Melodrama Without Chemistry

Is anybody else tired of all the melodrama surrounding the New York football teams? I think it shows a huge team character and chemistry deficit.

The Jets beat the Patriots, a huge win given their slow start, and all we hear about is Braylon Edwards. The Giants play one of their worst games ever, but all we hear about is Brandon Jacobs and his helmet, or Antrel Rolle, a new Giant, who says there’s no leadership on the team.

I’m really tired of it. If you want any analysis, you have to tune in to MLB or NFL or NBA Networks. The newspaper coverage is a wasteland. Can anybody tell me what the Giants are going to do about that horrible offensive line, when they’ll get their tight end situation fixed, or when they can rid themselves of David Diehl as the tackle on the left-hand side?

The Jets are a reality show. I don’t even care about them anymore, except for Rex Ryan, who seems to be a good man under all that baloney. Tom Coughlin has the Giants playing under his unique form of despotism again, after disbanding that pesky players committee after they won that Super Bowl. And his team played like a team that doesn’t care.

The Jets-Dolphins matchups over the years have been awesome, practically each and every one. This year’s game could be the best one of them all. Yet you’ll hear nothing about that in the papers.

It’ll be that tough Jets offensive line and running game facing off against a Fish defensive line that spit back Adrian Peterson after a few attempts inside the ten-yard line. It’ll be two young QB’s showing off their wares, Sanchez against Henne. Sanchez should have time but see no open receivers. Drew Henne, Miami’s QB, will see open receivers yet have no time to get the ball to them.

But underlying all the talents on the field is that indefinable team chemistry, a factor in football games more so than in any other sport. How will the Jets react to being told to tone it down after Braylon Edwards’s arrest ? How will the Dolphins come out after thrashing the Vikings this weekend?

Team chemistry…the Jets have some, the Dolphins have some, even the Kansas City Chiefs have some. The Giants have none. Neither do the Bills or half a dozen other teams, even some of those who spend big money for players.

The poster-boy for team chemistry would have to be the New Orleans Saints. On Monday night, before a packed house in San Francisco, they showed the timely combination of good offense and defense that just got the job done, no matter what the circumstances.

I’ve been a closet Saints fan for a few years now, and to me, their Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers proved that a team that believes in its coach, and a coach who believes in his team, can accomplish wonders…..packed house, Jerry Rice Day, mad Mike Singletary….it just doesn’t matter.

You’ll seldom see a team play as hard as the Niners did Monday night. Their head coach, Mike Singletary, had been rabid all week after the Niners opening loss against the lowly Seahawks , a loss that was largely attributable to coaching. But Monday night, Singletary’s team came ready to play.

The Niners may have been too ready. After a bad snap for a safety and an early Drew Brees-engineered drive, the Saints took an early 9-0 lead. But, when backed up to their ten-yard line with the crowd screaming, the Saints played conservatively, using runs and short passes to gain ground. When they could not, they simply punted. There would be no Saints meltdown; the Niners would have to earn every yard.

The Niners kept coming though. Frank Gore was a battering ram, the un-Brandon Jacobs. But Saints CB Roland Harper intercepted an Alex Smith pass to thwart one drive, only to have the Niners force another Saints punt when they sacked Brees, who was fortunate to keep his grip on the football.

Then the Niners really started turning it on. Frank Gore, Alex Smith and a few different receivers put together a clock-eating drive to pull within 9-7. Then they forced another Saints punt to take control of the ball again with about 7 minutes left in the first half.

The Niners kept coming. Banging Frank Gore into the line and using some deft passing from Alex Smith, they drove again to the Saints 12-yard line. But the Saints kept their composure, and when Delanie Walker had the ball punched out at about the 4-yard line, it was the the Saints who swarmed to the ball, the Saints who would hold on to lead at the half.

In the second half, the Niners changed gears. Two long passes to Morgan and tight end Vernon Davis spearheaded their next drive, one that was good for an eventual TD that gave the Niners the lead 14-9, for the first time.

It was then that the Saints really showed their character. Using their big guns, Bush and Colston and Pierre Thomas, the Saints took the lead again on their very next possession. And their defense held, first by forcing a 3 and out, then intercepting a Smith pass.

Punting then became the order of the day. The Saints held on like bulldogs in a few sequences that included a nifty Brees batted pass to himself. But a Niners goal-line stand forced a Saints field goal. Instead of putting the game away, the Saints lead was only 8.

A TD and 2-point conversion could still tie it. The Saints finally blinked. The Niners took advantage and tied it. The crowd went wild. It looked bad for the Saints.

But the Niners left 1:19 on the clock, too much time against a QB like Brees, a coach like Payton and some great team players named Colston and Thomas. Hartley kicked the winning field goal with zero on the clock.

The Chemistry Set

How'd you like to come back to the dugout after a big hit and get high-fived by Carlos Beltran and David Wright? And finish the night in first place. Well, that's what Fernando Tatis got to experience last night. He was one of 8 different Mets producers in a game marked by some shaky pitching, some nice hitting from both sides, and comebacks, lots of comebacks.

Ten is good. Ten beats 9 and 11 would be heaven. (No, I didn't really say that). I thought the streak would end at 9. It certainly could have. They were up 2, then down 3 in a flash, then down just 1, then up by 1, then down by 2 before finally ending it up by 2. Wright, Beltran, Easley and Delgado were strong at the core of the lineup while Delgado and Tatis did their best to extend that middle. They even got something out of Nick Evans and Marlon Anderson.

So last night it was hitting. Carlos Delgado was especially impressive, I thought, not so much for his power but for his nice little dump-job single over the shortstop into short left field. If Carlos the Elder doesn't watch out, he may find himself in the National League RBI race. In the last month, he's driven in 23 runs, second only to Jermaine Dye. While he still has a long way to go, with just 55 ribbies on the season, it's conceivable that he could catch a lot of folks.

So there was a lot to be happy about....again. But there were some rough spots on the pitching side of things. Johan Santana wasn't Johan Santana last night. But Aaron Heilman reverted into, well, Aaron Heilman. Johan gave up a 5-spot in the fourth inning, including a couple of dingers, but what the heck, Jake Peavy gave up 4 home runs in his game so it was a strange night all around.

Heilman just allows too many baserunners, base hits and walks too. Last night he managed just 2/3 of an inning, and his three baserunners were inherited by Scott Schoenweis, who tried like the dickens but still wound up allowing them all to score before recording the final out.

It was interesting that Manuel replaced Heilman as soon as he did. And, even though Schoenweis wasn't able to avert the damage, it was the right move. Jerry managed his head off last night, replacing pitchers all night long. And they were the right moves. That they all didn't pan out is secondary.

Those pitching moves do a couple of things. First, they check the momentum. Second, they give the opposing batters something different to look at. But they also keep your team in the game mentally, and that showed last night too.

Who woulda thunk it? The Mets from April and May wouldn’t have come back even once. These Mets came back again and again, continuing a predilection not only for increasing leads but for coming back too. It’s something on which Manuel focused, and it’s working out for them.

Yes, the Mets are finally in first place, tied with the Phils at long last. But the Phils picked up a pretty fancy pitcher yesterday, and the Marlins aren't far back. The Mets need to keep it going, and it'll be up to John Maine tonight, who hasn't been quite as overwhelming as have battery-mates Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez, at least not lately.

Tonight will be a good test for him and the Mets as they face the Reds Bronson Arroyo, who can be very good or very bad. We’ll see whether our local boys can get another win to extend that streak, against a team that had had a fairly nice run themselves as of late, before they ran into the juggernaut. The Reds are a very respectable 10-6 since June 28^th.

Those Reds sure can hit a little bit. They were calling Adam Dunn Dave Kingman last night but he looked like more to me, as a batter anyway. He does have a little trouble keeping his feet while rounding the bases. And Ken Griffey Jr. is pretty much as advertised. Then there’s Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto, not a lineup that can be taken lightly for sure.

And baseball is a strange game. A pitcher can, all of a sudden, pitch lights out. Batters can get cold. For no reason whatsoever. And then there’s the law of averages. How many teams win more than ten in a row?

But the Mets played last night as if they really, really wanted that tenth win. They certainly didn’t play like a team resting on its laurels. From the manager to the pinch-hitter, they were definitely paying attention, as if they knew the slender thread that separates winning from losing is a very thin one, and as if they were determined to fend off that first loss, for, once losing, who knows what will be on the other side?

The Mets had every reason to lose last night. Not only was there the streak, but there was the break too. Surely they couldn’t be expected to put one more win up on the board. But they did it, in a pretty spectacular fashion too, a fact that I’m sure was not lost on the Phillies, or the Marlins, for that matter.

The Phils have already picked up Joe Blanton from the seemingly inexhaustible inventory of pitching in the Oakland A’s organization. All in all, a smart pickup for them, given that the guy eats up a lot of innings, has pitched really well in the not too far recent past, and will probably pitch better in a pennant race.

Omar Minaya may be burning up the phone lines, but somehow I don’t think so. We haven’t heard one good rumor. I suspect he’ll make a move when he feels that he has to do so. Chemistry after all is a delicate thing.

And the Mets have some right now.