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04 Dec 2006
Audibles at the Line: Week 13
Each Sunday, the FO staff sends around e-mails to each other, both during and after the games. It lets us share ideas for columns and comments, and get an idea of how teams that we can’t watch are playing. Be aware that the material in this roundtable might seem a bit disjointed and un-edited. It also might still show up later in the week in other columns, or in comments in PFP 2007. Games are chosen based on our own personal viewing preferences, and are going to reflect the teams we support and the cities where we live.
Atlanta Falcons 24 at Washington Redskins 14
Or: How Ryan Wilson Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Michael Vick
Ryan Wilson: On Atlanta's first drive, 13 minutes to go in the first quarter: One Vick pass, one Crumpler drop. I sense a theme for the day.
Washington's first drive: nine plays, 69 yards, all runs except for one really nice throw from Jason Campbell to Brandon Lloyd. DeAngelo Hall was in coverage, and every time I see him he's either getting beat (Hines Ward outrunning him to the end zone -- with one shoe -- comes to mind) or playing dirty. How is this guy not the most overrated player in the league?
Michael David Smith: Ladell Betts ran behind great blocking from left tackle Chris Samuels and fullback Mike Sellers for the game's first touchdown. Mike Pucillo, a reserve lineman playing tight end for Washington, had a good blocking day. There's a lot to like about the Redskins offense, even though it doesn't add up to a good team.
Ryan Wilson: Seven minutes to go in the first quarter: two Vick passes, two Crumpler drops.
The Falcons just got stuffed on a fourth-and-inches at midfield. Vick ran a sneak and actually lost inches. If the rest of the season plays out like the previous four weeks, I'm guessing Mora's gone, along with Knapp, and it'll be interesting to see what happens to Vick.
Meanwhile, on Washington's last drive, they ran the ball three times and threw it once. It just happened to be a 40-plus yard TD pass -- into double coverage -- from Campbell to Moss.
Props where props are due: On third-and-5, Vick play-actions and hits Crumpler in stride for a 20-plus yard gain. Great throw, great catch.
After trailing 14-0, the Falcons are now leading 17-14. The last TD resulted from Falcons DL Chauncey Davis intercepting a Campbell pass (Campbell's arm was hit as he was throwing) and returning it to the Atlanta 25 or so. Two plays later, Vick gets time and throws a laser to Michael Jenkins, who inexplicably doesn't drop it. By the way, the best thing about the Davis pick was that Grady Jackson was right next to him when he made the play and proceed to take two steps before seemingly saying, "Look, you know I'm not going to run downfield and block, and I know I'm not going to run downfield and block, so let's stop kidding ourselves right now." Jackson stopped running.
The Falcons' offense sucks and it has nothing to do with Vick. Ashley Lelie dropped a would-be first-down pass on second-and-15, and on the next play Vick scrambles for 17 yards, but it's called back because LT Wayne Gandy -- the human holding penalty -- gets his second flag of the game.
After a short scramble, Vick gets up slow, grabs his hammy and ... in comes Matt Schaub. Tim Ryan is working the game and initially said "Uh-oh" when Vick stayed down. My first thought was, "Well, Atlanta fans may get exactly what they've asked for." Of course, Schaub handed off, Dunn gained nine yards and Vick returned. So basically, disaster averted.
Mike Tanier: Vick had a relatively good game, but don't get too excited by the Falcons. Their run defense is terrible, and Allen Rossum is currently starting in the secondary. They just took advantage of a bad team with a novice QB this week.
Indianapolis Colts 17 at Tennessee Titans 20
Michael David Smith: Terrible drop by Ben Utecht of a pass right in his hands on third-and-7 to stop the Colts' first drive. Titans' first drive they start by running right at the heart of the Colts' D. Not a good start for Indy.
Russell Levine: The guy who writes "uni watch" on ESPN.com, Paul Lukas, better prepare for an email onslaught. Tennessee has broken out some light-blue pants to match the jerseys. I didn't think you could get much worse than the Seahawks' blueberry bodysuits with the neon-green accents, but these Titans' duds pull it off.
Doug Farrar: Drop by Marvin Harrison, which led to a Tennessee interception. Vince Young gave the ball back on the very next play. I think the Titans have a very good chance of pulling off the upset, though I would rather that they never win a game with the light blue unicolor unis. Some decisions just shouldn't be rewarded.
Russell Levine: More on uniforms -- this is the first time I've seen the refs in their cold-weather long black sweatpants. Awful. And speaking of those, how are the refs in Green Bay able to manage in their standard togs while those in Buffalo have gone to the sweats?
Maybe it's this whole BCS thing; I'm having a hard time concentrating on actual football today.
Aaron Schatz: You want to talk about bad uniforms? The Giants' red jerseys are bad enough, but they are made 100 times worse by those huge red socks. Yikes.
Mike Tanier: The Titans look like Care Bears. The Saints (all black with gold) look like Mystic Force Power Rangers. The Bills look great. The Giants' socks should have been hung by the chimney with care.
Doug Farrar: Dierdorf now criticizing Harrison for "dropping" a ball when the play was a catch and a tackle in which the ground caused Harrison to lose the ball. He leads the NFL in making me wonder which game he's watching when we're actually watching the same game.
Michael David Smith: Doug, I think you're being a little hard on Dierdorf there. I mean, the ball was in Harrison's hands and was then on the ground and ruled incomplete. Yeah, he took a hard hit on the play, but I think Dierdorf was correct to criticize him.
Doug Farrar: The ball shifted in his hands when the defender hit him, so I can see that. But I wouldn't call that a typical drop by any means -- he didn't actually "lose" the ball until he hit the ground. I'm guess I'm more prone to agree with criticism of a receiver when a drop is unassisted by a defender.
What I really didn't understand was the "inexcusable" comment -- sometimes a play is half the receiver and half the defender. That looked to be the case to me.
Michael David Smith: That I agree with, and I think Dierdorf was just adding to his previous comments about Harrison's first drop -- which really was inexcusable, although he made up for it with the TD.
I continue to have no clue what constitutes pass interference. Why wasn't Bob Sanders called for drilling Brandon Jones? Sure looked to me like the contact started before Jones touched the ball.
Doug Farrar: That's a whole lotta broken/whiffed tackles on Tennessee running backs. Indy's ranking of 29th in DVOA against the run becomes much easier to explain if this is a typical issue.
Mike Tanier: The Titans are a team that breaks a lot of tackles. Travis Henry has a lot of holes in his game, but the dude was always tough to tackle. Vince Young is tough to tackle. Teams are really going to stress wrapping up against these guys.
Michael David Smith: Tennessee's David Thornton had a big game against his former team. They miss him a lot.
Indianapolis had two straight false starts to stall its first drive. I just think too many Colts linemen make too many dumb mistakes, whether it's jumping or missing a blitzing linebacker.
Tennessee safety Chris Hope allowed Marvin Harrison to get all alone behind the secondary on his long touchdown catch. Pac-Man also struggled with Harrison.
Vince Young had a brilliant run to pick up a first down on third-and-4.
Aaron Schatz: Hey, DVOA knows something, Part I. Honestly, most of the story of this game is that the Colts CAN NOT STOP THE RUN. By the way, how strange is it that for eight years nobody hits a field goal over 58 yards and then two of them get hit in one season? Note: grouping is not a sign that a pattern has emerged from randomness.
I don't know why the Colts decided to return the Bironas squib kick at the end of the game, with laterals and all that. Wouldn't it make more sense to just pounce on it and give Manning and Harrison/Wayne a chance at a Hail Mary or something?
Ned Macey: Good gamesmanship by Fisher before the game-winner. The Titans initially sent Bironas out to kick, but he changed his mind and sent out the punter because the Colts had one timeout left. Don't want the Colts to get the ball at midfield with one timeout to set up Vinatieri. When the punt squad comes out, the Colts panic and call a timeout. After the timeout, here comes Bironas for the game-winner.
And the 60-yarder was ridiculous, but Dierdorf insisted there was a great deal of wind behind it, so I think it was less ridiculous than Tampa Bay's. Also, this game was tied, so the Colts only had a 50 percent or so chance of winning anyway.
This game was really lost at the end of the first half. Up 14-3, the Colts are in their two-minute when Manning gets picked off on a great play by Bulluck. Young drives down for the TD, and the entire complexion of the game is changed.
Other big play was an offensive pass interference on Ben Utecht on the Colts' last drive that pushed them from the 2-yard line back to the 12. Utecht somehow thought he could continue to sell the play action by blocking his defender to the back of the end zone before breaking out for the catch.
I wasn't watching enough Titans before last week to see Young on a regular basis, but watching this game, it is hard to imagine how he had a negative DVOA running the ball. Guy was elusive as hell and impossible to bring down.
Also, Harrison obviously had a huge game, but his two big plays came when Pac-Man at least thought the safety was covering. Those two plays accounted for 128 yards.
Funny how a team with a great record that was winning with lots of close escapes isn't really as good as most people thought (and no, I'm not bitter about the BCS).
Arizona Cardinals 34 at St. Louis Rams 20
Doug Farrar: On Arizona's opening TD drive against the Rams, Edgerrin James rushed five times for 32 yards, which is one more carry than he had against the Vikings last week. The Cards had six total rushing attempts in that game, and they ran the ball eight times on their opening drive. Apparently, Dennis Green is smart enough to try and exploit a horrible St. Louis run defense after balking at running against Minnesota's great run D at all. If Edge doesn't get 100 yards this week, he should petition the league to have his contract revoked.
The Rams oblige...
Well, Edgerrin James finally got his first 100-yard game as a Cardinal. Of course, Arizona had three rushing touchdowns and all three were scored by Marcel Shipp. If it ain't one thing...
Ned Macey: Vintage Edgerrin James. 120+ yards with no run longer than 10 yards. The Arizona offensive line finally found a defense they were equal to. Speaking of DVOA being right, the preseason projections more or less nailed the Rams. The offense is maybe a little better than we thought, at least pre-Pace injury, but this is a bad team.
Also, Marc Bulger is a future first-ballot FFHOF member. Nice garbage time touchdown today to put together a solid outing. Baldinger said that Bulger has never played a game where he completed less than 50 percent of his passes.
Nice to hear Pat Summerall's voice, but he really shouldn't be announcing anymore.
Detroit Lions 21 at New England Patriots 28
Michael David Smith: This is what it is to be a Lions fan: They're up 7-3 and have first-and-goal inside the 5. Do they score? Nope. Ball squirts out of Kevin Jones' hand, Patriots pounce on it.
Bill Moore: This game was too painful even though the Pats won. Just an ugly game all around. Patriots looked at be asleep during this game. Stupid penalties, a safety against, fumbles, Brady threw a terrible interception, etc. The game came down to who made the last mistake. It was, not surprisingly, the Lions.
With all the fist round wide receivers this team has, who saw significant action in the slot? Josh McCown.
Chad Scott 2006 = Duane Starks 2005
Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel has had ups and downs in the last two seasons. Right now he is up. However, he cost the defense an interception. Artrell Hawkins had an INT teed up, only to have it tipped away by Samuel. Speaking of Hawkins, he has performed well in Rodney Harrison's absence. He has been the Patriots' patchwork filler for the last two years. I'm surprised he hasn't landed in more of a regular role elsewhere.
Dry Bly (who had one interception today) has given Detroit this season excellent coverage against #1 WRs. They are sixth. However they are terrible against everyone else. The irony is that the Patriots really have no #1 WR. By default it's Reche Caldwell, who racked up 112 yards today, which is a first for a Patriots receiver this year. Other than Caldwell (eight), all other wide receivers had four catches combined.
Laurence Maroney went out early in this game with the "wind knocked out of him." He never returned. That has to be a first. Maroney’s absence wasn't noticed by the F team announcers until sometime in the fourth quarter.
Although Brady was only sacked twice, the Detroit defensive line rushed and hit him often, plus forced a fumble that resulted in a safety.
Kevin Jones (are we allowed to mention his name?) actually played relatively well today. However, with roughly 140 combined yards he still remains more of a threat coming out of the backfield as a receiver than as a line-pounder.
Kitna's final decision to heave it up on third down under pressure inside two minutes was amongst the dumbest I've seen all year.
Aaron Schatz: The pain. Oh, the pain. Totally embarrassing. Patriots were lucky to win. It was hard to figure out what the heck went wrong. They missed Maroney, certainly -- Patrick Pass was getting actual carries in his first week back from PUP and, of course, fumbled. Pass was holding the ball away from his body; I keep seeing players who aren't holding the ball close enough to their bodies. The offensive line is not as good as past years, particularly Matt Light, who just got brutalized a couple of times.
The defense played a lot of zone and they were constantly giving up passes to guys open underneath, Corey Bradford, Josh McCown (WTF???), and especially Mike Furrey. This is the third straight year, I think, where the Pats have had terrible DVOA vs. #2 receivers, and holy mackerel did you see that today. Every Roy Williams catch seemed to be a very skillful grab while Williams was being covered closely. But everybody else was going nuts with seams and slants. Contrary to popular belief, DVOA vs. receivers is not about specific cornerbacks. DVOA vs. receivers is about coverage patterns, and the Patriots' coverage pattern is to leave the #2 receiver wide open all the damn time.
The Lions also seemed to do very well with draws because the Pats were always going after Kitna with the pass rush. That also hurt the Patriots later in the game when they kept not quite getting to Kitna and having the Lions convert on absurd down-and-distances. They converted a third-and-22 AND somehow got out of a first-and-30. Like I said, embarrassing.
From the Department of I Can't Tell What the Hell is Pass Interference: There was a play in this game where Artell Hawkins ran into Roy Williams from the back. I don't think he was even looking at the ball. So somehow, the play where Bernard Berrian is pushing on Hawkins' arm is PI on Hawkins, but a play where Hawkins is practically sitting on top of Roy Williams is not PI on Hawkins?
Fully agree with Bill on Chad Scott. On one play Furrey came in on a short curl, curling toward the sideline, and Scott actually started fading toward the inside. No idea what he thought he was seeing.
But this is why every game counts for DVOA. In the NFL, there are no Temples. On a given day (or Monday night, earlier this year) one of the league's worst teams can easily give a close games to one of the best teams.
I have no idea what is going on with Laurence Maroney, but I was very worried about Mike Vrabel -- it looked like he broke an ankle or something, and we had no audio in the bar. Anyway, turns out it had nothing to do with his ankle, even though he did land on it weird. According to Mike Reiss, he had a guy knee him in the back of the head. So he's going to be fine, which is good, because the Patriots have no linebackers left and were on the verge of becoming the 2005 Giants with a better quarterback.
Bill Moore: You had no sound for the game? You lucky, lucky bastard.
The knee to the head was about the only things J.C. Pearson (or whatever his name is) and the other guy covered well all day. Unfortunately, at the same time they were covering Vrabel's head, I was questioning why the play wasn't being reviewed. The ball lay on the ground post knee-head connection. The fact that it WAS being reviewed came as an after thought when the review was over.
Patrick Laverty: J.C. Pearson: "Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney are very similar type backs." Umm, ok, you seen Maroney run this year? AND Dillon? And how does Matt Vasgersian still have a job? Does he have photos on Rupert Murdoch or something?
Doug Farrar: The Seahawks had that particular crew two games in a row earlier this season. Bad, bad stuff. Not Bill Maas bad, but pretty close.
Bill Moore: Detroit pulled a Chris Webber. With NE on the 3 (or so), they called a timeout they didn't have. The refs blew the whistle, stopped the game, and announced that in fact, "There is no timeout since Detroit has none remaining." D'er. How isn't that stopping time!? There was no penalty on the play. Anyone know the real rule there?
Michael David Smith: The rule is that if a player calls timeout and his team doesn't have a timeout, the official is just supposed to ignore it and let everything keep going. The fact that the officials screwed that one up is no surprise, seeing as it was Jeff Triplette's crew calling the game, and he's the worst ref in the league by a huge margin.
Minnesota Vikings 13 at Chicago Bears 23
Doug Farrar: Wow. In the first half, Rex Grossman completed 3-of-9 passes for 22 yards and two picks. That, my friends, is a quarterback rating of 2.8.
Halfway through the third quarter, Grossman has three more incompletions and another pick. His rating is now the Big Blutarsky. Take it, Dean Wormer: "Zero-point-ZERO." Right now, I'm picturing Grossman with a pencil in each nostril.
This game was a good validation of several FO numbers. The Bears rank first in the NFL in total defense, pass defense and special teams DVOA. They beat the Vikings, 23-13, despite being outgained 348-107, allowing 21 first downs to their own six, losing the time of possession battle by almost 20 minutes, and Grossman's 1.3 quarterback rating, because of nine defensive points (interception return and safety) and Devin Hester's punt return for a touchdown.
Michael David Smith: Chicago defensive tackle Tommie Harris got hurt and left the game. Haven't heard any more, but that would be a huge loss.
San Francisco 49ers 10 at New Orleans Saints 34
Mike Tanier: A very convincing win overall. Several Saints players appear to be peaking at the right time, starting with Reggie Bush. I won't say any more about Bush because you will be sick of hearing about this game by mid-day Monday, but the man is good.
Mike McKenzie is also getting hot at just the right time. Teams are going to adapt by picking on Fred Thomas. McKenzie had two interceptions today and one was a thing of beauty.
Joe Horn went into the tunnel midway through this game and I didn't see much of him afterwards, so the Saints were using Devery Henderson and Copper guy at wide receiver for much of the game. Luckily, their offense didn't become one-dimensional because the running back tandem gives them so many options and looks. I still don't think they have the defensive talent to compete in the playoffs, but their offense keeps impressing me.
Aaron Schatz: I'm not sure what changed with the Saints, but Thomas did so well in the early charting data, and since he came back from an injury he has been awful. Just terrible today, and terrible against the Bengals two weeks ago.
New York Jets 38 at Green Bay Packers 10
Mike Tanier: Chad Pennington had a great first half, floating passes into every hole in the Packers zone defense, and there were plenty of holes in zones. The Packers have gotten about as far as they can with all of those youngsters playing linebacker. Opponents are going to throw right over their heads.
The Jets defense brought tons of pressure from the outside against the Packers, and they had Favre on the run for much of the first half. Again, I think the Packers have gotten all they can out of the rookies on the offensive line. Opponents will stunt and blitz from the outside until these guys prove they can make adjustments.
Aaron Schatz: I still believe that DVOA was correct about the Jets winning games close and not playing that well over the first half of the season, but man, Mangini has them playing well now. I would like to apologize for saying something a couple weeks ago about this team still not being for real. This was an ass-whipping.
Man, the Jets like to run some wacky offensive stuff. Are we really sure that Brian Schottenheimer is really the son of Marty Schottenheimer, and not the illegitimate son of Houston Nutt?
Nick Mangold looked good when I was watching this game, had a nice pull on a screen; it is clear that he's getting it quicker than Brick. That doesn't mean he will be the better player long-term. But he is playing very well for a rookie center.
(Later, at night...)
Michael David Smith: I'm watching the Jets-Packers tape for EPC during Broncos-Seahawks commercials. Nantz and Simms are driving me insane. All they talk about is Favre. It's 24-0 Jets right now, and they've told us absolutely nothing about any player on the Jets. All they talk about is Favre. I'm not kidding, it's just literally nothing at all except Favre.
Doug Farrar: And this surprises you because...
Kansas City Chiefs 28 at Cleveland Browns 31
Aaron Schatz: Hey, DVOA knows something, Part II. It just apparently took an extra week for me to look prescient. Oh, and a quarterback injury. We had no idea in the bar whether Frye was injured or pulled, but I don't even know if it matters. I expect that there will be a full-on QB controversy now in Cleveland.
We only watched the last couple minutes of this in the bar, so I am curious to hear from somebody what went wrong with the KC defense that had played so well this year. In those few minutes, Anderson looked good. He made a heads-up shovel pass, some good scrambles, nice pass to Kellen Winslow. However, like Patrick Pass and 100 other guys, he needs to learn to HOLD THE DAMN BALL CLOSE TO HIS BODY WHILE HE RUNS WITH IT. Unlike the Patriots, the Browns got lucky and Anderson did not fumble.
Jacksonville Jaguars 24 at Miami Dolphins 10
Ned Macey: Jacksonville was an underdog; are we at all surprised that they dominated? I only watched a bit of this, but based on what I saw and the stats say, Garrard had an excellent game. The Miami defense had been dominating opposition, but Garrard averaged over 10 yards per attempt.
The Jones-Drew TD run was an amazing play. At least five Dolphins seemingly could have brought him down. What a potentially amazing group of rookie running backs we have this year.
Aaron Schatz: I'm not surprised that the Jaguars dominated. I would not have been surprised if the Jaguars had been blown out of the water. I would not be surprised if the Jaguars went the rest of the year without winning a game, and I would not be surprised if the Jaguars swept the rest of the season. I would not be surprised if Matt Jones had 100 yards every game for the rest of the season and I would not be surprised if Matt Jones didn't catch another touchdown for the rest of the year. I would not be surprised if the Jaguars released Josh Scobee and traded for Josh Scobey from Seattle and had him kicking the field goals. I would not be surprised if the Jaguars came out next week in purple polka-dot uniforms and I would not be surprised if they all took the field in matching three-piece suits. I would not be surprised if the Jaguars all turned out to be green space aliens. Nothing about the Jaguars makes any sense anyway so why be surprised?
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3 at Pittsburgh Steelers 20
Ryan Wilson: The Steelers are way down the depth chart at WR. For example, on the last play Roethlisberger threw a pass to Sean Morey and it was broken up by ... Phillip Buchanon. This is sad on so many levels.
Doug Farrar: As your e-mail came through, Plaxico Burress got penalized for a moronic late hit on Keith Davis about five yards away from the play. Could be worse for the Steelers -- you could still have him.
Houston Texans 23 at Oakland Raiders 14
Michael David Smith: Another guy to like on the Raiders' D: Stanford Routt is really, really fast.
Doug Farrar: This might be the Stat of the Day: In the first half, David Carr threw for 32 yards against the Raiders. He was sacked four times for minus-30 yards, so he had a net gain of two yards. In the second half, he didn't gain ONE single passing yard (he was the only QB for Houston!) and was sacked again, which gave a final net passing yardage of minus-5. Of course, the Texans won the game. The second half consisted of several Carr incompletions, three Kris Brown field goals, and about 400 straight runs by Ron Dayne.
Tim Gerheim: OK, I don't think you emphasized that enough, Doug. The Texans had NEGATIVE NET PASSING YARDS! If they had simply handed the ball off on every play all game, they would have gained more yards passing than they did in the game!
I didn't watch the game, because I'm studying for finals (since I didn't learn anything all semester partly on account of watching so much football), but my dad uncharacteristically emailed me about the game, because the spirit so moved him:
"I presume that CBS was kind and generous to you in Austin and refrained from showing the Texans-Raiders game this afternoon. [They were, and did. CBS has decided, probably correctly, that Austin would rather see Vince Young and the Titans.] We have finally seen a team that is demonstrably worse than Houston. Not that Houston covered themselves with any glory as a consequence!
Although the Texans scored 23 points, it was via three field goals (one missed also) and a special teams and defense score. The offense managed to rack up a staggering 125 yards net gain FOR THE WHOLE GAME -- clearly staggering. The stars of the game were Ron Dayne (!!!!) and Kris Brown (!!!!) and Jerome Mathis (long return to set up a three-yard TD).
Neither team showed the least bit of spark or enthusiasm, and there was a lot of head-shaking and solemn looks on both sides."
Bill Barnwell: I was watching this game out of the corner of my eye at the bar with Ian while, for some god-forsaken reason, I focused on the Giants game. Every time I looked over, someone was missing a field goal, fumbling, getting sacked, or generally doing something awful.
I realized we really need to come up with a metric that tries to find the worst-played games in the last ten years, although I guess we could just do the 10 worst combined DVOA performances.
Dallas Cowboys 23 at New York Giants 20
Aaron Schatz: We may have reached the point where you should never let Eli Manning throw the ball in the red zone. Man, has he made some bad decisions, trying to fit a ball in where there was no space, and he's gotten lucky with no interceptions.
Doug Farrar: I have never seen any quarterback get more praise for throwing easy underneath stuff against a deep zone that Eli Manning. It's as if he invented the idea, and nobody else has ever done it.
Aaron Schatz: To say something nice about the Giants, that LT (Whitfield) who replaced Petitgout and has been awful has instead been pretty good in this game.
Seattle Seahawks 23 at Denver Broncos 20
Aaron Schatz: At what point in discussing the problems of the Denver offense will somebody finally say the words "Matt Lepsis"?
Doug Farrar: The drops from Seattle's receivers are infuriating, but I really wish announcers would note a couple things when talking about them:
1. The Seahawks cut their drops in half last season. It was a huge problem in 2004, far less so in 2005, and intermittently in 2006.
2. Some of the drops had to do with timing issues between Seneca Wallace and the receivers when Hasselbeck was out. This was especially true of Wallace and Deion Branch. Those two always seemed half a tic off from each other.
It just annoys me because it shows that someone didn't do their homework. You wouldn't find Michaels and Madden saying that Brett Favre has a longstanding problem with interceptions because he threw 29 in 2005, would you now?
Tim Gerheim: Doug, I think the guys were pretty reasonable in their criticism of Seattle's drops. They said something to the effect of, "The Seahawks have had a lot of trouble with drops, particularly a couple years ago." It's not exacting detail, but I think it covers the point. Also, maybe you were being sarcastic but ... Michaels and Madden did at one point comment, following Jay Cutler's Aaron Brooks-class bonehead interception, that Favre has a longstanding problem with interceptions. Michaels was defending Cutler's decision-making based on his being a rookie, and Madden said there's something in his psychology that makes him throw that interception, commenting that Brett Favre had a problem with those when he was a rookie, and still has a problem with them.
When that interception went up, I about died laughing, and then I text-messaged my beleagured Broncos fan friend, "Why did they put Plummer in for one play?" He has not replied, and I fear lest I will be struck when I see him tomorrow.
Aaron Schatz: Good Madden: Pointing out that the Broncos are playing a lot of downs with three cornerbacks and only one safety. It makes sense because the Seahawks are playing a lot of three-wide sets, and the Broncos trust their third corner (Foxworth) more than their second safety (Cox) because the usual second safety (Brandon) is injured.
Bad Madden: "Champ Bailey is as big in the running game as he is in the passing game." Uh, no. He's fine against the run, but there's not really a comparison.
Doug Farrar: If I were Mike Holmgren, I'd have Maurice Morris out there quite a bit more for two reasons -- first, he's far quicker to the line than Alexander, who likes to wait for things to develop. Denver's defense is too quick for that to work consistently. Second, Denver ranks second in the NFL against #1 receivers, ninth against all other receivers, 13th against tight ends (which would be nice if Jerramy Stevens was consistent at all) and 31st against running backs. Morris is a far better receiver than Alexander. Seattle doesn't throw to the backs that often for a supposedly boilerplate West Coast Offense team.
Aaron Schatz: Bootlegs, scrambles, incomplete passes ... golly, Denver sure looks different tonight.
Doug Farrar: Watch out for rookie guard Rob Sims if he rotates in -- Seattle's running game seemed stronger when he spelled Floyd Womack. Fourth-round rookie from Ohio State. Lots of potential. He could be a starter soon.
I swear, they should just put it right on the ball: THIS IS AN OFFICIAL NFL FOOTBALL. DO NOT THROW THIS ANYWHERE NEAR CHAMP BAILEY.
Ned Macey: This is crap. The Broncos should be going to 8-4 and in control of their playoff destiny, but their large-egoed coach decided a rookie was a better solution. What a joke. I may be the world's largest anti-rookie-QB guy (because they generally are terrible and it doesn't seem to help their long-term development), but the "success" of Young and Leinart had me softening a bit. Then you watch this. Professional football is not practice or preseason. Cutler is not ready to be playing here. They are losing a game despite an excellent defensive performance and a dominating running game.
I can't imagine them winning next weekend in San Diego. If they don't come back here, they'll likely be 7-6 and have no confidence in either quarterback. Plummer was undermined from Day One of the Cutler Era. Shanahan should have kept his mouth shut, played Plummer this year, and cut him in the off-season.
Now, watch Cutler lead a game-winning drive ... or not, as there is the interception.
Aaron Schatz: No, he did lead the game-tying drive. He led it by throwing, what, a five-yard pass to Brandon Marshall, and then nobody on Seattle can tackle. And Michaels and Madden are taking this little five-yard pass followed by horrible defensive play and they are acting like Jay Cutler just invented a cure for cancer or something. Brandon Marshall may be worthy of that praise, but not Cutler. Come on already.
Doug Farrar: The Seahawks really deserved that Marshall touchdown against them. They've been tackling horribly all year, and it had to catch up to them at some point.
(Game ends.)
Doug Farrar: Okay, Seahawks fans -- your team is 8-4 and your kicker is your MVP. You'll take it, right?
Bits 'n' Pieces
Mike Tanier: So I have seen the Madden 07 commercial a million times where Dallas Clark catches a pass and is housed by two Eagles defenders. Has anyone else noticed this? Neither defender is controlled by a player. The dude playing defense is controlling Rod Hood, who runs past Clark and dives onto the ground just before Brian Dawkins grabs Clark and spins him into Darren Howard. It's weird that Clark actually got hurt against the Eagles in real life, and it was strange to see Hood diving at nothing at the commercial.
Man, what a long season.
Aaron Schatz: This may be the first time we ever have unanimous voting for one of the FO awards. Is anybody not going to vote for "This is Our Country" for "Worst Ad"?
Later This Week
Any Given Sunday: Undecided. Colts-Titans, but we did that earlier this year, so it might be Chiefs-Browns.
Every Play Counts: Jets' defensive development
I love the Falcons talk. It seems that current wisdom has changed from "Vick sucks" to "Vick's receivers suck", and it's not entirely true. It should be "Vick's receivers, offensive line, and offensive coordinator" suck.
regarding the 4th and 1 failure for the giants, the way i saw it was Jacobs shifting to the outside instead of running into the left Bgap where the OL pulled their guards. Whitfield was supposed to just wall Ware off and not get a push because the RB was supposed to already have been upfield, but Jacobs tried to break it outside, so Ware easily shed the block. TLDR version: RB’s fault, not the LT
I'm a Bears fan and a recovering Grossman supporter and even I can't help but wonder if its time to let Griese manage a game or two. Can it be any worse? (And I'm terrified of Griese for some reason.)
Another Monday in heaven for this Titans fan...
Repeat after me, Titans will finish 9-7...
Didn't the Bills play the Chargers this week?
DVOA, conventional stats, people watching the games without ever looking at stats: I think at this point everybody and everything knows the Colts can't stop the run. Doesn't it seem like the Chargers will be the perfect team to crush the Colts in the playoffs?
The Vikings were in the game late in the third quarter, down 7-6. At that point, the turnovers actually started hurting the Vikes--an INT returned for a TD, another INT setting up short field to give the Bears their only offensive TD, and finally an awful safety. I'm watching a winnable game and five minutes later it feels like I'm watching a mauling. The Viking defense and special teams actually forced 5 turnovers but did nothing with them.
Ben Hartsock is on the Titans now, not the Colts ;o)
It's not that the Colts can't stop the run at all, they just can't consistently. They'll stuff 2 in a row sometimes and then give up 20 on the 3rd. And the Chargers are pretty much the team I would create from scratch to beat them, that's why I was rooting for them to somehow miss the playoffs again!
Any Given Sunday: Undecided. Colts-Titans, but we did that earlier this year, so it might be Chiefs-Browns.
I was feeling like crap over the weekend, and so rested most of the day, but I had on Chiefs/Browns because Dick Enberg/Randy Scott's broadcasts can put me to sleep really easy (seriously - it's partly the production crew, too, which really mutes the Browns stadium sound for some reason).
But when I was watching the game in the beginning, my first thought after the first Edwards TD was "I'm watching Any Given Sunday. Browns are going to pull this one out, or at least keep it very close." I don't know what got into Cleveland's defense that game - they were doing a very good job of controlling the line and limiting LJ.
I also thought it was hilarious that the Browns ran the exact same fleaflickers twice, and they worked both times. And they weren't even deep bomb fleaflickers, where the handoff is designed to get the deep safety to come in. They were both short throws. Weird.
"This may be the first time we ever have unanimous voting for one of the FO awards. Is anybody not going to vote for “This is Our Country� for “Worst Ad�?"
Well, it depends, Aaron. Are you lumping together all the incarnations of that damned ad? I've seen three - and we wouldn't want to split the vote, would we? But if you lump them all together, yeah, I'm fairly certain it'd be unanimous. It's even worse if you know the story behind the damn song. Stupid blatant sell-outs...
So I have a question - is it just me, or have the quality of games been really down this year? I'm not talking about compared to some "good old days"... I'm talking since last year. I can barely stand to watch a game until halftime, regardless of who is playing. Part of it might be the announcers - I swear, a special level of hell is reserved for Joe "Emo Girl" Buck. But even with the sound off, the games seem much more sloppy this year. I'm despairing the prospect that I might be completely unamused by the rest of the season.
Nice. Only at Football Outsiders where a QB can go 66% passing for 270 yards, 2 TDs and no picks and get bashed (Eli). This is a stats website, please stick to the stats.
1."I love the Falcons talk. It seems that current wisdom has changed from “Vick sucks� to “Vick’s receivers suck�, and it’s not entirely true. It should be “Vick’s receivers, offensive line, and offensive coordinator� suck."
I dont know if the line sucks. Part of me feels that the main issue is that D Lineman can tell where Vick is, but the O line can't, so when he "improvises," they dont know where he is, and can't protect him.
That being said, if Vick could learn to just throw the damn ball into the damn stands, instead of getting Aaron-Brooks-Sacked for a 22 yard loss, this team would be a lot better.
Recievers: With the amount of talent theyve brought in, I think its a coaching issue.
Offensive Coordinator: Quite possibly the worst coach in football. You've been trying to stick a square peg in a round hole for years..try something different for god sakes.
I almost feel that Denver would be the perfect fit for Vick, but thats not gonna happen.
Frye - broken wrist, or in football speak "worse than a sprain". He looked good and was 11/13/120+/1/0 before he was pulled.
There was no glaring reason I saw as to why the KC defense gave up a 14 pt lead. Browns receivers decided to catch today regardless of which QB was in. That was a nice surprise.
Browns secondary was finally exposed, as Tony Gonzalez was open the entire game, and some ridiculous 3rd down conversion rate will attest. The run defense did pretty well I thought. Only two LJ runs in the 1st quarter were for big yards (10+). Othwerwise, they made him work for inches.
Told the wife at the beginning of the 4th quarter when down by 14, "even if we lose this is a fun game to watch today." Browns played with emotion, which really makes me think last week was a fluke.
...and it was strange to see [Rod] Hood diving at nothing at the commercial.
Mike, I know you're an Eagles fan, so the sight of an Eagles defender diving at nothing really shouldn't surprise you.
PV.
Brad Johnson really needs to go. The Defence in Minny is great, the line is good, the running game is good, but Brad Johnson just brings absolutely nothing to the table.
seems to me that Minny will be drafting a QB...will it be Brohm or Troy Smith?
I mostly watched Bills-Chargers. It was a surprisingly close game.
- Chargers defense completely shut down the Buffalo running game, but Buffalo's o-line was giving Losman time on *some* passing downs. He wasn't getting mauled all the time.
- Chargers offense was basically LDT and Rivers-Gates. It is really infuriating to watch a team not cover a player, and in this game Buffalo decided not to cover Gates. The key drive of this game occurred at the end of the 1st half, with the key play being Gates catching a seam route for ~ 20 yards uncovered to set up another Gates TD.
- Ed Hoculi's crew made some tough calls against Buffalo in the 2nd half. There was one play not ruled a force out that could've been. The Peerless Price toe-heel play also should've been called a force-out. On another play Losman threw up a dangerous pass and one of the safties was in position to intercept it. The ball ended up going through his hands, and Reed was hit early on the play. The officials ruled the ball had been tipped when it wasn't. These all occurred when the game was 17-14 and prior to the clock killing drive by SD.
- San Diego's defense won't be able to force 4 turnovers... Rivers didn't play exceptionally well, he just threw it to Gates. If a team is able to contain LDT, they should have a shot at winning against SD.
"Okay, Seahawks fans — your team is 8-4 and your kicker is your MVP. You’ll take it, right?"
Yep, sure will. It's obviously not our year this year, but we have a great shot of going 11-5, maybe will get the second seed, and once you get to the playoffs, who knows what could happen? It's a lot better than I was fearing when Hasselbeck went out.
...now if only someone could learn how to tackle, but that seems to be a league wide problem.
10: I agree. I often start watching games excitedly, then find myself doing other things with the game in the background, or turning it off entirely and watching a movie. I don't know why, since I really truly love football and spend the offseason and then every week looking forward to football on Sundays. A lot of games (like the Seahawks-Broncos game last night) features a lot of dullness in between some good, exciting, interesting play.
16: What most people outside of MN don't think about is that the Vikes traded up into the 2nd round (I think they traded both their 3rd round picks) to draft QB Tarvaris Jackson. We're all excited about him, but he's also a complete mystery (can't judge by his good preseason games). Drafting a QB in the first round next year would be an admission that the Vikes wasted two 3rd round picks last year, which I don't think the Vikes are willing to do yet.
At what point in discussing the problems of the Denver offense will somebody finally say the words “Matt Lepsis�?
Aaron: did you see Erik Pears get beaten a lot in this game? I didn't, but wasn't watching the O line play very closely (trying to keep the wife entertained enough to watch with me). To me, it seemed like the rush down the middle was not being handled well at times, but Denver was running the ball well. I've been very pleasantly surprised by Pears.
Cutler is not ready to be playing here. They are losing a game despite an excellent defensive performance and a dominating running game.
Ned: Cutler certainly didn't look ready. But consider a few things:
1. Five turnovers, including one on a kickoff return and one by Rod Smith.
2. Average starting field position was 11 yards worse (Denver 28, Seattle 39) including two drives starting from inside the 5.
3. Al Wilson's injury very clearly knocked the Broncos off their game for a while, and that resulted in 10 points.
And with all this, Denver scored a FG more than their season average.
I've been something of a fan of the Snake, but I have no confidence that he would have done any better. Cutler will improve. Plummer has had games like this in his 10th year.
Re #16
Tavaris Jackson, 2nd round, last year.
Re AGS
We were talking about this in the chatroom and came down in favor of KC-CLE, a decision with which this Titans fan agreed. Just as an aside, it's kind of nuts that 5(!) times this year, the Titans have been, or been a serious contender for, AGS.
Josh Brown as Seahawk MVP. Done and done.
The Giants’ socks should have been hung by the chimney with care
Funny, very funny ...
Did anyone have doubts Hasselbeck would drive into FG range and Josh Brown would be money?
I know everyone wants to remember the "We'll take the ball, and we're gonna score" game. But it seems like Hasselbeck has been more money than bust in the clutch also.
Reading audibles every week I reckon one of the best things FO could do would be a roundtable discussion on Sundays action – say 1 to 2 minutes on crappy games followed by 5 mins on the good ones which is then put up as a podcast. PFT does a podcast which is generally devoid of football talk (talk about an ironic name for a website) and I still download it to the IPOD when it comes up. FO podcasts would make the “We are sorry, the 730 service to Dublin is delayed for approximately 15 mins due to leaves on the track� announcements much more bearable on cold mornings as I wait for my train to work.
Since there is no SF-NO I'll add my thoughts.
- Sickening hearing Bill Maas gush all over Reggie Bush, over and over and over, every time he touched the ball.
- Alex Smith needs another year. We know he started out young, but hasn't he started more games than Grossman by this point? Maybe he has improved...
- The score would've been more lopsided if Devery Henderson could catch the ball. Maybe all he's good for is deep bombs, but Brees was hitting his hands on lot of intermediate routes.
- I'd like to know if Norv Turner is out of football if he loses this job. The man is over-rated and has ridden Troy Aikman to glory. I know they will give him one more year because of Alex Smith and keeping the system in-tact... but it doesn't seem like his play calling is anything special when they don't play the Rams or Cardinals.
I think the quality/boredom of some football games has been tied to the QB position. A fair number of teams have been getting by with pretty lousy play out of the QB. These teams win, though, so they get more TV games, and we get to watch teams led by mediocre QBs.
I'm thinking of Denver, Chicago, and Jacksonville for sure, and you could make arguments about Seattle, Baltimore, Kansas City, New York (Giants), and Carolina.
Lousy QB play can often lead to conservative or just plain boring football.
An MVP field goal kicker who missed 2 attempts in the game? Wow.
As an Indy fan who can recognize that the Colts were lucky to get to this point with so many wins, I'm curious to see the DVOA for the game. It seems that the Colts outplayed the Titans, but they finally encountered bad luck against kickers, fumbles, and killed themselves with drops and penalties.
And I don't know if anyone's noticed, but Viniatari seems to be missing a lot of field goals lately.
on the boredom of some football games...
This was a problem last year for me...But the titans fixed that problem by drafting Vince Young...
With the caveat that once cannot really judge these matters well if one hasn't see the back up qb in practice, the Bears and Vikings likely should make qb changes, and the Vikings should have done so several weeks ago. If Brad Johnson isn't going to take care of the ball, and he really hasn't this year, then there is no reason to have him on the field.
The defenses in the NFL have evolved to the point where having an immobile qb isn't viable anymore, no matter the other attributes of the qb, but when immobility is combined with weak arm strength, an offense has zero chance, even if the qb makes great decisions, and Johnson hasn't even done that for about six weeks now. The Vikings defense put forth another great effort yesterday(gee, do ya' 'spose that punting out of bounds might be a good idea against a team which scores a large percentage of it's points, relatively speaking, on kick returns?), with all 23 points coming off turnovers or returns, and it was wasted again.
Of course, a good portion of the Bears lack of offense is also properly attributed to the deep abyss of suckitude that is Rex Grossman. They likely will not win two consecutive playoff games, to say nothing of three, with Rexus Horribillus taking snaps; a team simply can't hope to be so tremendously outplayed at the qb position against playoff teams and come out ahead three games in a row.
After watching the qb play in the Vikings/Bears, and then observing Romo consistently but time in the pocket and make accurate throws while on the move, it was like seeing a different game. Whether the Vikings draft a qb depends on what they've seen from Tavaris Jackson in practice, and who is available. I still think the Vikings could win three of their last four, which might not put them in position to draft a top rated qb, and if Tavaris Jackson has not been horrible in practice, management will be hestitant to admit that trading up to draft him was a mistake.
Re #8
Agreed. The Colts do suck against the run (unfortunately, as I'm a homer), but it's a nuanced suck that most don't take the time to consider. Some games they're surprisingly good for 2 or 3 quarters before falling apart, and others like yesterday they are good for 2 or 3 plays before getting gashed. I'd hoped that they were going to improve as the season progressed, but it's pretty clear that they are stuck with this D for the duration. It sure doesn't seem like a recipe for playoff success.
8 and 32, I doubt there's any team that's lousy against the run every play or every quarter or every series. The nature of a pro running game suggests there will be a fair number of 1 or 2 yard runs.
That's why being inconsistent against the run is, to me, being bad against the run. If you are inconsistent against the run and your opponent doesn't just give up on it, you're eventually going to get hurt.
The Colts best hope in the playoffs (and I do hope they do well in the playoffs) is to score points early, build up a lead, and make the opponents either give up the run or render the opponent's running game meaningless. If they're in a close game, "inconsistency" against the run means they'll likely get hurt by the run.
29. Aymond
Vinateri has been missing a lot of fieldgoals since 2004.
Everyone like to remember those "clutch kicks" and forget all the fieldgoals he missed, often in the same game.
I didn't get to see Browns-Chiefs, so I'd like to see a breakdown of how Anderson did filling in at QB (he's an Oregon State grad, have to pull for him). That said, the comment about him running with the ball exposed rings very true. Coming out of high school, he was a Top-10 QB in the nation but despite having incredible physical gifts, he was a continual turnover machine due to poor decision making. Some of that I think was coaching (as the QB that replaced him had the same issue the next year), but if he can overcome that, he would be a pretty decent NFL QB I think.
Re: QB Play
I don't think its getting better unless there is contraction.
I'm happy that it seems like Leinart, V. Young, Roethelisberger, Eli, and Rivers will all end up as QB keepers. For the sake of the game I hope Romo is also.
2001 - Vick, Brees, Carter, Tuisasopo
2002 - Carr, Harrington, Ramsey, McCown
2003 - Palmer, Leftwich, Boller, Grossman
2004 - Manning, Rivers, Roethelisberger, Losman
It actually seems worse looking at some of the drafts through the 1990s... Rick Mirer!?
I've asked this a bunch over the past couple years but is it really getting worse or are we just putting more scrutiny on the QB position? I guess when you've added 4 more QBs through expansion, it would make it seem worse.
Also, if Sanders isn't healthy, the Colts have absolutely zero chance. I'm, really rooting for a Cowboys/Colts Super Bowl, but I think the former has a much better chance than the latter. I like the Patriots too, but the prospect of the media beating the dead horse of a Parcells-Belichick confrontation for two weeks is too horrible to to contemplate. Chargers/Cowboys would be fun. Bears/Ravens might get me to watch basketball two months earlier than normal. Heck, if Reggie Bush starts fufilling his gigantic potential this year (and I think he has been pretty good already), the Saints would be a great story; it wouldn't shock me to see then make the big game as the NFC rep.
Re: 28
Josh Brown as MVP - hell yes. Everybody misses a kick now and then. The key is making the clutch kick with the game on the line. Brown is slowly moving off "fungible" kicker status and into rarefied "Vinateri and Akers" status.
I think the quality/boredom of some football games has been tied to the QB position. A fair number of teams have been getting by with pretty lousy play out of the QB.
Except, historically, none of those QBs have been bad. They're just (suddenly) bad this year. I think, in part, this has a lot more to do with continued defensive evolution in the NFL. Regardless of what the competition committee tries, defenses just seem to have the edge recently.
Plus, to make things worse, extremely few teams with competent quarterback play this year are on complete teams. Of the top 10 quarterbacks in DPAR, a grand total of two of them play on teams with a top 10 defense - Dallas and New England. Of the top 16 quarterbacks in DPAR, a grand total of 6 of them have a top 16 defense.
For reference, last year, it was 5/10 of the top 10, and 11/16. In 2004 it was 2/10 of the top 10), and 9/16.
36: No, I think overall it's getting better. I just mean that this season some teams are winning with lousy QB play, and that's making for more boring games this year. For the forseeable future, the league should have some very good players at QB, as a lot of young ones show some elite promise.
MDS, you're just catching on about the Jets? I've been trying to get ANYBODY to see what they've been doing for months! I am glad to see the apology from Aaron, though. Lots of others are due.
I think the qb position gets more difficult to play every year, due to defenses getting larger, more athletic, and sophisticated each year, even with all the rules changes designed to help offense. The field is the same size as it was 25, 50, and 75 years ago, but the the guys on defense can simply cover the area much more quickly, and are bigger when they get to the ball. Sure, the offenses are biggers and faster too, but a static field, over time, favors defense. Throw in that defense caught up to offense, in terms of sophistication, many years ago, and playing quarterback is harder than ever.
1). I do not know of the ad of which you speak. Wow, it's amazing how much better a football season is when you have a DVR...
2). I've given up on understaning PI this season. I'm back to the point I was at when I was 8, and I would see a long pass and if it was for my team, I would swear at the little yellow flag, and if it was against, I would cheer for it, but I wouldn't have the slightest clue when or why or how the flag appeared.
(And yes, being fair minded, I saw the Pats get away with some blatant PI against Detroit, so the pendulum swings both ways. Although neither team could so much as blink at the other without being called for unnecessary roughness or hands to the face or something).
3). I think it's possible that the announcers calling the Pats-Detroit game were the worst I've ever heard. I guess the announcers played down to the level of play on the field, and the level of officiating.
"Did anyone have doubts Hasselbeck would drive into FG range and Josh Brown would be money?"
No and it's kind of weird. Two months ago after the, "You tackle him," "No, YOU tackle him," play I would have thrown things at the television and screamed and all sorts of stuff. This time, I looked at the clock, saw that there was plenty of time, and calmly waited for the drive.
"Regardless of what the competition committee tries, defenses just seem to have the edge recently."
And the problem there is that no one likes to see games decided because the rules don't let talented people do anything. Randomly throwing flags is not the solution.
Wow, am I ever the Rex Grossman of keyboard operation today. Sorry for all the typos.....
One comment I want to make on DAL-NYG. Is everyone forgetting Dallas' first TD was set up by a DPI penalty in the end-zone? What was that, a 30 yard penalty or something? Pierce definatly had his hands on Whitten, especially as Whitten came out of his break, but it just didn't seem like a foul that merits the ball on the 1 yard line.
I'm all for bringing in the 2-tiered DPI penalty next year, but I think everyone is so riled up over protecting the QB it will take another year for DPI outrage to occur. I just thought it was ridiculous Dallas had a 2-play 30+ yard drive, when they really only gained 1 yard on the TD run.
Matt, you know what drives me even more nuts than DPI being worth basically unlimited yards?
Offensive Pass Interference being a 5 yard penalty. It should be 10+ yards, and loss of down.
In the Viking-Bear game, there was one defensive holding call, and I don't remember a single PI call. Windy day with lousy QBs, or total inconsistency between crews?
"Matt, you know what drives me even more nuts than DPI being worth basically unlimited yards?
Offensive Pass Interference being a 5 yard penalty. It should be 10+ yards, and loss of down. "
It is 10 yards (albeit not loss of down) already.
http://www.nfl.com/fans/rules/passinterference
And yes, that was off the top of my head knowledge because of a certain Superbowl call... still.
It looks like my prediction after that game is coming true. When fans think the games are being called at random, it creates frustration and conspiracy theories.
At this point, any time I see a pass intereference penalty I just try and laugh it off. Otherwise I'm going to go postal. In addition to the non-call that Aaron mentions, there was a play on a crossing route where the CB(Hobbs, I think) tackled the receiver just after the ball sails past him, and the umpire, who is not more than 6 feet from the play, correctly signals incomplete. Except the back(or possibly side) judge, who was far enough away that he wasn't even on the screen, chucks his flag from all the way across the field. And of course once the flag is down, there's no way the refs can pick it back up, so the call stands, even though at least one ref clearly saw that the play was clean.
Of course, they then made it up to the Patriots by calling a ticky-tack offensive pass interference on McCown two plays later. Just the way NFL refereeing is supposed to work.
Weeky pass interference rant off.
Other notes:
As noted by others and myself in this space on practically a weekly basis, Chad Scott sucks. Asante Samuel is having a very good year though - on the play where he tipped the ball away from Hawkins I thought that was actually a good play by him - he defensed the pass and stayed with it, giving himself a chance to intercept it, and I don't think he could have known that Hawkins was there.
The New England O-line is just not looking that good. I thought the issues they were having with run blocking would clear up with the return of Stephen Neal, but it hasn't.
I dunno why the Patriots keep a guy like Patrick Pass around at this point. What does he give you that either Kevin Faulk or Heath Evans doesn't? Evans can handle the fullback/special teams duties and Faulk can fumble just as well as Pass can. Personally would much rather see that roster spot used on an actual nickel back.
"Except the back(or possibly side) judge, who was far enough away that he wasn’t even on the screen, chucks his flag from all the way across the field."
I think thats a huge part of the problem. The big PI call that everyone hated in last year's NE/Den playoff game was the same thing: The closest ref said it was clean, but the back judge all the way across the field called PI. Same with that recent PI on Artrell Hawkins in the Bears game.. the close ref who could see the play didnt call anything, but the one on the other side, who could see nothing but Bernard Berrian's back called PI.
It seems like theyre calling based on if the reciever looks like he got contacted, rather than what actually happened, similar to how they call holding on the lines.
I agree with your synopsis of the O line. Matt Light went from very good, to being absolutely destroyed on a regular basis. I dont know if its a lack of strength in that leg he broke, but hes just not any good.
Re: the browns' comeback. Did backup QB anderson get hurt on that last sack? In the drive before the game winner he got hit really hard and landed on his (left?) shoulder. Right after that the cameras showed the emergency backup QB taking snaps and tossing the ball around. Did Anderson ever get back into the game?
Chad Scott 2006 = Duane Starks 2005
Wow you guys are being a little hard on Scott, aren't you? This was the first bad game he's played, and he injured his groin two weeks ago and was clearly playing hurt last night. There's no way he's been as bad through 12 games this year as Duane Starks was last year.
Matthew, I pretty clearly saw Pierce actually grasp Whitten's arm. If the defender actually grasps the reciever in the end zone, while the ball is in the air, I'm pretty hesitant to say that the offense shouldn't get the ball near the goal line. I'd like to have to have more consistent PI call or non-calls, but I'm not sure that giving a db full permission to engage in intereference 40 yards downfiled, knowing that they will only get a 15 yard penalty.
#31: Bad Rex = Rex Malus; Horrible Rex = Rex Horribilis; Really, really bad Rex = Rex Pessimus
David Carr. All he does is win.
Just a question: is one ref being closer really all that matters to whether PI took place? Sometimes the PI can't be seen from one angle because the players' bodies are blocking the view of the players' hands from the ref. I'm not sure "That ref was closer and didn't see anything" is itself a valid complaint, since a ref from a different angle, albeit from farther away, might have a better view of the actual infraction.
46-was that the one where he had a hand on Witten's left shoulder? It looked like he spun him enough to change it from a difficult reception to an impossible one. I think it was pretty genuine pass interference. It'd be a case for the 2-tier pass interference idea that's been bandied about here, though, because it wasn't like he drilled him before the ball got there or anything (like, say, Roy Williams did to Shockey on the sideline that game).
Will Seattle fans take 8-4 and thank our lucky stars for Josh Brown? You bet your sweet bippy we will. Oh, and a big shout out to Mike Shanahan for sending the rook out against our boys.
And the problem there is that no one likes to see games decided because the rules don’t let talented people do anything. Randomly throwing flags is not the solution.
They're not really preventing talented people from doing anything. They're just trying to equalize the balance of talent on the field. That is, there are a lot of players who can rush the quarterback now - more than there were previously, and that's not the way the game is supposed to be. Only one or two of the defensive ends in the league are supposed to be able to get double-digit sacks, for instance.
Really, in some sense, it's the same thing as when they changed the kicking rules to limit touchbacks late in the 1990s. Too many talented kickers were showing up, and they were changing the game. So they changed the rules to restore the typical distribution.
Though I do agree that randomly throwing flags is not the solution. I don't have a problem with the roughing the passer restrictions. I do have a problem with the fact that the rules aren't equally enforced across the league.
I don't, for instance, have a problem with Mathias Kiwanuka screwing up with Vince Young. Why? Yeah, he didn't sack Young because he thought he had thrown the ball. But the answer to that should be obvious: he should've paid attention to whether or not Young threw the ball. If that's too hard for him, too bad - get smarter, or go home.
Regarding the quality of games, my personal thought is that the league has reached the point of diminishing expansion returns. I believe there simply are not enough quality players to stock 32 full rosters, leading to every team having some critical shortcoming.
57
The problem is, most of the time, thats not the case. Most of the time, the judge that calls it in those cases can't see anything. Sometimes they'll even show the camera from an angle near him, and its clear that he can't see anything.
It was Fasano, not Whitten.
That is all.
60
I completely disagree. The talent available right now is so much higher than it was 10 years ago, as to not even be comparable.
I think theres too many coaches out there that have jobs and shouldnt. Guys who consistently put up awful teams, and get rehired as head coaches.
Pat,
as to there needing to be rules made to deal with pass rushers getting better, again, I disagree. If teams start pass rushing better, good offensive lineman just become more important, and screens and draw plays should become more prevalent.
I hate this trend of continually making things easier for offensive coordinators, instead of making them come up with new schemes.
#54:
I concur (and I'm a Giants homer). The Pierce PI was legit-- what made it frustrating is that the pass was off enough that it probably would've been incomplete even if there was no contact. The Cowboys gameplanned that well-- they found ways to get their TEs in deep single-coverage by Pierce, who had a poor game.
On a related note, the Giants will be needing 2 new safeties this offseason. Demps totally sucks, and Wilson isn't much better.
Re: defense, offense, and coaching.
Doesn't it seem that defensive coaching is, overall, a lot more creative than offensive coaching in the NFL?
I was talking to a guy who watches a lot of NFL this weekend that just started watching a lot of college football, and he talked about how he loved all the crazy stuff they'll do on offense. There's more creative flair.
In the NFL, it does seem that most teams run variations of the same playbook on offense. Defensively, however, you see some real creativity. The Steelers, for example, have taken advantage of Polamalu's unique talents and used some defensive variations that are fairly unique. I don't see offensive coaches finding offensive players with the same unique talents, then running unique systems. Perhaps it tells us something that the "genius" of this era is Belichick, with his varied approach to defense, whereas in the 80s the "genius" was the offensive guru Bill Walsh.
59 - the problem though is that while fans like to see passes, they also like sacks. The frustration comes in large part because the flags are coming for things that fans like.
If I were trying to balance things, I would try things like kicking off from the 30. Making the field wider would create problems, but it might have to be done. Maybe liberalize holding rules and/or get rid of the 5 yard allowed chuck zone. More radically, some sort of weight restriction on players could come out.
I don't know the results of those changes, but rules with large amounts of leeway doesn't make for exciting watching.
Oh, by the way, NBC, don't make your "TOUCHDOWN" graphic on your score bar yellow please? Whenever I see it, I freak out for a second because I think there's a flag.
Further along these lines:
On defense, you at least have teams either choosing between primarily a 3-4 or primarily a 4-3, with variations in both.
But offensively, so many teams run a variation of the West Coast offense--and those variations don't show a lot of creativity. Or they don't run the West Coast, and feature a little more downfield passing, but it's still pretty similar.
Remember when we had 3--THREE!--run and shoot teams in the league? There were at least some renegades doing things most of the league wasn't doing. Today? Can you name an offense that really distinguishes itself as unique from the rest of the league? I have trouble doing so. I like what Sean Payton is doing with the Saints, and I think Mike Martz is more than capable of using players in unique ways. Other than that, it's hard.
If teams start pass rushing better, good offensive lineman just become more important
You're assuming that there's an equal number of available offensive linemen able to handle them. I'm not sure that's the case.
I hate this trend of continually making things easier for offensive coordinators, instead of making them come up with new schemes.
Again, I'm not sure I agree with you that schemes could actually deal with it. Screens, draws, etc. will only work so long as only the pass rushers are fast, and the linebackers are slow. With both of them being fast, I think you're kindof screwed.
I should note that I don't disagree with you that I think they're not doing the right things - especially because they don't seem to be working, and you get these constant random roughing the passer penalties which just seem stupid. I'm just not sure all of the blame can be placed on crappy coaches, etc. I think part of it just has to do with what Will Allen mentioned in #42: with defenses becoming faster, the fixed field size means offenses get a bit screwed.
The one change I would suggest would be pretty simple, actually - allow one foot in bounds to be a catch. Effectively, that just widens the field by about a yard.
RE: Josh Brown as game MVP
While missing two field goals is not the way you normally get the role, it's not just the 3 that went through. He also helped force the Denver kickoff fumble and did a nice pooch punt that was also nearly a Seahawks recovery. While FO knows "Fumble Recoveries Are Unpredictable" (TM), he clearly brought more to the game than kicking between the uprights.
Can you name an offense that really distinguishes itself as unique from the rest of the league?
Atlanta, definitely. Houston and Denver as well, in some ways.
I think part of the problem is that weirdo offenses just don't work very long. Atlanta's gone through what, like 3 oddball offenses this year? They last for a grand total of one week (after which TMQ praises them for being brilliant, right before they crash in giant flames).
I do see your point, though. I just wonder if it's a bit self-selective: people continue doing things that work. Weirdo offenses that don't work exist for a grand total of one week, after which they're abandoned. Or else you lose your job (see Spurrier, Steve).
So it might be that offensive minds aren't as creative, or it might be that the options available given the speed of defenses nowadays have dwindled to basically one.
Hey Doug & Aaron, no offense, but