Category: Football

Both teams took care of business yesterday. I’ve yet to see Auburn play, so I don’t have any feel for how good they are. I’ve watched Oregon play and I know they are good. Seems like a game worthy of a little hype. Using some completely unoriginal analysis, I’d say a game that’s close into the 4th favors Oregon because of their style of play. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cam Newton give Oregon’s defense fits.

Like I said, a game worthy of some hype.

I suppose from the perspective that the BCS is supposed to give us a 1-vs-2 matchup to streamline determining who’s the best, we have to give credit to the BCS for working this year. Of course, if it can’t work this year then it can’t work any year. No arguments for playoffs this year. But next year is only 10 months away.

It always amazes me how quickly the college football season passes. I have a vague sense that the season should be hitting full stride right now. That big games are just over the horizon. But, obviously all those games have been played. I don’t actually get to watch a lot of college football. Typically, by the time I can sit down and watch a game I’m too tired to really get into it. Kids’ll do that to ya. Perhaps that’s why I don’t feel like the season should be ending.

So I’ve monitored the season, for the most part, from right here. Checking out scores and highlights the morning after. I know that I missed some amazing games this year. Actually, this year in particular, there were great games every weekend. No. That’s not quite right- there were multiple great games every weekend. I don’t recall a year like this where, checking the scores and recaps, so many games came down to fantastic finishes. Easily one of the most entertaining in recent memory.

Be that as it may, it now draws to a close. The game slate will drop off a cliff. Starting around Christmas, we’ll start getting a slow, steady diet of bowl games. Some of those will probably be good games as well. Then the New Year will pass by and with it the season will be over.

I’ll just have to enjoy what remains.

I meant to post something on this yesterday, but just didn’t get to it. Check out this interception from the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game Saturday night.

I’ve watched a lot of football. That’s the best interception I’ve ever seen, college or pro. Herbstreit said it best “This is something you do fooling around in the backyard.”

UPDATE: Actually, my brother said it better: Plays like that are why we watch college football and what makes it such a great sport.

Just played with ESPN3 a bit here. They’ve got both the Oregon-Arizona game available as well as Boise St. versus Nevada. The laptop isn’t up to it, but my desktop is. Very cool. No choppiness. They appear to let you stream 4 games simultaneously, though with tabbed browsers I don’t see why it can’t be more. I had a picture-in-picture thing going for a bit between these two games.

I just don’t see how this can’t be the future of college football viewing. No more regional broadcast bullshit, locking me into a lame game when there may be something more interesting to watch elsewhere. Coaches will love it for recruiting purposes.

So college football broadcasts (or more correctly the resulting lack thereof) are definitely NOT a reason to have cable TV anymore. Good to know.

• The Cowboys beat a team they should. Now what can they do against a team they shouln’t (New Orleans)?

• I think the Jets are still the best team in the league at this point. I think the Eagles are in the top 10 league wide. I’m not really buying any arguments for other NFC teams.

• I’m not sure what to think about the Richard Seymour/ Ben Roethlisberger incident. On the one hand, Ben is a jerk. On the other hand, so is Seymour. Perhaps the WWE should steal cage the two of them?

• I’m not sure what to make of Michael Vick. I’ve come around to the viewpoint that he is better than he was prior to his jail time. But that doesn’t erase what he did. Has he changed? Has he really earned all of the hero-worship he got around the league? I understand “compartmentalizing” the football player from the person, but at some point those two thing have to be reconciled, right?

• I can’t believe I’m about to write this, but I think Chris Collinsworth is the best color commentator for NFL games. He offers smart analysis of game play and strategy. He is honest about what he sees on replays and has pretty good command of all the game rules (but states forthrightly when he isn’t sure). He points out obscure but great individual efforts during plays and calls out guys who make mistakes. He also mixes in some stuff that’s on the amusing side of game play as well.

  Bottom line- I actually enjoy listening to his commentary.

• Right now, I’d pick a Patriots-Jets AFC championship and New Orleans-Eagles NFC championship. But that’s as far as I’m willing to go.

• Favre really has overstayed his welcome.

• I’m comfortable calling the Falcons and Bears overrated at this point. We’ll see what they do down the stretch.

Generally speaking, I try not to get too worked up about football games anymore. More specifically, I don’t go into day long funks when my team of choice loses and I don’t root with white hot passion against the teams I hate. I just have more important places to focus my energy.

But I have to say- watching the Giants lose to Philly the way the did last night brought a certain amount of joy to my heart.

Briefly.

Not the economic kind either…

I read this and the first thing that came to mind was the Denver Broncos squad that beat Green Bay in the Super Bowl. During the build-up to the Super Bowl that year, the media basically made Green Bay into a dynasty- even though they had only won 1 Super Bowl the previous year and they had yet to play the game that year yet. Most of this was because Green Bay had a guy named ‘Favre’ as QB. Of course, Denver had a guy named ‘Elway’ who was Favre before Favre was Favre, but we have to overlook that for the moment.

Anyway, Denver wins the Super Bowl (one of the better ones to watch) and afterwards, they reveal that their media strategy was to play-along with the “dynasty” narrative for Green Bay. In reality, they were furious with the way it was assumed that Green Bay would roll over them and they hated every minute of having to answer questions and concede that Green Bay was better than they were. Shannon Sharpe was quite vocal about all of this afterward the game. They never believed it for a second, and it showed come game time.

So, given Vick’s past where he was inconsistent at best I figure the Giants are trying to instill complacency in him by telling him how awesome he is. In other words, it’s a mental game. I suppose the question will be whether Vick and the Eagles buy into it.

The old men of Dartmouth football circa 1991 had a reunion this weekend. I’d been trying to come up with some kind of original take on it, but, frankly, I’m drawing a blank.

The obvious stuff is that it was great to see everyone. I was but a sophomore on the team so I was surprised that I was remembered so well by everyone. I was actually a little embarrassed that I whiffed on some names- but I remembered all the faces. They hadn’t actually changed much in the nearly 20 years since we last gathered at our alma mater.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before… Brett Favre is playing his last season.

Unless someone dangles several million in front of his nose and promises that all this team needs is his services to get to the Super Bowl. Or he, you know, just changes his mind.

Again.

My previous post about Cam Newton started the wheels turning a bit. I wonder if there isn’t a market for a football league for high schoolers that are only interested in football?

The idea is based on the assumption that no high schooler can jump directly to the pros. Depending on position, they need at least another year of maturity and experience playing against players of equal talent. Right now, college football has a monopoly on these players. The competitive nature of the business leads to a lot of shady dealing.

So really, what’s needed, is a league that caters to grooming high school standouts for a potential life as a professional. For starters, the league would pay the player a modest salary, perhaps based on years in the league and with some performance bonuses. The league would teach players what to expect as a professional and how to deal with sports agents. I think some money management classes might also be useful. The league would allow any player to enroll in the draft at any time, but should probably provide guidance on a per-player basis. For instance, a first-year standout might be tempted to jump and could ask about the pros and cons of his choice.

I don’t think the league should be a place where professional veterans should land, unless as a coach or something. Remember, we’re talking about catering to young players who need more time to mature into a potential professional.

One thing this league avoids is direct competition with the NFL. By setting it up as a stop-off point for young players, it’s basically a feeder league. Another benefit is it drains the NCAA of the players who are there only to play football. Now that they have a place to go, theoretically we don’t have any more cheating scandals and pay-to-play scandals.

No idea as to financial viability. Although with the amount of money the NCAA makes off these kids now, I’ve got to believe that something is there. Speaking of the NCAA, I’m sure they’d be none to pleased with the formation of such a league and would bring everything they had to bear and make it fail.

Anyway, that the rough idea. Any takers?

I’ve just been catching up a bit on the whole Cam Newton affair. In a nutshell, his services were perceived to be of such value that he and his father decided to sell them to the highest collegiate bidder. Auburn won, and has been winning ever since.

Having watched this sort of stuff for years now, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that the world would be a better place without “college” football. I think universities and colleges should disband the teams. I think that either the NFL should create a farm-system, or another league should form that caters to high schoolers.

I’m tired of the hypocrisy of college football. Sending kids to “school” to get an education because they play a sport well is a fantasy. These kids aren’t there to get an education. They are there to learn how to play football and stake their future on the chance that they’ll be a pro in a few years. If I give the NCAA the benefit of the doubt- then they have basically proven themselves incompetent stewards of college football. Completely incapable of reigning this sort of behavior in. If I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt then they are complicit and benefiting to the tune of millions of dollars off these kids. Either way, the NCAA doesn’t cover themselves in glory.

Let’s just drop the charade altogether. I don’t think a high schooler can possibly play pro-football. But they can go to a farm league where an organization teaches them how to play and prepares them for that life. Perhaps they can even draw a nominal salary of some sort in addition to other perks like meals and training facilities and the like. At the least, we won’t have to insult our intelligence that they are there for anything else.

The Cowboys hit new lows last night and the rumor mill is in high gear, speculating on when Wade Phillips will get canned. The guys at PFT have been leading the charge for awhile now. The reasoning here is simple, and even Troy Aikman has weighed in along the same lines: Phillips doesn’t exercise enough discipline over the team to make sure they’re getting the effort required to win.

If these remarks from Polamalu are accurate, I’d say he just doesn’t get it. As a matter of fact, his comments could easily be spun to make him look like a dirty player. I’ve watched replays from the weekend that got all of this rolling and in all cases, I’d say the defensive player was headhunting. Further, as far as his teammate Harrison is concerned, I’d say that poor tackling technique was being used.

No one is telling defensive players not to hit. What’s pretty clearly being communicated is that defensive players shouldn’t be using their heads as a weapon and they shouldn’t be targeting opposing players heads as the contact point. The NFL certainly bears some blame here because they were pretty lax about enforcing calls like “spearing” in the first place.

But that doesn’t mean they are trying to turn the game into soccer. Polamalu isn’t doing himself any favors and, as I stated about his teammate Harrison, if he’s as good as he and all his fans say he is, he should be able to adjust pretty easily to not leading with his helmet when making contact. Heck, he can even look to a play that Harrison was penalized on this past weekend as an example. The call was for a late hit, not because he hit Drew Brees too hard or because he led with his helmet.

Frankly, I think he needs to quit whining and just play the game.

Took in quite a bit of it this weekend, both college and pro. I’ll start with college.

First, Penn St actually looked like a decent squad against Michigan. Michigan obviously has a good QB there, but I think they’re head coach is in over his head. He’s used to outscoring over-matched opponents. When coaching at Michigan, he’s not going to over-match anyone. That means he needs to field a defense and he clearly can’t. My guess is Michigan fans are longing for the “miserable” days of Lloyd Carr.

Oregon has a heckuva offense. I watched them against USC and they were really something. I picked it up at 32-29 USC ahead early in the 3rd. Oregon scored on their next 3 drives, pretty much exhausting USC with that “blur” offense. I’m not convinced it’s the offense itself so much as they’ve got a lot of good players at all of the skill positions, and a solid offensive line. My guess is that personnel makes any offensive system look good. I don’t know if they are the best team in the country, but as of now I’d love to see them go up against Auburn, or whoever is the best in the SEC.

Switching to the pro’s, Pittsburgh impressed me last night. Frankly, I thought they were more hype than not prior to last night’s game. But they really do have a good defense. When Roethlisberger gets his game legs back, they’re going to be even tougher to beat. As for New Orleans, I was really impressed with their defense. Anyone counting them out in the NFC is making a mistake.

I know the Cowboys have finally descended to “outright embarrassment” but the Vikings have got to be nipping at their heels for that honor. Remember, they went out and basically begged Favre to come back. You can bet that won’t happen again. In fact, my guess Favre is pretty much playing himself into permanent retirement this year. No team is going to go after him this offseason.

While on the subject, these are 2 teams loaded with talent. Normally, teams like that are good for .500 records and everyone commenting on why they’re merely under-performing. The ‘Boy’s and Vikings have 3 wins between them- and one of those was a game between each other! I can’t recall 2 teams with as much talent as they’ve got being this bad. Ever.

I still think the Jets are the team to beat, but now I’d say Pittsburgh is up there. New Orleans is probably a top ten team now, but they’re the only NFC team I’d put in that class. The AFC is still holding all the aces. With the halfway point of the season approaching, the wheat will start to separate from the chaff now.

What a great game. Helluva way to end it- fumbling trying for the go-ahead score with less than a minute to go. Heck, the blocking back knocked the ball out of the QB’s hand and the receiver was wide open in the end zone. Too bad for Florida St. Hate to be the QB there.

This game continues the trend for great college football games this year. I can’t ever remember a year with so many competitive, compelling games where, even if you’re not a fan of the teams in the game, watching the game was so enjoyable. I can’t think of single weekend where there wasn’t a quality game played.

Let’s hope it continues into the bowl season.

Frankly, even before Romo was injured last night, it was obvious to anyone capable of rationally weighing the facts. But now even Wade Phillips can’t rationalize that the Cowboys are “the best 1-5 team” in the league. They stink. Full stop.

I continue to believe the Jets are the best team in the league. There’s still a lot of football to be played, but from what I’ve seen of them the Jets have an above average defense, a great offensive line, a couple of good backs who work well together and the icing is that their QB Sanchez has gotten better and doesn’t seem poised for a sophomore slump.

After that, I’m personally not convinced that the Steelers are a top team, but they’ve got a good record and as long as they keep winning, I don’t have much of an argument. Oh, guess I was wrong about Roethlisberger’s return. Oh well.

A couple weeks back I made the observation that there are no good NFC teams. After this weekend, I’m sticking with that assessment. Someone will emerge because, well, someone has to. But at this point, the Super Bowl will effectively be the AFC Championship game.

I was an above average football player. Not great- certainly not good enough to play professionally. But I was certainly good enough to learn how to tackle properly. In fact, tackling was the first lesson taught when I started playing.

I’ve watch James Harrison’s two hits from this weekend and I can tell you that he violates two rules of tackling on both of those plays.

First, I was taught to never put my head down. That leads to neck injuries. If you watch the video, Harrison clearly lowers his head and is looking at the ground when he makes contact.

Second, you’re supposed to wrap your arms around the ball carrier as contact is made. Harrison fails this own as well. Instead, he brings his hands together below his chin and explodes his arms up and out on impact. Watching the video, his arms come flying up and out on impact. I assume I don’t have to explain why wrapping the arms is considered a good idea.

I’ll also say, in my opinion, that it looked like he was headhunting in both tackles. His line is directly for the ball carrier’s head, where he accurately delivers a blow.

If Harrison is as great as he considers himself to be, both of those plays could have been made just as effectively without the blow to the head. If he’d kept his head up and wrapped up as he made contact, neither of those tackles would have resulted in concussions to the opposing player. What’s more, Harrison would have avoided risking his own neck.

If this is how Harrison was taught to tackle, then he was taught wrong. If this is all he’s ever known about tackling, then he’s been wrong his whole football career.

And while I’m at it, his attitude of “I’m trying to hurt people” is inappropriate. His job is to tackle people on the football field, not hurt them. He’s there to help his team win, but not at any cost. If he can’t play without trying to hurt people, then he should make good on his threat and retire.

Football doesn’t need him.

Seeing as I wrote about it, it’s only fair to point out this article with several quotes from Moss and Belichick.

From Belichick:

There was never any incident or discipline problem with Randy, there never has been one with me in four years. It certainly wasn’t about contract and money, I think Randy showed and proved from the first year he was here what that was all about. He [re-did] his contract and made the whole [trade from Oakland] work. I think you can eliminate those two things.

And this from Moss:

I’ve been traded before. I was more hurt when I left [Minnesota the first time]. I think when I got traded from New England I feel it was more of an understanding. I’ve said time and time again. This is not football, man. It’s a job; it’s a business. When the fans of the game understand the business of the game I think it’ll be better for everyone.

And this from Tom Brady:

Randy really knows how I feel about him. I love him, as a guy, as a person, as a player. He did a lot of great things for this team. At the same time I think coach Belichick feels that’s what he thinks he needs to do for the team.

We as players, we deal with it and we move on. I think I’ve been around long enough to realize nothing really surprises me and the best thing that I can do is be the best quarterback that I can be for the team.

Doesn’t exactly sound like Moss was a pain in the buttocks, now does it? The only one who comes within a country-mile of painting a problematic picture is Wes Welker. Even then, it’s not exactly an indictment of Moss.

Seeing as my preference is to take players at their word (they are NOT lawyers with a scholars view of language and how to deploy it, so the ridiculous parsing that goes on by sports writers is completely silly), I think I’ve got to move the needle back a little here. Still, how to square this with the “stories” about Moss ignoring coaches, or yelling at them and the like? I guess unless a reporter is willing to publish the name of his source, I should just start assuming they made it up because they needed to file something by a deadline.

Anyway, it’s not like Moss particularly cares what I think or anything. But if I’m going to disparage him on one hand, I ought to be willing to retract it on the other if circumstances dictate. And I think they do.

As far as demonstrating how to handle the media well, the whole back-and-forth between Roy Williams and teammate Dez Bryant has been pretty much a clinic I think. I’ve been paying some attention to the “drama” and it sure seemed like the press were doing their damnedest to stir something up between them.

First their was a training camp “incident” where Bryant refused to carry Williams’ pads back to the locker room. It’s a rookie thing, apparently by Bryant never got the memo. The media made tried the “Rookie Disses Veteran He Supposed to Replace”. Now, Bryant gets to pay an outrageous dinner bill at a steakhouse, and the media is figuring it’s revenge- “Veteran Gets Even for Being Dissed in Training Camp.”

The only problem, for the media anyway, is that Wiliams has stated all along that there’s no animosity between the two. Ditto for Bryant. Williams has even called the media out to a degree, telling them essentially “I know what you’re doing and it won’t work, there’s no ‘there’ there.” For his part, Bryant has played the same tune, even after the dinner. In fact, he was upset that veterans felt a need to apologize because of media coverage over the whole thing.

Really sounds like someone trying to rip up the locker room, huh?

The fact is, they are right. There haven’t been any misinterpreted quotes or anything the media could fan-the-flames with. I think this means that we have to take these two guys at their word. They don’t hate each other and they aren’t looking to start locker room problems.

Now let’s see if the media is capable of dropping a faux story or not.

I’ll start by stating I’ve always liked Randy Moss. Ever since I first starting hearing about him when he was at Marshall, in fact. He had a troubled background, but on the football field he was peerless. It seemed like he’d made the most of the opportunities football brought his way. He made Chad Pennington. Pennington would throw the ball as far as he could, and Moss would go get it and do the rest. When he transitioned to the NFL, he was the same way- he made Dante Culpepper. Early in his career, Favre may have been the one QB who could over throw him.

So when all the little things started accruing, I tended to blame the media and it’s penchant for digging in on star players who didn’t walk the straight and narrow. When he started getting a reputation as a locker room drag, I felt it was undeserved. Last year, when fans and the press started calling him a quitter, I figured something else was going on. Then it turns out he played with an injury through the last half of the season, I claimed vindication.

So now with today’s trade, we have all these familiar sounding rumblings. And finally, I think I have to concede that Moss is a trouble maker. Despite what I’d like to believe, I guess it’s finally time to face up to the evidence. I’m not saying he’s a bad guy. But he clearly has a ‘me-first’ attitude, and he plays a lot of games for monetary reasons that are distracting to his teammates.

I’ll still root for him. As a football talent, I continue to believe he’s the best at what he does. I hope he sets records. I’d even like to see him win a Super Bowl. But when the rumblings start up, I’ll only be able to shake my head- knowing that he’s at it again.

DONOVAN MCNABB RETURNED TO PHILAPELPHIA YESTERDAY!!!

STOP THE PRESSES!!! HOLY CRAP!!! MCNABB!!! IN PHILADELPHIA!!!

SOMEBODY ALERT THE PRESS!!!

Ahem… Sorry.

More impressive, he scored a touchdown. But then he ran out of bounds at the end of the game on a 3rd-down scramble rather than sliding to keep the clock moving. Typical McNabb. Let’s call it a ‘push’ for his overall game grade.

I say we just coronate the Jets today. They’re awesome. Really.

More seriously, is it just me or does the NFC in general seem to be weak this year? Look at it this way, if you were to compile a list of the top 10 teams in the league at this point, would there be more than 2 teams from the NFC on that list? And really, the Saints would be there only because they’re the defending champs. Green Bay is the only other team that might get a mention. Weird. It seems like the competitiveness of the NFC at large tracks with the competitiveness of the NFC East.

The AFC, by contrast, is loaded from top to bottom. The Jets and Patriots, the Steelers and Titans, the Chargers, the Colts are all solid contender teams, though there’s a pretty clear pecking order there as well. Still, I don’t have to stretch to make a case for those teams. Then there are teams like the Ravens, Dolphins, Jaguars and Chiefs that fans can make a case that they’re good.

By the way, that’s 10 from the AFC alone.

Luckily for the NFC, it’s only Week 4. There’s still time for teams to start to come together.

But the clock is ticking.