Wow, what can I write about on a weekend when Charlie Weis and Lawrence Frank both got fired, the Jets earned a hard-fought victory against Carolina using some seemingly cockamamie color-code system to direct their rookie QB, and two NFL games were decided by last-minute touchdowns thrown by the likes of Vince Young and Chris Redman? And let’s not forget Dennis Dixon.
Well, it’s easy really. I don’t really care that much about Notre Dame or Charlie Weis. I figure both parties will make out just fine, thank you. And Lawrence Frank is better off going elsewhere, given the bad roster and bad luck he has been handed. Lawrence Frank will come up roses if it’s true that good things happen to good people.
And all I can say about Vince Young is that I was wrong about him. I’ve been thinking for five weeks now that he’d be a total failure. I’ve been thinking he’s just another one of these great college QB’s who couldn’t make it in the big time. But he lead that Titans team down the field twice from deep, deep in his own team’s territory to ultimately come back and win the game…twice.
And it was great that a backup QB you never hear “boo” about stepped up in a big situation to lead his Falcons team to victory, and on fourth down no less. Chris Redman did just that yesterday to keep the Falcons in the playoff picture, for at least one more week anyway.
And I was amazed as Dixon kept the Steelers in the game against the Ravens for about 4 ½ quarters. He did it on short notice too, as Big Ben Roethlisberger’s headaches occurred only Saturday.
But, without a doubt, the best prospect for discussion is the color-code system that Rex Ryan and the Jets concocted to keep a rein on their rambunctious quarterback, Mark Sanchez. It seemed too simple and a little silly. How confident could we be that the Jets made the right pick? I mean, did this guy ever play football? Was USC always ahead?
For his part, Sanchez was exultant after the victory and was only too happy to heartily accept the color-codes. That at least shows some humility. He may eat franks on the sideline and he might “diss” the entire NYC media population but he does readily accept direction and, too often this season, blame.
But for once there was no blame. Not that he lit up the joint, an impossible feat given the conservative plan, but he did throw for some yardage, not a lot, and he only threw one interception. He didn’t fumble one time.
Two things bother me a little though.
For one, this system worked great in a game their defense easily controlled. Jake Delhomme, as I had foreseen in my last words on the subject, threw the ball all over the yard. His only problem was he didn’t discriminate on the color uniforms to which he threw the ball. The Jets were only too happy to catch it when he did. The Jets took the early lead. The closest the game got was 7-3.
So when was the code any color but red? I mean, maybe he had an amber somewhere along the line, but the predominant color all night had to be red. What happens when they have to give him the green?
The only other troubling thing is that he’d need the system at all. But hey, maybe a rookie QB, who’s had to digest all this new information week after week, needs the focus, needs the hand-holding, to keep his tenuous hold on reality in a game that can be chaotic at best.
I just hope he understands the game a little. A lot of millions went his way. There were reservations from his USC coach Pete Carroll as to whether Sanchez was ready for the NFL at all. Hopefully, Pete was wrong about Sanchez. He’ll be the face and future of our New York Jets for many years to come. He started the season on fire but has stumbled through too many games, games his very tough defense deserved to win.
It’s great to have an athletic quarterback though. Just watching him avoid the rush and take off once in a while gives me hope for the Jets in the future. He’s really not all that accurate, at least not thus far, but he throws very well on the run, and, hell, Eli Manning isn’t all that accurate either, not like his big brother.
And some NFL experts would undoubtedly say he’s too short.
(As this is written, Drew Brees has been beating up the Patriots. Drew is just a hair over 6 feet and seems to manage quite well. They’re now ahead by 38-17 and it’s great to see the Pats get their noses rubbed in it a little. The Saints are now just running the ball into the line so as not to embarrass them any more than they’ve already been. I love sweet justice).
But the point is that, short or tall, a real quarterback has other resources to beat you with. Sanchez seems to have some of them, if not all of them just yet.
Rex Ryan seemed to think so too, and was challenged to find a way to deal with Sanchez’s wilder impulses. He seems to have found just the thing. If it takes a little more communication with the sideline to make the rookie a top-flight quarterback, I’m on board with that.
Maybe when the color does change to green, he’ll respond. The last two Jets games will be against the undefeated Colts and the top defense right now, the Cincinnati Bengals. But the next three, at Buffalo, and then against Atlanta and Tampa Bay, are certainly winnable, especially if Sanchez is working in red mode, or even amber.
Sometimes things that work very simply simply work. Rex Ryan has found a system that’s a lot like that.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
On Jets and Giants and Week 12 Picks
Week 11 was very very good to me as the best bets were all good for the first time in six weeks, putting me up $4 as I picked up the ten-spot. The weekly cumulative record was 9-6 to put my season cumulative at 63-46, not too shabby.
My favorite Week 11 best bet was the Niners, who appeared to be getting blown out before coming back to once again cover the 6 ½ point spread. The Eagles were another narrow winner as they edged the Bears by 4 against a spread of 3. The other two picks looked easy as the Falcons covered against the lowly G-Men and the Skins nearly beat the Boyz outright.
Once again, I keep thinking I’m due for a bad week, so bet with your head……and remember who’ll be on the bench or worse this week. Injuries are mounting all around the league.
Anyway, here’s the picks:
Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason
Ind 3 ½ HOU Ind Texans have failed easier tests
CIN 14 Cle * Cle Browns found out they can play
MIN 11 Chi MIN Vikes cover a lot
PHI 9 Was * Was Skins looking good-they’ll cover
Mia 3 BUF * Mia Rick-eeeeee
TEN 3 Ari * Ari Warner’s okay, so line is nuts
Sea 3 STL Sea Bulger to Boller for Rams
ATL 12 ½ Bucs Bucs Bucs will find ATL easier than last
NYJ 3 Car Car This is the Pick Bowl
SF 3 Jac SF Niners are my friend
SD 13 ½ Kcy Kcy Chargers nothing after Steelers
BAL 1 ½ Pit BAL Big Ben a target and no Polamalu
NO 2 Pats NO Saints have real desire
The best bets for Week 12:
Cleveland – The Bengals are hurting all over. The Brownies came so very close against the Lions last week and found out they can have an offense too, much like a non-Mangini team. No Cedric Benson figures hugely.
Skins – well, they DO have a Defense. They’re perfectly capable of slowing down those Eagle big-play threats and hey! They have Rock Cartwright too.
Fish – Buffalo’s wagons shot thru with arrows. Circling them will accomplish nothing versus Rickee and all those crazy wildcat options. Also no Marshawn for Bills, jus ol’ Fred.
Arizona – Let’s see, the Cards went to the Super Bowl, the Titans lost their first six and are currently riding a horse named Vince Young, who’ll discover the Cards don’t kid around. Warner will once again be emcee.
Biggest game of the week for me will be the Monday Night showdown between the undefeated Saints and the tough-luck Pats, who managed to lose to the Jets early and then went for a first down on 4th and 2 from their own 28. If they’re not yet tired of Belichick’s nonsense, they soon will be.
I do think the Saints will be more motivated than the Pats, even knowing that the arrogance of the Pats will force them into playing hard. But they’ll be playing for the wrong reasons, i.e. to punish another team for the audacity of playing to a perfect record. The Saints motivation will be more pure, just to win a big Monday Night game to remain unbeaten.
It says here that the Saints have the better team. It won’t be so much Brees vs. Brady as it will be the overall balance of the Saints compared to the Pats. They have a better running game and they have more receivers to go to, not just the same tired Brady to Welker, Brady to Moss combinations. Stop those two guys and stop the Pats.
Meanwhile, I’m almost sorry I picked on Brandon Jacobs as he looked even worse than I thought he would vs. the Broncos. The Giants pass defense was about par for them, which is to say they were lousy, bad, clueless, Sheridan-ian even. Oh well, at least they have Danny Ware, um, I mean DJ.
Seriously, there’s Cory Webster back there and…..well, that’s it. Pick your Johnson, they can’t cover, and then there was the specter of C.C. Brown again. And there’s nobody better at tackling after watching a receiver catch the ball than Boley. It’s hard to imagine he had been the Defensive Player of the Week….ever.
I keep asking myself what’s different about this defense until I really think about it. Pierce’s absence alone could account for a TD or two and they never replaced the likes of Phillips at safety. Then Aaron Ross is still listed as the third corner. What you see is what you get, the likes of Johnson and Johnson and Rouse. God help us.
Although I didn’t pick our Jets to cover the 3-point spread against the Panthers, I am looking forward to the game itself, which will either break a record for interceptions in a single game or go totally the other way as both the crazy rookie and the crazy veteran have been made quite aware of their shakiness. If caution takes over, there could be a lot of punts. If both QB’s just let it fly, it could be a shootout, in an obverse sort of way.
New York’s favorite coach’s latest big brain fart of sitting that rich safety Kerry Rhodes seems to signal that the Jets are looking to the future officially. But what better QB to sit your safety against than the scatological Jake Delhomme? I have to admit though that I’d feel better if two other secondary men weren’t out at the same time. The whole thing makes as much sense as the war in Afghanistan.
But Rex will be funny after the game. Of that we can be sure. Proud and funny and humble all at the same time. I sure hope he knows something the rest of us don’t. Otherwise, maybe the next move will be Tannenbaum’s.
Here’s hoping the rest of Week 12 will be better than the first three games. The Lions and Raiders just mailed it in. The Giants…..?
My favorite Week 11 best bet was the Niners, who appeared to be getting blown out before coming back to once again cover the 6 ½ point spread. The Eagles were another narrow winner as they edged the Bears by 4 against a spread of 3. The other two picks looked easy as the Falcons covered against the lowly G-Men and the Skins nearly beat the Boyz outright.
Once again, I keep thinking I’m due for a bad week, so bet with your head……and remember who’ll be on the bench or worse this week. Injuries are mounting all around the league.
Anyway, here’s the picks:
Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason
Ind 3 ½ HOU Ind Texans have failed easier tests
CIN 14 Cle * Cle Browns found out they can play
MIN 11 Chi MIN Vikes cover a lot
PHI 9 Was * Was Skins looking good-they’ll cover
Mia 3 BUF * Mia Rick-eeeeee
TEN 3 Ari * Ari Warner’s okay, so line is nuts
Sea 3 STL Sea Bulger to Boller for Rams
ATL 12 ½ Bucs Bucs Bucs will find ATL easier than last
NYJ 3 Car Car This is the Pick Bowl
SF 3 Jac SF Niners are my friend
SD 13 ½ Kcy Kcy Chargers nothing after Steelers
BAL 1 ½ Pit BAL Big Ben a target and no Polamalu
NO 2 Pats NO Saints have real desire
The best bets for Week 12:
Cleveland – The Bengals are hurting all over. The Brownies came so very close against the Lions last week and found out they can have an offense too, much like a non-Mangini team. No Cedric Benson figures hugely.
Skins – well, they DO have a Defense. They’re perfectly capable of slowing down those Eagle big-play threats and hey! They have Rock Cartwright too.
Fish – Buffalo’s wagons shot thru with arrows. Circling them will accomplish nothing versus Rickee and all those crazy wildcat options. Also no Marshawn for Bills, jus ol’ Fred.
Arizona – Let’s see, the Cards went to the Super Bowl, the Titans lost their first six and are currently riding a horse named Vince Young, who’ll discover the Cards don’t kid around. Warner will once again be emcee.
Biggest game of the week for me will be the Monday Night showdown between the undefeated Saints and the tough-luck Pats, who managed to lose to the Jets early and then went for a first down on 4th and 2 from their own 28. If they’re not yet tired of Belichick’s nonsense, they soon will be.
I do think the Saints will be more motivated than the Pats, even knowing that the arrogance of the Pats will force them into playing hard. But they’ll be playing for the wrong reasons, i.e. to punish another team for the audacity of playing to a perfect record. The Saints motivation will be more pure, just to win a big Monday Night game to remain unbeaten.
It says here that the Saints have the better team. It won’t be so much Brees vs. Brady as it will be the overall balance of the Saints compared to the Pats. They have a better running game and they have more receivers to go to, not just the same tired Brady to Welker, Brady to Moss combinations. Stop those two guys and stop the Pats.
Meanwhile, I’m almost sorry I picked on Brandon Jacobs as he looked even worse than I thought he would vs. the Broncos. The Giants pass defense was about par for them, which is to say they were lousy, bad, clueless, Sheridan-ian even. Oh well, at least they have Danny Ware, um, I mean DJ.
Seriously, there’s Cory Webster back there and…..well, that’s it. Pick your Johnson, they can’t cover, and then there was the specter of C.C. Brown again. And there’s nobody better at tackling after watching a receiver catch the ball than Boley. It’s hard to imagine he had been the Defensive Player of the Week….ever.
I keep asking myself what’s different about this defense until I really think about it. Pierce’s absence alone could account for a TD or two and they never replaced the likes of Phillips at safety. Then Aaron Ross is still listed as the third corner. What you see is what you get, the likes of Johnson and Johnson and Rouse. God help us.
Although I didn’t pick our Jets to cover the 3-point spread against the Panthers, I am looking forward to the game itself, which will either break a record for interceptions in a single game or go totally the other way as both the crazy rookie and the crazy veteran have been made quite aware of their shakiness. If caution takes over, there could be a lot of punts. If both QB’s just let it fly, it could be a shootout, in an obverse sort of way.
New York’s favorite coach’s latest big brain fart of sitting that rich safety Kerry Rhodes seems to signal that the Jets are looking to the future officially. But what better QB to sit your safety against than the scatological Jake Delhomme? I have to admit though that I’d feel better if two other secondary men weren’t out at the same time. The whole thing makes as much sense as the war in Afghanistan.
But Rex will be funny after the game. Of that we can be sure. Proud and funny and humble all at the same time. I sure hope he knows something the rest of us don’t. Otherwise, maybe the next move will be Tannenbaum’s.
Here’s hoping the rest of Week 12 will be better than the first three games. The Lions and Raiders just mailed it in. The Giants…..?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Good But Boring-Bad But Funny
You can’t say it hasn’t been entertaining. The Jets are a bad soap opera. The Giants are just, well, I don’t really know what they are. They beat the Falcons. That’s definitely a good thing. But, beyond that, it’s really hard to say anything more.
But you know I will.
Even a casual observer would have to agree that, at the very least, the Jets are a very entertaining team. The quarterback is a nut job, the head coach is even funnier and everybody else just tries to keep their heads up. And that’s okay. Anybody who really expected playoffs this year was just dreaming.
The Giants’ defense stinks. That’s really all you can say. But, with Eli firing bullets and lobs and showing a magnificent touch, and with his bevy of receivers seemingly open all the time, we could really see some shootouts in our future, and that’s not a bad thing either.
I guess that’s the biggest difference between these two teams. The Giants play a great football game, on one side of the ball at least, but they’re a bore off the field. The Jets turn in stinker after stinker on the field, but they’re a barrel of laughs off of it.
Did anybody expect the Jets to beat the Patriots again? I know I didn’t. I did think they’d beat the spread, which was 10 ½, a ridiculous spread, given that the Jets beat them the first time they played.
My mistake was that I thought they’d attempt to cover Wes Welker. At the very least, I figured they’d harass him coming off the line, or knock the bejeezus out of him when he caught the ball, thus discouraging him from perpetrating any further aerial offenses against them.
But that didn’t happen. Welker ran here and there unmolested. When he caught the ball, which was quite often, he either ran for big yardage or hit the ground before he could be pummeled.
And, last but certainly not least, the rookie quarterback started bad, came back a little, and then totally came undone.
But that’s what Bill Belichick teams do to rookie quarterbacks. That Sanchez somehow escaped that fate in the season’s first matchup with New England was nothing short of miraculous. Sanchez tried to win the game, though, and along the way, he threw a perfect long pass to Cotchery in the end zone that brought the Jets back to within 10.
But he started the game very badly by throwing that INT that went for a touchdown. That’s a killer for a team to start the game in a 7-point hole right off the bat. But he brought the team back before imploding and, all in all, I’d rather watch him than his backup. The kid still shows a lot of promise. He reminds me of Joe Montana in a lot of ways, the scrambling, the arm, the demeanor….he just needs the same head, and that will come.
Rex has promised to address his young QB’s turnover problem personally. That’s what makes you love him. It may not be the right thing to do but ya gotta love the attitude. Rex has taken as many shots as has Sanchez, and he’s apparently taken them to heart.
So the Jets are a riot, if not a successful one.
The G-Men are a playoff contender but a boring one. I still don’t think they’ll make it to the playoffs though. Their defense won’t allow it. When their opponent has needed to score, they have scored. That’s not a good sign. And, while Eli was able to take advantage of the sieve of a Falcons pass defense, I can’t imagine he’ll be able to do the same this Thanksgiving against the Broncos.
Philip Rivers and his Chargers did though. But they have a strong defense and a better running game. They have LaDainian, we have Twinkletoes. They have Sproles, we have Bradshaw. Their offensive line blocks for the run as well as the pass. Ours blocks quite well for the passing game but the holes just aren’t there in the running game, and even the powerful Bradshaw can’t run through a wall.
Regular readers may wonder why I keep picking on Jacobs. Well, aside from picking up that 4th and 1 against the Pats in that wonder-filled Super Bowl, he’s done nothing up the middle. He has no explosiveness whatsoever, runs high and doesn’t have that much leg strength. What he can do is build up a head of steam and really roll, once he gets an opening.
That’d be great if they used him a little differently, I guess, but the Giants don’t. And they usually have better options in Smith and Manningham, Nicks and Boss and, well, just about anybody else….Hedgecock?
So I can’t be bullish on this Broncos game. We won’t be seeing Simms, we’ll get their first string of Kyle Orton, and the Broncs do have some receivers who can hurt us, Marshall and Gaffney and Royal and a nice tight end who can catch. The Broncs will be able to pass and they may even be able to run. They also have some nice defenders against the passing game, aka Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. Hell, Ty Law is their second-string corner.
Can our G-Men win in a shootout? I don’t think so. The only way they win this game is if they’re able to run the ball and stop the passing game. I don’t think they can do either. (I just deleted a whole passage ripping Sheridan, the defensive coordinator in name only, a new butt-hole). But who’s to blame when the defense has no clue?
Almost everything else NFL-wise went my way though this past weekend so I’m not complaining. My picks against the spread went 9-6, and, better yet, my best bets were flawless and I finally won my imaginary ten bucks. I won in both my fantasy leagues and still have a shot at the playoffs.
Not the Giants.
But you know I will.
Even a casual observer would have to agree that, at the very least, the Jets are a very entertaining team. The quarterback is a nut job, the head coach is even funnier and everybody else just tries to keep their heads up. And that’s okay. Anybody who really expected playoffs this year was just dreaming.
The Giants’ defense stinks. That’s really all you can say. But, with Eli firing bullets and lobs and showing a magnificent touch, and with his bevy of receivers seemingly open all the time, we could really see some shootouts in our future, and that’s not a bad thing either.
I guess that’s the biggest difference between these two teams. The Giants play a great football game, on one side of the ball at least, but they’re a bore off the field. The Jets turn in stinker after stinker on the field, but they’re a barrel of laughs off of it.
Did anybody expect the Jets to beat the Patriots again? I know I didn’t. I did think they’d beat the spread, which was 10 ½, a ridiculous spread, given that the Jets beat them the first time they played.
My mistake was that I thought they’d attempt to cover Wes Welker. At the very least, I figured they’d harass him coming off the line, or knock the bejeezus out of him when he caught the ball, thus discouraging him from perpetrating any further aerial offenses against them.
But that didn’t happen. Welker ran here and there unmolested. When he caught the ball, which was quite often, he either ran for big yardage or hit the ground before he could be pummeled.
And, last but certainly not least, the rookie quarterback started bad, came back a little, and then totally came undone.
But that’s what Bill Belichick teams do to rookie quarterbacks. That Sanchez somehow escaped that fate in the season’s first matchup with New England was nothing short of miraculous. Sanchez tried to win the game, though, and along the way, he threw a perfect long pass to Cotchery in the end zone that brought the Jets back to within 10.
But he started the game very badly by throwing that INT that went for a touchdown. That’s a killer for a team to start the game in a 7-point hole right off the bat. But he brought the team back before imploding and, all in all, I’d rather watch him than his backup. The kid still shows a lot of promise. He reminds me of Joe Montana in a lot of ways, the scrambling, the arm, the demeanor….he just needs the same head, and that will come.
Rex has promised to address his young QB’s turnover problem personally. That’s what makes you love him. It may not be the right thing to do but ya gotta love the attitude. Rex has taken as many shots as has Sanchez, and he’s apparently taken them to heart.
So the Jets are a riot, if not a successful one.
The G-Men are a playoff contender but a boring one. I still don’t think they’ll make it to the playoffs though. Their defense won’t allow it. When their opponent has needed to score, they have scored. That’s not a good sign. And, while Eli was able to take advantage of the sieve of a Falcons pass defense, I can’t imagine he’ll be able to do the same this Thanksgiving against the Broncos.
Philip Rivers and his Chargers did though. But they have a strong defense and a better running game. They have LaDainian, we have Twinkletoes. They have Sproles, we have Bradshaw. Their offensive line blocks for the run as well as the pass. Ours blocks quite well for the passing game but the holes just aren’t there in the running game, and even the powerful Bradshaw can’t run through a wall.
Regular readers may wonder why I keep picking on Jacobs. Well, aside from picking up that 4th and 1 against the Pats in that wonder-filled Super Bowl, he’s done nothing up the middle. He has no explosiveness whatsoever, runs high and doesn’t have that much leg strength. What he can do is build up a head of steam and really roll, once he gets an opening.
That’d be great if they used him a little differently, I guess, but the Giants don’t. And they usually have better options in Smith and Manningham, Nicks and Boss and, well, just about anybody else….Hedgecock?
So I can’t be bullish on this Broncos game. We won’t be seeing Simms, we’ll get their first string of Kyle Orton, and the Broncs do have some receivers who can hurt us, Marshall and Gaffney and Royal and a nice tight end who can catch. The Broncs will be able to pass and they may even be able to run. They also have some nice defenders against the passing game, aka Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. Hell, Ty Law is their second-string corner.
Can our G-Men win in a shootout? I don’t think so. The only way they win this game is if they’re able to run the ball and stop the passing game. I don’t think they can do either. (I just deleted a whole passage ripping Sheridan, the defensive coordinator in name only, a new butt-hole). But who’s to blame when the defense has no clue?
Almost everything else NFL-wise went my way though this past weekend so I’m not complaining. My picks against the spread went 9-6, and, better yet, my best bets were flawless and I finally won my imaginary ten bucks. I won in both my fantasy leagues and still have a shot at the playoffs.
Not the Giants.
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