Sporting Fools
Sporting Fools
Sporting Fools
Sporting Fools
The frequent and occasional humorous musings behind two of the World's greatest underappreciated sports minds.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Championship Sunday RedeuxAs always, what you expect to happen tends to happen when you least expect it. Norv Turner, after weeks of showing guile and determination through his play calling, went back to being a passive-aggressive pussy and Brett Favre reverted back to his old erratic ways and played his worse when his team needed him the most.
* Norv's Downfall: 3rd and 1 at the Patriots 3-yard-line trailing 14-9. Norv decided to run the ball with Michael Turner, which was smart, but he called an outside run instead of trying to pound between the tackles (which is Turner's strong suit). He lost four yards and instead of a 1st and goal at the 2 or a 4th and inches, it was 4th and 4 and a useless field goal.
Besides Norv's pathetic play call this play told me much more:
1) Michael Turner isn't the potentially-dominant No. 1 running back that a dozen teams will pay him to be.
2) Norv didn't trust Philip Rivers with play action in that situation.
3) San Diego just didn't want to win bad enough from the head coach down to the long snapper.
On the other end of the spectrum:
* Bad Brett Reappears: Yeah we can pin this entire loss on Brett Favre and a gameplan that went away from Ryan Grant. Long before his game-sealing interception in overtime he was being extremely careless with the football and I was wondering aloud if the Packers should take the ball out of Favre's hands even if the running game was ineffective.
So will he or won't he retire. Well of course he isn't retiring because he hates Aaron Rodgers and he likes being a drama queen.
That being said if you pair this with the equally horrible decision making in the 2004 playoff game against Philadelphia then you've got a guy who can no longer deliver in the clutch and hasn't delivered in the clutch in years. Don't get me wrong, I thought the OT victory over Denver was cool, but that was the regular season against a non-playoff team.
* Norv's Downfall: 3rd and 1 at the Patriots 3-yard-line trailing 14-9. Norv decided to run the ball with Michael Turner, which was smart, but he called an outside run instead of trying to pound between the tackles (which is Turner's strong suit). He lost four yards and instead of a 1st and goal at the 2 or a 4th and inches, it was 4th and 4 and a useless field goal.
Besides Norv's pathetic play call this play told me much more:
1) Michael Turner isn't the potentially-dominant No. 1 running back that a dozen teams will pay him to be.
2) Norv didn't trust Philip Rivers with play action in that situation.
3) San Diego just didn't want to win bad enough from the head coach down to the long snapper.
On the other end of the spectrum:
* Bad Brett Reappears: Yeah we can pin this entire loss on Brett Favre and a gameplan that went away from Ryan Grant. Long before his game-sealing interception in overtime he was being extremely careless with the football and I was wondering aloud if the Packers should take the ball out of Favre's hands even if the running game was ineffective.
So will he or won't he retire. Well of course he isn't retiring because he hates Aaron Rodgers and he likes being a drama queen.
That being said if you pair this with the equally horrible decision making in the 2004 playoff game against Philadelphia then you've got a guy who can no longer deliver in the clutch and hasn't delivered in the clutch in years. Don't get me wrong, I thought the OT victory over Denver was cool, but that was the regular season against a non-playoff team.
Labels: Super Bowl XLII
Sunday, January 20, 2008
NFL Championship BetsSan Diego (+14) vs. New England: Lost in the hoopla of the greatest team ever at anything is the fact that they haven't covered a spread since...November (??). 14 points isn't a lot for New England and I'm guessing most people would gladly throw their money down on that given the Chargers had their top three offensive players and their run-stopper defensive tackle all on crutches. But again, this team hasn't covered in about 8 weeks.
N.Y. Giants (+7.5) vs. Green Bay: Sounds crazy taking two road teams on Championship Sunday but when the elements are bad I go for low scores and generally low scores mean close games. I like the way the Giants are playing football and they are 9-1 on the road so I don't think Lambeau Field will do much to affect them
N.Y. Giants (+7.5) vs. Green Bay: Sounds crazy taking two road teams on Championship Sunday but when the elements are bad I go for low scores and generally low scores mean close games. I like the way the Giants are playing football and they are 9-1 on the road so I don't think Lambeau Field will do much to affect them
Labels: NFL
