We’re off and running!
The Bears welcomed Andrew Luck to the NFL quite rudely. Afters spotting the Colts a 7 point lead on a Cutler pick6, the Bears roared back to take a 17-7 lead and never looked back. Brandon Marshall reunited with Cutler to the tune of 9 catches for 119 yards and a TD. Luck was picked off 3 times, but did get his first TD pass of his career in garbage time. Didn’t the Colts get the memo that Luck was the new golden boy? Apparently not.
Egads! These two teams seemed engaged in a “Who can suck more” contest with both teams winning. Despite 4 interceptions, Vick drove the Eagles 91 yards in the final 6 minutes to score the winning touchdown. “Rookie” Brandon Weeden, who is older than a handful of my college roommates (class of ’05) looked like maybe he should have stuck to baseball, completing barely 1/3 of his passes and throwing 4 interceptions himself. The much-maligned Eagles defense of a year ago looked stout, with all the points coming off turnovers.
Cardiac Cats! Matthew Stafford recovered from 3 first half interceptions to hit Kevin Smith for the go-ahead touchdown with 5 seconds left. The Rams look much improved from the team that finished second from the bottom last year, but couldn’t overcome the Lions. Thankfully, Jim Schwartz avoiding a post game altercation with Jeff Fisher’s mustache.
The Patriots overcame a slow start to put on a typical Patriot showing against the lowly Titans. Brady hooked up with each of his monstrous tight ends for a touch down and rookie RB Steven Ridley added over 100 yards on the ground. Brady broke his nose, likely ending his modeling career, much to the chagrin of no one. Jack Locker injured his arm attempting to make a tackle after an interception and left the game, also much to the chagrin of no one.
Falcons fly high! (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!?!?!) The Falcons continued the high-flying aerial attack they showed in the pre-season as they pasted the Chiefs. Boston College (WOOT!) alum Matt Ryan through for 3 TDs and the Falcons ran away with it in the second half.
If a game is played in Minnesota, and no one cares, did it really happen? I actually had to check the TV several times to make sure this was a real game and not simply a Madden simulation. Adrian Peterson returned from major knee surgery to run for 2 TDs. This game was the first chance we got to see the new overtime rules, with Minnesota kicking a FG on the opening drive of the extra session before turning the ball back over to Jacksonville, who couldn’t tie or take the lead and the game mercifully ended. And that is more words than should ever have been typed about this game.
When I say “RG”, you say “THREE”! Do they chant that at Redskins games? If not, they should. Rookie Robert Griffin III looked like Robert Griffin the Best (what?) as he lead the Redskins to the upset of the day. RG3 hit Pierre Garcon for an 88 yard touchdown and the Redskins never looked back. He finished with 320 yards and 2 TDs. Are the Redskins for real? Is this a sign of things to come for the scandal-ridden Saints? Time will tell. In the meantime, enjoy having a QB, Washingtonians!
Sooooo… remember all the ink wasted on the Jets preseason struggles on offense, where Tebow and Sanchez both seemed determined to win the backup QB job? Um, forget that. The Jets put 6 TDs on the board, 4 by the offense and dominated Buffalo in a game that was even a bigger blowout than the final scored indicated. Tebow was largely a non-factor. He threw one pass, an awkward shovel pass off the back shoulder of his intended receiver, which was picked off by the defense but overturned on replay when it was revealed that angels nudged the defender onto the sideline and out-of-bounds.
Much like their partners in the AFC powerhouse New England, Houston overcame a slow start to paste the lowly Dolphins. Most of the action took place in the first half, with the Houston defense clamping down on rookie QB Ryan Tannehill. Arian Foster picked up 2 TDs on the ground, causing fantasy owners around the world who took him #1 overall to smugly smirk at their opponents.
The 49ers made a huge week 1 statement, beating the Packers in Lambeau. The Niners defense was stellar. They bottled up the Packers run game, exposing them as one-dimensional on offense and too weak on defense to keep the 89-year-old Randy Moss out of the end zone. These two teams look to be the top two in the NFC, though we might now see them flip-flopped in the power rankings.
Kevin Kolb came off the bench to relieve the injured John “Why Didn’t I Legally Change My Last Name to Skeletor or At Least Skeleton” Skelton to lead the Cardinals on a late drive for the win. Seahawks rookie QB Russell Wilson was okay but shared the fate of his fellow rookies also not named RG3 and lost his opener.
I am going on record right now that I will only refer to the team from Tampa Bay as the Bucs, since I’ve lost too many Sporcle quizzes trying to properly spell the full name and have given up indefinitely. Anyway, the Bucs scored a win over a division foe, getting a solid game out of rookie RB Doug Martin and a stout game from their run defense, holding the usually hard charging Panthers to a mere 10 yards.
Tracy Porter, Saints Super Bowl hero, returned an interception for a game icing touchdown. Fortunately for Rejuvenated Peyton Manning, this one won him a game. Manning looked great for a guy who may or may not have neck bones, going 19/26 for 253 yards and 2 TDs in his first game action in 20+ months. Pittsburgh looked largely out of sync, getting nothing out of their running game and relying on Big Ben to extend plays with his feet to keep them in the game.
RANTS OF THE WEEK
With 6 minutes to go in the game, the Packers scored a touchdown to pull with 9 points of the 49ers. They elected to kick the PAT, reducing the lead to 8, a move the radio announcers applauded as absolutely the right play because it keeps you in the game, it gives you a chance to win. I’m sorry, but as seemingly smart as the logic might be… it is dead wrong. The logic seems to be that, if you go for 2 and miss, you remain down 9 points and need two scores to win. Getting two scores in 6 minutes is hard. Very hard. BUT, wouldn’t you rather know that you need to get two scores in 6 minutes and play accordingly than put yourselves down 8, score a late TD, miss the 2 point conversion then, and leave two little time on the clock to even try for a second score? I feel like this is one of those end-game scenarios that anyone who has played Madden a thousand times gets right and NFL coaches get wrong. Perhaps I’m missing a psychological component, but strategically, it seems far wiser to know as early as possible how you need to game plan. Assuming you miss the 2 point conversion, wouldn’t you rather miss it with 6 minutes to go than with 10 seconds to go?
The Packers were taken out of the first half of their game against the 49ers by an astonishing 9 penalties. Whether these were legitimate penalties or the product of a high-strung rookie officiating crew is a question I am too much of a partisan to answer fairly.
I’m not at all sure I agree with your assessment of giong for the two-point conversion when down by nine with six minutes left on the clock. A successful two-point conversion places the game within striking distance and the opponent plays accordingly, an unsuccessful one draws the prevent defense. The reaction you want is “we’ll have faith in our defense” so that you can have the ball. In the case of the 49ers, there was every reason to have faith in their defense, which played very well all day.
In the case of the 49ers, there was every reason to have faith in their defense, which played very well all day.
Very well == 5 points.
If that game doesn’t convince the NFL to pay the real officials what they’re asking for, nothing will. (For the record, I suspect the answer is “nothing will”. )
It is hard to say how the game would have been called differently had it been the regular refs. People are going to insist that every bad or blown call is the result of replacement refs, even though folks complain about calls no matter who is reffing. More of a concern for me is the procedural things they mess up or the rules they simply don’t know. In the Arizona game, they failed to properly handle an injury timeout in the last 2 minutes. They had difficulty handling a last-second challenge in the Denver game.
When it comes to officiating, I am less bothered by referees who call the game a different way than I am with inconsistent calls. So, if a ref is going to throw a flag every time someone looks at a QB funny, I don’t like that, but if the standard is applied consistently, I can accept it. But if we’re going to let Tom Brady and Peyton Manning throw their own flags while the league declares open season on Michael Vick, I have a much bigger issue. If the replacement refs were tight-whistled and called 9 penalties on GB, it is likely that GB players were doing SOMETHING to draw the whistles. They were the home team, the favorite, and a national team, so it is unlikely there was conscious or even subconscious bias at play. I could be wrong, as I didn’t see all of the first half, but it is very possible the calls were a result of tight officiating AND an overly aggressive Packers team.
The NFL is stupid as all fuck to let this play out as it has. As I understand it, they’re haggling over $4 million dollars, which is a pittance for a league that measures annual revenues in the billions. Even if the refs are wrong, the league looks dumb and hypocritical to allow Lingerie League refs to call NFL regular season games… plain and simple. Goodel already had his hat handed to him with the Saints players… let’s hope he doesn’t decide to double-down on stubbornness here.
The big one on the 9ers game was the return TD.
“There’s a flag! No, there isn’t a flag! Now they’re huddling! They’re reviewing the play! Meanwhile, here are four angles showing a blatant clip! And the decision is … He didn’t step out of bounds. WTF?”
Right or wrong, that was just embarrassing.
I caught this play on the radio and later saw replays. Here’s what I understood…
The flag was thrown because of a supposed clip on another player. This flag was thrown by a ref 25-30 yards away. When he met with this colleagues, they informed him there was no clip on the given player. I believe the player in question had a number in the 50’s.
There was indeed a clip on number 24. No one saw this and/or saw fit to throw a flag. This was a missed call.
With a few exceptions, replay cannot be used to throw or pick-up flags for judgement calls such as illegal blocks.
As a scoring play, it was automatically reviewed to ensure the TD was good, with the replay officials checking and confirming that he was in bounds.
The entire series was screwy. But, based on what the officials saw and judged in the moment, was handled correctly. The question becomes whether they accurately saw and judged the play, which it appears they did not based on the blatant clip of #24 (or whomever it was).
Seattle’s fourth time out was also… pretty bad. As it turned out, it didn’t affect the outcome.
That is the procedural issue I was referring to. Seattle was never properly charged a timeout because the refs thought it was unnecessary to do so since the clock was stopped anyway. Which was logical but was the wrong application of the rule. That, to me, is inexcusable.
Regarding the extra point/two-point conversion, I won’t wade into the psychological component of it, because I just don’t know. But I think that that is often overstated by announcers. Strategically, the Packers were in a better position to give themselves as many chances as possible to score the points necessary, which meant going for 2 right then and there.
Brady broke his nose, likely ending his modeling career, much to the chagrin of no one.
“That damn Hansel! He’s so hot right now!”
I am trying to think “how do you break your nose in a football helmet?” and failing to come up with anything so I am instead imagining Brady just sitting pleasantly on the sidelines, minding his own business, and then Tebow throwing a bad pass and hitting him in the face.
It makes me smile inside.
I’m guessing his helmet got yanked down hard enough to bring the “brim” into contact with the bridge of his nose. But keep in mind, too, that quarterback facemasks aren’t the cages defensive ends wear. It’s always possible that a defensive player managed to get an appendage in there to deliver the blow.
What actually happened was a linemen sacked Brady and fell across him, with his shin sliding into the open spot for their eyes. Kind of a one-in-a-million play. And it did make me smile, but your version of events was infinitely better. Especially since Tebow was playing several states away.
Ugh. My Bills just looked absolutely terrible. Maybe the answer to the “first QB to be benched” question is “Ryan Fitzpatrick”?
In all honesty, I think Tebow’s contribution to that game is understated – it seemed as if the Bills had spent so much time preparing for him and for the Jets running game that they had no idea what to do when Sanchez dinked and dunked them to death with three step drops. Mario Williams and the d-line never got any kind of pressure on him, but that was at least as much a result of Sanchez getting the ball out quickly as it was a result of poor d-line play. Of course, why the Bills DBs weren’t pressing the receivers more is beyond me.
On the other side of the ball, I’m not sure how much of it is just that Rex Ryan knows how to get in Fitzpatrick’s head by disguising his coverages and screwing up Fitzpatrick’s pre-snap reads (which are the entire basis for the Bills’ offense) and how much of it was just that Fitzpatrick doesn’t have a very good arm. Probably a little of both, to be honest. But it was ugly.
Basically, what I’m saying is that Rex Ryan simply out-coached Chan Gailey and Ryan Fitzpatrick in that game.
It is fair to point out that Tebow made contributions that did not show up in the stat sheet. I caught the early set of games in a bar with 5 different TVs tuned to 5 different games and the Jets game got less attention than most others. My comment was more directed at the hullabaloo surrounding Tebow’s eventual ascension to the starting QB spot by forcing the decision via on field domination, which we did not see.
You can measure anything and prepare for anything… EXCEPT INTANGIBLES.
Re: extra points. Can we just get rid of them already? They’re so anticlimactic and automatic and non-eventful. They get skipped along with the commercials they immediately precede whenever I’m watching a recorded game. How about we just make every point-after a two-point try?
I wouldn’t mind this. I’d say to give the team 7 OR let them try for 2, at which point it is either 6 or 8. I don’t like making going for 2 mandatory, because it puts too much emphasis on those plays. One team can go on 4 scoring drives for TDs and remain tied with a team that only had 3 scoring drives for TDs because of it.
Most coaches would opt for the 7, as few coaches would be willing to give up a free point. Eliminating the point-after and making two-point conversions mandatory makes the try relevant in a way they haven’t been since teams started signing guys specifically to handle kicking duties. It also makes guys like Tim Tebow, Kordell Stewart, and Brad Smith far more valuable. Imagine all those quarterbacks from schools that run the option, or include the option as a feature, getting signed by NFL teams just to run the conversion plays. Why…that’s job creation right there! (no politics)
The math actually says that coaches should go for 2 more, if not every time. But coaches are notoriously conservative and would rather make the wrong conventional call than the right outside-the-box call.
I believe that 2-point-conversions are successful 54% of the time, meaning that going for it each and every time will net more points in the aggregate. Obviously, there are particular situations where it is not advisable to do it, but teams really should do it more often. That number could shift upwards if teams practice it more or downwards if defenses are better prepared to stop it, though my guess is the former factor would be stronger than the latter.
Belichick, pure evil that he is, is one of the outside the box thinkers. And it shows in the results. That and the cheating. And the whole selling-his-soul-to-Satan thing.
How about making the default extra point worth two, and have the kick be from the 35? That’s a 52 yard kick, hardly a gimmie.
Going for two would then be going for three, instead.
I think if you can score from the 35 on one play, that should be worth as much as a field goal.
It’s not that I’m anti-kicker (I play soccer after all), but I much prefer the idea of the points-after being put on the board by “real” players running “real” plays as opposed to a long-snapper, a holder, and a kicker. Sure, moving the kick back to the 35 eliminates the automatic, but in the end it’s still just a kick.
Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls.
+1 million
I’ve been thinking about how to categorize the various teams in the NFL given a handful of assumptions about good vs. evil and another handful assuming a much greyer morality (no good, no evil, just interests) and in all of my calculations, the Patriots are evil. They’re, like, the Lannisters.
Giselle even looks like Cercei.
Gregg Easterbrook got himself into some hot water when he wrote a column about Colts versus Pats with a Good versus Evil meme. He was pretty heavyhanded, though later claimed it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, as much of his writing is. I think part of the reason it struck such a cord is because their is legitimate questions about the Patriots moral center, focused primarily on Coach Belichick
Other than Cersei being, you know, pretty.
“Perhaps I’m missing a psychological component, but strategically, it seems far wiser to know as early as possible how you need to game plan.”
I’ve talked to a few football guys about this, including two fairly successful coaches (high school level, for the record).
The consensus seems to be that very few coaches understand the truth of football. You are not playing your opponent. Your opponent, across all time and all places, will either beat you or not, depending upon how much better his team actually is. This actually generalizes to all team sports that have a playing field and a clock.
You are playing the time and the place. If you can’t manage the time left in the game, you’re toast. Standard Football Wisdom reflects instances of this (“control the time of possession”, “pound out the run”, “run out the clock”) but they’ve traded knowledge of the truth for pithy sayings about tactics. The Clock Is The True Enemy. You don’t have to be better than your opponent. You only have to be ahead when the clock reads 0:00.
Far too often (not just in football, but also in basketball and hockey), coaches coach as if they’re trying to beat the other team, across all times and places.
That’s a long winded way of saying, “You’re correct, for most teams”. There are exceptions, but mostly everybody should do exactly what you suggest instead of the opposite.