Playoff setup fine; PFT not what it was

by | Jan 6, 2010 | NFL Media, NFL Random Thoughts

Mike Florio has done a nice job building his Web site into a national phenomenon. But he was better when he had to pick and choose the issues on which he weighed in because of time constraints stemming from his legal job (though it rarely seemed like he actually had any law-related work to do). Now it seems as though he feels he has to weigh in on every single little thing that comes up. And much of what he floats is simply ridiculous.

In recent weeks, he has posted his opinion that:

– The Vikings should bench Adrian Peterson because he fumbles too much – did he look up the per carry fumbles of other young, future star running backs like Eric Dickerson, Tony Dorsett, Walter Payton, et al? And when he fumbled at the end of the Chicago game (which by the way was lost at least equally if not more so by an ineptly played special teams performance and a defense that generated no pass rush and gave up 36 points to the Bears) it was his first drop in four games. Furthermore he ran for nearly 1400 yards and 18 touchdowns this season – and was criticized throughout the season for not breaking enough big runs. For those numbers in, potentially, a down season, I’ll take seven fumbles.

– The NFL eliminating supplemental revenue sharing likely wouldn’t affect the league’s competitive balance because it never has before. This simply ignores the fact that there has been a salary cap preventing teams from dramatically outspending their league brethren the way the Yankees outspend every other team in Major League Baseball. Does he seriously think that owners like Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones wouldn’t do the same thing the Yankees do in an uncapped NFL?
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Nice timing on Smith’s trade request

by | Dec 28, 2009 | NFL Random Thoughts

Troy Smith informed the Baltimore Ravens Monday that he’d like to be traded.

Well, actually it was his agent, Ralph Cindrich, via his Twitter page.

This is just one of the many issues with Twitter, which allows people to post thoughts real time – many of which, if not most, are pointless, inappropriate, boring or some combination thereof.

In this case I’ll go with inappropriate. Note to Cindrich, the Ravens play at Oakland Sunday and a win puts them in the playoffs.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand why Smith wants out. It looks like Joe Flacco is going to be the starter there for several years. Smith is a good athlete with some potential and he wants a chance to play. I get that – any good competitor probably feels the same way. But the timing is terrible.

Just what a team needs as they approach a must-win game – the backup quarterback telling the team he’s going to seek an offseason trade.

Come on Mr. Cindrich. Teams can’t trade right now anyway. Would it have hurt you to wait the seven days before they’re officially eliminated? What if they now make the playoffs and starter Joe Flacco gets injured? The team is going to respond to a guy who already informed the team he no longer wants to be there?

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Twitter has a few legitimate purposes. Unfortunately most of its users – apparently including Cindrich – aren’t capable of filtering out when or what should and shouldn’t be posted. Here’s a hint – save the offseason for the offseason.

Weekend shift in the NFC balance of power

by | Dec 21, 2009 | NFL Random Thoughts

It was another strange week in the NFL.

The biggest shift came at the top of the NFC where New Orleans and Minnesota were humbled, the Saints by the Cowboys and the Vikings by a less-than-stellar Carolina bunch that isn’t in playoff contention.

The games prompted Cris Collinsworth on NBC last night to speculate that Dallas and Philadelphia have perhaps overtaken the Vikings and Saints as the teams to beat in the NFC.

I think that might be jumping the gun a bit. The Saints have only lost one game and that offense isn’t going to be held to 17 points very often. It’s hard to win in the NFL, as shown by the fact that only one team in the Super Bowl era has ever finished a season completely unbeaten. And it took Dallas a nearly perfect game to knock New Orleans from the ranks of the unbeaten.

It was the perfect storm Saturday night. Other teams have gotten leads on the Saints. But none of those teams have the combination of running (Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice) and passing (Tony Romo to Miles Austin, Jason Witten, Roy Williams, et al) that the Cowboys were able to successfully throw at the Saints. Dallas got up two scores and successfully mixed up the offense to frustrate the Saints, gaining a 9 minute time of possession edge heading into the fourth quarter.

That is definitely the recipe for beating New Orleans – Get a lead and then keep that offense off the field. And there’s no question Dallas has the talent to be as good as anyone on both sides of the ball. But there are still several questions with that team. They still haven’t played well in December this season – the Saturday win snapped a two game losing streak.

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House avoiding real problems in trying to fix BCS

by | Dec 9, 2009 | College Football

College football’s Bowl Championship Series is a joke. There are few things dumber in sports than having teams play 13 games and then having a collection of computers determine who’s number one and number two. As much as I have always enjoyed bowl games (though there are WAYYYYYYYYY too many) college football should long ago have instituted a playoff system that takes the top eight or 16 teams and plays them down to a final two, just like every other sport does.

But it’s not a congressional issue.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, should not be calling for Justice Department investigations into the BCS – at least not because it’s a crappy system. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, is free to think the system is unfair – he’s not wrong about that. Major conference or not, any team that wins all of their regular season games should have at least a shot to win or lose the national championship on the field

But as unfair and stupid as it is, he and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee (Really? The House Energy and Commerce Committee needs its own subcommittee? Maybe these elected clowns, err, officials would be better off spending their time trying to eliminate layers of government and making the system more efficient? Just a thought) should not be co-sponsoring bills to change the system – certainly not now, when there are so many other things for them to be spending time on and, in my opinion, not ever.

But yes, that subcommittee Wednesday approved legislation aimed at forcing college football to adopt a playoff system.

The bill, according to an Associated Press story, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff.
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Young finally looks like Titans future QB

by | Nov 23, 2009 | NFL Random Thoughts

The Tennessee Titans’ season was mostly ended by a shocking 0-6 start that left the team looking way up in the standings.

It was a disappointing and ugly start for a highly thought of team that won 13 games last year during the regular season.

But not all is lost. The Titans are amidst a three-game winning streak and are leading the Houston Texans by a field goal midway through the third quarter of tonight’s matchup.

More importantly for the long-term, Vince Young looks like a different quarterback.

The third pick in the 2006 draft flashed a ton of potential while posting middling stats as a rookie. His struggles worsened in 2007 in 15 starts and in 2008, he struggled in the opener, got hurt, lost his job to Kerry Collins and ended up having some personal issues that reportedly really had the Titans worried.

But the Titans held on to Young, stashing him for a season as Collins took the reins. The time away from the spotlight apparently gave Young a chance to better learn the system – and to mature into a better leader.

He’s shown some fight tonight, taking on tacklers and getting into the faces of Texans defenders who have skirmished with Titans players after whistles. He’s scrambled to keep plays alive and thrown some nice balls both short and long, flashing more than a few signs that he might start to fulfill his potential.

The sequence I’ve been most impressed with came following a couple of mistakes. First there was the drive where he lost the fumble. The following series, on 2nd and 4 he threw a long pass that should have been intercepted by Dunta Robinson. He clapped his hands, shook it off, dropped back on third down, found nobody open, then took off on a six yard gain for a first down.
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