MMQB Review: With a Little Bit of Luck (GET IT? IT'S A PUN!) the Colts Beat the Broncos Edition

We learned about Peter King's new coffee table book available this December called "The Book of Brady" last week in MMQB. Peter also suggested perhaps the NFL should go to a blind-resume method of interviewing head coaches in order to increase the hiring of minorities. Of course, this sounds like a great idea except for the fact the list of football jobs on resume would probably make it pretty clear who the candidate was. This week Peter isn't sure he's adding Week 7 to the "Book of Brady" coffee table book, makes a few back "Luck" puns (the title of this MMQB is "No Perfect Endings, Just Luck,") and is very, very concerned about the Rams ability to keep an audience in St. Louis when the football team isn't good and the Cardinals are in the World Series. 

I guess Marvin Demoff called Peter up and wanted him to bring a focus to the Rams being overlooked in St. Louis. I say this because Peter hasn't ever cared before whether an NFL team will get enough attention when the baseball team in town is good but the NFL team is not (when the Tigers make the World Series but the Lions have a bad year, the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2010 while the 49ers went 6-10, and there are other examples as well). For some reason, Peter is concerned the Rams won't get enough attention. Gee, I wonder why.

It’s early. Nine games left is an eternity, etc., blah, blah, blah. But Kansas City’s win and Denver’s loss sets up at least the prospect of KC winning the AFC West and the Broncos being a wild card—likely the fifth seed.

Peter can't just "blah, blah, blah" this away. There is more than 50% of the season left and a team's record can change very drastically over nine games, especially when the Chiefs and the Broncos have two head-to-head games together. If the Broncos beat the Chiefs twice then it's Kansas City who would end up with the wild card. I don't see how Peter can just "blah, blah, blah" reality away and the reality is the Broncos are a long way from being a wild card and the Chiefs are a long way from winning the AFC West.

In that scenario, Denver would play at the fourth seed. Maybe Cincinnati. Maybe Indianapolis or New England. Could you take a weekend rematch, Peyton Manning at Andrew Luck? Or Peyton Manning at Tom Brady for the 867th time? 

Peter specializes in getting WAY ahead of himself. It was just a month ago that he was talking about the Undefeated Bowl, which would be a game between the Chiefs and the Broncos, and now he has begun to hand the AFC West to the Chiefs and has started talking about a Brady-Manning playoff game in Foxboro. Slow down.

Bradford got waylaid on a scramble out of bounds at Carolina, and an MRI back in St. Louis Sunday night revealed he tore his ACL. A shame, seeing how Bradford, completing 61 percent of his throws with 14 touchdowns and just four interceptions, was playing well even if his team wasn’t, and this season was a good time to get Bradford and his young receivers slicking together.

So the Rams are completely drafting a quarterback in the 2014 draft, right? It's a shame since Bradford was playing much better this year, but Bradford has an injury history (even if it isn't a history of torn ACLs) and the Rams are starting to put some good weapons (even if they aren't as good as Peter King thinks they are) around him.

Next Monday—assuming the World Series isn’t a four-game sweep by either Boston or St. Louis—a strange doubleheader will be played in downtown St. Louis. At 7:07 p.m. Central Time, World Series Game 5 is scheduled at Busch Stadium. At 7:40 p.m. Central Time, the Seahawks are at the Rams;

Yes, it's going to be hard for the Rams to get attention when the Cardinals are in the World Series. I'm not entirely sure why Peter is worried about this since this isn't the first time one professional sports team will be overshadowed by another professional sports team in the same city.

backup Kellen Clemens, Bernie Kosar’s favorite quarterback, will sub for Bradford, presumably.

Peter will never forget and will never forgive Bernie Kosar for making those negative statements about the Rams team during a preseason game. You insult the Rams, you insult Peter.

I mention this because the locals will be all-in on the Cards, the best hope for a St. Louis championship, and likely will view the Rams as a lost cause yet again and leave quite a few seats empty. In Week 4, the Rams got their clocks cleaned in a prime-time home game against the Niners. Now, in Week 8, more of the same wouldn’t be surprising. Another nationally televised debacle? Not good for the future of football in that town.

(Peter's phone rings and he answers it) "Helloooooooooooo, this is Peter King. I hope you are having a great day!"

(Marvin Demoff) "For God's sake, stop answering the phone like that. You are a man, not a teenage girl waiting on a call from her boyfriend."

(Peter King) "Sorry, I'm so sorry. Did you see the Rams game on Sunday, that wasn't good---"

(Marvin Demoff) "No, I was watching the other NFL team my other son works for as a COO yesterday and missed the Rams game yesterday. Of course I watched it asshole. It's not good, Bradford is out for the year with a torn ACL. It's a sticky situation. St. Louis fans are too kind, I hate that about them, plus Los Angeles is sitting there and really wants an NFL team again. Don't knock the Rams of course for underachieving or talk about Jeff Fisher and his team's lack of discipline---"

(Peter King) "But there were multiple personal fouls called on them for---"

(Marvin Demoff) "Silence! Just be sure to write in MMQB about how the Rams aren't going to get a lot of attention in St. Louis with the Cardinals in the World Series and float this isn't good for the future of the franchise. The point would be to point the issues away from the Rams team and point the issues towards whether the Rams have the support in St. Louis. Don't make the Rams look bad and divert attention away from the team towards a different topic."

(Peter King) "That's silly, why would I care if the Rams have support in St. Louis? I haven't cared before if an NFL franchise has support in their city compared to another professional franchise."

(Marvin Demoff) "I'm not asking. I'm telling. Move the focus away from the Rams season that isn't looking so good and see if you could start a discussion on whether the Rams have a future in St. Louis. If you don't like what people are talking about change the conversation. That's why I have you, to help change the conversation."

(Peter King) "Well, alrighty! I'll do it!"

(Marvin Demoff) "Also, get a Bernie Kosar dig in as well."

(Peter King) "Ok, well---(Marvin Demoff has hung up already)

The Texans, on a five-game losing streak, already were in a lost season. If Cutler is gone long in Chicago, the Bears could be headed down the same road.

Good thing the Astros and Cubs aren't in the World Series or else Peter would be very worried whether the Bears or Texans will get enough support from the fans during Week 8.

There’s not a more perfect Manning II than Luck.

Andrew Luck is just like Peyton Manning! This is a comparison or observation that has never been made before.

There was something fulfilling about the new boss beating the old boss Sunday night, and the new boss not really caring about the narrative America had been obsessed with in the days before the Colts and Broncos met Sunday night.

America was not obsessed with this narrative. The media was obsessed with this narrative and forced it down America's throat. That's usually how it goes, but I appreciate that Peter King thinks narratives get forced down America's throat by the sports media because America just really wants to hear more about this Peyton Manning-Andrew Luck matchup. It's wrong though. The media grasped on to this story and would not let go, much to what felt like the public's chagrin.

“This game, to Andrew, wasn’t about proving himself,’’ Fleener said from Indianapolis. “One of the things I think Andrew loves about football is it’s a meritocracy. You’ve got to go out and prove yourself over and over, and for him it’s about proving himself to his teammates and his coaches—not to you and Bob Costas. And it’s not him versus Peyton. Never has been, never will.’’

The media's narrative could never be wrong. NEVER!

While I'm in the middle of discussing Luck's greatness, I have to wonder if there is a quarterback in the NFL who would say, "Oh yeah, I was completely looking at this game as me versus the opposing quarterback." I really doubt it. Most quarterbacks are smart enough to not buy into the media's need for a narrative.

After the game, Luck deflected all the praise, and all the meaning of the game, and he was most emotional—anguished, it seemed—about missing a throw to Reggie Wayne, with Wayne, contorting himself trying to make a tough catch, hurting his knee. How hurt, we don’t know. “It stinks to the nth degree,’’ said Luck. “I put a lot of blame on myself for missing that throw.”

Don't bother trying to understand what "the nth degree" is. It's a Stanford thing that you would never be capable of understanding.

“I think we kept our focus. We didn’t let the outside sphere of influence creep into the locker room, which I think is a testament to the guys,’’ Luck said.

Meritocracy. Outside sphere of influence. Stanford words. Reminds me of the NFL scouting combine in 2012, when I found out Luck’s favorite book was Papillon, and he eschewed cable TV for his first two years of college. Didn’t have time for it; too much else to do. “Don’t go making me into a nerd,’’ he said. Or the time, on his first NFL road trip, he reminded quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen that Chicago is a great architecture city.

"This is Peter King reporting from directly up Andrew Luck's ass. Don't worry, it smells like roses in here. Just like the Rose Bowl, which is a game that Andrew Luck played in and won while he played at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh. So everything is fine up here and I think I'll stay for the next 15 NFL seasons."

The Colts were brutish with the graceful Denver wide receivers, and never let them get comfortable. “Our game plan was to be physical with their wide receivers, and if we got some flags thrown on us, so be it,’’ Davis told me after the game. “They’re pretty much a dink-and-dunk passing game, so what we tried to do is disrupt that.

I have to admit in the Broncos games I've watched this year I have noticed they seem like a team that does quite a lot of dinking-and-dunking. Of course it's been nearly impossible to stop, so there is nothing wrong with dinking-and-dunking. Also, I thought the Colts were a little too rough with the Broncos receivers and could have had another flag or two thrown on them. Taking a page out of the early 2000's Patriot teams to get rough with Manning's receivers isn't a bad idea though.

And that’s why Indianapolis should feel like the luckiest city in the NFL this morning.

I'm sorry Peter, I didn't hear what you just said. You are going to have to stick your head out from Luck's ass a little more for me to hear you.

Patriots at Jets, overtime, Jets kicker Nick Folk misses a 56-yard field goal. Patriots prepare to start a drive at the New England 38-yard line. I find this amazing: “The 2013 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League” is 159 pages long. There is even a half-page for “Guidelines for Captains,” including options on the coin toss.

For the infraction called for the first time in NFL history Sunday, on the decisive play in a game that could have major playoff implications, there is one sentence. Twenty-five words.

There needs to be 30 words in the NFL rulebook on a specific subject for it to be considered a "real" rule. Everyone knows this is a rule.

On the play in the Meadowlands, as the ball was snapped for the field goal, New England free-agent defensive lineman Chris Jones tried to shove another Patriots lineman, Will Svitek, through the gap between the center and right guard. Svitek almost squeezed through, but he was blocked by the Jets’ punt-team guard, Damon Harrison (actually a defensive tackle). The blocking didn’t matter. Once Jones shoved his teammate into the gap, the umpire standing behind the Patriots’ line, Tony Michalek, threw the flag. Correctly. “That’s a rules change for 2013 that a teammate cannot push a teammate into the opponent’s formation,’’ said referee Jerome Boger to a pool reporter after the game. “It’s any type of pushing action.”

For some reason, I thought this penalty had been called before in an NFL game. Maybe I am misremembering and I'm thinking of the "You can't help vault a teammate up in the air over the line of scrimmage to block a kick" rule.

The rule was included at the request of several offensive lineman and approved by the Competition Committee. The linemen, particularly the centers, felt the injury risk would go down if defensive players couldn’t cave in the centers by lining up right over them or having players be pushed into a huge scrum at them.

Without the call, New England would have had to go 30 yards to be in position for a field goal. If the game is tied after the first possession of overtime, the next team to score wins. With the penalty—which was absolutely the right call—Folk had another chance and nailed it.

And now, with the Jets and Bills winning Sunday, the AFC East is more of a horse race, with two games separating top and bottom.

Of course if this were the AFC West, then Peter would say the Patriots are going to get the wild card and the Bills are going to win the AFC East setting up a road playoff game for the Patriots. Peter knows you are going to say, "blah, blah, blah, this doesn't make sense and seems speculative based on the current information we have, including there is more than 50% of the NFL season left to play," but he doesn't care. It COULD happen, so we may as well just assume it will and kill space in MMQB with this speculation.

Fine Fifteen

Randomly placed teams in order of strength based on a knee-jerk reaction from this last week's games.

1. Kansas City (7-0).

I know Peter would get killed for not putting the Chiefs first in the Fine Fifteen, but the Chiefs and Broncos have played nearly the same schedule to this point. The Chiefs have played the Ravens and Colts while the Chiefs have played Tennessee and Houston. I have a hard time putting the Chiefs #1 and would be tempted to keep the Broncos there since they have faced a little bit harder competition in my opinion. Of course, the way Peter tends to overreact to the past week's games I'm surprised he doesn't have the Colts as the #1 team in the Fine Fifteen.

3. Denver (6-1). If you can’t beat ‘em, joke with ‘em. Best sign I’ve seen in any crowd in a long time, from a Denver fan at Lucas Oil Stadium: “When you’re done w/ Luck, we’ll take him too.”

Okay sure, the Colts will be glad to give the Broncos Andrew Luck in another 15 years.

5.  New Orleans (5-1). On his bye weekend, Sean Payton cross-fitted.

6. San Francisco (5-2). Weeks 2 and 3: Foes 56, Niners 10. Weeks 4 through 7: Niners 132, Foes 51. That’s psycho.
 
7. New England (5-2). You may ask why I have the Saints No. 4 and the Pats No. 6, even though the Patriots beat the Saints last week.

No, actually I would like to know why you think you have the Saints at No. 4 when you have them at No. 5 and you think you have the Patriots at No. 6 when you have them at No. 7.

Here's what I think happened. Peter was not going to have the Colts all the way up at No. 2 in his Fine Fifteen prior to the Sunday night game. He had assumed they would lose to the Broncos, but when the Colts beat the Broncos he had to push the Colts into the No. 2 spot, which pushed all of the other teams in the Fine Fifteen back one spot. Naturally, since Peter doesn't seem to have an editor, this mistake wasn't caught when Peter put the Colts up into the No. 2 spot. He then published MMQB and now his comments about the placement of the Saints and Patriots makes no sense.

14. New York Jets (4-3). Chris Ivory: 34 rushes for 104 yards. That’s from the Earl Campbell days, carrying the ball that much.

It's also a reason why a running back having a 100-yard game doesn't mean much unless you are able to see how many carries it took that running back to get to 100 yards. 34 rushes for 104 yards is three yards per carry, which is Trent Richardson-esque.

15. Carolina (3-3). Panthers have won three out of four by an average of 26 points. Now that’ll get your attention.

They've also got three wins versus teams who have a combined record of 5-15. Let's not start saying they are a Top-15 team as long as Ron Rivera is the head coach.

Offensive Player of the Week
 
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. He had the most efficient day of his NFL life (15 of 17 for 204 yards and one touchdown; no interceptions) and added 10 clock-eating rushes for 26 yards.

Not really. Newton could have had the most efficient day of his life the week before when he went 20-26 for 242 yards and three touchdowns, while adding 9 rushes for 30 yards and a touchdown against Minnesota. This has to hurt Peter to type this, but it probably makes him feel better knowing being efficient won't make a Newton an entertainer nor an icon.

Coach of the Week
 
Greg Manusky, defensive coordinator, Indianapolis. Odd to give this award to a coordinator of a defense that gave up 33 points and 429 yards Sunday night, but … well, you had to see the game Sunday night to understand.

I guess you had to see the Broncos-Colts game, which I did, so I would like to submit maybe the Cowboys deserved some coaching kudos for holding the Eagles to less than 300 yards total offense playing on the road. It does sound odd to make a defensive coordinator who gave up 33 points and 429 yards at home as the "Coach of the Week." 

“If I see him in the street, I’m going to bust him in the f–king mouth.”

—Carolina wide receiver Steve Smith, on Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins, who Smith charged said some personal things about Smith’s family on the field during the 30-15 Carolina win over St. Louis.

Allegedly said some personal things about Smith's wife. I write "allegedly" because you just never know with Steve Smith if he is just trying to create drama to motivate himself. Of course Jenkins never denied the comments he made, so maybe that means something. Either way, it's entertaining which I guess is fun.

“I don’t throw anymore. The shape that I’m in is not anything like football shape, nor do I want to play. It took me 20 years, but in my 20th year, I realized I didn’t like getting hit.”

—Brett Favre, on NFL Network’s pregame show Sunday.

This is our weekly mention of Brett Favre in Peter King's MMQB. Peter HAS to mention Favre at least once in each MMQB, despite the fact Favre has been retired for three years. It seems Peter's obsession with Favre continues even into Favre's retirement. There's no need to include Favre's quote since it isn't really interesting, but for someone who has an unhealthy obsession with Favre this is a very important bit of knowledge to grasp onto and savor for the next week.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

The Rams get more visitors to their website from California than from Missouri.

So it sounds like the Rams weren't exactly in great shape in terms of a solid Missouri fan base prior to Bradford getting injured. Now that Peter has again hinted at the Rams fan base in St. Louis not being solid, does Peter want to talk about Jeff "8-8" Fisher's team at all in terms of their performance on the field? No? Great.

“Tigers just got beaten by a bunch of dudes that look like Happy Gilmore’s caddy.”

—@MarcCarig, Newsday’s baseball writer, after the bearded Red Sox won Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

I'm pretty tired of hearing about the Red Sox players and their beards. We get it. They have beards that are long. There has to be much more interesting stories concerning the World Series than the presence of beards on the Red Sox player's faces.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think this is what I liked about Week 7:

d. Saratoga Snacks, the Bill Parcells four-year-old horse, won a $250,000 race at Belmont Saturday. That’ll buy some carrots.

Unfortunately, this won't help me buy that Bill Parcells' horse winning a race has anything to do with Week 7 or the NFL.

l. We’re starting to see why Mario Williams (10 sacks in seven games) got the big money in Buffalo.

You mean you can't judge an NFL player by one year of his contract? Unbelievable.

n. This line by Terrell Suggs, after watching his Ravens fall to 3-4: “We know what we gotta fix—offense, defense, special teams. We’re in a state of emergency.”

Well, if the Ravens had not traded Anquan Boldin for a sixth round pick then everything would be solved by now wouldn't it? The Ravens are rebuilding on the fly. There needs to be just a little bit of patience.

2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 7:

a. That wily, experienced veteran, Sheldon Richardson of the Jets, saying NFL officials baby Tom Brady. After less than two months playing real games, that is some quality opinion, Sheldon.

Wow, apparently Sheldon Richardson has done something to piss off Peter King? The NFL officials baby quarterbacks overall, possibly for good reason. Richardson did play football in college, so I imagine he is at least a little qualified to determine whether the officials baby a quarterback or not. It's not like Richardson just started playing football this past August.

h. Trent Richardson’s hands. You can’t fumble down the stretch of huge games, but Richardson did.

Yeah, but he more than makes up for it with his 3.0 yards per carry average. By the way, the Colts just gave up a first round pick for Richardson. It's not looking very good. This is why a great quarterback is so important. Andrew Luck's development and ability is winning games for the Colts, while if the Colts had an average quarterback and were 3-4 right now then the Colts would be an average team who doesn't even have a first round pick this upcoming season. Winning cures everything is my point.

3. I think offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell is doing an excellent job with the Seahawks’ offensive attack (27.3 points per game), despite a makeshift offensive line. That’s the overriding plus in what I see in Seattle. The minus: Russell Wilson’s getting hit too much. Waaaay too much. When you see Wilson hit, he looks like Gumby; he always gets back and never seems to limp. But he’s been sacked 20 times, and by one count, was sacked or hit significantly 19 times at Arizona Thursday night. That’s playing with fire. And 8.3 rushes per game … too many. When I see a quarterback run as much as Wilson has (41 times in his last four games)—and I don’t think he wants to run; he’s being forced to by the rush in many cases—I see trouble down the road.

4. I think the thing I’d do if I were Bevell is put more of a load on Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin.

Why is topic #4 not another sentence at the end of topic #3 about Darrell Bevell? This is an outline so topics that are related are supposed to be together. All topic #4 consists of is the concluding sentence that should have been written for topic #3. This probably shouldn't annoy me one iota, but it just speaks to Peter padding MMQB or stretching out "things he thinks" because he doesn't have 10 things that he actually thinks.

5. I think if you love the Cardinals, and you’re dying to know why they’re letting Carson Palmer get battered, and why the line is a constant source of angst, this is the reason: In the last 10 drafts, Arizona has picked 13 offensive linemen—and none of them start on the line today. Obviously, first-round guard Jonathan Cooper would be starting had he not broken his leg in a preseason game. But still, this long-term record is a big reason why the Cardinals can’t get anything consistent going on offense post-Kurt Warner:

I will spare you the list, but I won't spare my harping on the same issue. I really didn't think the Cardinals should have drafted Floyd and even guessed before the draft the Cardinals would try to keep Fitzgerald happy over doing what is best for the team. I really liked the Cooper pick this past year, but the Cardinals had to improve the offensive line and they could have landed David DeCastro (he did get hurt in 2012 though), Kevin Zeitler, Cordy Glenn, Mitchell Schwartz, or Riley Reiff. It's really easy to second-guess teams after the fact, but even at the time I felt like the Cardinals needed to do a better job on their offensive line through the draft. A team has to invest in a good offensive line, especially when that team has invested in the running back position (Ryan Williams, Beanie Wells) and had a shaky quarterback situation. But no, Larry Fitzgerald asked for another wide receiver and the Cardinals obliged him. So the Cardinals have Michael Floyd, which is great, except their offensive line still isn't great and Carson Palmer may be killed by a blitzing linebacker later this season.

9. I think it could be an ugly Monday night next week for the Rams. Coming off a 30-15 loss in Carolina, St. Louis now must play backup Kellen Clemens against the Seahawks. And they have to share the city with the Cardinals, assuming there is a Game 5 of the World Series. Imagine that—the Cards starting .9 miles away from the Edward Jones Dome at 7:07 p.m. Central Time, the Rams starting at 7:40 CT against the mighty Seahawks in a game they’ll have no business winning if you consider the quarterback matchup.

As I said earlier, Peter King is VERY concerned the Rams are not going to get enough attention next Monday evening. I've never heard or read Peter's concern for another NFL team like this, so I'm not entirely sure why he's suddenly over-concerned the Rams are going to be a second-class team in St. Louis next Monday. St. Louis is a baseball town anyway.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. I think everyone’s nuts for not liking Tim McCarver. I love listening to him.

"Nuts" for not liking McCarver? I can see a person liking Tim McCarver, but is he so good that there has to be something wrong a person who doesn't like him calling baseball games? I don't think so.

d. I admit I didn’t love the Victorino signing last winter (three years, $39 million for what appeared to be a declining player). But anyone who grand-slams a clinching championship series win is worth the dough, especially with what a great clubhouse guy, fielder and occasionally clutch hitter he’s been.

"I didn't like that the Red Sox have signed a player, but I'm reconsidering my opinion based on the fact he had a great year and had a few clutch hits. I now think this was a good signing by the Red Sox because it has been proven to be a good signing. This is analysis."

f. Are there any hittable pitchers on the Cardinals? Not from what I’ve seen.

g. Red Sox in seven, but that is not a confidence pick. It’s an emotional one.

I'm not sure I can read MMQB if the Red Sox win the World Series. Peter will probably have scattershot analysis that will make my head hurt.

h. Coffeenerdness: I’ve got nothing this week. Sorry, I’ll have a note for you next week.

Nah, don't worry about it. In fact, you can take the rest of the time you write MMQB off from having a "Coffeenerdness" note.

If Eli Manning can’t get his season on track against the Vikings’ secondary, there might not be much hope for the rest of 2013.

Oh, so the 0-6 Giants needed a good game from Eli Manning to avoid going 0-7 or else the season would be lost? I think the Giants season not having much hope probably went out the window about the time they started 0-4, the offensive line continued to leak, and the Giants had to bring Brandon Jacobs in to be their starting running back due to injuries to every other running back on the roster.

The Adieu Haiku

No more perfect heir
to Manning than Andrew Luck.
New sheriff in town.

(shakes head sadly)