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Archive October 2006

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Who's the Fourth Best Team in the NFL?

Through eight weeks, I don't think there's too much debate about the league's best three teams: the Bears, Colts and Pats have the best records, and they also have the most credibility - the Bears with that defense and the Colts and Pats with their future Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks. But who's No. 4? And would you rather take the Big-3 or the field in an even-money bet on the Super Bowl winner?

New York Times' IDP Blog

Just when you thought fantasy football couldn't getting any bigger, the New York Times has a Blog devoted to Individual Defensive Players. The icing on the cake is that Fred Meyer, our IDP guru, is doing the blogging. Actually, that's the cake. The icing is that we have a link.

Tiki Barber in the Favre Category

As a Giants fan, I love Barber, but the sucking up on the ESPN broadcast was Brett Favre-like. I mean, he's a good guy and all, and I'm sure he's smart, but give us a freaking break.

Will the Rockets Go Small?

The Rockets put out a pretty formidable starting five if they use Shane Battier at the four, an idea they're already toying with. They'd have Rafer Alston, a first-rate ball-handler and distributor, at the point, Tracy McGrady and Bonzi Wells at the swing spots (both players rebound exceptionally well for guards, and both can abuse smaller two-guards one of whom would have to guard at least one of them), Shane Battier at the four - he's undersized, but able to draw opposing fours out to the three-point line, and Yao in the middle. In fact, the team would only be small at the four, since McGrady/Wells are actually fairly big for swingmen, and Yao is big for a center.

Health is a big factor as the Rockets' depth is a little suspect - Juwan Howard can't bang anymore, and Chuck Hayes can't do anything but bang. Steve Novak can shoot, but he's not a banger, and Dikembe Mutumbo is pushing 40. Luther Head and Vassilis Spanoulis have impressed in camp, but neither is likely to be ready to assume major minutes (Head did last year, but struggled).

Will the Giants Get to Bledsoe?

The conventional wisdom is that Drew Bledsoe is a major liability when under pressure, and that Monday's game will hinge on what kind of pass rush the Giants can generate. And that might be the case, but the NFL is a game of adjustments, and Dallas knows about Bledsoe's problems, and they know that Giants know about them as well. So I wouldn't be surprised if Dallas does whatever it can - extra blockers, short passes to the backs, quick slants to T.O., draw plays - to counteract that. If Dallas is forced to game plan around getting the ball out of Bledsoe's hands quickly, and not letting him hold onto the ball for very long, then their offense will be limited. The question is whether the Giants will foresee that and concentrate on drilling the receivers and backs after short gains, and not worry as much about deeper routes that take more time to develop. (Of course, in situations when Dallas max protects, the Giants will have to drop back more as Bledsoe's more likely to have time). But I don't think Dallas will let Bledsoe spend too much time with the ball in his hands on most plays - unless the Giants pass rush disappears for some reason.

Online Gambling Bill

We've talked about this before, but it's nice to see the issue laid out clearly elsewhere too. At what point do we stop tolerating such blatant hypocrisy? EVERYONE knows this is complete b.s., but what is to be done here? I'll tell you what - if this law is effective, illegal poker rooms are going to spring up everywhere, and the old school bookie who has to crack heads every now and then will be back in business. What an outrage that they would attach this to a port security bill.

Proper Clock Management

Good job at the end of Sunday's game by Sean Payton - New Orleans was tied and driving inside Philly's 10 yard-line with 2 minutes left, and Philly had no time outs. Instead of handing the ball off and giving the Eagles the option of letting the running back score and getting the ball back with time on the clock. Payton had Drew Brees take a knee three times, run the clock to three seconds and kick the game winning field goal.

Had the Saints handed it off, I'm pretty sure Andy Reid would have been smart enough to tell the defense to let the back score. Payton took that option away from him and settled for a 90 percent chip-shot FG.

Some Plays I Might Try if I Were Art Shell

In other words, if you had virtually no chance of keeping your job or getting another one anyway, and the season was already lost.

(1) Get an olympic gymnast - those guys who do the floor exercises. Near the goal line, have the guy start 20 yards back - at the 25 or so, and start his running, jumping, flipping, cartwheeling until he gets to the backfield just as the ball is snapped. The quarterback flips the ball to him, and at this point, he's spinning about 10 feet up in the air, easily over the defenders below. Of course, if a defender did penetrate and hit him on the way up, he'd probably die.

(2) Get a soccer playing quarterback preferably, but even the punter or kicker would do. But let's use the quarterback. It's fourth and 23 with two minutes left - instead of trying to throw for the first down, have the guy get the ball in the shotgun formation, roll out and punt the ball, not up into the air, but sideways like a soccer player might do if he were trying to shoot or cross a ball in midair. Boot it 70 mph sideways into the teeth of the defense, who it would hit and bounce off for a first down when the offense (who knew the kick was coming) recovered it. Of course, it would be easy to miss the defense, but remember, he's self-kicking it, and it's something you could practice. Plus those D-lineman are pretty big targets, but you'd have to get it in front of the line of scrimmage. If you could refine the accuracy, maybe you could even hit a linebacker in the side of the leg with it.

(3) Try to score a TD on the on-side kick. The kicker kicks it as usual looking for the big hop on the second bounce, but the kicking team, instead of trying to catch it and fall on it - sends one player a few yards BEYOND the receiving team players and the guy who gets to the ball bats it forward to him at its peak.

The Beast from the East

7-1, 328-pound Nikolai Valuev has a heavyweight title belt. I saw him fight against a regular 6-2, 233-pound heavyweight, and the "little guy" couldn't hurt him. Valuev actually doesn't hit that hard, but he's constantly wearing his opponents down with his reach and leverage. Also his head looks like it's made of concrete, and it's about as big as a large watermelon.

Watching the fight, I kept thinking that Shaq could win the heavyweight title easily if he took a few years to learn how to box. Shaq would be this guy with MUCH more quickness and tons more power.

A Couple Stupid Mistakes

The Raiders are down three midway through the fourth quarter and mounting a good drive. Andrew Walter completes and 16 yard pass on 3rd and 16 to Ronald Curry who easily passes the marker. The spot is terrible, and the measurement shows it's half a yard short of the first down. This is reviewable, and the replay clearly shows the spot would be changed. But Art Shell doesn't challenge the spot, the Raiders go on 4th and 1, and get stuffed.

This one is less, but still - Jon Kitna, 4th down with 10 seconds left in the game from the Rams' 37 yard line throws the hail mary out of the back of the end zone. I mean I know it's a hail mary, but come on, get the thing in play - the end zone is big enough to fit the ball into. No excuse for not giving your guys a chance to make a play.

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NFL Notes
A look around the league regarding Week 10:
Week 10 Observations
  • We've beaten to death Bill Belichick's decision to go for it on 4th and 2 in Sunday night's game (the best take on it I've seen is here), but the real takeaway is how much Cris Collinsworth, Al Michaels, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison felt it was their duty to spout the conventional wisdom without even attempting to analyze Belichick's basis for the decision. Throw in Bob Costas, and it's appalling that five guys collectively making more than $10 million a year to interpret the sport for us didn't even consider the issue from a probability standpoint. Sadly, the NBC crew is probably the best one on TV. (Update: Jon Gruden just defended Belichick's call on MNF - good for him).
    • Dominant Offense but Shaky Defense...Barkley and Dirk
    This topic is a spin-off from the Michael Jordan thread of last week.  In the excellent discussion on that thread a mini-debate broke out as to how Charles Barkley compares to Kevin Garnett.  The gist of the brief debate was to question whether Barkley was enough better than Garnett offensively to make them comparable in value as overall players despite Garnett’s huge defensive advantages.  The thing is, though, to me there is a much better comp for Barkley in this generation than Garnett:  Dirk Nowitzki.
    What is Iverson's Legacy?
    What are we talking 'bout? We're talking 'bout *IVERSON*.
    Jennings vs Rose
    Last year Derrick Rose was the NBA Rookie of the Year.  One year later, would you take him over current rookie point guard phenom Brandon Jennings?

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