Baseball playoffs are here and this is definitely a fun time of the year. We get to share our attention between the baseball playoffs, college football and the NFL. Baseball is not exactly the most popular or fun sport during the regular season and I don't spend a lot of time watching those games. But playoff baseball is riveting and usually a lot of fun. I am looking forward to it this year since the Arizona Diamondbacks have made it. Also, the exciting and strange way in which the regular season ended by eliminating the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves has definitely help raise the interest in this post-season. The Red Sox were leading the Rays by 9 games for the wild card in early September and still managed to lose it with just one strike to go in the season. They lost a one-run lead in the 9-Th and ended up losing to the Orioles 4-3. The Sox went 7-20 in September to achieve this meltdown. The Rays on the other hand came back from a 0-7 deficit in their final game to beat the Yankees 8-7 in 12 innings to win the wild card. That was an amazing and unbelievable sequence of events that put the Rays into the playoffs! The Braves went 9-18 in September to lose their playoff spot as well on the last day to the Cardinals. Both wild card races had spectacular finishes and historic collapses. Now we have the Rays and the Cards in the playoffs and no Braves or Red Sox. Braves will be fine, but some big names are going to lose their jobs in Boston.
As for the playoffs, the fun starts tomorrow with the AL games. Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia are the headliners for day 1. That should be a fun matchup. The D-Backs kickoff October baseball on the first of the month and Ian Kennedy will take on Yovani Gallardo in Milwaukee. The Brewers have home-field and that can be a challenge for the snakes since the Brew-crew just does not seem to lose at home. Both teams have solid pitching as most playoffs teams tend to do and the Brewers have MVP candidates Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder in their lineup on top of that. That should make them the favorites, but thats why they play the games - to defy logic and numbers and to create new records. A lot rides on Kennedy in game 1. In the other NL contest, Philly should be an overwhelming favorite over the Saint Louis Cardinals with that pitching. Halladay goes in game 1, but it doesn't get any easier for the Cards after that as Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels will attack them just as effectively as Halladay. The Phillies should be the favorites to win it all with that pitching, but again, there's a reason why we actually play the games. Just so that the Dbacks can upset the Phillies and then the Yankees! I am sure this playoffs will throw us a few more astonishing moments just like the ones we saw yesterday when the Sox and the Braves wrapped up their historic collapses. Bring it on!
Football weekend is almost upon us. Pittsburgh crushed 16-Th seeded South Florida today to set the stage for a fun college weekend. ASU has re-entered the top-25 with an impressive win over USC last weekend. They should continue that trend when they host Oregon State. The big games of the weekend are Alabama-Florida, Clemson-Va Tech and Nebraska-Wisconsin. Thats a great way for Nebraska to start their life in Big 10 with a visit to the 7-Th seeded Wisconsin. Madison will be ready for that. SEC football at the swamp is always fun and they will welcome Alabama this weekend. UCLA at Stanford will be a fun, late night, Pac-12 contest as well. In the NFL, Patriots at Oakland promises to be one of the great match ups along with Detroit at Dallas and Pittsburgh at Houston. All 3 games featuring surprising teams in Oakland, Detroit and Houston that have not been in the playoffs the last few years, but have all looked good the last 3 weeks. The headliner will be the Jets at Baltimore, but the real action might be in those other 3 contests. The Raiders can definitely shock the Patriots since they can run the ball. Run DMC is an absolute monster and the Pats are going to have issues stopping Darren McFadden. Brady will be a handful for the Raiders as well and the team that commits the fewest mistake should take this one. Not a path-breaking theory, but I think it's going to be the case with this one given the Raiders tendency to commit mistakes and penalties. If they stay in their shoes, they have a shot.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Moneyball
I watch my share of movies, but am not a big movie guy. I don't think I have ever been as excited for a movie as I am for Moneyball. The movie is finally out, many years after the book and has actually gotten great reviews. This is the movie about the Oakland Athletics and Billy Beane, my favorite GM in the game. I read the Moneyball book years back and it was definitely a page-turner. I expect this movie to be equally good and hope it doesn't make me cry! I miss those Oakland teams and how good they were with those big 3 - Hudson, Mulder and Zito. They had a small payroll, actually very small. But they also had those pitchers and Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada and what appeared to be a very sturdy farm system. All of the big 3 and Chavez and Tejada were drafted by the A's and they also had Rich Harden and Joe Blanton coming up. And don't forget closer Houston Street, shortstop Bobby Crosby and outfielder Nick Swisher - all guys homegrown and pretty good. Beane always went out and made some great mid-season trades to rent players for the stretch run. And he would let him walk after the season and accumulate more draft picks for more moneyball picks.
The book explained that strategy among many others. It explained the A's love for walks, OPS and college players. It also explained why they thought high-school prospects are risky, bunts are bad, and defense is over-rated. It all made sense to the A's fans when the book came out because they were witnessing all this in real-time. The team was full of home-grown, young, cheap talent drafted by A's and they were winning big. The book credited all this to A's love for sabermetrics and A's trust in numbers and statistics. It also ridiculed traditional drafting techniques, scouts and old-school GMs and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Fast forwarding to the here and now, many of those people are taking a lot of pleasure from the troubles Beane and the A's are in. Very surprisingly, all of Beane's magic seems to have evaporated. May be it's bad karma! The A's teams since 2007 have been bad, uninteresting and boring. They have really not even showcased any top, young talent to be stolen by the richer clubs. They seem to bring up young players, but none of them seem to really stick out. There was a lot of hope for their pitchers this year after last year's performance, but they seem to have all taken a step back.
The primary problem for Beane is that the entire league is now into sabermetrics and the Moneyball book is a big reason for this. Between the book and the championship success of the Boston Redsox - another moneyball team, the rest of the league seemed to have followed suit. Billy Beane was not the first or the only one to rely on stats back in the day, but the book promoted him as a genius and popularized the concepts. This has led to all the other teams following suit. Many scouts and GMs are upset with Beane because they were all offended by some of the scenes in the book. The primary criticism of Beane is that he never won anything big - the A's have not even been to the World Series under his watch. The other complaint is that the book (or the movie) doesn't give much credit to the top talent they had - the big 3 pitchers especially. Their point is, the top talent they had were all high on most people's draft boards, with or without moneyball and hence Beane can't take much credit for those. Most of the true "moneyball" picks on the other hand, have not done much in the big league. I used to wonder about that myself as the book spent entire chapters on certain players as if they were surefire diamonds in the rough that the A's and A's alone spotted. But I have not heard of those players at all since then. So the critics say the A's were successful because of Hudson, Zito and Mulder and not because of moneyball or Beane's genius.
As always, the truth is somewhere in-between. To be fair to Beane, he did pick most of those star players and they may not have been entirely moneyball picks, but I am sure Beane followed some of his drafting policies on them as well. Secondly, I think the whole point is how he was winning an unfair game and you can't dismiss all that just because he never won the big one. Boston did win big because they backed up the moneyball numbers with the most important numbers that matter - zeros on the paychecks making up that big payroll. Theo Epstein is also a moneyball guy and Beane actually recommended him when Boston was hiring after Beane turned that job down himself. I wonder if it was a bad decision on the part of Beane to have rejected that offer in retrospect. At that time, the theory was, Beane with those resources will be more scrutinized and will look less like a genius and of course, it was also going to be hard to handle that crazy east coast media and the RedSox pressures. But Theo erased the curse of the bambino and brought a championship to Boston. He will never have to pay for a drink again in Boston. If Beane had won that ring - no guarantee he would have, he would be an even bigger star just because of the name recognition. Epstein was just a kid back then and he earned his stripes with that ring. Beane on the other already had the stripes. The stripes would have only gotten brighter, thicker and deeper. Hope he doesn't regret that decision and end up going to Chicago where they are looking to hire a GM to erase their own curse and Beane is on the shortlist of candidates.
Beane does deserve credit for revolutionizing the game to some extent. He was one of the early adopters of sabermetrics and the moneyball idea has definitely "crossed the chasm" now. It's mainstream to the point the A's can't work the system anymore. Beane in some sense shot himself in the foot with the book and also his success in general. Most of his critics are just bitter and they are being sadistic in enjoying his recent struggles. Moneyball definitely had it's share of good ideas and he deserves credit for it. They have to learn to give the devil it's due. Sure, the book does mock the traditional scouts and the baseball hierarchy - sometimes unnecessarily, but thats just the arrogance that personifies the whole jock and sports culture. Beane is just an ex-jock and his critics should cut him some slack. He is now facing an uphill battle. All of his competitive advantage is gone as richer teams are doing what he is doing, but with a lot of cash that the A's don't have. He has also learned to incorporate more traditional techniques these days as he has realized pure moneyball can't do it alone. Plus, I am not even sure what the Oakland A's want these days as a franchise. They are dealing with stadium issues, potential moves etc. Sometimes I wonder if they are self-destructing for a reason - to force a move or a new stadium or something. That would be sinister, but thats all part of the business of sports. Whatever it is, I wish Beane the best of luck, I hope he stays with Oakland and I expect him to be back with a decent product on the field soon. It's time for him to re-invent himself and if anybody can do it, he sure can.
If Beane leaves the A's, there is always the option of hiring Brad Pitt as their next GM!
The book explained that strategy among many others. It explained the A's love for walks, OPS and college players. It also explained why they thought high-school prospects are risky, bunts are bad, and defense is over-rated. It all made sense to the A's fans when the book came out because they were witnessing all this in real-time. The team was full of home-grown, young, cheap talent drafted by A's and they were winning big. The book credited all this to A's love for sabermetrics and A's trust in numbers and statistics. It also ridiculed traditional drafting techniques, scouts and old-school GMs and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Fast forwarding to the here and now, many of those people are taking a lot of pleasure from the troubles Beane and the A's are in. Very surprisingly, all of Beane's magic seems to have evaporated. May be it's bad karma! The A's teams since 2007 have been bad, uninteresting and boring. They have really not even showcased any top, young talent to be stolen by the richer clubs. They seem to bring up young players, but none of them seem to really stick out. There was a lot of hope for their pitchers this year after last year's performance, but they seem to have all taken a step back.
The primary problem for Beane is that the entire league is now into sabermetrics and the Moneyball book is a big reason for this. Between the book and the championship success of the Boston Redsox - another moneyball team, the rest of the league seemed to have followed suit. Billy Beane was not the first or the only one to rely on stats back in the day, but the book promoted him as a genius and popularized the concepts. This has led to all the other teams following suit. Many scouts and GMs are upset with Beane because they were all offended by some of the scenes in the book. The primary criticism of Beane is that he never won anything big - the A's have not even been to the World Series under his watch. The other complaint is that the book (or the movie) doesn't give much credit to the top talent they had - the big 3 pitchers especially. Their point is, the top talent they had were all high on most people's draft boards, with or without moneyball and hence Beane can't take much credit for those. Most of the true "moneyball" picks on the other hand, have not done much in the big league. I used to wonder about that myself as the book spent entire chapters on certain players as if they were surefire diamonds in the rough that the A's and A's alone spotted. But I have not heard of those players at all since then. So the critics say the A's were successful because of Hudson, Zito and Mulder and not because of moneyball or Beane's genius.
As always, the truth is somewhere in-between. To be fair to Beane, he did pick most of those star players and they may not have been entirely moneyball picks, but I am sure Beane followed some of his drafting policies on them as well. Secondly, I think the whole point is how he was winning an unfair game and you can't dismiss all that just because he never won the big one. Boston did win big because they backed up the moneyball numbers with the most important numbers that matter - zeros on the paychecks making up that big payroll. Theo Epstein is also a moneyball guy and Beane actually recommended him when Boston was hiring after Beane turned that job down himself. I wonder if it was a bad decision on the part of Beane to have rejected that offer in retrospect. At that time, the theory was, Beane with those resources will be more scrutinized and will look less like a genius and of course, it was also going to be hard to handle that crazy east coast media and the RedSox pressures. But Theo erased the curse of the bambino and brought a championship to Boston. He will never have to pay for a drink again in Boston. If Beane had won that ring - no guarantee he would have, he would be an even bigger star just because of the name recognition. Epstein was just a kid back then and he earned his stripes with that ring. Beane on the other already had the stripes. The stripes would have only gotten brighter, thicker and deeper. Hope he doesn't regret that decision and end up going to Chicago where they are looking to hire a GM to erase their own curse and Beane is on the shortlist of candidates.
Beane does deserve credit for revolutionizing the game to some extent. He was one of the early adopters of sabermetrics and the moneyball idea has definitely "crossed the chasm" now. It's mainstream to the point the A's can't work the system anymore. Beane in some sense shot himself in the foot with the book and also his success in general. Most of his critics are just bitter and they are being sadistic in enjoying his recent struggles. Moneyball definitely had it's share of good ideas and he deserves credit for it. They have to learn to give the devil it's due. Sure, the book does mock the traditional scouts and the baseball hierarchy - sometimes unnecessarily, but thats just the arrogance that personifies the whole jock and sports culture. Beane is just an ex-jock and his critics should cut him some slack. He is now facing an uphill battle. All of his competitive advantage is gone as richer teams are doing what he is doing, but with a lot of cash that the A's don't have. He has also learned to incorporate more traditional techniques these days as he has realized pure moneyball can't do it alone. Plus, I am not even sure what the Oakland A's want these days as a franchise. They are dealing with stadium issues, potential moves etc. Sometimes I wonder if they are self-destructing for a reason - to force a move or a new stadium or something. That would be sinister, but thats all part of the business of sports. Whatever it is, I wish Beane the best of luck, I hope he stays with Oakland and I expect him to be back with a decent product on the field soon. It's time for him to re-invent himself and if anybody can do it, he sure can.
If Beane leaves the A's, there is always the option of hiring Brad Pitt as their next GM!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Thank the honeymoon
When somebody is new at their job, we always use the term "he is still in his honeymoon period". San Francisco 49'ers coach Jim Harbaugh had a classic honeymoon moment last weekend. The niners were leading and playing really well against the Cowboys when they stalled at about the 37 yard line and settled for a 55 yard field goal with over 11 minutes to go in the game. The kicker nailed it, but the boys committed a penalty - the kind of penalty that would typically be considered back-breaking. These are the penalties that gives life to a stalled offense and drags the defense back on to the field and asks them to now defend an even shorter field. It was a 15 yarder and offered the ball to the Niners offense at the 22 yard line. Harbaugh surprisingly declined the penalty and instead decided to tag it to the kick-off. I was shocked to say the least. Sure, it was a long field goal, but it was a 15 yard penalty. Even if the offense didn't move an inch from there, it would have given the niners a 39 yard field goal, which you would assume is pretty easy to convert in this day and age of HGH enhanced athletes. If it was a 5 yard penalty, it would have been a different story. The worst case scenario would have been a retry on a 50 yard field goal and who knows if the kicker converts again. But he declined a 15 yarder. This decision basically meant Harbaugh had no faith in his offense. The only way this penalty was going to hurt the niners was if the offense either fumbled the ball, threw an interception or got sacked way behind or sacked multiple times and gave it's kicker another long field goal. All things a decent offense and an average QB can avoid.
Bad things can happen and does happen to NFL offenses every Sunday, but you can't play or coach scared. There is a difference between being conservative and being scared and Harbaugh was scared in this case. He was scared to put the ball in his offense and Alex Smith's hands. He was scared that his offensive line was going to screw up. All valid concerns given the talent on that side of the ball, but if you can't accept the ball on their 22- yard line, you have bigger problems. Being conservative or even scared is not going to save your season in that case. To be fair to Harbaugh, Brian Bilick on TV was not sure if he should take the penalty either. The logic was that you don't take points off the board. I am sure there is some unwritten rule somewhere for coaches on this and thats why Bilick was very familiar with it. But Harbaugh followed the rule to the T. The niners went up 24-14 at that point and the Cowboys went onto tie the game and won it in overtime. Interestingly, Harbaugh was scared for his offense and his team losing the game, not for his job. From a job security perspective, it was safer to take the ball back because a turnover then would have been Alex's or Gore's fault and not his. By making this decision, it was all Harbaugh's fault. Thats a level of cunning he doesn't have to resort to in his 2-Nd game as a head coach and hopefully never. But it is also because this is just his second game, that he gets away easy. He better be glad he is still in his honeymoon period because if Mike Singletary or Mike Nolan had done this closer to the end of their coaching tenure, the niner faithful would have roasted them over the coals.
This game also made a hero out of Tony Romo and rightfully so as he came back with a broken rib and played real well to put the boys over the top. He went from goat to a hero just like that and all the toughness questions were erased overnight. Thanks to his honeymoon, Harbaugh is not facing too many tough questions either. The niner faithful is still busy scheming how to get Alex Smith out of town! Across the bay, the Raiders are also dealing with the aftermath of a tough defeat they snatched from the jaws of victory. They let the Bills score in every possession in the second half to the tune of 35 points and lost a game they were dominating in the first half. Jason Campbell played real well even without 3 of his top receivers and his top TE. I don't ever remember the top 4 pass catchers being hurt and out. Good for the Raiders, none of them are that good anyways! They seem to have replaced them rather easily. The Bills and Ryan Fitzpatrick are playing great right now. Next week's Bills-Pats contest should be an high-octane affair and might surprise us just like last week's Bills-Raiders. In Carolina, Cam Newton continues to impress. He threw for more than 400 yards again. I am glad I predicted it will happen again, though I didn't expect it so soon against the world champions. He is hosting the Jaguars this Sunday and Blaine Gabbert is going to start for the Jags. That an interesting storyline for the weekend for sure. Arizona Cardinals lost a tough one on the road, but the overall outlook for the team still looks good. Kolb is doing well and the Rams are not doing great. So the Cards can easily make it to the playoffs if they don't self-destruct.
Overall, the Lions, Redskins and the Bills are looking better than expected and the Rams, Chiefs and the Colts are looking worse than expected. Week 3 will clarify things much more. Bring on week 3!
Bad things can happen and does happen to NFL offenses every Sunday, but you can't play or coach scared. There is a difference between being conservative and being scared and Harbaugh was scared in this case. He was scared to put the ball in his offense and Alex Smith's hands. He was scared that his offensive line was going to screw up. All valid concerns given the talent on that side of the ball, but if you can't accept the ball on their 22- yard line, you have bigger problems. Being conservative or even scared is not going to save your season in that case. To be fair to Harbaugh, Brian Bilick on TV was not sure if he should take the penalty either. The logic was that you don't take points off the board. I am sure there is some unwritten rule somewhere for coaches on this and thats why Bilick was very familiar with it. But Harbaugh followed the rule to the T. The niners went up 24-14 at that point and the Cowboys went onto tie the game and won it in overtime. Interestingly, Harbaugh was scared for his offense and his team losing the game, not for his job. From a job security perspective, it was safer to take the ball back because a turnover then would have been Alex's or Gore's fault and not his. By making this decision, it was all Harbaugh's fault. Thats a level of cunning he doesn't have to resort to in his 2-Nd game as a head coach and hopefully never. But it is also because this is just his second game, that he gets away easy. He better be glad he is still in his honeymoon period because if Mike Singletary or Mike Nolan had done this closer to the end of their coaching tenure, the niner faithful would have roasted them over the coals.
This game also made a hero out of Tony Romo and rightfully so as he came back with a broken rib and played real well to put the boys over the top. He went from goat to a hero just like that and all the toughness questions were erased overnight. Thanks to his honeymoon, Harbaugh is not facing too many tough questions either. The niner faithful is still busy scheming how to get Alex Smith out of town! Across the bay, the Raiders are also dealing with the aftermath of a tough defeat they snatched from the jaws of victory. They let the Bills score in every possession in the second half to the tune of 35 points and lost a game they were dominating in the first half. Jason Campbell played real well even without 3 of his top receivers and his top TE. I don't ever remember the top 4 pass catchers being hurt and out. Good for the Raiders, none of them are that good anyways! They seem to have replaced them rather easily. The Bills and Ryan Fitzpatrick are playing great right now. Next week's Bills-Pats contest should be an high-octane affair and might surprise us just like last week's Bills-Raiders. In Carolina, Cam Newton continues to impress. He threw for more than 400 yards again. I am glad I predicted it will happen again, though I didn't expect it so soon against the world champions. He is hosting the Jaguars this Sunday and Blaine Gabbert is going to start for the Jags. That an interesting storyline for the weekend for sure. Arizona Cardinals lost a tough one on the road, but the overall outlook for the team still looks good. Kolb is doing well and the Rams are not doing great. So the Cards can easily make it to the playoffs if they don't self-destruct.
Overall, the Lions, Redskins and the Bills are looking better than expected and the Rams, Chiefs and the Colts are looking worse than expected. Week 3 will clarify things much more. Bring on week 3!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tom and Cam define week 1
I don't know what was more ridiculous. Tom Brady throwing for 517 yards or Cam Newton throwing for 422 yards. Where's the defense? What happened to the theory that offenses take longer than defenses to get into the groove, especially coming off a lockout shortened training camp? Brady shredded the Miami defense Monday night and he didn't even need Chad Ochocinco to do anything. It was beautiful to watch Brady throw those pin-point passes that hit his receivers in stride every time. Whether he is making passes at a super model or throwing passes to Wes Welker, I guess Brady knows what he is doing. I don't care how many more rings he accumulates, I will rank Brady second only to Peyton Manning, but I have to say, he is an elite quarterback and he was totally on-point Monday night. This league is definitely becoming more and more QB, offense and pass friendly and I am not complaining. You can't breathe on a quarterback these days and the corner-backs can't do much of what they used to do a decade back. All of that is beginning to show in the numbers. Brady threw for 517 yards and there is talk of him eclipsing Dan Marino's single season record for yardage (5084 yards) this season. Of course both Brady and Manning have already surpassed Marino's single season TD record. Too early for such discussions this season, but with the new NFL, I wouldn't be surprised if Dan the Man loses more of his records. Week 1 featured 5 games where both QBs threw for more than 300 yards. Thats almost 1/3-Rd of the league. Thats not counting Kyle Orton and Matthew Stafford who also threw for 300+ yards in their respective games.
The most surprising QB performance was Cam Newton's 422 yards. The rookie from Auburn was supposed to be so mediocre in year 1 that even a star WR like Steve Smith was barely drafted in most fantasy leagues. Their passing offense was supposed to struggle as Cam was expected to suffer through a steep learning curve despite his amazing physical tools. Coming into the NFL, he didn't look ready, but he showed us last weekend why the Panthers spent their first pick on him though there was some talk of other QBs possibly being more ready for the NFL than him. All last week before the games, most experts picked Cincinnati's Andy Dalton to have a better game than Cam in week 1, but they were not even close to being correct. Cam looked like Michael Vick without the dogs and was throwing long darts all over the field. He also ran for a TD and at 6'5", 248 pounds, this guy is going to be something else if he keeps this up. Of course thats a big question mark because he did all this to the Cardinals defense. I would like to think he is that good and the Cardinals defense is not that bad for selfish reasons, but I am afraid the truth is somewhere in-between and the Cardinals defense might just be that bad. We will know more this weekend as the super bowl champs will try and contain Cam and they should do a much better job than the Cards. It was good that Kolb and the Cards won their first game together, but the story of that game was definitely Cam Newton. Does he have another 400 yarder in him this season? Looking at the league right now, I have to say yes. Either way, I will be watching what he does rest of the way.
Some of the bigger games last weekend gave us some interesting results. The Baltimore Ravens pummeled the Pittsburgh Steelers much to my delight and sent the reigning AFC champion running for cover and searching for answers. Nothing good came out of that game for the Steelers except a new Tomlinism - "There is a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes. Obviously last weekend we were grape squashers.” I don't even know what that means, but it sounds so cool! Sunday night game between the NY Jets and the Dallas Cowboys was interesting for just one reason. Both QBs did exactly what their reputation would suggest. Mark Sanchez didn't seem to do much, but he won a big game as always. He should be the most unimpressive QB with the most impressive wins against better QBs. As for Romo, it was the same story as always - great for 3 quarters and major mistakes when it mattered most. QBs always get too much credit or too much blame for victories and defeats. Case in point - Mark Sanchez. He gets a lot of credit though the Jets mostly win despite him, not because of him. But Romo truly lost that game for Dallas. He fumbled at the goal-line once and then threw an interception with less than a minute to go in the game. He forced the ball to Dez Bryant, who was limping and covered by Darrelle Revis, one of the best corners in the world. Sometimes, Romo just gets blamed for the loss, but this time he earned it. I think his problem is simple. He doesn't take ball security in the clutch seriously. He needs a shot of seriousness injected into him in the 4-Th quarter to cure his nonchalance. He has to learn to protect the ball all game, but 10 time more securely in the 4-Th. Lets see how the boys respond against the Niners next week in Jim Harbaugh's second game as the head man in San Francisco.
The most surprising QB performance was Cam Newton's 422 yards. The rookie from Auburn was supposed to be so mediocre in year 1 that even a star WR like Steve Smith was barely drafted in most fantasy leagues. Their passing offense was supposed to struggle as Cam was expected to suffer through a steep learning curve despite his amazing physical tools. Coming into the NFL, he didn't look ready, but he showed us last weekend why the Panthers spent their first pick on him though there was some talk of other QBs possibly being more ready for the NFL than him. All last week before the games, most experts picked Cincinnati's Andy Dalton to have a better game than Cam in week 1, but they were not even close to being correct. Cam looked like Michael Vick without the dogs and was throwing long darts all over the field. He also ran for a TD and at 6'5", 248 pounds, this guy is going to be something else if he keeps this up. Of course thats a big question mark because he did all this to the Cardinals defense. I would like to think he is that good and the Cardinals defense is not that bad for selfish reasons, but I am afraid the truth is somewhere in-between and the Cardinals defense might just be that bad. We will know more this weekend as the super bowl champs will try and contain Cam and they should do a much better job than the Cards. It was good that Kolb and the Cards won their first game together, but the story of that game was definitely Cam Newton. Does he have another 400 yarder in him this season? Looking at the league right now, I have to say yes. Either way, I will be watching what he does rest of the way.
Some of the bigger games last weekend gave us some interesting results. The Baltimore Ravens pummeled the Pittsburgh Steelers much to my delight and sent the reigning AFC champion running for cover and searching for answers. Nothing good came out of that game for the Steelers except a new Tomlinism - "There is a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes. Obviously last weekend we were grape squashers.” I don't even know what that means, but it sounds so cool! Sunday night game between the NY Jets and the Dallas Cowboys was interesting for just one reason. Both QBs did exactly what their reputation would suggest. Mark Sanchez didn't seem to do much, but he won a big game as always. He should be the most unimpressive QB with the most impressive wins against better QBs. As for Romo, it was the same story as always - great for 3 quarters and major mistakes when it mattered most. QBs always get too much credit or too much blame for victories and defeats. Case in point - Mark Sanchez. He gets a lot of credit though the Jets mostly win despite him, not because of him. But Romo truly lost that game for Dallas. He fumbled at the goal-line once and then threw an interception with less than a minute to go in the game. He forced the ball to Dez Bryant, who was limping and covered by Darrelle Revis, one of the best corners in the world. Sometimes, Romo just gets blamed for the loss, but this time he earned it. I think his problem is simple. He doesn't take ball security in the clutch seriously. He needs a shot of seriousness injected into him in the 4-Th quarter to cure his nonchalance. He has to learn to protect the ball all game, but 10 time more securely in the 4-Th. Lets see how the boys respond against the Niners next week in Jim Harbaugh's second game as the head man in San Francisco.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Crazy, good stuff
We are just 2 weeks in to college football and a game into the NFL and we have already had multiple reminders of why we love our football. Saints-Packers on Thursday was everything you, me and the NFL wanted (times 10) out of the season opener. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers put on a show and the Saints almost pushed the game into OT on the very last play. A high-scoring, fun game devoid of offensive mistakes that stayed close till the very last play. Could Roger Goodell have scripted a better season opener to emerge from the lockout? Don't think so. Exciting game, but if I were a fan of either of those teams, I would be a little concerned about the defense. Granted, they were both going against a great QB and good offenses, but it didn't look like they can stop a whole lot of teams. The Saints especially looked really weak on defense as Rodgers did whatever he wanted. I will reserve judgment for another week so that I can see these defenses in action against another team, but neither defense looked to be of Super Bowl quality on Thursday. Thats great news for fantasy owners with Brees on their roster. I think he might have to have an even better season than expected for the Saints to be any good. The fun will continue Sunday with Pittsburgh-Baltimore and Dallas-Jets being the headliners. Philadelphia at Saint Louis and Detroit at Tampa Bay are the other intriguing match-ups. Well, it's week 1. Each and every match-up looks appetizing to me. Everybody is ready to roll. Especially Adrian Peterson and Troy Polamalu - the 2 veteran superstars who were given huge extensions the day before the season.
College football was not a slouch either in it's week 2. ASU started off a fun weekend with an OT win over Missouri on Friday. Great win for Pac-12 and good exposure for ASU as they try to creep up the top-25. Of course it would have been an awful game for ASU if they had lost. They gave up a 14 point lead and almost lost the game in regular time. Luckily, they won it in OT after making it a nail-biting affair. Michigan and Notre Dame played an amazing game like they always seem to do lately. They combined for 3 TDs in the last 2 minutes and Michigan's stud QB Denard Robinson sealed the deal with a TD pass with 2 seconds to go. Tough loss for the domers as they were leading comfortably at one point in this game, which was the first night game at the Big House. It was a great college game between 2 storied programs in an awesome atmosphere. Instant classic in front of 114,00 fans, college football's record crowd. Michigan's rival, Ohio State scraped past Toledo 27-22 and Texas survived BYU 17-16. South Carolina and Georgia played a fun one in Athens as the Ole' ball coach won on the road and added on to Mark Richt's pain. Auburn upset Mississippi state 41-34 in the other marquee SEC match-up. Speaking of the SEC, it continued it's dominance over the Big 10 today as Alabama crushed Penn state and Joe Pa 27-11. Out west, Oregon bounced back from their loss at LSU with a win against Nevada as they dropped 69 points on them. Cal, Stanford and USC, all won their week 2 match-ups as well. USC won the first ever Pac-12 conference game. They beat Utah 23-14. Cal won a good one against Colorado but it was a previously scheduled non-conference game and won't count in the conference standings. Interesting twist.
Aside from the great action on the field, the other big news in college has been the conference re-alignments that has the Big 12 pretty much disintegrating soon. First, Pac-10 added 2 teams including Big-12's Colorado. Now, Texas A&M is trying to bolt to the SEC. Call me a traditionalist, but I don't like too much change in such matters. I miss my Pac-10. I always liked the geographical integrity of our conference. It was all West coast though Arizona is not technically a state on the Pacific coast. Now, thats all gone. I guess Utah and Colorado still qualify as "West coast", at least in the eyes of some East coast honks, but all geographic logic are under threat as the SEC is now getting Texas A&M and Pac-12 might still bring in Oklahoma, though the conference is denying that possibility. Hope we don't end up with Boston College in Pac-16 and the BYU in the SEC in 2015! There is now a threat of a lawsuit and all kinds of rumors in Big-12 and unfortunately, Pac-10 was the initiator of all this confusion. I am still amused that Pac-10 had issues with the almighty dollar because they were nestled away in the West coast with late night games and not so committed fan base in some schools, but they are the ones growing. They were apparently not generating the same revenues as some other football-crazed conferences, but they went and poached from Big-12 instead of the other way around. I guess tradition and the Pac-10 label is still strong enough to help them breakup other conferences, with or without top-of-the-line revenue. Utah and Colorado should help the Pac-12 because it brings 2 entire states on board and those states will tune into football as not much else happens in those hoods. The only good news for the NCAA with regard to re-alignment is that it takes attention away from all the scandals that dominated the college football's off the field newswire. Of course the action on the field is compensating for everything off the field.
College football was not a slouch either in it's week 2. ASU started off a fun weekend with an OT win over Missouri on Friday. Great win for Pac-12 and good exposure for ASU as they try to creep up the top-25. Of course it would have been an awful game for ASU if they had lost. They gave up a 14 point lead and almost lost the game in regular time. Luckily, they won it in OT after making it a nail-biting affair. Michigan and Notre Dame played an amazing game like they always seem to do lately. They combined for 3 TDs in the last 2 minutes and Michigan's stud QB Denard Robinson sealed the deal with a TD pass with 2 seconds to go. Tough loss for the domers as they were leading comfortably at one point in this game, which was the first night game at the Big House. It was a great college game between 2 storied programs in an awesome atmosphere. Instant classic in front of 114,00 fans, college football's record crowd. Michigan's rival, Ohio State scraped past Toledo 27-22 and Texas survived BYU 17-16. South Carolina and Georgia played a fun one in Athens as the Ole' ball coach won on the road and added on to Mark Richt's pain. Auburn upset Mississippi state 41-34 in the other marquee SEC match-up. Speaking of the SEC, it continued it's dominance over the Big 10 today as Alabama crushed Penn state and Joe Pa 27-11. Out west, Oregon bounced back from their loss at LSU with a win against Nevada as they dropped 69 points on them. Cal, Stanford and USC, all won their week 2 match-ups as well. USC won the first ever Pac-12 conference game. They beat Utah 23-14. Cal won a good one against Colorado but it was a previously scheduled non-conference game and won't count in the conference standings. Interesting twist.
Aside from the great action on the field, the other big news in college has been the conference re-alignments that has the Big 12 pretty much disintegrating soon. First, Pac-10 added 2 teams including Big-12's Colorado. Now, Texas A&M is trying to bolt to the SEC. Call me a traditionalist, but I don't like too much change in such matters. I miss my Pac-10. I always liked the geographical integrity of our conference. It was all West coast though Arizona is not technically a state on the Pacific coast. Now, thats all gone. I guess Utah and Colorado still qualify as "West coast", at least in the eyes of some East coast honks, but all geographic logic are under threat as the SEC is now getting Texas A&M and Pac-12 might still bring in Oklahoma, though the conference is denying that possibility. Hope we don't end up with Boston College in Pac-16 and the BYU in the SEC in 2015! There is now a threat of a lawsuit and all kinds of rumors in Big-12 and unfortunately, Pac-10 was the initiator of all this confusion. I am still amused that Pac-10 had issues with the almighty dollar because they were nestled away in the West coast with late night games and not so committed fan base in some schools, but they are the ones growing. They were apparently not generating the same revenues as some other football-crazed conferences, but they went and poached from Big-12 instead of the other way around. I guess tradition and the Pac-10 label is still strong enough to help them breakup other conferences, with or without top-of-the-line revenue. Utah and Colorado should help the Pac-12 because it brings 2 entire states on board and those states will tune into football as not much else happens in those hoods. The only good news for the NCAA with regard to re-alignment is that it takes attention away from all the scandals that dominated the college football's off the field newswire. Of course the action on the field is compensating for everything off the field.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Lets get this party started
Today is Christmas day for most sports fans. NFL is back after a tumultuous off-season where we were even threatened that the season may be locked out and we may start losing games. Luckily, better sense prevailed and here we are, on schedule for game 1. The compressed training camp is done, pre-season is all wrapped up, our fantasy teams are all drafted and ready to roll and we are ready for a phenomenal season opening game - Green Bay versus New Orleans. NFL did a lot of things wrong this off-season, but I don't think they could have come up with a better season opener. Even a Green Bay - Chicago matchup, which I am sure they considered given the rivalry and the playoff last year, would not have us all juiced up quite like this matchup. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers on the same field is what will remind us of why we love the NFL. Elite QBs make the NFL and these two are as good as it's going to get in the NFL these days, especially since the native New Orleanoian and the sheriff of all QBs, Peyton Manning seems to be in real danger of missing the entire season. I will definitely miss watching Peyton - he is one of my favorite players to watch in the NFL. It will also be interesting to see how the Colts do. Kerry Collins is old, but can surprise you once in a while. Lets see how he does with this cast of characters. Peyton's injury is definitely the biggest news in the NFL right now and rightfully so.
But, tonight is all about the Packers, their ring ceremony and a contest between 2 elite QBs, offenses and teams. They are after all the last 2 Super Bowl Champions and they have not fallen off too much like some Super Bowl rosters tend to do, especially 2 years removed like the Saints. Thats the strength of having a good QB. You can stay on top regardless of what happens around him. In fact, I would give the Packers a great shot at repeating this year. Though that doesn't happen that often anymore, this year could be different. Shorter training camps mean lesser chances of those last to first teams, rags to riches stories. Even if some teams upgraded their talent significantly, they may have problems putting it all together due to the shortened off-season. So good teams with continuity may do even better this year and the Super Bowl champion is obviously on top of that shortlist. Plus, as good as Aaron Rodgers has been so far, he is still getting better. Watch him do some amazing things this season now that he is totally out of drama queen Brett Favre's shadow and has a championship ring of his own. Thats going to remove a lot of his inhibitions and unleash him. Philadelphia seems to boast of a dream team, but thats going to be a Miami Heat story all over again, only with a slightly more likable cast of characters. Not to digress, but how badly did LeBron and Heat screw up if I am saying the Eagles with the dog killer Vick are a slightly more likable bunch?
I see Philadelphia, Atlanta and tonight's opponent New Orleans as Green Bay's primary threats. I like what Kolb brings to my team, the Arizona Cardinals and I am sure they will be good. But not sure if they can make it to that top-tier. In the AFC, I like the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots to be up there and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets fighting them for the top spot. Peyton's injury pretty much eliminates the Colts. It's not just the talent that he takes away, but the way that offense is structured, it's all him and without him, even a talented replacement will take a while to figure out what to do. Peyton Manning is the NFL equivalent of "throw the ball into LeBron and get out of the way" strategy. Football is a lot more structured and coached than other sports, but Peyton pretty much is the one exception to that rule. He took a box of chocolates onto the field and picked one out every play and only he knew what and how to pick it. Now Collins will have to learn the bag of tricks and learn it in a hurry. The Houston Texans have been trying to win the AFC South for 3 years now and they may get their wish this season. Unfortunately, even they may not enjoy this tainted victory as much as they would have liked to without the sheriff watching over that division. Long story short, I like a Packers-Patriots Super Bowl with the Packers winning it all.
NFL is king and today is another proof of that fact. Even President Obama had to play around with the timing of his address to the nation because of the NFL season opener. Even the President cannot compete with a nicely thrown Drew Brees spiral. Fantasy football is a major part of the reason for football's popularity and I can't even imagine what would have happened to millions of American males if the lockout had eliminated a couple of weeks of football, let alone the whole season. May be we would have invested all our energies in college football, which is not a bad plan B, but it aint no NFL. The college season always gets us in the mood by kicking off first. Last weekend was fun since it reintroduced us to football after a challenging 7 month period. There were some good upsets as usual and Notre Dame losing is always fun, but the college season doesn't really kick into top gear until week 3 or 4. Arizona State won last weekend, but they are playing one of the few ranked match-ups this week. They are hosting 19-Th ranked Missouri and hope to improve their own 23-Rd rank. Of course I am going with the USA today ranking because thats the only one ASU has broken into. Coincidentally, Arizona will be going against the 9-Th seeded Oklahoma state and let's hope the Wildcats don't surprise us and themselves by pulling off an upset. Whatever happens, we will be watching and we are all collectively happy to be talking, reading and writing about football again.
Welcome back NFL! We sure missed you
But, tonight is all about the Packers, their ring ceremony and a contest between 2 elite QBs, offenses and teams. They are after all the last 2 Super Bowl Champions and they have not fallen off too much like some Super Bowl rosters tend to do, especially 2 years removed like the Saints. Thats the strength of having a good QB. You can stay on top regardless of what happens around him. In fact, I would give the Packers a great shot at repeating this year. Though that doesn't happen that often anymore, this year could be different. Shorter training camps mean lesser chances of those last to first teams, rags to riches stories. Even if some teams upgraded their talent significantly, they may have problems putting it all together due to the shortened off-season. So good teams with continuity may do even better this year and the Super Bowl champion is obviously on top of that shortlist. Plus, as good as Aaron Rodgers has been so far, he is still getting better. Watch him do some amazing things this season now that he is totally out of drama queen Brett Favre's shadow and has a championship ring of his own. Thats going to remove a lot of his inhibitions and unleash him. Philadelphia seems to boast of a dream team, but thats going to be a Miami Heat story all over again, only with a slightly more likable cast of characters. Not to digress, but how badly did LeBron and Heat screw up if I am saying the Eagles with the dog killer Vick are a slightly more likable bunch?
I see Philadelphia, Atlanta and tonight's opponent New Orleans as Green Bay's primary threats. I like what Kolb brings to my team, the Arizona Cardinals and I am sure they will be good. But not sure if they can make it to that top-tier. In the AFC, I like the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots to be up there and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets fighting them for the top spot. Peyton's injury pretty much eliminates the Colts. It's not just the talent that he takes away, but the way that offense is structured, it's all him and without him, even a talented replacement will take a while to figure out what to do. Peyton Manning is the NFL equivalent of "throw the ball into LeBron and get out of the way" strategy. Football is a lot more structured and coached than other sports, but Peyton pretty much is the one exception to that rule. He took a box of chocolates onto the field and picked one out every play and only he knew what and how to pick it. Now Collins will have to learn the bag of tricks and learn it in a hurry. The Houston Texans have been trying to win the AFC South for 3 years now and they may get their wish this season. Unfortunately, even they may not enjoy this tainted victory as much as they would have liked to without the sheriff watching over that division. Long story short, I like a Packers-Patriots Super Bowl with the Packers winning it all.
NFL is king and today is another proof of that fact. Even President Obama had to play around with the timing of his address to the nation because of the NFL season opener. Even the President cannot compete with a nicely thrown Drew Brees spiral. Fantasy football is a major part of the reason for football's popularity and I can't even imagine what would have happened to millions of American males if the lockout had eliminated a couple of weeks of football, let alone the whole season. May be we would have invested all our energies in college football, which is not a bad plan B, but it aint no NFL. The college season always gets us in the mood by kicking off first. Last weekend was fun since it reintroduced us to football after a challenging 7 month period. There were some good upsets as usual and Notre Dame losing is always fun, but the college season doesn't really kick into top gear until week 3 or 4. Arizona State won last weekend, but they are playing one of the few ranked match-ups this week. They are hosting 19-Th ranked Missouri and hope to improve their own 23-Rd rank. Of course I am going with the USA today ranking because thats the only one ASU has broken into. Coincidentally, Arizona will be going against the 9-Th seeded Oklahoma state and let's hope the Wildcats don't surprise us and themselves by pulling off an upset. Whatever happens, we will be watching and we are all collectively happy to be talking, reading and writing about football again.
Welcome back NFL! We sure missed you
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