JETS GET PULVERIZED, HALEY'S 4TH DOWN OBSESSION & GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS ON BOWL GAMES
As I watched the Chiefs get roughed up in Denver three weeks ago, I was thinking to myself, "maybe the Chiefs aren't as good as I thought they were." After all, Kansas City was fresh off a 4-12 season that offered few glimmers of hope. Yet they had already won one more game, five, than the entire 2009 season. So I had questions whether they were "5-3 good" at the time. Imagine Jet fans tonight, what was going thru their minds? When you're 9-2, believe you have one of the best teams in football & get crushed 45-3 by your division rivals, it has to be hard to swallow.
If you look at the stat sheet, there's only a couple of clues as to the outcome of this game. Just looking at the QB stats tell the tale. Mark Sanchez was 17 of 33 for 149-yards, no touchdowns & 3 picks. He had a QB rating of 27.8. Tom Brady was 21 of 29 for 304-yards, 4 touchdowns & zero interceptions. His QB rating was 148.9. That pretty much wraps up my analysis of Monday Night football other than to say, beating the Patriots in Foxboro will be a very tall order for even the best of the AFC contenders. Bill Belichick has reinvented his team in just a year. This is all possible when you have Tom Brady at quarterback. He was absolutely brilliant tonight & the disparity between him & his major division rival, Sanchez, is pretty dramatic. In a quarterback-driven league, having Brady makes many things possible. With the demise of the Colts, only Pittsburgh can go to New England & have a legitimate shot at leaving a winner. The Jets made it to the AFC Championship game as a road warrior last year & they can probably do it again next month, but I doubt they can win in either Pittsburgh or New England.
I know I've railed on Todd Haley for his 4th down obsession. But it's getting ridiculous, it's getting late in the season & it's high time to secure the AFC West. It would be nice if he would stop putting his defense behind the 8-ball when he comes away from the redzone with zero points instead of a field goal. Yesterday is the perfect example, Haley could have taken the chip-shot field goal early in the 3rd quarter, giving his team a 2-score lead at 13-3. Instead, he went for it on 4th & two, the effort failed & the Chiefs came away with nothing. It should be noted our 8-4 Chiefs have attempted the second most 4th down conversions in the entire league. They have an 8 for 18(44.4%) track record, ranking them 16th in the league. As someone who made their living understanding odds & the success rates of those willing to take chances bucking those odds, I can tell you this isn't a good gamble. A two-score lead is the smart play. Let's hope our coach turns to Ryan Succop more often down the stretch, he needs to know the coach has confidence in him too. The Chiefs will need their kicker to bail them out someday & he's not getting the in-game opportunities to build that confidence. Name a kicker who plays on a winning team that has fewer field goals than Succop. Anyone? The answer is none, zero, zip. Hey, I'm not a fan of field goal kicking, but it's a reality in today's game, especially for teams with playoff aspirations. It's tough enough getting to the postseason, but if you throw away an opportunity to go up by a 2-score margin come playoff time, you will most likely be watching the remainder of the playoffs sitting on your sofa.
Quick factoid: Averaging the number of holding calls from the first twelve weeks projects out to a league total of 462 for the regular season. That is 90 more than last year. Think moving the umpire to the offensive backfield hasn't made a difference?
Ben Rothlisberger underwent Rhinoplasty to fix his broken nose sustained in Sunday Night's game with the Ravens. The guy who hit him, Haloti Ngata, was fined $15K Monday for that hit. Dallas receiver/returner Dez Bryant suffered a broken ankle in Sunday's game with Indianapolis & was placed on I.R. Tampa shelved two more starters for the season, CB Aquib Talib(hip) & C Jeff Faine(Triceps) were the 3rd & 4th starters lost in two weeks. Brett Favre was creamed on his first pass attempt of the day & did not return. He has a shoulder contusion & sprain. Whether he can play Sunday & keep his streak alive is unknown at this time.
Last night, as I hammered out the bowl matchups for you, I had some thoughts about some of the bowl game matchups. I just was too tired to post them last night, so here I go.
The good news:
The Maaco Las Vegas Bowl features 10-2 Utah versus 11-1 Boise State. If I was still living in Vegas, I'd arrange a night off to get out to the Silver Bowl to see this matchup.
The Insight Bowl pits 7-5 Iowa against 10-2 Missouri. The neighboring states haven't played each other in 100-years. The double black & gold matchup will put Iowa's front four(the best the Tigers have faced since Nebraska in '09) against a veteran Mizzou O-line. This will be the best passing attack the Hawkeyes have faced this season. Mizzou will have to deal with Marvin McNutt & Derrell Johnson-Koulianos catching Ricky Stanzi passes. I know a few of our Mizzou & Iowa brethren from Vegas will be in attendance. Wish I was one of them.
The Rose Bowl will give the non-AQ schools their collective shot & TCU better make the most of it. If Wisconsin blows them out big, we'll hear the same tired rhetoric from the talking heads at ESPN.
The Capitol One Bowl matching Alabama & Michigan State is the only New Year's Day game prior to the Rose Bowl worth watching.
The bad news:
The fact that we have thirteen teams with a 6-6 record in this season's bowl lineup, really sad.
Nebraska's reward for losing the Big-12 Championship & leaving the conference is a return match with 6-6 Washington in the Holiday Bowl. The Cornhuskers destroyed the Huskies way back in September 56-21. Big whoop!
South Carolina's reward for losing the SEC Championship game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome last Saturday is a return to Atlanta to play Florida State in the same building in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Big whoop II.
The Fiesta Bowl is another one of those "nothing to gain & everything to lose" matchups OU had four years ago when they lost to Boise State. Playing unranked 8-4 Connecticut is a joke. Question is, can Bob Stoops impress upon his team the risk they run if they don't blow the Huskies away. Funny how so many of the sports media defends Randy Edsell's UConn team, "they're upstarts" "it's not their fault they play in a crummy conference this year" or how about "they beat everybody they had to beat & the result is a Fiesta Bowl bid." Funny how none of that mattered when we were discussing TCU & Boise State. The difference between Boise State & Connecticut is night & day. UConn couldn't beat a single bowl eligible team from the Big-12. They couldn't beat Boise, TCU, Nevada, or any of the top tier bowl teams. I hope we don't hear anymore of the UConn defense, it's a crock. The BCS, if it's allowed to continue, should make a rule change, if your conference's automatic qualifier is unranked in the top-25, no automatic BCS bowl bid.
Temple, an 8-4 team this season wasn't selected to play in a bowl, how bad do they feel right now? Especially painful since they beat Connecticut 30-16 earlier this season.
If you look at the stat sheet, there's only a couple of clues as to the outcome of this game. Just looking at the QB stats tell the tale. Mark Sanchez was 17 of 33 for 149-yards, no touchdowns & 3 picks. He had a QB rating of 27.8. Tom Brady was 21 of 29 for 304-yards, 4 touchdowns & zero interceptions. His QB rating was 148.9. That pretty much wraps up my analysis of Monday Night football other than to say, beating the Patriots in Foxboro will be a very tall order for even the best of the AFC contenders. Bill Belichick has reinvented his team in just a year. This is all possible when you have Tom Brady at quarterback. He was absolutely brilliant tonight & the disparity between him & his major division rival, Sanchez, is pretty dramatic. In a quarterback-driven league, having Brady makes many things possible. With the demise of the Colts, only Pittsburgh can go to New England & have a legitimate shot at leaving a winner. The Jets made it to the AFC Championship game as a road warrior last year & they can probably do it again next month, but I doubt they can win in either Pittsburgh or New England.
I know I've railed on Todd Haley for his 4th down obsession. But it's getting ridiculous, it's getting late in the season & it's high time to secure the AFC West. It would be nice if he would stop putting his defense behind the 8-ball when he comes away from the redzone with zero points instead of a field goal. Yesterday is the perfect example, Haley could have taken the chip-shot field goal early in the 3rd quarter, giving his team a 2-score lead at 13-3. Instead, he went for it on 4th & two, the effort failed & the Chiefs came away with nothing. It should be noted our 8-4 Chiefs have attempted the second most 4th down conversions in the entire league. They have an 8 for 18(44.4%) track record, ranking them 16th in the league. As someone who made their living understanding odds & the success rates of those willing to take chances bucking those odds, I can tell you this isn't a good gamble. A two-score lead is the smart play. Let's hope our coach turns to Ryan Succop more often down the stretch, he needs to know the coach has confidence in him too. The Chiefs will need their kicker to bail them out someday & he's not getting the in-game opportunities to build that confidence. Name a kicker who plays on a winning team that has fewer field goals than Succop. Anyone? The answer is none, zero, zip. Hey, I'm not a fan of field goal kicking, but it's a reality in today's game, especially for teams with playoff aspirations. It's tough enough getting to the postseason, but if you throw away an opportunity to go up by a 2-score margin come playoff time, you will most likely be watching the remainder of the playoffs sitting on your sofa.
Quick factoid: Averaging the number of holding calls from the first twelve weeks projects out to a league total of 462 for the regular season. That is 90 more than last year. Think moving the umpire to the offensive backfield hasn't made a difference?
Ben Rothlisberger underwent Rhinoplasty to fix his broken nose sustained in Sunday Night's game with the Ravens. The guy who hit him, Haloti Ngata, was fined $15K Monday for that hit. Dallas receiver/returner Dez Bryant suffered a broken ankle in Sunday's game with Indianapolis & was placed on I.R. Tampa shelved two more starters for the season, CB Aquib Talib(hip) & C Jeff Faine(Triceps) were the 3rd & 4th starters lost in two weeks. Brett Favre was creamed on his first pass attempt of the day & did not return. He has a shoulder contusion & sprain. Whether he can play Sunday & keep his streak alive is unknown at this time.
Last night, as I hammered out the bowl matchups for you, I had some thoughts about some of the bowl game matchups. I just was too tired to post them last night, so here I go.
The good news:
The Maaco Las Vegas Bowl features 10-2 Utah versus 11-1 Boise State. If I was still living in Vegas, I'd arrange a night off to get out to the Silver Bowl to see this matchup.
The Insight Bowl pits 7-5 Iowa against 10-2 Missouri. The neighboring states haven't played each other in 100-years. The double black & gold matchup will put Iowa's front four(the best the Tigers have faced since Nebraska in '09) against a veteran Mizzou O-line. This will be the best passing attack the Hawkeyes have faced this season. Mizzou will have to deal with Marvin McNutt & Derrell Johnson-Koulianos catching Ricky Stanzi passes. I know a few of our Mizzou & Iowa brethren from Vegas will be in attendance. Wish I was one of them.
The Rose Bowl will give the non-AQ schools their collective shot & TCU better make the most of it. If Wisconsin blows them out big, we'll hear the same tired rhetoric from the talking heads at ESPN.
The Capitol One Bowl matching Alabama & Michigan State is the only New Year's Day game prior to the Rose Bowl worth watching.
The bad news:
The fact that we have thirteen teams with a 6-6 record in this season's bowl lineup, really sad.
Nebraska's reward for losing the Big-12 Championship & leaving the conference is a return match with 6-6 Washington in the Holiday Bowl. The Cornhuskers destroyed the Huskies way back in September 56-21. Big whoop!
South Carolina's reward for losing the SEC Championship game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome last Saturday is a return to Atlanta to play Florida State in the same building in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Big whoop II.
The Fiesta Bowl is another one of those "nothing to gain & everything to lose" matchups OU had four years ago when they lost to Boise State. Playing unranked 8-4 Connecticut is a joke. Question is, can Bob Stoops impress upon his team the risk they run if they don't blow the Huskies away. Funny how so many of the sports media defends Randy Edsell's UConn team, "they're upstarts" "it's not their fault they play in a crummy conference this year" or how about "they beat everybody they had to beat & the result is a Fiesta Bowl bid." Funny how none of that mattered when we were discussing TCU & Boise State. The difference between Boise State & Connecticut is night & day. UConn couldn't beat a single bowl eligible team from the Big-12. They couldn't beat Boise, TCU, Nevada, or any of the top tier bowl teams. I hope we don't hear anymore of the UConn defense, it's a crock. The BCS, if it's allowed to continue, should make a rule change, if your conference's automatic qualifier is unranked in the top-25, no automatic BCS bowl bid.
Temple, an 8-4 team this season wasn't selected to play in a bowl, how bad do they feel right now? Especially painful since they beat Connecticut 30-16 earlier this season.
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