All the talk in the NFL right now is about the HarBowl on Thanksgiving night. The niners are playing the Ravens and the Harbaugh brothers are (head) coaching against each other for the first time. NFL put this game on Thursday night for this storyline, but now this contest is also a premier game of the week since the niners are much better than expected under Jim. Not only are they good, they actually have a better record than the Ravens at 9-1. The Ravens are still the favorites here since the game is at Baltimore and since the jury is still out on the niners. San Francisco's defense is definitely great, but their offense - especially the passing game is still shaky. The Ravens are inconsistent themselves, but their offensive talent is a little more legit than the niners. If the niners win this game on a short week, we better put them in the contender circle for good. They are not Packers yet - no team is. But this game can establish them firmly in the second tier with the other good teams. They will still not have a Drew Brees or Tom Brady playing QB for them, but they may have the best defense in a league without many dominant defenses this season and that should count for something. This game should be a great night-cap on Thanksgiving.
The day games feature the usual dates in Dallas and Detroit, but Detroit is good this year for a change. This makes the turkey day games really interesting as all 6 teams involved won last week. Of course, Dallas should still win against Miami easily, but the Dolphins have been playing way better lately. Undefeated Green Bay is going into Detroit and that should be a good one. Nobody will be surprised if the Packers lose as Detroit will be up and ready for this one against their division rival. Detroit had a great game last weekend and they might have even found a running game in Kevin Smith. The NFC north has some of the best arms in the league with Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers and the now injured Jay Cutler. This game should feature a lot of bombs from both QBs and should be a lot of fun. The Bears were playing really well too and it's too bad Cutler is hurt. Denver released Kyle Orton - a former Chicago Bear, today. It's a smart move. They are hoping Chicago will pick him up and pay the rest of his salary saving Denver some cash. John Elway decided to cut Orton, but is still refusing to completely endorse Tim Tebow. Elway seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place.
In college, USC beat Oregon by a field goal to put the BCS in a high-speed spin cycle. Now the top 3 teams are all from the SEC and the prospect of a Alabama-LSU rematch looms large. Arkansas is third and they play LSU next. Things will get really interesting and confusing if Arkansas upsets LSU and Alabama wins the iron bowl against Auburn. In that case, Arkansas has to be ahead of LSU and LSU beat Alabama. But Alabama can't drop from 2 to 3 after a win against Auburn. Also Alabama has already beaten Arkansas. This means Alabama will jump to 1, Arkansas 2 and LSU 3. This is not because that's how they rank on the field, but because that's the ranking that looks the least stupid. If this is not an argument for a playoffs, nothing else can be. I am not a BCS hater. In a non-playoff world, BCS is a decent effort to implement a system, but it just doesn't work because it's dealing with a problem that is intractable. So you need a playoff and you need to decide all this on the field. But I have to add that I do see the argument that playoffs will dilute the value of these weekly games. If there was a playoffs down the road, I will not care all that much about the LSU-Arkansas match-up this weekend. The fact that this game can eliminate LSU does adds a lot of juice to the contest and that's not a bad thing. But that juice is not worth all the squeeze and we need the playoffs in College football, period.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
It just takes 2 to win
There are many interesting stories from the sports weekend, but none more fascinating than what happened in the Denver Broncos game at Kansas City. Tim Tebow won a game as the starting quarterback by completing just 2 passes out of 8 attempts. You heard that right and that has never happened in the history of the league. A professional quarterback won a NFL game by completing just 2 passes the entire game. Sure, one of that was for a 56 yard TD, but how do you win a game completing just 2 passes? May be Tebow does have God on his side. May be he has good karma going for him since he seems like a decent human being. Of course it helps the Chiefs just threw for 140 yards themselves and it took 2 QBs to accomplish that as Matt Cassel might be out for the season with an injury. But seriously, even I am beginning to believe in some of that Tebow magic and the supposed intangibles he brings to the table - the "it" factor. That's the only way to explain the stats behind this win. That and the fact that Denver has suddenly become a top-tier rushing offense. They rushed for over 244 yards and Tebow himself ran effectively as always. They have changed their offense to suit Tebow and are now 3-1 with him as the starting QB. He still doesn't look like a NFL quality QB, but does he have to if can beat teams with 2 completions?
Speaking of elite QBs, tonight on MNF, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers dismantled the Vikings as expected to go 9-0. The Packers offense looks as smooth as a hot knife through soft butter and there is no stopping them - at least not yet, definitely not tonight. I didn't expect this game to be competitive and didn't even care to watch it closely and the Packers proved me right. Rodgers is going to shred some records this season and the only question is, which ones. The weather is going to get worse soon on the East coast in general and in Green Bay in particular, but I don't think it's going to matter a whole lot with this offense. They are the exact opposite of the Denver Broncos right now. The Packers don't run the ball all that well, but they don't seem to have any need to. The Niners surprisingly own the second best record in the league after beating the Giants on Sunday. The jury is still out on how elite the Niners are despite their 8-1 record, but they do have a good defense and might end up with a bye week in the playoffs and just one more home win in the playoffs might take them to Lambeau field in January for a NFC championship game. Can Jim Harbaugh and the Niners cash this season in for a date with the Packers deep in the playoffs? This is going to be a very interesting question the rest of the way in the NFC.
In the AFC, the Patriots beat the Jets to shut Rex Ryan up possibly for good this season. They are 5-4 and are not a horrible 3-6 like the "Dream Team" Eagles, but they are looking up at too many teams and may not make it to the big dance if Mark Sanchez keeps playing like this. Their defense is definitely overrated. The AFC is a little messy right now. Ravens seem to be able to beat only the Steelers and the Steelers look great except when they play the Ravens. Patriots had fallen off from their pedestal only to bounce back against the Jets. All this led to some talk about the Houston Texans possibly being the best team in the AFC. Too bad that this talk was followed by the news that Matt Schaub may be done for the season. It seems like the Texans and Schaub are some kind of jinxed. We have been waiting for them to bust out and it seems like they may not make it even this year unless Matt Leinart plays halfway decent. We will find out next week. With the NBA staring at a "nuclear winter", we have to start focusing on college basketball way before March to keep us occupied between the NFL games. Glad there is Thursday night football the rest of the way. Speaking of college, Stanford lost to Oregon in football and that pretty much ends their and Luck's BCS aspirations. Boise State lost as well and we may end up with another LSU-Alabama game for the championship. Nobody wants it, but we might just get it.
Speaking of elite QBs, tonight on MNF, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers dismantled the Vikings as expected to go 9-0. The Packers offense looks as smooth as a hot knife through soft butter and there is no stopping them - at least not yet, definitely not tonight. I didn't expect this game to be competitive and didn't even care to watch it closely and the Packers proved me right. Rodgers is going to shred some records this season and the only question is, which ones. The weather is going to get worse soon on the East coast in general and in Green Bay in particular, but I don't think it's going to matter a whole lot with this offense. They are the exact opposite of the Denver Broncos right now. The Packers don't run the ball all that well, but they don't seem to have any need to. The Niners surprisingly own the second best record in the league after beating the Giants on Sunday. The jury is still out on how elite the Niners are despite their 8-1 record, but they do have a good defense and might end up with a bye week in the playoffs and just one more home win in the playoffs might take them to Lambeau field in January for a NFC championship game. Can Jim Harbaugh and the Niners cash this season in for a date with the Packers deep in the playoffs? This is going to be a very interesting question the rest of the way in the NFC.
In the AFC, the Patriots beat the Jets to shut Rex Ryan up possibly for good this season. They are 5-4 and are not a horrible 3-6 like the "Dream Team" Eagles, but they are looking up at too many teams and may not make it to the big dance if Mark Sanchez keeps playing like this. Their defense is definitely overrated. The AFC is a little messy right now. Ravens seem to be able to beat only the Steelers and the Steelers look great except when they play the Ravens. Patriots had fallen off from their pedestal only to bounce back against the Jets. All this led to some talk about the Houston Texans possibly being the best team in the AFC. Too bad that this talk was followed by the news that Matt Schaub may be done for the season. It seems like the Texans and Schaub are some kind of jinxed. We have been waiting for them to bust out and it seems like they may not make it even this year unless Matt Leinart plays halfway decent. We will find out next week. With the NBA staring at a "nuclear winter", we have to start focusing on college basketball way before March to keep us occupied between the NFL games. Glad there is Thursday night football the rest of the way. Speaking of college, Stanford lost to Oregon in football and that pretty much ends their and Luck's BCS aspirations. Boise State lost as well and we may end up with another LSU-Alabama game for the championship. Nobody wants it, but we might just get it.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Action is always better than inaction
The dust is slowly settling down on the sad and disturbing sex scandal at Penn State University. The scandal has erased the 46 year coaching career of Joe Paterno in a matter of days. There are several lessons in this sordid saga, but if there is one takeaway from Joe Pa's firing, it is that action is always better than inaction, especially when the aforementioned action can prevent some bad things from happening to innocent people. The disgusting part of this story and what got Joe Pa fired is how little people did to help the helpless kids and how easily and for how long Jerry Sandusky got away with some of the gravest crimes you could think of. If you read the grand jury report, you see how many people - big and small, were made aware of the sexual abuse over many years and they all did next to nothing. Given his power and influence, Joe Pa had to be fired for not having done more to stop this pedophile.
All the people who saw Sandusky do those despicable things should be ashamed of themselves for not reacting the way they should have. Not acting or reporting Sandusky to the authorities not only let him off the hook that one time and hurt that one kid, but it probably gave him more confidence and encouragement to continue perpetrating his crimes. He then begins to think, "people have seen me do these horrible things right here in the Penn State locker room and I am still not in jail, let alone not yet killed or even punched in the face!" So his fear and shame reduces and he continues to do more of the same. These guys basically empowered a pedophile. This is why we should always act when we can stop something bad. Always act when we can do something good. Inaction only makes bad things worse and worse things vile. It is somewhat sad to see Joe Pa go out this way after all these years. It's never fun to see a legend fall like that. But he had to go because he failed to do all he could to protect the kids.
Speaking of vile, Google's example for the usage of the word is "as vile a rogue as ever lived". They should put Jerry Sandusky's face next to it. It is indeed the best description of him. It is pretty obvious from the grand jury report that this guy had a method and a scheme for meeting, befriending and abusing kids and he deployed this pattern repeatedly. He used Penn State's football program and his access to it's resources as an effective tool in the process. This is why Penn State looks really bad. Even if Penn state was not aware of a lot of the details, they had enough to treat him as a "suspect" since 1998 and they still didn't do anything and let kids get assaulted right under their nose for many years. What were they waiting for? There is no conceivable answer to this question and that's exactly why everybody from Joe Pa to the President of the university have been fired.
As if this scandal is not dirty enough, the fact that Sandusky used a charitable foundation for kids called The Second Mile to meet and recruit his victims makes me sick to my stomach. That's just messed up. And the story can apparently get even worse if you believe all the ugly rumors floating around and I don't even want to go there. It's easy to sit on our couch and judge everybody from Joe Pa to Mike McQueary to the AD and the president. But if we find ourselves in such situations, I hope we all do the right thing. Lets use this scandal to reinforce the value of positive action, integrity and strength of character. There are no substitutes for these. Sometimes in life, silence and walking away may appear like the easy way out, but abdicating our responsibility never works. It only leads to more problems and headaches down the road, not to mention that you shouldn't be able to walk away with a clear conscience in the first place. Untimely silence will even get you fired for a crime you didn't commit and Joe Pa can attest to that.
All the people who saw Sandusky do those despicable things should be ashamed of themselves for not reacting the way they should have. Not acting or reporting Sandusky to the authorities not only let him off the hook that one time and hurt that one kid, but it probably gave him more confidence and encouragement to continue perpetrating his crimes. He then begins to think, "people have seen me do these horrible things right here in the Penn State locker room and I am still not in jail, let alone not yet killed or even punched in the face!" So his fear and shame reduces and he continues to do more of the same. These guys basically empowered a pedophile. This is why we should always act when we can stop something bad. Always act when we can do something good. Inaction only makes bad things worse and worse things vile. It is somewhat sad to see Joe Pa go out this way after all these years. It's never fun to see a legend fall like that. But he had to go because he failed to do all he could to protect the kids.
Speaking of vile, Google's example for the usage of the word is "as vile a rogue as ever lived". They should put Jerry Sandusky's face next to it. It is indeed the best description of him. It is pretty obvious from the grand jury report that this guy had a method and a scheme for meeting, befriending and abusing kids and he deployed this pattern repeatedly. He used Penn State's football program and his access to it's resources as an effective tool in the process. This is why Penn State looks really bad. Even if Penn state was not aware of a lot of the details, they had enough to treat him as a "suspect" since 1998 and they still didn't do anything and let kids get assaulted right under their nose for many years. What were they waiting for? There is no conceivable answer to this question and that's exactly why everybody from Joe Pa to the President of the university have been fired.
As if this scandal is not dirty enough, the fact that Sandusky used a charitable foundation for kids called The Second Mile to meet and recruit his victims makes me sick to my stomach. That's just messed up. And the story can apparently get even worse if you believe all the ugly rumors floating around and I don't even want to go there. It's easy to sit on our couch and judge everybody from Joe Pa to Mike McQueary to the AD and the president. But if we find ourselves in such situations, I hope we all do the right thing. Lets use this scandal to reinforce the value of positive action, integrity and strength of character. There are no substitutes for these. Sometimes in life, silence and walking away may appear like the easy way out, but abdicating our responsibility never works. It only leads to more problems and headaches down the road, not to mention that you shouldn't be able to walk away with a clear conscience in the first place. Untimely silence will even get you fired for a crime you didn't commit and Joe Pa can attest to that.
Monday, November 07, 2011
Game of the century was mising a QB
The highlight of the sports weekend was supposed to be the LSU-Alabama college football game. ESPN has been hyping it for over 2 weeks and even called it the game of the century - partly in jest, but they were also semi-serious. The game itself was not bad. It was close as LSU won it 9-6 in overtime. That's 15 points total from 2 teams and they needed OT to do that. I understand the defenses are good, but the offenses were horrible. For all their greatness, these 2 SEC teams have no offense or a QB worth looking at. It's ironic that this game comes a couple of week after the 49ers defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois said that Stanford QB Andrew Luck's stock would drop if he played against a SEC defense. He may be right, but how can SEC teams dominate their league without any decent QB? Also, how great are these SEC defenses anyways if the quality of the QBs they are facing, at least this year, is so bad?
The somewhat unfortunate truth is that defense wins championships and a SEC team may very well win the BCS championship this year too, propelled by the athletes playing defense. But they need a good QB and a decent offense to test them out. That's not happening in-conference this year and it definitely didn't happen in that game last Saturday. Now the national focus moves to the Bay Area as Stanford is hosting Oregon this weekend in their toughest test of the year. If they win, they stay undefeated and move closer to a BCS championship appearance for Andrew Luck. Oklahoma state is undefeated too, but the conventional wisdom says that they will eventually lose to Oklahoma, though that game is at home. Let's see if Luck pulls it off against the speedy ducks and get us all closer to a SEC-Pac 12, offense-defense culture clash for the championship.
In the NFL, interesting unpredictability continued. This is one of the main reasons for NFL's popularity - upsets like the Saints losing to the Rams last week. Parity results in weird results sometimes and this week was no different. The real head scratchers were Denver's win at Oakland, Miami embarrassing Kansas City and to some extent, Chicago beating Philly tonight. The Eagles and the Bears are not that far apart talent-wise, but after last week's demolition of the Cowboys, people were ready to re-anoint the Eagles as the Dream team. So it was pretty impressive that the Bears went into Philadelphia and took all that momentum away. Both Jay Cutler and Matt Forte are playing very well right now. As for the Eagles, they are done. They may have to go 7-1 or something to have a shot at the playoffs. Doable, but not practical because they are already 3 games behind a good Giants team for the Division and 3 games behind a good Lions team for the wild card.
Just when the entire NFL was ready to kick Tim Tebow out of the league, the Broncos beat the Raiders on the road and ran all over them. Tebow didn't pass great, but he ran very well and also threw for 2 TDs against a Raiders defense that played extraordinarily bad. They let some of Tebow's receivers roam around wide-open in those TD drives and they could not stop either Tebow or Willis McGghee on the ground. They didn't just give up 8 or 10 yards every play, they seemed to get gashed for 20 to 60 yards a pop in that second half. The only explanation I can come up with is, the Raiders disrespected Tebow's passing prowess so much that they put 8 or 9 guys around the line of scrimmage and that actually hurt them. It made things easy for the Broncos receivers and the running game found huge, open lanes if they got past the first level of defense around the line, which they seemed to do repeatedly in that second half.
Tough game for Carson Palmer who made some good throws and looked decent. I am sure the media would have been very high on his performance if he had won because he had impressive numbers - more than 300 yards and 3 TDs. But without that win, his 3 interceptions stand out. Good for Oakland that both Kansas City and San Diego lost too. They have to regroup in 3 days and play the Chargers to open the Thursday night schedule. I was also slightly surprised at the NY teams winning on the road. The Jets won at Buffalo and Giants won at New England in a game that resembled their Super Bowl contest from a few years back. Joe Flacco led the Ravens to an impressive road win at Pittsburgh to stop some of their momentum. That division is heating up. With all that said, the biggest news in sports right now is also it's ugliest. The sex abuse scandal at Penn state is shocking and lets wait for more details before making judgments.
The somewhat unfortunate truth is that defense wins championships and a SEC team may very well win the BCS championship this year too, propelled by the athletes playing defense. But they need a good QB and a decent offense to test them out. That's not happening in-conference this year and it definitely didn't happen in that game last Saturday. Now the national focus moves to the Bay Area as Stanford is hosting Oregon this weekend in their toughest test of the year. If they win, they stay undefeated and move closer to a BCS championship appearance for Andrew Luck. Oklahoma state is undefeated too, but the conventional wisdom says that they will eventually lose to Oklahoma, though that game is at home. Let's see if Luck pulls it off against the speedy ducks and get us all closer to a SEC-Pac 12, offense-defense culture clash for the championship.
In the NFL, interesting unpredictability continued. This is one of the main reasons for NFL's popularity - upsets like the Saints losing to the Rams last week. Parity results in weird results sometimes and this week was no different. The real head scratchers were Denver's win at Oakland, Miami embarrassing Kansas City and to some extent, Chicago beating Philly tonight. The Eagles and the Bears are not that far apart talent-wise, but after last week's demolition of the Cowboys, people were ready to re-anoint the Eagles as the Dream team. So it was pretty impressive that the Bears went into Philadelphia and took all that momentum away. Both Jay Cutler and Matt Forte are playing very well right now. As for the Eagles, they are done. They may have to go 7-1 or something to have a shot at the playoffs. Doable, but not practical because they are already 3 games behind a good Giants team for the Division and 3 games behind a good Lions team for the wild card.
Just when the entire NFL was ready to kick Tim Tebow out of the league, the Broncos beat the Raiders on the road and ran all over them. Tebow didn't pass great, but he ran very well and also threw for 2 TDs against a Raiders defense that played extraordinarily bad. They let some of Tebow's receivers roam around wide-open in those TD drives and they could not stop either Tebow or Willis McGghee on the ground. They didn't just give up 8 or 10 yards every play, they seemed to get gashed for 20 to 60 yards a pop in that second half. The only explanation I can come up with is, the Raiders disrespected Tebow's passing prowess so much that they put 8 or 9 guys around the line of scrimmage and that actually hurt them. It made things easy for the Broncos receivers and the running game found huge, open lanes if they got past the first level of defense around the line, which they seemed to do repeatedly in that second half.
Tough game for Carson Palmer who made some good throws and looked decent. I am sure the media would have been very high on his performance if he had won because he had impressive numbers - more than 300 yards and 3 TDs. But without that win, his 3 interceptions stand out. Good for Oakland that both Kansas City and San Diego lost too. They have to regroup in 3 days and play the Chargers to open the Thursday night schedule. I was also slightly surprised at the NY teams winning on the road. The Jets won at Buffalo and Giants won at New England in a game that resembled their Super Bowl contest from a few years back. Joe Flacco led the Ravens to an impressive road win at Pittsburgh to stop some of their momentum. That division is heating up. With all that said, the biggest news in sports right now is also it's ugliest. The sex abuse scandal at Penn state is shocking and lets wait for more details before making judgments.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Tony La Russ is gone, Andrew Luck is on.
The World Series is over and this is when the NBA typically starts up and fills up our sports calendar. But that's not to be this year as the NBA lockout has already taken away the month of November from us. It's now starting to hit the fans where it hurts and that's not good for the NBA long term. Until last weekend, we had the world series and it got more interesting as it went on. That game 6 when the cardinals came back from 2 runs down twice with just a strike away from elimination both times was amazing. I would have said that something like that will never happen, but we all saw it actually happen. That resulted in a game 7 and of course game 7's are always fun and exciting. The rangers couldn't recover after that tough game 6 loss and Chris Carpenter sealed the deal. I felt bad for Ron Washington - world series losses 2 years in a row, but that cruel game 6 loss made it much worse. There was also the cute story of Davide Freese, a local St. Louis kid, ending up as both the NLCS and the world series MVP. He sure is living the dream right now. The biggest news though was the retirement of Tony La Russa. We will miss him. An innovator like that is hard to find in baseball dugouts more so than in other sports.
The world series ushered us into the weekend and of course football took over as always. Stanford went into USC and played a whale of a game. Andrew Luck is an absolute stud. He threw a pick-6 very late in the 4-Th and still managed to bring them back to tie the game and later won it in 3 overtimes. He looks as NFL-ready as anyone I have ever seen in college. I have had my share of infatuations with college QBs that I thought would be good pros and have been right sometimes and wrong other times. For instance, I always thought Aaron Rodgers will be great and Akili Smith won't be any good. But I also thought Cade McNown will be good and Cam Newton won't be any good. Of course we all seemed to have missed on Cam. But Luck seems different from everybody. The way he runs, passes, his mechanics, demeanor and everything seem destined for NFL greatness. As high as I was on Aaron Rodgers at Cal, he did throw like a college kid and I thought he needed some seasoning in the NFL before busting out. Luck on the other hand looks like he could start this Sunday and have a 250 yards, 2 TD, 2 interception game for any NFL team.
College QBs are coming in more and more ready for the NFL. This trend really started with Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and it seems to continue with Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and even Christian Ponder. But Andrew Luck is just on a different level of college quarterbacking. It totally makes sense to "suck for luck" and if I were the Colts, I would definitely draft him even if it means pissing Peyton Manning off. Top QB picks don't sit on the bench for long these days and Luck definitely wouldn't, given his immense talents. Manning is no dummy. He foresees all the controversies and might prefer the Colts don't draft him if Manning is planning to play 4 or 5 more years. But the prospect of going from Manning to Luck is just too good for the Colts to pass up. I would draft him if I had a chance, keep him behind Manning for a year or may be 2 and then trade Manning away if he is still healthy and playing. I thought Herm Edwards was way out there in the left field when he suggested the Colts trade Manning, but after seeing Luck last weekend, I am convinced it's not a bad idea at all. Even Luck can be stashed away in the bench for one season and that's what I would do before eventually trading Manning away. Let the kid learn for a year from the sheriff, but let's avoid the whole Favre-Rodgers drama.
On Sunday, the Colts continued their losing season and inched closer to winning the "suck for luck" sweepstakes. The Dolphins are giving them a tough fight. Miami even lost to Tim Tebow last weekend. He is playing really bad right now and some experts are even claiming he is the most immature and confused, young QB to have ever played in the league in 20 years. I am not sure if I would go that far, but he sure is looking clueless right now. And that lions player who "tebowed" after the sack is indeed causing a lot of stir. It was a classless move for sure, but he was just trying to mock Tebow and not his religion. If Tebow's celebratory move was something else, he would have done that instead of the prayer move. But still, what he did was classless because it does involve religion and always keep away from such sensitive, personal issues when it comes to a stupid sack celebration. In other games, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves and the entire Dallas metropolis with that performance Sunday night against the Eagles. Even more surprising is all that struggle Philip Rivers and the San Diego chargers are experiencing this season. They lost Monday night and that offense looks horrible for the most part. Rivers better fix it soon or they can kiss the AFC west title good bye.
The world series ushered us into the weekend and of course football took over as always. Stanford went into USC and played a whale of a game. Andrew Luck is an absolute stud. He threw a pick-6 very late in the 4-Th and still managed to bring them back to tie the game and later won it in 3 overtimes. He looks as NFL-ready as anyone I have ever seen in college. I have had my share of infatuations with college QBs that I thought would be good pros and have been right sometimes and wrong other times. For instance, I always thought Aaron Rodgers will be great and Akili Smith won't be any good. But I also thought Cade McNown will be good and Cam Newton won't be any good. Of course we all seemed to have missed on Cam. But Luck seems different from everybody. The way he runs, passes, his mechanics, demeanor and everything seem destined for NFL greatness. As high as I was on Aaron Rodgers at Cal, he did throw like a college kid and I thought he needed some seasoning in the NFL before busting out. Luck on the other hand looks like he could start this Sunday and have a 250 yards, 2 TD, 2 interception game for any NFL team.
College QBs are coming in more and more ready for the NFL. This trend really started with Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and it seems to continue with Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and even Christian Ponder. But Andrew Luck is just on a different level of college quarterbacking. It totally makes sense to "suck for luck" and if I were the Colts, I would definitely draft him even if it means pissing Peyton Manning off. Top QB picks don't sit on the bench for long these days and Luck definitely wouldn't, given his immense talents. Manning is no dummy. He foresees all the controversies and might prefer the Colts don't draft him if Manning is planning to play 4 or 5 more years. But the prospect of going from Manning to Luck is just too good for the Colts to pass up. I would draft him if I had a chance, keep him behind Manning for a year or may be 2 and then trade Manning away if he is still healthy and playing. I thought Herm Edwards was way out there in the left field when he suggested the Colts trade Manning, but after seeing Luck last weekend, I am convinced it's not a bad idea at all. Even Luck can be stashed away in the bench for one season and that's what I would do before eventually trading Manning away. Let the kid learn for a year from the sheriff, but let's avoid the whole Favre-Rodgers drama.
On Sunday, the Colts continued their losing season and inched closer to winning the "suck for luck" sweepstakes. The Dolphins are giving them a tough fight. Miami even lost to Tim Tebow last weekend. He is playing really bad right now and some experts are even claiming he is the most immature and confused, young QB to have ever played in the league in 20 years. I am not sure if I would go that far, but he sure is looking clueless right now. And that lions player who "tebowed" after the sack is indeed causing a lot of stir. It was a classless move for sure, but he was just trying to mock Tebow and not his religion. If Tebow's celebratory move was something else, he would have done that instead of the prayer move. But still, what he did was classless because it does involve religion and always keep away from such sensitive, personal issues when it comes to a stupid sack celebration. In other games, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves and the entire Dallas metropolis with that performance Sunday night against the Eagles. Even more surprising is all that struggle Philip Rivers and the San Diego chargers are experiencing this season. They lost Monday night and that offense looks horrible for the most part. Rivers better fix it soon or they can kiss the AFC west title good bye.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)