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Deconstructing the QB Controversy in Chicago

Brett — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:21:28 +0000

We’ve been resistant to chiming in publicly on the clusterfuck that is the quarterback situation in Chicago for a couple reasons. First, it seems like every a-hole out there has an opinion on whether the Bears should stick with the struggling (and when we say struggling, we mean in the making fans yearn for the Kordell Stewart era kind of way) Rex Grossman, or hand the reins over to reliable-but-underwhelming back-up Brian Griese. Second, as a Bears fan, we had hoped that if we just ignored this problem, it would eventually go away. It hasn’t, so here we are joining the ‘chattering classes’ of the blogosphere to throw in our $.02. (Editor’s note: we were hoping to work the word ‘truthiness’ into that last sentence, in an effort to cram one more 21st Century buzzword in, but couldn’t quite figure out how to pull it off).

The best way, we believe, to approach this very important, far-reaching issue with global implications of who should quarterback the Bears of Chicago for the final four regular season games, and ostensibly, one to two playoff games, is to have a look at what both sides of the argument have to say. We’ll start with the agruments in favor of benching Grossman, and then examine the arguments in favor of keeping him in the line up.

What the Haters Say
The hideous, god-awful, turnover-filled play that has Grossman has been displaying since the MNF game against Arizona is simply the inevitable result of drating an undersized, injury-prone QB from Florida who thinks he can make every single play going down the field. He doesn’t read defenses very well, and his mechanics are terrible. He crumbles under pressure, doesn’t move very well in the pocket, and locks on to his primary target. His solid play at the beginning of the season was simply a result of playing against bad defenses, and the fact is he had several potential INTs dropped in those games. Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo are too enamored with the guy they anointed to be the franchise QB without making him earn it, and are willing to tank the Bears’ Super Bowl chances just to keep Grossman in the line up. Grossman is a horrible, horrible person, and we hope he rots in hell.

What the Fanboys Say
Rex Grossman is essentially a rookie this year, so people need to lay off him just a little bit. Yeah, he’s thrown some picks, but he’s got that ‘gunslinger’ mentality that you just gotta love in a QB. He’ll make plays that other QBs can’t. He was playing at a Pro-Bowl level the first six weeks of the season, so fans and media should just lay off him. Once he gets his mojo back and starts being a little more patient, he’ll start making plays again. Grossman’s the guy that’s going to lead the Bears back to the Super Bowl (as a side note, Bears fans are the only sports fans we know that consistently talk about going “back” to a game in which they haven’t participated in 21 years), so just get off his back and let him play.

What We Say
Two aspects of this debate have been particularly surprising to us:

First, we can’t honestly remember a QB playing as well as Grossman did early in the season and as poorly as he has recently in the same season. He’s had the most bi-polar season of any QB we can remember, and we’d be willing to bet that his game to game QB ratings bear that out.

Second, we’ve been a little taken aback at how vociferous both sides have been on this debate, and how neither camp has been willing to admit that the other side actually makes some valid points. It’s like Bears fans and the Chicago media have been taken over by opposing camps of Socialists and Right Wing Fundamentalists, battling over whether all the corn fields in the Midwest should be nationalized.

Look, here’s the deal: both sides have valid points. It’s obvious that Grossman has been one of, if not the, worst QBs in the NFL over the last few weeks. It should also be obvious to any informed fan that the guy has loads of talent and potential. Both sides also make ridiculous claims. We laugh every time we read some media type kvetching about Grossman throwing off his back foot — every quarterback in the NFL throws off their back foot, from time to time. They have to, or else they’ll killed. On the other side of the coin, we’re sick of hearing how he’s basically a rookie. Whatever. Dude is finishing up his fourth season in the NFL. He’s not a rookie, and he has no excuse for playing like one.

The linchpin of the argument to bench Grossman seems to be that the Bears have a team that is a QB away from winning the Super Bowl, and if they can just get someone in that can effective manage the game, not turn the ball over, and keep the chains moving, they’ll win the whole thing. This is where we have to call bullshit in a big way. The Bears defense is very good, but not great like the 2001 Ravens were great. Good teams have moved the ball on them, particularly on the ground. In fact, they’ve given up over 130 per game over the last six weeks. Additionally, while they’ve beaten the teams that have been on their schedule, they’ve played exactly TWO good teams this year — New England, to whom they lost, and Seattle, who they beat (although Shaun Alexander didn’t play).

Bottom line, the Bears are good enough to beat up on most of the teams in the NFC, but we don’t believe that they could beat Indianapolis, San Diego, New England, or Baltimore. They might not even be able to hang with Seattle and Dallas in the playoffs. This is not a Super Bowl team, no matter who plays quarterback. Period. So stick with Grossman. Give him another four games and the playoffs to show what he’s got. If he continues to suck, cut his ass and go with Griese next year. If he pulls himself back together, you’ve got your franchise QB. If he finds a happy medium, he might, just might, be good enough to get the Bears back to the big game.

Jake Delhomme: Single-Handedly Killing Our Playoff Predictions

Brett — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:49:09 +0000

Just when we thought the the NFC playoff picture couldn’t become any more muddled –or the conference any more mediocre– the Jeff Garcia led Eagles go out and beat the Panthers on MNF. If the playoffs were to start today, Philly would be in at 6-6 and Carolina would be out. What the hell is that? Thanks for making us look like an idiot, Jake Delhomme.

Over in the AFC, Kansas City is making us look bad, as they let the Browns (the freakin’ Browns) beat them in overtime. It’s well known that Arrowhead Stadium is one of the toughest places to play in the NFL, and the Chiefs have played well at home this year, compiling a 5-1 record. They’re only 2-4 on the road, though. Not so good, Herm. They have two road games left, in San Diego and Oakland in weeks 15 and 16. We gotta think that they’ll split those games, losing in SD and getting the W in Oakland. With Baltimore and Jacksonville at home, though, they may not have enough left in the tank to get into the playoffs. They needed a win in Cleveland.

As it stands the Jets were the only one of our wild card picks to actually get a W in week 13, as Minnesota lost in Chicago. So, you know…we’re feeling not so smart today. Our fantasy team did earn a first round bye in the playoffs, though. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.

Viva Gramatica!

Brett — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:15:01 +0000

Forget the 60 yard game winner that Rob Bironas booted to beat the Colts. Forget Josh Brown’s game winner –his record-tying 4th game winning kicker of the season– to beat Denver in the late game. The award for Best Game Winning Field Goal of the Day has to go to Martin Gramatica, the spindly South American who, until last week, was thought to be dead. Two images stand out in our mind from Gramatica’s 15 seconds of fame yesterday:

1. The look of sheer and utter terror on Gramatica’s face before he went out for the kick. We’re pretty sure he pissed himself as he was trotting his 145 pounds out on to the field — and that was before Tom Coughlin called a timeout to ‘ice’ him (by the way, is ‘icing’ the kicker not the most idiotic thing EVER in the history of sports? Just end the damn game already). We loved the fact that Fox pretty much just kept the camera squarely on Gramatica during the ‘ice’ timeout, and that Martin appeared to be praying the entire time. We would have LOVED to hear how that prayer was going, and we can’t help but wonder if the words ’sweet Lord Baby Jesus’ came out of his mouth. He did, after all, play the in Nascar South Division for a several years, so it’s reasonable to think he’s gotta little Ricky Bobby in him. God, we wish that he’d been ‘mic’d up’ during that timeout.

2. The way that Jason Witten basically put Gramatica in sleeper hold after he made the kick, preventing him from going on one his famous, apeshit, ACL-blowing, soccer-style victory laps. We’re pretty sure that Bill Parcells pulled Witten aside before the kick and said something along the lines of: “Look, Jason, I don’t care how you do it, but, if he makes it, you just make sure that squirrely little bastard doesn’t take off running after the kick. We can’t have him blowin’ out his knee, if it turns out that the kid can still kick. If he misses, I want you to whack his knee as hard as you can with a lead pipe in the locker room.”

Turns out that Gramatica can still kick, and is actually pretty clutch in December and January in his career — around 80%. Seems like every move the Cowboys are making these days is paying off, including dumping Mike Vanderjagt for Gramatica. We don’t really feel strongly one way or the other about the Cowboys, but we’ll say this — the world is a better place when Martin Gramatica is kicking in the NFL.

NFC Playoff Picture

Brett — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:38:57 +0000

We enjoy the fact that current NFL flavor of the month Tony Romo kind of looks like a filthy drunk in this photo. Can’t really think of a decent segueway from that into our pseudo-analysis of the NFC playoff race, so we’re just going to jump right in.

NFC West

Who’s going? Seattle . This team is 7-4, plays in a weak division, and is just starting to hit it’s stride. Credit Mike Holmgren for holding this thing together while Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander were hurt. The Seahawks are going to be dangerous in the playoffs.
Who’s got a shot? St. Louis, just barely. They’re 5-6, and their passing game has been sputtering the last few weeks. They’ve been soft defensively all season. However, they have a pretty weak schedule from here on out, with Arizona, Oakland, and Washington still left to play. If they win those three, they just might sneak in with an 8-8 record. God, the NFC is horrible this year.
Who’s the spoiler? San Francisco. The 49ers have really been playing some good ball the last few weeks, and would have the inside track on a wild card spot if they had held on last week against the Rams. Mike Nolan has this team pointed in the right direction. They just don’t have quite enough talent to make a serious run this year.
Who should be going, but won’t? Arizona. The Cards were a chic pre-season pick to make the playoffs, and they’ve got talent at the skill positions and on defense. Frankly, we’re not surprised that they’re not going to the playoffs, because, hey…they’re still the Cards, and they always find a way to disappoint. We think it’s safe to say that they are who we thought they are.

NFC South
Who’s going? New Orleans. A lot of people have said that the Saints would fiail late in the season, because their schedule down the stretch is a killer. They’ve got San Fran, Dallas, Washington, NYG, and Carolina. With the exception of Dallas, New Orleans is playing better than all of those teams right now. 2-3 should be good enough to get them into the playoffs.
Who’s got a shot? Carolina. Everyone’s preseason Super Bowl pick from the NFC is only 6-5, and hasn’t played with any kind of consistency this year. They don’t have much of a running game, their secondary has been suspect at times, the still relie way too much on Steve Smith, and Jake Delhomme has been struggling lately. Which means, of course, that they’re one of the best teams in the NFC. We’d be surprised if Carolina tanks over the next month.
Who’s the spoiler? Tampa Bay would be the choice, given that, by definition, a spoiler has to be a team that isn’t very good. They also have to, you know, actually be able to win a game here and there, and therein lies the rub with calling the Bucs a spoiler.
Who should be going, but won’t? Atlanta. We had hoped that this would be the year that Mike Vick would put it all together, and for a second there, it looked like he would. I don’t get what’s going on in Atlanta. The owner loves Vick, but the coach has him playing in a system that is just a terrible fit for his skill set. We think there’s a good chance that either Vick or Jim Mora Jr. could be somewhere else next season, because whatever they’re doing in Atlanta just isn’t working.

NFC North
Who’s going? Chicago. The Bears are 9-2. The next best team, Minnesota, is 5-6. It’s not a question of if the Bears will win this division, but when.
Who’s got a shot? Minnesota. Despite losing four of their last five, the Vikings are still right in the thick of the NFC playoff hunt. They’d go a long way toward securing a spot by beating Chicago this weekend. After that, they’ve got NYJ, Detroit, Green Bay, and St. Louis, all of which are winnable games. It’s not out of the question that the Vikes could finish 9-7.
Who’s the spoiler? Green Bay. The Packers are actually playing decent ball these days. Not great, but good enough to beat a team that doesn’t come to play. Brett Favre still has a good arm, and a couple good receivers. The defense has some playmakers.
Who’s should be going, but won’t? There’s not really a team in the division that fits this description. The Vikings have been about as good as most people expected, and the Packers and Lions were bad teams to begin with. Except, of course, in the minds of those jack-offs that pick Detroit as the chic sleeper pick every single year (we’re looking at you, Peter King).
NFC East
Who’s going? Dallas. They’re playing better than anyone in the NFC right now, including Chicago. This team has the right combination of players and scheme on both sides of the ball to beat the Bears in Chicago in January. If they can keep the momentum going, Dallas could represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
Who’s got a shot? The Giants. They’ve fallen to 6-5, are seriously banged up on defense, and have a QB that can’t stop throwing the ball to the other team. That’s not what concerns us, though. The bigger concern with this team is that they just don’t seem to like each other very much. They started out 6-2. We think they’re going to finish up 2-6, and even out at 8-8. That might cut it, but we’re not holding our breath for this club.
Who’s the spoiler? Philadelphia. It’s amazing that this team was within a few plays of being 7-0 at one point in the season. Now they’re 5-6 and have no shot at doing anything. But we wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump up and bite some unsuspecting team –say, the Giants, for example– in the ass.
Who should be going, but won’t? Washington. What a disappointing season it’s been for the ‘Skins. They went to the playoffs last year, spent a buttload of money on free agents and high profile coaches, and don’t have damn thing to show for it. As long as Dan Snyder is running the show in Washington, we’re not sure this team is ever going to do much, no matter how much talent they acquire in the off-season.
So, with a month left to go in the regular season, here’s who we’ve got going to the playoffs in the JV league known as the NFC: Seattle, New Orleans, Chicago, and Dallas as the division winners, and Carolina and Minnesota as the wild cards.

Have a different take? Feel free to chime in and let us know what you think.

Let The Playoff Analysis Begin!

Brett — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:28:01 +0000

We were going to start this post with a mention of how the Broncos have made a QB switch, and are hoping to ride Jay Cutler (figuratively) to the playoffs. We did the perfunctory Jay Cutler image search, and this little doozy is what came up. So there you have it. Jay Cutler. Rookie QB. Laser Rocket Arm. Greased up bodybuilder.

Anyway, this is about the time of year when all the talking heads start pouring over all the different potential playoff scenarios. While we’re not going to go into mindnumbing detail on tiebreakers, division records, conference records, etc., we kinda want in on the act.

So, without further ado, here’s our first not-very-scientific playoff analysis:

AFC East

Who’s going? The Pats are going to win this division, and enter the playoffs as the 3 or 4 seed.
Who’s got a shot? Amazingly, at 6-5 and with an easy schedule down the stretch, the Jets actually have a shot at earning a wild card berth. If they were in the NFC, they’d probably be winning their divsion right now.
Who’s the spoiler? Both Miami and Buffalo are playing very good ball right now. Both of these fit the “they’re not gonna make the playoffs, but you don’t want to play them in December” billing.
Who should be going, but won’t? Miami. This team has a ton of talent, and they’ve finally started to show it. They just came on a little too late.

AFC North
Who’s going? Baltimore. The defense looks every bit as good as they did in 2000 when they won the Super Bowl, and Brian Billick finally (!) has the offense playing well. This team is going to be a tough out in the playoffs.
Who’s got a shot? Cincinnati has finally started playing some defense, after getting embarrassed by the Chargers a few weeks back. They’re 6-5, and still have Baltimore, Indy, and Denver on the schedule, along with Oakland and Pittsburgh. Even if they go 3-2, they’ll still probably need some tie-breaker love to get in. Consider the Bengals a longshot at this point.
Who’s the spoiler? Guess we’ve gotta go with the Steelers, since the wheels are coming off in Cleveland.
Who should be going, but won’t? That’s easy. Has a team every had a larger fall from grace than this year’s Steelers? Rough season in Pittsburgh.

AFC South
Who’s going? The Colts. The Colts have the inside track on homefield advantage in the AFC, which, ostensibly, is what they need to get to the Super Bowl. Didn’t help them much last year, though. Even if they do get homefield, the Pats, Chargers, and Ravens all the defensive personnel and schemes to beat Peyton Manning. Bottom line, though, the Colts are going to be a factor again in January.
Who’s got a shot? Jacksonville, we guess. Their schedule down the stretch is brutal –Miami, Indy, Tennessee, New England, and Kansas City. At least they don’t have to play Houston again.
Who’s the spoiler? Tennessee. Just ask the Giants. The Titans aren’t a real good team, but they have some young, talented players. Plus, you know Jeff Fisher won’t let these guys mail it in.
Who should be going, but won’t? Jacksonville. At the end of the season, they’ll be able to point to three winnable games –the two losses to Houston, and last week’s game against Buffalo– that kept them out of the playoffs.

AFC West
Who’s going? The Chargers. The defense is getting some of its studs back, and they have the most potent offense in the league. This is a team that could beat the Colts in Indy, and has a great shot at going to the Super Bowl.
Who’s got a shot?Kansas City and Denver are both 7-4, and both have relatively tough schedules over the next five weeks. They seem to be teams going in opposite directions, tough. The Chiefs have been letting Larry Johnson do the heavy lifting, their defense has been playing well, and Trent Green is healthy again. The Broncos, on the other hand, haven’t been able to find any consistency in the backfield, their defense came down to earth in November, and they’re going to finish out the season with a rookie QB. With those things in mind, we don’t like Denver’s chances.
Who’s the spoiler? Oakland. Just kidding.
Who should be going, but won’t Denver. The tough schedule and rookie QB are going to combine to derail the Broncos. We predict they’ll finish out at 9-7, which won’t be quite good enough in the AFC.
With five weeks of regular season play to go, this is who we’ve got going to the playoffs from the AFC*: New England, Indy, Baltimore, and San Diego as the division winners, and KC and New York as the wild cards.

NFC playoff analysis coming up tomorrow.

*Subject to change at any time.

MNF Liveblog: Green Bay vs. Seattle

Brett — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:08:41 +0000

Can’t say we’re real intrigued by this one. The Pack going to Seattle, where we’ll undoubtedly hear about two storylines all night long: Brett Favre/Mike Holgrem and How Amazing Brett Favre Is/Will Brett Favre Retire At The End Of This Year. Can’t wait. Here are just a few more things we’re mildly stoked about:

Watching Brett Favre play behind an offensive line featuring 4 rookies.
AJ Hawk and Lofa Tatupu, two of the better young linebackers in the NFL.
Um, yeah…that’s really about it. We have no fantasy implications in this game, have no real rooting interest, and don’t think that it’s going to be a real great game. You should stick around though.
Check out something resembling a live blog after the jump.

Green Bay 24 — Seattle 34

Pregame

Looks like we’re getting a little bit of a snow flurry in Seattle. Nice. Sea-gals look like they’re freezing.

What the hell kind of montage was that Tony K? Brett Favre is Tony Bennett? Brett Favre is the Mississippi River? Uh, OK. We guess.

Hasselbeck is starting tonight, even though he’s not quite as healthy as the Hawks would like him to be. We’re glad we’re not being subjected to more Seneca Wallace.

Favre feeling soreness in his inner forearm. Hmm. Yeah, ulner nerve my ass. Sounds more like Mrs. Favre cut off the love supply.

1st Quarter

Seattle’s ball on their own 25

Hasselbeck’s 2nd pass, deflected and picked by Woodson. Could be a lot of turnovers in this one tonight. Huge play early on.

Packers ball on the Hawks 35
Tony K breaks out this nugget: Favre should be fine, as long as he doesn’t get hit. Because, you know, QBs never get hit. Good call Tony.

Pack makes short work of the short field, capping the drive with an Ahman Green TD from about 5 yards out. Good job taking advantage of the early turnover. 7-0 Pack.

Hawks ball on their own 20-ish 12:35 Q1
Seahawks can’t get much going on offense. Something we’ve seen a ton of this year: false starts by wide receivers at home. There’s no excuse for a WR to EVER get a false start, especially at home. Darrell Jackson shows it to us on 3rd down, but Hasselbeck was able to convert on 3rd and long.

Hasselbeck throws another pick!!! Not sure where Hasselbeck was going. Shaun Alexander was split wide, and no one was covering him, but Hasselbeck didn’t look his way. Great field position again for Green Bay.

Green Bay ball, somewhere in good field position, 10:35 Q1
Packers go 3 and out, good stop for the Hawks D right there. That was exactly what they needed. Now, on offense, they need to work the ball down the field with Shaun Alexander. Hasselbeck is 2 for 5 with 2 picks.

Hawks ball on their own 28, 8:39 Q1
Seahawks convert on 3rd and 2, Hasselbeck to Burleson. Walter Jones absolutely cancelled out KGB on that one.

Alexander off left tackle, FUMBLE….can’t believe the Packers didn’t get that one. Looked like they were about to pick up their 3rd turnover.

Seahawks have a little bit of a drive going, looks like they’ve crossed the midfield…but it’s tough tell with all the snow on the field.

Another 3rd down coming up. Hawks being much more patient on this drive.

Hasselbeck can’t convert on 3rd down, after the Packers get a nice pass rush. Ball went through Mack Strong’s hand. 46 yarder coming up…..and he got it!!!! Tough kick in the snow. Seahawks are on the board 7-3 Packers.

Packers ball on their own 19, 3:25 Q1
Favre goes deep for Driver on the second play. Good pass, good route…better coverage. Nice job of Kelly Herndon to knock the ball away.

Pack with a big gain on 3rd and 4. Favre got a lot of time, threw it to the backside safety valve, who picked up another 20 on it. Nice play.

Favre on the throwback to the backside post, picked off the end zone!!! Ill-advised pass. Guess that’s why they say Rex Grossman has a little bit of Brett Favre in him.

Seahawks ball on their own 22, 15:00 Q2
3rd and 7 coming up for the Hawks….Hasselbeck throws his 3rd pick!!! Great play by Charles Woodson, and the Pack are set up inside the Hawks 30.

Packers ball inside the Hawks 30
Ahman Green rips off 14 on 1st down, 1st and goal.

Packers trying to work the left side, nothing doing. 3rd and goal coming up.

After a timeout and a false start, the Packers go to the ground from outside the 10. Very conservative play there. Not sure we like that play call. Theisman is defending the call, but it seems a bit overly cautious to us.

Packers settle for a FG….And the kick is blocked!!!! So the Packers have 7 points off 3 Seattle turnovers. That’s going to come back and bite them in the ass in the 2nd half.

Hawks ball on their own 20, 12:29 Q2
Alexander looking good on a cut back run. And he comes right back up the gut. Alexander looking good against a good Packers run defense. Hawks are just winning the battle up front right now.

Hasselbeck gets Itula Mili killed on a crossing route. Huge hit by Brady Poppinga.

Hasselbeck launches into the endzone into coverage. Nick Collins lets it go through his hands, and then Paul Hackett can’t hang on. Hasselbeck lucky that one wasn’t picked.

Brown gets a FG out of it. 7-6 Packers.

Packers ball on their own 17, 8:30 Q2
Jimmy Kimmel is our distinguished guest tonight. Lovely. We got nothing against Kimmel. Did his best work when he was on “Win Ben Stein’s Money” if you ask us.

Farve launches it deep to Driver off his back foot. Driver was open, but Favre couldn’t quite enough mustard on it. Packers punt coming up.

Hawks ball at the Packers 44, 6:55 Q2
Well, the game has slowed to a crawl, but Kimmel’s slayin’ ‘em in the booth right now. The best part when he asked Joe how is leg is doing, and Joe got all pissy with him.

Tony: “why not take a hammer, and smash your own?” in response to Joe talking some dumbass thing about how Hasselbeck wants to get his bell rung to get his back in the flow of the game.

Hasselbeck launches it out of the endzone off his back foot. Another FG try for Seattle coming up. Brown is good from 37! 9-7 Seahawks.

Packers ball on their own 30, 3:28 Q2
Packers really need to put a drive together here. They really haven’t moved the ball much at all. Their only score came on the short field off of the first Seattle turnover.

Favre evades the rush on 3rd down, but then gets killed as he throws the ball downfield. Almost picked. Pack 3 and out. Not what they needed there.

Hawks ball on their own 35-ish, 2:29 Q2
Hasselbeck hit from the blindside by KGB, ball pops right into the hands of Abdul Hodge, who takes it to the house!!!! Crazy looking play. Hasselbeck with his 4th turnover of the half, and the Packers regain the lead at 14-9.

Holmgren looks pissed. Theisman talking about whether or not Holmgren should pull Hasselbeck. We think not. We think you gotta stick with the guy.

Hawks ball on the 50, 1:45 Q2
Hawks running the 2 minute drill, Hasselbeck connects with Branch on 1st down.

Hasselbeck find Stevens in the end zone, who drops the ball. Gets bailed out by a defensive holding penalty. Poor effort by Stevens right there.

Hawks have the ball in the red zone. We’re pretty sure they’re going to punch it in…or Hasselbeck’s going to toss another pick, one or the other.

2nd and goal from the 10, :39 left before halftime. Hasselbeck almost throws another pick!!! Terrible decision throwing back across his body into the middle of the field. Jesus, Matt…what were you thinking?

3rd and goal, Hasselbeck hits Burleson right in the hands on the slant route, Burleson drops it. Brown with his 4th FG attempt. Bad snap, but the kick is good! 14-12 Packers.

Packers get the ball back with 18 seconds before halftime, take a knee and call it good. Pretty entertaining first half. Packers have the lead, but really should have a bigger lead, given the 4 Seattle turnovers.

We’re going to grab a slice. Be back for Q3.

3rd Quarter
Packers have the ball in their own territory. We’re a little late coming back from halftime, because we were A) stuffing our face with pizza and B) reading this rather entertaining piece.

Packers convert a 3rd down! Feel like we haven’t seen much of that this year. Greg Jennings looked like he might not get there, but he just got past the first down line.

Next play, Favre to Driver for 48 yards and the TD!!! Great play. Packers open up a lead right out of the schute in the 2nd half. 21-12 Pack. Replay shows Ken Hamlin taking a horrible angle to let Driver run right past him.

Hawks ball on their own 22, 12:31 Q3
Holmgren’s face looking especially pink this evening.

Jerramy Stevens down the middle, gets absolutely lit up and loses the ball. Pass incomplete. We’re just guessing here, but Stevens isn’t going to find himself in a Seahawks jersey next year. That was a big hit, but Stevens needed to make that play.

Packers ball on their own 30 or something, 11:00 left Q3

Favre flushed, chucks it up, almost picked.

3rd down coming up, Packers go 3 and out. The announcers are talking about the fact that if the Pack hang on to win this one, they’ll be right in the mix of th NFC playoff race. Says something about the NFC, doesn’t it, that the Packers are pretty much in the playoff race?

Hawks ball, 9:52 Q3
Hasselbeck has another pass dropped, leading to a discussion about how maybe the Seahawks just aren’t that good. Look, we’ve been saying this for years. The Seahawks aren’t that good. But they’re not that bad either. We tend to think that their struggles this year have more to do with the fact that they’ve been without their starting RB and QB for good chunks of the season. Maybe.

3rd and 12 coming up. Pass incomplete, but there’s a penalty on the Pack.

Steve Young is up in the booth. Two booth guests in one night? What the hell. We don’t like it when our routine gets screwed with.

Meanwhile, Hasselbeck to Hackett for the TD!!!! 21-19 Packers.

Packers ball on their on 32, 6:14 Q3

Crowd has been whipped into a frenzy.

Great shot of Qwest Field. Between SafeCo and Qwest, Seattle may have the best football/baseball stadium combo in the US.

Favre’s 3rd down pass tipped and almost picked. Meanwhile the announcers are still on Favre’s nutz about the consecutive game streak. In all fairness, though, there’s been a lot less Favre fallating than we had anticipated.

Hawks ball on their own 23, 4:37 Q3
Hasselbeck almost tosses another pick, then finds Darrell Jackson on 2nd down for a 15 yard gain.

Alexander with a nice cutback run. Looks like he’s back in full form. Packers actually have a pretty solid run defense, and Alexander is just cutting ‘em right now.

Hasselbeck takes off running, almost gets the first down, then almost fumbles. 4th down coming up. Seattle going for it. Hope they don’t go to Stevens. They pick it up with Mack Strong up the gut.

3rd quarter comes to a painless end on an Alexander run. Quick quarter. That’s how we like it.

4th Quarter
Seattle with the ball in the red zone. More Alexander. First and goal.

Hasselbeck audibles to a fade to Jackson, and hits him the back of the end zone for the TD!!!! Great throw, great catch. Yowza. Very good coverage by Charles Woodson, but just a great play.

Seattle picking up steam, and the two point conversion makes it 27-21. Stevens with the catch on the two pointer, and the crowd appreciates the fact that he hangs on to the ball.

Packers ball on their own 40, 14:04 Q4
Packers trying to get something going, 3rd down coming up.

Favre with a great throw right down the seam to Driver. Great touch down the field. Big play.

Packers with the ball in the red zone. Packers set up a nice looking screen on 2nd down, and it looked like it was set up well. Packers O line just couldn’t get out there, and Julian Peterson blows it up.

Packers settle for the FG. 27-24 Seattle.

Hawks ball on their own 49 10:41 Q4
Hasselbeck almost throws a pick in the flat off play-action. Seems like we’ve been writing “hasselbeck almost throws a pick” on the first play of every drive tonight.

Hasselbeck hits as he throws, pass falls dead. They nail Cullen Jenkins for roughing the passer. Terrible, terrible call. He hit the QB while the ball was still in his hands and was obviously trying to avoid hitting his head. His left hand hit the QBs back on the way to ground. Awful call. Just disgusting. When will the NFL stop going completely over the top to protect the QB? It’s jsut ridiculous. Might as well give them the no-contact practice jerseys to wear every week. Jenkins was pissed, and he had a right to be.

Stevens gets drilled again trying to make a catch, and, predictably, the ball pops free.

4th and 1, Alexander picks it up off the left side. Man, it’s gotta be nice running behind big Walter Jones.

Alexander with another big run off left tackle. First down inside the 10.

Hawks go play action, bootleg action to the right side. We’re not quite sure why. Why not just pound the ball on the left side again? The Packers can’t stop them.

3rd and goal from the 3.

Stevens in the back of the end zone for the TD!!! Great catch. Man, just when we think he can’t get any worse, he goes and does something like that….and completely redeems himself!

Seahawks 34-24. This one is over, folks, with under 7 to go.

Packers ball on their own 31, 6:07 Q4
First play, Favre goes deep, picked off by Marcus Trufant. That one was predictable.

Why was Favre trying to chuck into double coverage to a free agent rookie? Guess that’s just Brett Favre.

Hawks ball on their own 30, 5:10 Q4
Alexander with almost 200 yards on the night. Kornheiser talking about the importance of Hasselbeck and Alexander to this team. No kidding. This team could definitely do some damage in the playoffs, if they get a team at home.

Hawks punt.

Packers ball on their own 26, 4:20 left

Jennings trying to get out of bounds, great tackle by Jordan Babineaux to keep him inbounds.

And Favre is picked again!!! This time by Kelly Jennings. Not sure what Favre was thinking there….trying to squeeze it in where there wasn’t anywhere to go with it.

Hawks ball on their own 39, 3:28 left
Alexander working on 40 carries for the night.

Seahawks punting again. Can Favre throw another pick with around 2 and a half minutes left? Seems like plenty of time to us.

Packers ball on their own 11, 2:30 left

2:00 warning. Packers just picked up a first down. Game is very close to being over. We’re looking for that last Favre pick, and a few kneel downs. Let’s get this done, guys.

Favre almost gets number 4! Hits Julian Peterson right in the numbers, and he drops it.

Penalty on the Pack. Run 10 seconds off the game clock. Woo-hoo! 42 seconds to go.

Another penalty on the Pack. :16 seconds left. Please just let this game end.

Looks like we’ve got ball game here. What clusterfuck of a last play. If you didn’t see it, we’re not going to describe it. Well, we feel prophetic….the Packers only got 14 points off 4 first half turnovers. Gotta get more points than that. Ball game. We’re thankful it’s over.

Week 12 Wrap

Brett — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:57:29 +0000

Alright, we know we’re getting to the party a little late in the day to talk about yesterday’s action, but we have a couple of excuses handy. First, we have a real job, that requires real work…so back off. Second, it’s taken us the better part of 24 hours to get over seeing Tom Brady juke Brian Urlacher in the open field late in the 4th quarter, which left us as speechless as the kid in “Little Miss Sunshine.” What can you say? Tom Brady just finds ways to win.

Here are a few of our other thoughts, leftover from week 12:

OK, Donovan McNabb goes down, and the Eagles season is shot. We get it. But the way that the Eagles just rolled over for the Colts last night was embarrassing.
This is the time when big time running backs really start taking games over. Guys like Larry Johnson, Ladanian Tomlinson, Steven Jackson, and Frank Gore are starting to do just that. It’s really pretty impressive to see. With apologies to Joseph Addai, who put up 171 and 4 TDs, we thought that Jackson’s performance against the 49ers was one of the most impressive RB performances we’ve seen this year. Yeah, it was against the 49ers, but that was a clutch performance when his team needed it. Nice job by Scott Linehan, too, of just feeding the ball to Jackson in a game when the passing game just wasn’t there.
In the interest of full disclosure, we’re going to admit something before this next comment: Here at NFL Logue we’re complete Joey Harrington homers. How can you root for that guy, you ask? Well, he went to high school about two miles from our house, and everyone likes to see the hometown guy make good, right?. When everyone was booing him out of the joint in Detroit, we steadfastly maintained that all the kid needed was a change of scene. Now, we’ll admit that he’s far from being a flawless QB in Miami, but it was nevertheless gratifying to see him stick it to the Lions on Thanksgiving. What a pathetic franchise.
Alright, we’re three bullet points in and are officially ready to address what happened in New England yesterday. First and foremost, this game had Bill Belichik’s fingerprints all over it. He knew the Bears were going to try to exploit the Pats injury-depleted secondary. With that in mind, the Pats were basically willing to concede yards on the ground (the Bears racked up 145 rushing yards against the #2 rushing D in the league) by keeping a safety deep and playing the run with 7 in the box. It worked to perfection, as the Bears once again proved impatient and unwilling to take what the defense was giving them in the underneath zones. Rex Grossman, he of the 4 turnover game, continues to force balls downfield. In Grossman’s defense, though, none of his interceptions were terrible decisions, although the last one was certainly dubious. His accuracy just wasn’t there, and Asante Samuel did a great job of reading the ball and jumping routes. Finally, just for the record, we’re of the mind that the Bears need to continue to ride Grossman this year. He’s the guy. He either gets it done, or he doesn’t — but putting in Brian Griese at this point sets this franchise back 4 years.
The Panthers and Jaguars are easily the most confusing teams in the NFL this year. One week, both teams look like Super Bowl contenders. The next, the get beat by teams that have no business beating them. We’re not sure what’s going on over in the Deep South these days, but we’re relatively sure that neither John Fox nor Jack Del Rio will be winning the Coach of the Year award this season.
Ditto Tom Coughlin, whose team pissed away a 21 point lead in the 4th quarter against one of the worst teams in the league. Hell, if we were Tiki Barber, we’d be retiring too.
One final note. We read today that the Cowboys have cut Mike Vanderjagt and have signed Martin Gramatica. Look, Vanderjagt is clearly one of the biggest free agent disappointments this season, and he’s also clearly one of the biggest jack-offs in the league. But Martin Gramatica? Are you serious? We can’t help but think that this is going to bite the Cowboys in the ass in January.

Week 12 Preview: Bears vs. Pats

Brett — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:18:44 +0000

We haven’t done a Bears preview post in a while, and with the Thanksgiving games looking less than compelling (with the exception of Denver/KC, which we’re not talking about because we’re bitter as hell that the only game worth watching tomorrow is on the goddam NFL Network), we figured this would be a good time to talk about the biggest game of the week.

What’s at Stake
Both teams are in the driver’s seat in their respective divisions, and given the fact that the Bears have a three game lead over other NFC playoff contenders, one could argue that there really isn’t much at stake in this one. The Pats have lost two of their last three, though, and haven’t been great at home this season. They need a win to keep pace with the other AFC divisional leaders.

Chicago is in the midst of playing three straight road games. After winning the first two, you’d think that they’d be pretty satisfied going 2-1 before heading back to Soldier Field. However, the Bears are going to need to beat some good teams this year –the only halfway decent teams they’ve beaten are the banged up Giants, the banged up Seahawks, and the Vikings– if they’re truly going to be considered an elite team.

Our keys to victory, after the jump.

Pats 3 Keys To Victory

1. Spread ‘em out, and run the ball. Since defensive leader Mike Brown was lost for the season four games ago, the Bears are giving up 137 yards per game on the ground. The Cover 2 scheme that they run is not conducive for stopping big, powerful runners, and the Pats have two of them in Corey Dillon and Lawrence Maroney. The Pats can take advantage of this weakness by using multiple receiver sets to get the Bears into their nickel package, and then running the ball straight at them. The Pats will have a great chance to win this one if they run the ball 25 times or more.

2. Exploit favorable match-ups in the slot. Bears nickel CB Ricky Manning Jr. will be serving a one game suspension this week for his role in an assault during the off-season. That will leave safeties Todd Johnson and Chris Harris on the field for passing downs. If the Pats go to four or five wide sets, they should be able to get Johnson or Harris –neither of whom are great cover guys– locked up on quicker, faster receivers. With the brand spankin’ new field turf that’s been installed in Gillette Stadium, this is a huge advantage for the Pats.

3. Confuse the hell out of Rex Grossman. Since the Arizona game, teams have been coming after Grossman like crazy. He still hasn’t shown that he can consistently make smart decisions when pressured, and he just doesn’t have enough experience yet to have a great grasp of reading defenses. No one is better at throwing multiple looks at a quarterback than New England. Expect them to try to rattle Grossman. If they’re successful, it could be a long day for the Bears offense.

Bears 3 Keys to Victory

1. Run the ball. We’ll keep saying this all season long, but if the Bears offense is going to be successful they have to commit to running the ball. This is something they’ve been doing a better job of in recent weeks, but Ron Turner may find it difficult to stay with the run game against a stout New England defense. Even if they don’t have much success with it early, staying with the run will be critical to keeping the defense honest and preventing them from tee-ing off on Grossman.

2. Work the play-action game and stretch the Pats downfield. Last week we saw the Bears get away from the downfield passing game a little bit. Receivers Bernard Berrian and Mark Bradley, while not particularly well known or experienced, are great downfield weapons and have the advantage in one on one match-ups vs. the Pats undermanned and overmatched secondary. The key will be making sure Grossman has enough time to set and throw, which is where the play-action comes into the mix. Look for the Bears to try to exploit the Pats down the field early on.

3. Get pressure with the front four. This is something that Bears have been doing a fantastic job at this year. Tom Brady gets rid of the ball so quickly and reads defenses so well that blitzing is a risky proposition against the Pats. The Bears will need to generate a pass rush with their D line, particularly to protect Johnson and Harris in coverage. This would be an ideal week for Tommie Harris to come back to life, after being held without a sack for the last few games.

Prediction
Most observers think that this will be a low scoring game, since both teams are strong defensively. Not us. We think both offenses will be able to exploit the respective weaknesses of each defense, making for a high scoring ball game. While we’d love to see the Bears come out of this one with a win, the Pats are just a little too tough at Foxboro late in the season. We’re gonna go 31-26 Pats.

MNF Liveblog: Giants vs. Jags

Brett — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 01:04:35 +0000

It’s been a while, but we’re getting back on the livebloggin’ horse. After a hiatus of a few weeks, we’re back and badder than ever…or something like that.

Tonights game should be a good one. What this rivalry lacks in mystique, it should make up for in desperation — both of these teams need this win to keep pace in their respective divisions. New York needs to hold of the surging Cowboys, and Jacksonville needs to keep their playoff hopes alive. They say that the more desperate team usually wins. Guess we’ll find out which team wants it more.

Here are a few of the things we stoked about in tonight’s game:

Tiki Barber and Fred Taylor
These guys have been two of the most consistently solid backs in the NFL for a long time now. Taylor gets a bad rap because he’s injury prone, but he’s a heck of a back when he has the ball in his hands. Barber banged up his thumb last week against the Bears, so it will be interesting to see how well he’s able to protect the ball. Both teams are going to be looking for strong ground games tonight to take the pressure off their struggling quarterbacks.

The Jags Defense
This is a fun group to watch, starting with John Henderson and Marcus Stroud up front. Rashean Mathis is one of the better corners in the NFL, and Donovin Darius always brings the lumber. We admit we have a bit of a rooting interest when it comes to the Jags D — we’re sitting a decent but not insurmountable lead in our fantasy game. Our opponent, the guy running in last place in our league, has both Tiki and Plaxico going tonight. We need the Jags to keep those guys bottled up if we’re going to eek out of this week with a W.

Thanksgiving Week
It’s been a epic weekend of watching football. Frankly, we’re stoked that we get to extend that for one more night, take two days off, and then watch more football on Thursday. And then a little bit more on Saturday. And then more on Sunday. Seriously, is there a better week for watching football than this one? We think not.

Alright, we’ve got all your livebloggin’ needs covered in 30.

NYG 10 — JAX 26

Pregame
Hate the red numbers on the Giants gear. Their helmets are top 5. Jerseys are bottom 5.

Jags, on the other hand, are looking badass, rockin’ the all blacks. Tough.

And Del Rio’s sporting the suit. Very Tom Landry.

1st Quarter

Jags Ball deep on their own 10

Jags go to Taylor on 1st two plays. With so many guys missing from the Giants front seven, we gotta believe that’s going to there all night for them.

Garrard loses the ball on the shotgun snap, barely avoids a safety or a defensive TD. Theisman, of course, blames the center.

Giants Ball on the Jags 30

Jags with a good line push on the first play.

John Henderson looking like an old Eddie Murphy SNL character. Of course, you didn’t that from us.

Manning to Burress incomplete in the end zone, a cameraman gets trucked at the end of the play. Burress had inside position on that one.

Feely boots a FG, 3-0 Giants. Good job by the Jags of holding them to a FG.

Jags ball on their own 27

The overhead camera…what a great innovation. Great angles with that camera.

Wierd little “Free Bird” Tom Coughlin montage there. What the hell was that?

Taylor looks a little indecisive on a 2nd down draw play. There was a big hole on the left side, but Taylor missed it.

Garrard stands in nicely against the blitz on 3rd down. Great job of hanging in the pocket. That’s a big time throw.

Garrard misses an open guy in the end zone. Joe says “I don’t think he was led too much.” Gimme a fucking break! The guy was wide open, and had to lay out completely to try to grab it. It could’ve been caught…but it would have been an amazing catch.

Drive stalls out, Jags tie it up on the FG.

Theisman and Kolber all over the Jags receivers. You can tell they’ve been waiting to jump on that storyline all night. You know what? You wanna know Wrightster didn’t catch that ball in the end zone? It was Theisman’s fault. What a fucking douche. Wonder if they’ve tabbed him to announce the Summer’s Eve Bowl in a few weeks.

Giants ball on their own 25
Kornholio calls out Theisman for hanging too much on the collective sack of every NFL QB. It’s a good call by Tony, but these guys are so freakin’ tired. Gimme Jaws and Vermeil (or Greg Kinnear…whatever).

Donovin Darius is down with an injury. Can’t tell what he’s got yet, but, if it’s serious, it’s a big blow to the Jags D.

And they’ve got him on the cart. They’re goes his season. Replay looks nasty.

Dirty block on that play. Wasn’t a penalty, but it was still a dirty play.

Jags stuff Brandon Jacobs on 3rd and 1. Another good defensive series for the Jags.

Jags ball on their own 27
Taylor finding running room hard to come by in the middle of the defense. Giants are missing a lot of good players up front, but they’re stacking the box on 1st and 2nd down right now.

Kolber absolutely effervescent talking about Taylor and MoJo Drew…dare we say, mellifellous?

3rd and short, Jags pick it up on the sneak with a great line push. Right now, the Jags are winning the battles up front.

Fans are starting to boo after a Reggie Williams dropped pass. For all the talk about the drops that Jags are having, that’s the first real drop of the game.

Giants ball on their own 20
Eli on play-action, has all day. Finds Plaxico in the middle of the field, gets smacked, loses the ball. Play ruled a fumble, but it looks more like an incomplete pass. We’re pretty sure that this one is going to get overruled.

It looks like to us that it’s a catch and he’s down before the ball comes out. It’s possible that it might be called incomplete. Complete and a fumble is probably the worst call that could be made here.

Giants keep the ball, played call incomplete. We’re fine with that call.

Giants with a nice looking play off right tackle, but the Jags do a great job of pursuing and turning the play back inside.

2nd Quarter
After an hour long quarter, the Giants punt to the Jags. Jags start with the ball in good field, on their own 43 yard line.

Manning looked terrible in the first quarter, and the Giants are inexplicably ignoring Jeremy Shockey early in the game again. Wonder if maybe Coughlin is slowly working Shockey out of the offense as payback for all the shit that Shockey was talking on Coughlin earlier this year?

Jags moving the ball again on the Giants, inside their 35. They’ve been moving the ball well between the 30’s, but they’ve been stalling out when they get in close.

3rd and 3, Jags go the shotgun. Garrard hit Wilford underneath, who breaks a tackle for the 1st down. We don’t like the call, but it worked.

Jags are working the play-action. They’re not getting a ton on the ground, but they’re showing how working the ground game opens up the play-action. Jags ball on around the 10.

Taylor with a great run up the gut for a TD!!!! Nice hole, great downhill run by Taylor. Looked like a trap play, maybe? Whatever it was, it got the job done. Very nice drive by the Jags.

Giants ball on their own 20
Eli finally tries to go to Shockey for the first time, has it go through has his hands.

Why the hell are four dudes talking about one of them being sexy? You’re like to smacked upside if the head if you start talking crazy like that around NFL Logue HQ. Jesus, guys.

Giants go three and out. Do they have a first down yet? Doesn’t seem like it.

Jags ball on their own 30-ish

Garrard goes play-action again, gets a lot of time, but no one’s open. He takes off running for the first time and picks up the first down.

Fred Robbins with an amazing bull rush, going right through two guys and completely blowing up the pocket. Garrard takes off again and gets 4.

Kornholio talking about pageants, and sexy men…what the hell is going on here?

Matt Jones drops the ball on 3rd down. Terrible fundamentals there, as Jones lets the ball get in on his pads. Another Jags drive stalls out.

At the very least, though, they’re controlling the clock and winning the field position battle. Still they’re only one score up, even though they’ve been dominating the action.

Giants ball inside their own 10

3rd and long, inside their own 5. If we were Tom Coughlin, we’d be calling a draw to Tiki right here. Eli in the gun. Screen to Brandon Jacobs, and they pick it up. Great play call.

How were the Jags not prepared for that?

Eli flushed, looking for Plaxico Burress deep, and Eli throws a pick! Terrible throw by Manning, as Plaxico had gotten behind the coverage.

Jags ball on the Giants 30

Jags need to get at least 3 out of this one. Garrard with a nice choice, as they had a double move called, wasn’t there, and he checks down. That’s a good example of the QB knowing what he needs to do.

How the hell is that not PI? Jason Webster jacks up Matt Jones right in front of the ref down the sideline.

Garrard to Wrightster for the first, inside the red zone. Good throw, good protection, good catch. Garrard has looked pretty sharp so far. Giants don’t look like they can hold the Jags back.

Jags run a screen to Taylor, looks like it’s going to go for 6, but Taylor fumbles at the goal line! Huge play for the Giants. That play keeps them in the game right now.

Giants ball on their own 20
Less than 1:30 left in the half, Giants tyring to move the ball down the field and at least get in to field goal range before halftime.

Jags pick up a 15 yard penalty, putting the Giants past midfield. Giants give 5 of it back after a false start.

Giants set up a screen, have it set up nicely, but Tiki drops it. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.

3rd and 3 coming up. Burress open on the slant, but Eli can’t hit him. Theisman blaming Burress for not running hard, but it looks like to us that Burress just settled down in the zone and Eli led him as if the Jags were in man coverage. Bottom line, they’re not on the same page. It’s someone’s fault, but it’s so freaking annoying how Theismand ALWAYS blames the receiver.

Jags ball on their own 15, 49 seconds left in the 1st half
What the hell are the Jags doing? We hate this play calling right here? They’re running half-assed pass plays, not calling timeouts, and not trying to get out of bounds. With two timeouts, there was enough time to try to get into field goal range. We hate the half-assed effort at the end of the first half. Terrible clock management.

Halftime
The Jags have absolutely dominated every aspect of this game, but only have a 7 point lead to show for it. Taylor’s fumble could be huge, but overall the Jags are playing a very fundamentally solid game (minus a couple dropped passes). They’re protecting the passer very well, they’re running the ball effectively, and they’re really working the play action passing game.

Defensively, they’re tackling, covering, and rushing the passer very well. They look tough. It’s the black gear. You can’t mess with the black, baby.

We’re gonna grab a brew. Will be back in a few.

3rd Quarter
Giants return man fumbles the ball out of bounds. Giants start deep in their own territory. We expect them to try to get the ground game going.

Wow, they’re going from bad to worse. Manning effs up the hand off.

3rd and 12, Eli gets time and goes downfield to Burress. Mathis with great coverage, though, and the Giants go 3 and out again.

Jags ball on the Giants side of midfield
Well, so far, more of the same. Jags are getting the better field position, and the Giants can’t hang on to the ball for more than 3 downs.

Jags go right back to the play-action game. Garrard have a very effecient, if not flashy, game.

Garrard finds Wrightster again on 3rd down, with the blitz coming off the edge. Wrightster then makes a very unathletic and painful looking move on RW McQuarters.

Taylor up the gut two times in a row inside the 10, nothing doing. Giants stiffen up. Big 3rd down coming up.

Garrard throws a fade to Wilford, out of the back of the end zone. We hate that call on 3rd down. There’s only one option. On third down, you need more than one option. Run that play on 1st or 2nd down. It’s just not a good third down play.

Jags have been getting really conservative inside the red zone. All those lanky, long striding receivers might limit their playbook a little bit. The screen to Taylor was the best red zone play they’ve called all night. Jags boot a FG, makes it 13-3. The Jags should probably have around 24 points right now, though.

Giants ball on their own 30

Eli under pressure from Stroud on 2nd down, pisses himself, and chucks it underhanded toward the line.

Jags bring the blitz, the guy comes untouched, Eli fumbles trying to get rid of it. Jags pick it up and take in to the house!!!!! But, there’s a penalty on the Jags, so instead of 20-3 Jags, we’ve got first down Giants.

Ugg. We feel sick right now. We’re so happy we’re not a Jags fan right now.

3rd and 1. Jacobs picks it, absolutely trucks a Jags linebacker in the hole. Giants starting to move the ball juuuuusst a little bit.

Giants have a favorable match up right now with Plaxico lining across from Brian Williams. Also going no-huddle and having some success. A couple nice adjustments by the Giants look like they’re paying off.

Manning goes for Shockey, who wasn’t open on the deep post.

Burress in for the score!!! Caught the ball out in the flat, makes a couple guys miss and takes it in from about 20 yards out. didn’t even look like he was running. All the sudden, we’ve got a ballgame. 13-10, Jags. We can’t believe this is a 3 point game.

Jags ball on their own 37
Jags working the play-action on 1st down. Jags break out the no-huddle.

MoJo Drew with a couple nice runs.

Garrard makes his first mistake, throwing a bad pass in the middle of the field. Gets away with it, though, as the pass falls incomplete.

On 3rd down, Garrard somehow avoids getting sacked. He held the ball too long, got hit, and bounced off for 20 yards. Theisman declares “that’s a play you wouldn’t see Byron Leftwich make.” Thanks, Captain Obvious. There’s not a QB in the league that could have gotten out of that.

Courtesy of Hydro: Shockey looks like he’d be right at home in a double-wide, wearing a wife-beater, suckin’ down 40’s. He’s a man of few words, but when he speaks, you should listen.

Jags with a 1st and goal. Up the gut with Taylor for around 5.

Garrard looks for MoJo out of the backfield, threw it maybe half a second too late. Jags settle for a FG again. 16-10 Jags, but this game should be completely out of hand by now.

Giants ball on their own 20

Eli goes deep to Plax, finds him on the deep post. Great throw. Great effort by Burress, but the replay shows that he didn’t have control coming down. This one’s going to get overturned.

Call overturned, Plax looking dejected. That’s the right call though.

3rd and 7, blitz comes in free on Manning, forces a bad throw. Giants punting again, last play of the 3rd quarter.

4th Quarter

Jags ball on their own 44
Garrard finds Jones on 3rd and 8, moving across the middle. Play goes for 49. That’s the way to use that guy…get him the ball once he has a head of steam, and just let him rumble. They guy is too big for most DBs to tackle. RW McQuarters actually did a really nice job of slowing him down once he got down inside the 10.

MoJo Drew hits paydirt on a run up the gut! That hole was big enough for the mascot to run through. 23-10 Jags. That’s more like it.

Giants have only had the ball for 13 minutes and change through 3 plus quarters, which means that the Jags are more than doubling up on them in time of possession. Wow. That’s a sign of a bigtime ass-beating.

Giants ball on their own 34
Eli sacked on 1st down. Great jump off the ball by DE Bobby McCray.

3rd and long. Eli with a great touch throw to Shockey on the flag route. There’s a flag down, though. Looks like it’s against the Giants.

OK, nevermind. No penalty, 1st down Giants.

Coughlin has some choice words for the refs as they miss a very obvious pass interference penalty.

Jags bring the blitz again, and stuff Tiki. Great defensive play call, just when it looked like they were going to be content to sit in a deep zone.

3rd and long, Manning throws a pick!!! Looks like the Jags had him confused right there, because Eli threw it right to the Jags defender.

Jags ball on their own 36
Garrard on the boot, being chased by Kiwanuka. Great throw, great catch by some guy named Cortez Hankton. We’re pretty sure that guy was working at the local post office last week.

Jags startingt to play clock ball at this point, working the middle of the field with Fred Taylor between the tackles.

Kolber positively giddy as she busts out this gem: “Manning killing himself on the sideline…no seriously, he’s slitting his wrists as we speak. I’m not joking. Right now. Killing himself. Back to you guys.”

Garrard with a tough, gutty run, comes up 1 yard short of the first down. You gotta admire the stones on the guy, but that’s a good way to separate your shoulder….looks like he fumbled forward, and scored himself a cheap first down. Coughlin’s going to challenge the spot.

4th down coming up. Refs have f’d up some calls tonight, but at least they’ve been big enough to overturn their stupidity. Take a note Ed Hochuli, you freaking tool.

Jags were going to go for it there, but a false start moves them back 5 yards. Jags get a 48 yard field goal out of the deal, extending their lead. 26-10 Jags. Can we just call this one at this point? We have a feeling this is going to be a long 5 minutes .

Giants ball on their own 40
Giants going no-huddle, moving the chains. Wonder if maybe they shouldn’t be going no-huddle a little bit more?

Manning finds Drew Carter down inside the 10, he takes one step, and fumbles. And Shockey is not a happy camper.

Korholio’s starting to get on a little role now. He’s at his best when he’s poking away at Theisman. We’d love to see more of that.

Jags ball inside their own 10 yard line

Garrard damn near throws a pick in the middle of the field. Incomplete, Jags punt coming up.

Giants ball around midfield
Giants trying to move the ball, with around 3 minutes left to go. This is where the game gets long.

Giants have the ball inside the 20, still banging away. We’re at the 2 minute warning.

Jags defense holds, Giants give it up on downs, and we’re mercifully finding ourselves at the end of this one. Jags dominated every aspect of this one. This game should’ve been around 41-10, but the Jags will take 26-10. We’ve seen the Jags play twice this year, and both times they’ve been very impressive. Good thing they don’t have to play the Texans again this year.

That’s all we got for tonight. We’re out.

Week 11 Wrap Up

Brett — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:41:16 +0000

Before we dive into our reactions on this weekend’s NFL action, we’re going to comment on the Ohio St.-Michigan game. The game was well played, clean, and wasn’t characterized by bad penalties, stupid turnovers or sloppy play. Both teams played with poise, confidence and class. The teams lit up the scoreboard, and the final score was pretty close.

All things considered, it was everything a Game of the Century should be. With one notable exception — the game just wasn’t that exciting. For the last couple days, we’ve been scratching our head, trying to figure what was missing from this game. Here’s the theory: Michigan never really had a chance to win this one, the close score notwithstanding. From our perspective, it seemed like Ohio St. was in clear control of the game for almost the entire 60 minutes, with Michigan’s opening drive and a few series in the 3rd quarter being the exceptions. Now, if Michigan had the ball at the end of the game and was driving into field goal we might feel differently about this whole thing. If it had gone in to overtime, we definitely would have felt differently. Bottom line, though, this game wasn’t nearly as exciting as either of last year’s Games of the Century (USC vs. Notre Dame, and the Rose Bowl). That said, we’re stoked to see a rematch of these two teams in the BCS Championship; in our humble opinion, they’re the two best teams in the country.

Alright, enough college ball. Jump with us if you’re interested in hearing our incessant ramblings on the NFL.

First, the Bears. Ugly game, good result. It made us happy to see the Bears win a game like this. To this point in the season, they’ve either played exceptionally well, or exceptionally poorly, sometimes even during the same game. Against the Jets, though, their offense was stagnant, but not disastrous. The defense gave up some yards in the first half, but got big plays when they needed them. It’s still obvious that they miss Mike Brown, though. Bottom line, it was a tough, physical win against a good but by no means great opponent on the road. We’ll take it.
Next, the Pats. Tom Brady and Co. brought the whuppin’ stick to Green Bay. After two consecutive losses (gasp!), the Pats look like they have their form back. Still, the lack of weapons has to be a concern. Forgive us if we can’t get that excited about Ben Watson and Reche Caldwell lighting up the worst secondary in the league. The Pats have always been a team that gets the most out of their talent, though, and they’re upcoming game with Chicago should be a good one. More on that later this week.
We’re thankful that the Cowboys beat the Colts for two reasons. First, with Donovan McNabb out for the year, the Eagles are out of the running in the NFC East. If the ‘Boys keep winning, they can keep things interesting in that division. Second, by handing the Colts a loss before they really start to threaten to go undefeated, we’re spared from hearing about the ‘72 Dolphins for the next weeks. God, we hate that team.
Losing McNabb for the year is a dagger to the Eagles, a team that was fighting for a playoff spot. Now, they might as well mail it in — kind of like they did last year once McNabb went down. This team probably doesn’t have a huge window to be competitive, maybe another 2-3 years at most, before they’re going to need to re-evaluate what they’re doing. You can’t win in the NFL if you can’t run effectively between the tackles. That doesn’t seem to bother the Eagles much, but as McNabb slows down and loses mobility, they’re going to need to evolve the offense accordingly. They’re going to need a guy that pound the rock and take some of the heat off McNabb. That guy isn’t on their roster right now, and we’re not sure that Andy Reid and Marty Morningweg are the guys to lead that kind of offense.
We’ll admit, we’re not very big Brian Billick fans. The guy seems like an arrogant prick. He also seems to be doing a hell of a job with the Ravens offense right now. Assuming they can stay healthy, the Ravens could be a force in the AFC playoffs.
Speaking of the AFC playoffs, it’s our feeling that there are four teams in the AFC — the Colts, Pats, Ravens, and Chargers — that would have no problem beating the NFC’s best if the Super Bowl were held today. If the Chargers can get healthy on defense, they could be unstoppable in January. Unless, of course, Marty Schottenheimer shows up for the games.
The Saints have been one of the best stories of the season so far, but they’re fading fast. They have a brutal schedule down the stretch, with Dallas, NYG, and Carolina still to play. At best, they’re looking at 9-7, which may not be good enough to get into the playoffs. We know this much, though — if Drew Brees keeps putting up 500 yards, at least fantasy owners will be happy.
Jason Campbell didn’t look too bad in his first NFL start, all things considered.
We keep hearing rumblings that the Broncos are going to pull Jake Plummer in favor of Jay Cutler. Plummer has been having a pretty bad year, even by his standards, but can you really pull a veteran QB with playoff experience in favor of a rookie who won like 4 games in college while you’re in the midst of fighting to win the division? We don’t think that even the ever-fickle Mike Shanahan would make that move.