Heroes and Goats: Hard Knocks In Season Episode 2

kerouac9

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My wife hates Star Wars Episodes 1 - 3, but she likes Rogue One. She also hates Andor and Solo: A Star Wars Story, but she likes Book of Boba. See, she hates prequels because she knows what the ultimate outcome is going to be for the characters. This is one of the challenges of Hard Knocks: In Season. Unlike the Training Camp editions, which take place in a relative vacuum, the outcome of each week is widely known. So, what's to keep viewers hooked through a 10-point road victory unlikely to mean anything in the standings?

Hard Knocks struggled to answer that question this week, and I'm guessing meddling by Cardinals executives played a role. What a boring hour of television. The emotional high point was our fifth-best offensive lineman's stomachache. Or maybe the star quarterback cursing over dinner at a rookie sixth-round pick. Yikes.

Kent Somers and others confirmed that the Cards have some editorial control over what makes it on-screen during Hard Knocks, and it was obvious that either this team lacks drama (LOLOLOLOOLLLL) or that the front office decided there was a little too much drama this week, so the crew had to pull out tape from the Ravens week of practices of J.J. talking with Rondale Moore.

Heroes

Shawn Jefferson, Assistant HC/WR Coach -
Jefferson got the human edit and was featured as a father, husband, and grandfather. These little moments are some of the best things about Hard Knocks because it just shows people doing their jobs who have worked hard for years with little fanfare.

Colt McCoy, Backup QB - Congrats to Colt, who got the heroes edit the week after Kyler came off as fairly petulant. He looked like a guy who was in charge of meetings and practice and understood the narrow path to victor

Kealia Watt, NFL Wife - J.J. Watt is pretty corny and cringe to a younger audience, but his wife is a little cutie pootootie who looks like she's rather be back on the soccer pitch than doing a dumb TV show. Did you know that her sister is Brian Cushing's wife? Weird.

Goats

Steve Keim, GM -
Talking Thumb Steve Keim got moments driving down the freeway talking about Rams week and sitting alone at SoFi field. He also was complimented for his sweatsuit on a practice day that was obviously selected to be slimming. Very little indication of what he does or whether he's good at it.

Sean Kugler, "Offensive Line Coach" - It was hard to tell which was the most staged moment of the episode: the offensive line dinner or Kugler's cringy offensive line meeting where he teased Kelvin Beachum for eating popcorn(?). Missed opportunity for all to show the savage ballet that really goes into offensive line play.

Kelvin Beachum, OT - Poor Beach. He stated that he was not interested in having Hard Knocks in the building and still ended up getting featured as a guy who sits in the back of the meeting room and poked fun of. It was good to hear him talking trash on the field though through the Rams game.
 
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kerouac9

kerouac9

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Have you ever watched hard knocks before? Because this was a good episode compared to most in my opinion. I don't know what you are expecting, but it's not going to be a soap opera.
I watched all of the training camp versions until the Rams one with rookie Jared Goff, although I watched this preseason's with the Lions.

As I said last week, I watched the premiere of the Indy In-Season version from last year. I mean, this was the week following a pretty gutting loss to a division opponent, and this was a whole bunch of nothing.

Really, the whole thing with Hard Knocks Training Camp is that it IS a soap opera.

If you thought this was a good use of 55 minutes or whatever, more power to you.
 

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I watched all of the training camp versions until the Rams one with rookie Jared Goff, although I watched this preseason's with the Lions.

As I said last week, I watched the premiere of the Indy In-Season version from last year. I mean, this was the week following a pretty gutting loss to a division opponent, and this was a whole bunch of nothing.

Really, the whole thing with Hard Knocks Training Camp is that it IS a soap opera.

If you thought this was a good use of 55 minutes or whatever, more power to you.
It met my expectations. It's nice to get a behind the scenes view at least a little bit.

If you are expecting the show to highlight how bad an organization the Cardinals are or something, that's just not going to happen. The show is meant to promote the NFL, not expose incompetence.
 
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kerouac9

kerouac9

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It met my expectations. It's nice to get a behind the scenes view at least a little bit.

If you are expecting the show to highlight how bad an organization the Cardinals are or something, that's just not going to happen. The show is meant to promote the NFL, not expose incompetence.
Exposing the incompetence of the Cards is better for promoting the NFL than last night's nothing-burger, TBH.

What were the behind-the-scenes views that you found interesting?
 

unseenaz

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Colt McCoy, Backup QB - Congrats to Colt, who got the heroes edit the week after Kyler came off as fairly petulant. He looked like a guy who was in charge of meetings and practice and understood the narrow path to victor
This stood out to me as well. He was running that QB room meeting, and even the coach was saying "ok" lmao
 

unseenaz

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Have you ever watched hard knocks before? Because this was a good episode compared to most in my opinion. I don't know what you are expecting, but it's not going to be a soap opera.
It was pretty bland and generic. Did you watch All or Nothing? That show blew the socks off you each episode with how much access they had. Hard Knocks seems to leave you wanting a little more.
 

Krangodnzr

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I loved Beach in this episode. He's been helping the rook Smiths play & it showed against AD & the Rams.
I loved watching Beach go after Leonard Floyd. That was a fun part of the episode. And I liked getting to know Lecitus Smith more. I think he is a player who might stick long term. He needs to hit the weight room though and gain a bit more good weight.
 
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I loved watching Beach go after Leonard Floyd. That was a fun part of the episode. And I liked getting to know Lecitus Smith more. I think he is a player who might stick long term. He needs to hit the weight room though and gain a bit more good weight.
+1 on both counts. Loved the smack talking by Beach.
 

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I loved watching Beach go after Leonard Floyd. That was a fun part of the episode. And I liked getting to know Lecitus Smith more. I think he is a player who might stick long term. He needs to hit the weight room though and gain a bit more good weight.

I liked Beech throwing cheap shots at Floyd. A side of him you don't otherwise see.
 

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I thought AD must have been double teamed all game, but it looked like Smith held his own in one-on-one battles against him. I have no idea how that happened, but it was great to see.

Otherwise, I thought it was fairly boring. They are doing their best to build narratives, like splicing in that Watt/Moore conversation that actually happened weeks ago. But I don't have much interest in Keim talking about why his job is so difficult (ha!) or watching 10 minutes about Beachum's upset stomach.
 

BritCard

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Outside of games not much happens in season. Not sure what "drama" they could show.
 

Stout

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I thought AD must have been double teamed all game, but it looked like Smith held his own in one-on-one battles against him. I have no idea how that happened, but it was great to see.

Otherwise, I thought it was fairly boring. They are doing their best to build narratives, like splicing in that Watt/Moore conversation that actually happened weeks ago. But I don't have much interest in Keim talking about why his job is so difficult (ha!) or watching 10 minutes about Beachum's upset stomach.
It happened because Colt helped his OL out immensely by getting the ball out early.
 
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kerouac9

kerouac9

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Outside of games not much happens in season. Not sure what "drama" they could show.
Well there was probably fallout from a division loss that probably ended any legitimate chance of a postseason. That’s dramatic but the show treated this week like we’re either already playing out the string or already assured of a playoff spot.

What are the stakes?

I remember in the Browns Training Camp season it would show the coaches meeting room and it was great. Kliff meets his staff in an empty seminar room and it’s weird as hell. Why?
 

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Well there was probably fallout from a division loss that probably ended any legitimate chance of a postseason. That’s dramatic but the show treated this week like we’re either already playing out the string or already assured of a playoff spot.

What are the stakes?

I remember in the Browns Training Camp season it would show the coaches meeting room and it was great. Kliff meets his staff in an empty seminar room and it’s weird as hell. Why?

The Brown's scenes I remember was just the coordinators as recall. Or at least the key coaches.

The meetings its shown with Kliff have been the full staff and assistants by the look of it.

Its early days though. Those Brown's scenes probably happened a couple of times over 10 episodes.
 

Cardsfaninlouky

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One thing that stood out from this episode is that it seemed Donald stayed pretty much over Smith the whole game. In which case he did well.
As I commented on in the game day thread, Smith should get some props for the part he played in double teaming Donald. If you notice the very thing Kugler shows Smith & the OL on the big screen in the episode is "to not let #99 split the double team". All the scenes from hard knocks show that Smith paid attention, he & Beachum manhandled Donald & did exactly as their position coach said to do. I enjoy the behind the scenes & sideline stuff from hard knocks.
 

Cardsfaninlouky

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Did anyone notice how uninterested Kyler looked in the scene from the QB's meeting? Colt was talking about everyone doing their job & getting the ball out on time, Kyler looked to be not even paying attention & playing on his phone.
 

Proximo

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Exposing the incompetence of the Cards is better for promoting the NFL than last night's nothing-burger, TBH.

What were the behind-the-scenes views that you found interesting?
The Lecitus Smith stuff for one. I like just being able to see a few minutes of the position meetings also.

Even just some of the coaching on the sidelines during the game I found pretty interesting.
 

Proximo

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Did anyone notice how uninterested Kyler looked in the scene from the QB's meeting? Colt was talking about everyone doing their job & getting the ball out on time, Kyler looked to be not even paying attention & playing on his phone.
Yes. But I will say the national narrative is he doesn't study, so it wouldn't shock me if the show was looking for anything to show that, so it may not be as bad as it appears - or it is.
 

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