1. Tom Brady was just one half of a pass away from throwing his first touchdown of 2008.
In his record breaking 2007 season, Tom Brady threw a touchdown pass every 11 1/2 pass attempts (11.56 if you want to get nit-picky). Brady made it 11 passes into this year before Bernard Pollard made the most noteworthy NFL contribution of his career by lunging at Brady's legs whilst Sammie Morris rode him like a cowboy. The staggering quality of Brady's 2007 performance is mind boggling. Not every 12 or 15 passes or 20 passes, but every 11.56 passes resulted in a touchdown. Unforunately for Brady and Pats' fans, he did not get past attempt 11.00.
The league has been robbed of its best player and fans, nationwide, robbed of their 800 pound gorilla villain in the Patriots. This will not effect the unabashed joy of the other 97% of NFL fans at the Patriots' inevitable floundering, but something has been lost nonetheless. None of this can console Patriots' fans who are at this very moment trying to talk themselves into believing in a QB whose last meaningful start came before he had reached his full adult height. We could ponder where the Patriots go from here, but this is 2008, so let's attack this thing with a 2008 attitude, someone has got to be responsible for this, how do we slice up the blame pie?
A. Bill Belichick: Did the "genius" do something to bring the Patriots to this point? Did week after week of reporting a non-existant shoulder injury finally catch up with Bill? Did reporting no ankle injury for the Superbowl when there clearly was one do it? Maybe this would have been alright if Bill had reported Brady's foot injury on the week one injury report. Maybe Bill had just pushed the Karma gods too far. Maybe Karma said "Hey Bill, you want to sit back every week and chuckle that healthy Brady goes on the injured list when dinged up Brady does not, well here's your payback. Let's see you mask your injury report now." Here's a preview of how it will look for the rest of 2008: "Tom Brady, out, leg".
Certainly this cannot be it. Everyone fudges their injuries reports, right? Maybe there was more bad Karma. Spygate? Those spiffy court side Celtics' Finals seats? One too many snarky responses at press conferences?
No, I still don't think so. If Bill irked the Karma gods, it had to be with fourth quarter TD's in blow out wins last year. I'm the last person who is going to bash any team for beating the ever living snot out of their opponents, and doing it consistently and repeatedly. But there comes a point when you're just being plain cruel. I think Bill reached this point multiple times last year, just ask Joe Gibbs, who is still wondering if calling a fourth or fifth timeout would have stopped the madness and had the refs call a TKO.
Miami, Week 7. Up 42-21 with 10:22 to go, Bill reinserts Brady at QB after putting in Cassel for Brady in the prior series. Cassel, of course, threw the interception for a touchdown that turned a 28 point lead into a 21 point lead. Brady promptly marches down the field in a 4 play 59 yard drive culminated with a 16 yard TD pass. It is imperative to remember that Cleo Lemon was the QB of Dolphins that day. The Dolphins would not have come back in that game if the Patriots were playing 11 Matt Cassel's on both offense and defense. This was unnecessarily rubbing salt in the wound. It's called your running game. Hand it to your RB and if you have to punt, so be it. This game was never in doubt and that TD was Brady's sixth of the game.
Bottom line: The Patriots were punished for whatever sins they committed by the Giants and Tyree's helmet. Belichick blame pie slice: 5%.
B. Blitz pick up. Brady was injured on a blitz in which Sammie Morris did not keep his man off Brady. Morris is at best the 3rd best back the Patriots have in blitz pick up, being bettered by both Maroney with Faulk being the best of the bunch. But wait a minute, why was Morris even in there? His running is stellar, his pass blocking mediocre, just ask Tom's ligaments. Maroney can't play all passing downs and Faulk was suspended for marijuana at a Lil' Wayne concert. Now we're getting somewhere. Not going to blame Morris, he did his best and is not the only guy to partially blow an assignment. Can we really blame Faulk for doing the Pot at the concert and getting busted? This just does not seem right after his productive long time Patriots career and apparent lifetime of good citizenship. NFL, do we really need a 1 game suspension for the Pot bust, at a concert no less? This wasn't Nate Newton and a couple hundred pounds. This is a league with more juice and hormones running through it than a sex change clinic. That one game suspsension seemed like nothing when it hit, but it now appears to have cost the Patriots not only the season, but a year in the prime of the best QB ever. This, of course, is assuming that he comes back 100% in 2009 which was not been the habit for people with this injury, just saying. Faulk or Maroney would have made the block.
Bottom Line: This is not Faulk's or Morris' or even the NFL's fault. Faulk gets the most blame for being a college educated 31 year old man at a Lil' Wayne Concert, however:
Blame Pie Slice: 95% for Lil' Wayne. His music so bad, grown men needs drugs to endure it.
2. The Preseason does matter:
As the years have progressed, more and more star players have played less and less in the preseason. While injuries clearly play a part, it has become clear that some have taken the perspective that preseason is an unnecessary risk. 3 examples:
A. Patriots. Brady does not set foot on field with mystery foot/bone bruise/crack. Patriots come out with mismatched offensive line leaking like a seive, Brady throwing low passes and it doesn't take 1/2 of a quarter before Brady was gone. Perhaps some live preseason game reps with this offensive line might have led to more cohesion. Perhaps Brady would have been a little more in tune to the usual collection of people nipping at his heels with some recent snaps under his belt. Perhaps preseason does matter.
B. Colts. Manning takes off whole preseason (granted this was mostly injury related) and the Colts are a disaster and get spanked by the Kyle Orton led Bears. Did I really just type that? Maybe it does matter.
C. Browns. Derek Anderson whose moniker of D.A. I am a strong proponent of, goes down with a concussion early in preseason and Braylon Edwards barely practices at all prior to week one. D.A. completes 11 total passes with Braylon hauling in 14 receiving yards in a nightmarish week one performance. Maybe's there something to this preseason thing. Not results, or points, but perhaps some reps with the people that are going to take you there, has some value.
On a wholly unrelated point, can someone please tell Romeo that down 28-7 with 10 minutes to go, is not the time to go for a field goal. Wow. Has anyone ever needed a game/clock management specialist more than poor Romeo. He could pick one at random from the dawg pound and do better than poor Romeo does.
3. Jim Zorn owes a lot of people a refund:
There's a lot to harp on with Jim Zorn here. I am going to keep it short and sweet. Remember here that Jim Zorn, an offensive specialist, did not change the running offense of the Redskins one iota. He's not running the defense either. He is in charge of the infamous "West Coast" passing game. A friend suggested that Zorny had positioned his troops a little too far West, as in running in sand or hip deep in the ocean based on the offensive performance on opening night, but that's a weak, cheap shot.
He only changed half the offense. He had the longest training camp since the Romans were gearing up for a shot at world-wide domination. And he could not find time to install a 2 minute offense. When does he think he will have time to do that in the future? When he is game planning the next week's opponent? Maybe he will do it during the bye week. That's week 5, by the way, Browns fans.
This is embarrassing and infuriating for Redskins fans. Inexcusable. As if Dan Snyder has not already compiled a short list of replacement candidates. Zorny should refund Snyder 1/16 of this years salary for each and every game the Redskins play without a no-huddle offesnse. It's like playing boxing with one arm tied behind your back. Without a no huddle offense, are they even trying? Are they even competing? You should be ashamed of yourself, Zorny.
4. Madden is offically completely senile:
This one is just sad. After a shocking revitalization last year, a more improbable comeback than John Travolta graduating from talking baby flicks to Hollywood heavyweight in the 90's, Madden is back in the toilet again. You can admit it, it had become laborious and even tense to listen to Madden in recent years. But last year he pulled it off and was at 75% of the old Madden. Now, all of that seems gone.
I honestly do not even think he can see the field compeltely anymore. He continued to rant and rave like a lunatic about that 1st quarter Manning to Plax pass. What a pass, what play, Eli Manning's amazing... He never mentioned the spectacular juggling catch that Plax made while being full body frisked by his defender. NBC kept running the replay of the this amazing catch and Madden ranted about the throw. The throw that was an interception waiting to happen if not for a spectacular receiver. The proper analysis on that play was to marvel at the quality of Plax and the confidence that Manning has in him to throw a 50/50 ball. It was painful to watch. NBC seemed to be coaxing him to mention the catch by replaying it in more and more detail, but this was a futile effort.
Overall performance was painful and I don't expect it to get much better. Listening to him with Al in the booth is like being at Thanksgiving dinner with that crazy relative just hoping against hope they don't say something massively innapropriate or embarassing. Combine this with NBC's inferior High Definition broadcast and Sunday Night Football is amateur night.
5. The hot seat is already burning for some:
-Jim Zorn. I'm sorry to put you on this list one game into your head coaching career, but two factors but you right in with the rest of these worried souls. 1. Not only did your team look awful, your QB unprepared, but when you go into a game without a no-huddle offense, are you even competing on an even field? 2. Your owner has the patience of an ADHD riddled 6 y/o after six red bulls.
-Herm Edwards. He never seems to be on anybody's hot seat and it is nothing but a mystery to me. This is the man who inherited Parcells' 2000 Jets that were one half away from the Superbowl and promptly ran them into the groung. After two years of marginal play0ff appearances with Parcells' team at 19-13 and two playoff losses to the Raiders, Herm finished his last three years at 20-28 culminating with a 4-12 season. The Chiefs then gave up a 4th round draft pick for Herm (not Randy Moss, mind you) who has quickly racked up a 13-20 record with a team that seems hands down to be by far the worst in the NFL. Add in the lack of discipline of his teams, poor clock managemt, bad play calls and generally awful game management, and you have Herm "we play to win the game" Edwards in a nutshell. Nice play calls at the end of the NE game, Herm, just keep throwing that same pass, they won't expect it again. And nice job giving your starting QB job to Brodie Croyle. Herm cannot survive past this year, I see no more than 3 wins.
This is the same coach who ran Larry Johnson into the ground a few years ago from which he has never recovered and the same man that kept running the ball against the Colts in the playoffs a few years back even though they had 9 (not 8) but 9 men in the box.
-Scott Linehan. 11-22 in his 2 plus years. If your team gets worse by leaps and bounds during your tenure, start updating your resume. From 8-8 in year one, to 3-13 in year two, to a team that is going to battle Kansas City for worst team in the league honors. They're so bad they might drive the Rams all the way back to LA. I'm setting the over/under for NFL wins by the state of Missouri at 7 and betting heavily on the under.
-Matt Millen. "Teflon Matt". I don't know how he does it. He might be the single most unsuccessful executive in the history of organized sports. Matt's Lions are 31-82 under his tenure, and he continues to draw a salary. 31-82. Just last year, the Patriots won almost 60% as many games as Millen's Lions have in 7+ years. He must have incriminating photos of the incriminating photos to still be employed. Staggering.
Quick Hits:
-Jamarcus Russell's agent owes him a big apology and compensation for what might turn into a Ryan Leaf career. September 12th. That is when Russell ended his holdout and signed with the Raiders last year. No training camp, no playbook study, no reps. 2007 was a lost year and Russell now starts 2008 as a 2nd year rookie with expectations. This is no unfair to poor Russell. You get these kids coming out of the college and they put their faith in some greedy self serving agent. Oh he got his money, $31m guaranteed, but his career might never take off after such a sputtering start. It's hard enough to be a Raider, but to stack all these additional difficulties in your way is ludicrous. And this is what his paid representative convinced him to do. Appalling.
-Aaron Rodgers performance may be the most overrated single performance by a QB ever. At home on Monday Night, against a team with a QB who might not be able to hit the broad side of a barn from 40 yards away, the Packers eeked out a victory as they hoped the Vikings would not march down the field for a go ahead touchdown down 24-19. Rodgers complied under 180 yards passing with a single touchdown. It's not that he was bad. He was fine, he was adequate. But we must remember who he did this against, the Vikings pass defense. Last year the Vikings were dead last in pass defense, giving up an average of more than 260 passing yards per game last year. There was only one other team that gave up 250 yards. The Vikings pass defense is horrendous, utterly horrendous. But that hasn't stopped everyone from saying that Rodgers has now successfully replaced Favre. He had a 178 passing yard, one touchdown game against a horrendous passing unit.
-Pathetic Victories. The Patriots and Jets take aim at one another in a battle of the most over-hyped victories of week one. Both the Patriots and Jets survived last second goal line stands that would have tied or beaten them against the Chiefs and Dolphins respectively. The Dolphins and Chiefs combined to win 5 games last year and are both look to be awful again this year. The supposed class of the AFC East eeked out these two victories by the skin of their teeth and their fan bases are behaving very oddly. Jets fans are celebrating like they have already won the division and Patriots fans have convinced themselves that 11-12 wins are still possible without the franchise.
Week 2 shocker: Raiders beat Chiefs at KC. Chiefs really are that bad. Herm showing more of his brilliance now appears to be leaning towards QB by committee. That always works well.
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