Monday, November 22, 2010

The Morning After

1. Unless you’re a Pittsburgh fan you can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy Richard Seymour clocking Big Ben in the face. That was awesome…he had it coming to him. I just want to offer Richard a formal thank-you for doing what 99.3% of America has wanted to do to Big Ben for a long time, again, thank-you.
Here it is if you didn’t see it already (in which you either live under a rock, or shouldn’t be reading this blog):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ022efPQ8I&playnext=1&list=QL

2. There’s nothing I can say about Vince Young that hasn’t already been said, but I feel like I need to say it anyway. He’s a talented football player that much is evident. But talent doesn’t give you an automatic starting job on game day (see: Jamarcus Russel). You see, Vince, you need to to show your coach you actually care and are adequately prepared every single Sunday. This isn’t high school (or even college) we’re you can show up completely unprepared and wing it based solely on athleticism…everyone’s good in the big leagues (well except for Carson Palmer). There’s going to come a time in which teams stop taking chances on you and then you’re broke…all because you never put the time in Monday through Friday. How do you think that will feel?

3. If you would recall I picked Minnesota to win in a nail-biter against Green Bay…in hindsight, that didn’t turn out so well. Call it a mulligan if you would be so kind; that turned out worse than Randy Moss’s decision to talk his way out of New England. I could give you 500 words on the giant fart-cloud laid by Favre and Childress across Minnesota, but instead I offer you this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6spVb5U9WTA

4. I came as close to the brink of insanity Sunday afternoon as I hope to ever experience again. For Peyton Manning and his eclectic collection of pass catchers (that’s a compliment, Tight end Jacob Tamme is so slow I’m positive he’s actually a left tackle) to defeat the Patriots in almost the same way they did last year would drive a stake through Patriots nation most would never recover from. Manning already gives me nightmares…if he were to beat the Pat’s again in such dramatic and excruciating fashion I would be like one of those people you see in horror movies that’s in the nut house because he swears he’s seen a ghost/Satan/what have you, everyone thinks is insane, but is actually completely right. Thanks to an epic Peyton Manning eff-up, none of that happened…as far as you know.

5. Can someone please teach Michael Vick how to slide? There’s no way he makes it through the season with the kind of punishment he’s taking every week. There are two-three plays every game where Vick just gets walloped…that can’t happen. The guys six feet tall and 200 pounds, he’s not built to take punishment like a 5’10 230 pound half-back. Maybe Any Reid can show him the ropes?

6. Speaking of Vick, the Giants kindly laid out the blueprint of how to stop him last night…or at least contain him. It all starts with the pass rush…when the Giants just went with four rushers Vick had all day, but when they sent five or more he was always hurried. But that much is pretty clear, the second thing New York did I found interesting was force Vick to his right. When he is forced that way he tends to tuck it and run instead of passing (understandable considering he’s left handed).

The Eagles have a big play offense-when they’re getting those deep throws to Jackson going it allows the ground game to open up and gives Vick better running lanes and field vision. But when Vick is heavily pressured those deep routes aren’t allowed to develop which send’s Philadelphia’s offense to a screeching halt. For all of Vick’s vast improvement he still seems unable to beat the blitz…a troublesome sign for the Philadelphia Eagles.

7. You can’t stop Chan Gailey…you can only hope to contain him. Cincinnati should be ashamed…up 31-7 at halftime against a 1-8 team. Really? Carson Palmer, Terrell Owens, Chad OchoCinco, and Cedric Benson can’t put up any more points in the second half against a team that is ranked last or close to last in nearly every defensive category? I thought Carson Palmer was the premier garbage time quarterback in the game today…not the league’s best front runner.

3 Teams Up

1. Green Bay Packers (7-3): Remember when they held open tryouts week three because of all the injuries? I made that up, but they did suffer more injuries in the first few weeks that I can ever remember…which is why it’s so astonishing how dominant the Pack has been lately. You can thank Greg Jennings for that…the man has been god-like over the second half of the season (520 yards and 6 touchdowns) and the continued dominance by the golden locks of Clay Mathews.

2. Atlanta Falcons (8-2): Because they needed to show they could gut out a tough win away from the Georgia Dome against a reasonably good team…they did just that and more. Roddy White is a beast.

3. Washington Redskins (5-5): They deserve some recognition for gutting out a win against a tough Tennessee team (with the exception of Vince Young) after getting absolutely shellacked last week.

3 Teams Down

1. Tennessee Titans (5-5): What happened to them? Chris Johnson isn’t being the dominant player he was last year and Randy Moss has been putting up numbers more befitting of Roy Williams than the great Randy “straight-cash-homie” Moss. With Rusty Smith (yes, that’s really his name) under center don’t expect much of an improvement in the coming weeks.

2. San Francisco 49ers (3-7): For putting up zero points at home, against a team that allowed the Arizona Cardinals to put up 35 points. I hopped on the Troy Smith bandwagon at the first chance possible…but how stupid of me, I forgot Mike Singletary is his coach.

3. Carolina Panthers (1-9): For throwing Brian St. Pierre to the dogs…and watching him throw 2 (yes 2!) pick 6’s. What’s he gonna’ tell his kids now when they ask about his football career? “Yeah, I played professional football, yeah I started a game, yeah I threw two picks, yeah they were returned for touchdowns…but at least I got the chance!” Poor guy.

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