, thanks to all of you who have/will contribute. If it weren’t for your support we wouldn’t be able to provide the content that we have.
I know a lot of you are curious as to where we stand on TheBoysBlog Fantasy League. Here’s an update:
The coding has been ongoing and after a brief walk-through, all looks like it might be ready. We have contacted some of the people who have signed up to test out the mock draft process. We’re planning on doing that tomorrow evening.
We’d like to wait until after the last preseason game to do the live draft so that nobody drafts a player that gets injured in the last preseason game.
Missing Owners
If you have not received an email from me then I do not have your email address for the league. There are 8 fees paid that have not been claimed, meaning that I have not received an email from the 8 people with those Transaction IDs. If you are one of these eight people, please email me at raul@theboys.com with the Transaction ID that was sent to you via email. That ID may also be on your credit card statement.
If I do not get the final 8 participants identified I will refund the money back to the person(s), so you will see the refund. If you still want to participate you can pay the fee again.
The following IDs need “claimed”:Â
| Transaction ID | Date |
|---|---|
| 700117979746 | 07/30/2006 |
| 700118906896 | 07/31/2006 |
| 700119976816 | 07/31/2006 |
| 700118940956 | 07/31/2006 |
| 700111970906 | 07/31/2006 |
| 700110021047 | 08/02/2006 |
| 700116079007 | 08/02/2006 |
| 700114100067 | 08/14/2006 |
All people joining should receive an email with the Transaction ID. You should also see the Transaction ID on the confirmation page at Amazon. That number is important because it allows me to associate your email address with the entrance fee (Amazon does not send email addresses to protect your privacy).
What did you like? What did you not like? Did you see enough of anything (besides the guys in the booth)?
Talk about it here.
Rafael at the controls. I’ve got tape to review, since it’s hard to get a definitive look at the game and get your kids to bed at the same time, but these things stuck with me:
1. What QB controversy? Drew Bledsoe has nothing to worry about, on the field or in the booth, where his owner emphatically backed him up. And his half was pretty good too;
2. Did I mention the Cowboys have worked on fades and stop fades a lot during camp? They could complete these patterns regardless of who played WR and who played QB;
3. Jason Fabini played his heart out, but I twice saw him knocked off his feet by hard inside rushes. This was his weakness during camp and it may put his roster spot in jeopardy;
4. Flozell Adams left at the end of drive one. The sideline reported a bruised calf. Much better than a knee injury;
4a. Pat McQuistan got the rest of the half at LT. He has promise, but let’s not kid ourselves, he also needs a full offseason. He needs to improve his strength. He twice, by my unofficial count, let rushers blow past him. The lone Bledsoe drive that didn’t score faltered because of McQuistan breakdowns. He has promise, but sixteen weeks at LT would get even an oak tree like Bledsoe killed;
5. The coaching staff contines to ladle out heavy reps to Sam Hurd and he continues to eat them up. His stop fade TD capped another strong performance against real NFL competition;
6. Jamaica Rector made a push to be the 5th WR. He, like Hurd, showed good hands and a willingness to go over the middle;
7. Mike Vanderjagt aggravated his groin in pregame warmups. Shaun Suisham made all his kicks, but evoked the infamous name “Cortez.” His first FG was inches inside the left upright. His second FG was at most a foot inside the right. If Dallas has to start the season with him as kicker, stock up on Rolaids;
8. Demarcus Ware abused Saints LT Jamaal Brown with power moves. He almost caused an interception by pushing Brown back into Drew Bree’s lap. Greg Ellis dropped a gimme TD off Brees’ errant throw.
Ware also made the defensive play of the game. With New Orleans facing a third and short in the Dallas red zone, Sean Payton lined up Reggie Bush in the left slot. Dallas, which stubbornly stays in its base as much as possible, moved Ware out into space over Bush. At the snap, Bush ran a flat route, parallel to the line of scrimmage. He caught a quick Brees pass but could not outrun Ware to the sideline. Ware wrapped the rookie up for no gain when Bush tried to cut back inside him.
9. Bush can play. He made Terence Newman look foolish on a pitchout. He’ll be unstoppable in the open field;
10. Greg Ellis also showed some quickness to the sideline, marking Deuce McAllister on a first quarter pass;
11. Dallas showed a max rush third down package that put Ware, Ellis and Kevin Burnett on the field at the same time;
12. Oliver Hoyte continues to push for a roster spot. He made the tackle on on every kickoff I saw.
Now let’s see what the backups can do …
And the winner is … drum roll, please … Becho!
We only had a few entries so I took everybody’s name that posted on the thread and had an unbiased co-worker (who’s not a sports fan, BTW) select a name.
Becho: Please contact me offline at raul@theboys.com so I can get mailing instructions.
Thanks everybody!
The 2006 NFL Football season officially kicks off for the Cowboys! It’s real hitting against a real opponent, even if it is preseason!
I just got off of the phone with Rafael and he has landed and is in sunny California. He is in the process of making his way north to Oxnard and hopes to be there in time for the afternoon practice. Once there we will be nourished with his insightful analysis of what’s going on at camp.
I also wanted to mention that we will be giving away a color lithograph of “The Triplets” (Click on the image to see a larger version). All persons who have donated or will donate to the Blog to help offset our trip expenses will be eligible for the drawing.
I was able to get the names of the people who used our Amazon link earlier this year to added their names to the drawing pot. If you donate via PayPal then I have your names - if you donate via Amazon, make sure you click on the Send Info link after your transaction is complete. That will send me your name and email address for the drawing. No credit card information is forwarded if you click this link!
When the Cowboys break camp, we will draw the name of the lucky winner to receive the lithograph.
Thanks again for all of your support - if it weren’t for you we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.
Stay tuned for more camp updates …