Alternative Picks: Week 10, 2021

Alternative Picks: Week 10, 2021

by | Nov 11, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

One week after possibly the most lopsided loss in this segment (a 12-3 shellacking by Andy), and we’re right back to … tying. Not a typical tie where we both nailed all our picks, of course — no, an ugly tie that featured misses on the top three picks. Ugly indeed.

Week 9 Tie – 7-7
Season Tony 71-65

1) Tony – Steelers over Lions – Despite Big Ben looking to be 103 years old, the Steelers have quietly remained relevant in a muddled AFC, currently sitting in the 2nd wildcard spot. The Lions are coming off a bye week that had many NFL Meme sites posting that they unfortunately lost to the bye week, 27-24.

(more…)

Alternative Picks: Week 10, 2021

Alternative Picks: Week 2, 2021

by | Sep 16, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

Some big talk last week from Andy, who failed to back it up in the picks or straight up, with Tony winning picks 10-6, and winning straight up picks 9-7 vs 8-8.  Admittedly, it was a case of both of us getting several wrong in picks, rather than one of us nailing things–as our straight up picks can attest to.  And the only difference we had in straight up picks was the final game choice of the week, with the Dolphins giving me the slight edge.

Week 2 finds still not a lot of games to feel great about, especially after the clunkers put on by the Packers, Titans and Falcons (who were never going to win a lot of games, but…6 points against an NFC East team). On to the picks!

1) Tony – Buccaneers over Falcons – Three games with double digit lines this week, but I’m not comfortable enough with the third one to to go 2-3 in the picks. I’ll take the Super Bowl champs on three days extra rest against a team that looked absolutely hapless on Sunday against a team that I thought might be in line for the first overall pick.

(more…)

New Sack Data Good or Bad for Jim Marshall’s Hall of Fame Claim?

New Sack Data Good or Bad for Jim Marshall’s Hall of Fame Claim?

by | Jul 26, 2021 | Hall of Fame

A couple weeks back, ProFootballReference.com, the most comprehensive database of football stats online, announced that they were adding unofficial sack totals to player stats from 1960 to 1981, after two researchers compiled the data utilizing box scores, game stories and film.  

One of the researchers, Jack Turney, was quoted in this 2006 story about Michael Strahan’s career sack total vs Lawrence Taylor, who’s rookie season of 1981 isn’t counted amongst the official sack totals. Even in 2006, Turney had data back to 1970 for stats. 

While no mention is made of the bogus Strahan single season sack record—bogus both because of the pathetic “sack” that set the record, and because the unofficial stats show that the record was actually 23 sacks, set by Al Baker in his 1978 rookie season—the article did mention the opinion that: 

“Turney’s research undoubtedly helped Youngblood reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001, 17 years after he left the game.” 

Interesting, because when I first heard about the unofficial stats being published, on a local sports radio show, my thoughts (and the hosts, I believe) also immediately thought of another Hall of Fame candidacy—that of Minnesota Vikings Purple People Eater Jim Marshall. 

Marshall is largely known for two things from his career—his Iron Man streak of 282 games played (and 270 consecutive starts), and famously scoring a safety for the San Francisco 49ers, running the wrong direction after picking up a fumble in a 1964 matchup. Interestingly, he is less known for holding the NFL record for most career fumble recoveries in a career, with 30—a stat that I have to admit forgetting about myself. 

Perhaps less known about Marshall, though, is that he too was a prolific sacker of the quarterback—his Wikipedia page already credited him with 127 sacks unofficially, and the data from ProFootballReference.com puts him at 130.5 sacks—good for 22nd all-time (tied with Coy Bacon). 

Ahead of Marshall on the unofficial list, only Julius Peppers (159.5), Terrell Suggs (139), DeMarcus Ware (138.5), Jared Allen (136), John Abraham (133.5), Leslie O’Neal (132.5), and Baker (131) are not in the Hall of Fame (along with Bacon).  Peppers, Suggs, Ware and Allen seem likely to get in the Hall of Fame, while I have heard arguments made for Abraham and O’Neal to eventually make it too.  

Many will argue that Marshall got that many sacks because of how long he played (18 seasons in the NFL), and because many of those seasons were played with Alan Page (148.5 sacks unofficially) and Carle Eller (133.5 sacks unofficially), both members of the Hall. And those people aren’t wrong—but he still got the sacks. 

And that Iron Man streak—the current active leader for consecutive starts, Ndamukong Suh, would need to start every game for more than the next seven seasons to reach that mark, even with 17 game seasons –is frankly amazing. Especially playing in the trenches, in an era with less than stellar medical capabilities.  

So will this new data from ProFootballReference.com make much difference in Marshall’s claim to a spot in Canton? Based on the previous unofficial count of 127 sacks, it only actually moved him up one spot—from 24th overall, behind Hall of Famer Claude Humphrey (130 sacks) and ahead of Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas (126.5). One Vikings blog points out that his comparatively paltry four seasons of 10+ sacks, 12 seasons of less than seven sacks, and career average of 6.5 sacks per year don’t compare favorably to current Viking Hall of Famers Carl Eller, Alan Page, Chris Doleman and John Randle–nor likely Hall of Famer Allen, or even not likely Hall of Famer Everson Griffen. 

So maybe the data won’t help—even though sacks aren’t the only thing for defensive linemen (especially since they didn’t officially exist until 1981), and the abundance of 70’s Vikings already in the Hall may also continue to work against him. 

But as all true homer fans will do, I will continue to bang the drum (or blow the Gjallarhorn) for Marshall until he gets that call.  

 

DFS: Week 17, 2020

DFS: Week 17, 2020

by | Jan 3, 2021 | 2020 season, Daily Fantasy, Fantasy Football

With our top four players (Mahomes, Henry, McKissic & Kupp) all in both of our lineups, not a terrible surprise that Week 16 was close–but Andy pulled it out, mostly thanks to a solid Logan Thomas performance.

Week 16 Season Total points Weekly average
Andy 123.82 10-6 2,156.2 134.76
Tony 114.52 6-10 1,949.1 121.81

This week Fanball can’t screw up the slate, since all games are on Sunday. Of course, a new thing that I’m not sure I like about their platform is that my LeagueSafe winnings are mixed in with my DFS winnings balance…I suppose it makes it easier to extract, but it sure did muddy up my tracking of just how poorly I was doing.

Andy: Week 17 is always a challenge. Throw in the pandemic and a lot of teams either alive for the playoffs or still jockeying to see what their seeding might be and this is an even more tricky final week than most. For example, with the Saints still having an outside shot at the NFC’s bye but Alvin Kamara ruled out early on the COVID-19 list, I initially had Latavius Murray as a play this week. But such is the 2020 season – and hopefully this won’t be an issue when 2021 rolls around.

(more…)