A Stay At Home Dad

Here’s the latest on the Jets tripping incident, courtesy Mike Florio.

Florio is jumping through all kinds of hoops to make this into some kind of sinister plot by the Jets. Rex Ryan had to know Florio insists. So did the special teams coach. So did Jet’s ownership. And the mascot. He even goes so far as to paint the elaborate procedure the Jet’s will go through if they actually have to fire the strength coach Alosi, who did the tripping.

But here’s the 500 pound gorilla. Even if they did line up on the sideline, if Alosi doesn’t stick his knee out and trip the guy, it’s a complete non-event. I’ll bet Florio doesn’t even notice the alignment without the trip. So the entire issue is the poor judgement of 1 guy- Alosi. Who cares how people lineup on the sideline. Does the NFL really need another obscure rule governing to enforce? One that would likely be unevenly enforced to begin with and almost surely subject to tremendous variance in interpretation by game officials?

Florio needs to find something else to yammer about. Alosi tripped the player and was caught. That will go a lot farther towards making sure it doesn’t happen again than anything Florio might want to happen.

This is ridiculous. No- that’s not quite right. It’s pathetic. It’s worse than pathetic. The Bears don’t even belong on the same field as the Pats. And aren’t the Bears supposed to have a good defense or something? Sheesh. They haven’t given anybody a reason to even watch the 2nd half of the game.

To say that the Pats look like the team to beat is hardly an original statement at this point. I had my doubts earlier in the year. But right now they are the only team I’ve seen that’s getting better. Particularly, their defense appears to be turning a corner. If that happens, it’ll take a ridiculous effort by some team to beat these guys.

I really want to believe him when he says it’s all about family. Having read a couple of items from the press conference and noting that he has basically missed his daughter’s athletic careers, he certainly sounds like someone who means it. The fact is that the sentiment he expresses is one of those that everyone agrees is noble, but few in practice actually choose that path. It would be nice just from the standpoint of someone choosing to step out, arguably at the top of his game, just to reaffirm that it is possible to choose family over the dream job.

But there’s still that nagging little voice in my head saying “Unexpected resignation at big time school equals NCAA sanctions to come.” I guess we’ll find out in the months ahead.

A week ago, the San Diego Chargers blew out the Colts in a dominating performance. This past weekend, they lost and looked awful doing so to the Raiders.

Last night, the Patriots annihilated the Jets. To be honest, I wouldn’t have predicted that even in “maybe possibly” kind of way. I watched the first half and the Pats were all over the Jets. It was as good a performance as the Pats have had in a big game.

So now, it’ll be their turn in the hot seat. With a leader like Brady on the field Belichik off, I wouldn’t expect a let down game from the Pats. But sometimes, that’s just how it happens. They’ve got a young defense that played their best game of the season last night. If I was forced to predict “letdown,” then that’s where I’d predict it coming from for the Pats.

You’re only as good as your last game in the NFL.

Mike Florio thinks that the Raven’s defensive lineman who broke Roethlisberger’s nose will be fined.

Why?

Here’s an animated gif showing the play in question. The lineman brings his arm up and over an offensive lineman so he can wrap up Roethlisberger to get the sack. Because his arm is up, it goes through the open portion of the facemask, causing the broken nose. The officials didn’t even flag the play.

Now, perhaps a 5-yard incidental facemask penalty could have been called since the tackler’s hand goes to the facemask. But he doesn’t grab it, even for a second. It immediately drops down to Roethlisberger’s body to complete the tackle. And, as stated before, the only reason it was up was because he was bringing it over the top of an offensive lineman.

For the more surly of the Steeler fans out there, I’ll say it’s Roethlisberger’s fault. If he hadn’t ducked his head then the lineman’s hand wouldn’t have hit him there in the first place.

So there’s no rational way to ascribe intent, and the closest rule infraction is an incidental facemask. There’s nothing there.

So why should there be a fine?

UPDATE: Fixed the link to the animated gif.

UPDATE2: My brother has corrected me- any kind of head contact on the QB (I assume while he’s a “passer”) is a personal foul penalty. So the Raven’s D-lineman should have been flagged. I still maintain he should not be fined for the play.

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.