For
those of us who were wondering, we now know everyone – including Norv
Turner
– knows the way the San Diego Chargers play football is unacceptable. Now that
we have that out of the way, we can move on to assigning blame. I personally
blame Tom Cruise for everything. I’m not sure what he had to do with this, but
with this latest failure by the Chargers, isn’t it time something was done
about Tom Cruise?
We
may be no more certain about the Super Bowl matchup this fine November Monday
than we were last week but we now seem to be in a position to pronounce time of death for a number of
NFL franchises just 10 weeks into the season.
Thanks
for playing…
Foregone
Conclusions
The
Carolina Panthers are now 2-7-0 and dead last in the NFC South, looking up at
the resurgent Saints, the surprising Buccaneers and the Falcons, who still have
the best record in the NFL (tied with the Texans) even after their loss to the
Saints. The Panthers had a chance to make a statement on Sunday against the
visiting Broncos and it turns out that statement was, “Yeah, we’re done.” The good news?
Cam Newton will have seven more opportunities to practice being a grown up in
his post-game press conferences.
It
seems like the Browns, also 2-7-0, also in dead last in their division – the
AFC North – with three 2011 playoff teams ahead of them, have been out of it
for a decade. Why should 2012 be any different? Usually when teams “blow things
up” it’s because their long tenured leadership team seems to have lost it.
Salary cap constraints driven by questionable roster moves have left them with
an aging roster lacking depth at key positions. Or the game has changed and
they haven’t kept up. Or both. Think Indianapolis Colts. After a decade of
excellence they suffer the Peyton Manning injury and fall to 2-12-0. They fire
their GM, Head Coach and then make the change at quarterback with #1 pick
Andrew Luck. The Browns blow the things up that they were already blowing up.
No truth to the rumors the Browns will be featured in “Expendables III.”
It
can get worse, though, as evidenced by the 1-8-0 Jacksonville Jaguars and the 1-7-0
(soon to be 1-8-0) Kansas City Chiefs. The Jaguars aren’t disappointing anyone
but the most delusional of Jaguars’ fans but the Chiefs were a preseason pick
by more than a few pigskin pundits and bobbleheads (including yours truly) to
take the AFC West. The only mystery still surrounding the Jags is how they won
a game in the first place. Come to think of it, how can we make sense of the
Chiefs only victory, a road win over the Saints? Neither team believes they
have their QB of the Future on the roster, their head coaches are better cast
as coordinators and ownership has already flipped the safety guard off that
large red self-destruct button.
You’ll Be Stone in
a Week
Based
on arithmetic, I’m hard-pressed to understand why the 3-6-0 Eagles and Skins
are out of it but the 4-5-0 Cowboys still have a shot at the NFC East. Or maybe
it’s just hard for me to imagine the Cowboys having a shot. Still, they are
just one game behind the Giants, who are rapidly approaching terminal velocity.
The Giants, in fact, have four imminently losable games left on their schedule;
Packers, Saints, Falcons, Ravens. The Cowboys on the other hand, get their next
three games at home – Browns, Skins, Eagles – before facing the inevitably
heartbreaking stretch of Bengals, Steelers, Saints. The Skins, with 5 of their
remaining 7 games and the Eagles, with 4 of their remaining 7 against the NFC
East, would seemingly hold their fate in their own shaky hands. Could all four
of these teams finish 9-7-0?
When Bad Things
Happen to Good People it’s Not a Sign from Above, it’s Just a Small Data Sample
The
Bills may have played their best game of the season on Sunday. Except for the
14 penalties and Ryan Fitzpatrick’s crushing, game-ending interception and the
fact that they couldn’t take advantage of a rather desultory performance by the
Patriots who came out of the bye week looking a little sleepy. The Bills aren’t
just 3-6-0; they’re 0-3-0 in the division. They need to run the table while the
Patriots drop 4 of 7. As do the Jets.
Could
that happen? Well, yes. This is the NFL, after all. Of course, the Jets travel
to Buffalo to close out the season so if it can happen it can only happen for
one of those two teams.
What
are the chances?
The
Jets – aside from their leave it all on the field game at Foxborough – have
scored 0, 17, 9, 9 and 7 points while giving up 34, 23, 35, 30 and 28 points.
The NYJ have to hope it’s true that past performance is no indication of future
results. Unfortunately for the Jets this is football and not mutual funds.
Meanwhile, as bad as the locals think the Patriots defense is, the Bills defense is
one standard deviation worse, giving up 400+ yards and 31+ points a
game.
So,
no, that isn’t going to happen.
Maybe
the Dolphins are still in the rear view but the AFC East still runs through
Foxborough.
Dick Moves
Earlier
this season, Greg Schiano ordered his Buccaneers defense to blitz Eli Manning
in the “victory formation.” Though hardly against the rules and the kind of
call that sent a message to his team that he was going to coach the full 60
minutes and he expected them to play the full 60 minutes (and look where Tampa
Bay is now), it’s the kind of play that works maybe once in a hundred tries and
the consensus among pigskin pundits and bobbleheads was that it was kind of a
dick move.
It
looked like Schiano would win Dick Move of the Year for 2012 in a walk over
until this past Sunday, when Ravens HC John Harbaugh ordered up a
fake field goal with the score Baltimore 41, Oakland 17 and less than six
minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. Had Harbaugh kicked the field goal
the final score of the game would’ve been 51-20 instead of 55-20. Did Harbaugh
have a side bet where he was giving 31 points? Anyway, this isn’t about running
up the score. There’s really no such thing in the pros. You’re winning by 24
points with a 4th down on your opponent’s 7-yard line. You could go
for it – give your opponent a chance to stop you straight up – or you can kick
the field goal but a fake field goal? Yeah. Kind of a dick move.
I’ll Take Any Win
When
the only thing that matters is Super Bowls, regular season wins can sometimes
be taken for granted, can sometimes be disdained. Over the last few weeks, Tom
Brady has tried to remind us that it’s tough winning in the NFL. Maybe so, the
citizens of Patriots Nation think, but not for the New England Patriots of Bill
Belichick and Tom Terrific. So, we look askance at the 37-31 home win over
Buffalo. The defense seemed to take a step back. There were several dropped
passes – one by Wes Welker that would definitely have been a touchdown. The
Pats were simply underwhelming in almost every phase of the game.
Maybe
that is the biggest positive we can take away from this game. Our pigskin
heroes played badly enough to lose yet still came out on top.
They
started the game without Aaron Hernandez and Patrick Chung and finished it
without starting guards Logan Mankins and Dan Connolly and still won.
And
the defense continues to create turnovers. Vince Wilfork came up with a strip
sack recovered by Jermaine Cunningham. Much maligned DB Devin McCourty forced a
fumble recovered by Kyle Arrington, stopping a scoring opportunity for the
Bills and then came up with the game-ending INT in the End Zone. If there was
any debate regarding McCourty’s move to safety I think that debate is over.
Stevan
Ridley continues to impress, Danny Woodhead continues to amaze, Wes Welker
continues to get open, Rob Gronkowski continues to spike and Tom Brady is still
Tom Brady.
Can
the Patriots play better? Certainly. I expect they will be.
Trying
to do it right…
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