You could make the argument that the opening week of the NFL season is the best weekend of the season because everything starts there and there hasn’t been a pro football game of any consequence for more than six months.
You could make the argument that Thanksgiving weekend is the best weekend of the season because it brings you 3 games on Thursday, as many as 4 games on Sunday and another one on Monday night. That means one could see half the teams in the league over the span of five days.
Nevertheless, for me, the weekend coming up is the best of the season. There are four playoff games; they all matter; the teams are all good ones. In the complex calculus of quantity and quality, this weekend is at the top of the list.
Last year, the Colts won the Super Bowl with an offense so prolific that it did not matter that the Colts’ defense was less than average. This year, the Colts’ defense allowed the fewest points in the entire league; interestingly, I’d be surprised if half of the people watching NFL football games on any given Sunday could name the Colts’ defensive coordinator. In addition, the Colts’ defense did not allow any QB to throw for 300 yards in a game against them all season long. One other team did that, the Oakland Raiders. There is a fundamental difference however. The Raiders’ defense against the run was so pathetic that teams rarely had any incentive to throw the ball around the stadium.
People have noted the huge impact Randy Moss has had on the Pats’ offense this year but until I ran across these stats I did not realize just how huge that impact was nor did I recognize the degree to which motivation could raise or lower his game. Moss caught 23 TD passes this season; last year, the Pats had 24 TD passes as a team. This year’s “attentive” Randy Moss caught almost as many TDs as the entire team did last year. Meanwhile, last year the “inattentive” Randy Moss languished in Oakland where he needed to inspire himself to be disinterested. Last year, the Raiders passing offense generated 7 TDs in toto. The moral of this story:
Focus matters.
Steelers’ fans continue to heap scorn on offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians, for his supposed boneheaded play calling against Jax last weekend. Believe me, I understand that Jax won the game and I was befuddled at the time when the Steelers went for a two-point conversion from the 12 yardline by calling a QB draw. But before we assign Bruce Arians to the same quadrant of coaching acumen occupied by the likes of Richie Kotite and Wayne “the Brain” Fontes and Joe Kuharich, let’s look at that game as a whole. The Steelers scored 29 points; over the course of the season, the Steelers’ defense allowed just under 17 points per game; it would seem to me that the offense did its job. In addition, Arians called plays that generated about 100 yards more total offense than the Jags managed to accrue in the game.
Here is a suggestion for Steelers’ fans:
Take a far more critical look at the coaches/players on the defense and special teams that found ways to give up 31 points to a Jacksonville team that averaged only 25 points per game.
When the Lions fired Mike Martz, I suggested that he would probably not want for job offers to be an offensive coordinator in other cities. He has already found a job for next year in SF where the offense was anemic. Actually, that’s probably describing it politely; the Niners scored fewer points than anyone else in the league – less than 14 points per game. Martz has to be successful next season by comparison because in addition to being the lowest scoring team in the NFL, the Niners ranked last in the league in total yards (237 yards per game) and in passing yardage (145 yards per game). I do not know how they ranked within the league on this next stat, but it cannot be very good; the Niners only converted 31% of their 3rd down plays. It would be way too much to expect that the Mike Martz system will turn that team into an offensive juggernaut overnight, but expecting them to improve on that showing is not asking all that much.
I have read that John Harbaugh is under consideration for some of the NFL head coaching vacancies. Harbaugh was the Eagles special teams coach last season and to be tremendously polite, the Eagles’ special teams stunk out the joint. Does anyone recall the opening day game against the Packers, which the Eagles lost because they could not put anyone out there to field a punt? They didn’t need to return the punt; all they had to do is fair catch the ball and not trip over their shoelaces going to the sideline and the Eagles would have won the game. So the coach of that unit now is projected to be someone cut from head coaching cloth? I do not get it…
Did anyone tune in to see a moment or two of the reincarnated version of American Gladiators this week? I probably watched a total of 10 minutes and have saturated my interest. I do have a question though:
Would anyone like to wager on the proposition that there are steroid tests and blood tests for HGH involved in the production of that program? I’ll bet there are none.
Kelly Tilghman will serve a two-week suspension from The Golf Channel for her remark that young golfers hoping to beat Tiger Woods might want to lynch him in a back alley. In no way can I be convinced that she was advocating that as a strategy to be implemented by young pro golfers; she used a careless and insensitive choice of words and imagery. She needed to apologize and she did. She needed some form of censure and she got it. And maybe – just maybe – there is a small nugget of good news in all of this.
About thirty years ago, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder lost his job permanently for making remarks about the breeding of slaves in the US. About twenty years ago, a golf commentator – cannot recall his name right now – lost his job permanently because he said that women golfers did not putt as well as men because their breasts got in the way. Just last year, Don Imus was fired from his syndicated radio program for making unwarranted comments about the players on the Rutgers women’s basketball team. [Nine months later, Imus returned to the radio with a greatly reduced syndication network.] Now Kelly Tilghman will serve a two-week suspension for her remarks. And maybe – just maybe – this is good news in that there is a realization that ill-tempered and ill-advised words are insufficient social offenses to generate the social version of “the death penalty” for people who utter them.
I want to be clear here. I do not agree with any of the remarks made by any of the folks I mentioned above; I do not think any of them should have been said in the first place. I also believe that Kelly Tilghman is receiving a punishment that is approximately commensurate with the offense that she committed. And maybe – just maybe – that is a good thing.
Finally, I really have gotten tired of driving behind cars and minivans with bumper stickers proclaiming that the owner of the vehicle has an honor student at Wherever Middle School. Just once, I would like to see a parent admit that they have an honor student enrolled at the Jenna Jamieson Institute for Carnal Pleasures.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…