My number one draft prediction

This is going to be a little bit different this year as the players and owners will be duking it out over the collective bargaining agreement, but lately it has been set in stone.  A quarterback will be the number one draft pick, regardless if he deserves to be or not.  There is too much money on the line to take a gamble on any position other than quarterback.  Charlie Casserly, made a great move taking Mario Williams a few years back ahead of Reggie Bush and Vince Young, only to be destroyed by analysts.  Eventually he turned out to be the much better choice and Casserly was never really given credit for standing tall  with his choice.
Even though the last couple of years, it is always reported that some other freak of nature will take over if there is no clear cut quarterback, the number one spot always comes back to quarterback.  Last  year, every mock draft had Ndamukong Suh, which in my eyes deserved to be there but the finances don't justify taking a gamble on anything other than the QB spot.  So far it worked out as Sam Bradford will most likely be rookie of the year after taking a 1-15 team a year earlier to within a game of a division championship.  So get ready for everybody talking about Nick Fairley, defensive tackle from Auburn or Patrick Peterson, a defensive back from LSU as the number one pick.  These poor schmucks will have their ego stroked only to fall to number 2 or 3 or wherever so as to allow some quarterback most likely Blaine Gabbert from Missouri to eventually take the number one spot.  People will make cases for Cam Newton I am sure, even though in my opinion he should be a late first round if not second round choice.  I don't like his mechanics and he reminds of Vince Young too much.  Young is not bad, but not good enough to take anybody to the promised land.  So bring on the herd to tout whatever quarterback everybody else is talking about and Mel Kiper's perfectly coiffed hair and let's all enjoy the ride as mark it down a quarterback that most people have probably not heard of will become the number one draft pick.

Has Jason Garrett sent Jeff Fisher a Fruit Basket Yet?

Former Tennessee Titan
coach Jeff Fisher

I know I am always picking on Jason Garrett, but I do think he is a decent coach.  I would like him to get a few more years and a little bit more success before he gets a job like the Dallas Cowboys.  We saw this before as Wade Phillips was great until he wasn't about a year later.  Really look into see what Garrett has done and you will realize he is not ready for that job.  Anyway, the point of the blog is that he should send Jeff Fisher a fruit basket, since he decided to wait until there were no jobs left before finally leaving the Titans head coaching position.  Fisher is a top five coach and would have easily landed a job, but maybe that was the point and he wanted to take a year off.  It was very strange to watch the Fisher saga unfold as the only way to explain it, is that he did want the time off.  Well, good luck to Gary Kubiak who will be on the hot seat as I can see Fisher going back where he started if Kubes doesn't pick it up this time around.

I am beginning to Respect Wes Welker again

You broke my heart Wes

Let me clarify a couple of things because I know this might sound strange.  When New England signed Wes Welker in 2007, they also signed another wide receiver you might have heard of him, Randy Moss.  Living in Boston, I was often criticized for stating that an unknown guy name Wes Welker was the bigger pickup for us.  Welker was my type of guy as he was a tough little guy that had great hands and made the big guys look stupid, which for the most part describes my playing style except I am fifty levels below him as I do it playing flag football and have him beat by 5 knee surgeries to 1.    You could say I had a mancrush and after a few years in New England people how great he was.  Wouldn't you know it I didn't look that crazy for saying what I said a few years earlier.  Anyway, me and Wes broke up as we were both at Shrine for the MGM grand opening at Mohegan Sun and dude acted like a total d-bag.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a star f***er and it wasn't like everybody was all over him and in fact I don't think anybody even noticed him as he wore jeans, boots and a John Deere hat to a formal event, which was probably the only thing that got him noticed.  He was pissed that I had asked to get a picture, which didn't even come out good and we never asked for the second.  I was done with him forever.
Here we are after he stated a couple of funny foot references, which I thought was dumb, at a press conference.  He goes out and drops a couple of key throws in the playoff game against the Jets.  Now he does something I was pretty surprised about, he admitted what he did in public and didn't try to hide it, which he probably could have.  He is also in the news stating that he doesn't deserve an extension after a pretty good year for most receivers.  This is a breath of fresh air, maybe not for the agent, but for the rest of us.  At any rate, Welker could be climbing back into my heart.

Chad Henne to Remain Starter?

What will this upcoming
season bring for Henne

Here is one of those instances where I have been wrong, but I hope to still be right eventually.  I was a big fan of the Miami Dolphins quarterback, Chad Henne when he was a Michigan Wolverine.  He was my favorite quarterback coming out of the draft and when he finally was given the chance to start I thought the stars would align.  Since he has become the starter, he has not been consistent enough even though he has a great defense behind him as well as a great left tackle in Jake long, who also was his tackle in college.  This year he was given a great wide receiver in Brandon Marshall along with some solid ones in Brian Hartline and Davone Bess.  To top it off he has Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown as his running backs as well a solid tight end in Anthony Fasano.  The Dolphins have acquired Brian Daboll as the new offensive coordinator and at this point will give Henne another chance.  I hope that I am wrong as I don't see anything to make me think he can get it done as his decision making has been terrible, which later in the season made him gun shy.  Good luck to you Chad Henne because if not you could be on the Matt Leinart train to backup for life duty.  Hope you are listening Jimmy Clausen, I liked you a lot too.

Uconn Booster more of a Control Freak

Although, most of the time I write about pro football, there is an article about a Uconn booster that is upset because he was not asked to help in the process of choosing a head coach.  If anybody cares they have chose Paul Pasqualoni, who has been a long time head coach in college and has spent the last 5 years as a defensive assistant with the Dolphins and Cowboys.   Anyway,  the guy has wrote a letter demanding the money he has given the program, will not advertise, not pay for the luxury box and so on and so on.  Does anybody else find this to be a problem?  This guy was probably given access at some point because he gives money, which has led to this predicament.  He states how bad of an athletic director Jeff Hathaway is, which has been part of the problem.  Now, I don't really know much about the guy, but we are talking about Uconn, which is in the boondocks.  They just had a women's basketball team that broke the record for consecutive wins, the men's team has won a championship and the football team that was started about a decade ago just won the big east for the first time.  It seems that this guys knows what he is doing despite crybaby booster is spewing out to the media.  Just saying.

Woodson not as Good as Advertised

This obviously sounds a little bit ludicrous, but is Charles Woodson really as good as the media leads us to believe.  Full disclosure, Woodson was a great and still a good player.  He is a borderline hall of famer as he was hit with the injury bug early on and had some great years and then some unnoticeable ones.  He did a very good job last year, but giving him the defensive player of the year over Darrelle Revis of the Jets was an egregious mistake.  Revis constantly shut down whoever was put in front of him where Woodson, who had a great last year statistically, was able to play a lot more flat coverage and was not following receivers all over the place.  He still makes some plays as he is very smart, but I wouldn't put him on a number one receiver and apparently the Packers agree with me as they leave the big boy coverage to Rookie Sam Shields and newcomer Tramon Williams who are playing as good as anybody right now.  The truth is depending on what they decide to do with Al Harris, a move to safety might be a good move for Woodson who can lengthen his career and instantly be one of the better ones in the league.  Woodson is incredibly intelligent when it comes to the game and they could use that back there to help out these young guys.

Mendenhall in Big Trouble if Pouncey can't go

Will Rodgers be celebrating in
two weeks, we wonder

Rashard Mendenhall, coming off one of the biggest games of his career could be in a world of hurt if his center Maurkice Pouncey can't go in the Super Bowl.  BJ Raji is a monster that will eat up any backup center in the NFL.  This will now lead to spending one of your guards on an every down double team to stop Raji, which will leave a very good Green Bay Packer defense with a huge advantage.  This makes the Packers a clear favorite in this game.  The x factor will be Aaron Rodgers, who in my eyes historically does not win these big games and even with a good size lead he comes out with a flat second half, leaving his defense to do the dirty work, which have been more than up to the task.  Problem is you have Ben Roethlisberger on the other side, who has a lot of experience in big games and is a proven winner.  It should be a good game nonetheless.

Caleb Hanie is still just a Backup

I have already heard callers stating that there should be an open battle for the starting quarterback position for the Bears between Jay Cutler and Caleb Hanie.  Full disclosure, I am not a Cutler fan but he should still be ahead of Hanie without it being even close.  Hanie was able to take advantage of a Packer defense that was preparing for Cutler and not Hanie.  I was very impressed with what he was able to do so it is expected for people to over react but he is a backup at best.  If he is able to get some money because of it, good for him, but it will be at the expense of badly managed organization.  If Caleb Hanie's agent is reading, go call Al Davis of the Raider or Mike Brown of the Bengals.  They are always looking.

Is Cutler Tough or Not?

Let me put my two cents in about Jay Cutler and then will put it to rest.  The quarterback position requires that you be smart and tough.  I feel that Cutler, despite what everybody is saying, was both.  I only need to go back to the 2007 year when Philip Rivers played through an ACL injury against the Patriots in the AFC Championship.  The Chargers would lose 21-12 with Philip Rivers gutting it out, but I have always questioned why they would sign Billy Volek to a big contract to be the backup and not use him when they needed him.  Rivers was pretty ineffective that day and there is nothing to say Volek would have beat the Patriots, but the ability to move and plant are vital for a quarterback.

Cutler is a lot of things, but one thing I have never questioned was his toughness.  This guy gets hit all the time and gets back up. It was stated from his teammates that they were surprised that he even played as long as he did.  Even if he is standing on the sideline, if it was known that he has trouble planting then the move is to take him out.  This is not high school or even a lower division college game, this is the championship against the Packers.  You are not going to beat Charles Woodson, Sam Shields and Tramon Williams throwing at 50 or 60 percent.  The biggest problem I saw is having a quarterback who takes as many sacks as Cutler does and having your backup quarterbacks be Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie.  Hanie did what he could, but I wouldn't expect that too often out of him.

Gambler's Corner Roundup

This will be short as I am just reiterating my picks of the week.  Although, I am not much of a gambler I do think that I should be able to back up what I say so I need to put up or shut up.  These picks were stated earlier in the week, so I haven't changed my mind, but for those people who don't like long blogs, these will be to the point.

I like Pittsburgh over the Jets giving 3.5 points.  If you want to know my reasoning, go back a few blogs and take a look.  This is for the short attention span readers.

In the NFC matchup, I would rather be conservative and tease the Packers giving 3.5 and the under, which since I originally liked it has moved from 44 down to 43.  Gun to my head those are the picks although in this game I would like to tease it.  Take them to the bank and then proceed to lose your winnings on your jai alai or Premier league soccer or whatever is on at midnight tomorrow, as degenerate gamblers can never be happy with the initial win, they need to try and double up on anything possible.

Maybe it was Kitna and not Garrett

This is an untimely post, as for the first time in a while the Dallas Cowboys are rarely in the news.  I was not a big fan of the hiring of Jason Garrett, not that I don't think he is a good coach,  but to me it seems that Jerry Jones is not really correcting anything here.  Garrett has been here for quite some time as well as he has had offensive play calling duties, so in my eyes he has a share of the blame for their 1-7 start.  The Cowboys were able to rattle off a 5-3 second half to finish 6-10 with Garrett getting all of the praise for it.  Let us review if that should be enough to be promoted.

In many people's view this cowboy was destined for greatness and many people had them as super bowl material as the NFC participant.  The team has a ton of talent, which has not been argued as having Demarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer rushing the quarterback on the outside with Jay Ratliff applying pressure automatically makes you a formidable defense.  Their inside backers are average at best, but they have been getting the job done to some degree as long as you don't have Keith Brooking trying to cover anybody.  Mike Jenkins had a bad year considering how strong he was during their 2009 season.  Offensively, this team has as much firepower as pretty much anybody.  Their receivers are Roy Williams, Miles Austin and rookie Dez Bryant, so on any given day each of these receivers can beat you by them self.  Tight end Jason Witten is among the top five in the league and their stable of running backs is formidable and right in the middle of the pack as far as the NFL goes.  Their offensive line is pretty good as Leonard Davis has been revived since becoming a guard and Doug Free has done better than expected at times, but this is the Cowboys and it seems to me that this should be a point of emphasis at draft time.

Since we have broken down their team, we can now look at how well they did and who deserves credit. Tony Romo is a very good quarterback in my opinion and very much like his idol Brett Favre, his downside is having the big mistake at the worst time.  He has done this time and again, which has kept him where he his when it comes to talking about quarterback slightly above average.  Now, I am not going to say that Jon Kitna is better than Romo because he is not, but I can say that maybe he can help a team win close games because he doesn't tend to make untimely mistakes.  In their four wins with Kitna at the helm, he threw 1 pick and 9 touchdowns.  Their defense definitely played better than they had in the first half of the season as playing any worse would be hard to do with the talent they had on it.  People stated how much more they ran the ball, but wouldn't you pass more if you had Romo and were always down a couple of scores early.  Wouldn't it also make sense to run the ball more when you have a journeyman quarterback that has not started for quite some time.

Let us now breakdown who they beat and was it really such an unbelievable turnaround.  In a game where I predicted this possibly happening, the overhyped Giants were playing a 1-7 team that everybody threw in the trash with a new coach.  How often do we see this happen where a team not as good as the press clippings goes into a game thinking they only have to show up only to wonder what happened after a loss that would turn both team's seasons around.  They then beat a Detroit Lion team that will be better in the future, but nothing special as of gametime.  They gave one to the Saints where they played tough, but not tough enough to close it out.  Peyton Manning must have felt bad as he did everything he could to give them this game with his four picks (one of a few losses for the colts that drove me insane as I needed them to win 11 games as they ended with 10).  They lost to the Eagles in a game that wasn't as close the score seemed.  The rival Redskins came back in a game they were down 30-14 going into the fourth quarter, another coaching issue.  Lost to one of the worst teams in the league, the Arizona Cardinals with John Skelton as their quarterback.  Finally they ended the season beating the junior varsity Philadelphia Eagles who had nobody playing or anything to play for.  I will give credit as they did have to do this with Stephen McGee at quarterback.

A lot of these were close games that Kitna was able to keep them in it without making the big mistake and even making big plays.  There were many times that he would take off for a big run on a third down to keep the chains moving.  Kitna will not win a super bowl or maybe even a playoff game, but he can beat average teams with the help of a solid run game and defense.  Now, I am not saying Jason Garrett shouldn't be an NFL coach, I just don't think he is ready to take a team with immense talent to the promised land.  I am envisioning something of a Norv Turner led Charger team that will win its share of games based on better talent, but not have the coaching talent to put them over the top.  I would have really liked to see John Fox here.  You could say the same thing about Leslie Frazier and the Minnesota Vikings, but I won't because they will not have a ton of talent returning starting at the quarterback position.  The Vikings have a ton of free agents and they can't possibly sign them all.  So giving Frazier the reign doesn't bother me as much because he can squeeze as much talent to get them to 8-8, which would be big without the acquisition of a good quarterback.  The Cowboys have the talent and the owner to get to a 13-3 season, but I am feeling a 10-6 season based on Garrett being head coach for the first time.  This might sound good to some people, I just don't think that will be what Jerry Jones is looking for and it might be a 2 year stint for Jason Garrett.

The Jets Run is Over

I am trying to keep this one simple as I think that the Jets have had a great run, but I am putting my money on the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend.  There are just too many things going against the Jets as this will be their third road game in the playoffs, which is usually a bad omen for teams in the playoffs.  It will be the same for the Packers except for the fact that they are the superior team going against two perennial mistake makers in Jay Cutler and Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz.  The Jets on the other hand are playing against a better team on the road and they just won their super bowl last week.  I am all for celebrations but I don't think you will see more celebrating by the team that wins the super bowl than you did by the Jets this past weekend at Gillette Stadium.  They won, so you must give them their due but teams that win a game like that usually fall flat the next weekend.

Let us break down some other reasons why this will happen.  In both playoff games for the Jets, Mark Sanchez seems to be a bit off and they have been able to get away with it due to their running game picking up the slack for them.  This week they are playing against one of the best run defenses around so chances are they will be relying on the arm of Sanchez.  I don't think he is a terrible quarterback and I know they beat them earlier this year, but they played Pittsburgh who were without Troy Polamalu or Aaron Smith, the latter will still be out this week but may be back for the Super Bowl if they win.  It is very difficult to beat a team twice and with Polamalu back in the lineup, I feel pretty safe taking the Steelers giving 3.5 points this weekend.

The Steelers are picking it up on offense and I don't think Shaun Ellis can repeat his performance from last week, which was very good in my opinion.  Rex Ryan isn't saying what Revis will do, but I will let you in on the secret, Revis will cover Hines Ward and Antonio Cromartie will cover the speedy receiver Mike Wallace.  People might question this, but it makes perfect sense as Cromartie does a better job against the tall speedy receivers than he does the smaller, quick ones.  I think he will do a good job against him as well, but I can't say as much for the safeties Eric Smith and Brodney Pool.  They will have the job of covering Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown at times unless the Jets bring in Dwight Lowery and Kyle Wilson more often than they want.  Throw in Heath Miller at tight end along with the Steeler running backs and Ben Roethlisberger has a ton of good matchups as the Jets linebackers will not be able to cover any of those guys as well.  If the Jets show more nickel and dime packages, expect the Steelers to run the ball more often as their offensive line is probably the healthiest it has been all year.  A lot of people are feeling the Jets because of the herd mentality, but this one will be all Steelers.

Is Safety Becoming Most Important Position on Defense?

Steeler Safety Troy Polamalu

You only need to look at one regular season series to see how important the safety position is becoming, the Jets and Patriots.  Although the Patriots were a different team in both games as they still had Randy Moss in their week 2 matchup, it is still safe to make this comparison.   During their first matchup the Patriots were able to muster only 14 points with both touchdowns coming in the first half, the second one a long touchdown pass from Brady to Moss with Revis in coverage.  Darrelle Revis would pull his hamstring on that play and not return for the second half.  Revis, in my opinion is the best corner in the game hands down yet the Jets were able to hold the top scoring offense in the league scoreless in the second half without the best corner.  Let us now go to their second matchup where Jim Leonhard, the Jets starting safety, broke his leg during practice late in the week and the Jets were thrashed 45-3.  During that debace, the Jets defense looked clueless and had no idea who was covering who on many of the plays and there was mass confusion.  Now by no means am I saying that I would rather have Jim Leonhard than Darrelle Revis, but does the safety lead to better overall team defense?  A shutdown corner can erase a wide receiver from a game, but the offense can still throw away from him and a cornerback does not really affect the run game as much.  It is tough to avoid a great safety though.

We need only look at the instant boost the Steelers defense gets when Troy Polamalu gets back on the field after one of his many injuries.  Even though the Steelers missed the playoffs last season, they were missing Polamalu for most of those losses and I was in the minority stating that had they made the playoffs they were my favorite to win the super bowl as the team is entirely different when he is on the field.  Ed Reed missed around half this season and he was still able to lead the NFL in interceptions and made the Ravens a much better difference (I don't think they are great, but still good).  The third true game changing safety, nobody even remembers because he is never on the field, is Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis colts.  They have a defense that is actually talked about when he is healthy, instead of dissecting how Peyton Manning can beat you because that is usually their only chance of winning.  The main reason that this idea probably isn't thought about as much, is that you can find more good safeties than you can cornerbacks.  It is a lot tougher to play out on an island than in the middle of the field where you don't always have one true responsibility.  I also think that good cornerbacks should be paid more and are much harder to find, but the great safeties alter the games outcome much more.

In my opinion, there is nobody better than Polamalu with Ed Reed coming in second.  Eric Berry of the KC Chiefs has the making of a great safety and will climb the ladder fairly quickly and I feel that Earl Thomas of the Seattle Seahawks will not be a great one but a very good one.  There are also many good ones in the league, but for this article we are talking about true game changers.  I like Brandon Merriweather of the Patriots, but I wouldn't consider him a game changer.  Bill Belichick has also made a living of making bad safeties look good and good safeties look great.  There is a long list of them, I consider Lawyer Milloy to be good where he looked great here.  Tebucky Jones was very good here and terrible everywhere else.  Rodney Harrison was very good where he looked great here.  The Patriots been able to plug in a bunch of random guys and get good production out of them, but none of them have been game changers, which is the point of this article.  More than any position on the defense I am beginning to think if you have a game changer at safety that instantly makes you a good defense and sometimes great.

Time for the NFL to Take the Oakland Raiders from Big Al

This is just getting silly, I am not even sure who or what Al Davis is looking for.  No offense to Hue Jackson, but Tom Cable did a great job considering the circumstances and I am not just saying that because I predicted their exact 8-8 finish either.  In his first year following the Jamarcus Russell experience the Raiders looked respectable and to some degree and NFL franchise.  This was done despite years of awful drafting done by none other than Al Davis, who in all respect is an NFL icon and deserves a ton of credit but it is time for him to head to Shady Acres and since he isn't going to do it on his own I have my own suggestion.  The NFL should take the team back in a move similar to the government taking a piece of property through eminent domain.  Al Davis has put in his blood, sweat and tears into this organization so he should be given fair market value just as any property owner would be.  I mean the guy just picked up another punter because Shane Lechler, the pro bowl punter just about any team in the league would be happy to have, spoke out because of the firing of Tom Cable.  Please let him go and add that to the list of insane moves this franchise has been a part of lately.  The scariest part of this is the fact that I really thought the organization turned the corner this year through their drafting and then with this year's performance.  Instead of doing their usual, pick the fastest guy with your first pick they showed a bit of restraint and waited until the middle rounds and Picked up Jacoby Ford, who turned in a great rookie year.  They also went out and picked Rolondo McClain with their first pick and most likely have their defensive captain for many years going forward.  So it seems you will never know what to expect with this organization as long as General Davis is in charge.  So I plead with the NFL to save this organization from him so we can go and focus on the Bengals being the worst organization in football, that is something that makes sense to me.  Just saying!

Aaron Rodgers will Fall Back to Earth this Weekend

Brian Urlacher looks to contain Aaron Rodgers
this weekend.

Before I begin, Aaron Rodgers is a very good quarterback who put up one of the most impressive performances last week in their 48-21 win over the Falcons.  Because of this win the whole world has them raising the Lombardi trophy on the first Sunday in February. It was just a couple of weeks ago where they held a 21-10 lead with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter only to be held scoreless for the rest of the game.  In this game the Eagles usually reliable kicker, David Akers, missed 2 field goals, one a very makeable 34 yarder, Brent Celek steps out of bounds for no reason on a 2 pt conversion and Michael Vick throws a game deciding interception going up top to all people Riley Cooper.  Cooper had a good rookie year but I would not want my playoffs decided throwing a jump ball to him going up against Tramon Williams.

Now, none of this is Rodgers' fault, but at the same time he couldn't put the Eagles away and gave them every chance to take this game away from him.  This is something that still makes it tough for me to name him a big game quarterback as he has done this many times during the regular season.  In the falcons game he was lights out and made many Falcons look foolish as they had open runs at him only to be left empty handed.  With some help from his defense, the Packers very much looked the part of a super bowl participant as they put a whooping on the Falcons.

This week will be very different.  I am not saying the Packers will not win, but they do not have the ideal matchup that everybody thinks.  I realize that Seattle put up 24 points in their loss to Chicago last week, but what many people who didn't watch the game didn't see is that those were all pretty much garbage points.  The game was never in doubt and you could say that human nature took over where the Bear defense was not playing as hard as they were earlier.  This game will be a lot different and the Bears now what is at stake.  Chicago's offense does not run through their receivers which will neutralize the great play of the Packer cornerbacks (Williams and Sam Shields).  Jay Cutler likes to utilize his running backs and tight end Greg Olson, which will bring matchup problems for the very good Packer defense.  The Chicago turf will also be a factor.  Said turf is said to be the worst in the league, which is a key advantage for the home team.  I am pretty sure the grounds crew will do whatever it can to keep it that way and slow down the speedy stable of Packer receivers as well.  The Packer running game will be slowed down to a halt as it is not that good to begin with and I wouldn't expect Julius Peppers and the crew to miss too many sack opportunities as the Atlanta Falcons did this past weekend.

If I had to make a choice I would take the Packers to win, but I would not expect Rodgers to be the reason as I don't expect him to throw for 300 yards this week.  There are two issues in this game that make me still like the Pack to win and the first is Mike Martz is the first.  He loves a big stage and is sure to call some very bad plays at the worst possible time because that is who he is, a gambler.  Mistakes will be the other one and until Cutler can show me he won't make them in key games against good teams, I am going to have to take the Pack.  If I was to take a gamble at this, now realize I am very conservative when it comes to gambling,  I would tease the Pack and the under, but I like the under much more than I like the Pack.

Is Norv Turner Really Still the Head Coach in San Diego?

This blog is just something I have always needed to put on record as it is something that I have argued about with my brother forever and that is why is Norv Turner still the head coach in San Diego?  It never made sense to get rid of Marty Schottenheimer when his team that just went 14-2 and was the number 1 seed only to lose because Marlon McCree (I think that was his name) picked off a Brady pass only to be stripped by the wily veteran Troy Brown and then as could only happen to poor old Marty, it was game, set, match.  The funniest part of that game, which I remember vividly is that Schotty got away from his ever popular Marty Ball where he constantly runs the ball too much.  Tomlinson had a very good game and I don't think they gave him the ball enough and to the dismay of San Diegans everywhere, they ultimately lost the game.

I think much like quarterbacks, there are coaches that get too much credit for super bowl victories as opposed to those that didn't.  Schottenheimer never even made it to the big one as he had to live through the John Elway Drive, the  Earnest Byner fumble, Nate Kaeding missing a chip shot and Marlon McCree.  Now it is understood that maybe he could have had a bigger lead in those situations, but those are some pretty disturbing historical circumstances to overcome.  As you can tell I am a Schottenheimer apologist and by no means do I think he is Lombardi, Belichick, or Bill Walsh but he was a solid coach that turned losers into winners habitually.

Back to the point of the story, my nemesis Norv Turner.  He was a highly respected offensive coordinator, when he was given the job to take over my beloved Redskins a few years removed from their super bowl win.  For some reason he was allowed to hang around there and totally remove the team from any respectability as he was able to get the once proud Washington Redskins to the playoffs in 1 of his 7 seasons.  From there, he went back to being a coordinator that was somehow given the head coaching job with the Raiders, an organization that truly deserves someone of his caliber, where he resided for 2 seasons and a total of 9 wins.  He then went on to another coordinator position and after selling his soul to the devil was given a team built for the super bowl in 2007, the San Diego Chargers.  Coming off a 14-2 season, he has been able to get the Chargers to the playoffs in 3 of his 4 years winning the usually terrible AFC West.  In one of those seasons, San Diego sitting at 5-8 were able to rattle of 3 wins while the 8-5 Broncos lost its last 3 games and the division.

Now the AFC West is becoming a bit better and the Chargers were not able to overcome their early season woes as the Chiefs were able to supplant the Chargers and keep them at home for the playoffs despite San Diego having a highly ranked offense and defense.  Ron Rivera is gone, which means the defense will feel the heat much like the Giants did after losing Steve Spagnuolo.  I for one thought they should have fired Turner and hired Rivera.  It seems that A.J. Smith, "the Lord of No Rings" as described by Vincent Jackson's agent, and ownership are happy being mediocre, which is too bad for Philip Rivers, Antonio Gates and the rest of the team that will likely not win a super bowl in the near future.  Their talent will be able to overcome Turner's inferior coaching and help them make a run at the playoffs, but not enough to get them to the next level.

Bart Scott Should Stay Invisible

Am I the only one that seems to notice that Bart Scott is only noticeable when he is making brash comments or getting injured during key opponent drives enough to give the opposing offenses a timeout.  I do not doubt his ability at one time, in which I could probably take most of his annoying comments but he is  pretty much invisible during actual game time and then he immediately shows up when the game is over.  Take some pointers from your fellow teammates Harris, Ellis and Revis who are positively visible during the game and invisible after the game, which I guess makes them the Bizarro Bart Scotts.  I do realize that Revis had a couple of comments, but I didn't have much of a problem as he is barraged by the media and he was defending his team and there was nothing wrong with what he said in my opinion.  It is also fair to say that Sal Pal might very well be scared to talk to Bart Scott going forward.

Athletes are always going to talk and in fact they are entertainers but I would rather see them at least show up during the game (T Sizzle is brash but he can play).  So if you are invisible during the game stay that way.  As far as their victory goes, it was impressive and they deserved it so move on to the next game because despite popular belief you still need to win two more games for anybody to really care.

Popping My Blogging Cherry

This is my first ever football blog entry, so it will be longer than usual and I promise to keep them shorter in the future.  I am not sure how many people will actually even see this but I talk football constantly and felt the need to put my opinion out there for a sense of keeping record.  Basically, my sense is that in most fields analysts or critics, whatever they may be called in said industry all have a herd mentality.  Let's take movies for instance.  I enjoy watching movies.  There as not as much opportunity to watch them since my son was born a few years ago, but I enjoy them nonetheless.  I can pretty much tell you when somebody will be nominated for an award from the trailer (Christian Bale in the Fighter and Will Smith in Pursuit of Happyness).   I base this on what I think social perception will be and what kind of role it is and that we as a society like to give credence to certain types of roles.  This is getting far off track as the main point of this article and blog is to try and put out an opinion that is stripped of the herd mentality which many football analysts and pundits seem to be involved.  Sometimes there will be agreement with them but many times I will give my opinion and hopefully it will turn out to be right more often than wrong.

I am a Boston native and I am a pretty neutral football fan as there has not been a true favorite team since Dan Snyder and Norv Turner took over my beloved Washington Redskins.  The Patriots were not fed to me since my parents were not football fans so although I loved football I was left without a true team, which is tough since my wife is a season ticket holder and my oldest brother has had a mancrush on Tom Brady for quite some time.  What happens with the Patriots is always quite comical as the media will always put them on this pedestal and the fans begin to think they are unbeatable.  Then come the angry calls of how badly they played when they finally lose a game, especially when it is during the playoffs and at the hands of the Rival Jets.  Although they did not play their best game, if it was any other team it would just be the Jets were the better team.  We as fans get used the norm, even when it begins to seem unrealistic.  Tom Brady is great at what he does but people can't expect him to be perfect week in and week out, it just doesn't happen.  The offensive line had been playing incredibly and that couldn't hold up forever, and although it happened at the worst time these things tend to average out and thus you get a  much worse game than normal at the most inopportune time (see Saints defense from week 1 of this years playoffs).

In 2007, I was of the lone opinion that the Patriots needed to lose a game so as not to feel invincible and if they had I feel they would have won the Super Bowl that year.   We had an offense that nobody had seen from us and it took a while for teams to pick up what were doing.  Go back and look at our offensive output and you could see it slowly sputtering towards the end. We think that they are professionals so they do not feed into what is being said about them.  Even the great Bill Belichick can't keep them focused for every big game especially when it had been a while since losing at home and you beat this team 45-3 the last time at Gillette.  The truth be told this year we don't have a ton of great talent but were a very good team which can be a recipe for a letdown.

This post has been running long so I am going to cut it at this point as I am just trying to give people a taste of what I will blog about.  I will agree with the majority on occasion as I would never have thought that New Orleans could lose to a bad Seattle team in the first round of the playoffs, but I did know enough not to put money on that line.  New Orleans will beat that same Seahawk team 99 out of 100 times but that still leaves as the Little Giants once said "one time".