Writers of Pro Football Prospectus 2008

printable version

Extra Points

Articles from around the Web

Need Help with KUBIAK or Premium?

blog advertising is good for you


15 Oct 2012

Mandatory Monday: Seattle Surprise

Welcome to Tanzania, home of the Seattle Seahawks.

Posted by: Mike Tanier on 15 Oct 2012

15 comments, Last at 17 Oct 2012, 5:18am by armchair journeyman quarterback

Comments

1
by Insancipitory :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 7:59am

The article so nice, the printed the first one twice!

2
by Ryan D. :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 9:06am

My favorite line ever:

"You can prevent household fires by coating everything with asbestos, but it is a terrible, terrible idea."

3
by crw78 :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 10:39am

I commented on this over on the other site but will add it here too because it is now my mission to rid the world of the phrase "unanswered points" because it is so misused.

Mike writes: "the Redskins stayed balanced and scored 24 unanswered points en route to a 38-26 win."

Points are only "unanswered" when the game ends without the other team scoring in response. The Vikings scored 24 "straight" points to take a 24-9 lead, and went on to win 38-26.

The announcers on TV say that all the time and it drives me crazy. I don't know why this particular thing bothers me so much, but it does.

Otherwise another great article by Tanier.

4
by Independent George :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 12:30pm

Heh. I liked to annoy my roommate in college by shouting "two unanswered points!" during basketball games.

7
by dbostedo :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 5:11pm

"Points are only "unanswered" when the game ends without the other team scoring in response."

I don't think that's correct, the way the phrase is typically used. I don't see why "unanswered" doesn't just mean "consecutive without the other team scoring", or "straight" as you put it.

That's what I've always taken it to mean... i.e. "Team A scored 21 unanswered points, before team B rallied back to take the lead."

At the time the 21st point was scored, they were unanswered. The may have subsequently been answered, but at some point they weren't. I guess that's how I've always heard it commonly used, which I suppose is your pet peeve. But I don't think it's necessarily wrong - maybe just a bit sloppy?

10
by crw78 :: Tue, 10/16/2012 - 10:14pm

Well, unanswered means "not answered or replied to", which at the time someone says that is usually technically true. But in the majority of cases, an answer comes before the game is over, making the previous statement no longer true. So maybe you're right that it's not technically wrong at the time, but it just seems like it's something people say because they've heard others say it. I can't remember the last time I heard someone say "team X scored 21 consecutive points" when it's in the 2nd quarter of a game, which seems like the more appropriate thing to say at that point in the game.

I don't why it bugs me so much, there are much bigger things to worry about. But in the case of Tanier's article it definitely was wrong, because he was writing about it after the fact, and the run had been answered.

12
by DragonPie (not verified) :: Wed, 10/17/2012 - 1:24am

My pet peeve is unreasonable pet peeves.

5
by LyleNM (not verified) :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 12:38pm

Someone needs to tell Tanier that the Seahawks win over Carolina was at Carolina.

6
by BigCheese :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 2:46pm

And that 3:49 seconds does NOT equal 3:49 minutes. See http://verizonmath.blogspot.mx/

- Alvaro

Phil Simms is to analysts what Ryan Leaf is to NFL QBs

8
by LionInAZ :: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 9:21pm

I guess 21 years in the NFL carries some advantages for a kicker. You get to know every city and stadium pretty well.

9
by Jerry :: Tue, 10/16/2012 - 3:56am

If you spend those 21 years with the same team, you don't see cities in the other conference very often. And how many stadia that were in use in 1992 still host NFL football? (To be fair, I think this has been a particularly busy era for building new venues.)

11
by Karl Cuba :: Tue, 10/16/2012 - 10:37pm

I google 'scow' and it refers me to a flat bottomed boat, I don't understand what that has to do with pigeons. Do Rock doves sail?

13
by DragonPie (not verified) :: Wed, 10/17/2012 - 1:28am

Am I the only one who didn't get what he was trying to do with the Tanzania thing? I mean, it sounded clever like it was supposed to have some sort of meaning, but it just escaped me.

Was it just referencing how people seem to ignore Seattle because of where Seattle is?

14
by Insancipitory :: Wed, 10/17/2012 - 1:36am

There are big ass advertisements in the stadium, and Seattle is exotic and far away from anything. It's like a right side up, australia, or baja canada.

15
by armchair journe... :: Wed, 10/17/2012 - 5:18am

ha. baja canada. perfect.

//AJMQB

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options