THUNDERING BLURB

ANDREW GARDA'S ENDLESS TAKES ON NFL AND COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Posts Tagged Indianapolis Colts

Thundering Blurb Football Show – 2/10

Feb 11

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SmashmouthWedFINAL[1]Didn’t get a chance to post one of these last week, but back in the saddle today. If you missed last week’s show, just check the archives on Blogtalkradio.com and check it out.

As for last night’s episode, check it out here.

Among the topics we discussed was—of course—the Saints Super Bowl victory and how despite what some have said, the Colts didn’t lose the game, it was the Saints who won it. A small but important distinction.

As I said in my NFL Late Hits column (final of the year, by the way) Saintsnfl_a_payton4_576[1] Coach Sean Payton made some bold moves. Maybe—as some people point out—had those moves failed some (many?) would be calling him an idiot.

Not me though. Even if the onside kick surprised me, I think it was a great move. Same with going on fourth down in the first half.

That was the difference between the Colts and the Saints. Caldwell, Manning or whomever is in charge called a conservative game. That might work against a team like the Jets who aren’t putting a ton of points up.

Against an explosive Saints offense? Dangerous. Sure it was the Porter interception which put the nail in the Colts’ coffin but the playcalling did it’s part.

We wrap up the Super Bowl talk by touching on Manning’s legacy post-INT (it’s still intact) and try to figure out just what Jim Caldwell does as a coach.

After some general NFL news and notes, we shift to some Draft talk. nfldraft[1]

Joe Everrett—host of The Fantasy Exchange and fellow SmashMouth Wednesday guy—calls in and we spend some time talking NFL Draft prospects until I wrap out the show.

As always, thanks to everyone for coming by the chat, and listening either via live streaming or by download. I appreciate you hanging with me every Wednesday Night at 10pm eastern.

You can always email me at thunderingblurb(a)gmail.com and follow me on Twitter here.

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NFL LATE HITS – SUPER BOWL EDITION

Feb 8

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I knew it would probably come down to one big defensive play, but I will admit I thought it’d be by the Colts, not the Saints.

Much less Tracy Porter.

Of course, the bigger play opened the second half and caught me by surprise as well – when Saints Coach Sean Payton called an onside kick. And it worked.

Bold decisions. We talked a lot about those this year—everything from Bill Belichick’s fourth down attempt against the Colts to the Colts’ decision to sit their starters.

Payton made several bold decisions last night. The onside kick. The two-point conversion attempt. The attempt to go for it on fourth down on the one yard line in the first half.

I didn’t like the called play but I did like that the Saints went for it. If they lost, there was never going to be a question as to whether they left it all out on the field. They did.

Same with the onside kick. I actually yelped in surprise when I saw it, I was so taken aback. You can ‘what if’ that call as much as you want, but it worked and set the tone for the second half.

That tone sounded a lot like a jazz band on Bourbon Street.

This game will take a long time to digest as many big things happened—most notably to the super-star quarterbacks involved.

It was a game where Drew Brees may have begun his own Hall of Fame discussion, while Manning may have ended the discussion as to whether he should be the Greatest Quarterback of All Time.

Manning’s interception—followed very shortly thereafter by another bad throw which should have been picked off in the end zone—shouldn’t really kill his over-all legacy. He’s too good for that.

I think it’s hard to argue him as the greatest quarterback ever after those two throws, though.

His career isn’t over yet, but consider this is a bit of a step back.

In the end, you have to feel good if for New Orleans and the Saints (yes, even Colts fans, though granted they can do so begrudgingly.)

1491291[1]It’s a city that is still rebuilding after Katrina. Until last night, it was a city which had never won a Super Bowl. It’s a city where people make bold moves every day.

Last night, their team made a few bold moves of their own and they paid off in spades.

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The Thundering Blurb SHow – 1/27

Jan 28

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Wherein I discuss Tim Tebow – way too much.
Also, we recap Jets/Colts and Saints/Vikings, touch on Lord Favre, moving the Pro Bowl and the NFL Draft, and talk about how awesome a show Friday Night Lights is.

HERE IS THE LINK – CLICK IT (you know you want to).

As for Tebow—as I say on the show, this will be an ongoing discussion.

The last segment was supposed to be more Senior Bowl than Senior Tebow but that failed. And why not? Tebow is a huge subject, so I spent some time on that.

There seem to be two camps—I call them the Acolytes and the Haters. 98% of the people in either groups seem to be able to grasp logic nor hear contrary opinions. It’s amusing, it’s cute but it’s about to get old.

I take that back. There’s a third group—one I think most of us are in. The people who see the potential in Tebow but also see the severe hill he has to climb to play successfully in this league.

As we move into the details I can say that by and large, most of what he did—fumbles, footwork and innaccuracies—were what I expected.

What I really want to hear is how he took to the coaching and what the coaches thought of his ability to adapt. It’s critical he convince teams he can achieve what needs to happen if they are to risk a pick on him.

I’m not hearing that much on the subject yet though it does seem he is making progress.  He has the game this weekend, the NFL Combine in a few weeks and then his Pro Day.

He needs to interview well at all of them as well as show a willingness to adjust—and that’s on top of improving at least a little between each event.

Either way I think detractors and proponents of Timmy Football need to take a chill pill. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Since we beat the subject of Tebow into the ground for almost half the show, I toss out a few places to get your full Senior Bowl coverage.

As always Draftguys.com was on the scene. It was Cecil Lamey’s fourth or fifth year going, though this time it was without new father Sigmund Bloom. Matt Waldman filled in very well though and you can catch all their takes over at the site.

Shawn Zobel of Draftheadquarters.com was in Mobile as well. Like Cecil and Matt, Shawn has plenty to say about all the prospecs so make sure you head on over to the site.

Shawn is definitely in the hopper for a few appearences during the next few months, and I can be reasonably confident in saying Waldman, Lammey and the other Draftguys will drop by at some point.

And not just because I will shortly be dropping content on the Draftguys site.

So check out the goodness on the link and heck while you’re at it head over to ITunes and subscribe to the feed.

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NFL LATE HITS – CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jan 25

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What a weekend.

You have to hand it to the Saints and Colts. When it came down to it, both found a way to win.

The Jets hung in there with the Colts for almost a half but as Manning said, the Colts were trying to figure out how to crack the Jets’ defense.

They did that right before the half and then proceeded to beat the tar out of the Jets in the second half.

Sadly, it comes on one of the better games for rookie Mark Sanchez. One hopes that when he watches tape on the game he spends some time watching Manning as well.

If you’re going to watch your team get smoked by the league MVP, take notes.
 
Oh, and Braylon Edwards? You had a big touchdown. Great. Stop mouthing off to the media about how underused you were.
 
Know that every single person watching that throw assumed you were going to drop it—again—and you will know why you weren’t used in critical situations. You have PANS for HANDS.
 
Should the Jets have used him more? Maybe. They went into a shell for a lot of the second half until the middle of the fourth quarter where the playcalling just reeked of panic and desperation.
 
But if you’re wondering why you weren’t entrusted with more passes, more important plays—go check out that Charger game last week when you dropped a big touchdown becuase Sanchez hit you in the chest with it. Or the big drop from the game against the Bengals. Or any game this season.
 
Sit down and shut up and be thankful if the team offers you anything this off-season.

In the end (Edwards stupidity aside) as a Jets fan, this was all more than I expected. Would I have liked a win? Sure. Am I satisfied? I’d be lying if I said yes, 100%.

But it was a great season.

Meanwhile I continue to be impressed by Manning. Beyond him, you look at that team and have to think that as long as Manning is playing, they will always contend.

Collie. Garcon. Clark. Wayne.

They exposed the complete lack of play-makers beyond Darrelle Revis in the Jets secondary. Collie/Garcon flat out embarrassed Dwight Lowery, made him look silly. Rhodes continues to find himself out of position on big plays. Lito Sheppard was a Pro Bowler once, but not this year.

Manning and his guys tore them up.

The Saints better find an answer.

They didn’t have one for Favre, final interception aside.

Also, when a team coughs the ball up five times, you need to take more advantage than the Saints did when the Vikings tried to give the game away.

By Vikings I could just be talking about Adrian Peterson. His three touchdown performance notwithstanding, Peterson’s multiple fumbles were painful.

Yeah, he didn’t lose the majority of them but that was a brutal performance.

I watched Shonn Greene (rookie Jets running back) go from fumble machine to ball—security technician over the course of one season so I know that sort of thing can change.

I don’t know exactly what he did, but someone should find out and let Peterson in on it.

Did it look to you like neither team wanted to go to Miami?

Defensively neither team did all that much. Jared Allen was a non-factor, something I didn’t expect. For large stretches it seemed as if the defenses would just dissappear.

I mean, don’t get me wrong—high scoring games can be fun. A little defense would have been good though.

I’d like to say that this didn’t turn on any one thing—but let’s be honest, there were some terrible penalties called (or in some cases not) and that impacted the game.

I could spend an entire column on the officiating of these playoffs. You guys know how I feel at this point. Mark Sanchez gets hit in the back on a clear late hit. No call. Someone breathes on Favre and flags fly. Pass Interference penalties are terribly inconsistent.

Last night it took half an hour to burn five minutes of overtime—and they still struggled to make the right calls.

In the end though, the Saints made the plays they needed and Favre ended the Vikings’ season with an inexplicable pass play when they were closing on a game winning field goal.

So, you know—business as usual.

Saints/Colts will be talked about a lot the next two weeks (you know, while we’re killing time and pretending the Pro Bowl isn’t a joke) so we’ll back off of that.

For now, congrats to both teams and my condolences to the Jets and Vikings.

It’s a long off-season.
 
 
Drama in three…..two…..one….. GO!

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NFL LATE HITS – Playoff Week 2

Jan 18

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Just when we were all yawning at another blowout slate of NFL Playoff games, Sunday Night’s matchup again rides in and saves the day.

The fact that it involved two of my favorite teams didn’t hurt the chances I would be entertained. Further, the fact that the Jets won in the end certainly enhanced the evening.

Ryan's not here. He's at the buffet with JaMarcus.

Ryan's not here. He's at the buffet with JaMarcus.

The Jets are like a somewhat obnoxious player on a run at the craps tables in Vegas. Loud, drunk on free booze and getting all the breaks.

Whether it’s Darrelle Revis’ impossible interception (which had my Chargers backing son yelling at the refs—so proud) or the sack and strip of Rivers late in the game, everything is coming up Gang Green.

Rex Ryan has this team believing—his antics may be old outside that locker-room, but inside? Those guys will lay down on train tracks for him.

Can you say the same for the Chargers’ Norv Turner?

Maybe the more intriguing question for this weekend will be, can you say the same for the Colts and Jim Caldwell?

I’m probably reading more into it then there really is, but we know the team was angry when they handed a win to the Jets. You wonder if that hurts a coach in the locker-room.

On the other hand, it could very well feed this team just as easily.

It’s fitting that the monster that the Colts created is going to be there in their own house, feet up on the table when they show up to play for the AFC title.

There is a ton at play in that game—of course the Colts aim to prove the Jets would have fallen victim to them had everyone played in Week 16.

The Jets will do what they have done both games prior in these playoffs—control the clock, run the ball. Sanchez must limit his mistakes as he has for the last month.

The Colts don’t have a great rush defense. The Jets should be able to move the ball on them and keep Manning off the field.

We know Manning needs little to no time to score though. And sure, Revis can shut Wayne down again but as we saw yesterday with Gates and Floyd, that doesn’t stop a passing offense.

The Jets need to pressure Manning like they pressure Rivers and have a few balls drop their way.

Like that streaking player at the Vegas tables, so far they all have.

Everything's coming up Sanchez! Will it next week too?

Everything's coming up Sanchez! Will it next week too?

Some will say their luck must come to an end. Everyone will say there is no way they can beat the Colts. Just as they said there was no way they could be the Chargers or the Bengals.

Me? I like their chances Sunday and wouldn’t bet against them.

I also wouldn’t be anymore shocked by a loss than I am when I see the formerly hot craps shooter leaning against a wall, busted and trying not to get sick.

Of course, the NFC Championship is a complete snore by comparison.

Favre? Back in the playoffs as a Viking, not a Packer? The Saints, in the Championship game with a Done full of excited Cajuns?

Yeah who wants to tune into THAT?

The Colts/Jets game could completely fall apart in the opening quarter if the Jets defense stumbles but Vikings/Saints looks like next week’s Gunfight at the OK Corral*.

Brees has so many weapons, including Reggie Bush who had the game of his life this weekend. Offensively you know they can move the ball, even against a red-hot defense like Minnesota has right now.

Meanwhile, His Royal Favreness just keeps making Sidney Rice into the

Win a Super Bowl Brett - just no more 'Pants on the Floor' please

Win a Super Bowl Brett - just no more 'Pants on the Floor' please

player I hoped he would be. Rice, finally injury free, could take a huge step back if Favre retires after this season.

But for now, just amazing. The play—could have been the second or third touchdown—where Rice threw a block, fell down, got up, ran his route and caught a touchdown should be shown to every athlete from any sport as an example of playing for the whole play.

Just amazing. And they didn’t even need Adrian Peterson to do it, though he played pretty well.

This will come down to two things.

First, whether the Saints defense—which slapped the Arizona Cardinals around pretty good—can stifle Favre’s magic.

Second, who wins the trench warfare along the Saints offensive line and the Vikings defensive line. For the love of God, someone put a body (or four) on Jared Allen, OK?

The Saints have to give Brees to find his receivers as they run their routes and the Vikings looked very good at getting to the quarterback against Dallas yesterday.

One thing is for sure—this will be another great weekend of football and regardless of the outcome I have high hopes for a great Super Bowl Sunday as well. 

*There was no gunfight this week – there were three St Valentines Day Massacres and a Bar Brawl, but no shootout. Dallas and Arizona really didn’t even look like they were in their opponent’s class during their games.

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The Thundering Blurb Show – 1/13

Jan 14

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Click here to listen to the Thundering Blurb Show for 1/13.

As has been the habit the last couple of weeks, there’s so much more than the playoffs to talk about. Don’t worry, we talk plenty of playoffs in the last half of the show.

It’s just hard to stop talking about everything else. 

Like Defensive Player of the Year Charles Woodson.

We kick off the show with that conversation. Listen, when I’m not wearing my analyst hat, I wear a green hat. I love the Jets and Darrelle Revis is an amazing cornerback.

But I really cannot fault the selection of Woodson. As I wrote in an article both for the Blurb and Bleacher Report, both players are worthy and a lot of people arguing (on both sides) are ignoring the abilities of the other player.

As always I think we make more noise about it than the players do—hell Revis even voted for Woodson in the Sporting News Defensive Player of the Year vote.

After that, we’re on to Pete Carroll/Lane Kiffin/USC/Seattle/Tennessee.

Listen, Jemele Hill said it very well here on ESPN.com - don’t hate the player, hate the game.

And this is the game—coaches will leave when they want, how they want. Right or wrong, that’s the truth.

I don’t like the way Carroll appears to be fleeing USC right before sanctions hit. I don’t like that USC staff didn’t return phone calls to recruits during the tumultuous weekend when everyone was sure he was already gone.

I don’t like the way Kiffin is leaving Tennessee pretending he ‘gave it his all’. I also dislike the fact that players are trapped when coaches are not.

But it’s the way it is. And until the NCAA changes something any player needs to remember that.

By the way—does USC really want a guy who was AT USC when Bush was allegedly getting paid, was recruiting Joe McKnight (fresh off his own issues) and comes to LA trailing six infractions?

At least six we know about.

Speaking of things needing to change – the Rooney Rule is a joke. It’s got a noble aim, but when Seattle can skirt the rules and get patted on the back for it by the Fritz Pollard Alliance who manages the Rule.

“Our position is, if Pete Carroll comes there as the head coach, he will only be in charge of the 53-man football roster,” Wooten said. “That’s the extent of his authority. Because of their commitment to swear that to us, we have agreed to let them interview Leslie Frazier.

“They can hire Pete Carroll if they want. But he cannot be anything more than a head coach. He does not have control of the draft. He does not have control of the trades. He does not have the last word on anything other than the 53 men he puts out on that field each and every week.”

Really guys? Come on.

Fact is, the Seahawks skirted the rule. Like Kiffin though, I really don’t blame them. If you can get away with something, you do if it will help you win.

That’s the way things are. Until something changes.

Also, I think Carroll is GM in about three years tops assuming he’s still there. Which makes this a bigger joke.

For what it’s worth, I still say this all ends badly for the whole bunch. I don’t feel great about Carroll’s chances in Seattle, I think Kiffin will win but the Trojans may end up in even more trouble and we can already see recruits for the Volunteers fleeing so we know where that’s going.

We wrap things up with playoff talk for all for games and—as is often the case—we run a bit over the 60 minute mark.

Enjoy!

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The Thundering Blurb Show – 12/30

Dec 31

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Last night was- as always- a great deal of fun. As the Fantasy Football year winds down, things don’t slow down for me. I’m getting ready to do some draft stuff and I’ll be on the interweb radio pretty much every Wednesday all year long.

snowIt’s snowing here in New York, which makes the decision to NOT do Times Square for New Years Eve seem very wise.

I love the white stuff though, so despite the fact it requires scraping and shoveling I’m happy to see today’s snow.

I’m sure I will be jaded at some point.

Last night’s show included some lineup questions from TheBoyz, the crazy bastard in a Week 17 championship (and which revealed that some of my show notes and matchups were wrong – D’OH!), some continued Colts benching outrage as well as pre-outrage for what might be benched Bengal starters.

Oh and lawsuits by Indy councilmen. Those get talked about too.

I also talked a little about Tim Tebow and whether he should play in the Senior Bowl and the Texas Tech Mike Leach firing. As $GMoney$ said in the chat, there is something more to this story. Something isn’t adding up though I can’t say exactly what.

Also: If Craig James wasn’t Adam James’ dad, would this be such a big story?

That’s it for now – feel free to leave comments here and as always thanks for reading and listening.

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NFL Late Hits – Week 16

Dec 28

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I’m going to try and not make this whole column be about the Colts and Head Coach Jim Caldwell.

It may be hard.

I’ll give this to the Colts’ coach—damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.

Well, I guess if you were predisposed to think Peyton Manning—one of the most durable quarterbacks in the game—would end up hurt. Frankly, I wouldn’t think that way.

I can’t put it better than my boy Sigmund Bloom did on Twitter:

You can’t coach afraid of negative outcomes, you focus on the positive outcomes you are pushing towards. Wonder how team feels right now.

Caldwell was preserving Manning, a guy who rarely gets hurt, and may have thrown off the timing of a team who was on a roll. There’s no way he puts the starters in for long this week, is there?

We’re watching momentum disintegrate for the Saints—are we going to see it for the Colts now.

As for the Jets, Mark Sanchez didn’t throw an interception.  Starters may have been sitting, but Sanchez protected the ball. Big deal for him this season considering how he has struggled. Good decisions, solid play-calling, effective ground game.

They still need to win against the Bengals (starters or not) and all those things need to be going if they are going to win.

Interesting side note: The Colts/Jets game inspired this piece of writing on a University of North Carolina website called The 5th Corner where writer AEM uses it as a cautionary tale for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, which is considering a move to a 96 team tournament.

(sidenote-within-a-sidenote: I think expanding to that size is a horrible idea, incredibly unmanageable and frankly giving the College BCS anti-playoff people ammunition they don’t need.) 

See what you did Jim Caldwell?

The Chargers, Cowboys and Patriots seem to be heating up at the right time.  The is standard operating procedure for the Bolts it seems but new ground for Dallas.

Romo has turned the concept he’s a Christmas choke artist on it’s ear the last few weeks. Maybe they aren’t perfect and maybe they won’t make it far into the playoffs, but they seem to be ready for the playoffs at a time when some teams—like the aforementioned Colts and Saints as well as the Vikings—are stumbling.

In the last few years both the Giants and Cardinals have shown us where momentum can take you. One of the fringe teams will heat up and cause some havoc in the playoffs.

Finally, I’ve danced around it enough this month: it’s retarded that Titans running back Chris Johnson isn’t getting more buzz for MVP. Beyond that, it’s criminal. I’m not saying he should be a lock to win it, but not enough writers are even taking note of him beyond ‘wow he’s pretty good’.

Maybe it’s a moot point, given that his team has struggled even when he’s doing well. That his impact on any game is negligible.

This fallacy—or what I consider one—pretty much makes it impossible for almost any position not named ‘Quarterback’, a problem which is already part of the Heisman lack of defensive players.

No one player wins a game every time out (just ask John Elway) but the MVP needs to be a game changer. Chris Johnson is a constant threat to break a long touchdown—a defense cannot afford to ignore him or he will burn them.

Maybe he hasn’t won a lot of games for the Titans. But at any moment, he could.

That should count for something in my opinion.

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Thundering Blurb Football Show 12/17

Dec 17

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Great show again last night and I was joined once again by Matt Waldman of  Footballguys.com and the Rookie Scouting Portfolio.

Among the subjects we touched on were:

  • Chris Henry (this was before the news this morning that he had died, but it didn’t look good then)
  • Heisman Awards – We chat a little about Ingram but settle on Suh and the seeming inability of many old school voters to understand Suh’s position and many of the ‘non-sexy’ positions. I posit the idea that with the web coming of age, maybe we’ll start seeing more diversity in the award. Admitedly it won’t happen any time soon, but I hope.
  • The Colts potentially sitting their players this week. I think it’s insane. Matt does not and makes a good argument for his point.
  • After we bid Matt tonight, I continue my thoughts on the Colts/Jags game then answer a few chatroom questions.

Thanks again to Matt for coming on and thanks to you all for listening – I need to get a ITunes link up in here for you to subscribe with, but until I can manage that bit of technology, drop by the Itunes store and subscribe – you won’t miss a show all year round.

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NFL Late Hits

Nov 16

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I’ve been throwing out my thoughts on Monday mornings on Twitter and will probably continue to do so, but felt like a proper article makes a ton of sense.

With that in mind, welcome to NFL Late Hits, my new Monday article here at The Thundering Blurb. It won’t cover everything that happens in the NFL on a Sunday, just the stuff that for whatever reason sticks in my brain by day’s end.

Two huge plays yesterday have caused some chaos in the NFL media and Fantasy Football community – one was the 4-2 call to go for it by Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, the other, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew taking a knee at the one to milk the clock in the Jets game.

Let’s start with the call by Belichick. I’ll admit, I didn’t see it when it happened.

I did discover a new food allergy so, you know, win!

Instead, I went over the hightlites and looked over the game info at NFL.com. I can’t say I thought it was the best call, but I’m not sure it’s the worst ever.

Say what you will, but Belichick goes on fourth pretty often and it works out for him more than most coaches. I may be remembering wrong, but on NFLN last night, I believe Mariucci said it worked somewhere in the neighborhood of 78% of the time for him.

It’s not a bad percentage – on the other end of the field.

Look, Belichick has forgotten more about football in the time it took me to type this sentence out than I know now. So I’m sure he had all the facts, figures and percentages in his head when he made the call.

I just don’t know why you risk giving Peyton Manning the ball on your side of the field.

A great coach rolls the dice. Sometimes you hit the point, sometimes you crap out. Like The Hoodie said in his press conference, people will question you anyway.

I think it was a bad call. I also think the media shouldn’t be pulling their hair out over it.

Especially since, had the Pats made it, we would have had another round of ‘This is the kind of GENIUS which has made him so successful’.

A little perspective please.

Speaking of perspective – ok, so if you lost your Fantasy Matchup because Maurice Jones-Drew took a knee on the one yard line, you might want to skip a few paragraphs to where I chat about Brian Westbrook.

This was the right call. Could Jaguars kicker Josh Scobee have biffed the extra point kick? Sure. It happens less than 2% of the time, but like the man said ’so you’re saying there’s a chance?’.

Listen, when people say Fantasy Football is ruining enjoyment of the game, it’s because of reactions like this.

Scobee – shaky though he has been – wasn’t missing that kick. A short, high, kick is very hard to block. I know it cheeses you off not to get the 6 points but the Jags needed to milk the clock.

Whether reports are true that Head Coach Jack Del Rio called for a knee prior to the play or not, it was the right decision.

Seemingly overlooked in the ‘DAMMIT MJD YOU COST ME MY GAME’ shouting was the fact that Jones-Drew picked up the first down. That game was done. They could burn the clock all the way to the wire (which they did) and kick a ‘gimme’ field goal (which they also did).

It’s a no brainer. Sure, like Belichick’s call above if something bizarre had happened and the Jets had gotten the ball back and won, it would look foolish.

But the best way to finish a game and win is to keep the ball out of the hands of the opposing offense’s hands. They did that. As much as I don’t love the thought of Mark Sanchez having to lead his team 80 yards to a win, all it would have taken was a missed tackle and the Jets could have walked away with a win.

Why take that chance? Keep the ball in your hands as long as you can. Milk the clock. Kick the field goal.

It’s maddeningly simple to me, as it was when Brian Westbrook did it previously.

Hell, MJD even apologized to you which he really didn’t need to. Of course he admitted he had himself and screwed himself too, but also pointed out that hey ‘you play to win the game’.

Side note: With players owning themselves and other players in leagues that often deal with pots of prize money, is the league going to come down on this as gambling?  I know the arguement has been Fantasy isn’t gambling, but you have to wonder if the NFL worries.

Things didn’t go all that well for the guy who last took a knee at the line either. Brian Wesbtrook suffered his second concussion in less than a month yesterday and you have to start thinking we’re seeing the end of him in the NFL.

Listen, I’m no doctor – in fact I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night – but twice in a month is bad. In fact, as far as I can tell, it’s awful.

The more often you get them, the more easy it is to get them. More than one player can testify to that and with the recent discussion in the media and NFL circles about head injuries and their long term effects I cannot imagine the Eagles rushing him back out there.

Especially not with LeSean McCoy there. I mean, isn’t this what you picked him for?

Maybe not, if you run a grand total of 13 times.  The Eagles only threw to the backs a total of five times as well.

Sure, they were down and yes they moved the ball through the air effectively in the fourth quarter. Still, there was never a threat that they were running the ball – I wonder if the success moving the chains via air freight than on the ground says more about deficiencies in the Chargers secondary than the Eagles pass attack

Either way, one hopes the Eagles – and Westbrook himself – are very cautious this time out.

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